Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

This Time, It’s Personal

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Is your writing drab and boring, or does your personality shine through? When you create a product, you’re putting a bit of yourself into it (if it’s any good). The personalization that goes into your product line will help endear you to your customers – it makes them want to come back for more.

People don’t just want sterile step-by-step information when they’re reading how-to books and informational products. They want to enjoy the read. You need to have your own style and voice.

If you hire a ghostwriter to create your product, make sure you go back through and use your voice within the text. Let me show you an example from the anti aging niche and you tell me which short paragraph is more interesting:
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10 Reasons Why You Should Do Teleseminars

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teleseminarChances are that you have attended teleseminars and webinars, but have you ever presented one? For many people, the idea of putting on a webinar is intimidating. The technology can seem complicated and you have to prepare visuals, so it might be more than you want to take on, especially if you are not accustomed to presenting.

Although webinars do not have to be as difficult as you may think they are, there is a simpler option: teleseminars. Teleseminars are as easy as talking on the phone. You can do that, right? The technology is simple, and there are no visuals to worry about.

Webinars can be useful when your topic is visual or requires demonstration, but teleseminars are perfect for most topics. Your audience may prefer them because they don’t have to sit in front of their computers for an hour or more to get the information. They can listen on their phones or download the replay to an iPod or phone and listen while they commute or work out.

Most teleseminar platforms allow you to choose connecting over the telephone or with your computer, so there is no special equipment or software required, for you or your audience. The cost ranges from inexpensive to free, and even most free platforms offer a lot of features.

Still not convinced you should be doing teleseminars? Here are ten reasons why you should.
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Test Your Product on Customer Guinea Pigs

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guinea-pigCreating a new product can be both exciting and scary. One reason many would-be information marketers hold back from creating and releasing a new product is that they are unsure how it will be received in the marketplace. Having customers serve as guinea pigs that you can test your ideas on can help you to understand what they want and need, and how best to present it to them.

These guinea pigs are people in your niche audience who can provide valuable feedback for you during your creation process – before the launch. They can tell you where you are falling short as well as where you’re excelling. If you don’t want to think of your customers as cute, furry little rodents, consider them your own personal focus group of testers. ;o)

You want to work with these testers from the very beginning – from the day you start brainstorming your product. Find people in your niche – maybe existing followers or followers of someone else – and ask them if they’d like to receive free course materials in exchange for their feedback – blunt, honest feedback, not a testimonial.

You want more than one person onboard. Don’t be thinking of it as 10 sales you won’t get once it launches. Think of it as 10 sets of eyes helping you steer clear of trouble and helping you make things better.

Set up a system where you get feedback either through direct email communication or anonymous surveys. Some people might feel awkward being extremely blunt with their feedback, so you have to reassure them about why they’re doing this.

After getting them to help you brainstorm the overall product – what slant it has, what goes into it – you can take it one step at a time and get their feedback every step of the way.

Don’t wait until your product is complete to begin working with your guinea pigs. If you do that, you won’t get all of the little details given back to you. Instead, you’ll get answers like:

  • It was great!
  • I felt it was kind of flimsy.
  • You need more detail.

But those kinds of answers are broad and general. They won’t help you make it better. You need a microscopic approach – chapter by chapter or video by video – so you can get specifics about what’s wrong, like this:

  • This was a good chapter, but you forgot to mention ______.
  • I could hear you slurping coffee in your video at the 4:30 mark.
  • I didn’t understand what you meant by __________.
  • It would help to have a screen shot of the procedure on page 17, where paragraph 3 is.

Those kinds of details will smooth the wrinkles in your product and ensure that whatever common questions or complaints people might have, they’re gone by the time it hits the marketplace!

Record Every Talk You Give

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record-your-talksThere are two reasons to record yourself every time you speak, whether you are doing a talk for a local group, presenting to an industry conference, doing a group consultation or presenting a seminar, teleseminar or webinar.

First of all, listening to the recording lets you hear what you did well and where you can do better next time. I know, it is painful to listen to yourself speak. You don’t like the sound of your voice and every mistake leaps out at you. But you need to listen.

Are you using uh, mmm, you know and other fillers too often? Do you talk too fast or too slow? Do you mumble and make it hard for the audience to hear and understand you?

How did the audience react to your talk? Did they laugh at the stuff you think is funny?

Some of the time you will deliver a good talk. Others will be very good. And sometimes you will NAIL IT. You want to make sure that when you deliver that amazing, awesome, personal best speech that you have recorded it.

That talk will be a product you can sell. [Read more…]

Choosing a Format for Your Information Product

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info-product-formatHave you been wanting to create an information product, but struggling with the decision about which media platform you should use? There are three basic ones to choose from – text, video and audio – and almost unlimited combinations and variations of those formats.

So which is best? The best media choice when you are creating a product is the one your audience likes best. Are they readers? Do they like to listen to audio while they work out? Does video help them best absorb information?

The topic will also influence your choice of media. Video is often best when you are showing how to do something. Other topics may do well in any of the three formats.

But here’s the thing: You might immediately bristle at the thought of using one or two of those forms of media. For you, maybe writing is a struggle. Or you might hate the sound of your voice – or worry about how you will look on camera. Maybe you are uncomfortable with the technical aspects of audio and video and think they may be “too hard” for you to do.

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