As a former car salesmen now internet marketer I continue to use my auto sales experience to promote my online business. I also use that experience and think about how to market a product online. I put my self in my former customer shoes when I think about purchasing a product online.
The focus is on your visitors
One of the very first thing I learned in the auto sales business is you only have 30 seconds to make a good first impression with your new customer. Now doesn't that sound just like internet marketing? Your visitor will bounce quickly from your site if they feel they are being scammed or your site is not relevant to their search or needs.
So make sure your site is relavent to search topic and content is helpful to the visitor. In the auto business we gave away a lot of information because that's what people want; they want information. They are building a case to purchase and you're there to make a strong case for your product or service. Eventully they will purchase; will they purchase from your dealership or somewhere else; will they purchase from your website or somewhere else.
Check to make sure all your links are working correctly. Make sure all images load properly. Check for grammatical errors and misspelled words these are all turn a off for visitor researching a product or service online. So continually do site audits to make sure yours is running and the content can be view on all devices. More and more research is done from mobile devices now than ever, so make sure your site is optimized mobile viewing.
The Road to the Sale - how to market a product or service online
How does the road to a sale when selling a car differ from how to market a product online. Let's get back to thinking like a car salesman. Now at the dealership where I had the most success at selling cars; we had a road to the sale program to follow that most often lead to sale. For me when I specifically followed to the plan and didn't take short cuts; It lead to 12 to 15 cars sold per month and great income. Our road to sale was simple but you could mess things up or go out of order very easily.
The Road to the Sale Steps:
- Meet and Greet
- Interview
- Select a Product
- Walk around
- Features and benefit presentation
- Demo
- Test drive
- Ask for the sale
- Buying decision
- Manager (if needed)
These 10 steps lead to a great income as a car salesman so I tought how can I take the same steps and modify the list and use it to market a product online. The name of each step may change but the purpose of each step does not. Each step has a definite purpose in leading the online shopper down a road to purchase a product specifically your product.
Your online road to the sale.
I changed somethings so we can use thing for online marketing but this is how I set my own websites for marketing a product. It's very simple and you can do it too. Each step has a definite specific purpose that the visitor needs to do in order so the the outcome is the same everytime, a sale!
Now we may not sale every visitor but they may come back or we may never see them again. Sometimes the came and got what they were looking, gave away many sales brochures at the dealership and never the person again.
The Online Road to the Sale:
- Landing page
- Position Statement
- Identify your product
- Content and Images
- Benefits not features
- Demo video if possible
- Test drive free sign up
- Ask for sale, link to purchase/affiliate page
- Follow up
This is may version of the road to sale for how to market a product online. It may look a little different but it can be used to achieve the same outcome which is a sale. You want to engage your visitor and turn him or her from a visitor to a customer.
Your site needs to have direction not just content put on pages; you need to lead your visitor in the direction you want them to go. But remember some will follow some won't; don't worry just continue to lead your customer in the direction you want them to go.
Follow the steps to online marketing
As I said each step has a specific purpose in moving the visitor from visitor to customer. By setting your website up in this format you will be leading your visitor it too your road to the sale or sales funnel and eventually they will come out the other end as customers.
Landing page. My welcome page to my site is my landing page. This is the first page to my site where you will begin learning about and referencing my product or service. On this page you review my next step.
Position Statement. I have a positioning statement on my landing(welcome) page so my visitor knows exactly what my site is about and how they can get help and how I can help them as well. There is nothing more aggravating than visiting a website for one thing and the website has very little or nothing do to with what you were searching. So I let my visitors know this is what I do here this website.
Identify your product. We sell cars here at this lot. So many times people would visit the car lot looking for cars we didn't sell. We sell americas number one brand of best selling pickup trucks; not americas brand of best selling mini vans. Let the visitor know this is what we do.
Content and Images. Now because you are selling online the use of good content and images is a must. There is no new car smell, nothing to feel so you have to help people we themselves owning and using your product. The use of video is a good way to communicate your product with your visitor.
Benefits not features. You sell the benefits of your product because everybody else is selling features that why they have bought yet. That's what my sales manger would always say they haven't bought because no one has sold them the benefit of owning this product. Feature don't sell anyone. So benefit give the benefit.
Test drive free sign up. Give the free test drive if possible. Let the visitor know how they can test drive the product free. This can a sample, a free look inside the back office of program or a free trial. Give them an opportunity to first.
Ask for sale, link to purchase/affiliate page. We always asked for the sale in the car business. For you, have a "Call to Action" that will lead your visitors to a place where they can make a decision to join or purchase your oppportunity. If you have given good reason to purchase they may click through. They may fill out a form or join your email list. Have these present and you may build and email for future promotion.
Follow-up. If joined your email list make sure you have a follow system in place. This can be auto responded sending emails to lsit your of those who opted into the mailing list. Follow up with more benefit content for the visitor to review.
I hope you found this to be helpful
As you have gone through this article I hope that you may have received something benficial for your own marketing plan. I see online product marketing in similar fashion to the car business. So I try to relate some of the selling aspects and how cuctomers purchase online to how customer purchase and think at auto dealership. The end result is a sale and I hope this will help to increase your sales.
If you are interest in more online sales and marketing training please join me on the inside of Wealthy Affiliate. This traininng will give you a more detailed look on building your online business,