If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either an online marketer or someone who knows one. Perhaps you’re even considering jumping into the world of online marketing, or maybe you’re already in it and looking for ways to grow your business.

Inevitably, though, you’ll come across people who seem to enjoy success that you could never dream of having. While you’re busy admiring their achievements, they might be taking a swipe at you with one hand and patting themselves on the back with the other.

What makes these ‘superstars’ so special? What secret formula do they use to achieve such great results? What can you learn from their success to help you improve your own results?

To find the answers, let’s take a look at what separates the successful online marketers from those who are merely ‘okay’.

The Product Is The Key

It’s one thing to have a gorgeous website and another to have a successful online store. Having a flashy website that contains products you’ve never heard of doesn’t mean much if you’re not going to sell them.

To be clear, I’m not saying you need to sell everything on your site. In fact, your site can help you decide what to sell and where to sell it. But you must have some kind of product or service to promote.

If you’re wondering what makes a product ‘attractive’ to potential customers, go look at any successful online store. You’ll see that the product is at the forefront of everything. The page is flashy, contains a lot of eye-catching graphics, and promotes that one product.

If your product is good, why would anyone care about your website or social media accounts? People will happily buy your product in another shop, so why would they waste their time on your site or your social media accounts?

Your product should be something that people want, need or desire. If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you’ve got a good product.

The Money Follows (The Law Of Reciprocal Exchange)

If you’ve ever tried to sell something on Craigslist, you might have run into a bit of trouble. Since Craigslist doesn’t allow vendors to promote their products in the advertisements, you’re forced to do all the selling yourself.

If you’ve ever tried to sell art on Instagram, you might have noticed that many of the people you follow don’t have thousands of followers. Since Instagram doesn’t allow brands or businesses to advertise, you’re left to find customers where you can: via email, social media or your website.

This is where the money follows them. Since these aren’t established accounts with millions of followers, you have to provide value in some way. That value has to be tangible and something they can see and feel confident they’ll get what they want or need from you. For example, if you’re selling handmade crafts, you can put a lot of value in your work and make people think twice about passing you up.

Creating an online store takes a lot of effort and can be a daunting task for those who haven’t done it before. But the effort and time you put in will be worth it. When you have a tangible product you can point to and say “This is what I created, I’m proud of it and I want you to see it,” you’ll find it much easier to gain credibility and trust with your customers. And, ultimately, that’s what matters.

If you’re looking for inspiration as to what you should sell, just take a quick look at some of the biggest brands online today. You’ll see a wide range of products: from laptops to housewares to clothing and accessories. Since these shops have built their brands on the back of a good product, you can bet they’re stocked full of them.

Content Is King (And Queen)

There are a lot of different theories and formulas for building successful businesses, but, at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing: Content is king (or queen).

Look at any successful brand and you’ll see that they have thousands of articles, videos and other types of content on their sites. At a minimum, your site should have some type of content in the following categories:

• Product info: This includes everything from how to use the product to tips and tricks on saving money.
• A how-to guide: If someone is looking for information on how to paint a certain room, they’ll check out your guide. If they want inspirational pictures or videos of rooms that you’ve painted, they’ll check out your guide.
• Q&A: If someone is having trouble deciding what type of desk lamp to buy, you can help them by asking them a question and then supplying them with the answer. Essentially, help them to ‘self-answer’ your question (so you get the credit for their purchase too).
• Community: Create a space where you can engage with your followers. Whether it’s through an online shop where they can leave feedback or a curated community Instagram account where they can ask questions or leave feedback for the products you’ve featured.
• Videos: If someone is looking for advice on what type of music to listen to while exercising, they’ll check out your exercise videos. Or, if they want to see how others dance or eat cake, they’ll check out your videos.
• Pictures: If someone is looking for a certain type of tea pot, they’ll check out your picture. If they like what they see, they’ll then check out the rest of your tea-related products too.
• Social media: If someone follows you on social media, you’ve got a chance at influencing their buying decisions. Create a space for customers to leave feedback on your social media accounts (via @mentions or the ‘#’ symbol at the beginning of a Tweet)

Of course, the above are just a small fraction of the content types you might want to consider. But, for the sake of simplicity, I’ve grouped them together for you. As you can see, content plays a huge role in helping brands stand out from the crowd. If you can incorporate content into your strategy, you’ll have a much better chance of succeeding.

When someone lands on your site, they’re assuming that you know what you’re talking about and that what you say is going to be valuable. Since your site is essentially an advertisement for your products, you can bet they’ll be looking for answers to questions like “What’s the best tea to drink while exercising?” or “How can I save money on my next house purchase?” Your job as the marketer is to provide them with what they’re looking for.

Consistent Effort

No one is born a successful marketer, which is why you’ll see so many ‘superstars’ who have risen to the top. To become good, you have to put in the time and effort to learn how to do it correctly.

Take the time to teach yourself the tricks of the trade and you’ll be able to improve your results instantly. While it’s tempting to want to cut corners and get results fast, you’ll never reach your full potential if you don’t put in the work.

You also need to be consistent when you put in the work. If you’ve been slacking off for a while now and decided to try and patch things up with some marketing, you might see a bit of improvement. But, if you want to rise to the top, you’ll need to put in the time and effort to learn the ropes.

Personal Touch

For some reason, humans really connect to other humans when they give their personal touch. Even if someone has never done business with you or your company, they might feel more comfortable working with someone they know or trust. This is why you’ll often see businesses use social media to provide personal touch when interacting with their customers.

If you’ve got a Twitter account, you can take advantage of this by using it to engage with your followers. If you’ve got a YouTube channel, you can use videos to give your audience a peek into the lives of your employees or the people you’ve interviewed on your site.