The Undeniable Value Of Differentiation

The Undeniable Value Of Differentiation

by: Karl Augustine

With all the people offering products and services online, what sets yours apart from the crowd?

You can’t argue this, to succeed you need to differentiate yourself.

Online businesses come and go every day and about 90% fail.

The reasons online businesses fail vary from situation to situation, hereกs a few:

It could be that the business owner didn’t educate themselves properly

It could be that the netreprenuer didn’t market correctly

It could be that the webmaster didn’t develop a product people were actually willing to pay for

It could be that the newbie didn’t spend enough time creating and leveraging the right types of relationships

It could be that the inexperienced Internet marketer didn’t remember to be thorough and calculated with their product offering, sales copy, packaging, traffic plan, etc.

All of the above reasons are valid and one of the most common reasons the product offering itself fails, is because the niche market that the business owner is marketing in is semisaturated and the marketer had no กdifferentiatorก.

A differentiator is anything that makes your unique selling proposition differ from any other by the benefits it delivers to the user. Those benefits need to be itemized in the sales copy to make sure the prospect will understand what makes the offering specific to his/her needs.

A differentiator could simply be a different angle or viewpoint on some problem or product not currently realized by anyone else.

How many ebooks have been written about Internet marketing? Hundreds if not thousands…the ones that make money have easily identifiable differentiators.

A differentiator could be an added bonus to your product offering that the prospect can’t get anywhere else.

**Simple example:

Suppose there are 2 products that a prospect is considering purchasing.

* Product offering #1 offers a bonus that can be easily found on the Internet.

* Product offering #2 offers a bonus that is exclusive to this offering itself that cannot be obtained anywhere else other than through this specific offering.

If both products are equal in benefits to the user and have the same price, which product offering will the prospect choose?

Of course, the prospect will choose Product #2 because of the กexclusivityก of the bonus. That exclusivity is a differentiator.

A differentiator could be a discount on a service that no one else in your niche offers. A differentiator could simply be a promise to respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours.

The trait that defines a truly effective differentiator is uniqueness.

A differentiator could even be something as simple as the packaging of the sales process of a product or service itself. The packaging of a product includes graphics, format of delivery, appearance of web presence, etc.

With regards to graphics, it is important to understand that people respond positively to visually pleasing graphics regardless of whether the end product of offering is actually affected by those graphics. Due to the average personกs reluctance to buy online, the better things look, the better the prospect feels about moving forward with a purchase.

In the online world, the prospect decides to purchase a product or service that is being marketed to them somewhat กvirtuallyก…it is intangible to them until they buy. In this instance, a differentiator could be something as simple as slick graphic or choice of product formatpdf, exe, audio, RAM, MP3, etc.

Before you can actually identify a truly effective differentiator for the product offering, a good amount of competitive intelligence needs to be done within the appropriate vertical niche market.

Begin by reviewing all products and services that could be perceived as competitors in that niche market and define the differentiator from there.

Whatever type of differentiator is chosen, itกs vital to make certain the prospect clearly can understand the value of it by itemizing the benefits it brings to them.

This is often overlooked and equates to unrealized sales.

Be humble, work smart, keep it simple.

Karl Augustine

‘the Regular Guyก

(c) Karl Augustine

http://www.9mistakesonline.com

http://startingsmart.9mistakesonline.com

About The Author

Karl Augustine

Author of ก9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid When Starting An Online Businessก.

Publisher, กStarting Smartก biweekly ezine for new and semiseasoned Internet marketers.

http://www.9mistakesonline.com

http://startingsmart.9mistakesonline.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 27, 2003

by Karl Augustine

How Can Multimedia Work For You?

How Can Multimedia Work For You?

by: Frank Levert

Multimedia here and multimedia there. Is it just a flashy thing you don’t need or the reason why your competitors are getting ahead? Todayกs reality is that people live on a fast pace so their time is important. They watch tv going from one channel to the other, get a satellite dish so they can watch their favorite show on a different time schedule after putting the kids to bed, go through mail as fast as you can count up to 3, surf on the web with an average of 55 seconds spent on a web page, read the newspaper by going through the big titles, etc. It is a matter of facts, todayกs companies and entrepreneurs need to get the best out of every second a potential customer, or current customer, will spend paying attention to their offer. There are many ways to improve receptivity and develop time saving solutions such as using repetivity and faster technologies but how can multimedia work for you?

