There is a ton of marketing advice online about niching things down until you get to a small, fanatical group of people who will buy anything and everything in that niche.
And this is great advice – I offer it myself and follow it all the time.
But… you know how I like to be contrary. Sort of like, if everyone is selling stock, I’m buying. If they’re buying, I’m selling.
And if they’re niching things down to the ridiculous, I try going after HUGE niches that have a TON of people in them.
For example… How many people like to eat good food? Or see movies? Or drive cars? LOTS of people.
So I got to thinking… What if you made an offer that appealed to a ton of people?
For example, how to take vacations for free.
This isn’t anything sketchy – it really is possible to take free vacations. In fact, there are several different methods of doing it.
So I advertise this free offer: “How to take vacations for free.”
And then I bill myself to my new subscribers (using a pen name) as the guy that will hook them up with really great free stuff, like the free vacations info.
In fact, if they liked that one, they will LOVE what I have coming up, so watch your email…
…you get the idea.
Then I send them free offers.
For example, a free report or video on how to get all the dates they want.
They opt-in to a new list to get that report or video, and now I have a targeted list of people who want dating info.
Or I offer a freebie on how to save tons of money on groceries, or how to make more money, or how to lose weight, or whatever.
Generally every offer I make is going to be directly tied into an affiliate product such as a ClickBank product.
They get the free report or video, and at the end of it I make a soft sell for the ClickBank product.
I also offer a free bonus if they buy the product. All they have to do is email me their ClickBank receipt, and I send the bonus. This way I can also separate my buyers from my prospects.
As I get these segmented lists, I continue to send them free offers that lead to paid offers.
And I make bank, all because I start out attracting as many people as possible and then segmented them down by interest.
Now then, you might be wondering how this is better than simply targeting a small niche in the first place.
Frankly, I don’t know if it’s better, but it is different and it does work. And it allows me to build several lists simultaneously from the same main traffic source.
One person can be on several of my segmented lists, after all. For example, they’re interested in vacations, dating and dieting – three different lists, three opportunities to sell them products.
Using this method, it’s very easy to build a large list quickly. And if I want to immediately profit, I offer a one-time offer after they get the initial freebie.
The real payoff is when I start segmenting into smaller, more targeted lists. And of course it’s nice to have (for example) 10 lists in 10 different niches, because now I have 10 different profit centers, all coming from the same initial source.
The key is to bill yourself as the go-to person for great free stuff, and then be that person. When you offer a free video or report or whatever, it’s got to be chock full of dynamite info they can use immediately.
Tell them what to do, for example, but not how to do it. The “how to” is in the paid product.
Or tell them the difficult method to accomplish something, and then offer the easy method as a paid product.
And you don’t have to create any products yourself – just use the ones on ClickBank. But you might be creating short free reports or videos, which of course you can always outsource.
One last shortcut: A lot of affiliate offers will start out with a free report or video. Make a deal with the product owner to get that report or video in the hands of your readers yourself. That way you’re using their freebie to segment your list, and the affiliate product owner is still making sales.
There might be a life lesson in this – when others are all doing the same thing, think about how you might do the opposite. Sometimes it can really pay off in a big way.
Here’s something I’ve been playing with, and my results have been pretty good, too. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing…
A few months ago a friend was launching a big product with lots of cash prizes for the top affiliates. I knew there would be tons of affiliate competition, with every affiliate trying to out-do the others with bigger and better bonuses.
How to compete?
I decided not to.
Instead, I thought about what every affiliate’s bonus pages would look like: Highly polished, slick, professional, lots of graphics, videos, etc.
Odds are they would all start to look very much alike, right?
So I thought… What if I did something different?
What if my page looked like something you might get in the mail – black and white sales letter, using the Courier typewriter font, very old-school looking…
And what if, instead of a highly polished professional photo of myself, I used one where I just woke up? Or one where I just finished exercising, or just finished the yard work?
In other words, I looked like the guy next door and not some slick marketer.
Taking this thinking to the next level, I decided I didn’t want to spend time or money on creating a bonus. Everyone else was doing that, so why should I?
Instead, I would hold a live class. The homework would be to go over the program before class. Then in class we would implement, step-by-step, what was in the program. And I would record the whole thing, so people could just follow along.
