Saturday 30 April 2016

7 Ways to Step Up Your Email Marketing Game

7-email-marketing-tips
Email marketing is a great, cost-effective way to engage prospective customers and nurture relationships with current customers. And email is actually welcomed by consumers. In fact, recent research has found that a whopping 91% of Americans say they want to receive promo emails.
But let’s face it. With email being one of the most common forms of communication these days, your customers inboxes are most likely a little full. And it’s time for you to step up your game if you want to continue connecting with subscribers and encouraging them to do business with you.
While we’re almost halfway through 2016, there’s still time to make the most of the latest email marketing tricks and trends. Below are seven considerations for creating an emails that will resonate with your audience and help you up your game.
#1 – Remember: It’s All About Mobile
This one may seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but nonetheless it needs to be mentioned. Mobile has become an increasingly important consideration for website designers and digital marketers. People rely on their mobile devices for a lot of things–and email is certainly one of them. In fact, studies show that 55% of email is now opened on a mobile device.
Typically, the content should be focused and not too text heavy. But the most important thing to remember is that people want fast loading times. So, if you’re using large video or image files, make sure they’ll open quickly and easily.
#2 – Personalize Your Message
A one-size-fits-all approach to email marketing is simply not reasonable these days. Your email recipients are interested in messages that are focused on their personal tastes and preferences–addressing them by their first name in the opening is not good enough. Use data insights to create different messaging for individual target groups.
For example, Pinterest does an excellent job at personalization. Every week, I can count on receiving an email with suggested pins or boards to follow that are based on my interests and behaviors on the platform.
Pinterest Email
Can you tell I’m attempting a diet?
#3 – Understand the “Why”
Spend some time actually thinking about why your subscribers actually open an email. An enticing discount or a new product launch may not be the only reason they click. Think about who your customer is, what they’re usually looking for, what’s important to them and what season it is. In addition, think about what device they are looking on. Is it a tablet? Smartphone? Basically, dig into the psychology of your customers. This will directly correlate with your ability to personalize your messaging.
#4 – Explore Automation
Automated email campaigns allow you to use a triggering event such as an asset download, contact form fill out or a webinar signup to kick-off a tailored series of emails. Your monthly newsletters or specialty campaigns are definitely important components of your overall email marketing strategy. But email automation can be a very powerful tool that can help you nurture relationships and drive customers to a desired outcome.
For example, if you’re hosting an in-person event or webinar, email automation can be used as a way to communicate with attendees before, during and after the event. Content delivered before or during the event would include information on accommodations or the event schedule. Content delivered after the event ends would include special access to event assets and presentations, or perhaps direct them or information on another upcoming event they’re interested in.
Determine your triggering events and then create an automation workflow that details what you’ll send to them throughout the automation campaign. Here’s an example:
Email Nurture Campaign
#5 – Add Dynamic & Interactive Content
Dynamic and interactive content is something that is pretty new to the email marketing world. Dynamic options could include changing the content of an email based on location or weather, and interactive content could be features like animations or carousel elements. Software tools that can help you do this type of content are HubSpot and MovableInk.
#6 – Use a Lightbox to Grow Your Email List
Lightboxes–or pop-ups–can be an effective way to quickly grow your email list. While some may think they’re a bit annoying, lightbox pop-ups bring a connection option to your audience–rather than relying on them to search it out.
If you go this route, make something that’s unique rather than using a generic template. Also, use active language that will compel people to do what you’re asking. Here’s an example from HouseLogic, a home improvement tips and tricks website operated by the National Association of Realtors. They know why their audience is there and uses visuals to entice a sign up.
Email Subscription Popup
#7 – Implement Tracking
Having the proper tracking in place so you can gather data and pull insights from your email campaign is crucial. (And really tracking should be an important part of your entire digital marketing campaign.) If you’re using Google Analytics, add campaign parameters to the source URL to get a better idea of how many people are coming to your website from email. Check out Google’s Email Tracking – Measurement Protocol for step-by-step instructions.
What are some of your email marketing best practices? Tell us in the comments section below.
Header image via Shutterstock
To view the original article Click Here

