Reply To: I Am Very New to Internet Marketing, Where Should I Start?
I believe you must start by first defining your business. This has several components and without this you don’t have a focus and tend to go round and round in circles
- Define Your Business
- Recognize Your Brand / Vision & Share It
- Know Yourself, Your Strengths & Weaknesses And Making Them Work For You
- Find a Connection with your Audience and solve their problems
I think there are several things you need to do before you start so here is my summary.
Define Your Business
Defining Your Business means creating a Business Plan
The plan (it should be no more than 1-2 Pages in length) defines your business, so when you take action you can check back and say “Does this task work within my business or take me away from my core business plan, values and beliefs? If the answer is YES then go go go… If NO, then how can you adjust it or just remove it to continue on your plan.
Ask yourself:
- Do you sell products or services?<br />List them and give details, including that problems are they going to solve. If you don’t solve a problem that why do your customers come to you. For example as a fitness coach you may what to help people get fit, but that not a problem. Less look at this group – 40 year old women are finding it hard to loss weight because they children are growing up and they are not as active, but the are still busy. So their Pain Points are being less active but still time poor. To solve their problem you could create a product that gives a great workout in a short time.
- Why do you want to do this?
What will motivate you to do the hard work to achieve the success you want, what is your end goal - Are you going to work on this Full-time or Part-time?
- How are you going to monetize it?
Examples: Coaching Clients, Retreats, Courses, Books, Seminars, Webinars to name a few ways. - How can you scale your business to reach more people if you don’t invest in it?
Maybe start with a free book to build a list, then a small course or service and then a bigger one etc. If you are working one on one is there a way to reach more people?
Recognize Your Brand / Vision & Share It
You might not need or want brand recognition to the extent of the big labels such as CocoCola, but you do need a basic look and continuity where possible.
You also need to share you look and vision with as many people, platforms or places as possible, because if you build they won’t come you have to find and engage with them.
When you think of a Brand, you may think of the big ones such as Coco Cola, Nike or McDonalds, but a brand can be created for a small business. Here are some of the things you need to create a brand.
Who is the audience you are talking to and what do you want to convey.
If your audience is 20-30-year-old Males, then your look would be different to 50-60-year-old females. Understand what you want them to think of your business – for example, it is fun, serious or thought-provoking?
What colours are you using and why?
Do your colours work online, do they work in print, and are they attractive you your audience?
Do You have a logo?
Getting a logo created that will be relatable to your audience and with your colour scheme. It is important as it is an instant way for your business to be recognised. It also adds credibility to your brand.
Are you Portraying Your Business or Yourself consistently?
Is the message you are giving out the same all the time. Think of some of the bigger brands or business celebrities they have a ‘look’ that works for them, for example, Tony Robbins is known as a great no-nonsense sort of guy, totally passionate and motivational. Oprah is known to be compassionate, caring and determined.
You would never see them out partying and rolling around drunk. Why, because they understand that it would damage their brand.
Knowing Yourself, Your Strengths & Weaknesses And Making Them Work For You
This can be very confronting because sometimes you think you have it all together. In fact, the opposite may be the case, and after you acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, you can find solutions to make them work for you. Make sure you do this as it is important, instead of just pretending they are not there or they may be an issue now or in the future.
For example: One of my traits is being Enthusiastic (I am in 100% in whatever I am doing) this a great strength and I can get very deep into what I am doing and will take the extra time to work things out. Looking at being Enthusiastic as a weakness could mean I tend to neglect other parts of my business or burnout over that one task instead of finding balance. By being aware of this trait, I make sure I schedule my time.
Another example is your strength could be that you are very knowledgeable on a particular subject so as a strength your client is going to get value for money. But, as a weakness, you must be aware of not giving them more information than they are ready for.
Otherwise, they may be overwhelmed and probably not come back to you. This could mean the value you have given them is lost, and for you, a client is lost. Now, decide what you can do to make the most of your strengths and counteract your weakness.
Find a Connection with your Audience and solve their problems
Finding your audience, the people who connect with your brand or vision is what helps you to take your action to reach your goal.
As the saying goes nobody is an Island and what that means is you can’t do this alone, you need to connect either to your customers, people that will help your vision grow and to people that are like-minded so you can work together to achieve more.
Finding out where your target audience can be found. Then the next step is simply to engage by answering questions, comments and generally becoming part of the community.
Becoming part of communities respectfully and engaging without an agenda allows you to be more genuine and valued in the eyes of your audience. Isn’t this the Goal!
Ok that’s my thoughts and I hope this helps 🙂
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