Databases

June 21st, 2006

You probably heard of the concept of how important your “database” is to your online business. Indeed, I cannot think of anything more important on ALL of the online businesses I own.

Remember, the whole reason for starting a business is to someday SELL it. Most people are so caught up in working their business that they forget this entirely.

A perfect example of this is a local clothing store in Chicago named “Davis for Men”. This store had incredible clothing straight from Italy that was truly unique (and expensive, but what the hell…).

Nevertheless, they had a good business and a lot of repeat clients. I was one of them- it seemed everytime I showed up there they at least extracted $500 from me ($1000 + if I was with my fiance ).

However, I always thought it was strange when they used the “knucklebuster” credit card payment processing method…talk about a throwback to the 80’s…ugghhhh!!!

Davis for Men NEVER asked me for my personal information, ever.

Never asked for a mailing address.

Never asked for my email address.

Never asked for my phone number.

NOTHING.

How stupid is that??? Are you doing the same thing in your business? If you are asking for the above information, more importantly, what are you doing with it???

Moving on…. one day, much to my shagrin, I drove by their store and I noticed they were having a “going out of business sale”…

I couldn’t believe it!

This was a good store and they seemed to have decent business. However, they operated in a strip mall and their lease was up.

As I came to understand, the owner of the building tripled their lease payment and forced Davis for Men out of business.

Just like that- ballgame over!

And because Davis for Men didn’t have a database, they were out of business and a completely UNSELLABLE business to any potential investors.

I see a lot of this happening online today. Remember, once again, the whole point of starting a business online is to FRIGGIN SELL IT!!!!

If you want to silently go out of business and passively piss away all of the good you have done (as Davis For Men did with me) then don’t even worry about your database.

Never connect with them- dont ask for their info, and you can “own” your job until the day comes where someone raises the stakes and takes you out of the game.

Obviously, once you do acquire a name, email address, and contact information of prospects and clients, this is where the game BEGIN’s and doesn’t end.

I can’t tell you how many countless times I have seen someone go through great measures just to capture the contact information of their prospects and then they don’t even followup with them.

Or, they simply send ads to their list and effectively make them “immune” to ANY real, legitimate offer they put on the table.

This is for another blog post, but it’s important to mention nevertheless.

In the end, if you have a database of clients and prospects, you have the beginnings of being able to accomplish your first and foremost goal when you start your business….to SELL it!

All for now,

Matt

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Pretty Site vs. Ugly Site

March 4th, 2006

You know, you just gotta love it…

I cannot tell you how many times I hear from prospective clients who want to develop a “brand” and develop a really “pretty site” that looks really nice…

While I can appreciate the good will behind these desires, the reality is that your prospect does not care.

Yes, that’s right, they do NOT care!

And in testing of over 3,000 domains, I can say this with 100 % certainty. And the reason is simple. Your prospects only care about themselves, period.

They don’t care about your “grand opening” unless it means they will get 50% off…

(the list goes on and on)

The reality is sure, if you have a really hard site to read, or your site is covered with a bunch of ugly banners etc, then yes, you are hurting yourself with the look and feel of your site.

So that leaves us with the question of what sites are actually making money out there? What sites are actually working?

It’s the sites that do the following:

1) Grab the attention of your prospect
2) Make an irresistable offer
3) Ask for them to take action right friggin NOW!!!!

That’s it!

And all of these Ad Agencies out there who are ripping off their clients by creating these pretty flash websites with merky descriptions on what they do for a living should be taken behind the shed and given “the business”.

I really feel for these poor souls who take the advice of these agencies. I can recall a time in my younger days where I had the head of an ad agency who told me the following:

“Stick with us, we’ll teach you all of the excuses…”

Or, even better perhaps:

“You know Matt, I DON’T want to know how our advertising is doing, because I am afraid I won’t like the answer”.

And hence is the game most businesses play with these monkeys who couldn’t sell their way out of a wet paper bag.

I had a conversation not long ago with an account director at an Interactive Advertising Agency who didn’t understand what Pay Per Click was and how well some of us are actually doing with it online at the moment.

I was floored. And this person actually can feel good about herself when she cashes that check on the 1st and the 15th???

Ughhhh..

Remember this- the whole goal of your website is to build your database and sell your flipping product, whatever it is, period.

DONE, END OF STORY.

Quit trying to build a “brand”- if you do eventually build a brand as a result of your advertising, great, but that should be a nice “spillover” effect from actually advertising for the sole purpose of building your database and making money, period.

Let me end this blog by asking you this…if you think the advertising agencies are so great, go ahead and see how many will take you up on 100% commission…

None will do it, and the reason is simple.

Their sites don’t sell…

And it’s better for all of us who stick with the plan as I outline above.

See you next time,

Matt

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March 4th, 2006

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The Purpose Of Advertising…

August 11th, 2005

Odds are you believe you know “good” marketing from bad. After all, we are so awash in advertising, how could you NOT believe you know the difference between good and bad marketing?

If you are like most people I speak with, the advertising you believe is “good” is the stuff that entertains you or makes you laugh.

And why not? I mean, that type of advertising IS entertaining, and I do personally enjoy it as well.

But, is it “good” advertising???

Stay with me here. All of my years in advertising and direct response have taught me one thing. Good advertising is there to do one thing, and one thing only.

SELL PRODUCT.

Somehow, some way most of the General Advertising agencies have forgotten about this very fact. I was chatting with someone about an Ad for a certain type of car the other day.

It was the ad where the guy is singing the song “I feel like a woman” by Shania Twain. His friends are packed in the car with him and they are obviously extremely perturbed.