In case you’re wondering – it worked beautifully. My sales were a very decent 5 figure number, and my commissions were half that plus bonuses.
And one more thing – I cheated, too. I had my virtual assistant run the class for me. She got to learn some great new skills, and I put less than 2 hours into the entire project.
The takeaway: When you have a lot of competition, it’s time to stop directly competing and find another way.
If they are using tons of graphics and slick videos, you go with a 1980’s black and white typewriter look.
If they are offering bonus packages filled with 5, 10 or 20 products, you offer no products (I offered hold-your-hand training, which in my opinion is worth far more anyway.)
You get the idea.
Do you know what would work even better than that?
MAILING the actual letter. Yup. Talk about old school. If you collect real addresses of your BUYERS, you might consider doing this on big ticket items.
I know marketers who do this. They are few and far between, and they are KILLING it. They only mail to buyers, which greatly improves their conversions. They use a service to send out the mailers for them. And they make more on one of these mailings than most successful marketers earn in 6 months.
Which brings me to my second idea… if you don’t already have the mailing addresses for your buyers, start collecting those now.
When you have a sizable portion of them (at least 200, preferably 500) approach a marketer with a product your list would love. Make sure there is plenty of profit in that product. Take the sales letter, adapt it to a black and white mailer (cheap to produce) and send it to your buyers.
See what happens. Tweak, rinse and repeat.
You can easily DOUBLE your income using this method.
Know why? Again, because it’s contrary. It’s different. Almost no one is doing it.
Your customer gets maybe a half dozen pieces of mail in a day. Two are bills. Two are sales flyers from local businesses. One is a catalog.
And then there’s that mysterious white envelope. Yeah, it’s going to get opened. Yes, it’s going to get read.
Wow! They’re surprised. Someone they know from ONLINE is sending them REAL MAIL.
They don’t throw it out. Instead, they open their browser, type in the URL and ORDER THE PROGRAM.
Sure, not everyone does, but… enough do.
Believe me, I’ve seen this work time and time again. Which is why I’m about to start sending out sales letters via snail mail (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!)
When you’re an expert, you command respect in your niche. People listen to you, they pay attention to what you say and most of all they buy your products.
Being the expert in your own niche is like writing your own ticket to freedom.
Granted, you’re never going to become “The Expert” in a massive field such as weight loss. But niche it down to “Weight loss for new mothers” or “Weight loss for brides-to-be” or Weight loss for video gamers,” and you can indeed become the expert in your niche.
I was reading Russell Brunson’s book, “Expert Secrets,” and it starts out by giving some examples of just how easy it is to become an expert.
When Russell was in college, he tried internet marketing but failed. Then on spring break when he was bored out of his mind, he and a friend decided to build a potato gun.
The thing was, they didn’t know HOW to build a potato gun. It just sounded like fun. So they started doing some research.
They discovered things like the correct barrel-to-chamber volume ratio, the right propellants to use, the correct pressure for the pipes, how NOT to blow themselves up and a whole lot more. Armed with this information, they went to the store and bought their supplies. Then they spent the next few days building the gun, finding a place to shoot it and yes, shooting the gun itself.
They had a great time, and when Russell was in school the next week listening to the professor drone on, he thought about how he’d rather be shooting his potato gun. Then he wondered if there were other people who would rather be shooting a potato gun too.
Russell checked, and sure enough: the previous month there had been 18,000 searches for the term, ‘potato gun plans.’
Russell talked his friend into creating a DVD on how to source the items needed for building a potato gun, and how to build the gun itself.
Then he sold this DVD online. While he didn’t make a fortune, he did earn enough to get excited about online marketing and his new career was born.
Notice in the above scenario what Russell did to become an expert. He picked a topic he was interested in, researched it, experimented, did his own work, and created a video.
Not exactly hard work, was it?
Russell gives a few more examples of people who became ‘experts’ in the same manner:
Jacob Hiller always wanted to dunk a basketball, but he was lousy at it. So he started doing research to discover techniques to improve his ability to jump. Every time he found a technique that worked, he made a video.
At first nobody was paying attention, but after a while he had 100 followers, then 1,000 followers, and pretty soon he had 10,000 followers.
So he made a product and built a company that makes millions of dollars teaching people how to jump. Crazy, but true.
Jermaine Griggs had trouble reading sheet music, so learned to play piano by ear. Now he makes millions teaching others to do the same.
