At the Crossroads Is The Way Ahead Online?

So you\’ve come to a crossroads in your career, for whatever reason, and following an extensive search, months of deliberation, and Googling, you are beginning to settle on an online marketing business as your next big project.

At this stage, your idea has become a bit more than just a fantasy.

Self-sufficiency and economic/geographical freedom remain little more than a dream, but something continues to pull at you in this unexpected direction. What if this could actually work?

What are the next critical steps in this journey? What do I need to do to see if this idea is feasible?

Could this idea for an additional income possibly move me in the direction that I really want to go in?

Is there training, guidance, and maybe even a supportive group of people out there where I will find more information and maybe even discuss the possibility with those who are already in the business?

Wouldn\’t it be nice to meet some like-minded people and even become part of a group who all want to move in a similar direction … without being in competition? I was in that position for a couple of years, so worry not … and then lead into a brief intro to SFM

In these post-pandemic times, holding on to a career, much less developing it further, can be quite daunting. Holding on to the dream that led you to that career is even more challenging. You may work hard in the corporate world, but it becomes somewhat of a rat race between paying off college loans, building a nest egg for the future, saving for the proverbial rainy day, and supporting your family.

Ahead, without vision and imagination, lie only increasing loans and a future under threat.

Life in someone else\’s office, building someone else\’s business for them, trading your time to pay the rent, can be soul-destroying.

If you do not have a vision for your own future, it will remain difficult to make any change – change begins with a decision to be open to opportunity and to grasp, at least an inkling or a possibility as to how you might get there.

For me, I was always aware that the internet held possibilities and danced around various ideas and small projects for years. For many years I was quite happy on my little treadmill, saw a safe corporate plan to retirement with retirement planning and control of my investments confidently handed off to an \’investment advisor\’ for a percentage … and so it went, until…

It was only in the last couple of years that I decided to investigate the possibilities of internet marketing seriously. With the advent of Covid-19, the real and almost unlimited possibilities have finally dawned on me.

Things are changing, more rapidly now that we have crashed headlong into the new normal.

The way we grow up, get an education, work, and indeed pass our leisure time, are all now in flux, as are out dining habits and the implications of our simplest decisions about visiting friends and relatives.

With change comes opportunity, and the possibilities for those who provide services and knowledge in these areas is why the internet brings you an almost ideal route to financial and geographical independence if that is what you wish for you and yours. Wouldnt it be great to make a small fortune out of your chosen hustle with flexible working hours and other benefits?

There are many routes to generating an income online, examples are, in freelance writing, graphics, virtually any skills you have will be in demand by someone somewhere and they will pay to learn those skills! There is also the area of online marketing, helping businesses bring their products to this brave new marketplace for example, as Mr. Boswell would say, become a copywriter marketer.

Before you take the first tentative steps into developing a part- or full-time income the arena, there are several questions that might be up for consideration, and you can seek guidance from the internet and affiliate marketing leadership and training groups such as Mentors or as it used to be called Six Figure Mentors.

Who would you consider your customers (Who would you like to talk to)?

Online marketing is only successful when you market from the perspective of customer needs rather than your needs. The first step into online marketing is understanding your customers\’ preferences, tastes, and demographics.

Customers are the audience in the online marketing business, and failure to meet and understand their demographics and needs will translate into losses and frustration.

One reason why online commerce like Amazon is successful is the deep understanding of the consumers in terms of demographics, needs and future wants.

Have a customer in mind then research their needs, demographics, behaviours, and what product they need most.

Who might you want to help, to serve, in your new online project.

If you’re creating a new platform, understanding your target customers can be challenging. The best way to get consumer information is to analyze other sites, their reviews, products, target markets, and begin your journey based on their data.

Understanding your customers will help you determine the best channel or media for reaching them, and the best way to advertise your offering.

Create attractive content (How would you like to talk to them)?

