Such a thing as bait overload?

Posted Sunday, January 2, 2005

As ebook publishers we constantly strive to develop new information products that we hope people will find value in, open up their wallets and graciously hand over their hard earned dollars to us in their hope of learning something new or finding an immediate solution to fix whatever problems they may be experiencing at that moment in their life. I call this a hunger for curable knowledge, a fixer upper of sorts. It is often a battle for many of us to decide on a realistic price that we believe the potential customer will perceive as fair value. We all know, at times, this can be a painstaking task. We bounce back and forth between prices, testing out the waters, trying to find just the acceptable price range to motivate the visitor to make that all important decision. It’s easier said than done. As marketers we have the temptation of offering bonuses as a way to increase the perception that this info product we worked hard to develop is actually worth the price were asking. But when does this strategy reach the plateau of overkill? To the point where offering so many extra bonuses to entice the visitor to buy at the price of $27.00, instead are we not actually implanting the emotion of doubt in our visitors mind? Another difficult question to answer. As we all try our best to try and put ourselves in our customers shoes, to try and figure out what their thinking when they see our offer, but were not all psychic. Could our customers be thinking “If the author is offering this many bonus ebooks in his or her offer to entice me to buy this one ebook is the information in that ebook really worth the price?”. Then there’s alway’s the argument that adding many bonuses to an existing offer definitely increases the chances for a sale. Raises the perceived value of course! I agree that this type of marketing does work, but only when applied to a book that we are asking a much higher price for, such as $97.00. Asking people to fork out that kind of cash can be pretty risky simply because many people can’t afford the asking price, or figure it’s not worth it. Whatever information that is contained in that ebook had better be hard to come by information or the percentage of refund requests could be high. To avoid this potential downfall is when offering bonuses should come into play. But the bottom line is this, if the information contained in the ebook your offering is truly valuable why bother offering a bunch of bonuses in the first place, possibly risking making your prospect suspicious? Not everyone perceives the same way. If they take the risk (and a lot of people who purchase online feel they do take risks when making a purchase) and buy your info product without any bonuses and like what they read, as long as it helped them, most of the time they won’t ask for a refund, and you’ve made a sale and everyone’s happy. Long extended no questions asked money back guarantees can be a great way of putting your prospects fears at ease, but sometimes it can backfire to. But even more importantly than offering bonuses, 1 year money back guarantees and all the rest, it’s absolutely critical and probably the most important part of closing a sale is to have your contact information in plain view on your site. A place they can call and to talk to a “real person” before deciding to buy, and a physical address, not a P.O. Box. More often than not that’s all that’s required besides good ad copy, but I see many sites in my web surfing adventures who fall short on providing that information. As a customer would I buy from them...not a chance.

About the Author
Brian is a freelance writing covering topics of interest in the financial, health, and family arena's. He's the owner of (www.theebookking.com) and invites submissions of free quality ebooks to display in his growing directory.