Are you feeling a bit confused by strategic thinking? How is it different to tactical thinking because both are important for your success in life/career/business?
To sum up the key differences between a strategy and a tactic is simple: A strategy is your overall plan to achieve your goals, while a tactic is a method used to implement the intended strategy.
As you can see strategic thinking skills are essential for your career and your business, but how do you actually do it?
Here are five questions you should ask yourself to really sharpen your strategic thinking. Ask them to gain clarity on the strategies you want to develop to move you forward in your life/career/business.
The most important thing to work out is where you want to be. Everything—goals, strategies, steps, should all be pointing to your desired destination.
Do you want to be CEO, or be running your own company?
Get it all down on paper and think big!
Do a survey of exactly where you are right now.
What skills, resources, and assets do you have? What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in your current job or business?
Map out your network and what value you provide to them, and what they offer you. Write up your self-inventory.
Think about what is in your control at the present moment; you don’t need to worry about anything that isn’t directly under your control which can be kind of liberating!
What can you streamline or eliminate?
This can include anything from training, networking opportunities, to investment advice or strategic career planning.
Take another look at your self-inventory.
If this is difficult or overwhelming, consider finding a mentor or life coach who can help you find your way.
Really going for success shouldn’t make for a joyless life, totally focused on getting ahead. Make sure you take time to have fun and do the things that give you pleasure. Think of what Future Successful You enjoys doing. What makes your future worth striving for?
Write down all the fun things you will do, whether it’s staying in 5-star hotels or being able to work for only half the year. Imagine driving your dream car. See yourself in your future executive suite.
Now, one of the biggest issues that stops you from planning and building for the future is by staying in the past.
Remember: the past doesn’t equal the future!
If you keep looking back, you will never move forward, so let’s look at how you can let go of the past and build a fantastic future!
You read much about why you should let go of the past. However, it’s more important to know how to do it. Most people will eventually come to grips with why they should do it. They get stuck on actually taking steps to make it happen.
Learn from your past experiences. There are learning nuggets contained within your past. Anything you have done or tried before is up for grabs in the University of your past. It’s up to you to recognize what those lessons are and how to use them effectively. The way to use them is to determine why they happened and how to avoid them in the future.
Consider learning meditation. When you are relaxed, you will have an easier time of purging your past. One of the best forms of relaxation is meditation. It takes several sessions to get your body and mind in tune with the techniques. Don’t expect fast solutions with this. The key is to keep doing it until you feel the effects.
Don’t hide from your past. People try to pretend certain aspects of their past did not happen, especially the more embarrassing moments. However, this may cause them to come back to you with a vengeance since they are bottling up within you. Acknowledge everything about your past but commit to pushing forward.
Don’t expect all changes to occur immediately. Your past habits may be difficult to break. Therefore, don’t try to change everything in one shot. Give it time. It took a long time to develop those bad habits.
If you are too hard on yourself about your past, stop. It’s okay to acknowledge that you made some mistakes but don’t get overly critical of them.
Concentrate on the good aspects of your past. Sometimes, you may focus on your mistakes and mask the fact that you had some wonderful experiences in the past as well. These are equally important.
Of course, using strategic thinking exercises takes a lot of self-discipline which many of us lack, so if you want to learn about how to harness the power of self-discipline, please download the featured resource below, read it and take action 🙂
Every single day, droves of people get on the internet hoping to make money online. Very often, they have a plethora of reasons for wanting to do so – ranging from wanting to quit their day job to having more money for the finer things in life.
One common thread that binds most of them is that they’re often on a tight budget… and is also probably the reason why they want to get into online marketing to boost their income.
However, they’re often told that they’ll need to purchase their own domain, pay for hosting, fork out more cash for autoresponder fees and so on. It’s almost as if they need money to make money.
While motivational gurus may spout motherhood statements such as, “It’s not about your resources, but your resourcefulness…”, the truth of the matter is that you can’t multiply by zero.
You’ll need money to pay for different fixed and recurring costs in your business. That’s a given.
However, if you’re financially strapped and can’t possibly get a second job because your first one is almost working you into an early grave, there are a couple of ways you can make affiliate marketing work, for free.
There are several platforms that will allow you to have a free website. The catch here is that you’ll have no control over the advertising that appears on your site.
