Turn Sales Into Internet Marketing Into More Sales
Sitting across the table from the director of a large publishing house (an old friend) a few weeks ago, I had a marketing and sales epiphany. It was one of those "out with the old, in with the new" moments for both of us.
The issue at hand was how to "bind" customers to the publisher in such a way that they didn't feel pressurized to stay (there's nothing worse than pushy, overpowering sales and marketing IMHO). The solution can be applied to pretty much any business model, so I thought I would run through it here in the abstract.
1. Fracture the value proposition
Businesses try to pump as much value as they can into a single product at the lowest price possible in order to offer the best value for money proposition. There's nothing wrong with this strategy, but it's incomplete, in the sense that it misses out on an opportunity to build stronger links with that customer.
Instead, split the 100% value into about 80/20 - with 80% of the product's value going into the product itself, as purchased by the customer. The remaining 20% of the value of that purchase is strategically placed online so that customers can easily and quickly recoup it in exchange for creating an account, or converting in some other way.
2. Incentivize the online value offering
With part of the product's value available online, it is very easy to offer additional value to that product in the form of online incentives. This is important because the customer does have to make the effort to visit your site in order to retain the full 100% value of the product - something they may not have had to do otherwise.
For example, you might consider offering free upgrades or updates, or even additional content and value on a ongoing basis. A hard cover book, may have an online component that can be added to, or, a product could have its own free online community and support group for customers who sign on for the 20% online.
3. Build additional trust and value online
With traditional customers now becoming "locked in" to your website you are in a far stronger position to market to them - especially if they are getting what they consider to be more than 100% of the traditional value offering.
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