The
Profit Systems Report
Internet Profit Systems
In
This Issue:
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. ;-)
(If
you didn't read that last issue, you may want to read it now...
It's available at:
http://www.iprofitsystems.com/issue1.html
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.
