ASK MR. INTERNET
Michael Russer answers your Internet marketing questions
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an Internet speaker, trainer, author, and consultant. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Send your questions to help@askmrinternet.com.
Winning over Internet Empowered Consumers
Test Your Way to a Marketing Pay off
Mr. Internet's litmus test lets you quickly determine which new online marketing tools are worth your investment of time and money.
DEAR MR. INTERNET:
Every day it seems that salespeople receive offers from companies purporting to sell the secret weapon that will increase their online business. Is there any way to tell if any of these claims will work?
Terry Penza, president and chief operating officer
North Shore-Barrington Association of REALTORS®
Northbrook, Il.
DEAR TERRY:
It's a confusing world out there--and becoming more so every day. The shear number of marketing ideas and tools continually being introduced is overwhelming. And to make things worse, many of those that appear most appealing to our traditional sense of marketing and sales, such as Web caller ID, which captures the name and e-mail address of people visiting your site, are actually recipes for disaster online.
There's a simple, quick, and easy way around this mess, however, and it involves asking your question in a different way.
It’s All In How You Ask
Any product, service, strategy, or tactic designed to enhance your online business involves some form of interaction with the Internet Empowered Consumer. Armed with this knowledge, let's restate your question from "Will this interaction help me do more business online?" to "Is this interaction compatible with IECs and will they perceive it as valuable?" The question homes in on how receptive your online market will be to any product, service, strategy, or tactic that you consider using to boost your Internet-based business.
In other words, you want to consider two issues: IEC compatibility and IEC perceived value. An interaction is compatible with IECs only if it doesn't threaten their privacy or sense of being in control. And the interaction is beneficial if IECs perceive that it'll save them time, money, or give them options, such as unbundling of services.
Powerful Insight in Less Than Two Minutes
Using these criteria, I've created a simple one-page evaluation form that will help you determine how effective any online product, service, strategy, or tactic will be to IECs. Download the IEC Interaction Litmus Test in PDF
rmomag__Litmus.pdf or HotSend format.rmomag__Litmus.efx
If you don't already have Adobe Reader, download it from the Adobe site free. Or download and install the free HotSend viewer, also known as eFax Messenger. And if you'd prefer to get the evaluation form by fax, send an e-mail with your fax number to wgonzalez@realtors.org.
The form has three parts:
1. Interaction Description--Identify and describe the online product, service, strategy, or tactic you're evaluating.
2. Compatibility Evaluation--Answer yes, no, or neutral to whether the interaction protects the IECs' privacy and sense of control. Any "no" answer immediately rejects the proposed interaction because by definition it'll alienate IECs. A "neutral" compatibility response doesn't override a high positive score on the perceived value test, which would imply that the interaction is worth pursuing.
3. Perceived Value Evaluation--On a scale of -5 to +5, score whether the saves time, saves money, or offers IECs options. For instance, a negative score for saving time means that IECs perceive that the interaction takes more of their time not less. If the total of the three scores is positive, IECs will view the interaction as valuable.
Without the use of an objective means to evaluate any kind of online interaction, it's easy to find yourself off track when choosing the latest and greatest Internet marketing tools. For instance, I recently introduced three online services to an audience of brokers and asked them to vote—via secret ballet, to avoid group influence--on how effective each would be in generating more business online.
After tallying the results, I used the IEC Interaction Litmus Test to evaluate each marketing tool. More than 80 percent of the audience chose those services that were most likely to drive away IECs. Without the evaluation, they chose concepts that would've hurt their online business.
That's not surprising when you consider that most online products and services geared to enhancing your bottom line appeal to your need for control. And, I've shown in my previous columns, you need to give up control if you want to work successfully with the IEC. (i.e. ?To Win You Have To Know The Rules!? ? June 2000 edition of ?Ask Mr. Internet!?)
To see how I used the evaluation form to evaluate the online sales and marketing product Webcaller ID, download either the PDF rmomag__Litmusex.pdfor Hotsend documents. rmomag__Hotsend.efx
Your world as an online real estate professional is complicated enough without having to guess whether to invest valuable time and money in every new idea that comes down the digital pike. You've got nothing to lose by using the IEC Interaction Litmus Test--only time, money, and a few clients.
