How To Motivate People To Buy

What motivates the people who visit any website to buy?

This is the one question that every Internet Marketer is seeking the answer to. If you know how to motivate people to buy, then you can increase your sales and your conversion rate. And wouldn’t that be good for your profit and your business? So what motivates people to buy? It is often said that you should give people what they need, because that is what they are going to buy. That may well have been the case once but sadly today society has changed and people no longer buy what they need. Instead they buy what they want and what they crave – hence people struggling to put food on the table, but have a 42” plasma TV, satellite system and a bottle of Jack Daniels! You need to pitch your product not as something they need, but as something they absolutely must have; make it so they crave your product and absolutely must get their hands on it. People also buy because they want to get pleasure from what they buy. Someone doesn’t walk into a car dealership and buy a top of the range Mercedes because they need it; a Skoda or Toyota would have done the job just as well. They buy the Mercedes because they want the pleasure that goes with it. Whether this is the comfort of the car, the joy of all the gadgets, or the fact that it is a status symbol – they drive a Mercedes! Whatever their reason it will be because they have associated pleasure with owning a Mercedes and so they buy one when they could have saved tens of thousands of dollars and bought a cheaper car! Another reason people buy is because they want to avoid pain. Volvo are one of the best selling cars in Europe. Why? They are not the prettiest of cars, nor that expensive, nor are they of the perceived class of a Jaguar, BMW or Mercedes. Volvo’s sell well because people want to avoid the pain associated with car accidents. Volvo’s are some of the safest cars on the market and as such appeal to people who want to protect their family and passengers. These are three of the main ways that people are motivated to buy. If you can work out how to use this in your sales copy, your emails, your newsletter and your website, then you can convert more visitors into paying customers. Identify your target market and learn their pain – what problem are you solving for them with your product? Understand this and your sales copy can become smoking hot and you can boost your conversion rate!

Writing Content and Getting Constant Traffic to Your Blog

Blogging has truly revolutionized the way one experiences the digital age. There is, it seems, no limit to what one can do with the help of blogs. Even the smallest aspect of your daily personal life like recording journal entries has been given an entirely new dimension.

Going on from there, there is a lot of scope of picking up interesting debates and discussions through blogs. You can even start some of these discussions yourself.

Moreover, there is nothing as interesting and attractive than that fact that you can even earn some money while blogging.

This is, by far, the most path breaking innovation that has entered the blog sphere. The requirements for this are very low. You need not be a scientist who posts revolutionary details about his latest experiment.

If you blog well, that is to say, if you blog well enough for people to come read it, you earn good chances of making quick money, by just going about your daily activity of posting blogs!

Here are some of the things you can do to make sure that your blogging activities get rewarded by more than just comments and praises:

You could get yourself registered with a search engine. But keep in mind that you must do it only if you are confident enough that your blog gets good traffic. That way, the higher the ranking your blog achieves, the more you get paid.

While writing your blogs you also need to keep in mind a few things. This is not only to ensure that you get a steady traffic, but also for the fact that your blog readership can increase so that the ranking of your blog with search engines go higher.

Here are a few tips that should see you through this:

• Reader Friendly Content: At all costs keep your content – articles, poems, photographs, videos – reader friendly, that is to say, it should keep more and more readers interested. Your reader must be at the center of you post in a way that your reader must feel that he is gaining something out of reading your post. This is the basic rule in marketing.

• Worthwhile: Never let the reader feel that he has been tricked into reading your post or clicking on your blog link. You are thwarting all your long term chances of that reader coming back to your blog, in which case your blog rankings over the long term are in a dicey position.

• Check for errors: Making grammatical and spelling errors can be a major put off for many readers. They may not visit your blog again simply because the errors that you make are too high. Always proof read your blog. A small typo here and there can be understood, but make sure you don’t make any major errors.

• KISS: Or, Keep It Short and Simple. This is the thumb rule you must follow at all point. Long winding posts tend to get boring. And it may contain nothing that is interesting to the reader. Also no one has the time enough for your blog, no matter how well you write. In fact, your blog will be much more appreciated if you put your thoughts simply and shortly.

• Interesting: Make sure that you hold your reader’s attention by making your posts snazzy. They must not be written in a tone that is tiring to read. Write short sentences and keep then crisp and precise. Always hit the point immediately in the course of your article.

• Link: Keep linking the blogs you read to yours in order to build a network those people will be in turn encouraged to link you. Remember, linking increases rankings.

