Residual Victory Blog

How to Create Urgency so People Buy Now without losing credibility to your website by creating excess hype, is a balance that must be achieved in order for your urgency tactics to have a return on investment.  Creating Urgency so People Buy Now is a strategy that needs to be applied with the knowledge that the majority of consumers recognize and ignore hyped-up sales offers, last minute promotions, and last minute opportunities.  Urgency can be created by designing perceptions rather than hype.

Time is the basis for Urgency.  People buy now what they need. They plan to buy later what they don’t need to buy now, unless there is a reason to buy now instead of later.  If your promotion can creatively divide and label sections of time within categories, you can create a perception of urgency for your customers to take advantage of an offer - now, instead of later. 

Time can be divided into years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes, but how is time divided in your industry?  Could time be divided by seasons?  Could time be designated by a future threat of being obsolete?  Can time be divided by holidays, or work schedules or school schedules?  How about periods of enjoyment, such as weekends, or emotions, such as while your relationship is young, or while you can appreciate their presence?  Don’t limit yourself in Creating an Urgency so People Buy Now by limiting yourself to traditional definitions of time.  Give a perception to the consumer that designates a shift in the paradigm in time, where there is no actual ending in your promotion, but there is a perception of time ending.

Another subtle way of creating a sense of urgency is to simply note a number of units available, relative to the minimum amount you want to sell, on your promotional material.  Don’t say that’s all you have or “hurry before we run out.”  You will lose credibility if you do.  By having a number of items in stock on your promotional material, your customers will equate that number with availability.  This will create a perception of “an ending for the offer,” even if there is no end.

Another suggestion for How to Create and Urgency so People Buy Now, is to simply upsell.  Think about “would you like fries with that.”  You are standing in line, ordering your meal.  Your mind is completely focused on the food that your body is craving.  Is it urgent that you buy the fries now?  Not really.  There are millions of fries available, but you want to satisfy that craving now, and fulfill your buying experience.  Upselling at the customer point of sale creates a sense of urgency through perception.  A popular sales cliché says “don’t push the sale, just prevent procrastination.”

How to Create Urgency so People Buy Now is a strategy that has been abused, but still holds significant sales opportunities if implemented with perception rather than hype.  Take note of your customer’s lifestyles and time perceptions, and learn How to Create Urgency So People Buy Now through providing opportunities, and not pushing sales.  Your customer will see you as the website with integrity, and buy your products from you, because it’s Urgent that they do.

To Find Your Niche Market you must first get to know the guts and the core of your business, then do the same to your competitors.  On top of that, you must have a clear understanding of your target market and the consumer.  If you can target a Niche more effectively than your competitors, Niche Marketing will give you the opportunity to build competitive advantages over your competitors.  Niche Marketing provides a business the opportunity to satisfy customers faster than the competition, and customer satisfaction is the biggest competitive advantage any business can have. Niches become successful despite their small size because they have an intimate relationship with the customer and are better able to meet their needs.  In fact, finding your Niche and propagating exceptional customer experiences will give you an opportunity for value-added pricing, which contributes to your overall profit margin. 

A Niche Market, as defined by the European Journal of Marketing, is “a small market consisting of an individual customer or a small group of customers with similar characteristics or needs.”  The journal suggests that when selecting the Niche, to “realize your sustainable competitive advantages with products in specific markets.”  Your advantages must be based on long-term interests of the customers.  Customer relationships are one of the most powerful, and profitable, advantages in Niche Marketing.

The research you conduct to find your Niche Market should include an analysis of the short-term and long-term goals of you and your competitor, the financial backing, products, services, website design and functionality, SEO analysis with an emphasis on keyword analysis, pricing, geographical areas, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of both you and your competition. Once you know what you have to offer, and what your competitors don’t have to offer, you’re almost on your way to creating your Niche.  Almost.

After analyzing your business against your competitors, you need to research your market and your consumers.  Identify their buying habits, search habits, keyword habits and changes, visit blogs, forums and social community sites, research online and offline resources, narrow down the demographics and analyze their yearly and monthly expenditures and consumer buying patterns, find out what they want and if you can give it to them, or how you can give it to them. 
Find a business problem that you can solve that your competitors can’t. Then customize your solution.  Decide if you want to focus on the target market, or the product.  Then, you are set to develop your Niche Market.

Choose your keywords carefully; use every program and search engine you can to analyze them.  Pay attention to trends.  Find out the best advertising programs to reach you Niche Market, don’t waste your money advertising to the world.  There are over 1 billion Internet users in the world today, 200 million from the United States, according to the Computer Industry Almanac (www.c-i-a.com).  You only need to reach the ones that are most likely to buy from your website, that is - your Niche.

To Find your Niche Market, analyze yourself, your competitors, your market and your consumers.  Find what you can supply that your competitors can’t, and find out who wants to have that supply.  Develop an intensive customer relationship strategy, and a marketing mix specifically targeted towards your Niche Market.  Once you find your Niche Market and develop your key strategies, your Niche will always be coming back to you.

