Let’s be honest now, most of your online marketing doesn’t work does it?

How do I know?

Well, most of my online marketing doesn’t work either!

Fortunately, just enough of it does to keep me in customers …. who are all absolutely wonderful of course. But wouldn’t it be nice, really nice, if there were some ways to make your online marketing more successful and increase your hit rate?

Through some painstaking research looking at hundreds of campaigns I’ve worked on over the years I’ve identified these four main reasons why online marketing doesn’t work …. and worked out a few solutions.

Try them yourself and see what you think ….

1.There’s not enough of it

The Internet is a like a giant ocean absolutely sloshing around with information. Your online content is but a few drops of water in that ocean, and very hard for anyone to find.

Solution: You can increase your online marketing results to some extent simply by adding more and more information.

To some extent (slightly depressing but true) online marketing is a quantity over quality game.

2.You’re thinking big …. not small

Whatever your subject chances are hundreds or thousands of people and businesses are posting on the self same subject.

Solution: By focussing in on a smaller component part of your subject you’re much more likely to make a subject your own and attract your audience. In other words, be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond. (Bigger fish at least have a chance at surviving, thriving and one day swimming out into the bigger pond!)

Let’s say your business is selling travel. All-embracing content about travel will have to compete with billions of similar pieces of content out there and won’t get you much traffic. Articles focussed on a specific niche like canal cruising in France or train travel in Asia will have far less competition and you’ll have a much better chance of making those niches your own.

3.It’s too sales-orientated

Yes, people do go online to buy things …. billions of pounds and dollars worth of things. But primarily people go online to look for information. They’re increasingly turned off by out-and-out sales messages, or even positively avoid them.

Solution: By providing useful information – news, tips, advice and analysis – you’ll attract a bigger, better and more loyal audience. Think telling rather than selling. By association some of them will buy things too.

4.It’s not ‘real and raw’ enough

There’s so much samey, anodyne information out there on the Internet and it just blends into the background.

Solution: Generally people are attracted to content that is down to earth, truthful, critical, controversial, rude, shocking and so on.

Yes, you might offend a few readers using this sort of strategy (but they probably wouldn’t buy from you anyway). But generally you will gain, and retain, many more.

So don’t be afraid to ‘tell it how it is’. Plus, if your marketing content is not perfect – even if it is a bit rough round the edges – go ahead and run with it anyway. You might be surprised at the results you get.

The good thing about these tips are that they’re nothing complicated, nothing technical. Try deploying them into your online marketing right away and I’m confident you’ll begin to see the difference

I hope you’ve found those tips useful. For help and advice with creating or improving your online content and copy don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at mark @ markhempshell.com or visit my main site at www.markhempshell.com