Small Business Marketing Strategies

Why Automated Businesses are B.S.

By Christian

This is something I’ve been seeing so much lately, I just wanted to comment on it. Automated businesses. Are you buying into this? I hope you’re not. I’ve been on Twitter a lot, and that’s where I’m seeing it mostly. It seems that Twitter has a growing number of spammers, and I fear it’s only going to get worse.

It’s human nature I suppose. We always want to find the path of least resistance. I believe in using tools to help you streamline your work and save you time, but if you believe any of these are a good idea, you’ve got your head in the wrong place: “Make $250k a Year Working 2 Hours a Day”, “Get 10,000 Twitter Followers in the Next 30 Days…Automatically!”, “100,000 Visitors to Your Website for $39”. Just a few examples.

You will do yourself and your customers a great service by simply putting your head down and getting to work. Instead of looking for a shortcut that can be had for $39 (of which none exist of course), create your OWN success, one piece at a time. And guess what…THAT kind of success is REAL and FREE! But the more time you spend on this automated business B.S. the further you’re pushing back the day that you’ll ACTUALLY be successful! Hard work won’t kill you, but it WILL make you successful! It’s just not fair, I know 😉

Everyone is an Entrepreneur

By Christian

The following is a post I wrote recently about business in general. It does not specifically address blogging or internet marketing. I’m publishing it here, because I hope it gives you an idea as to where I’m coming from and why I’m involved in internet marketing to begin with. Knowing the “why” is a powerful thing! Let me know what you think!

Everyone is an Entrepreneur

Something just occurred to me. I naturally think of myself as an entrepreneur. Mostly because I own businesses; that’s kind of always been the way I operate. Even when I’ve had jobs, I’ve always had a business in the works. It’s how I think…it’s always about “how do I build something out of this idea I have?” or “would this be something of value to others?” But not everyone thinks that way, do they? Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as an entrepreneur. Maybe you don’t own a business and you don’t WANT to own a business.

I want to communicate that I believe this is a dangerous way to think. You ARE a business owner, whether you think you are or not. Whether you run a very small home based business, a large publicly traded company, or whether you work for someone else, it doesn’t matter. You have expenses, taxes, income, assets, a balance sheet…you are a business, my friend!

The Power of Learning Basic Business Skills

Now just because you are a business does not mean you are an efficient and profitable one. But the point is, you can be! By learning about business, you can take control of certain things in your life that can make a great deal of difference for you. Everyone can benefit greatly from learning basic business principles like cash flow management, the definition of assets and liabilities, how to write up a balance sheet and profit and loss statement, etc. This really is basic stuff, and it’s amazing how many people (even business owners!) do not know how to do these things. Trust me; it’s not overly complicated, and a little discipline goes a long way. If I can learn to read a financial statement, you can too! And something amazing happens when you learn these business basics…you begin to make different, more profitable and sustainable decisions about your money!

The World is Changing

Why do I care to write about this? It’s compelling to me right now, because I see so many things changing around us. Few would disagree that we’re in a time of significant change. Technology and a major financial crisis are working in tandem, reshaping our world daily. As these things unfold, this is some of what I’ve seen…and I’m sure you’ve seen it too:

1. Job security no longer exists
2. Instead of working for one company for 30 years, most people have dozens of different jobs throughout their careers.
3. Recently, millions of people have lost their jobs. Millions more have lost half of their nest egg in the stock market, if not more.
4. Entrepreneurship is on the rise.

More and more, fending for yourself seems to be the order of the day. Employers don’t take care of us anymore. Neither does Uncle Sam. It’s no secret that social security does not offer any substantive retirement benefit, and as the years pass, most of us are learning that we shouldn’t even count on that as part of our retirement plan. So what are we to do?

Here’s what we do: we become financially competent. We learn to take care of business ourselves, because it’s obvious that no one else is going to do it for us. We need start to think of the lives we run as businesses, because that’s what they are. Financial competence is mandatory now. This didn’t used to be the case. In today’s world, you need to know how to manage your cash flow. You need to keep a close eye on your balance sheet. You need to know how to invest. Throwing your money blindly into a 401(k) isn’t going to cut it. We need to learn what we’re doing. You, me…we’re all entrepreneurs. We’re all investors. It’s not really a choice. And the sooner we wake up to that and start taking the reigns of our financial lives, the better off we’ll be.

