EASY AFFILIATE FUNNEL SYSTEM
How Internet Marketing Works
How Internet Marketing Works
From the last lesson, we learned that marketing was essentially the act of solving problems. I spoke of the marketer as a “middleman,” someone who brought together people who had a problem with the solution they were looking into it. It is as simple as it gets; for some reason, people tend to make it more complicated than it’s supposed to be.
Regardless of whether you conduct your marketing online or offline, it’s all the same. You’re still the problem-solving middleman. A marketer who works “offline” tends to work as part of a team. They might be charged with the task of trying to sell a product and finding the group of people to who the product is best suited.
It may involve surveys, giving out free samples, and getting people to do short questionnaires. At any rate, it’s pretty time-consuming, and a lot of it involves the marketers themselves having to go out and collect this data.
The great thing about the Internet is how everything is networked together. You can be on different sides of the planet and still be talking to someone who
The next best thing about the Internet is that people go on it predominantly to find information. There are numerous ways to do this. One of the most popular is to type your search query into a search engine, such as “Google” or “Yahoo!”.
In other words, information is being virtually force-fed into this search engine daily, every second. It is a marketer’s dream come true; gone are the days where you have to go out and painstakingly collect data. All the data that is needed is right there in front of you, on your computer screen.
Think about it. If someone is typing in the phrase, “how to lose weight,” what do you think that person is after? Information on how to lose weight, of course. Then again, they might be after a diet, an exercise, or a liposuction clinic in their local area. Whatever they are after, they will type it in.
Someone who types in “how to lose weight by skipping rope” has a clearer idea of how they want to lose weight than the first person. If you provide them with the means of “how to lose weight by skipping rope,” what do you think you’re doing?
You are a marketer, of course!
In the next module, we’ll talk about how Internet Marketers make money with these search queries.
In your mind, you have ====>A question you may be asking is, “Do I need another course?”
Sales and Marketing
Sales and Marketing
As an established Internet Marketer, something that annoys the heck out of me is the lack of quality information out there on the World Wide Web that teaches marketing. Many keyword tools, SEO techniques, and other things promise you riches overnight, but if there’s one thing that will never fail you, it understands what the “marketing” in “Internet Marketing” is.
It doesn’t even have to be “Internet Marketing. Depending on how long you’ve been on the scene, you might have heard terms like “Affiliate Marketing” or “Network Marketing” being thrown around. People trying to promote these different forms of the same thing to you don’t hesitate to rave about how successful they are with it. What they purposely don’t tell you is how the marketing side of things works with each form.
This email series will help you better understand the fundamentals of marketing so you can appreciate how it works and where you fit in the picture. There are no other courses out there that will explain this often overlooked topic to you to the depth at which I’m about to go into it.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
A good starting place is what you think “marketing” actually means. If you are the newest newbie out there, then you probably will have only heard of marketing in conjunction with the word “sales.” Or you might attribute marketing to those annoying people who call you at dinner time, trying to sell you the latest craze.
Sales and marketing are often said in the exact phrase because they’re like two sides of the same coin. You’re dealing with people from whom you want money. They’re not going to give it to you willingly; you have to persuade and prove to them that whatever you’re selling is worth the value you’re asking for.
Simply put, sales is the actual process of selling something—the whole persuading side of things. Marketing is what for to makes sales easier. How? Think of a marketer as a middleman. The marketer’s job is to solve people’s problems with solutions. The solutions are that which they’re trying to sell. The hard part is trying to find the person who has the problem.
As long as you think of yourself as the middleman (or woman) who solves problems, you’ll be in the right mindset to be a successful Internet Marketer.
In the next lesson, we’ll combine marketing with the Internet and talk about how Internet Marketing works as a whole.
How to Start or Grow Your Existing Online Business
How To Position Your Offer To Increase Sales
In many cases it can be a wise idea to offer multiple similar packages when selling something. However, instead of offering drastically different offerings, which might make your prospects hesitate more due to not being sure which option to get, you can offer similar options where the “value buy” seems like an amazing deal.
For example, let’s say that you’re selling an SEO service to help websites rank better. If your main offer is a done for you package for $997 where you fix up their site and offer some basic consultations for them too, that can normally seem like a lot of money to some people and can make them hesitate more on if they should buy or not. However, you could offer three options where the “basic” package is for $897 and only includes a report where you identify the issues but don’t fix it for them, the “most popular” package is for $997 and includes identifying and fixing all the issues on top of three free consultation calls, and the “elite” package is for $1,997 and includes everything in the most popular package but also includes unlimited consultation calls for a month.
What this does is that almost everyone thinks that the middle, “most popular” package is the best deal. It’s only a little more than the basic package, but it includes a TON of extra value. Whereas the “elite” package is twice the price but only has some extra consultation calls that most people think they’ll never use. All of a sudden people perceive the $997 option as being cheap and a great deal! The other options aren’t meant to necessarily get sales. They’re simply meant to help make your main offer stand out more.
And by literally writing something like Basic Package, Most Popular, and Elite Package next to the options, you can help them differentiate between them even more and gravitate towards the Most Popular one.
