The first step in selling online is, fairly obviously, to bring people to our websites so that we can talk to them. There are a variety of ways that we can achieve that and I am not going to deal with that in this particular article. What I want to discuss here is what we do with our potential customers once we have made that initial contact. As we almost never meet them face to face, how can we speak to them and persuade them to opt-in to our list and/or make a purchase. Much is made of the need to ‘build a relationship’ with our customers, but just how do we do that? Quality, Quality always Quality!
The very first transaction with visitors to our websites will usually be to trade their name and contact email in exchange for a free gift of some kind. This will usually be a digital download in the form of a report or an e-book. This is our first opportunity to impress. If we are to build a relationship and keep our opt-ins on our list, this first transaction, even though it is a simple free gift, is crucial. Send out three or four pages of tenuously related copy apparently written by a chimpanzee and your potential customer will immediately be seeking the ‘unsubscribe’ link. Quality, Quality always Quality!
To use one of my musical analogies, it is so important for a beginner on any instrument to have as good a quality of instrument as possible. Learning to play a musical instrument is difficult enough without having dubious equipment at the start. Pupils who begin lessons on a poor instrument are far more likely to give up after just a few weeks than those with a good instrument to play. The idea that “it’s only for a beginner so it doesn’t matter whether it’s any good or not” is a ridiculous and heavily flawed bit of thinking. The same thing applies to your website’s free gift, it must be a good quality item or your customer will be thoroughly unimpressed and highly unlikely to ever buy anything from you as you will not have given them reason to trust you. Quality, Quality always Quality!
When it comes to creating and/or promoting a frontend product, exactly the same rule applies. Present the product, whatever its format, in a professional way. Even if the content is good quality the appearance of the item must impress. If it is an e-book it must be well laid out with a well-designed cover page and an index so the recipient can see immediately what it is they have bought. If the item is a DVD it will need a menu added at the beginning (if it doesn’t come with one already). This will clearly state the title of the disk and have a start button. If the item is a CD-Rom it should have autostart and a menu page so your customer doesn’t have to mess around searching for and opening files. Present the best possible content in the best possible way. Quality, Quality always Quality!
The most substantial profit in internet marketing comes from the backend. If your frontend product is poor there is no way that your customers will ever return to take advantage of your backend offers. There is no point in creating a high quality product at this stage if what has gone before has been poor. By then your customers will be long gone. Quality, Quality always Quality!
Anyone who has ever put together a live presentation of any sort will understand the reasoning behind this emphasis on quality. The content is obviously the most important part but the way you present it is crucial. Those on the receiving end of the presentation should be comfortable, well looked after, treated with respect and made to feel valued. It almost goes without saying that the room temperature should be right, the chairs should be comfortable to sit on and the technology should be of the highest standard possible. I have certainly been in situations in the past where these minimum requirements have not been met, and I imagine that many of you will have encountered the same on occasions. This will definitely impact on the way that the presentation is received.
When dealing with information shared online we need to think in the same way as we would if we were making a live presentation. Those reading our copy, watching our videos or visiting our links should feel comfortable. They should feel that they are being treated with respect and valued. Whether we are dealing with content or presentation it has always been and will continue to be; – Quality, Quality always Quality!