Top tips for the budding online marketer

    Top tips for the budding online marketer

Have you asked yourself this questions repeatedly, How can i use the internet to market my products? What do i need to know and do to be a successful online marketer or "Technopreneur"? How and Where do is start? 

The web offers savvy marketers the opportunity and free tools to help grow their business. Whether big or small, firms can easily leverage these free tools to successfully run and reap the benefits of an online marketing campaign. You will be amazed how some 1st timers are even using Facebook to buy and sell "knick knacks" and earn hundreds if not thousands at the comfort of their own home.

Here are five key questions and tips to help you plan  and execute your online marketing campaign like a pro. 

Five Key Questions to Ask Yourself
1. What is the goal of your campaign? Sounds basic enough, but specifying what you want your campaign to achieve can really help you narrow down the details your plan. While you may have a number of marketing goals, focus on the most important one to start. For example, a small shoe store may identify “selling 100 pairs of shoes in one month” as their primary goal, or an online gadget store may aim to “gain 1,000 unique visitors a week.”

2. What are you trying to market? Pick out the product or service you want to market. This may be your best-seller or one of your lesser known products or services. Picking too many products or services can lead to an incoherent and ultimately, ineffective, campaign.

3. Who is your audience? It is important to identify who your audience is, as this criteria will help refine what actions to take to implement your marketing strategy. Is your product or service best suited for women aged 20-30 years old? Or are you looking to attract new customers from a specific demographic?

Once you know who your intended audience is, you’ll be able to understand their online behavior and shape your marketing plan accordingly. For example, if your intended audience uses search engines to look for information on products and services, then a search marketing campaign may be just what you need to engage with them.

4. How is your audience accessing your site? It’s important to know whether your audience is looking for you via desktop devices or using mobile search. Google’s data shows that around 66 percent of shopping-related searches are coming from mobile. And Filipinos are increasingly turning to their smartphones for answers as well. Research shows that around  64 percent of Filipino households already own at least one smartphone and more -- over 35 percent -- Filipinos intend to purchase smartphones this year.

So even if you have a great desktop website, you may still be missing out on potential customers by neglecting to create a mobile-optimised site.

5. What’s your budget? Your marketing plan will affect and be affected by your budget. Find a balance between what your needs are -- perhaps you don’t really need that banner ad and instead a smaller text ad may do the trick -- and what you can afford to optimise your investment. 

Most importantly, most sites right now offer free advertisements and what really cost are the extra options, tools or added features to your campaign so manage and select what is more important. For example, www.Ebay.ph, offers free adverts and what really cost are extra's like themes, extra pictures and exposure. So check each option, dont just ignore or pick them all.

Cheers!

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Online Marketing or Offline Marketing?

Online Marketing or Offline Marketing? 

In this article, i wanted to share what i know about online versus offline marketing. As many are already familiar with this, you will be amazed that there are still a lot who have no idea what these are, How powerful it is and how clueless we are on how easy it can be.

But first lets define what Online Marketing and Offline Marketing is.

Definition

Offline Marketing is your traditional business done in the traditional manner of advertising. Simply put it, advertisements done through newspaper, magazine, radios, TV adds, banners etc.

Pro's
- Proven system
- Effective in delivery
- Can reach a huge number of demographics

Con's
- Expensive, requires a substantial amount of money.
- could be limited to your area and country only (depending on your initial funds, again going back to "expensive")
- requires a lot of work and people (advertising consultants, staff, paid actors etc)
- ROI or Return of Investment takes longer ( 2 to 3 years by average)


Online Marketing is defined as your business advertised online through social media (number one right now if i may say myself) like Facebook, Online Stores (Multiply.com, Sulit), blogging, tweeting, etc.
Pro's

- This is already a proven system ( samples are coke and pepsi battling it out on the social platform of Facebook)
- Massive potential and reach (again, this is online and the whole world can see this)
- FREE This could be the BEST advantage yet. Most social sites are FREE registration and if not only requires a minimal fee for advertisement edge. Like Facebook, you can spend a budget of a dollar per click but of course the higher the better but just imagine advertising online for $10 - $50 compared to thousands.
- minimal number of people to work with (no need to hire anyone), less expenses
- ROI can be seen in a months time  


Con's

- Spamming, be careful with this one. There's a line between sharing/promoting from Spamming and the latter can create negative feedback instead of a good one.
- none that i can think of, given that you follow the successful paths and do your research first (Basics, Guide and always get a successful brand to mirror), your business should hit success in no time.