Have you ever noticed how easy children learn songs from commercials on tv? Do you really think they would learn as fast if all they could see was as static text on tv? As you know, the answer is no. The combination of dynamic images, music and narration improves the receptivity of any audience.

Imagine how more effective a digital business card could be versus the traditional piece of paper! Such a multimedia presentation of your company or services could make a difference between a sale and another time wasting meeting. Now imagine how a great interactive marketing campaign could support your professional multimedia presentation or multimedia portfolio! The repetivity effect of your multimedia production would improve even more the receptivity of your audience. In addition, your interactive marketing campaign could be used to generate valuable data from respondants, which would then allow you to filter those respondants and only target high potential customers with future multimedia presentations or direct marketing campaigns.

In the same path, interactive websites using flash animations can also improve receptivity if used the smart way. Remember how much time people spend on a web page in average? Taking that into consideration is an essential key to the success of a flash website. Don’t overload your flash animation or make your website navigation too complicated. The point here is to get visitorกs attention and keep them awake, not make them loose patience and leave your overloaded flash website!

In many ways, multimedia can help you improve the receptiveness of your message but it goes way beyond that. You can also save time to your customers by developping multimedia applications such as an interactive training or multimedia tutorial! Offering that kind of multimedia support to your customers could greatly improve their learning process and save them time. As you know, saving time to your customers and offering effective support is a step forward in your customer retention efforts.

Over years, multimedia and interactive marketing services got more affordable. Many multimedia companies are now offering solutions that even smaller budgets can make room for. Are your customers worth it?

About The Author

Frank Levert is a graphic/web designer, multimedia artist, copywriter and marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in the industry. He is now the owner of Netmar Solutions, a company offering a whole spectrum of internet and marketing services for small and medium size businesses.

This article was posted on August 18, 2004

by Frank Levert

What Is กFreeก Really Worth To Your Business?

What Is กFreeก Really Worth To Your Business?

by: Elizabeth Piotrowski

Everything!

Let me explain most of us started our own businesses for one reason to make money! Of course, money is a good thing, but sometimes we are so focused on it that we forget there can be value in other means of exchange.

I am talking about service exchanges, barter and the like. Offering your service in exchange for another can have a profound effect on your business, as well as increase your credibility.

How?

Hereกs a scenario:

A visitor comes to your site, is interested in your service and contacts you with their enquiry. They tell you that they don’t have a lot in their budget right now (for whatever reason), but that if youกll agree, they will give you one yearกs free posting at their ad site in exchange for your services.

Now, before you hit ‘replyก and decline the offer, think about it you could be throwing away literally thousands of dollars in sales by saying no!

Letกs say that this personกs ad site costs you $12 each time you place a 30 day กpremiumก ad. Thatกs $144 per year. Those premium members probably get listed at the top of the page in bold text. Great exposure for you! In a nutshell, they are offering you an entire yearกs worth of premium advertising for just a few hoursก work!

So how does this increase your credibility? Thatกs an easy one 🙂 By being nice enough to accept their offer in lieu of money, you have not only relieved their financial stress you have shown them youกve got heart. And believe it or not, there are still people out there who appreciate that!

Individual results will vary, but:

this person may contact you in the future and be able to pay you with money, maybe even more than you expected (in appreciation for your past understanding);

they may propose another service exchange, offering you something with a greater dollar value (or benefit to your business) than before;

they may highly recommend you to their colleagues, which can generate more business for you (and even if it doesn’t right away, itกs traditional กwordofmouthก advertising which is very powerful).

My experiences with this kind of exchange have been very positive; Iกve received pro safelist memberships, ad postings, top banner spots and branded ebooks for free (to name a few).

Obviously, there is an element of risk associated with this type of payment so keep your eyes and ears open, do a little research and most importantly, do the math if you don’t think their offer is equal to the dollar amount of work you will be doing for them, then you will either have to do a little more haggling or respectfully decline their proposal.

Remember the old adage กYou can catch more flies with honey than with vinegarก? It still rings true especially if you can reach your customer at the most important (and responsive) of levels their heart!

Elizabeth Piotrowski

About The Author

Powerful ad copy is the key to producing the visits and sales you want. Drop by http://www.strategyadservice.com for lowcost, effective solutions!

This article was posted on February 24, 2003

by Elizabeth Piotrowski

Creating Customer Value

Creating Customer Value

by: R G Srinivasan

The purpose of business is to create and retain a customer.

