Business Strategies, marketing planning and consulting

Tim Altvater asked:


Let me tell you about the exact moment I went from struggling, near failure, to SUCCESS! I learned /realized I did NOT have a strategy. So, I then learned HOW to create one, it doubled my business in 1 year – and it will do AT LEAST that for you! If there is one thing you can do that will explode your business more than anything else, it’s this: Create a plan! With a proper plan in place, your business can reach new heights at an incredible rate… AND you will be able to keep the momentum going. So what needs to be in your plan to be the most effective? Simple. You need to incorporate various strategies and tactics that will drive you towards your end goal. Before I go on, I want to define exactly what I mean by ’strategies’ and ‘tactics.’ Strategies are the ideas on what you can do to dramatically improve your business.

Tactics explain exactly what you are going to do step by step to implement your strategies. A great plan has both. And when lined up correctly, there’s no way you will miss your goal. Now, in this email, I’m just going to give you some BASICS as to how YOU can do this. To come up with your strategies, first… Decide EXACTLY what you want! Now you have “strategic objective” Next, take a piece of paper and write down the 10 things you KNOW would have to happen for you to achieve that Goal/Objective. Guess what! You now have your: Strategic Objective. Your Strategy (the 10 things you need to do) Your TACTICS are the Actual ACTION Items you take to achieve one of the 10 things on your list. NOW – Just do an ACTION at least 1 per day that leads to you being able to physically cross one of the 10 things on your list off, and now, you’re working far more efficiently than at least 90% of the so-called entrepreneurs out there! Your no longer are reacting to each day and hoping something happens. You are being PRO active and MAKING things happen! Congratulations!



Michelle

Doug Brown asked:


When it comes to running your own business, everyone seems to have a plan to make you successful. You can read and study and even mimic the greats but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will succeed. To really rock the business world, you need both strategy and tactics that work and you need them to work effectively together. This is where many people in business fail because they miss one or both parts of this equation. A better understanding of strategy and tactics as well as how they work together will help you prepare properly for your business.

Your strategy is the plan of action you want to take to achieve success in your business. Your business tactics are the specific steps you take to achieve those goals. It is important that you know and understand the difference between the two and how they are applied to business. When it comes to your business, before you start any marketing or advertising campaign, you need to have a strategy and you need to implement that strategy into your techniques.

What is Strategy?

Your strategy is the act of creating decisions that will benefit the future outcome of your business. Strategy is the set of directions you make or your situation and position within the business community. Strategy often also refers to your timing in the marketplace and strategically choosing the most beneficial time to launch your business or your campaign.

1. Strategy is your overall goal in your business.

2. Strategy is your standing within the marketplace.

3. Strategy is your position in your niche.

What are Tactics?

Tactics should work with your strategy and they are the set of requirements need for your plan to take place. Your tactic is your device used for meeting your goals set by your strategy. Strategy and tactics should always be relative to one another because the tactics are the set of actions needed to fulfill your strategy.

1. Tactics are the tools you use to achieve your goals.

2. Tactics include things like advertising and marketing.

3. Tactics are the steps taken to achieve your goals.

Strategy vs. Tactics

To be successful in your business, you need to have a plan and a strategy. This strategy will include your goals and objectives for your business. They may be short term and long term. You will need to have a goal for where you want to be with your business in the future. Your tactics are what you will use to ensure that plan happens as it should.

If your plan is to have x amount of sales by x date, then you need to have tactics that will help you carry out that goal. You don’t want to just run wildly into your business hoping that luck will be in your favor and you will succeed. You need to have a direct set of directions and plans for meeting each goal. Your strategy will include many goals and you will want to have a tactical plan for meeting each and every one of them. These tactics will be step-by-step directions on how to meet each business goal. With proper planning and strategy and tactics that work together, you can be a business success story.



Elsie

Rick Churchill asked:


The goal of any online business is to sell something. It could be a product, service, or information. To accomplish this you need to get visitors to your web site. Follow these key online business strategies to generate visitors and cash.

