Part 6a - The 5 Laws of Internet Marketing
Apply these laws to your Internet marketing efforts, and you're bound to generate more leads and more business for your efforts.
Internet Marketing Law #1 - Traffic is Only an Opportunity
My first law of Internet marketing states that website traffic is only that ... traffic. Until something is imposed upon it, traffic will remain traffic. In order for traffic to be of value, it must be converted into something else. Hence the term, "website conversion."
Let's imagine you have a lemonade stand beside a busy highway. But your stand is located on a narrow shoulder of the road where there's not enough room for cars to pull over. All day long, cars whiz by you at 45 miles per hour. Most of them look at you as they pass, but nobody stops. You have an endless supply of traffic, but your lemonade stand is a failure because nobody stops to buy from you. The traffic is right there in front of you, but it might as well be a million miles away.
The lesson? Opportunity only favors those who capitalize on it.
Now let's get back to marketing online. If your website or blog has plenty of traffic but no form of lead generation / sales generation, then most of your traffic will pass right by ... like those cars passing the lemonade stand.
So before you fall into the typical trap of obsessing over your website traffic levels, ask yourself this: "What am I doing to capitalize on the traffic I already have? How am I actively converting traffic into leads, or generating sales and inquiries?"
Law #2 - Value and Response are Proportional
In the previous "law," we talked about the importance of website conversion. But equally important is the value behind your conversion program. Your website visitors will remain anonymous until you present something useful and valuable in exchange for their action — their subscription, their first contact or their purchase.
Keep in mind that "value" does not have to mean costly. A 12-page guide to modern accounting software would be valuable to a person in charge of purchasing such software, and many in that role would sign up to have such a report emailed to them (lead generation). Better still, a guide like that wouldn't cost much for the software company to produce, other than a bit of time and effort. In this case, value is conveyed through insightful information that's beneficial to the target audience.
That's just one of many ways to add value to an offer, in the hopes of achieving some form of lead generation or sales generation. Whatever path you choose, remember this law. Response goes up in direct proportion to the value of your offer. On the contrary, response goes down with a weaker offer.
Internet Marketing Law #3 - Attrition is Your Perpetual Enemy
Attrition is the sworn enemy of Internet marketing. So to be successful online, you first have to understand the concept of attrition. You also have to work hard to reduce it.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines attrition as "a reduction in numbers usually as a result of resignation, retirement, or death." Don't worry, we're not talking about retirement or death here. But we are talking about a reduction in numbers — and the size of that reduction has a direct impact on your Internet marketing success. So let's convert that definition for online marketing purposes.
In your marketing program, attrition refers to the number of people who do not take the actions you want them to take. At each step in the online marketing process, you stand to lose some people. The more people you lose along the way, the less successful your marketing program will be. So you should strive to minimize website attrition at every turn. I'll offer some tips on doing this later on.
Law #4 - Success for One is Rarely Success for All
An Internet marketing tactic that works wonderfully for somebody else may not work for you. On the other hand, it may work even better for you than it did for the other person. With any online marketing strategy, you have a lot of variables that affect your results. These include the makeup of your audience, the timing, and the way you execute the strategy. You never know what will or won't work for you until you try it. So don't let anyone tell you, "That didn't work for me, so don't waste your time with it." There is experimentation, and then there's speculation. Only the former will reveal the truth.
Law #5 - Technology Does Not Change Psychology
Technically speaking, the Internet is a dynamic, ever-changing environment. That's one of the primary reasons I felt compelled to write this book for small business owners. But while the way we communicate online may change, the communication itself stays the same.
Regardless of how you talk to people, they are still people. They are still motivated by the same things as before. You just have more ways to communicate with them than ever before. Whether you communicate with people through email, a blog, a podcast or an old-fashioned sales letter, the following marketing fundamentals still apply:
- People want what's best for them ... online and off.
- People will respond to a well-presented offer of value ... online and off.
- People will ignore a weak message with no value ... online and off.
Technology changes the way marketers communicate with consumers. But it does not change the fundamental psychology that leads consumers to take action.