Confused About How To Use The Internet To Achieve Your Marketing Goals? You're Not Alone.
Everytime I turn around there's another tool, resource, or recommendation for the best way to market a business online. When I became a website designer and marketing consultant over a decade ago, the sole goal was to have a website. But once businesses began setting up websites, we had to learn about Search Engine Optimization, then about best practices in website design and usability, then adding blogs, and now Social Media -- and in each of these categories there are hundreds of thousands of opinions on ways to do it "right", do it "best", or do it the most "quickly".
For the most part none of these recommendations have become outdated, but their overall relevance and how to use each strategy most effectively continually changes, and in the process our online marketing has become more complex, and the different ways to connect with our market are becoming broader.
For most people, all this information is just too much information -- it's overwhelming, confusing and frustrating. What do you do first? What works best? What should you do for the specific stage of business development you're in or for the specific audience you want to reach? And where do you begin? For those of you who don't have a solid understanding of what to do or how to do it, this lens is for you! It will provide a simple, effective place to start -- or to come back to -- in your search for online marketing RESULTS.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This lens was intentionally set up as a resource for attendees of my 5 week webinar series entitled 4 Steps For Online Success. Each module shown below will be discussed in greater detail on the webinar itself and will include Q&A, homework assignments that will be critiqued by me, and a final 30 minute "next steps" coaching call to help you determine your next steps in marketing. If you're interested in learning more about that workshop or would like to register, please visit http://lifepathunlimitedbusiness.com/webinar-4-steps-for-online-success/
For the most part none of these recommendations have become outdated, but their overall relevance and how to use each strategy most effectively continually changes, and in the process our online marketing has become more complex, and the different ways to connect with our market are becoming broader.
For most people, all this information is just too much information -- it's overwhelming, confusing and frustrating. What do you do first? What works best? What should you do for the specific stage of business development you're in or for the specific audience you want to reach? And where do you begin? For those of you who don't have a solid understanding of what to do or how to do it, this lens is for you! It will provide a simple, effective place to start -- or to come back to -- in your search for online marketing RESULTS.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This lens was intentionally set up as a resource for attendees of my 5 week webinar series entitled 4 Steps For Online Success. Each module shown below will be discussed in greater detail on the webinar itself and will include Q&A, homework assignments that will be critiqued by me, and a final 30 minute "next steps" coaching call to help you determine your next steps in marketing. If you're interested in learning more about that workshop or would like to register, please visit http://lifepathunlimitedbusiness.com/webinar-4-steps-for-online-success/
Introduction: The Process Outlined
Four Steps To Online Marketing Success
There are four steps in the marketing process I'm going to introduce you to in this lens. They are simple, straight forward, and easy to accomplish regardless of your level of online skill or marketing proficiency. That's what I like best about them -- anyone can do them. But to be truly successful, you need to embrace this process and put your heart into your work. Simply going through the motions, though it may generate some results, won't produce MAXIMUM results. If you're going to do it, why not do it in a way that gives you maximum return on your time investment?
The process outlined:
1. Create Valuable Content For Your Website
2. Promote Your Content Effectively Using Social Media Tools
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Make Quality Offers
The process outlined:
1. Create Valuable Content For Your Website
2. Promote Your Content Effectively Using Social Media Tools
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Make Quality Offers
First Things First
Setting The Foundation
Before you can begin the process of building your online presence and using social media for marketing, there are a few things you need to do first.
1. Set up a website if you don't have one already
2. Set up your social media accounts
Set up all of the following. If you're not sure what you're doing, use the search feature on each of these websites and look for "getting started with ________". Or do the same type of search on Google and you'll find as much help as you could possibly need.
3. Choose your FOCUS for the next 8-12 months
Focus is an acronym for Follow One Course Until Successful. When your attention is split between too many projects, too many goals, or too many marketing activities (especially if you're in the learning curve with each of them), you're chances for success with any one of them is greatly diminished. I understand that you have many interests, and that every marketing strategy that promises a gold mine of return is tempting to jump into, but you need to limit yourself to one or two for the time being. Remember, FOCUS and KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) are invaluable to your ultimate success.
