Marketing

You Can Sell Without Selling Out

by Phil Hanson

Promotion hypes your products or services to your prospective customers. Marketing gives your prospective customers good reasons why they should buy those products or services from you.

Marketing and promotion are much the same in many respects and, sometimes, the distinction between them blurs; both are essential and neither should be ignored. An effective marketing strategy is an essential part of every successful business. By using sound marketing practices, you can sell without selling out.

Define your customer base! Not everyone has the same interests, or the same needs. The things that have broad appeal for one group may have no appeal for another.

Generally speaking, your market consists of that segment of the population most likely to buy your product or service. Discover your primary market, and then concentrate your efforts on getting that particular market to your Web site.

Target your traffic! It won't matter how much traffic you get to your site if it's the wrong traffic. Use only keywords that are relevant to your site, or to your products or services. These are the words your potential customers enter into a search engine to begin a search for the kinds of products or services you sell.

When you use irrelevant keywords, you divert traffic, intended for elsewhere, to your site. Since this traffic was looking for something different to begin with, you stand virtually no chance of making a sale. It makes no sense to waste your time with it.

Filter your traffic! Sometimes, the wrong kind of traffic ends up on your Web site, anyway. When that happens, try to shunt it back into its proper channels. A good way to do this is with affiliate programs; you not only get the traffic back where it belongs, you can make some money in the process.

For instance, let's say you teach karate and you sell karate lessons from your Web site. Logically, "martial arts" will be among your keywords. However, someone looking for judo lessons might also type in "martial arts" as one of their search terms and end up on your site as a consequence. If you have affiliate arrangements with similar, but non-competing, Web sites, you can reroute traffic that's essentially useless to you, to sites where it will be of use. If the traffic you refer makes purchases on the sites you've referred them to, you get paid a referral fee.

Implement an affiliate program of your own. It's a great way to get new, highly targeted traffic to your site. Such traffic is more likely to spend money on your site, because it's traffic that's looking for exactly the things you're selling. Affiliate programs are among the most effective ways to promote your wares—and your Web site.

Make your pitch! You've identified your market and gotten highly targeted traffic to your site. When potential customers arrive, let your sales presentation—your Web site—do its work.

Ideally, your sales presentation begins at the point where visitors enter your site. Normally, visitors enter on your home page, although they can enter on just about any page, depending on how and where other sites have linked to yours. Your sales presentation continues, in one form or another, on each of the main pages of your site, and concludes on the order page.

Your home page is the "generalities" page. This is where you give overviews of your products or services, perhaps tell a little bit about yourself or your company, and point the way to specific information contained on other pages. The objective, here, is to build curiosity.

Turn that curiosity into desire on your product or service information page. Give accurate, detailed descriptions of the things you're selling. Stress their importance, and explain the benefits to be derived. Give your Web site's visitors compelling reasons to buy from you.

Avoid using spam and pop-ups to advertise or promote your business. The short-term benefits aren't worth the long-term consequences.

Clinch the sale! Make it easy for your customers to buy. Provide a number of payment options to give them a maximum number of ways to pay for your goods or services. Don't let the lack of a suitable payment option thwart a sale.

Promote, and sell, quality. Conduct your business affairs honestly and ethically—don't try to trick your customers, or cheat them. Sell your products or services for a fair price and, always, deliver a superior level of customer service.

Personalize your business relationships to the greatest extent possible. Let your customers know that they, and their business, are important to you. Deliver, promptly, everything you've promised to deliver. Address customer concerns or complaints, immediately. Often, it's the high level of customer service and commitment to customer satisfaction that are the deciding factors in whether someone becomes a loyal customer, or whether they go shopping elsewhere.