How to Write an Information Marketing Plan
March 8, 2010
If you want to succeed as an info products marketer, you need to have a plan. Not a plan in your head, but a very specific written plan. This post is all about how to write an information marketing plan.
Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:
1. Make it written. It’s funny how people get more done when they write down what they are going to do. This is true regardless of the field you’re in. It’s always great to THINK about what you want to do, but when you commit it to paper, it seems to get done more often. Don’t look at this element and think to yourself: “yeah, right!” This is a mandatory element of success.
2. Make it Specific. Yes, you need to put it in writing, but the plan you create must be specific. Don’t just write: DO MARKETING FOR YOUR SITE. Instead write something like: Do 3 written blog posts and 3 video blog posts every week. You will get a lot more done the greater the amount of specificity to your plan.
3. Make it Achievable. Don’t put anything down in writing that you KNOW you won’t be able to do. Your plan must be done in such a way that you know with 100% certainty that you can in fact do it. This is not a DREAM sheet, it is a daily to-do list of things that must actually get done if you’re going to be a success selling info products.
4. Vary the tasks. Give yourself things to do that aren’t all the same. If you’re like me, you hate repetitive tasks. If you liked them you’d probably be working on an assembly line and not selling info products. Your information marketing plan, like exercise should have variety. Because when you have a lot of different things to do, it makes it easier to do all of them.
5. Track your results. Getting things done is fine. But, if you don’t know if your efforts are actually paying off, then it’s all worthless. You need to have systems set up to track your efforts. What are you using? Nothing? Then start by attaching Google Analytics to all of your sites. This will give you hard data to see what’s working and what is not.
Do the 5 things when you put together your information marketing plan and you’ll be well on the way to success selling your info products.
Information Marketing Refunds
March 2, 2010
Whenever I get someone who asks for a refund I get angry. REALLY angry! Why? Because I know that my products are good and that people don’t have the “right” to ask for a refund. Looking at the matter objectively, I’m right! No one who does a great job creating and selling info products wants to have anyone ask for a refund.
The problem is that my thinking is based on the concept of a RATIONAL WORLD. The world, nor are people rational. They aren’t. Anytime you get a refund there will be a certain number of people who really deserve getting their money back. Many others do not.
My solution is this. I have turned over the process of processing refunds to someone else. I don’t even see the requests anymore. For the 10% of people who truly deserve a refund, in my humble opinion, I would feel OK about seeing their emails and putting through the necessary paperwork.
My problem is that the large majority of people do NOT deserve refunds for my products. Since the vast majority of them are digital, people don’t feel like their stealing and it’s far to easy for them to get a refund.
In the “old days” it was much more difficult. They received a PHYSICAL package and they had to wrap it up, find packaging, and send it back. Refund rates, across the board, were lower. It was a huge hassle to people who wanted their money back.
This is not to say that ALL refunds for my products are unjustified. Some are, but frankly I don’t even want to hear about them. It just makes me nauseous. I guess that their is a psychological issue at play here. I don’t ever want to feel personally rejected and no matter how certain I am about the quality of my work, refund requests BOTHER ME.
Here is what I suggest for you.
Don’t take it personally. In most cases refunds are not about you. If your refund rates get above 5%, look into your products themselves. There MAY be a problem.
Also, if you’re like me and have thin skin, then let someone else be in charge of issuing any refunds for any products.
Good luck!
Information Products Quality
February 23, 2010
There are a lot of people who sell info products who don’t give a damn about the quality of the information that they produce. As long as it sells and they make a quick buck, they’re happy! Information marketing is more than that. It’s about developing a long term relationship with your customers. To do that, QUALITY is a key ingredient. Here are the things you need to keep in mind as it relates to the quality of your info products.
1. Quality of a information product is defined by how USEABLE and FOLLOWABLE a product is. If people get a product that they can quickly and easily implement, they will fell it’s a high quality product. Make sure your info product meets that requirement.
2. Quality of your information is also based on how UP TO DATE it is. When you send out a product that still refers to the “Jimmy Carter” years as current, you know you have a problem. Unless you tell people that the product has been around for a long time and it’s information is JUST as applicable today as it was in 1977, then you’re fine.
