Internet Marketing 2012: Can We Fix What Went Wrong In 2011?
©2012 Doug Champigny, http://dougchampigny.com
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Internet marketing changes every year as the industry continues to evolve. As with any industry, not all change is for the better, and not every year is a banner year.
Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana wrote, in The Life Of Reason, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So in order to avoid making the same Internet marketing mistakes in 2012, let’s take a look at what changed, why it changed, and what we can do to try and avoid making those same errors this year…
2011 Internet Marketing Mistake #1
First up are the products being promoted by most marketers. Don’t misunderstand – these are valid, helpful products that are valuable in your online marketing toolbox. Items like blog plugins, Facebook templates, etc., are great tweaking tools for those who already have their sites, blogs, e-zines, SEO and social media profiles rocking – but how much do they help those who aren’t already successful online?
In looking back over our operations in 2011, a trend emerged on which of our products sold best, and which of our older products continued to sell well with little or no recent promotion. Of our existing products, items like the PLR Tutorial Videos, Advanced Marketing On Twitter and the Article Site Power Kit software continued to attract new users, while the Adsense Alive Pro bundle, Zero Down and A Product A Day (Two of the e-books I authored in 2011) are stellar performers created last year. Likewise all the various ‘instant e-zines’ with PLR resale on our Opt-In List Building site.
Looking over that list I find some common features:
* Each is complete in and of itself – you don’t need to buy anything else to make use of the product or info;
* Each is a ‘start-to-finish’ product or guide, equally beneficial to newbies or online pros; and
* Each covers one major part of your Internet marketing activities, not just how to improve on one small part of an activity.
So while we will still show you the best in the emerging tools this year for polishing existing operations, we’ll also continue to bring out new training, resources and products that help those just getting started or looking to enter new niches, etc, to help more people with their 2012 Internet marketing efforts. We won’t abandon those just getting started with an online business, nor will we ignore those who have been with us for years and have their biz online and rocking. In fact, take a moment to comment below and let us know what types of resources would help YOU the most this year at YOUR current level of operations online…
2011 Internet Marketing Mistake #2
The 2nd major Internet marketing issue has actually been building for a few years now, but really hit hard in 2011. The issue, in simple terms, is what information is sent out in e-zines and e-courses and the subject lines many marketers are using.
A few years back, marketers used to send helpful e-mails that taught readers the basics and some of the more advanced Internet marketing techniques and tactics. Then ISPs started filtering your e-mail before you even see it, and sending most solid information into cyberspace, never to be seen again, or directly into your junk folder. And as it got harder to get e-mails read, everything changed.
Looking through my incoming mail (I get about 1,000 e-mails in my Inbox each day and another 1,000 into my junk folder) there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their filtering. Newsletters I’ve received for 8 or 10 years sometimes go into the junk folder, while spam and phishing e-mails often come through unmolested. And then there’s the ones that simply never arrive, having been diverted somewhere along the line.
Most marketers, as a result, now send as short an e-mail as they can, just enough to include a link. Now sometimes that’s all that’s needed – a new PLR offer from Aurelius Tjin, Edmund Loh, Peggy Baron, Liz Tomey or Rosie Cottis, new graphics from Max Rylski, or anything from Joel Osborne, Mike Paetzold, Gina Gaudio-Graves, Jeff Dedrick, Marlon Sanders, etc, – any of those you want to check out to see if it’s applicable to your operation and snap up if it is. And anything I create, of course, because… Well, you already know why!
But there’s still a lot of other information you need, even if it’s just to tell you how to use a product, why you should grab it, and what audience it’s best for. But if it doesn’t get by the filters, there’s no use even writing it – so what’s the answer? Marlon Sanders has one approach, using a PDF for some of the info he wants you to see, and sends the link so you can download his MMM reports each time he issues a new one. In my case I like to post it on the blog for our online family to read, and so that others who stumble across this blog can find it too. I fell behind on that in the latter part of 2011 because of the time & effort I put into our new Flirting With Fitness website, but starting with this post I’ll be publishing a lot more here in 2012, so be sure to bookmark this blog and check it regularly.
