The Three Power Principles of Direct-Response Targetcasting:
Going Beyond the Hype of Channels and Push Media by Focusing on the Results Your Customers Want

by Michael Declan Dunn

I’m scared to write this article.

On one hand, I want to share with you an idea that may just save your business in the next five years. This secret will transform the Internet from a commercial village to a global marketplace.

Internet experts are now crowing the words "channel" or "push media." What they promise for the future is all very simple to achieve right now. The power of a headline, a mailing list, and a step-by-step sales process backed by email are the principles on which the Internet is growing.

I’m scared because right now I could read Red Herring, Forbes, Upside, and Wired, then present a calculated, compelling, influential and hypnotic view of the 21st-century personal "channel" that could have you nodding your head and pulling out your wallet...because everyone believes the people who "built" the Internet.

I don’t. I didn’t build the Internet and don’t think of the people who did as glorious icons. I’m glad they did it, but everything points away from the computer-centered aura of the Internet. And push media won’t make you a dime in the next two years. My secret isn’t new; it’s something borrowed for hundreds of years. It’s more personal than software and more permanent than cable. It’s the individual’s right to buy what he/she wants, when he/she wants.

The Internet has much more to do with direct-response marketing than technical tricks. The Three Power Principles of Direct Response Targetcasting merge direct response marketing with the Web site, a step-by-step process of meeting, talking with, defining, customizing, and closing business deals. Each customer is a valuable resource who, with guidance, can tell you exactly what they want. They create the target for their own interest so that businesses can "push" products and services to them. But how it’s delivered is far less important than what is delivered, and who owns the list.

The secret is something we’ve known all along; the customers are always right, because they’re paying for results.

1. Engage your visitors, who are browsing, ask what they are looking for (and want to buy), and find a convenient way to keep in touch with them via email.

2. Direct them toward exactly what they want to buy. Ask them what they need, their desired result, and make it easy for them to get it.

3. Channel them into your business by offering those specific products and services they need; provide the perfect solution, the result they ask for.

A year ago I wrote an article called "Targetcasting," about making your Web site a target for the customer’s specific interests. The next step is helping your customers make themselves a target for the exact results they are looking for. Shopping at a Web site should be as easy as buying a burger. You walk in, the smells get you, the menu shows you what’s available, and the clerk is always trying to help you get the perfect, big meal.

Whether browsing through a magazine for ads or surfing on the Internet, browsing is still sorting through a bunch of noise until you find something that makes you want to explore. The goal is to get your customer in contact with you.

The first contact your business makes with a customer is critical. Many businesses spend enormous amounts of money on advertising, hoping to catch someone’s eye. They’re hoping for success through advertising, without having to do a thing to follow up. Anyone would love to be lounging on the beach, waiting for the cash to roll in, and eventually you may get there. But if you think about contacting and following up with the customers as work, you’re missing the point.

The Internet is a live medium where people drop by to visit, but few sites get repeat traffic. Entertainment or news sites draw repeat visitors because the nature of what they do changes every day. Small businesses need to think in terms of an actual customer base they want to build, and what they should do to keep building theirs. For instance, try these techniques at your site:

1. I know of a simple program that will automatically send an email to a visitor who clicks on a picture, link, or whatever I set up for them to click on. Every contact is essential; treat it that way and build your email list.

2. Give them something of value to arouse their interest. Anyone who’s studied interface design knows that all that clicking and exploring is a behavior; it’s an action that your audience needs to be shown how to do. If they take the action and like it, they’ll take it again. Engage their curiosity, ask if you can help them out, and provide answers to their frequent questions. Headlines will stop them from browsing and get them exploring. Focus on benefits so they don’t want to leave.

3. How can I help you profit today? Turning a visit into a customer happens only if you ask them what they want. Ask them the three goals they have for visiting your site, or marketing online, or having a Web site.

4. Get the customer to think about why they are visiting. If they don’t know, keep in touch with them and help them find out. Forget you and your product; focus on the results your customers want.

