Category: Core Training
Evergreen Webinar Funnels
Evergreen Webinar Funnels
Transcript
Okay. Fab. Okay. So, yeah, we’re looking at evergreen must haves when generating leads to the non demand webinar. So just to start, like, why webinars? Webinars are literally the gold standard for high quality lead gen.
They’re the closest thing that you can get to having a one to one sales call because they can actually see you. You can talk to them.
They’re committing to spending time with you. It’s not like a checklist that they can very easily download and have a look at. They’re actually when they sign up, they’re thinking, okay. I’m gonna spend forty five minutes with this person. So they tend to be a high quality lead because they’ve made that commitment.
Obviously, everyone knows here that I work with course creators, workshops still in b to b and SaaS, whatever industry you’re working in. Ninety one percent of b to b professionals say that webinars are their third type of content, and companies report that twenty to forty percent of webinar attendees become qualified leads and within the sales pipeline, which is pretty high. Like, if you think any other type of content, if you’re putting it out there, you’d expect maybe, like, two percent, to become leads.
Okay. Cool. So when it yeah. When it comes to webinars, I really believe that on demand is the way to go.
Why? Well, because then you can you can literally have it running twenty four seven as a way to generate leads. Whereas if you’re doing it live, obviously, there’s only so many times you can do it. And if even if you are like, I’m gonna do it every week, that’s likely gonna lead to burnout. Like, there are a lot of things that we’re juggling. Whereas if you just have it on demand, it can sell for you.
It’s also but it’s not just for us. It’s also for the clients, the people we’re selling to because when it’s on demand, they can actually fit it into their schedule. So if the live times don’t work for them, they can just watch it. I mean, I do I really do feel like in, you know, twenty twenty five is on demand is what people expect. Like, if you wanted to watch a show on Netflix and they were like, you have to schedule it. Do you wanna watch it, like, Tuesday at seven or Wednesday at nine? It’s just not how we’re used to consuming content.
It means that they can literally get the value the moment that they need it. They don’t have to wait till you’re next doing a live webinar. And, also, actually, on demand have higher opt in and watch rates, which really surprises people because I think people think with the urgency of live webinars, more people show up. But more and more webinar platforms are releasing, that’s not the case. Like, e webinar, for example, I think it was something like, sixty five percent watch it when it’s on demand versus forty percent live.
And seventy five percent when given the option will always choose on demand.
Okay. Cool. So you’ve decided that you wanna oh, you’ve decided that you wanna do a webinar, then you’re you’re writing your opt in page.
Obviously, you know, we’ve done a lot of training on how to write a good opt in page.
The challenge with Evergreen is you need to you need to keep it hyper relevant to what’s going on in your customer’s life now. So if you teach without tailoring to what’s happening, you come across as irrelevant. So your opt in page should really be tailored to the most recent information that you have about your ICP.
Oh, just like a warning, my GIF use gets more and more, like, unhinged as it goes through.
Just a heads up.
Okay. So you should really be updating your ICP profile every three to six months.
So your ICP might not change, but the world that your the world has changed. The world that they operate in has changed. So you need to have up to date information about how they’re handling the new challenges, the new opportunities that that exist that didn’t six months ago.
So as an example, so for my online course, I target course grades who have been in the game for a little while but haven’t cracked thirty thousand dollars a month. They all wanna make a thousand dollars a day.
So in twenty twenty three, all of my customer feedback and interviews were revealing that their primary pain point was that they were really exhausted by the burnout and the lack of predictability associated with live launches. This was, I think, a time when everyone was being told everywhere, you need to live launch. You’ve got a live launch. It’s the way.
It’s the way. It’s the way. And that was all my messaging was around that. However, in twenty twenty four and towards the end of twenty twenty four more, there were just so so many more courses and workshops around going evergreen.
And I found that it their primary pain point had actually changed. People yes. They were still motivated by it not doing live launches, but it was actually that they tried going evergreen with the urgency powered system and live webinar format that lots of people are teaching that were really big in twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and it wasn’t converting. So even though my ICP has stayed the same, the primary pain point has changed.
So as an example of, like, what this would look like in terms of optimization, like, just a simple shift on the opt in page, everything’s the same. Still course creator desired outcome’s the same, but the pain point shifted from live launching to the kind of the eye roll around adding a countdown timer to make sales.
And you you also wanna send signals, just little little ones that this wasn’t recorded two years ago. So just something so easy that literally takes two minutes that you can just schedule yourself to do once every three months. Just put it in your calendar, take five minutes, and just add something that’s going on now. Like, for example, you know, when you when you have, like, the here’s what you’ll discover in the webinar, just mentioning something current. So the election, the TV show that everybody’s watching, just anything that signals, okay, what you’re getting is it’s relevant to now. It’s happening now because especially if you’re targeting founders or teams or founders, they don’t wanna waste time watching a webinar that literally, like, is not in day. It has nothing to do with their business now.
Okay. So a quick checklist I go through to see if my opt in page has ever been ready. So you you need to obviously make sure you remove any specific dates that are more than three months old.
Any cultural references, to events or media need to be released in the last six months. Any longer than that, and it’s gonna feel stale.
You need to mention at least one challenge that the ICP is facing right now that your offer can solve. So it feels it has to feel tailored. It has to feel specific, especially within every webinar. Like, obviously, with all webinars, but particularly evergreen.
I like to add a specific detail.
You know, I I know, like, when you’re doing in to be to be SaaS, like, the tone’s often a bit different, but just something like color with a hot cocoa and watch this forty minute webinar versus, like, grab a nice latte. So it’s saying, you know, summer, is how this is now. And make sure you you’re updating your best and latest testimonials and features, and they they’re they’re prominent. So if you have a really cool testimonial, that you you got last month, but you haven’t touched your opt in page for a year, they’re gonna be missing that. So just make sure that you are you are regularly adding new social proof.
Okay. Cool. Alright. So that’s you’ve got your awesome page. They’ve grabbed the webinar. What happens next?
So first of all, you wanna set up your strategic thank you page.
So you don’t actually want to redirect people straight to the webinar. You wanna add your thank you page.
I I’m done ad about this for a while because there’s the, there’s the added friction of not taking them straight to the webinar, but, actually, you know, they’ve already committed. And, you know, as we know from Coffee School that the thank you page is such a valuable opportunity to get to get feedback from your audience, to to, give them a survey, and they’re much more likely to respond to that because, it’s a sad useful moment. They’ve just given it you’ve just given them something. So on your thank you page, you wanna reinforce the value that they signed up to receive.
You wanna include social proof, smart to your testimonials, your logo, so you’re just continuing to reinforce that you are the go to person on the thing that you’re, that you’re gonna do for them, and then include a one a one question survey. And then when you do have your webinar button, just make sure it’s so big and juicy, like, obnoxiously unmissable, so that you’re not by including thank you page, you’re not reducing the chance of them finding finding the webinar.
Okay. So I’m a little bit obsessed with my Thank You page survey. So I love I love Jay’s question, the what was going on in your life that brought you here today. And I think that’s a really great question to ask especially as you’re when you first start running it because you can really see, like, if there’s a match between, who you’re trying to attract and who you’re attracting. If people are saying they’re here to solve a problem that you’re like, actually, it’s a bit what I’m trying to solve is a bit high level than that, then you know that your opt in message isn’t connecting with them.
But as as you as it goes on, you might find that there’s specific gaps in your research or things that you just love to know about your ICP, especially related to, again, what’s going on in the world right now. So as an example, something I might do, like, every six months is just say, like, hey. What is, like, the what are the new challenges for course creators this year? And it might be things like ChatGPT and people creating courses with that.
It could, you know, it could be anything. So I get that as the the idea. But then the thing is with ChatGPT is it doesn’t obviously prioritize voice of customer. So then I would take that idea and use it to craft a a survey question.
So let’s say, like, what are your biggest concerns around AI right now? What are you currently doing to close your customer’s talent gaps? So you’re taking that opportunity, when you are likely to get better responses because it’s a thank you page, to collect that that voice of customer.
Okay. So exercise.
I think it’s it’s in your workbook.
I actually I’m not sure what page (pp. 41 – 49 of the Agency Workbook). I don’t know if Sarah does. But we’re gonna take just maybe four minutes to have a think about a couple of things that you wish you knew about your ICP or that you you need to know for segmentation and then what question you could ask them to gain those hyper relevant insights.
Does anyone wanna share my questions?
Please.
I will.
I’ll share my questions, but I do not have a, answer yet.
Like, I don’t have the question to ask them yet. Okay. Okay. So I have what makes your okay.
Hold on.
So, basically, one of my questions is just to it just I’m curious about what makes my ICP hesitant to invest in advertorials and sales pages. Like, maybe they’re maybe they have ideas that, it costs way too much or that it’s gonna be hard to implement that they have to like, there’s, like, hoops they have to jump through to get these things set up or something. You know? And then the other question I had was, what they what they think that the advertorials or sales page will do for their business, like, in their own words.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, with the first one, you could just ask, like, why haven’t you invested in this already?
That would probably reveal the hesitations. And then the second one yeah. I think, like, I mean, even the what was going on in your life of what you hit today would probably answer that, to be honest.
Yeah. Yeah. The second one?
Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s like or or you could just ask just on the nose. What what was it again? What what are you hoping to achieve with?
It the question was, what do they think that sales pages and advertorials will do for their business, like, in in their home? Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Good ones. Claire?
Sorry. I was just writing down one.
It was very useful.
Okay. So I have two, and I’m kinda struggling between which one is more important.
So the first one is one that I’ve been struggling with a lot in, SaaS. It’s either your product led or your sales led. One of the two. You’ve either got a free trial or you’ve got a demo to book. And I’m really struggling to figure out who the hell I’m trying to target because sales led is complicated, but product led is less value per customer. So my question was gonna be, are you product led or sales led? Like, what’s your model currently?
Yeah. I I think with that sorry. I say, like, it does have a multiple choice. And then when you’re when you’re, that will help you segment, obviously, if you you multiple choice and you could connect it to your emails. But then when you’re when you’re tracking that, are booking calls and closing because then you can obviously see, like, which yeah. Which one’s more valuable for you.
Okay. So that adds segmentation. And then the other one I wanted to ask is, what makes email a valuable marketing channel for you?
Just like oh, getting into the head of a CMO is so different to everyone else because they’re seeing, like, this massive picture where it’s like, I’ve only ever seen this tiny little one.
But I don’t know if that’s too broad. It’s gonna like, if it’s gonna just net me one word answers that aren’t actually useful.
Well, just try it. I mean, that’s a great thing about thank you based surveys. I think, you know, as copywriters, we optimize everything. We’re always changing things, but then our thank you based survey, we just kind of, like, leave it for, like, three years and don’t really look at the responses. But, actually, if you change them every three months and take that and and test and see how you can get the best responses, that can make all the other optimization a lot easier.
That’s really helpful. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Claire.
No. No. Thank you.
Johnson?
Hey.
So, I’m talking to series b SaaS founders, and, I’m still I’m I’m doing some sort of product refinement. So I’ve been wanting to know what commonalities are, amongst, like, where their story, outwardly is falling flat to customers. So the question for that would be, what do you wish your audience would, quotation marks, get about you, your company or your product?
And I also kinda wanna know what the, like, story like, I so sort of around storytelling, what would a dream state look like?
So that I can use that in copy.
And for that, it was what do you wish was gossip about you or your company, which I feel could be maybe in could generate some interesting POC.
So those two Yeah.
That was a really good question.
I mean I’m gonna Any advice?
Go back and make a note. Or they no. No. No. I love them both. I was actually thinking, yeah, I’m gonna, yeah, take a note.
Maybe That’s fine.
That’s fine. Great. Okay. Cool.
Thanks, Johnson.
No worries.
Okay. Cool. Alright. Let’s let’s move on. So you’ve got your thank you based survey.
The next step is then you you’ve got your landing page where you wanna embed your webinar.
So you really don’t need fancy webinar software. I’m seeing more and more that watch rates and conversion rates are higher when you just embed a webinar on a landing page versus doing, like, easy webinar where you where you schedule. Again, like, it just it doesn’t feel it like, it makes sense to me because it doesn’t feel natural to schedule a time when you you’d rather
you schedule things on your your own calendar rather than kind of meeting someone, choosing prompt options. And, also, especially if you’re selling b two b and CEOs, like, they use if they wanna watch something, they know to schedule it into their calendar.
So, yeah, you don’t need banks to webinar software. You can use a free tool like Wistia or Vimeo. Just make sure it’s one that you can track watch rates because that’s really helpful to see where people are dropping off.
And then, yeah, literally, you just embed it on the landing page or remove any other script distractions like your menu bar.
If you are using a tool like Wistia, it has an option to make a button appear, taking them to your Calendly or your checkout page. So when you’re pitching, they can straight away click that.
I just asked ChatGPT. Like, that’s probably my favorite use of ChatGPT. It’s be like, I have a tech thing. Like, how do I do it? So just say this is the what tool do you recommend? Can I do this? How do I do it?
Okay.
Cool. So, yeah, you’ve you’ve they’ve opted into your webinar. You’ve given them the webinar. Now you wanna send us a sale sequence. So your welcome sequence, your your open rates are never gonna be that high. This is when you’re gonna see fifty, sixty percent open rate. So I know that this is a kind of a wider conversation, but I love selling in the welcome sequence.
Yes. Give them value. Give them case studies, all that good stuff, but, like, sell the shiitake mushrooms out of your offer.
And then add conversation starting touch points. So, yes, it’s all automated, but you could also just add these these opportunities for them to reach out to you and to gain more feedback. So there are four that I love including, Jason Lemora again. I just love that. Okay.
So for the FAQ email, which, you know, is a is a standard, in in the sales sequence, I love to actually just turn that into, like, an all day q and a, and it’s like, I there is actually a humor on the other end that is gonna answer your questions if you have them. Because getting those questions are so, so helpful because they tell you what isn’t clear about your offer, so that you can then go and add that into into your webinar or wherever. And it also gives you the opportunity to to answer these questions, to address those objections, and to get them on a call, which leads us to our second one, call me. I can’t remember where I saw this. It was years ago. It might it might have been Tarzan, but who who said that one of our highest performing subject lines was was call me.
And literally just giving them your mobile number and saying, you know, if you wanna talk this through, just give me a ring. And that just really, again, takes away from this idea that it’s this automated thing, that it’s just running, there’s no person because what faster way to be like, no. I’m a real I’m a real person than to actually give them your mobile number. And if they spontaneously wanna call you, they don’t have to then book on your Calendly. You can you can take that call and you can sell them. Whether you whether you want that, that’s another question, but it is an interesting touch point you to consider to have as an option.
And then three days after your sequence ends, just asking them straight up up like, hey. What kept you from calling?
So this is a great opportunity to collect objections hesitations. Like, what is it that that that stop them that from thinking, yep. This is the solution for me.
And then, obviously, then you can preempt those objections elsewhere in your sales funnel.
It’s also an opportunity to open up the conversation by their if they’re like, oh, I really like this idea, but, you know, it’s just low down on the priority list because we’re focusing on x. And then you could say, cool that you’re focusing on x, but, you know, did you know? And then you can reopen that conversation with them.
And then finally, Jo’s nine word email, that she taught last year. I thought the nine times twenty three lesson. So every twenty three days, sending a nine word email just asking the question like, are you still struggling to?
Is email marketing still on your, your, like, draw your drawing board for this year? Just a question to, yeah, open it back up. Cody?
I just am curious if anyone has ever called you.
Oh, I don’t do that. I would not do.
Okay. Okay. Got it. No.
I like I love the idea. I’m just way too, like like, won’t don’t like answering calls. But, yeah, if I’ve done it for clients and they have. Yes.
Nice.
Yeah. It’s like, I like having it as an option. And if I really needed like, if I was getting desperate for to close leads, I would add it in there because it is a really good one. But, like, fortunately, I don’t have to at the moment. I can keep keep my space.
So are you just doing the all day q and a and then also the nine word email then?
