How to Win Business and Influence Visitors
One of the most notable business books of our generation, sold and read thousands of times over, has penetrated the minds of business owners in just about any and every industry. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is a must read for any professional, in sales or not, to learn how to use commonly overlooked psychological and tactical know-how to persuade people more often and more effectively.
To keep in tune with the theme and purpose of our business marketing blog, we are going to use 6 Rules from Dale Carnegie’s repertoire and relate them to online marketing and websites, thus the name of this post: How to Win Business and Influence Visitors.
Become Genuinely Interested in Your Website Visitors
The first rule that Dale Carnegie provides is to “become genuinely interested in other people”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
It is important that you, as the business owner, make an extra effort to really show that you genuinely care about your website visitors. It is unfortunate to see so many businesses and websites that treat their visitors like just another number or visit in their website stats. Next time you visit a website, other than your own, pay attention to how “special” you feel as a visitor to that website. Do you get the feeling that all the website wants is your credit card number or contact information? Or, do you feel like the website is genuinely trying to provide you with useful, relevant content.
How do you show that you are genuinely interested in your website visitors?
One of the easiest and most obvious ways to portray your true interest in your visitors is to provide them with an exclusive offer that only they are eligible for as a website visitor. Some ideas might be “Website Visitors Receive a FREE 60 day trial of our product / service” as opposed to the normal 14 or 30 day trial you are offering. There are literally thousands of different things you can offer.
HINT: Think about what you would want and ask your customers what they would, then get creative and feature these offers on your website. Remember to test them to see which of them work the best.
Smile
The second rule that Dale Carnegie provides is to “smile”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
The attitude that your website gives off, positive or negative, makes a HUGE impact on your visitors. Whether you are in sales or not you should know that the simple act of smiling more can be one of the most effective things you can do for your business. This sounds a little cheesy, but if you think about it you will realize how effective and contagious a smile can be. A simple example is a baby that smiles at you. Now, unless you hate children or are cold as ice, if you have ever witnessed a baby give you a smile we can almost guarantee that you smiled back. Your website should do the same thing. It should be positive, comforting and it should “smile” at your visitors.
How do you make your website smile?
A simple way to make your website “smile” is to pay extra attention to design, content and detail. Everything about your website should be positive and welcoming from the color palette to the marketing copy that exists throughout the site to the simplicity of use of the site’s interactive features.
HINT: Use warm, bright colors and accents to make your website seem more welcoming and pleasant. For your marketing copy, use a positive, professional tone – don’t make the copy sound like a salesman because no one likes to be sold. If you think you have these elements in place, let other people play around with your site and collect their feedback.
Remember that Your Visitors’ Wants are the Most Important Things
The third rule that Dale Carnegie provides is to “remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
This one is the most difficult to apply directly to the online world as your visitors might get a little spooked if your website knew your visitors’ names and called them by that the entire time they are on your website, but it can be translated into something very close. This is to remember that your visitors are looking for something specific. Do not try and trick them or distract them from what they came to your website for in the first place. Annoying pop-up ads or offers that have absolutely nothing to do with what your visitors are looking for can force you to lose many prospective clients.
HINT: Do some analysis of your website’s analytics to see where your visitors are spending the most time on your website. This will give you an idea of what seems to be the “stickiest” or most enticing / interesting offering you have. Once you know what this is make sure it is very prominent on your site and very easy to find if it is not right on the homepage.
Be a Good Listener. Encourage Visitors to Talk about Themselves.
The fourth rule that Dale Carnegie provides is to “be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
Being a good listener is one of the most valuable traits a business owner can have. Being able to actively listen to customers and prospects will help make any business more successful. To be an active, attentive listener you must be able to encourage your customers and prospects to talk about themselves. People love to talk about themselves as it is already, but when someone is genuinely interested in listening to what someone has to say about themselves, then that person is only going to feel that much more appreciated and honored by you and your business.
How can a website become a good listener and how can it encourage others to talk about themselves?
With the advent of social marketing and networking tools, applications and modules, there are numerous ways to encourage your website visitors to talk about themselves and give off the sense that you / your website are actually listening to what your visitors are saying. One of the most common ways to “listen” is to ask for feedback. Many websites do this, but they hide their feedback requests so well that it is pretty rare that someone is going to go out of their way to find it and provide what they think. Make people feel important by showing your business cares about what they have to say.
HINT: Take advantage of social marketing tools like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, Disqus Comments, and GetSatisfaction to encourage your visitors to talk about themselves and their opinions. Blogs are another great way to do this. Entice visitors to comment on your blog posts and content and respond promptly to show that you actually do listen and pay attention to what your visitors are saying.
Talk in Terms of Your Visitors’ Interests.
The fifth rule that Dale Carnegie provides is to “talk in terms of the other man’s interest”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
Going back to our third rule of “remembering that your visitors’ wants are the most important things”, it is important to always put your visitors’ interests, wants and needs at the forefront of any marketing you do. It will be terribly obvious if your website and marketing is trying to push its customers and visitors to do what you obviously want them to do. By constructing your website and marketing content around what your prospects, visitors and current customers are truly interested in, your business will come off as much more in tune with everyone.
How do you make your website and marketing talk in terms of your visitors’ interests?
Content is one of the most powerful tools of online marketing. It draws in new visitors, keeps visitors on your website, and entices previous visitors to come back or refer your website to someone else. By using informative, professional sounding copy and targeted, relevant videos and images, your website will come across as if someone truly listened to what your visitors were saying and has made an effort to address those interests directly.
HINT: Videos are powerful tools. Create a video of you or whomever the business owner is that talks directly to your visitors’ interests. Think about the positive impact this would have on your visitors.
Make Visitors Feel Important and Do It Sincerely
The sixth and final rule that we will borrow from Dale Carnegie is to “make others feel important and do it sincerely”.
How does this apply to your website and online marketing?
Many people desire one thing in life, at least once, to feel important. Everyone, no matter how humble someone may be, loves the feeling of being important and/or respected. It is a great feeling, one of accomplishment and recognition. Use this common desire to make your website visitors feel important and you will be on the right track to turning your website into a business producing machine.
How do you make your website and marketing make visitors feel important, in a sincere way?
Online marketing and websites are great tools for making visitors, clients and prospects feel important in a sincere way, when done right. Featuring someone (a past client for example) on your website as a preferred client and authority figure ,and as a spokesperson for your business, can do wonders for someone’s ego. Most people love to see and think about themselves in a positive light and this is a great way to accomplish just that.
HINT: Create a short list of some of your most loyal, active clients and interview them about their business. Work in some questions about how your product / service / business has helped them or made their life better in some way. Feature these interviews on your website and integrate them into your online marketing plan. Even better, make videos of these and share them virally through social media.
There are many pieces of wisdom that can be taken away from Dale Carnegie and many other established writers and professionals, but the common theme in most of these lessons are to:
(1) Simply listen to your clients and prospects
(2) Always make your clients feel special and important
(3) Be positive as positivity attracts positivity and positivity attracts sales
How have you successfully implemented these rules throughout your website and online marketing?
We would love to hear from you. We will even feature your experiences on our blog as a case study to help drive traffic and positive press to your business.