Friday 29 April 2016

How to Use Twitter Retargeting Ads to Generate More Customers

Twitter_Retargeting.jpg
When you think of lead nurturing, do you think of a series of well-timed, relevant emails to a perfectly segmented audience?
Of course you do. And you would be right. In practice, email is the primary channel for lead nurturing. However, supplementary channels such as paid retargeting also serve as an effective way to gently help an engaged prospect along the buyer's journey.
At HubSpot, we started experimenting with Twitter Ads as a method of lead nurturing ... but it didn't exactly go as planned. In fact, our results actually sucked.
How come? Well, my team's job is to drive product interest through trials, demos, and inbound marketing assessments. For someone to covert on one of these offerings, they need to complete a 13-field form on a landing page. And given Twitter’s mobile-first nature, it was easy to see why we weren’t successful.
But instead of throwing in the towel and deciding not to use Twitter Ads for the middle of the funnel, we decided to take a different approach. Rather than asking people to fill out a form, we decided to try showing product-related and bottom funnel content to see if we could influence leads down the funnel to become opportunities and eventually, customers.
So we asked ourselves: Can Twitter be an effective channel for influencing the lead-to-customer conversion rate?

The Experiment

In order to answer the question we were asking ourselves, we had to run a lengthy split-group test to determine if Twitter was effective at influencing leads down the funnel. Here is a breakdown of the experiment:
  • The Problem: Our retargeting efforts on Twitter were underperforming. (Not familiar with how retargetting works? Brush up on the basics here.)
  • The Objective: Figure out if Twitter retargeting influences long-term metrics, such as number of customers.
  • The Hypothesis: By targeting existing leads with product awareness and bottom funnel content, we can influence long-term metrics such as the lead to customer rate.
  • The Methodology: Create a large list of leads and split them into an experiment group and a control group. Retarget the experiment group with Twitter Ads in conjunction with our regular nurturing channels. The control group is not retargeted on Twitter, but still receive nurturing via our regular channels.
Aware that there are several ways to interpret and measure "influence," I knew it was important to note what this experiment is and what it isn't:
  • What it is: This experiment is meant to be a macro-level assessment of the effectiveness of a channel by analyzing lead to customer rate between two groups.
  • What it isn't: This experiment isn’t an analysis of exactly which ad, content, or landing page contributed to an opportunity or customer conversion.

Our approach prior to the experiment:

Prior to this experiment, we promoted direct response ads that asked for a free trial, a demo, or an inbound marketing assessment. Here’s an example:
Twitter_Retargeting_Experiment_.png
As you can see, we are directly asking for a free trial of our SEO tool and then directing the lead to a landing page with a very long form. Not so great on a mobile-first platform.

Our approach during the experiment:

During the experiment our leads saw both product awareness and bottom funnel content. We'll define these types of content in detail later, but here are some examples of the content we employed:
Bottom Funnel Content: ROI Calculator
ROI_Calculator_Twitter.png
Product Awareness Content: Product Video
Attribution_product_videos.png

The Results

At the end of the experiment we determined that the retargeted group converted into customers 64% better than the control group.
What conclusion did we actually draw from this? It’s not all about form fills. Retargeting leads with bottom funnel and product-related content is an effective way to influence people along the buyer’s journey, especially on a mobile-first platform.

Want to Try It Yourself?

Do you want to see if this works for your business? Here are the steps to set up this experiment for yourself. (Note: Everyone has their own software and systems, so if you begin to feel overwhelmed by these steps due to any technical limitations, just take the overall principles and do the best you can.)

1) Set up your audiences and reporting.

Here’s one of the hard truths about retargeting: list size matters. Since this is list-based retargeting, match-rate is absolutely crucial. Why? Because according to MediaMath, match rates can vary from 70-80% down to as low as 20-30% for some platforms. In other words, in order for list-based retargeting to be effective, you’ll need a fairly large list.
Create your list in whatever CRM or marketing automation platform you use. (HubSpot Marketing customers: You'll want to start by creating a smartlist and setting whatever criteria you want to target. Learn more about creating lists here.)

2) Create your control and experiment groups.

