I’ll start this on a sidenote. A very common marketing strategy is to have headlines, subject lines, etc that tie into mystery or shock. This blog post uses one of them. That ol’ standby that I can’t stand…
…”The Death of…” headline. I guess it’s a little test and a little wink from me to those ridiculous “death of” headlines you’ve probably seen in the past 2 years or so.
Death of salesletters, Death of article marketing, Death of email marketing, etc.
As far as The Death of Product Launches geared toward the “how to make money online” market, it seems the conversion numbers for high ticket product launches are very bad lately. There is no other way to put it.
I received an email from Kelly F of BringtheFresh.com this morning where he talks about the failure of 2 very high profile product launches.
This was a great email for people to read because it gives hard numbers. I really think people benefit from seeing real hard numbers because they can judge themselves against something.
People may be doing perfectly fine with their own conversion rates, but because of some pre-conceived idea they have or picked up after reading some hype online, they feel their efforts are just not cutting it. This can lead to them junking something that is actually working well instead of just ramping up what they are already doing.
Anyway, he mentioned in the email that his promotion efforts to his list, at making affiliate sales on this latest product launch, has produced a whopping 2 sales.
I don’t know for sure how many people are on his list, but I’m sure it’s quite high. Well into 5 figures. But, even if you assume there are only 10,000 people on his list. 2 sales from 10,000 people is a horrible conversion rate.
.02%
This from a seasoned marketer.
But, he goes on to tell us that he is in the top 10 affiliates for this product launch. Read that carefully and think about it.
Very big names in the “how to make money online” market who have 6 figure lists have only sold 1 or 2 copies.
Kelly also mentioned another recent product launch, Eben Pagan’s Self Made Wealth. This latest high ticket launch was not pulling very well either. This was the second place I read about the low numbers for that launch. It seems only 19 affiliate sales was the top getter.
This totally contradicts the HUGE numbers you read about as far as earnings from the big names from their launches. You know, like… in the millions of dollars for a single launch and high 6 figure earnings in only a few hours, and selling out in 3 hours etc.
That’s why I titled this post “The Death of Product Launches”.
As far as I can tell, there are 4 main possibilities why this is happening.
1 – These are products that the market just does not want
2 – The market is getting sick of very high ticket items
3 – The people marketing these products don’t know how to market
4 – The Universal List is saturated
Reason 1 and 2 are pretty self explanatory. It is possible that people on the lists of the “how to make money online” guru’s just didn’t want these products. Even if they praised the people who created them…said they were excited about them…said they were pumped when they viewed the free content…left comments about how they couldn’t wait for the product…when push came to shove and it was time to hand over money for the product, they just didn’t really want them.
I put reason #3 in there as a tongue in cheek possibility, but there may be a little more truth to it if you think about it.
Many people in the “how to make money online” market are only in that one market. They really have had no experience or success in another market and when push comes to shove, they really are not experts in marketing. They have attached themselves at the right time to a wave that may just be crashing now.
This leads into reason #4
The way most big names in the “how to make money online” market get their message out is by email. How do they build their lists? They rely on joint venture partners who basically exchange lists between each other by emailing their own lists to go optin and join their partners list so they can view that persons free content.
Do this enough times and everyone’s individual list will eventually merge into 1 universal list that is used by most big name people in the “how to make money online” market. Everyone has the same people on their list.
That person can be receiving over 20 emails a day promoting the same product.
The “universal” list starts to become saturated as not enough new leads are added and thus sales start to decline.
I’ve had experience with this myself. If you have a list that is not adding new leads, eventually that list will become stale.
When you split your original list into buyers and non buyers, the buyers will have already bought everything they want to. The same list of buyers can’t keep buying $2000 items over and over.
Your second list becomes the left over non buying freebie seekers. The freebie seekers will most likely never buy which makes that list almost worthless.
The returns from using the same list decrease. Especially when the same list is being pitched very high ticket items multiple times per month (or at least that’s how it seems without checking the hard numbers on that.)