If they feel like you’ve flouted their rules, they could boot you out unceremoniously without giving you any notice.
Countless beginner marketers have lost their businesses overnight by ‘building their houses on rented land’.
So, your goal is to build a free website and once you’re generating sales, you should immediately buy your own domain and hosting so that you’re in control of your business.
Here are 2 free platforms you can use:
WordPress.com – https://wordpress.com/
*Medium – https://medium.com/
*While Medium doesn’t allow you to build your own site, it allows you to post articles on their platform. That’s really all you need for now.
The site gets a lot of traffic and has potential when it comes to ranking for low hanging keywords that you may wish to target. From there, it’s just a matter of publishing more targeted articles and getting affiliate sales.
It should be free to join most affiliate programs on places like ClickBank, Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, Rakuten Marketing and so on. Go ahead and sign up and get your links.
There are tons of excellent affiliate products that you can promote for free without having to jump through hoops.
Since money is tight, paid ads are definitely not an option here. The next best way to generate traffic to your pages will be to siphon it from high traffic social media sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google.
If your content is valuable and top-notch, you’ll build a following and have people clicking on your affiliate links or article links. So, go ahead and create accounts in the different social media platforms and…
Once again, it’s important to remember that social media sites are not your web properties, so you’re never totally safe with them. The goal is to always generate sales until you have enough money to build your own website and list. These are YOUR assets.
One way to start will be to write and start posting useful articles on Medium (you’ll embed your affiliate links in the posts). Just remember to disclose affiliate links and DO NOT overdo it. Moderation is key here.
Point your YouTube videos, Facebook posts, tweets, etc. to your Medium article so that you can pre-sell the reader by providing more information and value. Once you build trust with your audience, your chances of getting the sale will be much higher.
Your Medium account with all your content will act as a hub-site for your affiliate marketing business. The free traffic methods you employ will siphon traffic from different platforms and point them all to your hub site’s content… just like how all roads lead to Rome.
Then it’s just a matter of time for the traffic to convert into sales (if your content is valuable and persuasive).
Keep on keeping on until you start seeing sales trickle in. Give yourself 6 to 12 months to see your efforts yield fruit. This is a slow process, but a rewarding one.
Being able to build your own mailing list will help to elevate your marketing to the next level and skyrocket your commissions.
This is the best way to bootstrap your way from scratch to affiliate marketing success.
“Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Once you have started to make progress you should consider taking the next step and investing in your business to take your affiliate marketing to the next level. If you want to know more about this then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download it and take action 🙂
Have you ever wondered why some online marketers seem to be so much more successful than others?
Or why one marketer bounces back from a failure within days, while another one gives up and begs for his old job back?
Or why you see some online marketers everywhere, and other marketers hear only crickets?
Many successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs realise that your thoughts have a huge impact on how you see yourself and thus impact on your actions or lack thereof!
And wouldn’t you like to know how to improve the way you think about yourself?
Here are seven mindset hacks that help to set some online marketers apart from others. Use them for yourself and you can boost your chances of success almost instantly! What have you got to lose…?
Successful online marketers believe in themselves and their business.
You’ve got to believe that you are fully capable of building this six or seven figure business, that you are able to bring tremendous value to your customers, and that you can overcome any adversity that gets in your way.
Obstacles will always be there but if you believe that you can do it, you are already halfway there.
Some marketers don’t look beyond what niche they’re going to enter and what their domain name should be.
But you need to have a plan in place, a roadmap you can follow when you get stalled.
If so, what problems will those products fix or what benefits will they give the customer? Will you blog? Podcast? Make videos?
Your plan can be flexible and change as needed, but the importance of having a plan in the first place is unquestionable.
Without vision and goals – both of which will be in your plan – you’ll get up in the morning without a clue of what you should be doing. And that is a recipe for failure.
You’re going to be doing things you’ve never done before. It’s going to be uncomfortable, and even scary. You might be afraid to take the next step.
And all of that is perfectly normal. The key is to embrace the fear and do the things you need to do anyway.
But if you embrace the new and unknown, there is no limit to what you can do.
