Seven things that get forgotten in Online Marketing

A key area of online marketing is actually marketing your product or service. Sometimes, this gets completely forgotten with all the new technical breakthroughs, getting to the top of the search engines, the latest social media marketing techniques, and PPC advertising methods.

Suddenly you find you have spent a lot of money on your online marketing yet no major business growth is forthcoming. We take a look at some basic points to consider and ensure get added to the online marketing mix for your company.

1.    Creating Want

The subject of marketing has not changed a great deal. Marketing is about creating want for a product or service and to sell it. The technology of creating want has not really changed in the last 50 years – you show someone how your product answers a question, solves a problem, explains the cause of a symptom, or proves you have the specifications or part numbers in stock for a specific product.

You can create want in everyone but it is always at different levels – a person needs to know about a product before he can buy it. Generally, unless impulsive, a person likes to learn about the different options available once he knows about the product type. Then he needs to find a supplier and then, in order to actually buy he will need to be convinced to greater or lesser degree to buy it from that supplier.

Some people call this the buying funnel:

1.    Become Aware of a product or service industry
2.    Gain Interest in the product or service industry
3.    Learn about the options available (in the past, current and future)
4.    Shop between suppliers (large online, national, or local)
5.    Buy from a supplier (you hopefully!)

It is described as a funnel as lots of people can fit into category 1 and as you go down to category 5 there are less and less that make it through to actually buying.

2.    Constant interest generation

You maximise the number of people that make it from becoming aware of your product or service to buying your product or service by continuing to interest the person.

The only way to drive through from aware of your product to buying your product is by keeping the person interested – constantly.
Notice that I do not say “focused”. In today’s age of any information being available by typing three words into a search engine you need to provide enough information and make it easy enough to navigate that the person finds what keeps him interested all the way down to buying from you.

3.    Marketing at all points of the buying funnel

Millions of people are nearly getting sold to by your competitors every second. It is probable that your stronger competitors are making headway with potential clients, making them aware of the product, getting them interested in the industry, telling them about the options available, and pushing all of the best benefits for buying from them.

Take advantage of your competitors’ weaknesses and pick up where they left off and get the sale.

At every point on the buying funnel you can give the potential client the best experience that will interest them all the way to buying from you.
The further down the buying funnel the more likely the prospect will interact with you more. They may subscribe to your blog, follow you tweets or strive to contact you for more information.

4.    Offering a choice

Nobody likes not being able to choose. People want to feel in control of their destiny, of their decisions, of their purchases. Successful salesman know often from hard won experience that if the prospect feels he has no choice he will make the choice between buying or not – and it will normally mean “No thanks” or “Thanks for your time then.”

To keep prospects moving down the buying funnel you must offer them a choice. Online marketers often stop someone on the buying funnel by demanding something from them – an email address, a survey answer, call now for more information, sign up for access, and so on.

You must always offer your prospect a choice. This keeps them happy to carry on going down the buying funnel – do not make it so they can only go one way – as they will often turn around and go back the other way as it is the only choice they can make.

5.    Making your product or service familiar

Many businesses feel they need to offer something different, a unique selling point. This is good and can be used to promote your product or business as “A breath of fresh air” or “Our Innovative new service model”.

However, it is important to understand how a potential buyer thinks. If you are too far out of touch and they will not feel comfortable and will go elsewhere.

If you told a CEO of a major corporation in the 1920’s  that your company can provide video conferencing from each board member’s home across 6 continents with 10” touch screen tablets in you would have missed the boat. They would have thought you were mad – they would need at least a hundred people to maintain it, it would cost more than the country was worth, never mind the 100,000 square yards of warehouse space for the machinery or the thousands of miles of cable.

However, if you told them they could send a communication on your lines and it would arrive across the Pacific in 12 hours. You would have to show them how it could be of use to them and compare it to something familiar. Perhaps getting information across the globe before the newspapers could print and using that data in playing the stock market as an example would gain enough familiarity to make the sale.

You make something new communicate to your prospect immediately through comparing it to something they are familiar with.

6.    Providing enough information so that the prospect can make a decision

There are many things that a person needs to know to buy. It can be as obvious as seeing a business card design without a phone number or a sales pitch without a price tag.

Sometimes it can be more subtle, such as “only available in the US” or a delivery estimate.

Generally, to sell anything, a person needs to know what it is, what it does, where to get it, how much it is, how it will benefit him, the product’s features and how long it will take to get it.

You would monitor this depending where your prospect is at on the buying funnel and your specific industry.

I am amazed at how many businesses do not get these points covered in their online marketing efforts. However, it is good for me as my clients get to benefit from those visitors to their competitor sites who got almost all of the way down the buying funnel only to find out they could not find out how much it was. They then went on to the search engines, put in a highly specific search and bought from my client!

7.    Testimonials

In my experience word of mouth is the most valuable form of marketing. It will garner more conversions than anything.
In the world we now live in, people may still talk to each other, but for recommendations more than a good movie, TV show or album, a fantastic way to ensure you are your visitors supplier of choice is volumes of testimonials all over the internet and especially on your site.
Some of my clients have hundreds of testimonials and it is this one, undeniable fact that hundreds of people before them have benefited from the product or service that produces the greatest percentage of buying funnel conversions no matter which point of the funnel they arrived on.
Keep in mind to provide sufficient information and interaction to drive the person through interest down the buying funnel but it a large testimonial resource can and will make your conversion percentages sky rocket.

Summary:

In order to create want for your product or service you need to know and understand the buying funnel.
In order to maintain the prospect’s interest and generate trust you need to provide sufficient industry information that is easy to navigate.
In order to minimise back out you need to offer a choice.
In order to make them want your product you need to compare it to something they are familiar with.
In order for them to decide to buy you need to provide sufficient information on the specific product or service.
In order for them to actually make the conversion (purchase or enquiry) you need to provide a final push of trust in volume testimonials.

An average buyer chooses a supplier that is 1) trusted 2) convenient 3) knowledgeable 4) is good value and 5) has positive customer service feedback.

The following ensures that your average buyer does in fact buy:

1.    A professional and sufficiently impressive online marketing image all over the web
2.    Large quantities of valuable information for all prospects on the buying funnel
3.    High quality customer service
4.    Competitive prices
5.    Highly optimised buying and delivery process
6.    Having a choice of products
7.    Lots of well publicised testimonials

A competent online marketing company will cover all of these points with you, hopefully in your initial meetings and consultations. Ethical online marketing professionals will not take on the job unless they feel they can create a great deal more business and profits for you than it will cost.

Find one and work with them!