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What Makes A Great Info Product (1 of 2)

48m 15s

What Makes A Great Info Product (1 of 2)

In this episode, Dan Kennedy explores what transforms an ordinary info product into a multi-million dollar asset. He argues that true greatness is not measured solely by immediate sales revenue. Instead, he proposes four key criteria: sales volume, longevity (how long the product remains viable), customer development (how well it attracts and trains good customers), and overall influence. Kennedy notes that out of the approximately 500 products he has created, only about 10—like his "NoBS Marketing Letter" and "Magnetic Marketing"—meet all these standards. He emphasizes that the real purpose of an info product is not merely a transaction but a relationship development tool. The asset value, he explains, transfers from the product itself to the "herd" of loyal customers. Great products serve multiple functions: they persuade, resell the product to reignite buyer enthusiasm after the purchase, sell important concepts and a specific philosophy, frame the content as an opportunity, and crucially, sell the reader on themselves. This last point is vital because buyers often lose confidence between purchase and first use. By embedding persuasive elements and philosophy throughout, a product can overcome buyer's remorse and build a lasting, valuable customer base.

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Welcome to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast. In this episode we're asking the question, what makes a great info product? Is it simply the needs to work really well for customers, that it's good information? Dan Kennedy is going to argue that there's much, much more to that. In this episode, what makes a great info product, Dan Devolge is the real purpose of an info product, lays down the criteria for measuring the success, and provides some of the key ingredients that are essential to creating an info product that will sell now and for years to come. Check out part one of what makes a great info product. I don't think there's anybody that has had a bigger impact in the field of direct response than Dan Kennedy. The legend of Dan Kennedy should be ignored at your own peril. They're not really the lessons, they're kind of laws that you'll live by. Dan opened my eyes to what small business marketing looks like. Dan teaches strategic direct response that is timeless. His ripple effect touches people who don't even know his name. The world we know it was changed because Dan Kennedy became obsessed with marketing. Welcome to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast with your host, Dan Kennedy. We're going to talk about the creation of information product, has high value, enduring, million dollar and multi-million dollar assets, and what goes into them in terms of embedded psychology. What makes products really sell, work, create results for people, keep customers coming back for more, what makes a product a really, really valuable asset? I want to start by talking about the criteria. What makes a great information product? We could measure it as many people do, purely in terms of sales and revenue. The product that sells the most, that brings in the most money may be the best information product, although I would suggest to you that that's somewhat of a narrow and perhaps short term thinking approach. Probably the opposite would be to consider longevity, how long the product lasts once you've invested all the effort to create it. Another, a favorite of mine is how good a job that product does at bringing in, attracting, creating, growing, training, really, really, really good customers. Does the product do a good customer development job? And last, it's overall impact and influence. I've been pretty fortunate. I've tried to figure it out when we agreed on this topic, how many information products I've created. And I always tell people I'm more prolific than good. The quantity is actually quite high. I gave up the project effort about 20 minutes of roaming around in my files, because it was going to take too much time to get the answer to that question. But it is well over 500 that have been created over the span of my career, all the way back to the earliest, really, really awful stuff, to the most recent, okay stuff. To a few things that have been really, really good, if you think about that criteria that we just talked about. Some you're familiar with, some perhaps you're not. But I have been fortunate to create some products that have had multi-million dollar value and have created a lot of good customers. And have done a good job of developing those customers. The first one in that category, I'm curious if anybody in here, because this goes back a waste. Does anybody in here own this thing? Anybody? Yes, you're all too. Oh, yeah, well, you don't count. No one else just bill. Okay, see that goes back along the ways. That product in 1980 and 1981, sold over 3,000 units at between $199 and $399, almost entirely from lead generation advertising, offering a free, a track, a free audio cassette. A lot of people don't know, by the way, this business actually started with records. And I actually own business and self-help records. They're both singles and album-sized records. The biggest problem with them was the record player bouncing up and down on a car seat. It was hard to keep the needle on it. That's only partially funny. Anyway, this was a free tape for a dollar, and then a sales letter was sent out. And the product was extremely successful in pretty much all of the ways that you would measure product. The one you're going to be more familiar with actually is the newsletter, the NoBS Marketing Letter, which I consider an information product. And it goes back to 1992. So that newsletter is, of course, the foundation of today's business. How many would like a copy of the first issue? We'll try and work that out. I'll think of some way that you earn that. Now, there's a great story. I hadn't looked at it in a long time. There's a story. I'm not going to get it right now. But it's a good story. There's an owl who comes in as a consultant to a frog whose problem is that other animals keep picking on a frog. And he can't jump far enough to get away from them. And the owl studies the whole problem and tells them that the answer to all of his problems is simply to fly because that solves the bird's problems. And so he takes