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Why Should I Buy From You?

DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
edited January 2008 in Marketing
I visit many websites during the course of a day. Sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes for entertainment purposes and sometimes to do research for an article. And I`m constantly amazed at the number of silly marketing mistakes I see over and over again. Following is a constructive rant. Hopefully, it will help a few people. Take from it what you will.
 
Your landing page is not relevant to your targeted keywords. You have a landing page that has absolutely nothing to do with your primary keywords. As a result, when I land on your website, I can`t find what I`m  looking for. I feel totally misled. So why should I buy from you?
Your website is poorly designed and confusing. I have absolutely no idea what your website is all about.You force me to click on multiple links and wander around your website aimlessly trying to find what I`m looking for. Your website is not user-friendly at all. So why should I buy from you?
Your sales copy doesn`t speak to me. Your copy is too "me" oriented. I don`t care about you and your problems. The only thing I care about is  can you solve my problems? I want to know, "What`s in it for me?" Also, you`re obviously trying to sell me something, but you never actually get around to asking me for the sale. What do you want me to do? I can`t read you mind. And where are your testimonials from satisfied customers? No, not fake testimonials with the customer`s initials. Real testimonials with the customers full name. If you can`t provide me with that information, then why should I buy from you?
 
I can`t find your contact information anywhere. There`s no address or telephone number. What if I have a problem? How can I get hold of you? And if I can`t get hold of you, why should I trust you? And if I can`t trust you, why should I buy from you?
 
If you visited my website and encountered the problems above, I wouldn`t expect  you buy anything from me.
 
So why should I buy from you?
 
Dale King
 


 
DKing1/22/2008 5:57 PM

Comments

  • RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Dale, this post resonates with me.
    I know zip about websites, SEO, meta tags and all the other things necessary to make a website work.What I do know is that behind every buying decision is a personal objective, and you nailed it: "What`s in it for me?"Your degrees and qualifications bore me, and these days it is harder to fail than pass a post-grad. Your methodology and transfer mechanism might get your juices flowing, but I don`t need to learn how you do your business.What I do want to know is, how can you improve my condition and make me better today because I brought from you yesterday?And then I want an efficacious way to communicate with you and ask questions to determine if you are the right person or product for my needs.Valuable post, Dale.Rgds,RicRicWillmot1/22/2008 8:11 PM
  • cdbartworkcdbartwork subscriber Posts: 11
    Dale:
     
    I am feeling self conscious....
     
    Nikole:
     
    I have an info page with my bio which I feel is very important, am I wrong on this? I don`t know what to think with your reply...
     
    Colleen
  • RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Colleen,
    I just looked at your website and I love it.Your pictures immediately tell me what is in it for me.Great stuff!Rgds,Ric
  • cdbartworkcdbartwork subscriber Posts: 11
    Ric:
     
    Thank you....
     
    Colleen
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    Dale,Problems with landing pages and relevancy is probably the most common mistake I
    see; but talking to formal and `we`ing all over yourself is another biggie.
    In regards to testimonials, I would like to add on that you shouldn`t try to
    control the feedback you get. Most people delete every bad testimonial they
    receive so that they have the impression of being the perfect business. Big
    mistake.
    I read a case study last year (several articles about this have been published
    actually) showing that negative testimonials can increase your conversion rate
    something by like 10% (assuming that you have many good testimonials). Why is
    this? Because people don`t trust testimonials unless they have reason to
    believe that an actual human being (not you) wrote them. When people see a
    negative testimonial know that your reviews are being left by real people.
    Hence, your other testimonials (the good ones) become much more influential.@Colleen, Your site is what I would call very ‘feng shui’.
    Great pictures, good overall usability, and transparent. There is one fatal
    flaw though in it, one that will decrease your sales by something of a 4 digit
    number and that also causes google to hate you. Your website needs a ‘call to
    action’. I recommend researching this on google, or buying the book ‘call to
    action’ by the eisenberg brothers. In the interim, I would recommend placing
    your phone number underneath your logo, as at least then an interested customer
    katt33, Looking at this page; I can see that
    you are indeed focusing on benefits. But you are doing this in the wrong way.
    What you are doing is listing the benefits in the product description. This is
    wrong. You aren’t a horizontal business like amazon.com; you got to dig out a
    vertical niche. Don’t sell your products, sell the benefits! Take this listing for example:Anti-Cellulite
    Cream     U.S. $ 30.00
    ( 100 Gms) Tones and firms with ingredients such as Butcherbroom,
    Lemon Peel and Guarana Extracts.
    Gently massage into needed areas and improvement should be seen within one to
    three months.
    Please keep in mind that each person’s body is different.First off, this should have it’s own landing page (read
    dales article again). I’m assuming you didn’t do any keyword research when
    listing this product (its free), because my instincts tell me that probably not
    to many people are typing in “anti-cellulite cream” onto google, which is what
    you are selling (that headline is the most important part of the landing pages SEO btw). So why not sell the benefit
    instead?If 4,000 people type in ‘anti-cellulite cream’ a month on
    google ( do keyword research to see the actual number, its fast, free, and
    easy) than I would guess that something like 100,000 people are typing in the word “weight loss” or “how to lose
    weight” People that want to lose weight are looking to buy a
    solution to their problem, not ‘anti-cellulite cream’. For this reason, google
    is going to nerf you in the rankings for the keyword ‘weight loss’. Do it like this:Lose weight
    and start feeling betterAnti-Cellulite Cream     U.S. $ 30.00
    ( 100 Gms)Ever look
    at yourself in the mirror, and wish you could lose some weight, but without the
    suffering of working out? Well now you can finally be seen as the star you
    really are: introducing Gms
    anti-cellulite Cream (now made with 1/3 less baby seals). Just lather it over your
    body when you wake up and before you go to sleep and the secret ingredient will
    penetrate your skin and turn your
    cellulite into bodily waste that your kidneys will dispose of!  If you want to get some links to keyword research tools, and
    some elaboration on what I just did here, I recommend reading this blog post
    about viagra
    I wrote last year.@Ric, The technical
    side of SEO (metatags, labeling your headers <h1>, setting up robots.txt etc.) aren’t a prerequisite anymore to be successful. Probably in a couple years, they will mean
    zip. Google ranks websites by how likely they are to satisfy the search querry
    the person made in the first place. For e-commerce, this is best explained by
    illustrating the
    logic behind how PPC quality scores work.
      @ IdeasandInnovations: It has been statistically
    proven opening music and illustrations have an adverse affect on conversion
    rates. Hence, 9 times out of 10, this works like anti-seo and will cause google
    to penalize you a bit (if your worth penalizing). victor3631/23/2008 5:23 AM
  • RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Your blog is very interesting, Victor.
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    Valuable post, Dale.
     
