For a very reasonable monthly fee Dan will create a website that allows the realtor to upload guided tours of their listed properties. Prospective buyers can browse the listed properties and contact the realtor for more information on properties they're interested in.

It's a pretty cool service and once realtors start using it, they are very enthusiastic about the results. The problem was that although Dan was getting a lot of visitors to his website, very few visitors were taking the next step: a guided tour of how the service worked. 

Problem: Asking for Too Much Too Soon

Taking a look at their website, I could see what was happening: to take the guided tour the visitor had to provide their name and e mail address. Once the tour was over, prospect was told to call a 1-800 number to schedule a free consultation and discuss how the service would help them show more properties.

Here's the problem. In this age in which every other message seems to be to buy something, people have become wary of tactics like free consultations. The term "free consultation" is a red flag like "trust me." What the prospect really thinks is "they'll just try to talk me into buying something."

And let's face it, this is quite often the case.

Solution: Use Information Products as “Stepping Stones”

Picture a stream. A fairly wide, deep stream. You're on one side and your prospect is on the other. When the only offer you make is "Call me for a free consultation" with the intention to sell them something pricey, you are basically asking prospective customers to leap across the stream.

Will some prospects do that? Sure, every once in a while someone will be motivated and confident enough to make that big jump. Most, however, won't.

You need to provide them with 2-3 good, sturdy stepping stones they can use to cross the stream. The stepping stones are information products that provide increasing levels of support along with higher price points.

Example: Using Stepping Stone Products

I suggested to Dan that he add two intermediate offers that would allow prospects who weren't quite ready to buy the full service:

Product #1. A free, monthly ezine with articles on how customers were using their products and getting results.

When prospects read about someone like themselves succeeding, they would begin to feel more confident that they, too, could get good results.

Product #2. A $79 Assessment.

Through an online form, the prospect answers several questions and submits it for analysis.

They get a 5-page report back on exactly how the service would help them. If the service won't help them the fee is waived. If they decide to go ahead and subscribe the $79 is applied against the cost of their subscription.

Keys to Creating Stepping Stones for Your Customers

1. Make sure you're offering one free product that allows prospects to experience what you do. I prefer ezines or blog subscriptions because they provide multiple opportunities to be in touch over a period of time.
2. Add one to two intermediate information products. The products should:
• Provide increasing levels of support 
• Priced to reflect the increased level of support
3. Test the products to make sure they appeal to your ideal customer. I'm a big proponent of testing with ideal customers. Let a few of your customers try out your new product. If they are using it and getting good results, you have a winner. If they never touch it, you have some refinements to make.

Bottom Line

If you're getting a lot of interest in your product or service but very few are actually buying, you may need to use some information products as stepping stones.

I recommend offering 1-2 free products and at least 1 product you sell at a price lower than what you’re selling as “top of the line.”

This allows prospective clients to keep in touch with you and to benefit from your products and services even if they’re not ready to buy your top of the line offering.

P.S., What stepping stones do you offer to help prospects get closer to you? Click here to comment.

Until recently, Nancy has gotten her business primarily through in person meetings: attending networking events, taking people out for coffee, and giving presentations.

In person is great for getting local business but Nancy wants to serve a national customer base. So she hired someone to design a Web site and using E-mails and postcards to market her services.

She’s been using E-mails and postcards for the last ten months and the results have been dismal.

“I haven’t gotten a single new client,” she told me.

So I took a look at the E-mails she was sending out and I immediately saw the problem.

Enthusiasm Can Turn People Off

Nancy loves her work and really wants her clients to succeed. It’s hard to spend time with her and not get excited about what she’s doing.

Her enthusiasm works to her advantage when she meets people in person.It seems logical then that enthusiasm would work in all her other marketing.  Wrong.

Establishing Trust is the First Step

There’s a saying, “People want to know you care, before they care about what you know.”

As human beings, we have a natural desire to belong and feel valued. It’s the reason why people hate to be sold to…we don’t feel understood or valued for who we are.

When you meet someone in person, it’s a lot easier to build trust because you can communicate that you care in many ways: in your tone of voice, in the way you look at others, in your gestures.

