1. Choose what you want to do; stick with a hobby or interest. This means you'll already have good product knowledge and more importantly be passionate about what your doing.
2. Asses the competition; see what they do good and look even more closely at what they do bad. Work out your USP (unique selling point) or competitive edge. This can be something obvious like cheaper prices, better customer service, newer products etc.
3. Brand yourself; your company brand is extremely important and the first part of marketing. Get an appropriate name and get a rough idea of who your appealing to. Do you need a sharp executive logo or a family friendly feel to sell your product?
4. Get a great website; the website should be themed around your brand image. For the layout itself, copy a successful competitor. If you need a web designer then get someone local, you'll need to meet them face to face and make sure you know exactly who your dealing with.
5. Market, shamelessly; Tell everyone you know about your site, add it to every directory and search engine you can find, there are plenty of really good free ones. Get onto related forums and chat rooms, word of mouth is a very effective marketing tool however be sure to abide by forum rules.
6. PR marketing; furthermore you can submit an article about your new business to newspapers, if your savvy enough to be able to get a story printed then you'll have thousands of resultant visitors.
7. Closing sales; Now you need all these people to buy from your site. Don't be arrogant, but tell people about how great your product is, use testimonials, create a need as opposed to a want. Having sales and limited editions creates a sense of URGENCY, people don't like to miss out!
8. Newsletter sales; Offer a free e-mail newsletter on your site where people can put in their e-mail and receive great hints and tips on your area of expertise. Within these e-mails you can suggest some new products and offers etc. Don't be aggressive in your technique though as it will scare off potential and repeat customers.
9. Finally; success comes to those who work hard, which generally most people don't like to do. That means there's less competition ;)
10. Just seemed odd to finish at 9.
TIPS
* Don't be intimidated by big competition, they were at your stage once.
* If your getting plenty of people to your site then make money from advertising.
WARNINGS
* Stay away from affiliate programs, they are cleverly disguised pyramid schemes.
* To get more people to your site link exchange, don't do it with the competition though!
Colm O'Dwyer is a 21-year old inventor/entrepreneur from Glasgow, UK. You can visit http://www.colmodwyer.co.uk for more information. |
No comments:
Post a Comment