1. Set up a website if you don't have one already
- Wordpress: If you have experience setting up and managing a blog or website already, this is a good option. It allows for greater customizability and publishing options than a Squidoo lens.
You will need to purchase two things: a) a domain name, and b) a hosting account that supports Wordpress. You can check around for the best rates and packages, but if you want to make life easy you can use BlueHost.com. They include both the domain and hosting in the cost, have a simple Wordpress installation process, and have a Help Center that includes "how-to" tutorials that will get you set up quickly. CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH BLUEHOST.COM - Squidoo Lens: This is a super simple platform that will keep you FOCUSED and make it easy to get started quickly. If you have a hard time staying focused on your target market, or if you have very little experience with managing a blog or website, this may be the best choice for you right now.
A Squidoo lens doesn't cost anything, and there really isn't anything to set up. All you need to do is get signed up, fill out your profile information, and learning how to use the modules to build a one page, mini-site. To get started, visit this Squidoo Lens for step by step instructions and another great example of what a lens looks like. CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH SQUIDOO.
2. Set up your social media accounts
Set up all of the following. If you're not sure what you're doing, use the search feature on each of these websites and look for "getting started with ________". Or do the same type of search on Google and you'll find as much help as you could possibly need.
- Facebook page
- Twitter account
- YouTube account
- LinkedIn account
3. Choose your FOCUS for the next 8-12 months
Focus is an acronym for Follow One Course Until Successful. When your attention is split between too many projects, too many goals, or too many marketing activities (especially if you're in the learning curve with each of them), you're chances for success with any one of them is greatly diminished. I understand that you have many interests, and that every marketing strategy that promises a gold mine of return is tempting to jump into, but you need to limit yourself to one or two for the time being. Remember, FOCUS and KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) are invaluable to your ultimate success.
- Target Market or Target Topic: Choose one market segment or one specific topic to focus all of your marketing efforts on for the next 8-12 months. Give yourself time to fully develop this focus -- learn where your audience is, what they want, and how to get your information in front of them. Use this initial focus as an opportunity to build a model which you can follow again when you introduce a new market or topic to your marketing mix.
- Marketing Strategy: Choose the Social Media strategy I'll outline for you here, or another strategy that suits your needs. Embrace the process. Take action. Evaluate your results. Tweak your work. Master the process. Once you're achieving good results with the strategy you've chosen and you can continue to do what needs to be done without having to think about it, only then are you ready to begin the process of learning and adding another marketing strategy to the mix.
Recommended Resources
Session 1: Preperation
- Webinar Starts With Focus on "BETTER"
Read the review and summary of the first session from the 5 week webinar series 4 Steps To Online Success by Signa Strom. Participants learned the key concepts that would guide their work throughout the course of the program like, "more is not better, BETTER is better", how "hand-crafting" their marketing would get them further than all the shortcuts in today's "mass produced" marketing, and the reminder that the process of branding takes time.- Session One Webinar Recording
This is the recording from the first session of the 5 week webinar. There were some glitches in the recording, but you can use the slider bar to go back to any areas that skip and begin replay normally again at that point.- In Pursuit of Quality: Hand Crafted is Always Better
- This is a short and to the point article that explores the idea of quality vs quantity when it comes to business, marketing and life in general.
TED: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
This is by far the most poignant marketing video I've ever watched. If you learn nothing more than what is introduced here, you'll have greater success in business and life than most people can hope for.
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STEP 1: Create Valuable Content
Give your target market what they want, need and can use.
The content you create for your website needs to accomplish two things. It needs to build your brand and build trust. Everything you publish on your website says something about you and your intentions -- but if you're not crafting your content carefully you may be pushing our audience away instead of drawing them in. Even when your intentions are good and you truly have your audience's best interests at heart, the way you present your information may give the opposite impression -- or be so worthless that it leaves no impression at all. So how do you show them they can trust you and that you can help them? By creating value, not a sales pitch and not worthless drivel.
