The Transparent Web and Pricing

I gave a talk about “The Transparent Web: Using Online Marketing to Optimize Pricing Power”earlier this week to the National Golf Course Owner’s Association. Really great folks and I learned a lot while I was there, too. While the presentation was tailored to golf resorts and courses, the same facts holds true for most businesses.

What are those facts?

• Your customers have lots of choices when shopping for products and services.
• Social and search make prices and value propositions completely transparent, whether you want them to be or not. Don’t fight it. Use it to your advantage.
• 3rd-party “partners” (some actually are good partners, some aren’t) want to be the go-to resource for your customers. Understand how you each provide value and work to complement, not compete, with one another.
• You must maintain price parity for the same products across all sales channels — unless the reason makes sense to the customer (e.g., pre-purchase discounts, non-refundable pricing, etc.).
• Your pricing must represent a clear value to your customer.
• Best price guarantees aren’t the same thing as discounting — and that’s a Good Thing.
• Your value proposition helps customers understand why to buy from you.
• Your marketing exists to reveal your value proposition.

I’ve included the slides below. And I’m available to speak about Internet marketing and e-commerce at your next event , too. Enjoy!

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website?Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local , mobile , social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today .

Or subscribe via email .

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter .

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: brand building , content , content marketing , content strategy , E-commerce , e-commerce , E-commerce strategy , e-marketing , ecommerce , email marketing , Facebook , facebook , Google , google , google adwords , Google Place Page , Google Plus , Google+ , Google+ Pages , integrated marketing , internet business , internet marketing , marketing , marketing best practices , online brand building , online marketing , ppc , ppc marketing , search , search engine marketing , search engine optimization , sem , seo , social , social commerce , social marketing , social media , social search , social strategy , strategy , training