Turn Sales Into Internet Marketing Into More Sales

Sitting across the table from the director of a large publishing house (an old friend) a few weeks ago, I had a marketing and sales epiphany. It was one of those "out with the old, in with the new" moments for both of us.

The issue at hand was how to "bind" customers to the publisher in such a way that they didn't feel pressurized to stay (there's nothing worse than pushy, overpowering sales and marketing IMHO). The solution can be applied to pretty much any business model, so I thought I would run through it here in the abstract.

1. Fracture the value proposition

Businesses try to pump as much value as they can into a single product at the lowest price possible in order to offer the best value for money proposition. There's nothing wrong with this strategy, but it's incomplete, in the sense that it misses out on an opportunity to build stronger links with that customer.

Instead, split the 100% value into about 80/20 - with 80% of the product's value going into the product itself, as purchased by the customer. The remaining 20% of the value of that purchase is strategically placed online so that customers can easily and quickly recoup it in exchange for creating an account, or converting in some other way.

2. Incentivize the online value offering

With part of the product's value available online, it is very easy to offer additional value to that product in the form of online incentives. This is important because the customer does have to make the effort to visit your site in order to retain the full 100% value of the product - something they may not have had to do otherwise.

For example, you might consider offering free upgrades or updates, or even additional content and value on a ongoing basis. A hard cover book, may have an online component that can be added to, or, a product could have its own free online community and support group for customers who sign on for the 20% online.

3. Build additional trust and value online

With traditional customers now becoming "locked in" to your website you are in a far stronger position to market to them - especially if they are getting what they consider to be more than 100% of the traditional value offering.

Packt publishing has a good example of this in their "Drupal 7" title. Take a look at that book's page - notice that the book offers "over 150 online quizzes and exercises".

Technical books are under no obligation to include quizzes and exercises so this is something that adds value above and beyond what is reasonably expected by customers. The difference however is that once-off customers now need to register an account in order to take advantage of the marked online quizzes (that test and consolidate their knowledge of Drupal) and the exercises that expand on what they have learned by offering tailored, practical experience.

Registered customers also get access to updates and other premium content that they wouldn't necessarily have access to otherwise. In return, they are exposed to additional books, products and services - all without having to use pushy or disruptive marketing techniques.

Generating additional sales using product based marketing

In addition to the above procedure, I also believe it is more important than ever to use your products as marketing tools and encourage customers to become product evangelists. If you're not selling great products, this won't work - but if you are, happy customers are arguably your most powerful workforce when it comes to Internet marketing and in particular, social marketing.

Build social marketing concepts into your products. Even if you are manufacturing ball-bearings, find a way to encourage customers to evangelize that product. Again, incentivize this behaviour. For example, you can offer affiliate agreements, special deals, prizes or even publicity in return for any publicity customers provide.

Be imaginative. You could offer a free "[insert super cool prize] for customers who give positive mentions of your product or service on their blog, site, facebook, linkedin, twitter, digg (or whatever) accounts. By adding a socially integrated online component to all your products and services, no matter what they are, you build up a large network of the most qualified sales people of all - happy customers!

It can take a while to understand how best to integrate inbound marketing into your products - especially if they are more traditional than say eBooks. However, it can be done and can provide a powerful platform for enhanced customer retention and repeat business. I tell my clients this all the time, and it works.