5. Provide a place for your customers to add their voices to your site; editorial pages, surveys, and offers to post articles are excellent ways to targetcast.

6. Be sure to distribute your Web content. Let people borrow your Web pages with a link back to you, along with contact info. Why not get your advertising and information all over the place? Talk about channels, trade value for value, generate leads by endorsement and referral.

The second principle is the follow-up—the most important part of any sales process. Engaging a customer on first contact usually means finding out either by referral or by a cold contact what it is they are looking for. The customer needs to be directed toward the result they are looking for.

Take the time to sit down and talk with them by email or, even better, by telephone, with a specific meeting to identify what they want. Give them a reward for telling you what they need: a free report, a special price for people who respond to an offer in the next two weeks, or whatever action you can take to get them to identify exactly what they want. Most of all, don’t blame them if they don’t understand. Many times people don’t know what they want as they shop.

For instance, recently I just wanted to buy a Windows computer. I started reading about all the different warnings, promises, and configurations that supposedly I needed to know. I just wanted to get a Windows computer to hook up to my phone line and get to work. My lack of knowledge led me to contact a friend who custom-designed these computers. That’s exactly what I wanted.

He warned me not to buy it from a big-name dealer and, since he is my friend, told me to do it myself and save the $500 I would have paid him. So I looked around for the best deal, armed with my 166 Mhz Pentium/32 MB RAM/2 GB Hard drive/SoundBlaster/Warranty/fast modem schtick. I hadn’t the slightest clue what I was talking about, but those were the words I would spout out to anyone who would listen. Then I browsed for the best price.

Good advice? I didn’t think so when, after six weeks of searching, I gave my money to some guy from New York selling an Acer computer (with my entire schtick) for a good price. He sent me this cruddy-looking box that was barely held together by tape. I got scared reading about the BIOS threat on my warranty (I think it is some form of germ warfare). I knew it was a bomb when I plugged it in and that stupid monitor just kept blinking at me for two hours, through manuals, confusion, and frustration. Left with nothing but a dumb, gray box blinking at me, I returned it immediately.

I then called Dell Computer, who listened to what I needed and recommended a custom system to fit my needs, with a guarantee and customer support. They solved my problem at an added cost to me, but it was worth it. Ready-made is much better than do-it-yourself.

The only secret of follow-up is to create a sales process like Dell. Listen to what your customers want and ask them what they need by doing the following:

1. Guide your customers through your sales process. If you are putting any business online, begin simply. Sit down with a total stranger and try to sell them what you are offering. How long does it take you to convince them? What do they want to know? Get your best salespeople in to show you how they sell. What works in the real world is likely to work online.

2. List the benefits of your product, the results your prospective customers want, and create a Web site/advertising campaign that echoes what you would do in person. If you are selling a high-ticket item like a $3,000 Web site, make it easy to contact you. Answer their questions, set up a phone call to talk with them, and ask if they want to be put on your free email consulting list.

3. At a Web site, include a survey or contest to get their input so you know what to provide, and give them something in return; give them the free report, the shareware you have, the content that can help them build their business. Even better, give them some time to talk with you. Time is the biggest bonus you can give any prospective customer. Email them relevant news and personalize it with invitations to get in touch with you. Plan on at least four contacts to make a sale:

1. First contact: a fresh lead who is looking.

2. Second contact: a reminder and offer to help them.

3. Third contact: just checking in.

4. Fourth contact: this is your last chance to act. This will not be offered again.

Use email to follow up with your customers; remind them and direct them to the sale. Ask questions of your leads to develop a common customer profile. Every contact can help you better understand your target customer. Those customers who like working with you will gladly develop their own profiles if you keep giving them valuable resources.

Fishing for clients, whether in person or at a Web site, means sifting through the inquiries. From the customer’s viewpoint, they are given so much information from so many directions online that they will trade variety for reliability, credibility, and trust as the one resource to go to.

Separating the qualified leads from general inquiries is the goal of channeling your customers. Those creating the Castanet software at Marimba talk about each person having their own channel of personalized information, delivered by getting a gradual picture of what the person wants.

