Alan Bechtold has released the latest issue of ‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter. The featured article is titled “Overcoming The Summer Doldrums”. [Newsletter]


Alan Bechtold has released the latest issue of ‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter. The featured article is titled “Overcoming The Summer Doldrums”.

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Overcoming The Summer Doldrums

I’m in the information publishing business. Specifically, I sell information and training related to Internet marketing and home business opportunities.

In my business, the summer months are traditionally a slower time for sales.

I suspect, right now, you’re being barraged with “big launches” and “huge sale” offers in your in-box. The reason? Other marketers know the “slow season” is coming right up, too — and they’re trying to get as many last-minute pushes out the door as they can before June.

Christmas is another time when sales drop. In my market, it’s generally thought that sending out any offers between Thanksgiving and New Years is pretty much a waste of time and effort.

Still, I had my biggest sales month ever in December, 1999. My best J.V. partner (you know who he is if you’ve been following me any length of time) and I put together a special Website offer that sold for a good deal of money.

We thought about holding off until after the holidays were over, but my partner said, “What the heck — let’s send it out there and see what happens. It’s a HOT offer. Worst-case, it will get some sales coming in that we wouldn’t normally make during December.”

I took a deep breath and said “ok.”

The offer exceeded our wildest expectations, pulling in more than $1.2 MILLION in sales in ONE MONTH.

Who knows? After New Years, the same offer might have pulled in more than $2 million in sales. I suspect, however, that it was the noticeable LACK of other similar offers and messages normally cramming people’s mail boxes at the time we mailed that offer that also helped INCREASE sales.

And we made the promotional offer by direct mail, NOT by E-mail.

So — with the summer “doldrums” coming up for this industry, it would be good to take a look at some ways you can overcome them and actually turn them to your advantage. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter WHAT business you are in or what you sell. You might sell swimsuites and summer is your best time of year. My discussion here still holds true for whenever YOUR particular slump might be — just substitute the appropriate season for you and start the ideas flowing.

First and foremost, tie your offer and the products you bring forward during a slump to the slump itself! The apparel industry has done this forever. When fall is coming, out go the summer clothes and in come the winter clothes. And up go the signs announcing huge clearances at tremendous discounts on the remaining summer clothes.

What seasonal items do you currently sell that might be going OUT of season? Isn’t this a perfect time to knock some dollars off your prices and give folks a “last chance” to buy before summer (or whatever “off” season you face) is here?

You could tie a sale to spring cleaning. One clever marketer I know talked about spring rains flooding his basement, where he keeps all of his products he sells, offering a huge sale to help him clear out everything that wasn’t damaged so he can clean up, dry out and re-stock.

Can you find a similar situation to capitalize on?

If you sell instructional information (books, CDs, videos, courses) on any subject, couldn’t you offer a special sale, playing up the fact that summer is laid-back and this is the PERFECT time to sharpen your brain with a book or CD or course, while laying in the hammock outside?

Then there are the things you can do with your copy to tie your promotion into the summer months. How about “Hot” prices on “sizzling” products guaranteed to “cool you off” when you see the value?

Of course, winter months would require a “freeze” on prices, which are dropping faster than the temperatures outside.

I hope you get the picture.

Plan some sales, craft them around the period of time when your sales normally slump, weave in some related copy or story-telling and watch your sales soar while other marketers are hunkering down trying to weather the slow period you aren’t seeing!

This week, I have a couple of gifts — again! I hope you enjoy the two videos I found for you. They are literally PACKED with valuable information, from my good friend, the extremely talented marketer Mark Hendricks.

No charge. No obligation. Just good solid information and some purely optional resources (no cost and low cost) that you might want to consider.

The first video will show you all about RSS, in Plain English: finally, an easy way to understand RSS and how you benefit by using it, both as a consumer and as a publisher (including a link to a very good free RSS reader).

http://www.hunteridge.com/rssipe.htm

And the second video, which will show you Mark’s top 20 linking strategies to get great free SEO traffic to any site.

http://www.hunteridge.com/a/top20.htm

I think I’ll go out and enjoy the spring weather for a while. I’ll probably cook up some kind of fishing-related promotion, because that’s what is on my mind right now.

How about — “Super Sale — No Need To Go Fishing For Better Prices, I Just Reduced My Prices So Low They’re Sitting On the Bottom of The Lake With The Catfish — and YOU Benefit If You Act Quickly!”

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‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Alan Bechtold for granting permission to reprint the latest article.

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