Website Marketing Skills For Small Businesses

Obviously not everybody is allowed to work remotely as many types of employment require us to go to their office or travel to undertake their duties in person. But for those of us are allowed to work remotely then I thought it would be useful to share what I have learned and give some practical directions by distributing it on the Internet in the hope that I could give others helpful timesavers for adapting to remote working or supervising remote workers.

I should warn you that there are many self proclaimed ‘gurus’ on the web who will try and sell you information for enormous sums of cash, trust me you don’t need to do this.

I am privileged to be permitted to work wherever I choose and just about everyone who asks me what work I do wants to learn how I manage to work remotely. Don’t misinterpret me I am still learning about the art of remote working as each day I bump into individuals on the Internet who show me new knowledge and I am always discovering new technologies and approaches that make my life simpler and make me more efficient.

In the past seven years I have substantially adapted my working processes to let me to do most of my work remotely with a collection of web tools and rigid self discipline. One late night whilst searching the Internet I uncovered Quickbooks online and this made me think about what just might be possible. The discovery of online ‘on demand’ small business accounting software was the turning point for me and the launch pad of my ‘remote working life.

I have got to tell you up front that proficiently working remotely is as much about the tools as it is about self discipline. Working remotely also means stating to your colleagues, supervisors and clients as to what they can expect and how they will stay in touch with you.

In ‘Remote Working Part 2 – Self discipline essentials’ I steer you through how to focus.

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When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?

For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.

At its core, internet marketing is about these things:

* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads

Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.

My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.

My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.

However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.

Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.

Even though there are more sides to internet marketing than just email marketing (permission based), email has been the foundation that our business sits on.

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