Marketing products and services on the internet is lucrative when done correctly and when you follow the right strategies. Online internet marketing has not only created millionaires, but also afforded many people the option of running either a full-time or part-time business from the comfort of their own home. To reach the point where you have a successful online business, it's also true that you need to put in the necessary work to not only lay solid foundations for your business, but also to ensure you don't end up failing unnecessarily because you've either not done enough work or because you weren't following the correct steps towards success.
What Exactly Is Online Internet Marketing?
Many people think that internet marketing is simply about selling a product or service, but there is a lot more to it than that. In providing a customer with something such as an ebook, an audio teaching or even a subscription to a service, what you are really doing is aligning a solution with a customer that wants or desires that product or service. Why? Because it offers them a solution to a problem that they are having in that niche market.
With this in mind, your results are more likely to be greater if you can find customers that require the solution urgently, for whatever reason. The sooner and more urgently a customer wants to purchase the solution to their problem, the less likely they are to either carry on searching elsewhere or look for a cheaper option.
What Exactly Is Online Internet Marketing?
Many people think that internet marketing is simply about selling a product or service, but there is a lot more to it than that. In providing a customer with something such as an ebook, an audio teaching or even a subscription to a service, what you are really doing is aligning a solution with a customer that wants or desires that product or service. Why? Because it offers them a solution to a problem that they are having in that niche market.
With this in mind, your results are more likely to be greater if you can find customers that require the solution urgently, for whatever reason. The sooner and more urgently a customer wants to purchase the solution to their problem, the less likely they are to either carry on searching elsewhere or look for a cheaper option.
To illustrate my point, consider an eBook at the $37 price point which explains how to lose 14 pounds in as little as 14 days. Obviously the niche market here is weight loss and I don't need to tell you how many books and videos there are which target this market. So why would a customer pay $37 for information like this, instead of $20 for similar information from a local book store? The answer to that question, you need to put yourself into the shoes of that prospective customer.
If you wanted to lose a stone in weight, in two weeks or less, that means this person wants to get started fast. Maybe they need to lose weight for a special event such as a wedding or birthday, or they have booked a last-minute holiday and want to look good in a bikini. Whatever the scenario, the plain and simple fact is that a person in this situation does not want to wait around a few days to obtain the information they need to solve this problem.
Selling Products as a Merchant or Affiliate
Your key objective as an online internet marketer, is to find a starving crowd of desperate buyers. In order to that you need to identify the niche market that these people can be found and targeted. Try to choose a topic that you have a degree of knowledge in and even a passion for. While it's not critical that you are passionate about the topic, it will certainly help you stay motivated and interested. If you go down the route of choosing something you have no interest in, you may find it difficult to stay on track long enough to make consistent money in that niche. At the very least, choose something that you feel you would be interested in or are already.
When you first start out, you don't need to actually have created the product yourself. You can find hot products in your target niche and generate commissions when you generate sales for the vendor. When you have more knowledge and experience, it is recommended that you look towards creating your own products, particularly after you are successfully making sales as an affiliate as by that point you will have a greater understanding of your audience and what they are interested in.
Do Your Research and Set Up a Marketing Funnel
I know it may possibly seem boring, but you need to do your research if you want to be a successful online marketer, so check out thriving marketplaces such as Clickbank and Amazon to research products and identify niches. It's also well worth checking out popular forums in that niche to see what people are specifically having problems with and how they communicate with each other. Get a feel for the problems they are facing and what discussions are most active. You can do keyword research using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool which is currently free to use.
Once you know the niche you'll be active in as an online internet marketer, you'll need to set up a marketing funnel to connect with your audience and building a relationship. You can engage in social media using platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Consider setting up a blog where you share content and also start a mailing list. Building a list in your target niche is particularly effective as it enables you to establish a relationship over time.