Smart Marketing Means Giving First

**Dale King** · 12-28-2007 02:39 PM

What's the first thing visitors see when they arrive at your website? Is it a landing page asking them for their contact information? Is it a salesletter asking them for money? Or are you giving them something of value first?

Look, competition is fierce on the Internet. Consumers have more choices than ever before. Therefore, you need to do something to stand out from the crowd. If your website doesn't naturally have valuable content that will entice visitors to return, giving your website visitor a free report or something before asking for anything will go a long way toward building goodwill and enticing that visitor to return.

For example, I give my visitors over 1,000 marketing articles to peruse, and over 100 different blogs. No matter how you slice it, that's plenty of value.

So what are you giving your visitors?

Dale King

**BusinessAdviser** · 12-28-2007 02:51 PM

Great bit of advice, Dale. At least one explanation for why this works is discussed at length in Robert B. Cialdini's Influence. (I highly recommend this book for anyone in business. It's a quick and easy read, and provides a ton of very useful info.) Give your customer something of value first, and they will be much more likely to return something of value to you.

**Dale King** · 12-28-2007 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by jmenq2

Great bit of advice, Dale. At least one explanation for why this works is discussed at length in Robert B. Cialdini's Influence. (I highly recommend this book for anyone in business. It's a quick and easy read, and provides a ton of very useful info.) Give your customer something of value first, and they will be much more likely to return something of value to you.

Thanks, Jonathan! That's a great book you recommended. Thanks for your valuable contribution to this thread!

Dale King

**2gould** · 12-28-2007 03:03 PM

Which is basically the same premise in the book "Never Eat Alone".

**4CraveEnergyDotcom** · 12-28-2007 11:50 PM

That book is tough to read, but worth it. The principle of reciprocity is what you're talking about and using well apparently. Here's his website and he has a free newsletter that I read. It's short and tackles one influence study specifically each time: influenceatwork dot com

DS

**dfveteran** · 12-29-2007 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by Dale King

What's the first thing visitors see when they arrive at your website? Is it a landing page asking them for their contact information? Is it a salesletter asking them for money? Or are you giving them something of value first?

Look, competition is fierce on the Internet. Consumers have more choices than ever before. Therefore, you need to do something to stand out from the crowd. If your website doesn't naturally have valuable content that will entice visitors to return, giving your website visitor a free report or something before asking for anything will go a long way toward building goodwill and enticing that visitor to return.

For example, I give my visitors over 1,000 marketing articles to peruse, and over 100 different blogs. No matter how you slice it, that's plenty of value.

So what are you giving your visitors?

Dale King

So true Dale. I try and give my customers as much free information as possible. You are always keeping us thinking

Thanks Dale!

**Dale King** · 12-29-2007 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by dfveteran

So true Dale. I try and give my customers as much free information as possible. You are always keeping us thinking

Thanks Dale!

Thanks, Lisa! Your blog provides good, valuable information.

Dale King

**rogercbryan** · 12-29-2007 10:36 AM

Dale, take a look at my site - charitydispatch.com.... I like your idea.. I'm trying to figure out how I can apply it to my business model... any ideas would be appreciated.

**Dale King** · 12-29-2007 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

Dale, take a look at my site - charitydispatch.com.... I like your idea.. I'm trying to figure out how I can apply it to my business model... any ideas would be appreciated.

Sorry, Roger. I can't do that. Think about how my clients would feel if I gave you a free website evaluation, when they had to pay for theirs. I'd be cutting my own throat. I hope you understand.

Dale King

**rogercbryan** · 12-29-2007 01:02 PM

Dale, very fair... maybe I could be a new client? What exaclty do you offer and how much does it cost? PM me with info or send to rogercbryan gmail

**Dale King** · 12-29-2007 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

Dale, very fair... maybe I could be a new client? What exaclty do you offer and how much does it cost? PM me with info or send to rogercbryan gmail

Roger, here's the link to my Website Evaluation Service:

Website Evaluation

I charge $95 for a professional, detailed, multi-point website evaluation.

Dale King