Component #1: Stage of the Selling Process
(A.I.D.A.)
Attention: what's in this for me, why should I give you 30 seconds of my time? (usually a shocking statement, bold claim, promise, or newsworthy statement)
Interest: who are you, why should I listen, how does it relate to me?
Desire: what is your offer, what does it do, why would I want it?
Action: what do you want me to do right now to get it?
A very common mistake I see with sales letters (or with teaching of any kind) is that someone's got this in the wrong order. They're trying to sell something before they've demonstrated the importance of it, or they haven't captured my attention before they began talking to me. Some of them don't have a very clear call to action!
The point is, just look at your webinar presentation and sales letter and make sure that the ENTIRE presentation as a whole follows AIDA. Starts with attention, moves to interest, then desire, then finally action -- the pitch! Every piece of the webinar itself (intro, teaching, and pitching) should follow AIDA on its own and every slide should also follow AIDA -- even if the "attention" part is the headline of your slide, and the "action" is just to continue listening, watching, and participating in that webinar.
Now that we know the order we're going to proceed in, let's look at what tools we're going to use to do the job -- they are pretty interchangeable...
Component #2: Persuasion Tool
(Robert Cialdini "6 Keys of Influence")
I've seen many people try to explain their "system" for selling and persuading, but only explain one small piece. For example, has anyone tried to be your best friend in order to get you to buy from them (likeability)? It didn't always work, did it? On the other hand, if someone presented a trial offer (reciprocity) it made you buy... but not always, right?
These are the six tools you always use to get what you want, whether you realize it or not:
Authority: demonstrate higher value, you've got what I want, you know what you're talking about and I should listen to you
Likeability: we have common ground, we connect on several levels
Reciprocity: you've done something for me (either a literal gift or taught valuable information) so I want to return the favor
Commitment & Consistency: I've already agreed with you 20 times in a row, or I've sat through your 1-hour webinar, I want to keep following you
Social Proof: others see value in what you have so I do too
Scarcity: if I don't act on this right away, I will miss out in some way (won't be able to buy, will have to buy at a higher price, or won't get results if I wait)
I hope you seeing this list makes you realize why you sell to some people and not others. Honestly, some people will buy from you because they feel like they are you (likeability), because they feel the need to give back to you (reciprocity), because others like you (social proof), or just because you lit a fire under their butt to get them to buy right away (scarcity)...
And the way this REALLY makes sense to me is that authority, likeability, and reciprocity are the high-level strategies you'd use over time to sell high-ticket items. You play on your audience's need for certainty, love, and contribution.
While commitment & consistency, social proof, and scarcity are the cheap "gimmicks" that work great for low-ticket impulse buy sales. Think about it. Bucket brigades, hand raising, and multiple facts in a row (commitment and consistency) will give you a boost. Social proof (testimonials) will give you a boost. Deciding to only offer 100 copies or raise the price on Wednesday, will give you a boost!
The point of these six keys of influence: you need to have SOME of each of the six keys. Even if you don't have testimonials are your social proof, have case studies or explain to me how SOMEONE uses your product.
BUT! I think you're going to realize that the next time you create (or dissect) one of your own headlines, the effective ones uses one of these 6 keys as its MAIN driving force, probably with a 2nd a 3rd. For example, look at this headline:
"43 Smart Marketers Create 94 Information Products In Just A Few Short Weeks, Each In A Single Take, Starting With Almost Zero Training! You Too Can Create Your Own Online Show, Event, or E-Class Just Like Two Guys Who Have Logged 545 Webinars (Totaling 1050 Hours)"
You could look at that and say it's a SOCIAL PROOF headline. Look at what these people did and you can do it too. I would say the secondary tool we used here was AUTHORITY, check out how well we train our students and how many webinars we ourselves have run. Finally, a 3rd tool that's just barely in there is LIKEABILITY -- we run online shows, events, and e-classes and would like you to do it as well.
Component #3: Underlying Need
(Anthony Robbins "6 Human Needs")
Here's where it gets super cool... if we know where we are in our selling process, we know what our end goal is at this point in time (get them to start reading, or to align with us, or listen to our offer, or buy now). That was component #1. Any of those 6 keys of influence will do it... but how do we know WHICH tool to use???
Ahhh... the answer is to know who you're selling to -- what are their needs? If you think about WHY someone buys your course on Facebook traffic, it's might be because they want to help as many people as possible with their training (contribution) or because they want everyone to know about them (significance)...
I've looked at every which way people try to simplify human needs but motivational speaker Tony Robbins was the only one I've found to break it down in a way that I can always remember...
Certainty: we need stability in our lives and to maintain what we have
Variety: we need new adventures and excitement
Significance: we need others to recognize how great we are
Love: we need to connect with other human beings
Growth: we need today to be better than it was 5 years ago
Contribution: we need to contribute to the greater good
Once again, how does this relate? To make a huge generalization, I would argue that most older men desire CERTAINTY the most. They want to be able to pay their bills and not have to worry. Their #2 need is VARIETY -- can't have the same exact day as yesterday. And #3 for them is SIGNIFICANCE. They still need love, growth, and contribution, but they see those things coming almost automatically as a result of meeting those other three needs. (Picture the ultimate "alpha male" -- William Shatner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump -- they want certainty, variety and significance ABOVE ALL ELSE!)
Likewise, I would argue that MOST older women value those bottom three items the most... love, growth, and contribution. Do you think Oprah cares if she has $2 billion vs. $3 billion? NOT knowing her personally, I would say that Oprah belives in connecting with people (love), bettering herself as a person (growth), and helping others improve their lives as well (contribution) -- and that any certainty (money), variety (her business), and significance (fame) comes as an automatic result of that and therefore isn't so important.
Customer Avatar
You're going to have some Trumps as your subscribers, some Oprahs and everyone in between but once you get to know enough of your ideal customers you're going to discover your "ideal prospect" (Frank Kern and Eben Pagan call this your customer avatar) -- one imaginary person in your mind that adequately represents your ideal subscriber.
You'll figure out their name, age, appearance, what they do, what their income is, what they buy and THEN when you create a sales letter, or write a headline, you're just writing to that single person. And because you know what motivates them (their #1, #2, and #3 ranking needs), which tool you'll use to match those needs (which of the 6 Cialdini keys) -- then all you need to do is figure out which order to use them in! (which is Attention, Desire, Interest, and Action)
Bringing It All Together...
If you look at it correctly, this table will solve all your problems:
[table id=1 /]
Let me show you how to use it. Let's say your customer avatar is a slightly selfish person who values Variety, Significance, and Growth above all else. Let's also say you were selling a low ticket product so you're going to use Commitment & Consistency, Social Proof, and Scarcity to sell your product.
Now, we've decided that it would make the most sense if we opened with Social Proof, used Commitment & Consistency to keep them reading, and ended with Scarcity to really push them to buy right now.
Here's what we have so far:
Attention: Variety + Social Proof
Interest: Significance + Commitment & Consistency
Desire: ???
Action: Growth + Scarcity
We want to begin, build and end strong so I've listed our avatar's top three human needs in order as Attention, Interest, and Action, respectively. By the time someone is in the "Desire" stage, we're already explaining our offer to them, so we can put the remaining weakest pieces in there.
How does this all come together? Let's consult our chart... for the headline (Action phase) we're going to start with a before and after statement, such as...
"If You're Not Using These Video Sales Tactics In Every Website and Sales Letter You Create, You Might as Well Throw $10 in the Trash Every Time Someone Visits Your Landing Page!
On the Other Hand, Apply This Easy 6-Step Formula and You'll Notice an Increase in Traffic, Higher Customer Response, and More Sales... Which Means More Money For You!"
Now for the "interest" step... significance + commitment & consistency = limited slots.
Jeff Traister, Your Marketing Superhero, provides digital direct response marketing services, strategy, persuasive copywriting, marketing automation consulting, social media marketing management, WordPress web design and content plus video post-production to companies & industries worldwide.
social media marketing: interacting with leads to start selling
e-commerce: B2B & manufacturers
Types of Digital Marketing Campaigns
lead generation (opt-in, free report)
sales conversion (persuade with a sales letter)
trust building (whitepaper, success stories)
retention campaign (get established clients to buy more)
upsells and downsells (cart abandonment, lesser-quantity offers)
Jeff Traister develops direct response marketing strategies for start-up ventures, new product launches and market share expansion. These strategies involve digital media, automation and e-commerce.
Quotes:
“Content marketing is important because the customer life cycle varies from product to product, company to company. Some prospects that enter a company's funnel may not buy right away. So what do you do with that contact? You don't give up.” - Jeffrey Traister
“If you start advertising, that means you're starting to spend money. As soon as you spend money, you need a way to convert that contact, that lead, into a customer.” - Jeffrey Traister
“One of the great things with automation is that we're able to ask questions to gather information about the audience. By doing that, the audience member will have a greater appreciation of the relationship with you.” - Jeffrey Traister
Takeaways:
01:13 Digital marketing requires a multi-channel approach, focusing on content marketing, marketing automation, mobile strategies, social media engagement, and e-commerce expansion.
14:20 Prioritize content marketing across multiple channels to establish trust and credibility with potential customers.
