Not literally, but it sure is good to figuratively put yourself into the shoes/mind of your visitors and think about what they want and how you can deliver that when they come visiting.
Many people are looking for answers and will often search for their answers online. The challenge is to work out what problems are driving them to search for those answers. When you identify those problems, you’re more than half way towards meeting their needs with a product or service you offer.
Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer or an offline business owner looking to increase your online exposure, knowing what it is like to walk a mile in your customers shoes will put you in a better position to help them.
So, you’ve put on your visitors shoes and found this brilliant website (your site). What do you see?
You will see a reflection of the person behind the business/site. You will see values, beliefs, integrity, all in varying degrees, purely from the look and feel, the welcome note, the photo, the about me page, the feedback form, and a dozen other locations where every site owner has the chance to communicate with his/her visitors.
I am going to list some key points for you to consider. You may already practice a combination of these in your own online enterprise. If you don’t, then consider the benefits to your customers, and subsequently to your business, by applying one or more of these characteristics to your business model.
1. Be brilliant in those areas where you have talent and develop strategies around your strengths. There is no need to pretend that you’re good at everything, in fact, it can go against you as you might appear to be a know-it-all. Identify your weaknesses and use the skills of others to fill those gaps and ultimately enhance what it is you offer.
2. Be ethical. It is a value and values are dependent upon culture, change with different generations and can be a major sticking point. Decide what is ethical in your particular market niche and practice that.
3. Reliability. If you promise something, deliver it as promised, and even more so if you are being paid to do it.
4. Value loyalty. Many of your site visitors will look past the occasional slip, but do not take loyalty for granted. Acknowledge that loyalty with the best you can give. Regardless of your target market, treat everyone who drops by your website as if they are standing there in person, in front of you. They will come back time and again when they sense that you value their time and can offer to help them in some way by solving a problem, answering a question or scratching an itch.
5. Empower your visitors. Allow them to subscribe and unsubscribe easily, contact you at any time (via a form for instance) and, if you put a video on your site, give your readers control over the play/pause buttons. It all demonstrates that you trust them and want them to be in the driver’s seat.
6. Consistently be yourself, but mind your manners. There is a place for rudeness and arrogance and it is not behind the wheel of a successful online business, whatever the niche you’re in, unless it is online-insults dot com.
7. Aim to deliver value. Be sure that there is value in everything you produce or promote. If in doubt, don’t promote it or be sure to make full disclosure up-front of any concerns or uncertainties you have about a product or service.
8. Know your values, and over time get to know the values of your visitors. You will find that as you make your values transparent readers with similar values and goals will align themselves with you.
9. Serve, don’t just sell. Of course any successful business is one that sells products and/or services. To do otherwise would lead to bankruptcy. However, I suggest you serve your customers first, and the sales will naturally follow.
10. Transparency & Honesty. Be you. You have unique skills, use them. You have a unique voice, use it. You are always competing with many similar online businesses (in your niche) so make a point of differentiation so that you stand out, but never lose sight of the need to be 100% honest with your visitors.
Have you tried on your visitor’s shoes lately? What did you see?
Related posts:
Twitter: barry_wells
says:
Hi Michael, thats some excellent advice there and laid out so its easy to follow.
I’m getting there on most of the list, and am fine tuning the areas that are trailing slightly.
I like No9 serve don’t sell, as that is what i started doing on my blog earlier this year. I created a video series showing Newbies what needs doing to an info’ product website, from the point of purchase to the point of uploading it. Many people have told me it should be a product, and maybe it should. But i want to grow a following of people that get to know me better and start to trust me.
I always deliver on my promises and try to over deliver to my customers. If ever anything doesn’t work as it should i stop everything and get the problem solved.
Short steps in the right direction are far better than long steps in the wrong one.
Speak soon Michael, regards, Barry
.-= Barry@The Newbies Guide´s last blog ..The Importance Of Comments and Replies on Your Blog =-.
Thanks for dropping in Barry and leaving some feedback. Re #9, I have recently been unsubscribing from a number of lists I am on because the list authors have been sending out non-stop sales emails and not doing much else. One or two a month is okay so long as they mixed up with other valuable tips and hints.
I will check out your videos. You can package up a series into a product by adding premium content. Leave the existing videos there to give your readers the opportunity to try before they buy, then allow them to choose the premium product once their trust is gained.
I like your steps idea. It sounds like good advice.
Michael.
Twitter: barry_wells
says:
Hi Michael, I know exactly what you mean about some list authors trying to sell in every email, isn’t it frustrating. I follow a few that are like that just to learn what not to do on my list. I’ve currently got a small list and want to build on it, so i am focusing on giving value to it and not taking value from it, if you know what i mean.
Thanks for the advice on the videos Michael, its got me thinking about product creation……..
I’ll be back soon Michael, take care my friend.
Barry
Hey Michael, great post, I have to admit in the past I have tried to look like an expert in every field, now I just admit… hey i don’t know everything!
I also agree about loyalty, lose that and your can literally lose it all.
