Help People Consume Your Product Print E-mail
By Bret Ridgway

 Alex Mandossian is the first person I ever heard speak of the concept of "Product Consumption." And he's dead on target. If you can't get your customers to even consume your product, then your chance for refunds increase significantly, and the chance that that customer will buy more products from you decreases significantly.


With that said...

Picture this. You've created a fantastic new information product in your niche. You've invested hundreds of hours of sweat into developing your "big box" package that consists of 12 CDs, 5 DVDs, and a 400-page manual in a three-ring binder. You're very proud, and rightly so, of your product. It's one impressive course.

Now, picture this. Your course arrives at the door of your customer in a clean white 14" x 14" x 10" box. Your customer eagerly tears into the box and begins unpacking the massive manual and all the CDs and DVDs that make up the course. They're thinking, "Wow, this is great. But where do I begin." There's so much great information in the product they simply don't know where to start. So they toss the items back in the box with the thought that they'll figure it out later when they have a few more minutes.

But those few minutes never seem to arrive. Then they realize that they're coming up on the 30-day refund window, so they haul the box down to the post office and ship it back for a refund. This is a scenario that is all too familiar to those who have been in the information marketing business for a while.

What can you do to help minimize the instances of this unpleasant scenario? The key is that you need to help your customers to consume your information. You need to tell them step by step how to go through your course in a logical manner to get the maximum value from it. Don't leave it up to them to figure out.

You need to create some type of "Read This First" document or "Getting Started" guide that will quickly get them into your course to begin the "consumption" process. I've seen this "Read This First" document done in both written format (a letter or booklet) or as a PDF file burned onto a disc. My recommendation is a printed document that will be the first thing they see when they open your box.

Let's face it; if you can't get people started on your course, then they can't finish it. This means the likelihood of them purchasing additional information products from you is significantly reduced. When you get them started quickly into your course, your refund rate will also be reduced. This means more money stays in YOUR pocket.

A "Read This First" or "Getting Started" document is an important part of a successful course. Be sure to include one with your next information product.

Similar in concept to the mistake of not including a "Read This First" or "Getting Started" document is not using follow-up autoresponders to help your customers consume your product.

Avoiding this mistake is essentially the application of online tools in the form of autoresponders to help your customers continue to move through your product in a positive manner. Where the "Read This First" can help get them out of the gate, the autoresponder is your best ally to keep them moving forward after that first day.

It's that friendly little nudge after they've received your product that will help the sale "stick" and is designed to provide that helpful reminder of how to best consume your course for maximum benefit. It's important to get people started quickly and keep their momentum going. So it's fairly common to have daily autoresponder messages for the first week to ten days after the product purchase.

Product consumption is what it's all about. It's your job to provide your customers the utensils they need to help them to consume your information product.

Bret Ridgway is co-founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, a company dedicated to helping information marketers. To pick up your own copy of his "Information Product Development and Launch Checklist" visit http://www.50BiggestMistakes.com.
 
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