17:08 Focus on nurturing existing customers to maximize business profits, as retention is cheaper and more effective than constantly acquiring new leads.
19:19 Build a complete sales funnel before investing in traffic, ensuring you have a strategic way to convert prospects into customers.
22:50 Use dedicated landing pages with lead magnets instead of sending cold traffic directly to sales pages or homepages.
26:46 Implement marketing automation to ask questions and gather audience information, creating more meaningful customer relationships.
Perry Marshall is one of the world's most expensive and sought-after business consultants. Clients seek his ability to integrate engineering, sales, art and psychology. He launched two movements in modern marketing. His Google AdWords books laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry, and techniques he pioneered are standard best practices. He wrote the world’s best selling book on web advertising, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords.
More recently, he's turned "80/20" into a verb. 80/20 is not just a fact about your business, it's action you take on your business. 80/20 is the central lever for every great strategy. His book 80/20 Sales & Marketing is mandatory in many growing companies. His books are course material in several business schools.
Quotes:
“Marketing always aligns with existing trends and natural forces in the marketplace. Anything effective in marketing works because it harmonizes with these larger forces, and you're simply directing or steering them slightly.” – Perry Marshall
“There are certain kinds of salespeople and sales modalities. If you put the wrong person in the wrong modality, you're just pounding a square peg into a round hole, which frustrates everybody.” - Perry Marshall
“The world is increasingly chaotic, making it harder to predict the future based on the past. It's becoming more difficult to foresee which product will go viral tomorrow based on what went viral today.” - Perry Marshall
Takeaways:
04:40 Fail fast and seek early customer validation by asking people to pay for your product before fully developing it.
14:01 Focus on the 20% of your skills and customers that generate 80% of your business results.
20:42 Stop trying to improve weak areas and instead concentrate on your natural strengths and talents.
35:45 Pay close attention to your reliable, low-maintenance customers who consistently generate steady business.
41:43 Recognize that business success often comes through incremental steps and experimental approaches, not overnight miracles.
Nick Usborne is an expert in copywriting and web writing. He has written copy for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Citibank, Apple, Chrysler, MSN.com, New York Times, WebEx, the U.S. Navy, and others. He attributes his success to “conversational copywriting,” and he’s here today to share his approach to help you write persuasive and effective copy for clients.
Quotes:
“Whatever your business online, it's the words that do the heavy lifting when it comes to making those sales for you. You can’t sell stuff without words online.” – Nick Usborne
“If you want a relationship, your whole approach, your mindset, the emotions you bring to it, the language, you use the tone of voice, you use your body language, everything changes.” - Nick Usborne
“Any kind of heart-based business where you actually care about your audience, and you want a long-term relationship with that buyer, then you absolutely need to mark it in the way that you are, so that they get a sense of who you are, and they trust you before they buy.” - Nick Usborne
Takeaways:
05:57 Speak to customers like trusted friends, using natural, conversational language that builds long-term relationships.
10:05 Create marketing that sounds consistent from start to finish, avoiding sudden shifts in tone or pushy language.
25:35 Prioritize respect and care for your customers over aggressive sales tactics.
30:32 Mirror your audience's emotional language by researching reviews and understanding their true concerns and feelings.
32:05 Read your copy out loud to ensure it sounds authentic, smooth, and genuinely conversational.
Doberman Dan is a 33-year serial entrepreneur, A-list copywriter and three-time international best selling author. In his spare time he’s also a professional musician and composer.
He has started numerous info product businesses and four different nutritional supplement businesses. He is regularly hired to write sales copy for some of the most successful direct response marketers and publishers in the country. Dan has been publishing The Doberman Dan Letter since 2011 and has many of the most successful online marketers in the world as subscribers.
Quotes:
“The only superpower that I have is the inability to quit when something isn't working, even if it takes years of pushing through it.” – Doberman Dan
“The basics of the sales message have stayed the same. You just have to figure out the market's biggest hot buttons and biggest fears and speak to that.” - Doberman Dan
“You don't make your money acquiring a customer. You make your money on the back end, and if you can just acquire a customer at break-even, you should have a hallelujah breakdown about that.” - Doberman Dan
Takeaways:
09:34 Persistence through repeated failures is often the key to entrepreneurial success.
12:45 Direct response copywriting remains effective, but its visual presentation has dramatically changed over time.
18:50 Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming marketing by enabling hyper-targeted customer insights.
21:35 Understanding a market's deepest fears and desires is more important than crafting elegant writing.
28:27 Breaking even on initial customer acquisition can be more valuable than seeking immediate profits.
He's been involved in marketing since 1994, when he sold one of the first ebooks online, payable by check and you had to mail it to a post office box. That was e-commerce in 1994! From 1995 to 1998, he was Webmaster for FedEx.com, where he worked with the pioneers of online marketing. Since 1998, he’s been a copywriter and marketing advisor for clients big and small, delivering sales gains of more than $1 million on multiple occasions with web pages, email promotions, sales letters, and print ads.
He's been interviewed by ABC-TV in Detroit, Fox and NBC News in Minneapolis, CBS Radio in Los Angeles and New York, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, and too many others to list here. He’s the author or co-author of 5 books, including his latest book, Marketing Multipliers.
For this return appearance, Kevin shares a few simple but powerful techniques that are working very well for him lately. One is "The One Thing 3x5 Scorecard" where he lists the 3 to 5 go-to activities he can perform in his business, from calling a prospect on the phone to mailing a letter or book. There's the Pocket Seinfeld calendar, and the 16X Pathfinder method to replace the bulk with the select few that makes a difference -- 80/20 -- and strategically abandon what isn't working.
Quotes:
“If you look at your calendar and how you use your time, 80% of it is largely wasted. It's only producing a small number of outputs.” – Kevin Donlin
“The most successful people are typically in the zone all day. It's like being at a seminar or your favorite destination city. You're not thinking about news or politics; you're just in the moment.” – Kevin Donlin
“90% of news is bad news. 90% of politics is outrage and anger. If you're looking at or thinking about that stuff, it's dragging you in the opposite direction of your goals.” – Kevin Donlin
Takeaways:
06:52 Creating a simple daily tracking system can boost your marketing productivity and keep you focused on key business-growing activities.
07:41 Visual tracking methods, like using sticky notes or scorecards, can help entrepreneurs stay accountable and motivated.
13:49 Most people waste significant time on low-value tasks that produce minimal results, and identifying these can dramatically improve business performance.
21:21 Replacing time-consuming, unproductive activities with high-impact tasks can potentially increase your effectiveness by 16 times.
26:26 Eliminating distractions like news, social media, and constant email checking can free up mental space for strategic business growth.
Resources
Marketing Multipliers (Membership Site, reply to initial email with "Robert Plank 500th episode")
Ryan Stewman, CEO and Founder of Hardcore Closer and Break Free Academy, is a 4x best-selling Author, Motivational Speaker, Sales Coach, Podcast Host, Blogger and all around Entrepreneur. He’s also a regular contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Addicted2Success, Good Men Project, Lighter Side of Real Estate, Huffington Post, and more. It doesn't matter if you are selling cars, homes, financial services or consulting, Ryan’s sales mastery can help you generate higher quality leads, increase your closing ratios, and show you how to charge premium fees for the items you sell.
Quotes:
“We know that technology moves fast. Moore's Law says that every year, technology doubles in capability.'” – Ryan Stewman
“A lot of people—especially smart people who listen to podcasts like this—overcomplicate things, right? We think it has to be smart in order to work, but meanwhile, the masses don't think that way.” – Ryan Stewman
“We're not going to be replaced by robots. We're just going to sell the robots.” – Ryan Stewman
Takeaways:
05:24 Modern businesses must continuously adapt their marketing approach to match changing technological capabilities.
10:39 Technology and digital sales strategies are now critical for business survival, not just an optional add-on.
18:23 Successful sales aren't about complex strategies, but about understanding the customer's core desire and simplifying your message.
21:53 Every communication should include a clear call-to-action that gives potential customers a direct path to engage with your business.
24:47 Video content is a powerful, underutilized tool for connecting with potential customers and building your brand.
relationally (how prospects relate to you, i.e. have they bought or tweeted you)
psychologically (what keeps them up at night)
demographics (gender, age, location)
Research for Alyson consists of checking out industry news articles, social media (especially the comments section) and sites like RipOffReport to get a handle on peoples' problems, frustrations, fears, and beliefs. Then, her five step copywriting process is as follows:
get attention (headline, pre-head, sub-head)
identify the problem
introduce a solution
explain how to get it
don't let them walk away without it
Alyson also talks about common copywriting mistakes, such as using the word "I" within the first three paragraphs of a sales letter.
Quotes:
“They don't care about you as the copywriter, product creator, or business owner at all. They care about themselves—their fears, their aspirations, and what you can do for them.” – Alyson Lex
“I want my clients to be successful. So if they have someone who is more of an expert than I am in something like web design, then it doesn't serve my client for me to hold on just because I think it should be a certain way.” – Alyson Lex
“I like to learn principles rather than shiny techniques, because at the base, those principles stay the same. They just adapt to the technology and the trend.” – Alyson Lex
Takeaways:
04:08 Effective copywriting starts with deep research into your target audience's psychological, social, and relational experiences.