For people like Nancy, building trust occurs almost immediately during in person meetings because she communicates that she cares both in what she says and what she doesn’t say.

But when communicating in less personal ways—using E-mail, postcards, and other types of written media, you have only words to work with. 

Which means you must take an extra step and deliberately demonstrate empathy before you enthusiastically share why your products and services are so wonderful.

Establishing Trust Means Starting with the Negative

So how do you show you care when you use E-mail, Web pages, and other mediums that limit your ability to express yourself?

You start with the problem or pain your customer is likely experiencing.

When you do this you are saying, in effect to your audience:

“I understand you have this problem that you’re struggling to solve.”

“I, too, have struggled with it”

“Through my experience, education, research, etc., I have come up with a solution to solve the problem.”

“My solution will work for you too.”

Once you say these things, you are free to bubble away about your wonderful solution.

Example: Establishing Trust First

So let’s go back to Nancy.

Instead of immediately starting her E-mails off with how she helps her clients double their fund raising results she begins with demonstrating empathy and understanding.

Before:

“Non-profits, let me show you how to double, even triple your donations.”

After:

“Non-profits, are you struggling to compete for funding in today’s difficult economy?

”Can you feel the difference?

Nancy’s E-mail then went on to describe her own struggles with fund raising and how she developed her solution.

When Nancy began using this approach, her prospect inquiries immediately increased and she’s now in the process of turning some of the prospects into clients.

But she first needed to demonstrate she understood and cared before they were willing to make the call.

Bottom Line

The less personal the communication, the more important it becomes to first establish trust with your prospects.

For E-mails, blog posts, Web pages, etc.:

1. Start with the Negative: demonstrate you understand their problem and struggle to solve it.

2. End with the Positive: share why your solution is better and will work.

And you get no responses. None at all. Or close to none.

So you send multiple offers out over a couple month's time. Maybe you sell a few but given the time and money you've invested, not enough to count.

The Fatal Error

The fatal error that will kill your marketing efforts every time is failure to understand value as your customer defines value. Not as YOU define value.

Defining "Value"

Think of customer value as a simple formula:

Cost of Non-action - Cost of action = Value

When Value is positive (meaning, there's more to gain by acting on your offer, buying your products, taking your class, etc.) prospects take action.

When Value is zero (meaning they think it will cost about as much to act as not to act) or negative (meaning there's more cost to acting than not) it is very likely that they will stick with the status quo.

To improve your response rate, you need to increase perceived value.

How to Increase Perceived Value

Looking at it this way, there are two things you can do to your offer to improve your response rate.

1. Decrease the cost of taking action.

2. Increase the perceived cost of not taking action.

Examples:

Decreasing the Cost of Taking Action

Before we began promoting our Info Product Roadtrip program we interviewed a variety of small business owners to get their reactions to our idea. It was a good thing we did. Although most of the business owners we spoke with loved the idea of passive revenue, about half were very concerned about the time, effort, and expense of creating information products.

To make the program more valuable, we decided to focus on a smaller group: authors and speakers. Why? Because authors and speakers have existing content. It was far easier (less costly) to create an information product based on a chapter in a book than creating it from scratch (which was the challenge for many entrepreneurs we spoke with.).

Increasing the Perceived Cost of NOT Taking Action

Put simply, this is about "sweetening the deal." Oftentimes, when customers are slow to respond to an offer our first instinct is to lower the price. That's a mistake. Yes, money can be a barrier to purchase but not as much as most people think. In my experience, if your offer is valuable enough to your prospect, they'll find the time and money to act.

For example, the author of a book on their great grandmother's life growing up in the Louisiana Bayou might include some authentic recipes for gumbo and fried okra as a bonus for buying her book. Or a realtor giving a presentation on buying vacation property might offer a no strings attached discount to stay at a popular resort. 

When you offer additional value, you are in effect, increasing the cost of NOT taking action because you are creating the perception of missing out on something special and valuable. 

Bottom Line

To get people to take action–to sign up for your free teleclass, or buy your new book, or schedule an appointment, you need to make sure that the cost to your prospects of not taking action is higher than the cost of taking action. You can do this by (1.) lowering the cost of taking action or; (2.) increasing the perceived cost of not taking action.