With any good experiment, you’ll need to have an experiment group to test against your control group for the most accurate results. In this test, the experiment group was retargeted with Twitter Ads and the control group was not.
To get our audience into Twitter, we used list-syncing service called GoChime. GoChime automatically syncs HubSpot lists to Twitter and Facebook to make retargeting your database simple. If you have a list-syncing service like GoChime, then simply sync your experiment group over to Twitter to use as a Twitter Tailored Audience. (GoChime also recently announced increased match rates, so your retargeting will be that much more effective.)
If you do not have this syncing capability, you’ll want to follow the instructions below:
  1. Export your list. Export the list you created into Excel. Make sure you have at least one of the properties you need for list-based retargeting on Twitter -- email address, phone number, or Twitter handle.
  2. Randomize your list. Randomization will ensure that you get the most accurate results possible, while also ensuring that other variables that the list may have automatically sorted by -- company size, location, etc. -- won't influence the results of your test. (Check out this article on how to randomize a list in Excel.)
  3. Slash your list in half. Open a new Excel sheet. Go back to your original, highlight your data to the halfway point, copy and paste that data into the new Excel sheet. Go back to your original sheet, then delete the portion you copied. You now have you experiment group and control group!
  4. Re-upload your two lists. After your groups are created, re-upload them back into HubSpot or whatever software you are using to track success. Be sure to give them clearly defined names in order to differentiate between the experiment group and the control group.

3) Upload your lists into Twitter Tailored Audiences.

In order to do list-based retargeting on Twitter, you need to at least have your audience’s email addresses. You can also upload a list containing phone numbers or Twitter handles, but email is likely to provide a better match-rate.

4) Set up your reporting.

Next, you’ll want to set up your reporting so you can measure the impact of your test. This process will differ depending on which system you're using, but these are the metrics you should be looking at for your experiment:
  • Lead-to-Customer Rate: This is your primary metric and will allow you to see how many leads converted into customers.
  • Lead-to-Opportunity Rate: For B2B marketers, this will help you see how many opportunities were influenced from your campaign.
These are the primary metrics for success in the experiment, but do make sure you’re also looking at your Twitter metrics -- engagement rate, cost per engagement, etc. -- so you can optimize within the platform.
To record your results, check out the simple tables below. (Note: These are example results -- not results from our experiment.)
Experiment Group
Experiment_Table_Twitter_Ads.png
Control Group
Screen_Shot_2016-04-15_at_11.26.16_AM.png
If the sample size (number of leads) of your groups differ, make sure to calculate statistical significance between the two groups. (KISSmetrics has a great A/B significance calculator that will work well for this purpose.)

5) Selecting your content.

Now that we’ve been through the steps on how to set up this experiment, let’s talk about content selection. The type of content we used can be broken down into two categories: product awareness and bottom funnel content.

Product Awareness Content

Product awareness content simply means any type of content that tells the story of your product. The most important thing to remember about product awareness content is that it must be helpful and tell the prospect how your product can help solve their problem.
Product awareness should not be confused with the “awareness” stage content of the buyer’s journey, which is typically more top funnel content like ebooks, templates, checklists, and so on. Instead, product awareness and bottom funnel content actually fall into both the “consideration” and “decision” stages of the buyer’s journey.
Examples of product awareness content:
  1. Product Videos. Product videos are an excellent way of getting eyeballs on your product or brand, especially on Twitter. Since Twitter is a mobile-first platform,videos produce strong engagement with their auto-play functionality.
  2. Product Blog Posts. Say you work for a company that sells budgeting software to finance departments. You can write a post on tips for preparing for next year’s budget, with the end call-to-action asking for a trial or demo. The aim of the post is to directly shine a light on the problem your product solves and give your prospects answers to the questions they haven’t asked you yet.
  3. SlideShares. SlideShares are always a good way to deliver content about your product that’s digestible, valuable, and even a little fun.