Now that we have defined the two, the next question that is always asked is, which one is better and why? 

In my honest opinion (based on my experience and research as well), I prefer Online Marketing. Why? because of the following reasons:

1) You don't need a lot of funds to start up. When i started, i only needed a few scanned materials, a desktop & internet connection (which is a standard necessity already in any home, if none whats 25 pesos in a computer shop) and creativity. I finished my first Ebay add in less than 30 minutes and that's FREE advertisement.

2) You can start faster if not immediate. Yes, i will admit that it took me at least a few hours to research online about which FREE sites to use, how, success stories and online tips but that's still faster compared to offline which requires, market study, statistics etc and that requires months if not years to complete. 


3)More leverage for you. What do i mean? by leveraging on the massive power and visibility factor of the net, your business works for you and therefor gives you more time for the important things. Admit it, we want more time for the important things in life. That's why we saw this opportunity.

4) It works while your asleep, gone in vacation, 24 hours a day with global exposure and the best part with minimal to moderate management on your part. Once you have set a system, it takes care of itself. 


5) Massive exposure. This time your not only limited to your peers, friends and family. The globe is your apple here.

Now, its safe to assume that your reading this article because your interested in Online Marketing, Need an extra income, build your own business or simply need help with your own  Online Marketing. First things first, don't be afraid to try  Online Marketing, its simple and easy. Your 1st tool is knowledge and there is plenty in the net though word of caution, there is such a thing as too much information paralysis. Just focus on one successful system and remember that it does take patience and consistency. If you don't hit it on the 1st week, don't just jump to another system. Go back to the basics and improve what you started don't just over haul it immediately.


Next is the How?
For strategies, as i mentioned above. There are a lot in the net but i'll be discussing the basics on a separate article.

So there you go, i Hope i was able to help and enlighten you even in the simplest way about Online and Offline Marketing.

How about you, whats your experience with this two? What better and effective for you? and as always feel free to share your thoughts and this article if it proved helpful to, as we can still help other =)

Cheers!

If you want to be part of our growing community and share your ideas, feel free to subscribe to this blog and Here 

How i got my business mentor

When i started in this new path or career it was clear to me that i needed a mentor or point of reference towards success. Yes, i did buy some books and as much as i enjoyed and enlightening they are, nothing beats an actual successful person sharing his ideas and experiences.   I read this article before and i did here the same ideas from different people.

"While some entrepreneurs have had the privilege of earning a business degree in college, or even an MBA, more people have gone through the business course of life and learned the entrepreneurial ropes the hard way: with bad decisions and expensive consequences. "

That being said, i learned early on that even some business man didn't really have that "privilege", Yes it is a plus factor if you have that but from what i read and successful people i interacted with some learn the ropes  with experience. Most say it boils down to your attitude (I'll expand on that next time)

This is what i learned, if your going to get a mentor, work with yourself first. What do i mean? Set yourself first to be in the zone of learning, know who you are, what you want, your goals & targets then most importantly your attitude (strength and  weaknesses). You cant afford to do a "shot gun approach" and waste time nor equally wasteful is learn later on that " i think im working with the wrong person, his ideas and ethics is different from mine"

"The teacher appears when the student is ready" When you know what you want and what you need it simplifies your list of who you want to approach since you know what you want and who can possibly feel it in & that somebody worth emulating.

Dont fret as well to ask help or get mentor ship from different people of success, as long as their ideas and concept are similar then the outcome is the same.  Sometimes its the approach that is different, some ideology but different approach like that of the "Coach A & Coach B"

People get confuse easily if not the hardest challenge people face is to "ask for help". Its a golden rule to have a business mentor when you want to be successful.