Online Marketing Strategy- Part 1

The objective of your online marketing strategy is to use your web site to attract visitors and convert them to customers.

To know characteristics of a successful website that maximizes your Online Marketing, you should  learn about Conversion Rate Optimization, E-marketing strategy and Email Newsletters.

Find out how to automate your Emails with Auto responders, use Pay per Click Advertising and consider the use of Video on your website.

The purpose of your website must be clearly defined at the planning and design stage. Is it to sell something, give information, or nurture relationships?

Every page on your site should have one, specific focus. Define this at the planning stage. And review it regularly in line with your latest objectives. It is very easy to add new pages and “lose the plot” again.

Remember that your website is not about you or your company .Your prospective clients and customers aren’t interested in you. They’re interested in what you or your product can do for them. What life will be like once they have purchased your product.

Video can often be used extremely effectively to create an image of what your product will deliver.

Walk in your clients shoes. Meet their needs. Address their fears and concerns. Give them ideas and solutions and solve some of their problems. Then people will want to visit your website often.

Now, let's go to discover the first characteristics of a successful website that maximizes your online marketing:

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the fastest and easiest strategy for increasing leads and sales generated from your website. And it is the best way to significantly increase your leads and sales without having to spend money increasing your website traffic.

This is simply the process of making your website generate more results by being easier to navigate, more persuasive, and more trustworthy for your visitors, so more of them find what they’re looking for and take the action you want. Make sure you have landing pages where appropriate.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the first thing you should consider, even before increasing your targeted traffic.

Give People Free Material. If the purpose of your business is to add value to peoples’ lives, give your visitors information they can use that will make a real difference to them.

Add content, a discussion forum, audio and video files, or even helpful web-based tools for your visitors. This will engage your website visitors and get them to take actions that lead to more conversions.

What is most relevant to your product or service? – What resources or tools can you create on the site to attract new visitors and let them experience your product?

The more interactive your website is, the more likely your visitors will revisit it and use it as a resource.

For example, a Website Optimization site might offer a free “Page Analyzer” tool, allowing visitors to analyze the performance of their web pages and get recommendations for improvement.

Such a page will generates more leads than any other page on your website – more traffic than the home page!

Other ideas may be to offer free training, useful articles on online marketing, or even free templates if you are a legal or health and safety advisor.

Marketing Says and Sales Responds

Marketing Says:

• “Salespeople ignore corporate branding and positioning and just do their own             thing.”

• “We generate leads and create sales support materials that get ignored.”

• “We don’t know what collateral works or what is being used.”

• “We are swamped with sales requests for ad hoc support.”

• “Sales is slow to learn about new products—getting them up to speed takes                 forever.”

Sales Responds:

• “The one-size-fits-all corporate message doesn’t help me close orders.”

• “Marketing wouldn’t know a qualified lead if it tripped on one.”

• “We can’t find the sales support materials we need—and when we do, it isn’t                 targeted to my selling situation.”

Take Care The Dropshipping Disadvantages

In spite of dropshipping advantages for beginners and small merchants, also there are some disadvantages that must be taken into consideration before starting in dropshipping business.

LOW MARGINS

The biggest disadvantage to operating in a highly competitive dropshipping niche is the low margin. It's so easy to get started and the overhead costs are so small ,many merchants will set up shop and sell items at rock-bottom prices in an attempt to grow revenue. They've invested so little in getting the business started so they can afford to operate on minuscule margins. But, you can do a lot to mitigate this problem by

selecting a niche that's well suited for dropshipping.

INVENTORY ISSUES

When you're sourcing from multiple warehouses, which are fulfilling orders for other merchants, inventory changes on a daily basis. While there are ways you can better sync your store's inventory with your suppliers', these solutions don't always work seamlessly, and suppliers don't always support the technology required.

  

SHIPPING COMPLEXITIES

If you work with multiple suppliers – as most dropshippers do – the products on your website will be sourced through a number of different drop shippers. This complicates your shipping costs. For instance, if your customer places an order for two or three items, all of which are available only from separate suppliers. You'll incur two or three separate shipping charges for sending each item to the customer, but it's probably not wise to pass this charge along to the customer, as they'll think you're grossly overcharging for shipping! And even if you did want to pass these charges along, automating these calculations can be difficult.

SUPPLIER ERRORS

You may blamed for something that wasn't your fault and you have to accept responsibility for the mistake anyway!

Even the best dropshipping suppliers make mistakes fulfilling orders – mistakes

for which you have to take responsibility and apologize. And mediocre and low quality

suppliers will cause endless frustration with missing items, botched shipments and low-quality packing, which can damage your business's reputation.

Finally, don't worry about the above problems, with careful planning, most of these problems can be resolved and doesn't prevent you from beginning a profitable dropshipping business.

Tips to Boost Your Business- Part 2

There are a lot of general tips you should follow to boost your business such:

        1.    Use a personalized paid email address: In case you are using a free email address          like yahoo, hotmail, msn or any other free email, please stop using it immediately as                you are harming your business by doing so. Free email address look very                               unprofessional and create a poor impression about you. So start using an email                     address which is like yourname@yourcompany.com as soon as possible.

