9 Online Marketing Investments I Wish I Made Sooner
A great thing about starting an online marketing business is that typically the investment to get started is very small. Unfortunately, there were a few online marketing investments I wish I had made sooner in my career that would have sped up my results. So to help you avoid those pitfalls and get results faster, in this post you’ll learn my top recommended online marketing investments I needed to make sooner.
1. Top online marketing investments – email autoresponder
One thing I definitely put off way too long in my online marketing business was investing in an email autoresponder. When I first started off, I tried to do everything through Gmail, and it didn’t work that great.
If you haven’t heard it before, the money is in the list. Building an email list Is one foundation to building a successful online marketing business. As you start to generate leads, you want to have a place to put them all, so you can send out a bulk broadcast.
Without an email autoresponder you’ll spend hours trying to send out emails manually. This eliminates all leverage, and isn’t really possible the larger your list gets.
I think I had about 200 emails when it stopped working to manually send them out on Gmail. It started to register as spam in Gmail, which no longer let me send out emails to my list.
I think it was a blessing in disguise, but this is why you want to invest in an email autoresponder. It will save you a lot of time, and will help you automate your business.
An email autoresponder was definitely an online marketing investment I should have made much earlier. The cost is very minimal, but the returns are massive, when you do it right.
iI you don’t have an email autoresponder setup yet, one that I recommend and use currently is AWeber. I found this to be a very cost-effective option even if you’re just getting started in your online marketing business.
2. One of the best online marketing investments I should have made earlier, was in online marketing courses
Everyone has the same 24 hours a day, but the most successful people do something different. One thing that really helped speed up my learning curve was investing in online marketing courses.
The most successful people do different things with their time. Learning from them and applying what they knew was something I really wish I would have done sooner. The great thing is, a lot of top online marketing leaders put together courses that you can take.
When I first started my online marketing business I didn’t have a ton of extra money lying around. I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my network marketing business, and I have needed to generate more leads and sales.
I started to learn about online marketing and how to use it in my business. At the same time investing in online marketing courses was something I was nervous about.
However, I found the more I invested in myself and developed my skill-set, the more money I started to earn in my business. It was nerve-racking but I pulled the trigger and purchase my first course.
The first online marketing course I got was all about blogging and how to make money blogging. I learned a ton and it has helped me shape my blog into what it is today.
You can actually still take the course today. I still think it has a lot of value you can use for your building online marketing business. Click here to get instant access to the course.
Other tips on investing in online marketing courses
While I do certainly recommend investing in online marketing courses, there are a few things you should know before you do. One thing is that you don’t want to get caught up in the shiny object syndrome.
Basically what this means is jumping from strategy to strategy and course to course without taking any action. Certainly your business will grow to the point that you do, but you can’t only be in learning mode.
To get massive results in your online marketing business you need to combine learning with action. I definitely recommend taking online marketing courses to get better results in your business, but don’t get caught up in course overload.
One key recommendation I wish I would have implemented in the beginning, is to focus on one strategy and master it. When you try and juggle many online marketing strategies at once, it can keep you from the success you should be getting.
I’d recommend picking one or two internet marketing strategies and mastering them, before you jump on to something different. Once you have figured out how to make one strategy successful, it’s much easier to implement another strategy on top of it.
One of the first strategies I started to master was Twitter marketing. This is Twitter marketing course I’d recommend taking. Ultimate Tweet Leverage. This course taught me how to automate my business and generate leads and sales on autopilot.
3. Invest in a course on advertising before you spend money on it
One thing I find a lot of people make the mistake of when they just start their business is the jump into advertising too soon. Like everything else in online marketing advertising has a learning curve.
All too often I find that people haven’t learned the foundation skill sets of online marketing when they start advertising their business. The best way to advertise your business is to do it after you’ve mastered the basics of online marketing.
There’s a learning curve to advertising online, so you’re going to spend money learning. It will require lots of testing and tracking ads until you find a winner. This means if your combining going through your general learning curve with an advertising learning curve, you going to waste a lot of money.
This is why I really recommend investing in an advertising course first. Learn to market your online business correctly, before you start advertising. On top of that make sure you start advertising as a means to scale your business. Only do this once you’re already making income.
You’ll save yourself a lot of time and money going through an advertising course first. Again do this before spending your money on advertising. Really you should be investing in yourself and learning the right skill sets to market effectively online first. Do this before you spend money on advertising.
For example if you don’t know what to say to leads, it doesn’t matter how many leads you have. If you’re paying for ads that are bringing leads that’s great, but you still need the foundation skills upfront.
Would you like to learn more about advertising your business on social media? I’d recommend checking out this Facebook advertising course.
4. One of the best online marketing investments I made was taking courses and learning about copy writing
If you’re not familiar with copywriting, basically It’s the skill set of being able to write persuasively. The cool thing is, copywriting can really be applied to anything.
This could be written copy on your sales pages, blog posts, video descriptions, email marketing, and more. You’ll even use copywriting skills in sales presentations and video marketing.
I really wish I would have invested in online marketing courses on copywriting earlier in my internet marketing career. Learning how to speak and write persuasively is an essential skill in online marketing.
This makes copywriting one of the essential online marketing Investments you should make. I found that learning the skill set of copywriting can dramatically increase your sales and income a variety of ways.
If you’re just starting off in online marketing you probably are building your business part-time. You can use the skill sets of copywriting to perform better in your current work, and to speak and write more persuasively.
This can help you bring in more income from your job or even help you get promotions. Your negotiation skills can also improve. Do this by learning how to write and speak persuasively.
I’d recommend the more you can learn and master copywriting the better. It should definitely be something you invest in to grow your business faster.
If you would like to check out one of the best copywriting courses I’ve found you can access it here. That picture below is actually me standing next to Brian, the creator of that copywriting course!
