deborah.nu - the network marketing training resource for people
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PROMOTING YOUR NETWORK MARKETING BUSINESS ONLINE
The Good News-Bad News Truth!
The good news is that online prospecting can be relatively inexpensive and very effective. The bad news is that a successful Internet marketing campaign is a time-consuming, multi-faceted process that may require you to learn some new skills.
TO BLAST IN OR TO OPT IN?
If you think that Internet marketing means an email blast, think again! Do you like to receive junk email? Do you take it seriously? Do you think the company being touted is a professional, well-managed company with a brilliant future? If not, then don't succumb to the temptation! Email blasts damage the credibility of your company, inspire hate mail, and may cause you to lose your ISP!
There is one exception to this: opt-in email lists. These are targeted lists of people who have voluntarily subscribed to a mailing list on a specific topic. The cost of these lists is quite high -- 15 and the response rate low. Opt-in lists work best for a promotion, such as a sale, a free drawing, or a contest. Consider your advertising budget carefully because a one-shot email campaign even to a targeted list may not cover your costs.
A Net marketing campaign designed for a small business includes several steps on the road to sales. One is name recognition or awareness of your company. You may not become a household word on a shoestring budget, but you can do effective niche marketing and prospecting in a few, well-chosen places.
SOME PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS
Begin by writing an email "signature" which will be your signoff on every email or post. This should contain your contact information, company name and a short benefit line. Next create an informative, standard email message telling new prospects the benefits to him. Why should Mr. Prospect buy from or join your company and your group? What's in it for him? Your message should have these loud and clear near the top, followed by the features of the company and opportunity. Whenever someone online asks you for information about your company, send them this always-updated summary.
How you write this email is very important, so take time to create a good one. In creating advertising or email, remember the golden rule: benefits first, features follow. A benefit is just that. It benefits the person in some way. More money and better health are benefits. Comp plan details and company info are features.
IF YOU HAVE A WEB SITE
Your web site is your signature. It says what kind of business person you are. Take time to design an attractive site ... one which offers content and value to your target market. Include interactive features like autoresponders, surveys or a form where people can register to receive notice of special events. If you are selling products online, be sure to offer an online payment method, credit cards or checks. You do not have to have a merchant account to offer credit cards. There are many services that will handle instant online transactions for you.
SUBMIT, MONITOR, REWRITE, RESUBMIT
Before submitting your site to the search engines and directories, spend some time reading about how to write your title, metatags and the first few paragraphs of each page to obtain a good ranking. After submitting your web site, you should review your ranking in each search engine every month. To improve or maintain your position, you may need to rewrite pages, add new content and additional web pages, and change your description and keywords.
If you don't know HTML, learn it because the reward is well worth the effort. Web site promotion is a mix of knowledge, art, skill and persistence. It can be very time-consuming. Because of this, a new profession is emerging called "web marketing" or "web promotion". A good promoter offering a guarantee of top-page placement can charge as much as $100 per month to keep one of your web pages on the top page of one single search engine!!
TO BANNER OR TO LINK?
You can participate in several free banner exchange and banner rotation programs. But are these effective? Statistics show that no matter how well designed, how eye-catching a banner may be, the click-through rate is dropping. The novelty has worn off and people now "tune out" the flashing advertising messages jumping out on every site. Before plopping down good money for a banner campaign, test your banners on the free reciprocal services like TrafficX and LinkExchange.
On a positive note, research shows that after search engines, most people arrive at a web site through a link on another site. Participation in reciprocal link exchange agreements is useful. Many of these are free, some are pay-per-click . If you offer to pay a click-through rate, monitor the host site carefully. Confirm that your link has been placed in a public page, and check your statistics to make sure the clicking visitors are unique visitors.
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