Submitted by: Matt DeAngelis

Reading the Google hit piece that appeared in Barron’s this week got me thinking about the whole pay-per-click model. Pay-per-click (PPC) has been around for more a decade, and while Google has made some positive changes to it, it’s showing its age.

If you think of the Internet advertising process as a series of actions, it would go like this:

Impression -> Click -> Action

Back in the old days the metric was CPM (cost per thousand), and advertisers paid per impression (getting the ad on the screen). CPM favored the publisher over the advertiser, as the publisher’s responsibility ended at the first part of the process. DoubleClick, an early ad serving company, came up with their DART system to match the right advertiser with the right screen in order to maximize the return on CPM.

PPC moved the metric forward in the process, measuring success (and payment) based not on how many times the ad was served, but how many times it was actually clicked. When most people think of PPC they think of Adsense, Google’s contextual advertising engine. But PPC is employed in banner advertising, on big ad farms like Doubleclick and other companies, and in some affiliate programs, though the number seems to be waning.

The latest incarnation of search engine based PPC (thanks to Google), works like this: you select keywords that you think people will use to search for stuff related to what you sell. For example, if you sell pretzel dough you might want to advertise under pretzels or making pretzels or something along those lines. Selecting keywords is way beyond the scope of this article, but there are plenty of companies out there that make a living helping you pick keywords. Anyway, you then bid on those keywords and your ad is shown on the page with the search results.

With Adsense Google moved the context from the search engine results page to your web site content. It reads your site and decides what keywords to use to display advertising on your site, just as it would with a Google search.

For affiliate programs it’s a little different, but the concept is the same. You choose the ads (or pay someone a piece of the action to choose the ads for you), and they get displayed on your pages. Rather than selecting the keywords explicitly, you are selecting the ads based on what you (or your agent) thinks people who have chosen to read your content may have an interest in seeing.

When someone clicks on the ad, you get paid. It’s that simple.

For Adsense, appearing first on the list makes all the difference. A study suggests that being the #1 choice increases your chance of being clicked by up to 40%, because a lot of people don’t look past the first entry (I always check the first few). The difference in bids between the first position and second position could be staggering. For example, 1900 people searched Google for the word tax yesterday. The top spot in Adsense would have cost you $25.12. Positions 2 and 3 drop to $6.96, and 4 and 5 would have cost you $4.24.

My experience with Adsense tells me that in this case the first position would probably pay Google close to $10.

As the publisher, this is a home run. Every time the person clicks I get a $5 bill. God, what a country!

As the advertiser, $10 to get the person in the door seems like a lot of money to me. If I’m selling a high margin item (like maybe tax software or one of those quickie tax loans), it seems like it may be okay.

But I still have to get them to buy. Conversion rates (getting the person to take some action once they’ve clicked on the ad and gone to your site) vary wildly, but I always use 1.5 – 3% of those who click on an ad. That means that 97 – 98.5% of the people who click on the ad do not buy. Let’s use 2% as an example. That means that for all the five dollar bills flying into the publisher’s pocket, only about 2 people out of every hundred will buy anything. So for every $1000 I spend I get 20 sales. That means that every sale costs me $50. Your results will vary, of course, depending on how targeted your keywords are and your industry and offer. Get the conversion up to 5%, for example, and you will be down to $20 per sale, which is a little better. I am designing a what-if tool to help with this, and I’ll post it when it’s ready.

One of the reasons for low conversion is probably click fraud. If an unscrupulous person wants to make money in PPC, all he needs to do is find a bunch of people (or computers) to click on the ads on his website continually, and he’ll reap the rewards.

Barron’s believes that the smart money is getting out of PPC. They cite FTD as an example:

Flower giant FTD Group (FTD) recently complained about the high price of search advertising. “During the Christmas season, certain online search engine costs increased significantly over the prior year, and as such we made the decision not to pursue the resulting high-cost order volume,” said Michael Soenen, chief executive officer.

