internet marketing essentials

Read an interesting article in Inc magazine on the train today. What especially caught my attention was that it starts off talking about Andy Fano at Accenture. I used to work with him when I was also at Accenture, so I know a bit about their “goings on”.

I see that the future of advertising looks a little brighter. Here’s my opinion. I hate watching commercials on TV. I zap every single one of them with my Replay TV. I just can’t stand not seeing my program. However when I use Google, I actually routinely look at the advertisements (adwords) on the right. I do this, because if I am shopping for something, I know that those resources on the right are commericial in nature. Also Google quality checks many of those links to make sure they aren’t redundant or broken.

Google wins because they are actually showing ads when I want them, and making them helpful. The problem though with some of the technologies mentioned in this article is it still bombards the user with information when they aren’t looking for it.

These technoligies are getting part one of the formula a bit more correct. Let the consumers interact better with advertisments that are geared specifically for them. Missing though in this article is something that Google Adwords does to solve another part of the advertising equation.

Adwords not only allows me to track exactly who sees what ad and what keywords are bringing in traffic, but I can immediately track conversion! And these 2 things are what keep business owners up at night. They want more traffic and they want more conversion. (Of course they can make money in some other ways, like reducing costs, but this isn’t as rewarding as growing traffic and conversion rates).

Watch out then for some of the winners in the future of advertising to take these new products to display ads and enable them to track conversion rates for their customers. I have some ideas on how that can happen, but I won’t share them here! Andrew Fano and the guys at Accenture are going to have to pay me for them. Or I’ll just implement them on my own.

Every time I come up with an idea, I have to evaluate it to see if it has profit potential. One way to do that is to scan what the bid prices are at Overture or Google. If the prices are high, that must mean there is some profit to be had in the niche.

Now I’m faced with a decision. Do I really want to spend the time on this new product idea? It would be great to see exactly what the demand would be. And thats where Google Adwords comes in.

If you are new to Adwords, Perry Marshall’s book is the one everyone has read and and recommends. The basic gist of it is, before you even begin developing your product,

1. go ahead and set up a landing page discussing your new idea
2. add a form to capture a name and email address for people who want to get a beta version of your product
3. set up some google adwords campaigns to drive people to your landing page

Pretty simple right. If you get some good traffic from this and some people signing up, you are able to judge demand for your product a bit better. And now you have an email list of prospective customers!

Other than testing like this, I’m having trouble deciding if Google Adwords can indeed be a profitable venture for long term advertising. I feel like the click rates just climb and climb, and more copy cat competitors enter into any field that still has profit potential. And this just drives up the bid prices until no one can make any money paying for these ads.

Oh well, at least its a decent way to test.

Just to prove again how the lesson from internet marketing tip #1 works, Stephanie had the same problem I described earlier, but this time at a popular burrito joint.

She wanted to order the veggie “burrito bowl” which was about $5 and came without the tortilla shell. Since she was only getting veggies she felt she deserved to get some peppers and onions on it as well. But as soon as she asked for the “burrito bowl with peppers and onions, please”, the employees at the shop said, thats a “fajita burrito without the tortilla” and its $7.

What!? Exactly, Stephanie didn’t get them to commit to the cheaper option first. So, I reminded her about the psychological trigger. Get them to commit to the first suggestion.

Next time we went there for lunch, she just ordered the “burrito bowl”. As they then started putting things on it, she asked “oh, could I also have some peppers and onions please”. And bingo, no arguments, no complaints, and they only charged her the $5 this time.

So you see, keep your first offer very simple and straightforward for your customer. If they accept and commit to the product, then proceed to see if they need something extra. Don’t load them with confusing options, to start with.

And this is an insanely successful online marketing technique.

Would you like to read the most important psychological behavior I know to help increase your sales?

My friend Stephanie and I go to a popular sandwich shop 2 to 3 times a week. I love getting the daily special because it’s only $2.75, some days its turkey, some days its ham. Either way though, I get the $2.75 sandwich with all the veggies.

Stephanie only likes to get the “veggie sub”. How much do you think a veggie sub is? Since a veggie sub is basically any sub on their menu except without the meat, you’d think it would be as cheap as or cheaper than every sub on the menu, including the special. Nope, the veggie costs $5 every time.

But isn’t a veggie sub is just the special without the meat?

Except every time she ordered a veggie she’d go to the cashier tell them she has a veggie, and ask if they would just charge her for the special. They flat out told her they can’t do that, every single time. She’d spend a few minutes arguing her point and getting aggravated, and then she’d pay $5 for her veggie sub.

At one point she considered just ordering the veggie sub and scraping the meat off of it. But she doesn’t want the meat flavor in her sandwich.

Then I read Joe Sugarman’s book, Psychological Triggers, and it taught me this extremely powerful way to influence people. The technique:

“First get your prospect to commit to a single idea, order, or suggestion. Then your prospect is extremely susceptible to slight additional orders or suggestions.”

Stephanie’s problem was that she was ordering a veggie sandwich. She’d commit the people at the store to prepare her veggie sandwich, but then she’d try to convince them that they are really selling her the daily special. It never worked and she paid $5 for her sub every time.

Then Stephanie followed my advice. She went ahead and ordered the daily special. The employee goes ahead and starts preparing the special. The employee is committed to this order. Then Stephanie kindly just asks them to leave the meat off. Guess what? They do it. And all that’s left is her veggie sub. But when the cashier rings it up, they charge her for the special, because that is exactly what she ordered.

She now gets her veggie sub for $2.75. So what’s this have to do with improving your internet marketing?

Get your prospect to commit to becoming a customer. Concentrate on making them a customer, don’t flood them with offers and suggestions. Get them to buy one thing from you, and as soon as they commit to buying your product, it’s much much easier to suggest that they purchase something else.

This is the psychology that internet marketing experts use when they attempt to up sell or cross sell their customers. As soon as a customer commits to purchasing their product (read: They just clicked on the “Buy Now” button, you now can offer the suggestion that they upgrade to the “Gold” package with more whistles or that the shirt in your cart looks great with this pair of jeans.

Amazon, brilliant at internet marketing, understands this psychology perfectly. Every time a customer adds something to their cart they are greeted with a “Customer who bought this, also bought XYZ”.

If you don’t have an up sell or cross sell for your customers, you are leaving plenty of money on the table. Develop some offer that you can place in between your product or sales page and the actual order form. Another option is to place the up sell or cross sell on your thank you page after they’ve completed the purchase.

Your customer is even more committed to you and your suggestions if they’ve already given you their payment information! At this point, you could even suggest someone else’s product you enjoy and make an affiliate commission.

So go out and try this internet marketing technique. Feel free to use it at a famous sandwich shop too.