"FACTS TELL BUT STORIES SELL"
Let The Content Do The Selling

By Robert Smith http://www.smithfam.com

Today I received a message from a friend and client who has prompted me to write this tip. My client has had a web site for 176 days, and has sold next to nothing. He suggests in his email that the products may be the problem. and perhaps redesigning the web site would bring in more sales.

The first question that came to mind was: "How much traffic are you getting?" I had set up his web site with a traffic tracker so it only took 3 minutes to find the problem. He had logged 37 unique visitors per week average, and his highest day was 15 unique visitors.

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I looked at the referrer tracking screen to determine where his traffic was coming from. I saw that there was no single search engine responsible for most of the traffic. Almost all the search engines were listed as referring visitors to his pages. My first
conclusion was that no single page in the web site had a top 10 listing with any of the search engines. A top 10 listing with any search engine should deliver at least a hundred, or more, visitors a day.

Next, I looked at the keywords responsible for the bulk of his traffic. They almost all were related to one of his products (the Cookie-Cutter marketing system).

Then I look at my own stats. I see 5,642 unique visitors a week average. That's 841 unique visitors a day.

Next. I look at my gold stats package provided by Virtualisys (My hosting company and partner). I see a average of about 5,280 page views a day. This tells me that the average visitor looks at 6.27 pages per visit. On my friend's, stats 44% of his visitors are unique. That tells me that 56% of his visitors were only visiting one page. In other words, more than half of his visitors were not finding a reason to stick around.

Next, I visited the AltaVista search engine because they have the biggest index of pages. I wanted to see how many pages had links to my client's web site. I typed in the his domain name and found three links, all of which were his pages. I did the same for my domain and found 741 pages with links to my domain. They didn't bookmark my pages because they like what I sell; they bookmark my pages because they see a reason to return.

Most of my visitors will never purchase anything from me, at least not on their first visit. They make a bookmark because they believe it's in their own self interest. The point I'm trying to make is, unless you offer the content they seek, you have zero chance of making a sale.

Even a very low percentage of buyers multiply my odds of making a sale sometime in the future. So how do you get people to buy anything? That's the number one question I am asked.

Which leads me to today's tip, I know you have heard me say it before.

"You Have to give before you get".

In order to sell online, you need useful, educational, free content to attract visitors to your website. The content starts to develop a dialogue. Through ongoing communication and visitor tracking, you learn what content to provide. It's just that easy.

Let me give you a few examples.

How many time have you looked through your newspaper just to read the ads? Not often I'll bet.

How often do you watch the commercials on TV and then run to the bathroom during the show ??

Companies spend millions on advertising and usually, even at it's very best, the commercial is not as compelling as the show. Is it possible they understand something that we don't?

How about infomercials? They are a good example how to make a compelling presentation of your product. I find myself watching them too long sometimes, because they are using information to educate me on the benefits of their product.

Broadcast mediums go prospecting for sales using "push" technology. They push the commercials, while your real interest is in the content. They understand the power of compelling content. If you are not interested in the content of the program they sponsor, you won't see their ads. So the networks, TV, and radio stations spend even more money pushing the content of the programs. They know that in order to sell products, they need to place you in front of their programming. If they can't capture your attention. they will have zero chance of selling you their products. That's why
advertisers study and use demographics.

Now marketing on the web is even tougher to attract customers. The Internet was developed as a medium to exchange information, Commercial applications arrived years after the web began. You attract customers on line, but they have to be pulled or attracted to visit your site.

You can understand that this concept works by examining your own web surfing patterns. When you are surfing the web, aren't you looking to find specific content? We type in keywords in order to find something specific. Our goal may not be to purchase anything. It's only after we are educated to value in a product or service that
we decide to buy.

Although it's rapidly changing, it's still rare that anyone gets on the web specifically to purchase a product. Usually they are looking for information. They may, or may not, actually make the purchase on-line. This trend is changing. Corporate interests are
making progress selling on the web.

It is no longer the level playing field it once was. Corporations have the money to advertise and develop compelling content, Visit Disney to see an example.
 http://disney.go.com/Disneyland/

Another trend is to replace regional sales and technical positions with Internet content. Why? Because it costs less to sell on-line (no buildings to build and heat etc.).

If you are looking for a good investment, look at UPS, Federal Express and the US Postal Services, for example. Is it possible they are ramping up for the future?

Developing free useful information is still the key to attracting customers online.

Develop content based on you interests and expertise. Anytime you can identify a need, fill it. I know that is an overstatement, but it works. Focus your efforts on giving, if you want to receive.

When I look at my visitor traffic numbers, I see that at least 90% of my visitors come to my site through one of the articles in my e-zine. I have several hundred articles indexed every way. I want to make it as easy as possible to provide the information they want.

I set up a free search engine that searches within my web site. My web site search engine is one of my most popular pages. It was free from Pinpoint. They offer it free because they have a link to their web site on the search engine. It works for them, and it works for me, It could work for you too, assuming you already have developed
content on your site.

Pinpoint Free Web Site Search Tool
 http://pinpoint.netcreations.com/

The reason that the average visitor views six pages or more tells me that it's the content that attracts them, not what I am selling. Don't get me wrong, It's important to have good products to sell, and the price has to be right, but unless they return, they don't buy. It's that simple.

I spend about 75% of my time on the newsletter and the e-zine and about 20% in promoting the content, That leaves about 5% devoted to selling. You might want to keep that in mind when you are developing your web site. If you start with a good template, then create a new page everyday, you will eventually have hundreds of pages of content devoted to your area of interest and expertise.

Take another look at your website. Does it read like a advertisement? Do you know who is being attracted to your website, and why? The formula is simple. Deliver free and useful content first, follow-up with more useful information to get the sale. It's
ninety percent information and ten percent sell. Remember the old sales maxim. "Facts tell - stories sell". Develop your content..

Best Wishes

Bob

 

ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their
Internet based home business. You'll find tons of free
marketing tools & resources on his Internet Marketing web
site at: <http://www.smithfam.com/>.