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May 24, 2007
 Here are 13 Tips to Help the Sales and Marketing Challenged Overcome Their Affliction and break out of the I'm not selling anything and I don't know why blues! I probably should package this information and sell it as an eBook or audio course. I've certainly seen less information sold for $37, $47, or $97 or possibly even more, however, I'm offering it here for free! This is part two of a two part series, see part one here: Work vs. Profit - Are You in the Small Percentage that Understands the Truth?.
- If you're creating your own products: Actually Finish the Product! If you want to start blogging, actually get your blog up and running. Now this may seem like a no-brainer, but it's not.
- Write down a list of features and a description and stick to it.
- Set a realistic deadline.
- Don't allow product feature creep (constantly adding just one more feature).
- You're better off to sell a simple product than no product. You can always add more features later and sell an upgraded version of the product to the customers that purchased the first version.
- You can rarely sell what you never finish.
- Recognize fear for what it is.
- Actually setting up a website or blog and posting your real thoughts and feelings can be scary. Actually creating and selling your own products can be scary. What happens if no one ever makes a purchase? What happens if you've wasted all the time you put into it? What happens if almost everyone wants a refund? What happens if you get tons of negative comments? The list goes on and on.
- These thoughts are normal, and if allowed to, they will sabotage your efforts and you'll never get everything in place that's required to succeed.
- Taking action in small steps is a good way to get past the fear.
- Don't let your intelligence introduce the option of failure: if you're going to succeed failure is not an option. It's like jumping into a cold swimming pool: the more you hesitate and think about it, the more you find reasons not to jump in.
- Don't discount your worth, value, or contribution, or your product's worth, value, or contribution.
- Marketing requires confidence.
- You need to influence people.
- You need to show that you are an expert in your field and that your product will answer needs, solve problems, make lives better, etc.
- It's easier to keep a customer than it is to get a new customer.
- It's important to be honest.
- If you make up (lie about) what your product can do, you'll have a high refund rate and no repeat customers.
- If you're honest, and treat people well, you can sell them something else in the future.
- Don't give up.
- If you don't sell anything, don't stop trying.
- Learn, experiment, measure, and keep trying.
- Get excited about it.
- Marketing is mostly perception and you need to pump it up, turn it on, and draw them in.
- Be the fire and brimstone shouting evangelist for your product!
- Don't focus on the technical aspects of the product; focus on the benefits to the end user.
- Most people don't care about technical specifications, or what's under the hood.
- They just want their problems solved...
- They want more convenience in their life...
- They want more sex appeal, romance, etc.
- Think about how an end user of your product would tell a friend about it standing around the coffee machine at work the next day.
- Balance features with benefits.
- For each feature you describe, stress how it benefits the user.
- Build up their ego, not yours.
- Don't go on and on about how you created this product and how smart you are.
- Tell them how smart they are.
- Get out of your shoes and into theirs.
- Be truthful yet take it to the limit by making them imagine every possible way this product will:
- Make them more successful,
- More energetic,
- lower their golf score,
- Benefit them,
- Make them a better person,
- Make them more money, etc.
- Create curiosity:
- It killed the cat, but sales a ton of product!
- Curiosity is the driving force behind a lot of marketing. If done properly, you don't even realize why you've clicked on that link or why you wanted to see that commercial instead of changing channels or stations.
- Ask a question or make a statement that leads the person in by promising to show them something they didn't know.
- Fat-Free Copy:
- Don't write a thesis or dissertation, there has been a trend to write sales letters that go on and on; however there are statistics that show short copy will outperform long copy.
- Repetition is good to reinforce your points, but use it sparingly.
- You can reinforce your main features by repeating them, but limit the number of times you do it.
- Repetition can drive home your main points, but... OK, you probably get it!
- Make it Easy to Read:
- Your web page, ad, sales letter, emails, or whatever, should be easy to read, both visually and grammatically.
- Proof read your copy out loud and correct any passages that aren't comfortable and easy to read. Have someone else do the same.
- Don't use strange fonts and colors.
- Don't use tiny text.
- Make the Path to Purchasing and Ordering Very Obvious.
- This may seem like a no-brainer and something that I wouldn't have to mention, but that's not the case. I've been on sales pages from successful people in the Internet Business field and had to scroll up and down a few times to find out where the order link or button was hiding. One site used a phone number and it was buried in regular text in a paragraph.
- Use mouse over effects (CSS) on your links and order link that it's obvious you can click on links. See these two posts here on my site that show you how to do this.
- Make sure the order link or button stands out from the text around it. Here are two posts about order or submit button size, and how to use CSS to alter it:
Sincerely,
Fred
About the Author
Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.
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Posted by Fred on May 24, 2007 | Printer-Friendly
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