Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone got as excited about your company as you are? Unfortunately some businesses just aren’t very sexy; in fact, some businesses are downright boring. As a consequence, companies that sell commodity products and routine services tend to rely on presentations that load-up on features, specifications, and statistics that may be relevant to anal-retentive types, but hardly compelling to the vast majority of your audience.
Why Feature-Selling Fails
When customers buy your product or service, what exactly are they buying? Are they buying the features that you offer, or are they buying something else, something you may have never mentioned in any of your marketing and advertising material?
Websites: It’s The Experience Stupid
The other day I picked up a book that was sitting on my night table for over a year. It’s just a small book and seemed like an easy read, perfect for falling sleep. It was called, ‘The Invisible Touch’ by Harry Beckwith. Mr. Beckwith has written several books and is an expert on positioning, branding, and client relations. I wasn’t sure if I was going to bother reading it or not, but after looking at the introduction I was hooked. This guy knew what he was talking about; he must because I agreed with most everything he said. That surely makes him an expert, at least in my eyes. Anyway, he tells a story about going to a concert for one of his favorite artists, a Laura Nyro. He purchased her recordings and loved them for their exquisite sound and her technical playing ability but the concert was a disaster.
Everything You Need To Know About SEO
But Where Afraid To Believe
Maybe you own your own business, or perhaps you’re a critical cog in the corporate machinery responsible for marketing your company, brand, product or service. If that describes you, here’s eighteen things you need to know about Web-marketing but were afraid to believe.
The Law of Dissatisfaction: How To Motivate Prospects
The 7%-38%-55% Communication Rule
Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA is best known for his 7%-38%-55% Rule that states 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors like body language and facial expressions; that 38% of communication is attributable to voice including volume, tone, pitch, cadence, and quality; and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used.
Creating A Successful Online Sales Strategy
You have a website, and perhaps you’re even a professional salesperson, and as such you know that the best way to sell someone something is face-to-face, but have you seen the price of gas lately?
Rethinking Website Content: Content That Entertains
In case you’ve missed it, the Web has changed; it seems like just yesterday it was good enough to take all your brochures and advertising collaterals and convert them to digital format, add a little search engine optimization, throw-in a little PHP programming and bingo, you’ve got a website. And if you wanted to show how cutting edge your company was, maybe you’d add a little dash of Flash animation, or some royalty free music. Well here’s a bulletin from the frontlines, that isn’t going to cut-it in the new multimedia Web-business environment.
Awaken Your Brand’s Cognitive Itch
The term ‘cognitive itch’ was first used by James Kellaris of the University of California to describe the experience of music that gets stuck in your head and you just can’t get rid of it. This same phenomenon can result from watching commercials, Web-videos and even full-featured multimedia websites.
Your Website Doesn’t Need A Traditional Call To Action
The other day I received two emails, both with the same question, why didn’t we have a direct call to action on our website?
Sales people are taught, you always need ‘a call to action’, a request to act or lose the opportunity of a lifetime. I’m sure you’ve seen the infomercials, website presentations, online direct marketing come-ons, and even high-pressure seminar and tradeshow presentations that will never be repeated, so you better act now. You’re familiar with the language used: “Act now and we’ll send you two pieces of junk you don’t need, but wait there’s more, call in the next ten minutes and we’ll add a third useless item.”
The Brand Story, A Tale Worth Telling
Every Business Has A Story To Tell
Everybody likes a good story and why not? Stories are entertaining, instructive, engaging, and above all human; they connect people to people, and businesses to customers. Stories are about communication and communication is the essence of marketing.