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QuoteReplyTopic: Is This Marketing Blasphemy? Posted: 11 Dec 2007 at 9:09pm
Can I ask you a question?
When was the last time you walked into Amazon, Barnes and Noble or even your local bookstore to buy a book?
Was it recently?
When you were browsing around reading the book-sleeve, did an attendant run up to you and say "Quick! There's only 2 left! Buy it before they go!"?
What about the last time you bought a book?
Did you hand over the book and the money only to find out that they'd thrown 18 other books, a CD collection, a bunch of book tokens, the author's telephone number and a money-off voucher to Starbucks in your bag?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it's because bookstores generally value the works of each individual author and rely upon the fact that people are buying, say, a Stephen King novel because they actually like his work, value his craftsmanship actually WANT that particular book.
It's funny then, that in the internet publishing world we tend to do the exact opposite.
We tell people that 'There's only 4 left!' or that 'The price will go up at midnight... I can't guarantee the price!' or that 'Due to such high demand we'll be discontinuing the book but when we bring it back it'll be twice as expensive".
Worse still, we sell the book itself and then bundle it with a stack of bonuses so large that it would take 2 solid months of 8 hour days to get through them.. even if they wanted to!
(I recently looked at a product that had 103 'bonus' items attached to it!)
Excuse me, but this is just nuts!
I mean, seriously, what does it tell your prospect about you and your product?
1. That book is not good enough to be sold as a stand alone product.
If it were, it would be. That simple.
Borders doesn't give you 10 books as bonuses for the simple reason that each book on its shelves MUST be good enough to be there under its own merits and, that being the case, you should pay a fair price for it.
No ifs, no buts.
2. That you're not as confident of your materials as you should be.
If you were then you wouldn't want to bribe me with other stuff that, in many cases, doesn't support the primary offering.
And hey, if you're not confident then why should I be?
3. That you don't care whether or not I read your book.
If you really wanted me to read YOUR book and take what you're saying seriously, why on Earth would you want to distract me with 10 or more works from other people
Seriously, in this day and age the thing that people are most short on is time.
They want to be told what to do, how to do it and why in the shortest, quickest most concise way possible.
They don't want to read through War and Peace 10 times over from different people to figure out what they should be doing to get better abs.
In fact, they already get THAT kind of confusion for free on Google, so why should they pay YOU for adding even more?
4. That you want their money... BADLY! What other message do you think people are getting when you say 'you can have this, and this, and this, and... oh yes, and don't forget this!'?
They're getting the message that for you it's all about the sale, nothing more, nothing less and that you'll keep bribing until they say 'yes'.
Now, the thing is, this has worked on the internet up until now but will it last?
Can it last?
Will we all find ourselves playing the 'He with the biggest pile of bonuses wins' game ad infinitum?
Will we see 500 bonus gift bundles in the not too distant future?
Who knows, but I hope not!
"But Dax, a lot of the 'big boys' have made a huge fortune this way... I want some of that" Too true, over the years there has been some great money made from this approach but I don't think it'll last. I sincerely hope it doesn't!
You see, every one of these 'super bundles' just reinforces to the world at large that we're not 'real' authors.
They believe that we're 'just' e-book authors and that we're deserving of lesser status.
And, to be honest, most of the time they'd be right!
Yes, I know that much of this is coming off as marketing blasphemy but it's what I believe.
You may even think it's a bit rich coming from someone who's got e-books of his own but if you take a look at my MAGIC Hundred ($150,000 this year) and my Scientific Advertising ($37,000) you'll see that I offer no bonuses, no bribes and no slick sales techniques.
I simply offer what I'm selling in a (hopefully) captivating way and trust that those who want my books will buy and those that don't won't.
Yes, there are those who make far , far larger sales than I and yes, they use the bonus method to do so but I'm certain as certain can be that those days are coming to a close.
Regardless, the question is not just 'How many sales can I make?' but, 'what difference am I making when someone reads my book?'
If you're stealing precious time from them by loading them down with 15 books instead of just 1 good one, then are you really doing them a service? Are you really making a difference?
1. "Did you hand over the book and the money only to
find out that they'd thrown 18 other books, a CD collection, a bunch of
book tokens, the author's telephone number and a money-off voucher to
Starbucks in your bag?"
My reply: No, but if they did I might just shop there again....
2. "If you're stealing precious time from
them by loading them down with 15 books instead of just 1 good one,
then are you really doing them a service? Are you really making a
difference?"
My reply: No of course not, but what if you did get 15 good ones to read instead of just the 1? Would sure beat watching "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" and the like.
