You don’t have to wait long to give them an opportunity to buy.
It can happen in the first email in a welcome sequence.
It can happen directly in a Facebook ad.
Don’t be fooled.
When you make the right offer to the right person, the right time is probably now.
Keep this in mind…
The classic AIDA formula still applies.
You have to get attention and interest before you can direct desire toward your offer. (That can happen faster than you may think, too.)
In the same way that you can start decorating for Christmas much earlier than many people think… You can start selling before you’re done throwing Gary Vee-style jabs.
After you’ve grabbed your should-be buyer’s attention and started generating interest in what you’re talking about, it’s safe to start moving toward the sale.
Let’s get it!
P.S. I just recorded a video diving deeper into this in the Inbox X-Factor membership.
I honestly believe it’s one of the most valuable trainings I can share right now.
If you’re aggressively growing your email list, these insights could be worth millions of dollars for you.
I’ve had more conversations than I can count with entrepreneurs and marketers who struggle to email their lists as often as they know they should.
Many of them really aren’t sure how to make money with email.
As a result of those conversations, I launched Inbox X-Factor earlier this week.
Inbox X-Factor is designed to
make it as easy as possible for you to send more emails to your list (and spend less time doing it), and…
showcase effective tactics and strategies that are working RIGHT NOW to help you make more money from each email.
In short, Inbox X-Factor gives you access to:
Live email clinics, where we’ll write an email from scratch on video. Watching the process can help you find your own rhythm and gain confidence
Timely email ideas and inspiration, so you never run out of reasons to email your list
Unique subject line templates and examples
In-depth training to help you unlock the money-making power of email. Studies show email produces 40X ROI. These lessons will help you get there.
For THIS WEEK ONLY, you can become one of first members of Inbox X-Factor for $47/month.
On Friday night (July 10), the price goes up to $97/month.
If you have a list and an offer (or clients who have them)…I believe Inbox X-Factor can help you making MORE money with email in LESS time — starting as soon as today. If you’re interested, click the link in the first comment.
>>> Click hereto lock the discounted price of $47/month for Inbox X-Factor.
If you’re anything like me, you were utterly fascinated by the broom-balancing boondoggle that swept the internet earlier this week.
(Forgive the pun.)
You probably saw pictures and videos from astonished people who wanted to test out the claim that the earth was tilted “perfectly” on February 10th.
If you hadn’t heard about this, do a quick search and you’ll find a ton of posts and articles. Apparently the hashtag #broomstickchallenge even trended.
Only problem is, the whole thing was a hoax (which you’ll also see tons of posts and articles about).
Did your B.S. meter pick up on the hoax or did you know better because of the depth of your scientific knowledge?
I’ll admit, I was only 90% sure the whole thing was Oscar Meyer-level bologna.
So… let’s turn this into a teachable moment. Because anytime something gets this kind of viral attention (and action), there are lessons you can learn.
I see 3 major persuasion principles at play. Let’s discuss.
When “Proof” Arm WrestlesCommon Sense
One of the factors that powered the broomstick ballyhoo was the claim that NASA made the announcement.
As you know, our brains instinctively defer to authority figures… at least when it comes to topics we aren’t experts in.
NASA is a pretty reputable authority. And most of us aren’t experts on the earth’s rotational tilt or the effect it has on gravitation.
Interestingly, it would have been incredibly easy to find out if NASA was behind this announcement. And I think most people knew they could verify the story. That’s what made it so easy for them to trust without looking any deeper.
Secondarily, social proof — once it picked up steam — may have been even more convincing than the NASA angle.
Because of a cognitive bias called the “availability cascade,” we have the natural tendency to believe almost anything we’ve seen or heard enough times.
It’s hard to go against the crowd… and it’s less work to trust what everyone else is saying.
So the lessons are that:
It pays to become known as an authority or expert in an area other people are not.
Leverage social proof whenever you can — and when there’s visible, growing support for/acceptance of a proposition, see if there’s a way to use that momentum to gain traction for your own idea/offer.
Seeing is Believing… When You’re Told What You’re Looking At
Think about this…
The #broomstickchallenge starts with the little-known and unlikely-seeming fact that brooms can stand upright.
