Overcoming Obstacles to Gain Customers

How do you bring new customers to your web site? The internet is full of web sites trying to entice people to come to their business. What is a business owner to do?

One of the first things you should look at is try to understand what reasons people DO NOT shop from you online. If you can grasp the reason they don’t shop from you, you’ll be able to overcome these resistances. The following will help you understand the needs to establishing your customer.

Obstacle One: Lack of Trust
No one knows who you are on the internet. A benefit and a flaw of this sales medium is anonymity. You are faceless and people fear that which they do not know or trust. Add the fact that the media does a great job of growing these fears, you have a recipe for no sales. People are afraid of losing money, having their identities stolen, or not getting what they order.

You have to build trust with your customers. One way of doing this is to make sure that there is easy access to your location. How many web sites do you go to that do not have any form of contact information on them? People need to see that you are open and willing for them to get in contact with you. Make sure this information is readily available on your web site.

Another means of gaining trust is to provide something for free on your web site. This doesn’t have to cost you anything, actually. It could be free information. It could be advice. It could be a chance to win a free iPod. Giving to your customer before you sell them something is a way to tear down this barrier. This is up to you, but building the trust between you (the faceless stranger) and your customer is essential.

Obstacle Two: Building a Sense of “Need” in the Consumer
Once you hurdle past the first obstacle and your customer thinks they can trust you, you have to give them a reason to need your product. A need can be anything you can think of to show the customer that they can’t live without your products. This could come in the form of testimonials (showing how others needed your product and what it did for them) or touting the benefits of your product. Remember: Don’t tell the customer the features of your product. No one cares. They only care about the benefits and how it will make their life easier. If the customer doesn’t think he will need your product, he won’t buy your product.

Obstacle Three: The Specifics of How This Product Will Help the Customer
OK, you’ve figured out a way for the customer to trust you. They think they need your product because it is addressing some problems they have, but now they ask, “Will this specific product really help me?”

They begin to question if your product is the actual product they need or if one of your competitors offer a better, more reasonable product. You have to show them in words on the internet on how this product will increase their current quality of life. Your products aren’t an impulse item like a candy bar or National Enquirer in the grocery line. This is something they are looking to buy at this time. You have to persuade them to make that purchase and punch in their credit card number. Your persuasion of your products will get you the price you demand and the sales from these new customers.

Obstacle Four: Is There a Sense of Urgency?
This is the most important of the four obstacles to overcome. You have the person on your web page. You’ve shown that you are a trustworthy sales outlet. You’ve given them a need to buy your products and shown them how you will enrich their lives by what you sell. Now, while they are here, you must show them the need to buy this product right now!

It is a natural tendency to hesitate. I can come back to your store if I really need this. It isn’t like you are going anywhere. I have this fancy bookmarking tool to come back any time I want. But the question is: Will they come back? Will they buy from you or the next person online offering your goods?So how do you overcome the lack of rush and instill a fear of loss that could be suffered if they don't act now? One way is to develop the idea that your product has a limited time of availability.Even if the product has every appearance of being available for a long time, let the customer know that the price could escalate. Let them know the prices are good only till the end of the month. If you want, show them that there is a shortage on the item. A good example of this is the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii came out at Christmas time a couple of years back, but Nintendo didn’t release millions of their popular game system all at once. They only released 5 or 10 units at a time to large resellers. They released 1-3 units to smaller establishments. Word spread through the stores and online that this was a hard product to get. People waited in lines. They pre-ordered and they waited months on end to get this coveted item. Is it really that scarce? Not really. Everyone I know who wanted one has a Nintendo Wii. What did happen was that they had to search to find a game system. Nintendo used this obstacle to their advantage and they sell out of the Wii System every time they open the flood gates to trickle out a few more.Your long-range focus should be one of building a sizeable list of loyal customers that can be a continual source of cash-flow for you. It is fun and financially rewarding (although challenging at first) to build an expanding list of responsive customers.When you do, they will be your asset for years and years. You will get better and better all the time at overcoming the four obstacles. As you do, your customer list as well as your business and income will grow.

Get Your Online Store Ready For The Holidays - NOW

Have you started preparing your online store for the December holidays? If you haven’t already, you will find that you are already four months behind! There are numerous web marketing tactics that you should be looking at for the holiday season – online video, search marketing, email campaigns, online media, social networking – these are all cost effective ways for you to reach potential customers. These are customers that are actively searching for sales and deals right now!

