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How to Develop a Successful Marketing Strategy
| To have a successful blog the first thing you need to do is to develop a successful marketing strategy. You need to promote your blog to those who may have the most interest or need for what you are offering for sale. Whether you are selling products, services or money making opportunities you still need to have a plan for getting your message to your target audience. You don't want to waste time and effort by randomly choosing targets you think "might be" interested. You will be more successful in your marketing efforts if you take the time to develop a marketing strategy rather than beginning without any kind of plan. Why is it so important to identify your target audience? Wouldn't the law of averages help you reach more people? While those statements may seem sound and lead you to believe in their validity, quite the opposite is true. When you take the time to identify your target audience you will promote your business only to those who are most likely to be interested. Case in point: you live in Hawaii and sell surfboards. Would it be any advantage to promote your blog to people living in Alaska? While you may pick up a few sales from those planning to go on vacation, the potential is minimal. The law of averages is not going to help you unless you reach those who have a need or desire for what you are offering. You do not want to go in blindly when you begin to promote your blog. Before you are ready for business you need to take the time to develop a plan -- don't just sit down and start randomly promoting your blog. This is important because only when you develop a plan first can you identify your target audience. In fact, before your blog goes live you should already have a marketing plan in place and have begun marketing efforts. Once your blog goes live you should have nothing left to do on your initial efforts except to get the word out to potential customers that your blog is ready for business. Your next marketing plan should focus on bringing in additional customers or prospects but still within the scope of your target audience. While some of your efforts may reach those outside of your target audience, you do not want to exert time and energy on the small numbers of customers you may reach. How to Develop a Marketing Strategy Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a profitable blog. You cannot be successful unless you have customers and to bring in customers you must market your blog. The methods you use to market your blog may vary for any number of reasons. • Budget • Target audience • Products or services you are promoting • Whether you are promoting a blog in the making or a live blog • What phase of your marketing plan is currently in place—initial or ongoing? • How much time do you have to devote to marketing your blog? • How much income are you looking to generate? • Are you looking for a full-time or part-time opportunity? All of the above will have an effect on the methods of advertising you may choose to use. However, you don't want to limit yourself to just one or two methods. The important thing is not the methods you use but rather how hard you work to promote your blog. However, your initial marketing strategy is by far the most important one for providing your business with a good start. If your initial marketing efforts are successful you will be able to develop an ongoing plan that will allow you to continually bring in new customers and thus increase your profits. If you are on a limited budget as many new blog owners are, you should develop your marketing strategy using some of the free or less expensive promotional tools. While using more expensive advertising tools may provide more exposure, your initial plan should focus on developing a plan that will make your blog visible. Once you begin develop a database of customers and earning some money you can use some of the more expensive promotional tools. When you develop your marketing strategy do not stop with the initial plan. While you originally want to focus on providing exposure for your blog, you should already have your next plans in place. If you create a marketing plan step by step you will be able to go straight from one point to the next instead of having to stop and think about what you are going to do next. Any break in the momentum can cause you to lose track of where you want to be—or where you should be with your marketing strategy at any given moment. |
About the Author
Visit Brian's website, http://www.HomebasedBlogging.com and learn all about blogging online and how to succeed as a homebased or freelance blogger.
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