As we finish out this year there are two realities we face starting and growing online businesses:
- The opportunities have never been greater, as much as people are buying and doing business online today we are still just at the initial stages of 10’s of Billions more in e-commerce opportunity. I’ve always done extremely well in business by positioning my efforts and skills in front of huge waves of demand. The e-commerce wave that is yet to come is perhaps the biggest wave yet…that should excite each and every one reading this to the point of inspiring massive action.
- Getting attention and focus from your marketplace is becoming more challenging.  It used to be that niche markets were much smaller, but substantially easier to reach with the most basic marketing activities (articles, videos, forums, email marketing, etc…) That said, growth is happening so quickly in most markets that even with a barely functioning marketing campaign you can still make money online.  But, imagine what we can do if we get it right (or at least “more” right than today?)
That’s what today’s blog post is all about, how do we plan, assess and make changes to our online business operations to get massive returns?
After all, each and every one of us has a limited amount of time to spend on our internet business. We have to make the most of every minute we have to spend which means that we need to know what I call the “high leverage” points that make the biggest difference to getting traffic, generating leads and making sales/profit online.
High Leverage Profit Points For Your Online Business
1. Attention
The first high leverage point is getting the attention of your target audience.  I remember when I started online in 2000, getting attention of the early adopters of the internet was not tough, there was little competition and the most eager of online customers were itching to hear what you had to say.  Today, with Billions of blogs, tons of content, Billions of Twitter and Facebook posts, etc… the noise level is getting very high.
So, 2014 and beyond we will see a renewed concentration in capturing the attention of our audience once again. If you already have an online business you may have noticed that traffic is down (or at least flat), leads are flat and capturing the attention on social networking is even becoming tougher as the noise level increases.
What can we do to capture more attention:
- Laser focused on who our top customers are and what they struggle with or are interested in. People pay attention to other people or content that speaks to them at that moment.  People who have worked with us through InfoMarketer’sZone have ALWAYS gotten the message that context and understanding of your market makes the biggest difference around winning in your marketplace. If you understand and can speak to your customer better than competitors you will win in your market.
- Speak your customer’s language.  Too many content and marketing pieces speak above or AT your potential customer, instead engage WITH them, speak with them – make them an active participant in your content so that you get the dual advantage of customer generated content PLUS social credibility of having your market participate with you making you appear as a real player in your marketplace.
- Use the platforms that get you closest to your customer. Video game marketers understand that YouTube gets them close to their young market, Twitter works for companies to get out of speaking AT their customers and instead engage them in conversation. Snapchat is another platform emerging that you can use to get even closer to your top customers.  Each quarter, assess new platforms and see how they are being used – do they allow you to reach your market in a more engaging way? If so, bring your subscribers and followers onto the new platform and re-engage
Nothing happens in business until you capture the attention of your prospect, once you do, more than half the battle toward engagement and profit has been won.
2. Interest Through Empathy
We have also worked with many businesses who have proven adept at getting the attention of their market (sometimes via spending Millions in marketing), but then fail miserably to cultivate their interest in a way that aligns with their business objectives.
Two common issues here…they capture attention and send their prospects to a piece of content or sales page that is not nearly as compelling…all the work to capture attention is gone in a split second never to return.
Another issue is that you capture attention, then gain their interest – but neither one really aligns well with your offer...this is often called a bad “message to market” match.
So, if you are planning your online business or assessing an existing business, then work through your entire process from content that attracts attention through your landing pages, follow-up content and on to your offer(s). When you pay attention to the entire process you can often see the mismatch, especially if you view your funnel in terms of your end customer.
For us, we have had the greatest success maintaining interest when we use empathy…that is, the in-depth understanding of the emotional states of your customer. You want to know both the emotional state they are in today (frustrated, angry, embarrassed, scared, etc…) and what the emotional state they aspire to feel – when you understand these and can convey them through your content and offer, you will find an incredible ability to capture the interest of your prospects.
3. Perceived Better Solution
Once you have the attention and interest of your prospect you are almost there.Â
The next phase that makes success in your online business a slam dunk is putting the right position around your solution to maximize perceived added value.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to offer anything radically different than your competition, but you do have to package it in a way that is both perceived as more valuable and that IS more valuable in the sense that your information is more easily usable, leads to a better outcome faster.
How can you do this?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Instead of just information, you provide a course, system, step-by-step formula for achieving your prospect’s desired outcome…this is more practical and is viewed as higher value
- You offer additional information either via updates, summaries, checklists, video accompaniment, etc… How can you take what is basically a system that works and make it even better? This will add value and make your product stand out
- Personal touch…adding a higher-end product offering that is more tailored to your prospect is a great way to easily create an up-sell.  For example, you could offer a base ebook for $47 and then offer an ebook plus 30-minute phone/skype consult or 2X email consult for $97 or even $197. This makes you stand out and improves your profit
Can you think of ways to make your products higher perceived value?
4. Up-sells and Cross-Sells
“You want fries with that?”
McDonalds understood the value of up-selling from day-1 of their massively successful fast-food franchise.
Since then, up-selling and cross-selling (selling an adjacent or similar product, but with slight differences to someone who was exposed to your first offer) has become a standard in top businesses. One could argue that iTunes was the up-sell that Steve Jobs started the Apple iPod revolution with not only dominating consumer players but dominating the entire distribution system of music and later multimedia.
If you do not currently have a plan to create or offer up-sells or cross-sells then you are leaving BIG money on the table. In fact, you are not really running a business but rather a single product.
How does your online business (or plans for your own online business) stack up against these 4 success factors?
Which areas will you work on in 2014?