     
     
    Thank you, Ric!
     
    Dale King
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141

    Dale: I am feeling self conscious.... Nikole: I have an info page with my bio which I feel is very important, am I wrong on this? I don`t know what to think with your reply... Colleen
       Colleen, I started this thread to force people to look objectively at their own website - to make marketers think about their visitors. If you feel that your website has the problems I mentioned then do something about it. Regarding your bio page, that`s the one page where you want to talk about yourself. Just keep in mind, when people visit an ecommerce website, they`re looking for something or someone to solve their problems. So throughout your website think benefits, benefits, benefits! Dale King
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    Victor, please don`t take this the wrong way. I`m just curious. Why don`t you have your own CMS and domain instead of Google`s Blogspot? Blogspot is okay for someone just startting out - though I wouldn`t use it. I just don`t consider it an appropiate or professional platform for serious bloggers. Are you a serious blogger? If so, why not use WordPress or TypePad? Are you just getting started online? This is not meant to be a put-down. Like I said, I`m just curious.
     
    Dale King
    DKing1/23/2008 9:58 AM
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    Hey Dale,
    That blog is really nothing more than a diversion for me. Perhaps, if I ever started consulting or selling marketing services online like you do I would be taking it more seriously; but for now, I am just content to neglect it.
    At one point I started another blog on usability and design on Ning; but  I abandoned it because I felt Ning was a waste of time.
    Next blog I start will probably be on wordpress though. That seems to be everyone`s favorite, and I want to see for myself if it lives up to the hype.  I would deffinitely not consider myself a professional blogger Dale.
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    Hey Victor:
     
    Thanks for not being offended, and taking my question in the spirit in which it was intended. And thanks for answering my question. Your explanation makes perfect sense to me.
     
    Dale King
    DKing1/23/2008 7:57 PM
  • cdbartworkcdbartwork subscriber Posts: 11
    Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback.
     
    Dale:
     
    I have been looking at my site with a critical eye and the more feedback I get, the more it reinforces that I need some changes. I like to be forced to view something I have created objectively.
     
    Nikole:
     
    I value your feedback and thanks for your input.
     
    Victor:
     
    Good point, I will check into this book don`t want any fatal flaws on a site where I am trying to sell my product.
     
    Mike:
     
    I am not really into music, I think it is distracting but as I read this I can see where one would think there should be music.
     
    Thank you all...always love the feedback.
     
    Colleen
     
    Thank you
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    Dale, that`s an excellent post!
    I`m seeing the same things, and so I wonder...what is it about doing something that people have such a hard time being objective about their own actions?
    You`d think it`d be a no-brainer to finish creating, stop, have a snack, then take an entirely different look at what`s just been created, but from a "stranger`s" point of view. And yet...it doesn`t seem to happen. I`m continually fascinated by that sort of breakdown.

     
     
     
    Thanks, Craig! Unfortunately, I just don`t think that most marketers bother to take the time to learn the basics of marketing. They`re so anxous to get online and start making money that they put the cart before the horse.
     
    What they fail to realize is that by not educating themselves and following time-tested and proven marketing techniques, they`re sabotaging their own efforts. There are no shortcuts to success. You have to be willing to put in the work, and that includes learning how to do things the right way.
     
    Dale King
    DKing1/24/2008 7:59 AM
  • cdbartworkcdbartwork subscriber Posts: 11
    Dale, that`s an excellent post!
    I`m seeing the same things, and so I wonder...what is it about doing something that people have such a hard time being objective about their own actions?
    You`d think it`d be a no-brainer to finish creating, stop, have a snack, then take an entirely different look at what`s just been created, but from a "stranger`s" point of view. And yet...it doesn`t seem to happen. I`m continually fascinated by that sort of breakdown.

     
    Craig:
     
    Not surprised to read your approach to this post...I have to admit I was so anxious to get things up and running that I did not take the time to systematically decide on who, what, how, where and when....but that may be a personality style as opposed to another personality style. Once I have commited to a project I am there with what might appear to be little or no thought, but it may have taken me 2 years to get there..and just getting the website up and running is the most important thing; changes, edits can come later.
     
    Anyone have some thoughts on this....
     
    Colleen
     
  • cdbartworkcdbartwork subscriber Posts: 11
    Craig:
     
    Well put, you actually sound like an engineer, a structural engineer..and I deal with them everyday. Hmmm....it has me thinking..but I have to say I am glad I did put my site up and then decide for edits later.. art is not as exacting as a civil/structural engineer. The bridge could collapse, but a metalsmith design can go through some restructuring.
     
    Thanks always for the insight, I enjoy your posts...
     
    Colleen
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