6 things internet marketers can learn from a really great Yard Sale

Note From ShoeMoney:This is an entry post for our “What internet Marketers Can Learn From contest“.For making it to the blog this author will receive a Verizon mifi device and even perhaps some extra bonus items as well as a chance to win the grand prize! Submit your entry here   1. Display what's for sale. Bad yard sales have knick-knacks scattered everywhere! There's stuff all over the lawn, junk in the garage and things stashed away in black lawn bags. If you're not careful you can easily get distracted and lose sight of what you are searching for. A squeeze page or sales page is the same way. If your background is too busy, you've got unnecessary pages or you've got extra links everywhere people are bound to get lost and eventually leave your page. A great sales website might have only one page! You've got their attention by the fact that they're on your website, don't add anything that might distract them from reaching the payment button. Create a funnel effect so that they have only one direction to follow. 2. Leave no room for negotiation. At a yard sale you want to get your price so low that the customer feels like you're giving the item away. The same holds true in Internet Marketing. You want to first show the customer that what you are selling has value by suggesting what an actual retail price might be. Then you want to make them an offer they can't refuse by lowering the price for a short period of time. Next you throw in a few extra items at no cost! Then you cut the price just a little more and a little more until you've got them believing it's the deal of the century. The psychology of this works wonders. Who wouldn't want to buy a $500 instructional course for $37 excluding all of the freebies? 3. Won't last long. You rarely want to pass up on a great item at a yard sale for fear that it will be gone in the next twenty minutes. You want to instill this same anxiety in your online customers. You might start out by offering a discount price for a special limited time or limited quantity with the assurance that the price will soon be going up. Urgency and impulse has great power over some people. You also might want to add to that anxiety with a limited supply on hand. If an undecided customer is on the fence as to whether to purchase or not, this could cause them to push the payment button. 4. Follow the signs. You won't sell anything to anyone at a yard sale if they don't know it's going on or where it is. Most people put out little yard sale signs all pointing to one location. Once there, you normally see a big Yard Sale sign. They run ads in the classifieds and tell their neighbors. The same is true for your online marketing. If customers don't know about your product or where you're located, you won't be selling anything. You need to provide signs pointing to your website. Use links in articles, social media, email, newsletters and PPC advertising. Create buzz about your product through word of mouth. This viral marketing is the ultimate key to selling online. Get others in your field to talk about your product or even endorsing it. 5. Explain the benefits. Who wants to buy a contraption at a yard sale if they don't know what it does or why it would be useful to them. The old coot selling the vibrating weight loss belt will tell you how his wife lost 15 pounds in one week using it and how easy it is to use. He'll stretch his yarn as long as he has to until he's peaked your interest. So goes your Internet Marketing. You need to explain in detail the benefits of your product or service. Explain why your product is better than all of the others on the market. No one will want what you're selling if they don't understand what's in it for them. You don't want to lie, but you sure want to list every benefit that could possibly happen if the customer purchased your item. 6. Free is good. A very popular item at a yard sale is the "free box". Everyone loves to see what's inside. Entice your Internet customers using the same technique. Offer them "free reports" or "free ebooks" to get them interested in your software or product. If you're marketing an ebook you might offer them a "free chapter". Be sure to tag everything you give out free with your web address, contact information and a link back to your purchase page. Be sure to collect the contact information every time you give out something free. Anything that you can give away that builds a stronger interest in your product is worth it's weight in gold.