What is a free or low cost offer?

A free or low cost offer is low risk way that you can get potential customers to try out your product or service for free or for a very low cost, so that they can make a better, more informed buying decision with more confidence. You’re showing that you can deliver upfront, before they spend the big money with you.

Why are free or low cost offers good?

The psychology behind a free or low cost offer, although they may look similar is actually quite different but done correctly, both can increase conversions.

With free offers, let’s use the example of a free trial 1 month trial for a software subscription, this is a common marketing tactic in that industry. Using this method you are letting people try your service for free. You’re showing them up front, with no risk on their part how good your software is and how much they need it. They can try before they buy. When the free trial expires, many people who used the software will now understand its value and will stay subscribed to the service when the free trial period ends. They liked the software, they now understand its value, they trust it works and they understand that it is indeed worth the monthly subscription fee. Those who don’t continue after the free trial are now on your list and you can follow up with them from now on too. This isn’t just a tactic that can be used in the software industry, that was just as an example, this method can be used effectively in many industries.

A low cost offer, is a good way for a prospect to become a customer, with far lower risk. A person who has spent money with you once before is far more likely to spend it with you again. It’s so much easier to sell to a customer than it is to an entirely new prospect. In theory, it doesn’t matter if someone has only spent a tiny amount of money with you, they are still technically a customer and they now know,like and trust you, and would be more open to buying your high end priced products or services than a cold prospect who does not yet know, like or trust you. So the idea here is to acquire lots and lots of customers at a low price point and then make the real money on the backend by using a well crafted funnel. You may hear this low cost offer concept being described as a tripwire or a welcome mat or any number of other terms that have been coined but they all pretty much mean the same thing.

What’s bad about free or low cost offers?

There may some circumstances where a free offer or low cost offer is not the best strategy so it is certainly something you will need to test if you try it.

There is also a school of thought that free or low cost offers attracts the wrong type of customer and trains people to not value your product or service, especially if you have high priced products.

The key here is making sure the strategy fits your situation. If your prices are high compared to the rest of the market then perhaps a free trial won’t be appropriate. If you offer a low cost offer to sell high priced products on the back-end, make sure that your offer is in and of itself a stand alone offer not a discounted version of your back-end offer. If you discount your main offer then you’ll have real difficulty selling that for full price later on. Instead sell a low cost offer that compliments or ties into or naturally leads into your main offer but is different from your main offer. This way you get a targeted list of paying customers, who still have a need for your main offer.

Who is free or low cost offers for?

Free trials don’t work for every type of business, not least because not all products or services can be given away for free, there’s too much of a cost involved and the economics just don’t make sense. So for a free trial to work, you need a low overhead product or service, that you can from a numbers point of view offer it for free for limited time and not lose out. Softwares, membership sites, newsletter or magazine subscriptions could all be examples of a free trial working effectively.

Low cost offers can work for a wide range of businesses just make sure your low cost offer leads into your main offer and that you have your funnel in place to sell on the back-end.

How to do a free or low cost offer?

It’s pretty easy to pull this off, if you are offering a free trial, collect payment details in advance as part of the registration process and make it very clear that they will start to be billed at the end of the free trial period if they do not cancel their subscription before the end of the trial.

If you are offering a low cost offer, make sure the price is low enough that it is an impulse buy, enough that is considered to be very low risk to the prospect. From here, you have a new customer and your funnel takes care of the rest. Some people offer their main offer immediately after purchase, other people will use a sequence of emails and a longer funnel process before making the main offer, both ways can work, test it for yourself and you’ll find out which works better for you.

Tommie Powers is known as the traffic and conversion scientist. He is also the creator of Video Ads Academy, the ultimate guide to driving traffic with video. In this interview Tommie shares how we can get cheap, targeted clicks using YouTube ads.

Hi, welcome to the online marketing show, this is Joey Bushnell and in this episode I want to point you in the direction of an incredible free resource.

It’s Sally Hogsheads Fascination advantage assessment and it can be found and at http://howtofascinate.com/you

Sally is coming on the show in just a few days time to discuss her new book How The World Sees You. And part of the book is figuring out your personality, the ways that you are most fascinating and when armed with this knowledge you can use it to your advantage when marketing, story telling, in your branding, in your one on one conversions, your face to face interactions, everywhere.

It will show your strengths, the attributes that make you fascinating, whether it’s power, passion, mystique, prestige, alert, innovation or trust. Then it will decode that information and tell you how to use it to your advantage and become even more fascinating to your market and everyone around you.

The test usually costs $37 to take, this is something other people have paid good money for but as part of Sally’s book launch you can get it free for a limited time and only for the first 500 people. If you go to http://howtofascinate.com/you and use the code JBushnell you’ll be able to take the assessment free of charge.

Dr. Kevin Hogan is one the worlds leading teachers of influence & persuasion. He says that the difference between the impotent conversationalist and the motivating communicator is the ability to persuade people to participate in win-win relationships.