Does this scare you? Do you disagree? I honestly think the days of employeers taking care of us are over permanently. Financial competence and personal accountability are mandatory. What do you think?

Why You Must Focus on Creating Trust More Than Anything Else

By Christian

Trust is essential. And when it comes to internet marketing and blogging, instilling trust is a unique challenge. People have always bought brands they trust, and trust has largely always come from two places: mass media and word of mouth. If you’ve been involved in internet marketing or otherwise working to make money online for any length of time, you’ve no doubt come face to face with the concept that just because you put up a sales page or a blog doesn’t mean anyone will visit. And just because they visit most certainly doesn’t mean they will buy! So what gives?

Once Again, Prevailing Wisdom Fails…

Here’s where most people screw it up. The prevailing wisdom is that in order to get the sales you want, you just need to “get more traffic”. It’s all about traffic. If you get more traffic, you’ll make more sales. Well, I can’t really argue with that in theory, but it’s so wasteful, and please don’t ignore the fact that you can get WAY better results by simply learning to be tactful about your approach. I have proven many times that you can bring in plenty of money with what most people would consider very low amounts of traffic to your site, if you learn how to apply the “fantastically simple rules” I describe here on Next Level Blogger. And one of the key rules is instilling trust. Bottom line: if your buyers don’t trust you, they’re not going to buy from you.

Let’s face it, not every niche is a high traffic niche. You need to learn to make money even with low traffic.

In other words, you can try to make up the lack of trust by simply driving more traffic to your site. If you get enough people to your sales page, you’re gonna get some suckers! And of course some of those suckers are going to buy from you. But look at the cost of doing business this way:

To drive more traffic, you will likely have to spend more money on advertising. Higher costs mean you make less money per sale.
To drive more traffic, you will spend a lot of time on things like link-building, seo, etc. Not bad activities, but time that could be spent on creating better content, interacting with your customers, etc. In other words, which do you think creates a better user experience, improved content or link-building?
By being dependent on high traffic, the moment something happens and your traffic drops for whatever reason, your sales dry up also. If your income is based on more organic and natural human interaction and real relationships, your income will not be nearly as sensitive or volatile.
By focusing on getting more and more traffic to increase sales, you are not allowing yourself to really zero in on improving your actual offering. Who needs to really improve anyway? Just get more traffic, and that’s all you need to worry about. Believe it or not, most people working to make money online use this mentality…

It’s All About Trust

In a post coming up soon, I will write specifically about how to instill trust. In this post I simply want to motivate you to look at your business a little differently than most people do when they approach internet marketing. If you create trust with your buyers, you’ve closed an important gap. One that separates you from your buyers. You won’t be dependent upon huge traffic to make sales and make money online, because your visitors will trust you. Your closing ratios will explode, because your visitors believe what you say, and they will see the value. Trust goes a long way. It will transform your business, if you are willing to do the work to harness it. It’s all about trust!

Why I Often Refer to Visitors as “Buyers”

By Christian

Have you noticed that? Often when I’m writing a post, and I’m talking about the visitors to your site, I refer to them as “buyers”. It’s important what words you use. I believe so anyway.

The reason I call visitors “buyers” is because that’s what they are, right? Do you want your readers to visit, or do you want them to buy?

I highly recommend letting this idea take full hold on your blogging and internet marketing, because it’s a lot more powerful than it might seem on the surface, and the most powerful concepts are almost always the simplest and easiest to miss! Focusing on the fact that every visitor is a potential buyer can have a significant effect on nearly every aspect of your internet marketing.