The argument goes like this: “Hey today’s the only day in this decade that the earth is perfectly tilted. Lemme prove it. Go grab your broom.”
So the hoax tells you how to “prove” the claim for yourself… by pointing you to THE ONE THING that seems to prove it. (I guess you could have used an egg, too. But there’s more work involved.)
This is similar to the way magicians direct your attention toward a specific object or action so you don’t notice the mechanics that make the trick work.
You must point to the broom specifically or the argument falls apart.
If the earth is perfectly tilted, shouldn’t you be able to make a sharpened pencil stand upright on its tip, too?
There’s a lesson here, too. You can “educate” your potential buyers to and almost define their buying criteria for them.
Point them to something that you know they’ll see. When they see it, they’re more likely to believe everything else you said… and do what you recommended they do. Just like a magic trick. (More on that concept here.)
Or, simply show your should-be buyer what you want him to see. Demonstration can be very convincing.
Take It Easy, Man
The perfect tilt of the earth, if it were true, could have been demonstrated in any number of ways. But the craze wouldn’t have caught on if “proving” it wasn’t a low-risk, easy thing to do.
The #HandstandOnTheRoofChallenge probably never would have gone viral.
When you’re selling a product, service or idea, you must be mindful of risk and perceived risk.
That’s just as much about your offer as it is about the copy.
In your copy, assure him of his high probability of success. Give him simple information he can use to justify his purchase to anyone who may ask him about it. Remind him this product was designed specifically for people like him — and the people who buy it are the admired by peers, live longer, etc.
(As long as those things are true.)
Your offer can reduce risk by including a strong guarantee. Make it easy to cancel or request a refund.
Balancing a broom is easy and no one gets hurt doing it.
Try to make it that easy to buy from you.
P.S. Did you know that versions of the #broomstickchallenge have been around since at least 1975?
There’s another lesson: when you find something that works, double down on it.
The marketing method that works better than any other in ROI terms — one that you should definitely double down on — is email. The Make Email Great Again summit officially goes live on Monday, February 17th.
“Back in the day, the marketing gurus told us we could expect to earn $1 per email subscriber per month. Is that still true?”
— question I was asked on a recent consulting call
This is an easy question to answer… but the answer isn’t easy for most entrepreneurs to hear.
Because, in truth, the answer is both yes and no.
Most marketers and entrepreneurs I know don’t come close to pulling $1 per subscriber per month.
But there are some that do significantly more than $1.
One of my clients averages $2.38
Another gets $5.27.
I’m sure there are businesses that generate even better numbers.
But this kind of performance doesn’t happen magically.
In my experience… most of these businesses share 3 characteristics:
1) They email their lists every day. Multiple times on some days. No apologies, no excuses.
2) They SELL in every email… even when the purpose of the email is to educate.
3) They’ve developed proven front-end AND higher-priced back-end offers — and they constantly promote them.
Sure it’s a considerable amount of work, but these 3 ideas will get you a lot closer to where you want to be in terms of revenue and the impact you make in the world.
Make Email a Bigger Profit Center for Your Business
If your email marketing efforts aren’t producing the kind of results you wish they’d give you…
Or if you’re looking for a way to strengthen what’s already working…
It’s a FREE online summit for anyone who wants to make more money with email.
I’m one of 15 email marketing experts sharing promotional ideas and success secrets we’ve used to bring in piles of cash for our clients and our own businesses.
The insider tips and strategies you pick up could change everything for your business.
My MEGA Con session covers what we’ve called the “Fear the Reaper” promo.
You’ll also get to go inside the minds of heavy-hitters like David Deutsch, Dan Ferrari, Matt Bacak, Kyle Milligan and more.
The summit starts February 10, 2020 but I encourage you to sign up now.
That’s what I asked the entrepreneurs on my friend’s list.
This friend — his name is Mike — was a sales rep for well-known marketing guru. He needed a boost in sales for the month and, ironically, he called me to see if I could help.
(This happens more than you might think. People selling marketing info aren’t always great marketers.)
Mike had written an e-mail to send to his segment of the guru’s list. He wanted me to look it over before he sent it. He needed it to be strong.
