Offering Information as Incentive to Buy By Matt Jackson
February 12, 2007
A successful e-store is one that provides visitors with a powerful and compelling incentive to buy. This incentive can come in one of many forms. Discounts, free shipping and multiple product offers are among the most common, but these can seriously impact your bottom line unless managed closely. Offering free informational products, a trend that has steadily grown in popularity and produces results, however, is another way to make your site stand out without costing you much money.
Informational products are usually delivered in a digital format. Buyer's guides, e-books, white papers and reports all fall under this category, and for one initial outlay, they can improve conversion rates and persuade even the most stubborn visitor to purchase your products. Each of these digital products differs in its appearance and its use but they do all offer excellent benefits.
Buyer's Guides A buyer's guide is literally a guide to the main features and options that customers should consider when purchasing a type of product. Buyer's guides can range from relatively simple documents to massive, multi-page booklets describing not only the different features that consumers need to look for, but also how to decide which is best for them. Offering your customers a buyer's guide provides you with the opportunity to offer the information shoppers are looking for in the same place where a purchase can be made, which increases your chances of netting a sale. If your site doesn't cover this information, your visitors are likely to look elsewhere for the information.
E-Books E-books are one of the most popular free products an e-tailer can offer. In many cases they are used to encompass every aspect of purchasing a product. They can include hints and tips on how to get the best use from a product and offer virtually every conceivable piece of relevant information.
White Papers White papers, in this context, are reports that offer authoritative advice and information. Some products lend themselves perfectly to white papers and they help an e-commerce store convey a voice of knowledge. In return, this showcase of expertise will usually encourage trust and, subsequently, sales. They are generally written in a formal tone and are ideal for a business-to-business service provider.
Reports Reports are slightly less formal than white papers but offer much of the same information. They should be fact-based and hard-hitting rather than filled with tips and hints. Reports, and to a lesser degree, white papers should be simple to follow but should instantly provide relevant and useful information to potential customers.
Building Your List If you are a proponent of list or e-mail marketing then a free e-book is an ideal way to further enhance your list with pre-qualified leads. You know that anyone downloading your e-book is interested in the products you offer so you can make the most of your new leads with a powerful and legitimate e-mail campaign.
Affiliate marketers are especially keen on the use of e-books and similar incentives for one simple reason — they work. Consumers love to feel they are getting a bargain and if they think they're getting something for nothing when they purchase your product they will be more likely to part with their money.
Avoiding E-Books With Resell Rights There are sites all over the Internet offering e-books with full resale rights. This means that you have the right, on purchase, to sell or give that e-book away to anyone you wish. The problem with these types of e-books is that they are far from unique. Log on to eBay or visit similar sites and you will usually find a raft of similar offers. A unique e-book will prove more effective in your bid to improve profits.
Writing Your Own If you have the time and the knowledge to write your own e-book or buyer's guide, that's the best approach. You pay nothing, except for a few hours of time writing and researching, and you can offer your incentive to every single visitor you receive. There are also content developers or copywriters that can research and write an e-book relatively inexpensively. When you consider that you could be making thousands of extra dollars by offering this incentive, it's well worth the money to get a quality product written for you.
Effective Branding Branding the product you give away is important. Whether you intend to offer your buyer's guide or e-book as a Word document or in PDF format you should take full advantage of the header and/or footer as well as the by-line. Inserting your Web address here instead of throughout the content of the e-book itself means that you can provide an informative rather than promotional product but still point readers back to your site in the future. This is especially important if you are offering it as a pre-sale incentive.
Choosing A Format Format is a contentious issue. Word is the most widely used word processor and, as such, most people are able to read a document in Word format. However, it is easy for others to remove your branding and replace it with their own because the content is unprotected. Also you are still potentially missing out on those that use other Word processing formats. PDF can be read by anyone that has installed free software on their computer and there are also a number of free PDF creators that let you create a readable PDF file from any word processor document.
Proprietary e-book software enables you to give your document a professional look as well as formatting that you may not be able to get with a word processor. However, the most effective software is commercially priced and may be cost prohibitive for a one-off project of this nature.
A Few Final Points On Style Visitors will be disappointed if they download a well-hyped e-book only to find that it doesn't deliver everything it promises. Even a free e-book that fails to deliver on its promises will do more damage than good. Use a "voice" that is appropriate to your target market to really appeal to them and always try to ensure you offer something unique.
Matt Jackson is a regular contributor to the ECommerce-Guide.com and is also a content writer for WebWiseWords.
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