11:20 The language you use in sales copy should mirror exactly how your customers speak, not industry jargon or technical terms.
24:02 Sales copy principles remain constant, even as design trends and graphic styles change over time.
29:05 The first few paragraphs of any sales letter should focus entirely on the customer's problems, not on the writer's experiences.
34:23 Entrepreneurs can overcome writer's block by following a structured copywriting formula and conducting thorough audience research.
Dave Rogenmoser is the co-founder of Proof, a simple pixel you can place on your website that displays social proof to your visitors.
This notification appears in the bottom corner to show the first names and cities (with photos) of people who have recently purchased. Use it for social proof of any kind, such as email opt-ins or webinar signups.
You can also display your "proof" directly on your checkout page or on the front page of your site. Dave hopes that adding that proof pixel to your site will become part of your checklist when setting up a new web property.
Quotes:
“Social proof is like a shortcut—a cheat code—to getting a higher-converting lead magnet or sales page.” – Dave Rogenmoser
“When in doubt, adding social proof makes everything else easier in your funnel and marketing.” – Dave Rogenmoser
“I'm a lot more excited about conversion than I am about social proof; it's just that social proof is an incredibly easy way to increase conversion.” – Dave Rogenmoser
Takeaways:
03:12 Adding social proof can dramatically increase website conversion rates with minimal effort.
06:28 Real-time customer activity notifications create instant credibility and trust for potential buyers.
09:29 Social proof works across multiple website elements, from order forms to lead magnets and webinar registrations.
16:19 The most effective social proof shows recent, authentic customer interactions with location and profile details.
19:19 Entrepreneurs should view social proof as an easy "cheat code" for improving marketing performance.
Gabe Arnold from CopywriterToday.net wants to write your emails, blog posts, and press releases, so that you don't have to. Listen in as he tells you how content marketing can help your business, and how he discovered (and grew) this "service-as-a-service" model that provides unlimited content to monthly buyers.
Quotes:
“If you can commoditize your product or service, you can reach the masses. And when you can reach the masses, you have a business that can scale and is far more profitable and stable than doing one-off consulting or project-based work.” – Gabe Arnold
“You have to be able to jump in and do whatever it takes. You need to get your hands dirty and do everything to truly understand what's going on.” – Gabe Arnold
“The people who have been most successful with us came in with the mindset of taking the first few weeks to a month to get everything synced up and get everyone on the same page.” – Gabe Arnold
Takeaways:
07:58 Getting your hands dirty and understanding every detail of your business is crucial for long-term success.
14:31 Launch quickly and simply, then refine based on customer feedback rather than getting stuck in over-complicated planning.
18:57 Create an automated hiring process that filters candidates through practical tests, ensuring only top-tier talent joins your team.
24:50 Build a content service that offers flexibility across different business sizes, from small businesses to large agencies.
27:35 Expect a 90-day learning curve when starting with a new service, focusing on clear communication and feedback.
Kevin Donlin from MarketingMultipliers.com has been an online copywriter and direct response master for over 23 years. Copywriting is salesmanship multiplied, and Kevin has tons of amazing advice about how to write copy (and web pages), that get attention and sell. Sell with a credible deadline, don't devalue your offers, and use clear (simple) wording.
Quotes:
“If you never quit, you will succeed. It's as simple as that. The people who quit are the ones who fail.” – Kevin Donlin
“There's no penalty for clarity. If you think so—if that concept offends you—you're going to struggle in your marketing.” – Kevin Donlin
“The cure for writer's block is research. If you run into writer's block, it's because you didn't do your research.” – Kevin Donlin
Takeaways:
07:12 Research and time are critical ingredients in producing high-quality marketing copy and business strategies.
13:26 Simplicity in marketing communication trumps complexity, making your message clear and easy to understand.
37:21 Consistent daily actions and never giving up are the true paths to building a successful business.
40:01 Creating multiple versions of marketing materials, especially headlines, increases the chances of finding truly compelling content.
44:53 Support from peers and accountability groups can significantly accelerate entrepreneurial growth and overcome challenges.
Larry Becht from The Expert Media Group has a lot to say about ClickFunnels, his preferred tool of choice for setting up landing pages and funnels, especially since it now includes "Backpack" for running an affiliate program and "Actionetics" for tracking your visitors. Larry specializes done-for-you website setup and you'll want to hear his thoughts about hiring a professional to setup your pages quickly.
If you want to grow your business, the easiest way to do that (the low hanging fruit) is to increase your conversions. Mike Caldwell, the Marketing Medic, tell us how you're leaving money on the table with your business and what you should do to make more sales with your websites.
[showhide type="transcript" more_text="Display Transcript" less_text="Hide Transcript"]Robert Plank: Can you tell us about what is it that you do on internet, how you got started, and with this funnel so specifically, what makes you stand out? What makes you different and special with funnels?
Mike Caldwell: I think the first question was how I got started, and I got started because I actually met Russell Brunson, the founder of ClickFunnels and DotCom Secrets, on a bouncy castle obstacle course in the Caribbean Sea. We became friends. I found out what he was doing. I'm an entrepreneur. I had some home-based businesses that I needed to promote more heavily online, and I ended up enrolling in one of his mastermind programs. I was able to learn directly from Russell Brunson, the master himself.
One of the first things we did is I live off-grid here at the place we call the Ark, and Russell built a funnel for me. It wasn't converting very well. I was responsible for the traffic. I was getting insane traffic coming into the funnel, but it wasn't really converting. Most funnels don't convert right out of the box. They require numerous iterations to make sure you have the offer right, the messaging right, so that it converts. Before we were able to do that, word got out that I was ridiculously good at driving traffic from Facebook. I was hired by a Bootcamp Gym to drive traffic for them. I was driving traffic. Again, the same thing happened. I drove traffic to their website, but it wasn't converting. They allowed me to rebuild their entire Bootcamp funnel for them, and our first month we spend 300 dollars in Facebook ads. We did 11,000 dollars in gross revenue.
Robert Plank: Awesome.
Mike Caldwell: From there, things snowballed. What I've always done is I always... I'm a paramedic. I was a paramedic and firefighter for 12 years. I was actually Canada's top paramedic for training. I was the area ambulance manager for the helicopter base in Ottawa, Canada. I had more skills than probably anyone else in the country, but what I learned is that it's the ABC's airway greeting circulation, the basics that save lives. I apply that same foundation to all my marketing campaigns, and I find that by sticking to the basics, that accounts for 80 percent of your traffic and sales.
Robert Plank: Would you say that... Was that the big reason why you were able to turn around that one client's funnel? Like you said, that... You said that, didn't Brunson build a funnel for you, and it first didn't convert? You had to go back to the basics, follow the steps, and see from the beginning what wasn't working?
Mike Caldwell: That's right, yeah. That's where I've come up with... I wish it was 3, but it's 4 things. 3 would follow my ABCs, but for a landing page funnel to work, I think you need 4 things. The first thing you need is an offer. What a lot of people don't understand is that they want to provide the offer that they want to give instead of the offer that their audience wants to receive. If you can do your research and know what the audience wants and create that for them, then you're going to be in a lot better shape than if you have some document that you prepared 4 years ago that you've never done anything with. "Hey, I'll just give this away for free, because I already have it." That doesn't have the value that's required to get somebody to take that next step into ascending into your funnel. The first thing you need is the offer, and that offer has to come with a promise. What pain does that offer promise to relieve?
The second thing is a promise. If I give you my email, then you're basically promising me that you're going to relieve me of some sort of pain. It's great for me to promise that to you, but there needs to be a platform that supports that promise. We can make promises out the yin-yang, but if there isn't the platform to support it, then you don't have the credibility necessary. I usually break the platform down into 3 things. It's usually different for each niche, but for most people it comes down to what does the client have to believe in me, what does the client have to believe in my product, and what does the client have to believe in themselves?
If we're talking about the weight-loss niche, for example, the client has to see that I'm fit myself, because they don't want to learn to lose weight from some fat guy. I have to show the credibility that 1) I'm a fit guy myself, and I practice what I preach. Then we need to show them my processed work. I'm fit, but I might be some sort of mutant guy that was born with a 6-pack. I have to prove that my platform works, and that's usually done through testimonials. If I have a dozen people saying that "I joined Mike, I followed his program, and I lost 12 pounds in my first week", then that gives a lot of credibility to my promise.
The third thing is what they have to believe in themselves. Most people have some... Again, in the weight-loss space, they're like, "Oh, well, you know. I'm big-boned. It won't work for me" or "I'm allergic to gluten, so it won't work for me." You have to address reasons why the people think that whatever you're selling won't work for them. Whatever product it is, there's always a reason why people will say, "Oh, it works for other people, but it won't work for me."
Right now we're up to: you need an offer, you need a promise, you need a platform, and then the fourth thing that is required is a big idea. That's your headline. The big idea is more than a headline. It is a headline, but it's something that incites curiosity and hopefully demonstrates your unique mechanism. Usually my headlines, or my big ideas, they're useful. It has value to the client. It's unique. Nobody else is offering it. It's ultra-specific. Sometimes I use this, and sometimes I don't. It depends on the market, but it might also incorporate a sense of urgency. It's 4 Us: useful, unique, ultra-specific, and urgency.
