ZedProMarketing – Business Marketing Strategies

E-Marketing – wikipedia defines it as ‘digital marketing or online marketing – where your market or promote your product or service over the internet.’

Creating your E-Marketing strategy begins – like any other marketing strategy – with your target market and your USP.

From there you have to determine your customers buying behaviour related to the internet. How do they interact online? What actions are they taking – related to the internet – that leads them to purchasing your product or service.

The review of the online buying behaviour should allow you to determine which online tools will be most impactful to your target market.  This is where you determine if you are going to use banner ads, paid search, social media, search engine optimization, email along with your website to draw your customers in and move them along the buying chain.

From there you move to the tactical level of E-Marketing strategy.

Dear Client,

I know you want me to fix something.

You want more profit, more sales, more results from your website, more customers in your store.

You heard that E-marketing, the internet is the way of the future. And it is ALL FREE.

• Just create a website and the customers will come.
• Just get on Google’s first page and your business will have too many customers.
• Just create an email list and create product demand like turning on a tap.

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but it just ain’t that easy.

First and foremost – it is not like flicking a switch. Using the internet, creating an E-marketing plan and proper implementation means changing your business.

I will state; E-Marketing is the most cost-effective way to increase sales. E-Marketing is also your most secure way to increase income. By that I mean I can deliver GUARANTEED E-MARKETING RESULTS!

But only if you do it right.

You need to be able to track your business, track your clients, know where the people come from, know why they buy.

If you don’t have the right systems in place to know what is happening in your business – then really any E-marketing strategy you implement is a gamble.

But if you are tracking sales and income – then you can guarantee results.

So . . .

The first step for me is to know your business.

You can ask me to create a website – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to set up an email marketing campaign – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to set up a Customer Relationship Management system – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to optimize your website for the search engines – I could do it for a fee.

All these are legitimate strategies. But if they are set up independently, and without knowing your business, how everything will work together, and tracked to make sure they are working properly – then you are simply wasting money. That fee you pay me – or someone else – is money flushed down the toilet.

I need to know and understand your business. Then I can recommend how we put in place systems to monitor and track results. Then we start implementing strategies that will actually work.

That’s how it works.
That’s how I work!

Before you create your website there is one thing that will make the difference between success and struggle…

…setting the right goals.

What are your website goals? What do you want your website to accomplish?

Here are some potential goals to consider:

• Keep clients and prospects up to date
• Share news about your industry
• Sell a product/products
• Sell a service
• Journal your thoughts, ideas or knowledge about a topic.
• Discuss a topic you’re passionate about
• Entertain
• Promote the products of others (affiliate marketing)
• Provide a community for shared interests

Consider also where you see your website a year, five years and ten years from now. What will your website accomplish? What will it look like? What value will it provide?

Why Define Your Goals First?

When you take the time to contemplate why you want to build a website and what you hope to accomplish, you can then plan your website pages and structure to support that goal.

As you define your goals you’ll also learn more about your target audience and your business vision and mission. You’ll be able to:

• Identify your target audience/visitor/customer
• Identify your unique selling proposition – what makes your website different.
• Identify the benefits or value you have to offer.

Taking time to think your website through completely will help you create a website that supports your success. It’ll help you hit the ground running as they say and achieve your website goals and dreams.

Warning!!!
There is a company called Domain Registry of Canada that I believe is doing some sneaky marketing!

Domain Registration

Pretty basic – you need a domain name for your website, so you go to a site like zeddomains, godaddy, namespro, etc – and purchase a domain.  You can buy it for a year, 2 years, or longer.  Basic .com domains cost you about $10, .ca can cost about $14 or so, very few domains extensions cost more than $20/year.

When your domain is getting close to renewing, the company that sold you the domain will send you an email that your domain is close to expiring and ask if you want to renew it.  Actually most companies let you auto-renew if you trust them with your payment information. But they will still send you a notice either way via email.

All in all, a pretty basic process, not much can go wrong.

There are a few companies out there that OVERCHARGE for domain registration.  Some add extra services to make you think their price is justified -  other just overcharge because they can.

Domain Registry of Canada is one of those companies that overcharge – their price for a 1 year domain registration is $40 (4 times what it should be).

Any business has the right to charge what it wants – so I am not picking on them for that.

What I do not like is the way they market their services.

Domain information is fairly public – it is an option when you register to keep your registration info (your name and address) private.  But most companies that want their business to be found have no problem in letting people know they own the domain, in fact it shows legitimacy of the website that it is owned by an actual business or person doing business.

So what Domain Registry of Canada does is search the records (contained in what is called the whois database – at whois.net) for domains that are coming due for renewal.  Then they send a very official ‘Domain Name Expiration Notice’ in a brown envelope to make it look official.

Inside that envelope is a form for you to fill out to renew your domain at the high price of $40 per year.  This will transfer your domain over to them from now on, rather than the registrar that you originally purchased your domain.

So beware – this is a marketing ploy – you do not have to transfer your domain over to Domain Registry of Canada for their higher prices.  You can stay with your original registrar and renew your domain online.

One of the things I need to do is write more and write better.  I acknowledge that the key to writing better is to practice.

Yes we need to learn what makes writing better, but simply by putting more words to paper, we will get better.

I have done a little research to how I can write more effectively, and also write more consistently.

First from Jeff Goins site here are seven tips for more effective writing:

1. Practice
2. Challenge Yourself
3. Be Yourself
4. Don’t write like an Idiot
5. Start Small
6. Don’t give up
7. Learn to pitch your pieces.

I think for me the ones I need to focus on are practicing, challenging myself with specific topics, and being myself.  The latter – leads into another article about finding your writing voice that I recently read.

Joy Tanksley writes that to find your voice you need to write what you know (or I believe do great research), then write like you talk, get into a flow of writing, and to start off with, forget conventions – just get the words down on paper.

My research on writing lead me to a great article about how to write daily.  Julie Isaac lists these five steps:

1. Make a commitment
2. Make a list of the top 10 reasons why you want to write daily.
3. Make writing top priority
4. Write first
5. Break your daily goal into smaller goals.

I believe I need to make that list of to 10 reasons and post it on my bulletin board.  Then I need to make writing a priority – as it now is not at the top of what I do.

Onward and Upward,
Jack