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Using The Internet and Your Own Step-by-Step,Turn-key
System To Get More Customers Coming To You! Part One
by Amy Amsden –NBS Network Business School
The holiday rush is over; you’ve eaten the last of the cookies, stored away the
glittery fancy wrapping paper and bows, and with any luck, finished paying your
holiday bills. Ah, time to relax, kick back, and wait a minute; how can you
combat the post-holiday blues?
How about implementing a tested and proven new turn-key method of locating
pre-qualified leads? Methods that are inexpensive, and allow you complete
control over the process; not another company or person. Your very own
prospecting lead "system".
This article will spell out the first part Network Business School’s exclusively developed process that will teach you how to set up this successful lead
system.
Many individuals who come to our seminars are searching for a successful way to
get more clients, make more money, or sell products using the Internet. Others
come to the seminar to see if the Internet is something that they even want to
get involved with.
More often than not, many people are misinformed about how to use a website.
This is due largely in part to the massive amount of misinformation they have
received from peers, TV, radio, magazines, web-sites, or other sources of
incomplete information. As a result, most people are very confused about how to
effectively market, and overwhelmed with tons of choices. Unfortunately, they
end up with dismal results and end up yanking their website without ever
learning an effective way to use it.
Let’s start the New Year off with a different outlook of the Internet and help
some of you put this marketing on the web into perspective. First of all, this
article is not for the .01 percent that we all hear about who become Internet
geniuses, or the other .01 percent who, for whatever reason, hop on the
Internet, stumble upon a great website idea, and make it big. And then there’s
the other .01 percent that are just savvy know-it-alls that leave us with the
impression that everyone and anyone can do exactly what they do, and make it
big like them.
This article is for the rest of us who are grappling for a clue to cut through
the overload of misinformation. Heck, we just want to know how to get new
customers and make more money; not get a degree in Internet skills.
A common situation that creates Internet misunderstanding is when a company
offers you a free website. The idea is to help people by using a company
replicated site, thus promoting the company as the reason to join. Many
companies offer their clients a free website.(Like a real estate company, MLM,
or medical) Oftentimes, FREE can be a two-edged sword, and this is no time to
be stabbing yourself.
Because most businesses will do ANYTHING to get a new customer, they send
potential prospects to these sites and then can’t figure out or understand why
no one wants to buy or use their products or services. What happens is the
prospect visits the site, and then is confused about all of the information
that is placed there by an over zealous techie computer nerd that has no clue
about who our prospects are or what they really want.
We have all heard that the Internet is an excellent place to sell product all
over the world, and all we have to do is get on the web and our lives become a
Mecca for money and prosperity like no other time in history. Ok, and we all
have the opportunity to climb on a spaceship right now and go to the moon. So,
let's come back to earth for some exciting information that most of you can use
right now, and start to locating customers right where you are: in your own
back yard. No matter how technical our world may become, marketing is about
relationships and the Internet is just another tool for making contact with others.
You do not have to own a computer to use the Internet
In order to use an Internet marketing system, you must have access to email.
This is how your leads will come in from prospects. There are a few ways to get
email service. If you do not own a computer, you can use a friend’s computer,
one at a library, or go to a copy/print store that has a computer hooked up to
the Internet that you can pay to use by the hour. There are plenty of free
email programs available such as hotmail.com and yahoo.com.
If you choose to work from home and have a computer, then you can get free
email for a few months from AOL to dial up and connect to the Internet. You can
also connect to a local ISP (Internet service provider). Just ask some friends
what company they use, or look one up in the Yellow Pages. You can get
high-speed cable, DSL, even satellite now. This company will provide an email
address for you to use. Once you have figured out how to get email, you can
begin laying out your system.
Putting together a real simple system you can use
STEP ONE- Your Domain Name
You must think of a domain name for your homepage.
The domain name will be your homepage’s Internet address. It has a number
assigned to it that helps the computers find your site. This is what people
will type in to their address bar on the computer to get to your website. For
ex: InternetMarketingSystems.biz. You would type in http://www.
InternetMarketingSystems.biz. You don’t have to type in the http.//www. Just
typing in the actual domain is fine.
Every day people call our office all excited about their free new company
self-replicated page. Their main question is; how do I market it? Unfortunately
that is a difficult task to explain. Marketing your site has to start with the
actual domain name. Let’s say you have a company replicated page and the domain
name is http://www.companydomainname.com/~/janedoe. What kind of picture does
that put into yours or the prospect’s mind? If you see a picture of confusion
in your mind; welcome to what your prospect sees. Like who cares! Nowhere in
the domain name is a dripping benefit statement that would have me or anyone
else scrambling for a computer to see what it the opportunity is all about.
