Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’

How not to compete for expensive Google Adwords.

Competition. We have all experienced it. Some of us have more of it than others. Why are some businesses surrounded by flames, drowning in the noise of the competition, while others seem to thrive and soar forth from the fire like a phoenix?

If you’ve experienced intense competition, learning how to position your business as unique can help. Think of the scenario where you have an online store where the products you offer are also sold by 20+ other online stores, albeit at lower price. If you can figure out how to compete in that scenario, don’t you think you can figure it out elsewhere? Perhaps these techniques can apply to you.

Do you hear yourself saying “Google Adwords for my category are too expensive”? If you answered yes, then listen up.

I know the drill. I’ve been there. I’ve had a business, an online store, where each of the products I sold was also available through numerous other online retailers and at a lower price. So how did I grow that business to produce over 6-Figures of recurring income?

Position Yourself as Unique

One technique to position your business as unique in the marketplace is to define a niche.

How do you become unique when there are hundreds in your niche?

1)      Get exclusivity: Get an exclusive license to distribute a particular product line.

2)      Create unique products. Become a creator, manufacturer or importer of unique goods or services.

3)      Carve out a niche to promote your products.

Carve out a niche

Identify a niche and position yourself uniquely in that niche. Anyone can do it. You just have to train your brain to think a little differently.

You see, while most people are selling their products and services based on topic, or category or supplier or brand, very few actually promote their products based on the solution they provide the customer. Focus on the solution, and you can set yourself apart from the field.

“What does this actually mean? How do I apply this?” You ask. Let me give you an example.

My company sold contemporary furniture and accessories. So I spent time paying for Google Adwords related to bed, dresser and nightstand unsuccessfully. These Google Adwords were too expensive. And there was too much competition. I had a little success buying keywords based on the name of the designer of one particular product line. But, the people searching by the designer’s name were looking for the lowest cost. I didn’t want to nor could I afford to lower our profit margins by competing on price. Sound like a familiar scenario?

What happened next transformed the business. You see, while talking with the supplier one day I asked “Why do you think people buy your product? What is the big appeal?”

You know what he said? “Storage. Originally the designer created this line because there was no space in the apartments here in the city. So people bought the beds to get more storage.”

That 2 minute conversation transformed my business into producing a 6-figure a year income with NO COMPETITION.

Focus on the solution

I went home and switched our Google Adwords to “storage beds”. Our customers were looking for a solution. We were the only ones to give them a solution that also made a design statement. Style and function in one.

Our customers were now buying from us because we offered a solution to their problem of no storage. There was no one else selling this product line as a solution. Our customers didn’t even know that the product was available elsewhere. They thought it was exclusive to us. Why? No one else thought to sell the solution to the customer. Everyone else was still competing for the people seeking the brand; the ones that wanted the cheapest price. We kept our margins and got more customers.

How can you find a niche for your non-unique product or service where your competitors aren’t competing for the same keyword? Can you focus on the solution?

If you’d like to learn more about how to sell online, listen to our free teleclass “5 Simple Strategies to a 6-Figure Online Store: How to make FAST RECURRING INCOME so you can live the life YOU want!” Register at http://www.6FigureOnlineStore.com.

Don’t you hate when you get a great idea at 2am? Especially one too long to write down on a pad of paper?

That’s right. I got this awesome brainstorm at 2:08 am and I’m here at my computer doing a brain dump so I can get back to sleep.

So, here it is….

How to improve ecommerce conversions.

Most people think that once you get your traffic up on your ecommerce site and you have a ton of visitors, the next thing to do is to focus on improving conversions. Its true, but its also too late.

You see, your ability to convert customers all happens before they get to your site. It actually happens before you even put up a web page. How to improve website conversion happens at the idea phase.

Before you do a thing, you need to define the WHY. Why are you  in business. What is your purpose and mission.another way to think of this is WHY ME?

From that you need to think of your customer. Why does your customer have pain? Why are they looking for help? Before you begin, you need to know WHY YOU?

Are  you getting the trend here?

Step 3 is to know your competitor and what alternatives there are to your offering. What are they offering your customer? Why would your customer choose them? WHY THEM?

And finally, we get to ask ourselves, “Why would my customer choose me over them?” What is the trans-formative experience they get from working with me? Why will their lives be better off by choosing us? WHY US?

This video of Simon Sinek below provides a fantastic example of WHY. It’s less than 20 minutes long and it explains WHY ecommerce conversions are determined before your customer gets to your web site.

If you’d like to learn more about how to increase your ecommerce conversions, please join me on this complimentary teleclass “5 Simple Strategies to a 6-Figure Online Store“.

