I don’t care what kind of site you have, porn or non adult, if the people who come to your site can’t trust what you say they aren’t likely to buy anything. That’s a fact. If people don’t trust you or your links then they aren’t customers, they are pissed off surfers who are going to tell others you ripped them off or tried to rip them off.
If you don’t think that customers telling other customers good or bad things makes a difference then why are so many of you trying to get “word of mouth” out about your sites. Why are so many doing “viral marketing”? Because it works! Problem is it works both ways and it works faster the bad way. Bad news has got runners legs. Good news usually is on crutches.
I don’t believe any of you really want that or want your customers to think bad things about you or your site. If you do you’re a damn fool and aren’t going to sell much of anything to anyone, whether it be actual hard goods, software, an ID or E-book of some kind.
It’s easy to play semantic word games, btw sematics=”the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.”, but playing word games with your surfers isn’t going to get them to spend money.
Here’s the meaning of imply. “Imply=to indicate or suggest without being explicitly stated” Do you understand that? If not, think about it until you do. When you say “Get your free software download now.” What do you think the customer thinks? Yep, he thinks the software is free. When he discovers it’s not, you have just become a rip off website and that customer doesn’t and won’t trust you.
You implied the software was free and he inferred the software was free and he clicked the link to get the FREE SOFTWARE. Now he’s pissed and if he’s like me and has a blog or other website, doesn’t everyone nowadays, he’s going to go post about how you tried to rip him off. Just the reaction you wanted isn’t it. Myspace and all the other Web 2.0 places make it very easy for a pissed off customer to give your site a bad name.
Here’s a couple of meanings of the word infer. Infer=to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence, facts, circumstances, statements, etc. to indicate or involve as a conclusion.
If you want to make a lot of sales then what you imply you have you damn well better have when the surfer gets there. What the surfer infers is reality, not what you imply. Prime example. My GF got an auto dealer thing in the mail with the usual key attached and she was guaranteed to be a winner. Naturally the prizes were quite good. Free car, free wide screen plasma TV’s or $100.00 to $500.00 in FREE GAS.
She was all excited when she was told she’d won $300.00 in FREE GAS. Gave a website to go and register and get your FREE GAS card. I told her don’t get to excited as I knew how the crap worked. Now she’s pissed off and will never buy a damn thing from that dealer. Ya see, when she got to the website she discovered she had to buy a minimum of $100.00 worth of gas every month, at the exact same brand station. She had to keep her receipts and send them in every month and then wait to get a $25.00 FREE GAS card back in the mail.
All I can tell you is she is pissed. Then we got in an argument because I told her she was getting exactly what the ad promised her. Lol, she is still pissed and thinks crap like that should be illegal. She’s already told 3 people, while I was present, what a rip off that dealer is and I’m sure she told others on the phone. Great advertising for them wasn’t it? Created lots of new customers, I’ll bet.
Yep, she inferred she was going to get a FREE GAS card right then and there worth $300.00 because that’s what the ad implied. Notice I didn’t say it’s what the ad said but what it implied and from that implication she inferred the $300.00 gas card was going to be hers right away and with no further work on her end.
Semantics games may get people to come and look but they sure as hell aren’t going to buy when you try to play word games with them and they think they are getting ripped off. You really need to have what you imply you have. You need to know what your customers are going to infer from your words and that’s what you’d better have. If you don’t you just made an enemy and they will tell more people. It’s really simple. You may think you’re being smart, cool or otherwise fooling the customer but the one you are really fooling and screwing is yourself.
Another thing, if you have a link that says free trial or 3 day trial or 7 day trial for a certain amount of money and they click on the link and there is no trial, just a signup page at full price do you really think that customer is going to signup? Not freaking likely. They won’t even signup after that if you hit them with a popup and the free trial is on it. They don’t trust you anymore.
If you want good sales then you’d better have what the link says you have and what the customer infers you have. Like it or not, what the customer infers is his reality. Reality bites a lot of webmasters in the ass and then they whine about not making any money. If the customer thinks you lied, then you lied. It’s as simple as that.
If the customer doesn’t trust your links then you have just lost a customer. You can say “Free Download” all you want but to the customer that means the product is free. I tend to agree with the customer. Ya just don’t see to many downloads that arent free. Inplied and inferred. So simple.
Don’t play semantics games with your customers, they don’t like it. What you know the customer is going to infer from your words is damn well what better be there when the customer gets there. If not you just lost a sale and a customer. Doesn’t matter what kind of site it is. If you want to retain customers you’d better be for giving them what THEY think they are going to get.
If you have a link that says 3 day trial, then, at the end of that link there damn well better be a 3 day trial and if it’s check boxes or buttons the 3 day trial button had better be the one checked. Anything else, to the customer, is a lie. If you want to get and keep customers, DON’T LIE to them.
Yeah, yeah, I know, the gas thing wasn’t a lie. The free download thing isn’t a lie. However, it’s not me who thinks you lied, it’s your customer. Remember the old adage, the customer is always right, even when he’s wrong. Well, using semantics in a tricky way makes you a liar to the customer. He’s wrong but that’s not his reality and if you want to keep your customers it better not be your reality either. Literal truth is a dangerous thing and to many people do it and lose customers.
Just by having what you lead the customer to expect, just by having at the end of the link what the customer expects, means you have happy customers and they will return, again and again and again.
Heh, I don’t know why I bothered to write this. If to many of you actually get it and start doing it then it will probably cost me customers. OTOH most of you won’t believe it anyway so it’s safe to tell the 6 billion people in this world.
When you exceed your customers expectations you’ll always sell more than the person who doesn’t. Even if it’s at 3 times the price. Your custormers trust is the most important thing you have.