Bottom Funnel Content

After you’ve been retargeting your experiment group with product awareness content, you’ll want to move toward “bottom funnel” content. Bottom funnel content is basically anything that you would show in the late stages of the buyer’s journey.
Examples of bottom funnel content:
  1. Case Studies. Case studies help the prospect see what their day-to-day life would look like should they decide to adopt your product.
  2. ROI Reports/Calculators. If you’re a B2B business, then proving the potential ROI of your product is essential. Helping your prospects calculate the potential ROI of your product is not only helpful, but it makes you look confident in your product, which builds trust with the prospect.
  3. Third-Party Reviews. If you have a great product with glowing customer reviews, then why not show that off? Nothing builds trust like social proof, so make sure you leverage third-party reviews if you are able.
After all that information, I will end with this: Measuring influence is hard. As I stated in the beginning, this experiment isn’t meant to help you figure out exactly which ad made prospects turn into sales opportunities and customers. Instead, this experiment is meant to help you take a step back and make an educated assumption of whether or not Twitter Ads (or any other social ad platform, like Facebook) can be used to influence your overall lead-to-customer rate.
Happy experimenting! Let us know what questions you have in the comments section below.
To view the original article Click Here

Thursday 28 April 2016

20 Marketing Lessons I Learned in 20 Years of Digital Marketing






One morning in 1996, I sat down at my computer and checked my email. In those distant days, most people had yet to discover email, so my morning inbox usually contained only one or two messages.
But this morning was different. I looked at my computer and blinked in amazement.
There was a list of 22 email messages in my inbox and they all had the same subject line: ‘Sale: $19.99.’ Over the previous few months, I had been building up a list of email subscribers.
The night before, I had dared to email them with an offer for the first time.
My subscribers could pick up a copy of my special report on ‘How to Get Freelance Work on the Internet’ for the introductory price of – you’ve guessed it – $19.99.
I could hardly believe it. I had made 22 sales and earned $439.78….while I was sleeping!
After years of selling my freelance writing services by the hour, this was a revelation. I decided on the spot that Internet marketing was where my future lay.
Within three months, I was making a full-time living online and I have been paying my bills the same way ever since.

20 Marketing Lessons Learned In 20 Years Of Digital Marketing

It’s been a roller-coaster ride over the last 20 years, with some spectacular highs and some challenging lows. From SEO to affiliate marketing and from membership models to Kindle publishing, I have experimented with just about every aspect of digital marketing.
Today, I am still taking on new projects as Chief Marketing Officer with Digital Muscle Media, Payoneer Brand Ambassador for Thailand and Publisher of MaxedMuscle.com.
I have learned a lot along the way and in this article I would like to share the benefit of my experiences with you.
Back in 1996, there was no Google and Yahoo was a directory that ranked sites alphabetically. Nobody had ever built a link for SEO purposes and blogging, social media and smartphones had yet to be invented.
In 1996, Yahoo was the King of Search
In 1996, Yahoo was the King of Search
Building a new website meant hand-coding it from scratch in static HTML.
The Internet really was the Wild West….and it was fun to be one of the pioneers. The world of digital marketing has changed dramatically, but it’s still as much fun as ever.
So for what it’s worth, here are 20 marketing lessons learned in 20 years of digital marketing….

1. Internet Marketing is the Best Business Opportunity Ever

Now that we all use the Internet every day, it’s easy to forget how amazing digital marketing really is.
Just 20 years ago, making a living inevitably meant commuting into some dreary office or factory and trudging through a tedious day job.
Very few people had the opportunity to work from home, or to work while traveling.
Thanks to the Internet, almost anyone can now make money from almost anywhere.
digital marketing makes it possible to make a living anywhere.
digital marketing makes it possible to make a living anywhere.
As long as you can get online somehow, you can generate an income. And if you get good at this, it can be a very substantial income.
The advent of the Internet really has opened up some amazing business opportunities….we should be very grateful to be living in these wonderful times.

2. You Should Think Outside the Box

When I talk to other marketers at conferences and other events, I am always amazed at the many different ways people are making money online.
I often meet people who are making small fortunes in niches I had never heard of, or using business models that I never imagined could work.
There is more to Internet marketing than SEO and affiliate programs and there are more niches than you could explore in a thousand lifetimes.
So don’t get stuck on a rut. Instead of following the crowd, be creative and find your own way.
Experiment with niches, products, monetization strategies and marketing techniques. If you can find a furrow that no-one else is ploughing, you can rack up healthy profits very quickly.
I’ve managed to do this a few times over the years….and I am always looking for the next original idea.

