Niche Marketing Matters

A good domain name should have the following elements:

1. It should be easy to spell. Avoid hyphens, double letters or funny spellings. Hyphens get confused with underscores. Double letters can cause confusion. Unusual or clever spelling gets us all in trouble.

2. Domains ending in .com are preferred but .net and .us are becoming more common. This ending suffix is called a domain extension.

3. Two word combinations are preferred. Longer combinations can be hard to remember. I regret to inform you that it seems that almost every two word URL has been taken. Three words may be the only way to go.

4. Made up words and acronyms have been the rage—think Google, Yahoo!, and Zappos. Still the cost of creating a brand for a name like this is astronomical. Interestingly enough Google gives higher rank to URLs that use searchable words. For example, www.nichemarketingmatters.com contains search friendly terms.

5. Short is always better, but good luck with that. It is not easy with .com prefixes.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Ever catch yourself staring at a beautiful person or the image of one? I know it sounds a little creepy, but it is like you can’t help yourself from staring at them. Don’t feel weird, as it turns out humans may be hardwired to do this.

There is something compelling about a pretty face, whether it be male or female. We prefer to be around them instead of average looking, or, heaven forbid, ugly people. We tend to chose leaders who are better looking—you have to admit that Obama is a good looking guy. Ever notice that many CEOs are tall and handsome? It is no accident.

Advertisements that include pretty people sell better than those with average people. Open any magazine and you will see products being pitched by pretty women and handsome men. Advertising agencies know this and so do modeling agencies.

As for ugly people, we like to laugh at them. Most comics have big noses or are fat or are just plain funny looking. Think Phyllis Diller, Stephen Wright, Carrot Top, or Margaret Cho. Yep, this is not a pretty group.

So, what is beauty?

It varies from for men and women. According to Professor Victor Johnstone of the University of New Mexico, “Men look for an adult female face that is different from the average face. The two key measurements are the distance from the eyes to the chin, which is shorter - in fact it is the length normally found in a girl aged eleven and a half; and the size of the lips, which are fatter — the size normally found on a fourteen-year-old girl”. Thus, men have a specific facial profile in mind.

Men are judged differently by women. For example, studies show that women are more attracted to the men who are smiled at by other women. Women rely upon the attitudes of others to shape their own determination about the attractiveness of men. Women prefer a man that is desired by other women and feared or respected by men.

Biologically, women are drawn to men that lead the tribe or clan—this is tied to the desire to procreate and make the best babies for the survival of the species. Handsome helps but power is also desired.

Of course, body type, race, height, and other factors come into to play. But, the point is that beauty counts. It counts more than maybe more than you and I like to think. Sad but true.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

For many products and services, the field is cluttered with similar or the same alternatives. When that is the case, marketing is reduced to a war of price and delivery—this translates into low margins and fickle customers.

For example, seemingly every real estate agent in the country markets his or her self as the top selling agent in the city, county, or country. They refer to themselves as a “million dollar producer” or the “top agent for 2008”. Besides sending the same message as virtually everyone else, the message is not believable—how can all agents be the top producer?

Instead, market your uniqueness or your special knowledge and skills. If you are a real estate agent and have expertise in horse properties, that makes you very unique. The horse property buyer wants a real estate agent who understands their special equestrian needs such as knowledge of livestock zoning laws, location and access to equestrian trails, and the need for a large, flat parcel (horses prefer not to climb hillsides!).

This specialized message about your knowledge or skills is testimony of your distinctive competencies, which are the foundation elements of your competitive advantage. By focusing on a unique market segment, it actually becomes easier to sell your product or service. In turn, your special skills create satisfied customers who will happily refer you to others. Satisfied customers often will also pay a premium for a great product and service. And, so it goes.

Celebrate your uniqueness not your sameness.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Your brand is a promise of value. Excellent brands are unique, consistent, and authentic.

Your brand’s uniqueness answers the question, “How is your offering different or better?” To be considered better or different than your competition, your offering must have at least one feature or benefit that is measurably better than the competition.

A great brand has to be consistent to be recognized and believed; e-mail marketing campaigns need to use the same fonts, colors, images, and messages. This consistency builds familiarity and confidence.

Great brands cannot be faked. Authenticity means telling the truth; if you promise quality you must deliver quality. Customers have x-ray vision when it comes to the truth about you and your offering.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Yes, it is hard to lose an order. I hate it also. Yet, losing a sale graciously is the ticket to be considered for the next opportunity.