Liz Benny was an excellent social media manager, but it wasn’t until she began teaching others what she knew that she started making millions.
Robert G. Allen once said that he made millions doing real estate deals, but he made hundreds of millions of dollars teaching real estate.
Think of that – he made MILLIONS doing real estate deals, but he made HUNDREDS of millions teaching others what he learned.
Are you an expert at something that other people want to learn? Then as Russell says, you are just one funnel away from making millions.
But maybe you don’t have an expertise yet – that’s okay. As you can see from the above examples, every one of these folks learned to be an expert first and then built their business teaching others to do what they did.
Even Russell wasn’t born an internet marketing guru. He studied and practiced and worked to become what he is today.
And the same goes for me and every single expert making 7 figures on the internet.
One last thing – you might already be an expert, but you’ve got a voice inside your head saying, “Who am I to teach others? I’m nobody special.”
You are indeed special but you just don’t know it yet.
What you know comes easy to you because you’ve studied and practiced.
Yet to most people, what you know seems like something very difficult.
They need your help.
They WANT your help.
So ask yourself this question: Who are you to deny them the help they need and want?
Think about all the people you can help with your skill. By focusing not on the money you’ll earn, but instead focusing on helping others, you can build a 7-figure business you can feel great about.
And by the way, you can purchase Russell’s book, “Expert Secrets,” on Amazon.
Ok, this is a rant but it needs to be said… I got another email the other day from someone lamenting at how darn difficult it is to start and run an online business. He went on and on about his struggles, challenges, problems… how he didn’t have anyone to sit right there and show him step by step what to do, that he had to read BOOKS and watch VIDEOS to learn things… He was literally convincing himself that he couldn’t do it.
This man is a friend of mine. He’s 42 years old, has a good job, a college education and a lousy attitude.
Finally I got sick of his whining and I sent him this note:
“Dear Peter,
What I’m about to say, I say with love and the deepest of respect.
I want to tell you about a 14 year old boy named William Kamkwamba.
William was born into poverty in a small Malawi village in Africa.
Because of a crippling famine, William was forced to drop out of school since his family could no longer afford the tuition. To further his education, William used his spare time to study books in the village library, where he evidently learned some stuff all on his own.
His village had no electricity and no running water. So at the ripe old age of 14 and using what he learned from those books, William built a wind turbine out of blue gum trees, bicycle parts and scrap.
This turbine along with future turbines William built powered his entire village.
Next, William built a solar-powered water pump to supply the first drinking water to his village.
Of course, William had many advantages you do not. He didn’t have decades of life experience like you do.
He didn’t know that things were supposed to be hard. He didn’t know to complain. He didn’t know that what you learn in books is useless.
You’re smarter than William. You know how hard it is to get motivated when you already have drinking water, food, a home and so forth.
And books – you know how difficult it is to read and learn from those silly things. After all, the only thing in them is the knowledge of experts who’ve already done the things you want to do.
You know how hard it is to move that mouse and tap those keys.
Starting an online business? You know it’s impossible.
But William… he didn’t know any of those things.
And at 14 he brought power and water to his entire village all by himself.
Maybe you could ask William to show you how to build your online business…
Every sale you make is a sale you have somehow purchased. And once you get your mind around this, marketing will become a lot easier.
Free traffic? There is no such thing. Maybe you didn’t spend money to get the traffic, but guaranteed you spent time.
Sales from affiliates? You spent time recruiting them and you are paying them a commission on each sale.
Sales to your own list? You bought those customers from the method you used to get them on your list, warming them up, getting them to trust you, etc.
You are always investing SOMETHING to make a sale.
Which is why, if you haven’t already, you need to learn to make $1.50 on every $1 of advertising you spend. By spending money on proven methods to get sales, you can rapidly scale up.
You spend $1,000 on Facebook ads and make $1,500? Congrats, you now have a sustainable business. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.
This is the ultimate goal – to stop spending your time and start investing your money to get sales.
After all, you only have so much time, and every minute is precious.
But when you can make money every time you invest money – NOW you are truly a marketer, and that six and seven figure business is just around the corner.
At this point I’ve mentioned over and over that you should be building a list with just about every action you take in your business. But, why is it so important?
