Innovative positioning for your online infoproduct business
Have you ever wondered why some businesses just can’t seem to exceed a certain revenue level, no matter how much effort, desire, enthusiasm, time, or money you put into them? If you’re struggling with an ebook or other information product marketing business that can’t seem to bring you the income you’re looking for, then it may have more to do with your positioning than your effort or desire.
Having helped companies and individuals develop product and positioning strategies in many different market segments over the past 10 years, there is one overwhelming, consistent, and inescapable truth: You must be different from others in your market in a way that adds multiples of value to your customer base
You may not be surprised by the statement that you need to differentiate yourself from others in your marketplace, although I still see people simply content to duplicate ideas, concepts, and messaging that others are already using in their marketplace.
Successful leadership in your market requires more than just being different; however, true market dominance requires an order of magnitude improvement in your key value proposition.
Let me explain. If your intent is to help a market improve their sales letter writing and win more business, here are some directions you can take:
1. You approach the market with an ebook of techniques largely covered by others in the industry, but repackage the tips into your own “system” for writing the sales letter, aimed at a broad market.
2. You target a sub-niche market, say chiropractors, and position your techniques as uniquely suited to the chiropractor business model to attract leads and clients.
3. You build a portfolio of proven sales letters that have been thoroughly tested, including typical response rates achieved with the ability for your clients to customize the letter for their own market and business.
4. You create an interactive software package that walks chiropractors through the process of writing their own sales letter, significantly reducing the time to achieve great results with their sales letters.
POSITIONING YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE HIGHEST VALUE
Keep in mind that as you go from 1 to 4, you are closer to positioning yourself as the top market leader in achieving great results for chiropractors who market their services. At #1, you exist in a crowded space with thousands of other sales letter writing experts – what are your chances of becoming the leader?
This is where most companies continue to hold on despite the incredible effort, money and time invested in the company. When you exist at level 1, you get less return on your effort, leading to frustration and eventually despair, affecting your professional and personal life.
How many people do you know who are providing #3 or #4? If there is someone, surely there will not be many. Also, how much do you think a chiropractor would be willing to pay for a custom set of proven templates or software to help you write impactful sales letters? $100, $1,000, $10,000 – even more?
Note that the real difference here is that you have chosen a way to differentiate your information offering that is not just 10%, 50%, or 100% more valuable in the eyes of your target market, but 500% or even 1000% more valuable! % most valuable!
You can start by looking at what is working in your market and then refuse to just follow in their footsteps, but recognize that there is always a better way to target or offer the product in that market.
It’s with this kind of leapfrog thinking that you’ll turn a few sales of a $27 eBook into hundreds of sales of high-end $100+ information products.
Copyright 2006 Jeff Smith