Info-Preneuring: How to Be an
Information Multi-Millionaire - Part 3

Robert G. Allen

12 Step Surefire Getting Started Action Plan

Step One. Identify/create a database that matches your P/E ratio.

If you want to prosper in the information business for a long time, you should be marketing information that matches your passion and your expertise. I call this the P/E ratio. It is possible to market information that you are not passionate about. But at the very least you should be an expert in that subject. Conversely, it is possible to market information that you are not an expert in...but at the very least you should be passionate about it. Better, of course, to be a passionate expert.

Let's suppose your subject is making money fast... a subject that you are passionate about and have some expertise in. You would like to share this information with the world and make millions doing it. The first step would be to find a data base of people who have shown an interest in money. By exploring the Standard Rate and Data Survey publication at your local library you can see lists and lists of publications, newsletters, magazines, etc. that cater to people who are interested in making, saving and investing money.

By consulting with one of the many list brokers advertised in Direct Marketing magazine or from a referral source, you try to identify a current mailing list of potential customers for your information. The characteristics of this mailing list should match what we discussed earlier: your audience should be a large and growing school of fish that is hungry and ready to be whipped into a feeding frenzy.

If you have an existing data base of your previous customers, you should probably test your new idea on them first. But if you are starting from scratch, then you'll have to build a new database from the names of your closest friends, family members, the groups or associations you belong to, your co-workers and anyone else you meet for the rest of your life. ( Other than finding and keeping customers, the most important function you must perform as an info-preneur is to constantly build your database.)

Using your current customer data base or a cold list, as selected by your list broker, you need to determine the profile of your ideal customer. Who is your target audience? How old are they? Where do they live? What are their interests? What magazines do they read?

Of course, the Internet is the hottest place to build your own database rather than rent one. Notice how we acquired your name. You must have visited my site and requested to receive my netletter along with 3 special reports. I hope you’re enjoying the free information. I’ve tried to give great value for you click. Every time people request the free information, I acquire their e-mail address. And periodically, I send out a special netletter packed with more money making ideas. This builds a loyal customer base that has specifically requested information about my subject….how to make money.

I’ll never forget when the power of an internet database was demonstrated to me for the first time. A colleague came to my house to show me how to make money from the Internet. I was expecting it to take days….but I was astounded with what happened. He typed in a short message to his growing e-mail subscriber list offering to sell them one of my tape packages….normally priced at $60….for only $30…half price. I agreed to the low price as a test….realizing that at this price my costs would be covered and I could still earn a modest profit. He sent the e-mail to a small list of his Internet newsletter subscribers and within seconds, the orders started pouring in……people giving their credit card numbers in their e-mails wanting the special offer. I was amazed….it was so easy.

The power of building an internet data base is that most people will NOT be interested in your offer at any given time….but that a tiny percentage will be VERY interested. Suppose you have a list of only 1,000 people. What kind of response would you need to make $1000 a day. Only one person in a thousand to buy your $1,000 hands-on training, two people for your $500 home study course. 4 people for you $250 special package deal, 10 people for your $100 kit. You only need a 1% response rate!!!!!! And the larger your list, the more money you make……or the lower response you need in order to make at least $1,000 a day!

The key is the list. Now, you are on my list. Eventually, I’ll offer something that is so enticing, so valuable, so interesting to you, so rare that you, too, will want to be one of the few who take advantage of that week’s special offer. And we’ll both win.

So, how do you create such a list?

Step Two. Discover what information is vital to your chosen database.

This is called market research. Just what do your customers want? Have you ever asked them...called them up on the phone? Are you trying to sell them what they want or what you think they need? Ask. Ask. Ask. Find out what information is vital to them and how they want that information.

There are many levels of information. At which level do your customers want to be informed?

Do they want raw data? (i.e. the number of foreclosures in Los Angeles County or the number of cars on the freeway at rush hour.)

Do they want preliminary information? (i.e. A special report on the main causes of cancer in females over 50 and how to prevent it.)

Do they want in-depth know-how? (A complete home study system on how to raise happy and healthy children.)

Do they want skills training? (A hands-on experiential 5 day training on how to be a successful public speaker.)

Do they want personal consulting? (Toll free or face to face coaching on how to invest your personal money in stocks.)

The deeper the level of information, the more expensive the product. How much information do the want? How much are they willing to pay? These are all important questions and you would do well to ask these questions to a hundred people before you ever put your fingers to the typewriter keyboard.

Step Three. Discover who is already providing information to your database.

Ask your target database where they are currently obtaining their information. Your objective is to discover who are the top information providers in your subject. Who are the best? They must be doing something right. Make a list of the top 5 information providers.

