7 Most Critical Steps To Earnings For Small Businesses In 2009…

July 16th, 2009 by admin

(Revised 31 Aug,09)

The internet is an amazing and lucrative market place and can be a great source of income, however, it can also be a confusing and frustrating place! Who doesn’t want to make a profit in their business? Everyone does. In fact it is the lure of quick money on the internet which magnetically draws many aspiring entrepreneurs to venture online in search of opportunity and an income stream.

Marketing online on the surface may appear easy but the fact is: like any business venture it’s not that easy - sometimes simple but not easy. If it were, then, the number of people make big money would not be so few and there would not be so many disgruntled internet marketers. I think we can agree that it takes effort to market and develop a flourishing business offline as well as online.

In an effort to sell products everyone pushing their ‘how to make money’ product advertises, ‘it’s so easy’ and you can make $XXXXX dollars within days! And do we fall for the ‘copywriting’ in their ads? Yes! Many internet marketers acquire too many courses, books and systems and are unable to utilize 90% of the material to build a continuous cash flow. So the struggle continues for many.

Having said that, too many marketers miss the income stream because they ignore some fundamentals of marketing. And this should not be happening or at the very least, should be avoided.

There are a few missing steps that many make in their online marketing business, and while we can’t get into all of it right here, let’s take a look at a few steps which cannot be ignored.

Now in addition to having the right mindset, which entrepreneurs are striving very hard to cultivate and stay motivated, it is crucial that the marketing steps be implemented. An entrepreneur can have the best of mindset but without excellent marketing strategies, the entrepreneur will still continue to struggle - especially in these current economic times when making the right marketing decisions is critical

Let’s take a look at 7 Critical Marketing Steps to generate profits in 2009:

1) Products. Yes, products will sell this year online, for sure. 2009 has seen an increase in online sales as more and more people are getting online, more people join home based business, more prefer to buy online than spend money driving around, more purchase with ease and less pressure of sales people online, saving money buying say an ebook versus a hard copy of a book, and purchasing across countries. So yes, many products will sell and there’s a lot of $$ to be made. The key here is choosing what you are going to market wisely. Examine what people will be demanding this year. What groups of people will be driving demand? Do your homework and research. Do some searches on volume here and get familiar with what the market place demands: http://www.google.ca/trends

2) Target Market. Do your due diligence on your niche market for your product. Even better find the niche market first and then decide what products would match the market demand. Marketing to the wrong audience is frustrating and over 90% of Entrepreneurs make this mistake in some part of their business.

3) Brand. In a sea of marketers, without establishing your brand, you are lost in the crowd. Branding does take some time but with consistency you can really make your mark. Of course there are some short cuts. So get your thinking in gear to start branding yourself and get people to see you as an experienced, results driven entrepreneur. And if you are struggling to do this all by yourself, don’t be shy to team up with someone else and pool your skills - stick with trustworthy entrepreneurs who value integrity. There are many people out in the cyber world ready to ‘take’ from you - so tread carefully.

4) Social Media. The power is explosive. Use the momentum and power of social media to get your message and business across to many in a short period of time. The reach of social media is limitless when used correctly and with precision. So it is definitely worth taking a little time to learn these skills and apply them in your marketing daily. These are all intertwined and connected. You can make some really great business and personal connections here

5) Website. With Google evolving, content becoming king, and Google user experience counting for a lot more today - gone are the days of paying a webmaster loads of cash to develop fancy websites that flash. Today’s entrepreneurs, especially if you are working in several niches, may need many quick websites to be able to handle and take advantage of multiple niche markets. Hence, it’s wise to find cost effective ways to get this done and not have to ’sell the farm’ to get one website up! Word press does this brilliantly.

6) Leads & List Building. This is the juice that generates the cash, so it’s worth the while establishing exactly how you plan to do your list building. And know that there is no one way to do this. There are many, many ways from blogging, articles, free giveaways, pay per click etc. There are productive ways to make each aspect of lead generation work for you, but know that in the long run this will work incredibly well for you - so bottom line? Make the effort to get this done daily.

7) Do all ports lead back to your business? In everything you do especially online, the most valuable trail you can leave behind would be back links. Back links to your website is of incredibly valuable not only for the search engines but to get people to your site. So in all that you do, leave a trail of back links without annoying people of course:) Even when you leave a comment on someone else’s blog - leave your link. This way you continuously create links to your websites /business all across the internet. The more you do, the more people will find you, your website and the more familiar your name/ brand will become. All of which, increases your capacity to monetize your websites and increase sales and profits

(Nadira Haniff is a CallToGreatness Business Consultant who specializes in strategic marketing to boost profits for home based, small & medium sized businesses, online and offline. Want to move your business into a continuous stream of income? Take a look here: CLICK or call 1-800-744-7884 or 416-744-7884)

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