First off, let me just say that as an advertising exec I pitched FTD, and they didn’t strike me as the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. That being said, it’s easy to see why FTD wants out. Being #1 or #2 in the keyword Flowers around Valentine’s Day would have cost between $6.25 and $10.00. There were 100,000 searches on the days close to VD on that keyword, and 11,500 on Flowers Delivered, which would have cost between $5.03 and $6.72.

Some simple arithmetic shows me that FTD nets about $6.20 per transaction across its network. So the transaction is either a wash or a loss. FTD is the number 1 ad on Google for their keywords, so I guess they decided to eat that first transaction, counting on continuity to save them. According to Barron’s this isn’t going to work either:

One industry executive noted that the lifetime value of a customer acquired through Google for his/her business had approached zero. Oops. So much for that theory.

So the answer seems to be that the big guys are getting out. Using the flowers example, though, the top 5 ads are FTD, ProFlowers, Hallmark, 1-800-Flowers and Teleflora. So I guess it’s going to happen over time.

So where is the future? According to the inventor of pay-per-click himself, Bill Gross (formerly of GoTo.com), the future is in pay-per-action, which moves the metric down to the final part of the Internet advertising transaction, where we think it belongs. There’s a terrific article on Seochat.com that has more information on this.

Pay-per-action is simple…both parties have a stake in the outcome of the click, whether that is a sale, a lead, or even an instant telephone call (more on that in part 2). We think this is going to be the next big thing, and it’s already happening.

About the Author: Matt DeAngelis runs

AffiliateBlog.com

. Matt is the former Chief Technology Officer of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind ad campaigns and online presence for a good portion of the Fortune 100, including AT&T, GE, John Hancock, Delta Airlines and Compaq.

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By Jane Molano

Skateboarding is a famous sport that many people love to watch and take part in. It can be very fun to ride down the street with the wind blowing your hair or riding down a ramp and feeling the thrill of the high speeds. While it is a great way to show off your skills you can also use skateboarding to show off your own style. You can adorn your board with designs in your favorite color or wear apparel that help you create a style statement. Skateboard logos are another way off showing off your favorite teams. There are many skateboarding teams that have both pro and amateur riders who ride in competitions as well. If you like a certain team you can put their logo on your board or stick it anywhere else people may see. Almost Skateboards logos are available all over the Internet in different sizes and shapes. Almost Skateboards logos can be stuck on to show your support for the team.

Almost Skateboards logos are sold on the Internet by many different distributors on various sites. The logos can be bought in different sizes according to where you want to stick them. The logos can make your plain old board look bright and new. You can get a customized logo if you want. If you want a certain color and design and can’t find it, you can get one made especially for yourself. Almost Skateboards logos are easy to find anywhere on the Internet. They come in every shape and size imaginable and are a very famous skateboard accessory. The logos are priced very reasonably and you can buy more than one if you like. You can stick a few small logos on your board if you like.

You can find Almost Skateboards logos on the Internet at really affordable prices. Since so many sites are selling them it is easy to find good deals. Each of them wants to offer the best prices so they all give great offers. Other than Almost Skateboards logos, you can buy accessories such as protective gear, apparel and maintenance accessories such as wax and bearing lube. Almost is a company that always has the best offers on their products and you can get them all and still stick to your budget if you buy it all online.

Almost Skateboards logos and accessories are the perfect add on if you want to jazz up your board or your own clothes. You can have it all delivered to you so there is no hassle at all. All of the ordering is done on the Internet, so there is no problem of travelling all the way to a store just to find that the product you want is sold out. Almost Skateboards logos and accessories are hot selling items so even if you don’t get what you want on one site you will definitely find it on another website; you just need to browse a little.

About the Author: Jane is an expert in the field. For more information on

SKATEBOARDS LOGOS

and on

SKATEBOARD DECKS

Please visit: http://www.goskateorgohome.com

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By Albert Grande

A POS (point of sale) System can save you money, time, and needless expense.

A point of sale system is a computer system that helps businesses track all of your sales and can help with inventory control, delivery and customer needs.

While using a cash register to track sales will tell you how much money you took in, you are only getting part of the picture.

A Point of Sale system eliminates the need to use paper receipts. A POS system totally removes the need for paper receipts which can be a nightmare to sort and file.

