Perception is a powerful thing. Information packaged in the right format can be used to produce a different kind of response from your readers, and can even act as the tipping point in securing a lead or a sale for an offer or product you may be promoting. When implemented correctly, it can be a powerful tool in helping you increase the amount of leverage you have in your business.
Affiliates and Product Vendors: Affiliates and product vendors can package information and give it away for free as a bonus product to incentivise a product sale. The information itself can be anything related to the product, but for best results the information should truly act as a ‘bonus’ and complement the product directly.
For example, if you are promoting a weight loss guide, a PDF on healthy food recipes entitled ‘Delicious Weight Loss Recipes You Won’t Believe Are Good For You’ can be offered as a ’special, limited time bonus’ for anyone that purchases the product through your link. This is just as well if you are a product vendor, as a bonus product which appears to be scarce and ’special’ will boost conversion rates for your primary product sale.
Bloggers: You have a blog and want to better the relationship and trust you have with your readers. Let’s face it, if blogging is your thing, there is a certain point at which most people tend to switch off and not listen to what you’re saying, and this affects the type of bloggers who ‘lack style’ the most.
A way of overcoming this is to hit them with different formats of information. Video and audio both work great in giving your readers a whole new perspective of you and what you have to say. Geoff from CantGetRich did this by launching his podcast series , which increased his readership and got himself sponsored. Free reports through the form of PDF files also work great when you want to put extra emphasis on something you’ve written up - PDF files are also generally given more attention and respect than a standard blog post. With a little branding and a touch of hype, you can make the information you have to offer much more exciting and special than it really is , which doesn’t matter as long as your readers are happy, and as long as your readers are happy and you have their trust, pitching a service or membership to them is much easier.
Email Marketers: This is mostly in reference to those who manage lists of 100 to 100k subscribers, as opposed to high volume mailers who deal with ‘deploying’ millions of emails a day. As with the previous point, audio and video work great, but PDFs in particular are necessary if you have something long to say, because I sure as hell don’t like reading long emails, whereas I have on many occasions read long PDF reports. A PDF report containing information of value will also allow you to appear as a ‘giver’ - someone who just wants to help out and share the wealth. And if you keep your subscribers keen with good quality (and of course free) information, pitching a product or offer becomes much more fruitful when it comes to conversions.
For you email marketers that like to have a more personal relationship with your lists, a link from your email to a blog post containing video footage of yourself works great in not only getting your subscribers to pay special attention to what you have to say, but it also allows them to change their perspective of you as a person, (hopefully) for the better. On top of that, doing this through a blog allows your subscribers to engage in conversation with each other through the commenting feature of your blog post. Always encourage conversation, it helps build relationships and community which will ultimately work in your favour.
A few points on video and audio :
-A personal video to your readers or a promotional video for your prospects can create a kind of intimacy between you and your readers/prospects that can’t be achieved through writing. Even if you don’t like to appear in the footage, a collection of related images along with an audio of you talking about an idea or a product can be much more powerful and effective in increasing appreciation and trust your readers/traffic will have towards you than text, which will ultimately benefit the rate at which you can convert your readership/traffic into sales and leads.
-Audio also works great, but I like to consider it as one step behind video, because it only deals with one of the human senses, while video is both a visual and aural experience.
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The core message behind this post is simple: when you give something of value to people, they feel compelled to return the favour. And giving away information which has a high perceived value is one of the best and easiest ways to secure the kind of response you are looking for, whether it be increased readership or more business.
