Google Adwords is an incredibly powerful marketing tool with an instant global reach that can take your business from nowhere to an overnight success. Why wouldn’t a new marketer take advantage of such a powerful tool? I can answer that question with another question. Why wouldn’t you let someone with a new driver’s license behind the wheel of a race car? Because, unless they are extremely lucky, they are going to crash and burn. Google Adwords is the Formula One of online marketing and it is not for beginners.

As advertising goes, the reasons to avoid Google Adwords early on in your education is overwhelming.

1. First, it can be very expensive and most new marketers will exhaust their ad budget before they can successfully bring in revenue. This is mainly because Google Adwords can be deceptively difficult to master. The basic formula is to identify keywords, write an ad that uses the keywords and have a landing page that completely delivers on what your ad promises.
2. Next, Google rewards advertisers who solve the problem their searchers are trying to solve. If you fail to do this you can expect high cost per click and low traffic.
3. Further, Google purposefully keeps the exact formula for success under wraps. If you are not getting the results you are seeking, the support you receive from Google will be general at best. Expect Google to suggest “improve your landing page” or “tips for writing ads.” On top of that, Google periodically change their rules requiring you to change your campaign or face the prospect of high cost per click or low traffic.
4. Finally, the instant global reach of your Google Adwords campaign is accompanied by global competition with a wide variety of skill levels and budgets.

Keep your chin up though. There are many options that exist for the new marketer.

Initially most new marketers have more time than money and that can be a good thing (more on that later). There are many low-tech approaches that have worked for decades and still do. These alternatives allow you to learn how to market affordably which will allow for some trial and error without spending your whole ad budget.

Using some of the methods below will allow you to use several forms of marketing which is a more balanced and stable long-term approach. Here is the big bonus: your competitors are still online spending themselves out of business with Adwords!

Here are just a few options when thinking about an offline marketing campaign. They may not be sexy, but they are time-tested, and still very effective marketing tools.

1. Newspaper Advertising – requires only a computer and 800 number. Information about newspapers from around the country is easily researched online and ads can cost as little as $10 per week.
2. Flyers – this is a big one for those who have time but little money. Getting flyers or business cards made is cheap and easy using a site like vistaprint.com. Spend a couple of hours a day papering parking lots. The key with this plan is to put out a lot of flyers (hundreds daily).
3. Bandit Signs – Simple three line signs that reside at intersections and other high traffic areas which direct prospects to an 800 number with a message. Signs cost between $2-$5 dollars each and work wherever your prospects pass by or congregate.
4. Warm market – You have an immediate advantage approaching people you know because a level of trust exists between you. Many marketers can get off to a quick start by starting here.
5. Article campaigns – this is absolutely free to do. Establish yourself online as a respected and knowledgeable marketer in your niche. You may still be learning the ropes about marketing but you definitely know more than most people about your business.
6. Blogging – Similar to article marketing in that you share information about your area of expertise. Once people see you as a helpful resource they will begin to seek you out. The key here is to provide new content on a consistent basis. You can start today with a free site from WordPress or Blogger

If you have the budget, make Google Adwords a part of your overall marketing plan AFTER you have established other forms of marketing. Whenever you are new at something you need to be allowed to make mistakes, learn from them and apply what you have learned in the future. Hard won knowledge is the best way to learn. By starting with basic (and still viable) forms of advertising you can develop into a well-rounded, knowledgeable and, ultimately, more successful marketer in the long term, which is everyone’s goal.

Learn More About Google Adwords…

Welcome back to “The Five Stages Of The Buying Cycle” series. In the previous part we discussed the “Involve” part. Today we discuss the final part in this series: “Close The Sale”.

OK, it all funnels down to this final stage. It’s time to make the sale. There are two types of “ready to buy” visitors…

Type #1) Ready to buy but have questions. Those final queries need to be answered. But who knows what those questions might be? You’d be amazed at what customers think about. It’s so hard for some people to make that final click. So…

Send them to…your “Have A Question?” page.

Use your skills to answer the unforeseeable questions for you. Yes! They convert for you!

Type #2) And then, of course, there is the large number of customers who are simply ready to buy. After you’ve gained their attention, grown their interest, convinced them to buy your product, they’re ready. All you have to do is…

Mention how the “The Money-back Satisfaction Guarantee” turns their purchase into a “no risk trial.” There really is no risk involved! Every day that they delay is a day that they fall further behind, for no reason. Then, without pushing, send them to your “Order Page” to “try your product! risk-free”…

Conclusion:

The PREselling-To-SELLing Cycle is real. Follow the example of seasoned affiliate marketers who understand this. Select specific links over multiple exposures to move your visitors through the cycle to the Order Page.

It’s the big secret to high conversions and great commissions.

