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Ecommerce and the "Reason Why"
by Robin Porter
Published on this site: July 14th, 2006 - See more
articles from this month
The other night, I watched a rerun of the original Superman film from
1978. In it I noticed a considerable amount of time was spent showing
how Superman ended up on planet earth. We saw his parents on Krypton,
the escalating doom affecting that planet, and why his parents took the
decision to place him in a pod and send him to earth. We saw his father Jor-El rationalise this to
his wife, explaining how the differing gravities, and less advanced life
forms of Earth would give their boy a positive advantage.
What did all this serve to do?
It rationalised Superman's superhero powers. He would be able to fly because
he was from a planet with a different gravity, he would be superfast &
superstrong because his molecular structure was different, etc.
Basically it gave a reason why.
However far fetched the reasons were, undoubtedly they serve to make the
film more believable. They explain why Superman has superhuman powers.
And so do many other Superhero films - The Hulk, Spiderman etc, all explain
away the superhero's powers, adding an increased degree of believability
that would otherwise be absent.
All this shows that if you can incorporate Reasons Why into your marketing,
you will undoubtedly increase your sales.
So how can you make this work for you?
Special offers
Instead of just blindly putting special offers on products, explain why
they are on offer. Perhaps the manufacturer had a cancelled order, and
offered you an amazing deal which you can pass on to your customers. Maybe
as a result of your annual stocktake, you need to reduce your inventory,
and so are selling off your widgets at a ridiculous low price.
Limited availability
Tell a story as to why there is limited availability on a product. Perhaps
it was the last stock of a production overrun, or "forgotten"
stock that was in one of your storerooms that got "lost" behind
other stuff. If the type of product you sell is not of a limited availability
nature, you can tweak this to justify why a particular special price is
for a limited time only.
Why you are the best choice
Perhaps you have over 20 years experience in your field which enables
you to know your industry inside out. Or you have particular inside knowledge
which allows you to get the best deals and pass these on to your customers.
Think about it - you can always find an "angle" to justify why
you are the best person to buy from.
Customer Testimonial
In a way these are "reasons why" someone should buy from you.
Although they are well used in information product marketing, they are
under used when selling physical products. Make an effort to collect testimonials
from your customers that emphasise your quality of service, speedy service,
helpfulness or cheap prices.
Give people a reason why. Make a story out of it. We all see shops with
"Sales" banners up all the time, but when they say the sale
is due to relocation or closing down, we take an extra special look, don't
we? The "Reason Why" is a powerful technique that can add that
little extra bit of credibility to give your sales a boost.
Robin Porter is CEO of
http://www.arpey.co.uk/ecommerce-web-site-design.html and advises
ecommerce store owners on marketing at www.e-businessdoctor.co.uk
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