Dealer Dan, pictured here with WWE Superstar Mick Foley, has been in internet marketing since 1996. He likes hugs, long walks on the beach, and making money while wearing his jammy jams. For more information, you can read all 
One thing I really love about marketing is that it’s all around you – so many things that we all do in our daily lives is based on marketing. Sometimes it’s not even direct marketing from the company, however it’s still marketing.
If you really want to become a successful internet marketer you have to understand just how big an impact marketing has on selling a product.
I love to browse the weekly flyers, or go window shopping downtown, and just look at all the marketing methods out there. There are so many great marketing methods and also so many poor marketing methods thst just a quick walk downtown can be such an educational experience.
If I’m in line at Wal-mart or a grocery store, I like to look at the people I’m in line with, what products they’re purchasing, and why they’re actually buying them. Even the necessities like shampoo and toothpaste – there’s always a story behind that. Go into the pharmacy and you’ll usually see over 50 toothpaste products – so why did the person behind me buy that particular product?
You’d be surprised at how well this can get the brain flowing, and how it will benefit you when trying to sell products to the reader.
One thing I do is keep a tight budget – every item me or my wife purchase we add onto a spreadsheet. What I end up doing once a month is going through this list, looking at the products listed on it and determining why we bought them. It’s amazing how many products you buy are based on pure marketing.
I wanted to pick out 10 random items that I purchased in January 2011, and share with you the reasons as to why I bought them:
1: Pepsi Throwback:
This is the “classic” pepsi which is made from sugar instead of corn syrup. I’m on the “coca-cola” side of the coke vs pepsi debate, and had no interest in this. Yet me friend noticed it was available in Canada, and convinced me to try it not based on taste, but because it was a “classic”, like the “old school” days. A very common marketing technique is to call something “classic”. People always have faith in the “good old days” and the “classic” marketing goes hand in hand with it.
2: SAW 2 for XBox 360:
I purchased this because, despite bad reviews online, I enjoyed the first one immensly and wanted to try out the sequel. I purchased this based on trust marketing, in that I had enough faith in this company and their prior products to go with their latest product. Ask Steve Jobs how well trust marketing works!
3: The Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray:
I bought this trilogy because well, it’s goddamn awesome, and I want to be able to watch it again and again. But the key part to this is the blu-ray; the marketing for high-definition over the years has been great, and has got to the point where you’re “missing out” if you don’t have high-definition. I’m someone that can watch a movie on my iPod Touch or Blackberry, yet here I am paying $10 extra just for high definition, because I’d feel that watching it in SD would be a lesser experience.
4: Doritos Limited Onion Rings & Ketchup Flavour:
Look at this freaking bag:
I mean, come on how do you resist that? It stands out a mile away. There are so many, many reasons to buy that chip bag. The one for me was simply the unique flavour of Onion Rings and Ketchup – I felt it was worth a try. However if you want to look at a marketing company that knows what the hell they’re doing, check out Doritos. Those guys are geniuses.
5: Skim Milk:
One of the products that we all have to buy on a regular basis is milk. However again, we need to look closely. I didn’t purchase any old milk – I purchased skim milk. Why? Because if it’s low fat percentage. This is benefit marketing – where they’re able to sell a product to me based on a benefit. This is a very strong form or marketing – look at all the chip bags that advertise 0% trans fat. The average consumer ignores the fact that they’re still bad for you as they’re buying into the benefit marketing aspect of it.
6: Tons of Crap from Value Village
My wife was responsible for this one. Value Village had a 50% off everything sale – and she spent about $100 there. On what? Well, things we don’t need of course. But the deals were “too good to resist”.
7: Cadburys Creme Egg
I rarely eat chocolate. Yet these were conveniently placed on the counter at the store right in good ol’ impulse buy territory. And I bought it on an impulse. This is a big form of marketing that I feel a lot of people on the web miss out on.
8: A Touch Lamp
I purchased this because I needed a new lamp for my bedroom. When I went to Wal-mart there were over 8 different types of lamps. The one I purchased advertises 3 different levels of light, including a “low light perfect for reading”. I wanted this lamp so I could read in bed while my wife sleeps, without her feeling like a floodlight is aimed at her. All the lamps probably had this feature – but this lamp directly advertised it, and it immediately personalized that product for me.
9: Meat Lovers Calzone at the Pub
I was down at the pub and I bought the Meat Lovers Calzone, which was the special for that evening and isn’t on the regular menu. Out of all the food items, why did I choose the meat lovers calzone? Simple: the waitress, who is a friend of mine, highly recommended it to me and I trust her opinion. Additionally, she told me that others had tried it and loved it, and even asked another customer who had got it, and he said it was amazing.
This one hit 3 different forms of marketing, all extremely strong:
1: Limited Time Marketing
2: Referral Marketing
3: Testimonial Marketing
A huge sell, and an item hitting all three of the above will convert at least 90% of the time.
10: Memory Booster App for my Blackberry
Probably one of the key marketing sells here.
My Blackberrys been having memory issues lately since I upgraded to the latest OS, so I spent $5 on a Memory Booster App. This may seem like a required purchase – but was it really? Is this app really going to help me? Could I not just revert back to the original OS? Do I really know the benefits of this application? Yet these are the purchases we make on a regular basis – items we don’t know that we need, but we’re TOLD that we need them and we blindly trust the person selling the product, because they tell us what we want to here.
So take some time out, and walk around your house. Keep all your reciepts, and look at the items you buy. Then ask yourself WHY. WHY did you buy these products?
Then take those reasons, and use them to market online. It really is that simple.
This article was written on February 14, 2011 however all articles are looked at on a monthly basis and updated to keep them relevant.
If you need to contact Graeme, please see his Contact Page. If you are an affiliate manager wanting promoted please see this page.
