In Part I of this article, I introduced a very effective concept that most marketers don't often use when selling information products: the idea of giving away some of your very best information for free in order to entice your prospects into buying. It works like a charm. This time, I'll offer two strategies you can use to quickly put this idea into action.
The first is this: if you're selling a print, audio, or CD product, one of the most powerful things you can do is give prospects a free chapter or excerpt from that product. One of my colleagues once very successfully sold a book online called The 12 Month Millionaire. On his website, he gave away the first chapter absolutely free. One of the things he asked was that those people who requested the chapter included their name and email address; when they did, he would go ahead and email them the first chapter, word for word.
Now why would he do that? Because my colleague knew that after his prospects finished reading that first chapter, which is filled with a lot of information, they were going to want to read the second, the third, the fourth, and so on... every chapter of that book. So he wasn't afraid to give away one chapter, because he knew by giving them that valuable information -- an actual part of that product -- they were going to want to purchase the rest of that product. It worked very well, too! So if you've got an information product, try giving away the some quality portion of the product, and then make sure the prospects have some way to go back and purchase the rest of it.
A second strategy has to do with email. Most people are so overwhelmed with spam that many of the emails we marketers send out are going right into the trash. Well, here's a secret, using the method I just gave, that can not only make people open up your email, but make them look forward to it. Just give them valuable information in every email. The colleague I mentioned earlier, for example, always includes a useful strategy with every single email he sends out to his mailing list. He gives them information they can actually use -- a technique, a trick, something that will actually benefit them, something they can use to actually get results and solve a problem.
Why does he do that? Because his subscribers know that he does it in every single email -- and, of course, at the end of those emails, he includes marketing information about his product. But because they know they're going to get valuable information, when they see an email from him, they open it up. All the other marketers who are just pitching their product get their emails pitched into junk mail and spam boxes, whereas my colleague's get separated out because he's delivering real value every time he emails his list. As a result, the response rate for the product he's offering in that email has risen dramatically.
As is so often true, it's all about separating yourself from the competition. My mentor tells a great story about a sandwich shop whose owners came to him years ago, saying, "Our business is going down the drain. Although we make the best sandwiches in San Diego, the neighborhood our little sandwich shop is in has turned seedy." The whole neighborhood had gone to hell, but this guy owned his real estate and didn't want to be forced out.
And yet within a couple blocks from his sandwich shop, there were all these high-rise office buildings. So after he sampled their sandwiches, my mentor told the owner, "Here's what you have to do... " He told the sandwich shop owners to hire nice, attractive young women, very clean, professional, and well-dressed, to go to these office buildings every single day to deliver free samples along with a little menu card, and to answer any questions people had about the daily specials and whatnot.
In the end, the sandwich shop gave away hundreds of dollars worth of free food every week-but they got back thousands of dollars worth of repeat business from people who sampled the sandwiches, loved them, and were willing to go through a neighborhood they otherwise might have avoided if there hadn't been something delicious waiting for them at the other end. Eventually the sandwich shop developed a delivery system where they took the sandwiches right to the offices, so the customers didn't even have to do that much.
Unfortunately, some people don't catch on to that story because they think, "Well, I don't run a sandwich shop. I can't pass out sandwiches." But that's the great thing about the information business! We have the ability to get information out to people very inexpensively. It's the same for any business. If you were a realtor, you could offer a report on the ten things to definitely not do when selling your home, or ten things to understand before you buy a new home. It's the same with carpet cleaners, or plumbers, or booksellers. You can give away useful information to your prospects before they actually purchase from you.
By doing that, you're able to make that connection, set yourself apart, and pull prospects in-versus your competitors, who are just showing them the advertising. This isn't a technique that works only in one business or another. This works for every type of business. If you're running the same old ads that everyone else is, you can do yourself a huge service just by having someone who knows marketing re-write your ad and focus on providing an immediate benefit -- offering a free report, some kind of giveaway, something you can do to draw attention to your ad and make it look different from the ones are running right next to it.
But most people don't even think that way. They get bound into their particular market. They forget that they have to do something strong to differentiate themselves from the competition. Everybody's running with the herd, doing the exact same thing -- and wondering why they're not getting good results.
Get away from the herd. Do something differently than everybody else, and you'll really stand out above and beyond your competition.
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