Video 8 - How To Package Your Special Report For Mega-Success Now that you’ve created the actual content for your sub-niche info product, you’ll want to get it ready to sell by putting on a few finishing touches. So, let’s spend some time talking about some ancillary things you need to focus on – primarily “packaging” and “pricing.” We'll talk about pricing in the next module. First up, let’s look at “packaging”… Part 1: PACKAGING When it comes to “packaging” your special report, there are two basic things you want to address: the “contents” and the “cosmetics”. For the recommended contents there are other “pages” that are needed in order to complete its construction. These additional content pages aren't mandatory, but I do recommend that you include them. In order of appearance within your finished report, these pages are… (1) Title page. This typically will include the title of your report, any subtitle, your name as author and possibly your website address, contact information and any graphics you might want to include. (2) Legal page. This necessary page of your special report would include copyright information, disclaimers, terms of usage and any extra special disclosures or instructions you might have. (3) Author page. You should always include a page about yourself in your special report for a couple of solid reasons: it allows your readers to identify with you, thus establishing a “trust” relationship; it allows you to inform the reader of other resources you may offer such as your newsletter, other reports and products, web site, etc. The other thing that I like to do, instead of creating a separate Author page, is to just include a few paragraphs at the beginning of the report to explain who I am and why I wrote the report. Also, I like to include a paragraph that explains that I'm not a real "writer" and that I wrote the report myself. This helps cover you if your report has a lot of misspellings and grammatical errors. I feel like it helps lower refunds too. Here is an example of what I'm talking about: One thing before we get started, I want to point out that I wrote this book myself and that I’m not a real “writer.” So, there may be some (or a lot of) misspellings and grammatical errors contained in this report. So please don’t send me emails pointing them out. What’s important is what I reveal below. It is what actually happened and it’s how I trained my Golden Retriever to stop peeing on my carpet. So don’t focus on the writing … focus on the content! -Another page I like to include is the Special Offer page. And this is why it's a great idea to create more than one product in a single sub-niche. You can cross-sell these products to the same customers. I try and devote a separate page – up front after my author page, or sometimes at the end of the product, like you'll see in the case study example product I provide – to making some kind of special offer to the reader. Three of my favorite ways to use this “special offer” page are... DISCOUNT on a related offer. That is, I would mention a product (like one of your other sub-niche products) or other service if you don't have any other products in that niche. Specifically, I would offer a one-time discount for this additional purchase since they had already made a purchase. So you could offer a 50% discount off one or more of your other sub-niche products. If you don't have any additional products in this sub-niche you could use this page to promote a product as an affiliate. - DEAL for a related offer. That is, I would mention some free incentive that I’ll give them as an extra bonus should they purchase an additional featured product or service related to the content of the report they are viewing. This broadens my possibilities in that I can not only mention an offer of my own, but can also promote an affiliate program if I want to do so. - DEADLINE for a related offer. That is, I would mention a product or service that has a deadline or some kind of limit imposed upon it to create a sense of urgency for the reader to buy. Again, this additional “special offer” would be related to information contained in the report the reader is currently viewing. This time, the additional offer would be available “only for the first 25 who buy” or “only for 72 hours after your original purchase date” or some other similar restriction. Now, this obviously depends on how many products you've created in the niche. If you're working on your first product you don't have to have a special offer. If you don't plan on expanding in the niche you don't need to have a special offer. Another page I like to include is the Table of contents. (Optional) Typically, if you have a short report, let’s say 7 pages, you wouldn’t really need a table of contents. Only use a table of contents if your report is 25-30 pages and has distinct chapter separations that are worth noting in advance. The report. Next comes the report itself. As we’ve talked about previously, this would be, on average, 7-20 pages in length, with a maximum of 50 pages. After your featured information, there is one final element to the “contents” of your special report... The backend page. There should always be some kind of “backend” offer at the conclusion of your special report. This can be something as blatant as a full-blown advertisement for a high-ticket product or something as subtle as a brief listing of your other special reports available for purchase. These products could include reports, ebooks, membership sites, videos, physical products, services, coaching, workshops, and similar items. You can also include affiliate offers as well. How many "backend" offers should you make? What I consider to be a minimum is a list of about 3-4 “recommend