Helpfulness vs. Manipulation
by Paul "the soaring" Siegel
A long time ago, before the War, I was walking down Stanton Street on the Lower East Side of New York. Stanton Street, at that time, was noted for clothing stores. As I'm ambling along, a man dashes out of a store, gets in front of me and spouts a spiel about the wonderful suits that I could buy at bargain prices. Then, he grabs my arm and drags me into the store. Once inside, he asks me: "What color do you like?" "Blue," I answer. He then goes to another clerk and tells him:
"Turn on the blue light. The man wants a blue suit."
Manipulation
This was rank manipulation, of course. Since then marketing people have learned to become more subtle in their manipulation of emotions.
What sort of message do you see on TV:
"Use this product and make your sweetheart swoon."
"Don't you want what Jones has?"
"Stand out among your friends."
What sort of message do you receive via email? Whether you want them or not, you receive them.
"Everything we sell is FREE."
"Make a million dollars while lying on the beach."
Some people call these messages SPAM. Others, among which are top corporations, call them Opt-out messages. Opt-out means that you may send any type of message, as long as somewhere in the message, it tells the recipient how to request removal from the list.
Why Manipulation No Longer Works
Manipulation worked in the old Industrial Society for one simple reason:
THE VENDOR WAS IN CONTROL
The vendor knew his product and knew how to advertise it. The consumer was pretty much in the dark. The vendor placed TV ads that aired before, during or after a popular program. The viewers did not care to see the ad; they were exposed to it. Emotional manipulation hooked some viewers.
But times have changed - radically. On the Internet
THE CONSUMER IS IN CONTROL
The vendor has lost his power. No longer is he lord of his medium. The Internet has millions of websites. Why should a consumer visit your site if all you offer is a manipulative sales pitch? The consumer can go anywhere with a click of a mouse.
As a vendor, then, you have problems:
- How can your prospects FIND you?
- How can they get to KNOW you?
- How can you get them to TRUST you?
Helpfulness
The one-word answer to each of these problems is "helpfulness."
* To FIND You *
The Web is so vast, you need help to get people to your site. Playing around with search eangines can only get you so far. Only about 10 sites, out of thousands or millions, can make it to the first results page of a search engine. Helping other vendors improve their traffic may cause them to help you the same way. This sort of cooperation increases your popularity, an increasingly important factor affecting search engine results.
* To KNOW You *
The best way to be helpful to visitors of your site is to offer learning experiences. After all, visitorS comes to learn something. Discover what your visitors want to learn and then enable them to do so. Through this process they will get to know and appreciate your skills and abilities.
* To TRUST You *
Trust is essential for good business. Trust is very hard to achieve on the Net. Cyberspace is an abstract place. People do not meet face-to-face. So how can one build trust? By being helpful. One of the best ways of building trust is by forming a community where each member helps the others. If you lead this community in a trustworthy manner, you will build trust in you.
Summary
Because the consumer - not the vendor - is in control on the Net, manipulative marketing does not work. Replace the manipulative blue light with the light of helpfulness. Visitors will then be able to find, know, trust and do business with you
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