The SECRETS To Internet Marketing Fire Sales Success
by Willie Crawford
Over the past year, “fire sales” have really caught on in the Internet marketing niche. Fire sales held in that niche generally involve bundling a huge batch of related “stuff” (ebooks, software, membership sites, reprint rights, private label rights, etc.) and then offering it for an incredibly low price, but only for a very limited time.
Fire sale are held for a variety of reasons, and are an excellent way to generate some quick revenue. Their power was demonstrated by a handful of Internet marketers, that I watched in 2004-2006, as they burst onto the scene to a large extent because of their successful fire sales. That’s not to say that these Internet marketers were not very savvy in their own rights, however their fire sale successes did gain them a lot of notoriety.
After reading about, and listening to audio recordings discussing fire sale, when I nabbed a copy of Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing Course, I became convinced that this was (at times) a very viable short-term business model. If you get a chance, I recommend checking out Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing Course…if it’s still on the market. He did a limited edition printing, so you need to confirm that it’s available at: www.ButterflyMarketing.net
In studying great marketing campaigns, and then successful fire sales, I saw that one of the biggest reason why some were more successful than others was due to a strong “reason why.” People are naturally suspicious, and when you offer something “on sale” they wonder why. They wonder what’s wrong with it.
At the same time, people love a bargain, so if you can give them a logical, engaging, perhaps even emotional “reason why,” many will happily buy your products.
For example, my first fire sale was held to help finance my youngest daughter’s wedding. When she shared her plans with my wife, and then with me, we knew it was going to be an expensive wedding. So, I decided to host my “Wedding Fire Sale.”
That fire sale generated six-figures in a week (in front-end and back-end sales)! That was extremely powerful and instructive. The reason that it was so successful is that every parent on my list could relate to my reason for hosting the sale. On top of that, I offered an incredible array of products initially priced at approximately 1 cent on the dollar. Considering the fact that I also included some brand new (never before released), big-ticket software in the package and really was an irresistible value.
Another reason that this fire sale was so successful is that people like to help out with a worthwhile cause… especially when it benefits them.
The Wedding Fire Sale’s success was further fueled by the viral way that it was setup. The affiliate program, which paid 50%, was only open to customers and a few JV partners. So, many people purchased the product just for the opportunity to promote a fantastic bargain. They knew that it would be very profitable for them. These savvy marketers purchased the inexpensive product, joined the affiliate program, and then rapidly fired off emails to their subscribers.
After seeing how effectively, and how easily a fire sale could be employed, I looked for other applications of the methodology. I realized that a successful fire sale required a great reason why, and needed to appeal to a large number of people. That meant doing a fire sale with a twist, and not even calling it a “fire sale.”
My second fire sale, was called my “Kick Start Mega Sale.”
It was put together to help pay for the filming of a few episodes of a television cooking show, that would then be leveraged to generate enough revenue to fund the building and operation of a homeless shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The need for this second fire sale was actually brought to me by a client with two pet projects… the cooking show and the homeless shelter. After studying the projects and brainstorming, it made perfect sense to “kickstart” the under funded projects with a “mega sale.”
All of the right elements were in place for another wildly successful fire sale. It was for a great humanitarian cause! Many of the people who were homeless in Baton Rouge were there because Hurricane Katrina had displaced them. The nation, and indeed the world, was very familiar with this tragedy, so this was a cause easy to get people behind.
To roll out the fire sale, I used a lot of the techniques taught by Mike in his Butterfly Marketing Course. I also used a lot of other “stealthy” marketing tactics that I had learned in my nearly 10 years of online marketing… plus a lifetime of studying direct marketing.
If you want to know exactly how this fire sale panned out, I invite you to watch it and its aftermath (the follow-on publicity, the development of a television show by a couple of Internet marketers, and the building of a homeless shelter) unfold. You can check out how the fire sale was structured, and even participate, by visiting the launch site at: www.kickstartmegasale.com
You can also follow along as the team members share much of what they did, and are doing, at two blogs:
http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/ and
http://TheDevotionalChef.com/blog/
I think you’ll find it very insightful to watch “Internet marketers” use articles, blogs, press releases, viral tools, media interviews, direct mail, relationship building via email, joint ventures, backend sales, teleseminars, and a plethora of other tools to accomplish what at first sounds like a monumental task. Just watching it all unfold offers a PhD in the synergistic use of numerous marketing tools.
Watching how this fire sale turned into a source of tremendous accomplishment will prove to you how much more powerful your marketing can be when you don’t rely too heavily upon ONE method of generating business. It will also show you, very decisively, how powerful the fire sale concept is when properly executed.
Study this entire EVENT very closely, and then ask yourself how some variation of a fire sale might fit into your marketing mix. It’s a proven way to jumpstart a cash-strapped project ;-)
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Willie Crawford is a corporate president, executive
television co-producer and star, published author, seminar
speaker and host, tele-seminar trainer, retired military
officer, karate black belt, network marketing trainer, and
lifetime student of marketing. Subscribe to his free
9-year-old Internet marketing ezine today by visiting:
http://WillieCrawford.com/ezine.html