3 Interesting Trends in Recent Product Offers

No doubt the economic climate has impacted virtually every business segment.  Large companies have been creative in their response (consider the Hyundai Assurance program), as have small business and online entrepreneurs.  However, there has been no lack of product launches (at least 6 this week alone) in the Internet marketing niche.  This post discusses three key trends with a specific example of how launches are converting prospects into buyers.

3 Interesting Trends in Recent Product Offers

The recession has resulted in no shortage of product launches in the Internet marketing niche.  There are several trends worth noting.  Earlier this week  a video Review of Jeff Johnson’s SEO Traffic Getting plugin was posted which is a part of his UnderGroundTrainingLab.com 2.0 product launch.  This post will focus on how these trends are reflected in Jeff Johnson’s current offer, and asks if these trends can apply to your marketing.

Making Products More Affordable

Product prices, in general, specifically for information products, have come down.  While it varies from product to product there are more $27, $47, $97 one-time, or monthly fee products that would have demanded double, triple, or more just 12-18 months ago. Many of these products (again, a generalization here) have packed in more value while dropping prices.

StomperNet, one of the top membership sites for Internet Marketers, has maintained their $797/month price, but has launched many other entry level products to get people in the door, leading with free training videos and reports.

With Jeff’s UnderGroundTrainingLab.com 2.0 it looks to be more of the same, leading first with is Free Traffic Getting SEO Plugin, and making his training affordable. According to the video on his site, his training will be less than $199 (it’s here on this post).  Affordability is trend number one.

No Long-Term Commitments

A few months ago the big trend was to put a big ticket (usually $2000-$3000) on the market, and then about 3 days into the launch, offer a payment plan.  This was very effective, but the market has caught on, and more prospects are waiting until the payment plan is available to buy, making the initial launch less successful.  Now marketers are making payment plans available up-front (in effect).

Jeff’s Johnson’s program is positioned as affordable monthly payments.  And the content is delivered in an easy to digest monthly format.  I think this is smart and pragmatic.  The alternative is giving customers everything upfront (overwhelm), leaving customers with many more questions than answers, and less success stories as many give up.  What Jeff says in his video (at 13:53) is true, many people fail miserably no matter who they learn from. Caution: Jeff talks r-e-a-l-l-y fast, so listen closely…

Paying month to month is a much fairer approach for many who are wanting to get good training while building up traffic and revenue for their online business.  No long-term commitments is number two.

Quitting Any Time

With the economic uncertainties online entrepreneurs and small businesses face, many prefer not to be locked into a training program with monthly payments for a year (or longer).   With Jeff’s offering below $199 a month (I imagine there will be some sort of upsell offered as well), while offering the option to quit anytime is a plus for customers, and a smart move on his part. Quitting any time is number three.

Sidenote: Membership Sites and Internet Marketing

Membership sites are especially important for those in Internet Marketing.  Things change rapidly online, and having a good pool of talent (social group) available in a program like Jeff’s is very important. As a member of several sites, what works today may or may not be the best approach tomorrow.  I’ve learned things that have saved me weeks of time  just by talking to someone who has been through something similar.  Numerous tips have had a direct impact on my business that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Your Take: How can you apply these trends to your own marketing efforts?  Do you know if customers would respond favorably to more affordable offerings, which had no long-term commitments, and let them quit anytime? Thoughts on Jeff’s Johnson’s product? Chime in below…

Resources in this post:
Review of Jeff Johnson’s SEO Traffic Getting plugin (get the actual plugin here)
Jeff’s UnderGroundTrainingLab.com 2.0 Video
Review of StomperNet’s Latest Video Training (actual video here).
*Image by lepiaf.geo

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