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Slow Down Marketing |
by:
Stephan
Miller |
I work in retail
as my day job and meet over a hundred people a day. Interesting
people, strange people, people I may like to know, people I know
I would hate, people that I wished I would never had met, people
with problems, people with solutions, people that don't seem to
take the hint that I am paid to be there an help them, that I
am finally thinking of becoming a monk.
Wait, did I say that. I know that this is not the correct way
to think, but it hits me right away at work. Competition in the
retail marketplace has forced many stores to cut costs to the
bone so that they can cut prices, which, of course means that
they must cut back on labor costs. And this leads to treating
customers like cattle, whether you want to or not. Get them in,
shake them down for as much money as you can and get them out.
And how does the corporate office try to get employees to fake
customer service? By using canned phone answering techniques,
greeting the customers at the door, and basically creating a frontline
of expendable, robotic employees. Why do I bring this up?
Because as a internet marketer, auction seller or retailer, you
can take advantage of this. Slow down, keep your business small,
and provide true customer service. Your customers will notice
the difference. Wait I have to come up with a new word here. "Customer"
has become a four letter word to me. Let use patron. Someone who
furthers you work, supports you, and comes back to your site.
Take a little test. Which of following can you recognize right
away?
- A telemarketer
- An ezine personalized with your name
- Would you like fries with that?
- Spam
- A memorized sales pitch from a salesman
- An autoresponder message
- Please press 1 for yes and 2 for no
- Microsofts help system
I bet when you run into these, you think, " Do these people think
I am stupid? Why do they really believe that I would rather use
a system or get rote answers instead of talking to a real human?"
Then why turn around and use the online equivalents in your own
business.
I am not saying that there is not a use for automation. By all
means use an autoresponder for your free courses. Definitely set
up a FAQ page if you keep getting the same questions over and
over. Automate as much as you can to make your job easier. But
there is a limit.
Allow your customers to send your emails and write them back.
If they ask a specific question, give them a specific answer.
Have you ever walked into a store, looked down every aisle for
a specific item, then ask an employee where it was only to get
directions when you actually wanted him to lead you to the product.
If you give a vague answer to an online customer just to get rid
of him, you are doing the same thing.
About personalization gimmicks, I don't think they are necessary.
Just write a newsletter like you are writing to one person. Make
it subjective. Sprinkling a person's name randomly throughout
a newsletter will not make them think you wrote it directly to
them. Give your subscriber's some credit. If they have been online
for a while, they know that even spam can be personalized if the
spammer is good enough.
If you are just online to make cash and don't care how, by all
means use every shotgun sales method available, but if you chose
this because you like what you are writing or selling and there
is nothing else you would rather do, put a little more effort
in. Your customers are buying because they have the same interests
you do. Treat them as friends. Look at your retail experiences
and compare them to your online marketing methods. If you are
alienating your customers, slow down. This is not a box that prints
money. There are other humans out there.
About the author:
Stephan Miller
http://www.profit-ware.com
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