resources” that are related to the content of your special report. These can either be your own related offers or those you promote as an affiliate. Example: If your special report consists of “Ten Keys To Homeschooling Success”, you might list additional “recommended resources” at the conclusion of your report like... Time Management for Homeschoolers The Beginner’s Guide to Homeschooling 101 Ready-Made Lesson Plans for Homeschoolers Here's a handy hint: Look for recommended resources that have a “freebie” available at their main sales page, such as a free report, newsletter or tutorials. This will allow you to add more value to your own report, provide a service to your customer, generate more interest and response, and ultimately get more readers to the additional sales pages where you earn commissions on purchases made. You can also use affiliate promotions or CPA. Just make sure whatever you promote is quality. If you send your customers to a crappy promotion they won’t be happy with you. Regardless of whether you choose to include a subtle list of resources or a direct advertisement for a product, the key to success is to make sure the offer is tightly related to your short report. Indeed, your short report can’t possibly cover every aspect of some problem, so your backend offer should be the next logical step for your readers. Let me give you an example. Let’s suppose your short report teaches men how to eat raw foods to lose weight. Your backend offer might be one of the following: An advanced dieting product which includes exercise tips, an advanced nutrition program and advice about raw food diet aids and supplements. Membership for a raw food weight-loss support site. Subscription to a raw food meal-planning site. A physical product to help them lose weight, such as prepackaged food, vitamins or other diet supplements, or exercise equipment. Again, the idea is that your backend offer should give your readers another step or solution to their overall problem. Now, you might be tempted to recommend a whole bunch of related resources that your readers can use to solve their problems. However, if you give your readers too many options, they’ll feel overwhelmed… and it’s less likely that they’ll click on any of them. What’s more, if the back of your 7-20 page report is full of several pages of advertisements, your reader is going to feel “ripped off.” They’re going to feel like they paid good money in order to read a promotion. It doesn’t even matter if your short report solved their problems and gave them good advice. It’s their perception that matters. If they see several pages of ads, they may feel a bit “cheated.” So, what you need to do is pick out from one to four good products to advertise in the back of your report. In order to make this strategy as effective as possible, follow these tips: Tell your readers why this resource is valuable to them. Don’t just list the name of the resource and assume that your readers will click on it and/or understand why they should give it. Instead, take them by the hand and specifically tell them three or four of the top benefits of this particular product. Example: “Now that you just learned how to use content to quickly grow your business, your next step is to start creating this content. Problem is, writing a lot of content takes a lot of work—seems like you spend more time staring at a blank screen. And hiring a ghostwriter to create it for you is extremely expensive. The good news is that now you too can create content quickly and easily using the ContentCreationMonkey.com package. This package includes dozens upon dozens of “plug and play” templates, examples and tips to help you create content faster and easier than ever. You’ll get templates for blog posts, articles, emails, sales letters and much more. No matter what kind of content you need to create, www.contentcreationmonkey.com is your quick and easy solution for generating high-quality content on a budget.” * By the way Contentcreationmonkey.com doesn't exist (I just made it up). Give them a clear call to action with a reason to buy now. After you list the benefits of the offer, you need to specifically tell your readers what you’d like them to do (click on the link and buy the product) – and give them a good reason to do it now. Example: “Listen, if you need to create content, then you need Contentcreationmonkey.com. There’s no better way to create content quickly and easily. Never again will writer’s block or poor writing skills keep you from creating the content you need. Check it out for yourself right now by going to www.contentcreationmonkey.com – and do it now while you can still get it at a great price! One last tip before I leave the topic of backend products… Ideally what you want to do is to choose offers that not only help your prospects the most, but also those that put the most money in your pocket. To that end, you may want to do some testing to see which offers your prospects respond to the best. You can do this by creating two versions of the report, one which promotes “Product A” and the other promotes “Product B” on the last page. Half of your short-report customers will get the first version and the other half of your customers will get the second version of this report. You can then use a tracking tool (like Google Analytics) to see which links get the most clicks and which product makes the most profit. Once you’ve determined this, then you can have all your customers download the version of the report that creates the most profits for you. So, those are the chief things you’ll want to include in packaging your special report as far as the “contents” are concerned. What about the “cosmetics”? Let’s talk about that for a