Step 4: Marketing

At this point, if you’ve engaged the tools discusses in the previous steps, and have committed to creating regular, weekly content, your business has an immense online activity and the attention of an ever-expanding audience. If you are struggling with the first step, but now see how these powerful tools will benefit your business, contact Start Ranking Now. (www.startrankingnow.com) We provide experts across the social media universe who will work personally with your company to build an effective social media campaign.

Now that you have the attention of a growing online tribe of friends and followers, you convert them into buyers the old-fashioned way. Social media attracts the online community. Marketing converts them into buying customers, and marketing comes down to giving your customer:

• A reason to buy from you and not your competition.
• A reason to buy today
• A package that is of greater value than the amount of money they are putting on the table.

The advantage of online marketing is that many of the promotions and bonuses you can include with your products are digital, which means once you create them, you have no inventory costs. Digital e-books, recordings of seminars, reports, and software are bonuses you will include with your products which add value to your sales pitch.

When I watch TV, and the infomercial pitch comes across the screen, I often chuckle at the pitch, because they are all the same. The product is the most wonderful thing since sliced bread, and it will solve all my problems. After the product is pitched, the price point is revealed, which is always $20.00. Then the pitch man says “But Wait!!” If I buy now, I get not only one, but two, three, or four of the products at the same price. I always marvel at the pitch, because they are all the same. On the other hand, they are all the same because they work.

Your online marketing and promotion needs to include some free reports, e-books, software, etc. The free content is the additional value that prompts buyers to purchase now. If you are selling software, another successful marketing method is a “try before you buy” offer. If you are marketing seminars, then a significant discount on the full conference price is an attractive offer.

However, offering discounts is rarely the magic potion that entices a prospect to reach for his or her wallet. If price was the most important aspect of the products we purchase, then everyone in the country would drive 15 yr old Chevys, old F150 Ford pickups and sub-compact Yugos. Discounts help, but remember that value drives the sale.

Gaining customers comes down to giving a prospect a reason to purchase now, and making sure that the value they receive is greater than what is coming out of their wallet.  Online, after you establishing yourself as an expert, the next step is offering incentives. Below is a screen shot of an excellent example of online marketing. In exchange for the prospects email, the website visitor receives access to a number of valuable reports on social media and online marketing. This approach gives the business permission to approach the web visitor again though an email marketing campaign, build a positive relationship with the prospect, and invite them to return to the site for future purchases.

www.startrankingnow.com