I deal with hoards of vendors every week selling various products/services to webmasters and other internet professionals. 95% of these calls end without me reciting my email address or requesting more information. The trend I notice is companies hiring minimally internet-savvy telephone sales people to close leads with educated and informed webmasters. Blanket-pitching, darts in the dark.
Want to sell me?
Know the difference between unique visitors, views and hits. Assume that I also know the difference.
An industry-specific business directory contacted an online marketing company (www.onlinemarketinggurus.com.au) I work with some time ago to secure their business in the form of a multi-tiered paid listing. When the call was passed to me, I asked traffic questions that any website selling ad space should be able to answer without missing a beat. The response I got was an over aggressive pitch about the millions of hits they get, reminiscent of a burly man in a tropical shirt and slacks who tried to sell me a Nissan Altima several months ago. This individual became increasingly agitated when I explained why I didn’t care about their hits and actually hung up on me.
My advice was not followed, and the VERY expensive paid listings were purchased. 5 months, 3 visits, less than 5 seconds on-site from those visits and zero calls later, the company that sold them this prime piece of web real estate no longer returns their calls.
Speak in dollars
Your website gets 30,000 uniques per month to the page where my ad/link will appear. Based on placement and past performance, I can expect to get a 3% clickthrough rate. You are charging me $300/month for this spot on your site.
3% of 30,000 uniques = 900 unique clicks
900 clicks for $300 is $0.33/click
What do keywords in my industry cost on the big 3 search engines? Better yet, what do some of the keywords that I’m specifically bidding on cost? $0.50/click on average? Couple that with the peripheral branding and ad views that I’ll receive just from being on your site and you’ve just sold me.
Know the sales/buying/conversion process
I’m bidding on the keyword “Roller Disco”. My roller disco is in Colorado Springs. People in Newark, NJ are clicking my ad and not lacing up their skates. When they don’t boogie, I don’t recoup my PPC ad costs.
Obviously “Colorado Springs Roller Disco” is worth more to me since I stand a much better chance of “closing” those “leads”. What’s that you say? Your site attracts skaters who are looking specifically in my area and are therefore less likely to shop around? Why didn’t you say so?
What are you doing for lunch?
WORKING! That’s always the answer. Here we are on what could be day 1 of me buying space on your site. Once you’ve got my cash, what are you doing with days 2 thru 31? WORKING! Every minute spent not selling me is spent improving your site and the amount/quality of traffic it receives — at no cost to me! If I’m worried this means you’ll raise your rates, sell me a few months in advance. Do NOT sell me on your intention to improve the site until we’re nearing the end of our conversation. If you tell me right off the bat that you’re improving the site, then you’ve just told me your site needs improvement.
Be a person
When you smile, I can hear it in your voice. I find that engaging. Know what else I find engaging? ME.
I don’t care how you sell this ad space to the Internet Marketing Manager at Saatchi&Saatchi. I own a roller disco! My afro has a satellite orbiting it and my bell bottoms actually create wake turbulence. Tell me what a groovy idea you’ve got and how you’re not out to jive me, ya dig? Sell your product/service to me.