Promote Yourself Professionally with Information Products

What exactly are information products, and how can they help you boost your business accomplishments? Although I didn't invent this phrase, I define "information products" as any form of knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction that is packaged for human consumption.

That may be a pretty broad definition, but intentionally so! You can use information products in myriad ways to propel your business success. They can range from practical, business-related tools to a powerful medium for self-expression.

They can take a variety of online digital and media-based formats, including self-published books, e-books, special reports, publications, articles, tools, newsletters, audio programs, multimedia productions, home study courses, training programs, tutorials, software systems, games, tips, recorded interviews, directories, membership information sites, and more.

Are you wondering how this picture fits you, and how information products can help boost your internal productivity or external business prospects?

Whether you're a CEO, manager, consultant, freelance service professional, sole proprietor, entrepreneur, aspiring author, developer, or instructor, this article can serve to ignite your imagination regarding ways to woo and wow your audiences with information products. ?

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First, Plan to Create Once and Output Many Times
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One of the hallmarks of information products is that you can create them once and then aim to repackage them in many different formats. Once you develop a core set of material, you can spin it off in diverse ways for a variety of different purposes. For example:

-- Your information products could start off as simple, text-based projects, and then evolve into multimedia productions that include text, audio, screen capture, full motion video, and animation.

-- You might create single items or a collection of mixed formats and media for practically any purpose under the sun.

-- They might be displayed or played only on a Web site, downloaded in digital form, or packaged as physical media, such as on a CD/DVD, in printed form, or both.

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Next, Identify Your Audiences, and Focus on What They Need
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You and your audiences might live in the corporate world, academia, a nonprofit organization, or in the entrepreneurial realm, for example. In any case, you can create information products to help people expand their skills or consume ideas, wisdom, or knowledge. Below are three examples that illustrate some of the possibilities.

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Example 1 - Just "Can" It

Elisa leads a process improvement team within her organization. Last year, the team made so much progress that her management asks her group to give in-depth training to all of the other teams in the division.

After some brainstorming and a lengthy discussion, Elisa and crew devise an idea to "can" the fundamentals of the training program in the form of quick-start guides.

Each guide will include screen captures showing a sample of a tool, a diagram of where it fits in the overall process, and a voice-over explaining how and when to use it. They can play from the company's intranet and be printed out as job aids.

Due to time the constraints, the guides won't be fancy. Nevertheless, they will record the team's knowledge for posterity as well as support other teams in applying the skills.

Elisa's team can use in-person training to demonstrate how to use the guides and provide practice and feedback on using the tools.

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Example 2 - Show, Tell, and Sell

Angelica is the principal of a business consulting firm. She faces a double-headed challenge -- documenting her internal operations so that she can delegate more of her growing task list to her staff AND expanding her business model.

To solve the operations problem and better systematize her business, Angelica starts by creating a series of checklists. To keep them from becoming too voluminous with detail, she decides to narrate several of the longer sequences.

At other points, she uses desktop video software tools to record visual demonstrations. Finally, she links the audio and video files to the checklists for her staff to use as needed.

While creating the checklists, Angelica suddenly has an insight -- she's just created a new business consulting model!

Her clients also have the same problems she does, so she can begin offering a service (performed by her staff) to create "show and tell" business procedures. After a brief promotional period, she soon has several very interested clients.

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Example 3 - Ask and Receive

Allen runs fundraising campaigns for a nonprofit organization. He reaches out to local foundations and charitable donors to seek funding for the group's ongoing community programs. Allen realizes that educating potential contributors is a high-priority need. He'd love to commission a documentary video to showcase what his organization has accomplished, but unfortunately, his budget won't stretch that far.

So, he considers another alternative -- a simple but polished "infomercial" that can play from his organization's Web site. This production can frame the problem, explain how the problem affects the community, and tell what his group is doing about it.

Using an inspirational, slide-based presentation complete with narration, success stories, images, charts, graphs, and illustrations, he feels certain that he can convey the group's message more powerfully than any text-based promotional materials can do alone.

Plus, Allen can distribute the presentation online and on CDs at the next fundraising dinner!

In conclusion, these are just a few of the many situations that lend themselves to creating information products. You can produce items with audio and video elements relatively easily, thanks to an array of inexpensive software tools. Even with limited time or budget, you can develop simple, elegant, and imaginative ways to deliver ideas and information to your colleagues, clients, customers, and contributors.