Man, Time Flies….
Well, it has been almost a month since I did a trial launch of my first product, Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress. Two weeks ago, I started a post series talking about the lessons learned in doing my first digital project launch. A few days later, I offered a free copy of the product to anyone who asked the best question that I could use for a future post.
The Big Winners Revealed
I am happy to announce that i really liked two of the responses, so I have named two winners.
- Kent made a comment that reminded me that I was thinking about doing a step-by-step explanation of how to create an AdSense mini-site. I had actually started something like that a long time ago. Some of you may remember my series of posts on my mini-site the History of Elvis. Anyway, I never finished that post series or that site. I need to do that, and I would like to do a post series for beginners on starting an AdSense mini-site. So, Kent, thanks for that.
- Alex commented that he likes lists and checklists. That was a great comment. It applies to the current task of posts about my digital product as well as the coming posts on AdSense sites and Elvis.
So, both Alex and Kent will get free copies of Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress.
Lesson Learned 2: Good Sales Letters Are Hard
OK — so here is the next lesson that I learned regarding my digital product. Of course to sell a digital product properly, you need a mini-site. The setup of that mini-site is a big deal. If you want a great free tutorial on that topic, you can take a look at Michael Rasmuessen’s free Mini-Site video tutorial. It is outstanding.
Anyway, inside this mini-site, you need a sales letter. That sales letter is this only thing (besides possibly a pre-sales endorsement from an affiliate) that a customer will see before they decide to buy your product. This is important to understand.
A customer is not making a decision to buy based on your actual product. They have not seen the actual product. And, they will not see the product until they buy. Rather, they are handing you their credit card based on the claims in the sales letter.
So what about the product? Well, the quality of the product (specifically, whether or not you live up to the claims of the sales letter) impacts returns, repeat purchases, and referrals (I call these the three Rs).
Good Sales Letter Need Basic Things
Now, I am not a sales letter expert (yet), but I can tell you that sales letters need basic things to be successful.
- A killer headline. You have about 10-30 seconds to capture someone after the page loads. If they do not see something that captures their attention, they will hit that stumble button and never return. So, you must grab them.
- A USP — Ultimate Selling Proposition. Why do they need what you have? What is the value of it to them? Why are the benefits that you are describing obviously worth ten or 100 times the price you are asking?
- Risk Reduction/Reversal. Why is a decision to trust you (buy the product) completely risk free? Or better yet, is there negative risk (If you are not completely satisfied, keep the free knives as our gift just for trying the product).
- Urgency. Be careful with this. Act Now! can be a real turn off if not real. Digital products do not run out of stock, so artificial urgency can be dangerous as it feels sleasy. Instead, consider offering your product at a discount for a limited time. (Be sure to raise the price as promised later).
- Call to action. It is an old truth in sales. You have to ask for the sale. Ask them to buy your product.
My Sales Letter Sucks
OK, so my first attempt at a sales was not so great. Here are my stats:
- 3.5% conversion for highly targeted email list promotions from an expert in the field with an “email list that converts well.” This is OK, but not great. A %10 conversion rate (or higher) should be possible.
- Very low conversion rate (less than 0.5%) for somewhat targeted email list traffic from an MMO blogger. I expected 3-5% conversions.
- Almost zero conversions from random ClickBank affiliates.
What does all that tell me? It tells me that my sale letter needs work. So, I am working on it. I am in the process of gathering input on how to make it better.
- I posted to 5 forums asking for comments and help on the current sales letter (including the Warrior Forum and DigitalPoint Forums.) Man, you want some criticism, just ask for help over there. It helps to have high self esteem. All the comments I got were quite helpful.
- Phone consultation from Aaron Abber at FullTiltBlogging.com (I belong to his mentoring program and to his membership site).
- Private consultations from Garry Conn and Josh Spaulding via email. I am also a member of Josh’s coaching program.
- Reading lots of sales stuff by guys like Dan Kennedy.
So, in the next post, we can look at the old sales page and the new sales page, and I will summarize the changes. We can also talk about split testing.
Regards,
Mark
