1 03 2010
The Single Biggest Marketing Mistake Online
I have been marketing online since 1990.
Long before the Web came about. I have
been actively marketing on the Internet as
we know it today since 1994.
Yes, I’m an Internet Marketing old geezer.
I have pretty much tried it all and seen it
all online when it comes to marketing tactics.
Certainly, there are new strategies and tactics
being thought of and tested everyday, and that’s
why I continue to buy new ebooks and teaching
products from others because you can never
know it all — no matter how successful you are.
But the single biggest mistake I see online, and
have seen for many years, regardless of the
strategy being used, is one simple thing…
POOR TRACKING!
People often ask me…
“John, is there any ONE thing that you can
attribute your online success to?”
The answer is simple… TRACKING.
I am a tracking FREAK. I track everything.
And I mean EVERYTHING.
As my good friend Jonathan Mizel likes to say…
“As online marketers we are not in the ‘marketing’
business we are in the MATH BUSINESS.”
If you want to know the difference between
success and failure online it comes down to
one thing.
If you want to know the difference in making
10 dollars online or $10,000, it comes down
to one thing.
If you want to know if your hard work is not
going to waste, its comes down to one thing.
TRACKING.
I like to joke that the secret to being
successful in Internet Marketing is this
really complex “formula.”
Then I go on to explain this exact formula…
When we do things online, such as our marketing
tests, site changes, place ads, buy clicks, do
a JV, whatever, one of TWO things happen
EVERY TIME.
Yes, only one of two things happen.
1. THEY MAKE US MONEY
2. THEY LOSE US MONEY
Amazing rocket science isn’t it?
The fact of the matter is Internet Marketing
is EASY. It’s an absolute JOKE to make money
when you have the basic fundamentals down, and
that you TRACK your efforts.
The tracking results will tell you what
works and what doesn’t. Then it’s EASY…
YOU KEEP DOING WHAT WORKS AND STOP DOING
WHAT DOESN’T!
In order to be extremely successful online
you must learn to track everything. You
must learn the value of tracking and get
used to doing it.
You make a change to a headline on your
site you must track it.
You test a different price you must track
it.
You use a different description on your
Web Site to get people to opt-in to your
list you must track it — not just the
percentage of people that opted in, but
also the QUALITY of the people that opted
in. I.e. Are they buying or taking the
necessary ACTION you want for them to
take AFTER they have opted in?
The biggest tracking mistake people
make is lumping all of their TRAFFIC
SOURCES together when trying to determine
their conversion rates.
In other words, when someone is trying
to figure out how many people are buying
or taking a specific action when they visit
a site, they are taking their total
traffic numbers and doing the math
based on the total number of buyers
(or whatever the desired action was.)
BZZZZZZ THANKS FOR PLAYING.
Major mistake. Huge. Yet marketers are
doing it everyday. And ironically, it’s
being done by some people that are making
a lot of money!
I know, because many of these people are
friends of mine and I’ve given them a hard
time about it. We laugh about it, but they
know it’s true and they are working hard
to become better “trackers” as I hope
you will too.
(Don’t worry I’m almost done with this article
and will stop rambling in a moment.)
The problem with not tracking traffic sources
(such as individual pay-per-click keywords,
link partners, search engine listings, JV
links, affiliate links, etc.) is this…
YOU CANNOT ACCURATELY DETERMINE WHAT IS
*WORKING* WHEN YOU TEST.
For example, if you run PPC campaigns for
multiple keywords (and if you track them
properly) you will find that some keywords
generate great conversion rates and sales.
Others will create sometimes NOTHING.
In fact, many will be losers. I.e. they don’t
turn a profit. Yet many PPC advertisers
will continue to just lump all their PPC
traffic together, and as long as they are
making more than they are spending they
consider it a “Victory.”
DUMB.
Tracking allows you to MAXIMIZE your efforts.
It allows you to SQUEEZE every last penny
of profit our of your marketing.
The other major pitfall with lumping all
of your traffic sources together is when
you go to make changes — such as testing
prices, or different headlines, or new
bonus offers, or another guarantee, or
anything else.
If your traffic fluctuates on a given day
from a given traffic source (which it WILL)
your results will always be SKEWED.
Your conversion rates for a specific test
may in fact be HIGHER for that given day.
OH JOY!
But, guess what? If the traffic to your
site happened to fluctuate so more of it
happened to come that day from a source
that typically converts higher than the
rest of your traffic, it’s very possible
that your “test” may have…
DECREASED YOUR CONVERSION.
That’s right, DECREASED! But you’d never
know it because looking at your overall
traffic stats “appears” as if your
average daily conversion rate increased.
So what do you end up doing? You KEEP that
test because you think it is making
you more money.
99.999% of online marketers are making this
mistake. And people wonder why it can
be difficult to make money online.
Reason #1: Poor Tracking
We’ll touch more on this topic in the near
future. I strongly believe it’s the single
most importance element of Internet Marketing
success.
I know for a fact I would not have made 10%
of what I have been blessed to have made from
marketing online if I wasn’t a tracking freak.
I am going to teach YOU how to become a tracking
freak for your business. It’s the ONLY thing
that matters when marketing online — because
it tells us what works and what doesn’t. There
is no guesswork.
—————————————–
John Reese is an Internet Marketing pioneer that has
been actively marketing online since 1990. John has
sold millions of dollars worth of products and services
online and his network of Web Sites have received over
1.4 BILLION Web Site visitors since their inception. You
can learn more about John, his home study courses,
and subscribe to his free ezine by visiting:
http://www.marketingsecrets.com
(c)2003 MarketingSecrets.com. All rights reserved.
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