4 Internet Marketing Mistakes That Are Slowing Down Many Online Businesses
The Internet marketing world can be a pretty tricky one. With everything you need to remember, organize and plan, it can get a bit overwhelming. Many people out there do well in the Internet marketing field, but are still making mistakes.
Some of these mistakes can really put a damper on your business efforts. Think about it... if you spend all this time researching and marketing just to have a little mistake slay all your efforts, you'd be pretty mad, right?
That's why you need to be aware of what mistakes you may be making, so you can avoid them. Once you can define what you are doing wrong, you can fix it and get your efforts back on track.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 1: Not Having Your Website In The Major Search Engines
Now this seems like a no brainer right? Well that's not exactly the case. It is unbelievable how many people take on all the jobs of Internet marketing, and yet they overlook one of the easiest and most important ones.
Make sure you provide good and unique content. Optimize your site with your chosen keywords in the Title tag, Meta tags, and body of the content. Make sure your anchor text link that hyperlinks to your sites contain your important keywords.
Most of the time, this would be enough to get your site indexed. But if not, you could add your website to the major search engines. This lets the search engines know that there is a new URL and puts it in the index.
You could also do this with web 2.0 property, or articles you submit to directories. Once you submit your article (and it's approved), simply view it and copy the URL that shows up. Input that into the search engine listings and there you go.
For Google, you need to go to Google.com/addurl and put in your URL; then they will ask you to complete a captcha. Hit 'Add URL' and you're done. For Yahoo it's basically the same, go to Siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit, type in your URL and click 'Add My Site.' For Bing (formerly MSN), you go to Bing.com/docs/submit.aspx, fill out a captcha, type in your URL and then click 'Submit URL.'
You can also add your websites to other search engines if you'd like, but the major ones should be given attention first.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 2: Missing Opportunities To Collect Customer Info
Many marketers focus on simply creating pages and selling their products. There's nothing wrong with this set-up; it's just that your income is not stable and would only depend on how many visitors you get for the day. To generate long-term income, at will, you need to build a list.
Grab the names and emails of your visitors and customers who are interested to receive your information or offer. Amazingly, as many people hear about building a list everyday, plenty of them still overlook this part of internet marketing.
If you aren't grabbing their emails, then you are missing out on a huge income potential because you won't be able to contact them again after they leave your site. But if you have their emails, you can build solid relationships and follow up with them as many times as you like.
Have an opt-in section on as much of your webpages as possible. Offer visitors something worthwhile for their contact info, and you will have a list of targeted customers to continue to market to.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 3: Keeping All Marketing Efforts Online
Marketing online is obviously a great way to do business, but the plain and simple fact is that people aren't online every second of everyday. People have lives, errands to run and things to do. Keeping all of your marketing efforts strictly online will have you missing out on a huge crowd.
It may seem odd to promote an online business offline; but the truth is it works well. Have fliers or notices about your product or service posted around your town. This won't cost much but could rapidly spread the word about your site and offer.
These days, everyone uses the internet for everything from shopping to gathering information. So whatever your product or service is, posting ads in relevant areas could increase your bottom line. For example if you have an e-book on how to build muscles fast, you may give away fliers or put ads around your local health store and gym.
Take your marketing efforts online and offline to really maximize your overall marketing plans.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 4: Not Building Relationships And Trust With Your Customers
People naturally lean towards people and businesses that care and have a trustworthy reputation. When they see a nameless, faceless company, they are not very likely to continue to do business with them.
Building this relationship is not hard; simply care about what your customers want. You should care about this anyway, because your customers are your business' lifeline.
For instance, when someone is looking for an electronic product, one of the first names that comes to mind is Best Buy. And that's because they have built a good reputation and trust with their customers.
A customer wants to feel like they are being taken cared of and they know where their products or services are coming from. Build up your reputation and your relationships to keep them coming back for more.
Use this as notes on what to avoid and pursue in your internet marketing endeavors, and you would succeed faster than ever.
Some of these mistakes can really put a damper on your business efforts. Think about it... if you spend all this time researching and marketing just to have a little mistake slay all your efforts, you'd be pretty mad, right?
That's why you need to be aware of what mistakes you may be making, so you can avoid them. Once you can define what you are doing wrong, you can fix it and get your efforts back on track.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 1: Not Having Your Website In The Major Search Engines
Now this seems like a no brainer right? Well that's not exactly the case. It is unbelievable how many people take on all the jobs of Internet marketing, and yet they overlook one of the easiest and most important ones.
Make sure you provide good and unique content. Optimize your site with your chosen keywords in the Title tag, Meta tags, and body of the content. Make sure your anchor text link that hyperlinks to your sites contain your important keywords.
Most of the time, this would be enough to get your site indexed. But if not, you could add your website to the major search engines. This lets the search engines know that there is a new URL and puts it in the index.
You could also do this with web 2.0 property, or articles you submit to directories. Once you submit your article (and it's approved), simply view it and copy the URL that shows up. Input that into the search engine listings and there you go.
For Google, you need to go to Google.com/addurl and put in your URL; then they will ask you to complete a captcha. Hit 'Add URL' and you're done. For Yahoo it's basically the same, go to Siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit, type in your URL and click 'Add My Site.' For Bing (formerly MSN), you go to Bing.com/docs/submit.aspx, fill out a captcha, type in your URL and then click 'Submit URL.'
You can also add your websites to other search engines if you'd like, but the major ones should be given attention first.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 2: Missing Opportunities To Collect Customer Info
Many marketers focus on simply creating pages and selling their products. There's nothing wrong with this set-up; it's just that your income is not stable and would only depend on how many visitors you get for the day. To generate long-term income, at will, you need to build a list.
Grab the names and emails of your visitors and customers who are interested to receive your information or offer. Amazingly, as many people hear about building a list everyday, plenty of them still overlook this part of internet marketing.
If you aren't grabbing their emails, then you are missing out on a huge income potential because you won't be able to contact them again after they leave your site. But if you have their emails, you can build solid relationships and follow up with them as many times as you like.
Have an opt-in section on as much of your webpages as possible. Offer visitors something worthwhile for their contact info, and you will have a list of targeted customers to continue to market to.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 3: Keeping All Marketing Efforts Online
Marketing online is obviously a great way to do business, but the plain and simple fact is that people aren't online every second of everyday. People have lives, errands to run and things to do. Keeping all of your marketing efforts strictly online will have you missing out on a huge crowd.
It may seem odd to promote an online business offline; but the truth is it works well. Have fliers or notices about your product or service posted around your town. This won't cost much but could rapidly spread the word about your site and offer.
These days, everyone uses the internet for everything from shopping to gathering information. So whatever your product or service is, posting ads in relevant areas could increase your bottom line. For example if you have an e-book on how to build muscles fast, you may give away fliers or put ads around your local health store and gym.
Take your marketing efforts online and offline to really maximize your overall marketing plans.
Internet Marketing Mistake # 4: Not Building Relationships And Trust With Your Customers
People naturally lean towards people and businesses that care and have a trustworthy reputation. When they see a nameless, faceless company, they are not very likely to continue to do business with them.
Building this relationship is not hard; simply care about what your customers want. You should care about this anyway, because your customers are your business' lifeline.
For instance, when someone is looking for an electronic product, one of the first names that comes to mind is Best Buy. And that's because they have built a good reputation and trust with their customers.
A customer wants to feel like they are being taken cared of and they know where their products or services are coming from. Build up your reputation and your relationships to keep them coming back for more.
Use this as notes on what to avoid and pursue in your internet marketing endeavors, and you would succeed faster than ever.