Today, I was having with my uber-girlfriend Cherie the umpteenth-yet conversation about marketing, business, energy, life, capitalism, husbands, contracts and hula hooping. (I hula hoop as much as I can while I talk on the phone ... also helps the synapses.)
Cherie and I often examine how to sell to women, or perhaps better stated: how do we as women like to buy goods and services? what's the process? the feeling? the experience we like?
OK, to the point, (HEY -- I'm a woman, let me work up to it a little, OK?!!!!) there's this Divine Rule of Internet Marketing, promulgated almost entirely by now-rich boy-geeks (nice guys, I'm sure) who insist that the way to sell online is to first get the potential customer to give you something (namely: their email address) and then -- and only then -- do they get access to your free secrets which you will happily give them, each one laden with promises of the MORE-MORE-MORE they can have if they just buy your ebook, teleseminar, CD package, etc.
I understand the logic. The internet is filled with data. There is little loyalty to sources of data. And -- I don't know about you, but easily half the time I go looking for something, I forget what I wanted and end up somewhere else: hopefully, somewhere interesting.
So the logic is that if the potential customer gives something of value they have stepped into the relationship, feel special / included and have agreed to receive the seller's free information, chockful of valuable tidbits.
Now, I know that what I'm about to say is not exclusive to women, I'm just going to write AS a WOMAN. I see these "gimme your email address and I'll give you mine" type of sites and almost always say "BLECH!" Well, I don't say "blech," per se, but that's what I generally feel.
Really! "Who are you to ask this of me. I know nothing of you. I don't know if you're some slimeball who's going to sell my email address to one of "those" lists. I don't know if you're going to inundate me with endless stupid emails. I just don't know you, and you can't have my email address ... I haven't made up my mind about You yet."
Sound like a classic woman? Good, it should.
OK, then, what's the solution? Internet marketers want to know who is coming by their site. Who's interested? A potential customer?
A classic comment women make when a retail employee approaches them is this: "Thanks, I'm just looking." So why don't marketers acknowledge that that's how women often shop? (It don't mean she ain't got an idea of what she wants or that she won't be a customer in 30 minutes. Just don't ask her to engage right yet.)
So, how can folks selling on the internet, which Cherie and I intend to do with our American City Girls' art products, among other things, allow women to be "just looking"? Here are some ideas and generalizations Cherie and I made from our own experiences as women and as smart consumers: Please note, we are in the learning and discovery stage. This is not being presented as Ultra Knowledge.
- No more of this "gimme (your email) first" from marketers. Blech!
- Women like conversations. Conversatonis are energizing, inclusive and a way to get real information. Women are big energy readers (intuition) and get extra layers of data from how info is presented: tone, volume, emotion.
- Women watch - and consider valuable -- information on the periphery more than they do direct info. (Faith Popcorn, in Eveolution.) Women like to OVERHEAR something or see it out of the corner of their eye.
- Women usually don't want to commit right away to a relationship with future unstated obligations -- my, my, my! -- right up front.
- Women like community. They like to talk into a conversation. Break out to a side conversation. Listen to three different conversations at once. So can't internet selling be more like a fun, social, vibrant market place and less like a snake oil roadshow salesman dishing out all the wonders some magical elixer will deliver? (Reference the endless internet sites selling whatever.)
The solution, me-we-thinks is this:
- Blogs. Real conversations about real products.
- Voice and podcasts ... data women can gather while doing other activities (multi-tasking). What about an audio testimonials from a satisfied customer right next to the "Buy Now" button? How's that for cool?
- Anything where women can participate in a conversation with company folk, other customers and other women before buying a product or service is a good thing. And if they can add their two cents and help someone else with their wisdom, all the better!
Now, before you have a kaniptchin (or however you say-spell it), I know I'm not inventing blogs, nor am I the first person to say, "Uh, do a podcast." Nor the firs to promote actively engaging your customers in a conversation.
I'm just sayin', as a woman, that this male-dictated way of selling is
soooo overly male sometimes that it makes me want to turn away and
take my money somewhere else, which is exactly what I do.
Imagine instead a genuine blog where folk can talk about the product, how they use it, where they encountered obstacles with it. MAYBE, just maybe! the assembly instructions for an item are really dumb. And maybe, just maybe, it would be really awesome for a company rep to say "Wow, those instructions really are dumb. I just tried to use them. I'll get on that right away! Thanks, Mrs. So-and-so, it's customers like you who keep us on our toes and help us provide the best products in our class."
Selling to women can take more time than selling to men. But women -- once convinced of a good value, a good product or service and a good company behind the product or service -- will tell their network of women about your company like nobody's business. Much more so than men do. And other women VALUE a recommendation from a girlfriend more than men do. It's part of our internal data processing system as women. (Faith, again, Eveolution.)
So, LOGICALLY, even though the process of selling to women can take more time and appear to be more labor-intensive, once sold the woman becomes an independent, non-commissioned sales rep. Hey, that brings up another point about affiliate sales, but it's late and this post is nearing its end.
Cherie and I are going to try this on our American City Girls' art products site and see if we get results. I'll keep you posted.