Internet Marketing: It’s not about traffic, its about sales!

All too often, when I read or listen to these so-called “Internet Marketing Experts”, they talk about how much your web traffic will increase by 1000%. How important is it if you got 1 million visitors to your site from Batswana looking for a gadget/ product A when you sell product Z in Toronto. The bottom line: business is all about sales, and internet marketing should be no different.
Internet marketing today has made huge strides. It’s no longer about just getting someone, anyone, to your web site and hoping they’ll order something or pick up the phone. Yet, when I look at many organizations' internet marketing strategies, they're still following that old belief.



These organizations need to have different goals for different people. For instance:

• A salesperson may want to generate leads via the Internet in order to eliminate cold calling, while handling the rest of the sales process with traditional face-to-face appointments.
• A small business owner may want to generate leads in a similar fashion as the salesperson above in order to free up the owner’s time to do what he does best – servicing customers.
• An independent professional such as an attorney or accountant, who has no sales ability and no time to learn, nor does he want to learn, may want to attract new, high-quality clients via the Internet.
• A prospective author may want to use the Internet to sell an e-book online and develop that initial success into something larger.
• A musician or band may want to get exposure on the Internet to gain a fan base and get discovered by a major record label.
• A concerned citizen may want to use the Internet to further a political agenda.
• A budding entrepreneur may want to achieve her dream of becoming financially free, and never have to work for someone else again.

For an Internet marketing strategy to keep-up in today's economy, it must be dynamic and evolve. It’s no longer about simply getting someone to a web site and hoping they’ll buy. You need to have an end-measureable goal that translates in personal or professional success.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of current marketing strategies. Most or all of these will be utilized by a highly successful Internet marketer:

• Traffic generation
• E-mail marketing
• Lead capture and follow-up
• Product creation
• Building credibility
• Getting press and publicity
• Building buzz around you and/or your product(s)
• Podcasting
• Online video
• Blogging
• Social media usage
• Tweeting
• Creating expert status
• Building a loyal following/fan-base
• Writing effective sales copy
• Affiliate marketing
• Joint Ventures
• Viral Marketing
• Contests
• High-volume product launch strategy
• Membership sites
• Recurring continuity products
• Web site structure
• Increasing conversion rate
• Up-sells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Testing and tracking
• Pay-per-click marketing
• Cost-per-action marketing
• Back-end products

Depending on what you want to achieve, you may use all or only a few of these techniques. A salesperson that works for a corporation and who simply wants to generate leads without cold calling is going to need only about half of the techniques in the above list. Someone like myself, however, who wants to make huge amounts of money on autopilot, is going to use everything listed above and plus much more.
On the other hand, salespeople who are to generate leads and nothing more will be surprised at how much of this list will apply to them. Just because you’re not a business owner yourself doesn’t mean you can’t use the same powerful tools they do!
The take-home message: remember to have a specific measureable and profitable goal. Over the years, I have read about, put into practice, and managed and trained many people to develop SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable and Timely) goals. The one thing I have learned about Internet Marketing is that the unbelievable is achievable in less time than believed. But you need to know what your Internet marketing goals are. Write them down. Make them specific. Don’t say, “I want to stop cold calling.” Aim big and be specific, e.g. to achieve 300% of your quota without cold calling. Don’t say state: "I want to get rich on the Internet. Again, make the goal specific: Decide on an exact amount you hope to make, don't be afraid to convert your goals into tangible rewards to build your ideal lifestyle - turning that dream car or home into reality can be a great motivator!
What are your specific goals? Now double it. Think big!


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