Kikabink News

The number one key to success in Internet marketing – in fact, the key to success in just about every endeavor – is abiding by one simple principle.

The principle of continuous improvement.

In Japan, it’s called ‘kaizen’ which is a nice, shorthand way of saying you must always strive to improve, and that in order to improve you must constantly:

• Test different approaches;
• Track (or measure) which works the best; and
• Innovate or come up with a new approach to test.

Ideally, kaizen should govern every single aspect of your business – from how you recruit and train staff, to your production processes, to how you handle the books. After all, every improvement counts. To your bottom line.

But whatever you want to improve, it’s essential to choose the right measure; otherwise your efforts to test, track and innovate will prove fruitless. For most businesses, the measure should have a direct or indirect impact on profits.

When it comes to marketing, and in particular Internet marketing, there are numerous elements you can test, track and innovate.

For example, our company, Kikabink, focuses on two general components of Internet marketing:

1. Generating web site traffic; and
2. Converting it into customers.

Therefore, our aim in testing, tracking and innovating is to measure and improve such things as the quantity of traffic, the conversion of visitors-to-sales, the conversion of visitors-to-optins, sales, and profits. And since there are numerous influences on traffic, conversion rates, sales, and profits, there are numerous things to test!

Fortunately, testing on the Internet is relatively inexpensive. To the point where it’s almost inexcusable for any online business not to test.

However, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by so many testing opportunities too. So, unless you’re capable of running complex multivariate tests (where you test numerous things at the same time), I suggest adopting a simple, methodical approach.

Divide your marketing into different categories, identify all the elements within each category, and then test them one at a time. This is critical - you need to be able to isolate exactly what causes a change in your results.

For example, you might consider traffic-to-customer conversion as one category. Some of the items within this might be the:

• Product
• Offer
• Headline
• Price

On that basis, you might select one of these to test first, get to a level you’re happy with, then move on to the next.

Which brings us to an important point: when do you stop testing? According to the principle of kaizen, the answer is never.

In practical terms, though, it’s reasonable to continue to test something until the rate of improvement start flattening out, at which point you can move on to testing something else.

However, if, for example, you started by changing the price… and then you changed the product, and then the offer and then the headline… you’d definitely want to retest the price!

Above all, embrace the principle of kaizen – you will literally grow your online profits by doing so!

Last Thursday I closed my Facebook account. No, it wasn’t out of protest against the new Facebook design… or because I don’t like my Facebook “friends”… or because I have anything against Facebook.

It was simply because… I just don’t use Facebook!

And rather than continue enduring that nagging thought, “I’ve gotta do something on Facebook to promote my business”… I realized I had fallen into the same trap so many Internet marketers fall into: thinking we need to do EVERYTHING to promote our businesses.

Having worked with both small Internet businesses and large corporate Internet marketing departments, I am yet to meet an individual OR an entire team that is able to pursue every single avenue for promoting their business, product or service. Everyone has limited time and resources. And with the Internet evolving all the time, it’s hard enough to stay on top of one aspect of Internet marketing, let alone several.

I’m not saying anything you probably haven’t heard before, but let this article serve as a gentle reminder: it’s better to do a few things really well, than do a lot of things half-baked. And just because you hear some guru preaching about how you MUST get involved in social networking… or blogging… or article marketing… or podcasting (see above!) or anything else… it doesn’t mean you have to at all.

Jay Abraham - a true marketing genius and guru in my opinion - wrote a book called “Getting The Most Out Of All You’ve Got” and that’s really what we should focus on as entrepreneurs. We should do what we can to get the best possible results based on what we have in terms of time, money, skills and other resources. This principle should guide us in deciding what we do in our businesses, and if that means stopping or cutting back on certain things - or closing a Facebook account we never use - so be it.

Of course, let me say that closing my Facebook account doesn’t mean I don’t see value in social networking. Or that you should do the same. It’s just not where I can get the most out of what I’ve got right now. You may find that it DOES work for you, while other things don’t.

P.S. One social network I AM loving at the moment is Imeem. Not sure about a business angle yet (if ever), but I just LOVE creating playlists and listening to music while I work. Check out my Imeem profile here: http://www.imeem.com/annaj/ I also use Twitter. You can follow my “occasionally regular” ramblings at http://www.twitter.com/annajohnson

I remember hearing an interview with copywriting great John Carlton talking about how he and the legendary, late Gary Halbert used to focus all their marketing and copywriting efforts on sucking money out of their customers. John called this “Operation Money Suck”.

It sounds crude, but my understanding of Operation Money Suck is that, as a marketer or copywriter, you should really focus the bulk of your time, energy and resources on activities aimed at making money. Not spending your time on activities that avoid or PREVENT you from making money. Like rearranging your desk. Sitting in time-wasting meetings. Or engaging in useless admin tasks.

In other words, it’s about time and resource management for marketers. But “Operation Money Suck” is much more provocative and engaging, don’t you think?

This also means focusing your money making activities on those that make the MOST money. For a marketer, this may mean prioritizing your marketing budget; for a copywriter it may mean cutting out any copy that detracts from your sales message. (You can see how “granular” Operation Money Suck can be!)

Frankly, everyone involved in marketing should see themselves as involved in Operation Money Suck. Perhaps you’d rather not use such in-your-face terminology - and I’m also assuming, of course, that what you sell offers HUGE value to your customers - but the principle of optimizing your time by concentrating on your biggest money makers is certainly sound.

Source: John Carlton’s Big Damn Blog

When you think about the businesses that you patronize again and again… is it because they continually bombard you with sales pitches? Or because they consistently deliver a great quality product or service?

It’s obvious isn’t it - you keep on buying because of the great quality product or service.

The same principle applies to YOUR online business.

While I’m a strong advocate of reminding customers of the value you provide, and making them aware of the other great products and services you offer… at the end of the day, the BEST thing you can do to get existing customers to keep on buying - and buying more - from you, is to provide them with a top quality product or service.

This too will get your customers talking to others, and spreading the good word about your business. And word of mouth marketing is probably the most powerful!

So, if you want to sell more to your existing customers, deliver on your promise - indeed EXCEED your promise - in terms of delivering a great quality product or service.