Robert Plank: You said that there are 3 things, or there are 4 things as far as your process?
Mike Caldwell: There's 4 things that I use whenever I build a funnel to any page, and that is: offer, promise, platform, and big idea. The big idea has four Us assigned to it. That is: useful, unique, ultra-specific, and urgent.
Robert Plank: Oh, okay, so promise was the second one there. Awesome. I like your way of thinking. Like you said, you used to be an EMT. You're all about the ABCs. It's one of those things where... I don't know. When I look at people making webpages, or I look at the webpage I'm making, it's so easy for me to get bogged down or overwhelmed, or when I deal with a copywriter, they make it a certain way. A copywriter slaves and spends all this time finding the perfect sentence or word. You mentioned a little bit there with the offer and the freebie, things like that, the things that you think are impressive and cool and useful are not necessary the things that those customers are going to find useful and things like that. Have you come across that, where someone wrote a webpage without a process but with a starving artist mentality, and it's set in stone, they refuse to change it? Have you ever dealt with stuff like that?
Mike Caldwell: Yeah, and for copy... There's two components to copy. People make decisions primarily based on emotion. "I want that." How many things in a day do we see that we want, but we don't get everything we want unless there's a rational backing for it. I want a '65 Ford Mustang, but I might not be in a financial position right now to purchase a car like that, especially given that I live on a gravel road. Any copy that you write has to address the emotional wants of the person, but then able to support that want with the logical reasoning for why they should move ahead with it.
Robert Plank: That's cool. If you see any page that's not converting or could be better, instead of eyeballing it and saying, "Well, maybe I'll just change some stuff", you can actually see some real, concrete reasons why maybe something's not quite landing. Have you ever come across with people building funnels, landing pages, and things like that where if they're stuck about what kind of decision to make, as opposed to going with some kind of best practices or advice, they say, "Well I'm just going to split test it. I don't know what my headline should be. I'm just going to split test it"? When I've seen people people talking about funnels, landing pages, in this way, the advice to split test it has seemed like a cop-out. Have you come across something like that before?
Mike Caldwell: Yeah, and that's why everything I do in this... So many of the things that I do in my marketing goes back to my firefighter paramedic stuff. Everything I did as a firefighter and as a paramedic had a standard operating procedure. When faced with this situation, this is is what we do in these steps. That's why my funnels have 4 steps to them: offer, promise, platform, big idea. My headlines, they're unique, they're useful, they're urgent, they're ultra-specific. I always go back to that stuff. I will split test 2 different- Split testing is awesome, because, like you say, what resonates for me won't resonate for everybody. Everything I split test has been based on principles that have been proven to work.
Robert Plank: You're not wasting your time on goofy stuff? You're actually... I guess what I'm trying to say is that based on everything that you've been saying so far about these copywriting principles and your checklist and things... You have a pretty good idea at what is going to sell. You can make a pretty decent stab at it. It might need some tweaking later, but you have a pretty good idea of have the headline be this font and this size and use that template. I guess what I'm asking is: Do you have some sort of a template that you use? I know you mentioned these different principles, but do you have a starting point for the funnels you create?
Mike Caldwell: Definitely. Like I say, it's those 4 things. I usually use Oswald font for my bold headlines, and I Railway for my copy within. That's based on knowledge that I've got from past funnel builders, from past website builders, from past copywriters. This is what's worked before. When you find a system that's working, I tend to stay with it. Everything I've talked about today, I didn't invent any of this stuff, because had I invented it then... I haven't been in the business that long to have proven it all out. Everything I'm talking about is stuff that I've got from people like Russell Brunson, from Todd Brown, from Todd Brown's team, from Dan Kennedy, Rick Sheffield. It's all these guys. It's a combination of what worked for them. We're talking dozens of years of experience in a system that ultimately works.
Robert Plank: Why reinvent the wheel? Go with what others have done before you, and build on that.
Mike Caldwell: A big mistake that a lot of people make is, again, going back to the emotion. Quite often, we think, "If we just pack all these features in... The more features we get, the more we overwhelm somebody that they're going to want to buy", but I don't care about the features. I care about the end result. If it only has 1 feature that's going to allow me to lose 12 pounds in a week, that's awesome. If you list me 50 different features, but I don't know I'm going to lose any weight after I go through all these features, then who cares?
Robert Plank: Right. It's a lot of beating on your own chest but nothing about what's in it for me. Have you noticed that lately, in the past maybe 5 years or so, that a lot of these webpages have had less text and less information on them?
Mike Caldwell: Yeah. Again, I've done a lot of work with Russell Brunson, and I'm in his camp. What I see happening a lot is people are cloning the gurus like Russell. What they don't understand is that someone like Russell... When you come to a landing page of his that has minimal text or minimal copy, that is not your first exposure to Russell. You've been following Russell for weeks, months, years. You've been getting all the emails from him. You know what he offers. You know what his past track record's been. When you get to one of his landing page that has minimal copy on it, that's because he knows that you've already spent dozens of hours in front of them.
What too many funnel and website builders are doing now is they're cloning one of Russell's minimized landing pages, and nobody's... Ted Schmidt launches a funnel and it has no copy on it, because he like, "Oh, that's what Russell did." Well yeah, but we all know who Russell is. We know what he provides. I've never heard of Ted Schmidt before. You've got to go back to that platform for the 3 biggest objections people are going to have for not wanting to buy from you. Russell has already dealt with those objections in the weeks he's been corresponding with you.
That's why I like to have that platform. I say it's what they have to believe in you, your product, and themselves. Those are the 3 biggest things, but I always go back to... If I walked up to you on the street, and I made you an offer, I don't care what offer it is, you're going to reject it. Right at the beginning, you're going to say "no". I want to know the top 3 reasons you're going to say "no" to what I'm offering you, and then I'm going to address that on that landing page. I remove the objections before you can ever bring them up.
Robert Plank: That's a cool way of going about it, in that you can basically get caught up, I guess, to where a Russell-level guru already has. You can get caught up, but you're also not writing 50 pages on a webpage, also.
Mike Caldwell: Right. You don't want to overwhelm the person. I want to do my research, and I want to know what your objections are going to be. Usually the objections are that... Looks like somebody else is on the call right here, but... Usually the objections... Sorry, I lost my track. Where was I? Usually the objections are money-based. "Oh, I can't afford it." What I like to do is before they say they can't afford it, I like to show them what the benefits are if they don't buy it.
Robert Plank: The takeaway selling.
Mike Caldwell: That's right. That's right.
Robert Plank: We've been mentioning for the past few minutes about different mistakes that you've seen on the landing pages that you come across or mistakes on landing pages- Woah, there's a shirtless guy in our Podcast- The mistakes that you've seen other funnel builders make. Is there one big, huge one?
Mike Caldwell: It's actually the one that we just mentioned. Well, it's 2 things. Somebody will say say, "Give me your email, and I'll give you my 3 secrets to financial freedom." They think that that's going to do it for them. There's so many problems with that. The first is you're going to give me your secrets to financial freedom? I have no idea how financially free you are. I have no idea how your system could apply to me. Do I have to make more money? Do I have to save more money? Do I have to start buying stocks? Are you wanting me to start flipping houses? I don't know what your product is. There's nothing unique about your offer. If I wanted to have financial, what if I type "how to have financial freedom" into Google? How many answers am I going to get to that on Google? Tens of thousands, so what separates you from anybody else? That person would need a unique mechanism so that I can't Google it.
That's the biggest thing. Most funnels I see, the only copy is above the fold. There's minimal stuff in there. There's no platform for why I should believe in you, your product, or how it could apply to me.
Robert Plank: It sounds like out of those 2 things it's have a better freebie to give away in general, and then make that freebie as sexy as that can be.
Mike Caldwell: Yeah. A freebie has to be... We're coveting our emails more and more every day. We're getting bogged down with all the spam that we're getting in our inboxes. Again, if you're giving 3 secrets to financial freedom, you have to intrigue me in some way that I believe that what you have works and that what you're offering I can't Google it and get for free. By free, I mean without giving my email on Google. The offer has to be really good.
Again, I like to go back to Russell all the time. One of the things that actually to me to sign up with Russell is when I got his free plus shipping book offer. I sent away for his 108 split tests for 7 dollars, 95 cents, and shipping. Then he sends me this 200-page, high-gloss, every-page book, and every page had killer content, killer value on it. Had I seen this book store I easily... I wouldn't have had any problems paying 50 bucks for a book like that. Russell gave it to me for the cost of shipping, and so, what that leads me to believe is that if he's going to give me that much value for free, how much value is he going to give me when I pay more?
What most people do is they come up with some kind of Word document that is basically worthless, that they spent 5 minutes researching, and they're trying to give that away in exchange for my email address. Even if they do trick me and get me to give them their email address, once I get this 1-page Word document with generic information, what are the odds of me ever buying anything from them down the road?
Robert Plank: Almost nothing.
