Beat the Path for Your Customers
Beat the Path for Your Customers
Customers look for products and services differently on the web. In the real world, someone looking for shoes will go to the shoe store and, even if she has something specific in mind, she will probably look at all the styles on display. She has come all this way, and she can’t get to another shoe store too soon anyway, so might as well check out everything there is to check out.
On the web, shoe shoppers will be more specific - “red evening shoes”. They will not waste too much time on anything other than exactly what they are looking for. If they do a web search for “red evening shoes”, they are more likely to click on a link that says “red evening shoes”, avoiding even close matches like “red shoes” or “evening shoes”.
Why? Because they can.
Back in the real world, customers don’t know if a shoe store has red evening shoes until they visit. Not so on the web. When they search for red evening shoes, they will find a link that offers exactly that - and choose that link.
It’s the path of least resistance for them. Why waste time with a site that only lists evening shoes, perhaps never finding red ones, when they could visit a site that offers exactly what they want.
The path doesn’t end there. Once they click on your link, they want to see the red evening shoes, not your home page with your sale items. If they do not arrive at a page that confirms they are still on the path to red evening shoes, it will increase the chance that the shopper will go off looking for another path.
Your task, if you were a shoe retailer, would be to make sure customers identify your web site as worthy of visiting whenever they searched for any of your shoes, and then confirm their choice by giving them what they seek when they arrive.
In other words, you must beat the path to your door for your customers.
Beat the Path for Your Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Max Kalles's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
The old “build a better mousetrap” story, where customers will seek you out if you have better products and services, doesn’t work on the internet. Even if you can prove your products and services are the best, and offer them at the best price, you have to place your web site in your customer’s path before they will notice it.
Customers look for products and services differently on the web. In the real world, someone looking for shoes will go to the shoe store and, even if she has something specific in mind, she will probably look at all the styles on display. She has come all this way, and she can’t get to another shoe store too soon anyway, so might as well check out everything there is to check out.
On the web, shoe shoppers will be more specific - “red evening shoes”. They will not waste too much time on anything other than exactly what they are looking for. If they do a web search for “red evening shoes”, they are more likely to click on a link that says “red evening shoes”, avoiding even close matches like “red shoes” or “evening shoes”.
Why? Because they can.
Back in the real world, customers don’t know if a shoe store has red evening shoes until they visit. Not so on the web. When they search for red evening shoes, they will find a link that offers exactly that - and choose that link.
It’s the path of least resistance for them. Why waste time with a site that only lists evening shoes, perhaps never finding red ones, when they could visit a site that offers exactly what they want.
The path doesn’t end there. Once they click on your link, they want to see the red evening shoes, not your home page with your sale items. If they do not arrive at a page that confirms they are still on the path to red evening shoes, it will increase the chance that the shopper will go off looking for another path.
Your task, if you were a shoe retailer, would be to make sure customers identify your web site as worthy of visiting whenever they searched for any of your shoes, and then confirm their choice by giving them what they seek when they arrive.
In other words, you must beat the path to your door for your customers.
Beat the Path for Your Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Max Kalles's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Max's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Small Business Financing Management vs. Leadership Memorandum Template 1 What’s Wrong With Your Site? Effective Art Of Networking |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Productivity Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
The Top 10 Guy Kawasaki Posts
Best Posts for Entrepreneurs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||