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Posted on May 10, 2012 in Online Marketing by susan
Business, Marketing, Method for The Online Madness, Online, Online Business, Online Madness, Online Marketing, social media, Susan's Simple System
Is There Method In The Online Madness?
by Susan Rice-Lincoln
Too Confused?
A very important light bulb went on the other day.
I suddenly understand.
The real problem with online marketing is NOT that people know too little.
The real problem is that people know TOO much. Too many articles. Too many tools. Too much advice. Too much to choose from!
Simply put, we are all collectively COMPLETELY CONFUSED.
Since I have spent the better part of a decade on the internet, I have seen and done it all. I have created websites, been an affiliate, learned all about social media, dove into mobile.
But what I would like to share with you are not lots of bits and pieces are detailed technical information. What I think is the most important is to ‘connect the dots’ and understand how all the pieces of the jigsaw fit together. Without a coherent, global understanding of how all the ‘small subjects’ work together, you will continue to be confused and you will continue to be frustrated.
Do You Connect the Dots?
Here is a rough summary of what I’ve roughly dubbed as Susan’s Simple System. There are 10 components and each is interlocked with the next. I have created this so that you can understand how all the ‘pieces’ of online marketing fit together. I want you to be able to evaluate any product or system that you have in front of you within a context so you can then judge whether it is important to you.
Susan’s Simple System is made of TEN steps:
Let’s explain each of the steps.
Step 1: The Map
As in anything in life, you can’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you are going! You need a map. You need to know where you are today, where you want to be tomorrow and how you are going to travel from Point A to Point B.
In other words, your ‘map’ is your strategy.
To craft a strategy (map) that makes sense, you need to begin by answering some fundamental questions:
Step 2: The Mindset
The Mindset
Is mindset really important? Many believe that mindset is just irrelevant ‘fluff’. Frankly, I used to share this opinion. But over the years, I have noticed something. You can put two people in a room and give them the same knowledge and tools. And one will succeed. And one won’t. Often, the difference is in their mindset. Here are some of the most important mindset habits you need to adopt to succeed:
Step 3. The Models
Choosing the correct business model for your online business is the one area many ‘skip’. And they do so at their own peril. I know. This is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made over the years. I hopped from project to project rather than building a business on a real business model. There are many business models to choose from but here are some of my favorites:
Step 4. The Mouthpiece
Once you have decided what you want to do, who you want to target, and what business model you want to build, you then need to create your ‘mouthpiece’. Your mouthpiece is how you communicate with your client base. It used to be that you had one online mouthpiece-your website. Nowadays, you need to have multiple mouthpieces including some or all of the following:
Step 5. The Magnet
The Magnet
The Magnet is the Heart of Susan’s Simple System. And strangely enough, this is the step that I very often see people missing. The magnet is about building your list; you provide a ‘magnet’ to entice people into giving you their email address so they can receive it.
Why is list building so important? Without it, it is very difficult to create an online business. You may drive traffic to your site, blog or social media presence but without a way to capture the names of interested people, this traffic will simply leave. And the harsh reality is they will be lost forever.
With a list building system, you will capture their names and you continue your dialogue with them. They get to know, like and trust you (the famous KLT factor) and guess what? They eventually are much more likely to become your customer.
Any basic list building system will have a lead magnet (s), an opt-in box, and an auto responder system. A lead magnet is a report or free offer (normally in the form of a PDF, video or audio) which gives people great content.
An opt-in box is a little box that normally asks for your name and email address. People will give you their name and address in exchange for the lead magnet. Finally the opt-in box is normally linked to an email provider. Once someone has opted into your list, you can continue to communicate with them through a weekly e-zine (online magazine) or a series of auto responders (automated sequence of emails) or both.
Step 6.The Message
In Step 1, in your ‘map’, you have identified your strategy and what it stands for. But you also need to create messages which will help give richness to what your brand is about. Message is just a fancy name for ‘content’.
There are many ways that you can deliver content. It can be in blog posts, articles, public relations messages, teleseminars, podcasts, ‘how to’ videos, interviews with people in your field.
Creating content is absolutely key to you building a brand, a community and a viable business. You should create at least TWO excellent pieces of content on a weekly basis if not more.
Your message(s) should be delivered in a variety of ways; try to mix it up to make what you provide really interesting for the viewer.
Step 7. The Monetization
You can generate money online in multiple ways. Here are some of the most effective ways:
Affiliate marketing basically means you drive traffic to offers that are not your own. When the traffic you have sent buys the product, you are rewarded with a percentage of the price. Creating your own information product is an excellent, extremely profitable way to make money online. You can create a PDF, an eBook, a video (or video series) or a series of audios. You can of course use the internet to sell physical products as well. Another way of generating income is to create a community or well-trafficked site and then sell advertising to people who are interested in speaking to your target audience.
Obviously, there are many more ways to monetize online but these are the four main ways.
