Welcome to this training series I call “Six Essential Tools Every Marketer Needs”…
If you are new to the online marketing scene, or even if your are a seasoned veteran, I believe that you will find something here that you can use to build your business.
This is a text- based training… kinda like reading a how-to book.
So, let’s get started…
6 Essential Tools – Overview
Once again, I want to first emphasize that this guide is targeted for the “newbie” marketer… I want to make it as easy to follow as possible. But I also want to make it known that even experienced marketers will benefit.
Every online marketer needs tools to accomplish their goals… that’s a given. But what are the bare minimum tools needed?
This guide presents a list of the 6 essential tools every marketer needs… YOU can build an entire marketing empire with these tools alone.
Here is the process I will follow… in this introduction I will briefly introduce you to the six essential tools. Then, I will break down each tool separately with an in-depth analysis in separate posts.
Tool #1 – Your Own Website
The first tool needed to create a successful web business is your own website. Although most affiliate and network marketing companies will gladly provide you with a replicated website to promote, it will be identical to that of every other person across the planet who happens to be marketing that same product or company. Some companies will even charge you for this website.
What will distinguish you from these hundreds or thousands of other marketers out there? What will make YOU stand out?
What YOU need is your own unique website that YOU own and control… a website that brands YOU as the business owner.
Tool #2 – Your Own Autoresponder Account
Most marketing companies provide their distributors with tools to manage and contact prospects. However, the leads that you have generated through your marketing activities can only be contacted through that companies back office.
What happens if you leave that company? What happens if you want to present a different business or product to the lead you have generated? What happens if that company goes out of business? It’s happened to me… twice… thank goodness I was using my own autoresponder. It is essential for your business success that you build your own marketing list that you own and control.
Yes, what YOU need is an email delivery system that automatically sends out emails to YOUR prospects 24/7… a system that YOU control. That automatic email delivery system is called an autoresponder.
Tool #3 – Your Own Squeeze Page
A squeeze page is a simple one page website that has one purpose: to capture a visitor’s contact information and add them to a follow-up email message set (see #4).
The best marketers keep the content on their squeeze page focused on this one objective. Any additional content or links will invite the visitor to “click away” and leave the site, losing the opportunity to get that all important contact information.
The most important thing about this “squeeze page”, again, is that it is your own unique website… you own and control it… and your squeeze page is integrated with YOUR autoresponder.
Tool #4 – Your Follow-up Message Set
It has been proven that most buyers do not purchase the first time they see a product, opportunity, or service. In fact, it may take as many as 7 follow up presentations to close the deal.
A good follow-up message set is an essential part of any marketing campaign.
A follow-up message set is simply a set of emails that have been loaded to an autoresponder account, ready to be delivered sequentially to the subscribers of that particular marketing list.
The follow-up messages need to provide great content… they need to be entertaining… and they need to focus on the benefits that the marketer’s product, opportunity, or service will provide to the customer.
The follow-up messages are also the vehicle that the marketer uses to cultivate a positive trust relationship and with the potential customer.
Tool #5 – Traffic Generation
Let me ask you this… what good does it do to build the best marketing website ever if nobody ever sees it?
Focusing targeted traffic to your squeeze page is what starts the marketing funnel, building leads and then sales.
What is traffic? Simply put, visitors to your website is also called “traffic”.
What is targeted traffic? Visitors who arrive at your site who already have an interest in what you are presenting… that is targeted traffic.
Tool #6 – Your Ad Tracking Software
This is the final tool in your arsenal… your ad tracker. Ad tracking software puts the “science” in your advertising efforts.
Ad Tracking software may be installed on your computer or on your website… or it may be handled by an online tracking service provider. The function of the ad tracker is to provide you with the following critical information:
- Determine the number of times a particular link has been clicked.
- Determine if those clicks were unique… or was the link clicked multiple times by the same visitor.
- Determine where those clicks originated… what website “referred” those clicks to your squeeze page, for example.
- Determine country, city, or state of origin for the clicks.
- Compare two different versions of your squeeze page… which page gets more clicks, version “A” or “B”.
All of this information will help you to evaluate your advertising efforts.
Additional Tools
What about Word Processors? FTP Software? Video Software? PowerPoint?
Yes, there are a multitude of tools out there that marketers use every day. However, I am not including those in this guide… not because they are not important or not used by online marketers… they are, every day.
What I am looking at here, though, are tools that are specific to successful online marketers.
Next up… an in depth look at tool #1: Your Own Website
