You’re Not Ready for Internet Marketing

You’re Not Ready for Internet Marketing.  It’s something we say too often. Before you do anything with internet marketing, do what anyone should do to be successful, “follow the leader.”  What firm in your field is doing the best job of converting visitors to their website into customers, fans, and advocates?  What tools are they using? Are those tools integrated into the daily operation of their business or group? While researching the competition’s online presence also look at the functionality of “signing up” and the auto-response, and follow up you receive. Do they call you? Also look forward. Locate new products and services to the marketplace and look for umbrella programs that integrate new and dynamic features into sales, payroll, inventory, returns, project management, email, internet, and social media marketing, customer resource management, customer service, and organic SEO.  Certain programs for e-commerce already do all these things. Many small businesses and entrepreneurs are already running their entire operations an Ipads. They can manage inventory, sales, projections, abandoned carts, customer resource management, marketing, promotions, and more. So before you start spending money online make sure your back-end is ready to process the orders and sign-ups. Start with the CRM and accounting software. Figure out which donation plug-in and other unique, interactive, and functional features you’d like. Once those items are selected you’ll understand what needs to go into the ‘engine’ that runs your business. Then build the engine with the internet in mind from the beginning. When that’s completed then build a website around it that’s integrated into a mobile platform. It has to look good and work well. If others in your industry are using similar tools and they like them then your odds of success are better and you’re not going into this so blindly.  You can even call them to ask sometimes. This is a bottom-up approach to building any successful business. Common knowledge and conventional wisdom say that if the back-end of your business integrates with your client facing portal, aka, website, and social media accounts, then you’ve poured a solid foundation for business growth.  When that’s done select the best ‘skin’ for this new sports car, insert measurement tools, test and test and test, especially on your smart phone, and your done with Step One.  Now your ready for Step Two.