How to create VALUE in your content
How to create VALUE in your content
- Your content should be targeted, useful, and FREE -- NO selling! Provide your readers with information that you've put together specifically for them or that focuses solely on your FOCUS topic. Speak directly to your audience, their needs, wants, problems, goals. It should be quality information -- not just a bunch of key words strung together in the hope of increasing search engine results.
- The information you provide should do one or more of the following three things: Inform, Educate, or Entertain. Give your content a serious, honest evaluation, and if what you've put together does not clearly accomplish one these three things -- ditch it.
- Choose subjects that are of interest to you. Your audience wants to know you, to see if they have something in common with you, and to see if you can help them. Your content should come from a place of personal opinion or experience. It should be something you are passionate about, or something that inspires you. In other words, create content around things you are learning, researching, or have experience with. Don't claim to know it all -- just share what you know.
- Your content can delivered in written, audio recording, or video format. But if you're using audio and video, make sure that you embed the file directly in a post on your website. You want to promote your website, not the archive site that you're storing the audio/video content on. Choose the format that suits you best. If you're not a strong writer but have a gift for public speaking, choose to do an audio recording or a video. And always get an honest appraisal of your content before you publish it; consider hiring a friend or editor to evaluate your work and let you know if it is clear, understandable, and well organized, and to point out spelling, grammar or other errors.
Recommended Resources
Session 2 -- STEP 1: Create Valuable Content
You know what valuable content is supposed to accomplish, but how do you actually create it? Here are a number of resources that I've found to be very helpful with the actual "nuts and bolts" of content creation.
- Webinar Attendess Find Out Their Writting........Sucks?
- Read this review and summary of the second webinar session in the 5 week series entitled 4 Steps To Online Success by Signa Strom. Not everyone was thrilled with the idea that the work they'd been putting into writing blog posts was not necessarily good work -- but knowing they'd have an opportunity to get better made up for it.
- Session 2 Webinar Recording
- This is the second webinar session recording. We discussed what goes into creating valuable content, and outlined a framework for creating blog posts that is simple, powerful, and effective. I also gave participants a homework assignment to help them practice (assignment link is shown below).
- Week 2 Homework Assignment
- This is the assignment that webinar participants were given to help them practice the art of content writing. It's an easy to follow guideline that can be used over and over again regardless of the topic or audience. It also shows that you don't have to create your content from scratch -- you can build off resources you find on the internet that help illustrate the point you're trying to make.
- Create Irresistable Blog Posts
This is by far the best, most comprehensive guide to writing blog posts that I've seen. It does require sign-up, but then you're given immediate access to the full PDF. I think it's well worth it -- and although I do get emails from this guy periodically, they are never in abundance and never annoying.
Tell To Win
By Peter Guber
Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story
Amazon Price: $8.30 (as of 05/27/2012)
Peter Guber makes a great case for the power of story telling in business, marketing and life in general. Our brains are wired to identify with stories, and yet for some reason we present statistics and figures when attempting to share our visions. Tell To Win is a powerful and revolutionary book that should not be passed over. The skill of story telling removes all need for "selling" and creates the type of relationships and following leaders and businesses need to succeed.
STEP 2: Promote Your Content
Meet your audience where they are and stay on their radar.
Let's face it, having a website or blog does not mean that people will be able to find it. A good promotional strategy is required to make people aware that your website exists, drive traffic to your website, and help you begin building a faithful following of raving fans. Having a strong, successful promotional campaign requires consistency in getting your address out there, and reminding your audience that it's worth their while to check you out.
How do you promote your content?
How do you promote your content?
- Everytime you publish new content on your website, you need to share that link, along with a little teaser, on each of your social media accounts.
- Promoting your content instead of your homepage allows your audience to go directly to the content you promised. Do not take them to your home page and then leave them on their own to find the information they were interested in. Make it simple and easy for them to get what they want.
