Such a thing as bait overload?

As ebook publishers we constantly strive to develop new information products that we
hope people will find value in, open up their wallets and graciously hand over their hard
earned dollars to us in their hope of learning something new or finding an immediate
solution to fix whatever problems they may be experiencing at that moment in their life. I
call this a hunger for curable knowledge, a fixer upper of sorts. It is often a battle for
many of us to decide on a realistic price that we believe the potential customer will
perceive as fair value. We all know, at times, this can be a painstaking task. We bounce
back and forth between prices, testing out the waters, trying to find just the acceptable
price range to motivate the visitor to make that all important decision. It’s easier said
than done. As marketers we have the temptation of offering bonuses as a way to increase
the perception that this info product we worked hard to develop is actually worth the
price were asking. But when does this strategy reach the plateau of overkill? To the
point where offering so many extra bonuses to entice the visitor to buy at the price of
$27.00, instead are we not actually implanting the emotion of doubt in our visitors mind?
Another difficult question to answer. As we all try our best to try and put ourselves in
our customers shoes, to try and figure out what their thinking when they see our offer, but
were not all psychic. Could our customers be thinking “If the author is offering this
many bonus ebooks in his or her offer to entice me to buy this one ebook is the
information in that ebook really worth the price?”. Then there’s alway’s the argument
that adding many bonuses to an existing offer definitely increases the chances for a sale.
Raises the perceived value of course! I agree that this type of marketing does work, but
only when applied to a book that we are asking a much higher price for, such as $97.00.
Asking people to fork out that kind of cash can be pretty risky simply because many
people can’t afford the asking price, or figure it’s not worth it. Whatever information
that is contained in that ebook had better be hard to come by information or the
percentage of refund requests could be high. To avoid this potential downfall is when
offering bonuses should come into play. But the bottom line is this, if the information
contained in the ebook your offering is truly valuable why bother offering a bunch of
bonuses in the first place, possibly risking making your prospect suspicious? Not
everyone perceives the same way. If they take the risk (and a lot of people who purchase
online feel they do take risks when making a purchase) and buy your info product
without any bonuses and like what they read, as long as it helped them, most of the time
they won’t ask for a refund, and you’ve made a sale and everyone’s happy. Long
extended no questions asked money back guarantees can be a great way of putting your
prospects fears at ease, but sometimes it can backfire to. But even more importantly than
offering bonuses, 1 year money back guarantees and all the rest, it’s absolutely critical
and probably the most important part of closing a sale is to have your contact information
in plain view on your site. A place they can call and to talk to a “real person” before
deciding to buy, and a physical address, not a P.O. Box. More often than not that’s all
that’s required besides good ad copy, but I see many sites in my web surfing adventures who fall short on
providing that information. As a customer would I buy from them...not a chance.