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In this issue:
Marketing Article: Customers Buy When They Feel Good
Marketing Article: Are you personalizing, or truly personalizing?

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Prospective customers will not buy unless they feel good about you, your company and your product or service. Here are 4 simple ways you can stimulate their good feelings ...and motivate them to buy.

1. Personalize Your Marketing

Prospects are more likely to buy from you when they feel you are talking directly to them about their unique needs. Look for ways to make your sales message more specific to the needs of prospective customers.

For example, subdivide your targeted market into several more narrowly defined niche markets. Then customize your sales approach so it appeals to the specific interests of prospects in each niche market.

Tip: You can narrow the appeal of your web site without losing its effectiveness with your broader market. Just create customized web pages for each niche market you target. Then add a link to each of these specialized pages on your home page.

2. Emphasize Good Feelings

Prospective customers usually base their buying decision on how they feel about your product or service. Get them excited about using it and they won't hesitate to buy.

One way to get them excited is to convert the benefits provided by your product or service into a vivid word picture. Put your prospect in the picture by dramatizing what it feels like to be enjoying those benefits.

For example: If you sell financial products, describe what it feels like to enjoy an affluent lifestyle without debt.

3. Confront Buyer Skepticism

A prospective customer will not buy if they have any doubt that you will deliver exactly what you promise. Here are 3 of the many ways you can confront and overcome skepticism in your customer's mind.

* Use testimonials. They prove you've already delivered satisfaction to other customers. To be effective, they should describe a specific result your customer got by using your product or service. For example, "In just 2 weeks I lost 9 pounds, felt years younger and still continued to enjoy my favorite foods".

* Provide specifics. Convert general statements into specific descriptions. Instead of "quick and easy", explain exactly how quick and how easy. Also, reduce round numbers like "15 pounds" into specific odd numbers like "13.7 pounds". It sounds more authentic.

* Tone down your claims. A bold claim creates doubt in your prospect's mind and jeopardizes the sale. Avoid using any claim that sounds exaggerated - even if it is true. Reduce any bold claim to a more believable statement.

4. Eliminate The Need To Make Decisions

Try to structure your selling process so prospective customers do not have to make decisions. Every decision they have to make interrupts the buying process. It diverts their attention away from the action of completing the sale.

This can be especially hazardous when customers have difficulty making a clear choice among several options. Some will avoid the risk of making a wrong choice by making NO choice ...and you lose a sale you already had.

That's why you should promote only one product or service each time you advertise. You can use separate promotions for each product or service. But limit your prospect's decision to only "Yes, I will buy" or "No, I will not buy". Don't risk losing them over a "Which One" decision.

Tip: Sometimes you can successfully combine 2 or more related products or services into a special combination offer. But limit your customer's decision to "Yes" or "No". Don't include an option to buy the items separately.

Prospective customers must feel good about you, your company and your product or service before they will buy. Start using these 4 simple tactics to stimulate their good feelings and motivate them to buy.

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Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information: Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards" or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

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One industry expert advises marketers to look beyond what is traditionally considered personalization in direct marketing campaigns and ask themselves if they're really using personalization to its greatest advantage.

In a recent article featured in DMNews, Gregory P. Demetriou, president of American Mail Communications, advised readers to think out of the box when using personalization in direct marketing campaigns.

He noted many merge only the address block and salutation line for personalization, missing out on the opportunity to really tap the power of the data we have available to us. While this type of personalization does indeed deliver a letter to Mary White as “Dear Mary,” Demetriou says “it is not far removed from the old ‘drop in,' where address and salutation were added after the body of the letter was offset printed.”

Instead, consider the goldmine that your database can really deliver, pulling out valuable nuggets that apply only to the recipient. Such data might include dates of sale, the items purchased, product preferences, color preferences, sizes and more. Even personal facts the representative has learned while doing business with the customer can be helpful, such as spouse's name, children's names and ages, personal hobbies, affiliations, and major personal events, like birthdays and anniversaries.

So, how do you take the information in your database and make it more useful for personalization? Consider the following excellent example Demetriou provided as possible body copy for a letter to Acme Products, letting them know the widget they recently purchased now has an attachment that improves performance (the data specific to the recipient is shown in bold):

Great news! The widget that Acme Products Company bought in April of 2003 has just become more powerful.

Our new 2004 attachment will increase your widget's efficiency by 20 percent, and it even comes in yellow to match the one you currently own.

As purchasing manager, you know how important increased production efficiency is to your bottom line.

Please call Lenny Gold to make your widget an even more effective Acme Product asset. If you place your order today, we will reserve your 2004 attachment in yellow.

Of course, Demetriou said, “your flexibility will be governed by your database and the data collection process. But to maximize the use of this awesome marketing tool, you must plan ahead, and today is the time to start.”