Selling on the internet

There are many reasons one might search the net.

One might be looking for information or doing research. An example may be searching for accommodation options for a holiday trip or looking for activities to do at your chosen or possible holiday destination.

On the other hand, you may be looking for something specific such as a part for a 1972 vintage motor vehicle or a fetching black dress for a function next week or you may be needing a home inspection done on a house you want to buy.

Or one may go onto the net to catch up with the latest news.

In each of these cases, the purpose is different and the way to convert that persons inquisitiveness into a sale is different.

In the online world, we have a solution for each of these scenarios. The simplest and easiest is to provide solutions to known problems where the person needs instant gratification. We can provide that back dress or vintage car part or home inspection immediately with a targeted landing page with great SEO or direct people there with an ad on the search network.

However, if the inquiry was part of a longer sales process it would be beneficial to hold that persons attention or to offer them a great “value add” for free in exchange for their contact information. Check out the giveaways on www.housecheck.co.za for a free South African Buyers Guide or for a free guide to the 10 most common problems in houses. Very good value for the clients.

In the case of www.thefrenchcountrycottage.com our client offers a free guide to exploring the nearby villages in the Dordogne Valley, highlighting what you are most likely to find. Very clever marketing because in both cases the clients provide their email addresses in order to get this valuable information.

Now, these email addresses are extremely valuable because we can then develop the relationship with these people by sending them periodic updates on this area of interest. The Home Owners get advice on purchasing and maintaining a home and the “wannabe” Dordogne visitors get an overview of the changes in the valley according to the season.

In both cases, our clients become experts or specialists in their prospective fields with their potential buyers. They become the go-to people in that industry.

Of course, Facebook offers an incredible service in that you can target Facebook ads only to people who have shown an interest in your product or service. If you supply Facebook with a list of email addresses or telephone numbers of your clients or people that have expressed an interest in your product they will see your Facebook ads or stories appear on their timeline.

Google remarketing ads work in a similar way.

So follow this logic:

John and Valerie plan a holiday to France. They stumble across www.thefrenchcountrycottage.com because they have searched for self catering accommodation in the Dordogne. They like what they see – we know this because they look at a number of pages on the website – but are not quite sure if they should go to the Dordogne valley or a beach destination such as Hossegor or Seignosse because they have friends who told them how great it is. So they continue with their search. They find a nice place called www.seignossevilla.com. However they are distracted and tired and resolve to make the decision later and only if if they can confirm their leave.

Now our clients at Les Chouettes, the French Country Cottage knows that people don’t make a decision straight away. They also know that their clients will be faced with many options and the best way to hold their clients interest is to provide a guide to the area which can be downloaded from their website.

So they employ a number of strategies to entice John and Valerie back. Firstly they had offered them their downloadable guide from The French Country Cottage website. In this case John and Valerie didn’t bite and download the guide. But as John and Valerie use the web they keep seeing display ads for www.thefrenchcountrycottage.com ’s  guide to the Dordogne Valley popping up as online image based advertisements whenever they access their favourite news sites.

Secondly when trawling through their Facebook timeline they find an offer to download the guide as well.

The first scenario is possible through a Google remarketing advert and the second through the Facebook ads we mentioned above.

John and Valerie eventually choose one of the download options and are really amazed at the variety of things to do in the Dordogne Valley. They decide that the Dordogne will be their destination. Of course in their downloaded guide is a link to book at www,thefrenchcountrycottage.com and so they make their booking, pay online and continue planning their holiday.

Never before has it been possible to target clients so effectively, so accurately and get measurable results for your ad spend.

There is a bit of a cost to set up a system like this, but the cost of the actual advertising is minimal compared to the return.

Ast THE ONLINE MARKETER we set up lead generating systems like this.

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