This is an important lesson for any marketer.
I was at a private event in February with some of the smartest marketers on the planet.
I was talking about some new business ideas (things I’ll tell you about on another day) when John Reese came and sat at my table.
Now, if you don’t know John, he’s a bit of a legend in the Internet Marketing world. He’s the first guy to do a “million dollar day” for an information product, and has been known for that ever since. But John is ironically a pretty private guy, and not thrown to tooting his own horn.
So today, I’ll toot it for him (please don’t take that the wrong way).
I was talking about an upcoming project of mine that has to do with conversion optimization, and split testing, and John gave me this feedback. (Paraphrased, by the way. Not quoted.)
Conversion is a hard thing to sell. In fact, it’s the HARDEST thing to sell, even though it shouldn’t be. Conversion is all about TRADING DIMES FOR DOLLARS, and anyone who doesn’t understand that isn’t going to be in business very long. But it’s not as flashy a topic as Traffic, and so few people want to learn conversion.
For that matter, John continued, people don’t want to “learn” how to get traffic, either.
What people want is a PUSH BUTTON that makes money. Push the button and make the money.
If they can’t have that, then they want to push a button and have someone do the work for them. Push the button, the work gets done BY SOMEONE ELSE, but then YOU make the money.
Still sounds good.
If they can’t have that, they want to push a button and KNOW what to do. So you’re skipping the whole “learning” thing. You’re just instantly an expert. That means you know exactly what to do, whether you do it or tell someone else to do it, and then YOU make the money.
Last on the list is to have to LEARN something so that you can then DIY (Do It Yourself).
That all said, the costs for each of these levels increases as the amount of the work that is “DFY” (Done For You) increases. That makes sense, right?
So let’s review:
* Push-button money is best.
* Push-button service to make the money is second best.
* Push-button knowledge about how to make the money is third best.
* Actually putting in the effort to learn something on your own, and then do that thing to make your own money, is last.
Now, what John Reese pointed out is that the further you go up the list, the more people would be willing to pay for the result.
And also…
As you go up the list, you’ve got the typical sales funnel.
In other words, your sales funnel might start with giving away some free information (your opt-in product).
Your first for-sale product would then be some push-button knowledge, to instantly give you the information all in one place, that you can instantly use (your ebook, teleseminar or webinar).
Your third product level would be some service to do the work for your customer (a Done-For-Your service).
The last level might be some product that does the work for them (some software, or a machine).
Yeah, that John Reese is a pretty smart guy.
So let me ask you a few questions.
First, as a consumer, where do you fall on that list? Do you prefer to spend little (or nothing) for an education? Or are you willing to pay for the instant knowledge, because you know the benefits and rewards of that education?
Or would you rather pay for the push button “done-for-you” result? How about if that push-button result comes at a cost that’s 100 or 1,000 times the price of the education?
Also…(and this is the real point of this message)…
What is it that you sell or market? Where does your product or service fall on this list?
What do you think your customers would prefer to pay for?
Are you selling the right thing to your customers?
Think about it, leave a comment below, and let’s talk.
To Your Success,
–Mark Widawer
P.S. One of the “Done-For-Your” services you might consider paying for is copywriting. You can find a copywriter on Elance or Craigslist for a few hundred or maybe a couple thousand dollars all day long.
Copywriters that actually know what they are doing, however, are far more expensive, costing from $5,000 to $20,000 or more…plus a percentage of your sales.
I guess it all depends on where you fall on the Push-Button scale.
There’s no replacement for excellent copy. For your online business, your entire business depends on it, and no sale is made without it. If you’re looking for a great copywriter, let me know and I’ll refer you to some of the very best copywriters in the business.
They’re worth every dollar you’ll spend on them.
But if you want to be your own best copywriter, and learn the best and simplest “Push-Button” system for writing excellent copy that builds lists and makes sales for you, you can’t do any better than John Carlton’s Simple Writing System course.
http://budurl.com/ypb5
Enrollment for the course ends today at 5pm PST, so at least go check it out.