B3-CH38 – The Secret of “Extended Product”

From a marketing point of view, a “product” is not merely the thing or service you’re selling that “one time,” but rather an “ongoing set” of follow-up products and services (product cycle), spaced over time and backed by relevant content. They may be related to each other (preferably), or not.

For example, consider this “extended product” example of a “Mushroom Picker’s Bible”:

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1. Your prospect opts in to get your free report about “best spots for mushroom picking in 2014”
2. The report and the rest of your site do a good job and now your prospect decides to purchase the “Mushroom Picker’s Bible” from you
3. Once he receives it, you want to support it with any number of extras, some free, some optional – and all forming part of your “extended product” – for example, in one of your follow-ups you offer a complimentary report about “poisonous mushrooms”, or you offer a subscription to “Mushroom Picker’s Monthly Hot Spots”.
4. Further down the road, while carefully cultivating your relationship with the buyer, you may want to continue offering free and paid extras or indeed some kind of a “continuity” (monthly subscription) model.

All right, all right – you don’t want to see non-musical examples! So let’s look at an “extended product” cycle for your latest album release:

1. You release “Jeannie’s Euro-pop Hits”.
2. You make the song “Jeannie Loves You” available for free, along with a video and additional “making of” footage, articles and photos.
3. Once the visitor downloads your gift, he/she is shown the album along with quotes of super-favorable reviews, pictures, etc.
4. If the prospect doesn’t buy your album there and then, that’s okay. You’ve got him on your list and can expose him to that offer many more times in the future.
5. If he buys your album, you’ve got a sale – and – you can now follow it up with something else. “Did you enjoy my album? Consider also “Jeannie’s Coffee Set” – it goes great with my music!
6. During another follow-up promotion you may propose that he also consider subscribing to “Jeannie’s Insider Report On The Secret Goings-on In the Pop Business”, a monthly $5 subscription which will help you pay the bills and give superb value to your fan.
7. And so on and on it goes!

All of the above form part of the “extended product”, but remember that providing VALUE is the key. The buyer must always feel not only that you have over-delivered, but that you haven’t wasted his or her time.

Some people over-deliver poor quality and even though they think they have sent out “lots of stuff” – it’s all “garbage” as far as the end-user is concerned.

DON’T send out garbage!

In this model, if done well, it’s possible to convert a buyer more than once – sometimes multiple times, and even on an on-going basis.

Whatever you’re selling – digital or physical goods, own album, your original products or affiliate products, services or hosted ads – it is always a good idea to consider ADDING VALUE, either through free reports or special discounts on truly useful extras, tips and tricks, advice, etc.

Just be careful NOT to put the sales first! Pursuing sales too aggressively, forgetting about ADDING VALUE, is a sure way to fail at both. As the old saying goes, “money, like women, rarely come to you if you pursue them directly!”

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Book 3 – Chapter 37Building Loyalty	Course Overview	Book 3 – Chapter 39Monetization Methods

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