So you’re just taking the And the Yeah. And then what kept you from calling? Yeah. And I the all day q and a has been really helpful.
Like, I think eighty percent of the time when people ask a question, I end up closing them because they’re just you just get to go straight into that objection, and they’re already gonna be relatively high intent to send that. But then, yeah, when I’m I put them all in a spreadsheet, and I’m like, okay. Loads of people are asking, whether a webinar template is included, and I haven’t. So I obviously haven’t included that.
I mean, obviously, this is for my online course, but the same applies for generating clients. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
Cool. Yeah. Any questions?
I would love to know, Abby. Like, you talk about using the welcome sequence to sell the offer. How much time do you spend on or, like, how many emails do you send getting people to watch the webinar versus just kind of assuming that they’re watching the webinar and then focusing on selling the offer?
These days, I don’t, like, keep selling the webinar. I mean, it’s something, you know, you can add down the line. You can segment you based on, okay, people that didn’t send the webinar, maybe send them, like, three emails. I’m reminding them. But, yeah, I just focus on talking about the value and kind of coaching the same things that were in the webinar.
And then if they’re curious, they’ll go back and watch it. Otherwise, they’ll just book a call anyway. It’s more about, like, getting them on the email list.
Like, obviously, it’s great if they watch your webinar, but, like, it’s not the end of the world. If they don’t, you can still sell them on that sequence.
Okay. So deliver the webinar and then, basically just assume that they’ve watched it from next day?
Yeah. So send the confirmation email and then start. Yeah. Start selling. And then it when I do the, like, what kept you from buying, I try to take the the kind of the principle with your thank you page, like the law of reciprocation.
And so I redeliver that webinar. Say, if you wanna watch it again or if you didn’t missed it, here it is. And then that also just, like it helps me get more responses, but it gives them another opportunity.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks. Claire?
Hey. So I this is so timely. I’ve got right up on my list launch Evergreen webinar for January and, like, we’re in the last week. So I recorded it today.
But I wanted to ask two two questions around it, really. The first one is about the actual webinar itself. I had planned for it to be, like, kind of not live. Like, it doesn’t feel live. It’s actually a training video, not like a live video. Is that okay, or is it gonna put people off?
Oh, yeah. No. No. No. No. Like, it’s on demand. Like, the only time people would expect to be live was just this, like, weird boom that kind of happened in twenty twenty where live webinars were a thing.
But if you think about every other form of content you consume, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, like, you always watch it on demand. So, like, I don’t see yeah. And peep no. I’ve never had, I’m I’m always very upfront.
And I think as well because especially, like, if we’re targeting people that are marketers and know about marketing, they know about these Abrigam webinar funnels that pretend that they’re live, and they don’t like that because it’s deceptive. You don’t wanna start a relationship deceiving them. So actually being super upfront about the fact that it’s on demand, plays in your favor and helps to build trust.
Got it. Okay. So on demand workshop. Yeah. I feel like I’m dealing with a weird audience because I’ve done marketing for Abbott for, developers before, and they’re, like, super anti any kind of marketing marketing.
Like, it feels like marketing. They’re like, woah. You’re coming on too strong. And now although I’m trying to do it towards marketers, I’m like, oh, wait.
They’re kind of the same because they’re just so overwhelmed with so much marketing stuff. Okay. Cool. That’s my first question.
The other question is more around the technicalities of setting it up. So I am not even worried about, like, the email side of things because I’ll worry about that if I actually manage to send a human to watch it.
When I set up the initial landing page, in your experience, is it important to have, like, a long one? Or do you think that here’s a form, here’s a headline, here’s a subject, just like Gong actually sets up their, webinars like that. And then there’s, like, a logo box kind of underneath it, and that’s pretty much it.
Is that sufficient in your book?
Yeah. I mean, it’s a very, like, it depends question. I’d say it’s probably, like, how urgent is the problem? Like, if it’s really urgent, like, it’s a the the blood gushing problem, then, you know, it’s it tends to be enough to just say, like, you know, had you’ve got the headline.
This is problem solved. This is for you, and here’s what’s in it. Like, maybe a bit of social proof. If it’s a kind of higher level problem that you need to coach them towards, you might have a bit of a longer form page opt in.
But yeah. Okay.
Got it. Alright. So the just to clarify, I understand. The landing page takes you to is a form, like, enter your email and name kinda thing. That takes you to a thank you page with another survey, answer my wonderful question, which is probably gonna be, do you do a trial or not? And then the third page, when once they click submit button or whatever it is, the third page is directly the embedded video with, like, a book now kind of, another form I suppose, some kind, whether it’s Calendly or whatever underneath.
Yeah. Also, they would click, they click watch now to take into the webinar, so it’s just like that instant gratification feel.
And then, yeah, have a button pop up that they click it, takes them to the checkout form, or takes them to the Calendly if they need to speak with you first. But, ideally, you want that to pop up later on in the pitch because, you know, if it’s a big juicy button, like, you’re gonna get curiosity clicks, so you wanna wait till they’re a bit more sold on working with you.
Okay. Got it. I’ve got, like, I’ve planned for I can take this out. So but I’ve planned for mid webinar to say, essentially, my first I’ve added a step to my, little circle framework. I’ve added, like, a triangle. It’s like a instant like, this is what to do with your demo or confirmation email kind of framework, and I called it the hello hook.
But I’ve said in the middle of that section, essentially, I’m actually doing this kind of audit for three companies a week. If you want help with this, check out the form below, and I’ll see if I’ve got a slot for you.
Is that okay?
I mean, like, just with all these things, we’ve just gotta test it.
Right? Like, you know, we all we all know that really. Like, I I could tell you, like, one way, I need but but you’d still be like, I think I need to test it. Like, if yes.
Yeah. People filling in that form? If you can get this pop up at that exact moment, that would look cool. That would look baller as well.
So I did yeah. If you could do that.
Yeah. Getting them to take action mid webinar.
Yeah. It’s an interesting idea. Just try it.
Yeah.
I saw it in the YouTube video, and I was like, oh, actually and then at the end, he kind of reiterated, and I was like, oh, yeah.
Now I’m gonna do it. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I’ll check it out. Thank you.
No. Thank you. Cody?
Yeah. I was curious if you have, like, a specific time limit, like, how long that these should be. Have you seen, like, any time limit that’s more successful than others? Or yeah.
I think, like, there’s an element of again, it depends on your audience. I mean, my audience course creators, I know that they expect, like, an hour long webinar. That’s what everyone’s doing. That’s they they will spend an hour if it’s really they know it’s gonna be valuable to their business. So the formula I tend to use is, forty minutes teaching with a full twenty minutes pitching.
So rather than just rushing through the pitch at the end, actually doing a very, very tailored pitch.
So, yeah, an hour, but then if you’re you’re like, if you find that your, audience, like, you know, they’ve they’ve they’ve got an attention span of, like, twenty minutes, and then they have to move on to the next thing, then you know that it’s gonna be a twenty minute webinar.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Cool. Katie?
So I know you asked a question in the group recently about, like, ads to your webinar.
I would just love to know, I guess, kinda, like, where you’ve landed on running ads to your webinars, if you have any tips on running ads for our webinars, or generally, like, about driving traffic. What should we keep in mind about driving people to the Evergreen webinar?
Yeah. I think I think ads are a good idea. I mean, webinar leads are more expensive than, like, a PDF lead. At the moment on Facebook, what I’m seeing is kind of seven to twelve dollars. I know it’s more in LinkedIn, but they tend to be I’m hearing more and more good things about doing running ads on LinkedIn. Like, I’m definitely gonna be looking into that.
But, yeah, I think I think to begin with, like, it’s helpful to run ads to get that traffic, basically. Like, just run it. Just take take the chance. See what happens.
Like, expect nothing to happen. Like, put a thousand in and expect nothing to happen, but you’re gonna get voice of customer. You’re gonna get feedback. You’re gonna get a feel for whether this is worth continuing, see if you booked any calls.
So yeah. I mean, like, organic, it’s just it’s just slow, isn’t it?
Like, I I am gonna be running ads. Yeah.
I’m tired of just, like, yeah, trying to trying to do social.
Did you decide about the Pinterest course?
No. I didn’t. That got, like, that got bumped out.
Fair enough.
Yeah. I’m I’m more like YouTube.
Okay. Thank you.
Cool.
Yeah. Anyone else?
I don’t like Joey’s not here for asking me anything, so I don’t
I have I have questions for dates.
I mean, I can go on. Please.
Alright. Ads.
I have been scared of ads for so long because, like, I don’t know.
Twelve dollars for, like, a chance kinda feels like entering the lottery, but I But it’s not one chance, is it?
Because they’re on your enroll list. So it’s like Oh.
Three hundred sixty five chances a year. Like, every time you send an email, it’s a chance.
Yeah. Okay. Cool.
And have you found that, pain focused messaging or outcome focused messaging, Yeah.
I mean, what’s more burning their desire or their problem? Like, you know, for so for what I teach, the message like, when I did my competitor analysis, the message that all of these evergreen people are teaching is you can make so much money. Like, you can make sales every day, and people need to hear that. That message does need to be on on a page because it’s the expectation.
But that because everyone’s been burned. Like, literally, everyone who’s bought my course, so it’s become a client, has been burned. They also need to hear, like, yeah. You don’t just, like, set up deadline funnel and then suddenly, like, you’re on vacation and your Thrive card just won’t stop, like, pinging.
Like, they need to hear, like, yes. It’s a process.
Yeah. It you know, it it’s not immediate. Like, you need to optimize, but here’s what we’re gonna do about it. So I think a competitive analysis can really help with that question.
So, like, what what what do people need here that isn’t being said? Is that pain related, or is it desired outcome related? Like, do they need to know be woken up to the opportunity, or do they need to, like, show that that do they need to hear that their pain is not unusual, that it is like, it’s fine. That’s the story, but there is a way out of it, and you acknowledge that.
And you’re not gonna just promise them, like, the world.
That makes so much sense. I’ve been talking to a lot of marketers, lately, and the recurring theme I keep hearing is, like, I don’t wanna clutter up someone else’s inbox. My inbox is so full. I don’t wanna fuck up someone else’s.
So, yeah, I think that probably needs to be on the page and, you know, more crucial raising.
Yeah. And then do an AB test, like, test test desired outcome versus problem and see.
What do you use for AB testing, by the way? Do you have, like, online in pages? Sorry. Not for ads.
Okay. So I I use lead pages, but I did have a call with Jo. Like, when I did my ISP interview with her, she was like, yeah. I wouldn’t sign up to a webinar that’s on lead pages.
So it’s on my list to change that, but, like, you know, it’s like if you’ve got WordPress or something, it’s simple. I need to just figure it out. Like, that’s my next thing to ask ChatGPT is how do you do, like, a AB test on a Squarespace landing page? Like, these aren’t impossible questions anymore, which is which is great.
Okay. Awesome. Thank you.
Transcript
Okay. Fab. Okay. So, yeah, we’re looking at evergreen must haves when generating leads to the non demand webinar. So just to start, like, why webinars? Webinars are literally the gold standard for high quality lead gen.
They’re the closest thing that you can get to having a one to one sales call because they can actually see you. You can talk to them.
They’re committing to spending time with you. It’s not like a checklist that they can very easily download and have a look at. They’re actually when they sign up, they’re thinking, okay. I’m gonna spend forty five minutes with this person. So they tend to be a high quality lead because they’ve made that commitment.
Obviously, everyone knows here that I work with course creators, workshops still in b to b and SaaS, whatever industry you’re working in. Ninety one percent of b to b professionals say that webinars are their third type of content, and companies report that twenty to forty percent of webinar attendees become qualified leads and within the sales pipeline, which is pretty high. Like, if you think any other type of content, if you’re putting it out there, you’d expect maybe, like, two percent, to become leads.
Okay. Cool. So when it yeah. When it comes to webinars, I really believe that on demand is the way to go.
Why? Well, because then you can you can literally have it running twenty four seven as a way to generate leads. Whereas if you’re doing it live, obviously, there’s only so many times you can do it. And if even if you are like, I’m gonna do it every week, that’s likely gonna lead to burnout. Like, there are a lot of things that we’re juggling. Whereas if you just have it on demand, it can sell for you.
It’s also but it’s not just for us. It’s also for the clients, the people we’re selling to because when it’s on demand, they can actually fit it into their schedule. So if the live times don’t work for them, they can just watch it. I mean, I do I really do feel like in, you know, twenty twenty five is on demand is what people expect. Like, if you wanted to watch a show on Netflix and they were like, you have to schedule it. Do you wanna watch it, like, Tuesday at seven or Wednesday at nine? It’s just not how we’re used to consuming content.
It means that they can literally get the value the moment that they need it. They don’t have to wait till you’re next doing a live webinar. And, also, actually, on demand have higher opt in and watch rates, which really surprises people because I think people think with the urgency of live webinars, more people show up. But more and more webinar platforms are releasing, that’s not the case. Like, e webinar, for example, I think it was something like, sixty five percent watch it when it’s on demand versus forty percent live.
And seventy five percent when given the option will always choose on demand.
Okay. Cool. So you’ve decided that you wanna oh, you’ve decided that you wanna do a webinar, then you’re you’re writing your opt in page.
Obviously, you know, we’ve done a lot of training on how to write a good opt in page.
The challenge with Evergreen is you need to you need to keep it hyper relevant to what’s going on in your customer’s life now. So if you teach without tailoring to what’s happening, you come across as irrelevant. So your opt in page should really be tailored to the most recent information that you have about your ICP.
Oh, just like a warning, my GIF use gets more and more, like, unhinged as it goes through.
Just a heads up.
Okay. So you should really be updating your ICP profile every three to six months.
So your ICP might not change, but the world that your the world has changed. The world that they operate in has changed. So you need to have up to date information about how they’re handling the new challenges, the new opportunities that that exist that didn’t six months ago.
So as an example, so for my online course, I target course grades who have been in the game for a little while but haven’t cracked thirty thousand dollars a month. They all wanna make a thousand dollars a day.
So in twenty twenty three, all of my customer feedback and interviews were revealing that their primary pain point was that they were really exhausted by the burnout and the lack of predictability associated with live launches. This was, I think, a time when everyone was being told everywhere, you need to live launch. You’ve got a live launch. It’s the way.
It’s the way. It’s the way. And that was all my messaging was around that. However, in twenty twenty four and towards the end of twenty twenty four more, there were just so so many more courses and workshops around going evergreen.
And I found that it their primary pain point had actually changed. People yes. They were still motivated by it not doing live launches, but it was actually that they tried going evergreen with the urgency powered system and live webinar format that lots of people are teaching that were really big in twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and it wasn’t converting. So even though my ICP has stayed the same, the primary pain point has changed.
So as an example of, like, what this would look like in terms of optimization, like, just a simple shift on the opt in page, everything’s the same. Still course creator desired outcome’s the same, but the pain point shifted from live launching to the kind of the eye roll around adding a countdown timer to make sales.
And you you also wanna send signals, just little little ones that this wasn’t recorded two years ago. So just something so easy that literally takes two minutes that you can just schedule yourself to do once every three months. Just put it in your calendar, take five minutes, and just add something that’s going on now. Like, for example, you know, when you when you have, like, the here’s what you’ll discover in the webinar, just mentioning something current. So the election, the TV show that everybody’s watching, just anything that signals, okay, what you’re getting is it’s relevant to now. It’s happening now because especially if you’re targeting founders or teams or founders, they don’t wanna waste time watching a webinar that literally, like, is not in day. It has nothing to do with their business now.
Okay. So a quick checklist I go through to see if my opt in page has ever been ready. So you you need to obviously make sure you remove any specific dates that are more than three months old.
Any cultural references, to events or media need to be released in the last six months. Any longer than that, and it’s gonna feel stale.
You need to mention at least one challenge that the ICP is facing right now that your offer can solve. So it feels it has to feel tailored. It has to feel specific, especially within every webinar. Like, obviously, with all webinars, but particularly evergreen.
I like to add a specific detail.
