Digital Profit Success

How to Stick to Your Marketing Dream!

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Do you remember when you first made the decision to become an internet marketer?  Many of you will have felt the heady rush of quitting your boring 9-to-5 job in favor of starting afresh where the success or failure of your business rests squarely on your shoulders and yours alone; you are in control of your own destiny now! And you look at the financial gains which are  virtually unlimited and the possibilities seem endless.  It’s an exciting moment, to be sure… but are you still excited?

The problem is that far too many marketers end up treading down a road of frustration and drudgery; what happened to the path that was laid in gold?!?  This causes them to burn out.  They get discouraged as they hit an obstacle, or perhaps they get bored and lose interest; this is a problem with the instant gratification culture we live in today.  Whatever the reason, it’s important to know how to get yourself back on track if you see yourself floundering or lacking motivation.

Many of your biggest obstacles will be mental:  While you want to be constantly learning and getting smarter from your experiences, you don’t want to lose sight of your original vision and mindset.  And don’t learn for learning’s sake; you should be implementing what you learn and not just keep learning more. Learn from your experiences whether they be success or failure and don’t let them make you overly cynical or worse, discourage you.  Remember the excitement you felt about being your own boss.  And remember how excited you felt about bringing your business/product/vision to the market and having a positive influence in peoples lives.  Feel that way again and become that idealistic, go-getter again.

Never underestimate the power of routines to help nurture such mindsets.  One of the biggest struggles with working for yourself is actually motivating yourself to do the work as there are so many distractions at home.  Having a strict daily schedule in place can help you stay focused on the task at hand.  Many productive people  use their first few actions of the day as a psychological trigger to set them up for the rest of the day.  For example, you might begin each day by walking your dog (or going for a stroll by yourself if you don’t have a pet), then brew your morning cup of tea/coffee before sitting down at your desk and writing your first 500 words of the day.  Repeating your process each day can get you in the mood to work and it becomes a habit.

Don’t be afraid to expand or outsource tasks. This may be difficult at first if you have little spare capital  but think of it as an investment; if yo. can get someone to do the tasks you hate then you can focus on those you enjoy and bring money into the business.  Not long ago, article/content marketing was huge.  But do you think that the people making serious money from it were spending every waking hour glued to the keyboard?  No, these people quickly hired writers to allow them to capitalize on the opportunity and grow (and profit) quickly.  Alternatively they may have started a large writing outfit to cater to the marketers working with content volume.  Whatever they were doing, they were running a business and not a self-employment hobby. Remember that a business makes you money whilst a hobby costs you money.

Look at your business and identify which tasks can be quickly outssourced to freelancers to help give you more time to work on your business, not in it.  For most entrepreneurs the first task to outsource is content creation as it is cheap and easy to get done and gives you content or products that you can quickly bring to market.  For others, it may be SEO tactics to increase the ranking of their website.  Outsource the tasks you hate as soon as financially possible and you will be a much happier marketer.

Finally, you need to be able to adapt  You may have started your marketing journey two years ago, and a lot can change in two years, especially in the online marketing world.  Keep learning, researching, and ensuring that your own methods are still considered best practice today; never mistake comfort with effectiveness. But be careful to implement what you learn or you will be left behind.

The key to making your vision a reality is to set goals – both long and short term –  and start working on your highest value tasks first thing in the morning, everyday.

“What Do You Do for a Living?”

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When you make a living as an online entrepreneur , many people just won’t get it. Some of them will think you’re nothing more than a spammer just because you make your money on the Internet.

You need to be aware of these types of people. One problem is that some of them may even be close friends and family members who are simply ignorant about the various marketing uses for the Internet.

Try highlighting the fact that although many people make money online, the amount of spammers is actually very small; it is just unfortunate that they can be so very disruptive!

When you are explaining the workings of email marketing it is also important to let your detractors know that every single person you send email to has signed up specifically to your newsletter, and clicked a link to confirm that they really want to be on your list.