3. Quality relates to speed of delivery. People make they assumption that if you don’t have your act together with getting people what they ordered in a timely manner, that the product quality is inferior. This may not be true, but perception is reality.
4. Quality is deduced from a lack of MISTAKES in the product that you sell. If people go through your information and find a lot of factual errors. they will assume that it is of POOR quality. And they should!
5. Quality is about tone. People don’t like being talked down to. Treat people like adults in your info products and they will give it higher quality marks.
6. Quality is about results. The ultimate determination by your buyers of whether or not your product is high quality is almost entirely based on THEIR results. If they get stellar results, your product, good or bad will get the praise. The same thing is true on the flip side. If your product gives them poor results. they will assume that YOUR product was the cause.
Make sure that you maintain high quality information products by making sure what you sell has all of these items. And, Good Luck!
Information Products Bulletin
February 22, 2010
Here is an information products bulletin. There is only one way to make it BIG in the selling of info products. That is to give people what they want. I don’t care how good a product you have or claim to have, unless your customers are in the “mood” to buy, nothing will be sold and no money will be made.
How do you make sure that you are producing info products that people will buy? You need to ASK THEM! This seems so painfully simple, but asking people what they want, producing it and then selling them to the people you asked seems like such a simple formula.
Do you need to be asking people in a FORMAL survey situation? Not at all. You can be asking people in a variety of ways. Some of them formal, but many of them informal.
Whenever I get a customer or potential customer who sends me an email, I always answer them and ask them a question. It may appear that I’m just a nice and caring guy (which I am) but I’m also very interested in finding out through this informal means, what I should be producing next.
Every time I’m a speaker at a seminar or event, I always sit with some of the attendees, NOT the other speakers. Why? Because I want to find out what people are interested in buying. This is the best FOCUS GROUP you can have. A group of highly motivated people who have paid money to attend an event who will give you a very solid idea of what you should produce and sell to them.
If you are really motivated, it’s also a good idea to pick up the phone and make some outbound calls to both prospects and customers to find out what they need. Then see if you can produce a product or service that will give them the ANSWERS that they need.
So the information products bulletin is this: LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS! Don’t think that you know what people will buy. Ask them and then produce what they tell you they want and need. This will give you the highest probability of success.
Nothing is better than producing information products knowing in advance that they will be sold. That’s the absolute best way to do business.
Follow these guidelines and your sales of info products will go way up. I look forward to seeing you at the next event or seminar I do to hear YOUR feedback!
How to Sell Information Products on the Internet
February 21, 2010
I’ve been selling information products for over 25 years. For half of that time, all of that marketing was done OFF line. How things have changed because of the internet! There are so many things I can do now that were impossible before all of us started selling on the web.
In the “old days” we used to sell primarily using direct mail. The nice thing about using direct mail was that everything was trackable. Similar to what we can do now with something like Google Anlaytics, we were able to know our numbers very well.
For an OLDTIMER like me, here are some of the reason why I love selling info products on the internet.
The thing that I love is the fact that now I sell digital products almost exclusively. There was nothing that I hated more than seeing a UPS truck going in the wrong direction. That would mean that someone had taken the time and effort to pack up and send a product back. I can’t tell you how much this angered me. Every once in a while the return was legitimate, but more often, someone had taken the product and copied it before they sent it back.
Digital products make me feel better. IF someone returns a product, there is no physical product to return. All they do is email me and request a refund. There is no physical product to return. I feel less “taken” when I suspect that people have been playing games with me.
The second thing I love about selling products online is that tracking is a lot easier. You could track everything when we were doing direct mail, but it took a lot more effort. Google analytics has made that much easier.
The third and biggest thing for me has been that my business has now become 100% portable. The only thing that still requires physical delivery are DVDs and videos. That won’t be the case for too much longer. As soon as everyone has a super fast internet connection, videos will also be digitally deliverable and practically so.
As much as some people may pine for the OLD DAYS, I’m glad that those who sell info products are now in a position to do their business virtually anywhere. This makes the business a lot more fun and interesting. You can be sitting under a palm tree on a Caribbean Island or on top of a mountain somewhere.
Selling information product on the internet is the way to go!