I suspect big changes are in the horizon. I also suspect that, like always, fundamentals will come back into play and things that seemed “old news” as far as “how to sell online” will suddenly become popular again.
Let me know what you think by commenting on this post. And, if you like it, “Tweet it”, “Like it” and do that social media sharing thing.
Sincerely,
Ethan Semmel
Maybe they’re just fed up of getting pitched at all the time, I took great delight in unsubscribing from about 25 of them today. I don’t sign up to many lists at all these days, yet my email inbox is full of nonsense some days. I’m sure some of these people pass around email addresses also. Interesting read though, very interesting.
It could be combination of all of the factors listed that cause these to lauches to fail. I believe the biggest downfall of this niche will be the people offering the high ticket items that do not deliver. People might buy 1 high price course or product, if lucky, and just ignore the other 15-20 that they are getting bombarded with. I wish the creators of these high price items would realise that if you will get more sales if you put put out a reasonably price high quality product.
Dwight. I haven’t bought the products I talk about so I can’t comment on their quality. But, I’m actually assuming they are very good products. I think the decreasing success relates to the 4 reasons I listed in the post. Of course if people feel they did not get value out of one high ticket item, they may be hesitant to buy again.
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Another reason might be the negative publicity that has been generated about the so called ‘Syndicate’ marketers (Frank Kern, Eben Pagen, Mike Koenigs, etc).
There is a lot of bad press about these guys (not here to comment on the true or false of that) recently – maybe that has deterred people who might have thought about purchasing.
Paul
Paul,
I suppose negative press will hurt sales. I tend to think the people who read the bad press websites and pile on with comments weren’t going to buy them anyway, but I could be wrong.
Follow me – @ethansemmel on twitter
Hi there, I got this link from your sig file on WF – thanks for sharing this. I know that I get a lot of emails on the same day from different “high level” marketers who are all promoting the same product – Eban’s was a classic example of that. If you get six emails from six different people on the same day, about the same product, and you already know you are not going to invest $2000 grand in it, then you just keep hitting the delete key.
Personally while I love Eban’s stuff, for now he is out of my price bracket and the Self Made Wealth (IMHO) was too vague and not targeted to IMer’s – unlike other more focused coaching courses that have been on offer over the past six months.
I am off to take a closer look at your blog, you seem to have some good stuff here
Ellen
Hi Ellen, thanks for taking the time to write. Your comment about Eban’s product being too vague is interesting and it goes to #1 in the reasons I listed in the post.
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Ethan,
remember that Eben is a different kind of game. He sells ‘make money’ products, but not especially to the ‘internet marketing’ market as you know it.
There’s a very big market out there that wouldn’t touch things like the Warrior Forum with a 10-feet pole. They’re guys going to Dan Kennedy’s and Jay Abraham $5000+ events where you’re only admitted when you do at least $10M a year.
Or guys that have previously bought the works from Paul Scheele or attended a $3995 seminar from CoachU.
I think a lot of the ‘top guru’ product launches like Eben’s are aimed at those people. Not at the IM market per se.
That’s an interesting point Dave. That would kind of fit with #1 from my post – The people on email lists that were promoted to about that last launch of his, simply didn’t want that product as much.
And sure, when you are selling a $2000 product, that many times includes a live even that you have to travel to, obviously the target market is smaller and more exclusive
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Don’t forget that even if those high ticket are posted as sold out, many of them have high refund rate. I think you are right and believe the most possible explanation are reasons 2 and 4. It is an end of an era, every gold rush will come to an end. Unless the product is really really good quality that actually show a working method to earn money and not some theory or outdated one, the trend will move this way.
Ethan,
Great post, I’ve been closely monitoring the recent big ticket launch, I’ve head that a few people who promoted have lots of unsubscribes from their lists and no sales. I’ve also been told that on a few of the previous launches there have been refund rates in excess of 60%.
On the other hand given Kelly’s past endevours, it’s a bit rich moaning that he promoted a product and only made $2700 (2 sales). Why didn’t he come and say all this BEFORE the launch?
