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G E T P R O F I T A B L E U P D A T E!

June 15, 2001

The "Get Profitable Update" is an Internationally published

E-Newsletter delivering original, valuable and usable marketing

information, success tips, and business strategies that you can

use immediately to increase your revenues and profits.

A FREE, twice-monthly newsletter dedicated to helping you ...

... Make More Profit!

Email: info@getprofitable.com Web: http://www.getprofitable.com

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WHERE YOU CAN MEET KEVIN CLARK:

June 27^th - American Mangement Association, Operation Enterprise Speech, Topic: E-Marketing, Colorado Springs, CO

July 9,10 – E-Branding Strategy Asia 2001, Global Connections Conference, Hong Kong, Topic: How To Brand Your Online Business, register at: http://www.globalconnection.com.hk

October 1,2 – American Express Travel Conference, Orlando, FL Speech Topic: How To Uncover Your Hidden Marketing Assets

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IN THIS ISSUE:

1) MARKETING: Fall In Love With Your Customer/Client Instead of Your Product or Service.

2) INTERNET: What Is Your Customer Conversion Solution?

3) WEBSITE PICKS: E-Commerce-Guide.com

(Do you have a great web site to recommend to our readers?

If so, please email mailto:kevin@getprofitable.com )

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1) MARKETING: Fall In Love With Your Customer/Client Instead

of Your Product or Service.

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The article on marketing from our last issue really raised some eyebrows!

I have never gotten so many new sign-ups or unsubscribes from any one issue before. The article which profiled a very successful retail business marketing strategy had a provocative title: “For Men’s Eyes Only.” You can check it out at: http://www.getprofitable.com/newsletter/06042001.html

What happened is that for those people who saw only the title, they probably wondered what kind of article this was coming from a marketing newsletter? But, for those who read it, they realized it was a brilliant marketing strategy used by a hardware store in a shopping mall that really worked.

In this issue I would like to address one of the biggest mistakes that I see as a marketing consultant. I have had the good fortune to work with literally hundreds of companies in one way or another and one of the most common mistakes I see is the business owner or entrepreneur who becomes so enamored with their own product or service, that they forget to put the customer first.

Now you may giggle at this or not even believe me but it happens more often than you think. For some it is in always seeking the perfection of the product or for others the ultimate quality. (Now don’t get me wrong, you and I both know those two things are extremely important)

Others just like to tweak their product or service continually. They are always engrossed in its features, systems, components, production, etc.

But, there comes a point when you must focus on your targeted niche marketplace and insure you are continually introducing enough of the right kind of customers into your buying stream to attain maximum profitability.

I think it can be best summed up in one of my favorite quotes from Peter Drucker the famous business author who says:

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two – and only – two functions, Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results, all the rest are costs.”

The moral to this marketing story is that if you spend your primary efforts on marketing and innovation you will drive your business into profitability. The way to do this is to fall in love with your customer or client first and not your product or service. Think about it.

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2) INTERNET: What Is Your Customer Conversion Solution?

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Last issue’s article on “Website Profitability” really struck a chord with a lot of people. If you missed it you can check it out at: http://www.getprofitable.com/newsletter/06042001.html

Now that you have spent thousands of dollars on developing a website, (or are considering investing in a website) promoting it and driving traffic there to:

a) Build credibility

b) View your products or services

c) Enhance your customer service

d) Answer questions and provide support services

Have you taken the time to analyze your customer conversion rate? One of the most effective ways you can generate more sales and profits from the investment you have made into your website, is to increase your customer conversion rate.

What I mean is to improve the process of converting site visitors to prospects, and prospects to customers.

To begin improving this sales conversion ratio, the first step is to understand the main reasons why visitors/prospects choose “not” to purchase from you. Lets take a look at the reasons in general order:

1) Price of your product or service was too high.

2) Important customer service information was missing or incomplete.

3) Did not find the desired product or service they were looking for.

4) Had privacy concerns about purchasing from your site.

5) Website navigation was confusing making it hard to get around your site easily.

6) Did not trust the quality of the product or service being offered.

Armed with this information it is now time to do a little digging to learn some more about your niche market. You can start by asking yourself some of the following questions?

1) Who are the people that come to your website? Where do they come from? Do they stay long and look around or do they simply disappear back into the virtual universe?

2) What was it that they were looking for and did not find?

3) Did your website fail to satisfy their questions or their needs?

4) What is so unique or special about your business that caused your website

customers to buy from you instead of competitor?

5) What exactly does your brand represent to them? Have you done a good enough

job of establishing that your business is credible?

7) Is your target market looking more for a low price or more for premium

quality customer service?

7) Was the pathway to purchase easy and simple all the way through the process?

8) Is it easy to navigate and get around your site… from anywhere to anywhere

fast?

9) What can you do to increase your brand loyalty so your customers will

come back to purchase from you over and over again?

Generally there are two ways to discover this valuable information. When it comes to the questions that relate to website statistics, you can get many of these numbers from your web host. For more detailed information you will want to get some software like Web Position Gold.

But the best way to find out what your customers are thinking is to ask. This applies to both online and offline businesses. Business owners try so hard to think like their customers and determine for them what they want and need but the truth is, that you are not your customer and the only real way to know is to ask.

When I do “Branding” campaigns for clients, a customer survey is one of the components we use to answer some very important questions. In virtually every case the answers are always insightful and revealing to the business owners.

One reason we are so successful in these surveys is that we are an objective third party and customers feel like they can talk to us differently than they can talk to the businesses owners or employees. But surveys are something you can do yourself both for online businesses and offline businesses either via the web or by personal contact.

But the key to is to ask the right and relevant questions that will feed back to you the information you need to make the changes necessary to improve your prospect to customer sales conversion ratio.

The next step is to brand those new customers into return and repeat buyers who are so satisfied that they refer others. For more free valuable information on “Branding Your Business” go to our newsletter archives: http://www.getprofitable.com/SpecialReports.html

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3) WEBSITE PICKS: E-Commerce-Guide.com

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A comprehensive resource offering news about electronic commerce trends and technologies essential for promoting and conducting business on the Internet. You can get tons of great Internet and e-business information at this site.

++++++++++ PICK UP A COPY OF KEVIN’S HOT NEW BOOK ++++++++++

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For IMMEDIATE Download visit:

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Also sold at:

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your print or on-line publication, or company newsletter. You

may use articles written by me that you see in my Get Profitable

Update. All you have to do is print the article in its entirety

along with the byline at the top and the following identifier

paragraph at the end:

Feel free to forward this issue of the Get Profitable Update

e-newsletter to others as long as you forward it in its

Kevin M. Clark, www.GetProfitable.com

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Kevin M. Clark is an Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Recipient

and small business marketing consultant, branding specialist,

and speaker to many internationally acclaimed groups. Sign up for

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You can contact Kevin at: mailto:kevin@getprofitable.com

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Written by Kevin M. Clark,

"Entrepreneur of The Year Award Recipient," (Regional

Winner) and President of Clark Marketing Group, Inc.

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