As a small or solo business owner you undoubtedly have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that others need and want—probably more than you realize. Many of you may have purchased downloadable e-books, home study courses or other information products in order to learn about some aspect of business or marketing.
Information products remain a multi-million dollar industry that is growing stronger. You don’t want to miss out, do you? Creating and selling information products can provide you with a source of passive income that takes you way beyond selling time for dollars. There are some important steps you need to take though, to be assured you are creating something that will sell and that you are marketing it in such a way that you can generate ongoing sales.
Maybe you’ve created something that hasn’t sold. You put in a lot of time and effort only to be disappointed. Keep reading to find out how you can turn that around. Or you may be afraid that creating an information product is too much work when in reality you can create one in a matter of days. And information products are not only a source of ongoing income; you can also use them to generate leads for other products and services by using them as a lead -in to get people interested in a higher level product or service.
Here are some 8 information product success secrets:
1) Make sure there is a need for what you plan to offer before you create it.
- You can do this by doing keyword research to find out what people are searching for online in your niche.
- You can see what your top competitors are selling successfully.
- You can see what books are selling in your niche
- You can do a survey of your clients and subscribers
2) Be sure you understand and communicate the specific benefits and results your client will get from this product. You will need to be very clear about this in all of your marketing materials, especially your sales page.
3) Pick a killer name for your product that states the biggest product result. People will want to learn about it if the product name grabs them
4) Offer a money back guarantee for your product. This will make people feel comfortable buying who may be a bit unsure because they don’t know you well.
5) Create a detailed marketing plan for your product that includes social media, article marketing, press releases, videos and perhaps a preview teleclass or webinar. Then plan post launch marketing so sales continue after the initial product launch.
6) Find joint venture partners who will promote your product. These are people that have the clients you want but who don’t offer something similar. You’ll need an affiliate program set up for this
7) Plan on 2 months lead time to heavily market your product when you first launch it. Then plan a way to drive traffic to your sales page even after the launch so sales don’t stop. Pay-per-click is a great method to use as well as listing your product on affiliate product marketing sites like Clickbank.com
8) Figure out ways to re-purpose your product for other markets so you can leverage your work.
Once the initial work is done, much of the marketing can be outsourced or automated. Of course this is just an overview, but as a small business coach, many clients I’ve worked with had great products but no real marketing plan. They just assumed that people would find their product web page. Once we put a detailed strategic marketing plan in place the sales started rolling in.
Information products in some form are becoming crucial for any knowledge or service based business owner who truly wants to create a solid 6-figure income and a reputation as the go-to expert.
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