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Starting a Survey Monkey Survey

I had the pleasure of spending 3 amazing days with successful internet marketers James Schramko, Peter Parks and Kyle Tully, and all three of them emphasised a very basic technique – Survey your Market, Survey your Customers!

By asking your market and existing customers what they want and need, you can give them exactly what they want and need. Simple!

So, I recorded a step-by-step video of how you can start your own survey online. The easiest way is to get started with a free account, for example with Survey Monkey.

If you enjoyed the video, please leave your comment below and take 2 minutes to fill out my survey for beginning internet marketers.

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By Janna – March 8, 2010

4 Things To Consider Before Starting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Before you jump in and add your business to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all those other cool social media tools for marketing, four important things should be considered so you don’t end up like a dork….

  1. What’s your pitch?
    Instead of using the old elevator pitch – one minute or less, consider your social media pitch: What is your company about in 120 characters or less? Figuring your pitch out beforehand will help you be consistent in your social media message and you’ll know exactly what to say when it’s time to introduce your business.
  2. What are your goals?
    Instead of implementing an overall social media marketing strategy first and then adding your goals, it is much more effective to develop your goals first. Then your goals and ideal outcomes can inform your strategy, not the other way around.
  3. How are you going to be measuring social media marketing?
    Many people say marketing on social media is a more effective way of marketing and advertising. Well, you’re never going to know unless you measure your results. You can follow as many case studies and experienced social media advisers as you like – in social media marketing every case is different and you’re insane if you’re not measuring your social media marketing results.

    I recommend clients follow a set structure to measure their social media marketing results effectively: Goal-Structure-Measurement (more about that in a future post).

  4. How are you going to engage others?
    The reason that many businesses jump on to the social media marketing bandwagon is because “that’s where all the people are”. It’s true, a lot of people participate in social media, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be interested in your business or brand.

    If you’re going to be effective at marketing on social media, you need to work out how to engage customers before hand. Whether you incentives by giving away discounts or freebies, whether you create a loyalty program or rewards for friend-to-friend referrals. Whatever you think will engage customers, I recommend developing a plan beforehand. The last thing you want to happen is for your social media marketing to flop because no one wants to talk to you.

    5. Is there anything you wish you had considered before you jumped into marketing on social media? Leave your comments below.

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Posted in Facebook for business, Social Media Marketing.

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By Janna – November 26, 2009

Introduction to Social Media Marketing 101: What is marketing on social media?

What is social media? Generally speaking social media is user-generated online content that gets shared across communities. It allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Social Media is widely regarded as a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. From an academic point of view, some even regard social media as the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Social media marketing is the act of using social influencers, social media platforms, online communities for marketing, public relations and customer service.

There is a wide range of social media tools to be considered for your social media marketing strategy, and the list changes every day. In summary, social media range from communication (blogs, social networking) and collaboration (Wikipedia, social bookmarking), to multimedia sharing (YouTube, Flickr), reviews, opinions and entertainment.

Which social media tools for marketing?

More social media tools are appearing on the net every day. For business use and social media marketing it is advisable to focus on the most popular social media applications so that your social media marketing strategy can leverage the number of potential customers that can be contacted. Using the most popular social media tools for marketing also allows your business to take advantage of the large number of participants and a well established context for business use.

Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

There is a plethora of reasons, why well established companies are afraid of branching out into social media marketing – they fear the disadvantages of social media marketing could outweigh the advantages.

These disadvantages should be detailed in your business’ social media marketing strategy where the benefits and limitation of social media marketing should be analyzed to determine whether it’s the right strategy for your business, your marketing goals, and your marketing budget.

For many businesses, the time investment required for many social media marketing tools is an alarm bell or a red flag. The time spent marketing on social media should be closely monitored to assess whether the return in website traffic, promotion of your business brand, distribution of your business content, and resulting leads and sales is worth the investment in time and resources.

This is the first post in a series of articles on social media marketing. Are there any particular topics within this series you’d like to know more about? Leave your feedback below.

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Posted in Internet Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing, Take Your Business Online.

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By Janna – November 12, 2009

Traditional Fashion Retailer Witchery Makes Money Online – Why Aren’t You?

If you’re still asking why a business must have a website, consider the following case study:

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald an article outlines how traditional fashion retailer Witchery has turned it’s website into it’s most important and profitable shopfront.

How is that possible, you may ask? Witchery has applied important marketing principles to it’s online marketing strategies and has also engaged an agency specialising in online marketing consultant to benefit from specific internet marketing strategies.