Mike Caldwell: People got to give some thought to that offer. Like you said, how can they intriguing and sexy? Then once they get it, how can you make them say "wow"? When I got that book from Russell, I wasn't expecting it. I was like, "Wow. I can't believe I just got this book for the cost of shipping." That's a funnel has to work. That free offer, that's your first impression, and if you blow that first impression, you're done.
Robert Plank: Give them a huge wow when they get that thing for free?
Mike Caldwell: Exactly. Exactly.
Robert Plank: Speaking of ClickFunnels, I've known Russell for years and years, but I haven't been paying as close attention to him in the past few years. I know about ClickFunnels. I've seen a bunch of funnel pages. I've seen it demoed, but I don't have an account. In your words, what is ClickFunnels, exactly, and how is it different from all the other page builders out there?
Mike Caldwell: ClickFunnels is a page-building online software where... They just made it. They're all pretty much drag-and-drop now, but ClickFunnels has made it very intuitive for how to build the page. What they've done is they've... With a ClickFunnels account, you get all the integrations that you would have to usually use third-party providers for. I got rid of my AWeber account, my autoresponder, because now everything thing goes through ClickFunnels. They call them Action Funnels. The Action Funnels are better than what I had with AWeber before. Everything's segmented a lot better. I can move people around on my list. If you come to my page, you give me your email, then you'll get one sequence of email blasts from me, but if you buy 1 thing, then you'll get a different sequence. If you also go for my one-time offer, then you'll get a different sequence.
It's really easy to set that up within ClickFunnels. At the same time, they have all the eCommerce also integrated, so I don't need third-party providers for that. I can have my forms right on the page. You don't have to go to a separate PayPal page or to buy it or whatever, and then they've made it super easy- and this is where the true value comes in. If you decide to buy my TripWire for 7.95, I can include... It's called an order bomb. For 4 dollars more, I'll give you the checklist that supports the document. All you have to do is click this one little button, and that's added to your order. It's very painless for you, so you'll probably do it.
Then once you go to that page, ClickFunnels also makes it super easy to have a one-time offer. You've bought my document for 7.95. You went for the order bomb for 4 dollars. Now, I'm going to give you the one-time offer on the next page, but again, you just have to click the button, and it's added onto your cart. Again, completely painless for you. It makes the sales process so easy, and it defines what a funnel is.
Robert Plank: It sounds awesome, the way that you describe that, because if you can cancel your AWeber account, if you don't have to connect a PayPal button to a webpage. If it's all handled all in one place, and it's all drag-and-drop, that seems like that clears up a lot of that extra time that people would have otherwise been spending on all the technical stuff.
Mike Caldwell: Yeah. What's really cool is, like you said, you've been following Russell for awhile. Russell gives so much value away. Again, his upfront offers are so awesome. You can get most of his books for free plus shipping. You can get the DotCom Secrets, that's his playbook for making funnels. If you follow his playbook and incorporate that with ClickFunnels, then you're business is off to the races. The other thing I love about ClickFunnels so much is you don't get... WordPress sites are awesome. They're free, but if you're having problems building something on WordPress, what do you do? You're kind of screwed, aren't you?
Robert Plank: Yeah, you're on your own.
Mike Caldwell: You're on your own. There's forums you can go to and get a half of different bunch of answers from people who don't know anything more than you do, but with ClickFunnels, there's online chats. There's online support right there. You'll usually get an answer within 24 hours at the latest, and it's usually a lot quicker than that.
Robert Plank: Awesome. Not only do they do anything, but also they support it pretty well. Speaking of supporting this thing called ClickFunnels, is that right that what you do is you set up funnels for other people?
Mike Caldwell: Yes. Yes and no. I'm more of a... I definitely build funnels for people, but my strength is more in the whole strategy behind the funnel. I can build a funnel, but my strengths are more in building the business. The funnel is one component of it.
Robert Plank: In these last couple of minutes here, can you walk us through a quick case study of maybe a client you had, and they said, "We need x, y, z", and then you saved the day for them?
Mike Caldwell: Yeah, that happened last week. A potential client called me. I found out later that I was his fourth... I'm a certified ClickFunnels consultant. We have a page where people can go and contact us. I was the fourth person that he contacted on the page, and he was trying to sell some supplements. Supplements are great, but what people have to understand about supplements is they have generally small margins. It's more of a... taking into consideration all the advertising and everything you've done. Russell has a template where he was making 17,000 dollars a day on the supplement funnel. He promotes that, but when you have the opportunity to go to some of his inner circle meetings on that, he'll tell you that that funnel was making 17,000 a day, but it was on a 15,000 dollars a day ad spend. That funnel was between 10 to 15 percent profitable, which is good, but if you want to make a living from it, then you have to have the financial resources to back it with your advertisement, right?
Robert Plank: Right.
Mike Caldwell: Once I explained... I said, "I'd happily build a funnel for you, but another problem with supplements is Facebook isn't really that supplement-friendly. You can do it, but it's tricky. You have to really play within the rules of Facebook to promote supplements on Facebook." I explained that to him as well. Then, what we learned through talking is that he's a pastor with this huge following, and he wants to do more on the lines of life coaching. What he actually has in his arsenal is this amazing high-ticket offer. The call lasted close to an hour, but at the end of the call, he hired me. He told me that I was the fourth person that he talked to. Everybody else has talked talked about this structure, the funnel, and how they were going to put a green button here and a video there. What I did is I helped him walk through his business model where he could actually monetize and make money out the backend. Now we're building out a high-ticket webinar funnel for him, where he can sell his coaching services complete with a value ladder of up-sales and down-sales.
Robert Plank: Awesome. The reason why he chose you over someone else, and I guess what differentiated you from those 4 people, was that they were focused on the tactics. They were focused on the little minutia details, and you said, "Well, here's the big picture."
Mike Caldwell: That's it, yeah. He called me and said, "Can you build me a funnel?", and I said, "Yes, but just so you know, I'm really good at building funnels and strategy and all that, but it doesn't matter how good I am. Russell Brunson was 15 percent profitable, so that would be my goal: to be that good. I'm not as good as Russell Brunson, so we're probably looking at 8 to 10 percent profit. Aside from Russell, I'm one of the best there is." It was almost like saying I wouldn't hire me. I don't want your business. I want to build your business, and if I don't think I can build your business to the degree that you want it, then I don't want to work for you. I don't think you should want me to work for you either. Anyway, that's how I approached it. Like I said, at the end of the day, he ended up hiring me to build him his high-ticket webinar funnel.
Robert Plank: Awesome. That is a good goal to shoot for, and I think that's a good attitude that you're not just clocking in and getting paid x number of dollars for the hours. You're actually making something that's complete and that's going to help someone else's business. If someone wants to find out about you, Mike, and they want to hire or even see what you've been doing and talking about lately, where can they go to find out all that information?
Mike Caldwell: They want to go to marketingmedic.ca, and on that page, you'll see my lead magnet there. I'm giving away my 8-page checklist, so the exact same same checklist that I use when I build a funnel to make sure all my standard operating procedures, make sure I haven't missed anything. That's what I am giving away, and it is legitimately the same checklist that I use. There's an example of somebody who wants to build a funnel. If that's your goal, you're wanting to build a funnel, you find marketingmedic.ca, you come to my website, and you're like, "Wow, Mike's giving me the same checklist that he uses to build funnels, the same checklist that he used to turn 300 dollars in Facebook ads into 11,000 dollars in profit?" That's what I've giving away as my lead magnet. You can guess that my clickthrough rate's pretty high on that.
Robert Plank: Well yeah, because imagine that you actually practice what you preach, instead of saying, "Here are the top 3 conversion ideas". You're saying, "No, here's... I will start to finish. This is what I actually use. Now you can use it as well." Great stuff. Marketingmedic.ca, and thanks so much for being on the show today, Mike.
Mike Caldwell: Thanks for having me, Robert.[/showhide]
Quote of the Day: "The fears we don't face become our limits." -- Robin Sharma Thought of the Day: Don't have "just" a traffic or AdSense or guitar course.
add a buy button even if you don't have time for anything else
offer: create a package or solution, not just a "product" (4 modules + 3 bonuses, what else can you throw in to make it complete?)
hook: what's the one thing that tells people, I need it now? (that takes 10 seconds to explain)
basic copywriting: benefits (what you can do with it) instead of "just" features (what it is), Attention-Interest-Desire-Action ordering
deadline: close the offer (take a risk)
countdown clock
explain reasons not to wait
followup: send multiple emails or make multiple posts explaining why they should buy now
waiting list: don't "just" close an offer, add an optin form so they can sign up for updates when you re-open
multiple levels of urgency: bump the price, remove a bonus, remove the payment plan
price training: stick to your guns with the deadline. Train your customers to take your deadlines seriously.
evergreen content: re-market your pitch webinars, podcast episodes, PDF reports and blog posts for re-launching later
If you feel like there are holes in your internet marketing knowledge, that maybe you're trying to learn college calculus but can't add two plus two, then this is the podcast episode for you!
Many marketers are obsessed with split testing, funnels, and setting up 1-click upsells, but they don't even have a buy button on a sales page.
