Market Research

Before you even think about bring people to your site through the various methods, you must research your market.  Find out what’s already working , where the money is being spent, how your competitors are getting customers, what their sales techniques are, etc.  A good marketer and an especially a good online marketer uses what is already working and makes it better.

Customer Research

First and foremost you'll want to start with your customer.  Creating your typical customer and the more detail you can include the better.  When doing customer research you’ll want to consider demographics and buying habits.  Also, you’ll want to go deeper and fine out where they are spending most of their time online.

Competitive Research

Luckily the Internet makes it super easy to obtain quality information about your competitors.  You can easily find out how they sell their products or services on their website.  Also you want to answer the following questions:  What marketing techniques are they using?  Where do they excel in regard to the three things that define a successful business (price, product innovation, or customer service)?  Examine the buying process or flow for their customers.  Are they relying on selling their customers immediately or do they have a way of capturing their email address and following up with them?