• Keywords: Using the keywords of your posts frequently increases the search ability of that particular article of yours which in turn leads more people to visit your blog.

• Clear Thoughts: Make sure you put your thought clearly before the readers so that it does not become tedious for them to read.

• Colloquialism: You can write in a friendly tone. Avoid using too many slang words, but otherwise, if your post demands it, you can be colloquial.

• Post Title: A catchy post title or headline is half your business solved. It can glue a reader to your post almost immediately. However, do not put misleading post titles, or you will lose creditability.

So, be consistent with your blog content and watch traffic flowing in to your blog! And do not forget..... Always drive people to your blog from your social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter etc

How to Start Your Own Blog in Less than 15 Minutes

Creating a blog is nothing that you need to be afraid of. There is no elaborate planning required either. However, there are a few things you would need to decide. Since these blogging service providers give you a lot of choice in terms of template and color themes, would be require to take those decisions yourself.

The following is a quick guide of what to think over before creating your blog:

• Theme: Determine what you would be writing about or the nature of the content that you would be sharing with your readers. This depends mainly on your interest. Topics blogging to the field of politics, poetry, arts, current affairs, or almost anything under the sun can be chosen. You can stick to one theme or you can choose to write about whatever concerns you on a day to day basis. Since it is your very own web journal, you can make it as flexible as possible in all aspects.

• Blogging Provider: Next you need to decide upon which blogging service provider you would like to use. This depends on the kind of reviews that you get about them from friends and acquaintances, or something about them that you may have read online. Otherwise, you can always try out something and find out if you like it. You can try out one of these popular sites: Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Typepad, Blogagotchi.com, Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, or Xanga.com. We have a really useful step by step guide to creating a Wordpress website. Perfect for limited experience!

• Templates: A wide range of templates will be made available on any blogging service you decide to start you blog. Select the one you most prefer or like.
• Freebies: The advantage with these blogging service providers is that they make your blogging experience as dynamic and interactive as possible. They enable you to install add-on features that include button, pictures, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards such as myshoutbox.com, guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers' thoughts and views, etc.

• Additional Features: These interesting ones may not be free. By paying a price you can avail of them.

• Nature of Blog: You must determine who should read your blog-whether you want it to be read only by a select circle, or must it be open to all. This will depend upon the content, mainly.

• Layout: Again, there will be a wide range to choose from in terms of layout and color schemes.

• Content: You could pick up a specific theme and write about it consistently, or merely decide on any random topic as and when it interests you. You could try putting up content for a while and see the kind of response you get, and alter or modify it accordingly.

• Blogging Circle: Blogging is a great way to come in touch with people from across the globe. You can surf and visit other people’s blogs. Do not spam in their comment section, but write a genuine comment if you have something to say about a particular post.

• Skins: You can customize and personalize your blog as much as you want. Using software like Photoshop you can create your own skins and make your blog attractive as well as make it reflect you own personality.

• Publish: Finally when you are done selecting the setting and preferences, selecting a content to put up, you need to publish the content. Do not, however, forget to send the link to your blog to your friends and acquaintances so that they may come visit you.

Once you have started your blog, you will have noticed that it hardly takes fifteen minutes to do so. Maintain the blog is even easier. Here are a few tips that would help you successfully keep your blog going:

• Update: Update frequently otherwise visitors may stop coming to your blog. It will also give you more confidence to churn out more well worded posts in the future.

• Personalize: Even though you might be discussing general and universal themes, add your own personal touch to make things lighter and interesting.

• Theme: If you have a theme blog you can Google for other blogs of a similar kind and build you network.

• Spelling and Grammar: Make sure you proof read your posts. Spelling and grammatical errors can be a major put-off for many readers.

• Advertisements: You could play host to sites like Google AdSense and earn revenue by placing their links on your blog.

7 Tips On How To Sell Without Being Sleazy - Part 2

5. Consistency and Follow Up

This is crucial to improving your sales. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling digital goods, physical goods or memberships. Not everyone you encounter is going to buy on the first pitch.

Always get their contact number or address or email, depending on the way you sell. If you’re an online marketer, you can send follow up emails at intervals and let them know of deals or just remind them about your product.

The same applies in the real world where you can mail your prospect brochures or promotional material informing them of discounts or special deals. It’s all about not letting them forget you.

