The Nineteen Keys to Online Marketing

by Ryan Allis

Below are the nineteen critical steps to successfully marketing your product, service, and business online. The one of the most important items are in bold.

1. Have a professional, easy to use, and quick loading design. 'Hire a professional' or at very least use a good site template.
2. Have a ton of quality related content
3. Build lots of links to your website
4. Build credibility and rapport
5. Start a newsletter and send out every couple weeks, also with quality content
6. If you are selling a product you MUST have an affiliate program
7. Once you have an affiliate program, promote it.
8. Do whatever you can, profitably, to attract large affiliates and form strategic alliances. Joint ventures are also VERY important.
9. Get ranked well in the search engines.
10. Use Cost-per-click (CPC) engines but make sure you know the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, and that you do return on investment (ROI) checks often.
11. Supplement your affiliate advertising with both online and traditional advertising, but track results and always do (ROI) checks.
12. Advertise using banners, interstitials (popups), and rich media to build brand recognition. Put profitability before brand recognition.
13. Offer yourself as a resource to the media as an expert in your 'niche'.
14. Hire a great publicity firm or bring an experienced publicist in-house.
15. Use auto responders to maintain constant contact with prospective customers.
16. Remember, business is all about relationships and communication. Always work to build more relationships and once they are built, make sure you are making contact with your prospects continuously, customers, strategic alliances, suppliers, investors, and the media.
17. Encourage word of mouth among your customers.
18. Have a superior customer service and have staff to answer all incoming e-mails within 24 hours.
19. Send out periodic email follow-ups making sure your customers are happy and asking them for feedback on your product and the service your company has provided.