the frog up to the top of the big building and has the frog fly. And of course, the frog crashes to earth and he's lying there nearly dying. He complains to the owl about the advice and the owl says, "You're complaining about implementation. I'm a concepts guy." You're a pretty good story. So that newsletter has been around all those years. And the most important thing it did was provide a single place to funnel customers into from wherever they originated. Now that's, yeah, for some of you, that's a writer downer. A lot of people's information marketing businesses and their product lines are have porous borders. I thought it was interesting that we're requiring passports for people to get into the international session on Sunday morning. You don't need any proof to vote in our elections in Arizona. But to get into our session on Sunday morning, you got to have a valid passport. A lot of information marketing businesses have porous borders. People kind of come and go. They can buy something, then they can disappear. And so what that creation of that product did was create a single place to funnel everybody into regardless of where their point of origination was and get a border around them and build a relationship with them. Magnetic marketing. So how many of you in here own magnetic marketing? Raise your hands. For how many of you was that your point of origin? Your first, again, you learn more looking around at them than you do looking at me. Keep them up for a second. For how many was that a point of origin? And keep your hands up now if you've been with us for five years or longer and that was your point of origin. Again, you learn more by looking around. So there you go. So that product has sold that we know of because it's a much knocked off. So I'm not counting the eBay editions. But that which seems to be a lively publishing arena from which I get no royalties. But magnetic marketing is now 14 years old. It has sold that we know of directly over $65 million worth of product. And has been licensed and translated. And it's the only marketing product ever to be sold in Sky Mall catalogs on airplanes. Not three different times. Night and go. Cone has rolled it out. Hume publishing. Daytimeers catalog. On and on and on. And the most important point about that product. First of all, it's been evergreen. So that product was originally built against the Jimmy Carter recession, which now looks like a Tupperware party. And it was called the Small Business Emergency Survival System. Then it became magnetic marketing when the economy improved a little bit. And it literally has been an evergreen product. And a lot of people don't really think about that when they develop product. But if you really think about them as assets, having something that doesn't go away in six months or in three months or after a week long launch can be an interesting part of this business. And then when it brings in and trains customers in a particular way of thinking and develops them into good customers, it's even more interesting. So that's been a good product and I could go on. So there are about 10 in my portfolio who I would say meet all the criteria of a great information product. I would make the point that that's out of about 500. So when you think in terms of batting average, I guess that's not very good, but it's probably realistic. You don't get one of these every time you step up to the plate. You have to wonder when you now develop something and bring it to the market. What kind of staying power it's going to have? What kind of influence it's going to have? So Napoleon Hill's stuff goes back to 1917 start, 1928 first publication. So 1928 that's 73 years. Is anything you or I are doing right now still going to be popular? Still going to be purchased in large quantity every year, 73 years from now. Earl Lightingale's work is about 60 years old. Malts's work is about 50 years old. My oldest, the old sales letter book will be 20 years old. Next year is anything you're doing going to have that kind of staying power and whether you aspire to that kind of staying power or not, it's still a good question because it speaks to the influential power of the product. And so products that come and go rather fluidly may not be very well designed to start with. So let's talk about what the purposes of product really are. So when you set down to do a product and you set down to put together a resource that you're going to bring to the marketplace, really what are the purposes of doing so? Well dummies think it's a necessary evil that must be accommodated so you have something to exchange for money. So that's actually most people's approach to info product creation and publishing. Is it really says I want a hundred thousand bucks this month and they're not going to give it to me for nothing. So we're going to have to put something together that we're going to deliver. And that's truthfully about 90% of the thinking process that goes into it. It's literally a necessary evil to exchange for money. Now I would say to you that the more sophisticated information marketer first of all views it as a starting point or a furtherance of having customers for life. So they really view it as not only a thing we exchange for money. I'm all for that. But has a relationship development tool as well. Because when you talk about building million dollar assets the truth of the matter is the intellectual property has no value without the consumers who wish to purchase it and stay with you after they have purchased a in order to purchase B and in order to purchase C. The asset value actually transfers from product to herd. And if you're just taking the money out of the product and not developing the herd you're not creating any equity you're only creating income. So for it to do that products actually have to serve multiple purposes. So I'm going to quickly take you through what I think are the chief purposes of product. So one is product as persuasion. I think one of the things people don't realize and I'll use books mostly as examples even though they are information products. They're not particularly good information products from an economic standpoint but their examples were all aware of and I'll use books you've all read. So if you take a look at these enduring high longevity evergreen books. So if you go look if you look at think and go rich. If you look at Malts' work. If you pick up Bob Allen's nothing down the original real estate of his