Feb 3

Written by: BHDAdmin
2/3/2010 12:05 PM 

What is the magic formula for successful online marketing?

We get this question a lot and while there is no magic to being successful online, there are some core fundamentals that apply regardless of your strategy or platform. Whether it is your website, email marketing or social media sites, following the Six C's of Successful Online Marketing will work. The Six C's are:

1. Customers
2. Content
3. Community
4. Commerce
5. Control
6. Calendar

We'll review each of these in detail in upcoming issues of our newsletter and blogs, but here is a summary of these fundamentals and why they matter.

1. Customers - It all starts with your customers. Who are they? What are the demographics? Age? Sex? Geography? Beliefs? It all starts with who your best customers are, what drives them and how you can reach them. Once you have a clear idea of who your customers are, then you can design a strategy to connect with them.

2. Content - Once you have identified your core audience and how to reach them, you need content to engage them online. The broadband web makes all kinds of content available whether it is video, music or written content. Your best customers want to know what you are doing and pushing content to them is the best way to do that and build a community of fans.

3. Community - The web is a great place to build your community, whether it is message boards, your Facebook page or even your Twitter account. Building a community of like-minded customers is a great way to build your success online. Like any community organizer, you need to listen to your customers and engage with them to build a successful online community.

4. Commerce - The success of any online enterprise is commerce turning that community of customers into fans who buy. Online commerce ideally takes the form of an online store you control. By owning your own online store, you can track who is buying and what they are buying in order to grow your businesses over the long haul.

5. Control - Having control over your online marketing means measuring the success of your efforts. We recommend tracking several measures including activity on your sites, website views, unique visitors and total number of fans. Are you measuring how your fan base is growing and how that translates into sales? Having control over your website means measuring what you are doing. What gets measured gets done, so control your online marketing by having a good control program in place.

6. Calendar - We see many online marketing efforts fail because of lack of planning. Something as simple as a weekly or monthly calendar of planned activity will keep you on track and running smoothly. But without a calendar, we find many clients miss opportunities and become paralyzed with "what should we post on the site." Having a calendar will help you stay on track and be successful.

By following these Six C's of Successful Online Marketing you will have a strong foundation in place to make money online.

It's a new year and a fresh start. So if you are ready to revisit your online strategy, give us a call. We'd love to discuss how we can make the Six C's work for you.


Best,
Michael

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