7 Steps to Market your Small Business Online: How to Simplify Information Overload

Stick to a Training Schedule

The steps to market your small business online is an overwhelming task  (information overload) unless you have some guidance and resources to help you along the way.  Reading The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto will start you on your journey to learn how to use the power of the Internet to attract customers who are interested in YOU and your small business.

In our free ebook and video,  “The Inside Scoop on The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto”, we highlight three of Ann Sieg’s key principles for successfully marketing your small business online:

1. Simplify information overload
2. Master the basics of online recruiting and selling
3. Move past lead generation

Before you can do steps 2 and 3, you must deal with step 1.  In fact, if you cannot simplify information overload you will end up like most beginner online marketers.  Overwhelmed, burned out, and broke!

The best thing to do to address information overload is to make a commitment to learning the skills you need to succeed, and then get into a training program that will teach you those skills.  It all sounds simple enough.  Especially when there is an excellent all-in-one training site just for Internet marketers.  (Look at this training video on how to create a Squidoo Lens to attract people to you.)

But there is still confusion about how and where to start.  Andrea Beadle sums it up when shes states,

I’m so excited about all of this that my head is spinning and I am struggling to work out what to implement first… there just aren’t enough hours in the day and I’m not up to getting up at 4am like you guys!

I’m currently re-writing my site, changing keywords etc and wanting to implement some more of what Ann and Mike talk about but there are just so many things I want to do that I don’t know which to focus on first!! Twitter, squidoo, articles, my website or a blog, writing my own ebook….

Are you able to give me any advice about where we should focus first?

One of the big mistakes we see small business owners make when learning how to market a small business online is to dive into different trainings without understanding the basics of online marketing.  For example, we urge you to understand the term attraction marketing (learning to attract buyers to you), learn the importance of providing valuable information first and foremost in your marketing content and become a solutions provider to others.

A perfect example of helping others and ultimately landing a sale is Lowes website.  Lowes is a home improvement store.  Take a look at how they educate their buyers who are searching for a home improvement solution.   They make no mention of the fact that they want people to buy from them!

The sale ultimately happens because they are teaching and earning credibility through their website.  Thus, they drive real traffic (the kind who have to get in their cars!) to their store where they select and purchase their supplies for their home improvement project.

As a student in online marketing, it’s great to learn how to put up a YouTube video, but if you do not have a website, blog , or lead capture page to drive your viewers to, then you have skipped crucial parts of your marketing plan.  You need to create a platform where you will be visible.  All the training in the world without the proper kind of action will get you nowhere.

The second big mistake we see is that people jump all over the place in their training and refuse to stay on one course of study until they complete the training session (for example if you are studying blogging  – stick with it for several weeks or months before moving to the next category such as building a website or YouTube).

In Andrea’s case (above) where she is excited about all the options, but unsure about where to begin, we recommend doing some planning and following these steps.

1.    Understand the basics of marketing online(attraction marketing, provide value first, not trying to sell in your content).

2.   Get the proper training for online marketing.

3.   Study one to two categories that you are most interested in.  Some examples include blogging, YouTube video, ezine articles.

4.   Establish the primary platform (website, blog, Facebook, Twitter) through which you want to communicate to your audience and set it up.

5.   Set your calendar (by actually writing in your weekly hours) and remain accountable to yourself to study and get into action.

6.   Find a study partner (more on this very soon!) that matches your personal profile, goals and desire.

7.  Write a daily to do list and prioritize what needs to be done first.  At the end of the day take the things you did not accomplish and put them on the next day’s to-do list.  Prioritize again.

The biggest challenge we face as we teach other small business owners how to simplify information overload, is that training is just one step.   If all you do is sit in on training class after training class without ever putting your new knowledge into action (such as consistently adding new content to your blog to provide value and attract prospects), then you are missing a critical part of the business building equation.

It may be helpful to write a list of all the things you want to accomplish (e.g. Twitter, Squidoo, Articles, Website, Blog, Write an ebook, etc.,) and next to each item and prioritize which ones you want to do first.  Please don’t try to do them all at once.  That will be information overload.  Here are some of the strategies you will want to implement into your business plan of things to accomplish:

• Attract prospects to you and your business
• Provide valuable content to them to build teach and build credibility
• Create sales and cash flow
• Bring more customers through the door and make repeat sales
• Position yourself as an expert in your field

These 7 steps to market your small business online can start today.  Get into consistent action.  Plan out your training schedule and then implement what you’ve learned by creating valuable, sought-after, needed content.  When you provide information that solves other people’s problems, they will keep coming back for more.

Also, you will minimize your feelings of overwhelm and frustration if you map out your schedule and stick to it.

We have some exciting resources to give you that will make your training and action steps easier to accomplish.  So stay tuned!  Be sure to register for our next Webinar on March 28, 2009.

Warm regards,

Lisa and Alicia