You know, I I know, like, when you’re doing in to be to be SaaS, like, the tone’s often a bit different, but just something like color with a hot cocoa and watch this forty minute webinar versus, like, grab a nice latte. So it’s saying, you know, summer, is how this is now. And make sure you you’re updating your best and latest testimonials and features, and they they’re they’re prominent. So if you have a really cool testimonial, that you you got last month, but you haven’t touched your opt in page for a year, they’re gonna be missing that. So just make sure that you are you are regularly adding new social proof.
Okay. Cool. Alright. So that’s you’ve got your awesome page. They’ve grabbed the webinar. What happens next?
So first of all, you wanna set up your strategic thank you page.
So you don’t actually want to redirect people straight to the webinar. You wanna add your thank you page.
I I’m done ad about this for a while because there’s the, there’s the added friction of not taking them straight to the webinar, but, actually, you know, they’ve already committed. And, you know, as we know from Coffee School that the thank you page is such a valuable opportunity to get to get feedback from your audience, to to, give them a survey, and they’re much more likely to respond to that because, it’s a sad useful moment. They’ve just given it you’ve just given them something. So on your thank you page, you wanna reinforce the value that they signed up to receive.
You wanna include social proof, smart to your testimonials, your logo, so you’re just continuing to reinforce that you are the go to person on the thing that you’re, that you’re gonna do for them, and then include a one a one question survey. And then when you do have your webinar button, just make sure it’s so big and juicy, like, obnoxiously unmissable, so that you’re not by including thank you page, you’re not reducing the chance of them finding finding the webinar.
Okay. So I’m a little bit obsessed with my Thank You page survey. So I love I love Jay’s question, the what was going on in your life that brought you here today. And I think that’s a really great question to ask especially as you’re when you first start running it because you can really see, like, if there’s a match between, who you’re trying to attract and who you’re attracting. If people are saying they’re here to solve a problem that you’re like, actually, it’s a bit what I’m trying to solve is a bit high level than that, then you know that your opt in message isn’t connecting with them.
But as as you as it goes on, you might find that there’s specific gaps in your research or things that you just love to know about your ICP, especially related to, again, what’s going on in the world right now. So as an example, something I might do, like, every six months is just say, like, hey. What is, like, the what are the new challenges for course creators this year? And it might be things like ChatGPT and people creating courses with that.
It could, you know, it could be anything. So I get that as the the idea. But then the thing is with ChatGPT is it doesn’t obviously prioritize voice of customer. So then I would take that idea and use it to craft a a survey question.
So let’s say, like, what are your biggest concerns around AI right now? What are you currently doing to close your customer’s talent gaps? So you’re taking that opportunity, when you are likely to get better responses because it’s a thank you page, to collect that that voice of customer.
Okay. So exercise.
I think it’s it’s in your workbook.
I actually I’m not sure what page. I don’t know if Sarah does (pp. 41 – 49 of the Agency Workbook). But we’re gonna take just maybe four minutes to have a think about a couple of things that you wish you knew about your ICP or that you you need to know for segmentation and then what question you could ask them to gain those hyper relevant insights.
Does anyone wanna share my questions?
Please.
I will.
I’ll share my questions, but I do not have a, answer yet.
Like, I don’t have the question to ask them yet. Okay. Okay. So I have what makes your okay.
Hold on.
So, basically, one of my questions is just to it just I’m curious about what makes my ICP hesitant to invest in advertorials and sales pages. Like, maybe they’re maybe they have ideas that, it costs way too much or that it’s gonna be hard to implement that they have to like, there’s, like, hoops they have to jump through to get these things set up or something. You know? And then the other question I had was, what they what they think that the advertorials or sales page will do for their business, like, in their own words.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, with the first one, you could just ask, like, why haven’t you invested in this already?
That would probably reveal the hesitations. And then the second one yeah. I think, like, I mean, even the what was going on in your life of what you hit today would probably answer that, to be honest.
Yeah. Yeah. The second one?
Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s like or or you could just ask just on the nose. What what was it again? What what are you hoping to achieve with?
It the question was, what do they think that sales pages and advertorials will do for their business, like, in in their home? Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Good ones. Claire?
Sorry. I was just writing down one.
It was very useful.
Okay. So I have two, and I’m kinda struggling between which one is more important.
So the first one is one that I’ve been struggling with a lot in, SaaS. It’s either your product led or your sales led. One of the two. You’ve either got a free trial or you’ve got a demo to book. And I’m really struggling to figure out who the hell I’m trying to target because sales led is complicated, but product led is less value per customer. So my question was gonna be, are you product led or sales led? Like, what’s your model currently?
Yeah. I I think with that sorry. I say, like, it does have a multiple choice. And then when you’re when you’re, that will help you segment, obviously, if you you multiple choice and you could connect it to your emails. But then when you’re when you’re tracking that, are booking calls and closing because then you can obviously see, like, which yeah. Which one’s more valuable for you.
Okay. So that adds segmentation. And then the other one I wanted to ask is, what makes email a valuable marketing channel for you?
Just like oh, getting into the head of a CMO is so different to everyone else because they’re seeing, like, this massive picture where it’s like, I’ve only ever seen this tiny little one.
But I don’t know if that’s too broad. It’s gonna like, if it’s gonna just net me one word answers that aren’t actually useful.
Well, just try it. I mean, that’s a great thing about thank you based surveys. I think, you know, as copywriters, we optimize everything. We’re always changing things, but then our thank you based survey, we just kind of, like, leave it for, like, three years and don’t really look at the responses. But, actually, if you change them every three months and take that and and test and see how you can get the best responses, that can make all the other optimization a lot easier.
That’s really helpful. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Claire.
No. No. Thank you.
Johnson?
Hey.
So, I’m talking to series b SaaS founders, and, I’m still I’m I’m doing some sort of product refinement. So I’ve been wanting to know what commonalities are, amongst, like, where their story, outwardly is falling flat to customers. So the question for that would be, what do you wish your audience would, quotation marks, get about you, your company or your product?
And I also kinda wanna know what the, like, story like, I so sort of around storytelling, what would a dream state look like?
So that I can use that in copy.
And for that, it was what do you wish was gossip about you or your company, which I feel could be maybe in could generate some interesting POC.
So those two Yeah.
That was a really good question.
I mean I’m gonna Any advice?
Go back and make a note. Or they no. No. No. I love them both. I was actually thinking, yeah, I’m gonna, yeah, take a note.
Maybe That’s fine.
That’s fine. Great. Okay. Cool.
Thanks, Johnson.
No worries.
Okay. Cool. Alright. Let’s let’s move on. So you’ve got your thank you based survey.
The next step is then you you’ve got your landing page where you wanna embed your webinar.
So you really don’t need fancy webinar software. I’m seeing more and more that watch rates and conversion rates are higher when you just embed a webinar on a landing page versus doing, like, easy webinar where you where you schedule. Again, like, it just it doesn’t feel it like, it makes sense to me because it doesn’t feel natural to schedule a time when you you’d rather
you schedule things on your your own calendar rather than kind of meeting someone, choosing prompt options. And, also, especially if you’re selling b two b and CEOs, like, they use if they wanna watch something, they know to schedule it into their calendar.
So, yeah, you don’t need banks to webinar software. You can use a free tool like Wistia or Vimeo. Just make sure it’s one that you can track watch rates because that’s really helpful to see where people are dropping off.
And then, yeah, literally, you just embed it on the landing page or remove any other script distractions like your menu bar.
If you are using a tool like Wistia, it has an option to make a button appear, taking them to your Calendly or your checkout page. So when you’re pitching, they can straight away click that.
I just asked ChatGPT. Like, that’s probably my favorite use of ChatGPT. It’s be like, I have a tech thing. Like, how do I do it? So just say this is the what tool do you recommend? Can I do this? How do I do it?
Okay.
Cool. So, yeah, you’ve you’ve they’ve opted into your webinar. You’ve given them the webinar. Now you wanna send us a sale sequence. So your welcome sequence, your your open rates are never gonna be that high. This is when you’re gonna see fifty, sixty percent open rate. So I know that this is a kind of a wider conversation, but I love selling in the welcome sequence.
Yes. Give them value. Give them case studies, all that good stuff, but, like, sell the shiitake mushrooms out of your offer.
And then add conversation starting touch points. So, yes, it’s all automated, but you could also just add these these opportunities for them to reach out to you and to gain more feedback. So there are four that I love including, Jason Lemora again. I just love that. Okay.
So for the FAQ email, which, you know, is a is a standard, in in the sales sequence, I love to actually just turn that into, like, an all day q and a, and it’s like, I there is actually a humor on the other end that is gonna answer your questions if you have them. Because getting those questions are so, so helpful because they tell you what isn’t clear about your offer, so that you can then go and add that into into your webinar or wherever. And it also gives you the opportunity to to answer these questions, to address those objections, and to get them on a call, which leads us to our second one, call me. I can’t remember where I saw this. It was years ago. It might it might have been Tarzan, but who who said that one of our highest performing subject lines was was call me.
And literally just giving them your mobile number and saying, you know, if you wanna talk this through, just give me a ring. And that just really, again, takes away from this idea that it’s this automated thing, that it’s just running, there’s no person because what faster way to be like, no. I’m a real I’m a real person than to actually give them your mobile number. And if they spontaneously wanna call you, they don’t have to then book on your Calendly. You can you can take that call and you can sell them. Whether you whether you want that, that’s another question, but it is an interesting touch point you to consider to have as an option.
And then three days after your sequence ends, just asking them straight up up like, hey. What kept you from calling?
So this is a great opportunity to collect objections hesitations. Like, what is it that that that stop them that from thinking, yep. This is the solution for me.
And then, obviously, then you can preempt those objections elsewhere in your sales funnel.
It’s also an opportunity to open up the conversation by their if they’re like, oh, I really like this idea, but, you know, it’s just low down on the priority list because we’re focusing on x. And then you could say, cool that you’re focusing on x, but, you know, did you know? And then you can reopen that conversation with them.
And then finally, Jo’s nine word email, that she taught last year. I thought the nine times twenty three lesson. So every twenty three days, sending a nine word email just asking the question like, are you still struggling to?
Is email marketing still on your, your, like, draw your drawing board for this year? Just a question to, yeah, open it back up. Cody?
I just am curious if anyone has ever called you.
Oh, I don’t do that. I would not do.
Okay. Okay. Got it. No.
I like I love the idea. I’m just way too, like like, won’t don’t like answering calls. But, yeah, if I’ve done it for clients and they have. Yes.
Nice.
Yeah. It’s like, I like having it as an option. And if I really needed like, if I was getting desperate for to close leads, I would add it in there because it is a really good one. But, like, fortunately, I don’t have to at the moment. I can keep keep my space.
So are you just doing the all day q and a and then also the nine word email then?
So you’re just taking the And the Yeah. And then what kept you from calling? Yeah. And I the all day q and a has been really helpful.
Like, I think eighty percent of the time when people ask a question, I end up closing them because they’re just you just get to go straight into that objection, and they’re already gonna be relatively high intent to send that. But then, yeah, when I’m I put them all in a spreadsheet, and I’m like, okay. Loads of people are asking, whether a webinar template is included, and I haven’t. So I obviously haven’t included that.
I mean, obviously, this is for my online course, but the same applies for generating clients. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
Cool. Yeah. Any questions?
I would love to know, Abby. Like, you talk about using the welcome sequence to sell the offer. How much time do you spend on or, like, how many emails do you send getting people to watch the webinar versus just kind of assuming that they’re watching the webinar and then focusing on selling the offer?
These days, I don’t, like, keep selling the webinar. I mean, it’s something, you know, you can add down the line. You can segment you based on, okay, people that didn’t send the webinar, maybe send them, like, three emails. I’m reminding them. But, yeah, I just focus on talking about the value and kind of coaching the same things that were in the webinar.
And then if they’re curious, they’ll go back and watch it. Otherwise, they’ll just book a call anyway. It’s more about, like, getting them on the email list.
Like, obviously, it’s great if they watch your webinar, but, like, it’s not the end of the world. If they don’t, you can still sell them on that sequence.
Okay. So deliver the webinar and then, basically just assume that they’ve watched it from next day?
Yeah. So send the confirmation email and then start. Yeah. Start selling. And then it when I do the, like, what kept you from buying, I try to take the the kind of the principle with your thank you page, like the law of reciprocation.
And so I redeliver that webinar. Say, if you wanna watch it again or if you didn’t missed it, here it is. And then that also just, like it helps me get more responses, but it gives them another opportunity.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks. Claire?
Hey. So I this is so timely. I’ve got right up on my list launch Evergreen webinar for January and, like, we’re in the last week. So I recorded it today.
But I wanted to ask two two questions around it, really. The first one is about the actual webinar itself. I had planned for it to be, like, kind of not live. Like, it doesn’t feel live. It’s actually a training video, not like a live video. Is that okay, or is it gonna put people off?
Oh, yeah. No. No. No. No. Like, it’s on demand. Like, the only time people would expect to be live was just this, like, weird boom that kind of happened in twenty twenty where live webinars were a thing.
But if you think about every other form of content you consume, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, like, you always watch it on demand. So, like, I don’t see yeah. And peep no. I’ve never had, I’m I’m always very upfront.
And I think as well because especially, like, if we’re targeting people that are marketers and know about marketing, they know about these Abrigam webinar funnels that pretend that they’re live, and they don’t like that because it’s deceptive. You don’t wanna start a relationship deceiving them. So actually being super upfront about the fact that it’s on demand, plays in your favor and helps to build trust.
Got it. Okay. So on demand workshop. Yeah. I feel like I’m dealing with a weird audience because I’ve done marketing for Abbott for, developers before, and they’re, like, super anti any kind of marketing marketing.
Like, it feels like marketing. They’re like, woah. You’re coming on too strong. And now although I’m trying to do it towards marketers, I’m like, oh, wait.
They’re kind of the same because they’re just so overwhelmed with so much marketing stuff. Okay. Cool. That’s my first question.
The other question is more around the technicalities of setting it up. So I am not even worried about, like, the email side of things because I’ll worry about that if I actually manage to send a human to watch it.
When I set up the initial landing page, in your experience, is it important to have, like, a long one? Or do you think that here’s a form, here’s a headline, here’s a subject, just like Gong actually sets up their, webinars like that. And then there’s, like, a logo box kind of underneath it, and that’s pretty much it.
Is that sufficient in your book?
Yeah. I mean, it’s a very, like, it depends question. I’d say it’s probably, like, how urgent is the problem? Like, if it’s really urgent, like, it’s a the the blood gushing problem, then, you know, it’s it tends to be enough to just say, like, you know, had you’ve got the headline.
This is problem solved. This is for you, and here’s what’s in it. Like, maybe a bit of social proof. If it’s a kind of higher level problem that you need to coach them towards, you might have a bit of a longer form page opt in.
But yeah. Okay.
Got it. Alright. So the just to clarify, I understand. The landing page takes you to is a form, like, enter your email and name kinda thing. That takes you to a thank you page with another survey, answer my wonderful question, which is probably gonna be, do you do a trial or not? And then the third page, when once they click submit button or whatever it is, the third page is directly the embedded video with, like, a book now kind of, another form I suppose, some kind, whether it’s Calendly or whatever underneath.
Yeah. Also, they would click, they click watch now to take into the webinar, so it’s just like that instant gratification feel.
And then, yeah, have a button pop up that they click it, takes them to the checkout form, or takes them to the Calendly if they need to speak with you first. But, ideally, you want that to pop up later on in the pitch because, you know, if it’s a big juicy button, like, you’re gonna get curiosity clicks, so you wanna wait till they’re a bit more sold on working with you.
Okay. Got it. I’ve got, like, I’ve planned for I can take this out. So but I’ve planned for mid webinar to say, essentially, my first I’ve added a step to my, little circle framework. I’ve added, like, a triangle. It’s like a instant like, this is what to do with your demo or confirmation email kind of framework, and I called it the hello hook.