Much has been written about customer orientation, customer relationship management (CRM), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) metrics, Customer Centric organization models, customer retention, customer care…add any high sounding word with ‘customer’ preceding or succeeding that word and you have a new model, a new theory. Headline hitting books, celebrity author seminars and training till another theory comes along.

And we see the poor customer is still the most dissatisfied lot (that includes all of us specialists too, as customers).

What a manufacturer or service provider often thinks as a market or value proposition, customers respond in a diametrically different fashion. Why does it happen?

While business thinks in terms of products and derived values, customer is looking at satisfaction. The key question is whether all the strategy, product features, add ons and value creation lead to ultimate customer satisfaction.

Now this may seem a little contradictory. To illustrate it better let’s take the example of Cell phone services. Companies are rolling out a new product every fortnight offering more value, in their perspective.

Then the point is why does the customer keep switching over to different service providers and products or packages so often, if the products are offering value.

The key here is more value propositions are being rolled out without looking at the very basic. Whether the value proposed gives satisfaction to the customers. If not it is not valuable.

The customer is buying satisfaction. Highest value is derived when the customer is fully satisfied with his purchase.

Some common myths in Value Creation

Myth # 1 More is often considered value

Buy one get one free schemes are rolled out. There is of course an instant sales push. However at the end of the scheme the customer feels that he had all along been paying 100% more for the products and perceives that very product as costly once the scheme is withdrawn. May switch to another product at the same price.

Conclusion: Dissatisfaction leads to value erosion

Myth # 2 Price is value

Many business considers lower price as offering more value. More often than not lowest price products end up as the second best with a higher priced product with similar product attributes leading the market. The simple reason is the higher price product may be offering a higher satisfaction due to perceived values and imagery. Car markets are a prime example of this syndrome.

Myth # 3 More Features or add ons are value

Businesses load a product or service with more features thus offering a higher value. While this may be attractive if the features are not backed by adequate supports the satisfaction may be less and value is reduced.

We encounter this everyday. A customer buys a product with many features but not demonstrated properly or may not be serviced properly. Enquiries may not be handled effectively. Airlines offereing add ons like free overnite accomodation are still not favored if the services, like enquiry handling, reservations, and time schedules are poor. Cell phones companies may be offering plenty of add ons like national roaming or free incoming calls etc. However if the billing is poor and billing enquiries are not addressed properly the customer is dissatisfied and leaves the service for another provider.

Myth # 4 Products are competing with similar products

This is often true in the leisure industry. A movie theatre may not be competing with another movie theatre. If the customer is not satisfied with a theatre or movie he may look at options to other entertainment sources, for instance an amusement park. We may call them discretionary time products. Highest satisfaction levels are very important in this type of business.

These are some of the examples of how businesses can go totally wrong in assessing value. While it is all good to talk of value creation some thought must go into the majoe ingredient in value that is the customer satisfaction.

And are business really serious about customer retention. As even a novice to business knows it is far cheaper to service and retain existing customers. The cost of acquiring new customer is very high.

Now how many business have consumer satisfaction index to monitor this prime factor in customer value creation

About The Author

R.G. Srinivasan is founder of Born To Win Forum. He is a certified trainer and consultant in training design & methodologies, focused on personal effectiveness and motivational training. He is also the author of ebooks, publishes 2 ezines on success and motivation and Home Business with an international circulation. His articles are published in more than 50 portals and websites across the world. He is featured as an Expert Author in Ezinearticles.com. Check out his home business ezine at http://homebusinessleaders.tripod.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 20, 2004

