More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: Leveraging what you know to dramatically increase your income while spending less time with clients.
Information Products
One of the principles of InfoGuru Marketing has to do with how you distribute the information or expertise you possess. The formula goes something like this:
Give away 25% of your information, sell 25% of your
information at a premium price and then sell the remaining
50% at a very affordable price through information products.Let's look at this very practically.
The first 25% that you give away is for marketing purposes. By giving away some of what you know, you demonstrate your credibility. You build interest and trust in your services.
This 25% takes the form of articles, reports, speeches, interviews, teleclasses, newsletters and eZines. One way to think of it is that free information replaces paid advertising.
How much do you give away? My experience with most Independent Professionals is that they are very stingy in this department. They are afraid to give away what they know.
They have an article or two, give a talk or interview once in awhile and put out a newsletter or eZine sporadically. It's doubtful that they are giving out 5%, let alone 25%. They don't realize the marketing power of giving away this information.
Another 25% of your knowledge should be dedicated to premium services, services that take your time and energy to deliver. Consulting, coaching, training and rendering any other professional services falls into this category.
But most Independent Professionals actually distribute the majority of their information this way - 75% or more. They feel this information is both proprietary and valuable. And so it is, but if this is where you earn most of your money, you are severely limiting yourself because you only have so much time in a week.
The third category for distributing and profiting from your information is through affordable information products. And if you can manage to get this percentage up to 50% (or more) you will see two immediate benefits:
First, you'll get your information out to more people and make a
larger contribution. Second, you'll make a whole lot more money.If you can promote products that can be easily and inexpensively duplicated and distributed with a minium of time (and information products are ideal for this), you really start to leverage the information you possess and maximize the profit from that information.
Do the math for yourself.
Would you rather take 10 hours a month developing and marketing a product or spend 50 hours or more working with clients and making the same amount of money? That's the kind of leverage information products have.
When I launched this eZine in 1997 I had no information products. Now they are central to my business. In that time I have increased my income five fold while actually decreasing my work hours.
And as your income increases in the product area, you can start to cut back on the time spent delivering premium services. It won't happen overnight, but in a few years, the results can be dramatic.
So how do you make this transition?
You develop one product at a time and use your free information as the vehicle to promote that product. This is the key. You can't have one without the other.
So a free talk promotes a manual or tape program. An eZine promotes a paid teleclass. An article promotes an ebook. A free teleclass promotes a program on CD. I and many of my clients have used all of these with great success.
Start small with one product such as an ebook or CD program. Then turn your free information distribution into a repeatable system that gets consistent results. Giving talks can be a great start as you can get instant feedback as you learn to promote your products and sell them at the back of the room. (see below)
Take some time to learn how to write effective "sales copy" that promotes your products on your web site. This also helps you develop a persuasive "verbal pitch" that clearly outlines the benefits and value of your products. With a little practice you can make your products literally irresistible.
Finally, dedicate some time end energy into building your email list. If people don't buy at a talk they may buy later online - but only if you are sending them a regular emailing that gives away valuable free information while promoting your products. (see below)
Again, all of this takes awhile to get up and running, but in a few years your information products could be earning substantially more than what you're currently billing your clients.
More on "Information Products" in Marketing Flashes below.
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Tools for Marketing and Selling Information Products
Two of your most important tools in marketing information products are speaking and building an email list. Understanding both of these will give you a very solid foundation to get started.
Our latest audio program with Vickie Sullivan walks you through exactly how to turn talks into money, both for services and information products. (Includes CD, Transcription & Real Audio)
http://www.actionplan.com/speaker.htmlAn earlier audio program with Internet marketing expert, Bob Serling, on building an email list, gives you the tools to increase your outreach to people interested in information products. (Includes CD, Transcription & Real Audio)
http://www.actionplan.com/elist.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marketing Flashes on "Information Products"
* You don't have to be a "world renowned expert" to create information products. You just need to know enough to help someone else take the next step successfully.
* Information products don't need to have fancy graphics and expensive packaging. People are primarily looking for solid information they can use. Keep things simple.
* Give a little extra so that people feel they are getting real value. Premiums such as online audio and bonus pdf files don't cost much but can substantially increase orders.
* Automate everything. A good shopping cart system and a program to manage your list are key. A few hours of study will pay off big dividends. More info at http://www.actionplan.com/partners.html
* Every product has a lifespan and will sell well only for so long. Make a commitment to create several products each year. Once you have the system down, it's easier than you think.
Until next week, all the best,
Robert Middleton
ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:
"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses."
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