Sales gurus and trainers have long argued for sales people to always be “closing” and, in effect, to never give up on the order. Positive thinking is a large part of selling and so is assertiveness, but I have found that “No” can be an acceptable answer.

The word “No”, or any objection as far that goes, can be a request for information—thus, it is always appropriate to dig deeper with open ended questions to find out the real concerns behind the sales objection. Yet, there times when your product does not fit, when the customer is not ready, or when the funds are not available for a purchase. Essentially, “No” can mean stop selling now.

“No” means to the seller that you need to focus your energies on other prospects and customers; to the buyer, it means much the same. It is at this point that the skilled salesperson reacts with calm acceptance about the outcome. Rather than pressing harder which might only anger the buyer, the salesperson acknowledges that the conversation is tabled. The words to be said by the seller communicate that you understand. You could say, “I understand” or “I see” or “I can see how you came to that conclusion”.

I recommend taking one more step. I suggest you express “gratitude”. Tell the buyer how thankful you are for being considered. This would also be a good time to acknowledge your appreciation for the relationship with the buyer and the firm—do this only if it is true. If you don’t feel that way, it won’t sound authentic.

This sophisticated salesperson knows that having the chance to do business again is critical to the future. Strong eye contact, a firm handshake and smile will go a long way to making that happen. Consider sending a handwritten note card as a follow up. A polite email of thanks can work, too. Propose a meeting in a few weeks or months to reconnect. Keep the door open.

It just might be your turn next time.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Your brand is what people think you are. It answers the questions, “How you are expert?”, “How are you different?”, and “Why are you valued?” Successful brands are authentic, differentiated, and consistent.

Brands are authentic when they are real and natural. Fabricated brands seldom live for long. No pretense or fibs allowed here. You cannot make up a brand since a brand must have integrity to be believed. When a brand is based on falsehoods or exaggerations, no one will believe you, nor will they continue to buy from you. Not for long anyway.

Brands are differentiated when they say what is unique or special about the business or product. A differentiated brand answers why and how the firm delivers value. A good brand describes what makes your firm different from the competition. It describes the uniqueness of your product; this is what the customer remembers.

Consistency is the commitment from the brand that the purchase experience will be the same each time. Otherwise, why would anyone buy the same product or service again? Consistency allows the brand to live on beyond the first impression; the hope for the brand is that it will take on a life of its own. Brands can actually outlive the firm or the product. Your target customer knows that each purchase will be the same as the last. Successful brands are reliable.

Your brand is a promise of value that separates you from your peers. Branding is not about building a new image, but it is a statement about your uniqueness. Successful brands know their target market; they know what the customer needs. They deliver.

What is your brand?

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

The language of the web sometimes resembles Swahili and this is especially true with domain names. Coming up with a domain name with a .com suffix that matches your company name or offering is darn near impossible.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is should your business or product name match your URL? Conventional wisdom says yes, yet if you do a Google search for some of your favorite brands you will discover that many do not match. For example, if you enter the word “iPod” you get directed to www.apple.com/itunes. Ok, that makes sense.

Most people will do a Google search for a company or product instead of entering a URL. I have seen estimates that up to 80% of companies are found by web searches instead of directly entering a URL. There is a good argument that a perfect match does not really matter much anymore.

My personal take is that it makes sense to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. It is easier for your customers to remember. Now here is the hard part. Just about every two and three word combination for a .com URL is already taken. Don’t believe me? Go to Godaddy.com and enter any three word combo and you will discover that these URLs are already owned by someone else. Amazingly, this applies to the .net, .org, etc. They are almost all gone.

Unbelievable but true. This explains the trend of inventing company or product names. For example, www.Kijiji.com is an online classified ad website that competes with venerable Craigslist. “Kijiji” is Swahili for the word “village”. If you don’t believe me, go visit www.kijiji.com.

An alternative to Swahili or fabricating words is the use of long domain names. Kijiji could have used www.onlineclassifiedadwebsitethatcompeteswithCraigsList.com. I didn’t check but I am pretty sure this URL is available—cheap. But, can your customers remember it?

There is some evidence that longer URLs are easier to remember than single word inventions. Yet, it took me a few years to quit confusing Yahoo! with Wahoo; I just love their fish tacos or is it their pay-per-click advertising? No matter.

Hyphens or underscores can help you create shorter domain names but they confuse me and where is the underscore key on the key board anyway? Maybe you feel the same way.

