Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too

CHAPTER SEVEN PROMOTION

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

One big mistake entrepreneurs often make is they start thinking about promotion too early in the marketing process. For example, they start thinking about how they're going to promote the business before they've even worked out what they're going to promote or who they're going to promote it to. It's putting the cart before the horse and it's a recipe for wasting money on promotions that don't have a hope of working.

That's why I've left this chapter until last.

As you can see, there's a bunch of thinking and strategising that needs to take place before you start building your website, or writing blogs or creating videos, but once you've done the thinking, everything will take a lot less time to create because you'll know what you want to say.

So let's assume your site is up, your branding is in place, you know what you sell and what you stand for, you're out there speaking and you're doing a good job of it all. Wouldn't it be great to have some other tools to get your message out there faster?

As you'd be aware, the methods for promoting an online business could easily fill 10 business books, so I'm going to focus on the mediums that the entrepreneurs I spoke to felt delivered the best bang for their buck. Most are working to a budget and few have millions to spare, so you can guarantee that what they've done has been measured to within an inch of ...