If you are like most people, you may have limited experience and knowledge when starting your own network marketing business or home business using internet marketing. As you set up your business and apply your first internet marketing strategies you can make a few mistakes that could not only cost you money but also cost you motivation and confidence.
One common mistake is using pay per click marketing without adequate knowledge.
When you start marketing your business online, you are likely to use pay per click marketing as it is a very efficient strategy to generate traffic immediately. The problem is that the less you know and apply the right tactics with pay per click marketing, the more it will cost you! I'm not saying that you should become a theoretical pro before you start marketing your business, but you must learn as much as you can as early as you can. Using pay per click as an amateur can be damaging to your budget in 3 ways:
1. It will cost you more to be placed in a good position on the search engines
2. You may receive a lot of traffic, but only poor quality leads (quantity vs. quality)
3. Your ads may be performing poorly, and therefore you may have no traffic, no leads, and no income as a result.
I was really pleased when at first I saw how many people were driven to my ads and my website: I was getting great click through rates, my ads were performing well, and many people were even taking the next step on my website and entering their details. BUT, I realised after an expensive month generating more than 1000 clicks and more than 100 leads that I was speaking to the wrong people. Sure, people were interested in learning more about my business, products and opportunity, but where were all the seriously determined entrepreneur-minded people I was truly looking for? I did get a few great leads out of these numbers, but the truth is, it cost me a lot more time, money and energy than it should have, and in the process the people I was really looking for probably didn't even see my ads.
There are plenty of resources to help you learn how to use pay per click marketing effectively, how to improve your website ranking, and how to reach the right audience and get quality leads. The bottom line is, the less you learn about those principles and techniques, the more it will cost you and the less it will pay off.
Here are my recommendations for tackling pay per click marketing when you are starting out in internet or network marketing:
1. Learn the basics on pay per click marketing - this is a must! Perry Marshall has a 'Definitive Guide To Google Adwords' which is easy to understand yet comprehensive, and will help you set up your ads and analyse your results.
2. Get some basic knowledge on how websites are picked up and ranked by search engines. You need this so that you can choose an effective title, description, keywords, content and links for your website.
3. Continue to broaden your knowledge and apply new strategies step by step. Do make sure you know the basics before you start spending your entire marketing budget (it may be worth waiting another 1-2 weeks to learn more before marketing your business), and then get into the more advanced stuff. Continually analyse your results and refine your marketing campaigns. Remember that the internet is always changing and what works today may not work forever.
4. Define your target audience. Design your ads to talk to them. Ask yourself if your ads could be misinterpreted, unclear or misleading - this is how you get the wrong people to click on your ads (and pay for it). Also make sure that the content on your website targets the right people; even though you have already paid for a click, you still don't want to waste your time calling the wrong prospects. Basically, use the content on your website to help people pre-qualify themselves before signing up.
5. Record and analyse statistics on your leads. How many were not actually looking for your type of product or business? How many were not serious candidates? How many quality leads resulted from your efforts and investment? How much did each lead cost you? Find out what works and what doesn't work and change your marketing strategies accordingly.
6. Consider that getting less traffic (in particular the paid one) can be a positive thing. Put simply, you don't want to spend money on bad leads. Quality is more cost-effective and will bring better results than quantity. Hit and miss is not cost-effective.
7. Consider using the services of an expert marketer until you can generate quality leads yourself. You may be able to join a trusted marketing cooperative for example. Be cautious however about purchasing leads from a third party, as you may not know the nature, origin or quality of those leads.
One common mistake is using pay per click marketing without adequate knowledge.
When you start marketing your business online, you are likely to use pay per click marketing as it is a very efficient strategy to generate traffic immediately. The problem is that the less you know and apply the right tactics with pay per click marketing, the more it will cost you! I'm not saying that you should become a theoretical pro before you start marketing your business, but you must learn as much as you can as early as you can. Using pay per click as an amateur can be damaging to your budget in 3 ways:
1. It will cost you more to be placed in a good position on the search engines
2. You may receive a lot of traffic, but only poor quality leads (quantity vs. quality)
3. Your ads may be performing poorly, and therefore you may have no traffic, no leads, and no income as a result.
I was really pleased when at first I saw how many people were driven to my ads and my website: I was getting great click through rates, my ads were performing well, and many people were even taking the next step on my website and entering their details. BUT, I realised after an expensive month generating more than 1000 clicks and more than 100 leads that I was speaking to the wrong people. Sure, people were interested in learning more about my business, products and opportunity, but where were all the seriously determined entrepreneur-minded people I was truly looking for? I did get a few great leads out of these numbers, but the truth is, it cost me a lot more time, money and energy than it should have, and in the process the people I was really looking for probably didn't even see my ads.
There are plenty of resources to help you learn how to use pay per click marketing effectively, how to improve your website ranking, and how to reach the right audience and get quality leads. The bottom line is, the less you learn about those principles and techniques, the more it will cost you and the less it will pay off.
Here are my recommendations for tackling pay per click marketing when you are starting out in internet or network marketing:
1. Learn the basics on pay per click marketing - this is a must! Perry Marshall has a 'Definitive Guide To Google Adwords' which is easy to understand yet comprehensive, and will help you set up your ads and analyse your results.
2. Get some basic knowledge on how websites are picked up and ranked by search engines. You need this so that you can choose an effective title, description, keywords, content and links for your website.
3. Continue to broaden your knowledge and apply new strategies step by step. Do make sure you know the basics before you start spending your entire marketing budget (it may be worth waiting another 1-2 weeks to learn more before marketing your business), and then get into the more advanced stuff. Continually analyse your results and refine your marketing campaigns. Remember that the internet is always changing and what works today may not work forever.
4. Define your target audience. Design your ads to talk to them. Ask yourself if your ads could be misinterpreted, unclear or misleading - this is how you get the wrong people to click on your ads (and pay for it). Also make sure that the content on your website targets the right people; even though you have already paid for a click, you still don't want to waste your time calling the wrong prospects. Basically, use the content on your website to help people pre-qualify themselves before signing up.
5. Record and analyse statistics on your leads. How many were not actually looking for your type of product or business? How many were not serious candidates? How many quality leads resulted from your efforts and investment? How much did each lead cost you? Find out what works and what doesn't work and change your marketing strategies accordingly.
6. Consider that getting less traffic (in particular the paid one) can be a positive thing. Put simply, you don't want to spend money on bad leads. Quality is more cost-effective and will bring better results than quantity. Hit and miss is not cost-effective.
7. Consider using the services of an expert marketer until you can generate quality leads yourself. You may be able to join a trusted marketing cooperative for example. Be cautious however about purchasing leads from a third party, as you may not know the nature, origin or quality of those leads.
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