False dogma in web marketing?

From: Brad Jensen <brad_at_elstore.com>
Date: Mon 08 Jul 2002 07:54:05 -0500

This article was posted on NTmarket, I'm also posting it with
my response on online-ads. Excuse the cross-posting if you get
it twice.

Here are some responses.

> **************************************************
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> ----------------------------------------------------------
> False Dogma in Web Marketing
>
> By Stephen Bucaro
>
> The Web is awash with bad marketing advice written by
> people who have never made any money on the Web. This bad
> advice is repeated over and over again by pretend
> marketing experts. Are you following this dogma without
> thinking it through? Below are some misguided ideas you
> need to ignore.
>
> 1. Target your advertising - FALSE!
>
> As an example, let's say you are selling a business
> opportunity. Do you place your advertising in the same
> place where everybody else is selling business
> opportunities? Would you fish from the same pier where two
> hundred other fishermen have lines in the water? Of course
> not!

Well, if that's where the fish are , you would. Fish are not randomly
distributed,
and neither are your customers.

> Instead, let's say that you place your advertising in a
> newsletter about gardening. The readers of the publication
> are exposed to many "targeted" ads about gardening products.
> Familiarity has trained them to ignore these ads. But your
> ad is the only one promoting a business opportunity.
>
> Do you think a gardener might be interested in starting a
> business? Gardeners are people with a variety of interests.
> They will be receptive to your ad because in the gardening
> newsletter yours is the only ad promoting a business
> opportunity.
>
> I'll tell you a secret: Almost all the people reading
> publications related to business opportunities are selling
> a business opportunity. They read these publications to
> find out what the competition is doing. They have
> absolutely no interest in buying a business opportunity.
>
> Instead of targeting your advertising, place it where the
> audience is not bombarded with similar offers. Where your
> offer is something unique and interesting.

That works great when advertising is free - and then you should put it
everywhere you can.

But the reality is that publishing vehicles are targeted - and the price
reflects the strength of the targeting.

If you place your ad in a gardening publication, it had better appeal
to gardeners, or be a very expensive product or service with very
high margins.

 With direct response advertising, suppose you have an ad that costs
$50 per thousand. Suppose you advertise and 5 people out of that thousand
read your ad, respond, and purchase the product. That means the advertising
cost for the product, in that publication, is$10 for each sale.

Now what you will try to do is find the lowest advertising cost per product
sale
by testing different ad vehicles, offers, product prices, etc.

You also have to find places to advertise, that deliver a good quanity of
leads. It doesn't matter
if you find an advertising cost of $1 each, if you can only get 4 leads a
month.

> 2. Use testimonials - FALSE!
>
> When people have problems with a product or service they
> may complain. But if a product or service performs good,
> they never take the time to write a testimonial.
> Testimonials are only provided in return for money or
> other incentives. Do you believe the testimonials you see
> on TV infomercials? I don't think you're that stupid.

I've been in business for 25 years and have never used a
fake testimonial. Usually customers write them for me because
they are happy with the product, and WE ASK THEM TO.

Every once in a while we get an unsolicited testimonial - but most
of them we ask for, from people who are happy.

> Most testimonials are total fabrications.

I can't speak for the infomercial people, but I would suspect
that they are very careful to use real testimonials, because of the
level of oversight by the FTC.

In any case, to my personal knowledge, this statement is
entirely false and unsupported.

> Who's going to
> question them? If someone does question a testimonial,
> the advertiser can say that they lost contact with the
> individual who gave the testimonial.

This argument is amateurish.

> People know that testimonials are lies, and they view ads
> that use testimonials as dishonest and an insult to their
> intelligence.

Where's the reasearch to support this?

> Instead of using testimonials, provide complete information
> about your product or service. The more information you
> provide, the less risk there is from the customers prospective.
>
> Of course, if your product or service is inferior, then
> don't provide complete information about it - use
> testimonials.

This is completely wrong for another reason - you don't want to give people
a lot of information about your product, until you are in the actual sales
process. What you want is to generate enough interest and curiosity, coupled
with a strong enough emotional response, that they click your link or
call you on the phone, or respond in some other way.

You want to get them interacting with you, preferably in some
positive state of mind.

> 3. Give an unconditional guarantee - FALSE!
>
> There is a large group of people who make it a pursuit to
> scout out products sold with an unconditional guarantee.
> They use and enjoy the products with full intention of
> returning them for their money back. This is especially
> prevalent in the areas of software and information
> products, where they can make a copy and return the
> original to get their money back.
>
> If you want to support these freeloaders with your hard
> work, then offer an unconditional guarantee. Sure 90% of
> your customers are honest and won't return the product.
> But the other 10% will not only demand their money back,
> they may also start selling copies of your product!

This is very poor advice.

The purpose of the gaurantee is to inspire trust.

If your highest purpose in business is to keep people from
cheating you, you will fail in business and in life.

If you want to succeed in business,a nd in life, see things from the
other person's point of view. The customer is about to hand you money.
He or she wants to know that if he has an unhappy buying experience, he or
she can get his or her
money back. Period.

It's easy enough to protect software so that it does not remain functional
after a trial
period.

With ebooks you need to use the law of averages - and if the average is too
low
your product sucks or is priced too high.

> Instead of giving an unconditional guarantee, give a
> conditional guarantee. The purpose of a guarantee is to
> eliminate risk to the purchaser of not receiving what they
> paid for. Carefully word your guarantee to protect the
> honest people, while preventing the freeloaders from
> stealing your work and destroying your business.

This advice says to engender suspicion in 96% of your prospects
to protect you from the unscrupulous 4%.

How many arguments do you want to get in? Structure your
business so you don't have time for arguments.

> For example: "money back guaranteed if the product does
> not perform as advertised." Or "if the CD is defective,
> return it within 90 days for a free replacement."

