The annual running of Grandma's Marathon today generated the usual complaints about high prices to stay in hotel rooms. I talk more about that at the managersrealm blog in detail, on understanding why things must be priced like they are.
What I wanted to mention here is we must be willing to do what we can to run successful online businesses, and a major part of that success is knowing how to price what we're offering. Not only that, but we also must learn to offer different products in different price ranges for those looking for specific things.
Many time online marketers attempt to please people by offering their creations for far less than people would be willing to pay for them. A great many of these marketers never make it because their "good will" is destructive to the business. We have to understand that business isn't charity, and those attempting to run one like that will never make it.
This is one of the major mistakes inexperienced marketers make, and sometimes experienced ones as well. We can't be afraid to price things at a level we can make a profit at. If we don't do that we're simply not in business, no matter what our organizational structure or name says we are.
So our job is to understand, within our niche, what our product represents, who we're selling it to, and what price we should offer it for. In other words we need to know our market. This won't work for lazy or clueless people.
This is why sometimes in online marketing it's better to work as an affiliate and learn the reasons why a certain product or service is priced at where it is. Do this with several price points for different products and you'll get the most education you'll need on pricing. Just make sure the company and/or person you're working with knows what they're doing. Do your homework!
The bottom line with pricing is you want to make the sell to the targeted audience you serve. It's as simple and as complicated as that. Many times complaints on pricing comes from those that aren't even your targeted audience, and are just professional complainers and whiners. You must know the difference between legitimate complaints and those that like to rant. Ranters aren't too meaningful, and to attempt to satisfy them is a waste of time and a practice in futility.
How do you measure your pricing effect? It's always in the sales. If you're reaching your sales targets, there's something right in your pricing. If you're reaching sales targets and your business is still struggling, then you need to ask the question if your pricing is high enough, or you have costs under control.
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