Step Four. Discover how the 5 best communicate/sell to your target database.

Call up each of your top 5 information competitors. Pretend to be a customer ask each of them to send you their sales literature. Ask where they are advertising. Find out, if possible, how they get their leads. Solicit their mailing pieces. Visit with their top salespeople. Let their telemarketers try to sell you. What benefits do they emphasize? What features do they brag about? Gather information. Let your subconscious simmer about it.

Step Five. Discover what info/service/feature is missing from above.

Let their salespeople sell you. Become a customer. Get their product. Rip it apart. What makes it so special? Is it a matter of design? Is it a matter of marketing? Find out their strengths. Probe for weaknesses. Notice how other upstart competitors are making inroads into the market share of the top 5 companies. How are these smaller companies surviving? What do they say to draw away customers from the big boys. What niche are they exploiting?

Ask your target database what they don't like about your competitor's product. Ask them what they would add to your competitor's product to make it perfect. Ask them what they would delete from your competitor's product that is not necessary. Ask them to design it exactly the way they want it.

And remember, at the top of the list of competitive advantages is ease of use and quick results.

Step Six. Create a competitive advantage. Position your product better.

Remember, people are lazy. If they have a choice between easy and hard they'll take easy EVERY SINGLE TIME! If they have a choice between fast and slow, they'll take fast EVERY SINGLE TIME. If they have a choice between simple and complicated, they'll take simple EVERY SINGLE TIME. If you can provide these things at a price that is a bit lower than your competitor, odds are that you'll steal a bunch of business.

Now, a word about competition. Sometimes a beginner starts with what he or she feels is a unique idea and naively rushes off to start a business. Soon they discover that someone else is already marketing this idea...sometimes with a very similar title...and they get discouraged.

First, understand that there is an enormous number of people in the world. If you can just entice 1/1000 of 1% of the population in North America (that's 2,500 clients!) into your funnel and take care of them...you'll probably be set for life. (Remember the LTV of a customer. If each of your customers spends just a $1,000 with you over the next ten years, that's TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!)

Second, remember that big companies can get knocked off by smart competitors who start from scratch with long, long odds of success. MCI is doing extremely well against ATT. Federal Express is doing extremely well against the US Postal Service. Compaq computer company is doing extremely well against IBM. The Discover Card is doing extremely well against MasterCard and Visa. Even Robert Allen did extremely well against all the other real estate books and seminar operators that I leap frogged over in the 70's and early 80's. New technology and super charged marketing can deal a mortal wound to your competitor. Just because they've been around for 100 years doesn't mean you should go back to your day job.

You should read the book "Positioning: The battle for your mind" by Trout and Ries. Great book. It will teach you how to position your "David" product against a "Goliath" competitor.

When you are done positioning, your product must be better. Emphasize your competitive advantage in such a way that makes your competitor's product appear obsolete. MasterCard did this with American Express. "It's everywhere you want to be." Their ads showed how American Express is not accepted everywhere.

"When you absolutely, positively have to have it overnight." Just saying that emphasized the fact that the US Mail was a dinosaur and that Federal Express was the new pony express. People were willing to pay 50 TIMES the price of a first class stamp just to get their information 3 times faster.

To gain a competitive advantage, your information must be,

faster

cheaper

smaller

simpler

easier

more efficient

prettier

more secure (guaranteed)

more features

better value (combining features)

better design

better service

more advertising

better advertising

more available

Step Seven. Create your ad.

As I said before, marketing is the key. Having determined your competitive advantage, you have to create advertising that causes people to ACT! I go into great detail on this subject in my advanced course on Info-Preneuring (Call 1-801-852-8700 for information.) We cover the following information:

Advanced Impact Marketing: One Powerful ad can make you a fortune.

How to get your message across in the overcrowded airwaves.

How to get your customers to beg to do business with you.

Ethical strategies for persuading anyone to buy from you-NOW!

Breakthrough results: 10 ways to double your ads response rate.

You ad should emphasize the Ultimate benefit your product promises. What is the amazing miracle cure your information can provide? Dr. Jeffrey Lant, one of the leading experts in selling Information Products says that some of the major Ultimate Benefits are:

Financial Stability

Health

Love

Security

Salvation

Self-regard

Community and peer recognition

Independence

Sexual fulfillment

Beauty/desirability/ personal attractiveness

The headline of your ad should promise an Ultimate Benefit as well as your competitive advantage. The copy of your ad should describe as many other benefits as you have space to describe. Of secondary importance in your ad are the features of your product.

What is the difference between benefits and features?

Features describe your product. Benefits are what your customer gets when they use your product. When you talk about your product, you are doing "feature" selling. When you talk about results, you are "benefits" selling.

