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What Can You Learn from Spammers, Hackers, and Pushy Salespeople?
The Sprocket Report
Nobody likes dealing with spammers, hackers, and pushy salespeople, but they’re everywhere. Why? Because the success rate is attractive. Success is also important for the websites of all business owners, so we might as well learn from them.
Spammers Work the Numbers
Do you delete spam emails without reading them and wonder who on earth would actually open those? If no one ever did then spammers would stop sending them, but enough people respond to those emails that it's worthwhile to continue. If the spammers’ statistics say it takes 100,000 emails to get 100 opens that result in 10 purchases, then that’s what they do.
The same numbers game applies to every aspect of your own marketing. It’s called a “campaign” because you need a series of actions to reach your messaging goal. Don’t quit too soon! Also, study your web analytics and social media insights to see what’s working and what isn’t. Use those numbers to do more of what’s working and stop doing what isn’t.
Hackers Set Goals
Breaching the wall of your website is the hacker’s goal. There could be any number of reasons why they want to breach it, but the goal itself is to get through your defenses and they have strategies in place for how to achieve that goal.
What goal have you set for your website? "To make money" is not an actionable goal. "To sell widgets" is a better goal. Other good website goals are "To gather contact info," "To build my newsletter list," and "To get referrals." Think through what exactly you want your website to do so you and your web builder can prepare a clear plan on how to achieve that goal.
Pushy Salespeople Strategize
Much sales research has been done on how people move forward to the “buy” decision. Different approaches have been tried and the results measured. The resulting sales techniques are taught in training classes and actively practiced by salespeople – because these methods are shown to work.
Since your website is your 24/7 sales rep, it should also be following a sales strategy, but often folks don’t fully think it through. In a face-to-face meeting, there are steps to follow for learning the client’s problem, building trust, and suggesting solutions that will be acceptable. The same strategies should apply to layout of your website. Is it working or is it time for a tweak?
Spammers, hackers and pushy salespeople still exist because their efforts are rewarded. We don’t have to be them, but we may as well learn from them! Take a look at your website and see how you can apply their lessons. If you find you are rethinking your goals and strategies, give us a call and we’ll help your website reflect the new direction.
This is an update to "Think Like a Spammer” dated 5/28/2012.
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Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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