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Health Marketing: Don’t Bring a Heavy Hand Online
It seems like almost every week there is a new product launched about how to make money using information marketing and the Internet as the marketing vehicle. And, without fail, almost everyone of these products requires that you have content. And, without fail, almost every one of these products is rehashing information and education that has been “floating” around the Net for years.
**Note**
If you look carefully at the way in which some of these products are marketed in the Internet Marketing field (one of the hardest markets) and took just a small percentage of the strategies used to another market, you would make a killing.
Marketers who are selling some of the same information are using concepts that have sold widgets and books for decades. If you find the specific mix of marketing tactics, information packaging and like/trust value that trips your readers trigger you’ll make a sale. In other words, the tactics used by the old door to door vacuum salesman aren’t successful online where the customer can slam the door in your face with a non-confrontational click of the mouse.
This past summer I was outside doing lawn work when a young lady approached me. She and her salesman were in the neighborhood for the day and, in exchange for listening to a pitch about their product, I could get 2 rooms of carpet cleaned.
Well, I needed my carpets cleaned, and I had a an hour to spare that day (the time she said he would need), so I said yes.
He got his foot in the door and began unpacking the most gorgeous [BRAND] vacuum cleaner I had ever seen. He demonstrated how it lifted dirt from the carpet I had just vacuumed an hour before. And then made the mistake of telling me that the machine he was using was new and wouldn’t be used in anyone else’s home. This all in one, inclusive machine could be had for the very low price of . . .
He didn’t know!
Or at least it was the initial story he was sticking with. He was only the demonstrator – who demonstrated his expensive watch and told me about the last vacation he ‘earned’ as top salesman for a product he didn’t know the price for!
UGH.
I felt badly that a new machine would be wasted in my home because I had absolutely no intention of purchasing the product, and I told him that. About 15 minutes later, after having to tell him that he was offensive, he finally left. Even the kids had gathered in the kitchen to watch their normally kind mother skewer this salesman who was making offensive comments.
And over the next week I was in the home of two of my neighbors, both of whom were sporting brand spanking new [BRAND] vacuum cleaners in their family rooms. For only $49.00 a month, for the rest of their LIVES, they have a vacuum cleaner with a 20 year warranty.
The vacuum cleaner is a great product and the price really wasn’t horrific for a machine that could reverse flow air and double as a leaf blower. But I wasn’t ready to purchase.
The salesman had the added advantage of being in my home and grabbing my undivided attention – and I couldn’t seem to get rid of him. His strategies did seem to have some appeal with some people.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, those same strategies don’t belong in sales pages, blog posts, or other pieces of information content where the reader has the distinct advantage. Instead of beating our customers over the head we must entice them, engage them and encourage them to keep reading and click that lovely orange button at the bottom of the page.
We instinctively know that the high pressure sales techniques of the vacuum salesman or the used car salesman aren’t as successful online as they are offline. And as our readers and overseers (FTC) are getting more sophisticated, neither does the screaming hype make successful sales.
Look around at the marketers who have been online for years and you’ll two different strategies being employed. There are the marketers who sell with a slightly heavier hand, sell a big ticket item with many affiliates, and then disappear for many months until they have another treat to grab our attention.
And then there are those who have products and services they continue to market year after year. The sales techniques are slightly different. The loyal customer base is slightly different. And the consistent income level is also slightly different.
Only you can decide which camp is more comfortable for you – but rest assured that products sold to health marketing have customers who require products and services for years and years and years.
~Gail
P.S. Just kidding about the comment of a lifetime continuity program for the vacuum cleaner – I think it was for 3 years.
Topics: Core Concepts | 1 Comment »
June 24th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Thanks for that Gail, I absolutley hate heavy handed sales men. I have so many of them who are coming into my e-mail box too, so I am slowly but surely getting rid of them.