You just have to be crystal clear with them (in bold colors and / or graphics) what the best or most popular options are, and really make it seem like it’d be dumb not to go with the offer you want them to take.
This also has the added benefit of making your “most popular” or “best” option seem cheap when it’s only a bit more than your basic package. If you didn’t have your basic package, they might think that your offer is expensive, but when they see it as being only a tinge more than the basic, their mindset changes from “that’s too expensive!” to “that’s only a bit more than this basic offering here … what a deal!”
So consider offering multiple packages like a Basic, Most Popular, and Elite Package where the value of the Most Popular one seems huge in order to make more people gravitate towards it and see it as a crazy good deal.
For more great marketing and positioning tips to increase your sales, check out this book: 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.
How to Start Social Media Marketing (4 ESSENTIAL Tips for Beginners)
Pricing Strategies to Increase Your Sales
How can you price your product in a way that psychologically impacts your customer into believing they’re getting a great deal? When people see the difference, between your normal price and your sales price, it influences their decision to purchase. By having a “normal” price listed it creates the impression that the deal they are getting is awesome. They’re getting all this value at a price that is way less than “normal”. People love to believe they are getting a bargain and by listing both your normal and sale price side by side, it highlights the value they’re getting for their money.
For example, when you list your pricing, write it as, “Normally $197 — Only $97 Today!”
You can also come up with reasons to have such discounts listed. These reasons can be mentioned next to the discounted price as well. These could be things like a holiday special, inventory closeout, end of year special pricing, manager’s special, etc.. Any reason works and makes it seem like a legitimate deal that customers have to take advantage of.
Remember, people love a bargain. So create the perception of a great deal by listing your “normal” price next to your sales price (eg, “Normally $197 — Only $97 Today!”). Also consider names for special deals just to have a reason for that deal (like a holiday discount or manager’s special).
For more great pricing strategies, as well as little-known marketing tricks, check out this book: 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.
Five Marketing Tips To Drastically Improve Your Sales
With the passage of time, consumers have become highly conscious of the marketing strategies being used by businesses all over. Most consumers are able to differentiate between an authentic business and one that is exaggerated and hyped through artificial marketing. As a result, people tend to spend their hard-earned earnings on very particular products and brands.
In such a highly competitive business environment, businesses face the difficulty of increasing their sales, or even worse, just to maintain a steady sales income. As a result, the capital of such companies starts dwindling within a few years, and it can lead to the catastrophic failure of their business model.
If you want to keep your head above those choppy waters, you need to keep in mind the following five marketing tips.
These tips should be adopted by all businesses to drastically improve their sales:
1. Identify The Market And The Problems.
Not enough can be said of the great importance in choosing an appropriate market for the kind of business you run. After you’ve established your business, it’s important to find out the problems your desired customers are facing in that particular market. Then you need to analyze those market problems in detail. Then you need to figure out exactly how your business solves that problem and sell that solution. Your business should emphasize developing modern, durable, and unique solutions to customers’ issues.
It should go without saying that the products and the services offered by your business must possess the highest of quality. However, offering premium quality is not enough. It absolutely must stand out from the crowd to really make the customer fall in love with your business.
2. Develop A Unique Selling Proposition
Your business must have some unique selling proposition (USP) to make it stand out from your competition. If you keep offering the same services and products as your competitors in the market, your business will have fewer chances of surviving in the fierce business conditions. You should research your competitive businesses and offer more advantages to your customers to keep them hooked to your company’s services.
Moreover, with the launch of different businesses on a daily basis, it has become difficult to establish a loyal customer base. A steady and continuous form of communication with your customers is important to keep your business and new products fresh in their minds. You should take feedback from your customers and adapt your workings and services according to their requirements.
3. Effective Social Media Marketing
As often stated in all marketing strategies, social media has become a an integral part of marketing for any kind of business. It is now considered to be the best tool of advertisement for companies because you can target specific markets, areas, and people via an active social media marketing campaign. Moreover, you can get better advertising for a fraction of the cost compared to other marketing techniques and advertising platforms.
Through social media platforms, you can form good relations with your potential and existing customers and keep them updated about your business and any new products. Social media can also be used to answer any queries of your customers quickly and get good reviews from your customers. Authentic and live comments from other customers will encourage the audience of your social media pages to avail your products or services, leading to drastic improvement in sales.
Other advantages of social media include:
• It provides various channels for your business to sell your products. Many social media pages now provide you with the option of selling directly from your Facebook page to facilitate your social media consumers and increase sales.
• It is extremely cost-efficient to run a social media page and keep customers engaged and updated.
• Customer retention is improved via social media by keeping customers engaged and informed
4. Select An Appropriate Price
Selecting the right price for a product or a service can more difficult than expected for many. However, it is necessary to remember that the price you set should be affordable by your targeted customers. Market and audience research (https://marketingland.com/research-audience-90118) and targeting play a huge role in this case.