Five Proven Ways to Promote Your Website are demonstrated in the successful promotional strategies of companies such as Pet.com, Blendtec, E-loan, Webkindz and even Texas Beef. Keyword Strategies, Marrying Offline and Online Promotions, Consumer-Generated Content, Videos and Email List Services are Five Ways to Promote your Web Site that have been proven effective.

Out of the Five Proven Ways to Promote your Web Site, E-Loan’s classic keyword strategy had creativity take a backseat to pencil pushing (or keyboard tapping).  E-Loan bids on approximately 250,000 keywords and phrases and determines the ROI for each.  The search engine sector of the total marketing budget is between 20% and 50% of the total market budget.  Since E-loan has generated over $32 billion dollars worth of loans, it’s evident this keyword strategy works.  Keywords are nothing new, but how many developers allocate 50% of their marketing budget to keywords and determine an ROI for each word?  Promote your Website by putting your money where your keywords are.

But, money isn’t everything, and creativity and inspiration are at the heart of the business world - and Videos are in the eyes of the internet world.  Videos are hot, and one of the Top Five Proven Ways to Promote your Website - but remember, consumers like them short (15 seconds).  If you haven’t looked into promotional video strategies, now is the time to do it.  In their 2007 studies, Advertising.com, Inc., the industry’s largest online advertising network (www.advertising.com), revealed video advertising as having the largest gain, and 80% of Interactive Publishers are planning to implement video advertising.  Blendtec, a blender company, posted a video on You Tube of their blender chopping up golf balls and other blender-breaking materials to show just how strong their blender was.  The result?  Millions of sales and visits - increased five-fold.  Pringles, Pillsbury, all the big names are jumping in on the video bandwagon.

Pet.com believes video increases stickiness and branding (www.internetretailer.com).  Pet.com had pet show contest winners post one-minute videos of their pets doing tricks on You Tube, and had visitors vote for the winner. Pet.com now has consumer-generated pet pictures and pet stories on their website.  Consumer generated Content is one of the fastest growing ways Proven to Promote your Website.

In addition, the Internet and Bricks and Mortar world are still mixing.  Webkindz sells a soft plush doll in concert with its interactive video website.  Webkindz stopped counting accounts after they reached a million. Mix Internet and Bricks - Marry the online and offline for a powerful promotional strategy. 

Customer Engagement and personalization is the focus of email list servers.  Bell Canada implements billing and promotional strategies through email programs and has 300,000 subscribers.  The Texas Beef Council began an email educational newsletter that increased subscriptions by 100%.  Listservs that engage the audience or provide a benefit are proven to promote your website.  Spam is out, but personalized email and engaging list servers are in.

Promoting a Website through keywords, consumer-generated content, videos, marrying offline and online content, and personalizing emails are Five Proven Ways to Promote your Website that these companies have exemplified.  These Five Proven Ways to Promote your Website have a common denominator - the customer. By concentrating on consumer-driven content that engages and focuses on analyzing customer needs, any one of the Five Proven Ways to Promote your Website can have powerful results for you.

Use a Review Site to Build your Commissions and you might be good enough to be snapped up by Amazon.com (www.Amazon.com), like the Digital Preview review site (www.dpreview.com) did earlier this year.  Reviews have been around since apple-pie blue ribbon competitions, and Commissions have been around since the first door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen.  Today, we microwave pie and go online to find the information, products and services we’re interested in.  What used to be door-to-door and word-of-mouth has spiraled itself into the word of the web.  But Americans are still buying, and customer satisfaction in e-commerce sales is at an all-time high.  Instead of eating our pie and looking to buy, maybe we should be looking to sell.  By creating a review site to build your commissions, you could take advantage of America’s love affair with shopping.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” so they say.  The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (www.theacsi.org) report from May 15, 2007 said that although customer satisfaction is slowing, it’s still at the highest quarterly national average in ACSI’s 14-year history.  On top of that, the report of February 20, 2007, showed E-Commerce improving for the second year in a row, “and is less than a point off from its all-time high.” Online retailing was one of the highest scoring industries, led by Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.  Ebay, of course, led online auction sales for customer satisfaction.  Even financial industries were hitting new high levels.  One of the few industries that didn’t rise with the same enthusiasm, was the online travel industry.  Smaller travel websites dropped 4%.  People are traveling less, and buying more.  Notably, both Amazon and Ebay, the most successful online retailers, run affiliate programs.

Comparison shopping is a popular web activity, and review sites contribute to their support.  Using a review site to build commissions is a stable endeavor.  The internet is becoming more user-oriented with social networking sites, and people are more than happy to give opinions. Your review site should allow people to contribute their opinions.  These opinions can be good or bad, but they will demonstrate honesty and bring frequent visitors to your site.  Software programs are available to help you do this.

Some review sites are focused on a niche; others offer multiple categories, and others are directories or listings of review sites that offer reviews. Many of the websites run affiliate programs, and layers of affiliate networking are capable of being weaved into your website.

Ideas for a Review Website are limited to something people are interested in - but there are literally thousands of ideas.  You can build a digital camera website like Digital Preview, or set up a review site for movies, employment services, electronics, gifts, computer products, even love letters - the list is too long to even begin. For added commission, you can expand product lines and associate with other affiliates.

