Internet Marketing Optimization

What is it Exactly that Raymond Fong Does?

It’s interesting that as you become more and more entrenched in your daily routine doing whatever it is that you do for a living, you start to take things for granted, you start assuming that what you do is the “norm” and that it’s “common sense”.

Such is definitely the case for me.  As I become more and more adept at my chosen field/industry of internet marketing, I make more and more assumptions that people know precisely what that entails.  Words like “capture page”, “AdWords”, and “sales pages” are as big part of my vernacular as words like “food”, “car”, and “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.

But then when I converse with folks outside my field, I get some interesting quizzical looks as if I am speaking “Kryptonian”.

So you can imagine how this may happen quite often when folks (who are outside my field) ask me, “What do you do?”

Dinosaur Hunter, Professional Spammer, and Seagull Trainer

Short of the knee-jerk sarcastic answers I like to give, “Oh, I hunt dinosaurs”,  “I am a professional spammer”,  “I train seagulls for a living…”, at some point, I am forced to give a serious answer.  And therein lies the challenge, how exactly do I explain what I do without making people’s eyes glaze over with boredom?

So here it goes, let me take the time now to define to you what I do for a living.

I like to start by stating that I am an “Internet Marketing Optimization Specialist” (yes, I know, that’s a mouthful).  Each word in that long title has a purpose.

• Internet so people know I am a professional internet surfer (that’s easy to visualize… albeit may not have the best association and ties in its imagery).
• Marketing so they know I “advertise” stuff – through whatever means they might think.
• Optimization so they know I make something even better – whatever that “something” is.
• Specialist so I can feel spiffy, kind of like saying, “Dr. Raymond Fong MD the Third” or some bullcrap like that ^^

Then I give folks some time to digest all that before I move on.

Teaching & Doing

What I like to think I do are two folds – one is making money online with my knowledge and skills (for example, I build internet home businesses) and two is to TEACH others to make money with my knowledge and skills… which I pass on to them.

Both of these two descriptions come from the same boiler plate, which is in its very basic form is to figure out how to get visitors to come to your website and then purchase whatever it is you may be selling (of course, if you aren’t selling anything then it’s just a matter of getting people to come to your website).

The Old Adage: “If You Build It They Will Come” is as Valid as Calling Michael Jackson “Black” +/-» …

It may be true once upon a time but no longer, certainly not on the Wild Wild Web.  There are gazillions of websites out there that the odds of a potential client of yours choosing to visit your website and then dishing out his credit card to BUY something from you is slim.  You need to actively seek out these potential clients, attract them, and then give them a compelling reason to buy from you.

And that’s what internet marketing is about.

I like to divide internet marketing into two aspects, one is the “sales funnel” and the other is the “traffic”.  Let me explain.

The sales funnel is akin to the inside of your store while the “traffic” is everything outside of it (i.e. location, the store front, the kid you hired for minimum wage to dress up as Uncle Sam in the 98 degree weather holding and waving a sign that says, “Visit this store!”)

Ice Cream Cart

The traffic is choosing the right location where the right type of people frequent (i.e. hand-pushed ice cream cart would look perfectly normal in East L.A. but wayyyy out of place in say… Beverly Hill) and attracting them to come into your store.  So you have to consider things like the feel of your storefront, the type of folks that walk by it, the sort of folks you are trying to attract etc.

What I do is I take both aspects into consideration and help clients come up with a winning strategy.  I help orchestrate a sales funnel that suits their potential clients’ needs – all the while positioning my clients’ product/service/brand as the ultimate object of desire for that client.

The Ultimate Sales Funnel

When it comes to the sales funnel, some questions I ask include:

1. Who is your ideal client?
2. What is she looking for?
3. What is her pain?
4. What does she “think” is the solution?
5. What will put a smile on her face?
6. What alternatives are out there?
7. What makes you/your product and service so special?

The answers help determine the sort of website feel and look I advise.  Beyond that, it affects the sort of message the website should convey along with all forms of communication that will take place between my client and his/her customers.

Getting the Internet Traffic

Your Internet Traffic...

As far as traffic goes, I encourage folks to explore as many forms of potential mediums as possible.  You have gazillion number of people perusing the web every day, and they do so via various means.  You want to make it easy for folks to be able to reach you via as many different methods as possible.

For example, some folks may like perusing YouTube for videos, some may like networking on MySpace, some may like reading articles and press releases, and some may just like the plan ol’ Google to FIND what they are looking for.

I analyze the style that best suits my client’s budget and his ideal market along with the budget he has, the time line he has in mind, as well as the amount of traffic he’s interested in generating.

Some of my specialties include (but are not limited to):

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Pay Per Click (PPC) – including Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing
3. Article marketing
4. Social media domination
5. Press release
6. Video marketing
7. Banner advertising

So to sum it up, I help individuals/small businesses create a powerful and effective blueprint for their online presences and then bring lots of targeted and qualified visitors to their websites who will then be converted into loyal (if not fanatical) buyers and customers for life

Hope that helps.

Raymond Fong