Your Customers are the Ones Who Define Your Competition

Your real competition is defined by your customers based on the choices your customers have to solve the problems you solve.  Let's use the personal trainer as an example. What problems is she helping her clients with? One problem she mentioned was helping women aged 40+ who were suddenly gaining weight even though they hadn't changed their eating habits and whose bodies, as one client put it, "are jiggling in places I didn't know could jiggle."  So what are the choices these women are considering to help with their weight gain and figure problems? The short list is usually something like this:

• Go on one of the hundreds of popular diets: Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, etc.

• Do more aerobic exercise through everyday activities like walking.

• Join a gym, take a class or two, and other group activities.

• Buy work out tapes.

• Hire a personal trainer if they think they can afford one.

If you asked my colleague who her competitors are she would name a few local personal trainers, maybe a yoga instructor, and maybe the YMCA or Bally's 24 Hr. Fitness.  But if you look at the solutions her prospective clients are considering she's missing some biggies: popular diet programs, getting more exercise through everyday activities, and buying tapes.

Your Marketing Needs to Help Prospects Identify You as the Best Choice 

To appeal effectively to her ideal prospective clients, the personal trainer's marketing needs to address why the common options her prospects have tried aren't helping them lose weight.  This doesn't mean bashing the competition. But it does mean explaining the limitations of alternative approaches that her solution addresses. For example, in her brochure or on her Web site, she needs to say something like this: "The first thing most women do when they want to lose weight is eat less calories by going on a diet and doing calorie burning exercise. But as you age, you lose muscle and muscle is what really burns calories. If you take two women of identical weight and activity level, the one with more muscle can eat far more than the other without gaining weight. This means diet and exercise are no longer enough to lose weight. If you're 40+ you also need to begin regular strength training to rebuild the muscle your body is losing." The brochure would then go on to explain why personal trainer gets better results than going to the YMCA or buying weights and trying to go it alone. Without acknowledging what her prospects see as alternatives, she doesn't make as strong a case for why she is the best choice.

Steps to Understand Your Real Competition

Step 1: Focus in on one specific problem that you solve for your clients or customers. For example, if you own a fast food restaurant you may be offering a quick, cheap way for customers to satisfy their hunger. If you're a high-end restaurant you may be offering an entertaining alternative to a boring night of television, or an opportunity for a business person to feel more important and interesting when they take out a client.

Step 2: Ask yourself what alternatives your customer is really considering. With the fast food restaurant, alternatives may include bring their own lunch, eat at a competing fast food place, or even microwave popcorn when really pressed for time.

Step 3: Ask yourself what makes you the best alternative for your ideal customer. With the fast food place, it may be that you offer hot, homemade sandwiches that are more satisfying than typical fast food fare, just as convenient, and no more expensive.

Step 4: Talk about what makes you the best alternative in your marketing. When it comes to fast food marketing, few companies have done a better job as setting themselves up as a better fast food alternative than Subway. Regardless of how you feel about Subway and their food, their campaign positioning themselves as the healthier fast food alternative has been a spectacular success.

Bottom Line

Your marketing is only effective if it addresses the alternatives that your customers see as solutions not the competitors that you believe they are considering. If your marketing doesn't address real alternatives it won't deliver on positioning your business as the best choice, and I can guarantee you will see the effects in your bottom line.

When I asked for more details, she told me that after publishing her book, she sent emails and postcards to "everyone she knew." The postcard announced that her book had been published, gave some details about the book, and told them how to buy her book on the Internet.

She got a few nice notes back congratulating her on publishing a book. Sold one or two to friends. And that was it.

From this experience Jen concluded that marketing didn't work. Or that she was a terrible marketer. Either way, she was discouraged.

Then I told the Jen something that surprised her.

What Went Wrong?

I told her that her strategy to announce her book to everyone in her contact list was very sound marketing.

Why? It was inexpensive, she was getting in touch with people who wanted to support her, and she wrote a friendly, informative offer with clear steps on what to do next.

So what did Jen do wrong?

Simple: she made only one attempt to contact prospects.

