As this is the first post on the new Midnight Marketing Tips blog, it seems appropriate to consider how to prepare for online business success.
If you jump into the world of online business without creating a solid foundation for success it’s extremely easy to get sucked in to the rollercoaster of hope, despair, confusion, frustration and exhiliration without making any real progress.
I know because it happened to me. But this is meant to be a business. Nobody is doing this for the good of their health.
So here are the most important lessons that I’ve learnt about building a solid platform for online business success over the last 5 years.
1. PLAN – Make Coherent Plan And Stick To It
Before you dive in and create anything online, spend time creating a coherent plan that sets out your vision for your business?
What do you want to achieve with your online business?
How do you intend to achieve it?
How will your business generate revenue? Will you sell advertising space, promote affiliate products/services, create your own products or use a combination of these methods?
How will you promote your business?
What is your target market?
If you don’t have a solid idea of what you want to achieve and how you intend to achieve it, the chances are you’ll get distracted and end up making things up as you go along, a hostage to fortune (or the latest marketing tactics that other businesses are promoting).
So spend time working out a coherent plan of action and then stick to the main framework of it as you progress. Over time certain aspects of it may alter, but in the beginning, the basic structure will help to guide you until your business begins to develop.
2. RESEARCH – Know Your Target Market
Once you’ve developed your business plan, it’s time to take the research to the next level. Who is your target market? Spend time creating an avatar of your ideal customer.
How old are they? Are they male of female? Where do they live? What is their occupation? Income level? Marital status? Children? Hobbies? Opinions? Likes? Dislikes? Wants? Needs? Fears? Problems? etc
Use the internet to research these issues until you have a detailed image of your ideal target customer.
Once you’ve done that, it will provide you with two major marketing benefits. First, it will help you to discover where they spend time online. Then it’s just a case of getting links to your website on the sites where they spend time.
Second, it will help you to construct your marketing message. When you sit down to create an offer, imagine that you are speaking to your customer avatar as if you were talking with a friend.
In the same way, it’s just as important to know as much about your competitors. Keep a file on each of the main competitors in your niche and update it on a regular basis.
Use Google Alerts to stay informed about their latest products, services, ideas, promotions etc and stay focused on how to remain more relevant and attractive to your ideal customers than your competitors.
3. EMPATHY – Always See Through The Eyes Of Your Target Customers
Taking the research process one step further, if you want your online marketing to be significantly more productive, it’s absolutely essential to see through the eyes of your ideal customers.
If you can demonstrate empathy by showing them that you genuinely understand their situation, needs, desires, fears etc, in all your content, they will find it much easier to trust you and view you as the right person to help improve their situation.
The ability to show empathy comes from immersing yourself in your chosen market. Make it your aim to discover everything about your target market. Find out who they are, where they hang out online, their ideas, opinions, worries and questions.
Visit the social networks, video sharing sites, forums and talk to your target customers on a regular basis. The more you know, the more you can show that you understand them in your marketing material.
Click here for How To Prepare For Online Business Success – Part 2