3. Laser-Like Focus Gets Results

Once you have found a niche and a business model that has potential, you need to work that opportunity to the max.
Don’t be distracted by the latest shiny object, the new WSO of the Day or a crazy idea that popped into your head at 3.00am that morning.
Many online marketers suffer from chronic ADD and are tempted to keep moving from one interesting new idea to the next.
I’ve been as guilty of that as anyone, but I have learned that it is counter-productive.
Juggling multiple ventures leads to a series of half-finished projects, none of which produce any profit.
So focus on your one big idea with laser-like precision and put all your efforts into making that work.

4. Don’t Be a Dinosaur

The world of the Internet changes fast. Strategies that worked just fine three years ago may be the kiss of death today.
You must be prepared to keep moving forward, rolling with the punches and leading the way in leveraging new technologies, tools and systems.
Passive income is great, of course, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to be asleep at the wheel.
You need to keep abreast of changes and stay one step ahead of your competitors.

5. Technology Changes, but People Stay the Same

Although technology is advancing at rapid-fire rate, human beings haven’t changed at all. We all still have the same basic human needs, wants and desires.
The marketing messages that worked 100 years ago still work today….and they will still work 100 years from now.
Marketing lessons that worked decades ago still work today.
Marketing messages that worked decades ago still work today.
If you learn to understand human behavior and response, you will be light years ahead of competitors who are focused only on technical tactics.
Combine state-of-the-art technology with time-tested marketing messages and you will have a winning formula for sure.

6. Quality Always Wins in the End

If you are looking to build an online business that is successful in the long run, you need to focus on quality.
Cutting corners on product quality or customer service might make you a few extra dollars today, but at the expense of thousands of dollars in the future.
Insist on first-class quality in every aspect of your business and your investment will be repaid many times over.
Google didn’t become the king of the search engines through clever marketing or expensive advertising. Page and Brin simply built a product that worked much better than the competition– and word of mouth did the rest.
The result? A company that went from zero to a $500 billion market cap in less than 20 years. A valuation of half a trillion dollars is not too shabby for a company started by two broke students.
If you focus on delivering quality and being the best, then your business will prosper in the long run, too.

7. Relationships Are Everything

We often here the phrase ‘the money is in the list.’ In my experience, that is only part of the story. The money is in the relationships you have with your customers, prospects, affiliates, partners and suppliers.
Your mailing list may be important, but it is just one cog in a complex business wheel.
All of these relationships are like marriages – you have to be committed to making them work.
If you take care of all these stakeholders in your business, they will take care of you in return. I am still doing business with contacts I met way back in 1996.
Over the years, we have helped each other in many different ways. We have all gained immense value from these partnerships.
So be sure to work hard on all of these relationships….they are your most valuable asset.

8. Going the Extra Mile Makes a Difference

In a world where shoddy products and indifferent service are the norm, you can set yourself apart by giving customers more than they expected.
If you give them 10% more in terms of product, support and satisfaction, they will reward you a hundredfold.
It’s no accident that I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon. Their prices, delivery times and customer service are so good that I am happy to let them ding my credit card several times a month.
Amazon got to be the biggest by being the best.
Amazon got to be the biggest by being the best.
Going the extra mile was important back in 1996, but it is even more important in 2016.
Thanks to social media, happy customers can easily spread the word and generate more business for you by word of mouth.
Delight your customers and they will respond by delighting you.

9. Conversion is King.

Split-testing is rather like teenage s** – everyone is talking about it, but few people are actually doing it.
This has always amazed me, because if you get good at testing and improving your conversion rates, your profits will soar.
This is definitely an area where the potential has grown dramatically over the years.
Back in the 90s, the only testing tools available were clunky and unreliable. Today, there are dozens of great split-testing tools, plugins and services.
Every time you improve your conversion rate through testing you increase your profits – without having to spend a single extra cent on advertising, marketing or promotion.
That’s totally awesome!