few minutes... Cosmetics: We’ve talked about WHAT to include in your special report. Now, let’s turn our attention to HOW you should include those things. In other words, how do these materials LOOK? Appearance is important. Very important. There’s a big difference between something scribbled in crayons and something etched in calligraphy. While we aren’t striving for a work of art here, it is our aim to create something aesthetically pleasing rather than something that proves to be an eyesore. So, let me briefly mention 8 things you’ll want to do in order to sharpen the appearance of your special report as you finish up “packaging” the materials… (1) Header and Footer. The layout of your content pages begins with a “header and footer”. These appear on every page of your special report, with the exception of your title page (page one). Not surprisingly, the “header” appears at the very top of the page and the “footer” appears at the bottom of the page. Example Header: An example “header” could be the title of your report in boldface style, with a horizontal line beneath it to separate it from the remainder of the page. Example Footer: An example of a footer could be copyright information to the left, a website address to the right and the page number in the middle. Additionally, there could be a horizontal line above the text to separate it from the remainder of the page. (2)Margins. I have observed some marked differences in the size of margins in the many years I’ve been reading information products. Some blatantly use 1.5”-2.0” margins in an attempt to produce “more pages” with the same amount of text. These same folks use 20 point text for the same purpose. Resist the temptation to join them. You don’t need to attempt any sleight of hand tactics – which are quite obvious, by the way – to “pad” your length. It’s not quantity we’re after in special reports, it’s quality. I recommend .75” margins with additional space at the top and bottom for your header and footer. (3) Fonts. There are a lot of well-used fonts that you can choose from in creating your special report. Some of the more prevalent are Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial, Courier, Tahoma and Verdana. To be completely honest, I don’t have a preferred font that I use. Any of these I’ve mentioned work well. What I don’t recommend is trying to get cute by using some of the fancier fonts you’ll find in your word processor. While it may look nice at first, many other fonts become difficult to read after a period of time and could detract from your work. Note: One thing you can do is use THREE different fonts in your special report. One for boldface, larger headlines. (Such as Tahoma). Another for the main bulk of your content. (Such as Verdana) And a third one for isolating special text to make it stand out. (Such as Courier) I do this repeatedly throughout my reports. (4) Headlines. When you arrive at new chapters, distinctions, listings or any other kind of “separation / divider” in your special report, re-focus your readers attention by using boldface, larger text headlines. I generally use 18 point Tahoma in bold style. This serves a dual purpose: firstly, to separate key sections and thoughts from the remainder of the text; secondly, to add another design element to the appearance of the text. (5) Indentions and Boxes. Indentions and boxes are two more nice “cosmetics” you can use to improve the flow of reading and add another dimension to your report’s layout. I recommend that you use indentions and boxes to separate key thoughts, create bullet lists, define words and expressions, provide case studies, give a closer look, make a recommendation, offer an example and any other way you may want to provide additional details. (6) Styles. One of the most commonly used design elements of your special report should be font “styles” such as italics, bold and underline. These are especially useful in creating distinctions and placing emphasis on important points or inflections. Please note that the numbering and type of cosmetic in this list of packaging ideas is highlighted in a font style. And, please further note that I just drew your attention to the words “numbering”, “and” and “type of cosmetic” in the previous sentence by using font styles. Very effective in streamlining your content and getting your point across in important spots. (7) Colors | Highlights. While I don’t change colors of the fonts I use very often, there are times when using an additional color such as red or blue can be useful – especially if you’re wanting to draw special attention to a point you’re making. Another option is to highlight your text in order to make it significantly stand out. If you’re going to highlight, I’d recommend that you use a yellow background with a boldface text. (8) Graphics | Screenshots | Photographs. Finally, I want to mention that there will be times when you’ll want to use graphics, screenshots and photographs in your special report. I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to these two special agents of design: use them when they are helpful or needed. If you’re writing a tutorial for using a software program, then screenshots of the application’s interface would be helpful, thus making them a good idea. If you’re writing a report on weight loss and want to include “before and after” photographs to prove your results and/or motivate the reader,then that’s a suitable use. If you’re wanting to insert some animated graphic of a clock because you happened to mention a clock in the paragraph, that’s not necessarily the best use of your space. Okay, that's it for this video. In the next video we will discuss how you should price your special reports. See you there.