Common Mistakes Made When Creating an Information Product

When people purchase information products, it is not because they couldn’t get the information somewhere else for free; in fact, they most likely can. With Google as our guide, the internet is full of billions of websites that offer information at no cost. The problem with this, however, is the number of websites that must be searched through and advertisements dodged in order to find good, solid information.


I have been helping clients,’ (lets refer to them as “experts” in their field) design and market information products for over 10 years. For the most part, they are confused and unsure of how to build a successful, marketable product. Along the way, I guide them through the process and help them avoid making mistakes however, depending on where they are in the process here are the most common mistakes I see:

1) “Experts” worry too much about incomplete content.

If you refuse to start building the product look and components before every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed, you’ll never get your product to the marketplace. As an expert, you may be constantly tweaking and updating your system or information. Remember “Good is good enough”, Bill Glazer of GKIC will tell you.

The content is indeed the most important thing because that is what is being purchased, but there are also other parts of the project that need to be addressed. As you develop more and more product content, you can continue to add-on to your product and provide it to your clients in the form of updates or continuity. In the beginning, put together as many of your most valuable points so that you are providing the best information to the customer. As time goes on, you can add to it. Remember customer is getting value.

2) Experts don’t put enough energy into marketing because they are too wrapped up in the product.

If a potential customer doesn’t know your information product exists, how can they possibly buy it? Your product may have great information enclosed, but no one will know that if you don’t diligently market it. Your marketing plan need to include a compelling sales letter, a webpage and blog. In addition, you can try marketing techniques from article marketing to internet marketing – just make sure you’re marketing the product!

Tony Robbins, who sells information products related to personal growth development, is a great example of how to build a strong marketing campaign. His website is clean, respectable, and well made. The overall impression presented is of trustworthiness in he way he displays himself and his products.

3) Experts worry too much about the inside and try to perfect the appearance.

Buyers of information are more interested in the content contained inside the product than the appearance – they aren’t paying for pretty graphics or syntax. You could be spending this time increasing awareness about the existence of your product or adding even more useful information. Certainly, make sure the product is readable and organized nicely, but it is not necessary to struggle over the font or other visual elements.

An important note about the appearance of the product is that you must match the cover image or logo with the title name. If the image you use to represent your product and the title of the product don’t match, there will be a huge disconnect and your product will immediately lose validity (and sales).

If you take a look at Paul Meyers’ products including 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success and A Fortune to Share, you’ll notice that both attached images are simple but also reflect what is inside. 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success’s cover has a person holding a key with a label attached that says “Complete Success”. The cover is clever yet easy too look at.

4) No additional marketing and sales information is included within the information product.

If the customer gained a lot of useful knowledge, likes the style of your information product, or wants to know more, make it easy for them. Include a pamphlet or some sort of marketing/sales information for your other information products inside all of the packages. You might miss out on a quality sale if you don’t let the customer know that you have other guidance to offer them.

Say you have as many products as Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy – if you didn’t include additional marketing information, you could be missing out on a few thousand dollars in sales just through that one buyer!

5) No free sample/free report (with real & true information!) is offered for potential buyers.

Most people don’t like to buy products blind; they like to know what they are purchasing. On your sales letter or other marketing materials, be sure you offer a free sample of your information product. For example, you could always give chapter one away free or offer a free report. If the customer likes chapter one, they will be much more willing to come back and purchase the rest of your information. Think about it – if you hadn’t given away the free sample, they probably wouldn’t have purchased it anyway so you’re not losing a sale.

No matter what kind of freebie you decide to offer interested customers, make sure it is reflective of what they will get when they purchase the product. For example, on Zig Ziglar’s website, he offers free MP3’s and other downloads of books he has written as a free preview of his work. He also writes a newsletter with free information that he then sends out to people who sign up.

I’ve mentioned many famous and highly successful information marketers. They’ve made their money this way for a reason; most likely because they’re good at what they do and have information marketing down to a science. To make your knowledge profitable, all you have to do is follow their recipes for success and you’ll certainly, with time, reach their level of notoriety as well.

How to Create an Information Product: Knowledge is Power ... Now Package It!

Everyone is an expert on something. You may not realize it or acknowledge it, but you are quite familiar with some service, activity, or product. Whether you are a horse trainer who has won multiple competitions or a customer service agent at the local phone company, you have knowledge that others don’t have and surprisingly, you can make big bucks off of selling this information. 

