· Postcards, catalogs, and direct
mail circulars in your "snail mail" box
· Radio pitches interrupting the
flow of your favorite songs
· TV ads - about 20 minutes worth
per hour now
· Hundreds of storefronts, "mega"
malls, and strip malls
· Highway billboards by the thousands
· Circulars hung on your doorknob
· Illegal signs on stop signs and
telephone poles
· Legitimate email messages
· Spam email or UCE (unsolicited
commercial email)
Just these 11 sources can overwhelm
your brain with marketing messages. Like trapped rats, people develop defenses against this never-ending onslaught. They throw
up a wall or a "radar defense" that goes into action the minute they smell a "pitch" or a sales job. Don't blame them. We
all do it!
So how can you get around this psychological
wall against the constant sales and marketing messages? Well, the answer does NOT lie in hitting people with more frequent
and obnoxious advertising or sly, sneaky tactics. You might get them to trust you for a minute, but it will backfire in the
long run.
You must do two things instead:
1. First, you must establish credibility
for yourself and your business as an expert.
2. Second, you must reduce their
fears about doing business with you.
Doing these two things will get
you past their defenses and allow you the opportunity to persuade them to buy your product.
So how do you accomplish these two
"simple" things? What will win someone's attention, raise your credibility, and lower their fear factor all at the same time?
The one-word answer really applies to most everyone.
Trust!
If a seller can get behind your
defenses with information which makes you trust them, then that credibility will carry over into a sale much of the time.
How can you get this credibility?
Well, take this next fact as online
marketing "gospel," for many people have proven its effectiveness.
Fact: Publishing and promoting with
free articles gives you one of the most powerful opportunities available to tip the buyer's credibility scale in your favor.
How can we prove this works? Quite
easily actually. Take a break from reading this and go check out a newspaper or magazine for a minute.
Which do you trust more, the ads
or the articles? Most people will choose the articles hands down. Why? Because the articles don't try to "sell" you anything.
Instead, they hand out useful information for educational or other practical purposes.
Most of us grew up in a culture
which says we can believe and "trust" what appears in the standard "news" or "information" format. In other words, if it appears
in print, then we can believe and trust the author.
So go ahead! Use this lifetime of
conditioning to your advantage in selling your products and services!
Very few things will create an atmosphere
of trust and confidence in people as reading one of your articles on a subject that greatly interests them. It shows you kno
your business. It also demonstrates you will do more than just try to sell them something.
Publishing articles literally lets
you fly under their advertising "radar defenses."
So remember these points when deciding
whether or not to use articles to promote your business:
1. Few things create as much trust
and confidence in the minds of potential customers as reading an article you wrote on a subject which specifically and intensely
interests them.
2. Articles establish credibility
quickly because, right or wrong, we've all been trained to trust the "news."
3. An article, or series of articles,
will differentiate you from the competition, who bombard people with nothing but sales messages.
4. Providing content-rich, non-sales-oriented
articles will also help build and solidify your relationship with existing customers so they give you repeat business.