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Marketing Info-Products Is Not Rocket Science

By Janet Switzer

Authors and others who sell information products and training programs often would like to be more effective in their marketing efforts. And while marketing is actually a simple process, too often it's viewed instead as complicated and confusing.

A Four-Step Process for Effectively Marketing Info-Products

When you reduce marketing tasks to the four-step process below, a lot of the confusion and mystery about marketing goes away.

Step 1: Fill the Funnel with Qualified Prospects
Step 2: Convert Those Prospects to Buyers
Step 3: Retain Those Buyers While You Are Delivering Your Product or Service to Them
Step 4: Upsell Those Buyers into the Next Product or Service

While the first two steps -- prospecting and converting -- may be familiar to you, you might be surprised to hear that the marketing doesn't stop once you make the sale. You'll still need to continue marketing after the sale in order to retain customers and sell them more things later. This is where a lot of even savvy marketers leave money on the table.

Step 1: Fill the Funnel with Qualified Prospects

The Funnel Theory of Marketing says that you should constantly bring thousands of prospects into your universe at very low cost (or even zero cost) -- then sell them ever more elaborate products and ever more intensive experiences with you for ever increasing prices. The first step of marketing is to fill the funnel with qualified prospects.

Below are just a few of the dozens of basic strategies for attracting prospects to your "universe." Of course, these "strategies" are really just "communication methods" -- that is, different ways for getting your compelling message to potential buyers.

Teleseminars — You can use email to promote a free teleseminar to your list (or to someone else's list with their endorsement), then hold a one-hour call to present details about your product and compel people to ask for more information.

A Three-Page Website That Sells — To collect the names of prospects at your website, create three separate pages: (1) a squeeze page, (2) a congratulations page, and (3) the sales letter page. At your squeeze page, give away a valuable free item when people complete a form with their name, email address, zip code and other information. That data should then be collected into a database so visitors can be sent future marketing emails. When visitors opt-in they should be taken to the congratulations page -- where you tell the visitor they've opted in successfully, then you present them with a teaser about the entry-level product you have available on the next page. When people click through to this sales page, provide details they need in order to make a buying decision and provide links to your shopping cart so prospects can buy instantly.

Articles in Trade Magazines and Newsletters -- Mail a press release, then call to follow up with editors. Or use a service that distributes press releases via email.

Speaking Engagements -- If you speak on a regular basis, you can promote your high-priced product or service from the podium and collect leads at the back of the room, either by selling a lower-priced product or by giving away something for free.

Trade Shows -- The best way to exhibit at a trade show is to become a speaker at conferences that have a trade show attached, then have them include a free booth as part of your participation there. You might even offer to speak for free if the group is worthwhile and if you get a free booth at the back of your presentation room or in the trade show area.

Offers in the Backmatter of Your Book -- If you're a published author (or plan to be), use a page in the last few pages of your book -- the backmatter -- to direct readers to some free item you give away at your website.

Step 2: Convert Prospects to Buyers

There are many methods experts use to convert prospects into buyers. Some of the more common strategies are:

• Inbound/Outbound Telesales by Commissioned Sales Representatives

• Voice Broadcasting (sending a pre-recorded message to prospects' voice mail)

• Direct-Mail Follow-Up

• Special Report that Closes the Sale

• Salespeople at the Back of the Room or at Your Trade Show Booth

• Live Preview Weekends

• Email Broadcasts Containing a Link to an Elaborate Sales Webpage

• Elaborate PDF Literature Package via Autoresponder

• 4-Week Teleseminar Series Designed to Close the Sale

• Written Proposal of Work to Be Performed

Ultimately, how you convert your prospects depends largely on how they responded to your marketing appeal in the first place. One reality of the information-products industry is that the higher priced your product or program, the more "high touch" your conversion process will have to be. "High touch" means a high level of human interaction.

What are some of the highest-touch conversion strategies?

• Live Salespeople at Your Trade Show Booth or Back-of-the-Room -- Be sure to script your sales pitch at the booth for maximum conversion. Make it easy to buy. Take credit cards. Have order forms pre-printed. Have samples out in view for prospects to look at.

• Commissioned Salespeople Making Outbound Phone Calls -- Pay your salespeople a handsome commission only when they make a sale, but first create products and programs that sell.

• Live Preview Days or Weekends -- Deliver loads of information before asking prospects to buy.

Less "high touch" strategies for converting prospects involve email, direct mail (snail mail) and free information available at your website, but these methods also generally yield a lower conversion rate.

Step 3: Retain Buyers While Delivering Your Product or Program

Once you make a sale, it's important to also create loyal future buyers as you deliver their very first purchase.

When you sell a product or program to a new buyer -- particularly if you have a long-term guarantee -- you need to immediately re-sell them on the VALUE of what they just purchased. Often, buyers decide after purchasing that it's really not for them. They're sorry they bought it. They want their money back.