Great Information Products
February 19, 2010
Great information products are those which both entertain and inform. Whenever I’m asked to critique an info product, I am always amazed at how 95% of them have just ONE of these things working in their favor. They are either extremely entertaining or packed with content. usually NOT both.
Your key to success as someone who sells info products is to make sure that you deliver both of these elements when you do YOUR info product. Great information products are those that sell a lot of units. It’s kind of similar to a great movie. If a movie is to be truly great, it has to have great material and sell a lot of tickets. No one can make the claim that their information product is truly great unless tons of people are buying or have bought it.
As someone who has been marketing and selling info products for many years, I take a lot of pride in the products that I produce. I’m not saying that everyone of my products has been great, but certainly ALL of them have been good. It’ funny how you KNOW when a product you’ve produced is great. You can just feel it.
Information marketing is a business that many people attempt on a whim. Many of them dip their toes in the water having heard that you can make a lot of money in the business. And, if done correctly, that’s 100% accurate. BUT, the key to making really good money in the information products business is to continually deliver HIGH quality products to your niches. This comes from great research, understanding the needs and wants of your market AND the X factor.
What is the X Factor in information marketing?
That’s the little something extra that you bring to the table with your products and services. This is what makes both a truly great information product and a great info product marketer.
You can no longer afford to be just “good enough” in your niche. You have to deliver more than what they expect and do it with panache! The key to my longevity in this business is understanding what my market niche wants and needs. I do this by keeping my ear to the ground constantly. Listening to what people are saying and what they want.
There is no shortcut to delivering great info products, there is only hard work and dedication to the market you serve.
Popular Information Products to Sell
February 14, 2010
Whenever I do a speech or a seminar where I talk about selling info products, I get people coming up to me afterwards asking me: WHAT SHOULD I SELL? They are often relative newbies to the field of information marketing and I try and give them my best advice.
If you’re trying to get started immediately, you probably won’t start out selling your own products and services. You’ll start out as an affiliate, selling someone else’s. This is not necessarily a bad thing. IF you choose the right ones!
The question is how to choose. That’s what this post is all about.
First, make sure that you are dealing with a reputable person. Take the name of the person and put it into Google and see what comes up. I did this recently and discovered that the first listing for the guy was on a site that alerts people to rip off artists. I was a alarmed. I clicked on the link and started reading.
As it turns out, the person who started screaming about this person and their QUESTIONABLE tactics was the culprit. I read the entire thread of the issue and when done I was MORE willing to do business with this guy than I was at the outset.
Second, get a copy of the product and use it yourself. Two reasons here. First, you want to see if it really works as advertised. Second, you want to be able to talk about the product from the standpoint of a user, not a seller. The copy you can create will be ten times more effective if YOU, YOURSELF are actually using the product you’re promoting.
There are some people who will promote a product, site unseen. CRAZY! This is NUTS! Don’t do it. You could ruin your reputation in 10 seconds flat.
Third thing is build a “sent me” site. Take a look at www.FredSentMe.com to give you an example. Feel free to copy the look and feel of this site for yourself.
Long term, you’ll want to be selling BOTH your own products and the products of other people who you know and trust. To start, it’s a great idea to promote products from others you select. CAREFULLY.
If you are interested in mine, take a look at www.FredInfo.com. This will allow you to sign up and get compensated for selling my stuff!
Info Products Systems
February 11, 2010
When you decide to put together an info product in ANY field, the first thing you have to do is decide on what system you’ll use. I have my system that I teach to others that I suggest that YOU use when you do it. I start from the point where you have already decided to go ahead with the creation of your information product.
Step 1: Create a very detailed out line of the product you have in mind. There are two primary ways to do this. First, is to do this all on the computer using a standard outline. Many do this and it can work very well. The other option is to put every idea you come up with on an index card. Then when you’ve exhausted every topic you can think of, group the cards together based on topic, then put all of the (now) stacks of index cards into order.
Step 2: Decide on What TYPE of Info Product to create. This means deciding on whether or not you’ll use audio, video, a book or ebook or something else. You decision should be entirely based on what makes the most sense to the person who will “consume” your product. If you are dealing with a concept that needs visual representation, then audio would not be an option.
