If you want to seduce a member of the opposite sex, how do you go about it? I want to look at 2 possible techniques that we can relate to marketing, and specifically Internet Marketing.
Technique 1 - The Flash Harry Technique
You tell your prospective seducee that you are the best thing since sliced bread, that you have loads of money, that you are a fantastic lover, that by just spending time with you will make them a better person, that you will never hurt them and will never let them down. You can provide a list of references from previous partners, and even have audio and video clips of them saying how wonderful you are.
Further more, you tell them that there are loads of other people interested in you, and that they only have a limited time in which to become your new beau, before you move on. Oh, and if they come with you now, you will buy them drinks all night, and a pizza later.
Technique 2 - The Reluctant Millionaire
You don’t tell your seducee what car you drive, or where you live, or what you do for a living, or how good you are in bed. You might subtly dangle the key fob to your Ferrari so they can see it, and when they pop round to your pad, they’ll soon notice the long gated driveway, the 10 bedroom mansion, and the indoor pool and jaccuzi. And as for the bedroom antics, well if they’re luckly they’ll discover that one for themselves!
Results
Technique 1 still works, and probably always will. I had a friend used this one, he got a lot of refusals, but with persistence and a very thick skin, he eventually found a punter.
Technique 2 looks like a better way of doing things. The only issue here is that you really do have to have the goods, otherwise it’s just not going to work.
The Internet Marketing Connection
You can probably see how this relates to Internet Marketing. Technique 1 is our trusty long copy sales letter, making wild claims, peppered with quotes from happy customers, audio and video to spice things up. Now I’m not saying that this type of sales letter is dead, it still works very well for a lot of people. But I do think that the longer people use the internet, the more jaded they will become to this kind of marketing.
Have you ever seen the old black and white T.V adverts. It quite often involved a person holding the product, saying “This is great, I use it and look what it did for me!” Compare and contrast with ads today. Some of them still use the old style (think laundry products), but with most of them you often can’t tell what they are actually advertising until they reveal the product at the end, and even then we are sometimes still none the wiser!
The reason the ads have changed is because people no longer want to be told “we sell this, so go and buy it.” They want to be seduced by the brand. Companies have to advertise, but in such a way that it doesn’t look like selling. It shows the cool, toned, handsome guy wearing a sharp suit. It shows the beautiful model flicking her hair.
Technique 2 - a different approach
So here we have a different approach to Internet Marketing. Now, as I said above, to make this work you really do need to have the goods. If your product or service is mediocre, you may sell it once, but probably never again. This is about teasing. Mentioning without pushing. Almost brushing aside the thing you really want to sell, saying “oh we sell that, it is our premium product, but that’s probably not for you, a bit too advanced.” Now if the stuff you are showing them for free is good, they’ll fall over themselves to pay you for the great stuff.
People are more likely to buy things from other people that they trust. The only way they will trust you is if you build a relationship with them. We already know some of the best ways to do this, but then blow it when it comes to trying to close the deal. We spend ages writing blogs, sending out newsletters, building that relationship. Then we resort to technique 1 to try and land the deal. Thats probably a good way to blow all that trust out of the water, as they will see the salesman through the friendly facade.
Conclusion
In my opinion, technique 1 will probably work forever, but technique 2 will allow you to build up better relationships with customers, which will lead to a better brand, and ultimately far greater profits.
Become a seducer in your market, and show your customers what a great lover you really are!
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