Kevin Hogan is the author of several best selling books including… The Psychology of Persuasion:How To Persuade Others To Your Way Of Thinking ,The Science of Influence: How to Get Anyone to Say “Yes” in 8 Minutes or Less!, Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game & The Secret Language of Business: How to Read Anyone in 3 Seconds or Less

In this interview I ask Kevin all about how we can understand what motivates other people & how to influence them accordingly. You will learn cutting-edge skills in this interview that will change the way you communicate forever, including…

* How you can persuade people based on what drives them as an individual

* How to read people really quickly (You can almost read their mind meaning you know how they might respond in any given situation)

* The 16 core human drivers & desires that shape all human behavior

* How to subtly influence people using a technique called “Covert hypnosis”

* Exactly how to persuade or sell in a face to face situation, on the phone & in print

* How to tell what someone is really thinking by watching their body language

* How to persuade others by using our non-verbal communication like body language or tone of voice

* Why your appearance is essential to persuading others

* An easy method to build instant liking & rapport

* Why you should be using metaphors & stories for influence

* A technique to stop getting resistance from other people

Danny Iny is the CEO of fire pole marketing, the author of "Engagement from Scratch" and "Naked Marketing". He also runs the podcast "Connect, Engage, Inspire". In this interview Danny shares how to build an online audience and how to keep them engaged...

What is a webinar?

A webinar is an online seminar, hence the name webinar, web seminar. Some webinars are presented live and attendees have to attend at that time, others are pre-recorded and attendees can choose a time that suits them. Some webinars are delivered like a powerpoint presentation. Other webinars are delivered via live stream.

Why are webinars good?

A webinar is a good lead generator first of all. If you said to people, come to my sales pitch they would run a mile. But ask them to come to your super helpful, super informative webinar and many will want to do that. The key is you have to give them some really good valuable information during the webinar, so that even if they don’t decide to buy it was still very much worth attending. Giving great content away for free will build some “know, like and trust” with that person.

Webinars are able to keep people engaged for a significant period of time unlike many other forms of online marketing. Webinars can go on for hours sometimes. But generally people wouldn’t spend hours of time reading an emails, or hours time reading an article, or hours time doing pretty much anything, perhaps with the exception of videos and podcasts, webinars have the positioning of high value and being worthy of giving up a significant amount of time to attend and consume. Because of the sheer time spent on a webinar you are able to say all that you need to say to make the sale without having to rush yourself or skip important information.

And finally you can use webinars to sell at the end of the presentation. Once you have given great information and pre-sold people with your content, there is a natural opportunity to offer them with “what next” how you can help them to a larger degree. Because you have been so helpful already most people will be far more open to your pitch and therefore often times conversions from a webinar can be really high.

Automated webinars also allow you to automate your business, you record it once and then it can be selling for you 24/7.

What’s bad about webinars?

Some people get the pitch to content ratio of a webinar all wrong. It’s nothing more than an extended advert, very low information and just sell, sell, sell. This gets peoples backs up and makes them not want to attend webinars anymore because that’s not the reason they wanted to attend and you’ve let them down on the promise of attending.

You should pre-sell throughout your webinar but that’s different. Give excellent, high value information away that will naturally educate them as to why what you are offering will help them.

Another gripe I have about webinars now is that in some markets they have been grossly overused and abused, for this reason the people in those markets have become more sophisticated and will not attend a webinar so willingly, they’ve been on some bad ones in the past and their perceived value of webinar went down. For this reason you have to market your webinar even better to get people to attend, really offer them something special if they come to your webinar and then really deliver. You’ll gain a reputation in your market for being one of the good ones.

If using automated webinars, some people do not like to feel like they have been tricked into believing the event is happening live. If you get caught doing this you’ll certainly lose the trust of your audience. So for this reason do not make claims that your pre-recorded webinar is live.

Who is webinars for?

Everyone can try webinars, certainly some industries are more suited to webinars but you would be surprised at what weird, unexpected things can be sold via a webinar it just takes a little creativity and outside the box thinking to make it work.

That said if you sell information of some kind or have a coaching/consulting business then webinars are a natural fit. Software sells very well on webinars. And even physical products of many different kinds can be sold by webinar.

How to do a webinar?

First you need to choose how to host your webinar. If it’s a live slideshow style webinar I would recommend go to webinar. If it’s a live stream type of webinar then Google hangouts is a great option. If it’s a recorded webinar then stealth seminar is my favourite option.

Next you need to get people to attend your webinar. Use the 9 traffic methods I gave you earlier in this series to drive traffic to your webinar page. Use copywriting to give a compelling mini pitch for people to attend your webinar.

When people register use email to follow up with them and keep reminding them about the upcoming event or they may forget.

When people attend your webinar give great information away and make it really worth time having attended. Keep them engaged and attentive by asking questions and getting their responses throughout the webinar. And at the end give an incredible offer and call to action.

After the webinar remember to follow up. Follow up with those who bought, follow up with those who attended but didn’t buy and those who registered but didn’t attend in different ways so try and make more sales. For those who registered but didn’t attend, send out a time sensitive replay for them to watch.

If you would like to go deep with webinars, how to get people to register, how to get people to attend, how write a great webinar that attendees will love and how to give a great pitch that will make sales then go check out the online marketing club. It’s for you.

