Online marketing basics are something any entrepreneur should know if they have a desire to build their business online. Internet marketing is a wonderful industry and has created more millionaires than any other industry to date. However, it also has one of the highest attrition rates of any other industry as well! So why the huge disconnect? There are a few online marketing basics that everyone learns when they get started, so why do some people become overnight successes online, and others take years to learn this industry and never really have true success?
Well, there’s a gazillion reasons I could use to answer that question, and they will all be correct. But if you look at the different reasons as a whole, you’ll start to notice some patterns that occur and it will give you an insight as to what’s really happening for people late at night online!
When people decide to build a business online, they will usually do a lot of research first. They will find a few good websites and purchase a few products and jump in. YET, one must remember, they are being marketed to by internet marketers! This is where the problem begins with! All marketers are trying to sell you something! It may be something that is extremely helpful and will give you all the online marketing basics that you need. Or it may be something that is just a teaser to lead you down a path where you won’t really get what you’re looking for unless you continue to buy product after product. This is a trap you don’t want to fall into!!
The best way to stay out of this trap is to actually find and talk to a real person who has experience in this industry and learn from them. Or course they will direct you to courses and products to purchase, but if you want to learn online marketing basics, you can’t expect them to take you by your hand and teach you everything there is to know personally! – They wouldn’t be successful internet marketers if they did!
So really…what are the online marketing basics?
Well, this concept was taught to me on day one, repeated over and over, and then told to my face by Mike Dillard at his office – so believe me – if you stay true to this simple model, you will have online success!
Here are the 3 steps to online marketing basics:
Grow a list of interested people that want what you have to offer
Build a relationship with that list of people
Monetize that list by recommending products and services for them to buy.
Seriously that’s it! That’s the process of online marketing basics!
But the problem arises when people begin to accomplish those 3 tasks. It’s the HOW that keeps people up at night searching the wee hours looking for the latest and greatest and best strategy to be successful at those 3 steps!
So HOW do you actually do these 3 tasks of online marketing basics? That is the next question. So let’s go a little deeper into each step.
1. Grow a list – you need a few things to grow a list.
You need a traffic source. This can come from social media, video, blogging, article writing, paid traffic like banner ads, solo ads, pay-per-click, classifieds, media buys, etc. There are tons of ways to get traffic. Not all of them are great, not all of them work for everyone. That first becomes your task…Find the best traffic source that works for you!
After you find traffic and get them to your website - you need to have a converting offer! How are you going to generate the lead to capture the people’s information so you can follow up with them? This is the 2nd step – create a converting offer that people are going to want.
2. Now that you have traffic to your site, and you have a converting offer (by using a landing page, (also called squeeze page or capture page), with an opt in form on your site from an autoresponder service. I recommend Aweber) you are ready to build a relationship with those leads. This is where a lot of people breakdown in the process of online marketing basics. This is the most important part of the steps, because if you don’t do this right, making money off your leads won’t even happen!
How do you build a relationship with people online? First off, if they gave you their phone number, you better call them! This is best and fastest way to accomplish this goal. If they didn’t leave their number, then you must rely on the automated follow up emails and online funnel to build it for you. The best way to do this is to get personal! Tell your story and use videos in your email follow up series. Remember, all your leads are skeptical. It’s your job to do whatever you can to lower their skepticism and get them to listen and trust you.
3. Now it’s time to monetize. After people have received your phone call, or have been getting your emails for a few days, they now should feel comfortable taking your advice – or at least reading and listening to your content! (If not, they have probably unsubscribed -which isn’t a bad thing!)The goal here is to treat your list like one of your family members (one that you like) and treat them with consideration and respect. Offer them a lot of value for free through different content media… Create videos, and articles with helpful advice and trainings that will shorten their learning curve. Once they realize that you have their best interests at heart, they will take you up on your recommendations to purchase whatever you are offering a product or service for them to buy.
Rinse and repeat this cycle and you’ll find yourself mastering the online marketing basics!
Now obviously this small article can only give you the online marketing basics. But there’s a lot more that needs to be covered on this topic if you want to truly be successful. Like how to I create a video and get it online? What do I even make a video about if I’m new? How and where would I get a capture page created and how will I know if it’s a converting offer? How do I put together an automated funnel where the people see my stuff days after they first came?
Yes…usually when your eyes are opened, your mind begins to wander and the questions arise. So my first advice is to NOT try to do this all on your own. Find a good converting offer that is already created for you and has an automated funnel created for you that you can use until you learn how to create your own. Find internet marketing training that shows you how to “technically” do all the things you need to learn, and how to find traffic so you can generate your first few leads. And most importantly study other successful marketers and how they are generating leads and how they are creating duplication for their teammates to see what’s working.
I have a simple site that I like to refer people to which has all this incorporated for you. It’s an online marketing training platform that teaches you awesome traffic generating strategies – both paid and free. The best part about this is program is that while you’re learning how to do this on your own, you can use the strategies you’re learning to refer other people who are interested in learning how to market online back to the site (and heck…you’ll earn a commission from those referrals – it’s always nicer to earn while you learn isn’t it!). Click HERE to watch the full video on exactly how you can generate leads, and get traffic to your sites!
Internet marketing is an awesome industry and can change your life if you apply what you learn. Use the tools out there to learn successful online marketing basics and morph them into a successful online business that will grow on it’s own!
