Think back to why you originally started to blog. Although blogging once was more like sharing a journal with anyone and everyone, many are now snatching up blogging domains for business use. You hear many optimizers say you need content to do well and succeed online, so you join the cause.
Hide Your Sell?
In the consumer world of the Internet, you’re told many things by the marketing, social media and optimizer gurus:
• Focus on the consumer
• Don’t talk about you, talk about them
• Don’t oversell your product
• Don’t use interruptive marketing practices
In other words, it’s a kindler, gentler world on the Web; consumers need to be treated with kid gloves. We (consumers) need to be coddled, coerced and manipulated to buy a product. How does this happen?
You, the business owner, get out there and do what it seems like you’re being told to do. You throw content out to the masses. You struggle with ways to increase your online authority: to be recognized by your target audience. You build links; you make industry contacts; you’re socially connected, networked and integrated. You’re evolved; you’re engaging and cohabitating on the Web.
In the meantime, however, you seem to have become afraid to go for the sale.
In fact, most small business owners act as if they’re ashamed they have a product or service to sell. They hide the call to actions; they take the sales out of their pages; they don’t talk about themselves or their products/services at all.
It’s Okay To Sell Your Product!
If you have a website because you’re online to sell a product or service, by all means – SELL your product or service. Don’t be ashamed that your site is a storefront! Let’s redefine what you’ve read from all the gurus, shall we?
• Focus on the consumer = Share your certifications and diplomas, but not on every page. Most pages should reach out to the consumer and show them that you feel their pain. Communicate. Engage. Connect.
• Don’t talk about you, talk about them = within limits! After all, how can they learn about your product or service if you don’t talk about your product and service? Where people go wrong is talking about themselves all the time. It doesn’t hurt occasionally to remind connections that you have a business, whether through a line at the end of a blog pointing to your service page or a tweet about what you do,
• Don’t oversell your product = Share other interesting things as well, such as informative articles from other sites. This doesn’t mean don’t sell your product at all.
• Don’t use interruptive marketing practices = This doesn’t mean, “Don’t market.” It means, Choose your marketing techniques carefully to blend tasteful and eye-catching. You don’t have to use intrusive techniques such as fifteen “buy now” pop-up boxes. .
Business owners, be liberated! Yes, you CAN sell your product. It’s okay; in fact, it’s expected! USE your call to actions. Pull out your sales pages and dust them off. Show off your certifications and talk about you… on the appropriate page. Don’t be so busy building your online authority that you forget your online sale.