Posts Tagged ‘Business Promotion Tools’

Have you ever wondered why so many speakers, coaches, and consultants offer their own books, CD’s, kits, DVD’s and other “information products” through their business? Or why YOU should consider doing so?

The reasons listed below are just four of the ways in which creating and selling your own info products can help you build your business more quickly and with less effort.

1. They are your “pink spoon.”

Baskin & Robbins ice cream first pioneered the notion of the “pink spoon” to taste a flavor before you bought the cone. Upwards of 80 percent of people who take a taste on the pink spoon buy some kind of ice cream while there (even if it isn’t the one they tasted). By having a book or audio program available on your web site, your prospects can sample you in the same way. They can find out whether your approach resonates with them (and of course, you will tell them within the info product how to take the next step and invest in the next level of products or services, right?).

2. They provide passive in’come.

Ah…there’s nothing like booting your computer up in the morning and finding a series of orders that came in while you were sleeping for your products! To build your business well into the 6-figures or beyond, you MUST have products that augment the real (or “synchronous”) time activities you do – such as live coaching. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for one-on-one coaching to lead you to the levels of revenue you aspire to!

3. They position you as the expert on your topic.

Once you have reduced your knowledge to writing, you are then the Author (yes, that is capitalized deliberately). You are the expert, the source, the guru of your content area. The product expresses your unique approach to whatever it is that you do. And nothing is more powerful for creating desire for your services than for you (or your customers or prospects) to be able to point to a product you have created and are actively selling.

4. They become bonuses or add-ons to coaching or other service delivery programs you offer.

Once you have a product, then you can add them to coaching services and other elements of a package of services – which is proven to be much more effective and easy to sell than coaching services (an intangible) standing alone. There are literally infinite possibilities for leveraging a product – such as my Career Coaching Success System Kit pictured above – into dozens of programs, from a low-end coaching program up to a $100,000 per year mastermind style program. The sky is the limit – but you have to have the product first!

Want help launching YOUR info product?  Join me for Successful Product Launch Secrets - teleclass begins Aug. 23.

Have you visited Youtube yet? No, it’s not just for high school and college kids any more…it’s for coaches and entrepreneurs too!

Increasingly, coaches, authors, speakers and consultants are using video (on Youtube or on their own site) to promote their services and products. Video gives the viewer a real-life, three-dimensional experience of you. And for coaches and other information professionals that do much of their work virtually, it can be the bridge to credibility – and therefore help the prospect build the confidence he/she needs to buy – in ways no other medium can.

Here are 5 ways you can easily and effortlessly start using video to improve your business and marketing results.

1. Put a short introductory video on your home page.

Whether you use an opt-in format like we do at www.careercoachinstitute.com or just sandwich the video in among other content, putting video on your home page has been shown to improve conversion and opt-in rates by as much as 50 percent! That’s nothing to sneeze at! The video we are using was filmed in a professional studio, but as you will see below, that is not necessary to get great results – even a webcam can produce the quality you need!

2. Use video to introduce yourself before an in-person appearance.

Frequently, part of an exhibitor package for a conference is obtaining the pre-conference list of attendees and having a one-time opportunity to introduce yourself to them and invite them to visit your booth. This has typically been done in an email or a pre-conference postcard mailing. But as I prepared to go to a recent conference this year, I thought, “why not use video as an introduction?” So I hooked up my $50 camcorder (a Logitech, if you’re curious about the brand), wrote out a script, and did an introduction! In just a few minutes, it was uploaded to Youtube and the link ready for the recipients of my email to view.

3. Create your own keyword-optimized YouTube channel.

If your clients typically find you online, as our students do, then you want to be accessible through a variety of means and channels. (Have you Googled yourself lately? See where you can be found that you may not have even known about!) You should be using LinkedIn, Facebook, your own name as a web site (e.g., www.marciabench.com) – and Youtube too! Rather than just having random access to your videos if people happen to put in the right keywords, you can customize your own “channel” in 10-15 minutes and have them all available in one place. (Check out mine here.)

4. Also place the Youtube videos you make on your own site or blog.

While it is great to upload videos to Youtube, taking people there doesn’t get them to your web site – and that’s where you can sell to them! So we like to also upload videos that are previewing an upcoming event onto our site for search engine optimization purposes.

(You might also consider the low-priced software Oovoo, which we are using for our ongoing series of Purposeful Entrepreneur Models Interviews – you can view 2, 3 or more people all at once on screen!)

5. Burn your video to DVD and send it out to prospects.

Recording a video of you talking about what you do best, and sending the physical DVD out to your prospects, can be one of the best ways to introduce yourself to them. Just as mailing a physical copy of your newsletter will be read more than an electronic version, video works the same way!

These are just 5 simple ideas, which you can implement with a webcam or an inexpensive camcorder almost immediately. What else can you do with video? The sky’s the limit! If you hit a “home run” with one of your video campaigns, be sure and let us know so that we can acknowledge you. Happy filming!

Copyright © 2010 Marcia Bench; All Rights Reserved