If you think of every visitor as a potential buyer (instead of just “traffic”), you will be compelled to customize the experience for every visitor possible. Instead of just “driving traffic”, you will focus on building a unique and valuable experience for EVERY visitor, not just the 2.3% who happen to buy from you. This effort alone can seriously increase your closing ratio, because it forces you to look at the details. It’s easy to look at 1,000 visitors and be pleased with the fact that you’ve gotten a few orders and made some money. And don’t get me wrong…that’s a good thing. You should absolutely be happy when you’re making money from your business! But look at the fact that HUNDREDS of people left without buying anything or communicating with you in any way. This isn’t defeatist or focusing on the negative, because what you’re doing is searching for opportunity. You should care about the ones that get away. You should focus on the fact that THEY are buyers too…they’re ALL buyers!

The people you sell to are hugely important, but the people who DON’T buy from you…those people are an even larger asset, because they show you what you’re doing wrong, where you’re dropping the ball, where you’re failing to provide value. They can show you, if you’re willing to do the work, how you can improve.

We should always be seeking to improve. We’re not “closing traffic”, we’re selling to people. And when someone doesn’t buy from you, you need to realize that is a real person who didn’t find value in what you’re offering. Why? The answer to that question is what will make you a millionaire. But you will only have the guts and tenacity to continue asking yourself that question day after day when you realize your traffic is more than traffic. They’re people. They’re buyers. They’re customers. Every single one of them.

Is Selling on Your Blog Sleazy?

By Christian

I just wrote recently about how we’re all salespeople, whether we think so or not. This begs the question: if embracing the fact that we need to sell things in order to really make money online is necessary, why are so many of us wary of asking for money from our readers?

This is an essential issue to address, for the simple fact that if you DON’T ask for what you want, you will not likely get what you want. We all understand this concept, but many of us are still bashful about asking for people to buy things from us. Asking someone for money is tough, it feels to us as if we’re violating or somehow cheapening the relationship we have with our readers.

Are You Ashamed to Ask for Money?

Sometimes we feel ashamed of asking for money, because deep down we feel that salesmen are sleazy. Is selling on your blog sleazy? I hope to answer this in this post, but ultimately this is going to be a personal decision. But know this: if you don’t sell stuff, you’re not likely to ever make much money in anything you do. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…money isn’t everything. Believe me, I understand this. I’ve turned down several high paying jobs that would have required way too much of my time.

Turning down a job that pays well over a hundred thousand a year is not something a young me would have done. But you learn eventually that money isn’t everything…so I get it.

But this doesn’t mean selling is sleazy! Being sleazy is sleazy. But to say that all salesmanship is sleazy is a blanket statement that we all know is not true. Not if we’re being honest. So, that’s the answer I have for you:

Is selling on your blog sleazy? Yes, if you’re a sleaze. For the rest of us, it’s an honest and absolutely essential business practice.

How to Get What You Want

What does this mean for those of us who really want to make money online? How do we take our business and really promote it effectively through internet marketing, social networking and blogging? Here’s how:

We have to know with absolute clarity what we want. Then we need to ask our readers to give it to us.

This is all there is. Blogging is simple! It’s just work. If we create a LOT of value for our readers, we have every right to ask for money. Not all will. It’s cool. You’ll never have a 100% closing ratio, but you don’t need one. Many internet marketers make good money from a closing ratio hovering around 5%. Personally, I think you should expect way better results than that. But I digress…the point is that you don’t need EVERYONE to give you money, you just need some people to give you money. But if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Lesson from the Trenches

How to create huge value for your readers? This is a great topic for future posts, but let me give you a quick story from my direct sales years for now. I used to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. You learn a lot about building value by selling door to door. I’m asking people who haven’t met me 15 minutes ago to spend $1500 on a vacuum cleaner that didn’t think they needed before I walked in.

After my demonstration, I always asked people what they thought the price tag was, and most of them told me they were expecting a price tag of over $3000. So when I told them it was $1500, they were visibly relieved. You could actually seem them relax into their seat when I gave them the order form.

How do you do this? I will get into the fine details as I continue to develop this blog, but for now I just wanted to give you the basic concept…if you want to ask someone for $1500, you better give them $3000 in value. If you want to have someone buy your ebook for $47, you better be able to show them definitively, in terms they understand, why it’s worth a lot more…that’s the concept.

Give people a deal. It’s more work for you, but it’s a better deal for your customers, and that’s how you make money. You make money by creating value for others.