Dear Friend,

I'm scared to write this newsletter.

On one hand, I want to share with you an idea that may just save your business in the next 5 years. This secret will transform the Internet from a commercial village to a global marketplace.

Internet experts are now crowing the words "channel" or "push media"; what they promise for the future is all very simple to achieve right now. The power of a headline, a mailing list, and a step by step sales process backed by email, are the principles on which the Internet is growing.

I'm scared because right now I could read Red Herring, Forbes, Upside, and Wired, then present a calculated, compelling, influential, and hypnotic view of the 21st century personal "channel" that could have you nodding your head and pulling out your wallet...

I don't. I didn't build the Internet and don't think of the people who did as glorious icons. I'm glad they did it, but everything points away from the computer-centered aura of the Internet. And push media won't make you a dime in the next two years. My secret isn't new, it is something borrowed for hundreds of years. It's more personal than software and more permanent than cable.

It's the individual's right to buy what they want, when they want.

The Internet has much more to do with direct response marketing than technical tricks. The Six Power Principles of Direct Response Targetcasting merge direct response marketing with the Web site, a step by step process of meeting, talking with, defining, customizing, and closing business deals. Each customer is a valuable resource who, with guidance, can tell you exactly what they want.

They create the target for their own interest so that business can "push" products and services to them. But how it's delivered is far less important than what is delivered, and who owns the list. Amazon.com built it's list and is hearing from Barnes and Noble.

The secret is something we've known all along; the customers are always right, because they're paying for results.

1. Engage your visitors, who are browsing, and ask what they are looking for (and want to buy) and find a convenient way to keep in touch with them via email.

2. Direct them towards exactly what they want to buy. Ask them what they need, their desired result, and make it easy from them to get it.

3. Channel them into your business by offering those specific products and services they need; provide the perfect solution, the result they ask for.

4. Custom build a ready-made sales process designed by the customers and delivered by the business to their doorstep as often as they like. Invite them to visit the Web site to get even more value.

5. Close the sale by making it clear what the choices are; go from good to improved to the best, defining the value each step of the way so they can make the smartest, informed, and profitable purchase decision.

6. Engage them about other products and services they will need in the future and find a way to get it in their hands.

A year ago I wrote an article called "Targetcasting", making your Web site a target for the customer's specific interests. The next step is helping your customers make themselves a target for the exact results they are looking for. Delivered to their door, just in time, and always available information on demand directed towards a specific, well-defined market wanting to buy from you..

Shopping at a Web site should be as easy as buying a burger. You walk in, the smells get you, the menu shows you what's available, and the clerk is always trying to help you get the perfect, big meal. We've just stepped into the real online marketplace. As Microsoft puts it, "Where would you like to go today?" I don't know about you, but I'd like to go to the bank.

"Welcome, how can I help you today?"

Principle 1: Engage
Each Visit is a Buying Opportunity - How To Turn Browsers into Shoppers

Goal: Generate leads and create a dialogue between customer and business.

Browsing through a magazine for ads or surfing on the Internet, browsing is still sorting through a bunch of noise until you find something that makes you want to explore. The goal is to get your customer in contact with you.

The first contact your business makes with a customer is critical. Many businesses spend enormous money on advertising, hoping to catch someone's eye. They're hoping for success through advertising, without having to do a thing to follow up. Anyone would love to be lounging on the beach waiting for the cash to roll in, and eventually you may get there. But if you think about contacting and following up with the customers as work, you're missing the point.

The Internet is a live medium where people drop by to visit, but few sites get repeat traffic. Entertainment or news sites draw repeat visitors because the nature of what they do changes every day. Small businesses need to think in terms of an actual customer base they want to build and what they do to keep building theirs. For instance, try these techniques at your site:

1. I know of a simple program that will automatically send an email to a visitor who clicks on a picture, link, or whatever I set up for them to click on. Every contact is essential; treat it that way and build your email list.

