I am currently in Cyprus at the villa and while discussing how I go about selling rental weeks through my website with my mother-in-law, we got to talking about deal making information and why it is important to optimize accordingly.

Imagine that moment, when a person (or a couple) is looking at the choices available for them online and wonder - what is the deal breaking information they need to book yours above and beyond one of the competition?

And, this thought could relate to any business. So many times, we sell to people what we think is important (the benefits) when really; it’s about what they see as the benefits. For example, satellite TV on holiday is not at all important for me, but has proved important for two different families. For one, it was a deal clincher when I told that that I was installing it.

Of course, now, when I sell that benefit online, will it put off the people that don’t want it? I know I will need to phrase it accordingly.

With so many people having so many different things that flick their switch, optimizing how you sell and what you focus on as the benefits is very important.

And, this is doubly important when you see that they have so much choice - especially online. My villa is on a complex of 27. Within 2km I can imagine there are approximately 2,000 other private villas. Take the whole island and you probably end up in the millions.

Hence, the need to niche and the need to make the deal before someone else does by appealing to your customer with the right ‘deal making’ information.

Of course, this goes back to my point the other day: The more you niche your sales offering, the more chance you have to appeal. So, with a private pool, large enclosed area and now satellite TV, I know that I just need to keep pushing the young family aspect.

One last thought: They are building a golf course near the villa. How much effort vs. reward would there be in building a completely different website that focussed the villa on golf?
How much further can you niche and focus your sales offering?

I have been thinking a lot recently about vertical markets and niche marketing and get the feeling I have not been niche enough. More and more, the websites I am seeing success with are the ones with complete focus.

It’s almost as if I have been saying this is the way to do it, but not practicing what I preach. But the good stuff is very good:

• This website is doing amazing for our Escape client  - Magic Mitre - one product.
• As has Projector Lamp Experts with pay-per click - a niche market.
• Then there is the villa in Pervolia website - finally taking hold after two years offering a specific vacation destination.
• Finally, there is Basingstoke Business News, a personal project that is getting local (and global) attention for the right reasons.

Basingstoke Business News takes minimal effort to maintain, but the medium-to-long term value will show growth, especially if I can develop the site. Of course, I have the luxury of not having to make money from it, but that is a point in itself.  I offer what many local people want in terms of what I do in my day job (I build websites). Is it the fact that I offer business news for free (people can get that diluted from anywhere on the web), or that if I bring it together and add value, I get attention. Oh, by the way, I can help you market your business online.

The point is, the more the web gets diluted, the more people will want specifics, hence the popularity of The Long Tail I guess. It used to be that you could get attention on-line - and you still can. But, is it for the right thing and is there any gold at the end of that particular rainbow?

If you think about it, the rules of marketing have changed immensely with the web. As a business, no longer can you tell people how great you are without backing it up. People can review you (like I just did to a hotel I visited last week).

Which is why social media is becoming more important to marketers. Who are you more likely to believe - a company, or your friend’s review?

Tools like Facebook are bringing peers together and they can share their purchasing experiences quicker and easier than ever before.

So surely, pure marketing therefore comes from how good you actually are - from you customers perspective!

I’ve just written an article on The Escape website - How to appeal to vertical and niche markets online.

While I was writing it I was reminded of a small piece on website I did about four years ago - since long forgotten - about niche marketing a holiday home.

I believe this approach works better than ever, but ultimately includes some extra work in the short-term. I do think it offers better value though long-term.

I’m reading a book by Dan Ariely called Predictably Irrational - well worth a read. I’m only a couple of chapters in but already I am raring to go on a marketing experiment about pricing.

In the book Dan talks about how people need at least two products to gauge a price. The example he uses, to great effect, is for magazine subscription with three options:

• 12 months Internet only - £59
• 12 months print only - £165
• 12 months print and Internet - £165

He ran an experiment to see which option people would go for and most went for the third option (84%), because they had two points of reference. By repeating the same experiment but removing option two, this came down to 32%.

His visual demonstration of this phenomena works well also:

Like I said, well worth a read.

Sorry for the cheesy headline but there is an important point coming about website strategy.

I just left a comment on a new Blog I am doing some guest posts on. These guys do NLP and something called The Human Element and I did the course last year. Anyway, Ben posted today about root causes of behaviours and it summed up a meeting I had today with a client and their website.

90% into the project, together, we have established what it is they want from the website.

Many companies focus on the technical platform, the design, the colouring… I am sure you’ve been there. What they feel to sit back and decide, is the money question - What do I actually want from my website?

Web strategies and KPIs (key performance indicators) are essential to the success of any web project. I you don’t know what you want, how can you measure the success, or failure?

Back to the onion - it’s enough to make my eyes water!

Why is it that trashy mags and Red Top newspapers in the UK follow the lives of ‘celebrities’ whilst some people with genuine talent struggle to get noticed. The skill of self-promotion and personality can go a hell of a way whether we ethically like it or not.

