Infoproducts are a great way to monetize your online presence – they only require a finite amount of work, time, and effort put into them, and can be sold for as long as you wish, after being finished. Promotions can be taken up a notch or slowed down to whatever speed you’re comfortable with and have the time to manage, and any time you’re wanting more sales you can launch another round of promotions. Sounds great, doesn’t it? So how do you create an irresistible infoproduct, one that fans will want to buy for as long as it’s available?
1. Ask your fans what they want. Send out a survey on your email list, or ask via Twitter, or any way that’s comfortable and convenient to you. This is part of the pre-selling process, as by finding out what needs your readers have and then creating something to fix it, you’re virtually guaranteeing that people will want to buy it (since they asked for the solution ahead of time).
2. Actually listen to them. This sounds like a no-brainer – why would you ask for advice, and then not listen to it? – but it is worth stating anyways. Sometimes, if you already have an idea in mind, tweaking that idea or even scrapping it in favor of what your fans are asking for can feel like a blow to your pride, and you won’t want to do it. Do it anyways.
3. Use multimedia to deliver your message. “Infoproduct” used to just mean an ebook – maybe with a workbook included. Now, with current technology, it’s incredibly easy to provide a multimedia experience, with text, audio, and video all included. Having a variety of methods to deliver your message at your fingertips means that you can pick and choose from what will actually work the best, not be stuck with one way as the default. With the growth of eReader popularity, it might also be a good idea to include any text offerings in.mobi (Kindle) or.epub (other eReaders) file formatting.
4. Provide transcriptions. This might seem bizarre if you’re providing audio and video to help give your readers an immersive experience, but it’s still a good idea. Not only is providing transcripts of all audio and video an easy value add (as it’s likely to double the written content of your infoproduct) at little or no extra cost, it ensures that readers who prefer to read (or who might be visually or hearing impaired) aren’t left out and know they can get the most from your infoproduct. One of the best ways to make your infoproduct irresistible is by removing obstacles and objections to buying – one of which is “Oh, that sounds great, but I never have the time to watch video…”.
5. Provide a teaser. Don’t worry about giving too much away; people will always pay to see more. And if you provide a little taste of your infoproduct, people will know that what they’re paying for is top-quality information and something they can really use. This is also a great way to build pre-launch anticipation – publish regular teasers in the weeks before launch to get people chomping at the bit to buy.