Tell them why it's so cheap

It's raw marketing. Get one for 100. Get 2 for 400. Get 5 for 500. And it works...

Creating great value in the copy writing process is very important, that is why a lot of marketers will say "$399.00 Worth of Information for Only $7!" Its an easy way to create a great amount of value.

I see your point though, there are definitely better and more relevant ways to create value.

There may indeed be cases where it helps to try to explain why a heavy price reduction is in order, certainly.

However, I think that in IM, and specifically where downloadable products are concerned, this sort of thing can in itself look dodgy because it's a component of a bigger, more serious problem: tacky, tasteless, lowbrow marketing. Marketers using every trick in the book to instill hype and appease suspicion.

By and large, customers are aware that price isn't always reflective of production costs to begin with, and that other factors (such as branding, etc.) frequently play a more instrumental role in price-setting.

That being so, might it be a mistake to imagine that heavy discounts need 'justification'? Could such a disparity only be watering the seeds of doubt pre-planted by bad marketing? Could the price/discount just be 'the last straw', so to speak?

Daft as it sounds (or not), if I were looking for an internet marketing info product (just as an example), I'd probably be more comfortable buying one with a $129 price tag ("down from $499" or whatever) and a classy and intelligent sales page that reads half convincingly than a cheapo product at $7 ("previously $197+") whose sales page is overly flashy and replete with lofty, outrageous claims only a desperate fool with miserable judgement could lap up.

(If one is catering to desperate fools with miserable judgement, well, fair enough... :p)

I wouldn't give a monkey's if I were receiving a genuine 95% discount if I had the impression of being pitched cack in a candy wrapper by a fairground hawker.

Ya, I think making completely exaggerated price claims doesn't do anything for your chances of sealing the deal. Of course you want to over deliver but don't over-cook it and give a fairer representation of what your product is worth.

If I read something is worth $500 and sells for $7 I usually think BS and exit the page.

Very good, WhiteDove. It sounds like you have been reading the "Robert Collier Letter Book."

He also wrote letters for clothing sellers, and would always tell why it was the clothier was having a sale.

:-Don

it's marketing gimmick, it play with the psychology that they have save a lot of money.

You can find that type of marketing in Walmart.

It's easier with physical products as a lot of businesses overstock on certain things. When there's a sale, I tend to assume that it's because of that, even if it's not always the case.

However, when you're selling a '$499' digital product for $7 where production costs are $0... I can absolutely see why people would get suspicious. Justifying it is probably important, and also I wouldn't go that steep on the apparent $492 discount. If I sell a product I think is worth $499, I will sell it for $499. A discount to something like $399 makes more sense to me. A $7 product is never worth $499.