But, why bother with online sales? If you have a brick-and-mortar store, your customers are coming in the door, aren’t they? What if you don’t sell items online? Maybe you only use your store for information and a map to get to your location. This is still the time to be getting ready for Christmas.

According to Advertising.com (http://www.advertising.com/) 84% of consumers will make online purchases this holiday season with most purchases happening in November and December. This study will also occur in local businesses, as well, but you must be prepared for the season.
There are some very important things to remember when you are preparing your online strategy for the upcoming holiday season:

1. Make sure you have the inventory to handle your online sales. A person who uses the internet to make purchases expect to have their orders handled in an expedient fashion. You must either have the inventory on-hand or be able to get their order out the door quickly and efficiently.

2. Customer satisfaction is the name of the game online. Price doesn’t mean anything if you have fantastic customer service in place. Make sure that your customer service keeps the customer informed with each step of the ordering process. Make sure you also post a cut-off date that you will ensure gifts to arrive for the holidays. This is a very easy thing to do and you can stop an angry customer before it becomes an issue.

3. Submit your products and sale items to Comparison Shopping Networks. These are places online that can get your products in front of people’s eyes and compare them side by side with similar products. You can find these at places like: http://www.valueclick.com/, http://www.shopzilla.com/, and http://www.pricegrabber.com/. Remember, people start buying online for the holidays in October. That’s now!

4. Prepare your web site for the holiday season. Change your keywords, tweak your online business, make sure that you are getting the message that you want to your customers.

5. Coordinate your print message with your online message. Don’t confuse your customers by having your online “summer” message disconnecting with the printed message that you are using to entice customers to your store.

6. Offer gift cards to be purchased at your online store. Gift cards can give you up front cash to help you through the months following the holidays. Offer them in both a traditional and electronic format and make sure they are near your navigation bar so that customers can easily find the link to buy a card.

The weather is still warm and we’re all still thinking Autumn, but you have to be ready for the holiday season months before it starts. Promotions take time and that time is now. Keeping ahead of your shoppers will make for a happy and successful holiday season.

Small Business Can Succeed No Matter What The Economy

by Jimm Fowler
http://www.mywebsource1.com/

“How is business going?”

I ask this question almost 50 times a week while trying to sell my web design and marketing business. The economy is in the tank. The lending to businesses is teetering on the edge of calamity. What are small business owners supposed to do?

They advertise. They advertise and they are realizing the benefit of a web site. This is obvious because I see more and more people building their own business to stave off the failing economy. I see people working on small business ideas because they are so unsure of what tomorrow is going to bring. Our presidential candidates are offering vague suggestions of what they are going to do to help us.

It would seem by the bleak economic news that we see each day, starting a small business would be bad, but people are falling back and becoming self-reliant. What’s more, they are getting business! People still need things. The big businesses are not what drives today’s economy. Small businesses do.

Here is some advice to continue your business in our current financial state:

1. Stick to your guns. Don’t cut your prices even though you may have the instinct to go that route. The money is out there, you just need to find it. People don’t buy things they don’t need because it is 15% off. They buy things they need because they need them. The only thing you succeed in doing when you undercut your product is your profits and the perceived value what you offer.

2. Network and grow. What is your percentage of closing a sale? You need to know that number and then get in front of the people to reach those goals. Waiting for the phone to ring or come in through the door is a failing business plan. Go out and spread your name. Get people to know who you are and then get them to purchase from you. If you can close 25% of the sales you get, and you need 25 sales a month to survive, you better be talking to 100 people each month.

3. Contact those people that you have spoke with in the past. Whether you are sending out a newsletter, blogging, or just picking up the phone – you need to TALK to people that have shown interest in your product. Keep in touch with suppliers, too. These are your lifeline to future business and being on a friendly basis with them will keep you moving forward in the future.

4. Keep looking for financing. Just because the news is saying that we are in a money crunch doesn’t mean you can’t get the funding you need to continue your business to grow. You just have to be smarter in getting the funds for your business. This means you need to have a well, drawn out plan. You have to illustrate how that plan will be implemented and then you have to go after the people who will see your vision and offer you the money to succeed.

5. Finally, keep looking forward. It really doesn’t matter what the economy is doing at this time if you have a great idea. You may have to curtail portions of your idea to meet with the times, but a money-making idea will always make money – no matter what the environment says. If you don’t believe that, go out to your local restaurant area and see if their parking lots are empty. Go into your local shopping district and see if it is a ghost town. Sales may be at different levels, but people are still shopping.

