True Story

A few years ago I purchased an information product created by a well-known guru-type. Based on what I read on the sales page and on the customer testimonials page, I was very excited to receive the program and dig in.

A few weeks passed and then, at last, in the mail I received a large, heavy package with the marketer’s name on the return label.

Hooray and hallelujah! My time of transformation had come at last!

Inside the box was a huge 3-ring binder (the kind that holds about 400-sheets of paper) and within the binder there were three pages of DVDs, plus transcripts, plus the class material itself, plus a spreadsheet containing links and resources.

As I lifted the heavy binder out of the box, my excitement began to evaporate and was replaced by a growing sense of dread and apprehension. All I could think about was how on earth was I going to digest this huge amount of information?

And I’ll tell you something, I never opened that binder again. It’s still sitting in my bookcase because I can’t bear the thought of throwing away something I paid so much money for. It’s possible that the material in that binder might have changed my life. Perhaps it may still do so. But you know what? I don’t care because I don’t want to deal with wading through all that stuff.

Do Not Do This to Your Customers!

The person who sold me that giant binder full of stuff made a fatal error which I see a lot of business owners make…especially when the business owner is an expert in his or her field.

They want to offer value to their customer (a good thing) and they figure they’ll give their customers a veritable treasure chest of goodies to make sure that value is delivered. Alas, in the eyes of the customers, they have not been given a chest filled with treasure, rather they’ve had a huge bunch of stuff more or less dumped on them, and they are being required to sort through all this stuff to figure what is useful, and in what order they should use the information.

When you create an information product and includes lots and lots of material, you see as important, you are not helping your customer. You are stressing them out, and possibly making them feel even worse than they did before. Believe me, I’ve made this mistake too. I’ve learned the hard way that it is not the way to create a successful information product.

Your Job as an Expert Is to Be a Content Curator

How did I learn the hard way? Join me for a quick trip in the Way-back machine, Mr. Peabody.

1991, I was a brand new research analyst working for Helene Curtis and I had just finished presenting an annual brand review for senior management. It took, literally, months to put the review together, and I had slides and slides and slides of sales data, consumer usage data, industry trends, etc.

The audience wasn’t exactly on fire, and later I asked a colleague whose presentation had been far better received what mine was missing. “It was a data dump,” he said not unkindly, “You had good information, but you didn’t present it any order or context to help them use that information.”

And that is your job as an expert when you put together your information program. You want to take the time to make it as easy as possible for your customers to understand and integrate your information, so that they can apply what they learn and get real results.

Keys to Curating Information

1. 80/20 Rule

A successful information product helps your customer get from point A to point B in some step-by-step fashion. So there are usually specific steps, and then there is supporting information your customer needs, in order to do those steps.

Where you add value is to make sure you’re only including the steps and information that is needed 80% of the time. Why? Because you can usually cover the 80% pretty succinctly. It’s when you try to cover all the exceptions that your program material tends to grow exponentially. Let’s face it, there are always a bunch of crazy exceptions that happen to a handful of people. Trying to cover each exception thoroughly is when we start adding appendices and footnotes, and things begin to get unwieldy.

2. Not Every Request is Created Equal

How do information products get humungous? Easy, special requests.

For example, imagine you’ve created a solid information product that covers the 80% and a customer calls, “Gee,” they say, “I really love the product! I was wondering, would you include transcripts of the online class recordings?” And you think, well, heck, you created transcripts for your own use, you might as well bundle them into the program since you have them.

I want to suggest a different approach. That each element you consider adding must “earn” its way into your product. “Earn” means you have solid evidence that your customers will get significant additional value (better results, faster application) if you include that item.

Otherwise, I suggest you keep it out of your product.

And if the one customer really, really wants an extra transcript, you can always consider it a special service and charge accordingly.

3. Observe How Your Customers Actually Do Things

Speaking of evidence, I’m guessing you’ve had plenty of experience working with clients and customers, and you’ve seen what works and doesn’t work for them. When you create a program, put your experience to work by asking yourself, “OK, if I include these two elements, how will people actually use them?

You want to know not only are your customers using an element but how they are using it. For example, if your product includes step-by-step instructions, do they first read the steps through and then apply the steps to their own situation, or are they jumping right in? Make sure your product reflects how your customers actually use things, rather than how you think they will use them.

Bottom Line

A successful information product is one that helps customers apply what they learn so they can get real results. A bunch of good material that you’ve compiled may seem valuable to you, but unless you’ve carefully thought through what to include, with clear common sense guidelines to help your customers use and apply the material, you risk making your customers feel that you’ve indiscriminately dumped a bunch of material on them, and expect them to figure it out.

Your customers end up overwhelmed, they don’t use your program and they don’t get the results they paid for. Even worse, they move on to a competitor who seems better able to provide what they’re looking for.

Recently I’ve been writing a lot about the glories of information products because I want to encourage you to think more about how you can help lots more people and earn more money when you take what you know and make it available in written or recorded form.

This might lead you to think that I’m all about getting business owners to focus on creating a virtual presence. And it’s true, I think it’s important for anyone who wants to create what we call a “business” to create ebooks, and write articles, and record podcasts that are accessible through download.

A strong virtual presence is extremely valuable but there’s more to it than that.

Still Made of Matter

Experts have been gleefully predicting the demise of the paper office for years and yet most offices still have filing cabinets stuffed with paper and piles of paper on every desk, countertop, and table.

