An Online Business
Do I or Don't I?
-- by Gary E Layton, http://www.pathtrax.com
-- http://www.redtienda.com/english/newsletter99.htm#1Do I or Don't I?
That is a question many of us ask when it comes
to starting up or joining an online business.
Most of
us have heard of the vast amounts of money
generated through the Internet but how many of us
personally know anyone who has done it.
Ten to
one you know someone who has tried it and lost
their shirt doing it. Why do you suppose that
these failures occur?
Let's
talk about it.
There are
many reasons people fail in an online business,
however, there are just as many reasons why some
people succeed. The reasons for failure or
success are all tied to some basic factors
regarding any type of business offline or online.
What are
these basic factors?
All
businesses are tied to selling either a product
or a service. This being the case we can then
understand the importance of products and
services to any business.
What
makes a product or service viable is a real or
perceived need for them in the marketplace.
Next, is
the product or service of the quality desired to
meet the need?
Then, is
it affordable to the majority of consumers?
Can it be
delivered in an easy and timely fashion?
What is
the competition?
Can the
product or service be guaranteed to the
satisfaction of the consumer?
Simple
questions right?
Wrong?
The answers to the above questions can consume
much money and time to find the answers you need.
Even then you can never be sure until the product
or service is offered to the consumers and they
open their wallets and then buy the product or
service.
Either
they sell or they don't. That's the final
results.
So what
does this all mean?
Basically
it means that you can have the most attractive,
useful and affordable products and services
available but they must still be sold.
What can
we do?
I reckon
we better look at how we can our sell our
products and services.
What do
we look at?
Well,
first of all we must learn that the basics of
marketing apply to all types of offline and
online businesses. Because we are talking
primarily of an online business here that is
where we will concentrate our efforts.
I'm sure
we are all familiar with the marketing principles
of time utility, location, inventory,
transportation and ease of payment, promotion,
advertisement and warranty.
What does
this mean to the online marketer?
First of
all an online marketer does not normally need to
worry about buying, leasing or renting a business
location or store. Nor do we need to worry about
inventories or the physical shipping of products.
The exception of course being on online Mart or
Shopping Service. Even then the marketer does not
normally become involved in the physical shipping
of goods.
So where
does that take us?
It takes
us to the product or service itself and the
promotional and advertising aspects of marketing
that should concern us the most.
We must
also consider the consumer payment system and the
warranties we must provide, however, these last
two factors are easily solved and of no great
concern to this conversation.
So, where
does that leave us?
It leaves
us with the very basic problems of the quality
and need for our products or services and how can
we best sell them to consumers.
Well,
first of all we face the problem of choosing a
theme portraying our business to the consumers in
such a way as to gain their confidence that we
are a legitimate enterprise and will produce what
we promise.
The theme
you choose is the image you wish to portray to
the consumer that reinforces the need that is out
there and actually builds the interest to read
your advertisements and purchase your products or
services.
Above all
else your theme must portray a professional aura
and an earnest desire to produce customer
satisfaction and enhance consumer trust in your
business enterprise.
To this
end you must always develop and put in place a
customer service and relations system ready to go
when you launch your products and service into
the world of E-Commerce.
OK, we
have a well designed and professional looking web
site. We know that our products and services fill
a need for the consumer. We have thought out and
built a responsive customer service and relations
system. Now What?
Now we
get down to the nuts and bolts of promoting and
advertising your business, products and services.
First,
all available promotional and advertising media
can and should be considered for use in getting
your message out to the consumer. The largest
factor here is the costs involved and your
ability to pay those costs.
I think
we all understand that the available media
includes newspaper ads; dedicated print media
such as The Nickel; trade magazines; flyers and
other handouts; radio and television; and of
course the online media such as Email, Web Sites;
Banner Ads, Pop-Up Ads; Ezines; Newsletters and
the like.
Knowing
this and knowing how best to use the media is a
separate question. One that deserves careful
consideration before jumping off in all
directions at once.
In many
cases, any online business you may join as an
Affiliate has an advertising program pretty well
laid out for you to follow and probably provides
some basic tools to use in implementing your
advertising program. This is fine, but if it were
me I would like to be able to supplement this
program through my own efforts and enhance the
chance for success. There is no one better able
to help you than yourself.
An
important factor for consideration here is the
time you have available to do all the good things
we are talking about.
Most of
us who become involved in an online business do
so for one primary purpose and that is to
supplement our income on a part-time basis.
Notice I said part-time. This being the case any
business activity we engage in must be designed
to work on a part-time basis.
We will
just not have the time available it takes to run
a business that takes more than four hours a day.
This being the case we better find techniques and
methods which allow us to accomplish things
without a lot of time being involved.
Because
we are working on a limited time and money budget
we must carefully select the media we choose to
use in presenting our ad copy to the consumer.
There exists on the net now plenty of good advice
to help you choose a media. Just don't go hog
wild. Select a couple of media. Select your ad
copy and get it out to the world.
All of us
can learn how to write and place effective
promotional and advertising ad copy. There is
enough free information on the Internet to make
sure of that. What we will not have the time to
do effectively, is build a system to accurately
record and provide the data we need to assure the
effectiveness of our promotional and advertising
efforts. Beside that, not many of us have the
technical expertise to develop such systems.
Such Ad
Tracking systems do exist and you must find them,
assess their capabilities to meet your needs.
Both from the required data aspects and your
ability to afford them.
An
efficient and accurate Ad Tracker is absolutely
essential to your online success and will save
you time and money. So take my advice, check them
out.
Ad
Trackers are a tool which can go a long way in
helping to answer the question 'An Online
Business - Do or Don't I?'
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