There is an important sales strategy that anyone who wants to do business online needs to know and use – the two-step marketing approach.
A typical sale involves someone being presented with an offer, and that person making a decision of either “yes” or “no” as to whether they will buy or not.
If you think “offline” for a moment, you can see a typical sales process at work in any shop. You walk in, you look around, the sales person approaches you to see if you need any help, and if you see what you want – you buy it.
A slightly more sophisticated sales approach is where that same store engages in aggressive advertising – and features certain products for sale, perhaps at a bargain price. In this case, a potential customer is first “sold” by the advert itself, even before entering the shop. They are pre-qualifying themselves, and when they DO arrive at the shop, they are really only there to confirm their intention to buy, by actually taking a look at the product on offer.
Savvy retailers will also attempt to get customers on to a mailing list – with the offer of special privileges, like early invites to special promotions or sales, special discounts etc. And by doing this, a customer is being “sold” in advance, pending any future potential purchase.
Any sale which involves more than just walking into a shop and buying something, is likely to be a “two-step” process. Another word for this is “pre-selling” – meaning, bringing a potential customer one step closer to being an ACTUAL customer.
This process is very common in various types of mail order, where you can usually request a free catalogue, or free information, or a free preview of the service or product on offer.
The thinking behind this two-step process is thus: it’s easier to get someone to respond to something which is free, than to get them to open their wallet first off!
An example may be to offer a free DVD which explains and promotes a product or service – and offer this via TV or newspaper ads. And because it’s free, there will be a considerable level of interest in the offer.
Now, whether a person requests this free DVD by post or by using a toll-free number, the company in question has achieved two things: first they have sent the person a “trojan horse” sales pitch. Second they now have that person’s name and address, so they can send out other promotional material in the future.
If we take this process and apply it to the internet, then it’s obvious that a two step, pre-selling strategy is even more effective. The reason is because on the net, there is less trust and more scepticism – both in terms of actually buying something, and in the process of using one’s credit card online.
However, a decision as to whether you need a pre-selling strategy is often a function of the price of your product or service. For example: if you are selling an e-book for $9.95, then there is little to be gained by trying to make this sale a two-step one. The reason is the price is too low to warrant it.
Most people will take a punt on $9.95 – or even $19.95, and perhaps more. But if you’re selling something worth $149, or $295 then it’s very likely you won’t get too many impulse buyers. And it’s in situations like that, where you need a way to pre-sell first, and sell later.
On the net, the way you get someone’s “address” is to offer something free (a newsletter, a report), in return for it. This is how you build your mailing list. And this is the first part of the two-step process. At that point you have pre-qualified that person as a potential future customer.
One of the biggest errors of many online marketers, especially in regard to cheaper products – like an e-book for $19.95 – is to fail to capture their potential client’s email address.
A typical internet sales process, in this example, would be to have a one page sales letter on a web page – leading directly to an order form for the purchase. If the sales letter is effective, and the e-book in question appealing enough, then sure, it will generate sales. But it won’t build an opt-in list – which is a source of future sales. Yes, you could record all the email addresses that come with the orders – but this is NOT the same as an opt-in list – where a person requests to be put on it.
So, even in this one-step sales process, you still need to devise a way to capture the person’s email address. One way is to only deliver a part of your sales pitch on the public web page, and then invite the reader to enter their first name and email address to be redirected to the rest of the “story”. In this way even if the reader doesn’t actually end up buying the e-book, you at least have them on your list – and can send regular updates and offers to them in the future.
The reason you need the opportunity to revisit your potential customers is because not everybody buys on first exposure. In fact, research shows that you need to get a message across more than just once – if you want to maximise your sales effort.
By far the best way to develop an effective two step sales system is to build your sales process around two distinct steps. First, you present a “peek” at what you’re about – a preview of what you are offering – something to tweak the interest of the reader. Then you offer a freebie of some sort – usually a newsletter, or free report or e-book. It could even be a free piece of software. This offer is designed to get your potential customer to register their email address in your system – with the promise of further information.
What this does is create a warm market for your products or services – a growing group of people who have shown enough interest in the general gist of your offer. Now you are able to hold their attention and send them more comprehensive information and repeated reminders and encouragement – all designed to get them to purchase down the track.
Another effective two-step sales process is the “upsell”. This is where you first offer a relatively cheap product/service – which is actually designed as a pre-selling tool for your MAIN product.
For example: say you are selling a course on internet marketing, which you offer for $195. You realise this is a steep hit for an online sale – so you create a teaser product, which has enough useful information to be valuable in its own right – but which you can sell for say $19.95. The purpose of your first offer is to upsell customers to your second, more valuable offer.
Another example of this type of upsell would be, for example, the selling of a DVD presentation on a self-development system. However, what the DVD also does is promote your offline seminars. You also see this strategy being used when someone offers a free mini-seminar – which is used to upsell to the “main event”.
An example of a powerful two-step sales process online is the GetResponse autoresponder service. This whole system is based on literally giving away a FREE version of the service – so a person can see how it works in a “hands on” environment. Then, having experienced the service, the user of the free version is then tempted to upgrade to the paid one. And this works brilliantly – as GetResponse has over 300,000 customers.
Pre-selling is the art of creating a warm market for your product or service – a way of bringing people into your circle of influence. And this is why newsletters are so effective – because they provide a mechanism to keep you in touch with your existing and potential future clients.
Jay Abraham, the famous marketing guru, has written extensively on the value of the “list” or one’s existing customers. In fact, his extremely expensive seminars are largely devoted to explaining the importance of tapping into one’s existing list of customers and treating it as an asset. And he’s right. It’s simply amazing how many businesses in the offline and offline world have no idea as to how to build a list and tap into the customers they have already dealt with.
Online, this can be likened to having a web site but letting your visitors “escape”. You spend your time getting thousands of people to visit your web site – in the hope that they will stop at your “buy now” page – and hand over their credit card numbers. The truth is that most visitors are just that – visitors. And chances are they will NEVER visit your page again. So from this reality, you can see the vital importance of being able to “capture” as many of those visitors as possible – so that you can deliver your sales pitch to them again – at a later time. And not just once, but repeated offers made in different ways.
The other value of pre-selling is that it builds trust – a vital requirement on the internet. By getting people on your mailing list, and communicating with them on a regular basis, they start to trust you. They learn that you are there, month after month. They learn that if they write to you with a question, you actually reply – which is a major plus in the online world! They learn that you are serious about your business – and therefore likely to be serious about them – and their concerns. And over time this process builds momentum for your business.
Think of this strategy as the complete opposite to SPAM – where someone blasts a high-powered sales pitch to your email box – uninvited! Of course, you know the most common destination of such offers – in your trash bin. However, to spammers they don’t care. They are not in business for the long term – but simply to make a quick killing. If they can get 500 sales from a one million mailing – then that is all they are after – not any form of relationship building.
Pre-selling, and using a two-step sales process is not only better business, but far more effective and profitable in the long term – and that is surely your objective.
So, from now now, think of a web page as providing a unique opportunity to attract people into your warm market – your sphere of influence – and set up your marketing strategies to achieve this.
It’s not instant gratification – but it is the secret to long term online business success.
David MacGregor Publisher – Online Money Secrets
Discover The Bullet-Proof Power Strategies For
Online Business Success!
See: http://www.make-online-money.com/em/monthlyincome.html