An information product simply has the definition of being any product that ends in the form of information. Basically, you’re selling knowledge you’ve gained through experience so others who don’t want to spend time going through the trenches can learn from your realizations or mistakes.

On average, you can make 1 sale for everyone 100 visitors to your information product’s website. If your product sells for $100 and you make at least five sales a day (equal to about 500 visitors to your website), you can make around $15000 a month.

So you’re thinking, why would people buy an information product when they could just use Google and get the information for free? It’s simple – using Google and searching through all of the websites is a time-consuming task and it’s hard to sort the good information from the bad – not mentioning all the advertisements you’ll have to dodge to get to any information at all. People are willing to pay because it provides them good, valid information that takes them no time at all to find – they can just read it and go to work with their newfound knowledge.

As co-founder of a marketing company and purchaser of many information products myself (Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Dan Kennedy,  Bill Glazer), I have been helping experts design and market their information products for over 10 years to great success and high profits. Here are some tips to helping make your product successful as well:

You can begin with as little as a CD of information, a transcript, or as much as a book. If you have a CD, first create a transcript of the CD and from the transcript, edit it down to your key points. If you have a book, you also need to edit it down to the key points. If the customer only wants certain particles of information from your product, don’t make them wade through everything else (remember – they’re buying your product to save time!). Also, a CD of just the key points should be created as well.

Once you have completed the key points CDs and have your information transcribed in some way, shape or form, create a workbook for the buyer. This way, they have benchmarks to make sure they really understand the information you’re trying to teach them and they know how much more information they need to consume before they’re ready to go.

While you’re creating the aforementioned parts of your information product, you must create a compelling title and subtitle to attract customers to your information product at all. If you don’t have a compelling title, they won’t be as interested in your product. Along with your compelling title and subtitle, you need to have a complimentary image or logo. The title and image must match and look nice when placed together.

This title and image will be used as the face of your company so make sure they are reflective of your product. You will apply the same title and image to all of your products including the CD, transcripts, key points guide, workbook, and anything else you’re including with your product.

Next, write and edit your biography; your information becomes more valid if you have extensive experience. People want to know where this knowledge came from and the different experiences you have had that may impact your outlook. Include your other information products in your biography because if this one is good, they’ll want to purchase your others as well.

Once you are done developing the title, logo, biography, and internal product, you’ll need to create other graphics to advertise your company. For example, take pictures of all of your products and arrange them together to graphically show customers everything they will be receiving when they purchase your information product. This image will be useful for catalogs, banner advertisements, a web store, a flyer, or an Amazon.com sale page.

When you have created your information product and have all of the images in place, don’t forget to market it! No one will buy it if they don’t know it exists – and this is one of the biggest mistakes I see. There are multiple other mistakes that are easily made and can hinder the success of any information product; please read my other article on the most common mistakes made when developing an information product to make sure you’re not making the same mistakes!

Low-Cost Internet Marketing Technique

Successful marketing campaigns can be expensive, and cost cutting measures usually lead to lower response rates. Especially in this weak economy, it becomes increasingly important to lower the cost of the campaign while achieving the same, or even better, results. For the past couple years, I have been suggesting a specific addition to my clients’ marketing campaigns that has been undoubtedly one of the most customer-attracting yet cheapest strategies I have ever used.

To increase customer traffic and therefore profits, all we do is create a desktop wallpaper that is so compelling that recipients will just have to send it on to all of their friends. All it costs is little more than a few minutes to send a couple of e-mails to your existing customer base. The desktop wallpaper technique also allows us to touch and retouch current patrons as well – in case we have slipped into the back of their mind, this will bring us to the front again.

 

In order to maximize the benefits and reach more than your current customers, there are a few special techniques that must be used within the wallpaper design. Here are seven easy steps to making this campaign work for you:

 

1)    As I mentioned before, step one is to dream up a fun, compelling, motivational desktop wallpaper to entice customers to forward the e-mail on to their friends. The wallpaper should include an interesting photo that is representative of your company as well as a catchy quote that will remind the customer constantly of your products or services. (You can see an example of one of the wallpapers I created at http://pdamarketing.net/store_wallpapers.html)

2)    The second step is to add an offer to your wallpaper that just can’t be refused. You need to give the customer a reason to come in and try your product or service. If they are a regular at one of your competitors, this offer will give them incentive to stop in and purchase something from you at a reduced rate. If you make a good impression, they’ll soon become you’re regular.

3)    The next step is to put your contact information on the wallpaper as well so that you can easily be accessed. The customer needs to be able to reach you if they have any questions; don’t give them a reason to ignore their interest!

