Is
Following The "Guru" Advice Of Giving The Appearance
Of Being A Big Business Hurting Your Profits?
Don't
Follow The Crowd - The Crowd Is Failing!
From
the desk of Timothy A. Gross
A
few quick points before we get started today:
1)
In the last issue of the Internet Profit Report, I told
you that one of the "hidden" benefits of paid
advertising is that it almost forces you to improve your
ad. I'm happy to report that since I put out that issue,
I improved the sales letter I told you about by following
the same advice that I gave you, and achieved a startling
300% increase in sales. (Impressing even myself. ;-)
2)
For those of you with traditional (ie "offline")
businesses who haven't made the move to contacting your
customers by email instead of direct mail, the time is now!
It's hard enough to beat postal costs, without the perceived
threat of anthrax making the job of getting your letter
opened that much harder. If you're not doing it already,
start capturing the email addresses of your customers *immediately*
for email follow-up instead of by direct mail.
OKAY, ON TO TODAY'S TOPIC:
A
lot of blind assumptions that internet marketers make are
simply not true.
If
you're a start-up internet entrepreneur working alone or
with a couple of employees, you're most likely doing everything
you can to appear to be a "big business".
After
all, one of the constantly repeated benefits of having a
business online is that "no one can tell if you're
a large corporation with 2,000 employees or if you're just
running your business out of a spare corner of your bedroom."
The well-touted belief is that it gives you equal footing
with large corporations.
Hmmm.
Who
ever proved that it was to your benefit to pass yourself
off as a large corporation? Here are SOME of the traits
consumers associate with Big Business:
With
all these negative connotations about large corporations,
you're being told by virtually EVERY "internet guru"
out there to pretend to be one?
Let
me tell you a story.
A
few weeks ago I drove to Big Bear, California. It's a kick-back
mountain ski community... It's economy is based on tourism.
We
did the "tourist thing" and wandered around the
main shopping areas. There were a lot of trinket and knick-knack
stores, and the whole town had a certain fun vibe about
it. The long and short of it: We bought a bunch of junk
- I bought a straw hat that seemed fun at the time, a "nature
sounds" music CD, and all kinds of other stuff.
I
haven't used any of it.
I
would have never purchased that stuff at Walmart. It was
the vacation-town vibe, the "quaintness" that
made me pull out my wallet.
If
you don't think those stores don't play up that appeal,
think again! They can't compete with a chain like Walmart
head to head on price OR selection; So they have to make
up for it with their "down-home appeal" and personality.
-And you should be trying the same thing with your website.
Trying To Pattern Your Website After Generic
Corporations May Be Killing Your Business!
Example
1:
Let's
say you build and sell cat scratching posts; everybody in
your home-town loves them, and you've decided to sell them
online. Which approach do you think would be more effective:
| "Here
at mega-cat emporium, we warehouse 10,000 scratching
posts at a time. We ship nationwide, and guarantee your
satisfaction." |
Or:
| "My
name is Fred Clawford, and I've been making beautiful,
unique cat scratching posts for over 7 years. I handcraft
each one myself to your exact description (take a look
at our "kitty mansion" custom section photos!),
and each post is lovingly built into a work of art by
me personally. I'm a cat NUT (I own nine of them!) and
I guarantee that YOUR cat will love my scratching posts.
No scratching post ships out until it's been stamped
with an "Inspected by Fluffy - Approved" sticker.
|
Okay,
okay - Scratching posts aren't really a hot item to sell
on the internet. But if you're selling them, the "down-home"
approach will probably win out over the sterile one.
Example
2: (Which do you like better?)
| "With
Web Designs R Us, you get an elite team of professionals.
With 17 years combined internet experience, there's
no job too small or too big for us to handle. Contact
us now for a free quote." |
Or:
| "When
you have a website designed by McGarrity Web Design",
you become part of the family! Scott, our 23-year old
artistic genius, will create your website masterpiece,
with full input every step of the way. Mark Jr. is our
19-year old technical wizard - Don't let his age fool
you, he's been doing customized programming since he
was 15 years old, and is head of his class in Computer
Science at the local university. Mark Sr. handles the
billing and books. We love our work, and what we love
the most is how happy our customers get once we've finished
their website. Click here to read some glowing testimonials,
then call us for a free and friendly quote." |
Now
here's the thing: NO ONE can guarantee which approach
will make you the most sales. There are too many individual
factors to take into account to know for sure.
But
what I DO know is that the vast majority of online entrepreneurs
haven't even tried the "small-time" friendly approach.
Your
website should absolutely look professional, and it should
absolutely instill confidence in your potential customers.
But beyond that, step out of the "corporate mold"
and put your *personality* out on your website... The more
personality you show, the more your potential customers
will feel like they know you. -And building that bond can
do more to build your business than all of the empty corporate
slogans in the world.
I
hope that helps get you brainstorming. ;-)
To
your success, Tim Gross
P.S.
- Don't forget, these are NOT "theoretical ideas I'm
tossing out" here... I increased the profitability
of one of our partners' projects by 300% within the last
2 weeks by following my OWN advice that I gave you in the
last newsletter issue. How can YOU increase your profits
from THIS one? I challenge you to test this personal approach
this week.
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