What A Good Sales Letter Tells Its Readers
Sales letters are often used in internet marketing business especially when you are promoting your products. However, most people resort to article writing instead of sales letters because it’s the articles that get more frequently used in other people’s websites, therefore building one’s traffic by plugging it into other people’s traffic.
Still, a sales letter comes in handy for those who you have already filtered out of your general list as those who are interested and capable of buying what you have to offer. When you pitch in your sales letter, here are some of the statements they must find in your sales letter so that it will be a sure hit.
I have a wonderful product
This is the first thing your sales letter must have. You must have something to sell. If you do not have anything to sell your prospect, then your sales letter will be all fluff and you will not derive anything from it. Make it clear to your prospect which products are you selling and promote them accordingly.
It’s the best product
A product with no competition from the outside market is not a hot item. If you are really after the big bucks, you are most likely selling something that other people are also selling. When you have your competition at bay, your sales letter must communicate to its reader that it’s the best. And do not just state that, but back it up with ample proof to support your claim.
You really need this product
Creating a need is the thrust of any marketing business, whether online or offline. If you are able to convince your readers through your sales letter that the product is important, bringing utmost benefits, reasonably priced and the best among its kind, you will be able to expect more sales pouring in your business in less time.
You will not regret trying it and we have a guarantee if you do.
The money-back guarantee, discounts and warranty all serve to placate any anxious prospect. A good sales letter communicates that your product is something that is of high quality and will not be something that they will regret buying. Just make sure that as you do this, you get to deliver what you promise.
It is best if you buy as soon as you possibly can.
The urgency is what rakes in the sales in the sales letter. An effective sales letters knows how to properly assert the time element. Some good sales letters fail to apply this, and they end up losing their prospects because they do not feel the urgent need to click the buy button and put it into their shopping cart after reading the sales pitch.
A sales letter is different from the article in the sense that it is focused on your own products. Articles may be a good partner to your sales letters, and if you will be able to use them as part of your marketing arsenal, it will be so much the better.
Article author is Joel Chritopher
Marketing Process
The marketing process is cyclical:
- Formulate a goal for your company. Where do we want to be?
- Review current position, and identify opportunities, using techniques such as SWOT and PEST.
- Formulate marketing objectives.
- Undertake market research.
- Modify marketing objectives.
- Formulate marketing strategies, balancing various components of the marketing mix.
- Implement marketing strategies.
- Monitor success.
- Review strategies, objectives and goal if necessary, starting again from the top.
Learn How To Define Your Niche
The Internet is really a web of diversity. You may find it daunting to realize especially if you are starting out. This is quite a tall order. Having seen the various benefits of having a niche, newbies may be stumped with this big question: how do I find my niche?
There are a few basic guidelines that can aid you. Of course, no one can really answer that big question for you. But here are some things to consider as you try to define your niche in this big Internet world. It pays to know them before you do anything for your business.
Don’t go too far.
This is really the most basic tip you have to understand when you are trying to find your niche. Do not go beyond your line of sight. The nearer your niche, the better it will be for you. Find consumers within your area.
While targeting for a world market, it really pays to have locals at bay. This is because of a two reasons: you will be better able to relate with them and it will cost much less to plug to them since you are within the area.
Find the niche you can relate with the most.
The niche with which you have a common ground, be it expertise, experience or need, is the best niche you can find in the Internet. You will have the fair advantage in the sense that you have an insider’s perspective on what they would want and what they would need. You can definitely think up of ten times more ideas when you target to a niche you can easily relate with.
Stick to your Budget
Your budget is important in determining the size of the niche you are going to be able to handle. While you may want to eventually expand when you have mastered the basics, you must stick to your available budget and focus on how to best maximize your profits to your target niche.
Be very selective: Quality over Quantity
You can have two things for a niche: so many people in low-cost products or few high end people in very expensive products. If you are lucky, you can have both in this lifetime. But if you will be made to choose your initial niche, you have to make the decision on whether you will get the expensive few or the affordable many. Chances are, this will really spell the difference of what kind of niche you will be trying to win.
Article author is Joel Chritopher
Marketing Performance Measurement with Better Metrics
With the intensive development of communications there appeared a great many diverse definitions of marketing. Whatever the definition marketing is regarded the unique function of business. At present no successful business is possible without effective marketing.
One of the corner-stones of business Philip Kotler defines marketing as human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes. The marketing activities commonly include market research, new product development, product life cycle management, pricing, channel management and promotion.
