Why is it that some business owners pour thousands of dollars into their online marketing efforts to see little or no return on their investment, while others seem to do exactly the same thing yet reap tremendous rewards?
SEPARATING THE men from the boys is a pre-determined success formula. Smart business owners have a plan.
Follow the Six Steps to Success and you are guaranteed to see a major difference to your bottom line as you watch your returns on investment in your marketing budget increase exponentially.
- Strategise
Plan your online strategy and, most importantly, know your outcome. Always start with the end in mind. Spend time creating your marketing strategy for the content that you display and devise a formula that encompasses all facets of your online presence. Have a plan for your website that involves all your social media content, and be prepared for how you will relate and interact with your networks.Make sure that you also develop marketing plans relating to your online and offline content. Everything should supplement and complement your overall outcome. Success is so much easier when you focus on a structured outcome. - Prioritise
What’s the use of running if you’re not on the right road? (German proverb)Work out what’s important to the success of your business. What are you great at and where should you be spending the majority of your time? What tasks are you prepared to let go of and delegate? Calculate what has the highest return on the investment of your time and money, and work out exactly what you want and what you need to do to achieve those goals. Always be clear about what is most important to get you to your end goals.Monitor what gets results. Test your content. An essential way of testing your content is to install Google Analytics on your website. Write an article, distribute it through your marketing funnel and see how many ‘hits’ you get on the article. Learn what parts of your marketing are working. Always ask people how they found you.The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss1 teaches you to be disciplined and to value your time. It gives solid advice and suggestions on how to free up your time and make more money in the process. I suggest that you buy this book and incorporate some of the principles; simple things, like delegating tasks to someone you can pay to finish for you. Another suggestion is to check your emails only three times a day. You will be astounded at the effect the suggestions in this book will have on your precious time resources.
“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
- Organise
Sort through your content. It must be relevant, so consider what is topical in the news. What are some great stories that people will be interested in? What will help you to be found on Google? Organise your content into topics or niches; there’s no point in having a system if you are not organised. The idea is to stay focused on your outcome, but remain flexible in your approach. Once we strategise, prioritise and organise, it’s amazing how people say we are lucky with our results. - Systemise
Develop a plan. Model other successful people or businesses and their systems. Reuse your content and determine how you will distribute it. Remember to stick to your plan; develop your system then get your people to run your systems. - Monetise
How will you obtain a return for your investment of time and money? How can you monitor the effectiveness of your efforts? How many appraisals, listings and sales have you made as a result of your plan? Be sure to track the amount invested and how this has resulted in future income. - Energise
As a business owner you may need to work in your business, but make sure you are always working on your business. Resetting your business goals can give you not only purpose and direction but a new motivation. Unsuccessful business owners are not necessarily lazy; they simply have goals that do not inspire them.
1 Tim Ferris will be speaking at AREC15 this year. To book tickets go to visitarec.com.
