Generating A Powerful List Through Information Products
The best way to build your database is by offering an information product designed to generate leads. Find a product idea you’re enthusiastic about. If you can tie it into your current business model, you have the topic for a great information product.
When you give first-time visitors a free information product in exchange for their e-mail address, you take the first step toward establishing yourself as an expert. And when visitors give you permission to follow up, you start to build a bond of trust.
If you’ve already written something, think about how you can leverage it to create additional information products. An article might contain the seed for an eBook. A series of articles or reports can be reworked and presented as an eCourse or a series of Web seminars.
If you’ve never written anything for publication on the Internet before, start by asking yourself how you can package what you know or do. What are you passionate about? How have you helped people in the past? Ask family and friends for their honest feedback.
Do you have a hobby that’s related to a product or service that you would like to market? A sport or other pursuit that you’re passionate about can be a great place to start.
Be sure you know what your vision is. When you find products and services that you can market and sell with enthusiasm, you won’t have any trouble writing about them with passion and conviction.
How to create lead-generating information products
Just start with something simple. Be sure to choose an attention-grabbing title. And let people know you as a person. Let them see who you really are.
When you write your information product, be sure to remember the first rule of relationship management: Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
If you’re starting from scratch, here’s how to take advantage of the enormous opportunity that information products provide for generating leads and establishing yourself as an expert in your field:
- Offer readers an insight into how you dealt with a problem or crisis in your own work or personal life.
- Connect with readers by showing them how you solved a problem that they may be facing now. The fastest way to establish your credentials and build rapport is to connect with readers on the basis of your shared experiences.
- Give testimonials of your own experiences with products and services to engage the reader’s interest and build a bond of trust.
- Write about real solutions for real people.
Permission marketing starts by inviting customers to opt-in to a database in order to receive e-mail and special promotions. Permission marketing is a proven vehicle for building and maintaining customer relationships.
Here are some of the most popular formats for creating a great lead-generating information product:
- Write a short eBook to offer free tips.
- Write a short how-to eBook.
- Write an article that connects with one of your current business needs.
- Turn your free-tips or how-to book into an eCourse or Web seminar.
- Produce your own podcast or video cast.
Always put into practice the four R’s of Internet publishing—review, rethink, rewrite, and recycle:
1. Review: Take a fresh look at anything you’ve written before. The key word is anything. Looking at an old product from a new perspective can get your creative juices flowing faster than you think. You may even discover a solution for a business problem today by taking a fresh look at something you’ve done in the past.
2. Rethink: Think about how you can approach the topic from a new angle. Getting a fresh perspective on an old topic is one of the easiest and fastest ways to create new information products. An article or eBook that provides a new angle on an old topic is a very effective tool for driving traffic and generating leads.
3. Rewrite: Rework your old articles. Write from the perspective of where your target market wants to go today. Always ask yourself how you can give your customers a useful insight or a fresh view of a topic.
4. Recycle: Leverage your new product into as many different formats as you can to achieve the full potential of information products. Some minor tweaking here and there can turn old articles into new eCourses and podcasts.