Step 8. Marketing
You can have the best strategies and products in the world but if you don’t know how to market them you will be dead in the water before you start. Marketing online is an enormous subject but here are some of the ways that you can market:
Step 9. Manpower
The Manpower
One of the biggest reasons for online marketing failure is that the strapped small business or solo entrepreneur does not have enough hands to do everything. Knowing when and how to hire staff is an essential part of the online marketing puzzle.
Step 10. Metrics
When you are using online marketing, Testing should be your middle name.
There are hundreds of ways of measuring performance in terms of visitors to your sites, active members to your social media communities, opt-in rates to your landing pages, click-through andconversion rates in terms of sales.
This is another step people often skip. But without metrics, you will never know what works and what doesn’t. Without metrics, it is virtually impossible to Move Forward.
Branding, Business Strategy, social media
What does it mean to become a Web Celeb?
Web Celeb is a term coined by Pat Sutton, an Internet luminary who has been listed on the Forbes list of Thirty Women Entrepreneurs to Follow On Twitter.
Through trial and error, Pat realized that the only true way to success on the internet as a small business was to become a Web Celeb or in common day parlance, to become the dynamic and well-known face of your business. To become a Web Celeb means that you will draw people towards you with ease, whether you want them to buy products or become part of your network or multi-level-marketing team.
Pat argues that what is important isn’t what you know or who you know but Who Knows You! And that people will only join you when you become ‘larger than life’ on the web. Moreover, in this day and age of Google and social media, people want to know who the person behind the business is before they are ready to actually interact with or buy from you.
Simply put, the infamous Unique Selling Proposition for your business is YOU. Not your products, but YOU. And if you are building a multi-level-marketing or networking business, this becomes even more important because you are building up a group. If you have not positioned yourself correctly, no one will want to join your team.
In terms of specific steps to becoming a Web Celeb, you need to do the following:
If you would like to know more, sign up for the free teleseminar series “The Wise Women of the Web” www.thewisewomenoftheweb.com, in which Pat Sutton is one of the 12 featured speakers. Find out how you too
Posted on August 21, 2010 in Social Media by admin
About Social Networking, Branding, social media, social media and websites
Millions have toyed around with social media tools. Not as many have gotten social media to work for them to bring in real business results like enjoying huge boosts in traffic, subscribers, clients, affiliates and lucrative joint ventures.
So what is the secret to having social media success with your business?
Here are just a few:
If you would like to know more, join The Wise Women Of The Web Teleseminar Series. www.thewisewomenoftheweb.com You will hear Christine Gallagher, a foremost social media expert who has developed a successful social media system for businesses, as well as 11 other female internet stars.
Posted on August 19, 2010 in Think Out Of The Box by admin
Blogs, key social media tools, social media, technology
Amongst the great thunder and hype of various online marketing tools, one of the most powerful tools which is online marketing radio has somehow passed quietly underneath the radar.
Simply put, getting interviewed on online radio is one of the most important things you can possibly do this year to enrich your marketing program.
The benefits of doing online radio interviews are great:
In sum, using online radio interviews is a fantastic way to get your market’s attention.
If you want to find out more, just sign up for the FREE Wise Women of the Web teleseminar series www.thewisewomenoftheweb.com This event features 12 of the internet’s most famous female superstars, including Eleanore Duyndam, an online radio expert. The host of the Internet Marketing Luv Radio Show, Eleanore’s interview will give you a step-by-step process of how you can use online radio interviews to transform your business.
Posted on July 10, 2010 in The Basics by susan
basics, beginnings, brand, social media
On my last post, I talked a little about ‘new beginnings’ (a la Independence Day) and how to begin to leverage the power of social media, you must always 
begin with the basics.
So, what are those basics?
First, is your brand. A long-time branding expert, I know for a fact that the only way really to stand out in a sea of competitors is to make absolutely sure that your brand stands for something specific and unique. Part of your branding is your look. But the look and design of your brand is nothing but a reflection of the IDEA your brand stands for. So many companies get this one wrong. A banal descriptor of the products and services you sell is simply not enough.
To give you an example, I worked as a consultant for ASSA ABLOY, the world’s biggest lock company. Yes, they stand for locks. But the management understood that their company stood for much more. They stood for security in an insecure world. They didn’t just stand for locked, closed doors either. Their brand was about making sure that when people opened the door of their home or business and went out into the world, they left with utter peace of mind. ASSA ABLOY chose the tagline Unlock Your Life. In other words, the point really wasn’t the locking (and the fear that implies) but the UNLOCKING i.e. the freedom that security brings. This is branding par excellence.
The second basic is to understand your target market. We left a mass media world behind many many moons ago. Today is all about niche marketing. Your target market is no longer one single monolith but a series of precise niches. Don’t think big. Think small many times over. By the way, the tools of social media and the internet let us execute precise niche marketing efficiently and easily.
The third basic is the message. What exactly do you want to say? Your message needs to be more than flogging your products and services. In relationship marketing (which is what marketing on the internet is), you need to provide interesting, original and ongoing content about your industry. Without it, people will leave in droves. With it, you will establish true authority and leave your competitors in the dust.
As the Americans and French realized centuries ago, the end of every old world is the beginning of a new one. So are you ready for it?
