Successful Marketing Tools Blog

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

Personal Beliefs

Beyond the climate of distrust, each of us has personal beliefs that screen out what others are saying in their commercials. If you have a belief that western medicine is the only answer; then any form of eastern medicine will get through our belief screen. If a person believes that you need to be rich to use an interior design service, Marilyn will never get business. If you believe that you must be a geek to have a website, you will screen out any commercial to the contrary. Part of your job as a business owner is to recognize that personal beliefs bias what people have about your business. So what can you do to prove yourself? Here are a number of different ways you can use.

Social Proof

 You drive in a strange town and its supper time. You’re driving down the street and on the right side there is a restaurant with ten cars in the lot. On the left side there is another restaurant with two cars in the lot. Which one will you go to? Most will go to the more crowded restaurant because they want feel more comfortable with what others have found. This is called social proof.

Celebrity Status

 What if you have a famous celebrity supported your business? Did you know that Shac O”Neil the famous basketball uses acupuncture to help heal his injuries. Would that make Nick’s work more believable?

Expert Evidence

 American Family Insurance gets the highest rating of all insurance companies in the country—does this make Jennifer more believable?

Personal Testimonials

 Last week Amy told us what a great job Danny did with fixing her neck. Jennifer told us what a great message she received from Denson. Both of these personal testimonials help with credibility.

A Guarantee

 Jen offers a guarantee with her program—they will beat any price. That helps give credibility to her program. These are just a few of the ways you can get more believability for your business.

Published Articles

 Publish an article or have an article written about you or your business. When people see things in print, it makes everything more believable.

What Proof Does Your Customers Want?

The key to making your commercial more believable is to know what proof your customer wants. It makes no difference what you think makes you more believable. What really counts is what proof your customers want. Some customers don’t care about expert opinions. They are more interested in personal testimonial. Some customers want a guarantee; others don’t need them. What type of proof does your customer want to make you more believable? Find the answer to this question and give customer what they want.

Conclusion

 To be effective, your commercial needs to offer proof why people should believe you. Make it proof that customers want. Here’s a wonderful exercise to make you more credible.

Write a ½ page business resume on why your business is qualified to do the work. Include expertise, experience, skills, credentials, licenses, awards, standards of performance and other elements inspiring a potential customer to buy from you.

In the next blog, I will deal with the fifth and final component of a good network commercial.  Your comments are welcomed...

Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing

Would you rather read a whole lot of text on a web screen trying to sell you a product or watch a short video about the same product? Seeing is believing.

In a court room, the most effective testimony is an eye witness account. Look at the weight loss industry’s success with visual proof. They show you a before and after picture to demonstrate the results of their weigh loss formula. They have made millions using the credibility technique of holding the opening of a size 52 pair of pants now being worn by a size 12 person. Seeing is believing.

Videos on websites are the contemporary version of “seeing believes.” Look at these facts:

• 100 million videos are viewed each day by 10 million people on You Tube
• Google paid 1.65 billion in 2006 to buy You Tube. You Tube was launched in February of 2005
• In January of 2006 there were no free video hosting sites. Today there are 170 free hosting sites
• Internet infomercial users generate 200-300% better conversion with video than without video

Video Misconceptions

Videos on websites are still in the infant stage not because they lack power but because of many misconceptions. People believe that adding videos is expensive and can only be done by professionals. These are myths.

All you need is a video recorder (you can use your cell phone for this purpose) and editing software. You can download the software for free (Cantasia). This software can record your voice along with screen activities on your computer, and then you save it to a web format. What a great tool for creating instructional videos.

Windows offers Movie Maker as part of its operating system. With the help of a webcam (now routinely installed with new computers) and a mike, you can create a video and edit it with Movie Maker. My 12 year old daughter, Laura, created a 5 minute video using her cell phone to record it, loaded it onto the computer where she used Movie Maker to create a minute DVD. Dad could sure use some of her tricks!

Storing your video is just as easy. You can load your video on to You Tube, free, and then create a link from your website to your location on You Tube. It will be stored for you and customers can view it anytime they want. What could be easier?

