Advertising 101: Selling, The Right Way

I want you to pull up your web site and read through it with new eyes. Your job in an online business is not to build stunning websites online.

As you look at your site, imagine you are visiting it for the first time. If you are like most visitors, you have only one question - what's in it for me? That's what your visitors want to know. Let's take my new home study course as an example. I could go on about the three CD-ROMs, the great manual for getting started quickly, all of the tutorials, including six hours of video and eight hours of audio training, and on and on through the whole list of features.

Big deal. Chances are, you don't care. And why should you? As a busy consumer, you want to know, "What can this course do for me? How will it improve my life?"

You don't need to know the features; you want to know the benefits. I could say that it will teach you how to:

- Discover the most profitable niches for your business;

- Create a moneymaking website;

- Upload information to your website, and get it on the Internet;

- Choose the right website;

- Register a domain name and find a web host;

- Find new customers every day;

- Set up a shopping cart;

- How to make large commissions recommending other people's products

- Develop a professional look and feel for your website.

Doesn't that sound better? Well, yes, but I'm still missing the point. I'm giving my clients good information, but I'm not truly giving them benefits. I need to put myself in their shoes.

Think about your customer and ask yourself these questions.

-How will watching video tutorials about building web sites help them spend more time with their families?

-How will listening to audios on the secrets of Internet marketing help them get out of the crushing debt they are facing every day?

-How will taking notes, following along in a transcript, help them gain the freedom they so desperately desire?

- How will following the transcripts help them to gain the financial freedom they desire? In studying your customers, you will learn their desires.Perhaps they seek freedom from debt, or from those dreaded nine to five jobs they hate. Maybe they want freedom to pursue their passions and live their dreams. And some may wish the freedom to educate their children in entrepreneurship, in the hopes that their children won't have to suffer unpleasant jobs, dictatorial bosses, and low wages. They would jump at the chance to make $2000 dollars in an Internet business. And so would you.

So, what is the point of all this?

You may list features on your web page, but you sell benefits. The features of a wedding ebook are that it is 67 pages long, that it contains interviews with caterers, pastors, wedding coordinators, and florists, etc. Or that it comes with a money- back guarantee.The benefits of this wedding e-book are that your wedding will be beautiful, that you will not spend money needlessly, that you will save money, that you will be the envy of all your friends and that your wedding will be as unique as you are!

The next time you're watching TV, pay special attention to the advertising. Car commercials are a great example of this. Auto manufacturers rarely talk about the undercoating, gear ratio, paint job, or other features. Instead, they sell the benefits. The wind in your hair, the exhilaration of speed, the great feeling you get from driving their car.

Do you see the difference? They're selling the feeling of driving the car, not the car itself. Those commercials tickle our fantasy, making us believe that we are richer and better looking when we drive that particular vehicle. Of course it's a fantasy, but for many buyers, that's the benefit. The image is often the thing.

I'm not saying you have to go that far. But I am saying that your website better answer the question, "What's in it for me? How will this e-book benefit me? How will this course benefit me? How will this video benefit me?"

To succeed with your website, you must answer these questions. Show your clients, with clear examples, exactly how your product or service benefits them. My home study course, for example, helps people develop an income, which in turn helps them quit their dreaded day jobs, pay off debts, and work fewer hours so they can spend time with their families. Through my course, they learn entrepreneurship, skills that they can pass to their children. I help them find the money to pursue their passions, combining work and play. Those are all clear benefits, and my clients can relate to them.

That's more like it!Stephen Beck teaches families how to www.buildingsitesthatsell.com/ "> build sites that sell . For a free CD discussing the steps for a profitable online business, visit Start Home Business right now.