Working from home by way of Internet Marketing

A working from home business using the Internet, how it's staggering to think how it's come seemingly from nowhere in the last decade to a place where is now dominates the landscape of almost every industry.

Even as recently as the turn of this century, having a website was pretty much optional for any person working from home, and an “Internet marketing strategy” was almost unheard of.

But now, a website is not optional. No online marketing business today can hope to be taken seriously if it doesn't have a website – even one-man-bands and freelancers working from home in their back-bedroom cannot get away with not having a website.

And while you might think this is just one more added complexity to the already complex task of running and growing your business, it actually presents all business owners and entrepreneurs with a tremendous opportunity, and one unrivalled in modern times.

However, it's NOT quite as simple as website designers and people selling you over-priced “instant internet profits” products will have you believe.
In the same way you can't build a profitable and solid business just by printing a so-so brochure, you can't simply throw a few web-pages onto the Internet and score an immediate success.

Nevertheless working from home and making your website profitable is probably easier than you might think, as long as you stick to some simple but very powerful fundamentals.

It is important you pay attention to the detail here, because to make your website really profitable, you might find yourself doing some things which seem counter-intuitive and which even contradict the common wisdom.

Yet, take heart from this: 95% of websites don't make any money; so if you follow the common wisdom, just like most business owners do, then you won't make any money from your website, either.

If you want different results from everyone else, then you've got to take different actions from everyone else.

So, let's get right into the detail of some of the powerful strategies you can put to work for you to make your Internet marketing strategy a success:

1. Understand your website is a fundamental part of your business
Most business owners make the mistake of seeing their website as being an add-on to their business, something to be “bolted on” and even sidelined as a necessary evil.

This kind of thinking is going to cost you a lot of money!

The first thing is to be clear that your website is an integral part of your business and you need to invest time and effort into making it a seamless fit.

In the early days of the internet, technological limitations meant that it was hard for a website to be anything more than an online brochure.

But technology has moved on and matured to the point where it's possible and often desirable to make your website the core of your business and sales process.

It's now possible to use the Internet to automate most or every part of your business. That might not be your goal, and it might not always be desirable, but it's certainly possible for many businesses.
So that's the first thing: get your thinking about your website clear in your mind.

It's a fundamental part of your business and must form part of your total marketing strategy.

It's not something to be shoved off on one side and left to “the web guy”.

Your web guy is unlikely to be a marketing expert – and don't make the mistake of thinking web-design firms are marketers, either.
 
They almost never are.

Your web site is potentially a massive income-generator for you, and like any valuable precision-machine it's got to be put together right, maintained right, and used right.

2. There are 2 vital elements in your Internet Marketing Strategy.

1. Getting visitors to your website

2. Converting them into paying customers and clients

Now, this might appear too simple to be important, but it's not.

It's absolutely vital.
 
And let me show you how important it is.

Imagine you have 100 visitors a day to your website and you have a conversation rate of 1%, meaning out of these 100 visitors, 1 of them actually buys something, and you make a £100 profit.

Now, imagine by using the simple strategies in this report, you increase your visitors by 50% and increase your conversion rate by 50%, too. And bear in mind these numbers are conservative – the real increases you'll get will almost certainly be many multiples of these.

OK, so with this increase, you're now getting 150 visitors each day, and selling something to 1.5% of them – which is now 2.25 sales a day, on average. So now, even with these modest increases, your daily profits have gone from £100 to £225.

That's 125% more business you're doing now, just from two 50% increases in your visitors and conversions.

So the next question is...

3. How do you increase Traffic to your Website and increase Conversions?

There are probably as many ways to increase traffic to your website as there are individuals out there on the net to drive to it; and the science of sales has filled many a book and is the focus of entire multi-day seminars.

But here I have identified six specific and very simple strategies you can start using TODAY to increase your online profits.

Any one of these would be very valuable by itself, but you have all six here to benefit from and put to work for you in your business.

Here they are:

1. Use multiple marketing approaches to attract visitors to your website.
There are many products and courses out there promising you a “flood of traffic” with just a few simple tricks.
 
They are all bogus.
 
For one thing, it's not just a case of getting lots of traffic: we want qualified traffic, traffic comprising people who are looking for what we're selling.

So it will pay you to do your research and ensure the traffic you're getting is qualified.

Believe me; it will make your job of converting them to paying customers much easier.

