Create the Perfect Buying Environment

by Brian Clark

People hate to be sold. But they love to buy.

Yes, they want to buy from you. Really!

If a visitor stops by your blog with a relevant want or a need, they’re looking to you to solve it.

Another visitor might even have a want or need created by something you’ve said with your blog.

People want to buy. They need you to establish that it’s OK to do so!

Let me explain.

Selling with a blog is not about convincing someone to buy something that they don’t want or need. Rather, it’s about overcoming objections to buying from you.

Or as Seth Godin puts it… people want you to tell them a story that they want to believe.

In the prospect’s mind, a natural uneasiness lurks. Is this the correct solution to my problem or desire? If so, is this the right source for that solution?

No one likes to make mistakes.

Beyond your direct attempts to overcome perceived and actual objections, people use a host of psychological shortcuts to allow themselves to take action. Given the complexity of our world and the barrage of messages aimed at us every day, these shortcuts are essential to efficient human function.

Without the shortcuts, we’d all basically shut down due to “analysis paralysis.” Good copywriting skillfully pulls psychological “triggers” in order to encourage the reader to take action.

Luckily, blogs inherently put many of these triggers in your hands. Utilize them properly, and you’re halfway home.

Here’s some of the ways your blog can set the stage for the perfect buying environment:

  • Authority - people respect others who are authorities on a certain subject, and are more likely to do business with them in that area.
  • Integrity - you have a forum to demonstrate your unwavering high standards.
  • Credibility - your posts are specific and believable, which helps win over wavering prospects.
  • Familiarity - over time, your readers will feel like they personally know you, and the decision to buy becomes easier.
  • Involvement - the interactive nature of blogs allows readers to participate and feel a sense of ownership which can be crucial to expanding the relationship.
  • Social Proof - comments to your posts and feed subscriber levels allow visitors to see others are reading, so maybe they should be too.
  • Honesty - this is the most crucial aspect of successful selling, and a blog allows you to demonstrate it.

These are some of the psychological foundations of trust that prospects need to sense before they consider buying your product or retaining your services. There are a whole host of others that work wonders to boost conversion rates when you go off road for more concentrated selling.

There’s much more ground to cover. Why not subscribe today and come along for the ride?

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{ 5 comments }

1 emiliano February 22, 2006 at 8:38 pm

Hello.

I love your article and I’d like to ask a question.
We run our services through a free website and we were thinking to open a company’s blog to increase its traffic and to have a closer contact with our customers.
Do you think our blog should be focused on specific topics (like product features, market analysys or technical discussions) or should be generic (allowing all our department to run their topics)? We would love to write about several topics but we have concerns about credibility.

Thank you!

emiliano

2 Brian February 22, 2006 at 8:46 pm

Hi Emiliano. I think you should be as specific as possible with the topics that relate to your products and your audience. The things you mention are a good start, but what else can you add for your customers? What information would help them with their lives or businesses?

That’s the stuff beyond the pure nuts and bolts of your product that will keep people engaged.

3 emiliano February 23, 2006 at 6:54 pm

Hi Brian,

thanks for your reply. We will deliver our blog soon. It will be focused on our users needs and suggestions. We will be talking about what we are doing and what is cooking in out labs. We will just try to relate to the customers as real people. I’m sure we will both benefit from that.

Thank you for blog.

4 emiliano April 2, 2006 at 5:44 pm

Hi Brian,

I finally started my blog, http://www.nameblogging.com
I’m sure it will help us to have a profitable interaction with our users to improve their satisfaction.
Thank you for your precious articles and suggestions.

best

emiliano

5 Wolf Skafte-Zauss June 1, 2006 at 7:46 pm

Thanks for your excellent info on copy writing. My main problem are the conversion rates on my site. I run Adwords and get plenty of visitors however most do not buy. Hopefully I can improve this using some of your techniques.
Regards
Wolf

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