Internet Marketing Tips from a 10-Year Old?

Can a 10-year-old teach you anything about Internet marketing? Until recently, I didn't think so. But let me tell you what happened...

My 10-year-old son Ben and his sisters wanted to attend a musical theater class. The total price tag? $1,590!

I said they could go, but they'd need to earn thetuition money.

Well, the kids are the published authors of a children's book called 15 Reasons I Love My Dad. It retails for $14.95. Their proposal - go door to door and sell their book until they raised the $1,590.

They decided to give people an incentive to buy the booknow by running a 'neighborhood special' and offering it foronly $10.00 instead of $14.95. In doing so, they created areason for people to take action.

Ben wrote the first spiel:

"Hi, I'm Ben and I'm the author of 15 Reasons I Love My Dad, a fill-in-the-blank book that lets children show their dad how much they love him. I'm running aneighborhood special today. You can get the book for only $10 instead of $14.95. Would you like to buy one?"

Ben journeyed out into the world of door to door sales?andsold five books to the first 13 people he talked to. Hissales conversion rate? 38%!

Ben wasn't too happy with this. Afterall, eight peopledidn't buy his book. So, he sat down with his partners to make some changes.

The kids rewrote the spiel. They added a reason why by telling their prospect they were raising money to attenda musical theater camp and they started handing the book to the person as they talked.

The combination of the reason why and putting the book inthe hand of the prospect increased their conversion rate.The kids talked to eight people and sold four books. Theirconversion rate? An impressive 50%.

But they still weren't satisfied. They wanted more peopleto buy their book. I tried explaining to them how in theInternet marketing world, I'm happy with a one to twopercent conversion rate when I first start out. Theylooked at me like I was crazy...The thought of knocking on100 doors and only selling two books did not appeal to themat all!

After some review, they decided that simply askinga person if they wanted to buy a book made it too easy tosay no. So, they added a stronger call to action at theend. And, they started going out in groups of two:

"Hi, I'm Ben and I'm the author of 15 Reasons I Love MyDad. (Hand the book to the prospect.) It's a fill-in-the-blank book that lets children show their dad how much theylove him."

"And I'm Cassie. We're raising money to take a musicaltheater class. We're running a neighborhood special today.You can get the book for only $10 instead of $14.95. Howmany would you like to buy?"

The next time out, they went to eight houses and sold sixbooks. Conversion rate? A whopping 75%!

No one bought more than one book but instead of beingtold, "No, I'm not interested" most people responded bysaying, "Ohhh, I think one is enough..."

Granted, the kids have only sold 15 books and they've gota way to go to reach their goal of selling 159. And, theirnumbers are too small to conclusively say that each littlechange was directly responsible for the correspondingincrease in sales. But, assuming their results are valid,what Internet marketing tips can you learn from a 10-year-old?

First, set a goal. Know what you want to accomplish.

Second, create a plan for accomplishing your goal. Addinga deadline always helps.

Third, start somewhere and then make changes to improveyour sales. They can only get better.

Fourth, give an incentive to take action now - offering a limited time special or a limited number of items for sale creates a sense of urgency.

Fifth, tell your prospects the reason for your offer.

Sixth, have a strong call to action so people know exactlywhat you want them to do.

And seventh, know your numbers. Make changes designed toimprove your conversion rate and then monitor what happens.

And there you go. Real world Internet marketing lessons learned from a 10-year-old.

Cindy Kappler is a successful online marketer. Get her freereport, "Case Studies: A Behind the Scenes Look at How the Internet's Top Marketers Create Profit Producing AdvertisingCampaigns". Click here => Internet Marketing Case Studies