Previous Parts:
1. Introduction
2. Get Attention
3. Grow Interest
4. Credibility
5. Involve

The seven eBooks below follow up with this post. You can get them free just by replying or giving a comment to this post. High RECOMMENDED!!

Welcome back to “The Five Stages Of The Buying Cycle” series. In the previous part we discussed the “Get Attention” part. Today we go one step further and discuss the “Grow Interest” part.

Now that you have your readers their attention, deepen their understanding of what your product does. A link to your created Video Tour is especially effective at this stage.

If you reach a “general audience,” encourage them to find the business that best fits their situation to see how your product can help them. On the other hand, if you reach a “specific target market” (ex., affiliates) or a “specific demographic” (ex., Work At Home Moms), send them to your specific landing pages.

If your visitors are retirees, Webmasters, real estate marketers, students, network marketers, auction sellers (eBay), and so on… create landing pages specific to their needs.

As always, mix and match links that best fit your approach and audience.

You can strike a positive chord with your visitors by showing how your product connects emotionally with its customers, the way Apple or Google does. That type of connection occurs for only one reason…

Your productis much more than “site-building” or “Web hosting”. It’s even more than about building successful businesses. It’s the end impact that is so important, creating lives of freedom and independence.

By the end of this stage, you should have some very interested pre-customers who want more information.

Next, move your visitors from “high interest/emotion” to logic and verification…

Previous parts:
1. Introduction
2. Get Attention

The seven eBooks below follow up with this post. You can get them free just by replying or giving a comment to this post. RECOMMENDED!!

One of the best marketers I have come across is Walt Disney and he used 5 simple strategies that anyone can employ. It’s about consistency, a good plan, and then practice to make it perfect.

Marketing is essentially all about the four P’s: Product, Promotion, Price and Placement. With the right product, placed in front of the right visitor at the right time, promoted in the right way and offered at the right price you are guaranteed success.

Put these 5 strategies into action, and watch the results:

1) Sell more to existing customers… especially while they are HOT!

What is noticeable about visiting any Disney operation and you will be offered the opportunity to buy additional products and services you are continuously offered other products and services. Once you are through that main entrance you are constantly marketed to with products, upgrades, special offers. Guess who spends the most money? Someone who is really enjoying themselves and Disney really exploit that by making sure their customers are satisfied and very happy.

Your easiest sell is to someone who has already bought from you so you must have a back-end sale that you can make immediately while they are hot to buy.

2) Expand Your Marketplace

When you have a winning formula export it, because that’s what successfully Disney did. They expanded from their US base worldwide with Disney attractions in the UK, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong and increased their marketplace and expanded their brand worldwide.

You too can easily expand your existing products by exploring other niches. For example; a guide to profiting from DVD sales might be originally aimed at product developers and entrepreneurs, but it could quite easily be rebranded to sell it to camcorder users. Or you might use that original DVD idea to enter another market such as training consultants and show them how they can leverage each training course they deliver by videoing it.

3) Continuous Promotion

You need to use many different strategies to constantly keep your brand in front of your customers. This is exactly what the Disney corporation do and they have a marketing plan that’s designed to keep their brand and message in front of audiences all over the world.

You will regularly see promotions on TV, in print, and on the Internet plus they also use the power of affiliate marketing in their joint promotions with Virgin Atlantic. To make your business the best you need to take every opportunity to continuously promote to give yourself maximum leverage.

What can you do to ensure every week you’re sending out a marketing message? Plan how you’ll place ads, submit articles, run press releases, improve search engine rank or offer incentives and then follow through. When you start to continuously promote you’ll see rapid results.

4) Always Improve and Add to your Offerings

Disney is always renovating, growing, building, expanding and improving at their theme and these regular improvements draw back repeat visitors, as well as impress new visitors… but just like McDonalds, they want your experience to be the same, time and time again… ensuring that you and your family come back and spend again.

It is a complete marketing cycle from the parks to the cinemas to DVD’s and themed toys and games. If Disney failed to continuously add and improve their profits would suffer and it’s a lesson you can learn from.

Developing and growing a business is about constantly improving what you offer and creating new products. Your product portfolio should constantly be reviewed and updated with new or better product that offers the possibility of recurring income.

5) Tracking Business

Disney knows exactly when its parks are busy and when they are slow because they track the numbers and they plan their marketing and promotions accordingly. Every business goes through a slow patch, the successful ones like Disney put a new promotion in place to improve sales.

You can carry out each of the previous four strategies, but this one is the key: you must have the numbers, and be able to track them. You should be focused on tracking the visitors to your site by knowing if you are getting enough traffic, how long they stay, what they look like, how they find you.

These are all key questions you must have the answers to. Then you can work out your conversion levels because knowing that will allow you to sell more by increasing your conversion, test different offerings, compare different landing pages… the list goes on and on.

Follow these five strategies that Disney apply week in, week out and see your business get that magic touch.