While you can get a good idea of your sales with a cash register, you are missing out on a way to have a complete picture of the types of food you are selling.

With software POS installed in your pizza restaurant you can not only tell you how much money you are taking in, but it can also tell you the types of food you are selling. Information on the exact number of pepperoni pizzas you sold on a given day will allow you to keep much better inventory.

Not only can a POS help you with inventory ordering but you can also tell the exact amount of sales done by a particular employee.

You will be able to track who is selling the most of certain items. You can then take this information and look at who your best employees are. This will aid you in discovering what they are doing right. In the long run this will only increase your business.

A restaurant POS system can assist you with employee training. When used properly a POS system is the best method for business tracking.

Without a POS your server is running into the kitchen with a fist full of orders that need to be filled. With a POS set up properly, your employee only has to punch in a couple of numbers or code onto a computer screen and the computer does the rest.

The kitchen staff knows exactly how to prepare and fulfill the orders in the quickest way possible. With a POS in place you have totally eliminated an entire step in the ordering process.

This means the customer will get their food much quicker. A POS will also help you to eliminate errors. And customers will be delighted that they are getting their pizzas delivered to their table a lot quicker.

Happy customers will mean more repeat business for you and your business.

A pizza POS can help you manage your inventory and allow you to spend more time managing your restaurant.

Your POS software is a complete database for all of your restaurant needs.

So isn’t it about time you decided to take the plunge and Invest in a POS system for your restaurant or pizzeria.

It just makes total sense to run your business more efficiently. It will save you time. It will save you money. A POS system is the answer for your pizza restaurant.

For more information and recommendations about POS Software click on the link below.

About the Author: For more POS recommendations please click on the following link:

POS Software System

. You can discover why a POS system will save you money. If you are not using videos to promote your local business, you’re leaving money on the table! Supercharge your business with videos with this free report:

Hawaii Business Videos

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By Nowal Khan

The island of Penang, Malaysia is dubbed as the Pearl of the Orient and considered as one of Asias most famous travel destination to date. This is not quite hard to imagine since Penang has grown into a beautiful city with modern architecture and yet still manages to preserve its historical value overtime, offering the best of worlds in one small area.

RELIGION

Religion in this side of world is freely expressed and respected. The official religion in Penang is Islam but you can find temples and other religious grounds from different faiths such as Buddhist and Hindu temples.

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

Penang is a fairly busy island, always bustling with annual festivities of different cultures. If you are visiting the island of Penang, it is not uncommon to chance upon at least one festival taking place during your stay. Some of the highlights are Chinese New Year held every late January or early February which signifies the beginning of Chinese Lunar year and Christmas Day celebrated by Christians every month of December.

Other occasions held in Penang, Malaysia annually are: The Birthday of the Goddess of Mercy, Wesak Day or the birthday of Lord Buddha, Hari Raya Puasa which marks the end of Ramadan, Saint Annes Feast, Hari Raya Haji, Festival of Nine Emperor Gods, Malaysias National Day, and Deepavali in commemoration of the slaying of evil king by Lord Krishna.

CUISINE

Penang travel can never be completed without sampling its fine delicacy and cuisine greatly influenced by Malays, Chinese and Indians. There is definitely no room for picky eaters here since there is always something for everybody and food is really great, tourists usually come back for more. The most famous dish is the Penang Laksa, a tamarind-based fish soup filled with noodles. Penang Laksa is a very delicious and filling treat. Tourist can either choose to buy their food from hawkers of roadside stalls or get them at regular sit-in restaurants which nicely dotted the area. Gurney Drive is the famous food street where you will find hawkers stalls lined up and selling best of Penang Food.

Some of Penangs local favorites are:

– Satay or Malaysian style kebab.

– Apom, an Indian paper-thin pancake.

– Apong, Nyonyas folded pancake.

– Beef ball noodles

– Char Koay Teow, stir-fried rice noodles.

– Chicken rice, a complete meal of Hainanese rice cooked in chicken stock served with roasted or steamed chicken.

– Fried oysters for seafood lovers!

