These are just a few ways I’ve seen large and small business owners and marketers fail or lose business from their online efforts or lack thereof. There is no perfect science for online success, but there are some simple principles and methods that should be considered if you’re serious about building and growing your online presence and business.
TOP 10 WAYS TO LOSE ONLINE BUSINESS
10. Don’t market and advertise your page or site properly and effectively.
Word of mouth is just the beginning of getting the word out to your potential prospects and clients. Linking to your site from every possible social network and profile on the web is an often missed opportunity by many. Adding links back to the mother-ship in your email signatures and other strategic locations can never hurt the volume of visitors you'll generate.
(Not understanding and maximizing SEO may also be one of the greatest missed opportunities)
9. Use controversial content that creates “camps” or makes people choose “in” or “out”
Your opinions and expressed feelings regarding Politics, Religion, and a variety of other topics can and will create a parting of the ways with much of your traffic if you’re not careful. Avoiding the “Like” versus “Don’t Like” or “I’m with you” vs “Against You” is advice I hear often from successful professionals online. Don’t make readers choose a camp, it may not be yours.
8. Spend too much time just playing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.
If you poke 3o people a day on Facebook, that’s nice. If you tell everyone following you on Twitter your play-by-play plans for the day and share photos of every image your eyeballs land on, that’s really cool. If you’ve signed up on over 15+ social networks and feel guilty that you haven’t visited each one and updated your status, you may want to get help!?!
STOP IT! Your business should come first!
7. Focusing on making money instead of providing value-added content.
Sell, Sell, Sell. Me, Me, Me! This won’t work off-line, and it certainly won’t work online. Providing value with absolutely no expectation of anything in return over time will produce relationships which are necessary if you ever want to do business. This doesn’t mean to give up the farm and all your goods, just use a strategy that builds like, trust, and a rapport. The rest will fall into place when you connect and meet IRL. (In Real Life)
6. Trying to build traffic and analytics instead of building quality relationships.
Some people get very excited about the amount of traffic their sites and blogs generate every hour, day, and month. They feel and believe that just because they are on the first page of the search engines for certain keywords and phrases that they are successful. Even with 500 hits to your site an hour, if you haven’t created or built one single relationship, then what is the point? Don’t count hits, count trips to the bank.
5. Don’t know your markets, your products, your tools, and your service areas.
Let me look into that for you… I’m not sure? Hmmm… that’s a great question? Let me see, not sue what I can do? Not sure if that’s an option? What does that mean and where did you hear that? Are you kidding me, are you nuts? These are all comments and signs that you may want to know a little more about your market, product, business, or service. You are the expert, it’s no different when your doctor says… “Hmm… I’ve never heard of that before…” Yikes!
4. Lack in response time to online contacts. The sting and power of the 1st hour.
100% of online contacts have the option of being mobile and 100% of people usually are. What percentage of people want to “WAIT” to hear back from you for any reason at all? NONE. This is why text messaging has become the fastest and most popular way for the world to communicate. It is the number one communication tool besides face-to-face and the phone. Answer your phone. Respond to email quickly. Online contacts will often wait 3-5 minutes before they’re gone…FOREVER!
3. Don't use a good CRM to manage campaigns and follow-up with online contacts.
If you can’t remember what you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner two weeks ago on Thursday, then there is no way on earth you’re going to remember what you’re suppose to do two weeks from tomorrow at 10am, 1pm, and 7:30pm regarding your business, clients, follow-up, or personal life. Most people can’t even remember what to get at the grocery store so they bring their detailed store CRM with them. (The Shopping List) You NEED a “shopping list” for your business as well.
2. No calls-to-action, no methods of next-step, and no form of contact capture.
Your website may get hundreds of hits. Your various blogs may have thousands of readers and subscribers. Your real estate MLS or IDX might produce millions of visitors but if you have no form of contact capture or call to action, then why even bother being online, spending the time, money, and effort to build your online presence and empire? It’s OK to give information and share value-added content but don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Use multiple and creative ways to capture contacts.
1. Don’t update ALL your online profiles and sites: email, phone, contact info etc.
You have a company website, you have 3 niche websites, you have 4 really cool traffic driving blogs, and now you’re on more than 15 20 30 different social networks and sites including Four-Square, Yelp, and Google+. Changes in real life are inevitable so don’t forget to make those changes online as well. Watch out for “Page Cannot Be Displayed” “500 Server Error” or that infamous phone recording “This number is no longer in service” and the worse one is when the email auto-responders says “mailer daemon YOU@email.com is undeliverable.” Make sure you Keep track of your online bread-crumbs.
“Maybe I should rename this article the “10 Ways To Grow Your Online Business!”
Brad * thank you for the REconfirmation of when we do stuff corrected.
I used to spend thousand$ of dollar$ in print media and now I am $pending my time to gain more dollar$ and I am enjoying it.
Sitting in my open house with just a few people trickling through this list has given me focus and energy.
Content and relationships! I agree.