10. Recurring Revenue Makes You Rich

I love membership sites. You only have to make a sale once and then you can generate revenue from that customer month after month – maybe for years.
In my experience, it is almost as easy to sell a membership for $50 a month as it is to sell a product with a one-time $50 cost. So why the heck wouldn’t you go for the recurring payment?
Customers who purchase every month are far more profitable than one-time buyers (doh!).
Always look for a business model that will bring you recurring revenue – it is the fastest route to making substantial revenues online.
The flip side of this is that recurring costs can make you poor. It’s easy to sign up for some new tool that sounds cool and interesting – and then realize a year later that you’ve shelled out $600 for a service you never used.
Go through your recurring expenses once a quarter and cancel all the ones that are not delivering real value.

11. Too Much Money Gets Left on the Table

When customers are in a buying mood, you need to be able to offer them more than one product. You’ve already paid the marketing costs and convinced your prospect to become a customer.
Now you need to leverage that sale as much as you can.
Maximize your average order value by offering them upsells and cross-sells – it will make a huge difference to your profits.
I know that when I get interested in a new topic, I often buy everything on that subject that I can get my hands on.
Anyone who has a good upsell to offer will get my business.
But if there is no second product for sale, I will simply go and buy one somewhere else.
By taking advantage of this ‘buying frenzy’ mentality, you can increase your profits and help your customers at the same time.

12. The 80:20 Rule Always Applies

The Pareto Principle says that you get 80% of your results from 20% of your activities – and this certainly applies to Internet marketing. Often the ratio is more like 95:05.
Typically, a very small percentage of your affiliates and partners will generate the vast majority of your sales.
Focus your efforts on working with them to maximize results and consider terminating the partners who take up your time without delivering much revenue.
The same principle applies to your time. Work out which of your activities actually lead to increased profits and make those your priority.
Everything else is a distraction and should be eliminated.

13. Investing in Yourself Brings Awesome Returns

Internet marketing is a business where nuggets of knowledge can be turned into big seams of revenue.
Over the years, I have spent tens of thousands– maybe even hundreds of thousands – of dollars on educating myself and acquiring new skills. I don’t consider a single cent of that money to have been wasted.
The knowledge you glean from information products, courses, seminars and conferences is the seed that flourishes into a profitable online business.
The more informed you are, the better your decisions are – and the greater your success.
But please keep point 3 in the forefront of your mind when doing this.

14. You Should Always Work Smarter, Not Harder

Success in any business, including Internet marketing, is not about working harder. It is about getting more done….but you don’t have to do all the work yourself.
Learn to delegate and to use automation to improve your efficiency.
In the last few years, outsourcing has grown into a fantastic way to fuel your business.
Now you can hire a top-quality team at rock-bottom rates and out-compete everyone who is doing business the old-fashioned way.
Nowadays, you really can relax on the beach while your outsourced team takes care of growing your business.
I know this for sure, because I often do precisely that!

15. Don’t Re-invent the Wheel

Learning from the big boys is a great way to get an easy win. The largest web properties test and optimize extensively – using their massive traffic to conduct tests quickly and still get reliable results.
The good news is that we can profit from their investment by simply observing what they do.
If Amazon is using blue links which become underlined when you hover over them, you can be sure that this setup gets them the most clicks.
Your website will be different and your mileage will vary. But emulating the big players gives you a great starting point for your own testing and accelerates the optimization process.

16. You Can Easily Beat the Lazy 99%

Everybody wants to press a button and make a million dollars overnight.
Many marketers spend a lot of time looking for short-cuts – the untapped, magic traffic source or the secret to first-page Google rankings.
Instead of looking for an easy win that probably doesn’t exist, be prepared to do what it takes to build a solid business.
That means committing to creating quality products, building a great team and delivering great service.
That way, you will leave the lazy 99% in the dust.

17. Beware of the Gurus

Internet marketing has created its own special niche of superstars – the gurus who claim to know it all and will sell you their secrets for a mere $2000 or so.
For sure, there are good guys who deliver great value in return for your money.
But there are some who know a great deal about selling information products to Internet marketers….but not a whole lot else.
Investing in your education is undoubtedly important. Just be sure you are learning from people who actually know what they are talking about.
Remember that the self-proclaimed experts are not always as smart as their marketing – test their claims before you believe them.

