Three Sales Techniques that Will Turn Visitors into Members
Sunday, September 30th 2007 @ 7:25 AM
When people hear the word "sales" they generally do not associate that term with good feelings. Either they think of how annoying it is when people try to sell them something (especially over the phone while they are eating dinner) or they think of their own sales experiences when people treated them like, well, salespeople. The reality is that LIFE is all about sales. We all sell something whether it be a product, service, education, comfort, ideals, beliefs, ourselves, ... the list goes on. Online groups are no different. We need to sell visitors on the benefits of membership, otherwise, they just won't join.
You may be thinking, "but I run a group that is free to members", or "I run a group where that requires members to join".. "I don't need sales techniques". But you do. If you are selling membership, giving it away, or requiring it (as in a corporate intranet), members need to see the benefits they are getting from the group, or they will unsubscribe or just plain not participate.
Now for the good news, this is not typical "sales" we are talking about. All the "selling" you need to do is in the creation of your group. These include techniques, design, and copy writing. So here we go...
- Sell the benefits, not just the features. The feature is the "what" and the benefit is the "what will it do for me". For example, one of the main features of this group is "articles on membership building". But I would sell it as "articles on membership building that will help you to get more members and keep the members you have".
- Sell with images, not just with words. Everyone knows that stock images are used all over. For example, the guy in this article... I have no idea who he is. He is most likely not a salesman, and he probably doesn't know the first thing about online groups. But he looks confident and successful, and that is the feeling I would like to leave readers with.
- Choose headlines that make visitors want to view the content. Magazines are masters at this. Look at any good magazine cover (magazines.com) and the headlines will be carefully constructed so the readers have this desire to read the article. For example, I could have titled this article, "Sales Tips", but that is boring. By adding the benefit in there, readers will know what they can get out of the article before they read it.
Remember that whether you run a class reunion online group that is free to members, or a membership site that charges members a monthly or yearly fee, sales techniques are a must. We are in the age of information overload -- it is your job to show visitors why the information your group provides is important to them. If you can do this, you will turn those visitors into members.
