As an entrepreneur or small to medium sized organisation, you may be asking, “Why do I need an Online Marketing Plan?” After all, I’m too busy working to deliver my product or service to my customers and managing my finances. There isn’t enough time!

Let’s be clear, needs and wants are not always the same thing. Most people want to be able to reach their audience and sell their product to their market as cost effectively as possible. In order to achieve this, they often need a strategy or plan. You should spend some time thinking, planning and strategizing about your online marketing. This can be a challenge if you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, but it is well worth the time investment. If you have a budget, it is worth bringing in experts, or other opinions to help you clarify your plan.

The reason why I recommend developing an Online Marketing Plan is it forces you to really think about who your market is, and what you are offering them. Most products or services are really offering your customers a benefit or value – the product unlocks the benefit. Being able to narrow down your audience to a niche or very focussed group of prospects, allows you to achieve a greater return on your marketing and advertising investment. You can spend a lot of money, very quickly and have no conversion to sales for your spend, if you don’t approach your marketing strategically.

On the other hand, don’t spend days planning an elaborate, over detailed plan and never get to market. Find the balance that works for you. Some approaches are theoretical, and can lead to “analysis paralysis” especially for entrepreneurs and small organisations. I find some of the advertising and marketing advice available is based on companies that have massive budgets and teams to manage the details. This won’t necessarily work for a small organisation.

The fundamentals of any marketing plan, is to answer the questions: Who, What, Why, Where, When and How. Who is your market and Who are you? What are you offering, what problem are you solving? Why should your audience use your offer, why does it benefit the potential buyer, and why are you offering this? The Where, When and How are the places and time you will engage your audience, and the process or action needed by the potential customer to take you up on your offer. This is usually represented by a Call-To-Action or CTA. Being in a position to better understand and answer these questions will really help you to narrow your audience down to a niche and target them better. It also allows you to adapt your message to the different target audiences that you may discover. The goal is a higher conversion rate from a smaller audience.

Online Marketing Plans are meant to be living documents that adapt as you learn more about your audience. With Online Marketing today, the analytics data and targeting options available, really make it easier to learn about your audience. You can also measure your results with much higher accuracy.

Developing an Online Marketing Plan will help you reach the right audience with the right message at the right time. For content marketing it can also help you keep the focus on your desired outcome, and continuously drive your CTA home. Lastly, adapt your plan and let it work for you. Find the practical balance between knowing and doing. A plan without action is not going to help you.

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Affiliate marketing is a great sales and marketing tool when used responsibly. Brands that offer these programs and want long-term success, set strict parameters on how someone can be part of their program and represent the brand. This includes disclosure, required by law in some countries, of the affiliate partners potential commission on referring their readers to the brand. I have always been cautious about taking advantage of affiliate programs, but I have recently changed my mind on this issue. The key is integrity to disclose affiliate product links, and only refer products that I either personally use or that I am confident will add value to people that I refer to the brand. If used with integrity, it is a simple form of a commission agreement, without any guarantees. It’s potentially a win for all three parties.

Brands Must Set Strict Parameters for Influencers

If you are a business with a product or service that fits an Affiliate Marketing or sales model, I would encourage you to set strict parameters around those referring your brand. Not just the usual legal focus, but the rich customer experience that you want for your brand. It’s a great way of getting new leads, who have chosen to investigate your brand by referral of a 3rd-party influencer. There is no cost impact to the customer, as the commission is always factored into the cost of sales – the same as a normal internal sales transaction.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Affiliate Marketing

Strengths

• It’s an effective way to reach leads.
• The cost is only related to a transaction/conversion.
• It’s a win-win-win scenario for all 3 parties
• Potential leads arrive at the brand’s website with the interest that has been created by the affiliate as an external opinion. This is a high-value lead.

Weaknesses

• Brand misrepresentation by an affiliate marketer.
• Consumer perception or deception.

Ted’s WoodworkinG is a great example of Affiliate Marketing Success

The links here are affiliate links. 

Ted’s WoodworkinG offers online access to 16000 woodworking plans for a really good price. Why is Ted’s WoodworkinG affiliate program so successful? The answer is fundamental to successful affiliate marketing: the product is excellent, and he offers a really good deal. That’s it! You don’t need to complicate things. I only recommend products that I know to be good, and that I use or would use myself after a lot of research. In addition to this, affiliates need to serve their audience by informing them of great deals, well reviewed products etc.

Another highlight of Ted’s WoodworkinG offer is that you get to see a sample of the product before you commit to buying it and free downloads. Here’s an example:

• Free Woodworking Book called the Art of Woodworking with 40 plans and great woodworking advice – you can download it here

If you love woodworking projects, like I do, then this is a great resource and a great example of affiliate marketing done well.  If you’re interested in woodworking, check out Ted’s WoodworkinG here.

My Affiliate Marketing Resolution

I am often asked which products or services I use for my own business and brands. This is another reason I decided to offer a few select affiliate brands on my site. These have added tremendous value to my business over the years. I won’t use or suggest a product without thoroughly testing it and comparing it to what is out there. I also suggest having an Affiliate Disclosure page on your website and labelling affiliate products or links appropriately. I love to help small businesses and entrepreneurs drive success. The following are a few of the affiliate referral brands, products and services that have added tremendous value to me.

• YOCO Credit Card Machines and Payment Gateway    
  
  
• If you need a great live streaming management platform that includes multi-streaming functionality. This allows you to stream your live stream to multiple platforms at once. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Periscope etc. One of the other great features is the ability to connect your audience on Facebook to your live stream, so that you can post their comments live with their profile picture. Pricing is also really good. You can find out more here.
• TubeBuddy is the main tool that I use to manage the backend of my YouTube channel. It has been a huge lifesaver when it comes to time management and properly optimizing my channel. They have tons of free tools you can check out right here!
• Canva – an excellent Online Graphic Design application for social media, print, and video editing. It keeps getting better, as they add more apps to this creative web application. Find out more about Canva here.
• Video Ranking Academy – this is one of the best Youtube or online video training programs out there. I highly recommend this Sean Cannell and his talented team. Find out more below:
  • Video Ranking Academy Course – Sean Cannell
  • The One YouTube Strategy for 122k+ Views a Day Masterclass *recommended*
  • 3 Surefire Video Ideas Guaranteed to Get Views Masterclass
  • Christian Content Creator Webclass
• No Fuss Domains and Hosting in South Africa – domains.co.za
• Gum Road Online Sales site

Let me know if you have any questions about them and if they have added value to you.

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