I’ve been selling products through the internet since 1999, years before everyone was buying and selling online. Over the past 18 years, my primary marketing tool has been email. Our company both rented and built large email lists to promote our various product lines. In the last few years, we have added Facebook to our online marketing strategy, allowing our business to dial into our targeted audience with even more precision than email.
Though the tools, mediums, trends, and tactics may change, I’ve found that what ultimately leads to conversion has been the same since people began bartering thousands of years ago. In working with my own marketing department, I have identified the five key tips that help create effective advertising and generate millions of dollars in sales for any product.
Tip 1: Establish the value. Why does the customer need your product? You must know the answer to that question and be able to succinctly communicate it to your customer. It doesn’t matter how good your product is if you don’t communicate the basic need your product will meet, be it fashion, function, comfort, fun, or all four.
Tip 2: Make it irresistible. Now that customers need the product you’re selling, do they want it more than they want the money in their pocket? You must convince them that your product is worth more to them than their hard-earned dollar. If you listen, the market will tell you what price customers are willing to pay. Margins are important when considering a pricing strategy, but customers don’t care about your margin. They care about trading their dollar to you for your item or service. Find the sweet spot on price and fire away.
Tip 3: Set a limitation. At this point, customers agree that they need your product or service, and the price is right to satisfy their want for it. But what’s the hurry? Without a sense of urgency, customers cool down and may decide they can live without your product after all.
Tip 4: Make an unbelievable offer. To channel The Godfather, you’ve got to make your customers an offer they can’t refuse. You’ve seen the television commercials selling some amazing gadget to make your life better. You’re already sold on it. It’s a terrific product, and the price is good. They’ve established that you must call now because either the price is going up soon, or they’re going to run out of these great gadgets. But what do they all do to push you over the edge and call immediately? The announcer adds, “But wait! We’re going to give you a second gadget absolutely free.”
Tip 5: Build a big mailing list and repeat. Do you want to build your customer list fast? Here’s how to do it: give something away. Totally free. Our firm once ran a campaign for a completely free audio CD. All the customer had to do was ask for it. The production and shipping cost to send those CDs was several thousand dollars, but that audio CD told a story, cost the customer absolutely nothing, and got them interested in all the other products we had to offer. Essentially, it was an advertisement cloaked as a free product.
Source : Forbes