18. Internet Marketing Can Transform your Life.

For me, running an online business meant a chance to swap the gray skies of London for the sunny beaches of Australia.
Instead of being tied to corporate clients in the UK, I was suddenly free to live anywhere in the world.
I emigrated with my family to a beach town near Sydney and my kids spent their teenage years surfing, swimming and enjoying the good life in the sun.
My family swapped British rain for fun in the sun on Avoca Beach, New South Wales.
My family swapped British rain for fun in the sun on Avoca Beach, New South Wales.
digital marketing really does give you the chance to create your dream life.
Especially today – with good Internet and wi-fi available almost everywhere – there is nothing to stop you living your dream life.
Go for it – I know Matthew has already done so!

19. The Opportunity Keeps Getting Bigger

The Internet marketing forums are full of doom and gloom threads.
You will often hear disgruntled marketers complaining that ‘SEO doesn’t work anymore,’ ‘the market is saturated’ and ‘it’s not as easy as it used to be.’ All of this is nonsense.
The best time ever to be an Internet marketer is….TODAY!!!
If you think Internet marketing was easy back in 1996, think again.
Back then, only 35 million people were online worldwide and more people shopped in Marks & Spencer (a UK based middle aged clothing store) in a week than had ever surfed the web.
Most people used the Internet to get information only, usually from inside walled gardens such as CompuServe. Fewer than 10% of Internet users had ever bought anything online.
To get information online in 1996, you had to pay for an expensive subscription.
To get information online in 1996, you had to pay for an expensive subscription.
Registering a domain cost $75.00 and decent web hosting for a single website would set you back $100 a month.
The search engine results were choked with spam and there were few serious affiliates to partner with.
There wasn’t much good Internet marketing information around, so you had to work things out for yourself.
Payment processing options came down to billing systems designed for p*** sites or asking customers to send a check in the mail.
Nowadays, we have access to amazing software tools, tons of social media channels and easy-to-use website software.
We are a mouse click away from the masses of valuable information offered by Google, YouTube and other resources.
We can easily create business relationships with people all over the world and communicate through chat apps, project management systems and much more. And there are many ways to get paid, too.
Heck, you can even run your entire business from the beach with a smartphone. (Yes, I sometimes do that, too!) It really doesn’t get much more awesome than that!
The opportunity today is enormous….so stop complaining and start profiting.

20. You Can Do It!

Here’s some sound advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger – ‘Ignore the nay-sayers!’ If you can scrape together ten bucks to buy a domain name, you have what it takes to get started in Internet marketing.
And if you can’t even manage that much cash, there are ways to get started for free.
Never before in history has it been possible to bootstrap a business from nothing into a potentially massive profit machine.
If Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg can start a $250 billion company from his dorm room, you can definitely build a business that allows you to enjoy the good life.

Looking Forward to the Next 20 Years

So that’s a summary of the digital marketing lessons I have learned the hard way over the years. And although the online world keeps changing, I believe these principles will remain true for years to come.
For those of you who prefer to interpret information visually, I have condensed this article into an infographic here.
I am now two decades into my digital marketing career, but I have no intention of quitting anytime soon.
Since getting into this business, I have never had the Monday Morning blues – I enjoy every new week and the fresh challenges and opportunities that come with it.
My four children who were little kids in 1996 have now grown into adults who are building their own careers.
Two of them have already learned my marketing lessons & joined me in the Internet marketing world – one is a successful ClickBank vendor, another is a WordPress developer with a growing reputation.
My sons Ben and Sam are now Internet marketers, too.
My sons Ben and Sam are now Internet marketers, too.
We often work together on projects and it’s great to be able to share the pleasure and rewards of doing business online. In another 20 years, maybe we’ll have a few grandchildren on the team, too.
So if you are wondering whether you can make a career out of Internet marketing, I say you most certainly can.
Start today and in 20 years’ time you could have an empire to be proud of.
In 2036, maybe I’ll bump into you at an digital marketing conference somewhere around the world. If that happens, be sure to introduce yourself.
I might be using a Zimmer frame by then, but I will still be looking for the next deal. Maybe we can do a joint venture….I’m looking forward to it already!
That concludes my 20 digital marketing lessons, I hope they stick in the back of your mind & you put them to good use.
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