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| FEATURE: GUEST ARTICLE
Sales, Marketing and the Internet Sales Building repeat customers should be a top concern for every business. Think about how much time, energy and money goes into bringing a customer to the doorstep of a business. Advertising promotions, yellow page space, rent, employees, product - and the list goes on and on. The investment to attract new customers is an essential part of doing business. Yet most businesses are not expecting a return on their investment. Let me explain; if you were asked to list what are the three key reasons your customers visit your business, what would you list? If your answer is, "It is because I provide exactly what my customer wants, needs, and is willing to buy!," you will receive an immediate return on your investment and have repeat business. So how does the business know what a customer wants? Ask them! Train your staff to ask specific questions of your customers to find out what products or services they would like to see your business offer them. Now, if you are offering the correct product mix, then by all means keep the customers involved. Keep your customer informed as to what's new and offer them a preferred status on specials, sales or services. Offer your customer a chance to evaluate your business and products with a written questionnaire (pay the customer for their time and honesty with savings on products/services or invite them to a appreciation party). Ask your customers to be part of a focus group and learn what the customer really thinks about your store. The best way of bringing the customer back is to show them real appreciation for supporting your business. Marketing Cross promotion of your offline and online advertising should be more than adding your URL to the bottom of the ad. All offline forms of advertising have limitations: time, space, frequency of viewing, requiring the viewer to act after they do something first (call, visit, send in, etc.). A quality marketing Internet site has NO LIMITATIONS. The customer on the net can visit any time and spend as long as they want educating themselves and motivating themselves into action. An e-commerce site allows the customer to buy the product or service by simply clicking on a "buy me now" icon. The ordering is quick and efficient for both the buyer and seller. To get the most from your marketing dollar every ad that is placed offline should give the viewer a reason to go to the Internet site. "Visit our Internet site and learn how to …", or, "Go to our Internet site a receive valuable coupons to save …" Use offline ads to convince customers to visit your Internet site and let your site do the selling of products /services. More advertising agencies use offline ads to start the sales cycle (target and introduce the message) and use the Internet Site to deliver the message and interact with the buyer helping them make the sale. Internet Getting customers to your Internet Site requires specific campaigns for both ONLINE and OFFLINE marketing to make customers aware of your products and company. This awareness is called Branding. A consumer is more likely to buy a product or service when they have a sense of trust about the purchase. This trust can be attributed to recommendations from friends and associates about your company or product. Trust can come from brand recognition or recognition of a celebrity endorsing the product. Branding involves a multitude of aspects about a product or service. This may be raising brand awareness with advertising campaigns in all media formats. Go back several years when Visa first started. Raising their brand awareness was accomplished by a media blitz in print, television, radio spots and selected billboards. This was quickly followed by a direct mail campaign. Brand associations such as Wheaties use of a successful athlete on their cereal box conveys an impression that, "If I eat Wheaties, I too can achieve greatness." Branding can be used to create a level of quality for a product or service such as Craftsman Tools from Sears, which come with a lifetime guarantee backed by Sears. Once quality branding is in place then brand extension is possible. This is where the consumer will buy other related products or services based on their knowledge and experience about the brand's product line. Effective branding can be obtained online and offline with different media and methods. It is recommended that you consider all of these to gain the benefits from branding. Traditional offline media like television, print, and radio delivers a message to a potential customer and then the sender of the message waits. This type of advertising follows the model of, "Target, deliver message and wait." The degree of success from these traditional methods depends on the frequency of the message and whether a call to action was stressed. By the nature of the media the customer could not participate without doing another task (driving to a store, picking up a phone and calling, or sending something in) . . . this is limited impulse buying. With the advent of the Internet, the advertising model has change to, "Target, deliver message and interact with the buyer." You now can now give the customer value for their time with the use of digital technology. A visitor needs more information about your product before a purchase is made. The online site can direct them to "click here for more information," and then take them to another page that gives more specific details explaining the features and benefits of the product. Immediate savings or coupons can reward the visitor 'digitally.' Marketing online often starts with BANNERS. Banner advertising from the exchange programs (FREE) to the many sites that offer cost-effective space are available and should be researched before you make a decision. The most effective banner program today is the use of rich media (the banner is more like TV) and can be produced by most good web designers. Here are other proven online marketing options to get your BRAND in front of your potential customer:
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