line. If you look at these books you will find that they are really sales letters as much as they are how two books. They are selling from the very first page to the very last page and in almost every case you could swap out the last chapter and you could put a hard core offer in there that the rest of the book sold and you wouldn't have to rewrite much of the book. They really are persuasion documents as much as they are anything else and I would suggest to you that every great information product has this, has part and parcel of what it is and what it does. It sets out to engage in in a sales process and actually even a convent version process of bringing the person from point A to some predetermined point Z of acceptance of an idea, concept, philosophy, a buy into something and the great information products are really selling multiple things. One, they are of course reselling the product that has already been purchased. So here's a base a lot of people miss. So this is another writer downer for you. Most people think in terms of sell product, deliver product, product gets used. But they forget that in almost every case there's a lapsed time between sell product, deliver product and use product. Even in an environment like this, if I was selling from the front of the room today and you were leaving at the end of the day with your little bag full of stuff that you bought at the room, back at the room, very, very, very few are going to start using the product in the car on the way home from the event where they bought it at. There's going to be a lapsed time between the purchase of the product and the first use of the product. What happens during the elapsed time? All of the reasons why they bought the product and all the excitement and enthusiasm over having bought the product evaporates. And now they are opening a box, opening a notebook, clicking on to an online course, whatever it is you have them doing cold. Don't underestimate this factor that elapsed time has removed the reasons why they bought it and all the enthusiasm for having bought it. I recently enrolled to go to a seminar on December 3, 4 and 5 and I registered from an ad in a trade journal and it's not an inexpensive seminar, it's about $5,000 plus I'm going to have to travel and I sort of registered on impulse. I called, saw the ad, picked up the phone, called, gave my credit card and registered and that was about a month ago. Other than a little tiny one paragraph confirmation, I have received nothing since then. Guess who's not going to the seminar? This guy, because I have now talked myself out of it. The same thing happens with product. Guess who's not going to get into what they bought because they're opening it now cold. So one of the things great information product does is it sells the product again in order to restart the interest and the enthusiasm. The second thing it does, guys, if you leave the slide up there, I'll take it on and off. Thank you. So the second thing it does, you can go to me if you like when I take it off. The second thing it does then is it sells important concepts. It sells ideas. The third thing it does is it sells a particular philosophy. Now this is another thing people miss. Here's another thing people miss with information products. They don't create a philosophical base for the how-tos. And if you don't get your consumer in sync with you about some sort of belief system, I don't care if you're teaching how to be a plumber. If you don't get them in sync with you about some sort of belief system, your likelihood of keeping them involved in the hardcore instruction of how to do whatever it is that you're teaching them to do is not great. And if you look at all the really great information marketers and you go examine their products, you will find that a significant amount of the time is devoted to selling the philosophy, not just the instruction. Another thing that great products do is they sell opportunity. So they convince this person now that has this product and is beginning to get into it, that they have in their hands an amazing opportunity to transform something. business income, physique, health, relationship, and so they frame what's going on in the language of opportunity. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that actually in my breakout tomorrow. This is important. The great information product sells the reader on himself. Now, what does that mean? Well, again, at the time of purchase, the person has become interested in enough and enthused enough about this thing you are putting in front of them. That they forget about their own enormous dysfunction, incompetence, long track record of not following through on anything, and the critical environment in which they live with the spouse, the peers, the friends, the employees who are very, very, very aware of their dysfunction. The fact that they never follow through on anything, et cetera. For a moment, they forget all about that when you have them whipped into sufficient fervor about this thing you are putting in front of them. Now, again, there's a last time before they go to use it. When they go to use it, their realization of who they are has returned. And they are back in the environment with all of the people who are very aware of who they are. This is not good for us. What's good for us is that suspension of understanding of who they are, not the recognition of who they are. So a great product has to sell them on themselves. It has to convince them that this is the time this is going to be different. It has to convince them that they are right and everybody else in their world is wrong, et cetera, et cetera. So great products sell them on themselves. And of course, last, great products sell them on the what's next. So to give you some very quick examples, and again, I just picked these out of books. So here is, I don't even know which, oh, this is from my direct marketing book. So here is chapter one. Now, what's significant about this is, again, this really is a sales document as much as it is anything else. Even the subtitle of the chapter, the first word is why. So this chapter is selling them concepts. And it's reselling them the product. They just bought, in this case, the book. The resell line is, if you picked it up, hoping for huge breakthroughs in your business, you bought the right book. This is also from a book I forget which one does make any difference. Again, so chapter eight is the title itself is