I confess, I'm guilty as charged. As least on numbers 2 and 3.
I'm a move manager, not a real estate professional. (We help seniors (and younger people too) relocate, downsize and declutter with ease.) I still learn a lot from the blog posts here at Active Rain, and this was a particularly useful one for me.
I'm actively fixing number 2, and number 3 is next on the list.
Thanks very much for the list!
Hey Brad, hope you had a wonderful holiday with family! Awesome tips to key note...no doubt the above thumbs up...
A wise person once told me that if I choose to the do the right thing, the money will follow so #7 rings especially true for me. I've watched my online business explode in ways I never could have imagined from focusing on value added content--not to mention what original content does for your google ratings which in turn drives more online business.
I love this post . Most of the time we see the ways to do things. This opposite approach made for a great read thanks
All good points! Especailly important is #9 in my opinion.
That pretty much covers it! It's not the platforms, the toys and gadgets, or cranking out blah blah blah or sell sell sell... It's about the relationships! Good reminders...
Brad,
Thanks for the great information. It all rings true. I Bookmarked it and will re-read.
Thanks for a good list. I tell my copywriting clients not to mention politics or religion unless they only want to do business with those who agree with them.
But, as I found out recently, sometimes silence is taken as disagreement. It depends on how radical the would-be client happens to be.
#8...OOPS! Yeah I probably do more than necessary! Hope you guys had a fantasticThanksgiving!
Well written, Brad. An excellent list I'll be sure to reference.
Brad, this is stuff we all know we should do, but might not keep up with all the time. Thanks!
Brad yes you should change the Title:) Great advice as always! hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Details, Details, Details, - You are right. Keeping up with all the time management aspects of a company is just one aspect of the business. Remembering to communicate with people in a timely fashion is extremely important and all the blogs and web sites in the world will never replace that.
Good things to think about as I sit here restructuring my website! The latest info on a website is very important. Thanks, too, for the other reminders. Building relationships is the best part of this job!
Nag nag nag!! =)
Hi Brad. I agree with almost everything you said. However, expert or not, I do not think it is a reasonable expectation, for any professional, to have "all" of the answers all of the time. I do think, it is best practice, to honestly answer "let me check into that for you", rather than make up an answer.
Number 3 is one I'm dealing with right now. Thought I had a good system but am now looking for something more powerful any recommendations?
Brad: Excellent advice that is really practical and relatively easy to implement, follow-up on, and keep maintained. It's all about having a plan and executing it.
Wallace - spending time is spending money, both to be invested wisely. :-)
Larry - may your open house today connect you to plenty of new contacts and great relationships.
Harley - agreed.
Katie - There is always room for improvement for us all, myself included. I actually wrote these for me and accidentally made it a public post instead of draft. lol~
William - thanks.
I'm guilty of a couple of those from time to time. Will have to try to keep my controversial content to my self. Or Not.
excellent post Brand for newbies, and oldies and a great reminder to those who may have forgotten why there are on the site :)
Hey Brad,
Great stuff (as usual from you) on this one! I've got lots of room for improvement myself...thanks for the reminders.
Btw, missed seeing you at NAR a few weeks ago. I asked about you on Mon. at your booth only to find out that Sun. was your last day.
Happiest of holidays to you and yours my friend!
I agree with everything you have in this list. I think the most important two things are quick response to leads and having your site updated frequently to make sure everything is current.
I would like to quote Bill Archambault: "
"
Just reading the list gives me a headache. All we mortals can hope for is to do most things right, most of the time and hope that it's enough.
I'm sending you an email.
Hope you're well and happy ;-).
Brad ~ thanks for these excellent reminders. I so agree that we could go overboard on the analytics and not pay attention to good content! I need to get busy and get with Google + and also update all my profiles (hope I can find them all LOL)
Hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Great tips and good reminders, Call to Action is very important, I also think for each niche websites there should be very different call to action to be relevant. Great new banner by the way!
Excellent advice as always Brad. I have cut back on a lot of the social sites because it is too easy to lose focus.
Hello Brad,
Great post. All the points you mentioned are very important.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Brad,
So easy to get bogged down with focussing on the busy stuff, rather than the value added information that grows your reputation.
Good reminder list. I took notes for reference.
Brad ~ Karen would really like to repeat Phillip..haha...but you are so right ...we need to be on our toes always looking for ways to improve and follow thru!!
Brad, sage advice from none other than the Master of how to do all this the right way! Hope to find time to attend some of your classes soon :) Hope you had a very wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sharon
Brad I love the list. Number 6 is probably my favorite one. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing.
I must say, quality relationships are trump. They make everything worth while and create the most important connections. Great post and thanks for sharing! Keep up the good work!
Brad, that is a great list and I will be saving this one to refer to it often.
YIKES! Spending too much time playing at ActiveRain -- GUILTY!!! I have got to put a time limit on this! :O)
Brad,
EXCELLENT points. You could run a webinar on each point alone. This could be a whole series for you because there are certainly many agents that need help with many of these points. I would admit I would tune in just to make sure I am on track. I have been guilty of spending too much time on Crackbook at times.
