Online Marketing Advice For Beginners

[Francies]

Market Research and Analysis - the first stage in any form of online marketing is to find out as much as possible about what your prospective customers want. By reviewing market research information, reviewing competitors web sites, industry surveys, obtaining online feedback, obtain company reports, research search engine usage and so on; a qualified business strategy can be formulated. Without collection of unknown information to discover and learn from, creation of business strategy is nothing more than guess work. The main areas of information to qualify and quantify are; target market size, industry conversion rates, website traffic, distribution channels, purchase behaviour, sales copy testing, price elasticity, regulatory and legal restrictions and company product testing.

[Yuvastyleindia]

Regular reading of marketing tips.
Participation various types of discussions of marketing.
Use E-mail marketing and content marketing.

[Megan_D]

Hi Francies,

I think you're bang-on about spending time figuring out what your customers want and doing market research - but I'd add another step first:

Figuring out who your customer is. So many business owners say they serve "everyone," or "men who like tech," or "women with children," and as descriptions - those are absolutely useless.

Creating a detailed customer profile of the one person who is going to be the absolute best customer for your business will make your messaging stronger, and inform your research into their alternatives.

[Ana_S]

Hi Francies,

I think you're bang-on about spending time figuring out what your customers want and doing market research - but I'd add another step first:

Figuring out who your customer is. So many business owners say they serve "everyone," or "men who like tech," or "women with children," and as descriptions - those are absolutely useless.

Creating a detailed customer profile of the one person who is going to be the absolute best customer for your business will make your messaging stronger, and inform your research into their alternatives.

Right on the money Megan_D!! The more time you spend figuring out exactly who your ideal customer is, the easier it will be to market that group... not to mention your conversion/sales rate will be so much higher! Many companies have several marketing strategies- each that fits the ideal customer (target market).

[StartupSuperstar]

Great insight Ana_S! Narrowing down your ideal target market is essential. Think of it like like when you are at a party, there are hundreds of people talking all at once, the only person that gets your attention is the one that mentions your name! The same goes for marketing, speak to everyone about their marketing and nobody will hear you, call out to Mr John Smith who needs help with getting more fans from his facebook page to buy from him with a solution and you can guarantee you will get his full attention.