But I’ve said in the middle of that section, essentially, I’m actually doing this kind of audit for three companies a week. If you want help with this, check out the form below, and I’ll see if I’ve got a slot for you.
Is that okay?
I mean, like, just with all these things, we’ve just gotta test it.
Right? Like, you know, we all we all know that really. Like, I I could tell you, like, one way, I need but but you’d still be like, I think I need to test it. Like, if yes.
Yeah. People filling in that form? If you can get this pop up at that exact moment, that would look cool. That would look baller as well.
So I did yeah. If you could do that.
Yeah. Getting them to take action mid webinar.
Yeah. It’s an interesting idea. Just try it.
Yeah.
I saw it in the YouTube video, and I was like, oh, actually and then at the end, he kind of reiterated, and I was like, oh, yeah.
Now I’m gonna do it. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I’ll check it out. Thank you.
No. Thank you. Cody?
Yeah. I was curious if you have, like, a specific time limit, like, how long that these should be. Have you seen, like, any time limit that’s more successful than others? Or yeah.
I think, like, there’s an element of again, it depends on your audience. I mean, my audience course creators, I know that they expect, like, an hour long webinar. That’s what everyone’s doing. That’s they they will spend an hour if it’s really they know it’s gonna be valuable to their business. So the formula I tend to use is, forty minutes teaching with a full twenty minutes pitching.
So rather than just rushing through the pitch at the end, actually doing a very, very tailored pitch.
So, yeah, an hour, but then if you’re you’re like, if you find that your, audience, like, you know, they’ve they’ve they’ve got an attention span of, like, twenty minutes, and then they have to move on to the next thing, then you know that it’s gonna be a twenty minute webinar.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Cool. Katie?
So I know you asked a question in the group recently about, like, ads to your webinar.
I would just love to know, I guess, kinda, like, where you’ve landed on running ads to your webinars, if you have any tips on running ads for our webinars, or generally, like, about driving traffic. What should we keep in mind about driving people to the Evergreen webinar?
Yeah. I think I think ads are a good idea. I mean, webinar leads are more expensive than, like, a PDF lead. At the moment on Facebook, what I’m seeing is kind of seven to twelve dollars. I know it’s more in LinkedIn, but they tend to be I’m hearing more and more good things about doing running ads on LinkedIn. Like, I’m definitely gonna be looking into that.
But, yeah, I think I think to begin with, like, it’s helpful to run ads to get that traffic, basically. Like, just run it. Just take take the chance. See what happens.
Like, expect nothing to happen. Like, put a thousand in and expect nothing to happen, but you’re gonna get voice of customer. You’re gonna get feedback. You’re gonna get a feel for whether this is worth continuing, see if you booked any calls.
So yeah. I mean, like, organic, it’s just it’s just slow, isn’t it?
Like, I I am gonna be running ads. Yeah.
I’m tired of just, like, yeah, trying to trying to do social.
Did you decide about the Pinterest course?
No. I didn’t. That got, like, that got bumped out.
Fair enough.
Yeah. I’m I’m more like YouTube.
Okay. Thank you.
Cool.
Yeah. Anyone else?
I don’t like Joey’s not here for asking me anything, so I don’t
I have I have questions for dates.
I mean, I can go on. Please.
Alright. Ads.
I have been scared of ads for so long because, like, I don’t know.
Twelve dollars for, like, a chance kinda feels like entering the lottery, but I But it’s not one chance, is it?
Because they’re on your enroll list. So it’s like Oh.
Three hundred sixty five chances a year. Like, every time you send an email, it’s a chance.
Yeah. Okay. Cool.
And have you found that, pain focused messaging or outcome focused messaging, Yeah.
I mean, what’s more burning their desire or their problem? Like, you know, for so for what I teach, the message like, when I did my competitor analysis, the message that all of these evergreen people are teaching is you can make so much money. Like, you can make sales every day, and people need to hear that. That message does need to be on on a page because it’s the expectation.
But that because everyone’s been burned. Like, literally, everyone who’s bought my course, so it’s become a client, has been burned. They also need to hear, like, yeah. You don’t just, like, set up deadline funnel and then suddenly, like, you’re on vacation and your Thrive card just won’t stop, like, pinging.
Like, they need to hear, like, yes. It’s a process.
Yeah. It you know, it it’s not immediate. Like, you need to optimize, but here’s what we’re gonna do about it. So I think a competitive analysis can really help with that question.
So, like, what what what do people need here that isn’t being said? Is that pain related, or is it desired outcome related? Like, do they need to know be woken up to the opportunity, or do they need to, like, show that that do they need to hear that their pain is not unusual, that it is like, it’s fine. That’s the story, but there is a way out of it, and you acknowledge that.
And you’re not gonna just promise them, like, the world.
That makes so much sense. I’ve been talking to a lot of marketers, lately, and the recurring theme I keep hearing is, like, I don’t wanna clutter up someone else’s inbox. My inbox is so full. I don’t wanna fuck up someone else’s.
So, yeah, I think that probably needs to be on the page and, you know, more crucial raising.
Yeah. And then do an AB test, like, test test desired outcome versus problem and see.
What do you use for AB testing, by the way? Do you have, like, online in pages? Sorry. Not for ads.
Okay. So I I use lead pages, but I did have a call with Jo. Like, when I did my ISP interview with her, she was like, yeah. I wouldn’t sign up to a webinar that’s on lead pages.
So it’s on my list to change that, but, like, you know, it’s like if you’ve got WordPress or something, it’s simple. I need to just figure it out. Like, that’s my next thing to ask ChatGPT is how do you do, like, a AB test on a Squarespace landing page? Like, these aren’t impossible questions anymore, which is which is great.
Okay. Awesome. Thank you.
Pitching Your Workshop Presentations
Pitching Your Workshop: Abi, Marina & Claire Present Their Diagnostics
Transcript
Hey. Hey. Alright. Workshop day. Y’all ready? Yes?
Of course.
Good.
I’m excited. This is gonna be a lot.
We’ve got three p doing this a lot. I don’t know what’s going on with my brain.
My fingers never match what the number is that I say. So three. There. I had to think about it. We have three of you going today, and I know it just hit start time. So we’re just gonna let some people come on in.
Abby, you’re going. Marina, you’re going. And I think Claire is our third, and we’ll, go in that order.
Is that exciting? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Good.
Alright. We’ll let some people file in. How are you all feeling about your present your workshops?
I don’t know why, but I’m, like like, nervous about giving it.
Really? Yeah. I was like, I don’t know why.
They’re just, like, my friends. I can agree. I was saying to my partner, but I’m, like, really nervous.
It’s so much worse when you know the people.
It’s so much worse.
Is that what it is? Maybe.
Yes. Totally.
Three thousand strangers, easy compared to three people you know very well. Like, no. Thanks. I don’t need this. I’m good. I’ll do something else with my life.
Well, also these people, they know what it’s supposed to be. So what if you totally miss the boat?
I guess that’s true. Yeah. That’s fair. That’s fair.
Alright. Thanks everybody who’s attending today and not presenting.
We’re going to be attending as people in that person’s ideal audience. So, Abby, Marina, and when Claire gets here, if the three of you can please just let us know basically who your ICP is and the persona that you believe would be watching this, and we can do our best to sit in those shoes. And, otherwise, we’ll just, like, give other feedback as well.
So that’s our job for everybody who is filing in again.
Yeah. Really simply, we are here to watch and give feedback on three workshops. And if you’re working on your own work workshop, which you should be, it’s a great chance for you to do to see to see. So you can also learn like, oh, wow.
I loved that. Or, oh, okay. That’s gonna be a confusing part. It was confusing for their audience.
It’s probably confusing for mine. I didn’t think of it that way, etcetera, etcetera. So a caught not taught kind of workshop day. It is two hours, because we have three groups, three people going.
Each gets about thirty minutes, then we’ll have about five minutes of discussion time, which could turn into ten, which is why we have two hours blocked out. Thank you for this endurance approach. It’s not a sprint, today. So are we ready?
We’re gonna go Abby, then Marina, and then Claire, if any of you surprised.
And you’re like, wait. What? I’m going today? Yeah. That’s the sign up list I got.
So so, hopefully, that’s right. Going in that order, Abby, then Marina, then Claire. Are we ready? Or does everybody know why we’re here and what we’re doing?
Any confusion?
No? I wouldn’t think so. Alright. We are recording.
Let’s get cracking. If you’re not presenting, please go on mute and do your best to stay on camera if possible so that the presenter can see our faces and not feel like they’re talking to an empty room or people who are busy doing other things. Okay. Thanks.
Abby, take it away.
Cool. Okay. So, my ICP is a course creator, so you’re probably doing about three to four million. You wanna be doing ten million.
But at the moment, you’re just completely stuck with a live lodge roller coaster. You’re getting burned out because every time you live lodge, it just takes out of you, and you just cannot get Evergreen to work, and you don’t know why.
Okay. So can everybody, like, see my screen?
Okay. Cool. Right.
Okay. So this workshop is called how to make five thousand dollars a day with a mid ticket evergreen course.
So I’m Abby. I’m the founder of AT Content and the creator and author of day one evergreen, the only funnel that’s built to convert better every month.
I help course creators add one point eight million a year in revenue, which is five thousand dollars a day, without the nail biting stress of live launches. I’ve worked with hundreds of course creators. I’ve worked on evergreen funnels for Amy Porterfield, Becca Klein, Jel Sid, Coffeehackers, Ingrid Ana, Fast Needs a QBO, and some other names that you might recognize.
So you’re in the right place if you have a mid ticket offer between three hundred and two thousand dollars that you’d love to scale to five thousand dollars a day on Evergreen. The reason I say these amounts is just what I found is when it’s over two thousand, it tends to just take a little bit more nurturing. So the idea of this funnel is that you bring people onto your email list and you sell to them straight away.
So you’re already doing at least a million with your online course, but you really wanna scale with to ten million without relying on the nail biting trust of live launches.
And you’re already using paid advertising to sell your online course. So this isn’t a requirement.
So, generally, to to reach five thousand dollars a day, depending on how much your course is, you wanna be getting at least a hundred, maybe two hundred people into a funnel every day. If you can do this with organic marketing, awesome. Great.
But likely, you’re gonna be using some kind of paid advertising.
So a quick case study.
So one of my clients is Fast and Easy QBI. So back in January, they launched a brand new course with an email list of ten thousand, and we made six hundred thousand dollars. Their sales that month outpaced all of their sales in twenty twenty three. We straightaway took that launch funnel evergreen and made seventy six thousand dollars in month one, keeping in mind that they’d already pretty much exhausted that email list because we literally just live launched.
And then we continue to optimize.
And now in July, they’ve got a six point eight cent conversion rate with a three dollar cost per lead. So for a twelve hundred dollar course, they’re they’ve got a pretty good ROAS there, and they’re making five thousand dollars a day with they on Evergreen.
A few more case studies, which you can get in my book.
So one of my clients, Eric Petrus, he came to me because he he was selling guitar guitar repair course.
I worked on his evergreen sales page, and we tripled his weekly sales. At Harmusch, I wrote his evergreen sales page three years ago. Amazingly, he’s still using the same copy, and it’s converting at thirteen percent. He’s making hundreds of thousands of dollars from that. Becca Klein, I increased her final conversions by a hundred and fifty percent.
Jove said two hundred and forty percent increase in webinar sales.
This was actually for a live launch, but the coffee converted so well. She took Evergreen and actually tripled her course price.
And Fast and Easy QBO, another course I’ve worked on for them is a membership, and we’ve seen a forty percent increase in membership sign ups since setting up day one evergreen.
Okay. So to address the eye roll here, these aren’t friends or colleagues. These are course creators that have come to me to evergreen their funnels. This isn’t another just add a countdown timer, just set up deadline funnel, and it’s gonna convert. This is unique system designed to collect ongoing data via a ten point customer feedback loop so you can legitimately improve your conversions without ripping a funnel apart every month.
So deal with evergreen, the funnel that’s built to convert best every month. So now you can stop relying on unpredictable live launches that burn you and your team out or the unpredictability of them as well. I mean, live launches are fun and exciting when they go well, but, also, if you’re putting you’re counting on one live launch to generate your full year’s revenue. And one link doesn’t work, and then you potentially lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So this is to just build a bit more peace into your business. It’s not to say never live lodge, but just to have that one point eight million as well.
Without lining Zuckerberg’s pockets, while barely breaking even on your ad spend, so maybe we’re already running ads to your evergreen course, and it’s kind of converting. But, actually, after you paid your ad spend, you’re not making enough money. Like, yes, you’re getting those leads, but you’re then having to go back to live launching to sell to sell to them.
And without hiring expert after expert in the hope that someone can fix your evergreen funnel problem. And then again, just linking back to live launches because it just doesn’t work.
Okay. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do a little slice together. So I’d love you to just grab a notebook and pen.
Okay. So what I want you to do is in the middle of your page is to just draw a circle and write in there five thousand dollars. So that’s that’s what we’re going for here, five thousand dollars a day. And then I will need to draw four leaves.
Make them quite big so you’ve got room to write in them. I guess these are kind of kind of looking like petals here. So you should have what looks like a little flower.
And then in the first, leaf, I want you to write attract.
In the second leaf, I want you to write engage.
And the third, convert.
And then the fourth, optimize.
Okay. So the first thing you’re gonna wanna do, if you if you want to be making sales every day, you need to be bringing people into your funnel, and you need to attract the right leads. So we’re gonna be using Facebook ads to do that.
Then the second thing we need is an attraction device. So you need a way to bring these people into your funnel and instantly engage them. So this is like you’re gonna be an opt in page with a workshop.
And then you need a lead monitor. So you need some way of actually seeing, okay, are these good leads as the reason that my funnel isn’t converting because my sales messaging is awful. Am I just bringing in low quality leads?
Okay. And then we have engaged. So you need an irresistible offer.
We’re gonna be talking in a minute about deeper into what these all mean and how to assess, whether you’ve got it set up or not, and then mindset shift.
So rather than doing a traditional how to workshop, you’re gonna do a workshop that’s built out of mindset shifts the audience needs to, go through in order to be ready to buy your course.
And then, oh, sticky story. Sorry.
Brain brain fart.
So because this is you are bringing people in and selling to them straight away, it’s really important you build know, like, and trust here. So this isn’t just like putting a shit’s creep gif in your emails and being like, hey. I have a personality. Like, you wanna build these really sticky stories that, like, win them over to your world and make them feel ready to to buy from you.
Okay. And then we’ve got combat. So we want an easy yes pitch. So at the end of your webinar, you’re gonna pitch your offer, and it’s gonna make it very easy for them to say yes.
And then you’ve got a million dollar sales page. So this isn’t your typical templated sales page. This is a long form sales page that addresses any objections they have that by the time they get to the ends of it, they’re not gonna have any further questions about your course.
And then conversion emails. So, again, not just your generic sales emails, emails that are written to convert.
And then finally, we have optimize.
So data tracking.
Are you tracking your data across the whole funnel?
And then we have your customer feedback loop. So that’s your ten point customer feedback loop, which includes forms and surveys, AB tests to gain as much information about your customer as possible.
And then finally, we have conversion hotspots, which is where you want to implement your customer feedback to have the biggest impact on your conversions.
Okay. So you should have something that looks a bit like this. Maybe a little bit neater. Mine’s a bit. My handwriting’s still great.
And now we’re gonna go through and we’re gonna write where you are for each of these sections. So if you’re feeling really confident, you’ve got it set up, it’s all converting beautifully, you’re gonna give yourself a ten.
If you have it set up but conversions aren’t quite where they should be or you just feel like it could be better, you can give yourself a five. And if it’s not set up or it’s not converting at all, you’re gonna give yourself a zero.
Okay. So the first thing we’ve got is your Facebook ads.
So in order for to hit five thousand thousand dollars a day, your ads need to be profitable. So if you are your current ad spend is ten to twenty dollars a day and you have a five hundred dollar course, you’re just literally flushing away that money and not and not seeing any return on your ad spend. So we wanna ideally get your lead down to around five dollars, five to ten dollars.