Can I walk you through what I tell someone if they're struggling, can't get a sales page figured out, and just need a quick web page online?
The first thing is that you should have a copy of Paper Template (just $7 dollars) installed on WordPress, because you can easily click and create anything you want. But now what do you write on that web page where you want people to enter their email to subscribe? What magic words do you place on a web page where you want people to click and pay you money?
Marketer of the Week: Robert Puddy
I created a couple of products and launched a couple of services with Robert Puddy back in the day. His big thing then was creating traffic exchanges to bring in lots and lots of hungry traffic.
His biggest site is Launch Formula Marketing (now Login Frequency Marketing). Puddy monetizes unsubscribes from his list (link them to SpamAssassin with your affiliate link), even lost password pagees (Roboform). Make them login to your site every day, for example, to watch a webinar.
Wise Words This Week
When we get overwhelmed, we often use multitasking to get back on track. It often causes more problems than it solves. Usually when you split your attention, you’re giving half the effort and producing half the results. The solution is to develop "single-handling" activities. --- S.J. Scott
Copywriting Shortcut
AIDA/WWHW: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Why, What, How-To, What-If. Keep it stoppable stupid, look with fresh eyes, bottlenecks
Who Else Wants To... (this headline is my squeeze page starter)
Imagine... (starter for emails)
What Would Happen If... (starter for webinars)
Quick Question... (starter for sales letters)
PHASE I: Minimum Viable Product
Headline: Who Else Wants To?
Ten bullet points: why should I get this?
Price and buy button
WWHW re-ordering
PHASE II: Fundamentals
Button, stack, headline (in that order)
Product breakdown (individual modules)
Problem agitate solve (story)
Four objections (no need, I don't believe you)
PHASE III: Persuasion
Four stages of awareness
Cialdini 6 elements
Typos and numbers not adding up
PHASE IV: Window Dressing
Case studies and testimonials
Graphics
Jump links
Resources
Paper Template (This is the WordPress plugin I use on all my sites for sales letters, optin pages, webinar replay pages, and more.)
Fast Food Copywriting (Here's how I churn out attention-grabbing, high-converting sales pages in just a few minutes on-demand.)
Speed Copy (The complete course on how to make a full-time income with money-making web pages)
Welcome back to the Robert Plank Show, tune in today to discover:
What it means to "sell what you sell" (sell one thing for $97 as opposed to a maze of $17, $27, and $37 upsells), separate the "forest from the trees" (stop throwing out what's working just to build yourself back up to what you have now), and reduce that clutter (if you haven't used an item in 1-5 years, do you still need it?)
Why the knowledge taught in "Think & Grow Rich" (visualize), "4 Hour Work Week" (80/20), "Good to Great" (one thing), and "The E-Myth" (checklist) keep showing up over and over again
Why I re-did my blog post as the plain WordPress 2012 theme (and I'm happier with it than my previous "custom blog theme"
How all you need to have is an ugly website, then send traffic to it, then build a list and keep promoting to that list
Welcome our brand new sponsor Membership Cube who will show you how to get all your paid (and free) content up and running, how to get your copywriting (sales letter) done in a flash, then add all the upsells, dashboard, etc. that you want
Here are the questions I asked you in today's call -- but keep the answers to yourself!
Do you email every day?
Is all your content (i.e. podcasts or videos) "one take content?"
Do you have a payment button online where I can buy from you today?
Are you completing four daily tasks every day?
Do you publish one "piece" of content per week? (podcast, YouTube, pitch webinar, or webinar class) FACEBOOK does not count.
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.
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 #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.
Product launches have been on my mind the last couple of weeks, not just because Lance and I run a 1-hour webinar launch just about every week, but we have recently come off of a "tear" of lots of NEW product launches (as opposed to us running webinars to promote existing ones)...
Our Product University live event
Updating our Webinar Crusher course to version 5
Updating Setup a Fan Page to version 2
Updating Newbie Crusher to Income Machine
Plus of course re-launching those old classes that we created initially as live webinar courses, then repackaged into home study courses – including a member's dashboard, transcripts, affiliate program, evergreen webinar replay, post-sale autoresponder sequence, all the usual "product" stuff.
And when I see other internet marketers try to do the same for their business, they fail to think and act in strategic terms. They incorrectly focus on the MECHANICS they think they need, like creating a blog post with 2000 Facebook comments. Making 4 pre-launch videos. Creating a report (or whitepaper) about the product they're about to create.
These are things that DON'T make the difference
between a successful and unsuccessful product launch!
Things No One Cares About
How much time you spent creating your product
How many pages, megabytes, or minutes of video you have
A too-big 3 to 5 hour webinar
A too-long launch sequence of videos that takes 4 weeks
How great, smart, or rich you are
Wordplay, hypnotic language, the confusion close
"Tricks" That Get People to Buy (Sometimes)
Time running out
Offer closing
Price increasing
Limited seats
Disappearing bonus
Price (high or low)
What Actually Works
What they'll know
What they'll GET and HAVE
Cost of NOT doing it
Repeat success or exponential success
Speed
Ease of use
Power and effectiveness
Hungry crowd
Compelling magic super-offer that combines logic (and proof) plus emotion
The Answer You've Needed All Along
Here's how to think "strategically" about your product sales and launches.
I keep scouring books, courses, and the internet for something better than WWHW, Eugene Schwartz, and Robert Cialdini but I haven't found it yet.
Basic sales copy tells us to structure a sales argument in this way:
Attention (promise)
Interest (problem)
Desire (solution)
Action (buy it now)
High school English class told us to structure our writing like this:
Why (why is this important)
What (what am I going to discover)
How-To (how do I do this thing)
What-If (what are the possibilities once I take this action).
Eugene Schwartz tells us there are five levels of marketplace sophistication: novelty, enlargement, uniqueness, sophistication, and abandonment. But if you think about it, you can combine #3 and #4 so it's just...
Novelty (something is new to the marketplace)
Enlargement (bigger claims)
Sophistication (faster and better)
Abandonment (too complex and back to the original)
Robert Cialdini tells us there are six social weapons of influence to get what we want. Let's organize this as well...
You use Authority (why people should listen to you) in the Attention phase of sales copy
Liking (why you are similar) and Reciprocity (I'll give you something, like free information, now you owe me in return) introducing a Problem
Desire, which is where we explain our solution, uses Consistency (get people to agree with you every step of the way), and Social Proof (how have others used it)
In the final phase, Action, where we want people to buy, we use Scarcity the most (buy this now or else something bad will happen).
AIDA, WWHW, Eugene Schwartz, Robert Cialdini,
all just different ways of saying the same thing.
What's a "Strategic" Product Launch?
It's where your email sequence, videos, sales letter, pitch webinar, everything all matches up to a consistent message and MOST people think they have to flood the marketplace with information, list 53 different components potential buyers need to have. Nope, you just need to walk them through the FOUR STEPS.
The only way I've found to do it, that works every time, is to list out the ALTERNATIVES people might take (but you make fun of them) so that the only logical and emotional course of action is to buy from you.
Let's take our Webinar Crusher product for example...
Alternative #1: Don't run webinars. Alternative #2: Run webinars from free services. Alternative #3: Run evergreen webinars.
Alternative #4: Run webinars using our Webinar Crusher system.
At each point along the way we make fun of each alternative and point out its disadvantages to the extreme. There actually is a method to this madness:
Alternative #1: Not Doing It ("Novelty" or "Attention” or "Why Is It Important")
Alternative #2: The "Too-Big" Solution ("Enlargement" or "Interest" or "What Do I Do")
Alternative #3: The "Too-Complex" Solution ("Sophistication" or "Desire" or "How Do I Do It")
Alternative #4: Your Solution ("Abandonment" or "Action" or "What-If I Use Your Solution")
Just by listing these four things, we've structured most of our sales letter, the webinar pitch, the email launch sequence, everything. We didn't brain-dump a laundry list of alternatives that sent people elsewhere. We didn't jump in with our solution right off the bat. We've LOGICALLY listed out the possible avenues while EMOTIONALLY exhausting people with the pain and frustration of those other guys without specifically calling them out.
Too many times, I see people in an uninteresting niche, with a boring product and offer, or the wrong positioning, just trying to make it work. For some reason they think that more traffic, more subscribers, more affiliates will help... a slick sales pitch, fancy videos, or amazing sales letter graphics will help. They won't.
What will help? Having the right offer, in front of the right crowd, and presenting it in this (4-step) process.
Please comment below: Do you think that 4-step sequence will make it easier for you to come up with sales copy, webinar presentations, email sequences, and more?
Go ahead right now and check out the reason why I was able to quit my job, create a full time income and shortcut months into minutes by clicking the record button, showing a few things on my screen, clicking the "Save" button and turning it into money.
How to create a video sales letter (plus the 3 things most video sales letters leave out)
Technical details (the software and hardware I use for everything from small tutorials to full blown products)
How to even turn scary things like "presenting webinars" into a total breeze and repeat the formula over and over again
How to personally connect with your best customers, clients, prospects, mentors, joint venture partners, and more!