Your sales speak for themselves but you have cleverly built buzz around your name. So others have to build an "irresistable offer" by massively overdelivering.
Plus online selling is very different to offline. You do the work once and can then be more creative in your marketing. This sometimes means losing massively on the front-end with an eye for the backend and lifetime value of the customer.
As you mention, guys like Ryan Lee have done very well out of this style of approach. But like you, I've sometimes questioned it, as I've overdelivered to very rich successful clients in the past which can backfire and make you look small instead. I'm now much more giving with my expertise online (due to the leverage it can give you) than I am if I'm simply selling my time.
Noel Lyons runs www.personaltrainersonline.org helping Personal Trainers build a REAL fitness business.
Of course, you're right. Online marketing allows us to do much more than we can do offline due to the fact that we're selling intangible items like downloadable info rather than 'a book' that you walk out of the bookshop with.
Nevertheless, the fact remain that authors who have their books in bookstores and listed on Amazon.com are seen by the public as 'real' authorities whereas those with 'only e-books' are seen as lesser experts by comparison.
Even Ryan brought this up at Craig Ballantyne's Online Super Profits seminar recently when he said 'You wouldn't believe the recognition I'm gaining since I released Millionaire Workout!' (Paraphrasing). This is a guy with stacks of online products, e-books and audio programs who 'became famous' because he wrote what the public sees as a 'real book'.
(I say 'became famous' because as Ryan, Alwyn and Craig all readily pointed out, if you stopped a 1000 people in the street and asked them "Do you know Ryan Lee, Alwyn Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, Dax Moy?" etc, you'd most likely get 100 "No" answers.)
Yet, get a 'real' book and things change fast.
People start to know you, hopefully they like you and, with time and a decent book, they trust you. Much more so than an e-book author.
Again, I think this comes down to how we promote our stuff. Bundling a stack of bonuses does not really seem, in my eyes anyway, to say 'hey, I've got a great offering for you'.
It screams 'Please buy!'.
And like I said, people's most valuable posession is time. Surely the best packages are those that save you time in getting your results?
This is a fascinating topic... really got me thinking : )
One of the issues with the internet versus, say, a "real" book is the amount of people/middlemen that are involved. For instance, any person can log on to their computer, punch out 24 pages, buy a domain, and start selling their e-book as "fact."
However, only a person who's worked many hours and received many rejections from publishers and editors can actually get a book out into BN or Amazon. Nowadays, it's a little bit easier with self-publishing companies, but mostly, I think that this issue is what it boils down to.
On-line, we have to either a) provide a LOT of free reading material without selling anything before being considered "professional" or b) over-deliver, AS WELL AS provide an extremely good product. Otherwise, how would you suggest getting your name and product out? I'm definitely open to suggestions.
Once your name is established, of course, I think a lot of that goes out the window. However, on-line, how do you tell the difference between John Doe and Mr. True Professional?
*As a side note, I hadn't really planned to have any "side offers" besides a free workout/month when I release my book, as I do believe it's a stand-alone product. However, I'm also aware that the same thing can be written differently 15 different times and it's within 1 of those times that the client actually "gets" it. I would prefer a customer/client "gets" it than has to go on continually buying info in order to find happiness.
I agree Carrie, but y'see, I wouldn't call what you're talking about 'bonuses'.
Those things are, to my mind, part of the learning materials that are directly applicable to your product. They're not, hopefully, stuff from here, there and everywhere that'll just 'pad out' the offering.
Your e-course, your audios, your worksheets and downloadable videos aren't really bonuses are they? They're PART OF the package without which, it would be incomplete.
In fact, isn't that why we can charge so much for an online book?
Otherwise, how do we justify that the books in the bookstore are £14.99 despite publishers fees, printers fees, handling fees, promotion fees and then the actual promotion for the store and yet we charge £29.99 for an e-book with no middlemen?
I'm surprised that the public hasn't caught on already... but they will!
If telling the difference between Mr True professional and John Doe is the size of his bonus list then aren't we setting ourselves up for a 'He/She with the most bonuses wins' scenario where ultimately, everyone loses?
I posted on PTU and mus say thanks Dax for bringing this topic up. The days of insincere and dishonest copywriting and (hopefully) that tacky yellow 'highlighting' are over. The world is changing, so is the market and marketing strategies....obviously, not everyone will take the lead but those who desire long term fullfilment in career will be driven by sincere marketing and genuine offerings....peace
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Dax
Moy Personal Training Studios The UKs leading Personal Trainer
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