For example, when airlines want to sell you airline tickets to Hawaii, how do they do it? Do they describe the kind of aircraft you'll be flying in? Do they brag about the airline meals? Do they describe the leg room? Or do they show you pictures of palm trees, sand and sun? Palm trees are benefits. Leg room is a feature. You'll get more people to Hawaii with palm trees.

Features are for the head. Benefits are for the heart. Features are about logic. Benefits are about emotion. Emotion will outsell logic ten to one. Logic may be an important part of the sale...but only after you have engaged their emotion.

There is a lot more about marketing than I can cover here. It is, in fact, a lifelong study. There are shortcuts, however. Tricks that we pros have learned. Words that can double sales. Phrases that can cause your phone to ring off the hook. Strategies that can cause people to beg to do business with you...as impossible as that might sound to you now.

When you see me speak to an audience, you will see people literally leap out of their seats to do business with me. After speaking for many years, I have discovered and perfected a scientific set of principles that cause people to take action immediately. These principles work EVERY TIME! I hope I can have a chance to share this information with you personally.

Step Eight. Rent your target data base for a limited test.

When your ad is done, you are ready for the test. Start cheap. Try regular newspaper classifieds or on-line data base classifieds. Cross your fingers. Let's hope your phone never stops ringing.

Step Nine. Test until you find a message that pulls at least a 1% response.

What makes the Internet so perfect for information marketing is the free classifieds. There are thousands of places where you can place your free classified and test the response your ads at ZERO cost. It’s incredible. But even classifieds in normal daily papers are relatively inexpensive. And once you discover an ad that pulls, you can run it in one of 7,000 different newspapers.

Step Ten. Test many different media to see which is most productive

Try newspapers, try magazines, try periodicals, try newsletters, try the Internet. Some will produce gushers of cash flow. Others will be dry holes. It may take months of testing to discover which is which.

Step Eleven. Roll out your marketing campaign in a major way.

Step Twelve. Test other Ring 2 versions of your winning info-product (ie. CD-ROM, newsletter, seminar, etc.

Once you have a winning ad for a winning product and you have rolled out your marketing campaign, it is time to start strategizing the next versions of your information. If you'll look back to the 5 Rings of Riches, you will see that there are 22 ways to sell your information in Ring 2. Ironically, each different version of your product will have a different price range and will reach totally different audiences. Just like hard cover book buyers are totally different from paperback book buyers, so are CD-ROM buyers different from audio cassette buyers. And happily, some of your regular customers may want to have your information in several different formats...one for the car, one for their CD player, one for their computer, one for their night stand, one for library, one for their telephone, etc. If they love you and your information, they're going to want all of you they can.

Well, that about covers the broad subject of Info-Preneuring. I've tried to touch all of the bases and give you the big picture. There's much more to learn but this should give you enough information to convince you that you should jump into this with both feet.

One last word of advice. On my office wall I have a sign. It says,

I make money by writing words. The more I write, the more I make. Therefore,

Write 1000 words today!

I have calculated that whenever I write a word on a page...like this one...and get it out to a customer...like you... I eventually make $20 per word. If I want to eventually bring in a hundred dollars, I write five words. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. There, that was $100. If I want to make $1,000, I just write 50 words. 500 words equals $10,000 and so on.

Why do I make so much money for every word I write? Because every time I write a best-selling book, it is placed into tens of thousands of bookstores. Every time a book sells, I not only make the 15% royalty of the cover price of the book (usually about $3 per book) but I have secret ways of capturing the name of the book buyer...who now becomes part of my Info-Funnel...who now is offered more of the products I have lovingly created for him or her...who then tells three or four friends about me...who then go out and buy my book...who then get enticed into my info-funnel...who then, go tell their friends...and so on, and so forth. So that every word I write eventually results in somebody sending me money...at least $20 for every, single word.

So, you see, I don't get writers block. Ever! Whenever I have to make a decision about whether to watch some worthless T.V. show or to sit down at my computer and write my 1000 words today...my computer always wins the battle.

If you knew that you could make $20 a word, wouldn't you be more motivated to write your 1,000 words right now.

Why are you still reading?

Get writing.

For more Robert G. Allen articles and resources, click here

• Business and Marketing • Affiliate Marketing • Information Marketing
• Network Marketing • Work At Home • Money Management
• Debt Management • Investing

____________________________________
© Copyright 2003- Lotus Pond Press LLC
All rights reserved. Privacy policy and Terms of Use.
 

Secure a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth

Multiple Streams
of Income


Increase Your Income
with The Can't Miss Video
Guide to Prosperity

Wealth Streams
Video Library