Common Marketing Problems and Solutions

Greetings to all subscribers, old and new. I hope life and
business are going well for you and that the economy is picking
up wherever you may be. For me, business has been getting busier.
As I meet more and more business owners and netrepreneurs I see
many are lacking the same things ...

Invariably they have built a business based upon a product
or service and then expect the business to come to them over time
with little to no marketing. Many confuse marketing with sales,
and so we have some very bright and creative people and promising
companies never quite reaching their maximum potential.

The problems typically start with no business or marketing plan.
Very few businesses have this document and even fewer who have
one live by it. Many plans lack any real insight into competitive
analysis -- understanding who your competitors are or how to go
head-to-head against them. Frequently there are no goals either.

If the company is founded around a product or service, frequently
the supporting web site or marketing collateral (if they even
exist) are full of text telling the reader something but showing
them very little. There is a big difference between telling and
showing.

Showing starts with products shots and this is particularly
pertinent with info products, ebooks, and software tools. Without
a compelling product image, it's hard for the average person to
get their arms around buying something online.

In many cases, people are spending money or time driving traffic
to their web sites, but they have no idea who or where these
visitors are because they lack the common sense to add a simple
contact form to their home page to capture the first name and
email address of their visitors. Without an email database to
market to, opportunities fall through the cracks.

Those who are smart enough to have the form tend to forget to
include a compelling reason for people to give their information.
A free report, a demo, a sample. Something of value traded for
something of value.

Those that are collecting and building names for their list tend
to forget to communicate with their lists frequently and often.
This is a huge mistake and one that drives prospects to your
competitors. Get an autoresponder service and integrate it into
your site. Write an email series of monthly newsletters (like
this one) and communicate with your subscriber base. They
wouldn't have subscribed in the first case unless they had an
interest in what you were going to say.

Those that do not have a web form to collect visitor information
are wondering not only who their visitors are but also why they
are not receiving more traffic. Many businesses do not even use
the free tools that exist such as Google Analytics. With this
simple tool you add one line of code to each page in your site
and instantly you begin to generate traffic statistics you can
study and learn from.

For the few that do use some form of analytics, many do not check
their reports on a regular basis, and so they complain that no
one ever comes to their site and the site was a waste of money in
the first place.

Then I hear the old familiar complaint that the web site looks
great but must be failing because no one comes to visit it. This
is frequently an assumption. Closer examination usually reveals
no sense of search engine optimization. Search engines = free
promotion. But in order to use them effectively you first need to
make sure your web site copy is not only informative and
compelling but also optimized for the right keywords and phrases
that prospects may use to search for you on Google and other
search engines. Using Google Places -- another free tool -- gives
you an enhanced listing on Google but few people pay attention to
it. Using META tags is helpful, too.

Lastly, I hear the old adage that the secret to success online is
in your social marketing. Funny thing about that when last I
checked, the search term "Steve Schneiderman" had over half a
million search results on Google and a lot of them are about me
-- and few if any are related to social marketing. Yes, social
marketing can be an invaluable tool but you need to put
consistent effort into the tools and have something more
meaningful to say to people then to tell them you are sipping a
mocha cappuccino at Starbucks.

So where does this rant lead?

I've been thinking of doing two things to try to help the
greatest number of people in the most affordable way possible.

The first are one-hour Skype sessions -- virtual coaching. Skype
is free and since I am not traveling to meet you, I can lower my
hourly rate substantially to provide you with advice remotely via
Skype. Interested? Email me to set-up an appointment. My normal
hourly billable rate is $200.00/hour but I'll Skype with you for
a low $49.95/hour payable in advance via PayPal to
info@schneiderman.net. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

The second thing I want to do is help to cut through all the BS
online and provide you with a low-cost bundle of knowledge
(ebooks) and tools (software) along with some consulting to help
you either launch something new in a D-I-Y (do-it-yourself) way
or to relaunch something old. This could be an existing product
or service or site or a completely new business.

As you may know, I also own and operate the Cool Tool Awards
product review web site and I have written many ebooks on
marketing as well as developed many software tools to help you
with marketing. I want to put together a bundle of stuff that will
provide high value. Of course, you need to use what you buy to
maximize the ROI, so I will hold you accountable for reading the
material, asking me questions and I will assist you with
implementing the tools and techniques by providing remote support
via email/phone/Skype. There will be a base price for the bundle
of products (ebooks and software) and then a few hours of remote
consulting added in. I'm thinking about something in the $499.00
range. This will help course correct your marketing journey or
get you started on a new one.

Let me know what you think about these ideas. Of course, if you
want a more turnkey solution and have a realistic budget, I'm
willing to provide that solution, too. My list of services is
available on my corporate site at http://www.schneiderman.net

OK, enough for now. Reread the above and think hard about where
you are failing. It's OK to fail and admitting your failing at
something is the beginning of turning it all around and getting
closer to success.

Have a question? Need to talk? Drop me a line at 918-810-5233.


Until next time,

Steven

Schneiderman Marketing, LLC, 1811 South Baltimore, Suite 203, Tulsa, OK 74119, United States