– Mee Goreng, an Indian fried noodle.

– Mee Suah Tau or vermicelli soup with flaked crab meat.

This is just some of the suggested food fare in Penang since this town is known for its excellent cuisine and their food list is virtually endless.

BEACHES

Penang beaches stretch from Tanjung Bungah to Telok Bahang for miles and miles. The most popular beach front is the Batu Ferringhi which is quite busy during peak seasons. Other beaches that you can find in Penang are: Tanjung Bungah, Muka Head, Pantai Keracut, Pantai Acheh, Monkey Beach and Gertak Sanggul, all of which are beautiful sandy beaches where you can relax and have fun under the sun.

GEORGETOWN HERITAGE SITE

Georgetown is the capital of Penang Island and was declared by UNESCO in 2008 as a world heritage site. Georgetown has extensive list of sights to see, some of its famous tourist attractions are Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Leith Street, built in 1890. Fort Cornwallis in Light Street was built in 1793 and visit Penang Islamic Museum by Armenian Street. The Pinang Peranakan Mansion can be found around Church Street and also check out Queen Victoria Clock Tower which commemorates Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

The island of Penang is also the home of the largest bridge in Malaysia and one of the largest in the world, the Penang Bridge. Dont forget to experience Penang Hill as well, a favorite spot among tourists which can be accessed through railway or by foot.

Your visit to Penang will be richly awarded by different cultures and traditions that one can only experience in Penang, Malaysia. If you need to get away from it all, Penang is the site for you since it offers places to explore on-foot and beautiful beaches to swim on. Cultural heritage permeates the air of Penang, right from the sight, sound and smell. Your visit will not allow you to go home empty-handed considering best shopping outlets for electronics, clothing and other products made from South-East Asia. Cultural diversity is also reflected with food choices available in this side of town. Penang truly feeds the mind and soul. With both modern and historical worth, it is safe to say that theres always something for everybody here in Penang.

About the Author: Nowal has been a freelance travel writer for almost 10 years now. Penang Travel Guide (

penangmalaysiatravel.com/

) is his recent travel guide to Penang. The guide provides useful information to Georgetown heritage sites (

penangmalaysiatravel.com/penang/georgetown-penang-heritage/

).

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By Michael Bustamante

‘Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.’ These are the words of St. Augustine who was neither a life coach nor a scientist and yet, how full of truth his words were.

The whole concept of a personal development plan relies on these words. Men take for granted what they are given by nature and they unconsciously assume that they know very well what they were given. Unfortunately, life is a lot more difficult these days and people soon discover that their only tool to succeed is themselves. They understand that they need an action plan to move on with their life within the context of career, education, and relationships. They need life coaching.

A personal development plan is part of life coaching and the two concepts are often times confused. People somehow imagine that a personal development plan is all it takes to get their life on the right tracks. They also forget that a PDP is not a way to get back on the tracks but it is a way to explore and discover the right tracks you should follow. Some people understand the need of life coaching in implementing a PDP, others don’t.

But why do people need a personal development plan or life coaching as a matter of fact? Well, essentially, they need such a plan because they feel that something is wrong with their life and something is not working properly for them. They do not know the answers to some simple questions:

— Do you know who you are and what you want most in your life?

— Are you aware of the special gifts which you were personally and uniquely endowed with?

— Can you identify the obstacles which prevent you from achieving your goals?

— Are you aware that there is a difference between you and the higher you?

Most people do not know the answers to these questions. Life coaching has the very role of identifying these answers accurately so that you can use them towards self improvement and personal achievement in all respects of your life. Life is simple when you know what solution to use for each specific problem but the solutions are within yourself and unless you know yourself you will confront life with the wrong solutions, making it more difficult than it already is.

A leadership development plan is a special part of personal development plan. More and more people become leaders and not necessarily because they choose to. Many assume that leadership is just something that you have or you don’t have. The fact is that even if this principle were true, how could you be sure that you don’t have it unless you’ve looked for it?

Life coaching is the only way to find out what you can do and how far you can go in your life. Knowing your limits, your strengths and your weaknesses, will reveal the path you need to take whether it is in your profession, personal life, or education.

