People-Your Most Critical Asset

Sometimes we Internet marketers get carried away with search engine rankings, blogs, traffic, click thru rates, conversion ratios, auto-responders, AdSense, link cloaking, web hosting PHP scripts and the rest and we inevitably forget the one key ingredient that will make our business a success.

Our customers and how they perceive us.

I will wager that the internet marketer that puts the time and effort into really helping his customers, by offering appropriate levels of support, by giving quality information and by answering inquiries quickly and honestly will outsell the fancy Dan with the flash graphics and constant trail of borderline spam urging his clients to buy his latest regurgitated eBook.

There is no substitute for integrity, no amount of fancy graphics or colourful sales copy can hide it and even the greenest “newbie” will appreciate it when he encounters it. Developing that sense of integrity is difficult to project in a website or blog – one way to stand out is to display a banner showing that you are approved by various organisations. I personally prefer Graham Hamer’s eTrust banners, but there are several others that will also convey that impression, but a banner is just a banner – you need to back it up with your actions

You need to project your integrity in you dealings with people, by recommending legitimate real products that are useful, by answering inquiries as soon as possible and by quickly and cheerfully providing refunds when appropriate. Your mailing series needs to be informative without being pushy and written in a conversational style that is sincere and believable and above all you need to be approachable.

For all the advantages that this technological age gives the entrepreneur, it is worth remembering that sometimes automated technology can hinder a potential business relationship.

Internet Marketing is all about automation. Advertising, prospecting, and selling can all be done hands free and this makes the netpreneur’s job “easy.” However, it does not matter how good your auto-responder series is, no matter how well written your sales copy, some people just won’t get it and let’s face it we have all been there at some time and that’s when we need to be responsive to the requests for help

I get tired of reading “gurus” bemoan newbies as time wasters and troublesome. Everybody is new at some stage and sometimes they just need a helping and along the way. If you take the time to understand what the customers needs are – you can really build a positive long lasting business relationship and when you make a recommendation to somebody who knows and trusts you they will give it due consideration.

That’s when your initial investment in your customer will really pay off. Over and over again…

Warmest regards ..... Kevin