How to Leverage Targeted Traffic into Repeat Buyers

Do you know what the two most common, drop-dead deal breakers are for internet marketers? It’s not the lack of a supersonic website, a big bunch of high converting products to sell or a used car salesman’s silver tongue. It’s much more basic than that and occurs well before any of those would come into play anyway.

To make my point, consider this: some very successful internet marketers (maybe 2% or so) don’t even have a website, only sell an handful of affiliate products and are not on the lecture circuit. Yet they boast 5, 6 or even 7 figure incomes. So, what do they know that the other 98% of internet marketers don’t? They understand the buying cycle.

Two Things Most Internet Marketers Are Missing In Their Sales Process

1. They don’t understand the psychology of the sale

Although most marketers realize it’s important to know what people will buy, the most successful marketers know it’s equally important to know how people buy and why. If you don’t understand that bit of psychology, I’m afraid you’re dead in the water.

Sales are not made by plying buyers with logic. This is why you can’t take someone who is not interested in your product and “convince” them that they need it. It just doesn’t work that way; never did, never will.

Not everyone wants or needs your product. Accept that as a fact and get over it. Focus on those with a true need you can satisfy and stop wasting your time on the rest. If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to none.

Many marketers go out of their way to guarantee they will not make a sale. They will encounter a potential customer with a keen interest in their product and “hard sell” them away. People resent being pitched to, even when they have an interest or need for a product.

I know from personal experience of sales people who have lost a sale because of that practice. I have been in stores or on car lots where I was ready to buy until I was dogged to death by a salesperson. It’s time to stop selling once the sale is made. There is a thin line between persuasion and irritation.

Sales are generated by appealing to an emotional need the buyer has at the moment of purchase. All sales are made for one of two reasons: to feel better or hurt less. That’s it; end of that story.

People will buy something to fill one of these emotional voids first and then rationalize the purchase with logic later. “I love my Blue Fuzzy Widget. Not only did it solve my back pain, but I didn’t have to miss any work for doctor’s appointments either. It was well worth the money.”

2. They have not established a relationship with the buyer

Several things are in effect here. First, impulse buyers are virtually non-existent; online or off. Oh, you’ll make the random sale off the cuff, I suppose, but it won’t be consistent or predictable. It’s like fishing; they may or may not be biting on any given day.

Second, statistics have shown that it takes an average of 7-9 exposures to a product before most sales are made. This creates quite a challenge for many internet marketers.

“If they don’t buy when I send them to my sales page, how will I get them back 6 or 7 more times to the same place to get that exposure?” The simple answer is: you probably won’t.

As with most things, there is a solution to this problem, and in this case, a rather simple one. The best way to overcome this obstacle is to establish an ongoing, long-term relationship with the potential customer. There are many ways to do this: forums, blogs or publishing articles, to name a few.

But there is an even better way that allows you to develop this relationship that is automated, consistent and deadly effective. That method is to build a targeted list of subscribers to your newsletter using autoresponders. Autoresponders work 24/7/365, they neither get sick nor take vacations. Once they are set up and running, they run on autopilot for the most part.

More important than the mechanical aspect of it, is the way you build your list. You must develop a relationship with your subscribers based on trust. There is a right way and wrong way to do this. There are many good training programs out there, some at no cost,that will guide you through the whole process of building a high impact email marketing program.

Find a good training program and put your marketing efforts on autopilot. Once you have it up and running, go ahead and take some time off for fun and family. After all, that’s what it’s all about anyway, right?

Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Grab my free report: 7 Steps to a Successful Email Marketing Program
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