Listen right now and leave a quick comment letting me know what you thought of this week's show. Comments will be closed after 50 comments, the transcript will be posted after 10 comments (although it may take a few days for the transcriber to deliver it for me).
You're going to want to listen to this podcast right away because it explains everything you need to know about saying (and doing) the right things to make money right away and start making money immediately...
it's ok to be a sales person and there's a way easier approach to what you're doing now
how to use "speed copy" to crank out any sales letter in minutes
how to craft an irresistible offer
PRODUCTIVITY TIP OF THE DAY: 4 daily tasks
Contact me at robert@robertplank.com to be on the show (or have me on your show)
The "newbie crusher" system to get your business online right away
The "100 articles in a day" system enjoy creating unlimited content
What to sell and what to give away?
AIDA (the everything formula)
The secret to killer headlines that get people tripping over themselves to buy
How to craft an irresistible offer
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: who are you talking to?
Please listen to it right now, subscribe on iTunes and 5-star rate it and of course let me know what you think.
You know what an upsell is, right? You buy thing #1 from me, I offer you thing #2 that's related but NOT required for thing #1 to work...
Lance and I released our "Backup Creator" WordPress plugin 6 months ago -- click a button, it backs up WordPress. Click a different button, it restores WordPress somewhere else... and it's now protecting over 20,000 WordPress sites!
Some people bought "Backup Creator" for $7, some for $17, $27, $37, and $47
We promised 1 years of bug fixes and "updates" but not "upgrades" (new features) -- important difference
We recently released a "Backup Creator Ultimate" version that includes auto backup, FTP backup, FTP restore, and a few other things
Anyone who buys today for $47 doesn't have a choice between the old "Backup Creator" and "Backup Creator Ultimate" -- they get Ultimate
Anyone who already paid $47 for "Backup Creator" gets Ultimate for free
Anyone who already paid $37 upgrades to Ultimate for $10, anyone who paid $27 can upgrade for $20, etc.
Most of our customers were thrilled that we released a new version with new features. Only a couple of people had complaints.
I want to share those few complaints with you and put this out in the open just to make sure we are "doing the right thing!"
Here's what's been said:
"If I upgrade now for $40, and pay $47 total, I lose my $7 early bird discount. I'd be no better off than anyone else"
"Many of us who Beta Tested your software spent quite a bit of time chasing down problems and reinstalling updates on all our blogs. I think you now have a wonderful product and will make a lot of money. I would suggest you reward all those who helped you get there."
"I have been getting all these emails telling me how great the update to back up creator was going to be when the only update was that you wanted more money from us........... Sorry guys IMHO you blew this"
Those are actual unedited quotations. I thought long and hard about airing this kind of "dirty laundry" in public but I really want to know what YOU think.
I'm honestly not upset, or bitter in ANY way... just asking you personally, did we do the right thing releasing a new version, or should we have stuck to our "original" version that only backed up and restored, and did nothing else? Please post your response below...
Edit: From now on we will be sure to be 100% clear with the updates policy, and if we do offer an upgrade path for our software in the future, we will make it a "flat rate" or find some way to make sure those early birds keep their early bird discount. Thanks again for that discussion!
Is it okay if I share with you the ONE formula that appears everywhere, again and again... and if you keep it in your back pocket every time you assemble a sales letter, create a blog post, make a product, send an email, and even deal with everyday relationships, you'll always win?
If I share this formula with you, will you check and make sure your web pages pass the test so you can convert as many people as possible?
I hope you've heard of this formula, and it's this: attention, interest, desire, action...
Every time you put out any piece of writing, video, or even live presentation -- run it through this filter. Here's what I mean...
Get someone's attention using a shocking statement or headline
Build interest by agitating your problem or setting up a question
Setup the desire for your solution by revealing it and explaining it
Tell people what to do now by telling them to take action
If you've even given (or read) a course, presentation, sales letter, or any other message that was missing an opening, seemed to "linger" too much on a problem, jump into a solution without addressing it, or had everything right except the end -- it was probably neglecting one or all of the above steps.
And I want to multiply your conversion rates by making sure you follow these simple rules. You can get as creative as you want as long as you follow this four step formula. Check it out...
ATTENTION:
Sales Letter Headline or Blog Post Title
When I write blog posts, I like to split the title into two parts: what I'm talking about (the feature), and the result of it (the benefit)... just look at my last few blog post titles here:
Specialized Knowledge: How to Make $50 (or More) Every 5 Minutes, All Day Long, By Clicking a Few Buttons (Just Like I Did at Age 17)
Speed Copywriting Explained (Assemble a Web Page That Gets People to Buy From You In the Next Few Minutes)
It's Simple, So It Must Not Work: How You Too Can Make Several Thousand Dollars in a Weekend
Website Backup: Keep Your Site Safe, Instantly Clone Your Blog, and Get Things Done Anywhere
The Accordion Method (And Now You Never Run Out of Content Ever Again)
Now I have blog post titles that are both short, and long!
With sales letters, it's even simpler. The headline isn't necessarily the title of the web page we're on, it's just the HEADER that gets us to continue reading...
Think about the first thing you want to say to your visitor to keep them alert, on your web page, and hungry for more. Whatever you say should answer "most" of these questions:
What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
Yes, I'm saying that your headline should contain all of these items...
More often than not I'll have that headline big, red, centered, bolded, and in quotes at the top of that web page, but what's more important than the formatting is that the WORDS are impossible to ignore. For example:
"How I Made an Extra $101,934.10 In 80 Days From 4 Low Ticket Products (With Zero Traffic and a Tiny List) Using One Very Special Piece of Affiliate Software..."
Backup, Clone, Protect... WordPress Plugin Makes It Simple For You To Backup, Restore And Protect Your WordPress Blogs And Sites Anytime You Want With Just A Few Easy Clicks...
"How Would You Like My Instant Formula For Creating High-Impact, Persuasive, Converting Sales Letters in the Next Few Minutes?"
"If You're Feeling Completely Overloaded, Unorganized and Feel Like You're Always Running Out of Time..." You Need to Get a Grip on (and Control of) Your Time Management Skills!
And I'll usually add a subheadline that COMPLETES the thought that the headline first created. Why? Because it gets people reading further down, and then further, until the next thing you know, they've read the whole sales letter all the way down to the buy button.
INTEREST:
Problem or Big Picture
You've got my attention, but I'm not ready to buy your product yet. And even if I was, I need to know you can actually UNDERSTAND and SOLVE my problem... which is why you need to tell me what problem I'm having and how can you really help me solve it...
I need to stress here that we're not introducing your product yet. I see too many sales letters start off with, "I want you to buy my product right now." You're jumping the gun.
This is the STORYTELLING section. Introduce the problem so that I have to find out how it ends -- with the introduction of your product.
You should probably answer these questions:
Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
Why are you better than anyone else?
Check out the deck copy for "Membership Cube" to see what I mean...
For the last several years internet marketers have told you how easy it is to setup your membership site and get a flood of people paying you every month for your services, your expertise, and your information. But there are just a few problems...
It's Not As Easy As "They" Say It Is... These Are The Same People That Told You "All You Need Is a Website"
Where will you get the content for this membership site?
How will you get people into it, and keep them from dropping out?
What software will you use for the membership, and what plugins?
What the heck will you do next?
How Did That Work Out For You? I Can Tell You From My Own Personal Experience: Membership Sites Are The Best Thing To Ever Happen To Me!
It IS possible to profit from a membership site as long as you make the right decisions. But don't worry, we've already made the tough decisions for you in our simple step by step system.
I'm confident in those steps because these are the same steps Lance and I have implemented to create 20 membership sites -- 19 of those sites were created in the past 12 months. And guess what, they've all made money: some as little as $2,000 and some well over $100,000.
Do you see what we're doing? We're educating our prospect about why membership sites are so valuable and differentiating from the competition (especially membership software that doesn't come without training) and saying, you need to listen to us.
One reason I really like telling a story in copy is that it doesn't feel like an ad. But far too many copywriters get stuck on the story, the whole sales letter is one long story, and people still don't know what they're buying. That's why you need to get to the third stage WELL BEFORE the halfway point in your copy...
DESIRE:
Solution or Exact Offer
At this point, you'll reveal YOUR product in that sales letter, meaning a huge headline with the name of the course or item, and a graphical representation, it's just that simple. If I can't easily tell that you're selling an ebook, or video course, or membership site, or physical seminar, or physical item -- in under a minute just by scrolling through -- then you need to make it clearer.
In the "interest" stage you've already done the clever storytelling... now you need to tell me what it is you want me to buy:
What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
What bonuses are you giving me?
What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
You'll want to end the "desire" stage by listing everything people get in a two-column table... first column, the name of the module they're getting; second column, the price tag on it.
It may seem tedious to total up each $197 or $297 price tag on your individual modules to get a total of $2,217.00, but believe me, it'll look way more impressive when you then DROP the price to $97 or $47 or $27. Very few people do this on sales letters, but they need to!!!
It's super important that you lay out the ENTIRE offer in the "desire" section. Yes, even the bonuses. Lay out the ENTIRE offer before you ask for the sale, including bonuses.
