No one likes that pushy salesperson that keeps giving you more and more reasons why you should buy their product. Why? Because the information usually isn’t something you asked for, and often, it’s not really pertinent to your particular buying decision. Pushy salespeople don’t bother to ask you what questions you have or what you’d like to know, they just go through their “routine”. The same thing happens online, where companies push more and more marketing and promotional information at people hoping that it’ll drive someone to buy something. But what if all the effort you’re spending on creating that information is for naught? What if, instead, you provided content your customers actually want?
Finding Your Customers’ Passion
One of the best ways to interest customers online is to speak to what they’re passionate about (hint: it’s probably not your products). For example, if you sell camping equipment, your customers probably are passionate about spending time outside, about seeing cool natural places, possibly about traveling relatively inexpensively. Your camping equipment helps them do what they’re passionate about, but they’re probably not super excited about the latest tent (although there may be a segment of your audience that is).
Being a Resource
By not just being a self-promotional marketing machine, but instead providing information that your customers want, you can become a go-to resource online. For that camping equipment, providing information about great out-of-the-way natural escapes, or reviewing camping grounds, can be very valuable information. Instead of creating all the content yourself, you could even just setup the platform that lets everyone contribute. Now you have the go-to place about camping online, and oh, by the way, you also have great deals on camping equipment.
Giving to Get
Being giving, before you’re trying to get something in return, provides a very positive experience for potential customers. They don’t feel pressured to buy from you every time they interact with you, so they feel more comfortable hanging around for awhile (same holds in person!). The longer you let people get to know you, the more likely they will be to think about you when they are in a purchasing situation (or perhaps refer you to someone that is). Word of mouth is the most powerful type of promotion!
What content do you provide that your customers want? How did you decide what content to provide? Is it all promotional?
(photo by Eva Blue, on Flickr)