Online Marketing – A Love Story

First, I fell in love with a wonderful man (who happens to be my husband today). Then, I fell in love with online marketing...

Once upon a time I was tall, blond and had blue eyes and was on my way to China when I met my future husband at the airport in Frankfurt.

I did get to China where I directed a College for several years and the guy I met at the airport (aka "Mr Germany" because I was not able to pronounce his German name properly) turned into my boyfriend and so started our long-distance relationship.

Fast forward to 2007. I moved to Germany and married my dear German-engineer husband and discovered and fell in love with online marketing while trying to market my training business (I'm not German and back in 2007 my German was not enough to start a local training business here so I decided to do online trainings).


What exactly is online marketing, anyway?

There is a fatal mistake that hinders progress and prosperity for us service professionals, coaches, trainers and consultants: Internet Marketing is often misunderstood as the business of making money online, particularly selling any kind of stuff.

This cannot be more wrong. Web marketing is essentially marketing so we are going to start with the definition of marketing.

According to Wikipedia, "Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling the product or service. It is a critical business function for attracting customers".

Merriam Webster defines Marketing as
a : the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market
b : the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

I will give you my personal and simple definition of marketing because it will really help you move forward with your business as well as understand online marketing.

"Marketing is the process of choosing your WHO, your WHAT and your HOW" - Ana Rosenberg

The fundamental elements of this formula are:

Your WHO - the people you choose to help with your expertise.

Your WHAT - what do you do for these people? What solutions to their problems do you offer?

Your WHO and your WHAT, together with your WHY (why do you choose to help the way you do?) should be communicated in your magnetic marketing message aimed at attracting your people to you, instead of having to chase your next client.

Your HOW - the medium or media you choose to share your message with the
world.

IMPORTANT DISTINCTION - The Internet is a medium, like TV or radio or press are media.

This distinction brings us to our right definition of online marketing, i.e. marketing done using the worldwide web.



Why did I fall in love with marketing on the web?

Using the power of the Internet to market offers several awesome advantages:

It is extremely economical compared to offline marketing.

The Internet offers you the incredible possibility of being found by the people who are looking for your solutions all over the world.

Social media (when used right) allows you to reach and connect with your people with ease.

E-mail keeps you in touch with the people who raised their hand and said "I need your help with this problem that you solve".
Testing your marketing message online is relatively easier for small business owners than spending thousands testing offline.

There are many powerful online marketing tools and resources available absolutely free. (You can find many business-building tools here in this website).

You can have your magnetic message on your website and other web properties 24/7 and "clone" yourself. At any time, from anywhere on the planet your visitors can experience you and your solutions.

And MUCH MORE..!

This short video shows some of the possibilities open to you online:

Where To Start - First Online Marketing Tips and Strategies

If you are excited about the possibilities, you might be asking yourself where to start.

The answer is simple but profound: start with your message first, especially your WHO. Your WHO will determine where you market online and offline and what solutions you offer to them.

HOT TIP - Do not start with your website or social media yet. Start by researching:

- who your people are
- where they hangout
- what their problems are
- what solutions they are looking for
- what they are afraid of
- what they dream of.

In a nutshell, understand your people before you spend any time, money or energy on anything else.



Next Step

In the next post you will discover some useful tools and resources to get to know your people better, their pains and problems as well as their dreams and aspirations. Come back to start going deeper into your WHO.

Till then, keep building a business to be proud of!

Ana