The,Tao,Web,Marketing,few,mont marketing The Tao of Web Marketing
Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t
A few months ago I was watching a stream meandering backand forth across a flat plain in a high mountain valley.The stream reached it's destination - a small lake - butonly after dozens of loops and curves. It occurred to methat Water and clever Web Marketing have something incommon - they both follow the path of least resistance.Let me explain.Your first contact with a future customer usually startswith an email. It could be an Ad in an Ezine, it could beyour Resource Box at the end of one of your Articles,or it could be your Signature File in your correspondence.But in the chain of events that leads to a web sale, anemail is the point of greatest resistance.Why is that?Firstly, your future customer is reading your messageoffline. She or he has to fire up their modem before theycan buy your product. And that requires effort (andexpense). Secondly, if your message is in an Ezine, it'sprobably one of a dozen other messages all clamoringfor attention.Thirdly, whether your message is an Ezine Ad, a ResourceBox, or a Signature File, you've probably had only a fewlines to explain why your widgets are so good.So if an email is the point of greatest resistance, whatis the solution?The ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism (pronounced'Dowism') - also known as 'The Watercourse Way' - gives usthe answer. Taoism tells us to be like Water and follow thepath of least resistance. Water flows. It is soft and moveseasily around obstacles in its path, instead of attemptingto go through them. Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. (Tao Te Ching, ch. 78)"What is the path of least resistance in an email?", Ihear you ask. Offer something free!Successful web marketers know this already. I recentlydid a survey of the Resource Boxes of fifty well knownEzine Writers. Over 90% of them were not trying to sellanything from their Resource Box. In fact, an overwhelmingmajority were not even trying to get a click-thru to theirwebsite - they were simply offering a free subscription totheir Newsletter. In other words, they were more interestedin building a long-term relationship than they were in makinga quick sale.When I started out on the Internet, I was pretty impatient.I certainly didn't want to the follow the path of leastresistance. The path I had in mind was more like the flightof an arrow - straight to it's target.But the statistics suggest that most web salesare not made like that; on average your customer will haveto see your message seven times before he or she buys yourproduct.So next time you plan your marketing strategy, why nottake a lesson from Water and follow the path of leastresistance?
The,Tao,Web,Marketing,few,mont