selling the concept. The chapter is about using proof, and then the chapter title is, this is the most important tool for exceptional success in selling. It's selling the concept. Again, here's a chapter 17. This chapter is really about lead generation, but the entire first page of the chapter is a sales pitch for using lead generation. This paragraph says, for more than 25 years, this method has been adopted, taught and proliferated in over 200 different sales niches. Then it lists a whole bunch of niches so they can't not find themselves and do the my business is different thing. So that entire page. Now, here's a selling reader on himself block of copy. This is from the sales book. I'm just going to read it quickly to you. So I understand this is a book about sales for sales people who generally are maligned. Not as maligned as lawyers and politicians, but pretty much close. So to the economy, it selling is the most essential lifeblood. If the economy were required to subsist only on consumer spending done entirely of consumers and businesses on initiative, only a basic necessities the entire world would come to an end in damn short order. We can certainly survive a few months of all politicians on vacation, all lawyers on vacation, all teachers on vacation, and just about everybody else, but the doctors who cope with our health emergencies and fire police rescue and military troops who safeguard our lives on vacation. But we couldn't survive even a month with sales people on vacation. America would be in an impression it would make 29 look like a day at Disney World faster than a mouse click. And a mouse see that's. And the rest of the world would follow us off that cliff like it or not if no sales people sell today, nobody eats by next week. So that paragraph is selling the sales person his own self image and his own self esteem. Why? Because if you leave all that out and just teach selling, you don't have a great information product because it's not going to create bond relationship, et cetera, et cetera. Not only are these good examples, but if you go through these books carefully and it's easier to see it in a book than it is in a multimedia product because if you're less than and you're looking and so forth, if you go through the book carefully, you're not going to find you're hardly ever going to catch me going two pages without some persuasion without some selling. It's not like a page at the back of the book suffices. No, it's interwoven all the way through. And if you get an information product, same thing, you're going to find that the selling is constant and woven all the way through the product. And then the second thing, I think that makes a great information product is that it is about something big, not just its core competency content, but it is about some big ideas. The most enduring entertainment product as well as information product tends to be about big ideas. Who knows who is the of all the comic super heroes, who's lived the longest and made the most money for its owner? Superman, yeah, you're absolutely right. That's absolutely correct. By far. Why? Biggest idea, which they've modified only very recently in a nod to political correctness, but Superman was about three things. Truth, justice, and the American way. Big ideas. Earl Nightingale's product was about lead the field. It's a big idea. Tony's original product, personal power. That's a big idea. And you want to wrap your product in some sort of big idea. Magnetic marketing is about a big idea. It's about no more prospecting. It's about no more chasing, no more pursuit. It's about attracting people rather than hunting people. That's a very big idea. The great information products have wrapped around them and at their core something bigger than 27 ways to sell insurance policy. 27 ways to sell insurance policies are a very good thing if you're an insurance agent. But if you want a really great information product, that's going to be coupled with some sort of very big idea. Also, there are embedded influential ideas. So one is a commitment to a call. Well, I got my head on my stuff here. This thing is commitment to a cause, a mission, or a purpose. So somehow the product has you involved. So who right now is making the most money in publishing? Information, entertainment? Who's number one? Glenn Beck. Think what you wish. I make no political comment. But if you want to study somebody who is pushing product out the door at an incredibly prolific rate, an incredibly large sums of money coming back in the door, it's back. Because every product pushed out the door is about a mission, a purpose, a cause. Consequently, for example, in the book business, interesting staff. If you go look at the New York Times bestseller list, if you go look at the Nielsen book scan list, you're going to find the back books. Everyone I'm skewed to the top. And many of them have great one. the average Glenn Beck list. a listener, a viewer buys eight copies of every book, not one, by one for themselves, seven to proselytize with. Well, that's a big, that's a big multiple. That's a big multiple. And that is like a hard bound $24.95 book. Not by the way, I peed, I mean, a book, you know? This guy is pushin' product because of mission. Bonding with the author guru. Product, great information product, bonds to the individual. There are rules because what people want more than anything else is certainty. The diet that made more money, that broke all records, and has the second greatest longevity in the diet business is Dr. Atkins. And so the original Dr. Atkins, again, he's dead and a big conglomerate owns it, and you know, things have changed. But for the years that Dr. Atkins was promoting Dr. Atkins, the most significant thing about Dr. Atkins was absolutism. No free Fridays, no eat what you want once a week, no exchanging points so you can weasel in a pizza, na-na. Here's what you eat, here's what you don't eat, absolute rules. A version of the 10 Commandments. The think you grow rich is 17, the original book, by the way, was called 17 Laws of Success. Covey 7 Habits of gets close. Everybody's lookin' for the 10 Commandments. He had a fairly long meeting with the CEO of Tupperware, which is, if you don't know it, it's the most successful direct sales company in the world, and they own multiple brands, they own beauty control cosmetics and so forth. It's not about plastic pots. And we were talking about the direct sales business in general, but he