If you can then back it up with some genuine talent, then you have something special.

The normal route in society is to chase the bucks as quickly as possible and make serious money. Others choose a different route and arguably manage the ultimate goal of credibility and marketability - enabling sustainable avenues of revenue rather than a crash and burn approach.

Take Google. They spent a good few years delivering search free, concentrating on making the product better and better, while relying on word-of-mouth. They had marketability and credibility before they even began to make money.

Without the luxury of VC funding, small businesses are under pressure to deliver revenue pretty much straight away. If you have a great product though, it’s just a case of adding a bit of personality to your offering and doing a bit of self-promotion.

Twenty years ago you couldn’t imagine a company with a name like Google, Yahoo or Squidoo but now they are common. They ooze personality.

I often talk about the need for great content. I don’t often talk about the other side of that - how you write it.

A little personality goes a long way.

My teenage daughters are staying over this week. Millie, the eldest, is a vergetarian. So, I’ve been planning veggie meals and have discovered Quorn. Cottage Pie tonight….

What’s this got to do with anything?

There’s an advert on TV at the moment that’s been in my head for a month or so (Shock horror, TV ads may still work). It sells Quorn for what it is. Not a food for vegetarians, but a food for the family. See it here…

Imagine the size and variation of the new market.

Take Parker Pens. By realising that they are not selling pens, they are selling gifts, they redefined and clarified their market.

I’ve used a phrase twice in meetings this week… I’m not selling websites, I’m selling sales leads.

Speaking to an ‘old school’ customer today I realized the mixed expectation of a website, when they can only relate to the way a brochure is produced. Getting the content exact first time, by specific deadlines overshadowed the flexibility of the content managed website that is being delivered. It got me thinking about the differences that I come across between the real differences of a traditional brochure and a website.

Speaking at vs. conversation

A traditional brochure is a leave piece harking back to the days when salesmen knocked on doors and wanted to leave an overview document. As such, it was there to announce and is all about the organization… me, me, me.

A website is usually found, or discovered. It needs to grab attention on a very competitive medium. Engagement in this case is a much more personal action, requiring connection at an emotional level. With their abundant choice, it’s now about them, them, them.

A website is fluid

A brochure gets designed and printed. Hours are (should be) spent honing the copy to sound impressive and attractive. When it’s printed, that’s it until the next print run. Although digital printing has brought down print costs, it’s still a major expense to the marketing budget. There is no room for mistake.

A website goes live. If there is a typo, or a more appropriate set of words, they can be edited. What’s more, there are no physical constraints (if your structure is flexible): You can have as many pages as you want. You can embellish. Finish a job in the morning and have a relevant case study on your website by the afternoon. You can approach clients in different ways and test variations of approach on the fly.

A website is not “produced”

A brochure gets printed; end of production until the next run. Pay the designer, pay the printer, get it posted. Same next year?

When a website goes live the work does not stop, it starts. To stay relevant and attractive to search engines a website needs constant investment and needs to be budgeted accordingly. This allows for flexibility and adaptability but needs constant nurturing.

Reach

A brochure gets picked up by, or sent to, a prospect. Every time you use one, it costs you part of your budget. You can only put in the hands of people physically, therefore your reach is limited.

A website can be marketed the same way as a brochure without the need for postage: E-mail people the link. Your website can also be discovered. With good content and ‘right’ words on your pages, relevant prospects will find you and every page impression doesn’t cost you extra (unless you are paying for your traffic).

Personalization

Your brochure can be printed personally but you are talking variable data, limiting your production run, increasing your costs. Most brochures are generic trying to sell to your entire customer base using the same language and approach.

Your website can be personalized. Either focussed, with user log-ins, or into groups using relevant sections and landing pages. You can answer client questions by adapting your message. Different pages on your website could be saying the same thing in a different way; not in generic marketing speak, but in a language that engages subsets of customers.

If you can begin to understand the differences, you can change your approach. You can reassign your budgets and start increasing your opportunities online with a website that engages with existing customers and brand new prospects.

Many companies want to use social media tools and online marketing techniques to connect with their customers.

It’s more effective in some industries than others but the key to success or failure boils down to the actual organization and if they are prepared to modify their business behavior.

For instance, I have seen online agencies with poor offerings and I have seen Lawyers who are Blogging about topical items, so it can’t be the industries that can’t adapt to online marketing.

I’m currently reading Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin. If you don’t want to read the book, you can get a summary here.

Seth argues in the first part of the book (I’m still reading) about the need for organizations to adapt to new marketing, if their product or service fits.

Too many companies are trying to jump on a marketing band-wagon without being able to sustain the effort or have the infrastructure to react.

A simple example of this is a Blog. I get asked to generate Blogs for Companies keen to get in on the act, who then rarely post and, when they do, it’s a bit of a lazy effort probably doing more harm than good.

Online marketing is an attitude, not a discipline and, where it differs from traditional advertising, it’s a marathon not a sprint.