Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

The Biggest Lie About Web Marketing – Ever…

Author: Charlie Cook   |   February 7th, 2012

Almost every person who has ever tried to market online has been told this big fat LIE about the web. And it’s the one lie that, if they believe it, kills their online business before it even opens.

It’s not just people starting out in business who get sucked in by this big fat lie, it’s…highly successful business owners too.

Take my friend Isabela. She’s Italian, married a Peruvian and the common theme of their relationship is food.

They own a handful of Peruvian restaurants, import specialty food items from Peru and wholesale them to big grocery store chains like Stop and Shop.

Isabela and her husband are smart, successful business owners and Isabela has always had this idea she’d like to sell online too.

Given they’re already importing Peruvian coffee and high end food items, selling online would be a natural extension of their business, one that could be the icing on the cake bringing in tens of thousands of dollars each month in additional income.

But here is where the big fat lie about web marketing gets in the way.

Isabela, like most people, thinks web marketing is free or practically free!

And with this in mind, she had one of her office staff, the one who processes orders for her husband’s food import business, design and build a website. Then Isabela herself has been working on trying to get the site to rank in the search engines.

Yes, it’s true, so far, Isabela hasn’t spent more than a couple hundred dollars on her web site and her online marketing, but it’s generated even less in revenue – which is a shame because she has a business that could easily be making over $200,000 a year for her online.

Let’s take a look at some basic facts about starting a business.

Isabela knows that when she opens a new restaurant, it’s a big investment. On average it takes, $494,888 to open a restaurant. Yes almost a half million dollars. Of course, within 18 months the typical restaurant is grossing $1,171,629 a year and making a profit of $91,103 – which isn’t bad at all.

How about Isabela’s online business? How much did she spend to get it up and running? Practically nothing – and no surprise it makes practically nothing.

As I mentioned before, her perception is that it doesn’t cost anything to setup an online store and get all the traffic you want to be successful – which is the same big fat lie most people believe.

Now I’ve been marketing online for 15 years and I can tell you while there are always a couple of examples that people keep talking about where someone made it big without seeming like they did anything, your chances of doing the same are about as good as winning the lottery.

The truth is making money on the web is no different than making money on main street. To generate sales online – takes time, money and expertise.

You need a plan, money to build your store or your lead funnel, and you need to market it the same way you would if you owned a restaurant. Marketing any business doesn’t happen by magic – whether it’s online or off.

The payoff is that, done right, your return for online marketing is typically greater than spending the same amount of money promoting your business with traditional methods.

But before you tell yourself the big lie that online marketing is practically free let me give you some solid numbers, based on 15 years of experience with companies of all sizes.

If you provide services locally and you’re making $300,000, you can easily double your revenue with your web marketing but it’s going to take an annual investment of $36,000.

Now I can hear you saying, “$36,000 – that’s a lot to spend!” But is it?

How else can you get an eight times return on your money every year? Certainly not in the stock market or in real estate.

Or if you market nationally and your company is making ten million a year and you want to bring in another two million a year. What would it take?

The answer is you’d need to spend around $150,000 a year!

And most people who see this number and think web marketing should be free have sticker shock. But a twelve times return on investment – do you have any other way you could get these kind of returns?

Let me repeat this in hopes you get it.

It takes time, money and expertise to open up a profitable restaurant and the same is true for setting up your online presence for growing your business online even if you’re just trying to generate qualified leads.

Just as you’d have a plan for your restaurant, you’d hire a qualified designer, builder and marketer (no you wouldn’t try and do it yourself) to be successful online you need to do the same!

Questions?

Comments?

Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

P.S. Want help with your online marketing? Let me know how I can help.


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