And it’s also it’s not just about the cost per lead, but having someone on your team who’s gonna address seasonal changes, who’s gonna keep updating that so that what works in winter can then be made to work in summer. You’re not you’re refreshing the ads, so they can continue to go back, and you’re not just flushing that money away.
And then you want your attraction device. So your opt in page to your workshop. So, ideally, your opt in page conversion rate should be around forty to sixty percent.
You also want to make sure that people are then watching your webinar. So if people aren’t even clicking to watch your on demand webinar, then the chances are that it’s just not desirable enough. So if you have an issue there with people not watching, it might just be that your opt in page isn’t selling it hard enough. And then lead monitor.
So you’re gonna have a thank you page survey embedded after people sign up for your webinar, and this is gonna determine what drove them to to sign up. It’s gonna tell you whether these are good leads. So you might find that lots of people going in there are like, oh, I just wanna make more money or some other kind of quick win, and then this is a sign that actually those leads aren’t the ones that you want in there. You want ones that are ready to buy, they’re ready to invest, and understand that it’s it’s a long term game.
You also wanna be doing very strategic AB testing on your opt in page. So rather than just testing to see if you can get your conversion rate up a little bit, actually looking at the bottom of your funnel and seeing, okay. Is this one bringing in the leads that actually convert?
So, again, if you don’t have that set up, it’s gonna be a zero. If you have some of it set up at five, and if you’re really confident that you know what’s going on with your leads and who’s converting, then you’re gonna be self a ten.
Okay. And then going on to engage. So your irresistible offer.
Do is this something that people will, like, crawl through broken glass to get? Do you have a great offer that’s converted before? And is it converting with Evergreen? So it might be that it converts pretty well when it’s like you live launch, but on evergreen, maybe you don’t have the right kind of urgency set up. Do you have that authentic scarcity that gives people a reason to act now rather than later.
And then mindset shifts. So your workshop, is it built out of the mindset shifts that people need to go through to go from where they are now to where they need to be to say yes to your course, or are you just doing how to content that isn’t actually converting them?
And then sticky stories. So, again, building in that relatability stories that really stick. And you can the way you can tell this is are people staying to the end of your webinar? Are people sticking around? Are they opening your emails? Are they engaging with your offer? And if they’re not, then the chances are you need to just go back and build in more of that storytelling and more of yourself so that people can buy into that.
Okay. And then we’ve got Converse. We’ve got the easiest pitch.
So this is at the end of your webinar. Are you not just are you are you reading through your modules and your bonuses, or are you constantly making sure that you’re connecting the modules and the bonuses to what’s going on in their life at the moment, explaining to them how how it’s gonna improve their life, how it’s gonna aid the transformation that you’re promising. And, again, the way you can measure this is are people sticking around to the end of your webinar, or are they dropping off?
Your million dollar sales page, is this, is it converting? Is is the the first thing to think about? Are you converting at five to eight percent, which is what you should be getting with an evergreen webinar funnel like this?
Is it templated? Are you pulling out generic pain points, or are you have you got your customer research and you’re reading their mind and you’re empathizing with them deeply? You’re as they’re reading through, they’re thinking, oh my god. Yes. This person gets me. Important on an evergreen sales page because again, these people don’t know you. They haven’t been on your list for months and months and months.
So it’s even more important that you show them you understand where they are and that they can trust you to guide to guide them.
And then finally, conversion emails. Again, emails are rich in voice of customer that are addressing different objections objections that are coming up in your customer feedback loop, which we’ll talk about in a second.
Are people opening them? Are people clicking through? Is your click through rate for each email above two percent?
Okay. And finally, optimize. So data tracking. Are you tracking every point of your funnel, and do you understand how it all ties together? So your cost per lead, your click through rate on your ads, your opt in page conversions, how the amount of people that show up for your webinar, and the amount of time they spend on your webinar, your sales pitch, your versions, your open rates for emails, your click through rates. Are you measuring all that, and are you measuring it month monthly and looking at how things are changing each month?
Your customer feedback loop. Do you have a ten point customer feedback loop built in? Do you have survey set up? Do you have opportunities for your customers to engage?
Are you finding out why people are converting versus not converting? Are you running strategic tests? All of these things will help you understand your audience better. So if anything’s not converting, you can use your data tracking to identify where and you know what to change around your messaging.
And this also applies to seasonal changes as well. For example, let’s say you have an outgoing copywriting course, that converted amazing in twenty twenty two. Then in January twenty twenty three, your conversion rates dropped and you don’t know why. If you had that customer feedback loop set up, you could say, oh, okay.
Because everyone’s freaking out about about AI, but I’m not addressing that in my messaging. So do you have these points set up so you understand what is getting in the way for your audience? And then finally, conversion hotspots. Once you’ve got that feedback, do you know where to put it?
Do you know where to put that the voice of customers so that you are having the biggest impact of your conversions and you’re not just constantly randomly rewriting, ripping pile funnels, start again, wasting all this time just hoping, praying that something’s gonna convert.
Okay. Cool.
Thanks. So you should hopefully have something that looks a little bit like this, maybe a bit less colorful unless you you’ve got your crayons. So now we’re you should be able to identify three to four points, for you to now go away and work on. So if your problem is that, okay, you are making some sales, but it’s just not profitable because all of your money is going to Facebook ads. You wanna go and you wanna look at your Facebook ads, you wanna work on your opt in page, see if you can get that conversion rate up, and maybe have a look at your offer. Is there room to put the price up a bit more so you’re more profitable? And then, of course, getting this customer feedback loop built in so you can see why people, why your leads are expensive, what what you can do to actually improve that.
Is your is it the case that your sales are inconsistent? Sometimes, some months are gray, other months are poor.
Again, you wanna build this customer feedback loop in so you can see what’s changing. You want someone working on your Facebook ads so that they can respond to these seasonal changes and then be going through these conversion hotspots through your funnel from the top to the bottom to optimize based on what it is that’s changing.
And if you’re not getting sales at all, then or you’re you’re just making a couple, like, nowhere near that five k that you want, then the chances are you need someone to come in and set up this day one evergreen funnel for you.
So if you do just have a couple of points here, then that’s awesome. Go away. Give give this to your team. Get my book for the to get the ten conversion, the the customer feedback loop.
If you’re thinking, okay. I just really love someone to just set this up for me, then my team has one space available per month. Not only will we set it up, but we’re also available to optimize. So it’ll be like having someone on your team that’s gonna review the customer feedback loop every month and then improve the funnel so that you your comp until your conversion’s where you want them to be, and then, again, respond if anything dips. So I’m gonna be dropping a link to book a call with me, come to that call with your drawing today ready, and, yeah, we’ll have a chat and see if we’re a good fit. Any questions?
Okay. That’s it.
Good job, Abby.
Alright.
Let’s share any notes. Who would like to go first to share feedback for Abby?
Otherwise, I’ll choose you. So put up Andrew’s first and then Claire.
Right.
Yeah. That was really good, Abby. Definitely lit some fire under my butt to to get my workshop going and hopefully get it as good as yours is.
I would say my number one point of feedback, would be to really slow down, a good bit. There were parts where you were going through it really fast, and it’s like, I could keep up with you because I kinda know a lot of this stuff. And what you’re talking about, you know, getting customer feedback or, like, conversion rates and sales pages that add address objections, I’m right there with you. But I feel like if I’m someone who is that’s not marketing is not my main thing, I would need you to go a lot slower so that I can understand what you’re talking about.
I wrote that down when you were going through the diagnostic at the mindset mindset shift. Like, I know what you’re talking about about we need to, like, shift people’s mindsets, but you kinda blew through it a little bit. So I think if you went, like, maybe, like, half the speed, that would probably help, a little bit.
And then in terms of, like, stuff that I really liked was when you’re going through the diagnostic, when you had things like the exit like, when you were doing the customer feedback loop, you had like, you used the example of, like, AI. You know? Oh, is my messaging not resonating anymore? Because everyone’s freaking out about AI, and we haven’t addressed that.
That specificity was helpful.
Same thing with the last one, the conversion hotspots of, like, asking questions. Like, okay. You’ve collected this feedback. Do you know where to put it, where to implement it?
I feel like that was helpful.
And I just wanted to check on in the beginning, would you could you say it was supposed to be three hundred to two thousand dollars, or was it higher than the other typo?
No. Yeah.
You might have a typo.
So Okay.
Okay. Yeah. Three hundred to two thousand.
Yeah. It goes to twenty thousand. I was like, oh, damn. That is a high ticket offer.
Nice. Okay. Yeah. No mid ticket. Thank you.
I didn’t notice that.
But, yeah, big biggest piece of advice would be just, yeah, slow down. Like, the content taught the content is really good, I thought.
So Thank you, Andre.
Her goal was so nice.
Claire.
My feedback is is really simple.
First, like, there were a few points where I really loved. You got, like, super specific. You just gave me an example, and I went like, oh, okay. I get what that is now. But you didn’t do it for all of them. So I some of them, I was like, okay. Following along.
But those super specific points were, like, really convincing, I suppose. And then same feedback on slowing down. I’ve gotten that feedback, like, a million times as well. Slow it down. Say less.
Say say things simpler as well. I think, my biggest piece of advice that I got from Cody was, sometimes they don’t understand what you’re saying because you’re overexplaining, which is, like, kind of the opposite of what you’re trying to do when you’re overexplaining.
So just by keeping it to, like, one, I suppose, big idea, per section, it makes it a lot easier to slow down and not catch yourself over explaining.
And then lastly, I really loved your presentation. I haven’t done a presentation at all. I hope that I’m instantly jealous.
But I really loved your presentation. I thought it was super cool to be able to follow along.
I think as you go, you’ll probably find you don’t say as much as you did just as you get, like, more comfortable with the content. But, the end was also really, really great. I love the Calendly visual. I just felt so like, okay. Today.
Yeah. I hate that.
Thank you. Helpful.
Anyone else wanna share some notes for Abby?
No?
Okay. I’ll share mine. Abby, I loved it. I thought you did a great job overall. The opening numbers and the promise right out of the gate, it’s like a super solid hook.
The case studies, well done. I do have a note that you’re talking a blue streak. That’s not what I wrote.
So can you ask questions earlier on? Like, have you experienced this too?
Something like that just to bring people in. I know when it’s recorded in advance, then that’s really, like, tricky, but even maybe slowing down could solve it there.
Okay. So early on, I have at ten o seven my time, which is probably about four minutes into the presentation.
I I would love you to say, hey. Yes. You can work with me and my team directly, and, like, just get ahead of that because I am definitely in your target market. And as somebody who would rather outsource this work, then try to get my team to do it ourselves.
Yeah. I was like, my question was immediately. Can we just hire you for this? So you could say, yeah.
You know, you can work with me directly. I’m gonna walk you through this because we only accept three clients a month. Also, I think you should say three clients a month, not one. So it sounds bigger, like a larger group.
You can only take on one. Then if you want, you can take out as many as you want to at that time, but I would open it up to three.
So then say, yes. You can work with me directly. I would also love, at that point, for you to say what your prices start at.
There’s no reason to not do that. Yeah. So give it a shot, and make it a nice high number.
You’re presenting really well, and you clearly know your stuff, and you have good case studies.
The only thing that would make a person think you should be less than fifty thousand dollars at minimum is you not saying fifty thousand dollars to start. So, like, if you don’t have a fifty thousand dollar budget, you’re not a good fit to work with you. You’re just not. So no. So fifty, sixty, whatever that number goes to, but say it. Even though it’s scary, this is what the whole point of this thing is, not just to get the leads you could otherwise close, but, like, new leads, more money. So I want you to do that.
You need more build up to the fact that you’re gonna be drawing today. So I would say earlier on, hey. By the way, just as we’re kicking off and while people are still filing in, you’ll need a piece of paper and a pen today. It’s not that’s not an art class. Don’t worry. But you’re gonna wanna draw something. I’m gonna show it to you.
I don’t understand the leaf the need for the leaf shape.
Because it’s evergreen.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I know. It’s really corny, but I just like No.
Because I I I had a design when it’s not in the green belt.
Leaves are seasonal.
Yeah. I don’t I just gave it to a sign designer. I was like, can you make this, like, not look like Joe’s?
From your from my side of things, I was drawing it, and I didn’t know what the lines off the leaves are meant to be.
So, like, when you have a triangle and you put those lines in there, the triangle is meaningless. As soon as you make something a shape, then everything on it needs to be part of that, like, metaphor.
And so if I’m thinking, okay, these are leaves, what are the three pokey things coming off the side then? So for me, like, I’m just it didn’t connect, and so I didn’t know why I was drawing three leaves. I didn’t know what was expected.
I know Andrew’s really trying to make it evergreen there.
Yeah. So just know that as your audience drawing it, I didn’t give myself enough room possibly because I wasn’t set up to know to draw this thing. The leaves felt like a artsy exercise that I couldn’t do, and it’s one more point of friction. Right? Like, did I draw a good leaf?
That’s just like come on. But I love starting with the circle in the middle. I love the four parts.
What I a couple notes.
When you’re going through, you’ve got, like, metrics and yes, no. I’m gonna look through and see if I can find a blank version of the scorecard that they gave us at their workshop, because you might wanna also follow this workshop up with shipping out that or bring the work and I’ll show it to you, and I’ll send you separate loom so you know what I’m talking about. Simply because what you’re talking about like, you’ve got numbers and how to tell if this is a yes or no. I didn’t love zero five ten either. I I think simplify it down to red, yellow, green.
It’s just like five zero ten.
I was copying it.
I know. I hate it. And I only do it because the sun doesn’t have, like, the sunshine growth model and zero like, the red, yellow, green doesn’t work on a sun. So that’s where it’s bad, like, where it falls apart from me.
But I don’t I know I know that’s what I do. I don’t like it, and so I wanna coach you to do it the easier way, which to me is red, yellow, green, or something really simple like that where there’s a three part thing. Okay.
Bum bum bum. Let me see. I took some good notes on, like, the actual content. Like, that was good. I have notes here for self.
Oh, when we get to oh, yeah. Million dollar sales page, I would love you to rename that for the purposes of this workshop simply because that’s the only thing that has million dollar or a price or, like, a, like, a outcome attached to it. So for me, I was like I mean, easy yes is another thing. Also, it sounded like you were saying easy ass to me. Just so you know, it came off as easy ass. And I was like, let me see what she writes down here.
So there’s that. But million dollar sales page, I would give it something else that sounds different just because I wrote, makes it sound like success is all on this.
Suddenly million dollar sales page had much heavier weighting than anything else, and I was thinking, do we just need a better sales page?
And that’s not the takeaway that you want.
Ta da. Couple more notes, then I’m done.
Oh, yeah. When we get to optimize, I felt like so you opened with data tracking. I needed a story there. Like because you say you can find places where there’s where money is basically hidden is effectively what you were saying there.
Like, you won’t know unless you’re tracking that. And you walked us through a bunch of great metrics, which was great. But then I was like, wouldn’t it be cool if at this point you were to say, for example, or whatever that QBO one was, we noticed x here, we optimized it, and we brought in another twenty thousand dollars in that in the next quarter or something like that. Right?
So I’m like, oh, damn. But then I was like, well, if you could do that.
It closely tied to the data tracking ties to conversion hots hotspots. Once you track data, then you know where to put it in these hotspots. Right? So I was confused about why the ten point thing was between the two.
So I wrote, what if for optimize, you first open with the ten point feedback loop, then you do data tracking, and then conversion hot hot spots, which would allow you to finish with a case study example. Like, oh, and when we did this and now we’re ending on a really high note. Money outcome. I remember why I want you to do this because although I can see that I’m red here, green there, yellow there, I know that I want you to do it if I remember that you you make money for people, which leads me to final notes.
We dropped the model pretty quickly.
What I would love is you spent a lot of time, I think, saying, like, if this is true for you, if that is true for you, etcetera, I had just finished with you should have have an idea of where your weaknesses are and what you should work on next. Don’t say give it to their team. You can imply that. You can say that earlier on.
