Niche Market Strategies: How to build your online business
Table Of Contents
Marketing Strategies
Relations with your Prospects and Customers
Web Site Tips
Advertising and Newsletters
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Marketing Strategies
1 Tell people the point or focus of your web site. Explain to
them what things they can do or which goals they can accomplish
while visiting your site. For example, you could say, "Read 250
Free Net Marketing Tips So You Can Increase Your Sales! Plus
Check Our Wide Selection Of Online Marketing E-books!"
2 Educate yourself with new strategies to increase your sales.
You could take classes, subscribe to e-zines and magazines, read
books or e-books, etc. Internet business and technology move at
lightning speed. You need to keep up so you don't get left
behind.
3 End your slow sales periods by planning ahead. Plan to add
extra bonuses, hold a sale or package your product with other
products. For example, you could say, "Buy one, get one free!"
Another example would be, "Buy over $20 worth of products and
get 5 free bonuses!"
4 Make more commissions from the affiliate programs you join by
giving your own endorsements for the products. They usually pull
more sales than ads. For example, you could say, "This e-book
sent chills up my spine! I highly recommend buying it!" Another
example, "All I have to say is, 'Wow! It's that good!'"
5 Take advantage of popular fads. If something is popular at the
current time, put up a web site about it. Just promote your main
site on the fad web site. You could also send off a quick
article or press release about it to get free publicity. You
could also do this with popular search engine keywords and
phrases.
6 Increase the perceived value of your free things or bonuses by
including the retail dollar amount the freebies would normally
sell for. For example, you could say, "Bonus 1# Marketing Tips
Newsletter (a value of $120)." Another example, "Get 7 Bonuses
With A Retail Value Of $345! That more than pays for your
purchase!"
7 Create your own web ring. You will gain highly targeted
traffic to your web site and others will link to your site
because they'll want to join the ring. For example, if you were
selling products to net marketers, you would want to start an
online marketing web ring. You would then draw your target
audience.
8 Record all your new promotional ideas, good or bad, into an
'ideas' journal. Sometimes you can combine ideas to create new
ones to increase your sales. You never know when you, or someone
you know, needs a new, profitable idea. Plus you could also sell
your ideas to other business owners.
9 Buy advertising space on discussion board web sites. They are
usually arranged by subject; that makes them highly targeted.
For example, if you are selling gardening tools, you would want
to advertise on gardening, farm, tool and lawn-related
discussion boards.
10 If your online business has enough global potential,
thenconvert your web site and free e-mail newsletter into
different languages. This will increase your overall target
market. You just won't be targeting just one language, you'll be
targeting most of the major ones. Plus it wouldn't hurt to learn
a few different languages for this new global economy.
Relations with your Prospects and Customers
11 Make your visitors feel comfortable at your web site. Give
them your main business address. Your visitors may not trust you
if you're using a P.O. Box. If you want to make them feel really
comfortable, give them your business, home and cell phone
number. Then they will know they can get hold of you if they
need help.
12 Include a FAQ on your web site or via e-mail on an
autoresponder. This will give your customers extra convenience
without having to contact you. Of course there are some
questions you can't answer by using Frequently Asked Questions.
You will get questions that you never thought of, but you can
just keep adding them to your list.
13 Allow people who do not have time to explore your site to
download portions of your web site in e-book format. This will
allow them time to view it offline. Just compile it like you
would a normal e-book. You could also turn it into a viral
marketing tool by allowing people to give it away to others for
free.
14 Upsell to all your customers. You could sell add-on products,
deluxe products, extra parts, related products, add-on services,
etc. You could offer them add-on products before or after they
reach your order page. Just make sure the upsell products are
compatible with the main product you're selling.
15 Offer your customers back-end products. It is easier to sell
to existing customers. If you do not have a back-end product,
join an affiliate program. You could offer that product as a
back-end offer. Just make sure it's the right product for your
target audience.
16 Increase the perceived value of your product. You could offer
an affiliate program, give away free bonuses or use famous
endorsements on your ad. Another way is to offer a sample or
trial of your product or service. If people like it or it works,
that will increase the perceived value because it gives them
100% personal proof.
17 Create a bond with your visitors by bringing up likes or
dislikes you have in common with them in your ad copy. Just make
sure you do your research. For example, you could say, "I hate
it when you have to wait in line for a long time at the
drive-through." Another example, "I really like it when I have
extra money to spend."
18 Remember your customers are always right, even if they are
not. They are the lifeblood of your business. Resolve all
conflicts quickly and painlessly. There are many businesses
which are solely profitable from repeat business. You don't want
to always have to rely on converting prospects into customers.
19 Remind your visitors to promote your web site. Use phrases
like: "Refer Our Web Site To A Friend" or "Link To Our Web
Site". Offer them incentives for referrals. You could give them
free e-books, reports, software and other informational
products. You could also offer them discounts on other products
you sell.
Web site Tips
20 Make your testimonials more powerful. You can have people
include pictures, handwritten signatures and normal net contact
information with each testimonial. Other ideas would be to have
people produce an online audio sound bite or video clip of
themselves, home or cell phone numbers, proof of their
credibility or authority, etc.
21 Speed up your Internet access. You can get your online
business tasks done faster, which will help you stay ahead of
your competition. It can speed up your research, online
marketing tools, Internet utilities, software downloads, etc.
22 Tell people the point or focus of your web site. Explain to
them what things they can do or which goals they can accomplish
while visiting your site. For example, you could say, "Read 250
Free Net Marketing Tips So You Can Increase Your Sales! Plus
Check Our Wide Selection Of Online Marketing E-books!"
23 Team up with your weaker competitors to beat your stronger
ones. You can create win/win joint venture and cross-promotion
deals with them. You could share marketing and advertising
costs, create new products and services, share skills and
strategies, trade leads, etc.
24 Design your site so it will be worth bookmarking. Your
visitors will bookmark your web site if it's full of free,
original content like articles, e-books, etc. You could survey
your target audience to see which web sites or what type of
sites they visit a lot. Then you could place those links all in
one section of your web site. You could advertise it as a start
page.
Advertising and Newsletters
25 Start a free e-mail newsletter to create your own opt-in
list. Create a title that grabs the reader's attention. Submit
it to free e-zine directories on the Internet. Advertise it on
your web site. Offer a freebie or other incentive for people to
subscribe. Give your readers mostly original and quality content.
26 Use permission marketing to increase your sales. You simply
ask people to sign up to your e-mailing list. They'll already be
interested in your messages or ads because they've visited your
related web site. You could also offer them incentives for
signing up like freebies, discounts, expertise, content, etc.
27 Place your ad in targeted e-zines. Ask the owner if you could
place your ad in a higher position in exchange for a percentage
of the ad's profits. You could also negotiate a lower ad price
in exchange for you giving them affiliate commissions or an ad
in your e-zine.
28 Make your classified ads stand out in a crowd. Use all
capital letters in the headline, divide letters with extra
spaces, add in text symbols, etc. For example, you could write,
"WIN a VACATION to Las Vegas!" Another example would be, "Win A
($) Trip To Las Vegas!"
29 Use a lot of headlines and sub-headlines on your web site.
This will hold people's attention and keep them at your web site
longer. Sometimes people don't have time to read a whole sales
letter. This'll allow you to sell to people who are skimmers.
Plus it will get the reader's full attention at the same time.
Fred Farah
copyright 2005