One great way to drive highly qualified online traffic to your website is using “PayPerClick” Advertising (most often Google AdWords).

You literally pay to have your ad featured on Google's search-result pages when people type in the search-terms.

People click these ads and are taken to your website – and you pay Google an amount of money if and only if they click on your ad. Never before has it been possible to get your ad in front of 100 million people within 10 minutes, and not a penny to pay until they respond to it.

I'm a great fan of AdWords but you have to get it right.

As with all marketing, start small and test every step of the way.

2. Combine online and offline marketing. One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners making when they jump on the Internet marketing bandwagon is they let all their other marketing activities wither and die.

And by doing this, they miss out on a lot of potential traffic they could capture details from and convert into sales.

Now, I am a huge fan of Internet marketing, and working from home there's no reason for you not to use your website as the core of your business, but to only rely on online methods of driving traffic to your website is an error you can not afford to make. Apart from anything else, relying on any one source of traffic puts you in a dangerous position, because if it dries up for any reason, you're all at sea with no sail and no paddle.

Another advantage with using offline media to drive traffic to your website is your visitors are not so much surfers as seekers.

Your offline ad or letter or postcard has driven them online to seek more information about you, specifically.

They're not just nosing around the 'net flicking from site to site like a typical online visitor is.

Finally, in the current economic downturn, offline marketing is becoming cheaper (ad space is no longer in such demand, so magazines and newspapers have been forced to drop their prices), and direct mail is getting less competitive (people are – mistakenly cutting back on their marketing to “save money”).

All this means you're likely to be one of the only games in town as far as your prospects are concerned.

3. Pass the 8-second test. Research shows that you have just 8 seconds to grab your site-visitors' interest.

They don't call it “web-surfing” for nothing: people flit from website to website and if you don't do something pretty amazing to grab their attention and break this pattern of behaviour, then your visitors will hit your site, stay for a few seconds... and then they're gone. Usually forever.

So when they hit your website, you need to present them with a clear and pressing reason to stay.

And that means a headline.

Don't let your website designer or your graphic designer sell you on the idea of logos, pretty pictures and whitespace.

No one cares about your logo, the picture of the anonymous businessman in a suit at the top of the page, or empty space devoid of any meaning.

A headline is text, usually bold and big which gives your visitor an exciting and compelling promise that if he or she continues reading, you're going to give them some HUGE reward for doing so.

4. Structure your web page copy according to the AIDA formula. Follow this classic rule and you can’t go too wrong.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

All of your copy, whether it’s a letter, brochure or email, should follow this simple formula.

You get their attention with a strong, compelling headline offering them a clear benefit to reading further.

Then you get their interest with strong opening paragraphs which spell out the problems they face and the benefits your product or service offers.

You then fan the flames of their desire by “twisting the knife” of their pain and really showing them how you can ease it and make their lives better.

Finally, you get them to take action on your offer with a strong call to action.

Every single page on your website should have a single purpose to justify its existence, and should therefore follow the AIDA formula.

5. Use the lead generation model.

Too many business owners look at the Internet as nothing more than a virtual shopping mall.

But we've already seen how your average visitor hits your website and is gone again within just 8 seconds.

Do you really think you can persuade your visitors to give you money in 8 seconds?

The trick is to switch from a sales model to a lead generation model.

When someone hits your site, your sole intention should be to get them to give you their name and an email address.

Getting a postal address, phone number and fax number is the Holy Grail, and I will share some advanced techniques for doing this in subsequent reports, but for now a name and email address is fine.

Then...

6. Make email marketing personal and frequent.
Once you have their name and email address, you can put them into an “evergreen” email sequence.
The emails are friendly, informative and useful.
Modern email delivery systems are cheap and easy to use, and they contain templated functionality to allow you to personalise emails with the receiver's name and other information.

Remember, the ultimate purpose is to sell your products and services, but you'll find you can do a better job of this by building a relationship with them.
It might take a little longer and a little effort, but you'll reap the rewards in higher-value sales and longer-term customer relationships.

Another thing to be aware of is, even if you are emailing your prospects, you are almost certainly not doing it enough.
It is possible to email them too often, but the breaking point is usually much higher than you think.

If they really do get fed up with you, they'll tell you (and in truth, those who do this are probably not the kind of customers or clients you want anyway).

Your job, once you have their contact details, is to keep on sending them stuff until they buy, die, or tell you to stop!

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