2. Give them something of value to arouse their interest. Anyone who's studied interface design knows that all that clicking and exploring is a behavior; it's an action that your audience needs to be shown how to do. If they take the action, and like it, they'll take it again. Engage their curiosity, ask if you can help them out, and provide answers to their frequent questions. Headlines will stop them from browsing and get them exploring; focus on benefits so they don't want to leave.

3. How can I help you profit today? Turning a visit into a customer only happens if you ask for what they want. Ask them the three goals they have for visiting your site, or marketing online, or having a Web site.

4. Get the customer to think about why they are visiting. If they don't know, keep in touch with them and help them find out. Forget you and your product; focus on the results your customers want.

5. Provide a place for your customers to add their voice to your site; editorial pages, surveys, and offers to post articles is an excellent way to targetcast.

6. Be sure to distribute your Web content . Let people borrow your Web pages with a link back to you, along with contact info. Why not get your advertising and information all over the place? Talk about channels, trade value for value, generate leads by endorsement and referral.

"What are you really looking for?"

Principle 2: Direct - Show Them How To Buy What They Want By Letting Them Build the Target for You To Aim At

Goal: Discover the desired result your customers want and follow-up with it.

The second principle is the follow-up, the most important part of any sales process. Engaging a customer on first contact usually means finding out either by referral or by a cold contact what it is they are looking for. The customer needs to be directed towards the result they are looking for.

Take the time to sit down and talk with them, by email or even better, by telephone with a specific meeting to identify what they want.. Give them a reward for telling you what they need, a free report, a special price for people who respond to an offer in the next two weeks, or whatever action you can take to get them to identify exactly what they want. Most of all, don't blame them if they don't understand. Many times people don't know what they want as they shop.

For instance, recently I just wanted to buy a Windows computer. I started reading about all the different warnings, promises, and configurations that supposedly I needed to know. I just wanted to get a Windows computer to hook up to my phone line and get to work. My lack of knowledge led me to contact a friend who custom-designed these computers. That's exactly what I wanted.

He warned me not to buy it from a big name dealer and, since he is my friend, told me to do it myself and save the $500 I would have paid him. So I looked around for the best deal, armed with my 166 Mhz Pentium/32 MB RAM/2 GB Hard drive/SoundBlaster/Warranty/fast modem schtick. I hadn't the slightest clue what I was talking about, but those were the words I would spout out to anyone who would listen. Then I browsed for the best price.

Good advice? I didn't think so when, after six weeks of searching, I gave my money to some guy from New York selling an Acer computer (with my entire schtick) for a good price. He sent me this ruddy looking box that was barely held together by tape. I got scared reading about the BIOS threat on my warranty (I think it is some form of germ warfare). I knew it was a bomb when I plugged it in and that stupid monitor just kept blinking at me for two hours, through manuals, confusion, and frustration. Left with nothing but a dumb gray box blinking at me, I returned it immediately.

I then called Dell Computers, who listened to what I needed and recommended a custom system to fit my needs, with a guarantee and customer support. They solved my problem at an added cost to me, but it was worth it. Ready-made is much better than do it yourself.

The only secret of follow-up is to create a sales process like Dell. Listen to what your customers want and ask them what they need by:

1. Guiding your customers through your sales process. If you are putting any business online, begin simply. Sit down with a total stranger and try to sell them what you are offering. How long does it take you to convince them? What do they want to know? Get your best salespeople in and show you how they sell. What works in the real world will likely work online.

2. List the benefits of your product, the results your prospective customers want, and create a Web site/advertising campaign that echoes what you would do in person. If you are selling a high ticket item like a $3,000 Web site, make it easy to contact you. Answer their questions, set up a phone call to talk with them, and ask if they want to be put on your free email consulting list.