Now let’s take “exciting-paychecks.com.” See the difference? You can easily
market a site like this because your prospects see money in their mind. Let’s
apply the billboard test. You are driving down the highway in your red VW and
it is rush-hour traffic. You drive by a billboard with a picture of a fistful
of cash and the headline reads, " FREE $1,000 to every person driving a
red VW today. Go to http://www.companydomainname.com/~/janedoe. Unfortunately,
you couldn’t remember the domain name and the traffic was too heavy to turn
around. If this were your domain name, how many years would it take for someone
to remember your domain name?
Register your domain name
To see if a domain name is available, you can go to Dotster.com. They have a
domain name search link free to use.
Once you have decided what domain name you want to use, the next step is to get
it registered. I use Dotster.com or Directnic.com. I’ll put a link to the sites
from my main website soon. There are many registrar companies out there- I
recommend staying away from third-party resellers.
There are a few ways to do this.
-Do it yourself: Go to one of many domain registration companies. You
need to know the DNS numbers(name servers)- you get them from the company you
will host your site with. It can be a real headache to transfer the information
to your hosting company, and we’ve had some transfers take a month! But we can
help you with that process.
-Find a web company to do it for you. They will charge you a fee for
registering a domain name.
-Have the company you will be hosting with register the domain name for you.
They should include this service free as part of the package. This is the
easiest method and can save a lot of aggravation for everyone in the long run.
Many marketers have a few domain names registered that all end up at the same
site. This allows them to use various advertisements depending on the market
they are targeting.
STEP TWO- Build An Effective Homepage
Another very important part of your site is deciding what exactly it is you
want your site to do. In this case, it is to get people to the site to build up
a contact database.. After asking our clients a few questions, we quickly find
out that the majorities want a simple site that will pre-sell and pre-qualify
their prospects while getting their prospects to fill out a registration form.
Having decided that, you are going to have to settle in and be willing to go
through some trial and error.
When the purpose of your site is defined, this will keep your prospect focused
on your message. There is nothing wrong with having a website that explains
every aspect of your business. You just have to keep in mind that if you give
your prospect too much to look at, they will become confused and might not make
any decision at all. This is a common dilemma businesses share; prospects come
into the site and they are confused by the massive information overload.
To develop a successful homepage that a) brings your visitors in, b) explains
the purpose of the site, and c) sorts, pre-qualifies, and educates them d)
sells product -takes practice. Your visitors get the information they need to
determine if they are interested enough to register. This will sort them and
pre-qualify the people you want to talk to. From this point, the prospects are
ready for you to contact them personally to begin the follow-up process.
A simple yet very effective approach is a pull-through sales letter that keeps
your prospects focused and moving in one direction. A sales letter approach has
been used effectively by many different professions to sort for the interested
prospects. If you have ever received a letter from a stockbroker, insurance
salesman, or Bankcard Company, then you have seen this approach used. They make
simple, realistic offers, use headlines and free gifts to get you to send for
their information.
These letters rarely include all of the different aspects of the company they
are representing. Just the things you need to know so you respond right now.
What is it that you want your prospects to do? Let’s be realistic about this question.
Is to try and overload them with too much information, or is it to get them to
the nearest registration page?
STEP THREE: Advertising and Marketing Your Homepage Locally.
Marketing your site doesn’t have to be difficult if you understand what you are
up against. The problem, as it was stated before, is the amount of
misinformation that we receive on a daily basis. Most people simply do not have
the time or desire to learn all there is to know to use the Internet
effectively. Let’s look at one really good reason to concentrate your efforts
on using the Internet to sponsor locally.
The Search/Keyword Dilemma –
Here is where a lot of people are getting misguided information. The big
buzzword is to get found on search engines; or to get placed high up in a
search so you will be found easier. Let’s put this into perspective. You have
probably heard about the importance of getting placed in the top 30 to 40
positions of search engines. If not, you will soon enough. In the mean time,
let’s take a look at this situation logically.
There are basically 10 search engines most commonly used (Lycos, Yahoo,
Webcrawler, Excite, etc.). Within those search engines people want to end up in
the top 30 – 40 search positions. That works out to about 300 – 400 top
positions for any keyword category. Let’s say you retail New DVDs. In other
words, " New DVDs" would be a keyword we would want to use. That
means that only 300 – 400 people could possibly use " New DVDs " as a
keyword to fill those positions. Then you have to ask yourself about all of the
other keywords used and how effective they would be.