You can research your competitors (https://www.intechnic.com/blog/top-ten-tools-to-research-your-competition-on-the-web/) and analyze the reasons behind the prices set by them. Try to set the price with minimum profits during the first few months of the business until it has found its footing in the Market. After you have established a loyal customer base, you can revise the charges appropriately according to market conditions.
5. Customer Retention
Targeting new customers should not be the only focus of the companies as retaining an old customer is also important to establish a loyal customer base and increase the sales quickly. There are many ways to target customer retention, for instance by connecting with your customers on social media or through blogging and email up to dates to keep them informed on updates and special offers. Many companies also retain customers by creating rewards programs that provide your most loyal customers with exclusive deals, and rewards them with special offers and discounts for shopping at your store.
If you want to read more about marketing tips, check out the 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years! for a detailed explanation of the marketing strategies.
How Adding Physical Products As A Bonus, Especially For Your Digital Offers or Services, Can Increase Conversions
Selling digital products like e-books or videos (or even services) can be great, as they often carry much higher margins than physical products. However, people often place a much higher value on physical products that they can touch and hold.
This doesn’t mean that you have to offer all your products as physical ones – far from it! Instead, you should consider offering a simple physical product like a branded coffee mug, hat, t-shirt, or some other product that makes sense with your offer, as a bonus for those who take action fast.
This does two things. First, it makes people take action faster because they know there’s probably a limited quantity of the physical product (vs. a digital one that they realistically know you can have as many as you want). And second, they place a high value on physical products that they can touch.
In fact, as crazy as it sounds, you can increase conversions on a $2,000 web service simply by offering a branded coffee mug or t-shirt as a bonus. Likewise, you can even increase conversions MUCH more on lower priced offerings where you give something away that they perceive to be worth as much or more than what they’re buying. For example, you could sell a newsletter for $19/month and give a free t-shirt away with any new subscriber, and that could in some cases more than double your conversions because they think the value of the shirt is worth more than the $19 they paid (and they’ll often stay for a much longer time, making you a lot more money). We actually included a physical product once as a bonus to a membership offering, which had a perceived value to be more than the first month’s price, and it actually increased our conversions many, many times over to an almost unbelievable amount.
Another example would be if you sold a phone case for $29 and included a free charging cable with that. Since many of those sell for $29 or so themselves, the perceived value of the offer is huge, even though it might only add a dollar or two to your costs (and still give you huge margins).
You can do the same idea for services that you offer. For instance, you could offer a free cell phone clip-on lens with any purchase of a custom web video (justifying it in a way where they could shoot professional looking videos themselves from their phone).
For an offline physical product or service example, you could offer a free towel and sweatband just for trying out a one month gym membership as a trial.
You’d be shocked at how your conversions can jump even for higher priced offerings, and probably more shocked at how much they can help your lower priced offerings.
It’s funny how even a $10 physical freebie can boost sales for a $1,000 product. Likewise, it’s truly amazing to see conversions skyrocket on a lower priced recurring offer by offering something of value that’s perceived to be more than the initial payment (doesn’t mean it has to cost you more, just that the perceived value if they bought it elsewhere would be more).
This marketing trick right here has been responsible for some of our biggest money makers out there, as well as for others that we know. One might say that you could potentially build an entire business off of this tip right here.
So consider adding physical products as bonuses to your offers, as they can tremendously increase conversions for both low and high-priced products and services.
For other great marketing ideas to help you increase your conversions and grow your business, check out his book: 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.
How A Themed Promotion Can Boost Your Sales
Any special promotions can help you drive sales, especially those sitting on the fence as to whether or not to buy from you. However, offering seasonal or holiday themed promotions can help even more, as prospects not only immediately understand that it’s a limited time deal for a good reason, but you’ll also hit them up during a peak buying period.
For example, the vast majority of people are probably already buying lots of stuff over Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, etc., so you can ride that wave while they already have their credit cards out, while also standing out amongst the crowd of competitors by having something that they perceive as a special deal.
Similar to other promotions, it’s often best to have these be very limited time deals (even if you bring them back multiple times) so prospects don’t have the opportunity to sit on the fence too long. Three or so days is often the perfect amount of time to offer a special promotional deal, as long as you give them many reminders along the way. For instance, if you have an email list and are offering a three day special promotional offer, we recommend mailing once on day 1, twice on day 2, and three times on day 3. Using this method will get you a lot of sales on that last day, especially during the last hours when they know there’s no time left!
One observation that we’ve had over the years, which many business owners seem to ignore or be unaware of, is that even “after the holiday” sales can be huge, especially for big holidays when people are often still at home, bored, and looking to buy or do something. We’ve run several webinars and special deals right after Christmas when most marketers in our niche were afraid to schedule anything then, yet that period of time would often get some of the highest amount of sales and webinar attendance. Don’t assume that everyone is out visiting with friends and family. Some (okay … maybe all???) are looking for a break or just aren’t traveling then, so it can be the perfect time to run a special offer or schedule a special event!
During holidays, different seasons, or any other special time of the year, it’s a good idea to create themed promotions with special offers to not only drive extra sales, but to also stand out from the rest of the competition during high sales periods.
For other marketing tricks to help increase your sales, check out this book 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.