May 22nd, 2009 | |
Posted in General
These days lots of people are doing firesales in the online marketing community. But the first person online to ever hold a firesale was a guy named Jeremy Burns. He was selling his Traffic Hurricane software for just $10.
The first documented firecase happened somewhere in 1856. Read this news message:
In December, 1856, the account of an extensive fire in the American House mentions the following occupants: E. B. Gee, clothing; T. B. Choate, drugs; J. C. Tenney, boots and shoes; Maraton Upton, dr\’ goods; and M. W. Hayward, groceries. Maraton Upton removed his stock to No. 9 Rollstone block, and advertised “Extraordinary fire sale; customers are invited to call cind examine goods which are still warm.”
This is brilliant salescopy, because people are naturally curious to see what these “still warm” goods are about, and of course there’s no doubt in their mind that it’s going to be a bargain.
This is obviously a very powerful concept. But in order to work, you still have to create a perception of high value. If people think your product has no value, they7′re not going to care if you sell it for $1. So a firesale is not an easy way to sell crap. It works only when you have products with a high perceived value.
Raising Prices
One technique that is very effective during firesales is to gradually rice prices and tell people about it. You can tell them that during the first 5 hours of the firesale, the price is going to be $10, then $17. then $27 and so on. Or you can get your hands on a script that automatically raises prices with each sale. Some guys were quiet successful by selling their product for $0.01 and then raising the price up $0.05 with every purchase. This creates a real sense of urgency, and if you have any volume at all, then it’s gonna move your price up quickly.
What about refunds?
If you’re truly overdelivering, if you’re really selling something for a fraction of it’s value, there’s no need to offer refunds. And you can in fact be a little tongue-in-cheek about it in your salescopy. You can write something like: “If you don’t know what a PDF file is and you need your neighbours kid to come over to show you how to download a file, then this product is not for you. There are going to be no refunds for this. There absolutely no question in my mind that you’re getting a more than great deal here, and there’s no way I’m going to offer refunds on that.”
How to do it online?
Well, just send out an email to your list. (You DO have a list, right? Because that’s where the money is - despite all the twitter and whatnot people).
Tell them you’re holding a firesale, and tell them why you’re doing so. Given them a (believable) reason why, and make it limited supply. Even better, if you have affiliates, send out an email to your affiliates first informing them of an upcoming firesale that they can promote and make a lot of money. If affiliates are promoting you’re product and you tell them they can sell it cheaper, they’re going to love it, and the smart ones will get on the bandwagon.
I hope this helped you to understand firesales a bit better. If you have questions, just write a comment below.
Tags:
firesale