Shaping the commercial and entertainment offerings to the individual is no easy task. Begin by simply forming a profile of what your customer wants. See if this person fits into your traditional modes and what way you can best add value to what they are asking for. Enter your leads into a database and define exactly what you need to know about each customer to help them.

Creating a channel is creating a profile of exactly what they want. Many people don’t even know they have a problem, or have not identified the result in specific terms. Create a questionnaire and fax it to them before you speak; take the time to help them define what they want so you can deliver the solution, their channel.

Buying is a learning process; how many times have you known exactly what it is you want to buy? Being helped out by a business to get focused is easy...for the customer.

1. Phone your core group of clients and ask them what they have liked and haven’t liked about working with you. Get a thick enough skin to listen to critiques and don’t take them personally. Use this to build more offerings to your list. If you are just starting, conduct a survey with new clients and ask them what they would want from your product or service without selling.

2. Your product or service may not be the result your customer wants. For instance, Alexander Graham Bell didn’t invent the telephone, he invented a telegraph that allowed two-way communication. He had hoped it might help deaf people but, as it turned out, it was used for voice. Since you understand your customer is not buying the product or service, but buying the result they desire, it won’t matter what use they put to your product. Let them build the channel, not you.

3. Give them extra incentives for becoming a customer with you. By creating the channel you get a basic demographic profile. Give your customers a few bonuses for working with you, like free subscriptions. Encourage people to pass on their experience to others and don’t try to limit your outreach. The more you know your customers, the more value you have.

Targeted mailing lists are channels; Chambers of Commerce are channels. Channels are a giant endorsed mailing list.

Example: c|net

Recently one of my Web sites received an award as Best of the Web by c|net. I’ve received many awards online and know that most aren’t that meaningful. Like the Top 5% Web Sites logo, it’s been overdone and is usually an advertising ploy on the part of the company giving the award. Nice to have, but not really an honor unless, that is, you’ve gotten a c|net award. c|net’s award is meaningful because of the incredible traffic it gives me. By applying the Ten Keys to a Profitable Web Site in the last issue of the Web Letter, the traffic to this site has tripled, email inquiries multiplied by literally 10 times, and I got a month’s worth of traffic in one day. People spread the word like wildfire. This didn’t happen by accident; c|net has over 1,000,000 subscribers to its channel of information, news, software, shareware, consumer reports, and even television programs that supplement what it has to offer.

c|net gives free subscriptions, so my award went out to over 1,000,000 people. It even appeared on c|net’s home page for about a week. By using this channel I’ve increased visibility, credibility, and gained access to something I never thought possible before—a tremendous, target-specific audience who stepped into the targetcasting process and told me how they fit into what the Web site was offering.

c|net uses the subscription as a way to keep in touch. They allow you to order and work more with them, or simply to pass the word around. Even better, they have a program for using their award on all your direct-mail pieces, brochures—whatever you want to use to promote your award-winning site.

They even gave me a personal telephone number to discuss any further needs I have. They are marketing through the award but, unlike other awards, this brings an enormous amount of clout (i.e., a humongous mailing list) into the fray. I’ve tapped into those people who are interested in what is being provided and want to know how they can be a part of it. All because the site is "stunningly effective" in its approach.

Talk about stunningly effective. c|net’s recommendation gave me a month’s worth of traffic in five days—a flow that isn’t decreasing as time passes. I’ve been endorsed to a tremendously affluent and educated group of people. When it works, the channel grows by recommendation and endorsement. My site grew from 100,000 hits to over one million in April.

You won’t find that kind of success posting ads in your local papers. Endorsements are the backbone of any business, giving you access to their channel of customers, vendors, and clients, and hopefully making them part of your channel.

Forget push media and focus on your list. After all, when all this push media promise comes to reality, you’ll still need people to send it to. It all goes back to the basic concept of the Internet:

It’s not your product, service, or information that’s important. All that matters is your customer and the desired result they want. Remember, they are the ones who will create these "channels." Not you.

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