There are several reasons — some include:
Frequent, easy contact with list members
Relationship building
Future-proofing
Scalability
Passive income
Multiple points of income
Let’s go over each of these points in turn.
Frequent, Easy Contact with List Members
It’s really exciting when someone reads your content, comments on your blog, sees your sales page, checks you out on social media, or buys a product of yours.
It’s great… but what if they forget about you and never take another action again?
What if they only ever buy that ONE product from you because you fall off their radar?
What if they love your blog post but forget about you because they have a million other great blog posts they love?
What if Facebook changes their algorithm so that person who “liked” your page never sees another one of your posts again?
Then, it’s not quite so rosy. It’s as if your readers and customers are slipping through your fingers. You need a way to connect with them and keep up with them. You need a way to stay at the top of their mind.
Getting them on an email list is the best way to do that. Get that Facebook liker on your email list and who cares if Facebook changes their algorithms? Get that blog reader on your email list and let them know when you have new posts… and new promotions. Get that customer on your list and gain a customer for life.
People are more likely to buy from those they know, like, and trust. People are more likely to buy when they’ve been reminded to do so more than once.
Relationship Building
If someone trusts you and already likes what you have to say, they’ll be a lot more likely to buy from you. That sort of thing happens over time… once you have a relationship.
How do you get that relationship? It’s hard to build it if you only ever have fleeting contact with a reader or customer.
Get them on your list and it’s a whole new ballgame. When you have someone on your email list, you can send them helpful information. You can answer their questions one on one. You can share things that are going on in your life.
Email is simply more intimate and primed for relationship building. You have to use your list in the right way to make this happen, of course, but it can pay off big time when you do.
Future Proofing
None of us know if Facebook will always be the powerhouse it is today. The same goes for other social media sites. None of us know if Google will rank our sites and blogs well tomorrow or if they’ll fall away to oblivion.
How do you future-proof your business? That’s easy… you build an email list.
Your list is yours. As long as you comply with email marketing rules, you’re free to do what you want with your list. You can email them when you want, port your list to a new autoresponder company, promote what you want, when you want, and so on.
Put your business in your own hands by building an email list and making that a main focus, if not the main focus, of your business.
Scalability
It’s important to have an email list if you want to scale your business up. You’re so busy that it’s more essential than ever before to automate where you can (in the form of a list building funnel and autoresponders, in this case) and pay attention to what really works in your business.
Build a targeted email list of thousands of those desperate for answers and willing to spend money in your niche and I can all but guarantee your success. Having an email list allows you to scale up because you can focus on what’s important and always get your offers and promotions in front of extremely targeted eyeballs.
Passive Income
Having an email list can also help you achieve the dream of passive income. You can set up a squeeze page and make use of traffic methods that will work for you day and night. You can pay for this traffic, write articles, create videos, or whatever works for you.
You can then create a freebie offer that you give away on your squeeze page. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 am, people will get that freebie automatically if they sign up for your list.
You can write a series of autoresponder emails that inform and delight your audience. You can write emails that promote products of yours and products you’re promoting as an affiliate.
Sure, you’ll have to check in and maintain your list, but much of your list building and income generation can happen on autopilot if you set yourself up the right way. This is great for product creators, affiliates, etc.
Multiple Streams of Income
Having an email list helps you develop multiple streams of income. You can earn as an affiliate or product creator. You can strike up great Joint venture deals… people are a lot more likely to work with you if you have a responsive email list.
It doesn’t matter what your main form of income is right now, having a list gives you options. And in a business where things are constantly changing and you have to keep up, adapt, and make sure your eggs aren’t all in one basket, email marketing is key.
Build Your List!
Build your list and you’ll build your freedom. And I mean that sincerely. Make list building a main focus of your business and you’ll be building an asset that allows you to steadily grow your influence, and ability to increase your business income and profits on demand.
There’s a huge difference in sales conversions when someone is excited about a purchase they’re making vs. when they’re surprised by the possibility of a purchase.
Think back to your own history. Has there ever been a product or anything you thought about buying for some time? Maybe it popped up in your thoughts throughout the day, you heard others talking about it, and you were convinced it would change your life, solve a problem of yours, or delight you. When it came time to buy, you jumped at the chance – you couldn’t hit that buy button fast enough. I’m sure it’s happened to you; I think it’s happened to all of us.