When I mention our ‘online family’, I’m referring to the tens of thousands of people around the world who receive our e-zines. That’s the way I recommend you think of your readers – as family. It’ll stop you from using all of the misleading subject lines so many ‘marketers’ have started using – ‘reply required’, ‘your commissions are waiting’, ‘you made a sale!’ or ‘Your pending commissions’ when neither is true, and worst of all, ‘personal’ when it isn’t. In fact, that last one has caused at least 20 marketers to lose me as a subscriber in 2011!
If you think of your audience as your extended family, you won’t lie to them, intentionally mislead them or try to push junk on them. You’ll honestly try to help them by getting them the info they need, and point them to the tools and resources that truly will help them in their drive to make money online. Using the ‘tricks’ outlined in the last paragraph will probably get more people to open your e-mails – but do you really expect to sell to people when they realize you’ve tricked them? And if you think your subscribers are too dumb to know you tried to trick them, turn off the computer & go look for a job on Wall Street – you’re going to crash & burn online, where trust and reputation are paramount.
2011 Internet Marketing Mistake #3
This one’s a biggie, but it’s not confined to online businesses – it’s prevalent throughout the Western world, both online and offline. As the economy tightened and people got used to cheap goods from China, many started wanting to get everything cheaply. Many marketers responded by dropping prices – for example, selling $27 e-books and $47 software for $9.95 just to get some sales. Might seem like no big deal, except…
Before long, these same marketers realized they weren’t selling anything for sustainable prices, so they dropped the value of the new products they create. After all, if you’ll only pay 1/3 the price, they can only afford to put in 1/3 the time creating it. So more and more the products I’ve looked through in the last year only cover part of their topic, or are just teasers with $9.95 worth of information, but styled to get you to buy more expensive products to make it all work. You can’t legitimately complain if you’re only spending $9.95 and getting $9.95 in value – except their salespages make it sound like it’s really worth $197 but you can have it for ten bucks because you’re so special…
You can burn through products like these til you’ve spent thousands and still have no idea how to put it all together, eventually leaving the online business world convinced it’s all a scam – many have. Or you can start choosing your resources & tools wisely, based on value as opposed to sticker price.
If you look at the products I mentioned in #1, you’ll see the prices range and our best sellers are $47, not $9.95. Why? Because they solve a need in and of themselves, and cover the topics thoroughly enough to let a rank newbie follow along and use the info fully while still having enough advanced information to benefit those already successful in Internet marketing, affiliate marketing or other online marketing activities. None covers the whole range of online marketing, and no product ever will – by the time you finished creating such a massive tome the technology and tools would have changed enough to render half the info obsolete. But you CAN, and should, be creating products that help over the whole range of one topic – don’t leave your customers unable to put your information into immediate action.
Now don’t get me wrong – if you want to create just an SEO blog plugin that’s fine… Just price as it as only a small part of the solution and don’t pretend on your salespage that it covers all of your customers’ SEO needs. If you’re going to claim you cover all their SEO needs, be sure to also enlighten them above keyword density, anchor text, deep linking, keyword placement, pinging, sitemap creation & submission, backlinking, etc., and then charge a reasonable price based on the value of the information and the time it took to create the product.
You’re not doing your customers any favour by pricing your products too low – by the time they realize how great your products really are you’ll be broke and out of the biz, unable to help them any further. You’re also not helping them if you under-deliver on your promises – they bought the product based on what your salespage promised it would do for them, so be sure it does.
Here’s a pro tip to help you with that last point… When you see a need for a product you can create, START by writing the salespage. Make sure the features and benefits you list have enough power that you yourself would buy the product – THEN create a product that not only fulfills every promise, but overdelivers on those promises. That’s how you create both powerful products that truly help people AND build a strong following!
Now the good news… If you’ve read this far through all of this, you’re genuinely interested in doing what’s right online and being someone others look up to and turn to when they need help of advice in their quest for Internet marketing success. Unlike those who read a paragraph or two then click off to some other site or Facebook game, you’ve got what it takes to succeed online – patience, persistence and a genuine desire to make a living online by helping others improve their lifestyle too. Welcome to the online business world – we need more people like you in our beloved industry!
Technorati Tags: Internet marketing, Internet marketing 2012, Internet marketing techniques and tactics, online marketing, affiliate marketing, online businesses
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