Ok, today we are going to talk about one of my favorite Big Ticket Marketing tools
- writing articles!
You are probably thinking, what does writing articles have to do with Big Ticket Marketing?
Well, it turns out, it has plenty to do with it and I'm going to tell you why.
It's about the relationship!
As a Big Ticket Marketer you have an even tougher job of convincing your potential customers to become actual customers. That's because Big Ticket items have a much higher price tag then other products. And the higher price tag means that you have more skepticism to overcome than someone who is just selling a $37 e-book.
Also, you may be in an industry where there is a lot of competition with products that have very similar capabilities or features. So how do you differentiate yourself and your Big Ticket product from the others?
In my opinion, the key factor that should make you different from the others is not price. Although that is an important consideration it is not the only one when people are spending more to purchase a product. The key factor, I believe, is the relationship that you create between yourself and your prospective and existing customers.
Prospective and Existing Customers Need to Know You, Like You and Trust You before They Will Buy From You
In order to sell to anyone, they have to know you, like you and trust you. This is especially true for Big Ticket items. Obviously there are lots of ways to help your prospective and existing customers to get to know you like you and trust you. One way is to make sure you always provide them with value on an ongoing basis.
That means giving them great, highly relevant content for free. Also, supplying free products relevant to their interests. Obviously, the quality of your product and your service must be high or you will quickly lose any customers you have!
For Big Ticket item purchasers, it will take them a lot longer to evaluate you and your product. Let's look at a couple of examples:
Let's say you you sell real estate. No one is going to jump and buy the first property they are presented with, unless it just happens to completely meet their needs. Instead, they are going to rely on you to provide them with a bunch of choices based on what you tell them you want. That process could take as little as a month or as long as several years depending on how demanding the buyer is.
Or say you are in the high tech industry where you sell computer solutions including all the hardware, software and support. In some cases these deals could be worth 1/2 a million dollars or more. Again, no one is going to just write you a check without very seriously evaluating your product and services and YOU!
One of the best ways to keep you and your products in the minds of your potential and existing customers is to consistently be in touch with them. And this is where articles are a super Big Ticket Marketing strategy.
Why are Articles A Great Big Ticket Marketing Strategy?
Articles that are interesting, relevant, on target and useful to your target market are a great way to stay in touch (and in the mind) of your potential and existing customers.
Great articles do take some time to write but like anything else, the more you write the easier it becomes. And heck, if you really hate writing articles, there are lots of people on elance.com or other free-lance websites who will be happy to do it for you.
All you have to do is publish or email the articles to your prospective and existing customers on a regular basis. You give them value, maintain contact with them and stay in their mind. You never know when the prospective or existing customer will decide that its time to make that purchase.
And if you are the person most recently in their mind who do you think they will think of first for the product or service?
Here are the benefits of using articles as a Big Ticket Marketing strategy:
- Articles provide great content for your e-zine or blog. By keeping in touch with customers and giving them valuable, relevant content you are helping build your relationship with them.
- Articles help establish you as the expert in your area. You build a relationship by informing your readers about your area and about the benefits your product or service can provide. This can be as subtle as just providing links in your resource box after the article or by writing "advertorial" content.
Note: "advertorial" is just a funny word that describes an article written to look like a newspaper or magazine column but is really an advertisement for your product or service.
- Articles are generally followed by a resource box which may contain the author of the article, a short biography of the author, the authors websites and sales pages. Readers who find your article interesting often click on the links in the resource box to learn more. This is another source of traffic for you!
- So the more e-zines and article directories you can publish articles means you get more exposure. It also means more readers who may click through to your sites. It will also help you get a higher ranking in the search engines for your other sites.
- Many search engines and especially Google, give higher ranking to websites that have other sites that link back to them. The search engines consider sites with lots of other sites that link to them more relevant than sites with only a few links back to them. So the more, different places you can get your articles published means that many more places that have your resource box and your links pointing back to your site there will be.
And that means that when people search using keywords related to the product or service that you sell, your sites will be returned higher up in the search results giving you a better chance that potential customers will check out your sites.
And the nice thing about this method for obtaining a higher ranking is that it is unlikely to change even if search engines change their algorithms which is something they do on a constant basis.
- Writing articles forces you to really know your area and communicate to your prospective and existing customers in an easy to understand way. Your writing and communication skills improve and your readers appreciate the information you provide in a clear, easy to read fashion. Again, helping you build a relationship with them.
If you haven't realized it by now, I am a huge fan of using articles for my marketing. I hope I have convinced you of the benefits and that you will start using articles in your own Big Ticket marketing efforts.
For more information on a package that can help you really take your article marketing to the next level including software that helps automate the process check out the Article Announcer Link on the Big Ticket Blog resource page below.
Copyright (C) 2005 Chuck Daniel, Like Magic Marketing, LLC -- All Rights Reserved.
Chuck is a former Microsoft software designer and program manager who spent more than a decade happily working on Email and CRM. Admittedly a seminar, workshop and information addict, Chuck left Microsoft to pursue his interests in personal development, Internet, direct and information marketing and to promote and work for charitable causes.
Chuck Daniel
Would You Like to Make BIG Bucks
With BIG Ticket Items Online?
http://www.bigtickethomestudy.com
http://www.bigticketblog.com.
