Whether you are the President of Toyota Corporation or the owner of a small, neighborhood “mom and pop” shop, your business is based on good marketing leading to sales. And your sales are based on having products and services in demand, a means of getting the message out to the buying public, and a method of taking money securely and seamlessly from prospective buyers.
One reason why I am often disgusted with network marketing companies is that they tell you that an enterprise can be built on exponentials alone – Bob introduces three friends who introduce three friends, on and on until suddenly – and miraculously – you have a multi-million-dollar downline of users and business builders. Many online marketers also spew this nonsensical, pie-in-the-sky theory which just doesn’t work for most of the rabble.
Sorry to burst your balloon, but you must learn to sell both yourself and your product or service online.
No matter if you are a physical or virtual store owner, mom-and-pop store, manufacturer, supplier, buyer, opportunity seeker or marketing genius, the Internet is your leverage point.
To deny that it is important to learn basic Internet marketing skills in the 21st Century (or hire someone who does know this dynamic world intimately) is to choose by default to be left behind or out of the emerging markets and opportunities of today and tomorrow.
Believe it or not, you must have a web presence and an understanding of how to drive traffic in order to survive the paradigm shift to e-commerce.
Traditional selling techniques and distribution channels are melting away rapidly.
The best news is that each of us can start from the beginning and learn all the basic tasks to put together an attractive, profitable, buzz-worthy site.
You can learn to partake in the Internet world regardless of whether you consider yourself at present to be inept, unskilled or handicapped in a thousand ways.
Success in Japan and elsewhere is determined by having vision.
Ten years ago many traders and manufacturers grudgingly accepted that faxes were becoming obsolete. They then realized that they needed at least an email address to capture bigger market share and keep in touch rapidly with customers and clients. Then they reluctantly accepted that a web presence was required, although they did not understand why they required it or how to use it. They hired non-marketing geeks who set up expensive sites for them that brought little or no traffic or verifiable profits.
And now the ultimate age has emerged. An age that allows the housewife, the cocooner, the disgruntled worker, the unemployed, the unemployable, the new and established business owner, the set-in-stone older merchant, and the ambitious entrepreneur alike to participate in emerging markets.
Ignorance and lack of funds are not overwhelming barriers any more.