- In addition to promoting your content on your social media accounts, you can also promote your BEST content using Facebook ads, classifieds, and Craig's list. Again, share the link to the specific content you're promoting, not the URL for your home page. This kind of targeted promotion is always far more effective than just promoting your website in general.
- It's not a bad idea to promote your social media profiles as well to increase your subscriber base. You can do this using Facebook ads, classifieds, banner ads, and Craig's list as well.
Recommended Resources
Session 3 -- STEP 2: Promote Your Content
- Webinar Participants Learn that SEO is not a One Size Fits All Marketing Solution
- Read this review and summary of the third webinar session in the 5 week series entitled 4 Steps To Online Success by Signa Strom. The idea that SEO is critical to success has got to be replaced with the understanding that it's not necessarily an appropriate tactic for small start-ups.
- Session 3 Webinar Recording
- At the time of this post, this particular recording is having some issues. The webinar company has promised to fix this for me, but I have no idea how long that will take. Give it a shot and hopefully it will work for you. If it does....please let me know in the comments below so that I can update this description.
Success Magazine Interview With Seth Godin
We're All Weird
I love it when I stumble across something main stream that supports what I thought was my own crazy perspective. The other day I led the first session of my webinar -- 4 Steps to Online Success -- and in it I discussed the difference between mass producing our marketing and hand-crafting our brand, our relationships, and our business (you can read an excerpt of my reasoning here). Today I happened to run across this very recent interview with Seth Godin where he says nearly the exact same thing. Serendipity? Nahhhh, I think it's just that this is a message whose time has come to be shared.
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STEP 3: Engage Your Audience
Building real, interactive relationships is critical.
Building relationships takes time, and it requires some personal attention. When people have the opportunity to interact with you directly and engage in a conversation with you, it's easier for them to come to like, know and trust you. It's an easy process, and when you take it seriously it will pay-off incredibly well by creating a loyal fan base who'll follow you anywhere.
How do you engage your audience?
How do you engage your audience?
- Monitor all the places that you've promoted your content -- facebook, twitter, linkedIn, and any other discussion group or online forum -- and reply to all of the comments you've received. Don't just make it a, "thanks for commenting", make it a personal note, comment back on something they've said, answer their questions, or give them a link to something that meets their needs.
- Monitor your blog and YouTube accounts and respond to comments there in the same manner.
- Begin dialogue by commenting on sites that have related content, or where you know you're target market visits. Don't push your agenda -- simply comment personally, be you, and share your opinion or appreciation for what the content they provided. IMPORTANT: Many blogs and websites allow you to link your name back to your website -- TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT and use a link to related content on your site. Again, don't just link to your homepage, link to a specific article that you think would be of interest to anyone reading the thread you've commented on.
Recommended Resources
Session 4 -- STEP 3: Engage Your Audience
- Session 4 Webinar Recording
- Since the video recordings have been so screwed up, we changed to a conference call for the final two weeks. This is the audio recording from week 4 -- "engage your audience". The importance of engaging in a dialogue can not be underestimated, and we talk about how to do that.
- A Dead Simple Way To Engage Your Readers
- A very short, but information packed article that provides some great ideas on how to start a conversation and engage with your website and blog visitors.
Interested in Being Self-Employed?
Become an Independent Distributor
The Millionaire Messenger
By Brendon Burchard
The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice
Amazon Price: $24.79 (as of 05/27/2012)
No matter what type of business you run -- or want to run -- this book gets you focused on how to use the internet to spread your message, build your audience, and convert prospects to clients. It is a step-by-step book that covers the process from the inception of your business idea to the meat and potatoes of product development and marketing. If you're not sure how to create products, programs, or marketing that leverage your time and knowledge, this is a must-read book.
STEP 4: Make QUALITY Offers
There's nothing valuable about something they don't want.
Yes, the ultimate goal is to convert all these prospects into paying customers -- but that is not, nor it should be, your main focus. The act of converting your fans to customers is secondary to making a deep and lasting personal connection with them. If you begin with a sale in mind, it's palpable and people will run for the hills. If you focus on building a relationship with them and helping them, they'll WANT you to share information about products you have that can help them. It's sort of like reverse psychology, only better -- because it's honest and sincere and comes from a place of servant leadership.
