Atomic Email Marketing Blog ePochta.ru

The car salesman sits behind his desk, fresh from yet another meeting with the sales manager. As he slides the “four-square” worksheet across his desk toward you, you have no interest in what’s written there, and tell him…for the twelfth time this hour.

“Okay, what would it take to get you to buy today? Right now?” he asks.

“Nothing. I told you I was just looking; I’ll be in the market in a few months, but there’s nothing you can do or say to get me to buy today.”

“I’ll be right back,” he replies, standing up and starting for the door, “Let me see what I can do for you.”

“I’m just looking!” you shout at his retreating back to no avail, knowing he’s not going to stop trying to force you into a decision you’re not going to make.

Have you ever been in that situation?  Something similar, I’m sure, but not that exact situation. When you’re “tire-kicking”, you don’t wind up in a price-battle with the sales manager. And if you did, you would not leave with a good impression of the dealership, and wouldn’t be likely to bring your business there when you are ready to buy.

Of course, a high-pressure sales pitch has its place and can be very successful. But long-term potential lies in fostering a relationship with your customers.

Now, if the salesman had been helpful after establishing that you’re truly not going to buy today, giving you information you want, showing you what you’re interested in, and finishing up by saying “We run some special deals from time to time; can I call you the next time we’re in a tight spot? At that point, I can get the sales manager to cut you one heck of a deal.”

This isn’t a perfect analogy…few (if any) are. But here’s my question for you…in your marketing plan, are you trying to force your website visitors to make a purchase now, or trying to make sure that you sell to the people that are ready to buy, and position yourself to sell to the people that are going to buy later?

“Used car salesman” has become a clichéd personality type, and not in a good way. Don’t spend your marketing efforts trying to “slick” someone into making a purchase they don’t want to make…help them realize that you have a product or service they need.

With your online business website, provide useful information to visitors, make the experience enjoyable for them, and don’t forget to offer easy, highly-visible ways to collect their information so you can stay in touch with them. Don’t continually pressure them to make a purchase now now NOW.

Or the next time you come back from the sales manager’s office, the customer will be long gone.

Your best potential customers are the ones you already have.

Everyone knows that repeat business can be a big key to success, but there’s another aspect of your customers you need to keep in mind…the best marketing you can receive is a current customer recommending you to their friends, family and co-workers.

I’m not talking about multi-level marketing…while many make a nice profit with that business model, talking your Great Aunt Mildred into buying her laundry detergent from you (no matter how much her clothes may smell) isn’t the point. What I am talking about is your customers selling your business for you to others that trust them.

Seth Godin wrote a very interesting book on marketing called “Unleashing The Ideavirus” (which you can download as an ebook for free from Seth here; I heartily recommend reading it), where he refers to people that effectively spread your message “sneezers”, which leads to a very valid point:

Make it easy (or even profitable) for people to “sneeze” for you. 

This can range from a discount coupon your current customers can pass along to others, a discount on referrals, an affiliate program that pays for every sale someone makes for you, or even free products for those that refer paying customers.

What you provide may be the best thing to come along since squirt cheese in a can, but you’re not going to see your product’s full sales potential until you motivate your customers to join your sales force, and make it easy for them to do so.

Don’t forget to appeal to the “what’s in it for me?” instinct that your customers have, and you’ll see what’s in it for you…and possibly even your Great Aunt Edna.

Here’s the question of the day…do you not only make it easy for your customers or subscribers to market you, but give them an incentive to do so? If so, what results have you seen?

Obviously, there was no such thing as “online marketing” in the 17th century (probably due to incredibly low bandwidth), but you can still learn something from marketing methods in that time period…specifically the town crier.

When someone takes their business online, and especially if they have an online-only business, the impulse is to promote it online. That’s an effective idea, but there’s something you may be forgetting about your customers.

They’re not “traffic”, “hits” or “vistors”…they’re people. Your goal isn’t to get more “traffic” to your website, it’s to get more people to your website. And that’s who you need to market to…people, wherever they are.

Here’s a question…how many ways have you tried to drive traffic to your website that don’t involve the internet in the last six months? If you answered “Ummmmm….none?”, then you’re literally selling yourself short.

There’s a reason eBay spends millions of dollars on print and broadcast ads…they want to reach everyone. I’m not saying you should go ahead and place you bid for a slot in next year’s Superbowl broadcast, but there are some simple methods you can use to promote your online business offline, which brings us back to the town crier.

Town criers were, for a long time, the best way to get a message out to everyone in a community…they were one of the first “broadcast advertising” methods. And today, word-of-mouth is still an incredibly effective way to advertise.

Use it!

Tell your friends, your relatives, your acquaintances…heck, tell the guy you’re standing in line with at the theater. Have business cards on hand to help direct people to your website, and scatter them around like confetti. Hang fliers in high-traffic areas. Heck, hire a skywriter. It doesn’t matter what method you use, it only matters that you do it.

Don’t get caught up in thinking only in terms of online marketing for your online business. There are potential customers around you every day…who knows how many of them might never find you unless you tell them in person?

I’d love to hear what offline methods you use to market your online business…share them below!

Everyone wants marketing for nothing and their traffic for free. (My apologies to Dire Straits.) And there are a lot of ways to get it done. But sometimes you want more for various reasons:

• You’re launching a new product.
• You’re offering a new service.
• You need your overall traffic numbers up.
• After months of using free traffic-building methods, you still have that “lonely” feeling every time you check your stats.