Go forth with your business and succeed. The only thing stopping you IS you.

Three Types of Website Traffic: Bringing People to Your Website

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Where does website traffic come from? You’ve had your website built and you are ready to attract customers, but how do you get them to come to you? If no one shows up to your web site, there is no way to sell your products or services. Just because you have a web site doesn’t mean people will come to it. There are three ways to get traffic to your web site, outlined below:

1. Pay For Your Traffic.
This is commonly referred to as “Pay-per-Click” (PPC) advertising. Basically, this means that you do not pay for the advertising unless your ad works! You only pay a fee, that you determine ahead of time, for the advertisement if someone clicks on your ad.


There are three major companies that do PPC advertising:
Google Adwords
Yahoo Network Sponsored Search (formally called Overture)
MSN AdCenter

There are dozens of other, smaller PPC advertising companies, as well, but these three will give you the most “bang for your buck”. It will depend on where your customers and clients shop that will help you decide where to place your purchases.

Once you decide on a PPC company to use, you create an account, decide upon keywords, and create your advertisements. You decide how much you wish to spend per day, where you want the ads to appear - geographically, and what time of day the ads can appear.

PPC advertising will most definitely get you results. It works. However, be forewarned, because without constant monitoring of PPC, you could end up spending money you do not wish to. For this reason, you may want to get a professional to watch your ad campaigns. This group of professionals – known as search engine marketers - can set up your accounts, pick the best keywords, and monitor the results. For this usage, a typical fee of 10%-15% of your advertising budget is the normal charge. Thus, for every $100 you spend on PPC ads, plan on spending an additional $10-$15 to your Search Engine Marketer.


2. Trade For Traffic
Depending upon your niche, this way of bringing people to your web site can be very effective. There are two ideal ways to go about doing this: Link Exchanges and Joint Ventures with Naturally, Existing Economic Relationships (N.E.E.R.s). This type of garnering web traffic is also a part of something called Organic Search Engine Marketing (SEO).

In a Link Exchange, you write an email to a website asking for them to put a link back to your own website. Typically, you will want to have the other website’s link already on your website and show that owner that, in good faith, you have already placed their link. Another way of doing this is to have website owners place your link on their website because you do business with them, write on their web boards, or comment on their blogs.

Note: Trade for Traffic is not easy. It takes work. Also, this type of web marketing is not targeted. The information is usually in a place that can have some benefit to people needing your wares and services, but there is no guarantee. The benefit of it is that it has a longer lasting effects on how people will find you and come to your web site.

The second option, Joint Ventures, is essentially where you would contact another marketer or company who had products that complements yours. You would try to convince these people to write about your products or company. They could place this in articles, newsletters, on their blogs, or in a video. This also takes work, but the aspect of getting other people to advertise for you has a stronger impact on the consumer than by interrupting their day with your ads.

The key things to remember about trading for traffic is that it is give and take. What people do for you today, you will have to return at a later date. It is a community effect and you have to hold up your end of the bargin.


3. Create Your Own Traffic.
Creating your own traffic is, by far, the best and easiest way to bring in people to your web site. The first way is to encourage customers to become repeat customers. Once a month, you MUST bring yourself to top of your customers mind and remind them that you exist. You can do this though an email, a newsletter, a fax, or whatever means you have at your disposal. Reminding customers to come back will ensure new sales. Change your web site often and give them an added reason to return.

Another important item: Have your web site address on everything you have in print at your business. Business cards, invoices, ads, envelopes, etc… are all ways for people to get in touch with you on your web site.

Bringing in new customers to your website can be more difficult. There are dozens of ways to do this, however. Create a video on your camcorder. Make sure you put your web site address on the video and have a page that hosts all of your (upcoming) videos. Most video sites will allow you to do this, today. Video is becoming one of the top-most searched areas on the internet. In a word, it is HUGE.
Grab people’s attention by writing articles and blogging. If you are perceived as an expert in your field, people will start turning to you for advice and resources.

Advertise on free web sites on the internet, like Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com). This is easy to do and will get your name noticed.

Create something free to give away, like an eBook, or a funny picture on your web site. Giving away something for free grabs people’s attentions.

So you can see, there are literally hundreds of ways to bring more traffic to your web site. You can go by three routes. Spend money and buy the ads to bring people to your web site. Spend time and get other people to bring people to your web site. Or spend resources and entice the people to come to your web site on your own.

Doing one of these three methods, if done with diligence, will bring people to your web site and increase your sales.