Wondering what I could add to my sales and squeeze pages that would make a difference; what could I test to see if it worked?

Then it hit me.

Something I read a little while ago, in combination with something my wife said to me this morning, made it all come together

There is one area I hadn’t even tapped that would build trust, reduce competition and improve conversions.

One area that few people, that is, few competitors, use to build trust and shut out competitors.

Remember, the sequence of steps a buyer goes through is:

1. They get an idea or become aware of something new, they do a little preliminary looking around
2. They let it soak in and become interested, they have a question now and then that needs answered to increase their interest
3. Then they do some real research
4. They then select the product or service they want
5. Finally, they buy.

These steps may take days, months or even years but ultimately, if they buy, they go through all those 5 steps.

Looking at that, it became clear what I had been missing out on and what I needed to do…

I needed to deepen and widen the top of my sales funnel.

Make the entire sales funnel one big super sales letter using all the regular copywriting techniques just spread over many pages that people will read over a long period of time

Normally Internet Marketers focus on steps 4 and 5, some maybe even focus a little on step 3 but nobody focuses on steps 1 and 2.

Sure, you need to focus on buyers because that’s where you’re going to make your money; but I’ve heard that only 10-20% of people at any particular time are actually ready to buy (that is, are in steps 4 and 5) which means that 80-90% aren’t buying now (sounds like a waste .

So what are they doing?

It turns out that most of the others are in steps 1 through 3. Few, if anybody, are marketing to them.

Yeah, you’re saying, I’m not going to waste my time and money marketing to people who aren’t buying. I know I’ve said it myself.

What if though, you did? What would happen?

How could you tap into that 90% of the Internet that is being ignored?

If you are providing these people with their first looks at a particular topic you could actually shape their view of the topic and even control their eventual selection criteria.

By building a relationship, by communicating with them, very early in the buying sequence you can do just that.

By providing great, informative content to help and educate them, you start building trust with them while they’re just “babies” in the topic.

Have something for all the early steps then they’ll have a level of comfort with you and allow you to guide them to you when they are ready to purchase.

Just inform, entertain, guide and engage them BEFORE they are thinking of buying, then when they’re ready to buy – tomorrow, next month, next year – YOU are the trusted source and will have a huge advantage over your competitors.

To do that you need to find the keywords the “idea”, “interested” and “researching” people are using when they go to a search engine.

Create Web pages and Web sites that provide lots of free content. Video, software, tools, guides and those types of things are really good for this; anything that will catch their attention and will get you viewed as someone knowledgeable and trustworthy.

Try to answer all the questions people in the early stages will ask; just like trying to answer all the questions a good prospect has on a sales letter.

Don’t try to get the “idea” and “interested” people to join a list or anything. Very few will be ready at that point so make sure the content is truly free without any obligation to do anything; don’t worry though as you’ll be able to get them on your list later.

Then get those Web pages ranked highly for those keywords you found above.

I know it sounds like something I should be talking about on my web traffic blog but you’re doing this to get conversions just like “normal” copywriting.

The earlier in the process you can get people to like and trust you, the easier it will be to get the sale whenever they are ready to buy.

Plus, it will mean that many of them won’t even look at competitors because you’ll have already got them trusting you; effectively shutting out the competition. That type of connection is priceless to a marketer.

Where do you start?

Let’s look at an example to help you see the types of things you can do to broaden your sales funnel.

Let’s say you sell Asian vacation packages. What are the initial questions someone would ask if they just decided to go on a vacation?

• What are the cultures like?
• What’s the weather like?
• What time zone will you be in?
• Is there political turmoil?
• How safe is it? Is there a lot of crime? What type?
• Are there any health issues in the area? What vaccinations will you need?
• How long is the flight?
• Are there any specific environmental issues to be concerned about?
• What activities are available?
• What will be the visa requirements?
• What currency is used? What is the currency conversion rate?
• And on and on…

Now I’d want to make a number of different pages addressing all those questions. No selling, just great information and resources.

Here are some examples of pages and sites you can make that target those people early in the process:

• Make pages that provide information on the culture, include image, etc. and reference places like Wikipedia
• Hook into weather.com and let people see the average weather for various time periods
• Have a map and a list of the various time zones; use something like Google Maps
• Create pages with RSS feeds of news for the various areas
• Give updated information on local safety conditions
• Provide slideshows and videos of various activities and “must see” spots
• Create a currency calculator and put it on a page
• etc.

Really anything goes as long as it is desired, useful and doesn’t sell.

Remember the point is to build trust and slowly move them down the sales funnel towards a sell at their pace, not yours.

Conclusion

By widening and deepening the top of your sales funnel you’ll capture more people earlier in the sales process gaining their trust and blocking your competition.

Do this by providing highly desired content and other resources to people in the early stages of the buying sequence.

Discover the question these pre-pre-pre-buyers will have and answer them as well as others they may not even think of at the time.

Be creative in your questions and in your solutions.

Just remember, don’t sell just, just build trust.

I will admit, I haven’t done this and don’t know if it will work, I just thought of it and wanted to share it, but I think it will work and will be trying it myself; it is something you should consider though.

This is somewhat radical thinking, so please let me know what you think or if I am crazy by leaving a comment.

Talk soon,

The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdWords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

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This post from: Street Guide to Copywriting. To read more post like this, head over to Street Guide to Copywriting

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