Even if you’ve successfully made a sale, try and stay in contact with your customer and check in on them every now and then to see if they’re using what they purchased.

Of course, do exercise common sense here. If someone forked out a few thousand dollars for a car, it would be wise to stay in touch with them because it might generate repeat sales or recommendations through word of mouth. The same wouldn’t apply if they bought a potato peeler for five dollars. You’re a sales person and not a stalker.

6. Be Prepared For the Competition

It’s inevitable for there to be competition in any profitable industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling cars, clothes, copiers or Coca Cola. There will always be others selling similar products.

The goal here is to know why your product is better. You need to know the unique selling point of your product. Does it last longer? Is it more affordable? Does it taste better or look better?

What makes a Lamborghini better than a Porsche or a Ferrari? We most likely don’t know the answer but you can bet that the sales people at the Lamborghini dealership have 10 reasons why.

You don’t need to knock down or bad-mouth your competition and you shouldn’t… BUT you must be prepared to highlight why your product is more suitable for the client’s needs. It’s all about reframing the offer and painting it in the best possible light so that it seems like the best choice.

7. Exude Confidence and Avoid Hyperbole

You must communicate with your prospect from a place of confidence. Do not make it look like you’ll be out of a job if they don’t buy your product. Nothing reeks of sleaziness more than a desperate sales person.

You need to appear like what you’re selling is an excellent product with lots of potential buyers waiting in the wings. By having confidence, the prospect will believe that it’s their loss if they do not make the purchase.

Confident sales people do NOT beg for the sale and they do not pull a long face or ‘show attitude’ if the prospect says no. If they say no, do ask them why and see what their objections are. Address these and highlight the benefits and make them see why your product will solve their problems.

Once you do this, the ball will be in their court and it’s their game. There is no need to resort to hyperbole to get the sale or keep pressing them till they cave in.

It’s very common online to hype products up with bold, unrealistic claims just to get the sale. In almost all cases, the product never lives up to the hype and is a disappointment.

Believe in your product and communicate with confidence. If you can do that, that’s more than half the battle won.

If you adopt these 7 tips and practice them, you’ll be head and shoulders over most of your peers. Becoming good at sales requires practice and an understanding of human nature. Once you figure it out, you’ll excel at sales and meet your targets without appearing sleazy or desperate to others.

“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone

7 Tips On How To Sell Without Being Sleazy - Part 1

There’s just no denying the fact that the words ‘salesman’ or ‘sales consultant’ immediately turns off most people. These words conjure up images of slick and sleazy guys such as used car salesmen who resort to flashing insincere smiles and deploying sneaky subterfuges just to close the sale.

The general impression is that sales people will sell their mother just to meet their target and the only thing straight about them is their hair.

The question now is… “Why?”

Why do sales people have such a negative reputation? Why is the sight of an insurance agent or an Amway representative enough to send most people running for the hills?

The answer quite simply boils down to ‘poor sales skills.’ People love to buy. It makes them feel good and they want to do it… BUT they hate being sold to. Herein lies the problem.

The experienced salesperson knows exactly how to approach his potential customer and convince them that their life will be incomplete without the product he is selling. He doesn’t need to hard sell anyone because he’s a master at communication.

The inexperienced salesman, however, is totally focused on making the sale at the expense of everything else. They do not communicate properly because they’re trying to rush the sale. As a result, they exude an air of desperation that is picked up subconsciously by the prospective customer and it repels them.

The inexperienced sales person only appears to be in it for themselves and starts to look sleazy. The sad truth is that the majority of sales people are in this category, when all they need is a little education and EQ on how to approach a potential customer and what to focus on.

In this article, we’ll look at 7 ways for you to sell without appearing sleazy or desperate. While the tips below may seem like common sense, rest assured that when one is faced with the pressure of meeting sales targets or generating a specific income, all common sense goes out the window and emotions take over. In times like these, it’s especially crucial that you adhere to the tips below.

1. Create a Customer Avatar

A customer avatar is a fictional person that represents your ideal customer. You know exactly what their wants and needs are. You know exactly how your product is perfect for them.

All the best sales people have a very good understanding of who their product is perfect for. While many of the prospects you meet may not fit in perfectly with your customer avatar, as long as they display some of the needs and wants that your avatar has, you’ll be able to hone in on these needs and be more convincing in your pitches.

A customer avatar will roughly allow you to anticipate what objections you can expect to hear. This will allow you time to prepare and overcome these objections so that you’re ready when you actually face them.

