Special Report Secrets – Claim Your Expertise With Special Reports

Special reports are a great way to create a quick and easy downloadable information product you can sell to make money online, use as an incentive to collect email addresses to grow your list or even as a giveaway as a bonus. A special report can be an extremely profitable item to add to your product funnel to generate money, traffic and subscribers for your website.

What is a Special Report?

A special report is a document usually consisting of anywhere between 7 and 30 pages highlighting a particular industry, practice or procedure or some other proprietary information. In order to be most effective, a special report should contain specific useful information not easily found elsewhere on the Internet. It should be information your readers can put into practice in their own life (or business) to create greater success. As a general rule, the primary purpose of most special reports is to drive traffic to your website where you can show the reader the products and services you provide.

How to Effectively Use a Special Report

Although you can use a special report in a number of different ways, they all have two primary purposes. The first is marketing your business and the second is selling your products or services. The best thing about a short report is you can use it for a variety of purposes, depending on your goals. Whichever purpose you choose, the end result will enable you to make more money, raise the visibility of your business and also increase your credibility in the marketplace.

You can use your special report to pre-sell another information product be it your own product or an affiliate product you promote. Because the report can and should contain links throughout, you can link to your own website or use your affiliate link to direct your readers to the sales page of the product you’re selling on commission.

You can find new clients, build your email list or simply establish yourself as an expert in your field with the help of these handy super-specific reports.

Here are some of the ways a special report can be utilized in any business model.

Idea #1: Attract New Clients

If you are in the coaching business, for example, you can create a special report designed to attract new clients. Highlight the specific points of your particular coaching system and offer some tips and hints spread throughout the report so the reader knows you are the ultimate source to connect with for coaching. A key to creating a successful report is to let your reader know YOUR unique selling point- without sounding like you’re all hype. While you want them to know your work is fabulous, writing a special report that is little more than a sales page won’t bring you the results you desire.

Idea #2: Pre-Sell a Virtual Event

You can use a special report to promote a teleseminar/webinar series in one of two ways. You can use it as a short-term product you only make available for a limited time prior to your virtual event or you can record the teleseminar/webinar series on mp3 or CDs/DVDs and sell them as a stand alone moneymaker. If you are selling the recorded event, then you will be able to use the special report as a perpetual product. Your special report can be a synopsis of your virtual event, and be used as an upsell for the audio/visual package.

Idea #3: Mastermind Groups

You can use a special report to promote a mastermind group or as a component of one. If the group is structured to take new members or begin new sections on a regular basis, you can promote it with a special report in the same way you would promote a virtual event or webinar/teleseminar series.

Many business ownes also use the special report as a component of a mastermind group. By creating 10-15 page documents covering the hot topics of the month, the group leader can deliver a downloadable version of information to distribute to all the members of the group at one time. Some examples might include, an overview of a seminar, a transcript of an mp3 or original material not covered in other formats.

Idea #4: Building Your Email List

One of the most common uses of special reports is to give them away as an incentive to capture email addresses for your mailing list. As I’m sure you’re aware, building your subscriber list is an important part of building your business. When you have a list of people to correspond with regularly, you have an ongoing opportunity to establish trust and build a relationship with the members of the list. You also have the opportunity to keep your brand name in front of your potential clients. This kind of familiarity increases the likelihood they will eventually buy from you in the future.

Be aware that people are often hesitant to hand over their email address. Providing an informative, useful special report solving a pressing problem for your prospects is a great incentive to persuade your prospects to share their email address with you.

You can even use your special report as a giveaway in a joint venture with other marketers and collect hundreds, even thousands of email addresses in one event.

Idea #5: Bonus Products

Special reports are terrific to use as bonus products. They are a wonderful add on product, whether you are selling you own product or offering a bonus as an incentive for someone to purchase through your affiliate link. Give your special report to other business owners who share the same target market to add as a bonus to their email list.

As you introduce some of these ideas, you can grow your visibility, your credibility and your profits with the viral effects of a special report.

Special reports are just one way to grow your business and monetize your expertise. If you haven’t already done so, I invite you to download my special report “The 11 Quickest Ways to Monetize Your Expertise – And Fill Your Product Funnel” at www.ProductFunnelFormula.com