“Quite ashamed”, “initially nervous”, “out of my comfort zone”

Buondì.

Why are ecommerce sites like Amazon, but also our own online shop, constantly nagging at you to leave reviews?

Well obviously, because it’s great marketing!

Products with no reviews are naturally seen as risky. Perhaps they’re very new, or perhaps no one else wants them. Either way… hum… (finger pauses before hitting ‘buy now’ button.)

That’s not the only reason, though. Marketing isn’t just about selling more stuff – it’s about selling the RIGHT stuff, and to the right people. Ideally at the right price, that is to say, one that offers value to the buyer while allowing the seller a decent margin.

Reading reviews, and other types of feedback (for example, the number of students who renew after finishing their first pack of online lesson credits), helps us know if we’re doing a good job in those respects. Are people getting from us what they ‘need’ and ‘want’? Are we offering ‘value’?

Lucia, our teaching manager, keeps a close eye on online lesson reviews as a way of knowing which teachers are hitting the right notes with their online students, and which perhaps aren’t, not yet (and so might need more ‘support’.) She also sends questionnaires and such like.

While I closely monitor what people write about our ebooks, and by doing so get an idea of what people like and don’t like, which in turn informs my decision-making when I have my ‘commissioning editor’ hat on.

Which sounds very grand, but basically means that an ebook writer will, say, email to propose a story about a sad young Japanese having a tough time learning Italian, and I’ll thank them profusely and wonder if they might have any other ideas?

At which point, the writer thinks a little, wrinkles her brow, and tentatively suggests, well, what about a story about a cat?

A cat? I reply, having read all the reviews diligently,

GREAT! FANTASTIC! People loves cats!

When can you have it done by?? Who shall I make the cheque payable to???

So there, you see. That’s what reviews are for. Without them, how would I have known that ‘people learning Italian’ = ‘people who love stories about cats’?

Which brings me to the point. Heartfelt thanks to fairhaven1, who penned a review of our ten-online-Italian lessons pack, from which I have extracted the following quotes:

“I have really felt quite ashamed of my conversation skills when in a classes with others and quite nervous to have a go.”

“Although initially quite nervous about signing up to this as it really put me outside my comfort zone, I have really enjoyed the classes which are fun and light hearted and we always find something to talk about.”

“I am finding now that I can speak with more spontaneity, even if I need help in finishing some sentences – I feel relaxed enough to have a go!”

I couldn’t have put that better myself. You can read the full review, along with 165 others, here.

Comfort zones, people.

If you’re in one, you’re likely not learning as much as you could be.

Stepping outside one is likely to be scary. But it probably won’t be as awful as you imagined beforehand.

Then, one day, when you look back at all the great things you achieved in 2021, it’ll be those moments when you took the unfamiliar, potentially-risky, steps that will stand out.

A domani.

P.S.

Don’t forget the 2021 January Sale, will you?

Everything at EasyReaders.org, our own personal ecommerce store, can be had a fifth cheaper than usual!

All you have to do to discount the price of anything by 20% is to copy and paste this coupon code into the box in your shopping cart:

January-Sale-2021

The coupon code ( January-Sale-2021 ) will work on anything/everything you see on the Catalog page, so take some time this weekend to browse – pick yourself out an ebook or two, a pack of online lessons, whatever will give your 2021 Italian study program a boost!

Offer Details

• This promotion ends on Tuesday Jan 5th 2021, after which the coupon code will no longer be valid
• The next offer won’t be until the spring, so stock up now
• You can use the coupon code as often as you wish until the night of Jan 5th 2021
• The coupon code won’t work with other coupon codes – choose one!
• But it IS good on multipacks of ebooks or lessons, which are already discounted, and so offer even better value than usual

The ten-pack of online Italian lessons, usually £180 for ten thirty-minute sessions, is a steal once discounted by 20%! Or you could save even more with the twenty or thirty lesson packs! Regular online students wait for the offers (now) and stock up with enough lesson credits to get them through until the next promotion, which will be in the spring.

The Easy Reader Multipacks, which are already discounted for ‘bulk’, offer amazing value. And the Self-Study Grammar Workbooks are always worth a look – check out the free sample ‘chapters’, which are in fact the first quarter of each ebook, so offer masses of free content. Downloading free sample chapters is not outside of anyone’s comfort zone…

Here’s that coupon code again:

January-Sale-2021

Buono studio!

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