Web Site ‘Priming’ – 6 Tips That Will Help You Succeed

 

If you want to increase your odds for Internet success, you might consider priming your Web site. Priming is a method to motivate users to make decisions when they visit your site. I gather the term was coined by the inventor of a testing tool that enables Web-site owners to obtain reactions to their sites.

Writing in Website Magazine –  Paul Veugen, the CEO and founder of Usabilla – indicates site priming provides users with “direct and indirect cues online that can unconsciously nudge them into making different decisions down the line.”

“The next time you visit the supermarket and see a product from an ad, these positive memories are triggered and they leave you with a positive attitude towards the product,” Mr. Veugen writes.

“If you need to choose between a hundred different types of yogurt brands, you are most likely going to go for the one that gives you a positive feeling,” he adds.

“Priming does not work by forcing a decision upon your customers, but you can use it as a means to effectively support their decisions,” he explains.

His six suggested primes:

1. Colors Colors have different meanings and can be used to prime emotions. You can color your background or only specific elements like buttons or content areas, for example. Be aware of your target group and their understanding of colors and the emotions they elicit.

2. Text Text can also be used as a prime, of course. Include the exact wording of your menu items in your content and build a nice story around them, for example. Then when customers look around your site, the primed menu item will lead their thoughts back to your story — which makes elements of the story accessible.

3. Metaphors Use metaphors that refer to information to help your customers make a decision. For example, imagine you try to sell vacation trips. You could use the metaphor of a shell to trigger positive emotions like sun, beach, palm trees, ocean, waves, relaxation, etc.

4. Images Use pictures to prime your customers. These pictures can either be in the background or a central element of your webpage. You can prime emotions that come with the purchase of your product or you can prime a desirable action that requires the purchase of your product, for example. Both times, you trigger memories that might only be distantly related to your product, as a way to guide your customers’ decisions.

5. Video Use videos to prime a whole process of actions. Showing the sign-up process with the different steps involved will make it easier for your customers to sign up, for example. Different memories related to a sign-up process will be accessible that help to make the right choice. Besides, when your customers see the sign up button, the process of signing up will be more accessible to them than it would be without the prime.

6. Audio Include audio on your website to prime any action you want your customers to engage in. Make sure that you don’t tell your customers what to do, but rather give them the idea that they figured it out themselves.

“The emotional perception and elements that refer to emotions are important primes when it comes to the perception of your site,” Mr. Veugen explains. “And for the rest, be creative! Anything that activates information in the minds of your customers can be used as prime.”

He writes priming and subliminal messages aren’t synonymous. “The two are related, but subliminal messaging includes ‘hidden’ primes and is considered by many to be an unethical marketing practice,” he asserts. “Besides, not much research can be found to prove that subliminal messaging really works.

“…Priming includes visual or at least sensible primes that can be identified, such as pictures or odors. These primes should be context-sensitive and part of your website design.”

To see more about Mr. Veugen and his offerings: www.usabilla.com.

From the Coach’s Corner, suggested reading:

• Tips, Plus Why it’s Never Too Early to Plan for Q4 E-commerce
• How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on Cyber Strategies for Profit
• SEO: Strategic Primer for a No.1 Rated Blog
• 11 Sales Strategies to Outsell Your Big Competitors

“In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.”

-Alice MacDougall

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Checklist for Branding, Selling Your Biz as Green

 

Consumers love environmentally sensitive businesses. You might think it’s a slam dunk for businesses to market themselves as green. Well, yes and no. There are precautions to take. They include educating your audience on your eco practices.

Before you embark on a green marketing campaign, here’s a checklist of basic questions to ask:

1. Are you really green? Merely supporting an employee carpool program doesn’t constitute green a green business. There’s certainly more to it. Think accuracy and transparency.

If your green-conscious customers find out you’re giving lip service to being environmentally sensitive, you will be faced with a PR nightmare.

