The biggest complaint we hear from professionals is that their website and ezine don't do anything to bring them new business.
Do you know why?
No findability! Your ideal client may be looking for someone exactly like you and your business. But when they type keywords into Google or Yahoo, you don’t show up until the 3rd or 4th page.
Over 50% of U.S. businesses aren’t even on the web. And of those that are, very few come up on the first pages when prospects do a search for that business product.
If you are a small business owner, service professional or entrepreneur, you know you “should be on the Web.” With over 1 billion Internet users world-wide and growing every day,
you can’t afford NOT to be on the Internet. You also know by now that a brochure-type website is not going to do the trick.
Have you figured out why your Internet marketing isn’t working like it should? Here are the most common reasons we find from an informal survey of business professionals.
5 Top Reasons Your Internet Marketing Isn’t Working
1. You have a blog, or website, or a newsletter but they don’t bring in new clients or revenues; readers don’t take action. Either it isn’t clear what you want them to do, or you don’t provide a simple way for them to get something for free in exchange for their email address.
2. You have to wait for your web designer to respond each time you want to update your site. You don’t have the skills to do this yourself and feel like you are being held hostage by the web guy (or gal).
3. You love your business and want to spend time with your clients and customers doing what you do best; instead you spend too much time keeping a database and following up with leads; your marketing isn’t automated.
4. You have a great product and a good business model, but your site doesn’t get enough traffic. You know you need links back to your site in order to rank better with the search engines, but don’t know how to generate these.
5. You have a vision to double or triple your revenues in the next year or so, but you don’t have a funnel of products or services to reach your goals. Either you are selling services, and don’t have any information products people can start with; or, you sell products, and don’t have low price or free information products people can try first.
If you are like most professionals, when it comes to your Internet marketing you are tired of so-called experts who tell you what you should be doing. Most gurus don’t actually help you implement the steps required to set up and use the tools you need; you know what you should be doing, but you don’t have an organized plan for breaking things down into do-able steps.
Here’s some good news...
You don’t need a big budget, a “geek” on staff, or any computer programming knowledge. You can get on the Web with no experience or special tech skills. Why? Because there are many new tools that make Internet marketing easy for everyone. Around 2004 things became really easy for the average business person to have a strong Internet presence that really works.
If you can write and send an email you have what it takes to bring in new clients and new money. Yet most professionals and small business owners get lost in a sea of Information overload when it comes time to put their business online.
5 Simple Tools That Make a World of Difference
If your Internet marketing isn’t working, you may not have these simple online tools in place, and optimized for growing your business:
1. A database marketing system
2. A blog so prospects can easily find you on the Web
3. A newsletter and autoresponders so you stay in touch with potential clients
4. Press releases and articles using your keywords submitted to PR and article directories
5. Products and services for free or low fee so prospects can get to know and trust you
These are important foundation pieces for leveraging the Internet to grow your business. If you don’t have them, you will spend unnecessary time and energy for nothing. If you do have them, you need to use them properly. All five work together to automate your Internet marketing tasks.
If you notice, a website isn’t even on this list. If you already have a site, it needs to be integrated with your marketing plan; if you don’t have one yet, start with a blog; you will find you will get better traffic and results faster.
The good news is that simple online tools exist to make Internet marketing accessible and effective for the average business person.
The bad news is that very few professionals take the time to learn how to make their Internet marketing easy, automated, inexpensive, and organized. Those that do grow their businesses exponentially and thrive.