The Rule of Seven

I talk with small business owners all the time and this is one of the most common problems I hear.

Fortunately, the solution is simple.

Just repeat the offer to the same audience over time.

How many times?
Seven times.

For how long?
A minimum of eight weeks, preferably more.

People Need Reminders

When I say this to small business owners guess what they say?

"I don't want to annoy people."

Of course you don't! But unless your product or service is addressed at solving an important, urgent situation, people will not act on your first offer. They may not even act on your second, third, or fourth offer.

This doesn't mean they're not interested in buying from you. It just means they're not ready to buy NOW.

In Jen the author's case, people reading her announcement, probably thought, "cool, Jen published her book, I'll have to check it out" and went back to whatever it was they were doing.

I bet you can relate.

If they stop getting reminders they will forget.

Keys to Creating Effective Reminders

#1. Send Offers Once a Week or Every Other Week

When you send an offer once a week or once every other week, you are reinforcing the message over time. Each time they get the message, your prospects are a little more likely to remember and more importantly to act.

#2. Add Value with Each Offer

Keeping your offer consistent is important for reinforcing your prospect's memory.

To keep their interest, however, you want to include a new piece of information that adds a bit of value.

For example, Jen could send new, relevant information with each offer by including a section in the email that she could change each time the offer went out.

In the first offer she could included a paragraph about what inspired her to write the book. Over the next six weeks, she could used the section for reader testimonials, to tell a success story, to share information about support groups, and so on.

In this way, she reinforces the offer but keeps it from getting stale by including new, useful information.

#3. Create Urgency

Never underestimate the power of inertia when you create your marketing.

This is especially true if your product or service is about preventing a problem from happening or has a payout that's more than 3 months in the future.

How?

• Early registration discounts with clear deadlines
• Keeping count of the number of available spaces (example, "only two seats remaining"
• Remind prospects of the cost for not taking care of their problem (example: if you're tired of losing sales because you just don't know how to talk with prospects)

Warning: Make sure your urgency is based on truth. If you haven't sold a single seat, don't advertise your seminar as being "75% full."

The message you want to give is this "if you're thinking this product, service, etc will help, take action. I really want you to get the support you need."

Bottom Line

When it comes to marketing, once is not enough. To get results from your marketing you must:

1. Make the same offer seven or more times over a period of 8 to 12 weeks
2. Add value each time you make the offer 
3. Create urgency to counter natural inertia

What do you think?

Do you agree? Disagree? Click here to comment. 

When I asked her why she seemed less than enthusiastic, she told me how disappointed she was with most of the information products she bought. In her experience, the products seemed like they were "just slapped together" and that "all the business owner seemed to care about was making money."

When people tell me this, I feel sad.

One reason I feel sad is because I've had the same experience. I buy an information product that seems to be what I need and what I get is a poorly written data dump. Even if there's useful information, I have to work so hard to figure out what it is and how to apply it, I give up in frustration.

The other reason I feel said is because it doesn't need to be this way.

Why Information Products Suck

You see, the reason these products suck is not so much because they're information dumps or even because they're poorly written. It's because they're missing the essential ingredient that customers want: connection with the business owner.

Usually, when I buy something from a small business, it's because there's something about the business owner that resonates with me. It may be their take on business, or their sense of humor, or their way of explaining something. When this happens I want to hang out with them and learn more. If they offer information products such as books, articles, podcasts, and so on, this is a great way for me to get my daily, weekly, or monthly dose.

When a small business owner slaps something together and calls it an information product without investing themselves in the product, they may be providing some helpful information but they're not providing customers with what they really want: a bit of themselves. When this happens, customers feel cheated.

How to Make Sure There's a Little Bit of You in Your Products

1. Tell a story

Stories also allow you to personalize your experience and knowledge and allow others to experience you as your customers do. There's nothing better than a story about how you used your experience, knowledge, and resources to illustrate how add value.

2. Be real

One of the greatest assets you have as a small business owner, is the human face you give your business. When you can be real which means revealing your quirks and imperfections, you give your client permission to trust and ask for help.