Two most conspicuous goals of marketing are the acquisition of new customers and the retention of the existing ones. Consequently, the effectiveness of marketing can be quantified and measured in numbers of new customers and new products purchased by the existing ones. Apart from this, there are aspects of marketing effectiveness that cannot be quantified. For instance, the statuses of a company, its ability to stay at the forefront of the customer’s mind are also considered the benchmarks for testing marketing success.
In today’s fast moving competitive business world measuring marketing performance is crucial to set future business goals, monitor progress, assess effectiveness and align objectives and tactics. To help businesses thrive marketers utilize analytical data to evaluate, recommend, implement and measure marketing initiatives, which can propel the marketing value of the business.
Marketing success is measured by certain performance metrics, which provide insights into better performance management. Some factors within the marketing framework contribute to enhancing performance management. They include aligning activities and resources with strategies and goals, linking marketing performance to financial performance, establishing and maintaining marketing team accountability, integrating and optimizing cross-functional spending, and improving the efficiency of marketing activities.
Many marketing system analysts argue that marketing performance is inherently ambiguous because it is difficult to say what is measured. Without well-defined performance metrics it is problematic to answer the question how the marketers calculate the value of a marketing campaign.
Marketing performance metrics differ depending on whether the aim is to evaluate performance for consumer or business to business companies. To diagnose the performance of both marketing communications such metrics as media effects analysis, integrated marketing communications tracking and customer satisfaction tracking are often employed. Other cutting-edge marketing performance metrics are brand equity and customer equity analyses.
However, depending on the situation different companies can focus on different types of metrics. Thus, efficiency metrics are aimed at describing the cost to execute marketing projects or campaigns, i.e. staff hours per project and cycle time per project. Program metrics are employed to measure effectiveness by comparing the costs and results. Brand metrics are used to measure attitudes related to a product by means of surveys. The knowledge of the brand, preferences for the brand, purchase intentions and product satisfaction enable marketers to predict future purchases. Customer value metrics help to estimate future sales by individual customers and customer segments. Segment results are of special importance because customers from different spheres of business, demographic groups and other categories tend to behave differently. The principle measures here are retention and purchase rate, which are derived from historical data.
It is essential to consider different metrics when building a system for marketing performance measurement.
Article author is Sam Miller
The Myth of Exceeding Customer Expectations
The business world is filled with myths, some of which have become guiding principles for many businesses. One of the most nefarious of these myths is currently all the rage: exceeding the customer’s expectations.
Numerous books have been written explaining the glories of exceeding the customer’s expectations. These authors give shining examples of the concept in practice and then explain in great detail how you can implement the same concepts in your own business.
And thousands of companies eagerly eat the information up and institute the recommendations and proudly proclaim to the public that they too exceed customer expectations.
What a crock.
What both the authors writing the books and the companies following their advice fail to understand is that is impossible for a company to exceed customer expectations. It simply cannot be done the way it is taught. In fact, for a company consisting of more than just a few employees, it is a virtual impossibility.
The Concept Is All Wrong
The fundamental problem with the concept as practiced is that you cannot exceed someone’s expectations if you don’t know what those expectations are. Companies frankly have no idea what their client’s expectations are.
This is not to say that companies don’t try to find out. They most certainly do. Many companies do customer survey’s to help them determine what their customers expect. Others examine their sales and customer service departments and make modifications based on what they anticipate customers want and expect.
Neither of these processes can actually help a company exceed customer expectations. The surveys may give the company some great customer service and sales feedback, but it cannot put the company in a position to exceed actual customer expectations. And, certainly, analyzing the sales and customer service functions cannot do so either.
In both of these cases, the most the company can do is developing policies and procedures that if fully met can help them exceed what the company believes their customer’s expectations should be, not what they really are.
Since every customer is different and has a different set of expectations, the only way for a company to actually exceed a particular customer’s expectations is to ask the customer what they expect and then meet or exceed that individual customer’s specific expectations. Virtually no company does this. “Exceeding the customer’s expectations” is nothing more than a great sounding slogan that means the company thinks is has great customer service.
To maintain efficiency and be cost effective, companies must have standard processes and procedures. Catering to the unique needs and wants of hundreds or thousands of customers for most companies is unrealistic and unattainable. Trying to develop a team of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of employees all flexible enough to make each individual’s purchasing experience truly unique according to that individual’s expectations simply isn’t realistic.
At most, companies with a work force of more than a few employees can only institute excellent sales and customer service processes that result in a satisfactory or possibly more than satisfactory experience for the customer. Although superior to their competition, this experience is still far from exceeding each individual customer’s expectations.