by R G Srinivasan

The 3 Rules To Maximizing Profits From Banner Ads

The 3 Rules To Maximizing Profits From Banner Ads

by: Derek Arnold

Placing those ads on your site are designed to do just one thing, make you and the advertiser money. No it’s not rocket science but there is a science to doing it right.
There are 3 simple rules to follow and you will convert those ads into the revenue you intended them to be when you decided to place them in the first place.
1. Don’t sell Viagra to pregnant women! – Basically what this means is that each page on your site probably offers something different than all the other pages on your site, otherwise you would have terrible redundancy on your site and that would be bad, but that’s for another discussion. Let’s say you have a site offers travel services, and this particular page is about a certain destination that you offer. Then your ads should fit the page, an offer such as ขHome Loansข, or ขGrocery Couponsข would be what is know as ขShotgun Marketingข, which basically means that you are just firing an ad at there and praying that someone who sees it will be interested. This click and buy ratio will prove to be VERY disappointing. A proper ad such as ขdiscount air ticketsข, or ขTravel Insuranceข will produce a much higher, click and buy ratio, this is what is referred to as ขTarget Marketingข. Remember, the internet is a spontaneous buying medium, so when the visitor is on that particular page, this is when the interest in this particular subject is at it’s peak! They are already thinking travel, you are offering them the ขUp sellข, meaning you not changing the visitors train of thought, your offer is just blending in.
2. Put the steak in the middle, and leave the salad on the side! – Where do you place you banners? On the side? At the bottom of the page? Somewhere between the ขI’m offering this for freeข and ขLook at my fancy graphicsข area of the page? Obviously the most profitable place to set the banner is on the top of the page, and is highly recommended if that space is available! Most of the time website owners have reserved that spot for they’re own offers and the like. The second best place on a page is just before your start the page content. An animated 468 x 60 banner should be centered and placed just before you begin your page content. Remember these banners are what pay you money to keep your site going, and if all goes right, some change in your pocket. Move other items on your site to the side and make room for those banners. Banners placed inside the test of the page content (not at the end) would be the third option.
3. I don’t read the fine print, do you? What size banners do you use? DO NOT waste your time placing small banners on your site (unless they are for banner exchange partners)! Small banners are a waste of space, first of all, how much information can the seller fit into such a small area? How noticeable will it be to your site visitor? If you’re trying to sell something, then SELL IT! Ad size should be 468 x 60 or larger, and centered on the page, this ad WILL NOT be missed by the roving eye of your potential buyer. Although they may have not elected to click on it, odds are they certainly did not miss it, because it was big enough to at least catch they’re eye.
Finding the right advertiser, who pays the right commission, and who is offering the right product for a particular page on your site, will require a bit more work than the standard ขsnatch and addข type of banner farming, but the rewards will be much greater and prove to be well worth it in the long run. Remember this, ขanything worth having, is worth working for, and money is worth havingข

About The Author

Derek Arnold is the President of BullMarketer.com, a webmaster resource site offering many tools for webmasters, marketers, and designers.

Homepage: http://www.bullmarketer.com

This article was posted on July 05, 2004

by Derek Arnold

Overcoming The Fear Factor In Online Sales

Overcoming The Fear Factor In Online Sales

by: Derrick Pizur

No I am not talking about the classic board game, that Aunt Hester bought you the past two years for your birthday! Risk is what first time visitors to your website views your product as. Before they spend their hard earned money they want to know that your product is worth it. Shoppers today see so many offers, so many sales pitches that they are trained to be skeptical about many products.

This is even more the case when selling over the internet because many of your potential customers do not know you. In the offline word they could walk into your store and talk to you, online you are just another person fighting to take their money.

It is proven that if you alleviate the fear associated with making a first time purchase your initial sales will increase by 10% and these customers are more likely to purchase from you in the future. Why? Because you stand behind your product and they know if they are unhappy you will give them a full refund!

If you are confident in your product, show it to your customers by offering a strong guarantee that removes the risk associated with the purchase. If you can offer a lifetime no hassles, zero questions asked guarantee do so! I know you think this sounds risky, but it really is not.

How do I know this? I did an extensive test with very similar products offering different lengths of money back guarantees. I was surprised when I found out the longer the guarantee the less returns I received.

Having a short guarantee makes the customer rush through using your product, so if they are unhappy they can return it within the allotted time period. With a longer guarantee they can use your product at their own pace which will allow them to see the great results of owning your product.

So what is the absolute shortest guarantee I would offer? Well 30 days is too short, the bare minimum I would say is 90 days, but remember the longer the better!

Are you still scared about offering the longer guarantee? Shame on you! Not really, that is a valid concern. In general most customers use the guarantee as an additional reason to buy your product; it makes them feel safe and secure. Unless they simply hate your product or service people are usually too lazy to return it, or they put it off until tomorrow, which usually never comes. But just in case the guarantee is their shining like a big block of gold!

All in all, as long as your returns are under the 10% that you have increased you sales by (which any quality product should be) you have nothing to lose by offering a RISK FREE guarantee.

About The Author

Derrick Pizur runs ResellerEdge.com, a high quality multiple domain, user friendly, web hosting company that offers a 90 day money back guarantee on all hosting services. A truly risk free web host!

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 09, 2004

by Derrick Pizur