E-commerce Link : Build Confidence

To build sales, you have to move beyond engaging customers with social media

Creating sales with social marketing campaigns demands creating confidence in customers. It requires the marketer to offer prospects results in advance. So, if you're busy engaging customers with "authentic content that adds value" or "engaging social media campaigns" please stop and listen up.

Being known, liked and trusted enough to earn the investment of fickle customers demands giving them the confidence they need to buy. Everything else is just wasting precious time.

Again, I don't just make this stuff up. I practice what I preach after having learned from extraordinary marketers. People like Rachel Farris, director of operations at Austin, Texas-based PetRelocation.com. She's bringing in tens of thousands of dollars in new customers each month using Facebook and blogging.

Now do I have your attention?

Selling Confidence
PetRelocation.com is a white glove service provider specializing in helping people in transition get their pets safely relocated to overseas locations. We're talking pigs, horses, snakes, monkeys—you name it, PetRelocation.com will relocate the animal safely and securely with all the paperwork. Yes, paperwork. Many foreign countries require extensive paperwork on pets, as well as quarantining periods.

The more I got to know Farris, the more I heard about all the potential nightmares for pet owners. In fact, Farris insists she's not really selling a service. She says PetRelocation.com is selling confidence.

You see, many of her clients are scared stiff that successful relocation of a pet can even happen. They've got so many worries that ultimately Farris says making the sale is not really about cost or the quality of services her team provides. The biggest obstacle to selling her service is getting her clients to believe that their pets can be relocated without stressful problems.

The Power of Experience
Most service providers find themselves in this exact situation: Selling an experience. Unlike selling a product (a near-term result), most service marketers sell a longer-term promise. So here's what Farris does to meet the challenge. (Please remember: Keep your business in mind as I tell her story. Think about how your customers feel when you've delivered what you said you would and they've experienced the outcome.)

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