But his copy was flat. Emotionless. It relied on a discount to do the selling for him. I couldn’t let him send out that email.
I had a little time on my hands, so I rewrote it myself.
My copy was more aggressive, which made him nervous.
But he needed sales to meet his quota for the month, so I convinced him to set up the email and hit the Send button.
I’ll let Mike tell you the rest of the story:
“The responses poured in, both good and bad. Initially, the recipients were offended the email ‘called them out.’ I never heard more, ‘How Dare You…’ and ‘take me off your list.’ But to my surprise, it awoke the giant whales lurking in my database. The email cut to the core of the buyer’s heart, and that’s what counts.
“The results: Just over $100,000 in under a week and I got credit for breaking a sales record. Thanks Donnie!”
I can’t remember exactly what I wrote. But I remember “deja vu December” — that feeling of finishing out another year in the same place as last year…
Of having to make the same New Year’s resolutions because you weren’t able to reach your goals…
We’ve all felt it. We all hate it. Leveraging that feeling turned into a BIG payday for Mike.
So here are 3 takeaways from Mike’s story:
1) Emotions sell, both positive and negative. Many of us are reluctant to “go dark,” but it’s hard to argue with record-breaking sales.
It’s not about being negative; it’s about being honest. The truth is, people have problems. The good news is, your product or service can help.
2) Strong copy might offend some people… and it will win over the hearts and minds of others at the same time. In my experience, the net result is MORE SALES.
3) When you need more sales, it makes sense to call an expert.
If you’re in Mike’s situation and you NEED more sales in your business…
If you KNOW your marketing should be bringing in more cash than it is…
Or if your sales are good but you want them looking even better…
There’s one pain point every single one of your would-be customers is painfully aware of:
The pervasive complexity of life in the 21st century.
Whether they use these words or not, every one of them craves more simplicity in some area of his or her life. (Or more likely, almost every part.)
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be a simplifier in your area of awesomeness.
Do that — and communicate it well — and your power to influence will stun you.
Keep in mind, there’s an important difference between simple and easy.
For example, “97 Easy Ways to Save Money” is NOT simple.
There may be a ton of value there. Someone who has tried everything may still find a new idea worth trying among the 97.
But people don’t want 97 ways to save money, really.
They want 3 ways to save money. Or, better still, the single most effective way to save money… the one trick that will save so much money they don’t have to do anything else.
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.
With that in mind, here are 3 things you can do to increase your simplifier status:
1) Eliminate the clutter. Your reader has an overwhelming array of options and choices to make in every segment of his. As the expert, you have the ability to tell him which options will give him the best results, and which he can flat-out ignore.
Thinking is hard work; most people avoid it at all costs. If you can earn someone’s trust, he’ll gladly allow you to do some of his thinking for him.
2) Make fewer recommendations & communicate them with conviction. Again, don’t give people new instructions and new systems every week. 97 ways to do anything is intimidating. Spend most of your time talking about a few powerful ideas. Come back to them continually.
It’s much easier to trust someone when he seems 100% certain about what he’s recommending. So speak with conviction!
Here’s the one we really want you to grasp. This is single most important thing you can do establish yourself as a simplifier for your audience.
3) Establish a core “operating system” or personal philosophy.
Your followers should quickly be able to figure out what you stand for, what you KNOW works.
That means YOU need to know what you stand for. What’s the one phrase you’d like to be known for? Decide on that, then pick a small number of big ideas to revolve around your philosophical core.
Your intense focus will make you unique. More to the point…
you’ll be simpler to understand
your recommendations will be simpler to follow
your “brand” will be simpler to categorize, so you’ll fit into the mind of your readers/listeners/viewers more distinctly
your expertise won’t be diluted. Your reader’s mind automatically divides your perceived authority by the number of things you claim to be an authority on. You’ve never heard of a neurosurgeon who’s also an expert heart surgeon.
So the message is simple:
Strive to make your would-be customer’s life simpler (not just easier).
People’s attention spans are shorter than ever… or are they?