Like, I’ll give you enough that you can go forward and do this yourself. But at this point, like, close them, and that’s really it. Like, now is the point where I’m like, I’ve seen that I’m really right in a lot of places. Those all seem expensive, and, like, I’m really gonna need to train my team on how to do those things.
So don’t say go give it to your team. Instead, you could say, I mean, the red parts, is your team ready to do those parts? Are they qualified to optimize all of those parts?
Don’t minimize what you do. You started talking using verbs like set up. I’ll set this up for you.
No. Like, you’re not setting it up. That’s even when you do, it’s just not a good verb. Like, we’re we’re we’re this for you as we’re watching.
Like, wow. She, like, knows her shit. She can do this. And then I was brought down to maybe your team can maybe you can buy the book.
Maybe I can set it up for you. You know? So, no. And then book a triage call with team. Don’t put yourself in your Calendly even if you have to make somebody up. Someone else is your setter.
So make sure it’s like you can book a call with so and so from my team, and then go from there. It just elevates your price again and again. Like, oh, damn. Just sales team.
Yep.
The workshop’s selling. It’s doing a great job. I think if you simplify the model, slow down a bit, you’re good.
Tell people. Yes. You can charge me. You you can hire me. It’s fifty thousand to start or whatever the price is. What is the price to start?
Thirty five. To start. That prices start at thirty five.
Right. And then you build on the retainer after that?
Well, I’m gonna I think I’m gonna say like, I’m gonna build in an obligate not not a retainer, but just like, I’m here if you like if things don’t work. Like, I’m on I’m here for forty days just to work with your team if anything’s not working, and then recommend, like, you should really do the three the retainer as well.
Well, you should because your model Andrew knows what’s coming. You know your model.
Your this optimized you’ve sold us on it. It’s in the freaking model. It’s right here. How am I gonna go forward and data track and update those conversion hotspots?
You sold us on a thing here.
Like, you have done the work.
Okay.
That’s all. You know what my take is here.
So, yeah, any other notes or thoughts from anybody else for Abby?
I I just wanna tack on to what you just said, Joe, about, like, making this goes back to that that post that I made a while back about not making your monthly retainer separate from the offer to just make it part of the whole thing from the beginning so that it’s just the natural next stage of your product. It’s not a separate thing.
I so agree with that.
Yeah. Totally. It’s it’s it’s built in. I I attended this both as me here for you, but also as a person who would hire you for this. And if I heard, oh, you don’t necessarily need me for that part. I’d be like like, what are you talking about? But who’s gonna handle my conversion hotspots?
Like, what?
What’s happening? Who’s gonna look over my survey data? What?
So, yeah, Andrew made a really great point. I don’t know if you’re being tentative about selling yourself because you’re in a room with us and maybe with strangers. You’d be, like, more on the nose about how awesome you are, but wherever you do this next, lay it on.
Yeah. Reason to. Okay? Please?
One other tiny thing too. You just said a couple a couple minutes ago, Abby, about I’ll be there in case something’s not working. Like, you don’t even wanna say in case something’s not working because don’t even put that in their mind. Just if you wanna reframe that even as to make sure everything goes smoothly. Mhmm.
Mhmm.
You know?
But don’t even put in the possibility that something might not be working.
Yeah.
Okay. Love it. Good? Thank you. Bye. That’s Abby, nice work.
That’s lots of noise. Very helpful. Thanks.
Awesome. Marina, you’re up. You ready?
Of course.
K. After just a heads up for everybody who’s like, I need a bio break.
After Marina’s talk and our feedback session, we’ll take, like, a five minute break and then come back for Claire’s. Okay?
Cool. Awesome. Thanks, Marina.
Alright.
Take it away.
Tell us who your ICP is and everybody upfront first, please.
Yes. So ICP, CMO, VP marketing, twenty to a hundred million, b two b SaaS, with a reverse trial. So they start with a trial and then go to a freemium kind of model.
So that is who you are.
Alright. Thank you for Sorry, Maureen.
I hate to interrupt you. What remind me just really quickly.
Persona.
Sorry. Just just again. How much the persona who are you talking to at that ICP, and how much do they bring in a year? ICP years?
So we are b to b SaaS brands that are twenty to a hundred million.
Twenty to a hundred million.
And I’m talking to CMO, VP marketing, head of Okay.
Perfect. Sorry. Thank you. I had a restaurant instead of pen. Okay. Thanks.
Okay. All good.
Alright. Today, we’re gonna talk about how you can get more of your free users to convert to paid plans. So for our session today, grab a piece of paper and a pen. Don’t worry.
Not an art class. As long as you can read the notes on your diagram when we’re done, you will be good to go. So we’re specifically going to be talking about using, action triggered emails, message met sales pages to get your free users to to upgrade to a paid plan. Now these are users that have gone through your trial.
They have not converted yet, and there they are. We want them to feel good about the upgrade so they leave you a good review.
Now the next twenty five minutes, they’re gonna be valuable to you if you are a CMO, head of growth, VP of marketing, if you’re a b to b SaaS brand that generates twenty to a hundred million in annual revenue, these types of brands are the ones I work best with. Companies like Bitly, QR code generator, where we’re continuing to increase conversions strategically, by rewriting and optimizing emails and so on. Now I’m not the first person to share big brand names with you. So let me clarify.
These brands are not filled with people I knew before I started working with them. I got this work because this is exactly the type of work I’m building my reputation around. Further, I don’t pretend to have the perfect solution for you right here and now. Your company is not built on templates or you wouldn’t be here right now.
I may have the solution for you, but I’m not gonna hand you like it’s not like a trick where I say, oh, let’s all of a sudden stop letting those nine hundred and ninety five out of every one thousand free users sit in that free plan, sucking support resources indefinitely while taking space in your CRM, space you pay for every month.
Instead, I’m gonna help you see where your challenges are, and you’re going to discover them today for yourself in today’s workshop. So if by the end of our twenty five minutes together, you believe that my team is the only one that can stop the bleeding, fix what’s broken, reshape your conversion program into a superhuman sales generator, then you’ll be invited to book a conversion consultation with my team.
If that call proves that we should work together, you’ll be invited to invest twenty thousand dollars for my team of trained experts to establish your free to paid post convert, post trial free to paid strategy, roll out that strategy, including getting all of the automation set up. You won’t have to do a thing with that. And then five thousand dollars a month thereafter to optimize it. Because as you know, if you set and forget, it’s just going to go downhill.
Now my team has room for two clients. We take on very few clients, so we can serve them extremely well, and we always serve them on an ongoing basis.
Because while what I do seems magical, it’s not a magic trick.
So now let’s see what’s happening with your post trial free to paid program.
We’re gonna use my diagnostic tool to see what’s holding you back from driving more of those free users into paid plans.
So get that piece of paper out, and I’m gonna get you to go ahead and draw a triangle right in the middle of your paper.
So draw a triangle right in the middle of your paper, and here we go.
So we’re going to have, something on this side. We’re gonna say activate.
Don’t worry if your penmanship is awful. It’s alright. As long as you can read it, you’re good to go.
And we’re gonna have a few things on that activate side.
Alright. As we go along, I’m gonna get you to write the things in as we go, and then we’re gonna see where are you at, red, yellow, or green. Red being like, never even thought about this. We don’t have this, or it’s just not performing well.
Yellow is things are just like status quo. They’re not going up or down. We can’t seem to budget. And green, is we are doing great.
Now as we go through, you might think, my goodness. I don’t know the numbers for this.
Or you might be like, oh, I had some of the numbers for the last board meeting. I don’t know where we’re at right this second. No worries. We’re looking for sort of rolling averages. What is the general trend? Because we can always go back and get specific numbers later.
So let’s start over here, and let’s talk about open rates.
So you’re sending your free users emails.
Are they opening them?
Red, yellow, or green, generally?
Are you like, yeah. I’m happy with my open rate. I think people are opening them. We have some pretty cool subject lines. It’s getting them to open them. You might think you’re green.
Great.
Moving along then, we move to click rates.
So once they’re open and they’re in that email, are they actually clicking on the button or clicking on the link? And I don’t mean clicking unsubscribe. I mean, are they clicking on the call to action that you have in that email so they can go and do the thing that you want them to do?
So if your click rates are, like, great. Give yourself a green. If they’re, like, sometimes people are clicking, but it’s not going up at all. Or maybe it’s, not looking good at all, and you’re like, we can get them to open, but they don’t do anything.
So I’m gonna put us a yellow here.
And just on your diagram, put whatever it is that you think for your company.
Now the next thing we’re gonna think about as we are activating because these users, they might have gone through that free trial already. They may have opened things. They may not have opened things, but we know that they didn’t actually understand the value. Otherwise, they would be using or they would have converted to paid. They would have done something.
So now we have this time to value. Do you have your post trial, user journey map mapped out so that those users that went through that trial didn’t really get to value? How are you getting them to value post trial? Because they are there sitting in your free plan. Are they getting to value?
Now if that if you’re like, I don’t even have a map, we send out a few post, trial emails, and that’s it. Probably sitting at red there.
If you have thought about it, have a few things, you might be yellow. And if you’re like, oh, we’ve mapped out the whole process. We know how we can get them to, that value. Great. You’re green.
Now I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you might be red on that because if we would have had people already experiencing that value, we might not be talking.
Alright. So now this next side of the triangle of our conversion triangle, we’re gonna call it sticky.
How can we get these free users to actually use the product? So we might have them. Maybe we can get them opening, those emails.
K? We’re gonna it’s this progression. Maybe we can get them opening the email. Maybe we can get them clicking. Maybe we can get them to value, but can we get them to stay? Let’s see.
Because if they’re not gonna stay for the freed, they’re definitely not gonna a free plan, they’re definitely not gonna stay for the paid. So over here, we want them to commit to something.
So, they’re committed to something, and this could be maybe, you have as part of your, features that they can invite a team member, and maybe they can do still do that on a free plan. So if they’ve invited a team member, great. Perhaps they are uploading data In order to use your software, appropriately, they need to input data. And if they’re doing that, it shows that they’re somewhat committed. They’re invested in that. Or if they’re including it as part of their tech stack, maybe there’s some integration. They’re starting to integrate that.
So we wanna know, are they committed? And maybe you’re like, you know, some of people are doing this, but it’s not really it’s not really increasing.
Give yourself a yellow. If nobody’s really, taking advantage of it, give yourself a red. And if you’ve got lots of people integrating already, give yourself a green.
Alright.
Next up.
If they are doing that, then we need to look at daily active users or weekly active users. So this is dependent on, what your software is. Do people need to be in there every day? Do they set something up, look at it once a week? What is the process? So for your, software situation, think about how people are, how often people are in, the app doing something.
If they are increasingly doing things in app, give yourself a green. If it’s staying the same, yellow. And if it’s kinda tanking, give it a red. So you might be yellow here.
Alright.
Again, I don’t know your current situation. If we have a chat later on, if you decide to book a call with the team, we can dig into this more at that point.
Now the next thing on this sticky side is we have increased feature usage.
So if they have invited a team, great. If they’re in the app more often, great. They came to your app to solve a problem.
They’ve got your software. They because they think, hey. Your software is the answer to this problem.
If over here, we finally got them some value, they’re like, okay. Yes. I can do this thing.
Now in order for them to stick, we want them to expand that expand the number of your, features that they are using. So they’re using the thing they came for, and they have confidence in that. And now they’re like, I wonder what else we can do. Because as we expand this feature usage, that’s where we can start selling things in the plan. Like, oh, you want the plan because you can also do this other thing.
So, in general, are users using more features? Give yourself a green, staying the same yellow, and kinda decreasing, give it a red.
So you might think, okay. Well, I’m kinda yellow on that on that sticky side. Alright.
And, again, it’s kind of this progression.
Now we come to convert.
So here we are at the bottom, and we have looked at all these things. Now we can finally talk about conversion and what are some other things that are going to be influencing conversion. So now we’ve got them in the product. They have some value, and we’re like, great. They’re ready to convert.
And then we look, and we’re like, oh, but are they?
Let’s look at support tickets. Now you might think, oh, I don’t know. I’m not in there talking about support tickets all the time. I don’t know.
Do we have lots? Do we? K. If you have not heard about the number of support tickets your team is, processing, you’re probably good.
But if you’ve heard a lot of stuff and people are complaining and going like, can you do something about this? Like, our, we can’t handle the volume of support tickets. Like, it’s too much. If that’s the case, we’re looking at red.
If you’ve heard sort of murmurings, maybe it’s yellow. Yellow with the mind of, oh, we need to do something about this. Because if we have lots of support tickets and I don’t mean the support tickets that are asking simple questions. I mean, they’re angry about things because they don’t understand the product.
And so you think, why are they asking us about these things? It’s because look back to this first side, this activate side, we’re obviously not getting them the information they need so that they can see the value. Because once people start seeing the value, we’re gonna have a whole different kind of support ticket coming in. It might just be a simple question rather than a rage against the product.
Alright. The next thing, product reviews, and the review rating.
Now this is something that a quick search of Trustpilot, Capterra, g two, that’s gonna get you your star rating.
And what is it? Maybe think about the last time you looked. What was it? If it was under three, give yourself a red. If it was a three, give yourself a yellow. And four and five, give yourself a green.
We live in a society that people don’t buy stuff without looking for reviews. Think about it. When was the last time you bought something without googling to see a review?
Even simple things. Now think about this. They’re buying this for their business to help them increase their business. Of course, they’re gonna be looking at reviews.
Now, unfortunately, people leave for reviews if they don’t understand the product and don’t think they got value from it. So if we solve the things earlier on, we can get this up. So perhaps right now, you’re thinking, my reviews are not that great.
Don’t worry. It’s something we can do something about.
It is a solvable problem.
And this last thing on the conversion is this time to sale.
Is the time to sale so they finish the trial. They didn’t convert the during the trial. So now you’ve got them on this post trial, road map. You want to get them to that sale.
Perhaps they just needed more time. They didn’t have time to read the emails earlier. Whatever the case, they didn’t get there. Now you’re going to take them on that journey to get to the sale.
Is that time to sale decreasing? So as you look at the number of of users converting in a in a specific time frame, is that number going up, down, or staying the same?
And you might say, you know, it’s just staying the same. We can’t seem to increase the number of conversions in that time frame, meaning you’re having trouble decreasing that, time to sale.
So now at this point, you probably got a pretty good idea of what is happening. There should be no question into your in your mind of what’s getting in the way of you or your team increasing those post trial free to paid conversions.
We talked about perhaps time to value was too long. Users didn’t get there.
Maybe you didn’t have that customer journey mapped out. Maybe there was no plan. Whatever the case, perhaps they finally get to value, but they’re only doing the one thing. They’re not increasing the number of features that they’re using. They’re not exploring those, which means they’re going to sit in that free plan comfortably, sucking your resources forever because they don’t feel the need to, move on to a paid plan.
Perhaps your support tickets through the roof. Angry users feel misinformed, and, research shows that angry users tell nine to fifteen people about their bad experience.
Good experiences, people tell maybe six people.
So what is your customer experience, and can we change that, so that more people are telling about their good experience?
Alright. Here, we’ve gone through this whole conversion triangle in order you know what needs to be happening next.
Some of you, you might think, oh, great. I know what I need to work on.
Maybe share it with your team and they think, oh, yeah. We have capacity to do this. But I’m guessing since you’re here, that might not be the case.
It’s a lot of legwork.
So if you take this away, you think, yes. I don’t wanna leave money on the table. There are huge, possibilities and, for wins on the horizon, you can decide to book a call with my team.
Others are wondering, hey. How can I be one of these two brands that you work with next?
And we say I’m honored to consider, to be considered and say I’m sorry, though, that if we find we cannot work together, I can’t help all the brands that reach out to me. But I can give you a private link to book a call with my team, step one of three. So after you book, after you book, you will have the opportunity to answer three questions.