But if you keep re-selling them on the value of your expertise, they'll have no reason to become disillusioned with their purchase. You might deliver unexpected bonuses. Maybe you introduce them to opportunities they might not find out about otherwise. Perhaps you send a special report or a piece of software that will help them meet their goals. Whatever you do, be sure to offer some additional value at no additional charge.

This not only reduces "buyer’s remorse" -- it keeps your name in front of them and keeps them excited about the material and their future.

There's also another phenomenon in the information and seminar industry you should know about. It's called "breakage" -- and that's when buyers simply drop out of your program without completing their time with you. Keep buyers engaged with homework assignments, one-on-one coaching, phone call check-ups from salespeople, and surprise speakers and teleseminars (particularly as part of workshops, seminars or longer term coaching and mentoring programs).

When your buyers are continually in touch with you and in a heightened state of appreciation, they're usually much easier to upsell into more expensive products and programs.

STEP 4: Upsell Those Buyers into the Next Product or Service

There are four times when you should ideally upsell buyers into more expensive, elaborate products and programs:

1. When They First Hear or Read About Your Product or Program -- Include mentions in your marketing message of other products and programs you offer.

2. The Point at Which Your Buyer First Purchases Your Product or Program -- Immediately offer an upgraded item or program. Give bonuses for upgrading that you don't sell separately.

3. When the Buyer Has Received Their Shipment and Is Using the Product or Is Now Participating in the Program -- Begin upselling 1-3 weeks after a buyer receives their product. If you sold them a training program, begin upselling something else about a quarter to half-way through the program.

4. When the Buyer Has Retained the Product Past the Guarantee Period, Returned the Product or Completed Their Training Program -- Keep the buyer in a "Past Buyers" database, and create special offers for them. Do not assume that buyers who ask for a refund are not interested in future products.

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Janet Switzer is the marketing strategist behind some of the best known celebrity authors in the world: Jack Canfield of The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Soul, One Minute Millionaire author Mark Victor Hansen, personal finance guru David Bach, motivational speaker Les Brown and others. Subscribe to her FREE series of info-marketing special reports at Earn Money, Sell Information online!, find out in here!

Earn Money Writing a Book, and Speaking for Fees!

Presented by Lorenzo Myers, Internet Marketing Consultant, Coach

Earning Top Dollar As an “Expert Who Speaks”

By Janet Switzer

How would you like to travel to the world's most exciting places, help others with business advice and personal development, earn thousands per day selling your info-products, and hear the applause of a crowd sitting on the edge of their seats?

If your answer is "Yes!" you should consider adding professional speaking to your info-product business.

How to Market Yourself as an International Expert Who Speaks

On any given day, thousands of conferences, workshops, meetings and other training events take place -- most of which need experts to deliver information the group can use. There are a number of different types of individuals and groups which hire speakers:

• Independent Meeting Planners are hired by companies to organize events including conventions, trade shows, workshops and conferences. They are also responsible for hiring the speakers for those events. Corporate meeting planners, on the other hand, are employees of a company who've been given the job of putting together the annual sales meeting, executive retreat or other event.

• Trade associations also hire speakers. They hold annual conferences and training events and want to bring good, solid information to their members in order to provide value for the association dues members pay every year. Trade associations look not only for high-profile motivational speakers, but also for experts who speak on their subject matter.

• Non-profit organizations, educator's organizations and charities also conduct a lot of training, hold conferences and have a need for speakers.

• One of the biggest buyers of speaker's services are network marketing and direct sales organizations -- not only the parent companies, but also individual "leaders" with large downlines of distributors or direct sellers.

• Other trainers, training companies and seminar promoters can also be customers for your speaking and training services, especially if you can deliver expertise they’re not able to provide.

Two Ways to Get Paid Speaking…

There are two ways to get paid when you speak -- either by being paid a fee to deliver a speech or by speaking for free in order to sell products at the back of the room. Typically, fee-based engagements require a lot of outbound telemarketing -- either by you or by your commissioned salesperson, which may include any speaker's bureaus that represent you. Speaking for free, on the other hand, makes "getting hired" much easier because you simply need to offer your services by phone -- or perhaps via a short written proposal letter -- to the person or organization holding the event.



If you're willing to speak for free or for low fees, a resource called www.SpeakerMatch.com can help connect you with hundreds of companies and organizations who are holding meetings and looking for speakers. You get to communicate directly with the person doing the hiring, so it's a lot easier to provide the organization exactly what it wants or needs.

There's no dishonor in speaking for free, by the way. This is particularly true if you can speak at a trade association meeting where everyone sitting in the audience represents a company who could buy your information product or pay for your advice.

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Janet Switzer is the marketing strategist behind some of the best known celebrity authors in the world: Jack Canfield of The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Soul, One Minute Millionaire author Mark Victor Hansen, personal finance guru David Bach, motivational speaker Les Brown and others. Subscribe to her FREE series of info-marketing special reports at Write a Book, Speak for Fees, Sell on the Internet, enter here!

Presented by Lorenzo Myers, Internet Marketer, Business Consultant, and Coach