We don’t want to burst too many people’s bubbles, but there are already
hundreds of thousands, of people on the Internet all wanting to use these top
300 – 400 positions. And how many actual words are there anyway? Is it
impossible to place high in a search? Of course not. You have to determine your
own experience, and amount of time you want to put into the learning process.
In the long run, your time could be used much more efficiently. There are many
companies out there you can pay who can help you with Search engine advertising
and optimization. I have a few I recommend. Whether a small budget- to a large
budget- there is something for everyone.
Of course there are many other ways to use the Internet to locate potential
prospects; if you want to compete with all of the other billion or so
businesses on the Internet. Some of these methods are Classified Ads,
Auto-responders, Banners, ICQ or Chat programs, Newsgroups, Spam mail,
Discussion Groups and online newsletters. These are all methods we can discuss
in other articles.
For most of us, using the Internet to sponsor locally can make a major
difference in building our business successfully. Specifically directing
someone to your site is very effective. You can control who comes to your site,
and ultimately whom you choose to work with.
Targeting your market
There are many effective ways to drive local prospects to your site. As we
stated earlier, you must have a good domain name to put a picture into your
prospect’s mind. A good opening statement before the domain name is also very
important. Then you can use any of the following local methods to drive traffic
to your site.
Business cards, Letterhead, Bumper Stickers, Magnetic Signs, Promotional Items,
Cable TV, Radio, Print News Ads, Postcards, even billboards.
We are just messengers. The better we get at being messengers the more
effective our local marketing campaign will be. Let’s take the simple, yet effective
method of sending postcards. You do not want to use a cheesy postcard you have
made on your computer. However, using less expensive postcards to test
headlines will cut your expenses. Once the effective headlines are tested, then
use them on the more costly postcards.
Look for a good lifestyle postcard. Let’s say you are an Investor, Broker, or
Network Marketer looking for people to join your business. You want to create a
“Lifestyle” feeling. Examples: You standing on the golf course getting ready to
chip one in; or one with you and your family walking on the beach, looking for
sea shells. Or how about a golf course with the words, "My Office"
printed on the bottom?
In other words, use a postcard with a photo of you doing something fun and
exciting, or a picture of a beach. Under your picture you can put something
like "This is what I do when I am working". On the back of the card
just ask a simple question such as, "Is your paycheck too small" or
"Is your career what you thought it would be after college". How
about, "There is more to life then 9 to 5", visit makemoneyhere.com.
*Here is something very important- Offer a FREE gift if they visit
your site.
People love to get things for free. Be careful, you can waste a lot of money on
freebie-seekers, that’s why screening your prospects is very important to your
budget.
You can buy a mailing list of anyone who has a license on file with the state
where you live. Drs, Attorneys, Massage Therapists, Realtors,Etc. How you get
a list from the state varies from state to state. What you want to do is just
think laterally. Who do you think would have more access to a computer; a
backhoe operator, or an Attorney? This will help you determine to whom to send
the post card.
Another method you can use is an auto phone dialer. These are used by
politicians, home improvement businesses, construction companies, various
telemarketing companies and ad agencies, to name a few. They can make up to
8000 phone calls a day automatically. The message you program on these machines
should be simple. For example: "Would you like to make money from home?
Visit makemoneyhere.com. If you are looking for a method to make money at home,
visit makemoneyhere.com, that’s m-a-k-e-m-o-n-e-y-h-e-r-e-.-com (spell it out)
get your FREE gift". Every state has their own criteria for using these
machines, so you will need to check into it where you live.
A simple magnetic sign placed on the side of your car or truck can be very
effective. You can purchase two magnetic signs at Office Depot for approx.
$60.00 and drive around town all day. Make sure your message is very clear and
easy to read : "There is more to life than 9 to 5. Visit makemoneyhere.com
FREE Gift (whatever it is).
The other local methods we listed are other inexpensive ways to advertise for
little or no money. The nice thing about local market advertising is the
opportunity to work with people close to where you live. The true definition of
building a local group of clients; creating a new warm market in your own area.
Ok, so we’ve laid out the first three steps to creating your own local lead
prospecting system. Even if you build your business from across the globe, you
still have to learn local marketing techniques.
Till next time-
Enjoy Life Today While Building For the Future
Amy
Fortunemaker
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