Income Multiplier: Plug In Each of These Four Breakthrough Strategies to Make More Sales to the Middle 80 Percent of Your Subscribers
There are four very simple tweaks that you need to make in the way you present your products and webinars if you haven't applied these already...
Look, let's think for a second about the "top 10 percent" of your subscriber list. They're going to buy everything you put out. It doesn't matter if you do a bad job of explaining it, or you don't promote it very often, even the price point doesn't matter THAT MUCH -- they're buying, mostly because they have the budget, they're the perfect fit for your products... and SOMEWHAT because of you and your personality. They trust you.
Then there's the "bottom 10 percent" of your list. I hate to use such derogatory terms but let's just say this is the crowd that either can't afford your product, doesn't want your product. They're never going to buy no matter what you do. Once again, I hope that doesn't offend anyone but there is a minority of people on your list who will NEVER buy anything from you in a million years.
That's fine. But the bulk of our subscribers are that middle 80 percent, the ones who buy sometimes but not always, THEY are the reason you run things like webinars.
Or add time based scarcity to "push them over the edge", mail a few more times, test and tweak headlines on your sales letter.
Heck, do you know why webinars are so important to the business that Lance and I run? Because most people don't click on an email under the 2nd or 3rd one... and if it's a sales letter or a training video, they might read half or watch half, and ALMOST buy... but not quite.
Why doesn't that middle 80% want to buy from you?
It's not about the price. Most people can scrape together a few hundred or a few thousand bucks if something's that important. People have credit cards.
After careful observation of the people on our webinars and on my list... the #1 reason people don't buy is because... wait for it... they're afraid of change AND on some deep level, they know they won't take action on what they buy.
Here's what you can do about that:
Multiplier #1: Add Something to Your Offer to Make It "Too Good to Pass Up"
Most marketers are lazy and can't think of anything other than reduce the price or add a deadline. Or even worse, a "crazy guarantee" (that's all been done to death and is nothing special)...
What if you partnered with some other business in your niche and arranged things so that if someone buys your product, they get someone else's product for free? Or you hired a programmer to whip up some kind of software or must-have tool to make it easier for someone to apply your training?
You could throw in a done-for-you or 1-on-1 call as a bonus, and if you get too bogged down with fulfilling it, remove it in the future.
Multiplier #2: Align and Sympathize with Their Problem
We're dealing with a tricky situation here. The problems that most people have... whether we're talking about lack of money, too much weight, general unhappiness, is the result of some underlying psychological issue.
Even worse: you can't explain to this 80% what their problem is, why they have this problem or how to solve it. They don't want to hear it! Either they agree with you, and they have to admit they've been doing things the wrong way, and now they're a victim OR you're insulting them.
More likely: they'll aggressively DENY they have this underlying psychological problem, they might not even want to admit it to themselves, and now you're really losing credibility.
If there's one common thread I've seen when it comes to copywriting, pitching, psychology, or even mindset and self-help it's this... if you've got a selling argument to make, you'll lose people if you flat out tell them they're wrong or that things need to change.
How about this... what if you turned it around on yourself and instead of telling people why THEY are dieting wrong or making money online in the wrong way... you shared the mistakes YOU made when trying to get a handle on your mindset, when you were trying to lose weight, when you personally were trying to make money online?
Be careful though... if all you do is tell me how much you suck, why am I going to listen to you? That's why you tell a "before-and-after" story. I was just like you and I had this, this, and this problem. I did that, that, and that didn't work. Can you relate? That's when I discovered... this big breakthrough. And do what I say here to get my same results.
Multiplier #3: Actually Market Consistently (Most Marketers Don't)
Speaking of big breakthroughs... the most obvious way to make more money online is the thing most marketers either don't think to do, or they're aware of it and they are simply too afraid to do it.
Send some more emails to your subscribers. Mail to the same sales letter, webinar replay, webinar registration every day for a week. It works!
Even if you came out with a product months ago or last year, and it's still online, isn't it true that you still have access to people that want it, but haven't bought? That middle 80 percent!
Multiplier #4: Break-In New Material to See What REALLY Triggers Them to Buy
A few things happen when you market consistently. One is that you'll get bored of your presentations and feel the need to "mix things up."
A few examples. After presenting Backup Creator a few times, I realized that what really lit our audience up on a webinar wasn't showing us backing a site up, blowing the site away and restoring... but cloning a site for an offline business. So why run a really involved pitch webinar with all these case studies when I can center it around explaining Backup Creator and then using it in this scenario?