3. At a Web site, include a survey or contest to get their input so you know what to provide, and give them something in return; give them the free report, the shareware you have, the content that can help them build their business. Even better, give them some time to talk with you. Time is the biggest bonus you can give any prospective customer. Email them relevant news and personalize it with invitations to get in touch with you. Plan on at least four contacts to make a sale:

1. First contact, a fresh lead who is looking.
2. Second contact, a reminder and offer to help them.
3. Third contact, just checking in.
4. Fourth contact, this is your last chance to act. This will not be offered again.

Use email to follow-up with your customers, remind, and direct them to the sale. Ask questions of your leads to develop a common customer profile. Every contact can help you better understand your target customer. Those customers who like working with you will gladly develop their own profiles if you keep giving them valuable resources.

"Would you like fries with that burger? Chips with that fish?"

Principle 3: Channel - "Throw out the Little Ones and Pan Fry the Big Ones, Use Tact, Poise, and Reason, and Gently Squeeze Them"

Goal: Directing Your Customer to the Specific Result They're Looking For

Fishing for clients, whether in person or at a Web site, means sifting through the inquiries. From the customer's viewpoint, they are given so much information from so many directions online that they will trade variety for reliability, credibility, and trust as the one resource to go to.

Separating the qualified leads from general inquiries is the goal of channeling your customers. Those creating the Castanet software at Marimba talk about each person having their own channel of personalized information, delivered by getting a gradual picture of what the person wants.

Shaping the commercial and entertainment offerings to the individual is no easy task. Begin by simply forming a profile of what your customer wants. See if this person fits into your traditional modes and what way you can best add value to what they are asking for. Enter your leads into a database and define exactly what you need to know about each customer to help them.

Creating a channel is creating a profile of exactly what they want. Many people don't even know they have a problem, or have not identified the result in specific terms. Create a questionnaire and fax it to them before you speak; take the time to help them define what they want, so you can deliver the solution, their channel.

Buying is a learning process; how many times have you known exactly what it is you want to buy? Being helped out by a business to get focused is easy...for the customer.

Suggestions

1. Phone your core group of clients and ask them what they like and haven't liked about working with you. Get a thick enough skin to listen to critiques and don't take them personally. Use this to build more offerings to your list. If you are just starting, conduct a survey with new clients and ask them what they would want from your product or service without selling.

2. Your product or service may not be the result your customer wants. For instance, Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone, he invented a telegraph that allowed two way communication. He had hoped it might help deaf people, but as it turned out it was used for voice. Since you understand your customer is not buying the product or service, but buying the result they desire, it won't matter what use they put to your product. Let them build the channel, not you.

3. Give them extra incentives for becoming a customer with you. By creating the channel you get a basic demographic profile. Give your customers a few bonuses for working with you, like free subscriptions. Encourage people to pass on their experience to others and don't try to limit your outreach. The more you know your customers, the more value you have.

Targeted mailing lists are channels; Chambers of Commerce are channels. Channels are a giant endorsed mailing list.

Example: CNET - www.cnet.com

Recently one of my Web sites received an award as Best of the Web by CNET. I've received many awards online and know that most aren't that meaningful. Like the Top 5% Web sites logo, it's been overdone and is usually an advertising ploy on the part of the company giving the award. Nice to have, but not really an honor.

Unless, that is, you've gotten a CNET award. CNET's award is meaningful because of the incredible traffic it gives me. By applying the Ten Keys to a Profitable Web Site in the last issue of the Web Letter, the traffic to this site has tripled, email inquires literally rose by 10 times, and I got a month's worth of traffic in one day. People spread the word like wildfire. This didn't happen by accident; CNET has over 1,000,000 subscribers to its channel of information, news, software, shareware, consumer reports, and even television programs that supplement what it has to offer.

CNET gives free subscriptions, so my award went out to over 1,000,000 people. It even appeared on CNET's home page for about a week. By using this channel I've increased visibility, credibility, and gained access to something I never thought possible before; a tremendous, target specific audience whostepped into the targetcasting process and told me how they fit into what the Web site was offering.