Isn’t this just like signing up for a newspaper delivery or a magazine subscription? Of course it is! People sign up to your newsletter because you are providing them with valuable information, not just advertising.

If you are a self published author and sell eBooks online, tell them that it’s a bit like being a book publisher, but all of the books you publish are in digital format. You can also explain that instead of paying thousands of dollars to get the books printed, bound and shipped, you can eliminate those costs by selling all of your books as downloadable products and pass on these savings to your readers so they get a great book at a great price!

If people still don’t understand, you could even show them what an eBook is by letting them view one on your computer, although that is highly unlikely nowadays with the increasing popularity of eBook readers such as Amazon Kindle.

If you tend to work as an affiliate marketer, you can tell people you’re in advertising. Tell them that you run a website (or websites) and you place advertising on that website. Every time someone clicks an ad and purchases something, you receive a commission. If you make the majority of your money through AdSense or selling advertising space on your sites, you can simply tell people that you place advertisements on your websites, and you charge advertisers for that ad space.

Why not show them some of your sites or blogs to illustrate the point? You may feel more comfortable just telling people that you design websites rather than showing them, especially if you are not a graphic designer or creative type. But if you’re a decent website builder/designer you may actually impress them and then you may get people asking you to make a site for them!!

You also need to understand that some people will just never get what you do. All you can do is explain it the best way you can, and if it doesn’t work, accept it. If the in-laws or your spouse are nagging you because your money isn’t yet streaming in, and you feel pressured, put together a simple presentation that answers all of their questions and puts their minds at ease. Better still, get them involved; make it a family business and their passion for this glorious online lifestyle may blossom too.

4 Tips to Boost your Email Marketing Strategy

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Email marketing is a constantly developing process reflecting the change in wants, needs, and actions of the population. Many marketers have been guilty of abusing the email inboxes of potential customers and clients as email marketing evolved: they constantly sent emails to all potential customers, thus invading the privacy of their consumer base.

More and more emails end up going straight to the spam folder due increasingly aggressive filters from the internet service providers and email platform such as Gmail so it has become more difficult to get your emails seen, let alone read! Luckily the evolution of email and society has led to a recent resurgence in email marketing. Companies can now communicate with their consumers through a variety of different email platforms.

Any business or entrepreneur can benefit from a good email marketing strategy and the 4 tips below will help you to tweak your approach to email marketing thus giving you the boost you need to make your email campaigns more successful.

 

Be concise

Try to keep your emails short and to the point as many consumers do not want to read long emails. Each email should address one topic only and be laser focused on that topic alone; don’t waffle – just stick to the point and get your message across as quickly as possible. Those who manage to get their point across quickly will keep the attention of their consumers and will increase engagement and thus open rates for any future emails.

 

Don’t email too often

Do you suffer from inbox overload? I certainly do as there are many marketers who insist on emailing every single day and sometimes even multiple times per day. And do you know what happens to them? If you’re like me I quickly hit the unsubscribe link! Communicate sparingly and if somebody hears from you less often, they are more likely to open your emails and pay attention to what you have to say when you do communicate with them.

 

Give Your Audience a Reason to Read

Your audience needs to have a compelling reason to read what you have to say. To that end, ALL your emails should be beneficial to the reader, whether that is in the form of information, a sale, or an offer that you think will benefit THEM, not you! Don’t become one of these spammy marketers who just send out emails like “My friend just released this great course/product on X,Y,Z so go check it out…. There is no benefit here for the reader and has me quickly clicking the unsubscribe link!

 

Know your Target Market

You need to work to know who you are talking to so that you can talk to them at their level, using their verbiage. The more you know about the person you are speaking to the easier it will be for you to connect with them. Connections are critical, especially when trying to introduce a call to action or increase their interest through an email strategy.

 

When coming up with an email marketing strategy, think about the whole process and not just 1 or 2 parts in isolation. How will you address your readers and what benefits will they get from reading your emails? If you can speak directly to your audience and give them a compelling reason to read and listen to you, your email campaign will be successful. So really take the time to get to know your audience to make your email marketing strategy as powerful and successful as possible.