went actually to the same point that I have made a number of times. He said there's two things that people don't really understand about this business, and so most companies screw it all up. He said one, and the direct sales industry, by the way, went through a phase not too long ago where they tried to move everything out of the living room and out of the hotel ballroom onto the internet. And it just about destroyed a number of big companies and they all scurried back. And so the first thing that he said is, but a lot of people don't understand is, if you look at every religion since the beginning of time, regardless of what half they wear, robe they wear, God they worship, the one commonality is a meeting at least once a week. And so there's a message there. He said the second thing is they all have a version of 10 Commandments. So it tells you what people really want. Now the first thing I mentioned is hard to deliver by product, but it's easy to deliver, and other means. But the second thing is they want these 10 Commandments. They want a set of rules. So you will find these things, has influential items put into almost every product. The best example of it that's easy for you to find and look at, again, is in a direct marketing book, and it is in a chapter that looks like this. And it's titled The Rules. As an aside, by the way, just as an aside, there's a difference between how we should behave and what we sell to others. So the last thing you want to be doing is roaming around looking for the list of 10 rules. Bad idea. Because of the owl problem in that story. Say most of the people making up the rules are making up the rules for a very specific purpose. To extract money from large numbers of people who want rules. That's the deal. And to think otherwise, that's what sort of gets it a room and figures out a set of rules. And to do it, to extract money from a lot of people who want rules. You want to be on the right side of that cash register. You don't want to be on the wrong side of that cash register. So people are looking for simple answers to complex problems. There are no such things. But if you want to build a great product that will satisfy a lot of them, it's a component part, really that has to be there. And there are some very specific ingredients that you will find in the most successful information products. So one is some sort of a fast start and a small victory. Now again, remember where somebody actually is when they start to use your resource. They were enthused. They're not enthused now. They are feeling buyers remorse. They are snapping back to the person that they were before they made the purchase. You have a very short period of time before you lose them all together. The reason why most product doesn't get used. And you should know, most product does not get used. Most product still has the shrink wrap on it. And it is on a shelf or it is in a closet. And the old days when people listened to all this stuff in their cars, it was under their car seats. If you were ever desperate for an audio cassette program, all you had to do was look under a car seat. That's where it was. So most product never gets used. Here's the reason. It's because of this elapsed time between the enthusiasm of purchase and the attempt to use an implement. And by then they have snapped back to who they are. So if they don't get some quick, quick, victory, sense of victory, when they begin. If they don't get a fast start, they will get no start at all. So something has to happen. Quick. I was talking to Craig Proctor, who I think is here, who is coaching training programs in the real estate industry. Not only number one for many years, but pretty much at the moment, the loan survivor. And we're talking about the program that he sells now. And I said, "So what happens when they buy, when they join?" And he said, "The first call is the next day." They're all forced on to the first call the next day. Well, that's right. I just wanted some years ago for a client the big decal on the outside of the box. Call this toll free number before you do anything else. So we could get them on the phone and talk to them and give them a motivational talk about the product that had just arrived at their door. Without even requiring them to slit open the box to get to the motivational message. If you're not seeing them to slit open the box, we're going to lose a bunch of them before they slit open the box. So you want some sort of activation. You want a fast start, you want a fast victory, and you want some sort of activation that occurs very early in the process. I have a favorite story about that that I was actually going to say for the breakout tomorrow, and then I decided to tell it here because it's so brilliant in its simplicity. So there's an old timer. He's long since leftists. His name was Brainer and Melinger. If you've seen on TV the infomercial for specially merchandise corporation with Tom Bosley as the host, who also just recently left us. And it sells a business opportunity to be in the product business. Well Brainer and those guys competed head to head. And so Brainer had a thing called the International Traders Association. And he put people in the import export business. And it was a combination of business opportunity and home study course. And Brainer was an old direct sales guy, vacuum cleaner sales guy, which you can take him out of the vac business. But you can't take the vacuum in it. You saw the guy. You knew white belt, white shoes, surfs, or suit. And Brainer was a simplistic, his could be. But I ask him one time how bad his refund rate was because he's selling a home study course. business opportunity about how to be in the import export business to the great unwashed masses. And I know that between the time that they ordered that and the time that it arrives at their door by UPS seven days later, 98% of them have talked themselves, you know. And then the rest of them will talk themselves out of it pretty quickly as they slip open the box. He said, "We cut it in half by making sure that we deliver to everybody the day before their whole package arrives. They're 500 personalized business cards with the international traders logo on it and their name and their title has, which I forget now, you know, certified import export, consultant, whatever." He said, "Because as soon as they got the business cards, they ran around and gave business cards to 8 or 10 or 12 of their friends and relatives