Why have business websites? Here are some of the main considerations:

Massive Return on Investment

In 2007, Witchery Holdings acquired Mimco, an accessory and handbag outlet, which made miniscule sales at them time. After a $100,000 website make-over, the website now turns over $90,000 each month! What a return on investment!

Of course, not everyone has a budget for a $100,000 website make-over, and it’s not even necessary. What this case study illustrates is that you’re leaving money on the table if you’re not taking a piece of the online market.

Engaging Customers

Through it’s online presence, Witchery Holding’s brands have now created additional points of contact with their customers. Whether it’s their monthly newsletter with a subscriber base of 130,000, or their Facebook and Twitter pages, Witchery can keep in constant contact with customers to offer everything from the latest fashion trends to promotional discounts in store.

Give the customer what they want

Monitoring customer’s behaviour through analytics helps the company to improve customer experience. Whether users are looking for a product, a store, or the latest fashion information, it’s the data collected by analytics that help to develop insights and turn the website into the fourth most profitable outlet of the company. Ian Nairn, the chief executive of Witchery Holdings, told the Sydney Morning Herald about the importance of striking a balance between content and commerce, resonating with the common internet marketing principle of giving value before asking customers to buy.

Synergies between online and offline business

In summary, the most important lesson from this case study is that taking your business online doesn’t mean leaving your traditional business behind. In contrast, the purpose of taking your business online is to create a synergy between the two that contributes to your overall profits.

Why have business websites? Are you seriously still asking? The fact is, most Australians are now online and are increasingly more comfortable shopping online too. So whether you’re a retailer, or a traditional brick-and-mortar business, you now know why a business must have a website.

If you want to take your business online too, contact me now for a obligation free consultation to see how your business can also increase profits online.

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Posted in Case Studies, Take Your Business Online.

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By Janna – November 10, 2009

Facebook changes Facebook Groups functionality

The Facebook Groups vs Facebook Pages debate continues to another level as Facebook changes the Facebook Groups functionality to align with the functionality of pages.

Facebook has now officially updated it’s groups to have similar features to pages. However, Facebook maintains that they are still designed to serve different purposes “Groups are for fostering member-to-member collaboration, while Pages remain the best way to broadcast messages to your fans if you are a business, organization, public figure or other entity” (Source: Official Facebook Blog).

For my clients, I maintain the recommendation to use Facebook Pages for businesses and brands. One of the main contributing factors in this recommendation is that Groups have a limit if 5,000 members.

If you have any questions on the use of Facebook for business, the difference between Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages, or simply want to share your own experience, please leave a comment below.

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By Janna – October 21, 2009

Internet Marketing Tools

When you get started online, there are some essential internet marketing tools that should be in your internet marketing toolbox.

There are so many types of internet marketing tools, so here are just a few of them: email autoresponder provider, domain name registration services, cheap domain name registration, best places to register a domain name, domain name registration Australia, website hosting services and specifically Australia website hosting.

Free internet marketing tools?

A lot of people will try and get everything for free when they’re starting out online. That is not the approach I take. I will let you in on a little secret and tell you why:

  1. This is your business. If you’re growing a business there will be some costs associated to it. If you treat online marketing as a business, it will grow as a business too.
  2. It’s not actually free! Although you’re not paying for it, someone else is spending either money or time to provide this service to you. If you’re not paying upfront, it’s likely you’ll be paying at some other time.
  3. You’re paying for service and support. If you’re new to internet marketing, then you probably need some guidance, service and support. Even those who have been in internet marketing for a while, often use the service and support function. So decide for yourself, is it worth paying a little extra knowing that you will get guidance, service and support?

New page on Internet Marketing Tools

I have just added a new page to this blog on internet marketing resources. On this page I recommend the providers I have previously used and am currently using. This includes email autoresponder provider, domain name registration services, cheap domain name registration, best places to register a domain name, domain name registration Australia, website hosting services and specifically Australia website hosting.

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By Janna – September 18, 2009

Creating a Website or Blog? Free Webinar

I have been talking to many people about marketing their business online. Marketing is an essential part of any business and helps you generate new leads, let people know about your product and service, and if you’re really good, it will help you establish yourself as the ‘Go-To Expert’ in your field.

Some of the questions I often get asked when people first think about taking their business online is: Should I be creating a website or blog? Which is better blog or website? Is a blog or website better for search engines?

To answer your questions, I would look at your desired outcome and assess your ‘business lifestyle’. There is no one solution to whether you should be creating a website or blog.

Free Webinar on Setting up a website or blog

I will be presenting a free Webinar this Thursday, 17th September 2009, at 6.30pm (AEST) to answer your questions on setting up a website or blog. Please register here if you’re still not sure which is better blog or website.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/232368914

Please click on the link to register for the Webinar. It is absolutely free and you will discover some amazing marketing benefits to help excel business and online marketing!