You will be accused of greenwashing – or lying in your marketing messages, such as using too-narrow criteria to define your environmental practices, failure to provide proof, and providing misleading information. For more information, see The Sins of Greenwashing.

2. Do you know what your customers really want? While it would seem to be an automatic assumption, not all customers care whether you’re a green business. Some are more concerned about luxury or size.

Personally, I believe it’s good business to be green. But in your branding, be sure to touch all the concerns of your target audience instead of focusing on just your green value propositions.

3. Do you use benefit statements to explain your feature  statements? Sometimes you have to super diligent in making your points; not all consumers will readily understand your messaging.

See to it they get it – your products and services are beneficial to their pocketbooks, families and the earth.

4. Are you a 100 percent green practitioner? Don’t miss any opportunity to use green practices.

Oh, and don’t be mundane, trite or patronizing in your messages. Don’t give it lip service. Be careful how you portray your environmental messaging.

5. Do you spread the message? Green practitioners who profit from being green should carry the environmental message to others. That means being vocal as a green advocate or engaging in environmental cause-related marketing.

Practice these principles and you’ll be on your way.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s How to Win Your Major Marketing Campaign  and Why B2B Marketers Like Content Marketing – Study.

“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”

-Robert Redford

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

The Six Secrets of Becoming a Winning Sales Organization

 

Many companies are struggling over challenges in selling.

Perhaps you can relate to these typical challenges:

• Customers are demanding discounts.
• Customers expect value-added services.
• Difficulty in the recruitment of talented salespeople.
• Lower closing ratios and low achievement of sales quotas.
• Turnover in sales staff.

The key to winning is forward-thinking sales performance. That means effective management of relationships, the sales team, the marketplace, and benchmarking.

Winning sales organizations are outstanding performers. They are resilient in withstanding pressures from customers, and they see poor economic conditions as marvelous sales opportunities. This means their revenue is growing from their customer base as they add new business.

Here are the six secrets of top-selling companies:

1. Winning sales organizations understand the big picture. They create a macro view of their competitive landscape. They regularly conduct SWOT analyses to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. They keep an open mind, and consistently challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom. They develop effective, strategic action plans. In this way, they stay ahead of the curve.

2. Top sellers create opportunities with competitive intelligence.Such businesses are proactive – they understand when, where and why to focus their sales efforts. As a result, they have higher closing-sales ratios, and enjoy shorter selling cycles, and experience less discounting. If you want an explanation, read the insights of a insights of a competitive intelligence author.

3. Great sales managers are successful in selling inside the company to senior executives. They empathize with senior managements’ concerns, and adapt to different management styles and are thus able to persuade senior decision-makers. In other words, sales managers know how to manage – not manipulate – their bosses.

4. Sales executives and salespeople manage their other internal relationships.Certainly, they focus on the short-term and the need for higher current revenue, but they grow relationships across the company for the long-term potential. They know and why to align sales with marketing. They maximize company resources in order to accelerate their sales opportunities.  In turn, they’re able to deliver measurable value to their customers.

5. Eminent sales managers manage talent more effectively than non-winning sales organizations. They have the right people in the right positions. They’re adept at coaching employees to optimize their internal operations. They consistently train their employees. They power their brand with employee empowerment. By expertly managing their employees and making top hiring decisions, they don’t suffer from turnover and poor customer relationships.

6. Top selling organizations are tops in management controls.They effectively market, develop new strategic products and services, and they save on sales opportunity costs. They’re the best in sales processes – in understanding their optimal niches, identifying the best customers, developing cohesive strategies, and solving problems before they become emergencies.

From the Coach’s Corner, three tips for selling in a buyers’ market:

• Develop customer loyalty by remembering first impressions are lasting impressions.
• Even longtime customers will go elsewhere 70 percent of the time because they feel taken for granted. Profit from word-of-mouth advertising and strategize for maximum customer loyalty.
• 11 sales strategies to outsell your big competitors.

 “No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”

-William Blake

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.