Also one of the great Foundation copyrighting books I’d recommend is called The Ultimate Sales letter. You can pick up a copy on Amazon HERE.
5. Invest in a CRM to get better results on your followup
If you’re not familiar with a CRM, it stands for customer relationship manager. This is a great online marketing tool which can help you follow up more effectively for your business.
A major area I struggled with for years in on my marketing is follow-up. As the old saying goes “The fortune is in the follow-up.” I think a lot of Internet marketers drop the ball on this area.
For this reason I think setting up a CRM for your business is one of the best online marketing investments you can make. Like we talked about earlier, if you’re just getting started in your business, you’re probably building it part-time.
This means it’s even more important to be more effective with your time. It’s never about how much time you have, it’s how effective you are with your time. Having a CRM in place can help you be more effective with your time.
Would you like to get better results talking to less people? That’s the power of having a CRM in your business. A common pitfall for most internet marketers is spending too much time talking to the wrong people.
They waste time on people that aren’t really interested. Also with those who don’t qualify to be your customer or client. Having a CRM in place can help you streamline your leads. This can also help you with time management.
If you’d like to learn more about the CRM I use and recommend click here.
6. Another one of my online marketing investments I wish I did sooner, was getting a capture page system set up
I had been in the direct sales industry for about 8 years before I started implementing capture pages. Using lead magnets in my business was a game changer. It’s definitely a strategy I wish I would have invested in sooner, and it has it’s made a huge impact on my business.
When I first started building my business on social media I spent hours a day prospecting. While active prospecting is definitely a great foundation to building your business, it does take a lot of time.
On top of that, this kind of prospecting usually isn’t focused on the most targeted leads. The most powerful lead you can talk to, is one that you’ve generated yourself.
Setting up capture pages and lead magnets can help you do this more effectively in your business. It wasn’t until I invested in a lead magnet and capture page system that I started really growing my online business.
When you generate a lead yourself, you have much more posture with those leads. It puts you in a much better position then randomly approaching someone.
It’s really the difference between hunting and fishing. People coming to you versus you having to chase them down. This is why I really recommend setting up a lead generation system for your business.
Setting up a lead generation system for my business was one of the best online marketing Investments I ever made. If you’re just getting started you might want to check out my free lead generation boot camp here.
7. I wish I would have invested in an online marketing coach sooner
Let’s face it, you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s one of the biggest reasons why people should hire a coach.
I know for me, hiring a business coach was one of the best things I did for my business. Certainly there’s a lot you can learn from taking an online marketing course. There’s also a lot you can learn from free content out there, but that only goes so far.
There has definitely been points in my business where I felt like I had hit a wall. I think that happens to everyone that’s building an online marketing business, and sometimes the only way through is with expert advice.
Matching and modeling people that are more successful than you in the internet marketing space is key. Unfortunately, sometimes it only works to a point.
Sometimes you just need an outside perspective. From someone that has more experience and results than you. Hiring a coach is one online marketing investment I wish I would have done sooner.
Hiring a coach can be one of the best ways to cut through your learning curve faster. It’s fine to take part in free resources, or to take online marketing courses, but it’s totally different than working with a coach.
A marketing coach can often see things you can’t, because they’ve been through more experiences than you have. This is one reason why I think hiring a coach is one of the best online marketing investments you can make.
I know I’ve spent well over $50,000 on coaching and online marketing courses over my career, which has made all the difference. Great thing about hiring coach, vs taking college classes for example, is you can apply the information immediately to make more money.
8. I also wish I would have invested in online marketing events sooner
Another thing I wish I would have started doing sooner is attending online marketing events. People make big decisions, at big events. Going to an online marketing event can be a game-changer for most people.
Success in online marketing really starts from a belief that you can succeed. If you don’t believe you can succeed, you won’t take the right action steps to make it happen.
If you believe you can you will, if you believe you can’t you won’t. This is a very important concept to understand if you want to succeed at anything. You need to believe you can if you expect to succeed.
This is one thing that attending an event can help you achieve. At an online marketing event you get to meet other top leaders in the industry. Others that are succeeding at a high level.
The crazy thing is most of these top leaders started off just like you. They had no experience, no skills, no talent, but they learned what they needed to do to succeed.
Seeing other people succeed a high-level just like you, could be the motivation you need to start getting results in your business.
This is why I really wish I would have started going to online marketing events sooner. It’s also why it’s one of the top online marketing investments I recommend you start doing.
9. Start investing in your online marketing book library
Other thing I think most people in the interment marketing industry should invest in sooner, is in reading and buying online marketing books. When someone writes a book, they take years of experience in trial and error and condense it into a few hundred pages.
Certainly there are books that aren’t that valuable out there, but even so, worst case scenario is it cost you a few bucks and a couple hours of time learning.
Reading books is one of the best ways to learn in your business. It can help you master the online marketing skills you need. Routinely spend a few hundred dollars a year on online marketing book to learn the latest trends and improve my skill-set.
In online marketing books you read, look for things you can apply immediately in your business to make more money. You can turn one idea in a book into thousands of dollars of income when you apply what you learn.
Continuing education in both online marketing courses and online marketing books is one foundation you should invest in for your business. I personally use Audible as a great way to absorb and learn from books as quick as possible. Check out an Audible membership HERE.
One great book I’d recommend is Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson. You can get a copy of Expert Secrets for FREE here!
You might also enjoy my post on my top 5 recommended online marking books.
Take your online marketing investments seriously and put your money back into your business. Investing in yourself and your business can create more returns faster.
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P.S. If you aren’t generating leads for your business it’s because you don’t have a system in place to do it. CLICK HERE to set up the exact system I use to Rake In Quality Targeted Leads Daily
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