Marketing is all about attracting an audience to your products, but how exactly do you attract the audiences? You may have the right products, right audiences, and details, but you may never make any sales. The best way to attract customers is to be creative and to add value. This paves the way to creating content that is entertaining and attractive to a wide range of buyers.

So what should a good content contain? Besides being attractive and captivating content, good content, should include a guide to making the purchases. It should include a link to your website and social media pages so customers can follow to complete their purchases.

Good content comes in many forms including social media posts, web blogs, and videos. Guest posts can also direct an audience to your site and help you launch your online marketing campaigns effectively. The second benefit you can get from good content is increased leads: with very high leads, you are likely to make more online sales regardless of your operations\’ size

Advertise extensively and widely (Where do they hang out)?

There are two ways an online marketer can advertise widely and wildly:

The first way is to do paid advertisement, which is advertising through platforms that do not belong to you. Paid adverts can appear on Google ads, YouTube adverts, or paying other bloggers or social media channels to advertise your content.

The second is non-paid advertising, which creates and distributes your adverts without relying on other intermediaries to advertise. One of the non-paid advertising includes posting on your YouTube channels, social media platforms like Facebook groups and rooms, and other channels like Instagram.

Advertising serves to create an awareness of your existence and the products or service that you have on offer – essentially and eventually, your brand, thereby helping you to boost your sales. As much as you may consider advertising your content widely and wildly, it is effective when you consider both advertising methods, especially paid adverts. Paid advertising brings more traffic than other forms of advertising.

Remember, even in online marketing; you must spend more to make more and increase your reach, but it helps to know where you customers hang out on a regular basis.

Create a resonance with your customers (Do you speak their language)?

Resonance is the touch, feeling, and the connections between you and your customers. It can be challenging to get this right the first time. But, as time goes by, and you perfect your work and skills, the connection between you and your customers will improve.

The first step to creating the resonance is by valuing and becoming valued by your customers.

To be of value to your customers, you need to meet their needs, allow them to voice their opinions about your services, and generate solutions to any challenge, thereby making them part of the whole venture. As a marketer, the first step to create resonance is to respond appropriately to customer needs, in case of complaints, be ready to handle the matter effectively so that your customers are happy about the response.

Secondly, create a platform for your customers; it can be a social media group that your customers can use to get in touch with you. Customers usually love it when they are updated about the website\’s future adventures or products. Take advantage of this, and engage your audience as much as possible. Essentially, learn to become an online marketer.

Learn about online marketing and fish where the fish are?

Once you get your business together and have the audience you require, you should not stop your venture there, continue pursuing growth as a strategy, and consider diversity to achieve the growth.

Online marketing is not just about social media and websites; there are many other aspects to it.

One of them is email marketing; once you have the client list together, you can use email marketing as a reminder tool and advertising tool. You can also use it to pitch for more customers.

Secondly, venture into online marketing, most marketing websites are compatible with laptops, PCs, and tablets but not mobile phones. Expand into mobile marketing by making your website compatible with mobile phones and developing apps that will help customers make sales through their phones.

Conclusion (Or the beginning … as you like – it\’s your choice)

A venture into online marketing is one of change and variety requiring constant change due to the increasing pace of technological innovation and our changing society. Things will change whether you like it or not, whether you are in control of your business, what to build a business, or want to develop a side-income, a side-hustle if you wish. That is why it is best to accept the inevitable, pivot, be creative and build on the experience of others.

Find an advisor or better again a mentor who will guide your decisions, help you retool and re-skill for what will be a very interesting and varied future.

Following my own fairly recent experience, I would recommend Mentors and if you wish to find out more, click below. With Mentors, you will find very empathetic leadership and a community where support, great foundational training, and regular updates on content and affiliate marketing trends will help you build your future as you want to.

Then please be sure to check out this FREE VIDEO SERIES that’s been responsible for helping THOUSANDS of people just like you to start an online business from scratch and change their situation entirely or work their day jobs. Have a look and possibly get on your way to redesigning your future.

FREE TRAINING – LEARN HOW TO ESCAPE THE RAT RACE!

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Jim Houlihan