If you don’t complete the form, I’ll have to cancel the conversion consultation. If, however, you complete the form and my team assesses that we’re unlikely to be a good fit, we’ll have to cancel. But in all other cases, we will proceed with that call. Now bring your drawing from this session to our call because we’re going to use it to create a plan to work towards your goals, using our strategic solutions. So go ahead and start with scheduling your conversion consultation, complete the form, and then be ready to have a candid conversation with me.
Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks, Marina. Notes. Who would like to start? Abby. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. First of all, like, well done for doing it without a slide deck. I feel like it’s a lot to remember, and you just did it really calmly. You didn’t even stumble at all.
So that’s really cool. I have, like, some very specific notes. No. I’m not trying to be, like, nitpicky.
I just found it really helpful when I got specific notes. So Oh, please do. Yeah. I really like the superhuman sales generator.
I thought that was very cool. When you were talking about the optimization, you said about setting and forgetting it, like, and this is a note I’m gonna I’ve made for me as well. I’d love to hear, like, more, like, what because you just said it will go downhill. I could love to hear a bit of drama there, like, the worst case scenario if you don’t optimize.
When you were going through the diagnostic, it was quite high up. So where everybody is, I couldn’t actually see the top. So, like, it’s nice.
Like, we just the very, very top. So I just like to, yeah, make sure it’s lower down.
When you’re going through the activate, like, the open rates, click rates, I would have quite liked benchmarks. Like, I know it’s it’s always difficult with benchmarks because, like, everybody’s a different. But when you’re just saying, like, oh, if you’re getting, like, some some opens, it’s kinda I think a bit of specificity there would have been helpful.
And then yeah. Like, I guess, like, a bigger note with the I didn’t feel like there was, like, a very big clear promise. Like, it was kind of increasing the activations, but I’d love, like, something just a bit, like, sexier.
Like, a bit more like, really kind of selling that promise.
And then, like, this might just be a a meeting, but the with the three sections, you’ve got activate, sticky, and convert. Like, for my brain, I just love, like, three verbs. Like, the sticky just kind of like, even if it was just sticky, it just felt a little out of place for me.
And then when you were talking about support tickets, I loved that research point you gave that just really, like, build my confidence in you. I think just sharing those things really makes you seem like an expert.
But then you connected it to activate, instead of convert. And, like, I guess I can I can understand why it’s in the convert a bit, but I would like like you to kind of lay that out a bit? Like, this is why it has to do with conversions.
And then, yeah, just a really stupid thing, like, the traffic lights because you your your red was pink.
Like, I just because you said red, yellow, green. Like, I wanted to see red, yellow, green. But yeah. No. I thought it was really awesome. And like I said, it’s just, like, very impressive to me that you managed to remember all that without any slides or anything.
Thanks, Abby. Andrew?
Yeah. Cool. Just, great job, Marina.
Just a couple quick fire rapid fire thoughts. I thought that maybe, there might have been, like, compared to Abby with talking about, like, this kind of sales pitch part of it, there might have been a little bit of, like, an overcorrection that might have just been for me. But, like, there’s something you said in the beginning about, like, talking about, like, who you work best best with. And it for whatever reason, it felt to me, like, maybe a little bit too early, to to bring that piece in about telling, like, telling us who you work best with because we’re about to, like, get ready to learn from you. That might just be my opinion. Curious to hear what others say.
And I think there also might be some some work to do around, like, smoothing out the part where, like, I can tell that there’s, a part in the beginning where you were talking about, like, who you’ve worked with and that it wasn’t, like, exactly, like, who you’ve worked with isn’t exactly who you want to work with or something like that. And I I don’t necessarily have a good solution, but there was something Yeah. About that that sounded a bit tentative and sent sent a little bit of a signal that, like, you don’t do this all the time kind of thing. Again, might have just been my my opinion.
And I just felt like maybe it raised a little bit of an objection that I didn’t necessarily have. Like, I kind of assumed that you’re the expert, and then it was like, oh, wait. Like, now she’s telling me that she hasn’t worked with with those, with companies like mine or something like that that I don’t have an elegant solution for you yet.
And, two more quick things. One was along with what Abby said, I think that you could dive a little bit deeper into, like, what the problems are. You said something about, like, this you know, paying for space in my CRM. I could be wrong because I don’t know this audience or I don’t know this problem all that well, but, like, I feel like maybe that’s not the biggest manifestation of the problem is, like, they’re not really worried about space in their CRM. They’re worried about, like, getting more money.
And I agree with Abby that having some specific percentages around open rates and click rates, like, rather than just letting it feel like being left to their sub subjective opinion of how they’re doing. I think it can be really helpful to give me some percentages. Like, I think people love benchmarks and knowing, like, where they stand in comparison to other people.
On the reviews part of convert, I felt like that would be a good opportunity to bring in some data because there definitely is data to support the point that you’re making that people look at reviews. So if you had something where you could be, like, you know, x percent of people, say that the of b to b buyers, you know, say that they consult reviews before, making purchase decisions. Something like that could back that claim up.
And I think you could also get a little bit more granular there. Like you said, like, three, you’re kind of, like, yellow.
I feel like there’s a big difference between, like, someone who’s, like, three point nine, rated and someone who’s, like, four point six, or even, like, four point two and four point six. So I feel like you might be able to get a little bit more granular there, and I think that would make me feel like you’re more of an expert if you do, like like, to the to the tenth.
Like, what what signals, good versus bad. But, yeah, I think that’s about it for me. Hope that’s helpful.
Awesome. Thanks, Andrew. Todd, you had your hand up and then you put it down. So down?
Yep. I’m here.
Sure I’m here. Can everyone hear me? Because I had to restart. Cool. Yeah. Just didn’t wanna clutter it too much.
Mine are basically what everyone else just said. Pretty much the triangle was cut off. I’m really happy that the red, buzzed pink because I am colorblind.
So I was like, oh, okay.
The only thing for me really, there’s a lot of information.
So, again, everyone’s on on point. The only thing I would say, and it’s just because I come from a PR thing, is, to spell out certain words like daily active users, I think, weekly active users, maybe, time to sale. Just because they’re looking at so much information, if they can see it spelled out, it’s a quick reference for them.
And I think as well, I would say, I think you mentioned I don’t know your current situation at one point for clients, and I you you do, though. You’re the expert. So you do know their situation. You have been in that spot.
I would just maybe, if you want, you know, use a use I always call it pays off. Just maybe agitate it. You know? If you’re like some of my clients and give them a quick solution and agitate it, that’s the only thing.
I would say it was it was great. And I’ll be honest, everyone everyone says slow down here, but we are trying to bolt through this workshop. So I think that’s a given. But, yeah, if you can keep it in your mind just to keep your speech just kinda level throughout.
Also, I wanted to say though, great energy. That was really, really good energy. You had you came in with a smile. You came in with a pen and note, and you just kept great energy throughout.
So that was that’s basically it for me. So good job. Well done, Rena.
Thanks, Todd. Claire?
Yeah. I have two notes. The first one was on the product reviews.
I am not I’ve never worked with a company that has had less than four stars.
So I but I have worked with plenty of companies. We’ve had very few reviews and trouble getting reviews.
So I wonder if that’s also not a good signal of, like, review help, to maybe talk about is something that’s more universal. But, again, I don’t know your specific ICP or personas, so that might be useful. They’re showing me the support tickets.
I have haven’t seen people write into support angry. That’s not an emotion I’ve, like, heard of, but they do write in very confused and overwhelmed.
Also, I worry that your CMO doesn’t care that much about support and their outcomes, but is more, like, I guess, self centered. Like, if they can be the hero, great. But it’s not like a priority for them to remove all of support’s messages.
But if you tie supports like, if you tie that overwhelm and confusion of support, through to the time to sale, or time to value as you as you well did, like, in a more I wanna say in a stronger way, that could be really powerful.
Because support reviews are kind of emotional things for for people to fail at.
Awesome. Perfect. Thanks, Katie.
Hey, Marina. I thought you did a really great job.
Like Todd said, really appreciated your energy and, yeah, just like the comfort that you brought to talking about all of this. Like, props for doing it, some slides. The only thing so I agree with a lot of the feedback you’ve already gotten. The only thing that I found that nobody’s mentioned so far was just at the end. You said if your team doesn’t have capacity, and I feel like that can’t be the only thing that their team doesn’t have. Like, it’s, you know, strategy, vision, you know, and capacity, like, on top of that. So just, like, sure capacity is part of the equation, but not obviously not the only thing that they’re lacking.
Yeah. Thanks, Katie.
Agreed. I think one of the I think we’re out of everybody giving feedback, so I’ll jump in with mine. In addition to what everybody has said, yeah, definitely do check when you share your screen. Just make sure, because nobody will tell you. Like, none of us told you. Right? Because we’re all trying to not interrupt you.
So, yeah, double check. Never hurts.
Okay. You’re selling email, but where but but there was, like, very little push on how awesome email is for businesses.
So, for me, I feel like you you really quickly glossed over anything you had done with Bitly.
Spend some time there. Like, you’ve rewritten countless emails in their life cycle, series.
You’ve mapped a customer journey. You have seen that people get lost. Lots of leads get lost, and there’s real expense there. And yet all I really heard was, like like, twelve seconds max about Bitly and QR code generator.
What? Like, that’s anybody in that audience finds this a sexy topic. So you’re allowed to nerd out and spend some time here. So, like, spend time on that. Bring it back to money. Bring it back to how they’re spending money on bringing people into their flow, trying to attract trial users, and then they’re just sitting there. So have an opinion, and make it all about money because the right people will be sitting in the audience going like, shit.
Yeah. And that’s what you want instead of, oh, yeah. She seems nice.
Like, that’s not the point.
Yeah.
Right? Exactly. Abby’s message there. So you are minimizing the stuff that you need to really emphasize, And when you don’t emphasize it, the other parts land wrong because we haven’t heard that you’re an authority yet, and we haven’t got on side with you yet.
So when you say it’s twenty thousand dollars to start and then five thousand a month, we drop off. Right? Like, what are you talking about? What do you even do?
And because you don’t have slides, it’s very hard to go along with that. Right? Like, it’s hard to keep up, so you need if you’re not sharing a visual, you have to really talk through everything.
Like, make it clear, still have energy. And then there’s times when you just do want to share, I mean, you’re not slides. So I was looking up this thing, and this is I’ve talked a bit about how I’m gonna reward myself with this training at some point.
It’s not open right now. Let me just share this with you in chat.
You know, use the Stream Deck and a few other things. And, so you don’t have to show slides on the screen, but you can pop up things on your screen, and I want you to play with that.
Not necessarily take this, but just, like, follow inside the show and start looking at some of the things that they do. Because with a Stream Deck and a little plugin for Zoom, you can, like, hit a button and the Bitly logo pops up next to you. Right? So there are cool things you can do just like that.
You can pull in a testimonial and flash it on the screen from somebody. So it doesn’t have to be a slide deck, but unless you’re going to take a lot of time really driving things home, you need something on the screen. I also think you need, to show me some emails. Like, here are some examples of emails that I’ve written.
Just really ground me in as a member of your audience and, like, oh, okay. Okay. When she talks about this kind of email, here’s what she means.
So okay. Couple more things. Take a few breaks for breath.
Set more things up upfront too. Just like, if you have your water here with you, that’s great. We’re gonna settle in for twenty five minutes. We’re gonna do some drawing. I’m not gonna share a lot of slides.
Make sure you stop for water. I’m gonna stop every so often. Just, like, set that up up front, and then you can stop.
And you can pretend you’re drinking water and just take a fucking breath. Like, just take a breath, but I know what it’s like. I know what it’s like.
Definitely need a promise up front. Dig into the pain. Set up the desire.
I have a few more notes that I can’t read here. I don’t understand on the triangle, what product review rating and support tickets will have to do with you doing the work later. So you’re gonna go through and make sure that support doesn’t get tickets.
You’re gonna do work to increase their product reviews, but you’re really just saying, no. No. Once you have active activated users, these things will all go up. But if if you’re not working on it and it’s on the model, that’s like a flag.
And if you ignore it, it’s gonna be it’s gonna continue to be like but it’s never gonna feel right for you and maybe even for them. So rethink the convert part. There’s no money showing anywhere on your model. Where at what point?
Like, I’m like, where’s the when do I get the money from them? Like, I want the money from them.
So I would think through that as well. But overall, I mean, I think it’s good. You just need to spend more time on things so we really, really get what you can do. And that also means you have to get what you can do. So go over the stuff that you’ve done in Bitly and QR code generator and, like, come up with your cheat sheet of awesome that you, like, need to remember, and it’ll help you.
Cool?
Everything else everybody else said agreed as well.
Oh, yeah. No. I won’t worry about that. But, yeah, I drew a dollar sign with, like, circles around it galore.
Like, where’s the money? Where’s the money? This is the path we’re able to make money. Help them see that.
Okay. That is all.
Thanks, Marina. Any notes or thoughts, Marina or Abby so far? Or, Abby, go ahead.
Can I just ask a quick question? So because I noticed when I did the diagnostic, I, like, wrote it out and then went and did the review, and then read and I just went straight into the view.
I was just wondering, like No.
Agreed. It was actually one of my bigger notes too. I’m not ready to diagnose as I’m going through. Agreed. First, draw the model, tell them about it, and then walk them through. Now we’re gonna diagnose where you’re at.
Yeah. Not as you go. I was I was actually I lost interest a little bit, because I didn’t know, like it doesn’t feel right. So and that could be just for me because I know how it’s supposed to be presented.
But, yeah, just so you know, just do it the way it’s taught. First, you die first, you document everything. Show them the thing so I can zoom out, see that there’s, like, a map of my life cycle right here. And then you can zoom into the parts and say, are you red, yellow, green here, and give your examples in there.
For example, you might be yellow if your numbers are this. Yeah. Totally agree. Thanks for bringing that up, Abby.
Okay.
Abby, Marina, how are you feeling?
Well, I’m glad I have not pitched anybody yet, and I’m thankful for all the feedback because it’s actually helpful Good.
Because I know what to do now. And I think it it is a confidence thing.
Mhmm. Like, as far as, like, pulling out and saying, oh, I’ve done this and that.
So I just need to You just need to write it down and look at it.
Put it on sticky notes all over the place then. Like, I know that might seem like gel.
Why not? If you need to build your confidence, build your confidence, like, actively. It doesn’t build itself.
No.
But I wanted to do this today so that I could get Oh, and you did great. Let me be very clear.
Feedback. Totally.
Because I was just trying to follow that form formula that you add, and I was like, okay. Are these actually my words? I’m like, I’m just gonna do the thing, and then I can review. So thank you everybody for all the feedback. Super helpful.
And just to be clear, these notes are, like sometimes the the formula just needs to be adjusted for you. There are things that I mentioned to Abby for Abby to change, and I’m sure she’s like, but, Joe, I took that from what you taught me. Then she’s like, I’m just not gonna say anything, but this is annoying.
But so just know, like, that’s why we’re doing it live. Not to say, did you follow it exactly, but cool. Was cool. Here’s how you can make it cooler.
Yeah. Cool. Abby, how are you doing?
Yeah. I’m glad I did it because I was like, okay. If I if I, like, book it Monday, then that means I’ll actually make the damn thing. So, yeah, I think, like, tomorrow, I’m gonna start doing pitching five people every day and just see what happens and work on my closing because I know that’s my my week there anyway.
Love it. Amazing.
Okay. So we’ll take three minutes. We’ll be back at twenty two after the hour when Claire will be our final presenter.
Alright? Three minutes. Thanks, everyone.
Oh, a little bit overtime there.
Okay. We are back. We’re here. Good stuff. Ready? Where’s Claire? Claire’s not here. Karen. Oh, there you are.
I just like to lost it in calculation.
Awesome. Okay. Claire, are you ready to go?
I am ready.
I’m gonna stop this all by saying I’m very nuts for some bizarre reason. I was so confident up until, like, well, seven o’clock, which is when this started.
Okay. Wicked. Well, I’m excited. So, tell us who your ICP is, who you’re targeting this toward, and then we’ll dive in.
