September 2004

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Wholesale Marketer continues to grow, offering you more and more choices every month.

Warehouse Tango is the latest addition, with a great selection of "As-Seen-On-TV" products. Take advantage of the millions of dollars already spent on these products to create awareness and, more importantly, product demand.

You'll find all of the unique items you see on TV: from exercise equipment and housewares, to electronics, toys, novelties and everything in between. If you've seen it on a TV infomercial, chances are you'll find it in warehouse Tango.

The opening of Warehouse Tango represents our commitment to reach our goal of having over 3 million products available by the end of this year, and to eventually have every type of product in every category for every type of business.

Current members can easily add Warehouse Tango by clicking the "My Account" tab after logging in.

Non-members, sign up today to become a part of "The Future of Drop Shipping!"

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- by: Stuart Lisonbee

The Most Widely Committed Sin

More often than not, you will see advertisers focusing on a product or service's features, rather than on the benefits. This is considered by many marketing experts to be one of the most widely committed sins in advertising.

Features are important, no doubt. Features are the things that create the benefit. For example:

Feature: Powerful 200 hp V6 engine.
Benefit: Go up hills without losing speed and getting other drivers mad at you.

Feature: The most powerful graphics processor.
Benefit: Never again get fragged by your friends due to low frame rates.

Now notice, I tried to cater the benefits directly to the target market. For the graphics processor, I didn't say that the benefit was "faster rendering of 3D maps in AutoCAD". My target market for the graphics processor is video gamers, not map builders.

If my target market was map builders, I might choose the benefit of "increase productivity by substantially lowering the rendering times for all your 3D computer models!" (In this case, "faster rendering" is just a feature. The benefit of that feature is the increased productivity)

A winter coat may be water proof. How does that benefit the person who wears it? An air mattress may be self inflatable. How does that benefit the person who has to fill it?

Are you getting the idea? Sell the benefits! Sell the benefits without forgetting the importance of the features. How do you do that? Try this:

or:

Do see what I'm doing? In the first example I stated the features, then the benefits that those features provide. In the second, I first listed the benefits followed by the features that make those benefits possible.

If selling the benefits is so important, why bother stating the features? Let's look at the example of the coat. It keeps you warm. But why? Because it has improved NASA technology. Now when your potential customers go to look for a warm coat, they'll remember that they want the one with the "improved NASA technology". We'll talk more about that next month.

Play around a little bit. What sounds good to you probably sounds good to your customers as well.

Here's an exercise to get the feature/benefit juices flowing. Make a list of all the features and benefits of your product or service. When you have a good list going, categorize each item as a feature or benefit. Then, start drawing lines connecting each feature with the benefit(s) it provides.

Next month: Why should I buy your product, not the competition's?

After receiving some suggestions that we needed a store builder willing to hold the hand of a those new to eCommerce, we went looking for a company that would take care of the needs of our members.

After some searching, we found Building Rome.

We've been in talks with Building Rome for some time now, and we are confident that they are the company that can best take care of our customers with superior service and a willingness to help those in need.

Building Rome has agreed to fully integrate all 150,000+ available items in our 12 available warehouses to ensure a seamless solution for Wholesale Marketer members. As each new warehouse comes online throughout the year, Building Rome will begin integration and have each new warehouse ready within just a few days.

If you're new to the world of eCommerce and feel that you might need some help getting your online store setup and running, then the good people at Building Rome are your best option to get started quickly and easily.

Wholesale Marketer members can get a special deal on Building Rome's services by clicking the Building Rome link from the resource center.

You can also reach this special offer from the following URL:

• E-commerce Tools
• Website Building Tools
• Web Hosting
• Toll-Free Phone Support

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