True story: the day I got permission to be myself 

When I returned to school to get my MBA, I felt overwhelmed and scared for the first few months. All the other first year students seemed to be doing well and I assumed there was something wrong with me feeling the way I did.

Lucky for me, I was in a class taken mostly by second year students. I remember one of them asking me how things were going.

"Oh, just great," I cheerfully lied, "everything is going really well."

"Really?" the second year student said. He was genuinely surprised. "Man, I hated my first year, especially the first semester. I almost dropped out." He then went on to say that as he got to know and trust the other students, the program got a lot easier.

Hearing this was a huge relief. It gave me permission to stop acting and start being myself. And when I started being myself, I began making friends with other students and actually enjoying school.

The point is, you don't need to be perfect and your information products don't need to be perfect either. If you struggled to learn what you're teaching, say so. If you make mistakes and typos, apologize, fix them, and move on.

3. Take a stand, even if it's controversial

A few years ago, I spoke to a group of local business owners about guerrilla marketing. I could tell the presentation didn't go well but I wasn't sure why.

Over coffee, I asked the woman who booked me, why the audience seemed "less than thrilled." She told me a few people complained that when they asked me questions I kept qualifying my answers with "this is just my opinion."

"We brought you in because you're an expert. We assume you're giving us your opinion based on your experience in the field," she said, "when you apologize it sounds like you don't know what you're doing"

It's scary to take a stand on an issue when you're a business owner because you worry about losing prospective customers who disagree. But you are also demonstrating leadership for those who do agree and are looking for someone willing to speak up.

There are issues in every industry that people have strong opinions on. If you sincerely have a position, and it's relevant within the context of your products, speak up and let your customers know where you stand and why.

4. Use your voice

You know when you read an article or listen to a podcast and you can just tell author is trying to be someone he or she thinks their customer wants them to be?

I'm not saying they sound bad. They just don't sound like themselves.

The best thing that ever happened to me was when I stopped trying to write like a Corporate Marketing Android and started writing the way I would if I were explaining something to a respected friend or colleague.

Bottom Line

It's not hard to create information products customers love. Provide a bite-sized solution to a problem that they can easily implement. And put a little of yourself into your product using stories, being human, taking a stand, and writing in a conversational tone.

To do this, I want you to start thinking like the TV action hero, Angus MacGyver. In the TV show, Angus MacGyver (known to his friends as MacGyver or "Mac") who favored brain over brawn in order to solve desperate problems. MacGyver's main asset was his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items. (Source: Wikipedia) Need to defuse an advanced nuclear weapon? No problem. MacGyver did it with a paper clip. Worried about that sulfuric acid leak? Give MacGyver a chocolate bar and he'll plug it. Need to read teeny tiny secret spy notes? MacGyver created a magnifying devise using a hair clip and a few drops of liquid.

Your Information Product Toolkit

Now I know it's highly unlikely that you will ever be in a situation in which you need to defuse an advanced nuclear weapon much less with a paper clip. What I want you to take away is the idea that with a little know-how and resourcefulness, you already have the tools you need to create a good information product. MacGyver's basic tool kit was duct tape and a Swiss army knife plus whatever was lying around. What about a tool kit for the small business owner who wants to create information products? Here's my list:

1. Own or have access to a personal computer.
2. A word processing program like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice (free)
3. (Optional) A digital recorder like the Olympus VN-4100PC
which retails for less than $50.

Most if not all of you reading this have #1 and #2. You can get by without #3, the digital recorder but it's very useful and I'll say more about that in a moment.

Six Information Product Ideas MacGyver Would Approve Of 

Okay, so let's say, you hire MacGyver and you say, "Mac, I want an information product, fast, and all I have is my 3-year old Dell computer, a copy of OpenOffice, and a friend with a digital recorder. Can you help me?"  Here are six information products that you have all the tools and know-how you need to get going:

If your presentation was accompanied by clear, user-friendly slides, I encourage you to use those as information products as well. Even better, bundle the slides with the audio recording and make both available.

Note: Not a big deal if you don't own software to create presentations such as Microsoft PowerPoint. There are free options you can use such as OpenOffice Impress and Google Docs.

