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Perhaps the lifestyle seems more
of a dream to you now, but it's possible for you to achieve. Making it a
reality depends on the market you choose, your focus, and your
determination to become an expert in said target market.
And, if you're in the right
market, and have implemented advertising and selling systems which repeats
themselves, you should rarely have to soil your soul by selling eyeball to
eyeball. (Forgive a little tongue in cheek there, a wise marketer craves
personal contact with individuals in their target market.)
But we digress...
In some Internet marketing
(IM) circles, IM is synonymous to 'hands-off' business strategies. If
developing definable and repeatable systems that carryout your business
routines, I'm also big on 'hands-off' methods.
For example, if I write an
article about, oh say...autoresponders, I already have a routine in place
whereby I'll use the article in multiple ways to bring my business
traffic, leads and prospects. (I may adapt the article slightly to fit the
different venues or media used.) Although this is a simple example, it's a
powerful, if basic, 'hands-off' type system...
i.e. do the work once and
capitalize on it indefinitely.
Maximizing the potential of
your work is one reason why autoresponders are arguably one of your most
valuable online marketing tools. Used effectively, autoresponders are
tireless 'employees' who're never late, never absent, never moody, or
tiresome whiners, and they pay for themselves time and again.
Four primary usages for
autoresponders:
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Lead Generation;
-
Converting Leads Into
Prospects;
-
Follow-ups messages to
leads; prospects; buyers and customers;
-
Management & delivery of
online publications like an ezine, or an email course.
Tactics and strategies to
use each method in the above list would take a sizable report if we want
to do them justice. And, we'll save the detailed background for another
time and medium (perhaps an autoresponder series?). But, if you learn to
creatively use autoresponders for nothing more than for the three
strategies just listed, you'd almost have to make money online.
If you're really new to
online marketing, and not sure how autoresponders work, the mechanics of
autoresponders are basically no more complex than programming your alarm
clock for daily wakeups. Instead of your alarm clock, you're programming
automated email software to send prewritten messages to people via
email at predetermined intervals which you programmed into your
autoresponder account's control panel. (Any decent autoresponder provider
will furnish you with step by step directions.)
But who are the people you
send your programmed messages to? Where do you find the people you're
sending messages to? When & how often do you send the people on your lists
messages? And, what do your messages say to them?
1. Who
are the people you send your programmed messages to?
In the simplest terms, "You
send messages to people who ask you to send them details about
something they're interested in which you've indicated you can provide to
them." i.e. you offer to solve a problem; or you offer a method of
enhancing someone's hobby, or fulfilling someone's desires.
2. Where
do you find the people you're sending messages to?
Tactics to find people who
are interested in what you have is practically endless. But basically you
advertise, and use press releases.
You can also get word of
mouth leads when you take action to become a perceived expert in your
field. Expert status can be as simple as writing and publishing articles,
or writing and publishing reports and books. I wrote an overview of how
you become an authority figure in any field at:
http://www.LazyDudePublishing.Com/3ve.htm
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Quick insight about
advertising:
Let's assume you're a
hypnotist who sells programs to help people overcome unhealthy
lifestyle choices like smoking, overeating, etc. To find people
interested in your weight control program, you put together a free
guide/report titled something like: "The 7 Signs Of Obesity and What
To Do About It". (Test different titles to get more leads.)
Rather than advertising
your overeaters program, you advertise the free report as a method for
building a list of interested people whom you can contact until they
ask you to stop. i.e. you give away the report free to people who will
trade you their contact information for the report.
(If your advertising had
sent prospects directly to your sales pitch, you'd have no way to
follow-up with the 98 to 99% who don't buy on first exposure. This
strategy is commonly called a '2-step.) |
3.
When & how often do you send the people on your lists messages?
I don't really know this
answer. But I can tell you a simple strategy I use to find where to start
out...
Using the hypnotist
example above:
-
Go to a search engine and
find the 10 top competitors in your niche.
-
Review each separate
competitor's site and sign up for the front end of their 2-step gambit.