       2.    Build your company website: If you are in business and you do not have a website           you are losing business. No matter what your argument may be, a website is becoming           a qualifying criterion for buyers to select people they want to talk to. Not having a                    website reduces the number of people who would be interested in talking to you.

    

       3.    Make it easy for people to contact you: The below three points are a basic minimum:

         A. Having voice mail on all your phone lines: Basically, you must have a system where       a person can leave a message if your phone is busy or no one is there to attend it so             that you do not miss anyone trying to contact you.

         B. Having a dedicated fax line: Faxes nowadays are mostly being sent by some fax              software. So if you have a system where a fax tone is given on request, chances are            you will not receive the fax.

         C. Always including complete contact details in all emails you send. A simple way is         to use signature files.

        4. Review your website critically: If you have a website, look at it critically from a buyer's      viewpoint and see if your website does the following:

           A. Make the visitor believe you know your business well.

           B. Provide more information than competitors.

           C. Enhance your credibility.

           D. Make the visitor feel like contacting you.

           E. Is your contact information easily accessible?

       5. Understand the mindset of your buyer: Learn to listen and understand the pulse of the      potential buyer. Find out what drives him. Although I know all of you will jump and say           'price', you know that there is millions of dollars of business being done at a price much           higher than the 'best possible price' even when buyers know that. It is being done                   because of timely delivery, quality assurance, excellent communication, comfort level             or special customization, etc. Each buyer has some factors he holds as key.                     Once you know that, you should be able to reassure him on that front.

Tips to Boost Your Business- Part 1

To safeguard your business interest, you should follow the following quick tips:

(1)	Never send money by Western Union: It is tempting as it is very simple and you can send quickly. But it is illegal for business use in most countries and it is non-recoverable and non-traceable. So the chances of getting duped are very high if you pay by Western Union.
(2)	Never remit money by Bank Transfer to a personal name: Always send to a company name. Many use this trick and I am surprised how many keep falling for this. No matter what the other guy says, if you send a bank transfer to a person, chances are high that it will be the last you will hear from him.
(3)	Avoid being a victim of the ADVANCE FEE SCAM: Never try to sell anything to anyone who insists on some payment from you before placing an order for your goods. They usually promise a very large order to tempt you. Various tricks used are fee for foreign exchange transfer, registration of your company with authorities, etc. Basically stop dealings with anyone who places an order with you and then wants you to send some money first for some reason or the other.

Drop-shipping Benefits

LESS CAPITAL IS REQUIRED – It's possible to launch an ecommerce store without having to invest thousands of dollars in inventory up front. So you don't have to purchase a product unless you already made the sale and have been paid by the customer.

EASY TO GET STARTED – Running dropshipping business is much easier

than dealing with physical products. With dropshipping, you don't have to worry about the following:

                      •    Managing or paying for a warehouse

                      •    Packing and shipping your orders

                      •    Tracking inventory for accounting reasons

                      •    Handling returns and inbound shipments

                      •    Continually ordering products and managing stock level

LOW OVERHEAD – Because you don't have to deal with purchasing inventory

or managing a warehouse, your overhead expenses are quite low. In fact, many

successful dropshipping businesses are run from a home office with a laptop for

less than $100 per month.

FLEXIBLE LOCATION – A dropshipping business can be run from just about

anywhere with an internet connection. As long as you can communicate with

suppliers and customers easily, you can run and manage your business.

WIDE SELECTION OF PRODUCTS – Because you don't have to pre-purchase

the items you sell, you can offer an array of products to your potential

customers.

EASY TO SCALE – By leveraging dropshipping suppliers, most of the work to process additional orders will be borne by the suppliers, allowing you to expand with fewer

growing pains and less incremental work.

All the above benefits make dropshipping a very attractive model to both beginning

and established merchants. 

Drop-shipping Business

With the propagation of World Wide Web, the method of doing wholesale business become easily. Now you can start doing business without having to pre-purchase or stock any goods. All of what you need is to list products along with descriptions and graphics on your website or auction website like eBay.

The secret of success depend on the right portal that has built its name and is well-known throughout the world of business for its extensive coverage of buyers and sellers.

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the

products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the

item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result,

the merchant never sees or handles the product.

The biggest difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is

that the selling merchant doesn't stock or own inventory. Instead, the merchant

purchases inventory as needed from a third party – usually a wholesaler or

manufacturer – to fulfill orders.

You can only succeed if you can find saleable products and the relevant suppliers who will not let you down. Having done this exercise and having selected the right online trade portal, the products should be listed on that website in a proper manner.

You can then pass on the orders that are received, to the wholesale suppliers and ensure that the shipment is made on time. The website listing your products will receive the payment from the customer and will pass on the same to you after adjusting its charges. The payment to the wholesale supplier can be made thereafter.
It is obvious that since this business appears to be so simple, many people will be in the fray to capture the market. Competition will be drastic and you will have to find innovative means to fight the same for survival. The following tips will help in being successful in combating your competitors.

