Even the largest corporations forget, from time to time, what customers are actually buying when they market their products and/or services. To start with, customer purchases come under two main headings. "Wants" and "Needs". As a child you probably understood this better than you now do as an adult. Imagine being on holiday and walking passed an ice-cream seller. As an adult you'll probably look at the ice-cream and think how much you want one. On the other hand, a child will say "Mom, can I have an ice-cream?" and the mother will say "No". Then the child responds by saying, "But Mom, I need an ice cream." Unwittingly, in most instances, the child separates the difference between want and need. As a seller of products and services it is best if we promote products where there is a need. An Internet marketer needs an autoresponder to maximise the potential of their "list". A child on the other hand may "want" an ice-cream, but they certainly don't "need" one. You will stand a better chance of fulfiling a need rather than a want. A "want" is nice to have, but is not critical if we don't have it. A need, on the other hand, is. You can't be an online marketer without access to a computer and the Internet. So you need these things.
The other important aspect of marketing that the big companies often forget is separating features and benefits. Let's imagine you are interested in DIY. You decide one day to build some bookshelves and attach them to the wall in your house. You need something to make a hole in the wall so you can screw the shelves to the wall. You then go and fetch your electric drill to make the holes required. But the drill also has a number of different settings. The ability to turn clockwise and anti-clockwise being one. Now if you were a poor salesman selling the drill you would tell the customer that the drill has the ability to turn clockwise and anti-clockwise. A good salesman would go one step further. He would say; "This drill operates both clockwise and anti-clockwise, and with the inclusive screw driver attachment this allows you to both insert screws and also remove screws with no effort." The text in red is the benefit the customer is receiving in buying the drill. In our heads we have a set of imaginary scales. On one side is the cost and on the other is the benefit. When the benefit outweighs the cost then we generally make the purchase. We don't buy products and services, we buy what those products and services will do for us. To just illustrate this another way, let's use a bottle of mineral water as an example. Would you pay more for a bottle of mineral water that is in a supermarket, or after two days in the desert without a drink, would you pay more for the same bottle when you come across a mineral water salesman in the desert? The product is the same, but the benefit differs. So in summary, try to sell products that fulfill needs and advertise the benefits they provide to the customer . . . because customers will always buy benefits that solve their needs.
In my next posting I'm going to challenge you to see if your website passes the 8 second test. Until then, happy marketing.
The other important aspect of marketing that the big companies often forget is separating features and benefits. Let's imagine you are interested in DIY. You decide one day to build some bookshelves and attach them to the wall in your house. You need something to make a hole in the wall so you can screw the shelves to the wall. You then go and fetch your electric drill to make the holes required. But the drill also has a number of different settings. The ability to turn clockwise and anti-clockwise being one. Now if you were a poor salesman selling the drill you would tell the customer that the drill has the ability to turn clockwise and anti-clockwise. A good salesman would go one step further. He would say; "This drill operates both clockwise and anti-clockwise, and with the inclusive screw driver attachment this allows you to both insert screws and also remove screws with no effort." The text in red is the benefit the customer is receiving in buying the drill. In our heads we have a set of imaginary scales. On one side is the cost and on the other is the benefit. When the benefit outweighs the cost then we generally make the purchase. We don't buy products and services, we buy what those products and services will do for us. To just illustrate this another way, let's use a bottle of mineral water as an example. Would you pay more for a bottle of mineral water that is in a supermarket, or after two days in the desert without a drink, would you pay more for the same bottle when you come across a mineral water salesman in the desert? The product is the same, but the benefit differs. So in summary, try to sell products that fulfill needs and advertise the benefits they provide to the customer . . . because customers will always buy benefits that solve their needs.
In my next posting I'm going to challenge you to see if your website passes the 8 second test. Until then, happy marketing.
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