This is, in fact, what the writers of the books on exceeding customer expectations mean-the customer walks away happy. Boiled down to its essence, that’s the definition of exceeding a customer’s expectations-you didn’t irritate the customer and maybe even went beyond what the competition does.
It Can Be Done
However, it is possible to actually meet and even exceed each individual customer’s expectations. It isn’t easy, but it is an attainable goal.
Nevertheless, it isn’t possible for the “company” to exceed expectations. The only individual capable of performing the task is the primary contact the customer has to the company–the salesperson. However, in order for the salesperson to accomplish this successfully, he or she must be empowered by the company with the necessary tools and authority. The larger the company, the more difficult this becomes.
To be able to accomplish this goal requires the salesperson:
Ask: Again, you cannot exceed someone’s expectations if you don’t know what they are. Unless the salesperson specifically asks the customer what they expect and want to happen during the sale, they will never know. They will be in the same position as the company that guesses or tries to exceed the expectations of a theoretical “average” customer.
Asking is a more difficult task than one might think. It is a foreign concept for most salespeople and customers alike.
Salespeople will typically feel awkward and foolish asking, at least at first. They, like the company, assume they know what the customer wants and asking seems to be waste of time. Not until they have experienced the variety of expectations that different customers have will they appreciate the need for the question.
Customers are surprised and confused by the question as more than likely they have never been asked this question or one like it by anyone. The question is so unexpected they are taken aback and many have no idea how to respond. The salesperson may have to ask a couple of questions to get the customer on track. Questions such as:
- “how often would you like me to keep you informed of the progress of the sale”
- “how would you prefer I contact you”
- “if I need to get hold of you on short notice and you are not available, is there an alternative individual I may speak with”
- “are you going to need any additional assistance from us when we deliver”
- “what are your expectations during installation?”
Will get the customer thinking about what it is they want to happen. At times, a more specific question such as “what are the most important things you want to happen during the sale” is called for.
Usually, once the customer understands that they are being asked exactly what they want to happen, that is, that they get to help structure the sales process, they will open up. At that point, there is no telling what expectations they might reveal.
If the salesperson has done a thorough job in discovering the client’s expectations and wants, they know exactly what they must do in order to give the customer the purchasing experience the customer wants.
This discussion of the customer’s expectations also allows the salesperson to address any unrealistic expectations the customer may have. Far better to find out about any unrealistic expectations and deal with them upfront rather than to discover them after they have become an issue for the client. Often, if an unrealistic expectation is uncovered it can be disarmed and a satisfactory alternative can be agreed upon. If, however, it isn’t uncovered until it has festered into a problem, explaining that it was an unrealistic expectation won’t work. The damage has already been done.
Have Reasonable Authority: Each salesperson must have the authority, within reasonable limits, to make sure the customer’s expectations are met. This, unfortunately, is where it gets difficult for larger companies. Not only are larger companies reluctant to give salespeople the authority to make things happen, the company’s processes and procedures are so inflexible that it is almost impossible for any customization to take place.
Yet, the inflexibility of the large company and their reluctance to delegate authority opens tremendous doors for smaller companies who do have the flexibility and are willing to empower their salespeople to make the changes to the process that will ensure their customers do have a one of a kind buying experience.
As mentioned above, not every expectation by a customer can be met by even the most agile of companies. Nevertheless, the more flexible and accommodating the company can be and the more authority it can give to salespeople to work with customers, the more impressive the impact the company’s service will have on the customer. In many cases, if the salesperson knows what the client’s expectations really are and can truly exceed them, price becomes a non-issue, as does competition.
Management Support: It isn’t unusual for a manager or company to empower salespeople to make customer oriented decisions and then once the salesperson exercises that authority, come behind him or her and undermine their authority by reversing or revising the salesperson’s decision.
In order for a salesperson to be able to exceed their customer’s expectations, they must have a clear understanding of the breadth and depth of their decision making authority and then once exercised, that authority must be upheld by management.
In addition, if the salesperson exceeds their authority with a particular customer, the company must do everything possible to stand behind the salesperson’s commitment to the client. Discipline and reprimands may come afterwards, but the client’s expectations, if confirmed by the salesperson, should be honoured.
At one time, the myth of exceeding the customer’s expectations was powerful. Today, as more and more companies claim to give more than the client expects-and as customers are learning not to expect too much from the companies that make the claim–the myth is losing its luster.
Yet, the companies willing to step out and institute the changes necessary to turn the myth into reality are finding themselves without competition, with enormous word-of-mouth advertising, and are able to maintain their pricing structure in the face of ever declining prices from competitors.
Article author is Paul McCord
