If you’ve been following our industry lately, you probably have noticed the buzz around this thing called the Software System. I didn’t buy it nor am I against it. And in fact, I’m not here to review it or give my take on it. The reason why I opened that up is to study how internet marketers act or roll with these big-time launches by their industry friends and business partners.
It’s All About Affiliate Marketing
A long time ago, I wrote a post called Affiliate Marketing in blogs where I discussed that unlike in PPC-CPA space, affiliate marketing in blogs is all about building relationships and recommending products that are really really congruent not just with the market, but with their specific needs.
So for example, you can’t just promote a product about making money online in a making money online market. You have to dig deeper into that and find their inner needs. Is it making money through memberships? or about blogging? product launches? This just doesn’t apply to blogs, it applies to people with lists as well.
As you can see, you will get nowhere when you don’t identify the inner needs and desire of your market. With this, you really really have to be specific with your offer.
The Software System Launch
First and foremost, I would like to give this disclaimer that I’m not a product launch guru. I really am not that’s why I constantly watch and study different things. What I’m going to outline here is just all my 2 cents.
Obviously the software system isn’t your typical “make money on the internet” kind of hype. It focuses on creating softwares and selling them to a bunch of people and making tons of money. During that launch guys like John Chow, Jeremy Schoemoney, Jeff Walker, Frank Kern and a bunch of smaller marketers and bloggers jumped on the bandwagon and promoted it. For this post, I would be using the big 4 mentioned above.
During the period, these guys were emailing people like crazy and for almost everyday (twice a day for Kern for instance). Now let’s (briefly) take a look at some of their emails during the launch day:
John Chow’s Offer:
Jeff Walker’s offer:
Shoe’s offer:
Kern’s offer:
Noticed the same patterns in their emails on that launch day? Hmm, interesting…
Incentivization – the art of bribing
As funny as it may sound, all of them (and some more others) have this kind of a bribe to further more try to convince their readers to purchase UNDER their link. And all of them are claiming that by spending $2700 on that product, they would get over that price value in return. How unreal could that possibly be? Can I buy a Kia and get an Audi in return?
I know it sounds crazy but incentivization is a big part in launches and also a big reason why marketers (both the owner and the affiliate) make so much money. The incent value that they’re giving away is just the “perceived value”, not the real price tag but since a lot of smart marketers have built good communities around them, most people trust them and believe that they’re really getting a good value for the amount they’re spending (w/c maybe is true or maybe not).
So I think that’s the important thing to learn here. People’s averseness (means resisting) to buy something online these days makes it much harder for us, marketers to go out and sell our own stuff w/o giving away a lot in return. It also speaks on how crucial relationship building is in this type of business since people obviously won’t buy from you and anything you recommend, unless they trust you and see you as a prominent person in your market.
This trend started a long time ago and I believe it would only continue for a very long period of time. As an internet marketer and/or blogger, are you in this game too?
Great post Melvin. I think when you’re trying to get someone to shell out $2k+ for an information product you have to lay on the bonuses nice and thick. It doesn’t cost the affiliate anything additional to give a digital version of their product, so why not do it?
I’ve considered adding a bonus for certain products I affiliate, though those products are all below $100. I think they can really help people gain more actionable insight into how to use the initial product they are purchasing.
While I understand the concept of incentives for launches, the thing I hate is the gross over valuation that these marketers put on their products.
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Awesome post Melvin 🙂
I like to learn how internet marketers work.
This post was really an informative one 🙂
I think the problem is that they sell well packaged crap for hyped up prices. None of the products are worth that much dough. Like I heard someone say its not like when you buy a Ferrari and other people will see that you are rich and successful. You just bought a big box to put in your closet.
And if you have bought stuff from the affiliate marketer before and now hes saying he gives this away for “free” if you buy from his link. Doesn’t that make you question the price point in the first place? How is that relationship building? I want to be in IM and still have integrity.
The key to any good launch and any good marketer is the relationship building and maintaining. The product launch becomes worthless without that group of people to promote it to. Retweeted
Thank you for the information.
I have bought Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing before, just like what you say “Incentivization”.
We could see the energy of one markter is limited, Internet marketers should always integrate with other marketers to do marketing, which can make most profit.
Truth is, I am sick of this IM newsletter. I do not bother to open them at all.
I agree Tom. Its not like they can’t ‘trick’ us anymore that its not really the case but I don’t know, maybe its still working for the majority if they’re using it over and over.
True, very true. I questioned that as well before but the response that they usually give is that “there’s really not much people complaining about it” w/c for me sounds horrible. I’m not just convinced with that. I believe some of them do segment their lists in such a way that they will not offer that formerly paid product as free to those who have bought it before. That now “free” product will be offered to those who haven’t bought before.
As far as having integrity in doing internet marketing, I think its pretty easy to do it if you’re in a niche outside internet marketing. I’m sure there are people out there selling good products genuinely to their userbase without sounding obnoxious at all. But doing “IM” in and IM niche instead, I think its pretty hard to maintain that integrity. Just my opinion
Yeah, correct. Thanks for the retweet!
hahah, me too. I guess a lot of people are getting tired of it already. Not as powerful as it used to maybe.
I would rather open them occasionally, just to keep up with the trends in the market as well
as to see how these gurus earn their cents.