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They say time is money. Nowhere is this saying more true
than in the world of Internet marketing.
The Internet is a wonderful marketplace with literally
thousands of new prospective customers signing on for the
first time every day. Many of these people will need what
you offer.
While this presents incredible opportunity, it creates
challenges as well.
One of the greatest of these challenges is managing our
time. But this type of time management has nothing to do
with clocks and calendars. It has to do with money.
As Internet business people we must manage our time to
create the maximum return on investment. While many think of
"time management" in terms of doing things faster, making
to-do lists and more, time management for the Internet
marketer comes down to one concept ... automation.
No matter your product or service, whether you are selling
books, vitamins, memberships, information or more, you must
have a system in order to succeed.
The good news is today there are tools that will help you
perform every aspect of your job quickly and easily.
Let's look together at the five steps to any Internet
Success System and how to use automation to increase your
revenue in each area.
1. Find the Right Prospects
This is a key step and requires an important decision. Where
will you find your prospective customers? Some common forms
of finding prospects include
* Buying leads
* Search engine positioning
* Ezine advertising
* Banner advertising
* Email marketing
* Producing an ezine
* And more
While all of these methods can be effective, which ones
offer you the greatest return on your time investment? Many
today believe that buying leads (lists of people who have
expressed an interest in your type of product) is the best
way. My advise is to experiment with each and see what works
best for you.
2. Get Your Message Out
Getting your message in the hands of people interested in
what you offer will include the use of a web site, email,
autoresponders and more.
One key factor often overlooked is the consistency of your
message. If your web site says "Trust me, I'm your friend"
and your email messages scream "Buy now or else!" you're in
trouble. Make sure all of your marketing messages are
consistent. This way your prospect *will* trust you and
reward that trust with a purchase.
3. Handle Responses
People are not *on* the Internet, they ARE the Internet. In
each email you send, autoresponder you write and phone call
you take remember that it's a live person who will be
reading or hearing your message.
With the Internet becoming so impersonal it pays for you to
be personal in your response. Sure, this is business. But
it's the business of dealing with people. If you do this one
thing very well success will almost certainly be yours.
4. Sift and Sort for Success
Few things are more frustrating that going to the time and
expense of finding a prospective customer, answering their
questions, sending them follow up messages and more only to
discover they are really some 13 year old kid on their Mom's
computer who has nothing better to do than waste your time.
The only surefire way to prevent wasting time on people who
can't (or won't) buy is to ask them. Get them to give you
some information in exchange for further information about
what you offer.
One good business practice is to ask "What if" questions.
The more of these "what if" questions you put on your
website the better.
Questions like "What if there really was a way to achieve
financial security in as little as 90 days? If that
interests you, click here" Then make the 'click here' box a
signup for your autoresponder so you can stay in touch.
As mentioned above, remember you are dealing with
individuals and show the proper respect. If they ask to stop
receiving information you must respect that. If they *do*
want more information you must respect that as well. Which
leads us to our final success variable ...
5. The Follow Up Formula
Many new marketers ask questions like "How often should I
follow up with prospects?" or "How long should I continue to
send them information?"
Experience proves that you should continue sending follow up
information until the prospect buys something or asks for
the information to stop.
How many times have you bought an item the first time you
considered it? Even with supposed 'impulse' items like
clothes it's not uncommon to return to the store five, six,
even seven times. "I'm going to buy that sweater the next
time I'm there" we say. Then we forget.
While the sweater store won't send an email reminding us how
great their sweaters are (although the smart ones are
starting to do so) WE must follow up with prospects and stay
at the top of their mind. The goal here is simply to be the
first name they think of when they are ready to buy what we
offer.
Is success on the Internet easy? Yes and no. It CAN be easy
if you have a system that provides a great return on the
time you invest.
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Chris Ellsworth is a successful Internet marketer who
discovered the secret to automating his web business. Do you
want to succeed on the Internet? Do you have 5 minutes a
week to invest in your success? Success is waiting for you
at http://www.referralware.com/home.jsp/83512413
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