Immediacy and Selling on the Web

Immediacy is observable all around us. It is the characteristic or the need of bringing or coming into direct and instant involvement with someone or something.

Have you ever seen a kid want something right now? Why? Because he sees it and knows it is there. Think of an ice-cream cone.

Do you hear children begging for ice cream out of the blue? What if there is an ice-cream truck going within an ear shot? The begging for ice-cream is the effect of wanting immediate gratification.

Consider the way people experience it in your world.

One way it may be expressed is in a sense of urgency or excitement.

Email can build a relationship. Email can also build a sense of urgency.

Why do e-mails have such power? Because they use a different kind of immediacy. E-mail's are immediately available by virtue of being in the in box of your prospective customer.

One commonly reported aspect of the psychology of selling is that people buy on emotion. A second factor is that people only buy when they are ready to buy. More on this will be covered further into the article. However, this is an essential key to selling success with some of your sales.

Your e-mail can be both audio verbal, written verbal and nonverbal.

Verbal and nonverbal immediacy works in web sales and web site selling on many levels.

Looking for Something Different?

Custom Search

Verbal Immediacy

Verbal communication can impact our ability to connect and build relationships with others. Voice characteristics like tonality, vocal pace, pitch and power can affect the way we are perceived. They also affect the ray the message is received too.

There is a fire, everybody get out! Imagine saying that calmly. Imagine saying that with a panicked voice. Tap into that power with your voice if your creating an audio video message and improve your chances of winning.

Nonverbal communication (as in video presentation) also impacts perception more immediately. Immediacy is considered one of the most powerful dimensions of nonverbal communication. Eye contact, smiling, facial expressions and gestures all affect the way we are perceived sooner than just with words.

Think of the jingle of the ice cream truck when you were a kid.

The sale is dependent on relationship. The relationship is dependent on communication.

Communication is the essence of what you will do with your website.

Continued communication will be accomplished with your auto-responder and an e-zine, news letter, or email campaign.

By the way...A Correction!

Have you ever heard that...

• 7% of communication is verbal
• 38% of communication comes tone of voice
• 55% of communication comes from body language?

If you carry this to its logical conclusion then we only need to speak 7 words of every hundred to communicate. Not true.

This originated from Albert Mehrabian's book "Silent Messages: Implicit Communication of Emotions and Attitudes.

It was a book on nonverbal communication and body language. They are not talking about public speaking or even using PowerPoint presentations because of the 55% visual communication thing.

Albert Mehrabian’s book was about the expression of feelings. More specifically, it was about the incongruentcies of verbal verses nonverbal communication.

So if expressing sadness with words and convey sadness with my face, the above statistic applies. The sadness is more readily recognizable by my face and also more immediate.

He even said...”Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”

This is important to know because when it comes to communicating, it is easier to create rapport with your audience using voice and video than just words.

"If I could give only one piece of advice to technical marketers everywhere, it would be this: Show me, don't tell me" -- Jon Udell The Creator of BYTE.

Want to take this quality to the next level? Video creates even more. Whether you use words, pictures, voice or video these words are important to master in your message.

This is just a thought to consider for the future of your website.