IS DIRECT SELLING DEAD?
by: Cary Christian

Okay. Enough of this playing around. We want to write ads that get people to visit our site with wallets open, plastic out and ready, just panting to reach the order form and throw that green stuff at us! Now what does it take to make that happen?

Back to reality now. It doesn't happen very often. It's definitely possible to move people to this behavior once you have them on your site and once they trust you and your product, but email ads, classified ads, and similar marketing methods are simply not going to create massive sales by themselves.

This is why people fail who do not have a website. Your website is where you sell; where you "go for the jugular" so to speak. Unless you have a product that is just overwhelming, people need to know and trust you before they will buy from you.

Ads you place around the Internet or send using email need to be used solely to get people interested in getting to know you and your products. Your only goal should be to get them to your website where they can spend some time learning what you're all about. Ads comprised of long sales letters for some program or product rarely sell anything. In fact, they rarely get read. You must come up with some kind of hook that makes them want to visit your website, and that would generally NOT be a sales pitch. And once you get them there, you need to make them happy they visited.

People do this in all kinds of ways. Some sites offer lots of content that make people want to come back to look for updates. Others provide an ever-expanding list of valuable resources and, as a result, become a valuable resource themselves. Others provide jokes, famous quotes, product reviews, or some form of entertainment to make people return. And each time they come back, they're just a little more comfortable with the site and the owner than they were before.

As you might imagine, this takes time. I know many of you do not want to hear that, but it's the truth. Well known marketers can play this game to a different tune, but you have to realize that they ARE different. They are well known. They've proven themselves. They've built massive lists and established strong track records. They speak, people listen. You may reach that status someday, but it will take time for you just as it took time for them. Don't be impatient. You can do it if you work at it and use appropriate methods to build your business.

I know many of you like email advertising. It has an immediate feel to it, like you can do a mailing before you go to bed and be rich tomorrow. But it doesn't happen that way. In the current environment with all the problems with sp^m, the likelihood of it happening is even more remote. All the more reason to take your time, build your list, and use email only to invite people to get to know you. Give them something of value at no cost. Offer them a service on your site that provides value with nothing asked in return. That's really all email is good for these days in a marketing sense. But that's good enough if your site is ready to provide what people are looking for.

Take a good long look at your site. What does it offer people that would make them enjoy their visit? What COULD it offer people to make them want to know more about you and your products? Does your site reflect your personality and allow people to get to know YOU? Answer these questions and you're halfway home. The other half is modifying your site, if necessary, to correct any deficiencies you identify while asking these questions. Once that is done, you're ready to go for the jugular. Your visitors won't even realize you're selling if you pull it off right.

So does this mean I believe that direct selling is dead? Far from it. I simply believe that the only ways to sell direct these days is using the search engines, pay-per-click engines, your own opt-in list and valuable viral marketing materials. Use these vehicles to drive targeted traffic to your site and have your site primed and ready to turn these visitors into buyers.

Copyright (c) 2003