Marketing Strategy – Staying Focused
It may sound simple enough, but for me it wasn’t, and I’m willing to bet a lot of you out there are having the same problem, especially if your just getting started. First, you’ve heard all the wonderful storys about quitting your day job and making a six figure income in a matter of months and so on. Now your ready to get this show on the road so you can tell the boss that your moving on. You’ve probably signed up for all the newsletters and free ebooks that you can in order to learn the ropes and you now have the just of it, but what you don’t realize is you have quite a bit on your plate.
So now you get on your computer with all intent and purpose of starting the online dream. Your motivation is high and your ready to roll. Then you open your e-mail and what awaits you? A bunch of e-mails you subscribed for that you have to read or you might be missing something. So your reading and before you know it an hour has gone by and how much have you accomplished? Now I’m not saying to unsubscribe to all your newsletters and e-mails but it’s time to come up with a strategy and this strategy is going to make you money just like any other strategy.
It’s time to figure out which newsletters are worth keeping and which ones aren’t. I personally don’t like getting an e-mail from the same person everyday. Some “experts” will say to e-mail your list every 24 hours. I don’t agree with that. I think that’s just greedy and what they are trying to do is squeeze the other guy out, but it’s just too much. I also find that the ones e-mailing their lists this often aren’t providing any value to me after awhile.
To me it says a lot about a persons character when they only e-mail their list every 48 to 72 hours or more. It also shows me the confidence they have in the product they’re promoting. So unless they are truly providing you with real valuable information I would scracth them from your list. You can always go back and resubscribe if you remember. You can only follow so many people before it comes to the point were all your doing is reading and no promotion. So thin out and organize the newsletters your receiving to save you some time so that you can start being productive.
Work on One Thing at a Time.
Now you know what needs to be done and your ready to do it, but if your like me your trying to do everything at once. This is where your own personal marketing strategy comes in. It’s not a marketing strategy about PPC or Adwords, it’s a strategy that starts at your desk with you. It’s coming up with a plan of action before you actually start implementing any of the onlie strategies that you have learnt. If your writing an article here and forum marketing there with no real plan your URLs or just being spread all over the place and only reaching a few people here and there. So focusing on one goal at a time will provide you with a better foundation in each area. I have come up with a list that you can improvise on as you wish to help you build a solid foundation in your marketing efforts that I hope will help you out and stop your head from spinning.
Now that you’ve thinned out the e-mails you were receiving you now have time to work on your strategy and not just dream about it. These are the things I think you should do in order, but of course everyone is different and you may reorder them as you wish, but I truly believe the first two are a must.
Update your blog or website ( a blog is better and more trustworthy, you can always get a website in the future) daily. You want to have your blog packed with content so it has a better chance of being picked up by the search engines. If you don’t know how to start a blog it’s easier than you think. Take a look at the free videos at becomeablogger.com to see just how easy it is. Your blog should be your first priorty everyday. I have struggled with this and now finally have commited myself to doing it.
Submitting articles is an absolute must because it is going to provide you with free, high quality, targeted traffic. You need to get at least five articles published as soon as you can. The reason being is that at first it takes 7 days for your article to be reviewed before it is published. It’s very important that you read the editorial guidlines as well so you don’t have to go back and correct any mistakes or problems with the article. Two good places to submit your articles are ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com. Be sure to write your usernames and passwords down in a notebook to insure you don’t lose them.
Forums. Now get signed up for all the forums that you want to utilize for your promotion. This one is a little easier and is why it isn’t a top prority but is very effective. This can also be done in between doing other things and is a way to come up with content for your blog and articles.
Then you can learn or move on to learning about adwords advertising and implementing this marketing strategy
Whatever else you plan to do to promote your oline business. Be it classified ads ezines or any other method you choose to use.
The point is to focus all your attention on one thing at a time. Some of these may take you a week and some may take you an hour but it is very important to build a foundation under each of them before moving on to the next. It isn’t going to do you any good by having one article or blog post a week and so on. You have to have a marketing stategy or plan set up so you don’t get side tracked or spread yourself to thin. If you don’t concentrate on getting each area a stable foundation then you won’t see the results that you want to see.
Granted you may need content before you can write your article so read a few VALUABLE newsletters or one of the free ebooks that you signed up for but set a time limit so that you can be the one writing the ebooks one day. This is a personal marketing strategy that I don’t hear talked about much, yet is so important. It really boils down to organization and setting things up in a certain order and consistently working that order everyday. If this is done consistantly every area of your promotional efforts will be rock solid.
