Regardless of the methods or strategies you’re using to market on the Internet, it’s a tough go out there. Wouldn’t you agree?

But let’s not talk about the problems associated with Internet marketing. Let’s focus instead on the benefits—what you expect to get out of your investments of time, money, energy and brain cells into your Internet marketing business or your online marketing campaigns for your brick & mortar business.

Here’s what we, the BizzBoosters, want from our investments: heaps of targeted traffic to our Web sites, scores of qualified leads and prospects (for FREE is even better), oodles of subscribers to our eBizzLetter™, loads of customers, and tons of sales in the process—our own product sales or affiliate sales.

That looks like a lot to ask for. And quite frankly, it used to be. Then we “discovered” a few principles and practices of marketing (we now call them TIPPPS™) that, once applied to all our Internet marketing material and campaigns, yielded incredible (and more than hoped for) results. We now get ALL of the aforementioned benefits in abundance, and more.

Want to know what two of those TIPPPS™ are? I warn you, these are not hi-tech or mysterious “secrets”. They are in fact pretty simple, and very common sense. However, as we all know (and witness daily…), common sense is not common practice.

The first TIPPPS™ I will share with you is this (TIPPPS: Thoughts Ideas Principles & Practices for Professional Success): “People buy on emotion (with their heart), and then justify with facts (with their head).

That is a FACT of (business) life that lord Chesterfield alluded to a long time ago when he wrote,

“Men, as well as women, are much more often led by their hearts than by their understandings.”

“Men, as well as women, are much more often led by their hearts than by their understandings.”

And more recently, professional speaker Cathleen Fillmore said that,

“Buying is more often based on chemistry than on logic—chemistry plays a much larger partin our decisions than we realize, even for seemingly small ones.”

“Buying is more often based on chemistry than on logic—chemistry plays a much larger partin our decisions than we realize, even for seemingly small ones.”

And chemistry takes place in the heart, not in the head.

You may resist this TIPPPS™. You may want to shout, “No! No! No! I’m a rational, cognitive human being! I make calm, considered, well-thought-out decisions! I do not buy on emotion!” But you do. Everybody does.

If you think about it, and if you’re honest with yourself, you have to admit that most of your decisions are often made on the basis of “This is what I WANT to do.” Then you think up all the reasons why what you WANT to do is really the “logical” thing to do. We ALL buy on emotion and justify with facts.

The reality that we buy on emotion is a natural fact, neither good nor bad. An emotional decision isn’t necessarily the wrong decision. There’s no shame in admitting we’re emotional creatures, and that emotion has a powerful influence on everything we do, think, and choose. Actually, it’s foolish not to admit it.

Communicating, on the Internet or elsewhere, is a “contact” sport. The truth is, if you want to reach, persuade or motivate people, you have to make emotional contact with them. You have to reach the hearts as well as the minds of your visitors, listeners, and readers.

Contrary to our academic training, people DO buy on emotion and justify with facts. And the sooner you’ve accepted this basic truism of communication, the sooner you can use it to become more effective and persuasive in your own communication—especially on the Internet.

This leads directly into the second TIPPPS™ which is: Benefits! Benefits! Benefits!

One of the 88 TIPPPS™ in my book Milk & Cookies for Success is

“If they’re not buying what you’re selling maybe you don’t have a good enough S.O.B.!”

“If they’re not buying what you’re selling maybe you don’t have a good enough S.O.B.!”

Before you start thinking that I’m using foul language, here’s the follow-up to that statement:

“As a marketer, you have a much better chance of success if you use a compellingStatement Of Benefits (S.O.B.) that clearly tells your potential customerwhat is in it for him if he buys what you have to sell.”

“As a marketer, you have a much better chance of success if you use a compellingStatement Of Benefits (S.O.B.) that clearly tells your potential customerwhat is in it for him if he buys what you have to sell.”

S.O.B… not S.O.F (Statement Of Features)!

Benefits galore, and features ignore!—at least initially… The problem is that most marketers don’t know the difference between the two. Let me shed some light on this. A feature is what something IS or HAS while a benefit is what something DOES. And even better if you can express that “DOES” in terms of what that thing does FOR me, the buyer.

Example. This lawnmower has a 28-inch blade (feature—so what? Who cares?). It means you can mow your lawn is less time (generic benefit)… and you can use the saved time to do things you would much rather be doing… like fishing, golfing, gardening (personal benefit).

Which one of the following two approaches do you think has a better chance of enticing Bob (who’s eying a big Toro in the store) to pull out his credit card?

“Good day sir. That baby’s got a 28 inch blade, you know?”( Bob thinking: “Who cares?”) “Good day sir. That baby will cut your mowing time in half. Now what could you do with t

“Good day sir. That baby’s got a 28 inch blade, you know?”(

: “Who cares?”)