5 Simple Strategies to Propel Your Online Business Success An award-winning marketer offers inside tips.
By Cheryl Snapp Conner Edited by Frances Dodds
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
I was recently referred to Robby Blanchard, an increasingly popular online marketer who got his start as a gym owner. Blanchard was perpetually looking for new and better ways to market his gym, and in the process, he developed a series of easy steps that every business can use to accelerate their desired marketing goals. He became familiar with the Clickbank online digital platform, and within five years became Clickbank's top-selling affiliate. Following that success, he created an online program called "Commission Hero" to teach other users how to earn online affiliate revenue from their homes.
In a nutshell, Blanchard shared these five simple marketing strategies to propel any small online business to greater success:
1. Network your way to the top
Blanchard explains that when he started his online business, there was no one he could consult or emulate and he didn't have the money to gain more experience. An important lesson he teaches consumers is that if you don't have traditional resources, you have to get resourceful. So he took on extra clients at his gym and worked as a landscaper part-time to save enough money to attend an event in California that promised to offer networking and learning opportunities. In this way, he lived by his motto that success is a choice, and your destiny is in your hands. Whether you succeed, he said, is up to you.
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2. Run paid advertising
In the current age of technology, there are many varieties of paid advertising for your online business. For example, social media marketing allows you to place ads for a fee and run them daily, weekly, or monthly. One of the advantages of running ads on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is that these platforms allow you to "micro-target" to your target audience. For example, as a small business owner, you can maximize the effectiveness of your ads by targetting them to the desired geographic location, age, and gender of your audience.
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3. Use the power of psychology in advertising
Because psychology is a critical component of advertising, basic psychological principles can make the difference that drives your prospective customer to act, Blanchard says.
The goal of advertising, in almost every case, is to provoke your target audience to the desired action. You can achieve this through strategies such as manipulating emotions, evoking pleasant memories, and gaining trust.
Fear, for example, is a powerful motivator. A familiar tagline, 'fear of missing out' (FOMO), illustrates that many people seek to be current, stylish, and modern. So you can apply this factor to your marketing by using phrases such as "only a few left," "limited edition," or "one day only" to communicate that your consumers need to act fast or miss out.
4. Stay relevant by being consistent
In the fast-paced world of technology, remaining relevant is a significant key to online business success. This means carrying out the small moves on a consistent basis that reap significant results over time. Just as taking on extra clients and part-time landscaping produced the money for Blanchard's formal training, setting small and achievable goals for your business and staying consistent produces higher payoffs than making giant changes that are short-lived. A new article and one minute video on a small but golden point every week, for example, with an invitation or offer to take a particular action will be more successful than running an all-or-nothing $15,000 campaign and then fading away. Small and achievable steps win the day.
5. Systemize as you scale your marketing
The classic dream is to have your online business grow and begin to produce passive income. However, the reality is that as your business scales, in almost all cases, your workload increases. To solve this, you should systemize your business, Blanchard says, to create a well-oiled machine that is able to run at every new level on its own. Some of the ways to accomplish this as you scale are to identify the systems that work, identify all repetitive duties, and determine the smartest way to execute each. Then create a sequence, and document your process. Finally, test your systems to be sure your assumptions are accurate before you pull the trigger and step away. Observe the system's operation and take note of any tweaks you can make for additional improvement. At each level, repeat the process to test your assumptions before you invest in a campaign and turn the conduits on. As another of my favorite online marketers, Ken Krogue likes to say: "Test the process with a rifle investment of $2,000. Then, when you know the results, you can pull out the cannonballs and begin the campaign at full scale."
In all, these five simple strategies — networking, paid advertising, psychology, relevance and scale — will help you succeed. Then you simply watch and recognize when your consumers' needs are changing, and adjust your offerings and methods as you go for continued success.
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