tips on marketing your cds

[whoopitywhoop]

Sometimes business owners can’t see their flaws because their prejudices get in the way. And sometimes they can be blinded by their high opinion of themselves. Call it marketing myopia, and being blinded by ego. Either of these very human failings can be profit killers when trying to market a business. A couple business associates recently suffered from these afflictions. One is a woman with a very professional looking business-to-business web site. However, for some reason she thought it necessary to emphasize how young she is. She went as far as posting her high school picture, which became clear from the context, wasn’t taken very long ago at all. What this young lady (let’s call her Miss Young) clearly didn’t realize is that she probably alienated a sizable chunk of her potential market when they figured out they have been in business longer than she’s had a driver’s license. I mentioned to her that many people — rightly or wrongly — associate extreme youth with inexperience and immaturity. Miss Young took offense. Youth, she protested, doesn’t necessarily mean incompetence. I agree. Youth doesn’t and shouldn’t be equated with incompetence. Or with inexperience. Or with immaturity. But to many people, perhaps even to most people, youth brings to mind those very characteristics. And in marketing, perception is everything. The bottom line in Miss Young’s case is: Why mention — let alone stress the fact — that you are so young? Unless a trait is perceived as a positive factor, why bother drawing attention to it? And why unnecessarily introduce something that a sizable portion of your market is very likely to view negatively? Miss Young, who sells web services, actually has more web-based business experience than many, if not most, small business owners. Her experience is certainly to be viewed as a strong benefit by potential customers. Had she stressed her experience instead of her youth, Miss Young would no doubt have earned high marks from visitors shopping for web services. But instead, she undermined a tremendous asset by pointing out that she’s only a few years out of high school. Face it, if all else were equal, would you do hire a wet-behind-the-ears consultant, or with one who has been around long enough to have voted in the last presidential election? Miss Young unnecessarily gave her competition the advantage. All because she stubbornly insisted that everyone should overcome their bias about youth. It’s a noble cause. But it’s a marketing disaster. My other associate also operated a web site, but a site in which 95% of the text informed visitors about everything except how they would benefit from doing business with her. This lady (let’s call her Miss Wonderful) for some reason thought visitors would be more interested in her than they would be in their own desires. This is an all-too-common pitfall for many online entrepreneurs, enamored with themselves, but blind to what makes customers open their wallets. Miss Wonderful’s site featured repeated references to her company: “we,” “our,” “us,” etc. There was a long mention of her company’s intentions and motives. There were ample platitudes about how good the products are, but without even an explanation of what the products can do for the buyer. There were many promises of satisfaction, yet little hint at what it is that you will be satisfied with. Everything was couched in the most general terms, almost as if to say “If you want to do business with us, it’s up to you to figure out why you should.” Finally, buried deep in a subordinate page were the magic words that should have been plastered on the home page and everywhere else. Here, hidden from all but the most persistent web surfers, Miss Wonderful finally spelled out in very clear terms what the visitor stands to gain from doing business with her. Suffice it to say that Miss Wonderful’s benefits are indeed wonderful: low cost and the promise of high profits. But nowhere else on her site were these benefits even hinted at. The only mention of them came at the bottom of a subordinate page several clicks and scrolls from the home page. It’s unlikely the vast majority of her visitors even saw them. Miss Wonderful’s site spent a lot of time and verbiage explaining “who we are” and “how swell we think we are.” Nearly every sentence on nearly every page was framed in a self-conscious “me” context. Miss Wonderful was so busy blowing her own horn that she completely forgot to mention why the visitor should care. There are two lessons to be learned from Miss Young and Miss Wonderful: 1. When promoting yourself, don’t stress a trait that your target market may view as a negative, even if you think it is a plus. You are better off stressing what the customer thinks is a plus. 2. When promoting yourself, don’t toot your horn so loud your potential customer can’t hear a good reason to do business with you. Whether you’re swell or not, the customer wants to know “What’s in it for me?” If you haven’t answered that question, it won’t matter how swell you think you are.

[bLaDe]

woha a lotta shit there  


hehe thanx