This recommended suite of results has been specially designed for: John Q. Customer Member of the Web Letter Network http://webletter.net

They even gave me a personal telephone number to discuss any further needs I have. They are marketing through the award, but unlike other awards, bring an enormous amount of clout, i.e. a humongous mailing list, into the fray. I've tapped into those people who are interested in what is being provided and how they can be a part of it. All because the site is "stunningly effective" in its approach.

Talk about stunningly effective; CNET's recommendation gave me a month's worth of traffic in 5 days, a flow that isn't decreasing as time passes. I've been endorsed to a tremendously affluent and educated group of people. When it works, the channel grows by recommendation and endorsement.

You won't find that kind of success posting ads in your local papers. Endorsements are the backbone of any business, giving you access to their channel of customers, vendors, and clients, and hopefully making them part of your channel.

"Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way."

Principle 4: Custom - How to Encourage Repeat Customers

The fourth power principle is where you adapt what you have to what they want. This is an ongoing process that you should conduct with your customers, especially in an Internet related world.

Want to avoid getting dated? Ask them exactly what they want and don't try to do it yourself; let your customer "customize" how they want to work with you.

I have one client I work with who epitomizes the old fashioned way of doing things. They have a successful business with a slew of clients who would love nothing more than to work with them. Their customers phone, email, and beg for help, but they get the same old answers. The company acts like they are doing them some great favor by responding, or adapting to what they need. They don't listen to their customers, so everyone gets treated the same...poorly.

The business tells them to go away. How would you feel? You'd go away. Even worst, the business is turning away from something that could double or triple their revenues, develop their reputation, and enhance the long term profitability, but it's a job and they don't want to do it.

Find those customers and give them what they want, and you'll make mucho dinero. And they'll appreciate it. Customizing isn't a job, it's giving them what they want.

Bundling, Joint Ventures, and the Appeal of the Ready-Made Sales Process

"The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong."
   - Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising: http://www.2h.com/Scientific_Advertising/sciadv02.htm

You can't go it alone. Time and time again the principle of customizing information, advertising, and marketing comes down to finding that target market. It also comes from working out profitable arrangements with other businesses.

The push media software by Marimba, Castanet, is an excellent study of how this non-competitive model works. Castanet acts like a tuner, run by the Java language to customize your Internet experience. You ask for what you want and Castanet helps pipe the requested information to you instead of forcing you to go to the Web site.

What's more interesting is how the company Marimba came to exist. Marimba began inside Sun, who encouraged research but not really the development of Java. The creators decided to form their own company, not to screw over Sun but to enhance what they're doing. Sun is such an entrepreneurial company that they let them do it. Hard choice, huh? "We'd like to open a separate company and help make you money giving more value to your clients."

The best solutions are the simplest. Marimba invented a business and Sun let it grow. You build your targeted mailing list and customize the approach for your customers, and they'll tell you what they want. Then you can:

1. Contact related businesses and see if you can bundle products together into a single package. Microsoft did this by turning a word processor, spreadsheet program, and related software into Microsoft Office. This one package helped them establish a stronghold in all the different software being sold, solely through convenience.

Think about that the next time Microsoft gets you to upgrade; you've committed to this product and will pay periodic fees to keep up to date. It's the best model, so have a version 1.0 of your products and services, and show how easy it is to upgrade for those who want more services. Different people want different things so customize.

2. Design your business to establish ready-made solutions for each customer. Let them show you what they want and work to design it for them. What you do is set up a sales process built on what they want, wrap it around special offers you can make to other businesses looking for your clients, and make special offers to their clients looking for you.

Endorsements and referrals, from listening to the customer, are the rewards from this approach. This is really the climax of the entire sales process; your work has turned into an opportunity every time this customer wants to buy. They'll contact you first because you took the time to ask questions.

Customer service isn't a pain in the neck, it's marketing. Treat it as such and customize your service to the specific needs of the customer.

"Thanks for ordering; use this coupon for our burger special next week."