Try to reframe challenges that you face and make you uncomfortable into opportunities to learn and grow and see your life and business flourish
As an online marketer, you’ve got to think about the big picture. What is your end goal – to make $100,000 a year? Or maybe to build a million-dollar business and sell it? What campaigns will you use to reach your customers over the coming year? What is your marketing strategy for the following year?
It’s easy to get so bogged down in the little stuff, that we lose sight of the big picture. But if all you ever focus on is the big picture, you’ll never get anything done today.
Figure out the three things you should be doing every single day that will bring in more business.
And then no matter what, before you quit for the day, make sure that you have done those three things.
For example, maybe it’s writing and sending an email to your list to make sales, posting on social media to get new subscribers, and contacting 3 possible affiliates to promote for you.
Whatever your three things are, do them every single day and you are guaranteed to be successful.
When you first start creating success habits, you can also try rewarding yourself for keeping to them to positively reinforce the habits. The reward doesn’t have to be big; it is just there to help you to ingrain the habit in you.
Too many online marketers make the grave mistake of creating a product and then going in search of customers for that product. This seldom works.
Then find out what they want and need and sell that to them.
Repeat after me: “Audience first, product second.”
This last one is two-fold, and yet I find they are intricately intertwined.
Give yourself to your audience without holding back. Do you suffer from the same stupid mistakes they make? Then let them know that. Do you have an answer to your readers’ problem? Let them know what it is.
You cannot go wrong by being generous. And you also cannot go wrong by being honest.
Tell them the shortcomings of the product you are promoting. The REAL shortcomings. Show your human side. Talk about your own trials and tribulations and struggles.
Hey, you’re not perfect? Your audience already knew that, but they’re mighty glad to hear you say it. It makes you one of them.
Post a card above your desk – “Honesty and Generosity.”
Master these seven keys in your life and your business, and you cannot go wrong.
By the way, if you want to learn more about developing your mindset, download this free report, How To Develop A Strong Mindset which will give you much more information.
Just click on the Featured Resource image below.
There is absolutely no doubt that having a huge email list can be very profitable, but building a list of subscribers is not the be-all and end-all of email marketing. In fact, if you do not establish a relationship with your list or make them feel like they have an intangible connection with you, your list will become unresponsive and die off.
You’ll notice that your emails get less opens and your unsubscribes will start increasing. Most marketers have no clue why this happens and usually there is only one reason. The people on the list just don’t like them or trust them.
It’s really just human nature at work here. If you get a phone call from someone you like, you immediately answer it. What happens if it’s someone you don’t care much for? In most cases, you’ll ignore the call and in some cases, you’ll even block the number.
Your job as an online marketer is to make your list like and trust you. They’ll then look forward to your emails and be loyal subscribers. This article will give you 5 ways to achieve this goal. Adopt them and you’ll see a marked improvement in the response from your list.
People love to be entertained. Even if you’re in a niche that’s serious like diabetes, you can always include interesting stories in your emails to keep your readers hooked.
Too many marketers focus on conversions instead of rapport. They keep their emails brief with a call to action so that readers will click on the link and buy what they’re promoting. While this may work now and then, over time, your subscribers will get tired of your salesy emails and it’ll turn them off.
You need to be entertaining and keep your emails helpful but lighthearted so that it’s not all about the selling.
It is a fact that the most visited page on most blogs is the ‘About Me’ page. The reason for this is that people are curious to know who the person behind the blog is. The same applies to your list. Your subscribers want to know who you are.
So, bring down your wall and be human. Share what makes you laugh and what annoys you… and whatever you think may be interesting.
Above all else, be truthful to your list. Do not lie or resort to leaving out pertinent details just to get sales.
By making a mediocre product look like the next best thing since sliced bread, you may get the sale. However, once your subscriber purchases the product and sees what a letdown it is, they will not trust you in future.
It is a fact that you cannot please everyone. No matter how good you are, there will be people on your list who ‘just don’t get you.’ Many marketers try to be politically correct and toe the line just so that their subscribers don’t leave.
This is wrong and it’s better to just be yourself and let your subscribers like you for who you really are. Say what you want to say without worry. Those who like you will stay on and those who don’t, will leave.
Do note that it’s best to avoid discussing politics and religion unless you’re really good at being impartial in your writing… and even then, it’s a gamble. Anything else is fair game.