Although thats not as bad as the marketer who sent an email pointing out all the problems and misrepresentations in the sales process .. then added an affiliate link in the email
I actually wrote my take on this launch last week on my blog seems I hit a nerve with my comments!
http://mjthompson.net/680/internet-marketers-how-much-is-your-soul-worth/
Hi Mark – Actually, I liked that Kelly’s email said straight out “That didn’t work” and he gave hard numbers on his affiliate sales. Not to mention other big names in the top 10 affiliates for this launch. That’s something I can’t remember ever seeing. I see it as if he is telling people of a test result.
As far as the other marketer (Paul), I actually appreciated the way he gave his link. He talked about what he felt were misrepresentations in the promotion of the product from an affiliate and did say that this product is not for everyone. But, he did say he likes the product itself. Which of course leads to the assumption that he already has seen the content (Which I will assume is true).
So then he gave you his bonus if you still want to purchase it for through his link. I kind of wish more people would say similar things instead of just saying things like “This is the best thing ever, never seen anything like it, etc.”
Actually I had no idea that the price was $2700 until you pointed it out. I just assumed it was the standard $1997.
Follow me – @ethansemmel on twitter
Found this via your post at the warrior forum, and I have to totally agree with you.
I bought 1 high end $2k course and it turns out I already knew everything in it. Now the reason I bought was to get a bonus from the affiliate I went through, and the fact I knew it is typically of my personality type where I just can’t be arsed to do hard work.
Anyway here’s to more value for less money.
Andrew
Hi Andrew – thanks for writing.
Nothing wrong with buying to get a bonus. And sometimes you learn that you know more than you think
You could try going back over it and see if you pick up anything new – even a little tidbit, or there is always the option of asking for a refund. Of coure just about all of the high ticket items seem to come with an event. If you do make connections there (if you do go to it) that could be worth the high price in itself.
But I did find it interesting what Mark pointed out. The price of this last launch was even higher than most high ticket launches. That really hits #’s 1, 2 and 4 in my post.
Follow me – @ethansemmel on Twitter
Ethan,
You present some valid points. I’m somewhat new to the game, but, not a newbie, so to speak. I have 20+ years in sales, marketing, and running a business. That has nothing to do with my talent, more to do with age.
The Internet can create an illusion due to it’s sheer vastness and continuous exponential growth. Nevertheless, the need to constantly expand ones prospect and customer base is a constant in business, whether Internet or elsewhere. Your observation concerning marketing experience only via the Internet is perceptive.
For a time, when I first was crossing the threshold from my previous business life to IM, it took me awhile to plug back in to the fundamentals that have always made me and others successful. First, I abandoned the notion that I am in the Internet Marketing business. No other industry comes to mind that seeks to define itself by the marketing channel that it uses. So I changed my mindset. I am in the Information and consulting business. One that mind shift occurred, I began to seek out a more comprehensive approach to marketing.
This year, I plan on releasing a number of new products and services. Our marketing strategy is more comprehensive than we planned at the outset because we forgot who we were and from whence we came. In my prior business life, we attempted to reach prospects in a variety of ways.
Why are we focusing on a variety of marketing channels? You hit the nail on the head with point 4. We are all fishing in the same pond. Someone has to go to the fish hatchery and restock. That is what we are doing. The average person on the street has no idea what is going on in our subculture. We need to go out into the 3D world and spread the word. People are hurting and need real strategies to improve their lives right now.
And out there, there aren’t 19 other marketers trying to reach them with the same message. Keep this quiet. Come out there with me, but let’s keep it a lonely marketer’s dream. Have a great week.
Greg
In the end, the consumer holds the real power. If these trends are true and continue then these people will have no choice but change the way they create and market products.
Alan
I will say that cause of the RE-HASHED products, people are fed up from all these things. Or maybe information is overloaded that’s why they are confuse about what to do and what not to do. Or what to buy & what not to buy. And all this happened cause of the more and more competition now a days. So, the gurus are giving MORE and more hype in their re-hashed products and when people or even their lists buy they got disappointed from what they were hoping. Hope you guys understand what I am talking all about.
Jawad