-
Use the same email address
for each competitor. (I usually add a unique email name that reflects
the niche. Like: hypnotist_research@mydomain.com)
-
Once you've added the new
email addy, make a new folder in your email account and program your
email account to have the emails addressed to the new email address
moved into. For example: I'd add a folder named: hyp_lists or something
I can quickly id & remember easily.
-
I'm sure you know the
rest, but I'll spell it out anyway...
-
Analyze the regularity and
spacing of your competitor's email messages to you.
-
Eventually you'll notice a
pattern of delivery times...One a day; one every 7 days. Or, the first 3
messages are delivered one per day, then messages are spaced out to
every 5-6, or 7 days, etc.
-
Program your message send
outs so they average the pattern of your competitors.
-
This is a starting point.
For fine tuning, keep an eye on when your list members unsubscribe, when
they buy or when take any other action. Action is the key. Favorable
action you want to increase, unfavorable you want to test different
tactics to decrease, etc, etc, and so on.
4. What
do your messages say to them?
I used the word 'say'
purposely. If you're contacting individuals personally, write like the two
of you are having a conversion. Write a lot like you talk. And never
forget you're talking to one person at a time... even if your message
could be read by millions of people. Your tone should respectful, polite,
helpful and above all friendly without being smarmy.
Oh yeah, not everyone
will like you, so concentrate on the people who do...
Ideally your message content
pulls your prospect into your sales process whether next step of your
process is an online sales page, a postal sales letter, a teleseminar, a
recording, a phone call, pdf report, or whatever works for you.
If you're in doubt where to
start, get ideas from the messages your competitors have been emailing
you. But don't plagiarize.
Speaking of stealing
(plagiarizing) when you're researching the competition, better you figure
out the 'gaps' your competitors are leaving in your chosen niche's
marketplace. Any market facet left unfilled could become your 'UBA'
(Unique Buyers Advantage).
Having an identifiable UBA
is one of the surest methods to harvest new leads into your autoresponder
lists. And creatively using autoresponders to pull prospects into your
selling processes is a huge step toward you living the fabled 'Internet
Marketing Lifestyle'...!
One more tidbit:
Click Here To
Discover The Autoresponder Vendor I've Used For Years. That's it for
now...
About the Author:
Edward "Mr Ed" Thorpe:
publishes 'OBG'
(Online Beginners Guide). 'OBG' is a generic business and life
principles publication. Readers say 'OBG' is
"Honest,
funny, sincere and different." To Subscribe and get a
complementary copy of his exclusive Report "Four Hurdles That Stop Most Novice Internet Entrepreneurs From Making Money Online...And How To Overcome Them...",, send any email to:
mailto:obg@aweber.com Visit
Edward at:
http://www.onlinebeginnersguide.com
Attention Publishers:
You have permission to publish the above
article in your opt-in ezine or in your ebook. Your 2 restrictions are:
changes only permitted for formatting purposes and the above resource box
must be included.
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PS: While you're here, why
not start getting free delivery of my regular/irregular email
newsletter, "Online Beginners Guide"? Readers seem to like it,
perhaps you will too...
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Your
Privacy: I hate spam too. Your
private info will never be rented, sold or shared with anyone. You
have my personal word on it! ...Edward "Mr Ed" Thorpe: Publisher
"Not making as many online sales as
you want?" Perhaps you're making the wrong offers to the
wrong people! Learn more about market targeting:
Click Here |
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Talk to you next time.
Until then, may
all your failures be lessons
learned, and your successes runaway hits!
Peace,
Edward "Mr Ed" Thorpe: Lazy Dude Publishers Online Marketing Director
and Publisher/Editor of 'OBG'
"He who helps the most people - Wins!"
Disclaimer:
The information herein is presented without the
assumption of any liability whatsoever by the publishers
and the authors for the use of, or inability to
use, any or all, of the information within any references, resources, strategies
or methods, either implicit or implied, found
herein or at any other referenced source. Any example is for instructional
purpose only. As with any possibility, or
any opportunity, there is no guarantee of
outcome... i.e. use this information at your own
risk. All represented trademarks and service marks
are property of their respective owners.
Disclosure: Some of the links presented are
affiliate links whereby the publisher receives
financial compensation should a purchase of
product or services be made by clicking on said
links...
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