14th of July, 4th of July, independence, social media
Posted on June 25, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, Small Business, social media, susan rice-lincoln
Many small businesses assume that social media is the playing ground only for big businesses.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As the efficacy of old staples like the Yellow Pages plummet, now is the time to invest in social media. You may even find that being small is a huge competitive advantage.
Why? You are more nimble. You can respond much more quickly to prospect inquiries. If you are set up properly, you can literally respond to all the touch points on your Social Web. Every time someone talks to you or mentions you, you can be there. You have a serious competitive advantage over a big business who simply would not be able to do that.
Jenifer Van Grove, in a recent Mashable article, had a great Twitter idea for small businesses. She suggests that you build a separate Twitter Lists to cater to each type of consumer you have. Separating out your customers into different categories and groups enables you to conduct personalized and targeted conversations, not to mention excellent customer service.
The way you group your customers is at your discretion. So, imagine you are a florist shop or a local café. You could create a list for your most loyal clients and even give out special coupons or offerings to this group. It is like a VIP service and will make those clients feel they are a special, pampered elite. (Seeing this, your less regular customers very well want to have this type of treatment as well!)
Small is the new big. There is nothing like social media to level out the playing field.
Posted on June 23, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, Small Business, social media, susan rice-lincoln
A recent survey sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center For Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business makes it clear that small businesses are finally tuning in to the importance of social media.
According to the survey, social media adoption doubled from 12% in 2008 to 24% in 2009. Many small business owners decided to launch a social media program as an inexpensive way to market their businesses: build brand awareness, engage with existing customers as well as find new clients.
Here are some of the highlights:
• A whopping 61% of the small businesses interviewed said they use social media as a method of both identifying and attracting new customer.
• 75% said they had a company page on a social networking site
• 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn
• 45% believe social media will be profitable in the next 12 months.
The survey also unveiled the possible stumbling blocks for the small business owner. Half of the businesses interviewed felt that social media took more time than expected. 17% were concerned that social media opened the door to public criticism widely viewed on the internet.
But despite these negatives, an overwhelming majority (94%) said that social media has helped their business rather than hurt it.
Maybe it is time for you to think about integrating social media into your small business?
Posted on May 17, 2010 in The Basics by admin
Facebook, Flickr, Master The New Net, social media, social web, susan rice-lincoln, twitter, YouTube
When people talk about social media, they tend to talk about the various tools and how best to use them.
What people talk about far less is the CONTENT they are going to share with these tools.
This is a mistake. Because it is the content that makes the difference.
High-quality content and social media are like brilliant dance partners. A perfect fit for each other, they combine to create a terrific show built on each other’s strengths.
Social media is far and away the best way to distribute content. I can’t think of another medium which will get your content moving around in front of more (targeted) people better than the Social Web. If you provide content that educates and entertains, it will travel far and fast on sites like Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. Social media did not invent content marketing-but it might as well have.
On the other side of the equation, excellent content pumps energy into the Social Web. Without it, social media would be dull and uninteresting. Great content is what gives people the impetus to keep visiting a fan page, follow a Tweet stream or subscribe to a blog.
Very simply put, if you create content that is high-quality, solid, varied and worthy of attention, you can rest assured that people will show up to read/view it and talk about it. Those people and their conversations will become the seed of your community and the promise of your business future.
More than any other element, it is content that persuades people to return to your site.
It is content that inspires other bloggers to quote (and link to) you.
It is content that will get people to flock to your Twitter stream.
The number one factor contributing to success online and within the Social Web is quality content.
So, think less about your tools and more about the content you plan to share within them.
Posted on May 12, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln
“I hate social media. I hate it all.”
I was on the phone the other day with a prospect when she completely stunned me with the above declaration.
With some gentle prodding, she went on to explain to me why she hated social media:
• Social media made her feel guilty; she felt like the train had already left the station and she was definitely NOT on it.
• She didn’t know who to listen to. She felt bewildered by the contradictory advice from all directions.
• She felt unsure of how to put together a winning strategy
• While she enjoyed certain social media in her personal life, she felt that social media was a complete time drain when it came to her business
• She was confused by all the different social media tools.
• She was not at all convinced that social media was worth the hassle or resources necessary to make it happen.
When I hear these comments, I wonder if social media isn’t just in the process of shooting itself in the foot. For as many cheerleaders as this exciting new medium might have, there are just as many out there who almost feel resentful of it.
What’s the solution?
If you are unsure about social media, here are three ingredients that might help you resolve your uncertainties:
Education: You will want to make sure that you understand the full potential and power of social media for your business-no matter what its size.
Organization: Simple organization is one of the best kept secrets about social media success. On the one hand, it is imperative to integrate your social media into your current marketing and communication efforts without sacrificing too much time or resources. On the other hand, you will need to have a rigorous approach to the creation and management of content. Excellent content management is a fundamental (and little understood) key to social media success.
Strategy: A straightforward, successful strategy will help you navigate the somewhat confusing social media waters. If you don’t know where you are going or what you want to achieve, you will inevitably be disappointed.
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