So-called “experts” report that human attention
span is shorter than that of a goldfish. So how do they explain that millions
of people regularly spend 90 minutes watching a movie… and even longer
reading Harry Potter books (which could be measured in inches instead of number
of pages).
What’s really going on
here?
I recently shot a video to explain why attention spans
APPEAR to be shrinking and, more importantly, I several suggestions for
overcoming this obstacle, including:
what your readers absolutely will not stand for when reading your emails… which is one of the reasons people ignore 90% of the messages that land in their inboxes
4 strategies that keep an audience hanging on every word you share — 3 of which almost no one is telling you about
what you have to stop BEING in order to move up the ladder into “Approachable Expert” status and keep readers from tuning you out.
This was a livestreamed video; that will become obvious when
you watch. I think it’s pretty good, though. And you can put these ideas to work right away and start increasing the
length and quality of attention you get from your list.
By the way, a recent analysis of billions emails by Litmus Email Analytics shows that email attention spans actually INCREASED by 7% between 2011 and 2016. Kinda goes against the prevailing theory, doesn’t it?
Just in case you’re not big on watching videos, let me break
down the 4 strategies I talked about.
1) You have to spend
more time talking about IMPORTANT and INTERESTING things. Not important to
you, necessarily, but important to your reader.
We all love talking about ourselves, but readers need to see
how what you write benefits them.
2) Commit to telling
more stories. People love hearing stories. As long as they’re not drawn-out
and boring, people are more than happy to sit and listen. Much longer than
they’re likely to read raw information.
Naturally, you still have to tie your stories back to what’s
important/interesting for the reader.
More details are
better. More emotions are better. More sensory information is usually better.
Help the reader feel like he was really there.
3) Become a
personality. Show off your unique characteristics. Be likeable. Be
despicable. Just don’t be boring.
We all form bonds with people we spend time with — even if
we never meet them in person. Psychologists have a term for that: parasocial relationships. Think about
it. You probably feel a little bit like you’re friends with your favorite TV
characters. You almost believe that you know them. You definitely empathize
with them.
You can achieve the same kind of connections with your
audience. But you have to put your personality on display.
4) Demonstrate the
points you make. Offer proof (or at least evidence) that what you’re saying
is true. That you’re the real deal.
Now, go forth — win and defend the attention of your email
list.
Over the past 12 months, I’ve written copy that’s generated over $6 million in sales (that I know of) for my clients. The weapon of choice has been email marketing.
That number is not meant to impress you, but to reassure you that what I’m about to share with you has been proven to work in the real world
I’m not sharing what I’ve heard about, but what I’ve experienced firsthand.
This could probably be a book, but I’ll keep it brief for now and we can dive into some details in the Email Copywriting Corner Facebook group if you’re interested. (You’ll have to request access if you’re not already a member.)
Here are a few of the most important lessons I learned, relearned or doubled down on this year:
1) Don’t assume you know your audience
Ask questions, do surveys, but most importantly, pay attention to the actions they take when interacting with your content.
What kind of subject lines do they open?
Where do they click?
What length seems to work best?
What kind of offers do they respond to?
What totally bombs?
2) Test a lot of (wildly different) things
This ties to the previous idea. You can’t measure the relative effectiveness of one proposition against another unless they’re different enough to be unmistakable from each other. That’s especially true when you don’t have tens of thousands of people seeing and reacting to the message.
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. You can still test a red button vs. a blue one, but that’s not where breakthroughs are going to happen.
One example from early this year was a ~300 word email pointing to a long sales page vs. a 1500 word email going to an order form. In this particular instance, the long email outperformed the short one by 5X. This one baffled the heck out of me!
On the other hand, some of the highest converting landing pages I’ve seen only have one sentence on them. Different ideas work on different offerings, even with the same audience. That’s why you have to keep testing!
Customers tell you the truth by what they BUY. I stole this slide from Richard Armstrong’s AWAI keynote
3) Quality is better than quantity
Not every company agrees. Even some of the clients I’ve worked with don’t agree. You can treat list building as a pure “numbers game” and bring in the maximum number of people with vague or misleading squeeze pages and hope some of them will eventually become good customers or clients. I believe and have generally found that being “for” a specific audience, with specific promises and a distinct voice will bring in far smaller numbers of far superior readers/prospects.