because they were still excited about this new status in life and now that they did that, they really didn't want to back out. They had activated their business, whether they ever did anything in it or not, cut the refund rate in half." And I would suggest you had also increased the number who actually did something with the thing that they bought. So he figured out this activation. Weight watchers had the buddy system, right? And so originally, when Jean-Night attack built the Weight Watchers company, they really leaned on every new person as soon as they joined to get a weight loss buddy and bring them to the next meeting, which occurred the same week, that they joined. Why? Because once you've involved somebody else, how do you gracefully exit leaving the person you involved behind? So this activation thing, getting them to do something that obligates them, that gets them more involved, more engaged, has quickly as is possible. This is, I'm going to show you. So here was in magnetic marketing. This is from the original magnetic marketing system. Let me show you this first because we already talked about this. So this was almost at the very beginning of the notebook. And it's really a stickler. It's a resells the product that they already bought. It is not modest in its promise how magnetic marketing will change your business life forever. It is four pages long and it resells them on what they bought. Activation was a thing that looks like this that allows them to send something in for critique. Now many of you have seen this. Here's something interesting you should know about it. The logical, the smart, the same thing to do with these and there were three of them, two of them, excuse me. There was also this free marketing challenge consultation so they can write out a question and send it in. The intelligent thing to do with this is of course bank it until you've actually used something in the kit and put together something that would be worth having critiqued. You should know that 90% of the redemption was not that. It is not that. They send something in instantly that they already have which is awful. They don't do any work in order to send something in that it would be useful to critique. They grab the first thing they have laying around and they attach it to the critique certificate and they send it in. From my standpoint two pieces of good news about that one critiques are easy because it's awful. Nothing's easier to critique than crap. It's something good that you have to do a little work at. Secondly it did what it was supposed to do. Immediate use. Immediate involvement. Immediate activation. There's also a roadmap how this kit is organized. There are templates I'm not going to show those to you. At second important component part then is what is going to make the product stick. The best stick letters whether they are audio, video, print, all of those things combined whether they are integrated in the product, whether they are sent separately, the best stick letters follow the Halbert format which is congratulations because you bought this, you're smart, you're superior human being, you're good looking to and here's all the wonderful stuff that's going to happen to you and PS, since you were so smart to buy this, here's something else you might like. Because the best time to sell the second thing is when they're enthralled with the first thing which is usually before they actually are required to do any work. So it's congratulations, promises, proof, some testimonials, everything you can do to preempt them quitting and understand they are on the verge of quitting. Has they look at the product they bought from you for the very first time? Again the titles, so this was, I don't think you're going to be able to read them, but the one with all the small print over here, tape one, here's the title. Your guided tour to extraordinary success, applying magnetic marketing to your product service or business, Dan takes you through all the exhibits, documents and resources. So what this tape was, you talked to page by page section by section, so you didn't get lost because the number one reason why people bail out of an information product is, they don't know what to do with it. Number one question is, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do first. Now as an aside, don't confuse what should be your behavior with what you sell because the last thing we should be looking for is sequential step by step, nicely neatly organized activity. That's actually not how you get rich. You get rich through simultaneous messy activity. But what they want is to be told, start here, move here, then move your game piece here, and recite, so that's what they want, which is what you must give them. Thank you for listening to the magnetic marketing podcast with Dan Kennedy. If you love hearing you on these lost Dan Kennedy talks and speeches and calls, then please let someone else know about this podcast. That's how you can help it to grow. And the more it grows, the more free Dan Kennedy we can bring to you. Also, Dan would love to give you the most incredible free gift ever designed to help you make maximum money in minimum time. This free gift comes with almost $20,000 in pure money making information for free just for saying maybe. You can get this gift from Dan right now at nobsletter.com. Not only we give a $20,000 gift, you also need a subscription to two marketing newsletters that will be hand delivered by the mailman to your mailbox each and every month, one from Dan Kennedy and one from me, Russell Brunson. To get this gift in your subscription, go to nobsletter.com right now.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. A great info product is measured by more than just sales; key criteria include longevity, how well it develops customers, and its overall influence.
  2. Out of roughly 500 products created, only about 10 have met all criteria for a "great" product, showing that such assets are rare.
  3. The primary purpose of an info product is not just an exchange for money, but a tool for building "customers for life" and developing a loyal "herd."
  4. Great products serve multiple purposes
  5. Embedding philosophy is crucial; without aligning the customer's belief system, the likelihood of them following through on instruction drops significantly.
  6. Products must counteract the "elapsed time" between purchase and first use, during which buyer enthusiasm typically evaporates.