The same is true for your audience. That build-up matters.
If they just see your sales page blindly, they might not even read past the headline. They don’t yet have an emotional connection to it. Sure, you try to do a great job with your copy and get and keep them reading—but that doesn’t always work because once they reach a page, if they’re not already presold on the desire to read for more than an instant, you only have a brief time to capture their interest.
It’s so much better if they have an emotional connection already. It’s even better if they already know they’re going to buy before they even see the sales page. That’s when the real magic happens.
I’ve had people tell me that when I release a new product, some don’t even read the sales page. They know it’s going to be a good value so they jump right down to the buy button. That makes me feel great. That’s part of a reputation I’ve developed over time.
But often, it has to do with the preselling I do in my emails. I often talk about projects I’m working on, especially ones I’m particularly excited about (such as the Plug-In Profit Site). I talk about what the projects mean to me and what they’ll mean to the audience.
I have great relationships with the people on my email list. There are some who’ve been on my list for nearly a decade. With this trust come higher conversions.
But that longevity doesn’t always have to be there to do this successfully. You can presell by email and get people excited about making a purchase whether you’re new to business or copywriting or not. You can get people excited about making a purchase before they even see the sales page by using the power of psychology and preselling.
The Psychology Of Preselling
People tend to buy more readily when they’ve already committed to something in their mind.
People tend to buy more readily when they’re reminded of a desperation or passion they have.
People want easier, better solutions to things.
It often takes more than one point of contact before someone will be ready to buy.
What does all of that mean to you? It means that if you pay attention to these things, you can do a great job of preselling by email. You can secure that sale before people even see your sales page. How’s that for something amazing?
Let’s talk about the fact that it often takes more than one point of contact before people are ready to buy. Imagine you buy an Adwords ad and send someone directly to a sales page. They might not have heard of you. The sales page is great, though… are they likely to buy? They might… but your conversions won’t be anywhere near what they could be. There’s no real connection there.
Instead, imagine a scenario where you buy an ad, give someone a freebie so they’ll join your list, and start building a relationship with them by email. You send an email stirring up a problem they have. You send another offering them part of the solution. You send another email handing them the solution on a platter… they’re excited and decide they NEED this solution and are ready to buy before they even land on the sales page.
The latter option is better, right? It’s that relationship and connection that makes the difference. It’s that attention to human psychology that makes the difference.
The Next Time You Sell by Email…
The next time you sell via a sales page, do your preselling by email. It can work well to do a mini series of emails that leads to a link to a sales page and a call to action.
The first email can stir up the reader’s emotions and hit on their problem. Make them feel that pain and pressure so they’ll want to remove it at any cost. Get that thought into their mind and they’ll be subconsciously thinking about it until the next time you contact them.
The second email can restate that pain and emotional need again. This time, hint at the solution.
The third email can present the solution on a silver platter – and the answer is found within the product on your sales page. Include a call to action to buy.
Get people excited about what you have to offer ahead of time. You can really improve your conversions. Learning how to write copy isn’t just about writing a good sales letter, it’s also about writing great email copy.
Examples Of Preselling By Email
Here’s an example for you. This is a very simplified example, so adapt it to fit your needs.
Let’s say you want to promote a product that’s designed to teach stay at home moms how to write a money-making blog so they can start or continue staying home with their kids while bringing in an income.
Email 1:
Subject: Moms who need more money…
Hello,
Having children is amazing – it’s a huge blessing.
You’ve decided to stay home with your children or you want to stay home with them.
The only problem is that there’s just not enough money. It’s next to impossible for a real family to live off of a single income in today’s world.
But you don’t want to miss a moment of your child’s life.
What’s the answer?
I completely understand what you’re going through right now, and it’s one of the toughest things there is.
I think this topic is so important that I’m going to send you another email tomorrow to talk about solutions, okay?
Sign off
P.S. I think you’re going to like the idea I have for you… It could mean the difference between staying home with your baby or not.
Email 2:
Subject: Can stay at home moms earn money from home?
Hello,
Last time, we talked about the fact that you really, really want to be able to stay home with your children.
We also talked about the fact that it’s nearly impossible for most families to survive on just one income.
At the same time, you’ll stop at nothing to be able to stay home with your little one.
What’s the answer?