4)    Add a special live link to the desktop so that the customer will be able to easily reach your website at anytime. If you’re a restaurant, you want them to be able to reach the menu in one click; it will give them less time to decide to eat something else for lunch. No matter what kind of products or services you offer, you want the recipient of the wallpaper to be able to see your range of offerings quickly and easily.

5)    After you’ve created the perfect wallpaper with all of the above contributing parts, you need to e-mail the wallpaper out to your existing list of clients.

6)    Include a ‘forward to a friend’ link in the e-mail to make it as easy as possible to send the wallpaper to oodles of friends. We use an e-mail capture program that allows us to add all of their friends’ contact information to our customer list. This way, we can increase the e-mail list exponentially and have more people to send the wallpapers to in the future.

7)    Watch your contact list multiply and profits soar!

Looking for marketing tips?

Check out all the articles Andrea has written:

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Achieve a 20% Direct Mail Response Rate

In any direct mail campaign, it is important to have a decent list of people to send your mailer out to, but 98% of the time, these prospective clients won’t even respond. Unfortunately, a surprising 44% of recipients won’t even open your letter – it will go straight into the trashcan. So, the question remains – what is the secret to getting your direct mail not only opened and responded to but also to provide quality sales leads?

In my many years of owning my own marketing firm, I have seen both good and bad direct mail campaigns, but there is one perfect recipe I have found that can provide a response rate of 10-20% or even higher. One of my clients, a cabinetry remodeling business that earns $40,000 - $60,000 per ticket, was even forced to stop mid-campaign because they were receiving more leads than they could handle.

So, here’s the answer to your direct mail problems:

1) First and foremost, provide an incentive. People will be much more likely to give you their information if they are going to get something in return. The most important aspect of achieving such a high response rate is that you offer the recipient a free $5 gift card for lunch, gas, coffee, or something else that almost everyone partakes in. A $5 gift card might not seem like that much, but it is a free lunch for the recipient and all they have to do is provide you with a little bit of personal information.

For you, the cost of the $5 gift cards may add up, but think about the sales you will get from all of the personal information you receive. Now, you have hot leads on everyone who gave you their information and you also have quality addresses for future mailings. If you send 100 direct mail, get 20 responses (only $100 in gift cards), and you make 10 sales with even as low as a $5000 ticket, you’ve earned $49900. Obviously, it’s worth it.

2) Collect useful information. By offering a free lunch or free gas, you’re going to get a lot of responses from people that simply have no use for your product but wanted you to pick up their lunch tab. To filter these people from the hot leads, ask your prospect to answer 4 to 5 simple questions about their company’s needs or their daily habits. This will save you a lot of time when you’ve got your sales people calling each and every returned card.

People will gladly answer noninvasive questions from how long they have used a particular product or service to how often they do something to how long has it been since you did something else. A limousine company I worked with asked questions such as, “Do you travel to and from the airport or train station?” and “Do you entertain clients?” You can see some other examples of what the pages I use actually look like and other questions we ask at www.theabsolutelyfreemailer.com/survey. These questions are easy to answer and don’t prod people for their life’s history, but provide you with the ability to sort between who would actually have a need for your services.

3) After a few weeks, send the non-responders a hot sheet reminder that they are missing out on their free lunch or other incentive if they do not respond to your card. They might have just misplaced the direct mailer or forgot to respond.

4) Thank responders and follow through with your offer. When you receive the cards back in the mail, you need to ensure that you actually send them the gift card they were promised. Include a Thank You note that lets the recipient know that you appreciate their response and are a valid, trustworthy company.

5) Start calling. You now have quite a few leads and you know what each person’s/company’s habits are from the questions you asked. You can’t make the sale unless you actually make contact with these people and pitch your product. Now, you’re calling people you know have a need for your product and have a much higher chance of making a sale.

How to Shout to Your Customer

Among millions of products, you can’t be the tiny voice at the bottom of the pile saying, “Please buy me …”. You need to be the product at the peak of the product mountain yelling, “Buy me now! You need me; I can make your life 10 times easier!”

Like the cards that sing music when you open them, you need to be able to shout to a potential client – but without the actual sound.

So how do you climb up that product mountain from the base to the peak?

Even though it may seem like the answer should be complicated, it is really not. It is simple: Be creative. Do something different! No customer wants to see the same boring marketing or sales tactics over and over again; they become boring and stale.