Summary:

In this episode, Dan Kennedy explores what transforms an ordinary info product into a multi-million dollar asset. He argues that true greatness is not measured solely by immediate sales revenue. Instead, he proposes four key criteria: sales volume, longevity (how long the product remains viable), customer development (how well it attracts and trains good customers), and overall influence.

Kennedy notes that out of the approximately 500 products he has created, only about 10—like his "NoBS Marketing Letter" and "Magnetic Marketing"—meet all these standards. He emphasizes that the real purpose of an info product is not merely a transaction but a relationship development tool. The asset value, he explains, transfers from the product itself to the "herd" of loyal customers.

Great products serve multiple functions: they persuade, resell the product to reignite buyer enthusiasm after the purchase, sell important concepts and a specific philosophy, frame the content as an opportunity, and crucially, sell the reader on themselves. This last point is vital because buyers often lose confidence between purchase and first use. By embedding persuasive elements and philosophy throughout, a product can overcome buyer's remorse and build a lasting, valuable customer base.

FAQs

Dan Kennedy measures a great info product by sales and revenue, longevity, how well it develops good customers, and its overall impact and influence.

Longevity ensures the product remains valuable as an asset over years, rather than fading quickly after a short launch, providing sustained income and customer development.

The real purpose is not just to exchange for money, but to serve as a relationship development tool that funnels customers into a herd, building equity and long-term assets.

It functions like a sales letter, reselling the product to rekindle enthusiasm after the elapsed time between purchase and use, and selling concepts, philosophy, and opportunity.

It helps overcome the buyer's self-doubt and negative environment that return after purchase, convincing them this time will be different and they are right to follow through.

Magnetic Marketing, which started as the Small Business Emergency Survival System, has sold over $65 million directly, lasted 14 years, and remains evergreen.

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