The answer’s pretty cool… and it can definitely work for you. I’m really excited to tell you this. I actually work with MANY stay at home moms who earn full time incomes from home.
They do it all from the computer.
No, this has nothing to do with those ridiculous (and scammy) fake posts you see on social media that say stuff like “earn $3,000 from month doing nothing!”
There are REAL moms who really wanted to stay home with their kids. They’ve started their own business from home and are now earning great incomes doing it.
There’s actually a ton of different options out there for doing this. You can write, blog, freelance, work as an affiliate, and even create your own products.
All of these can be your path to freedom… your path to getting to stay home with your kids and earn a full time income.
I’m especially excited about one of these options in particular because I think it’s perfect for you. You can do it in your spare time and it’s really a lot of fun.
I’m going to share that business with you next time.
For now, think about what it would mean to your family… and to your children… if you could stay home with them with no stress. What it would mean to you and your spouse to have a second full time income coming in, in your spare time at home.
Until then…
Sign off
P.P.S. Remember to check your email tomorrow, okay? There will be a special message from me.
Email 3:
Subject: Hey mom… here’s your answer for earning a full time income from home…
Hello,
I’m so excited about this because I truly think this can change your life and the lives of your family members.
Yesterday, I shared with you that there are actually a LOT of different ways moms can stay home with their babies and earn a full time income, often in their spare time.
Today, I’m proud to offer you a complete guide on doing this as a part time mommy blogger.
This method in particular is fun, easy, and lucrative. You can do it in your spare time and earn a great income doing it.
I know how badly you want to be able to stay home. I also completely understand how hard it is to do that if there aren’t two incomes coming in.
Here’s your solution… it’s a complete guide that will help you get started. It’s just $7 – less than the price of a couple of Happy Meals.
This could be life changing. After all, your children are only young once.
Grab hold of your future and your income by starting your own lucrative blog from home. This isn’t a “biz op”, this is a true opportunity to make your own path in life.
You work hard, and now it’s time to cash in on it.
Link to sales page
To your success,
Sign off
As you can see, there’s a lot of room here to write emails like this for your own product.
Make these preselling emails whatever you need them to be. The moms in the example haven’t even seen the sales page yet… but they’re probably going to buy, right? It’s the answer to their problems. The click-throughs and conversions on that third email should be quite high because the moms are already pre-sold on that product.
Apply this to your copywriting or promotions and you can dramatically boost your sales.
You may not be able to focus 100% on your target when you are planning on building a home business. There may be many reasons for this. Many other things constantly demand your attention and interrupt you repeatedly. That said, part of learning to focus is keeping your eye trained on the target no matter what else happens during the day.
You may have a stressful day job, a rough commute and family concerns which are all important and need to be dealt with first. You may really have to change some things so that you find time for your home business project and somehow squeeze this extra activity into your busy schedule.
It sounds like your home business will have the lowest priority, but as long as you at least see it as more important than watching TV or hanging out with friends, your business will have a chance to get off the ground. It doesn’t have to be today, but every day you wait is costing you valuable experience and progress toward the life you are truly dreaming of.
Take care of all your pressing priorities so that they will be out of the way and then you can better focus on what you need to do to develop your business. To begin with, there will be research and planning. The business you choose will be determined by your interests, but dependent on your skills and other resources you may have or need to acquire going forward.
It is always a good idea to analyze and then plan your actions. Start with why you want to start a business. Focus on this, because you will need to stay motivated throughout the process. Sometimes just a little self-talk will remind you there is something else to do before it is time to relax. Sometimes that is all it takes to trigger a nice jolt of energy to go the extra mile needed to make a business breakthrough, or just get the job done.
Take control of your future right now and push yourself to reach your target goal of financial independence today. Focus on your target of building a home business with every spare minute you have; and while it may not be your first priority, it has to be one of the top priorities if you want it to become successful. There is no better time than the present to get started, so roll up your sleeves, get to work and continue forward on your journey of building a successful business from home!
Let’s say you’re building a sales funnel to promote a new weight loss program. Your lead magnet should detail ways to lose weight. But here’s the key – make these methods painful. Discouraging. Problematic. Complicated. Etc.
Maybe you give them a diet that’s difficult to follow. Or a workout plan that’s enough to make an athlete cry. Whatever.
It should be something that will definitely get the job done, IF they follow it.
