A couple of months ago I was looking for replacement windows, a Clickbank or Paydotcom product was not going to help, I had my cheque book ready and went out looking....
Browsed Google, etc looking for a local company that could do the job and after a few minutes I had identified two or three that I might consider. Found the web sites and filled in the contact form and waited, and waited and WAITED. No auto acknowledgement, no call back NOTHING. A couple of DAYS later a sales guy calls explaining how their windows are just the BEST on the market and could he come and see me? Well, not yet, I'm still collating potential suppliers could I have a brochure please? No problem he says "it's in the post!". What nothing online? NOPE! In the meantime Im still waiting to hear ANYTHING from the other suppliers I spoke to, and to this day still have not heard squat.
The brochure arrived about a week later, around 10 days from the original enquiry! (By this time I'd decided to buy a new car and the bloody windows could wait...lol)
So why am I rambling on about this?
You see, you and I are involved in internet marketing, we KNOW that responses have to be immediate and you have to follow up, follow up, FOLLOW UP. We know ALL about autoresponders, digitised info products that presell and capturing your visitors details. Yet it seems that many of the 'traditional' offline businesses don't quite grasp this yet, they're used to someone walking into the showroom, browsing the goods and buying / or not.
Following my 'window shopping' experience I contacted the sales departments direct and offered a win-win deal. I would capture leads and sell them on for a commission, (now these are high ticket items and so commissions are generous...). I was supplied with brochures etc, digitised them and included them in my autoresponder messages, etc, etc. Now this is still early days but working very well...
As an experiment I've gone through the same process with a number of other offline businesses (plumbers, electricians, etc, etc) and found a similar response in ALL cases.
It seems that all of the well established technques of internet marketing are most commonly used within the internet marketing community. Its time to take them out and implement them in the 'real business world. TRY THIS: Look up your local business directory, find the websites and SEE what they're doing. I GUARANTEE, that most simply have a static web 'advert', "Our windows are great - Call us on 123455".
Now we've all heard the stories about shovel peddlars and gold miners but here's a thought; the price of shovels went down (how many FREE bonuses do you need when you buy something?), some GOLD miners hit it REALLY big!
I believe that there's still a lot of gold in them there hills!
Happy hunting!