Sally
I come from a teaching background and very early on you learn that pretending to know everything will quickly get you into trouble. In fact, by admitting gaps in knowledge people will often pitch in and offer to help. You have done that very well Sally in your post “its-just-personal-its-nothing-business”. I expect you will get a lot of people warming up to you more as a result of that tome … er … post
Michael, this is an excellent list to live by for an Internet marketer, or anyone in business.
I also agree that number 9 is important. I’m currently not on the lists of any of the major gurus, but when I was, it seemed to be one pitch after another, with little or no teaching or sharing.
.-= ´s last blog ..Selling Information Products Weekly Reading =-.
Twitter: thublogger
says:
Hi Michael, I followed your blog through Murlu’s. While I haven’t yet got a product or anything to offer to my readers, I’m an avid collector of freebies and subscriber to mailing lists. So I share that with them in hopes that there is something they can benefit from.
At least once or twice during the week, I’ll look into that archive and do a review. It’s a win-win situation. I learn something, share it with my readers and also include more relevant topics which may be related. I’m not an expert and my readers know that as well. Thus, it’s a learning experience to just give and give and learning to see what works and what doesn’t.
So far, lists and gratitude have created for me a lot of momentum. Those topics have been my best traffic pullers and it lets me know that those are the areas which I will concentrate most on to give more of.
I appreciate the conversation.
.-= ´s last blog ..Sharing Ideas – Let That Be One of Your Muses =-.
John, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I think I am down to one list now (the guru marketers). If nothing else, from reading all the sales hype, I have made a commitment that I will avoid that style of mail-out to my lists.
Thu, you are offering your readers lots of value.
I just spent 20 minutes looking around your blog and your e-library is an excellent resource that provides great value to those just starting out as well as people who have been around a while. I see that as part of your uniqueness. Keep it going and you will have a loyal following for when you do develop your own product.
In fact, you could do an e-book called “Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur*” and include in it a couple of your favourite tips or techniques from each of your e-library books. With appropriate referencing back to the original source, and some commentary from you, the product becomes uniquely yours and would be a very attractive item to your current subscribers.
* That title is already taken and trademarked, but I used it to get the idea across.
Talk soon, Michael.
Twitter: thublogger
says:
Michael, thanks, those are some great recommendations! Will look more into product creation now that you got my brain racking. I’ll be coming back for more ideas from you.
See what you’ve done. You’ve given me a valuable experience and that’s enough as a new reader to see you do understand how ‘your visitors’ are.
Thanks again.
.-= ´s last blog ..The Beginnings of Prominent Social Networks Online (Part 1) =-.
[...] receive more than we gave away, whether we expect it or not.One example of giving is spending time trying on our visitors shoes, thinking about their situation, offering inspiration and suggestions and generally trying your [...]
Twitter: tnsblog
says:
Hey Michael,
Awesome Post man. These are some brilliant tips. I really like the 1 and 9 Point. Those are awesome advice. “Serve, don’t just sell” Great .. Last week i unsubscribed from many blogs, because of so many spam mails with affiliates links
.
Thanks for sharing this great Post.
~Dev
Dev @ Blogging Tips´s last [type] ..Technshare Monthly Report 3: May 2010
Welcome Devesh and thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Yes, it really spoils it for me when a blogger succumbs to the temptation to start sending out endless promotional emails all designed to get you to buy something.
If ever I do this with this blog would someone please hit me over the head with an e-book
[...] you is to be in someone else’s position. Michael Pedzotti wrote about this two weeks ago in trying on your visitor’s shoes. He gave his readers some pointers on how they can break the barrier for someone who’s [...]
Very useful tips but all of these may not be completely applicable in all endeavors for sales. The right application of these tips at the right juncture would be the best thing.
Yes. Good point. A combination is what is applicable would be best.
Twitter: alljessilicious
says:
Hi Michael!
Really enjoyed your tips here!
In particular, #5, Empower Your Visitors, jumped out at me. This is something I think I’m pretty good at doing, but it’s something I see a lot of people NOT doing, so I’m glad you mentioned it.
If I’m on a site that doesn’t let me pause or rewind a video, or get an email that is hard to unsubscribe from, it just makes me more likely to click away (or unsubscribe) and never come back! That empowerment is super important, for sure!
Jess Webb´s last [type] ..The Ten Commandments of a Website Design
Hi Michael. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us. I totally agree with these points and I personally think that building positive, genuine relationship with your existing customers/potential customers/fans should be based on trust and reliability.
Pixie midex in my post. I’m sorry Michael and once again many thanks for this brilliant article!
Pixie midex? In any case I worked it out, I think. Mark has now become Michael
… and, you’re welcome.
Well yes.. It’s true thou.
We need to think too in their point of view, since we made the blog post not for ourselves only.
Andrew Walker´s last [type] ..DriveScrubber Review & Coupons
great post, I have to admit in the past I have tried to look like an expert in every field, now I just admit… hey i don’t know everything!