How do you create a quality offer?
How do you create a quality offer?
- Periodically (maybe 2-3x /month), create content around a specific offer you'd like to make. This content should strive to inform, educate, or entertain your audience (just like the other content you've been creating). In fact, THIS Squidoo lens is a perfect example -- and I created it to illustrate this step in the social media marketing process I've been teaching you.
- Tie your offer into the content -- provide insight or examples of how your offer has helped, or could help accomplish what you're discussing in the content, or how it's related to or supports the process or solution you're sharing.
- Throughout your content, provide multiple ways for your reader to convert -- either by filling out a form (lead generation) or make a purchase (true conversion).
- I am NOT suggesting a long-form sales letter -- it's more along the lines of an "infomercial" designed to give them valuable information as a vehicle for making your offer.
- Do not offer things that do not serve your audience or you will lose them forever. The minute it feels as if you're using them for your own profit, they'll drop out of your fan club faster than you can say "sorry". Make sure that your offers truly benefit them and that they are wanted or needed. Don't try to convince them to buy something that has nothing to do with their needs or wants, instead, take the time to create or find solutions to needs you know they have.
Recommended Resources
Session 5 -- STEP 4: Make Valuable Offers
- Session 5 Webinar Recording
- Since the video recordings have been so screwed up, we changed to a conference call for the final two weeks. This is the audio recording from week 5 -- "make valuable offers". This was an interesting interactive discussion that really touched on some important points -- like you need to know who your audience is if you want your content to be effective in getting them to take action.
- Sample "Offer" Content
- This is a long version of an "offer" based around the practice of creating valuable content instead of "selling". Notice that there is no solicitation in the content at all -- instead, it's useful, useable information that helps the reader solve a problem. The call to action comes at the end with the offer of a free consultation.
Quote
"Change your focus, from making money to serving more people. Serving more people makes the money come in." Robert Kiyosaki
More Resources
These resources were not used during the webinar, but they are all great resources for anyone who is struggling to build a successful online presence.
- How to Create Valuable Blog Content Your Readers Will Eat Up
- I love this blog post. Meagan Visser provides a clear, concise and simple explanation of what needs to be done FIRST if you want to create value for your readers. I feel like she's reading my mind -- these are the points I make over and over in the work with my clients and in my workshops.
- The Essential Step-by-Step Guide To Internet Marketing
- This is a downloadable ebook from a company called Hub Spot. You will have to fill out a form to download the book, but it's well worth it. It's also interesting to note that this ebook is an example of "valuable content". Even though it's not website content, it is content that was created specifically to provide value and entice Hub Spot visitors to convert to paying customers.
- Valuable Content
- This is a page on a website called "Valuable Content" and is intended to be a touch point that entices site visitors to hire them. However, the information is valuable (there's that word again) and useful.
Guestbook Comments
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Hendaoui
Feb 28, 2012 @ 4:20 pm | delete
- Great info thank you Singa.
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signa_strom
Mar 1, 2012 @ 4:34 pm | delete
- Thank you -- I'm glad you like it. :)
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CherryTriggerCola
Feb 12, 2012 @ 1:52 pm | delete
- Superb lens! Very helpful information. Thanks for sharing a really great lens!
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signa_strom
Feb 12, 2012 @ 2:13 pm | delete
- Hi Cherry! Thank you so much for your comment. When I got the notification that a new comment had come in, I figured it was from one of my workshop participants -- so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that it was actually from someone I didn't know. I'm glad that you found this lens useful; keep an eye on it as I'll be updating it regularly over the next 5 weeks to bring it into closer alignment with the webinar series on this topic that I'm running right now. And if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask -- that way I can make sure I add information that is helpful to those of you reading. :)
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signa_strom
By day I work with individuals and organizations to help them embrace and express their purpose for being. By night I'm a blogging and Squidoo maven,... more »
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