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Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category

A lot of people start a business with a great idea. Other people that are already in business set out to develop a new product or service that they are sure will sell.

Do you have a product or service that you want to sell?

Save yourself truckloads of money by doing a simple thing – find out if people want it. One quick way is to “ask Google”. Google provides a free tool that will give you an answer in a minute. It is called the Google Keyword Tool:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Type in the product or service that you want to sell and see how many people search for this every month. Make sure you use generic terms rather than your product / service name (ie “soft drink” rather than “Acme Cola”).

If it is a local or regional service, then include the name of your town, state, etc in the search term.

Calvin Close
Wise Internet Solutions
- More traffic. More Contacts. More Sales

Now that you have an idea of how (and whether!) your company will operate online, it’s time to really step back and analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats — that is to say, perform a SWOT analysis. This is a well-known technique perfected more than forty years ago and still in common use today. There is no better way to analyze your company!

You can further break this analysis down into a consideration of the internal and external attributes of your company. Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal — that is to say, they are attributes of your company or business itself. Opportunities and threats are considered external — that is, things that can help or hinder you originating from beyond your control.

What you want to identify are your company’s (or your business plans):

• Strengths: What is going to be helpful? What do you have going for you?
• Weaknesses: What are some potential problems or flaws in your business or plan?
• Opportunities: What are some favorable conditions and trends that may help you succeed?
• Threats: What are the negatives that might have an impact on your company’s performance (competition, economic climate, etc.).

A SWOT analysis, if conducted realistically, can give you a very clear idea of whether your company is viable. If it is, it can help you predict problems, smooth out your plans, and gain a greater understanding of your challenges in the future.

Once you’ve done this to your company, you can also perform a SWOT analysis on your marketing campaign. For example, you might come up with something that looks like the following:

• Strengths: Product addresses a well-known need, should be able to attract people’s attention
• Weaknesses: Product does not necessarily stand out from competition
• Opportunities: Targeting a niche segment of the population for whom the product will hold greater appeal
• Threats: Competition from similar products already existing online

From this sort of analysis, you’ll be able to make stronger decisions about your product, your company, and your marketing strategies — online or off.

This article is an extract from our free guide, “How To Increase Profits By Taking Your Business Online“.

Download the free guide in full at:

http://www.wiseinternetsolutions.com/html/website_design_free_guide.php

Calvin Close
President
Wise Internet Solutions

Whether you’re an established business or just getting started, there are a number of things to consider when deciding if your business is right for online sales. Basically, there are five questions you have to ask yourself:

1 Is my product reasonable to ship?

Keep in mind that when you’re working with online sales, your product has to get to the customer. In the case of a digital item, such as a computer program or ebook, that makes online sales ideal — you simply email the product to the costumer. If you’re dealing with a physical item, you’ll want to look into shipping costs and methods before you start.

Also keep in mind whether your item is one that just doesn’t lend itself to shipping. Fragile and breakable items, while fine to ship, do take more care in packaging. If your business grows rapidly, you’re going to spend a lot of your time on shipping. And some items — especially large, bulky ones — just aren’t worth the cost of mailing them. So if you’re selling second hand washing machines, you might want to stick to a local market.

2 Can my services be reasonably provided outside of my regional area?

 There are some services that cannot be provided to people that are physically located some distance from the provider. An example is a lawn mowing service. Other services can be provided to people across the country or even across the world.

3 Does my product appeal to a wide variety of people?

If you’re dealing with a service or product with limited appeal, then while you still may want a website, you’re probably not going to waste a lot of time or money on online advertising. If you’re selling products or services that only appeal to people in your city or county, the internet is not going to help you generate more sales.

4 Do you have information that you can sell?

 There are many businesses that have information within their organization that people would actually be happy to pay for. If that information was written as a guide or produced as a video, it could be sold to a very wide audience. For example, a real estate agent knows how to increase the sale price of a home. If that information was put into a guide, people would be willing to pay for it.

5 How competitive is the market?

Go to Google (or any reliable search engine) and plug in the name of your product. For example, if you’ve created an ebook on how to survive losing your job, type in “survive losing job.” Once the search results come up take a look on the right hand of the screen. That’s where you’ll find the PPC advertisements that your potential competitors have purchased.

Spend some time browsing the competition and answer yourself honestly: do you have what it takes to stand out from the crowd?

On the other hand, NO competition isn’t always a good sign, either — it could mean that there’s simply no market for this sort of product.

Consider this your market research. It’s essential that before you embark on any online business venture you carefully consider these five questions!

This article is an extract from our free guide, “How To Increase Profits By Taking Your Business Online“.

Download the free guide in full at:

http://www.wiseinternetsolutions.com/html/website_design_free_guide.php

Calvin Close
President
Wise Internet Solutions