How Are Businesses Using Videos on Websites?

Companies are using videos to launch new products. Smirnoff launched Raw Tea using a video they placed on You Tube. It was viewed my more than 3 million viewers as of June 2007. Where could you get this type of product launch practically free?

Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement stores use web videos to showcase different products and to offer demonstrations on various home improvement techniques. Customers love these videos.

Some companies invite their customers to create their own web videos using their product. The customer uploads their video and now it is on the website for other customers to view. Studies show that 76% of online shoppers consult customer reviews before buying.

You remember the popularity and success of infomercials? Businesses are beginning to use the same type of infomercials with videos on their website. Look for them to be as successful as the TV infomercials.

These are just a few of the many ways websites are beginning to use videos. They are absolutely the hottest wave of the internet. You can to this yourself. It’s not expensive or beyond your abilities. They are a huge boost to website believability because seeing is believing.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed...

The Power of the Spoken Word

From Daniel Levis

Five reasons why the spoken word
outsells the written word …

You already know that emotion is the secret sauce that moves people to action. Yes, words on a page have the power to evoke emotion. The human voice however, has the power to infuse those words with an emotional charge that is far greater than the words themselves.

Just as there is no music other than mood music, there is no utterance that is not emotive … therefore listeners are much more easily moved than readers.

The human capacity to perceive non-literal meaning through the spoken word has its origins in the womb and is anchored far more deeply than the ability to construe literal meaning through language. When we hear a joke expertly told we’re rolling in the aisles. When we read the same joke, we merely smile.

Second, it’s more difficult for people to think critically when listening than when reading. This is because they’re not in control of the pacing of the information. You are! If they stop to ponder something for more than a few seconds (unless you give them the opportunity), they lose track of the presentation. People therefore tend to pay attention to what they’re feeling, much more than what they are thinking as they listen to a persuasive sales presentation.

The ear absorbs what it receives. The eye analyzes and deconstructs.

Third, it’s much easier to bond with your prospect through the spoken word than the written word. Your spokesperson’s personality will shine through instantly and automatically and will remain pervasive throughout the presentation. If your spokesperson can endear himself to your prospects, they are very likely to share his point of view and do what he tells them to do.

With the written word, projecting your spokesperson’s likeability is much more difficult. It’s much easier for the prospect to remain emotionally detached from your spokesperson. This of course leaves more mental bandwidth for rational thought, and the inertia that goes along with it.

Fourth, when your sales message is delivered through the spoken word, you are in control of the delivery. You can slow down, speed up, pause, alter the tone, timber, and pitch of your voice, and otherwise deliberately emote in ways that affect your audience.

And fifth, people are much more likely to discern the mood and emotional disposition of the heroine in a sales stories they hear, compared to one they read. What this means is they are more apt to identify with the heroine, and project themselves into the story …

The listener effortlessly enters the story via the imagination and becomes an active participant in the drama. This is, of course, a deeply ingrained conditioned response. The prospect is reliving the bedtime story reveries of childhood. Stories that were heard, not read.

Is the spoken word the most persuasive medium? I believe it is. It is the core of persuasion, because it’s the conduit of the emotions. Our relationship with the spoken word is primal. We relive our earliest childhood — a time when our relationship with the world was pure emotion — when we listen to a masterful sales story. Of course, in a perfect world, you will use every medium available to you, combining sound and sight for maximum effect.

http://www.daniellevis.com/blogpost

Authority Proof

Authority Proof

This still works as long as your visitor respects the authority you use. For years, we have been told that four out of five doctors recommend XYZ. If they recommend it, it must be good!!

You can use credentials that give credence to you and your product. Credibility could come from education, special awards, "business of the year", product of the year, members of the Better Business Bureau, etc.

Another version of the authority proof is citations from media reports, citations of you or your problems in specialized journals. How many medical products have been sold because they were cited in the New England Journal of Medicine? Do you have references from industry journals that support your claims? People believe things they seen in third party print media.

