Maintain a Success Circle in Direct Sales & Relationship Marketing

Archive for November, 2009

The face of internet marketing has undergone significant changes over the past few years giving rise to the demand for effective online marketing tips and strategies.  As a result, opt-in e-mail marketing or permission marketing has seen an upsurge.

What is opt-in marketing? It is marketing or communicating through e-mail with a group of persons who have willingly given permission to be contacted by subscribing to your materials through an opt-in box or a landing page.  This has given rise to the statement, “The money is in the list.”  Savvy marketers know, however, that there is more to it than just having a list.  It’s  important to build a targeted list of people who liked what they saw when they first visited your site, want to see and learn more from you, and are also willing to purchase your product or service that’s offered on your website.

In order to make this effective, here are three critical things you need to do:

1) Create a squeeze page or landing page so your visitors can visit in a focused environment.  Many online marketers create a form on their blog or blogs for visitors to opt-in to.  While this may be good in the short term, a more effective strategy is to have your visitors go to a landing or sqeeze page.  Usually your blog has a lot of information and it may be difficult for your visitor to keep their focus; instead their eyes may wander to the different articles and offers on your page.  Make your landing page informative and inviting so that they want more.

2) Give something – a report, an e-book, a video, an e-mail course etc. or combination of these tools to thank your visitors for trusting you with their personal information.  On the “Thank You” page or on the “Download” page you then invite your visitors to your blog to learn more about you and what you have to offer.  You will  want to stay in touch with your list with autoresponders.  My favorite autoresponder is Aweber.
3)  Provide excellent customer service and products: Satisfied customers are more likely to share information with their peers and word of mouth advertising is best because these new visitors will be referred by people who already know, like and trust you.

Working full-circle is working smart and not hard.  Building your targeted list takes work but work that will pay you big dividends in the long run.

Please feel free to add your comments.

It is well-recognized that people do business with people they know, like and trust. Although it’s the third component of the equation, building trust is most critical. People first have to get to know you, either face to face, through online social networks, or through regular communication from you; grow to like you; then develop trust in you.

1. Building Relationships by Getting Others to Know You: Online marketing is more challenging because unlike face to face marketing where your facial expression, voice tone, body language, and even appearance are able to convey your message; online marketing is dependent on what you say and where you say it. “Where” is the easier part – it may be a static website, a blog, social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other forums. “What” is harder! Why? Because every person who reads what you say can understand or interpret it in a different way. You could easily say something that in your view is funny but others read it and take offense. That’s why many people will add things like LOL, , tee-hee, or other indicators of humor to help convey the tone of what’s been written.

2. Building Business Relationships by Getting Others to Like You: As you reveal your true self and become real to people they will get to know and decide if they like you. In all aspects of business, but moreso in online networking and marketing, it is very important that you show you care about others by offering your assistance and providing quality information when possible. This is part of the steps required to build lasting business relationships.  In so doing, people who have never met you or are never likely to meet you will come to regard you as ‘the person next door’, the one they can look to for solid advice or recommendations.

3. Building and Improving Relationships by Getting Others to Trust You: Trust is not only a logical act but also an emotional one. In giving trust to others you may need to expose your vulnerability to others. Interestingly, some of the most successful  internet marketers have stated that their list grew when they revealed a mistake they’d made or something that indicated they were not perfect and how they corrected it. Do you see how one action leads to the other? They trusted the ‘world’ not to ridicule their mistakes and the ‘world’ responded positively showing that they felt the inidividual could be trusted; they’re human just like all of us.

All forms of business and marketing present their own challenges. Understanding how to minimize the obstacles can help you to become more effective in building relationships in your online business and create a circle of success.

Many internet marketers are concerned about providing superior customer care in relation to their online business and this is a valid concern as building lasting relationships with customers is an integral part of doing business on the internet.

It is important to recognize that not everyone is going to follow you or hop on board with you. You probably wouldn’t want them to anyway. Most people on the internet are quite savvy so if it’s not “their” niche they aren’t going to get use from it; at the same time your time and resources could be spent focusing on people who are looking for and will benefit from that information you provide.

Understand Buying Behavior: It’s important to understand buying triggers and purchasing behavior.  People tend to buy from those they know, have established confidence in, and like. You can achieve all of these things with your customers without ever meeting them face to face. It just takes some time, email messages with a slightly personal tone, followed by trusting actions. Most people can connect with these, and will feel they know you, even if they have never heard your voice or seen more than a picture of you on an internet web page on their computer screen.

Valuable Information: In order to keep your customers happy and coming back to you– to be your raving fans– you must provide a consistent supply of valuable information relative to your niche in the form of e-books, articles and reports as well as video and audio sessions. It depends largely on what your customer base  needs.

Consistent Communication:  Encourage your website visitors and customers to come back often by offering a newsletter or free product for them if they sign up for further information from you. Offering quality resources makes it easier for even the most reluctant person to divulge their contact information to you thus enabling you to connect with them on a regular basis.  You can also use this means to determine what your customer needs from you so that you can fill the need.

Taking care of your prospects and customers is essential to keeping them engaged in your sales funnel.  They’ll appreciate the effort you put in to the service you are providing when they see something of good or even great quality offered on a consistent basis.  It’s what will keep them loyal to you, as well as have them recommend your site to their friends.

This is a guest post by Barbara Lopez of Brightfarm Introductions.  Barbara helped me to elevate my Elevator Pitch at networking events and ’round robin’ situations.

What do you do with all of the business cards that you collect from networking functions and business meetings?  Do they stack up on your desk, while you try to determine what to do with them next?  That’s what happens for most people.

I will be the first to admit that sometimes when things get hectic, I can accumulate stacks of cards, waiting for me to do something with them.  However, I do have a great organizing binder for housing them so that they don’t take up precious desk space.

It’s my pleasure to share some tips on how I organize and store my own collection of business cards, with a simple binder system.

I created a short and simple tutorial video which will tell you step by step exactly the supplies that you need, as well as how to organize your business cards.

Watch the tutorial video.

Be sure to catch the “blooper” at the end!

Or, if you’d rather just jump on this project, you can go straight to the blog page with written supply list and directions.

Whichever you choose to do, it’s very important to do something with the business cards you collect at networking functions and in your daily travels.  You’ll feel much more organized, and will enjoy having all of your contacts at your fingertips.

Happy Organizing!
Would you like to comment on this tip?  Give your feedback, questions or comments on the blog!

Barbara Lopez, “The Elevator Pitch Coach” with Brightfarm Introductions, helps business professionals introduce themselves with high impact.  Everything in business starts with an introduction.  If you’re ready to learn how to introduce yourself and your business professionally and comfortably, visit Barbara at www.brightfarm.com.