Hi Brad--really great post. Fortunately I can check "yes" to most of these, but it does appear that I have some work to do. Thanks for all this information.
Hi Brad - this is an excellent list and reminders about what to include when you are blogging.
Terrific list, that many should post on their social media walls.
Thanks for sharing it.
Excellent list, Brad. I definitely want to keep this one around so it's bookmarked for future use. Thanks!
Quite a list of things to keep paying attention to.
Certainly #3 is something I need to work on in 2012. Thanks for the gentle nudge. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Hi Brad - Your points are excellent reminders on issues that one needs to consider when online marketing.
Great list , I'm bookmarking it and will add it to a class I teach ! Thanks
Great guideline! Thanks for giving us a good checklist to follow.
That is a very good list! So what you are saying is that my poking 30 people a day on FB isn't helping my business grow?? :)
I am thankfully not doing most of this but a few I have to admit I am working on bettering! I guess the main thing is to know that you have the problem in the first place!! Hope your Monday is not so Monday-ish! :)
I was looking into ways to jump start my business for 2012, and this is great information. Thank you for this article. This article and some webinars will go a long way.
Brad,
Great list! It's important to be doing business smart and this is a fabulous list to follow.
All the best, Michelle
Enjoyed reading the comments that were posted, also like the updated photo, California living is fun, have a great time with your family over the holidays 2011. Your post was very insightful.
Brad~What a great list-thanks for sharing. I've bookmarked this for future reference.
Hi Brad, this a nice list. For me #4, #3 and #2 are really important. by giving the reader permission to call you and by having a contact form and or IDX links that match the content of that particular blog post can be very helpful in attracting a readers attention. The CRM I use is Property Minder. The reason, it is simple to use. By using forms, and IDX links from this site you can database each lead and set the up quickly on a plan ( such as Buyer, Seller,Short Sale, Relocating Buyer Plan ) They will also receive holiday cards and touches throughout the year. Everything is automated.
Hi Brad,
You changed everything up since the last post I read!
Like the header.
(Oh, and the content too)
Phil
Brad,
I don't know how anyone keeps up with all that, great reminder to those who have those sites out there and need to go clean them up.
you're so right about responding to online enquiries instantly, I manage a bunch of lead generating campaigns for 9 different realtors and I can see how they all respond to their leads and to their enquiries and the fastest responders have way more going on with their leads than the slow ones
I cant believe that you think I cant talk online all day long and be productive in business. Isnt that how everyone is doing it... just talking and talking? :-) These are great points and OH so true!
Thanks everyone for all your great comments and to AR for the feature.
As always, I have read every comment (some of them twice) and although I'd love to comment back to each of you personally, my time tonight doesn't permit it. The kids need Dad and the wife... well, we've all seen the infamous honey-do list! lol~
I'll be back to answer some questions in the morning...
@Nancy - regarding your question about #3, I just posted this...
CRM's are NOT Yet Over-Rated
Thanks Brad! I don't do too many of these things, thank goodness! I do need to work on my contact capture though! Been thinking about trying Market Leader but I just don't know!
Brad
It's pretty scary, and humbling, to look at all the things we could easily do that would harm our on-line presence, perhaps without even realizing it. It makes my brain ache.
Jeff
DeeDee - there are some great tools and sites, people using squeeze pages, contact forms, IDX and MLS contact capture, even text messaging widgets and services etc. If you need help or want some ideas and insights, feel free to contact me anytime.
Jeff - I hardly believe that you have anything to worry about. Failure is not an option any more than hope is a strategy!
Consistently offering something the real estate buyer or seller can expect anytime they dial in, that they need, can use and that is service helpful wins an audience. Be a little red hen not a mirror mirror on the wall kind of real estate agent, broker. It's not about you, it's about them. Provide the buffet of local area information for the outside buyer that needs to be brought up to speed before they can make the shift to looking over what you have listed, are peddling.
All key points. The big challenge is to have a social media/online marketing plan and stick to it. A big part of that plan should be boundaries to never touch.
Great list. I feel bad about my slow response time to online leada. I will have to step it up a notch. Thanks for the push.
Karen - with the mobile device movement across the globe, we no longer have the luxury of responding to contacts when it's convenient for us. 30 percent of the 25,000,000 unique users that come to Zillow.com over the weekends each month (on average) are on a mobile device. They're in their cars, on their bikes, walking in the communities, in the neighborhoods, on the streets in front of homes and listings.
They are contacting agents right then and there and want.... no... they expect a response and quickly. I say avoid the potential of a lost contact by answering your phone whenever possible, and get back to contacts within 5 minutes and no longer. The agents I've talked to that are doing this are having great success converting those online contacts into clients. Much moreso than agents waiting an hour, a few hours, or till the next day to respond.
Not trying to push anyone here, just trying to help. :-)
Very useful and important points. Thanks for sharing this great article with us, Brad. Best wishes!