1. The more attractive and informative your description of the product, the greater will be the possibility of impulsive purchases. It is essential that the information provided by you is persuasively descriptive.

2. The description should be accompanied with attractive graphics and good quality photos of the products in actual use. It would also be a good idea to provide comparisons with other similar products.

3. Offering a bonus with the product will prove to be very effective. The bonus could be in the form of reports containing interesting information and tips regarding use of the product.

4. Once your client enters his credit card information and before the deal is closed, other products can also be recommended. Finding Good Wholesale Dropshipping Suppliers

If a reseller wants to have a smooth and profitable business operation, the most important thing is to find a good dropshipper. He will have no problems or hassles regarding delivery of goods, recovery of payments, and maintaining good quality of the products in line with what has been shown to the customer when the order was finalized.

Wholesale dropship business can be profitable if proper research and homework is done in the beginning to find the right product and the right wholesale supplier.

Classify Your product Before Exporting

Before you begin your market research or exporting venture, you need to determine the proper classification codes for your product and industry.

Also, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the different types of codes and identify your own as these will be required to ship good overseas and used to determine import tariffs.

Develop Your Export Plan – Part 1

Once you’ve decided to sell your products abroad, you’ll need to develop an export plan.

The purposes of the export plan are:

·         To assemble facts, constraints, and goals.

·         To create an action statement that takes all of those elements into account.

The plan includes specific objectives, time schedules for implementation, and marks milestones so that the degree of success can be measured and can motivate personnel.

What is online marketing?

Online marketing is a basic part of business life that it is a key skill for everyone in business.

All business people today need to have an appreciation of online marketing, if only so that they can effectively brief the in-house department or external agency that undertakes this activity for them.

It is a fast evolving activity and new aspects are launched almost daily. The first port of call for almost all consumers searching for a product or information now is the internet. It has almost completely replaced all hard copy reference books.

The term online marketing covers online advertising, internet marketing, or e-marketing.

Reports estimate that in 2015 internet advertising spend will overtake the combined newspaper and magazine that spend globally. Consequently there is a growing appetite from marketers and advertisers to reach this online audience of over 1 billion internet users worldwide.

One of the most exciting developments is the roll-out of new advertising formats for mobile platforms. There are also advances of technologies which give businesses better tools for online targeting.

Online advertising that widely used such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Many of these are delivered by an ad server. They include banner, in-game, and keyword advertising, contextual ads on search engine results pages, blogs, social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks, dynamic banner ads, cross-platform ads and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam

What is meant by B2B?

If your business is focused on selling products or services to other companies, your model is called B2B, or business-to-business.

B2B, like all business models, requires some careful planning to be undertaken successfully. "B2B depends on its sales function and account management team to establish and strengthen customer relationships.

Why Export is Important?

An export process has a lot of advantages, let’s go to identify some of them:

       1. Export is based on comparative advantage where countries mutually gain.

       2. Export strengthens political, social and cultural ties between countries.

       3. Export expands and generates more capital.

Keyword Research Importance for Business Growth

Keyword Research or keyword Analytics is one of major techniques of Search Engine optimization that have been helping businesses to grow up.

Search engine optimization is one of the major techniques used these days for a website promotion and to make business successful.

Extensive keyword research and sorting is one of the major technique required for any business promotion. By doing deep keyword research, one can achieve better results in terms of website visibility in topmost search engines. The process is a bit time-consuming and requires lot of research and analysis. But this method if carried out properly can bring out better results. Keyword research requires a huge amount of patience and smart calculations. Not only this, an individuals should also be aware of essential and better quality tools for the purpose of performing keyword research for a perfect search engine optimization.

The most common and widely used tools used for keyword research are Google Insight, Google Keyword Tool, and Google Suggestions. The steps for using these tools are:

1. Downloading them in an excel sheet.

2. Finding out keywords.

3. Sorting them by every day searches.

Learn How to Attract Your Customers Attention

After your success to find customers to your business as mentioned before Identify Customers for Your Business  then you need to know:

-       How will you attract your consumer’s attention?

-       How will you get them to purchase your product?

-       How they come back to you for repeat purchases?

The answer will be the marketing and advertising which should answer the following questions:  

     ·    What is your (Unique Selling Point) USP –how should you transmit that message?

     ·    What can you do to assure customer retention?

     ·    How can you exceed customers’ expectations?

     ·   Can you offer some type of guarantee?

     ·   What are the best advertising routes to reach customers?

Some of the more common advertising routes include Websites, Social networking sites (such as Face book, LinkedIn, twitter, Google+ ), Radio, Television, E-mail marketing, E-bay, You Tube, Internet, magazines, newspapers. Trade magazines, Forums and Billboards.

Social media advertising, blogging, and use of other online social forums, has rapidly become one of the biggest platforms on which to advertise your business.

What type of advertising will work best for your business depends on who you are trying to reach, your budget, and your product. You need to find the most cost effective method for you.

All of this information will be valuable in formulating your business plan. Having all this information at your fingertips will give you an edge over your competitors, an understanding of your client base and will improve your businesses chances of survival.