It’s very funny! However…

Can you name the product? I asked my friend this and naturally, like most people, he forgot the product…

And even if he did remember, what is the correlation between a guy singing “I feel like a woman” and Chevy Trucks? (That’s the product being “branded” in this particular ad).

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!

And hence that is my exact problem with “branding” and exactly why branding does not work. I will write more about this outdated idea of branding in a future blog.

Getting back to advertising that works (or sells product, if that’s your goal )

The type of advertising that works does the following:

1) Grabs your attention (knocks you out of “Alpha” Mode and into “Beta” Mode)
2) Engages you
3) Educates you
4) Offer

Let’s first talk about the “attention” aspect. I have to admit, some of the advertising you see on TV and what not does a great job at grabbing your attention, or knocking you out of “alpha” mode.

First of all, “Alpha” mode is a state of conciousness in which we exist most of the time…a good example is when you are in your car driving to a place where you go consistently, so let’s say a drive to your office in the morning…

Have you ever driven to the office in the morning, arrived there, and realized you saw absolutely NOTHING on the way there??

That’s a perfect example of “Alpha” mode. It’s a level of conciousness in which you do not really recognize much.

On the flip side, and example of “Beta” mode is driving to work in a terrential rainstorm, and you have your hands locked in the “10 and 2″ position. (Your high school gym teacher turned driving instructor would be proud )

Nevertheless, during these times, you ARE aware of things going on around you, and you are more apt to remember them.

All of this being said, ALL advertising is designed to knock you out of Alpha mode and into Beta mode. This is a smart thing because, of course, you want your prospects to remember you and your product.

However, the problem is in which the way most advertisers do it…

I call their advertising a “false beta”…

In other words, their advertising headline is something like:

“SEX”

Now that I have your attention, I would like to offer you this great health insurance package. We have very competitive rates blah blah blah blah…

That’s a false beta. You THOUGHT the ad was going to share something with you about sex. Instead you got the cheesy health insurance ad.

And the same goes for the “I feel like a woman” ad that Chevy has run in the past. Sure, it’s funny, it knocks you out of Alpha mode and into Beta mode, but where is the correlation there?

IT’S A FALSE BETA!!!

And also probably why you don’t remember the products behind some of your “favorite” ads.

So, in learning this, what is the advertising formula that DOES work???

1) Knock you out of Alpha Mode with a promise to solve a problem you have:

EXAMPLE:

“Do you have dandruff? Here’s some good news…”

“Are you in debt? Are the bill collectors calling? Learn how you can get out of debt for pennies on the dollar!”

ALL of these headlines do the following:

1) Take you out of Alpha mode and into Beta where you are aware…

2) Make a promise of solving you problem, and then getting into the “how”…

As they say, the best selling product in the world is a solution to a problem. So ask yourself, how does your product solve the problem of your prospects/customers?

And how are you addressing that in your advertising? Are you trying to “entertain” or “brand” yourself in your advertising???

Gosh, I hope not…

Address your prospect’s pain. Address their needs, not yours! Talk about them, and what they will get, not about you!

The internet essentially consists of two different types of sites….

1) “About Us” sites (95% or more sites online)

2) WIIFM Sites (What’s in it for me sites, 5% or less)

As you can imagine, the 5% or less sites work MUCH, MUCH better.

Let me clue you in on something. Your prospects can CARE LESS about you. Deal with it, it’s the truth. They want to know, specifically, how the heck you are going to solve their problem, make their life easier, make them healthier, make them sexier, make the richer, etc etc.

SO WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF??? Stop it, you selfish moron!

;-)

Just kidding!

Remember:

Address THEIR needs. Tell them how THEY will benefit. How they will become the person they want to be by virtue of buying your product. They are buying the benefits to themselves, not because you are family owned and operated and have been in business for 20 yrs.

If you cannot solve their problem, they can care less!

Ok, more on this later. I hope you enjoyed it. Please, if you have not already, subscribe to my newsletter.

Till next time,

Matt

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Salesmanship Online

August 3rd, 2005

The best definition I’ve ever heard for the word “sales” is simply this: Sales is getting people to do what you want them to do. Period. End of story. That being said, it kills me to see some of this crap that most website owners throw out there and actually expect to “sell” their prospects.

When it boils down to it, the fundamentals of salesmanship within Internet Marketing are perhaps the most important thing you need to keep in mind when constructing your website, putting words on your website, and even the actual navigation of your website.

Let’s go back to the “salesman”. The salesman understands that if he presents TOO many options to his prospects they won’t choose ANY of them, and he will ultimately lose the sale.

After all, do you see your life insurance sales guy offering 22 different types of insurance at once when he is sitting down in your living room talking shop?

Of course not! It reminds me of the old joke that goes something like this “Thank God there are only 2 exits out of the Movie theater because if there were more exits, and the theatre caught on fire, everyone would burn alive because they wouldn’t know which exit to choose!”

Think about it…are you giving your prospects TOO many options when they go to your site? Are you addressing their needs, identifying their problem (pain) and showing exactly how your product will solve that very problem they are facing?

When I was in college, I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. That experience taught me a lot about salemanship that I still use today- especially online. How can this be? Remember, principles NEVER change. And the principles or fundamentals of salesmanship work very well online today.

If you are having trouble getting your visitors do what you want them to do- I suggest you go pickup one of the classics on salesmanship- anything from Tom Hopkins or Brian Tracy will do. And then take those principles and ask yourself how you can apply them to your website.

You just may be amazed at the results you get…

;-)

It seems as if many of my competitors never had to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners as a means to get through college. Should I consider myself lucky? Or should I have just kept my mouth shut about my “used car” salesman days?

Oh well, I guess the secret is out.

Till next time,

Matt

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