|
Information marketing can be a lucrative business if you avoid the common mistakes many information marketers make. This follow-up to a previous articles presents ten more mistakes commonly made that you can easily avoid.
1. No follow-up autoresponder series to help people consume their product.
When your customers receives your product for the first time they can easily be overwhelmed by all they've received. You might have a thick manual and case after case of CDs and/or DVDs. They just don't know where to begin.
First, you should have a "Read this First" or "Getting Started" document to help them through your product step by step. In addition to this you should have an autoresponder sequence that follows up with them and does the same thing. Tell them what to do first, second, third, etc.
If you don't your customers consume your product your chances of selling them additional products or services is significantly limited.
2. Not having a product line and trying to rely on the sales of a single product.
Very few Internet success stories are a result of someone selling a single product alone. If you're always relying on selling to new customers then your chances of long-term success are minimal. It is always easier to sell a new product to an existing customer, so you must have a line of products that you can offer. It's impossible to do an "upsell" online if you don't have additional products or services to offer.
3. Not attending live events to network.
Your best source of JV partners and others with which you can collaborate is by meeting these people in person at a live conference or seminar. That's where you build the rapport and trust that leads to long-term business relationships. If you're not attending a few events every year you are significantly restricting opportunities to help you grow your business even more.
4. Trying to do it all digitally.
You're leaving a lot of money on the table if you are offering your information products in digital format only. Sure it takes a little work to convert a product to physical format. But, I've seen upsells online where a printed version of call transcripts convert at 30%, 40% or even higher. So consider some physical products to help you maximize your information marketing revenues.
5. A lack of a consistent look and feel to all your products.
As you begin to increase your prescence in the information marketing world you're going to want people to recognize your products. This is done best by branding yourself with a consistent look and feel to everything you do. Your information products should have the same look as your website so that people will know it's you. It's easier to sell a product to someone who is comfortable with you and branding is a critical aspect to helping increase that comfort level.
6. Not investing a little up front to have some graphics created to give you a more professional looking package.
Many information marketers want a "Plain Jane" look to their products to keep their costs down. But, this can lead to your looking unprofessional and being perceived as not being worth what you are charging. Invest some up front for professional looking graphics that you can reuse on multiple products.
7. Over producing on an initial product launch to try and save a few cents on the per unit production cost.
If you commit up front to a large inventory run in order to shave a few cents off the unit price you're also committing yourself to a bunch of inventory that you hope you can move. Until you have a proven track record of the number of units you can expect to sell on a new product launch you are better off being conservative and spending a little bit more per unit.
8. Packaging inconsistent with the pricing of your product.
Perceived value is critically important in the information marketing business. If you price your product at $97, $197, $497, $997 or more than your product should look professional and consistent with the price you're charging. You can't deliver CDs or DVDs in paper sleeves if you have a higher priced product.
9. Not providing adequate sales tools for your affiliates.
Typically in the information marketing business sales made by affiliates is a significant portion of your product sales. If you're expecting big things from your affiliates then you need to provide them adequate tools to sell on your behalf. You need to have articles they can use, pre-written classified ads, banners, and more than make it easy for them to market on your behalf.
10. No built-in "name capture" tools inside of your product.
If you're selling a book or any type of information product you should have embedded within your product ways to drive people back to your website to either purchase additional products or sign up for a newsletter. A lot of information products are passed around, so the person reading your book or manual may not be the one who originally purchased it. So you need to put in place ways to drive the reader back to your website to capture their name and email address so you can do follow-up marketing to them.
Author Resource:- Bret Ridgway is co-founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, a company that works with authors, speakers and information marketers to manufacture and distribute their information products. For more information go to http://www.SpeakerFulfillmentServices.com.
|