If you are on any Internet Marketers mailing list, you know when a big launch is happening.
Your inbox is suddenly promoting the latest launch, the latest “must-have” course or product that you must buy to take your business to the next level.
Now I am a shopper – I LOVE to shop online and offline (one Amazon box a week is normal right???), but these launches do not appeal to me.
I wondered if it was a female thing, let’s face it, a lot of internet marketers are men, and maybe their tactics did not agree with my feminine sensibilities. Then I started wondering if that WAHMs are just too busy to get swept up in the hype of these launches. With everything on our plates, maybe we just cannot add one more thing that causes us to do more “work” (read emails, watch launch videos, figure out who has the best bonus).
There are 3 “S”es – Scarcity, Slickness and Sales Pages that really turn me (a WAHM) off and I would love to hear in the comments what the other WAHMs think.
Scarcity
The myth of Scarcity can be really powerful, it creates a desire for you to buy something NOW because who knows how long it will be around. We see this every Christmas, the hottest toy is on eBay for 8 times the price because they didn’t manufacture enough to meet the crazy demand.
I understand why IMers use the scarcity ploy to create more demand, but let’s face it, if it is an e-product, there is no real need to limit it.
If a hard copy book becomes popular and sells out, the publisher will order a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th printing. Nintendo eventually made enough Wiis so everyone who wanted one, got one. If you want me to buy your IM product, offer special bonuses to the first hundred or thousand customers, but create false scarcity, and I bristle. We all know you can print more DVDs or manuals if you want to.
Slickness
As a WAHM juggling many things, I just do not have time for Slickness.
- I do not have time to watch your videos that look like a Lucas/Spielberg production.
- I don’t have to time to read a whack of emails from various people about your killer product.
- I don’t have time to follow a new ID you set up on Twitter for your launch.
- I do not want to watch your video when you send me an email with the subject line “watch this” and a link.
If you want me to buy your product, offer me some good information – I like free reports or tele-seminars, and if I like what I read/hear, I will likely buy it. I can read reports quickly, much faster than I can watch a video. I can read a report on my terms, but I have to be in from of my computer to watch your fancy, slick video. I also do not have the attention span to watch anything longer than a 3-4 minute video – I am a busy woman! Give me information I can consume in my preferred method and if you do a good job, the sale is yours.
Sales Pages
Ahh the Sales Page. Sales pages are needed to provide us information about your product including what you will receive and what other people thought of it (and of course they love it!). I do understand the need for great copywriting. If you have done a good job eliminating the Slickness, and have given me an informative free report, I will probably not even pay much attention to the sales page, I just want to know how much this fabulous product costs.
In the past year or so Sales pages are getting longer and longer and longer – I simply do not have the time or desire to read your 50′ sales page.
I do not need the hype of your screen captures of your PayPal account with asterisks that say Results Not Typical. If the results are not typical, then maybe you shouldn’t be selling that product. A couple of testimonials are great especially from well known people in your niche, but more than 3 is overkill.
If you want to sell your product to busy, overworked WAHMs with too much on their plate, do not overwhelm us! Keep it clean, simple and effective – give us the information we need to make a decision (if you haven’t already in a free report) and tell me how much it costs.
If there is a forced continuity in your offer – let me know right out in the open. I don’t have time to sift through the “noise” and if I can’t find what I need quickly, I will leave your site, because my child is crying, dinner is ready or something else more pressing is calling me. Make it easy for us!
All of the Information Marketing products I have purchased have been easy for me to buy. I enjoyed the experience and most often purchased a great product that has really helped my business. But there are many products I dod not purchase that may have helped me, but they would have created extra “work” for me just to get to the buying stage.
Internet Marketers need to realize that the WAHM community is huge and we have a lot of purchasing power. By using marketing tactics that will appeal (and not repel) us may help your launch be even more successful. Yes, we will buy, yes we will use and yes we will become your biggest fans. Just make it easy for me to buy your internet marketing product!
Why not research why 50% of the planet buys? It seems silly to only focus on half of the population, try techniques that work with both! Trillion Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers and Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy — and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market should be must-reads for all serious marketers no matter what the niche.
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I’m not a WAHM, but I’m trying to become a WAHD…does that count?
Having recently gotten into internet marketing myself, I couldn’t agree more mostly.
For the most part I agree that the scarcity thing is overdone. I have a couple of exceptions thought….one is price. Introductory or low price, sales event type thing. The scarcity of “this product at this price for this amount of time” is fine. No different than a sale at a store.
Of course, that’s a bit different than “this product only available for 72 hours” which leads me into the other exception: Resell rights. I think limiting the number of resell or master resell rights is also fine. This helps to keep down the competition. Granted this only works for those honest enough to honor the license, but the principle is fine.
I like well written sales pages, but that’s kind of moot since I usually just read far enough to get an idea of what the product is or can do then scroll down to the bottom for the price :)
– Jeffery
I never, ever watch videos on a product. They take up too much time. If I can read the benefits, then that`s great. I tend to read faster than the average person and can take in a lot more information by scanning a page than by sitting through a 10 minute video!
Genesiss last blog post..Increasing Income During Difficult Times
I agree on keeping things simple. Yes, not everyone wants to watch a video; however, if used correctly I think video is a powerful tool. I think IF the video provides extremely valuable content (and not some dull pitch about their course, etc.) that it CAN be quite effective.
On the other side of things, I personally will NOT pay attention to a launch if it’s over hyped, combined with useless content. If the free content is NOT valuable, then I can only assume that the actual product/course is NOT valuable as well. To me, it doesn’t matter what type of medium is used to convey that message: If the content is useless the medium you choose (ex. using video) is not going to make your useless content any better. :)
Perhaps that’s why video is annoying more an more people. It’s like repainting the outside of an old car that doesn’t run… no matter how pretty you paint the car, the car is still not going anywhere. Useless content in a report = Useless. Useless content in video = Still useless. Now useful content in video, audio, or whatever medium you so choose = Thank you for serving me and not wasting my time = Win!
~Lisa
Christie, I really had to laugh at your message because there are SO many wahms and not surprisingly, small businesses (men & women) who feel exactly as you do their solution? Unsubscribe
While I can relate to what you said, the problem is not with those of us who understand your message clearly, it’s those who are ‘new’ to internet marketing, sales pitches, etc who get caught up in the hype that saddens me.
Scarcity – I couldn’t agree with you more.
Slickness – where videos are concerned? This depends. I like ‘some’ videos. Videos also have the tendency to allow people to see who you REALLY are, and for some people, they’ve been known to establish trust.
Sales Pages – I concur, keep it clean and simple :)
Great post!
Jeffrey – Of course WAHD’s opinions counts around here – we love you guys too! I totally agree about the scarcity re: price. Great deals for the first x amount of customers always pulls me in :)
Genesis – I hear you! I also am a super fast reader and videos are so slooooow! I just don’t have the patience.
Lisa – Excellent points! But for me, no more how much great info is in a video, I just do not have the patience to sit through it, I start checking my email, checking Twitter, etc. I think some people are video people and some aren’t. If an IMer provides content for both the reader and the watcher, they will probably get more sales!
Regina – I agree, I like a short, short video to establish trust, but anything over 3 minutes and you have lost me. I am an unsubscribing fool, especially when everyone is promoting a big launch. You are SO right about the newbies getting caught up in the hype …