How not to get sales: Advertise a big-ticket item, like coaching for $150-$300 a month, and hope people will sign up on the spot.

In direct response marketing this is known as 'selling off the page' or 'one-step marketing,' and it's by far the hardest and most difficult way to enroll people in a high value product or service like teleclasses or coaching.

In a nut-shell - it's just too big a jump for them to make in one go.

I asked my new friend and marketing expert, Ramon Williamson about this, and I thought his response so insightful, I asked if I could share his answers with you. And he's kindly agreed....

Introducing "Two-Step Marketing"
'Two-Step' Marketing refers to the process of enrolling prospects in your offer using two steps. An example of 'two-step marketing' would be offering a special report, audio excerpt, mini-course or a desktop video in your promotional email to your network. Then you let a series of follow-up messages enroll the prospect. (I.e. not a one-time hit - a series of emails.)

"Educational Selling" is also important - don't say 'buy this', but rather educate them on the problems they are facing, the solutions, and how your product can help them.

Why Use the 'Two-Step' Marketing Approach?

• You'll generate more qualified leads
• You'll convert more people to your offer using this two-step method, contrary to popular belief
• You'll build a list of highly qualified prospects for your product or service

An Example

Another 'two-step' marketing example is having people call and listen to a 5-7 minute prerecorded message. Then ask them to provide their contact information to receive your special report that sells them your product or service. (Note: you could probably even call this three-step-marketing)

I (Ramon) have used this all the time in my niche markets off-line and I'm testing it online now with great results.

Using Mini-Courses
3 tips for making mini-courses work as part of a 'two- step marketing' process:

1. The optimum schedule for a mini-course is 5 days
2. Each installment should ask them to take some action. For example, have them set a goal and send it to you, identify 3 ways they can apply the lesson in their business and send them to you, etc.
3. Make a special offer in Day 3 and use a special discount code for an ordering page that will expire in 24 hours (remember to end the offer when you say)

Increase Attendance to Free Classes and Sessions
But is 'two-step marketing' really needed for 'free' classes and sessions?

For years, I had the #1 teleclass online in terms of attendance to the free introductory classes and actual conversions to the paid classes.

While most people could get registrations for their free classes, often times, less than 50% showed up. My secret? I used a 'two-step' process to enroll people in my free classes. In the class announcement, I offered a highly useful special report / audio excerpt to pre-sell them on the value of coming to the class.

Then I followed up with a series of e-mail messages to enroll them.

Important Tip: Always make sure you ask people to opt in to a list to get your free report, otherwise you have no way to follow-up.

Converting Free Participants to Paying Clients

How did I convert 60-80% of the people on the call to paid participants?
1. I over delivered. According to my students, my free classes where better in terms of value than most people's paid classes.
2. I made an irresistible, limited time, special offer. I offered extra bonuses and an exclusive discount good for 24 hours.

The Mechanics of the special offer
At the end of the call, I told them about a special web page and gave them a coupon code to order. After 24 hours, I took the page down. No exceptions.

Experiment with 'two-step marketing' ideas for your business and find out how they can work for you!