Register now and please also to invite your colleagues or associates if they could also benefit from learning more about setting up a website or blog and getting started online!

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By Janna – September 13, 2009

5 Simple Tips How To Use Facebook For Business

If you think facebook is only for teeny boppers and college kids, you need to open your eyes. Using facebook for business is the hottest way to build longer lasting relationships with your customers and generate heaps of traffic to your website and blog. If you’re wondering how to use facebook for business, follow these 5 facebook tips for business use:

Model your competition

If you’re not sure whether using facebook is appropriate for your business, I would advise you to see what other businesses are doing online that you could model. Does your competition have a facebook page or a facebook group? Are they using facebook for business, to generate traffic, to pre-sell their customers?

Determine what your outcome is, then look at businesses who are similar to yours and want to achieve the same outcome. Model them.

Build relationships

One of the major advantages of using facebook for business (or other social media for that matter) is the way you can interact with potential (and current) customers. Build relationships by engaging in the dialogue. Ask your customers what they like and expect before selling to them. Remember, one of the most important facebook tips for business use is to build trust. Once customers trust you, they will be likely to engage with the products in the top of your marketing funnel, especially if they’re free.

Be consistent

Like Blogging, being consistent in your interaction and presentation on facebook is one of the most important considerations when determining how to use facebook for business. There’s no point posting 25 notes this week, if you won’t be posting anything else in the next 2 months. The consistency of your engagement is one of the key facebook tips for business use.

If you’re already consistently chewing out content elsewhere online, consider connecting your blog to facebook to create an RSS feeds through your notes, or connect your Twitter account to facebook to syndicate status updates.

Make an offer

Many businesses wonder why the friends, fans and group members aren’t flooding in, as soon as they register on facebook. The answer is simple – you need to make an offer for users to engage with you.

Whether the offer is an association with your cool brand or business, a free report or eBook download, valuable interaction and tips from other group members or fans. The bottom line is – it has to be to someone else’s advantage to engage with your business on facebook.

Measure ROE

The most fundamental rule in using facebook for business is to measure the return on engagement. If you’re spending 5 hours a week on facebook and getting two new leads for your business, it’s not worth it. You’d probably be better of making 5 hours worth of cold calls.

So be sure to measure how much time, money and other resources you spend using facebook for business, and analyse whether you’re getting a good return. That said, give your trial on how to use facebook for business a little time to work – just because you only got 10 new fans the first week (and one of them was your Mom), it doesn’t mean you should stop trying to figure it out.

The fact is, facebook has over 150 million users and is continuing to grow, so it’s well worth your time figuring out how to use facebook for business. After all, you want to be where your customers already are, right?

What are your best facebook tips for business use? And was this post helpful? Please leave your comment below.

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By Janna – September 10, 2009

Free White Paper on Search Engine Optimization

As my background is in writing, and I have written many white papers for other businesses, I thought a white paper would be the best way to explain the benefits of taking your business online.

Please download your free white paper on search engine optimization, search engine marketing, increasing targeted traffic and leads and customers for your business.

You can download the white paper “How you can generate leads, customers and more business while leaving your competitors in the dust” here.

Please leave a comment with your feedback below.

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By Janna – September 4, 2009

Outsourcing Your Online Business Optimization

If this sounds way too complicated, and you’d rather spend time with your business and your customers, consider outsourcing your online business optimization to a professional.

Whether you decide to partner with an agency or an individual, here are some key points to consider when choosing  a partner to optimize your website :

Proven Results

Unfortunately the internet has become infamous for the amount of spam and deceit that is going on. Therefore, it’s vitally important to partner with someone who can deliver proven results and knows how to optimize your website – and will meet the outcomes you desire. Whether you want to increase your website traffic, have tons of potential leads, create a massive email list or find additional streams of income.

If you’re really lucky you might even find someone who can give you a guarantee and will work for you until they have delivered results.

Professional

Although the internet is famous for bringing us 15 year old millionaires, that’s no excuse for partnering with someone who is not professional. After all, they are working to on your online business optimization to improve your business. You deserve to know they will be professional, organized and meet your agreed deadlines when they optimize your website.

Long-term relationship

Building your online presence won’t happen overnight. And when it does happen, it will need to be maintained. Therefore you’re well advised to choose and agency or individual you can develop a long-term relationship with. After all, they’re working to improve your business, so you’d better get along.

If you’re considering outcoursing your online business optimization to a professional, contact Get Started Online now for a free online positioning report (normally valued at $497).

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By Janna – September 3, 2009