The first statment is vague and will cause arguments. It won't
protect you, and it will reduce your sales by far more than it will save
you in refunds.

The second statement is direct and enforceable - but it is not
a satisfaction guarantee.

> 4. People need to see your offer seven times before they
> buy - FALSE!
>
> In the off-line direct marketing world, when you send a
> snail-mail offer a second time, a few people who didn't
> respond to the first mailing will buy.

Actually the same or greater number will generally buy -
and half of them will see i t for the first time, the second time
you mail.

> This can continue
> up to the seventh mailing, although with fewer orders from
> each mailing.

This may be so if you don't change the offer.

> But the on-line audience is very different. On-line people
> have an extremely short attention span, and bore easily.
> They will scan your offer once, and either accept it or
> reject it. They don't want to see your offer again. The
> second time they see your offer, their eyes will gloss
> over as they click away as fast as possible.

I recently respoinded to a SPAM offer I have been reading for over a year.

It does make sense to vary your offer and details of that offer.

> Instead of pushing your offer to the same people seven
> times, put it in front of seven times as many people.
> Spread the offer to as wide an audience as you can. Then
> radically modify the offer (so it is unrecognizable as the
> original offer) and spread it wide again.

I'm beginning to wonder if this guy is a ad broker for
gardening ezines.

This is like going out during duck season and firing
random shotgun blasts into the sky. If you have enough
time, money, patience, and shells, you will get some ducks.

> 5. You need to establish personal relationships with your
> customers - FALSE!
>
> In the off-line world, it costs much more to find new
> customers than it costs to get new orders from past
> customers. But the on-line world is very different. On
> the Web, it costs about the same to find new customers as
> it does to get new orders from past customers.

Absolutely, positively untrue.

Once you have a customer on the web, your advertising
cost is basically zero - the cost ofemail. As a matter of fact, if
you regularly email those customers with product updates
and cross sell offers, you will make even more money
from them. You may find it possible to break even on
the first sale to the customer, or even lose a little money,
and then make your money on the back end.

And your existing customers can tell you how to improve
your product, make better product offers, and test new
ideas - without the cost of advertising to new people.

> The on-line world is impersonal. On-line people have an
> extremely short attention span and they bore very easily.
> They are not interested in yesterday's news or yesterday's
> contacts. If you contact a past on-line customer, they
> will consider it spam!

Not if you do it correctly, tell them you are going to do it when they
order, and remind them
this is what you are doing when you do it, and always give them a way to opt
out.

> Instead of trying to establish personal relationships
> on-line, establish an on-line presence. Promote your Web
> site, publish a newsletter, publish ebooks, write and
> distribute articles. Let your customers find you - out
> there in cyberspace!

These are all good ideas, and things you ought to be doing.

But if you abandon your existing customers, you will leave
most of your profits on the table.

> 6. Sell "benefits" not "features" - FALSE!
>
> Only a tiny percentage of people will buy based on
> benefits. This is because they already know the benefits
> of the particular product or service. The benefits are
> the reason why they are in the market for a particular
> product or service. To buy, they need to know the
> features of your specific offering.

Everyone buys for the benefit, not the feature.

> For example, having a web site will increase profits and
> reduce costs for a business. These are some of the
> benefits of having a web site. But advertising those
> benefits will not sell your web development service. To
> buy, the prospective customer needs to know what features
> your specific web development service has to offer.

In other words, the benefits of a well-designed web site
delivered without an expensive learning curve.

A benefit is a feature from the customer's point of view.

> Instead of selling benefits, tell prospective customers
> what features make your product or service better or
> unique compared to other offerings available.
>
> Of course, if your product or service has no better or
> unique features to offer - sell benefits.

A feature is an aspect of a product or service that
provides one or more benefits. If you write your
ad from a product point of view, you will make sales.

Not as many sales as if you point out benefits - particularly
benefits that are not obvious.

> 7. Using a P.O. box makes your business look
> "unprofessional" - FALSE!
>
> If using a P.O. box makes a business look unprofessional,
> then why do so many major corporations use P.O. boxes?

Mostly for bill payments. They may have a box number as part of
a street address, but it is not a PO Box number, it is a unique
fictional number to identify where the ad was placed, or the mailing
piece, so that they can track response.

> If
> you have an office outside your home, then go ahead and
> use that address.
>
> But if your business is in your home, NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR
> HOME ADDRESS. Do you want some lunatic who is dissatisfied
> with your business showing up at your house with a gun? If
> you think this world is safe enough to be using your home
> address in your advertising and business correspondence,
> then stop reading this. Go back to reading your Winnie the
> Pooh fairytales.

What's to stop them from showing up at your office address
with a gun? Or a boquet?

Did you know, by the way, that according to US government
figures, you are 9 thousand times more likely to be killed accidentally
by a doctor, than by a hand gun?

For each person accidentally killed by a handgun, 9 thousand people
are accidentally killed by a doctor.

> Don't put yourself and your family in danger. When I see
> a small business using a P.O. box, I think "this business
> person is intelligent and professional".

I think, this person is not thinking about the customer.

> 8. There is a lot more bad marketing advice out there.
>
> I can't expose all the bad marketing advice out there in
> this one article. So instead of following the next bad
> marketing idea that you read, take a moment to think it
> through. Always be skeptical about any marketing advice
> you read - including what you just read in this article.

That would definitely be a good place to start being skeptical.

Brad Jensen
www.elstore.com
www.eufrates.com
www.actasif.com

> ----------------------------------------------------------
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I'm leaving in his resource box.

I agree with his concept of widening your focus, particularly where
you can do so for free, on the web.

However, you have to watch the bottom line in every transaction.







Received on Mon Jul 08 2002 - 07:54:05 CDT