About the Author: Helen Ollerenshaw is a

leadership development plan

specialist and member of Stanford Who’s Who

Business Social Network

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By Raul Ramirez

A life insurance agent sits across the dining room table from a couple. The couple is middle class with two children ages 2 and 10. After conferring with the couple for 45 minutes the agent has designed a plan to protect the family against death of either the mother or father or both. The agent slides the proposal across the table to the parents. The parents glance at the proposal and see that the plan will cost them $50.00 a month. The couple hesitates then glances at each other.

The agent observes the hesitation. He anticipates an objection and reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out 2 quarters, 2dimes, 3nickels and 4 pennies. He then puts the change on the table and states that The childrens future will be protected in the event that a tragedy takes the life of one of you or both for a little over a dollar a day or a cup of coffee. In sales, the next one that speaks loses. The couple smiles and asks Where do we sign?

This is called Reduce to the Ridiculous and it is a form of framing. In the sales profession this is a very effective way to overcome the monthly objection. Millhouse framed his decision in the very same manner. The salesman reduced to the ridiculous and Millhouse bought. Forty cents a day sounds better than $12.40 a month. The couple in this example was faced with the dilemma of $50.00 a month. The children would still be taken care of financially in the event the parents died but $50.00 a month is a lot of money, that is $600.00 a year or just $1.61 a day. Wait a minute, just $1.61 a day? We can do that! Where do we sign? What does this say about our customer base?

People do not respond the same to prohibitions and allowances (Plouse, 1993). Take for instance the agent and the couple or Millhouse and the salesman, both were faced with a substantial amount of money out of pocket even though the need warranted it. When the agent and salesman turned the concept around to the point of value for only pennies a day, the customers frame was changed and the sale was made. The framed saw that the allowances far outweighed the prohibitions regardless of the fact that everything was the same. This is very powerful in the world of sales. How you make a decision is often determined by how you view your choices or how you frame the questions around it (Anderson, 1999).

In the Millhouse example the salesman framed the question around the future success of the company being worth one can of soda. This statement is pretty ridiculous to the point that anyone would say yes to that statement. If the salesman framed the question any other way, the possibility of a sale at that moment could have been greatly diminished. For example, if the salesman stated that the future success of the company depended upon the purchase of this product today, there is no value associated with the gain or loss. Millhouse didnt see a can of soda being the reason the company is successful; rather Millhouse can easily validate that the decision could be made tomorrow and thusly rationalize against the purchase. For example, he could rationalize the overall cost versus gain, interest paid, and Is it really a value. People tend to be against risk and will look for reasons to talk themselves out of the situation when given the chance (Anderson, 1999).

The can of soda a day is not a loss compared to the future success of the company.

Framing in the business world can be a powerful ally to the salesman. Salesman are trained not to go into a sales pitch right away but rather feel out the prospect, gather information and find the hot spots. An experienced salesman knows his prospects as well as the product if not more. An experience salesman builds a relationship with the prospect. An experienced salesman asks the right questions. An experienced salesman frames the closing statement to the point that the prospect would be a fool not to buy.

A good listener as well as inquisitor can learn more about a person in one conversation than they think. The more the person knows the more power that person has to be an influence upon the decisions we make. In these cases knowledge is power. Successful businesses with products to sell have uncovered so much information about the people and markets to which their products are being sold to. Without this knowledge, the marketing departments would never know how to cleverly make that closing statement, or put that person there in that commercial or use those colors within the product they are marketing to sell. This is all a form of decision framing by influencing the way the customer sees the product, convinces themselves to purchase the product and rationalize that the purchase was a good decision. Framing a decision in part is controlled by the normalcy, habits and attributes of the decision maker (Plouse, 1993).

Morally, people must take the decisions they make into careful consideration and accountability. One can have a great influence over another when it is done right. We are all guilty in one way or another of framing, from the toy companies to convincing your boss you need a raise. The world is bought and sold face to face or across the airwaves using frames. Conflict and peace and the reasons for either one are thrust upon us by using frames. The key is to take time in making a decision.