For example, if you’re selling gym memberships, one common objection that you may receive is that it’s too ‘expensive.’ So what will you do? Will you tell them that they can’t put a price on their health? While that may sound good, it probably won’t work on all people.

If you have a customer avatar of a young man who wants to get a fit body to attract the ladies, you could probably tell him that the gym membership will pay for itself many times over when he looks ripped and turns ladies’ heads wherever he goes.

Of you could tell a lady that with a gym membership, she has access to all the equipment she needs to get in shape so that she’ll look good in anything she wears. She just won’t be able to get that by exercising at home. She probably could… but your goal is to sell her the gym membership and not a fitness DVD.

You can have several different customer avatars for the same product. The avatar is just a tool to help you understand your prospect and be prepared to sell to in a way that resonates with them. You MUST be on the same ‘frequency’ as your prospect.

2. Sell Only What You Believe In

You can’t convince others if you’re not convinced yourself. You absolutely must believe in what you’re selling. Not only will your pitch be more convincing, but you’ll also feel a sense of satisfaction. You’ll be more driven and have more desire to tell the world just how great the product you’re selling is.

If you stepped into a Lamborghini dealership, you can bet that every sales person there will totally love the cars they’re selling. They’ll probably be fanatic about fast cars and know all the specifications and will be able to give you a hundred reasons as to why their car is the best in the world. They’re passionate about their product and the passion rubs off on the prospect.

Avoid promoting or selling something that you don’t believe in just because you want the money. This happens online and offline too. Every day, tons of online marketers mail their list promoting products that they’ve never tried or have no interest in. They just want the commissions.

Over time, they lose credibility and their list of subscribers stop believing them… and once this happens, it’s almost game over. If someone does not believe you, they’ll NOT buy from you.

Believe in your product and your prospect will believe in you and your chances of getting the sale will skyrocket.

3. Listen and Empathize

This is key to succeeding with sales. It’s all about listening to the customer and understanding their needs. In fact, the best sales people don’t even mention their product for the first 15 to 20 minutes. They’re more concerned with what the prospect needs.

By having a listening ear and showing empathy, you’re building a relationship with a customer. If we used the same gym membership example above, you’ll discover the emotional reasons why people are considering joining the gym.

By talking to your prospect, you may notice that maybe they lack confidence because they’re overweight and they hope to shed the pounds. Or maybe they had a life-threatening health issue and now they want to turn their lives around. It could be a mother who wants to be healthy to see her kids grow up.

It could be a wife who wants her husband to take notice of her again. It could be anything… but you’ll only find out if you listen and show that you have their best interests at heart. Doing this alone is enough to show that you’re NOT just another sleazy sales person.

Over and above all, be genuine. People can discern if you truly care or if you’re just going through the motions. Like Zig Ziglar said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."

4. Know What You’re Selling

This is of paramount importance. You must know your product. Selling a car? You need to know the specifications, the price, what are the benefits, the safety features… the everything.

Make it a point to know as much as you possibly can about your product. Anticipate any questions potential prospects might have.

You need to know all the features of your product like the back of your hand and when you’re talking to your prospect, you’ll mention these features but dress them up as benefits and show how these will put an end to your prospect’s problems.

E.g. (Features) The gym has a variety of cardio machines ranging from treadmills to stair climbers to rowing machines. There’s enough machines so that there’s always equipment free for the client to use.

(Benefits) They’ll not need to wait for the machines and this saves them time… and with cardio, they’ll lose weight much more successfully.

Parts 5 to 7 will be arriving on the blog tomorrow.....

How To Consistently Add Hundreds Of Subscribers To Your List Every Week

Any online business will benefit greatly from building an opt-in email list that will read your valuable content, buy your products and services, or buy your affiliate offers.
 
Slow and steady wins the race and just know that it is feasible to add more than one hundred subscribers to your list on a weekly basis. This is without depending on Search Engine Optimization or any secret formula. 

The method also works well when adding numbers in the thousands as well, as you become familiar with it. A major mistake made by internet marketing newbies is their thinking that the number added this week has to exponentially increase the next week. This is a total misconception. 

Use the classic model to start small with your plan development, and rise in slow increments with the numbers. It is best to steady build a list, instead of having overwhelming numbers in the beginning of the process.

Keep in mind that the consistent addition to your list on a weekly basis of more than one hundred subscribers will generate one thousand subscribers in just ten weeks.