But they won’t want to, which is the point.
Because then you will ‘save the day’ by offering them the ‘easy solution.’
Which is, of course, the program you are promoting.
This way you get the exact people you want to enter your funnel (people who want to lose weight) and you prime them to grab your easy solution, because otherwise it just seems too difficult.
This works for almost anything. Do you sell software? Make your lead magnet about how to manually get the same result your software will provide for them automatically.
Do you sell a book writing service? Tell them how to write a book in excruciating, pains-taking over the top detail. Remind them at the end of every chapter that you are there for them if they want to do what so many others have already done, and hire you to write their book for them while they go about their merry lives.
You get the idea.
Make your lead magnet helpful but painful. Then offer them the easy, fast solution they really want.
Do you sell a monthly membership? If not, you might want to consider it.
Here’s 3 reasons to start a membership site:
1. Monthly memberships mean residual income. You sell a membership once and you get paid for it month after month until the customer cancels.
2. Selling a membership generally isn’t any harder than selling a one-time product, yet you can get paid a whole lot more for the same effort.
3. If you offer a trial membership, it’s even easier to get new subscribers. In fact, it can be easier than selling a regular one time product. Yet you can make a LOT more, as this case study will show.
Michael Hyatt has a membership site called Platform University. Twice a year he opens the site up for enrollment. Of course, you can take new enrollees into your membership site as often as you choose, but Michael likes to do it just twice a year – probably because it seems more exclusive that way.
Membership costs $37 a month.
But when his recent launch ended, he decided to offer a $1.99 trial membership to anyone who didn’t take the full $37 a month membership.
So after the one week trial period ended, he sent out an email to everyone who didn’t become a member.
In the email he offered a 7 day trial for $1.99, but the catch was they only had 24 hours to grab it.
That email went out to 40,000 people. 819 signed up for the trial offer.
(If you’re going to do the math to see how much 819 times $1.99 is, you’re going to miss the point. But it’s $1,629)
Of those 819 people, 292 cancelled the membership before it rolled into the $37 a month auto payment.
That sounds bad, doesn’t it?
It’s not. Because that means 527 new members paid their first $37 a month.
At $37 a month, that’s an additional $19,499 of monthly recurring income that Michael never would have had if not for the trial membership.
And things get even crazier, because the average member stays for 17.3 months, which is a lifetime value of $640.10 per member.
Which is to say, that $1.99 trial offer resulted in over $300,000 of possible future revenue.
Wow.
Really, it makes you wonder why he doesn’t just offer the trial membership.
But here’s the thing: By spending a week or even two weeks selling the membership at full price, he really builds the value.
So when he does offer the one week trial for just $1.99, it is such a no-brainer that people sign up in droves.
The campaign to get new $37 members is really a campaign to show people how valuable the membership is, and set it up so that the $1.99 is just too good to pass up.
If he had ONLY offered the $1.99 membership, he would not have properly established the value of the membership, and I don’t think his results would have been as good.
And all of this isn’t even counting the members he did sign up during that week long campaign at $37 a month each.
So how can you use this in your own membership?
First, you want to provide plenty of value inside your membership so that new members stay for a long time. Find out exactly what members want and give it to them. Have a place inside your membership where members can actually request new features to be added to your membership.
Next, really establish the value to prospects. Use lots of testimonials to show how your membership helps members to achieve their goals. You want to build the value so high that the cost of membership seems low by comparison.
Lastly, offer your trial membership for only a day or two before closing it. This gets people off the fence and grabbing the trial before it’s too late. You can always open the trial back up again in a month or two, as you see fit.
Finally, track your numbers. See how many people sign up at the regular rate, how many sign up for the trial, and how many convert from the trial to the regular paid membership.
Of course, keep track of how long members stay. Find ways to get them to stick around longer and you will consistently increase your monthly income for even bigger paydays.
One more thing – imagine working your tail off to get your membership up and running. You might invest, say, two months into finding out exactly what people want, setting up the membership and filling it with content, software, etc.
Then imagine four months beyond that – you’ve got hundreds or even thousands of members with more joining. You’re making residual money on people who joined months ago. In fact, every month your income increases. You invest part of that money to continue to provide the content, software or services that members get, and the rest is yours. And life is sweet.
If you haven’t started a membership site of your own yet, what are you waiting for?