Step 3: Create TWO Websites. You’ll need to have a sales site AND and authority site to sell your product. Sales sites are no longer favored by Google and are virtually impossible to get ranked. Yes, you’ll need to put a sales letter page together, but don’t rely on it to get traffic. You’ll need to have an “authority” site to gain you credibility and GOOGLE JUICE.
Step 4: Tweak both of your sites. After you get the sites up, use someone like Sabrina Brick to make sure that WHEN people do visit your site that you have the highest closing ratios. Without that, traffic is useless.
Step 5: Consistently write blog posts, (like this one) and put up videos to support both your authority site and your sales site. The key here is to do the blogging and YouTube videos frequently. This is what will get people coming to you.
Step 6: Have a method of upselling people AFTER they buy your initial product. A one time sale is NOT what you’re after. You’re trying to get people to buy from you forever.
Do the above 6 steps and you’ll be well on your way to success as an information marketer.
Information Marketing Measurement Systems
February 4, 2010
I’ve started a very specific routine for keeping my weight “in check.” It involves getting on the digital scale every morning when I wake up and every evening before I go to sleep. Some people may think this is excessive. I don’t. If you’re really interested in losing or maintaining your weight, then you need to monitor it OFTEN.
How does this relate to your website and the selling of your info products? Simple. If I were to take a random survey of 1,000 people who sell information, I’d ask them this question: “Do you have a way to track the four most important elements of success on your site?”
The natural follow up question you’re asking is: What are the four most important elements that you need to monitor on your site?
1. Unique Visitors: Without an idea of how many unique people come to your site, you won’t be able to know how your marketing efforts are going. You’ll have no way of assessing your efforts to drive people to your site.
2. Conversion to Sales Rate: Let’s say you get 100 visitors to your site. Out of those 100 people, 4 people buy from you. Assume you’re selling a $50 digital product. The conversion rate is 4%. Four out of the one hundred people bought something, so your sales conversion rate is 4% in this example.
3. Conversion to Email Sign Up: In the event that 100 people visit your site and 4% buy, there are also 96 people who are about to leave without buying. If out of those 96 people, 22 people sign up to receive your ezine or special report, you have a conversion to email rate of 22%.
4. Average Visitor Value: In the above example, 4 out of 100 people bought a $50 product. The total dollars generated is $200. Divide $200 by 100 and you get $2. That is your average visitor value. This piece of data is critical because we live in a pay per click world. If you can BUY clicks for $1 and your average visitor value if $2, then you want to do this as many times as you possibly can!
Make sure that you have Google analytics or some other method of tracking set up on ALL of your sites. Also make sure that you can get instantly put your hands on these four critical tracking elements.
Information Marketing Trust Issues
February 2, 2010
One of the biggest problems in the business of marketing and selling info products is to figure out who is deserving of your trust. The answer is a very short one: VERY FEW! There are a lot of people who are trying to sell to anyone who has an interest in selling information. Why? Because people of that ilk are anxious to buy virtually anything that will help make them more successful.
The net result? People are taken advantage of. In most cases, the offerings made by these individuals are made to enhance and enlarge THEIR bank accounts. Not yours. When you see an offer to buy something that will help you as an info marketer, contact the individual who is selling the item. Ask them HOW MANY people have actually benefited from what they are selling. Ask them for specifics. Ask them for numbers.
Don’t be surprised if they get pretty annoyed at your for asking. They are betting that the vast majority of people will not ask. Will not take them to task for proof. This is how these folks work. I would caution you to NOT buy from anyone who cannot provide you with REAL examples of success. I’m much more concerned that you find people who can show even moderate results.
In most cases, the folks who taut big numbers from their buyers may have ONE person who has hit the jackpot. In many instances not even related to the product that they bought. They just got lucky or happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Don’t be one of the victims of this kind of nonsense. Make sure that you look for legitimate products that will help you as an information marketer. The best way to do that is to stick with people you KNOW and TRUST. It will be difficult to build up this list if you are first starting. BUT, ask around, if you start to hear the same name over and over in the context of playing games, avoid them.
My reputation has been built on NOT over promising. NOT telling people that they can get rich overnight. This means I make less sales. BUT, those whom I sell to are MUCH more likely to achieve the results I promise. It is a jungle out there. Be careful who you do business with. Check them out and vet them throughly.
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