False Dogma in Web Marketing

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False Dogma in Web Marketing

By Stephen Bucaro

The Web is awash with bad marketing advice written by
people who have never made any money on the Web. This bad
advice is repeated over and over again by pretend
marketing experts. Are you following this dogma without
thinking it through? Below are some misguided ideas you
need to ignore.

1. Target your advertising - FALSE!

As an example, let’s say you are selling a business
opportunity. Do you place your advertising in the same
place where everybody else is selling business
opportunities? Would you fish from the same pier where two
hundred other fishermen have lines in the water? Of course
not!

Instead, let's say that you place your advertising in a
newsletter about gardening. The readers of the publication
are exposed to many “targeted” ads about gardening products.
Familiarity has trained them to ignore these ads. But your
ad is the only one promoting a business opportunity.

Do you think a gardener might be interested in starting a
business? Gardeners are people with a variety of interests.
They will be receptive to your ad because in the gardening
newsletter yours is the only ad promoting a business
opportunity.

I’ll tell you a secret: Almost all the people reading
publications related to business opportunities are selling
a business opportunity. They read these publications to
find out what the competition is doing. They have
absolutely no interest in buying a business opportunity.

Instead of targeting your advertising, place it where the
audience is not bombarded with similar offers. Where your
offer is something unique and interesting.

2. Use testimonials - FALSE!

When people have problems with a product or service they
may complain. But if a product or service performs good,
they never take the time to write a testimonial.
Testimonials are only provided in return for money or
other incentives. Do you believe the testimonials you see
on TV infomercials? I don’t think you’re that stupid.

Most testimonials are total fabrications. Who’s going to
question them? If someone does question a testimonial,
the advertiser can say that they lost contact with the
individual who gave the testimonial.

People know that testimonials are lies, and they view ads
that use testimonials as dishonest and an insult to their
intelligence.

Instead of using testimonials, provide complete information
about your product or service. The more information you
provide, the less risk there is from the customers prospective.

Of course, if your product or service is inferior, then
don’t provide complete information about it - use
testimonials.

3. Give an unconditional guarantee - FALSE!

There is a large group of people who make it a pursuit to
scout out products sold with an unconditional guarantee.
They use and enjoy the products with full intention of
returning them for their money back. This is especially
prevalent in the areas of software and information
products, where they can make a copy and return the
original to get their money back.

If you want to support these freeloaders with your hard
work, then offer an unconditional guarantee. Sure 90% of
your customers are honest and won’t return the product.
But the other 10% will not only demand their money back,
they may also start selling copies of your product!

Instead of giving an unconditional guarantee, give a
conditional guarantee. The purpose of a guarantee is to
eliminate risk to the purchaser of not receiving what they
paid for. Carefully word your guarantee to protect the
honest people, while preventing the freeloaders from
stealing your work and destroying your business.

For example: “money back guaranteed if the product does
not perform as advertised.” Or “if the CD is defective,
return it within 90 days for a free replacement.”

4. People need to see your offer seven times before they
buy - FALSE!

In the off-line direct marketing world, when you send a
snail-mail offer a second time, a few people who didn’t
respond to the first mailing will buy. This can continue
up to the seventh mailing, although with fewer orders from
each mailing.

But the on-line audience is very different. On-line people
have an extremely short attention span, and bore easily.
They will scan your offer once, and either accept it or
reject it. They don’t want to see your offer again. The
second time they see your offer, their eyes will gloss
over as they click away as fast as possible.

Instead of pushing your offer to the same people seven
times, put it in front of seven times as many people.
Spread the offer to as wide an audience as you can. Then
radically modify the offer (so it is unrecognizable as the
original offer) and spread it wide again.

5. You need to establish personal relationships with your
customers - FALSE!

In the off-line world, it costs much more to find new
customers than it costs to get new orders from past
customers. But the on-line world is very different. On
the Web, it costs about the same to find new customers as
it does to get new orders from past customers.

The on-line world is impersonal. On-line people have an
extremely short attention span and they bore very easily.
They are not interested in yesterday’s news or yesterday’s
contacts. If you contact a past on-line customer, they
will consider it spam!

Instead of trying to establish personal relationships
on-line, establish an on-line presence. Promote your Web
site, publish a newsletter, publish ebooks, write and
distribute articles. Let your customers find you - out
there in cyberspace!

6. Sell “benefits” not “features” - FALSE!

Only a tiny percentage of people will buy based on
benefits. This is because they already know the benefits
of the particular product or service. The benefits are
the reason why they are in the market for a particular
product or service. To buy, they need to know the

features of your specific offering.

For example, having a web site will increase profits and
reduce costs for a business. These are some of the
benefits of having a web site. But advertising those
benefits will not sell your web development service. To
buy, the prospective customer needs to know what features
your specific web development service has to offer.

Instead of selling benefits, tell prospective customers
what features make your product or service better or
unique compared to other offerings available.

Of course, if your product or service has no better or
unique features to offer - sell benefits.

7. Using a P.O. box makes your business look
“unprofessional” - FALSE!

If using a P.O. box makes a business look unprofessional,
then why do so many major corporations use P.O. boxes? If
you have an office outside your home, then go ahead and
use that address.

But if your business is in your home, NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR
HOME ADDRESS. Do you want some lunatic who is dissatisfied
with your business showing up at your house with a gun? If
you think this world is safe enough to be using your home
address in your advertising and business correspondence,
then stop reading this. Go back to reading your Winnie the
Pooh fairytales.

Don’t put yourself and your family in danger. When I see
a small business using a P.O. box, I think “this business
person is intelligent and professional”.

8. There is a lot more bad marketing advice out there.

I can’t expose all the bad marketing advice out there in
this one article. So instead of following the next bad
marketing idea that you read, take a moment to think it
through. Always be skeptical about any marketing advice
you read - including what you just read in this article.
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