My neighbor started out selling Amway products 30+ years ago. He learned direct marketing through the Amyway multi-level marketing program. They taught the importance of choosing a product that everyone needs that can be sold over and over to the same customers.

He started out selling soap. It was marketed 1 on 1 by humans who understood and could communicate it's benefits, the product line was perceived to be better than what was available in retail stores, and cost about the same or less. My neighbor worked less than three years and has been living on the residual income for many years.

Have you noticed that long time direct marketers often seem to have almost instant success marketing on the Internet? The reason is simple; direct marketers have known for a long time how to use knowledge of basic human nature to sell products. They focus on the customer - not on themselves or their product.

It's easier to deliver if you understand what people want. While more experienced Internet marketers are sorting through marketing hype, experienced direct marketers are earning money. People want attention; they want their desires addressed.

The age-old saying "find a need and fill it" should read "Find a desire and fill it". People respond to content that addresses their desires. Putting your-self in your ideal customers shoes is the best way I know of to get your message to sell.

The reason poor folks might choose to buy cable TV and not healthy food is because people buy what they want - not necessarily what they need. People will figure out ways to fill their desires while all their needs may not be satisfied. It follows that if you want to sell something, you must sell something people want.

Adding interactive content like a guest-book or feedback form helps you understand your customer's desires. I used to have a feedback form for prospects and customers to ask questions but it hardly ever was used. I changed the link from "More Info?" to "ask Bob" and I now get 600% more information requests. All I did was humanize the link.

Your web site content should offer a Prospect-Centered Proposition. If your headline doesn't connect your products to your prospects desires you may not get a chance to make your pitch.

Your headline and sales letter's goal should be to generate enough interest to cause your prospect to want more information from you; and the content of your sales letter should focus on your client's benefits.

Ask for the sale only after you have nurtured their desire. Ask too soon and they are gone, and they may never return.

The Internet is a "Pull Medium"; you must attract customers. We are used to "Push marketing". Radio and TV push their message in your face. Your on-line prospects must be attracted with useful information or content. Even traditional push marketing depends on the content of the programming. Without that, you would never turn on your TV or radio. Advertisers choose which programs to sponsor, based on reaching a demographic audience.

Take a look at your web site and then your favorite web sites; do they consist mostly of advertising? Do you want to be sold to? If you weren't interested in reading ads, why would you expect others to be fundamentally different than you? Review the sites you visit and buy from over and over; then go create your own - only do it better.

But don't overlook the follow-up. Lack of implementing a good follow-up program is the most common marketing error. Your marketing and advertising usually have fixed costs in time, or money or both. Many times your message creates interest, but not enough desire to make the sale. If you build in a follow-up system, your chances of making the sale is at least 200% better, and following up is free. If you spend $10 to make a $10 net profit, you are going nowhere, but if you spend $10 in advertising, then make one sale and one follow-up sale, you have doubled your profits without adding to your costs. Think about it.

In their nature, humans have a desire to know and understand other people. The reason well crafted longer sales letters work is because people want more information. If you want to close the sale with the first visit, long sales letters with lots of features and prospect benefit lists work best. I think a series of several short follow-up messages centered on your prospect's desires work at least as well, and probably better, than long sales letters. People usually buy on the third to seventh exposure. I believe it works because humans want to support relationships - not just buy products or services.

Does your advertising and web site content sell? People buy what they want, not what they need. Here are some simple guidelines.

• Write headlines that address your ideal customers desires
• List multiple benefits - anything that will make a customer's life better
• List Features - Facts about your product or service
• Make comparisons with well known competitors
• Use long copy with no off topic links or short follow-ups or both
• Follow-up 3 to 10 times centered on one or two key features and benefits.
• Ask for the sale and then follow-up

The more things change the more they stay the same. Information changes but human nature stays about the same. In the new millennium information sells, but it still takes a human approach to sell it.

Your business isn't about your product or service - it's about your customers desires.

Your business *is* your customers. I'm going to end today with examples of a couple of the best sales letters I have seen on the internet. These sites sell because they focus on your success; on what *you* (the customer) wants, and not what they want.

Visit the pages below. See if you can glean the methods used by the authors; these four sites are in the top 1% best selling web sites on-line.

The Internet Marketing Challenge
     http://www.marketingchallenge.com/index.cgi?10030

The Internet Marketing Center
     http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/6040/

The Amazing Formula
     http://www.higherresponse.com/track/t.cgi/8282

Make Your Site Sell
     http://www.sitesell.com/smithfam.html

Best Wishes

Bob

The Best Programable Follow-up System Available Today
      http://www.smithfam.com/autoresponder.html

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