Generosity is so rare these days and it’s especially rare among marketers. The majority of marketers only send emails promoting products with very little else to go along with their promotions.
People like to buy but they don’t like being sold to. Most people join your list for information and value. They want information that helps them. They didn’t join your list to keep buying products so that you make sales and commissions.
When you do this well, just intimating that you have a great product on offer will be enough to get their attention and they’ll buy what you recommend. You will not need to send 10 emails a day or hard sell them the product.
You attract flies with honey and not vinegar. Use these 5 tips and make your list like you like a friend they’ve always known.
If you want to know more about nurturing your list after they have opted in, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further. If you do download it, please read it and take action and good luck 😊
Once you have managed to persuade someone to buy one of your products or services, you should have a good sales funnel in place to try to increase the minimum order value (MOV) as this will make it much easier to be profitable if you are going to use paid traffic.
Then your sales funnels work to add profit to your business.
So, let’s look at a couple of components of a sales funnel which can have a big impact on your profit margins; upsells and backend offers.
One time offers are a great way to increase the money you make from each offer. You can get people to agree to purchase a product from you at a lower price that’s only available right that second, making the sale a bit easier.
This is a good way to increase the amount of your sale since they’re already in buying mode. A One Time Offer is shown right after the customer clicks the Buy button. But before they checkout, the OTO is presented for them to consider.
Another great way to offer additional value is to trade OTOs with other marketers. For example, if you have a product that complements another marketer’s product (and vice versa), then each of you would present the other’s products to your customers as the OTOs, either sharing the revenue or giving the owner 100% in exchange for a reciprocal arrangement.
If you can’t find someone who will JV with you on an OTO offer, you can try to find someone with an affiliate program who will allow you to offer their product as an OTO at a discount. Simply tell them you expect a good volume of sales and you’d like to offer their product at a slight discount.
You probably won’t be able to land a deal like this unless you can prove you can do a large volume of business, because it would mean setting up a special sales page (or at least setting up a coupon code that could be easily tracked with your affiliate ID).
The second could be a coaching program that takes the ideas of the product and offers them in a one-on-one coaching system. And the third could be a turnkey solution that goes along with the product you sold. For example, if you’ve sold an eBook about making money with AdSense, you could offer a package of AdSense templates as the OTO.
Membership sites can also have OTOs. When someone joins your membership site, you could offer them an upgrade to a higher access level. Let’s say you have two access levels – silver and gold.
The silver level typically costs $50 per month, and the gold level costs $100 per month. You could offer anyone who joins at the silver level an upgrade to gold for only $25 more, at $75 per month – a $25 savings from the normal gold level price. You can also offer one-on-one coaching as an OTO for membership sites. Since memberships are already a monthly fee, coaching is a perfect complement to many membership sites.
Make sure you test your one time offers just like you test any part of your sales copy or site performance. Replace the offers and see which ones convert better and then tweak that offer until it performs as well as it can.
Every good marketer knows how important it is to increase the lifetime value of the customer. It’s much cheaper to make a sale to a previous customer than it is to get a new one onboard. The cost of acquiring new customers can be high but getting more money out of existing customers won’t cost you a penny.
Your eBook could discuss what a blog is, how to set one up, and how to make money from it. Your backend sales could come from affiliate items (if you don’t feel like taking the product creation route again) or a new eBook, membership site, or video/audio package you sell.
Whenever you first start selling online, always think of complementary topics you can tack on as a backend. For our example, your backend sales could be about social networking on other networks like Instagram, Twitter etc..
After they’ve begun seeing success, your backend sales could focus on more paid methods of marketing, such as AdWords. You progress your offers with your audience like steppingstones, moving from the first logical starting point to a more advanced stage.
Personal coaching can be expensive, sometimes costing thousands of dollars per month. A lot of marketers offer this as a backend strategy, giving them the potential to significantly increase the return on their investment (ROI) of acquiring the prospect.
If you take care to create backend offers that add value to their needs and which are of top quality, they’ll continue buying from you. If you promote anything and everything just for the sake of cashing in, they’ll lose trust in you.
Just make sure you don’t set yourself up for limited profits by using a single product without implementing a backend strategy that will work to increase your ROI repeatedly. You’re building a business, not dabbling in a few hit or miss sales.
