The moment you have a website there are two things which immediately come to your mind. First that you want to see it on the first page of Google and second that you really must figure out how to market it. Needless to say by the time a website is built and you have these two thoughts it is way too late and you have lost a lot of time.

I have mentioned here before that the time to start thinking about SEO is even before a product (or a website) is launched. Thinking about it after all the hard work is done only makes the task harder and just to prove how hard it can really be you should check out my Technorati post on why even a company as large as HP can get this wrong.

 

Online success never comes without careful planning and the measured implementation of all the actions designed to help you gain the online visibility necessary to bring you customers and help your internet marketing can be boiled down to ten vital steps:

 

1. Understand your unique selling point – Online everyone sells something. Some sell publicity, others a service and others still a product. Before you even start to market yourself you need to know what it is which makes you unique.

 

2. Have a business model – If you consider that online marketing is a form of ‘shouting’ about your wares (or even ‘whispering’ if you are being more subtle) just making noise is of little use without at least some way to make an impression and help people remember you for something other than the loudness of your voice.

 

3. Understand your brand – Today almost every product and every service is a commodity. This means that unless you help your customers engage with you emotionally you are not likely to sway them by way of making a sale in the first place and, even if this happens, remaining loyal to you.

 

4. Streamline your online marketing – if you are one of those people who simply post blindly on Facebook, put a post on Twitter and then think about posting something… anything, somewhere else, you are wasting your time and those of your online readers. Make sure your online posting has a single, unified theme which makes sense and fits in with your branding. Interlink all your social media activity.

 

5. Start your SEO early – Search engine optimization really works for you when you integrate it in the normal routine of running your website and marketing your online business. In case you think it is too early to start and you can afford to wait, the fact that even mega-corporate HP made that mistake as we saw a little earlier, should dissuade you from the notion.

 

6. Create online partnerships – On the web, just like in real life no person (or website) is an island. How you are found, how you get to be known and how you get your best customers is part of the arcane algorithm of building cooperative relationships. Just because you work online does not mean you can do everything alone. Find how you can build bridges with others, even your competitors, to your mutual benefit.

 

7. Have a cohesive marketing strategy in place – A website, marketing tools and SEO are only implements. On their own they will do nothing if you have no plan on where you are heading long term and how you intend to get there.

 

8. Provide lasting value – The days of the one-off quick deal are long past. In an online world screaming with services and merchandise being able to provide help, services or advice of lasting value to those you come into contact with online will help you build and maintain an edge in your online marketing.

 

9. Never put all your eggs in one basket – The number of times I have seen great ideas fail because the timing was wrong, the plan was not long enough, their cash reserves were not deep enough or the potential audience they were targeting was not responding quickly enough, are numerous enough to make me wealthy if I had a penny for each one. When you are working on your business you have more obstacles to overcome than you can comfortably anticipate. In order to stay in business you need to be constantly on the move, looking at the next best thing, checking for fresh ideas and having more than a single income stream in place.

 

10. Get expert advice – We live in a wired world where expertise, like so many other commodities, has dropped in cost but not in value. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to cover every base yourself and even if you have the experience and believe you can do it the chances are that you will, at some point, miss some detail which will cause you issues. You may not need tight hand-holding every step of the way but a fresh pair of eyes and an expert mind looking at your project will probably save you from a pitfall of two and will give you more opportunities.

 

At the very least you should have read a couple of Top How-To Practical Business Books to help you get a grasp on what you should be doing.

 

 

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