Are you sometimes uncertain as to whether or not your internet marketing strategies are too sales oriented? You may have heard that if you give away too much information or if you don’t have a clear call to action on your site that you are going to end up being an unpaid consultant. But how can you determine what the fine line is between giving too much information and overselling or withholding information and frustrated your prospects? If you are looking to strike this perfect balance in your internet marketing strategies, here are a few principles that can guide you.

To begin with, you need not worry as to whether or not you are giving away too much valuable information. The secret is in how you give it away. Internet marketing strategies which really get results are based on the correct way trade information for customer interaction. This means that instead of giving out some information to lure the customer in and then pouncing on them for the sale, that you accomplish your goal in smaller and more subtle steps.

Internet marketing strategies which go right from the first contact to the sale as a straight line are not very effective. This is because a customer can see this a mile away, and although people are certainly not against purchasing products, they hate to be sold. The correct way to use information is to get the customer to take subtle actions or to give enough information so that you can work on building trust over a period of time. This means that the first contact should have no selling at all.

Rather, give them information about the benefits of your product and paint a picture of what it is going to look like when their problem is solved. This hiding the feature and selling the benefit is one of the most foundational of internet marketing strategies and can arouse the powerful buying emotion of curiosity. Once this is done, you bring your customer to an opt in where you can collect their contact information in exchange for information on how they can get the promised benefit.

Most people develop internet marketing strategies which collect the opt in information, promise to solve their customer’s problem and then send out a sales pitch disguised as a free product. However, if the ‘free product’ not solve the initial problem, the customer is likely to get frustrated with the elusiveness. As a result, they will doubt that the merchant even knows how to solve their problem and they will go to someone who will. Instead of this approach, solve the initial problem and at the same time paint a new picture of an even greater benefit.

This layering technique is one of the most powerful internet marketing strategies because solves the customer’s problem but accomplishes the merchant’s objective at the same time.  Using this approach can help you to leave a trail of tasty breadcrumbs right to the first small purchase. Once this is made, you have established trust and can go for the bigger sales.

Are your Content Marketing Strategies building your company brand and inspiring customer loyalty? Find out more about how you can use Content Marketing to build your presence with the search engines, educate your customers and inspire them to take action.