Usually a decision can be made on a product or situation with a little bit of time in between. Will the decision be different? There is an extreme possibility that it will. If one was framed and took time to think about it, more than likely the decision will be different. Millhouse didnt take time to analyze the total cost of the product on the extended payment plan and the difference that would make on the actual bottom line and whether it was worth it then. We are all guilty of framing and being framed. We all have a responsibility to take a few steps back and think about and realize the decisions we make. The fact of the matter is we would probably be surprised about how differently our lives might actually be.

References

Decision Making Traps We All Fall Into Kare Anderson Canadian Womens Business Network 1999. retrieved 18 November 2005. http://www.cdnbizwomen.com/articles/kare8.html

Plouse, Scott (1) (1993) The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making New Aster: McGraw-Hill

Licensed

About the Author: Raul Ramirez is a licensed agent in the state of Florida. He owns and operates Gulf Breeze Insurance Inc. an independent insurance agency. Please feel free to use this article on your site or email so as you include name of author and website.

gulfbreezeinsurance.com

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By Jerry Bader

Change is inevitable; as an economy matures, ages, and ultimately evolves into something new, adjustments must be made to our business development, marketing and branding. Failure to adapt to new realities results in potentially unwanted dramatic consequences.

We are all aware of how modern economies have grown from agricultural, to industrial, and on to the information-based, but where do we stand now? Is the information economy dead and if so what’s replaced it?

We need look no further than Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to see parallels between personal and economic growth in a sophisticated modern economy. The agrarian economy satisfied the first level of Maslow’s hierarchy by fulfilling basic physical needs like food, while the industrial age provided the goods necessary to satisfy a variety of concerns ranging from safety to social acceptance and status; the information economy provided answers to our cognitive needs, the desire for knowledge, but things have changed. The Web has disrupted business as usual: the effects on the music, film, television, newspaper, book publishing, and software industries, just to mention a few, has been not just dramatic, but traumatic. The adage, ‘adapt or die,’ has never been truer for business. So where are we now on the personal and economic pyramid?

Be All You Can Be

At the top of this pyramid is ‘self-actualization’ the desire to make the most of our existence and as the US Army’s slogan states to ‘Be All You Can Be.’ This is the central defining issue of the new economic reality, the Experience Economy.

Authors B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore state the issue of what business needs to focus on in this new economic era: “While commodities are fungible, goods are tangible, services are intangible, experiences are memorable and transformations are effectual. All other economic offerings have no lasting consequence beyond their consumption.” – ‘The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage.’

Experiences are memorable and transformations effectual, this should be your new marketing mantra, your marching orders to fulfill what the market demands: to be all you can be.

Experiences Are Memorable, Transformations Effectual

What then does this mean: experiences are memorable and transformations effectual. In order to effect change: to turn website audiences into customers, marketers must deliver something more than commodities that are replaceable for a price, goods that are made irrelevant by technology, and services that are mere conveniences. The businesses that will succeed in this new experience economy are the businesses that will provide an experience and not just goods and services.

We are surrounded by examples of the experience economy both online and off. The growth of coffee giant, Starbucks, was not a result of great coffee but of the experience it provided to patrons, while online, iTunes satisfied the ignored needs of music buyers and Amazon did the same for book lovers. The Macintosh is finally gaining market share because the experience consumers have had with iPods has been so satisfying that they are now ready to bring that same satisfying experience to their desktops. The key to business survival is not a new feature or even a lower price, but rather an experience that satisfies the soul.

Experiences Satisfy The Soul

Traditional business thinking has lagged far behind the sophisticated psychological desires of the experience-economy consumer. Business schools have produced a cadre of bean counters and statistical idiot savants whose grasp of this new experience-driven economic reality has been outpaced by Web-savvy mavericks bent on delivering the essential emotional need of consumers to gain some measure of satisfaction in a hectic, demanding, frustrating world.

The Web is not without its own version of mindless number crunchers, selling the search engine optimization snake oil of Web-traffic nirvana. These new age carpetbaggers play on the conventional wisdom and comfort food of spreadsheet statistics. Like Texas Hold’em poker, you can play the math or you can play the man, and it’s the latter that generally walks away the winner.