Here are a few techniques you can use to shout to your customers:

1) Add a few doodles, oversized words, borders, or other graphics (like arrows and smiley faces) to attract attention to the things you want them to notice.

2) Add color to your direct mailer or sales letter! Don’t be afraid to pull out that highlighter (real or on your favorite word processor).

3) Use an entirely hand-written font so the potential customer feels like you’ve written straight to them.

 4) Attach a bonus offer to your letter – of course, remember to play it up – add a few crazy graphics and obvious borders.

 5) Add a testimonial of a client who loved your product, but don’t do it in a normal Times New Roman font. Like I mentioned before, make sure the font you use looks hand-written so that it is more believable and relatable.

 6) Use stationery that is so out of this world that no one will be able to resist reading the copy that was written on it. Don’t be afraid to draw all over your stationery; customers want the human touch that makes them notice.

 7) Like I mentioned in number 7, add a human touch to everything you do! Maybe the prospective client spent all day doodling at their desk in boredom; now that they see you do the same thing, you are relatable.

 

Great Gift Ideas for A Corporate Retirement!

Everyone knows the most meaningful gifts come from the heart, and when you’ve worked with someone for 20 or 30 years, it should be easy to find a retirement gift for them. However, gifts can get expensive and it can be hard to combine all your memories (and the rest of the office’s) into one meaningful surprise.

Having owned a design firm for many years, I’ve seen multiple confused co-workers stop by my office asking what they can do with the photos they’ve collected or another visual, non-fleeting way they can celebrate a retiree’s career. I have dreamt up many suggestions to give my clients and I hope to ease someone else’s stress by sharing them with you.

My first piece of advice is to make sure the gift will last forever and will constantly remind the retiree how much they were really appreciated. Let them know their good work and good company was noticed. My second piece of advice is to ensure the gift won’t be stuffed away in a box to gather dust for the next 20 years. Make the gift something that the retiree is proud to display in their home.

With that said, here are some of the suggestions I often give my clients:

1) Photo collage

            For a memorable gift that will provide years of beauty and memories for the retiree, gather together photos of the times the co-workers have spent together. From the holiday party to the last volunteer event everyone participated in, each and every photo contains a memory that the retiree will never want to forget. Make sure every co-worker has provided photos as the retiree will want to remember every person they have spent their time with. Then, create a collage of these collected pictures. For an extra special touch, add a meaningful quote that captures the experiences, the ups and downs that everyone at your company has experienced together. When the collage is all finished, don’t forget to frame it for an irreplaceable, long-lasting retirement gift.

2) Scrapbook/Memory book           

Provide each person in the office with a large piece of scrapbooking paper and instructions to reminisce for a moment and then write a few memories they have had with the retiree. If no memories are readily available in their heads, co-workers could simply write a heartfelt note to the retiree. Photos should also be included to spruce up the page. Then, the pages could be decorated by someone in the office, sent out to scrapper for hire, or a digital scrapbooking website can also be used. Having written stories or notes will give the retiree something to look at and constantly know that the work they have dedicated their lives to was truly appreciated.

3) Shadowbox

Having worked in the same place with the same people for so many years must produce some memorable items. Perhaps a chewed-up pen or a nameplate has been the butt of all office jokes for a few years or there are some office supplies that the retiree has always used. In every person, there are a few noticeable quirks and objects that they gravitate to. See if there is anyway you can capture a little piece of these items, and thus their memories, to put into a shadowbox. You can always include a few pictures as well or a quote or two.

4) Personalized poems or quote

If there is a poet in your office, or even if there is not, writing a heartfelt or funny poem about the retiree’s career can provide years of humor and memories. No one even resembling a poet in your office? That’s ok – you can also use a collection of applicable quotes. The poem or quotes should be written on nice stationery and then framed so the retiree will be able to easily hang it up. This way, they will be reminded every single day when they read or even glance at the poem as it hangs in their kitchen or living room.

5) A gift card for something you know they enjoy

If you go more for the useable, tangibly enjoyable gift, go for the gift card. They just retired and now they finally have time to themselves. Rather than spending all day working, they’ll need something else to do, and every gift card can be personalized to fit the retiree’s interests perfectly. Do they like spas? Give a gift card to the local spa. Golfing? Maybe a gift card to a golf store or golf course. Gift cards may not physically last forever, but the memories that they provide will be filed together with the reminiscences of the people they once worked with.

 If you are interested in having PDA Marketing design and create a photo collage for your corporate retirement, contact her at andrea@pdamarketing.net or (410) 788 – 2007.