These one thousand subscribers have the potential of netting you a thousand dollars or more each month...if you maintain your list in a productive manner. This translates into a twelve thousand dollar income from just this one list of subscribers. 

The essential component is your squeeze page which will convert your website traffic into your subscribers. If you need some ideas for a squeeze page you can Google ‘squeeze page templates’ and get some ideas. 

Modify the wording of the template to match it to your needs, and then upload it to your web hosting. In addition, you will need to incorporate your autoresponder code into the template.

Most marketers tend to use Aweber of Getresponse as their AR choice. Although a relatively new option which is getting great results is ConvertKit. With tests showing a 33% increase of email deliverability over Aweber, it has to be taken seriously. I have been converted! Check out ConvertKit HERE

You can get some traffic generating ideas by finding ezine articles written by other marketers in your chosen niche. The purpose of doing this is to compile a list of marketers from your niche who are email list owners. 

You can do this by visiting forums in your selected niche, or obtaining the ezine articles as an email list subscriber to various other marketer’s lists. Additionally, take a look in Google to see if you can find more ezine articles in your niche. 

Contact individual marketers personally by email, and ask if they would sell you a paid solo ad to their list, and what the cost is to send it out to their subscribers.
This is generally a very economical. If you are thoughtful in your list selection you can get hundreds of new subscribers for less than fifty bucks. It is also advisable to place an ad within their ezine article at the top, instead of at the bottom.

A Google search will result in a large number of ezine articles for you to source. To save time you may want to research the Directory of Ezines. This directory supplies you with the number of subscribers per list, the cost to mail to these lists, and any other pertinent information concerning each list. 

Remember that with a well maintained email list, each subscriber generally equates to at least one dollar per month as income. 

There will be some ezine owners who will not consent to a paid solo ad, but you will have plenty who will since it will be profitable for them. It only takes a few quality list sources for this to produce the needed traffic to your website. This is great technique that will help you build your opt-in email list. 
Remember that with a well maintained email list, each subscriber generally equals at least one dollar per month as income. 

An excellent strategy is to avoid hitting them up first with an expensive offer. As they progress through your opt-in process, make your new list member an offer that gives them so much value, that it would be crazy for them not to take advantage of the offer. And this more subtle method is generally more profitable. They don’t know you at this point, or have a reason to trust you enough to make a large purchase from you. 

It is a great way to offer your potential members or prospects something of greater value to them than what it would normally cost. This will put them in the frame of mind of getting a great deal, which will make them very receptive to your future offers. They will check their email regularly for more of your deals. People want to know what you can do for them or how you can solve their problems. 
This method will condition them to become and continue to be paying customers, instead of just reading you or valuable information without actually purchasing any of your offers. Any customer who makes one purchase has a high probability of making future purchases, especially with offers that cost ten dollars or less. 

A customer who makes one purchase has a high probability of making future purchases, even at the cost of ten dollars or less. 
These members are much more valuable to your business than the subscribers who never purchase anything. However, don’t devalue those subscribers, as they may refer others who will make that purchase. 

This strategy will also help you to compensate for money spent on promotion or advertising costs. It will also become profitable over time with determination and consistency on your part.
New customers will be more open to your future offers, and will remember you from their previous product purchase, so your follow up email offers have a greater likelihood of producing more sales for you. 

It is imperative that you present them with exceptional value over and above the cost of the product. This will lead to future sales and may lead to their participation in your blog or forum. And they will be more inclined to tell others about your business, and promote your products as an affiliate. 
An illustration of a valuable offer could be where your product that costs almost one hundred dollars has gone for months will little or no sales. Offer this same product to new subscribers for ten dollars. 
In addition to this, tell them that you are practically giving it to them at such an unbelievable bargain, because you want to make them loyal customers.

Remember that during the process of building an email list, it is vitally important to supply quality, informative content to educate the subscriber, in addition to soft selling them on your products that will resolve their problem. This will get them excited about you, your emails, and buying more of your products. 

Be respectful to your list subscribers, and always avoid sending them stuff with a ton of offers with no valuable content. You are there to make their lives better. 
If they feel that you are motivated only by money they will unsubscribe, maybe send your emails to the spam folder, or delete them all together. They have to see that you care about them to become your dedicated, loyal customers now and in the future.

The Fear of Failing

Very wise words indeed. Keep striving every day.