The
Secret to Making More Sales
By Helen
Graves
You’re in the cornfield and
suddenly you hear it. . .
If you build it, they will come.
Worked great for Kevin Costner in
Field of Dreams, right? So, why not for your
next
information product (or seminar, or workshop, or program, or .
. .)?
Ah, if only it were that simple.
Way too often I hear colleagues
and clients talking about how they created a
terrific new
product or program that they just knew was going to be really
useful to their audience - and they didn’t sell nearly the
number they’d anticipated.
But after a little investigating,
I find out that they didn’t do any marketing until
they
had totally finished developing it. And their idea of
promotion was 1 or 2
emails saying, Here’s this brilliant
thing. Please buy it.
Well, no wonder they didn’t make
many sales. That’s not an effective marketing
strategy!
They didn’t give their peeps a chance to get in the mood to
buy before
giving up and deciding no one was interested.
See, Kevin did us a grave
disservice by teaching us to put the cart before the horse.
All too many independent entrepreneurs think that creating
a fabulous product or
service means it will market itself.
Terrible mistake!
You’ve got an important message to
share with your audience. So you want to
do everything you
can to make sure that message is received. And spending time
during the development phase to also construct a marketing
plan for whatever
you’re creating is crucial to the
success of your sales. Ad hoc isn’t going to get
the
results you want or deserve- for all the effort you put into
that product or program.
Just like Rome (or a cornfield), a
launch is not built in a day.
Money-making entrepreneurs
understand that there’s a specific sequence of
activities
that goes into a successful promotional launch. Those with
disappointing
sales think the sequence is: Create, then
Sell.
But you’ll make the most sales
(and by the way, positively reinforce your relationship
with your audience) when you follow this sequence:
Introduce, Educate, Motivate, Offer.
There are other aspects involved
in high volume sales, like
Having an irresistible offer
Weaving in an interesting storyline
Adding
valuable bonuses
Creating a sense of
urgency
And there are some foundation
elements that contribute as well, like the size of
your
list, how responsive they are, how often you’ve been
communicating with
them, how much stand-alone value those
communications offer.
The bottom line for you is this: A
profitable launch requires a plan and some
follow through;
it’s not something to throw together last minute. The benefits
in
the form of increased exposure, stronger connection
with your audience and,
most especially, dramatically
higher sales- are absolutely worth it.
Helen Graves, Grand Poohbah of
Crackerjack Online Marketing Strategy, offers
practical
online sales and product marketing tips to create long-lasting
client
connections. She can be reached via www.CrackerjackOnlineMarketing.com.
Sign up for her free special
report on product launch strategy,
How to Create
Desire So Your Products and Programs Sell Like Hotcakes,
at www.Product-Campaign.com
