The behavior of people going thru a recession, during unemployment and times of challenge should be VERY important to you if you have a business online.
Studies show that in the last six months the usage of the internet and the viewing of television have quadrupled. Recently we had Direct TV installed at our new home and the installer, a recently laid off RV worker from Elkhart county (thank God he was now working!) said he has been working seven days straight. He got his job just 3 months after being laid off and has had so much work he had to put in a request 4 weeks in advance for a Sunday off with his family.
When the installer came for my business satellite that would give me a T1 connection for my internet businesses he told me a similar story. On one hand he was complaining and weary with working so many hours, driving hours and hours for installations that had been contracted to him….. But he had work…. A lot of work.
Pay attention to what people do- they will tell you how to sell them anything!
I typically don’t put much stock into the opinions people have who are not directly involved in what they are talking about. I won’t listen to an engineer tell me about sales statistics and I won’t let a used car salesman talk to me about the latest marketing technique online for PPC strategies. Well maybe I will….. If he is selling cars online thru PPC. We have come a long way, haven’t we, in online marketing.
My point is this- if you want to know what people want when it comes to selling or marketing, listen to the people. Don’t listen to the CEO’s who have created the brilliant widgets, don’t listen to the advertising company that is trying to sell you a PPC service and really want you to think they are smart even though they lack results and tangible data to show their work ( happened to me recently!)…… listen to the people.
A wise business coach and friend of mine told me this, “The people have the money and they will tell you how to get it, just listen.”
An immature marketer will pitch features, things ‘they’ love and ‘they’ want in a product or service. But a BRILLIANT and successful (you know, the ones getting results and making regular deposits to their bank account) will bring to the public benefits. Benefits are what you gain from the product or service. Refer to my previous blog post on why a BIG EGO is always behind feature-driven marketing.
If four times as many people are purchasing internet service and are contracting in television programming services they are TELLING US- the marketers, copywriters, sales people and internet business owners something very specific. Are you listening? If you are, your job just got real easy.
The internet brings anything and everything anyone could want into the privacy of their home and put the user in control of anything and everything they want.
The television brings the entire world into the viewer’s comfortable home at a whole different level and gives an out, a virtual reality if you will, that can be viewed at any time, in any capacity, for as long as you desire. If it’s hot steamy bodies or fast moving cars or fresh organic cooking or how to raise your baby- it’s all there. Live and in brilliant color and detail if you have HD like we do!
What is it the public wants right now and how can you make money by knowing?
These buying patterns, these bits of data on the increase of purchases and subscriptions tells us something VERY important and you can make A LOT of MONEY FAST if you are paying attention! Personally, I hope you don’t pay attention and I hope you go back to your Television broadcast or your Social Networking community and get lost there and forget why you are on the internet in the first place. Ha! I hope you get lost in the cultural hypnosis and never go forward in what I am going to tell you because then- I have less competition.
But if you are wise and you want to listen to someone who has sold millions of dollars of goods and services on the internet- than grab a pen and write this down.
People want security and they want an out and they want it NOW.
No matter whom they voted for, no matter what their religious belief is, no matter what their race, income status or even their age in many cases- they want these two things: security and escape. Can you give it to them?
If you sell $ 335 jeans, you sure can! If you market perfume from France, you sure can! If you have the best mineral based makeup from Japan, you sure can! Do you have the best info products for those struggling with job loss, than you can! Offering a diet pill to restore confidence and sex life, then you’re in! Do you market baby products for Mommies who feel they have lost their sex appeal, you can do it!
More than 4 times the amount of people who were on line and viewing television 6 months ago are now here- ready to buy from you. What are you doing about it? Listen to what the people are saying. Watch what they are doing. They WANT to give you their money. They really do. They don’t want to give it to the electric or the water company- they want to give it to YOU!
So give them what they want and you, fellow marketer, copywriter, ad person and business owner, will always always get what YOU want in return.
It’s a great day on the internet! Go make some money!
Sandi Krakowski
www.copywithresults.com
