subject: Organizing for Info Marketing Success by:Neil Asher [print this page] I talk a lot about pillars of success when I'm asked about information marketing. I use the term "pillars" because these are the activities that support your business. If you are missing any one of them, you can't expect to succeed.
In short, the main pillars I mention are customers, conversion and content. When you are starting out, you might have just one information product as your content. You might make one basic offer for conversion and get a handful of customers.
But your business is going to grow, and grow quickly, if you follow in the steps I've already taken. In fact, you should plan on it.
Today, I've got five main lead-generation channels making up my customer pillar: my landing pages, my e-mail newsletters, my pay-per-click advertising, my affiliate programs, and my web site partnerships. In time, you are going to want to develop all five of those, too.
For my conversion pillar, I've got two strong elements. The one I rely on the most is my free-line content, giving away valuable information products to build relationships wit prospects. And I've got my sales letters, built into my web pages and also e-mailed as part of my ongoing communications program.
When it comes to the content pillar, I began with an e-book, and then I quickly moved into audio and video products, leading to continuity programs (subscriptions), and based mainly upon live seminars. So those are five different content areas.
What I've just outlined is what a mature, successful information product business looks like. This is something that you might want to use as a blueprint for your future when you start an online business.
Now, when you are starting out, you'll be probably organize like I did and do everything yourself. That's fine for a starter. You have to do it that way to keep costs down, to learn your business and to get personal with your customers.
But you also need to start thinking right from the start, "If I am really going to grow this business BIG, I'm gong to need some help." It is never too soon to start identifying what those "help areas" will be.
I know you are not going to be surprised when I tell you that you're going to need help in three areas. And you know what they are, right? Right now my business actually has three different teams that conduct all of our operations. Each team has between three or four people, so maybe ten or eleven people all together that manage the three areas.
Our Customer Team has only one job. They go out and set up relationships. They do that through Internet advertising. They manage our partner relationships. They handle the mass e-mail marketing and the affiliate marketing. That's what they do.
Our Conversion Team works on the prospects and the customers that the Customer Team has generated. They convert them by introducing our information products and services, and then they show them our other stuff. They say, "Here: If you enjoyed that, you probably will like this." They get them interested in our other high-value products. They demonstrate how those products can help them get more of what they want in their life.
Then, there's our Content Team. These people are responsible for making all the products and services that we deliver. They do all the video taping, the editing, the design of the video covers, figure out how to get the print house to duplicate everything right, and all the detailed work of creating information products.
So those are the three pillars, and those are the three areas of your business that will be critical to your success. Setting up separate teams to help you with each of the three areas can be part of your business plan when you start an online business. That's the way that I run it, and it's a pretty darn god model.
About the author
Neil Asher (http://www.neilasher.com/freestuff.htm) has built five multi-million dollar companies from zero, including one he took to $8 million in sales in under two years. He has created and sold successful franchises in England, Italy, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Visit his web site for access to 17 FREE videos, 6 FREE books and two hours of audio training, revealing "How To Make BIG Money Selling Information Products On The InternetEven If You Don't Have A Website And You've Never Sold Anything On The Internet Before."