I want to thank Janine for sending me the link to the video which resulted in me getting no sleep tonight I wish you all a good night’s sleep and let me know how you see the WHY ME, YOU, THEM, US applies in your business. How will it change what you do?

A few months ago, one gentleman on one of my LinkedIn groups posted a request for help. That post ignited a fire in me.

You see, after composing a response to him, I realized how the 9 steps I outlined could be converted into an article. Then I thought it could become a series of articles or a case study using his site as the example. Then I thought well I might as well turn it into a class.

So that’s what I did.

Next week, I’m teaching a live one-time only teleclass called

“5 Simple Strategies to a 6-Figure Online Store:

How to make FAST RECURRING INCOME so you can live the life YOU Want!”.

If you or anyone else you know is interested, here’s where you can find out more:

http://www.6figureonlinestore.com

I want to thank Larry for the inspiration. It is my hope that I can help business owners like him to create the income they need to live the life they want.

All my best, Debra

The request for help:

Recommendations on SMALL business marketing

Marketing is something that I never pursued much, and I realize now that I need some help marketing my small business. I don’t have much money to spend – my business is SMALL, and there’s not usually much cash flow. Anyone have any suggestions that won’t break the bank besides SCORE and SBA? The business is an on line business, mostly word-of-mouth. I do some magazine and specialty ads, but that’s about it. I am looking for ideas, or recommendations, or just ways to get the word out.
I am envisioning people getting to the part about not much money and then lots of ‘deletes’!!

-Larry

9 Tips to a Profitable Online Store:

Larry, as a former owner of an online retail store, and an internet marketing coach here are a few tips:

Strategy:

1. Don’t compete on price. It won’t get you anywhere.
   When you are a retailer of products that are available through other sources, the reason people will come to you above all others is…. the relationship! Without a relationship, you can only compete on price (which is typically a no win situation).
2. You must provide value-add.
   A blog would help you to establish a relationship with your readers, and create traffic through SEO and establish you as the go-to source for your products. Give them tips and ideas. You need to be a content creator.
3. You need to focus on your customer. Is it the jewelry crafter or other? You need to speak to each subset of crafter differently and have different supplies for each niche. Pick on niche and be the best you can at meeting their needs.

Tactics:

1. Traffic:
   You need to generate traffic. In your case, SEO and a blog would be the starting places. Improve the description on your site. Let people know who the right customer for you is and why they should be your customer. Networking both online and off in craft related forums is next and the fastest way to build relationships. Commenting on other craft related blogs will also get you attention.
2. Capture names and build a list:
   You need to have a way to capture your customer’s name and build your list as soon as they come to you site. Give away something for free in exchange for their name. It can be anything from a product to a free report on jewelry making. Make it relevant to the customers you are targeting.
3. Communicate:
   Send out weekly tips via email and your social media connections. Give away your expertise. Build trust. Eventually ask for a sale.
4. Ask for the sale, and transact business.
   You may need to use some sales techniques such as special offers, bundles, time-limited offers, etc.
5. Build community and Upsell.
   Know what type of products your customer buys and offer them related products at the time of sale. Create upsells. Don’t inundate your customer with more and more offers. Give them your expertise and build the relationship. Deliver world-class customer service. Delight them.
6. Measure results.
   Measure what works and what doesn’t. Learn where your efforts are best spent and focus on those.

That’s it.

If you’d like to learn more about how to grow your online store sales, please join us for this FREE one time teleclass http://www.6figureonlinestore.com.

Have you ever heard someone say “I don’t need a blog, there isn’t enough to say about my product/service/subject?” Have you ever said it yourself? I used to think that way as well. How would I ever come up with enough to say about one particular subject? Well, there are all kinds of blogs with all kinds of purposes. The key to a successful blog is to know why your doing it and having a clear focused mission and strategy behind it.

Let’s say you are a crafts-person. A photo blog would be a practical and very effective means of sharing your custom work. A photo blog would do many things for your business, such as:

1) Create a portfolio of projects for your customers to review before making a purchase decision. For example, a painter, you can post before and after photos of her work.

2) A crafts-person could post photos of their booth and customers at the latest event they attended.

3) Allow your existing clients to post comments about the success of the project or event, thereby improving trust and probably conversion of potential clients and increasing the connection and relationship you have with your existing customers.

4) Your clients could link back to your blog post, increasing your search engine rankings and improving traffic to your site

5) When you add comments about the event/project/etc. in your post you can include keywords and increase your traffic and SEO.

6) It gives you more pages to be indexed by an search engine.

Just something to think about. There are many different types of blogs and many different reasons for creating them. One way to think of a blog is that if your business is involved in something informal, dynamic, changing, or current, perhaps it belongs in a blog. A blog is a great way to create an informal portfolio and to market your business or service.