Have you ever noticed that on some sales letters, you scroll to the bottom, then scroll back up to look at something, then back down? That's not good and when I do that, I notice it's usually because someone got my attention, laid out the story, the entire offer, even showed the guarantee and asked for the sale -- and THEN introduced bonuses! Big mistake.
Now people know we relate to their problem and have the credibility to solve it, we've revealed that product and explained our offer -- and at the end, listed everything in the package and revealed the price... what's left? People will know to order on their own, right?
Wrong! Every time I specifically tell people reading a blog post, sales letter, or email optin form -- to fill out the form, conversion rates go up. We can never make it OBVIOUS enough...
ACTION:
Why To Buy (or Comment) Now
This is probably the most cookie-cutter part of any sales letter, but it's still important. You need to tell me:
What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
In an optin form we're asking for their name and email address, in a blog post we're asking for a comment (easy to get if you ask a question at the end of your blog post), and on a sales letter we're asking for people to buy.
The Entire Formula Revealed
I know that was a lot to take in, but here's the whole AIDA formula laid out for you:
A1: What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
A2: What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
A3: Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
A4: Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
A5: Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
I1: Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
I2: What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
I3: What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
I4: Why are you better than anyone else?
D1: What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
D2: What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
D3: What bonuses are you giving me?
D4: What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
D5: What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
D6: What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
A1: What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
A2: What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
A3: How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
A4: What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
A5: How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
I hope that pushes you in the right direction with your...
Sales Letters: Attention-grabbing headline, interesting story, desirable offer, and order button as the call-to-action
Webinar Pitches: Start with a big promise (attention), demonstrate something live on the call (interest), explain your offer (desire), and tell them where to buy (action)
Email Marketing: Send an "attention" email hinting at a problem, an "interest" email agitating that problem, a "desire" email introducing your solution and URL, an "action" email with just your URL... and repeat the process
Information Products: Start each chapter of your report with a bold claim (attention), give them the big picture (interest), explain the step by step process (desire), and end with an assignment (action)
So what's the verdict, does your sales letter pass this 20-point checklist? (It's okay if it doesn't yet.) What's the URL to it? Go ahead and respond with your answer below.
Most people I know hate writing of any kind. And even the ones I know who LIKE writing... usually hate copywriting.
When I'm talking about copywriting today, I mean putting a web page online that gets people to buy...
It tells people about your report, book, video course or membership site in an exciting way.
"You mean I can't just say anything I want? I have to be careful about what I write? I have to write in a way that grabs my readers and doesn't let go? Sounds like a lot of work..."
Not really, when you have a formula. When you have a step by step system to follow you can do this quickly, almost without thinking, which means you knock it out in just a few minutes while you're still excited about it.
This is really important: I prefer knock out an article, sales letter, graphic, or web page in 5 minutes... make it completely shippable... and look at it later. You can take a break, clear your head, look at it with fresh eyes and put another 5 minutes into it. You can get sales and make tiny adjustments to make it sell better.
That "sounds" great, but how do you do it? Let me show you how I came up with this idea of speed copywriting...
The best skill you could ever have is writing bullet points. You turn a feature (what something is aka the boring part) into a benefit (what it does aka the outcome) and that's a bullet point.
Take your strongest bullet points and those are your headlines. Take your longest bullet points and those are your sentences. You DON'T have to make it any more complicated than that!
Here's one brand new way I thought of to think of benefits... I have many ways but this is something I thought of on a recent coaching call, on the fly. Anyone can do this.
Step #1: List what the feature is (table of contents)
Step #2: Add a second sentence at the end of that table of contents... this sentence MUST begin with the word "Imagine..."
Step #3: Delete the first sentence and the word "Imagine" so you're left with the benefit
Here we go... let's pretend we have a course teaching WordPress and it contains the following videos...
Video #1: How to install WordPress using Fantastico
Video #2: How to install your theme
Video #3: Which plugins to install
Video #4: How to add content
Now let's add a second sentence to each of those. Each sentence will begin with the word "imagine" which does several things: it continues our original thought, makes the statement a little more vague, emotional, and most importantly focuses on the outcome...
Video #1: How to install WordPress using Fantastico: Imagine in just a couple of clicks and just a few seconds you now have your entire WordPress blog installed... it's easy when you know how and now you can fire your webmaster or tech guy forever...
Video #2: How to install your theme: Imagine never needing a graphics designer or webmaster even again... just choose from thousands of professionally designed designs for your blog so you get a website that looks exactly the way you want it...
Video #3: Which plugins to install: Imagine having a blog that automatically submits your content to search engines, links to affiliate products to make you money, builds you a list of email subscribers, and more... in just a few clicks, for free...
Video #4: How to add content: Imagine being able to add a new "post" to your website from any computer or telephone, or even watch others build your web presence for you... that means written articles, audios, and videos that all bring people to your website, and keep them there, every single day...
Easy, right? I just added four sentences... and now we have our four bullet points:
In just a couple of clicks and just a few seconds you now have your entire WordPress blog installed... it's easy when you know how and now you can fire your webmaster or tech guy forever...
Never needing a graphics designer or webmaster even again... just choose from thousands of professionally designed designs for your blog so you get a website that looks exactly the way you want it...
You can have a blog that automatically submits your content to search engines, links to affiliate products to make you money, builds you a list of email subscribers, and more... in just a few clicks, for free...
Add a new "post" to your website from any computer or telephone, or even watch others build your web presence for you... that means written articles, audios, and videos that all bring people to your website, and keep them there, every single day...
Now, if you setup a simple web page with a basic headline, these bullet points, a screenshot or two, and a buy button, that would be a pretty kickass sales letter, right?
Want to know the easiest way to get more of your e-mails read, and to get more blog comments?
Is it to say less in your e-mails? And less in your blog posts?
I wanted to finally know the truth, I did what any programmer would do... I took the word count of 100-plus of my blog posts and the comment count of 100-plus of my blog posts.
(My blog posts are an average of 539 words and I get an average of 28 comments per post... cool, right?)
I dumped the whole thing into an Excel spreadsheet and calculated the correlation between the length of a blog post and the number of comments it gets.
I was dead-set on telling you that shorter blog posts get you more comments, but guess what happened?
I Was Wrong... and The Answer Really Surprised Me!
Excel is supposed to give me a number between -1 and +1. -1 means a negative correlation. That would mean shorter blog posts get more comments. +1 would be a negative correlation, meaning LONGER blog posts get you more comments.
But the correlation was: -0.050037583
Almost NoRelationship Between
Length of a Blog Post and Number of Comments!
There is no difference between a short blog post (my shortest is 40 to 100 words) and a long blog post (my longest is 1000 to 1300 words)...they get the same number of comments!
If you're a boring blogger, it doesn't matter if your post is short or long. You'll still get the same number of comments. And if you're exciting, whether you're short or long, you'll get the same number of comments.
It's about the content, not the length.
That Means Size Doesn't Matter... Or Does It?
So does that mean you shouldn't care whether your posts or short or long? It means your posts should always be short. Here's why...
Scenario #1 - One Long Post: Let's say it takes you an hour to write a 1000 word blog post. You could post it once and get 10 comments and be done.
Scenario #2 - Three Short Posts: Or you could split it into three blog posts, post there 333 word blog posts and get 10 comments once, 10 comments the next time, and 10 comments on the third part for a total of 30 comments.
So if you're trying to maximize the number of comments on your blog, why WOULDN'T you write short blog posts? Since it makes no difference?
And on top of all that, it's easier to "tease"... arouse curiosity...by saying less. When you try to get curiosity by saying MORE... it becomes more and more like an episode of "Lost" which to me is just too much work.
Keep It Simple....
Say less in your blog posts (keep it at 500 words or less) and say less in your e-mails leading up to your blog posts to get them to click.
I'll leave you with the template for Lance's BEST converting e-mail message ever. It's fill-in-the-blank and it's such a short and vague message it'll make your head spin...
This is what me and Lance joke about as the "What's That About?" e-mail template. Just replace anything inside (parentheses) with your own words related to your product and your niche.
Why (insert technique here) is the worst way to (get the result you want).
What (number) other techniques work much better?
What are other keys to (desired result)?
(Guess)?
What's that all about?
Discover the secrets...
(url)
Go there now...
That's right. A simple 39-word e-mail converted better than a year's worth of longer e-mails. Crazy, isn't it?
As usual, I need 50 comments to continue blogging... and after I get 100 comments... I will CLOSE all future comments to this thread. Looking forward to your comments below!
Question:
What's Your Weirdest Curiosity Technique That's
Gotten You Clicks, Optins and Sales?
Or what technique from an e-mail guru has sucked you into either clicking on an e-mail link, opting in or buying? What single line has aroused your curiosity more than anything else?
Get all the latest insights with membership sites, passive income, mindset, and more.
About Robert & The Podcast
The Marketer of the Day Podcast interviews entrepreneurs who have been through “the struggle.”
They’ve experienced the headaches of repeat failure, trial-and-error, scaling, delegating, course-correcting, and getting their online businesses to succeed beyond their wildest dreams… and want to help you get to where you need to go.
I wanted to finally know the truth, I did what any programmer would do... I took the word count of 100-plus of my blog posts and the comment count of 100-plus of my blog posts.
