Exactly What You Promise

I've just had a really annoying experience, and if the Supreme Success you're looking for has anything to do with online marketing it might be something you can learn from, too.

It sounds insultingly obvious to say you have to give your customers the things you've promised them, doesn't it? Well, I can assure you that it doesn't always happen.

In return for joining someone's mailing list I was offered a very interesting-looking freebie, which I eagerly accepted. With it came an offer of related software for a low price. I wasn't greatly interested in the main product, but I was keen on one of the bonus products that came with it. I accepted that, too.

The main product didn't work - at all - and one of the bonuses turned out to be an inferior version of something I already had.

Another proved to be a restricted version of the real thing. To be fair, it came equipped with some kind of an update patch, which didn't seem to turn it into the full version I'd been promised, but as it wasn't something I had much need to use I could have overlooked that.

My real annoyance, though, was reserved for the bonus product which was all I'd bought the package for. It, too, was a "lite" version - and one of its limitations was that it wouldn't let me save my work, or re-open a project once I'd left it.

In other words, it wasn't worth the download time I'd spent on it, let alone the (admittedly small) amount I'd paid for it.

Worse still, the "read me" file recommended that to take full advantage of the software I should buy the full version... from the very guy who'd led me to believe that's what I'd paid him for!

I checked the sales page again, very carefully, to see if there was something in the small print that I'd missed, but no. Nowhere was there any indication that what was on offer was anything less than a version that was fully functional.

As I pointed out in asking for a refund, there's just no way that I'd have paid him any money for a lite version of the software - most lite versions are downloadable for free.

The point of the story's obvious enough - if you offer something to your customers, don't mislead them. Most people will be decent enough to give you opportunities to put right a download error, but if they've got less value than your website promised them, you won't get many second chances.

At best, you lose a customer, and make sure they never buy from you again (and you can be very sure they'll tell their friends, as well).

At worst, you find yourself in legal trouble - advertising that doesn't deliver what it promises can bring a very heavy penalty in many countries.

If the sale's been made through PayPal, ClickBank or a number of other credit card fulfillment companies, there's also the possibility your customer will complain to them... and they rarely take that very well. One offence can cost you money - a number of complaints can get you barred.

It's no use offering the defence that the price was low to start with, either. The answer to the question, "What do you expect to get for that amount?" is very simple.

"Exactly what you promised me."