In my first article on Mastering Internet Sales I talked about what Joe Bingham calls the two methods of Internet selling: Instant Excitement and Earned Association. I covered quite a bit of information about Instant Excitement and less about Earned Association. This article will go into Earned Association a little more.
Earned Association is a process that develops over time. It takes time. And it takes work. If you are just starting out you have both the time and the work ahead of you before you can expect to see great returns. The concept of Earned Association has to do with having a good reputation and it takes time and effort to develop and maintain such a reputation.
As your reputation for honesty, integrity, quality goods or services, great service, and fair dealing grows and your credibility increases people will come to associate that credibility, your business, with the product or service they are looking for. As you promote and recommend the products or services you know to be good, reliable, and most suitable for the desired purpose customers will come to trust your judgement and come to you when they have a need. This Earned Association that associates your business with the answer to the customer's wants and needs, is what will lead to sustained growth through continued, and repeat, sales.
Earned Association grows as a direct effect of your attention to detail, your commitment and responsibility, quality customer serice,and your positive general business philosophy.
Instant Excitement is about creating quick profits. Earned Association is about long term sustained profit. Earned Association is about selection, quality and maintaining repeat business. The good news is that both of these methodes can be combined and integrated on the same sales site. Together they are a powerful process leading to successful selling.
The key for this kind of thing is to develop a site that is stricktly for selling, not for delivering information. It's okay to have an information site, even an information site where sales are made. In fact, that is a desireable combination. But, for what we are talking about here leave the information part out of the mix. Focus entirely on making the sale.
You may want to first construct the site with a focus on developing Instant Excitement sales. After all you may be new to business and not have any real reputation yet. Briefly describ your product and provide a link to the order form. Follow this with a section that lists, and describes, the features and benefits of the product/service and outlines the way it is used. Put another link to the order form. Now provide a section that expands on the benefits of what you are selling and, perhaps, provides incentives to making the purchase now. Provide another link to the order form. That's all there is to it. you have created an Instant Excitement sales page for the product or service you are offering.
Now you can expand your Instant Excitement page into a full website that supports the development of Earned Association business. Develop the various points that describe your product or service. Think of what further information you can offer your prospects about the item and expand this information into additional pages that offer further detail on the subject. Describe uses. Provide plans. Explain methods. List available accessories. Create a menu at the top of the first page with links to these additional pages. Provide at least one link on each page to the order page. Always remember the goal of your site is to get the order.
This additional information makes your site more intersting to search engines and provides additional points of interest for those prospects who need more information to explore without leaving your site. A frequently asked question (FAQ) page can provide additional bits of information in the form of answers to questions your prospect may not even realize they want to ask. This format is excellent when some information is too limited to justify it's own page or section on the site.
Provide a mailing list or newsletter sign-up form, possibly backed with an auto-responder to provide additional, and follow-up, information both immediately and over time. Sometimes your prospects will be in a hurry and not be willing to commit the time to review your site at the present time but will be pleased to get information at a later date. More than one sign-up box is not a bad idea, making it easy for visitors to your site to request information at any point before they leave the website.
Keep your site on topic. Provide extra information only that relates strictly to the product(s) or services(s) that you will sell from this site. If you offer multiple un-related products or services you should consider separate websites for each related group. And always remember to regularly direct your prospect to the order form, at least once, from each page of the website. Give prospects the information they are looking for about your product or service but don't forget to show them how to order it!
Linking to other sites from your website should be limited to only those sites that provide additional information that confirms the value and benefits of your product or service. For example, if you sell a certain excercise product you might link to a page on a medical site that describes the benefit of performing the type of excercise your product provides. Always open such links in a new browser tab or window so you do not lose your prospect to the other site. Do not link to sites that provide a competitive product or has links to sites with competitive products. Also link directly to the page you want your prospects to see and not just to the main page of this other website. Sometimes, it is better to quote the information, with proper accreditation, right on your own website. In this manner you do not give the prospect an easy avenue of escape.
Through integraion of the two Internet sales methods, Instant Excitement and Earned Association, you can create a sales site that offers a complete process that will appeal to prospects of all types, lead customers to the buying decision, and result in both immediate and long term, repeat, sales. This is one major step towards mastering Interent selling.