The Six-Step Web-Branding Blueprint

The Goal: Transformation Through Self-Actualization

The end result of our efforts is to transform website visitors into customers but in order to do that we must take a step back. The experience economy demands a new way of thinking about your audience and exactly what it is you’re selling. Every marketing decision you make from now on should relate back to one simple priority: what element of self-actualization do you deliver? Find that element and build your marketing campaign around it. Forget price, quality and service; they are all discounted in the minds of a highly cynical marketplace bugged more than enlightened by heavy-handed old-school marketing presentations and methodologies.

Step one: understand your marketing goal is to transform your audience from unsatisfied cynical viewers into satisfied contented clients.

The Prerequisite: Expectation

Successful marketing is about creating a set of realistic, believable expectations that can be fulfilled by the offering. Almost daily we are bombarded by over-hyped, silly direct marketing Web-advertising that is structured to take advantage of consumers’ weaknesses, their desire to improve, to be the best they can be, and to gain some measure of satisfaction and relevance in their lives. Creating false expectations may lead to a onetime sale but not a long-term client.

Step two: create appropriate, believable expectations that you can actually fulfill.

The Product: Audience

One way of wrapping your head around this new approach is to think of your audience as if they were your product; you are transforming them from unsatisfied browsers to satisfied evangelists – that’s your job. You just don’t want to make a sale you want to make coverts, an army of satisfied consumers telling everyone they know how great you are. Getting people onto your emailing list is not good enough; turn them into believers and proselytizers.

Step three: the product of your marketing is your audience, turn your website audience into true believers spreading the gospel of your ability to satisfy.

The Methodology: Experience

Experiences are passed-on and reinforced by the strength of the story you tell. The Springwise newsletter has a perfect example of the strength of having a unique and interesting story. Emil and Magnus Gerbola of Denmark import Italian wine and sell it to wine bars, restaurants, corporate clients and consumers. But the experience of buying a bottle of Gerbola Vin is different from your usual trip to the liquor store. These two brothers, the sons of an itinerant Italian circus clown have set up shop in an underground candle-lit bunker built in 1942. What could be better than sitting with your friends enjoying a bottle of imported wine and entertaining them with the story of the circus clown’s wine merchant sons operating out of a World War II bunker.

Step four: enhance your offering with a differentiating story forming the basis of the unique satisfying experience you offer.

The Stage: The Web

Believe it or not there are still businesses that can’t quite grasp the necessity of using the Web as their marketing centerpiece. And then there are those that just don’t recognize that the Web is a multimedia platform, and not just a reservoir of digital brochures and catalogs.

The Web has multiplied the Paradox of Choice, the principle that the more choices you have, the harder it is to make a decision. As a consequence, websites must deliver well-crafted differentiating marketing messages using experience-generating multimedia Web-techniques.

Step five: the Web is no longer just a dumping ground of random information; it is a highly sophisticated stage for creating experiences through the delivery of entertaining, informative, compelling, and memorable stories.

The Vehicle: Video

There is just no better way to cut through the remoteness and isolation of the Web than video. And when we talk of video we are not talking about slide shows of still photos and bulleted points. Just because it moves doesn’t mean it’s effective. The way to tell your story and deliver your message is with a real person that can express emotion, emphasis, charm, personality and impact.

Step six: Deliver your marketing message, your unique differentiating story, your identity and brand through the clever and sophisticated employment of memorable Web-video.

A Final Thought

If you run a business you’re busy and that leads to a satisficing tendency to over-simplify, to reduce things down to an elevator pitch, to create meaningless mission statements and lists of bulleted points delivered by a boring PowerPoint slide show; unfortunately clients are complicated and business is complex, but Pine and Gilmore say it clearly in the title of their book, ‘The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage’ or if you prefer just remember what old Will Shakespeare had to say, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” If you want to be a ‘player,’ you have to learn how to effectively communicate with your audience through the power and impact of experience marketing.

About the Author: Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit mrpwebmedia.com/ads, 136words.com, and sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

Source: isnare.com

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