7 Costly Online Business Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

7 Costly Online Business Mistakes

1. Don’t Ignore Your Email List

The number one thing you need to avoid is ignoring your email list.

Everyone with an online business wants to build a bigger email list. And that’s awesome. But if you never email them out because you’re worried that they’re going to unsubscribe, then why even bother?

Email is still the most effective way at communicating with and influencing your following. In fact, research by salesforce.com found that for every dollar spent to acquire an email address, it yields $44.25 in return. That’s significant.

It was also shown that more than 44% percent of people purchase something within one year of receiving a promotional email.

That’s pretty significant, so email marketing is still very important.

Emailing them once a month is not going to work. You have to be top of mind with your followers when it comes to being a problem solver in your niche, because then you’ll be tip of tongue when they need help.

When you are in front of people with regular email messages, they’re going to think of you more often. Whereas, if they don’t ever hear from you, when you finally do send them an email, they’re going to be like, “Who is this person again? Am I on their email list? How did they even get my email?”

You want to be on top of their mind with great regular content, not just sales promotions.

At the very minimum of once per week, you should add some value to their lives via email. That way, you’re at the top of their mind.

2. Don’t Rely Solely on Email

Nowadays, we’ve got some amazing technologies that allow you to get in front of the same audience in different mediums or in different ways.

For instance, you can get in front of your audience on Facebook. If they’re part of a Facebook group, you can message them through the Facebook group. You can even message people through Facebook Messenger now with some really cool new technologies that are coming out.

You can get in front of them with Facebook ads, with YouTube videos, and with podcasts.

There are all sorts of great ways to get in front of the same people with a similar message on an ongoing basis.

That’s important because not everyone’s going to be regularly checking their email inbox. Some people hang out on Facebook. Some people listen to podcasts.

You want to think about your strategy and figure out the one, two, or three channels that you want to really master.

Let those be your playing ground. For me, my playing grounds are my blog, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. That’s pretty much it. I don’t really do much else, so if I can get in front of our ideal customers on those platforms, then that’s great.

Meanwhile, if I solely rely on email, I’m still going to get good results, but I’m going to be missing the boat to a certain degree.

3. Avoid Spending All of Your Time Online

It’s ironic that I’m going to say this, but to build a really successful online business, you actually have to spend more of your time offline.

What I mean by that is this: when I created the video accompanying this post, I wasn’t online.

My value to the world is not about being connected to the Internet. My value is to extract my ideas and knowledge.

Once I shared my thoughts on video, then (and only then) did I actually have to connect to the Internet to upload it.

Your unique value is your ideas, creating content, the writing of it, the typing of it, the shooting of the video, the recording the podcast or the interview, the creation of your course.

None of that requires connection to the Internet.

While eventually it is all posted online, the actual creative process is something you do offline.

On a related note, I would actually strongly encourage you to spend half a day or one full day each week thinking and planning.

Turn off your Internet, turn off your computer, get out a notepad, and just think. Go for a walk, spend some time in nature, sit in your favorite chair, and just think about stuff.

You will have breakthroughs galore.

The third way to get offline is to step away from your computer, table, or phone and actually meet people in person.

It’s a super effective way of building relationships instead of falsely thinking that Facebook friends are actually real relationships.

Let’s actually build relationships with people and connect with human beings again. Get off line. Get off the computer, and spend some time in real life.

4. Avoid Doing It All Yourself

Try, as best you can, to avoid becoming a one-man show. Don’t do everything yourself.

In today’s day and age, execution has become a commodity. You can hire someone to do practically anything you want.

You can hire a virtual assistant or you can hire someone locally. It’s just a matter of whether you are willing to invest in them or trade a little bit of your profit for building a team to give you a bit more freedom in your life.

You’re amazing at what you do best. But you’re not amazing at everything else.

I’m just being honest with you. I’m not amazing at everything. I’m amazing at what I do, which is two or three things. That’s about it. Everything else, other people can do better than I can.

It’s about identifying that, and finding people to fill those roles so that you can feel a bit happier and more productive on a day-to-day basis.

5. Don’t Be a Generalist

Don’t try be everything to everybody in your business. Become a specialist.

Specialize – go narrow and deep with whom you serve.

The health and wellness industry is loaded with trainers, doctors, and experts doing the same stuff.  It’s the same thing over and over again.

So, why don’t you become the expert who helps a specific segment of that population do X, Y, or Z?

You can become the Hashimoto’s expert, the adrenal expert, the CrossFit-for-women expert, the post-pregnancy expert, the yoga-for-moms-who-have-two-kids expert.

Go narrow and deep. That way, it’s easy for people to put you in a specific category so that when they think of your niche, they think of you.

That’s a lot easier to build a business around than trying to be an all-around health and wellness expert, and end up competing against brands like Dr. Oz. Go and specialize.

Become the niched ninja.

6. Don’t Produce Crap Content

The days of thin, light, and superficial content are done, if they ever actually existed.

Now, Google is rewarding amazing content that people value and share, and if you’re not producing that, don’t even bother putting anything out in the first place. Seriously.

Remember, your reputation is on the line, so if you’re producing crap, what are people going to think of you? What reputation are you going to build?

When I’m creating my videos or publishing blog posts, I put a good amount of thought into what I want to say and how I want to structure it.

You have amazing expertise and knowledge. Use that. Give your best stuff away. Don’t hold anything back.

7. Don’t Channel Surf

Earlier I mentioned that I picked a couple channels and mastered them. I would recommend you do the same.

Don’t be the person who’s on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and whatever else is out there. It’s overwhelming.

There are plenty of examples of people who’ve done amazingly well on each one of those platforms by themselves. Just pick one, or two, or three at the most, and become the master of those channels.

I was once on Instagram but no longer am because I just got sick and tired of taking pictures of all my food, to be very honest with you. Yes, I still have an account, but it’s not being updated.

That’s because I want to focus on YouTube, my blog, Pinterest, and Facebook, and that is it.

Anything Else?

Those are the seven costly mistakes to avoid in 2017 and beyond. Follow it and you’re on your way to a profitable, healthy, and fun online business, helping more people. Is there anything you’d add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.