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Information Products, Then and Now: A Look at the Evolution of an Industry
By Robert Skrob | January 12, 2012
For 6 years, select information marketers have been “by-invitation-only” subscribers to Dan Kennedy’s Information Marketing Special Reports and Info-Marketing Letters. Now, for a limited time, Dan has opened his vault to make these available to you.
If you’d like to find out more about the archives, visit www.DKArchive.com. Here is an excerpt from Special Report #13 of the archives. I’m sure you’ll find it valuable and enlightening.
Let’s polish the crystal ball first for Product, i.e. “Deliverables,” then second for Media.
The best current approach to the information business has the product(s) integrated into “membership” or “coaching” or a business opportunity or franchise, an association, or some other ‘wrapper’ and continuous delivery, wrapped up into newsletter(s), tele-classes and/or tele-coaching, restricted internet archives, chat rooms and other online AND offline deliverables. This almost totally de-links price from component parts, and virtually shuts down piracy; you may be able to sell the CDs on eBay until we find you and sue you, but you can’t deliver the other parts. Further, this approach ends “transactions” and converts the business from being about “product(s)” to being ALL about a continuous relationship. In many cases, this is all presented as one level; if not first, second, on an organized ascension ladder.
The information business as a whole is evolving from generating its profits from hard products (books, tapes, courses, etc.) to seminars, coaching, services and licensing … from things easily duplicated, downloaded, uploaded and transferred from one media to another to things almost impossible to pirate or commoditize. At the same time, product has these four expanding roles:
1: As ‘vital’ product utilized for promotion, not profit
2: As deliverables integrated with seminars, coaching, etc.
3: As front-end customer acquisition without concern about losses
4: As back-end business run at negligible cost
#3 is the ‘classic’ use, and is largely unchanged. A speaker sells CDs from the stage; an ad, mailing or website sells them as well, but with understanding that it is harder and harder to command premium prices, and that such product is easily pirated and redistributed. Even here, a number of info-marketers are experimenting with switching that very first sale (for customer acquisition purposes) to tele-seminar(s), seminar, short-term coaching.
If you carefully think of the evolution you’ve observed with the ‘Dan Kennedy business,’ as recently as five years ago, most customers were acquired via the sale of some kind of product (in many cases, the Magnetic Marketing System), sold via speeches, direct-mail, placements in catalogs like Nightingale and SkyMall, and online, then those customers were sold membership when possible. Today, the same product sales are de-emphasized; Bill and I combined do less speaking all year than I was doing alone every 2 months, and the emphasis is on putting new customers first and directly into membership. And our membership is an example of #2.
You might think that the books now serve as Magnetic Marketing did; as the first product sold to then lead to membership, and you’d be a little right but a lot wrong. Mostly, the books serve only as the excuse for a massive promotion directly selling membership.
#1 is re-invigorated, good use for stand-alone products, such as books, e-books, single CDs, etc.: as giveaways, provided to others free or at low cost, for them to use as gifts or bonus. This gets you penetration into others’ lists. It relieves worry about piracy—it doesn’t matter. For me, products like The Ultimate Success book and Farting Cat book serve this purpose. Currently, there’s an audio CD with me interviewed about the topics in my 4 books by Kristi Frank from ‘The Apprentice’ I furnish to anyone who asks, free, and they can duplicate it and give it away as they wish.
#2 is mentioned above … products integrated into ‘manual labor’ deliverables and multi-faceted programs, so that it is not sold separately, and if pirated and sold, is missing as much as it is giving.
#4 is the classic catalog business, such as you find various products of mine in—best example is at dankennedyproducts.com. This is really only feasible in today’s conditions as an online business, not an offline business, back-ended to customers/members already in place or promoted by very inexpensive means such as e-mail. And protecting the products from theft and illegal duplication and sale is practically impossible.
However, for myriad of reasons, I believe, in general, that the business of selling standalone, individual products such as packages of audio CDs, manuals, tool kits like Magnetic Marketing, etc., is no longer a good business and probably will never be a good business again, in and of itself. The role of these kinds of products now must be one of the above four defined here.
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If you enjoyed this excerpt, you may want to review the entire Dan Kennedy archive. It is available for a limited time at www.DKArchive.com. Every one of the 72 issues is packed with advanced, specialized, experience-tested insights into what it takes to succeed within the info-marketing business. Visit www.DKArchive.com to reserve your copy.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
January 19th, 2012 at 1:11 PM
What about the suggestions made in your book The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing on the Internet? It would seem that advice is contrary to the advice on this page.