Use the power of interaction to drive your sales

$1.65 billion for 18 months work?  That can’t be bad…  So why have Google jumped head first into YouTube?

Well.  There is a group of young, motivated professionals that grew up ‘digital’ that are now earning and spending their money.  These people interact through social networking (MySpace), blogging and pod casting.  Google has significantly strengthened their position within this marketplace through the purchase of YouTube.  100 million videos are viewed on MySpace every day… so no wonder they want a piece of the action.

YouTube is also part of a bigger picture.  The way that websites are viewed is changing.  Every YouTube visitor makes their own decisions on what videos to watch and how to interact with the website in general.  No more one way information flow… online consumers now want a two way communication, and to make their own decisions. 

So how can we bring this into the real world, I hear you say.  It is becoming evident that having pages named “About Us” and “Our Products” is no longer enough, and so the ability to conduct an intelligent conversation with your website audience, will determine whether your marketing efforts will strive or struggle.

Here are some more in-depth examples of how you could start implementing these techniques…..

Interaction:
Create interactive tools and content that enables people to search and research information for themselves.  Let them work out what they want from you and give them the tools to do it.  You are now holding their hand as they go down the buying process.  Trust me, they will appreciate it, and remember you!

You will not be able to make a sale with every click.  Be ready to have a conversation at every stage of the buying process.  Some will want to read in-depth about the topic, so offer them branded PDF documents they can download.  Some will want to get in contact with you straight away, so make it easy.  Let them ‘pull’ the information that is most relevant to them. 

Blogs:
A blog or ‘Web Log’ is a website where entries are made in journal style often providing commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, news or more personal diaries.  A typical blog combines text, images and links to other blogs, web pages and other media related to its topic.

Not every market will be suitable for creating a blog, but if there are industry developments on a regular basis that would be of interest to your website audience, then do it!  Don’t be a bore - keep it simple and to the point, and let people post their own comments back to you.  You are trying to strike up a two way conversation after all.

Conversation:
Keep the conversation going – Just like we do!  Encourage your audience to leave their email address with you if they are not ready to buy today.  Send them periodic and interesting emails with strong calls to action and special offers.  Link back to your website so they can learn more and maybe buy at a later date.  Get your Company name engrained in their memory!

Track it effectively:
Make your marketing spend accountable.  Now that you understand there are many more positive actions than just making a sale, you need to track these actions to maximise the ‘real’ return from your marketing budget.  Signing up to newsletters, downloading PDF’s and reading your blog are all important signs that they are on the road to making a purchase.  After all, they might just pick up the phone and call you!

It is vital that we interact with these people and give them the user experience they are looking for.  If you don’t, your competitor will, and they are only one click away.