The list of marketing mistakes made by newcomers to online marketing is extensive, however it normally covers only the basics of using inappropriate fonts and colors or cluttering pages with graphics that take an hour to load. In this article, which is one of a series, we look beyond these basic mistakes and consider 20 major marketing mistakes that are holding back thousands of businesses today. In this particular article we look at a fundamental failure to understand the very nature of online marketing.
A surprisingly high number of people who are new to the world of online marketing believe that it is a simple art. If only this were true!
I’m not saying that they believe that all they need to do is find themselves a product, build a website, plug-in an order system, place an advertisement or two and then wait for the money to roll in, but many people simply fail to appreciate the significance of the use of the word Marketing in the phrase "Online Marketing".
A quick look at the index of any online marketing course will an indication of just what is involved in setting up your own internet business with such headings as, "Building a website", "hooking-up your order pages", "Setting-up a newsletter", "Winning the search engine war" and a great deal more. Now, each of these elements is important in its own right, but together, they simply create the framework necessary to allow you to start marketing your products or services.
However, even once you’ve dealt with all of this, people aren't going to start flocking to your website with their credit cards in their hands. You are going to have to go out and find your potential customers, get them to your website and then persuade them to buy your product or service.
So, the first question you need to ask yourself before you try and sell anything online is whether or not you are a salesperson?
Before you invest even one single penny in setting-up your online business, you have to understand that your principle role will be that of salesperson.
Now, many people have a problem when it comes to seeing themselves as a salesperson, often because of the stereotype that paints all sales people as dishonest and ready to do just about anything that they have to get us to part with our hard-earned cash.
Naturally, the problem with stereotypes is that they are often very wide of the mark. The vast majority of sales people are simply ordinary people doing a job and, like most of us, they are decent, hard-working and honest people. Despite this the many of us have been brought up to distrust the salespeople and that makes your job as an online marketer that much harder.
So, how do you jump this particular hurdle? Well, there are really only two ways to deal with the marketing needs of your business.
The first is to accept your role as salesperson for your business and learn as much as you can about selling online. In practice, this means doing your homework and seeking out some of the more successful internet marketers and following their example. There are too many to list them here but, as you do your research, you will discover names such as Jim Edwards, Jay Abraham, Ken Evoy and Terry Dean that come up time and time again. Each of these successful marketers has his own particular style and you will warm to some immediately and find that there are others that you simply can’t get in tune with at all. All are however extremely successful online marketers and have a great deal to offer by way of help and advice.
The second approach is to accept the fact that you are not comfortable filling the role of salesperson.
Now this doesn't mean that you can merely ignore the problem of needing a salesperson in the hope that it will go away, because it won't! Like it or not, marketing is crucial to your success and it must take the prime spot in your online business plan. However, if you really feel that you can't take on this role then don't. Simply get somebody else who can fill the role.
This might mean taking on a partner, or employing someone to take care of your marketing for you, both of which are major, and possibly costly, steps. Nevertheless, your business will suffer badly if you don’t put marketing at the centre of your operation and this in one bullet you are going to have to bite.
Of the many hundreds of new businesses that appear online every week the majority will fail and, of those that do make it, only a tiny proportion will be truly successful. In almost every single case the secret to their success lies in will be the importance that the business owner places on the role of marketing and on his own role as a salesperson.
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