Part of “authority proof comes from your expertise claim. People want to buy from experts. What can you show them to prove you are an expert?

Credentials; awards you have received; alliance with other businesses that already have credibility; a unique selling proposition; being organized, as silly as it sounds promotes a sense or expertise; authoring articles; and public presentations are just a few of the ways to promote your expertise.

Using authority as a proof is less effective with today’s younger people; it still finds favor with older people. The key with authority proof as with many of the other proofs is “What makes the best proof for your prospect?” If your proof does not match what your prospect needs for proof, you will not make the sale.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Becoming a Believable Spokesperson

Becoming a Believable Spokesperson

Credibility means having the right person communicate with the prospect. For websites, I call this the right spokesperson.

A website does not allow for the two way dialogue in a traditional face to face sales situation. It must become a “mental dialogue” between the spokesperson and the visitor to the website. What things can you do to make this mental dialogue credible?

A Picture

The visitor wants to know there is a real person behind the website. You need a picture of the spokesperson prominently displaced on the first page. Not just any picture! It should be a picture that shows the spokesperson with a big smile, a twinkle in their eye, enthusiastic, physically attractive person, with natural facial futures, dressed appropriately. People buy from people they like.

It’s also helpful if this picture is someone they already know and or someone they can identify with –someone like themselves. The spokesperson could be an authoritative figure, a celebrity or even a customer. Someone the visitor respects.

You can often add props to the pictures—family members, a dog or other props that let the visitor know more about the spokesperson. Audio and video clips are contemporary ways of letting a visitor know more about the spokesperson through auditory and visual images.

The Language

To come across as trustworthy, use conversational language in the copy. Use the second person”you” “your”, and “yours”. At times you may use slang or jargon that is commonly spoken by the prospects.

Write the sales copy in a letter form on your website. Start with a salutation; end with a signature.

Your personality need to shine through your copy. Write as if you were sitting across the kitchen table having a conversation with the person. Have a particular person in your mind as you write. You conversational copy should not be stiff or formal. Make it relaxed.

Other Credibility Techniques

You can create believability by complimenting your visitor on something in their life. Good sales people are always do this in a face to face encounters. You can do it in your web copy. Make it sincere.

Good friends are generous with each other. Give something of value to the visitor, a free report, the first three chapters of an e-book or something else as a sign of your generosity. Free gifts also instill the principle of reciprocity.

You can unite with your visitor against a common enemy. Maybe its paying too high taxes, the excess hours a small business owner must spend at the business, etc. When you establish this bond of trust against a common enemy, you can be an advocate for your prospect.

Conclusion

In the one way dialogue of a website, your visitor must get to know you and like you before they begin to trust you. By using these techniques in your webs copy, you make yourself a believable spokesperson for your product.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed...

Structuring Your Guarantees

Structuring Your Guarantee

There are a number of ways you can structure your guarantee to make it more effective and lessen your business risk.

!. Qualify your customers. If you are going assume a large part of the business risk, qualify your customers. You had seen these types of qualifications “This offer open to qualified buyers.” There is nothing wrong with qualifying.

Each business will have its set of qualifiers. Once a prospect passes through your qualifiers, they are less likely to exercise their guarantee.

2. Put conditions on your guarantee. You know your product or service. You know what has to happen if the product or service is to produce the expected results. If those conditions are not met, your product cannot perform.

If a marketing program takes a month to be successful, it is only fair to add to the guarantee, “If after 30 days…” Most business put too many conditions on their guarantee. They make it so complicated; the customer knows he could never meet all the conditions. Of if the conditions are so complicated to understand, the customers will not buy. A confused customer does not buy.

Make your guarantee simple and easy to understand.

3. Keep in contact with your customers. If you don’t have regular contact with your customers after the sale, you may not uncover some simple and easy things that can support your guarantee.

When the little things go wrong, the customer begins to worry. Their dissatisfaction increases, they stew, they become angry. At that point, it becomes a “necessity” to demand the guarantee be honored. Let small things go and they will destroy an otherwise good guarantee. Frequent customer follow up will eliminate many guarantee issues.

