With over 60,000 subscribers to this newsletter, and
lots of traffic to the Link-O-Matic web site, we get tons of email on a daily
basis. Many of these emails are from stressed out Internet marketers begging for
help, and we think you'll benefit from the observations we've made.
"We
have the greatest product since sliced bread, we can't figure out what the
problem is. We submitted our site to search engines and post tons of ads, but we
only get 25-50 visitors a day and no one is buying from us! Is anyone actually
making any money on the Internet? Help!!!"
We get a lot of emails like
this, maybe the situation sounds familiar to you. Our initial response to an
email like this is to ask a very simple but important three-part question: "Who
is your target market, how did you determine they will buy your product, and how
are you reaching them?"
Nine times out of ten the person can't answer
these questions at all. On average, only one person out of ten can give decent
answers that make any type of sense. We're far from know-it-alls, but these are
the most important marketing concepts and most people don't understand them.
The Biggest And Most Common Mistake Direct Marketers Make
The
three questions posed above are actually all related; three pieces of a puzzle
that can not be separated. Until you can answer all three of them with
specifics, and understand the concepts they represent, you will never realize
any type of success in direct marketing.
The single biggest mistake that
wannabe marketers make is that they do everything backwards. They fall in love
with a product or service and then try to figure out who to sell it to.
Unfortunately, there isn't an easier way to lose money, waste lots of time, and
ultimately fail.
If you go about things in this way, you will have an
extremely hard time answering any of the above three questions. If the product
or service is really great you may eventually figure out the answers, but you'll
still waste tons of time and money in the process.
What you need to do
is learn these basic direct marketing principles, and figure out the answers to
these three important questions before you do anything else. They should form
the base that your business is built upon. If done correctly, everything else
just falls into place.
The Three Questions You Must Answer To Succeed
1. Who is your target market?
Rather than creating a product and
then trying to figure out who to sell it to, you need to do it the other way
around. You should first identify a market, a group of people who have money,
that you will eventually target with your advertising. The more specific your
answer the better.
2. How did you determine they will buy your product?
Once you have identified a market, you need to figure out what they are
likely to buy. What kind of problems do they have in common that you cansolve?
How can you help them reach their goals? What have they bought in the past? If
you can't answer these questions, go back to step one.
3. How are you
going to reach your market?
Now that you have identified a market and
know what they want to buy, it's simply a matter of creating a product and
letting them know that you can solve their problems and fulfill their wants.
Figure out how to reach this market with your advertising and you can never ever
fail.
Honestly. If you have identified a market and know what they want
to buy, all you need to do is let them know you have what they want. This way,
you don't have to try to convince anyone to buy your product. It will simply
sell itself. If it sounds too easy, that's because it really is.
This Is
The Big Picture, You Must Understand It
The original focus of this
newsletter was on web site promotion. And technically it still is. However,
after talking with so many struggling Internet marketers over the past few years
we firmly believe that most people do not even understand the basics of direct
marketing.
It really doesn't matter whether you're marketing in the real
world or on the Internet. If you do not understand these basic principles of
direct marketing that have already been established and proven by countless
entrepreneurs over the years, it's pointless to promote your web site.
If your online ventures are not based upon the three principles outlined
in this article, you really need to take a time-out and re-evaluate what you are
doing. Once you learn how to identify a market and their wants, you can develop
a very profitable business in absolutely no time at all.
Spend some good
quality time learning and understanding these basic ideas. The beauty of it is
that once you understand how to do this, you can do it over and over and
literally make as much money as you want.
Successfully yours,
The Link-O-Matic Support Team
http://www.linkomatic.com/index.cgi?11518