In fact there are billion dollar industries that exist for no other reason than to help people figure out what to do with all their stuff: Mini storage facilities, professional organizers, waste disposal services, and portable onsite storage containers; just to name a few.

And despite all the publicity given to social networking, it fascinates me that the real relationships happen when someone picks up the phone or when members meet in person at live events.

It’s not all that surprising when you think about it. The amount of time human beings have had the option of obtaining information virtually or developing relationships without physical contact is minuscule when compared to the hundreds of thousands of years most people lived their entire lives in small tribes or in small villages.

The “factory installed” operating equipment of human beings is still largely based on life in a material world.

Customers Need Real and Virtual Products

What got me thinking about the need for real products was an email I received last week from Dean Jackson, a marketing expert who works with realtors. The email talked about using postcards, snail mail postcards, as a way for realtors to get more referrals.  I thought it was interesting that Dean’s first big 2011 initiative centered around a rather humble marketing tactic that’s been around for ages. Even more interesting, Dean has a thriving business built largely around helping realtors leverage online systems to make more money.

Dean’s idea is based on what people need in order to give a referral. I won’t go into the details. He talks about them on his website. The relevant thing in the context of this article is that the physical postcard works well when it comes to reminding people to make a referral.

Looking around my office I noticed I have a good collection of both real and virtual materials from the vendors I’ve worked with. In fact, for the things I use most often, I like having both printed and electronic versions: calendars, directions, books, and business “cards.” I use the term business “card” loosely because in addition to cards I have coffee mugs, key rings, self-stick notes, and pens.

My conclusion is this:

Offering a physical and virtual version of your products gives you a greater advantage than offering only one version.

The Advantages of Offering Both Types of Products

Access

The main advantage is you create additional ways for people to get access to what you offer.

Each method also favors different work situations. For example, someone who does tons of business travel is going to find electronic products a lot friendlier. As long as you have an Internet connection and an electrical outlet, you’re pretty much open for business. Same deal with work styles. If you’re someone who loves to highlight passages and write marginalia in your books, ebooks just aren’t going to do it for you.

Presence on More Levels

People have five senses and if you offer your product in only one form, your customers don’t get to fully experience you and what you do.

For example, a craftsperson who creates beautiful ceramics offers something that delights customers visually and tactilely can create a written or spoken product that tells the story of how they chose the particular colors they used or why they used a heavier, grittier clay.

And the corporate coach who publishes eBooks and podcasts might create a card deck in which each card has a specific exercise for a project team to get their meeting off to a productive start.

The more ways you enable your customers to experience you and the more levels you engage them at, the more deeply felt your presence becomes and the greater your influence.

Keys to Creating and Offering Different Product Forms

You need both but you can prioritize

If you’re thinking, “Hey Miss Smartypants, I don’t even have one product yet let alone a product in tangible and electronic form and now you’re telling me I need both!” Relax. Like any project, it’s important to keep things manageable.

Start with creating a product in the format you’re most comfortable with. When your finished with one version and some of your customers have tried it and are getting results, then go ahead with the next version.

Usefulness

What is most useful to your customer needs to drive the version you create. Ultimately, anything you create needs to be easy for your customer to use and helps them solve a relevant problem.

A cookbook with great recipes isn’t going to be appreciated if the recipes are incomplete or confusing. And a really well-done cookbook with great recipes won’t be appreciated if you’re giving it to someone who doesn’t cook.

Not the item, it’s how you use the item

There is a dizzying array of product options for small business owners to consider. An ebook turns into an ebook plus a CD and a free report. A printed T-shirt turns into a T-shirt plus a water bottle plus a bag of customized M&Ms. You can go nuts.

And yet, I think what’s more important is making sure your product is useful and connects with your customer in a meaningful way. You can do some amazingly cool things with a humble business card or a postcard or a simple eBook template.

My preference is to begin with something simple and use creativity to come up with ways to make that item special for the customer.

Bottom Line

No matter what type of business you have, you make a bigger difference to more customer, increase your influence and expand your earning ability when you offer products. And you increase your advantage even more when you offer products that work in real world as well as the virtual world.

I’ve been using Hotmail since before it was Microsoft Hotmail. My Hotmail email address was my one constant in life. No matter where I lived, no matter where I was working, I always had Hotmail.

When I got a pop account with Mindspring I seriously considered quitting Hotmail because the free version doesn’t support forwarding to pop accounts. However, because Outlook Express came bundled with Windows 98 and XP, I was able to import my Hotmail messages into Outlook Express and export those messages to Outlook.

Vista dumped several free utilities that came with previous versions of Windows and one of those utilities was Outlook Express. Doing a little research, I learned that the only way to import Hotmail messages to Outlook was to get the Premium (AKA paid version of Hotmail’s replacement, Windows Live Messenger).

I just don’t want to buy anything more from Microsoft.

So, I’m replacing my hotmail account with Google gmail. Although I can’t set up a pop account in Outlook 2007 to get my gmail messages, I can forward gmail messages to my pop account.

Such small things: free forwarding and the ability to set up a pop account.

I can’t imagine why anyone would pay for a Microsoft Live account just to get these things but I’m probably not Microsoft’s target market either.

So, I’m curious and I’m looking for other Microsoft apps that I can replace with minimum pain and hassle.