There are low-cost web hosting services and software programs to get you started.  E-Commerce customer satisfaction levels are ripe for the buying.  If you’ve been thinking about a Review Website to Build your Commission Levels, now is the time to do it.  Do your research, make a plan, and get online.  You just might get a nice commission check for doing it!

Having Patience While Running a Business is a valuable tool. Patience helps you plan constructively, learn new ways to work more efficiently, handle changes and obstacles, and build better employee and customer relations.  Asset acquisitions always require patience.  Long-term investments require patience.  Patience is a Virtue.  Even in the business world.  It is, however, a profitable virtue.

Corporations ask their shareholders to be patient to seek new talent, develop new products, or demonstrate revenue growth.  Business owners ask their employees to be patient, and employees ask their boss to be patient.  Employees ask the customers to be patient.  We live in a speed-craved society - but as everyone knows, going too fast can lead to a crash.  Just ask any of the 50% of small businesses that fail in the first year.  The Small Business Association (SBA) reports many fail due to over zealousness and lack of planning.

Running a successful business requires developing different strategies during the life of the business, not just at startup.  Developing strategies takes time and patience and the results are not always immediately visible, and could take years.  If there is a fatal error in your strategy, your business will suffer.  You must take the time to thoroughly research all aspect of strategic development.  Monitoring the progress of your strategy is a good way to see evaluate its effectiveness.

When a business plan or strategy does go astray, patience will help you conquer the obstacle.  Patience provides clear vision.  With patience, you will discover the source of your problem and resolve it permanently rather than just covering up the problem and having it resurface in the future.

Patience with people is valuable in employee relations and customer relations.  By having patience with your employees during training, you guarantee them a better understanding of the position.  By having patience with their personal problems, you gain a dedicated employee who will stick with you through your problems.  The employees must see the example of your patience in order for it to filter down to the customers.  Patience should be part of your company culture. 

The need for patience with customers is recognized in all industries.  It also should be recognized that a customer’s impatience is often related to dissatisfaction with the business.  If a customer is transferring their dissatisfaction from other areas of their life into a complaint about your business, it is still your job to diffuse their impatience.  An employee should never under any circumstances get impatient with a customer.  You want the customer to walk away happy.

Big companies take big risks with new product lines.  Some succeed, some fail, but they have the patience to continue developing new product lines.  Patience with mistakes leads to discoveries.  Recognizing mistakes helps you perfect processes.  White-out was invented in a kitchen by a secretary who always made mistakes.  Plastic was discovered from an accidental spill.  Thousands of startup businesses and business processes have been founded on successful mistakes.  Have patience with them and make patience your profitable business plan.

In order to have a successful advertising campaign, the top ten psychological desires you insert into your ads should bind the social, psychological and economic benefits of your product or service to the consumer.  This is best done through a well-planned branding strategy that is targeted to provide economic benefits to a specific market. 

Information is a driving force in Internet popularity.  People have a desire to learn.  Research the areas of interest that your targeted market group is interested in.  Create quality content with answers.  Provide a search bar.  Make sure your information is unique and not plastered all over the web.  You will start to brand yourself as knowledgeable and give them reason to come back.
 
Speed is inherent is the need to accomplish.  Speed drives the sales of cars, communication and Internet.  A study by Accenture found that buyers were more interested in speed over price.  People will pay for time.  Focus your ad on how you will save the consumer time.  Be easily accessible with fast-loading web pages.  Avoid long forms.  Deliver in a timely matter.

Trust is a desire everyone seeks, and hardest to prove.  Provide references.  Stay clear from spam.  Connect with charitable organizations.  Offer guarantees.  Deliver what your promise.  Once you lose trust, it’s impossible to gain back.

The freedom to make decisions is another psychological trait that can be applied to your advertising campaign.  Give your customer choices: choices in pricing, selection, resources, delivery times and guarantees.  Letting the customer decide what they want helps you to understand want they want and plan your business strategies accordingly.

The freedom to walk away.  There is nothing worse then being held hostage. Make your web pages easy to leave so they feel comfortable visiting your site later.  It’s the old cliché, if you love something set it free, if it comes back, it’s yours.

Everyone has the desire to have a pleasurable experience.  Make your ad appealing.  Tactfully infuse humor by a funny quote or a link to an offbeat site.  Add opportunities for personal enjoyment to your site that are related to your business.  Sell a good product and a good service.  Make sure they leave feeling happy.  

People have the desire to communicate.  Make sure you advertisement conveniently lists how to contact you with any questions.  Imbed in your ad an opportunity or link for people to communicate with others.
 
Everyone needs hope.  Build on customer’s dreams and aspirations and show how you can help them meet them.

Let them be who they are.  Everyone desires self-expression.  Give people an opportunity to post their opinions.  Show how your product or services offer them the freedom to express themselves or identify themselves. 

Last, but most important is love.  Show how your product or services can help them love others, whether it’s their family, friends, or for advocacy work.  Get them to love your product by fulfilling all of their desires for themselves and others, because above all else is love.  Make them love you.