Have you heard of Paper Template, our WordPress plugin that allows you to run WordPress as a sales letter? I "could have" tried to compare myself to other WordPress themes, I could have shown how to make an optin page and a sales letter...
But what really seemed to perk people up was creating a FUNNEL. Here's an optin bribe, here's a point and click sales letter, here's a download page, all working together.
It's like being a comedian who has lots of "jokes" and tests them out on the road to see what works well and what doesn't.
At the end of the day, we all really need to sharpen our axes and see if we can make more sales by testing out that new material and seeing what they really want... for example...
- They don't care about how hard you worked or how much stuff you have inside your membership site
- They don't want to learn, read, or watch... but they do want to "discover" or get this result instantly delivered to them
- They don't REALLY want to make all that money or lose all that weight so much as they want to be able to show their spouse or they brother in law how wrong they were to doubt them!
You need to keep these four breakthroughs in mind if you want to make more money this week and this month:
Multiplier #1: Add Something to Your Offer to Make It "Too Good to Pass Up"
Multiplier #2: Align and Sympathize with Their Problem
Multiplier #3: Actually Market Consistently (Most Marketers Don't)
Multiplier #4: Break-In New Material to See What REALLY Triggers Them to Buy
Which was your favorite? Are you using some or all four of these multiplier? Which do you need to do more? Please leave a quick comment below telling me.
Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Copywriting
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Hi John, yep, I’ve met more than a few people who felt they needed to create everything from scratch… sales letter template, WordPress-type of content management system, code their own autoresponder… where are they now? Not in business. It took too long for them to make money and they focused on the wrong things instead of using existing tools.
Robert –
Love the 4 ideas! They break conventional thinking. I especially resonate with #1 – a lot of people think dropping the price and competing on price is the right thing to do. I do not think so. Price accordingly and add fantastic value (but not so much that you will be losing money!).
Thanks for the ideas!
Paul.
All well and good but if you are really just ‘attempting’ to make the basics work, none of this applies if no one comes to your site…
Robert, I especially like the marketing consistently tip. It makes sense because like most things is life you get out what you put in. Whether it be in business, sport and any endeavor where you want to improve, consistency is the key. I agree with testing different angles out as well. You never know what will work best until you test and find out the results. Great post and insightful advice – keep ’em coming!
Cheers
Ricky
Robert, great stuff as always. Excellent tips, and you’re right I like many others don’t follow them as often, or always as I should. Thanks for the reminder.
Although I’m primarily an SEO service/design provider, it was interesting to read “Breakthrough #2: Align and Sympathize with Their Problem”; as with organic SEO or PPC most people know it is best to focus/optimize an individual web page for 1 topic or only 1 keyword phrase (2-3 keyword phrases max).
One way to achieve more front-end sales is to find out the top 25 real reasons WHY someone wants to make more money online (or WHY are they having trouble making money online). You will then able able to address each of the 25 reasons specifically, simply by creating a new landing page for that reason. Each one of the landing pages are then slightly modified to specifically answer that particular reason/problem that person has.
Now when they go from the landing page to the sales page (having a landing page/opt-in page before the sales page does in fact increase conversions), they will now see their specific problem/reason being addressed, once again, somewhere on the SALES PAGE; along with the other 24 reasons (maybe in a bulleted list). This will mentally take them seamlessly from the opt-in page (aligning and sympathizing with their problem) to the sales page, where again they see their problem being addressed; it makes sense you could multiply your traffic with higher more relevant rankings and more effective advertising/PPC campaigns all of which will now convert better because you would have just accomplished tighter relevance and at the same time have shown them you are aligned and sympathetic about their problem.
You mentioned sharpening our axes and that reminded me of a quote from Abraham Lincoln that you mentioned on one of your recent podcasts. “If I had 7 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend 4 hours sharpening my axe”.
The gist of that statement is that it is worth while to spend some time (or money) now in order to reduce your effort / increase your effectiveness later. (#4)
With the Paper Template or Backup Creator products, you are in a sense selling reasonably priced razor sharp axes. (#1). Too good to pass up.
These are my favorites. 🙂
If people wonder why marketers are better than sales people it only requires a read of your article to understand that you are mindful of the sales experience and care about the quality that people need to inform their purchase decision.
Excellent insights! Thanks you!
Reason #3, market more consistently, is the one that makes me sit up and take notice. It’s something I struggle with doing. In fact, I’ve turned to making a marketing calendar to help me “remember” to something each week.
