You’re in business to make sales, right? So why not take the extra steps to get as many sales as you possibly can? Backend marketing or backend sales can do that for you.
Most businesses focus on front-end sales, but it’s often the sales you make on the back end that bring in more profits.
Having a good assortment of backend products means you can constantly market new products to existing customers. After all it’s a marketing fact that it’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new customer and make a sale.
But don’t confuse ‘backend’ with an ‘up sell’, they’re not the same. An up-sell means suggesting a higher priced product or service for a customer considering a purchase. The products or services you provide your customers with after the initial sale are referred to as ‘backend’.
Backend products can be your own or they can be things like Private label rights or Master Resell Rights products, in fact both of these work very well as backend products because of the ‘how to’ content they provide.
The Benefits of Backend Marketing
Let’s suppose you have an information product that you bought resell rights to for $98 and you want to resell the product for $37. You then run an ad for $200 and you make 10 sales.
10 sales is $370 minus $98 = $272 minus the $200 ad = your profit $72
Without having applied the ‘backend’ concept, your net profit would only have been $72 for 10 sales. However, if you offer these 10 customers with a backend product or service, which sells for $150 and let’s say only 30% of these customers purchase, you will make another $450 ($150 X 3 customers). Overall, you will make a profit of $522 ($450 + $72).
So even if you don’t make much profit from your initial sale, you can completely make it up on the backend.
Backend marketing works very well with email marketing. Remember the saying “there’s gold in your list”? This saying comes from marketers who have created multimillion dollar empires by promoting to their email list on the backend.
These marketers are not promoting similar things to different customers, but different things to the same list.
Promotional Ideas for Backend Marketing
-If you use a thank you email when a product is purchased, include a promotion for your backend product(s). A thank you is always good business etiquette so why not use it to its full potential.
-A great idea for new customers would be to give them a gift item along with their purchased products. Use this opportunity for backend endorsements as well.
-Reward regular customers with new products special promotions. Do this with an offer that allows loyal customers to buy them with a discount before they are available to the general public.
-Your website should contain an area for user updates for things like product updates, new items, bulletins and special offers. This is another excellent place for promoting your back end promotion to regular customers.
-Your newsletter or bulletin should always include back end goods as well as your latest website updates. Keep your newsletter content innovative and novel. This keeps your customers interested in your site and your offers.
- Do you sell electronic items that are downloadable? Try including links to other related electronic items and backend goods for higher revenue.
If you have been developing a line of your own products, backend marketing can be an easy way to increase your profits. Follow it up with good ‘after sale’ services. You may also want to partner or joint venture with a company that can provide you with good backend products.
Choosing Back end products
Before choosing your backend products, be sure that your primary product is a quality one. No backend strategy will work if you offer your customers junk, so take care to offer products or services that reinforce your customers confidence that their needs are of the utmost importance to you.
Select back end products that wil aid your customers with the purchases they have already made. For example, if you just sold a customer a car cleaning kit, turn around and offer a discounted set of ‘chamois’ or a ‘how to’ manual that offers ‘secrets to finding a good car mechanic’.
Don’t underestimate the power of backend marketing. If your primary product provides you with 20% of your profit, proper backend marketing can bring in 50% – 80% of your business profits.
