The Simple Guide To Basic Internet Marketing, Chap. 1

I am working on a book titled “The Simple Guide To Basic Internet Marketing” and this is the rough draft of Chapter One. Please leave feedback in the comments.

Introduction

The world has changed. The Internet is becoming a normal part of everyday life for a majority of people. With every new change in technology, comes the rise and fall of businesses as they try to adapt, from railroads to airplanes, from buggies to cars, from radio to TV, from vinyl records to CDs to MP3s.

Today is no different. It’s adapt or die.

Many people who own a small business know that they should “do something” about the Internet, that there is a huge opportunity out there somewhere, but they are not quite sure how to do it, much less do it efficiently, and if that they miss that opportunity, it might mean the end of their business.

The biggest issue that we heard from small business owners, and everyone else, for that matter, is that they don’t understand this stuff. No one has the time to find and distill all of the information. They do research and the technical information that they find is too complex, too difficult to understand. They are afraid and overwhelmed by it all. It’s frustrating.

Our purpose is empowering non technical people by explaining technical things in easy to understand terms. This book is written in that “easy to understand” style and will show you how to use the tools available on the Internet to sell your products more efficiently. Your learning path will start with concepts that will solidify into goals, then work through the strategies, and end up with step by step tactics that will make it easy for you to understand what to do and how to do it.

Did I mention that it will be “easy to understand”?

Let’s get started.

Chapter One – Marketing 101

What is marketing?

Before we talk about marketing on the Internet, we have to talk about just plain old marketing.

Generally, you think marketing is that bad commercial on late night TV with the used car dealer yelling at you. That’s part of it, maybe the most visible part, but that’s not “marketing”.

The idea has been around the Internet for years now that “Everything you do is marketing“.

That means that the look and feel of your web site is marketing. How you answer the phone is marketing. Your profile picture, your pricing, the color of your products, and how big the font is on your web site is all part of marketing.

The Story

There’s another concept that I heard from Seth Godin, who has a blog that you should read every day. This concept is “the story“.

Everyone has ideas in their head, a bias, a point of view, a value system that works it’s way out to a belief system. When a person is told something, or becomes aware of something, it gets filtered through this belief system. You need to understand the belief system of your target market and “tell a story” that fits into their belief system.

You shouldn’t lie. We’re not talking about presenting a falsehood. You should present your product in a way that fits your audience and what they believe to be true. Most of what we believe is a matter of interpretation without an empirical basis in absolute reality. (I was a philosophy major in college for a while.)

You will not be as successful trying to change the belief structure in their head, as you will be selling into the belief structure in their head. If they don’t value what you are selling, they are no going to buy it, no matter what.

There are many examples in the world of politics and religion, but I want you to buy another book from me someday, so I won’t mention any of those. Let’s use a more common example.

Answer this question:

A Venti Caffè Latte from Starbucks that costs $5.85 is:

A. A handcrafted beverage that will give me the pleasure that I deserve because I’m worth it.
B. An overpriced cup of pretentious bitter hot water that rich, arrogant snobs buy.

(I know I said that I wouldn’t talk about religion and then I brought up Starbucks, which I know is a religion for some people. Sorry.) What did we learn from that example?

If you want to sell pretentious hot water, you need to tell the story of how high the quality is and why you deserve such a great cup of handcrafted beverage. Price won’t matter. Exclusivity matters. Quality matters.

If you were to compete against Starbucks, you might want to talk about how your coffee is even more exclusive and higher quality, like Stumptown Coffee does in Portland.

Here’s an example from the world of cars. This 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe was sold for $88,000 at auction because Dan Hines ran it in SCCA SW division races in 1966. You can buy another car from a collector, identical to this one, except for the racing history, for about $60,000. Why pay the extra $28,000? You’re paying for the story. You’re not buying “just metal and rubber” any more than that latte is “just flavored hot water.”

Unique Selling Proposition

That brings us to you. You need to answer this question, and I don’t mean to be rude here, but you need an answer, “Why should anyone buy anything from you?”

I know you have reasons. You just have to define them. Price, reliability, and quality are all good, but not unique, unless they are. Why are you different than your competition?

Your competition includes “doing nothing”. Why is buying from you better than sitting home and watching TV? What is going to move a customer from arms folded across their chest to reaching for their wallet?

What exactly are you selling? Hot water or a handcrafted beverage? Perhaps you are selling “you”, your own personality. Maybe you are selling an experience more than a product. Maybe it’s a feeling. Would you like to buy a cup of bitter hot water or a cup of sweet superiority?

Target Demographic

One thing that working out this USP does for you is to define who you will be selling to, as well as who you will not be selling to.

You want to know who your best customer is. Demographic is a fancy word for describing a person. How would you describe your target market? Age, sex, and economic status are classic ways, but what is special about your target? Would they pay extra for the racing heritage of an old car? Would they pay for a handcrafted beverage? Who would pay for your product? What problem does it solve and who has that problem?

The area to focus on with your target is their needs, desires, and values. You want to solve a problem for them, so define the problems they have. You know some facts about them. Everyone has some common needs, like ice cream, but what are the specific needs that your customers have? What do you know about their needs, wants, and values?

If you don’t have answers to these questions, ask them. Call them, email them, casually chat with them, do Google searches for them, but find out the answers to these questions.

Worksheet Time

Half of the solution is asking the right questions. I’m asking you these.

1. What is your unique selling proposition? Name 5 things that makes you different.

2. Get specific. Finish these sentences:
My company is the one that ______________________
I am the person who ________________________
My product is the only one that ____________________

3. What are you selling? Name 10 adjectives describing your company or your product.

4. Describe your “story”. Write a 3 sentence description of your story.

5. Describe your ideal customer. Name 10 facts, needs, desires, or values that you know about them.

6. What words or phrases would your customers use to search for you with? Name 10 and rank them.

7. From everything you’ve written above, fill in the blanks below:

My customer needs ________________, more than anything, and my product will solve their problem by ___________________ because it’s the only product that is __________________.