4) The most important thing is the offer, or more specifically, your Audience-Offer Alignment
Strong copy can only do so much for you. Selling something people want is much more important — and easier than convince them to buy something that doesn’t obviously fit into their plans/priorities.
5) Your reader responds how you train him to respond — starting with how you acquired him
If you bring in subscribers with a fear-based offer or lead magnet, that sets the stage for what they’ll expect in the future. It may be difficult to pivot later. If you offer discounts at the end of every month, they won’t respond to offers early in the month. If you always extend your deadline, they won’t take them (or you) seriously.
Brian Kurtz wrote a great article exploring this point, with a Gary Bencivenga/Boardroom case study.
Clarity and consistency are necessary for building trust and setting appropriate expectations. Variety is critical for maintaining interest and curiosity.
6) People are getting smarter, so response is harder than ever to get
Many marketers are resorting to gimmicks to overcome our instant delete reflexes: bait and switch subject lines and body copy. Using “re:” and one-word subject lines to catch you off guard and get the click.
Those tactics do work — but they’re getting less effective every day because you can only fool someone so many times. Use such techniques sparingly. Rather, strive to be truly valuable, interesting and trustworthy to your readers.
In other words, don’t try to be slick. It’s a bad long-term plan — and it’s not great in the near-term, either.
7) Stories sell
You’ve heard it a thousand times, and it’s no less true now than it was the first time. Personal stories, historical anecdotes, even fun little facts get people reading, keep them interested and neutralize their resistance, at least temporarily.
I’ve seen the addition of a narrative element double clickthrough rates and triple conversion rates vs. straight product description or marketing talk.
8) Sequences, not single shots
Give yourself more shots by communicating in sequences rather than single blasts. And if you connect one email to the next, you can increase readership and compound the persuasive power of the campaign as a whole.
Just remember to test this. One of the most recent tests I did pitted a single email vs. two email, one-day offer — and the single email outpeformed by about 20%.
9) Urgency works like nothing else
Most people procrastinate as if their sanity depends on it. Deadlines move people to action. Open invitations are often ignored.
10) Customer Lifetime Value is the ultimate metric — not open rates or CTR
As Clayton Makepeace told me, if you’re making money on the front end, you’re doing it wrong!
Sitting on stage with direct response titans Clayton Makepeace, David Deutsch and Parris Lampropoulos at an AWAI event
This isn’t necessarily a set-in-cement rule. The point is to abstain from worrying so much about what it costs to acquire customers. Focus on getting as many of the right people on your files as possible. With the right back end, the cost per acquisition is a relatively small matter.
Many entrepreneurs and marketers are too focused on the front end costs. Clayton’s advice is an attempt to rearrange that thinking.
—
As I mentioned near the beginning, there’s a conversation about these ideas in the Email Copywriting Corner group. If you’re interested in digging in a little more or sharing your experiences, you can do that in the Facebook group.
Quick Copywriting Tip #10: Make your copy empowering, not condemning or depressing.
If the reader benefits just from reading the marketing message, you’ve made the sale before the sale.
One of the most effective ways to empower your reader…to make it easier for him to take the next step towards his desired outcome…is to add an educational element to your copy.
In campaigns I’ve worked over the past few months, I’ve boosted orders as much as 25 to 40% by providing valuable tips, actionable recommendations, etc. right in the sales message instead of just “selling.”.
Quality educational content proves that
you actually know what you’re talking about — you’re not just a product-pusher and
begins to demonstrate to the reader that HE CAN DO THIS, that this can actually work for him.
When you do it well, a sense of hope may begin to form in the reader’s mind: hope that result he imagines can finally become reality.
When you instill real hope, you win an important victory — and the long-term benefits accrue for both you and your reader.
I got an email a couple weeks ago gets it terribly wrong, I think:
The “expert” shared some valuable tips, then implied I’d struggle to implement them successfully without his on-going help.
Seriously?
I have no problem with sales pressure and urgency, but if this is a big turn-off. At least for me.
So be careful how you approach this. In the long-run, it pays off to be genuinely helpful.
