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A common mistake online businesses make is when
they attempt to market their company, web site or product through
institutional marketing methods. Institutional or conventional
marketing is the kind that simply says "I'm open for business." It
really doesn't do much. In essence, it simply advertises the mere
existence of a business or web site -- it does not direct its audience
in a clear, specific and succinct way to take some kind of action.
Using these types of approaches marketers
fail to produce the results that they seek and then usually wonder
why. Institutional marketing is what marketer
Dan Kennedy calls "Good Year Blimp" marketing -- like the Good
Year blimp, which hovers over a football stadium filled with cheering
fans, the aim is to instill warm, fuzzy feelings about Good Year into
the mind.
Obviously, the marketing executives at Good Year are certainly not
thinking that people will leave the stands at half-time and rush out
to buy their tires. But, like Dan explains, their strategy is to have
people associate -- likely at a subconscious level -- warm, fuzzy
feelings with Good Year by flying the blimp during an emotional event.
And the next time they are in need of, say, winter tires, Good Year is
hopefully the instinctive choice.
When Internet marketers apply institutional marketing however, the
problem that they often encounter is the fact that this type of
approach tends to generate little or no business because of the
"click-happy," direct response nature of the web. Agreeably, it may
produce some results over time. But more often than not, the response
produced is generally one comprised of curious or unqualified
prospects -- or "suspects," in other words.
Because of the hypercompetitive nature of the Internet and the fact
that it is constantly bombarding us with information, trying to catch
decent fish (i.e., good, qualified prospects) in an ocean filled with
millions of minnows can sometimes be worse than trying to find a
needle in the haystack. In the end, it can become frustrating and
often self-effacing.
Take It Step By Step
However, what I call directional
marketing is an approach in which people are asked to do something --
anything, be it to click on a link, subscribe to an ezine or buy a
product. However, this goes beyond simply getting prospects to
recognize that the business exists on the web or even leading them to
a favorable outcome. It also includes the process of finding good
quality visitors that isolate themselves from the curiosity-seekers.
The goal here is to generate what I call "expects" (i.e., prospects
that are qualified, interested and ready to buy, or in other words
prospects that are expecting to do business). But often, marketers
think that by selling themselves right in their advertisements they
will get not only an immediate response but also immediate business.
On the web, this oftentimes backfires and can even take away
customers, which is counterproductive.
A concept that's been around for years but has recently become very
popular is multi-step marketing. It's a process in which businesses
use direct marketing in order to obtain an immediate response from
their efforts. However, they use this technique to isolate their
expects from their suspects -- and not necessarily to sell their
products directly.
They do so by offering a free (or a low cost) report, software, ebook,
sample, article or service. However, little do people know that the
free product is part of a gradual qualification process. For example,
advertisers will offer a freebie that somehow targets their perfect
customer. In other words, those who respond are likely to fall within
the advertiser's target market, thereby isolating themselves from the
rest of the fish in the ocean.
Often called "lead generation marketing," this process helps marketers
to define, identify and qualify their market more clearly. In the end,
it is easier and more cost-effective to promote regular, larger or
more pricey offers to an audience that has somehow identified itself
beforehand as being apt to buy. Moreover, the process alone can help
stimulate more profitable sales by increasing a prospect's level of
interest along the way.
Having consulted many cosmetic surgeons,
I've realized that this process is obviously essential if not vital.
For instance, no one can call a person on the phone and outright ask
if that person is bald and wants more hair, especially without knowing
if that person is bald in the first place. However, doctors will first
advertise a free information kit offer, which explains the procedure
and the potential results of hair transplantation.
Naturally, people who respond will fit into that specific demographic.
More importantly, these prospects are not only demonstrating the fact
that they are suffering from hair loss but also identifying themselves
as being in the market for some kind of solution to their "problem."
Doctors are therefore isolating their patients from the crowd --
people who not only need more hair but also want more hair (since not
all of them do).
Tune In With Your Leads
If you offer a specific product
online that caters to a certain target market, get your market to come
forward before you attempt to sell your product to them. Again, with
information being in high demand, products such as ebooks, articles
and free reports are quite effective in this regard. They don't have
to be product-specific or industry-specific. As long as they target an
audience that fits within your target market, you're OK.
An example I often give of directional marketing is the piano
business. Pianos consist of a row of metal strings similar to a
guitar. When a key is pressed, a piece of felted wood (called fulcrum)
hits a string, which in turn produces a specific note. These strings
are held both in place and in tune by a series of tuning pegs screwed
into a wooden plank. Essentially, the tension applied to a string is
what controls a note's specific pitch.
Like the guitar, in order to tune a
particular note the peg is screwed a little tighter into the wood
until the string itself becomes tighter and creates the desired pitch.
Over time however, pegs eventually strip the wood and older pianos
tend to fall out of tune considerably. Pegs are then replaced with
larger ones until, one day, the piano is too old and broken beyond
repair.
Many unscrupulous salespeople will "dope" pianos so that they remain
temporarily in tune until these instruments are sold to unsuspecting
buyers. They do this by spraying water onto the wooden planks inside,
which causes the wood to expand and thus grip the tuning pegs more
firmly. But eventually, the water evaporates as pianos return to their
original state. And once buyers become aware of the problem, it's
already too late.
A piano salesperson ran a small classified ad. It said:
"Beware parents in the market for a piano!" (That was the
headline.) "Many parents buy used pianos for their kids because
they don't know if they'll love music and want to minimize the risk of
losing their investment. However, many used pianos are internally
broken and temporarily 'doped' in order to be sold quickly -- only to
become broken again when it's too late. Before you buy any piano at
any price, new or used, call for our free, special report, 'Don't Let
Piano Problems Put Your Bank Account Out Of Tune: Six Ways To Find
Commonly Hidden Problems With Used Pianos'."
His report not only explained hidden faults commonly found in older
pianos, but since he was catering to a target market (i.e., parents)
it also went on to explain how used pianos fall out of tune quickly
causing children to learn the piano the wrong way and eventually to
lose interest -- let alone the parents' money. Consequently, parents
who responded to the advertisement were naturally in the market for a
piano for their children.
Of course, what the salesperson really
wanted was to get these parents to buy new or professionally
refurbished pianos from him. But the resulting effect was that the
report not only brought qualified prospects to his door, which made it
easy for him to target his market, but also instilled in his prospects
a greater confidence in the salesperson for supplying such a valuable
service. Unlike a blatant ad, the report gave the salesperson instant
credibility.
In essence, look at lead generation as a form of job search. Like
institutional marketing, people often send bulky resumes to potential
employers in an attempt to sell themselves when very often their
attempts get filed away -- into the round file, that is. However, most
career consultants stress the importance of summarizing a resume into
a single page because, simply put, a resume is not meant to land a job
but to land an interview.
In the same way, try to land "interviews" with your prospects and not
just sales. Find ways of magnetizing your site by offering something
for free (or something that can be sold for a minimal cost) that, when
acquired by your interested visitors, helps you to isolate your
expects from your suspects. In other words, think of your lead
generator as a sonar that will help you to find the fish you really
want rather than fishing in the middle of the ocean.
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