Fatal Mistakes of Online Marketing

It turns out that there are some powerful myths about online business and internet marketing that can’t be broken easily by newbie internet marketer. There is too much hype and misleading or incorrect information, sometimes spread deliberately, to contribute to their failure. It’s really hard to screen all available information when you are none experienced and lack of required knowledge. But there is a pattern and there is no doubt about it.

1. You can make fortune online while you sleep !

Of course you can make it if you know how to do it properly…or maybe you are just lucky…

Ignore those promises and recognize that if you want to make fortune online you have to build solid online business and spend the required time to build it.

2. You can start your online business in 30 minutes at zero- cost without any knowledge required of your part!

Yah, that’s right. You can, but for how long? Will you still be there after 120 days?

There is no such thing zero-cost – there are resources and knowledge required to start and run your online money-making machine. In any other case you’ll be out of business sooner than you can imagine.

3. Lack of research and planning

Research and planning your activities, as well as your business too, is crucial for online business success as it will give you knowledge about your niche, your competitors, products and services available on the market, marketing strategies and techniques…

4. Improper focus and positioning

Don’t market just to build up the company. Instead approach marketing that demands an immediate response from recipient. Proper solution positioning may help to avoid improper focus.

5. Marketing with no USP

USP – Unique Selling Proposition is the one single statement that will help you brand out amongst the competitors and should be used in every part of marketing material. You can think of USP as the foundation of philosophical aspect of your business.

Have no USP? – Don’t market without it.

6. Failing to Capture Repeat Customers

According to IM statistics 80% of your business sales come from existing customers and only 20% from the new ones. Failure to resell to your existing customer may have detriment effect on your profits. It turns out that it’s 5 times harder to sell to a new customer than to your current one.

7. Lack of focus on potential customer’s needs

There are very few businesses that recognize and know their potential customer’s needs. The biggest secret of IM is to find a demand you can fill and then fill that demand better than anyone else.

8. Not building a personal prospect list

Before you start your online business you have to grain into your head that you can make real money with your online business only if you invest most of your business efforts to build your personal prospect list or so called lead generation or list building. Sales online are totally dependent on relationships: have you formed relationships with your costumers? Do they know you enough to trust you and your recommendations? If the answer is yes than you are on your way to become the new star of online marketing.

Building a prospect list will benefit you with the following outcomes:

1. You have full control over the customer perceptions, needs
2. You can focus on REPEAT BUSINESS – it’s statistically proven that making sale to existing customer is 5 times easier than to get a new one.
3. You can expand your business faster and easier – Over time the trust between you and your customers generate more sales. More people return to you due to the work previously invested.

9. Not understanding promotion methods and available resources

Understanding and knowing the promotional resources available on the Internet, and the proper utilizing of them to serve the interests of your business, is the most crucial factor for your online business success.

When you come online you have to know and leverage from every resource available to get more customers, visitors, to your online business. The main key to be profitable in your business is to cut on unnecessary expenses and expansive promotion. You can save a great deal of your budget if you know how to use free promotional methods and resources widely available on the Internet.

10. LOW and STEADY Wins a Race

Online business building is a process which takes time till you become reputable for your prospects. Running fast can’t contribute to your reputation, and it also can’t benefit your efforts to become an acceptable authority to your prospects. It’s quite unlikely you ever will.

Your prospects need to know you well enough to trust your recommendations as one who provides them high-quality information for a certain period of time, to help them find required solutions to their problems, to improve their lives.

Use every available method to gain their trust, and to gain reputation of your potential customers.

11. Provide best service and get feedback from your customers

An experience of making purchase online is quite unusual and sometimes frightening for many of your online business visitors and there are some justified reasons to contribute to the situation: misleading or not enough information about products or services, bad service, non secure payments and etc…

Those are just a few of the drawbacks of non making orders via Internet. If you look for building a successful online business then your business should have the highest reliability and best service to serve your customers interests. The purchasing process doesn’t end on making payment and product delivery. No, you should ask and get feedbacks from your customers about his/her buying experience from you or from the business you own.

The feedback will contribute to your reputation as reliable and responsible business owner even if not everything was smooth during the purchasing process.

Marketing is crucial to success in every business. Unfortunately many business owners discount the effect it may have, and they forego their marketing efforts for other activities. Perhaps that is why 90% of the businesses are failing on the Internet.

But your business doesn’t have to be one of them. If you are smart enough to avoid the ten fatal mistakes above, you can market successfully and raise your bottom line as a result.