Another workaround you can try is to add “the” to the beginning of a URL. I think this trick works if your business is known as “The BirdDog Group” which is the name of my publishing company. In this case, “the” has meaning and is logical.

The final challenge is to choose between .com, .net, .org, and the many others now available. Candidly, .com still has cache and is the suffix of choice for businesses. For those that do enter a URL in a search, 99 times out 100 they will enter it with a .com prefix. The choice for you is made easier since most .com URLs are already taken.

I wish you best in your domain name search. Or, as we say in Swahili, “Hakuna matata” which means no worries.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

A friend of mine reminded me that selling is not about what you say to the customer, but rather it is about the questions you ask.

Many sales people are in love with their own words and ideas. They are often described as having the “gift of gab” which means that they really just talk too much. Instead of asking open ended questions and listening, talkative sales people talk too much.

They ramble on and on about product features to fill the dead air space (which is extremely uncomfortable for a talkative person). Worse yet, they invariably talk about themselves, which is the last thing that the buyer wants to hear.

Meanwhile, the buyer ultimately buys from the seller who best understands their problems or needs. Of course, you don’t get to understand the buyer’s needs by talking. Great sales people ask questions to learn about the buyer’s motivations, concerns, and desires. It is really that simple.

Ask questions to discover what matters most to the customer. If you must speak, then talk about what matters most to the customer.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Sales people are taught to manage and control the sales process by moving the customer from qualification to presentation to close. While this process accurately describes the activities of the sales person, there is a separate and equally important process at play. That other process is the one in the buyer’s head.

In my view, there are eight steps in the buying process.

1. Attention - It all starts when the buyer has an initial contact with the offering. This contact could be an advertisement, a phone call from the seller, or a referral. Somehow the buyer identifies the offering amongst the thundering herd of products and services.
2. Interest – The buyer sees the possibilities of the offering and begins to understand the benefits. “Hmmm”, says the buyer.
3. Desire – At this juncture in the buying process, the buyer starts to visualize the product helping to solve a problem, provide some utility, or bringing happiness. Things are clicking.
4. Conviction – Clearly the offering makes sense. The research is done and the decision to go forward to buy is imminent. This could really work.
5. Action – Bingo! The buyer steps up and secures the offering. All systems go. We have lift off.
6. Confirmation – The product is used, tested, and appreciated first hand. The seller’s value proposition is fully vetted.
7. Satisfaction – The votes are in and the product is a winner. Repurchasing it is an option.
8. Loyalty – The highest level of happiness with a buyer. At this stage the buyer is actually referring the product and the seller to others. The buyer is an advocate.

Not all buyers reach loyalty. Many never buy while some who do buy have remorse. Yet, this path is real and tangible for the buyer. Unfortunately, many sales people are oblivious to the buying process which is a result of antiquated sales training, selfishness and plain old ignorance.

When you are selling you need to ask yourself what is going on the buyer’s head?

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

There may no more powerful communication tool than a story well told. A story is not a PowerPoint presentation or a canned pitch or a memorized speech. It is as it sounds: a plain English parable with a beginning, middle, and end.

Stories help people understand and make sense of what you are selling. A compelling story can make the abstract understandable. Ditch the product specifications and data sheets. Instead, share your favorite experience with the new product.

Top salespeople can build trust and credibility while overcoming skepticism by talking about how another customer solved a problem by using a product or service. A good story can address an objection or concern before it is ever brought up by the customer. Done right, the story well told makes the story teller appear sincere and trustworthy.

Sales presentations are the quickest way to lose a sale since there may be nothing more obvious or obnoxious than a canned pitch, better known as death by PowerPoint. Shut down the laptop and build the relationship with your customer by sharing your stories.

Connect with a customer’s emotions by talking about past experiences with other customers. Stories can be a great way to break the ice with a new customer and ease the natural tension in a sales call. For the existing client, the well-told tale can enrich the relationship and reaffirm the business.

Generally, customers can identify with story and can picture themselves as a part of the story. This emotional connection helps them remember the story while they may never remember the fact or figures, let alone the features and benefits of your product. Stories should have a simple theme or value; if the tale is too complicated the message could get lost.

The mechanics are simple. A good story’s opening is clear and engaging. The sequence of events must be easy to follow. Don’t be too clever or you might lose your audience. The story must have a clear ending and must have had purpose.

If done right, the story lives on in the memory of your customer. Story telling can achieve things that marketing brochures can’t.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.