The 4 breakthroughs mentioned say a lot of what is needed. While I do like the 4 I am partial to breakthrough #’s 1 and 2. Adding the extras helps in getting their attention, and aligning yourself with their problems helps you to understand what they are looking for as well as setting yourself up as a friend that they are able to talk too.
John
Market consistently is my biggest takeaway, like you say few do it – people need to hear the same message a few times.
Robert, great information as always, implementing all four of these ideas, set’s you up for success. Back up creator and the paper template are superb products. Cuts back on time, makes repetition easy, along with staying consistent. Thanks again for giving back to all of us.
Breakthrough #3 about marketing consistently has always been my downfall. I love to “strike when inspiration hits me” instead of staying on a regular marketing schedule.
Bad marketer.
Thanks for the poke in the right direction. I definitely agree that the upside is well worth it.
John
My favourite was breakthrough #1. I need to sit and think more about who would be good to work with on this one.
Hey Robert: Great breakthrough strategies! I particularly like #3 Market More Consistently. Especially the idea of sending an email for a promotion every day this week. Thanks for the great post!
Sadly, I’m not experienced enough yet to give a true comment !!.
I have yet to find an IM marketer/’guru’ that actually at least appears to deliver what they promise and I’m not knowledgeable enough to KNOW until I’ve wasted a LOT of time and money !!.
Hi Colin, the good news is that if you haven’t found a good mentor, you don’t have to “wait” until one reveals themselves. You can go out and run experiments on your own.
Thanks for the reminders, no matter what the topic all of them are relevant. #2 is the most critical for me and especially using specific wording to help speak to the people who are really ready and willing to take their next step vs. the people who only want to “look good” because they think/talk about it. You are very correct that most people get defensive, too.
Hi Robert, they are all good points that we all need to observe.
I am just going through setting up a site and I really need to follow your principles if it is to succeed.
I like the first one about offering an extra incentive but the need to act on the others in the sequence that you describe is paramount as well.
Thanks for your great ideas and solutions.
Lawrence
Coming from the prospective of copywriting, creating an offer too good to be true is of top importance. Too many offers are lame.
And the other one that is SO true is the failure to market consistently. I see this all the time in small businesses who only market when they are desperate for business.
John Braun, so true. I’ve found that it’s about 1000 times easier to mail daily, pitch weekly and launch monthly if I keep that muscle strong. If I quit for a month or longer, it would be hard as heck to get back into that routine.
Robert,
I think this is a very good set of tactics.
To help get more clients for my NC Business Litigation and Real Estate Dispute law practice, we are trying to focus on Your
Breakthrough #3: Actually Market Consistently (Most Marketers Don’t)
– and –
Breakthrough #4: Break-In New Material to See What REALLY Triggers Them to Buy.
We are tyring to do both through our new Call to Action buttons (top right), inviting potential clients to sign up for our Legal Strategy Session, and, separately, offering to help other, out-of-state lawyers help THEIR clients here in North Carolina.
Inez de Ondarza Simmons
P.S. My husband, Christopher Simmons, recently purchased your Setup a Facebook Fanpage course, and we hope to add that to our marketing efforts presently. Thanks again.
All 4 of your breakthrough marketing ideas work synergistically, but I actually think the first will bring in the most upfront sales. When a consumer sees an amazing bonus, it really pushes them over the edge to buy.
Thanks Rhonda. When I see people trying to sell products and services (software and courses especially) they are so in love with their own product that they go through 20 features and I don’t care. If instead, they fleshed out 20 uses or 20 scenarios for their product, reduced it down to the top 5, and then actually thought out of that top 5, what’s the ONE REASON or ONE SCENARIO that causes 80% of people to buy. That would be something.
The way I see it working out is:
– Scenario #1: the reason 80% of people buy
– Scenario #2: the reason 5% of people buy
– Scenario #3: the reason 5% of people buy
– Scenario #4: the reason 5% of people buy
– Scenario #5: the reason 5% of people buy
Then they could devote 80% of their selling and copy to the most exciting thing, and just 20% (or less) to the nice-to-haves, I’d see a lot more people making money online. (If that makes sense.)
Hi Robert
All four need remembering but my favorite is #4, test new triggers. Doing the same thing all the time, or even worse doing the same as everyone else, just makes you invisible. You fade into the crowd. Doing something different makes you stand out from the crowd. It makes your audience sit up and take notice which is the first step towards taking action.
I learned the ‘zig-zag’ theory (when they zig, you zag!) in investing circles. Then found it works really well in marketing too 🙂
Thanks for the reminder.
John