3. Write How To’s And Tip Sheets

Very few people will pay for a 500-word tip sheet. However, people will pay $10 and up if you take 20 such tip sheets on related topics, create a table of contents, and put them together in an e-book.

This is when having a digital recorder comes in handy.  Anything you can record: a presentation, an interview, a class; even reading a written article out loud, can be transferred to your computer and distributed on the Internet.
Important: If other people are involved (for instance, you're taping a workshop), let them know upfront that you will be recording. This is especially important if you intend to sell the resulting product.

6. Interview Other Experts Whose Work Complements Yours

No small business is an island. We all depend to a greater or lesser extent on the talents of others to stay in business. As a marketing consultant I need the services of an accountant, graphic designer, Web and blog designer, a PR expert, and a printer, just to name a few. What types of questions do you ask these folks? Do you think others in your profession might be interested in the answers? Yes, probably. I recommend recording your interview so you have the complete conversation. You can then write a question and answer article on the parts that are most relevant to your audience.

Bottom Line
 
You don't need to be a technical wiz to create information products. Nor do you need to buy expensive software or hire a film editor. You just need to think like MacGyver; have the basic tools, know how to use them, and think creatively.

Dana was a client of mine who was working with me to fund a non-profit she was starting: a private school for local at-risk kids. She had years of experience working with these kids as an elementary school teacher and was confident she could help. But raising money to fund her new school was very intimidating.  One day we were talking about the idea of creating and selling information products to help her fund her school. She loved the idea of selling information products but balked at the idea of selling ones she created. Why? Because she was "just" a school teacher. She didn't have a Ph.D. in her field. She hadn't written any important papers that were published in scholarly journals. Why in the world would anyone want to hear what she had to say, let alone PAY to hear it.

I was interested because getting my own first grader to pick up after himself was a constant struggle. I felt like I had tried everything; nagging, bribes, and threats.  Nothing worked. "Dana," I said, "If you could teach me how to teach my son to clean up after himself, that would easily be worth $50 to me."  My offer amazed Dana. She never imagined that anyone would value something that, to her, was so ordinary.  She took me up on it and wrote a great article on training kids to pick up after themselves. I still apply her advice now and then when my son, now eleven, forgets to tidy up. Dana got $50 which she applied as a donation to her new school (now the Park Hill Preparatory School in Denver, Colorado).

The Lesson Learned

Like Dana, most of us know how to do things that are almost second nature TO US. And that's the problem. When you're good at something and have been doing it for a long time, there's a tendency to devalue it. We assume that it's easy for us so isn't it easy for everyone else?

I had been doing everything I could think of to get my son to clean up after himself and it wasn't working. Dana had spent years with kids and through her own training plus lots of trial and error she had developed a simple, straightforward process for teaching kids to take responsibility for keeping their classroom clean.  A neater, more peaceful home was worth at least $50 to me.  

3 Steps to Developing an Information Product (Even if You're Not a Famous Expert)

I'm willing to bet there's a $50 information product in you.  Maybe more than one.  Try this:

Step #1

Your list items can be related to your current business but it's not a requirement. Please don't get stuck because you can't think of anything grand you accomplished in your business this year. Jot down what comes to mind.

Step #2

Pick one item on your list that you enjoyed doing and that you're pretty sure you could teach someone else to do.

Step #3

Ta-DAH! You have an information product

Is it rough around the edges? Yes, probably. Are you going to put it out to the marketplace? Probably not.  But that's not the point. The point is you don't need to be an acclaimed expert to know something others value.

A Little Challenge

If you're a small business owner and you've been thinking about the idea of creating an information product but haven't taken action because your abilities are too humble, here's a little challenge:

1. Complete steps 1 - 3 to create your info product (your "how to" story) 2. E-mail me your story to judy@judymurdoch.com with INFO PRODUCT in the Subject line.  The first five people to E-mail me their info product story by Monday, January 7 will receive a free assessment from me on their info product's potential value.

Bottom Line

The main requirement to create an information product is experience doing something others would like to learn. If you own a small business, I have no doubt that you have at least two or three valuable information products based on your experience, know-how, and knowledge.

What do you know that others would gladly pay you to learn?