An Open Letter To Marketers Who Create Their Own Products

I'm going to have to file this under "Rants" because that is just what this is going to be. As I stated, this is an open letter to anyone who has created their own product and is competing with thousands of others in the marketplace.

First off, STOP WASTING MY TIME!!!

Those of us in affiliate marketing, whether new or well seasoned, have our inboxes slammed daily with new offers, products, etc. I am always open to hearing about new innovative ideas, techniques and strategies. This is how those of us who earn incomes from affiliate marketing learn and grow. You have to embrace change and be ready to implement the things you hear about or you end up getting left behind.

That being said, I want to know exactly why you people feel the need to create mile long sales letters and videos that quite honestly, don't contain much information. Sure, there will be some suckers who might hang on every word, but I know I can speak for the majority when I tell you that if your product is really that good, then it shouldn't take you 15-30 minutes to attempt to pre-sell it. Seriously!

These techniques might have worked for you several years ago, but the internet has changed and the people looking at your offers have changed. You all know that "instant information" is the name of the game these days so why are you not using this to your advantage? The people you are marketing to no longer want to see the fluff and stuff you fill your sales letters and videos with.

Here is a general outline of what we want to see:

• The name of your product and a maybe a quick sub-headline of what it is
• If you include background information about yourself, condense the information down to 2-3 paragraphs - no more. Trust me, you can do this. No one wants to read a full 17" screen of information or watch 10 minutes of video only about yourself. If your product/software is as good as you are about to tell us, we don't need a ten year time line of your accomplishments/bragging rights. Seriously.
• Fill the need. Tell us what the product is, quickly list its features or benefits and briefly how it is better than what may be already out there.
• It's fine to include testimonials, but make sure they are from someone who has actually used the product. Someone you gave or sold a copy to and has actually used it. Otherwise, leave them out until a few months have passed. We already have your "proof".
• Tell us the price and give us an order button.

That's it. Keep it simple. Your customers and visitors are a lot more savvy than what you think. If you feel you have to keep filling your sales page or video with fluff in order to try and sell it, then my guess is that your product is no where near as good as you are trying to make us believe. Even if it is that good and you are making sales, it doesn't necessarily mean it is because of your extended pitch. 98% of the people I talk to scroll through the fluff and don't read it anyway. The majority of us will only read your bullet points and your description/proof of how it fills the need. We then scroll to the order button or click away from the page. Others who buy it have more than likely already been pre-sold on it and won't read your sales page at all.

Believe me, if your product is any good, word will get out and you will see sales like you never dreamed. The fluff, filler, etc. is NOT needed.

Which brings me to my second point - DON'T WASTE MY TIME INSIDE THE PRODUCT EITHER!

If we have spent our hard earned money with you, don't waste our time with fluff inside of the product. Thank us for purchasing and then tell us what we need to know to either use the product or implement the system. Give us all the how to's and how we can use it to fill our need. Nothing makes me more mad than to either buy an ebook or video series and see that the 100 page pdf could have been condensed into 40-50 pages or that I really only needed to watch 3 of the 10 videos because the first 7 were all about you. That or you were only able to take away one usable piece of information from each of the 10.

What prompted this post is the fact that I had an email in my inbox this morning from someone I used to respect about the release of his new product. You cannot get to the primary sales page without watching an 18 minute video where he actually reveals NOTHING about the system. (Well, if your a seasoned pro, you can figure out some of the system he's come up with) But the majority of the video talked about absolutely nothing. Then, once you've watched the video, you have to opt-in in order to even get to the sales page. Once you're there, all it does is rehash what was in the video which was basically.....nothing. He wanted to send me a review copy, give me time to implement the system and then give him a testimonial. I told him in no certain circumstances that unless he changed his selling process that there was no way I even wanted to look at it. I don't want my name associated with anything like that nor would I feel good about telling others about it. At this point, I don't care how good it might be.

The bottom line is keep it simple and get to the point. Gone are the days of the time wasters who spend hours pouring over sales letters, watching videos, etc. and you'll do nothing but make your customers angry if you have a lot of filler content on the inside. Tell us how your product fills our need, show us what it did for you and then get straight to the point once we've purchased it. If you can't do that, then maybe you shouldn't release it at all.

If you are an affiliate marketer who agrees with me here, please take a moment to Digg this, Stumble It, Tweet It, Sphinn It, or whatever social media you use and let's show these people we're serious! Then if you have a marketing blog yourself, go make a post about it as well. Send me a trackback, leave a comment or just contact me with your post and I'll come to your site and do the same. It's way past time for a fresh approach to sales and product launches.