How Simple Reports Can Help Your Business

Simple Reports can help your business in tough times. People will still be buying. Just not as freely as before. In many instances they’ll be trying to save money by “doing it themselves”.

What first seems like a disadvantage may have a silver lining for you if you’re able to create a simple report. If people aren’t using your business because they want to “do it themselves”, you may be able to sell your expertise in the form of an information product.

You can describe a common project you do as a professional (hopefully NOT brain surgery… something a bit more mundane like remodeling a bathroom!) and explain how it’s done. You can refer suppliers (possibly through an affiliate link), references and tools they may wish to use (more links, or products you may sell directly) and include “before” and “after” images.

The people who buy this from you online for a small fee may never patronize your physical business, but through their purchases and back end sales, it’s possible you may be able to create a nice profit center. Plus throughout the process you’re building your own “in house” marketing list. If the information product sells well online, you can also take the information to a publisher looking for a “winning” book and say “10,000 of these have sold online for under $10. Do you want to adapt this into a title you can sell through your bookstores and other outlets?”

These information products also provide prime fodder for press releases to newspapers and other media outlets nationwide who are constantly looking for interesting material for their audiences. That opens the door for more sales. Before you know it, you may be able to leverage an online information product into something that sets you apart as an “expert” in your field.

Oh and one more thing – there are times when people who buy your report end up buying your services anyway. You’ve “proven” yourself through the report and they decide it’s in their best interests to have you do the work and get paid your normal fee.

The trick is to provide good value for a very reasonable price so that purchasing the product is a “no brainer” for an interested person. The next trick is to genuinely make the information worthwhile. If you can do that, creating simple reports may be a strategy for boosting your business you really need to consider.

Here’s another angle: If you don’t need the money from an information product and what you’re really after is the “list”, then using some simple software, it’s possible to create an affiliate program that lets others earn money for referring your product. They do the work, you build the list.

What can you write a simple report about? Well, I suggest you write a report to support and expand your current business.

“What if I want to do something else?” The number of possibilities are endless. If you want to dig around for what people are asking questions about and then craft a report to answer those questions, I suggest a research tool like Answer Analyst (see that post).

OK, let’s see:

1. Up front income
2. Back end sales revenue
3. List building
4. Publicity opportunities
5. Positioning as an expert in a particular field
6. More customers for your ordinary services.

Those are 6 solid reasons to consider incorporating simple reports into your marketing mix.

So what will your first report be about?

Check out how to make simple reports that essentially pay you to find new customers and put others to work building your customer base.

P.S. If you do decide to invest $7 in information on creating and marketing through simple reports, you’ll also get a solid course on how to research any product or concept to create reports.

P.P.S. Just downloaded the scripts for marketing with PayPal… the scripts alone were worth $7!!!