Neville Medhora is a master of controversial/fun copywriting and marketing. Using educational copy he is able to keep readers riveted all the way through his emails and sales letters.

In this interview I ask Neville how we can find our own voice and style of marketing that keeps our readers glued to our marketing pieces...

What is a video sales letter?

A video sales letter or VSL for short, is exactly what it sounds like, a video sales letter. Before the rise of internet videos we had the printed sales letter. A copywriter would write a sales letter in an effort to make sales. This was done purely using text and maybe the use of some imagery that the prospect would read. But fast forward to the online video age, we have a new medium of delivering a sales letter, via video. It’s a cross between a sales letter and a sales person, really because you can hear the person pitching you just like you would face to face or on the phone but it’s an online video instead. Just to be clear, this is not just any old content video or relationship building video or some other type of video, this is direct response marketing in video form, there is a clear goal and clear call to action on this video and that’s to buy.

Why are video sales letters good?

Video sales letters can sometimes give a nice little bump in conversions and outperform plain text sales letters or can be a nice support to a written sales letter. VSL’s do not always work better but it’s worth testing because when it does help to convert better it’s been worthwhile.

It’s also a good way for people to get a feel for you, get a feel for your personality which in itself can help to increase sales. This one of the closest things you can get to face to face selling without having to actually be there and it can be one to many not just one on one. There’s only one video but you could have 2, 5, 10, 50, 100, 1,000 or more people watching your VSL all over the world all at the same time which is an incredibly powerful combination of technology and direct marketing.

Also some people consume information in different ways, some people prefer to be delivered a sales pitch via a video. They wouldn’t read an entire sales letter but they would sit and watch a video. Different strokes for different folks.

What’s bad about video sales letters?

Well not much is bad about video sales letters, in my experience most of the time they work very well. They won’t always outperform written sales letter so if you find in split testing that having video somehow hurts conversions then you can you can always stop using it.

Who is video sales letters for?

Everyone who has a direct response sales letter, should test a VSL version and a VSL with text sales letter combo at some point. If you split test those 3 versions then you can leave guess work aside, you can find out exactly what works best and then use that winning version. I think with very little extra effort you can at least test it and if it works out for the better and if it does it could be worth a lot of money to you.

How to do a video sales letter?

Video sales letters do not have to be complex they can be really simple to produce. If you don’t have a script then you need to write one, treat it exactly like you would a direct response sales letter. Use the AIDA formula that I spoke of in the copywriting episode. Get their attention so they actually make a decision to stay and watch, you can’t spend time slowly getting to the point, your first sentences are your headline treat them as such. Then build interest by letting them know that you understand their problem and that you will be later revealing a solution for them, then build desire by letting them know how your product or service can help. At the end give your call to action, give a price, give a guarantee, some scarcity all the usual copywriting strategies and tell them where they can buy. Make it easy for them; there should be a buy button directly under the video.

If you already have a sales letter, just use that! It’s your script. You may want to make a few tweaks so that it makes sense when spoken aloud but the bulk of the message will remain the same.

In terms of audio production try to make sure you have a good microphone to record on and do your best to speak clearly and with enthusiasm.

In terms of visuals, the easiest way to do a VSL is to just use slides. There are other more fancy ways but this is simple and very effective. If you are a PC user that’s powerpoint, if you’re a mac user that’s Keynote. Put your main key talking points onto the slides, use images as well to keep it interesting.

Once you have done that, put the audio and visual together and make sure the timing is correct, that the correct slide shows during the corresponding part of the script. You can do this with screen capture software such as camtasia or screenflow.

And there you have it, a VSL! If you would like to learn in real detail about how to write, record and produce a high converting video sales letter then go take a look at the online marketing club, it’s for you.

Lon Safko is a Social Media Strategist who speaks and consults with Fortune 2000 companies across America. He is the author of the books "The Social Media Bible" and "The Fusion Marketing Bible".

When I read Lon's first book "The social media marketing bible" I knew I had to share his information with you because there really isn't anything this guy doesn't know about using social media for business.

In this interview Lon reveals...

* What Social Media actually is (This answer may surprise you, it's not just about Facebook and Twitter, it's far bigger than that)

* Why small businesses should be really excited about Social Media

* The 5 steps to Social Media success

* The 3 types of social media which are essential to be using and will contribute to 90% of your social media success

* How you can see an 400% increase in conversions by using Fusion Marketing

* A story about how one video with 5 million views in 24 hours, can bring even the biggest companies to their knees

* The life cycle of a Social Networking user

* 2 reasons why you have to be blogging

* Why you should use live casting, vlogging and Google hangouts to connect with people on a deeper level

* Why Facebook kicked MySpace's butt

* Why Pinterest grew so fast

* The future of Google Plus?

* And more. Just click the play button below to listen in. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends!

Click Here to Visit Lon's website

Shawn Collins is the founder of the world's biggest affiliate marketing event "Affiliate Summit". In this interview he gives us tips for succeeding with affiliate marketing from the perspective of an affiliate and that of someone running an affiliate program.