If so, it may be time to take a trip into “Business ClichèLand”…”To make money, you have to spend money.” And there are a lot of ways to do just that to increase your online business presence.

• Buy pay-per-click advertising from services like Google’s Adwords.
• Purchase an opt-in email list for a marketing campaign.
• Offer an affiliate program to increase your marketing efforts, using a service such as Clickbank…or make your own! (The good side of this is that, for the most part, it only costs money when sales are made!)
• Purchase posts or reviews on popular blogs. (Yes, this can be done, through services like PayPerPost, ReviewMe!, etc.)
• Purchase signature links from members of forums in your target niche.

Of course, it’s more than possible to become very successful without spending a dime, but it’s just as possible to spend a lot of money to become a dismal failure and wind up living under a bridge in a cardboard box. Do your research. All advertising is not created equal, especially for your product.

The above is a very small list of different types of advertising you can spend your hard-earned money on. What methods have you used that were successful? What methods were a failure for you, and why do you think that happened?

When someone has a problem, need or desire, their first stop on the internet is usually Google.  For example, if a business owner is looking for a way to process credit cards for payment online (and they have no knowledge of this area), a trip to Google and a search for “credit card processing” will return a link to Authorize.net as the first non-sponsored response.

Why?

There are quite a few reasons, all of which are covered under the umbrella term of SEO, or Search Engine Optimiztion, and SEO is something an online business cannot afford to ignore. SEO basics can be learned relatively easily, but to do it well (and with good results) is something that takes a specialist’s touch. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to improve your search engine placement.

• Your keywords should be well chosen…you may not want to compete for search results with the keyword “credit card processing”…try to choose keywords with less competition that are still relevant.
• Your url and website title should include your keywords.
• You should use “header” tags on your page (<H1>), making sure your keywords are included in the header.
• Backlinks, or links to your page on other pages, are also vitally important to your search engine performance.

All of this sounds simple if you understand basic website construction, and it looks like Greek if you don’t. However, even if you use a freelance web developer, there are some things you can do to optimize your SEO.

• Make sure your keywords are included in your page or post titles.
• If you’re using a blog, make sure you leave comments on other blogs in your niché, linking back to your website. (In some cases, these will count as backlinks. In all cases, it increases the chance of the blog owner linking to your website…as long as your comments are useful.)
• Become active in online forums that are relevant to your keywords, making sure your forum signature contains a link to your website.
• Actively seek out link exchanges with relevant websites.

These are very simple, basic steps anyone can take to improve their search engine results ranking. Are these steps enough? Not in the slightest. But if you’re new to the concept of SEO, they are a start.

Most people have an image of “sales” as the process of convincing someone to conduct trade with you, whether you’re selling a product or providing a service…and that’s the wrong way to look at it.

Effective sales is the process of solving problems.

In 1938, the Dr. Roy Plunkett discoverd Teflon while working for Du Pont. Full-scale production of Teflon took another ten years to get going, and even then it was only for industrial applications. Then, in the early 1950′s, a Frenchman named Marc Gregoire (who was using Teflon to prevent his fishing lines from sticking) heard his wife complaining that there was nothing like Teflon to keep her pots and pans from sticking.

Gregoire formed the Tefal company to make Teflon coated pans in 1955, and it would be hard to find a kitchen that doesn’t contain at least one today.

When he started selling his product, did he advertise the industrial uses? Did he spread the word about the new process? No, he focused on how his wife’s idea solved a problem.

• Problem: Washing pots and pans is hard work.

• Solution: Teflon pots and pans make it easier and faster.

He sold over a million in the first year alone.

When constructing your sales pitch, explain why buying from you will solve a problem for the customer. Yes, this seems like very basic advice, but spend some time watching television, listening to the radio and paying attention to internet and email marketing. You’ll be amazed by the number of ads you see or hear that don’t address this simple aspect of sales.

No one knows what problems you can solve for customers better than you…so tell them.

Sheryl Crow’s hit song “Soak Up The Sun” has a wonderful line in it that we can take a lesson from.

“It’s not getting what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”

This is a definite key to peace and happiness, and it should also be a cornerstone of your marketing campaign.

Your potential customers think they know what they want, but sometimes they feel cheated after they get it…whatever it was that they thought they wanted didn’t turn out to be what they needed, whether it be a consultant, a piece of software or the latest gadget from late-night television infomercials. This is something you should keep in mind when crafting your marketing message.

Don’t spend time explaining how you have a wonderful product or service, or that you have the “next big thing”. Instead, your message’s time in front of a potential customer is better spent explaining how your product or service is what they need to solve a problem in their life or business.

When you sell someone what they “want”, if they’re let down after the purchase…well, let’s just say any referral you get from them won’t be glowing. However, if your marketing message explains how you’re going to solve their problem (and then your product or service performs as advertised), you’ve just added a member to your sales force. They’ll spread the word about what they purchased, who they purchased it from, and what it did for them.

And that is the kind of advertising that can’t be bought.

Try to remember…don’t try to make the customer get what you want them to…make them want what you’ve got, by explaining how it will make their life easier in some way.

Which is marketing in a nutshell, when you think about it.