by Cara Lumen
Our buying habits have changed – dramatically. Part of it is from necessity because money is tight. Part of it is because of our consciousness. We want to take care of our planet by not consuming, wasting and dumping. As entrepreneurs we have to look at our target community and see what we can offer them that they are willing to buy in today’s financial mindset.
People will buy hope
Change is inevitable and we all want it to be positive change. So if business is down we want to have hope that it will get better. Our goal in business has always been to be in service so what does our target audience need from us right now – today – that will give them hope? We each have to examine our business and see what that means to our particular community.
But if I were a betting woman I’d bet they want something that never wears out, grows stronger with use, and enriches their lives forever. Do you have any of that to offer?
People will buy Information
You bet you do. It’s in the form of what you know. Your unique take on your business or life or a particular topic that is dear to your heart is invaluable. That’s what you have to give right now. Information never wears out; it grows with age, and stays in service for a lifetime.
If you only had a few dollars to spend would you spend it on a gizmo that will wear out or an education that increases your value?
Signature Products are inexpensive to produce
Talk about economical – the only thing it takes to produce an information product is time. An ebook is a document written in Word and turned into a PDF. You can make an audio book with a small investment in a desk mike. You can do a radio show on www.blogtalkradio.com for free and put it on your blog as a podcast. You can blog – oh boy can you blog (see I can help you with that at www.magneticblogbuilders.com) and you can teach a teleclass on www.freeconferencecall.com and record it for part of your home study course. You can edit it yourself in Sound Forge or Garage Band. You’ll even figure out how to go to www.istockphoto.com and get graphics for your ebook cover. You can do video with an inexpensive video camera. Even the few investments you might make in equipment will rapidly pay for themselves as your information products begin to attract purchasers.
Signature products fill your sales cycle
And the beautiful thing about information products is that they can be any price range – from free to hundreds of dollars – perfect for your sales cycle. They are a perfect way to offer a price range of products as invitations to your work. Perfect in that they can be purchased online while you sleep and perfect in that they become on-going passive income. Once they are completed people can buy them online for years. Oh yes, and Signature Information Products position you as an expert, they add to your credibility and they help you gain trust with your target community. Pretty good, huh?!
People will buy empowerment
What is the mindset of your Target Community? They want to feel empowered to create their own destiny. So whether they are in a job now and want to increase their value by learning new skills like leadership, or content development, or a new technical aspect of their work or whether they are in business for themselves and wondering how to respond to today’s economy, education and information are the keys to empowerment.
You are the teacher
Information is everywhere. It’s easy to get and a lot of it is free. So how do you make a signature product to sell? You collect and organize information specifically for your target community. You sort it, offer comparisons, create exercises that help them own the material, keep it updated, make it uniquely suited for the needs of your target community and you present it to the people who want to learn it.
Your Signature Products are specifically focused on what your Target Community wants to know. They come to you because you’ve waded through nine books and umpteen articles on the topic and taken all sorts of workshops and researched on line and have organized all that information into something they can understand. It might be a series of blog posts, or it might be a six month course. You are the focuser – the selector of information. You are the teacher.
This realization of the current need for good information products was the catalyst for the new focus of my business. I have a gift for organizing ideas, I’m Your Idea Optimizer and I help thoughtful leaders effectively organize their ideas so they can educate and inspire their chosen community. (See: Create Information Products)
People will buy control of their future
We all want to have control of our future. So whether you become the consumer and invest in the courses that will add value to your body of knowledge, or you become the teacher and create information products that inspire and motivate, education helps you gain control of your future.
©Cara Lumen 2010
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- Are You Doing What You Are Meant to Do?
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