Studies show that only 2-3% of customers ever use a guarantee. If the same guarantee generates 10-20% in more sales because you’ve reversed the customer’s risk, everyone is a winner.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Guarantees

Guarantee

Because people cannot see or touch the products or get a clear sense of the sales person selling the product, the prospect’s believability scale are heavily weighted on the side of distrust.

Every business transaction involves a certain amount of risk. With insignificant purchases, customers don’t mind the risks. When it comes to larger items, a customer wants the business to also share in the risk.

Every successful internet markers will tell you, a guarantee is a must for website sales. I recently talked to a business owner who sells hot tubs. He uses his website to generate leads for his business. I asked him, “Do you have a guarantee with your hot tubs.”

He answered. “No, I couldn’t do that. There are too many movable parts in a hot tube that can go wrong. If I gave a money back guarantee, I would be out of business.”

I asked him, “Does anyone in your industry give a money back guarantee?” He said, “No.” I said, “A guarantee maybe the key ingredient for more leads and sales from your website.” Here are some suggestions I made to make his new guarantee less risky for his business.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Trust Characteristics

Trust Characteristics

A trusting relationship has two important characteristics. First there is integrity. A person is who they represent themselves to be. They make a promise and they keep their promises.

The second quality is competence. You and your spouse can have a very trusting relationship with each other. But will he or she trust you to do open heart surgery on them? They know you don’t have the skills or competence to perform the surgery. They will not trust you without competence.

How do you build trust? Two ways you can build trust. The first is being open and transparent about your position. Do you put your cards on the table so I can plainly see your motives and intent? People don’t trust what they cannot see.

Second, take issues head on. If people are concerned about an issue, a weakness, a fault, takes it on. Talk about the things people are talking about. Don’t dance around the topic. Don’t skirt the issues. People realize you are doing a dodging maneuver and their distrust will increase. Ignoring does not build trust.

When you experience trust, energy is released. Do you act differently in a trusting relationship rather than a relationship of distrust? In a distrusting relationship too much energy is spending on protecting yourself. When trust is established, a release of new energy occurs.

In the next blog entries, I will talk about the challenges of establishing your business trust with your customers. Without this trust in the relationship, there will be no sale. Web commerce presents additional challenges on credibility.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

The Cost of Mistrust

The Cost of Distrust

Before we dig deeper into techniques you can use to improve your credibility, there is another issue called the “Cost of Distrust.”’ Steven Covey has some nice thoughts on this subject.

Bottom line, mistrust slows everything down and increases costs. For example,

When two people have trust with each other, a transaction can go very quickly. Mistrust slows down this process. It takes more time, more energy to complete the transaction when the two sides don’t trust each other.

Each sides wants to be sure. They don’t want to make a mistake. When they feel the conditions are not right, they slow it down. This increases the cost in time and energy to complete the transaction.

Whenever you have distrust, expect the transaction to go slower and consequently cost more.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Hard Credibilty

Hard Credibility

Hard credibility occurs when others testify to the benefits of your product. Hard credibility is the best credibility. A potential client knows you will say good things about your solution. They want to know what other clients experienced. Here are four hard credibility techniques.

1. Testimonials. You cannot have enough testimonials. Testimonials must mention specific benefits the client received from your product. Potential clients want to hear from other clients like themselves. They want to know the specific results they achieved from your product. “I improved my sales by $10, 000,” creates more credibility than “I loved the book!”

2. Free Samples. Grocery stores give free samples of a new product. Free sampling creates credibility. Offer a free sample of your product. Let clients see for themselves the benefits by using a sample or a limited version of your solution. When someone receives something free they feel more obligated to repay by purchasing.

3. Expertise. Clients want to buy solutions from an authority, an expert. They go on line to find expert solutions. Identify your expertise, your credentials, your accomplishments, and your experience at solving the problem. Expertise builds credibility.

4. Guarantees. If clients are willing to part with their money, are you willing to return the money if your solution does not solve their problem? On line selling must have guarantees. Without them, you have no credibility.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed,,,