Principle 5. The Close - How To Bring the Deal Down

If you are having trouble closing the deal, explore the previous four principles. If you haven't given them a clear choice and reason to buy now, then go back and see where you lost them. Each step in a sales process leads to the close. Look at the definition of the word, getting nearer and nearer to define what it is they want. If you've done your job, the close should be easy.

At a Web site, the close is often in the sales letter. Let them know what product you're selling. Develop value through testimonials, examples, and a try before you buy approach that helps them through your sales process.

In person, the close should be a given. Generally you know when you're going to make a sale. If it always seems to be a surprise, left up to chance, you won't sell. And you're not doing a good service to your clients hoping they understand you. Customers have enough to do in their own day without understanding you. Most of us want the simple solution that fits the desired result. When I bought my Dell Computer, the close wasn't a question. I gave questions, they gave answers; I'll pay again and again for this service because I don't waste time looking around. That's why they can charge more, because they give more.

Try and give less, or even worse pressure someone into a sale, and you'll lose. If you have questions, they have them and you need to clarify any confusion. A close shouldn't be a big decision if you:

1. Provide the customer with three clear choices; what's good to buy, what's better, and what's the best recommendation. Let them choose. It should be clear to anyone the difference in what they're getting, the value for their money.

2. Just like buying a burger, the close shouldn't be a high pressure situation. I want to eat and I want the food. They want to buy and want the product. If you're spending your time convincing them at the end, talking endlessly, hearing stories about their budget woes, backaches, or other problems, you're hearing excuses. Excuses come only when someone isn't convinced of value.

3. Don't focus on your close, focus on building value along the way. Many people think it's the end result that counts and they're right. The problem is, they convince themselves that the close is wrong, that they need to do something to trick the customer into buying.

Closing isn't about tricking, unless you're driving a hard sale. The six principles are built on a soft approach that isn't dependent on the close, but on building to the close. The climax should have been your customized recommendation. If it's not appealing, they won't buy. Because you haven't listened or asked the right questions.

"Where Do You Want to Go Tomorrow?"

Principle 6: Engage them again with more possible results, i.e. more products and services

The final principle is where the cycle begins again. Direct response targetcasting is a sales process that depends on building your client base. Why have thousands of one time clients when you can have a smaller group of interested customers; 10% of your customers may generate 90% of your business.

Think of the retailer in the real world, struggling to get people to visit the store, holding inventory, and scraping by on the small margins. That's the kind of business you'll be in if you sell only to new customers, if you spend all your money on advertising and marketing without creating a follow-up process that keeps people coming back to you again and again.

They won't come back if you don't take the time to mine those first contacts, to keep in touch with them and offer more. Many people won't buy until the fourth or fifth contact.

Basically you're telling them that they won't have to look around ever again. You've developed a system to keep them working with you. No, it's not that easy to begin with. You'll have to perfect your follow-up, make sure that you don't waste time on customers, or have them waste time on you.

Qualify your leads so that there is value in working with you. I've had Web site prospects basically call me, compliment me incessantly, then try to sell me on how I should create their Web site for the same price as the local college student. I don't sell Web sites, I sell results which come from working with me, positioning the product or service to the Internet, and finding a way to make money.

Should I spend my time convincing these people of my value, or treasure the most incredible sign of trust in a capitalist system, giving someone my money to do this job? Do it right and you'll know when you're leads are serious and you'll gladly recommend that they work with that college student if their only criteria for buying is price.

Results are what you aim for and all that you'll settle for; don't get caught in a commodity business where you fight for profit margins. Value your time and that of your clients by making it easy for them to work with you.

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Targetcasting is the never ending search for new products and services to offer your customers. The only way to do this is to develop your client base into a system of trust, of referrals built on listening to what your customers want and delivering the goods. You can call it push media or whatever you want; I call it traditional direct response marketing, made easier by email. Why not add value to your Web Letter subscription and receive the Web Letter Subscriber Email tips by contacting me now.