Do You Know Your Online Marketing Costs?
So do you know your online marketing costs? Most people don’t, and because of it, they wander around online for decades trying to make money in every business possible. But what they don’t realize is that no matter what business they try to make money in, it will never work if the online marketing costs aren’t accounted for. Have you seen this in your business?
So why is it important to know your costs? It’s important because it helps you to predict your income each month. If for every dollar you invest in marketing you’re making back $30 more, you can’t beat that. But you know what? Most people aren’t in a position to have those kinds of numbers occur in their business. For most people with a website, they simply guess at their numbers and follow their competitors.
Most people think that whatever their competitors are doing it must be working – since they have a lot of website traffic coming in every day. But people are failing every day. Your competitor’s too. So it’s “monkey see monkey do”, and “the blind following the blind”. You shouldn’t be concerned about your competitors. You should be concerned about your numbers so that you can achieve the profitable business that you want.
Isn’t that what you got into business for in the first place? To escape the job rat race… to be your own boss… to wake up when you want to wake up… to make the kind of money you know that you deserve to make? If THIS is what you really want, then you need to take your numbers seriously. There is only 1 situation where I see people take their numbers to heart, but they don’t have the skills to propel that success to a higher level.
What situation am I talking about? EBAY. On eBay, your profit potential is predictable. But WHY is it predictable? Simply because eBay provides the traffic for you. Nobody ever asks “Where does eBay get its traffic from?”. Your website and eBay is no different – only except eBay is profitable and the executives know what they are doing. More importantly, they know their numbers.
Have you heard of the following term before: “Cost per sale”? Your cost per sale simply means the amount of money you have to spend in order to get a sale. So if your cost per sale is $30, and you sell a $20 item, you lose $10 on every sale that you make. If your cost per sale is $30, and you sell a $200 item, you profit $170 on each sale. Now you may not sell $200 items, but hopefully you get my point.
So do you know your cost per sale? Do you know your online marketing costs? How much money are you investing in advertising every month? If you’re generating leads, what is your cost per lead? What percentage of your leads convert into customers? What’s your web hosting cost? What does your WordPress blog monthly fee cost? What percentage of your customers convert into repeat customers? These are all things that you need to keep track of if you want to be profitable.
But if you’re like most beginner online business owners, you’re sucked into all the hype about all the money that you could be making within your first 30 days. Why is that? Is it because you get sucked into the hype and the promises, and not sucked into what it really takes to run and have a successful business? This is an important question to answer. This is why you need a skilled and qualified internet marketing coach or consultant to guide you in the right direction.
Think about your other costs besides your cost per lead and cost per sale. Since you have an online business, you need an internet connection. So there’s a monthly internet access cost. There’s the cost for your computer. The cost of a merchant account. The cost (potentially) for employees. The cost for inventory (even if you sell eBooks). The cost of advertising. The cost of automation tools, And etc. Online marketing costs are real and it’s the most important part of your business.
Listen, marketing strategies are important. But no marketing strategy will be effective until you’ve figured out how you’re going to make a profit on every item that you sell in your business. I have no idea what you sell – but it doesn’t matter. Every online business owner needs to know the costs in their business, and has to develop a plan for recouping that money back.
Online marketing costs are real and are a real consideration before you invest a dime into advertising. This was my fatal flaw when I began. All I heard was “make $30,000 per month”, and I forgot everything else. Because of it, I lost over $20,000 over the years of trying to make an online operation work. Once I learned, I started making money. First, it started out small, but then it grew into something profound.
It started with easy $7 sales, to $37 sales, to $2,500 sales, and now to capturing clients for $300 per hour. Can you say that for your business? Probably not – because you probably don’t know the numbers in your business, and probably don’t believe the math. The math is real, and trust me I know… the struggle is real. But if you want a real chance of financial freedom and taking care of your situation, you need to know your online marketing costs.
If you can conquer this, then everything you do in your business will make sense. You will move from letting your business run you, to you running your business. Then eventually… your money will be working for you, instead of you working in your business for money. You will become a smarter business owner, and you will realize that ultimately, you are a MARKETER first, and a business owner second.
This is some of the best advice you will ever hear, so you should act on it and take it to heart – because what I’m saying to you is real and true. So start documenting and knowing your online marketing costs now.
