| An effective online marketing campaign can be almost as important to selling as the product or service itself. It doesn't matter how great it is that you have made, it goes nowhere without a good way to market it. Because the marketing is so important it is easy to be intimidated by it but it doesn't need to be that way. You can build one if you break it down into bite size pieces.
First thing you need to do is figure out who your customer is. What is the perfect customer you are looking for? How old is my customer? What is their sex? Where do they work? What type of work do they do? What is their household income? Is what I am offering realistically in their price range? Where do they usually go to look for what I am offering and what does it usually take to get their business. Not all of these questions apply to your particular product or service but the first thing for you do is find out what questions apply and then answer them.
The second thing that you need to do is to find out how you are going to get their attention. Where is it that you are going to go to try and get their business? Are you going to focus on just one avenue or are there several that you can use effectively to reach wider range of customers? Look at all the different avenues available to you whether putting ads on other web sites or pay-per-click. Find out what others are doing and see if it would work for you.
A third thing that you need to do is set a budget. It may not be cheap but it doesn't have to break you either. Find out how much money you can spend on each avenue you take, realizing that some cost more than others but are also worth the added money. What works for you is going to be different than what works for everyone else. Pay close attention to what works and pay even closer attention to what doesn't work. Just make sure that what you put out can be sustained for as long a period of time as possible.
You then need to create your ad content. Don't be afraid to be creative and don't be afraid to ask for input or ideas. You have small opportunities to catch your customers attention. Make it count. Do something that will catch their attention and their curiosity, and give them a way to give them more.
The last thing that you need to do is monitor and track how your ads do. If you find that some avenues are working better than others, try to capitalize on that. Exploit the strengths in your online marketing campaign and look for the weaknesses as well. Quit spending money on what doesn't work. Of something is working a little, try tweaking it a bit. If something is working really well, put some more energy and money behind it. You can make it successful. |