Your website image is key. Your website should reflect how you want customers to feel about your business. The site must be professional looking, easy to navigate, and easy to understand. The content provided should be relevant to the needs of the customer.

How to market is important. What tools are you using to advertise your web site? Search engines are the primary method web surfers use to locate information. A top online business strategy is to choose relevant keywords for the most efficient search engine optimization. For example, if your site is promoting money making ebooks then the keyword ‘Books’ would be too general. You need to use specific terms that closely relate to what you are offering.

Links to your web page are another important online business strategy. Links increase visitors who often become customers. Relevancy is key. Links to your home page should be from sites with topics closely related to your business. Be descriptive with links. ‘The Perfect Online Business Opportunity’ will get more clicks than ‘Online Business’.

Consider starting your own affiliate program. It’s cost effective because you only pay other sites for the visitors they link to you. You can pay for visitors or pay if the visit results in a sale.

Online businesses do best with online marketing. This doesn’t mean that traditional media doesn’t work. You can run an article about your online business in your local paper. You can also place an ad in your area Yellow Pages.

Information content is important. Don’t just sell your product or service. Include articles, news, or interesting facts related to your online business. Visitors like the idea of getting free information. If you offer free, relevant material, you will earn the visitors trust and the sale will follow.

Be customer friendly. If you get a lot of visitors from the general public, go easy on the industry jargon. For example, you would use ‘Search Engine Optimization’ instead of SEO. This is important also when choosing keywords for search engines.

Use graphics sparingly. They can slow down the time it takes for your page to load. An easy navigation system is one of the most important Internet business strategies. Many visitors don’t want to sit through mini films or music interludes to get to the information desired. If your website takes too long to open, customers will surf elsewhere.



Rodney

Jo Han Mok asked:


It is wise to learn from other Internet marketers’ mistakes. Here are the things the professionals warned us not to do or think:

- Don’t be afraid to fail. Sometimes in life things don’t work out like we hope they will. But if you never take a risk and try something new you will never have the opportunity to win big. As Wayne Gretzkey once said, “100% of the shots you don’t take, don’t go in”. So instead of worrying about whether something will be a failure, go ahead and jump in with both feet. It just may be the best decision you ever made!

- Don’t assume you have to know everything before you can get started. You will never learn everything there is to know about Internet Marketing. It changes so fast that you could keep studying forever and always be learning something new. So don’t waste your time trying to know everything before you get started building your business.

Your goal should be to learn something and then take a step forward. Act on the new information and put it to use instead of just filing it away for another day. You’re bound to have some failures, but the real world education you’ll gain from actually putting the techniques into practice will be invaluable to your success.

- Don’t be afraid to use other people’s content. Private label rights (PLR) content is a way of purchasing articles, ebooks, special reports and software that you can use as your own.

Because it’s sold to multiple people it’s much more affordable than having someone create the content just for you. And it’s available to start using immediately so you don’t spend months trying to do it all yourself. Use PLR as content for your website, blog and newsletter. Give it away to build your list. Or sell it alone or as part of another product you offer. The possibilities are endless!

- Don’t do useless internet strategies to make your business and yourself well-known. Spend time in the forums. Forums are a great way to meet people online. Whether it’s an Internet Marketing forum where you meet potential partners or a niche focused forum where you are marketing to potential customers, they are a great way to get your name out there. Even though the conversations are usually informal, be sure to always conduct yourself professionally. People are watching and will be forming opinions about you based on the things you say.

- Don’t leave your site unmaintained. Spend time working on your conversion rate. The average website has a conversion rate between 1% and 2%. That means that 98% – 99% of everyone who visits your site leaves without taking action.

That’s a huge number of potential customers that have walked away and may never be seen again. Spend some time studying what others in your industry are doing and try implementing some of their ideas on your site. Track everything and see what improves your conversion rate. Over time you will gradually increase the percentage of visitors who buy.

Remember, these tips are from the online marketers who have are already seeing success with their businesses. Take advantage of learning about what worked for them and put these tips to good use in your own business.



Pearl