Many Internet marketers use this sales tactic when they have a new product or service to offer. Maybe they are new to the world of Internet marketing or maybe they are using this tactic to build a sense of urgency. The key is to keep your word so that you will build a reputation for this type of marketing. Then next time you come out with a product that you’re selling for a “rock bottom price” for a limited time, customers will flock to buy it because they know the price will soon rise.
Case in point: six months ago, I signed up for an online course at the “rock bottom price” of $7.99 per month. The course is now selling for $19.95 a month and the price will rise again soon. You can bet that the next time this marketer offers a product at a low, introductory price that I will jump through hoops to get it because I know the price won’t be low for long.
Introductory Offers
This is a good pricing tactic to use when you don’t have a proven track record, although many seasoned Internet marketers use it as well. Offering a product or service at an introductory price lets your customers find out if what you are offering meets their needs without them having to pay full price. Sometimes, introductory offers are as low as $1 for the first month while succeeding months of product or service will cost the customer $20 or more. Since $1 is far easier to part with than $20 or more, this is an excellent sales tactic to use to gain new customers.
Limited Time Offers
Many new and experienced Internet marketers alike use this sales tactic to move product or gain new customers for their service oriented businesses. You may have seen sales letters where the offer is good for 24 hours only or three days only or whatever time frame the marketer has decided upon. Create a sense of urgency with your customers and you’ll realize the profit potential of this marketing tactic.
It’s important that you develop a reputation for pulling the offer when the time frame you specified is up. That doesn’t mean you can no longer promote the product or service. You can, just not at the special price you indicated on the limited time offer. Now is the time for you go to back to selling it at the regular price or you can come up with an entirely different offer.
It may take a while but once you develop an online presence and solid reputation then when you advertise a limited time offer, your customers will realize the sense of urgency involved and will be more inclined to take advantage of what you are offering.
Before the Internet, self-publishing was expensive and then you also had to go to the trouble and expense of promoting your book. Thanks to the Internet, though, ebooks can be created practically for free, with the exception of the investment of time, which varies considerably depending upon how much research you have to do. Still, there are thousands and thousands of ebooks available online, many of them for free so not only do you have to make yours stand out, but you have to pay careful attention when deciding upon the right price for it.
Assess the Value of Your Ebook
Determining the price of your ebook can indeed be tricky because if you price it too low, the perceived value of it will almost surely decline as well. However, if you price it too high then it likely won’t sell very well and that will defeat your purpose as well. You certainly have to take the length into consideration. Because there is no standard length for ebooks, one ebook may contain 10,000 words while another one may be 70,000 words long. Obviously, these two ebooks should not carry the same price.
While you are assessing the value of your ebook, look closely at the information it contains. If it is merely a compilation of information that anyone could find for free online that you have gathered into one succinct ebook, that doesn’t mean it is not valuable; it just means it is not as valuable as an ebook that contains new information or specialized information or techniques that one could not easily find online. Obviously, the more technical or specialized your ebook is, the higher price it should fetch.
Conduct Market Research
It is imperative that you conduct market research before deciding on the final price of your ebook. Look at other ebooks not only in your niche, but also of about the same length and level of expertise as yours to see how they are priced. Give a few copies away and ask the recipients how much they would be willing to pay if they were purchasing the ebook. This would also be a good time to get testimonials for your ebook to include on your sales page.
Once you have decided on the initial price for your ebook, be sure and conduct split testing to gauge how well the price is working. You may offer it on two different sites with the same exact salespage but with the price changed in order to tell which price converts the best. Once you have conducted a fair amount of market research you should have a good idea of what other ebooks similar to yours are selling for and price yours accordingly.