Sure. My ICP is pretty similar to Marina’s. So it is b to b SaaS companies within the twenty five to fifty million range, so a little bit tighter.
They are either doing a freemium or a free trial, sort of setup at the moment. And I’m talking specifically to the CMO or director of growth, head of growth, that kind of person.
Cool.
Awesome.
Then okay.
Okay.
Today, I’m gonna talk about onboarding your free trial and premium users so that more of them stick around, log back in tomorrow and the next day and the next because the reality is that eighty percent of the users that you’ve worked really hard to get through the front door and to click start trial or sign up now, eighty percent of those users don’t come back tomorrow. They try your product once, give you twenty minutes, and that’s it. They’re out the door, and they are never coming back, unless you can win them back. And using email is a great way to do that.
So specifically using triggered emails, I’ll explain more about that later, but it’s stepping away from the concept of timed emails and dripping things out slowly but surely and more than focusing on sending more relevant, messages at the right time and right context.
So this is gonna be a great use of your time if you are a CMO or head of growth at a b two b SaaS company doing around twenty to fifty million dollars a year.
Companies have worked with me to get results like a thirty seven percent lift in product adoption that was with Invoice Simple.
And then Synthesia has also worked with me to sorry.
For messaging optimization.
And I’ve also partnered with Forget the Funnel and worked on over twenty start ups, onboarding flows to optimize for their growth and retention.
So if this I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve caught email or that the email channel might be useful to you.
But there are some things that you need to remember. First, people do read. Else, LinkedIn wouldn’t exist, and it wouldn’t send you those annoying yet effective notifications to check your feed.
Secondly, you do not have to guess at what to put in your email, and you don’t have to worry that you’re going too long or too short, you’re including too many pictures, no pictures at all. All that is something that you can definitively answer through optimization and testing.
And then just so you know, email is also a seven billion dollar industry at the moment. So it is, again, really clear that people do still check their email inboxes.
Inboxes. So this is gonna be great if you are looking to improve your user activation, free to pay conversion rate, and ultimately conversion, what I’m not gonna do is give you another template or the two minute secret to a sixty eight percent reduction in churn.
This is going to be a bit of a hands on workshop, so get a pen and paper ready while I continue talking.
What we’re gonna walk through today is something called the overpowered onboarding framework. Now if you haven’t heard about what overpowered means, it is a term used for superheroes, and it basically means a character or an object that is so powerful it makes the game easy.
So Superman would be a great example of an overpowered character, and this is going to be something that really makes the email channel easy. It’s gonna answer all the questions and make it simple for you to prioritize what to do next.
So it’s not gonna be a game changer for your acquisition, but rather a game changer for your activation.
Okay. Let me go ahead and share my screen, and we can get into it.
There we go.
Alrighty.
Can everyone see my screen?
Yes. Okay.
Alright. So first step is to draw a big old circle.
Don’t worry if your circle is not perfect. That would prove to you’re insane.
And then another circle on the inside.
Here, I’m gonna write down and say our goal for today is a thirty percent lift in free to paid paid. You’re wondering how much that’s worth if you have, say, ten thousand users who are, signing up and actually paying every month, and they’re on on average paying seventy nine or sixty nine dollars each, then a thirty percent lift is equivalent monthly lift is equivalent to just over two hundred thousand dollars worth of revenue. So it’s a pretty big difference that you could be getting very, very quickly.
One of the best things about onboarding people effectively is that that revenue actually stacks up because your retention naturally increases now that your users fully understand and realize the value that you’re giving them.
Next is to draw a nice Mercedes symbol because we are winners.
And I’m just gonna go ahead and label, so please label with me as we go. Up at the top, we have foundation.
This is what sets the tone for your entire onboarding flow and what is a great foundation.
Next up, we have conversation, which is where you start talking to your oh, talking and writing is difficult. Conversation, let’s just pretend I wrote that correctly.
Where you are, actually talking to your customers and convincing them that creating this great idea. And then finally, on the left, we have personalization.
Sorry, optimization.
Alright. We’re gonna go ahead and divide this diagram in hop again, just each section, a nice little line.
Up at the top, we have insight.
And down below, we have journey.
Next up, we have triggers, and then we have personalization.
Then we have tracking.
And finally, we have testing.
K. I’ll give you all a second to finish writing down.
If you have some colored pens nearby, please feel free to grab those. You can do red, for poor or not so great, orange for it’s kind of okay, and then green for everything is absolutely rosy. I’ll also give you some examples so you’ll know which one you want. If you don’t have colored pens nearby, feel free to do a star system. Just one, two, three stars, three for excellent, one for so good, and two for okay.
Alright. We’re changing over.
Okay. Scientists.
When you are struggling to understand your customers, that means that ultimately what you’re struggling to do is connect your what with your why.
So insight predominantly consists of customer interviews, customer surveys. You could even do some social listening.
You could even do some analysis of your heat maps, basically understanding what people are doing.
You could keep recording and analyzing your demo calls or your sales calls. All of that stuff gives you insight into who you’re talking to, what they value, and what they care about most. So if you’re currently doing one or more of those and you are, actually analyzing it with a regular occurrence, then you can go ahead and give yourself a green. If you are recording things, but maybe not finding the time to analyze them because you’ve got a million other things on your plate, which is totally understandable, think of yourself in orange. And if you haven’t conducted any kind of customer research in the last six to twelve months, that would be a red.
Alright. Next up is journey.
So the customer journey is a very well known phenomenon at this point. It is, however you’re currently tracking it, what you need to hit on for your onboarding is to understand at what points your customer is seeing value. So if you have a customer journey map that walks someone that walks you through exactly where your users are seeing value when they sign up, fantastic.
Give yourself a green. If you’re not so sure and you’re kind of implementing a bit of guesswork, chances are that guesswork is gonna bleed over into the rest of the circle. Right? You’re gonna stop making more and more educated guesses, and they’re gonna start getting less and less educated and more and more guessy.
So give yourself an orange there, that’s something to look at. And if you are not sure about your customer journey at all, you’ve maybe undergone a lot of changes recently, a lot of product updates, If you saw a red, that’s something to prioritize.
Onto triggers.
So historically, we’ve all we’re all very familiar with sending out timed emails. Right? Those are the direct emails sent to you. Maybe you get eight, when you sign up to a new product.
The thing with timed emails is that their quality degrades exceptionally quickly. So sorry. Not quality, but their their metrics. So the open rate, the click through rate, how many people even look at them in their inbox. So if you’re sending more than three emails in a in a row to someone without any kind of interaction from them, so you’re not triggering any, chain reaction in your in your email marketing system, then that would be a red.
If you are sending, emails that are email chains or sequences that are for emails or less, so maybe you’ve only got one welcome sequence and it’s for emails. That’s great. That’s an orange.
If you are sending triggered emails, so you’re tracking your product, you’re tracking your product.
Usage. Sorry about that. You’re tracking your product usage, seeing what features they’re using, what what they’re actually onboarding onto. Maybe if you have multiple products within your within your software suite, then you could trigger emails based on how they sign up to things and and play around. You could also be triggering Winmax, when someone doesn’t hit a certain, beat of of your customer journey, that would be a green.
Next up, personalization.
So it’s very easy to generalize an email and very easy to say something very generic. Right? And the problem of saying things that are generic is that they’re specific to absolutely nobody.
For example, let’s say you are and this is a situation that I ran into with a client the other day. Right? They are serving lots of different types of businesses with lots of different types of use cases. Now the triggers are all the same, but the context is slightly different because these businesses are different types of businesses. We have a food truck or a nail salon.
So instead of saying businesses for every email here, how is how are things going in your business? We say, how are things going in your food truck? How are things going at your nail salon? It’s much more specific, much more personalized.
And that kind of attention to detail is what gets your open rates higher, your click through rates higher.
So if you are personalizing the if you’re personalizing your emails, then you can go ahead and, give yourself a green for segmenting by use case. Right? So if you’re separating people out into use cases like I just described, it could be yourself agree.
If you are not doing anything beyond maybe the name that’s getting personalized in every email and perhaps you’re also doing a trial date in every email, then you can go ahead and give yourself an orange. You’re on the way.
If you’re not doing anything at all, give yourself a red.
Alright. Onto tracking. Now most people are tracking the free to pay conversion rate.
That’s pretty common and pretty easy to do. Some people are also tracking the product adoption rate. Now if you haven’t bumped into that term yet, it’s another fun acronym. You know, marketers love them.
But the product adoption rate or PAI is what we use to tell if someone has truly adopted the software. Doesn’t mean that they’re paying for it yet, but they’ve adopted it. So, for example, Slack only considers someone debated, if they hit the product adoption indicator of getting sort of sending two thousand messages. Right? Anything less, they are not considered activated.
So are you tracking your free to page? Are you tracking your, product adoption indicator? If so, great. You are currently in orange. To take you to green, you will need to be tracking a few more details, something like the engagement rate, how often people are logging back into your software, how long they’re taking to get to various stages of their customer journey, and then as well as their time to value. Right? How long does it take for them to create ultimately?
K. So hopefully that was clear to you all.
Next up is testing.
Testing is really where the magic happens. Right?
So if you are not currently testing, then you’re probably really struggling with the guesswork that’s started over at Journey.
If you if you haven’t really looked at your welcome email in six to twelve months, Your new newest user who signed up, like, three seconds ago has just read it. Right?
Testing means that you can continuously maintain and optimize your results. And if you don’t test, the thing that will happen is that your, your metrics will just slowly decline. It’s like a slow gradual hill of sadness. And at the end of that sadness hill is, unfortunately, the sandbox, which is exceptionally difficult to get out of.
So in testing, you are doing a great job if you are currently checking on your open rate and click through rates every and deliverability every month.
You are also possibly, making some hypotheses about your customers, testing those up, disproving them, or approving them.
If you’re not doing that, but you are checking on things monthly just to see how things are going, or maybe, you have pretty regular product updates, which means that you’re going to be checking.
It means you’re gonna be updating your emails fairly regularly with new screenshots or new messaging, then that’s great. Give yourself a orange. If you’re not doing any testing at all, then you’d be a red.
So this is the onboarding to, the show about onboarding framework.
And it’s great. It’s a circle because you are going to start way back at inside once you’ve gone all the way around and keep going around, keep optimizing, and keep improving with time. And that ultimately is what makes that thirty percent lift a recurring lift rather than just a one sole win.
Alright.
So I haven’t practiced the closing very much.
In true honesty so let me just get my notes. Alright. By this point, you shall know, should know what’s getting in your way the most. Right? It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with a hundred different things, grabbing your focus. And the last thing you wanna do is walk into your next boardroom meeting and give your presentation and watch your CEO kinda glaze over in confusion as you go over the numbers in immaculate detail.
So now you know where to put your focus. You know how to explain what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and how you’re gonna improve it. If that’s something that you need help with or that you’d like to outsource, then you are welcome to book a call with me. I will pop it kindly into a spreadsheet slideshow later on for you to go ahead and click on.
And I’ve lost my track completely. I’m very sorry, but thank you.
Thanks, Claire.
Alright. Okay. Notes for Claire. Who’s up first?
Yeah.
I’ll I’ll I’ll go.
Yeah. Claire, I thought that was that was really good. Like, you’re so funny. I really wanna get coffee with you.
And we can work on our, like, shy girl energy together.
But yeah. No. It was really engaging. That was really fun. I took quite a few, like, notes or just bits I really like. Like, I love the overpowered onboarding framework. And if you do use that tool that Joe said when you, like, describe Superman, if you have a Superman come up, I just love that so much.
There was a bit when you’re talking about insights and you’re talking insights. Sorry. You’re talking about the customer research that you could do. You say you could do this. I kinda wanna be told, like, what I should do, not what I could do.
And then when you’re talking about personalization, like, that just felt like a really good place for a case study to just when you’re saying about specificity, if you could just say I did this for so and so.
And I thought the fact that it’s a circle is brilliant, like, the ongoing going round and round. Like, really, really like that. So, yeah, it it was good. And if you do wanna, like, work on the clothes together, because I just I just get so shy when, like, I’d be happy to do that.
Oh, and just another thing as well, like, because you seem to get a lot more confident as you went on. Like, that’s why I always use a slide deck at the beginning because it just I don’t know. It just makes me feel which, you know, maybe I need to go over that this well. But, yeah, just a tip if if you, like, need something at the beginning to yeah.
But, anyway, I thought it was really good.
That’s so helpful. Thank you. I have a quick question. I don’t just okay.
I went back and forth between personalizing personalization and segmentation for emails and ultimately decided that personalization is very different to segmentation, obviously, and that if different segments are identified in the insights area or the customer journey area, that those should have their own circle. So it’s like other circles for other for other, segments.
Does that track with everyone, or is that sounding fairly confusing and counterintuitive?
So you’re saying so you’re saying this is the core model, and then you’d have a separate one for the personalization part of the model. Like, let’s dig into that, and here’s what that looks like? No.
Like like a big circle is, like, the main say that’s their main identified job to be done. They know very clearly who they’re targeting, But they have all these little satellite ones to the side, which on that important.
Our first engagement would be focusing on the main one. But in future, if they realize that one of their satellites is actually a bit bigger than they thought, we could do the same thing for that one, but it would be a whole new process.
Yeah.
So I don’t know if I’ll I can’t answer that, but what I can say is each one of these sections you have is likely to have its own thing that you would draw. So insights, As you dig in and you’re working with the client more and more, then you’ll do you’ll help their team get up to speed on what you mean by how to tell if we’re doing insight right. So you’ll have a new model that’s, like, breaking down insight, and that might be speaking to, like, the satellite thing that you’re talking to.
But I wouldn’t I wouldn’t draw a satellite in here. I wouldn’t say anything more about these other parts. I might just call it personalization and segmentation just for the sake of, like, simplicity here with your audience.
But don’t I wouldn’t have more stuff going off the side.
You’ve also, like, the circle is in segments, so you could even say, like, the sec you know, segmentation is part of it.
That’s That’s cute.
Little orange segments. Cute. Awesome. Okay. Any other notes for Claire? Katie?
Hey, Claire. Just like kudos for putting yourself out there and doing it. I thought you did really well.
Okay. So things I thought were great. I love when you said, like, how much that’s worth and have that concrete number of, like like, we’re talking about a thirty percent lift, but here’s the what that would be worth to you. I thought that was a great way of bringing the money in.
And I’m sure, like yeah. I don’t know, not much about your client history, but I’m sure that there is room to bring in other case studies. But I did like how you had the food truck versus hair salon example just to give me something concrete, to work with when you’re talking about the personalization.
I also like the example with Slack. Like, Slack doesn’t consider, was it product adoption metric reached until two thousand messages?
So one thing I thought you could work on was, and I’m just looking at myself. Like, I don’t think I have actually had any other, like, changes. But I wrote the drama that moment that you talked about, like, your you have looked in your onboarding emails for six months, but the person who just signed up looked at them a few minutes ago.
I just felt like that’s such a good moment, and I felt like it needed a little bit more build up to really hammer home, like, what kind of, you know, how we, like, build up that moment of high attention. Like, why does that matter?
What is that worst case scenario? Like, what are the implications of that, versus just, like, locating me in that moment, but not really, like, having me realize why it has been important for me to inhabit from that moment. Does that make sense? So, like okay.
So I’m thinking about that. I’m like, oh, shit. Yeah. Who knows if I have, like, COVID references in my in my onboarding emails or something?
But if that new user looks at it, what is what is that irrelevant is going to cost me, basically.
Yeah. And then so I just wonder I have a question mark if that if where you at it was the best place for that or if building that moment up more towards the end could be a great segue into your pitch of, like, this is your worst case scenario.
Don’t have that. Hire me. So maybe moving that from where you had it, I believe you had that within testing.
I wasn’t really clear on its relevance to testing. I saw it as more of, like, keeping your onboarding fresh and, you know, optimized.
So for me, it just felt like it should have been pulled out of testing and then use more as that pivot into your closed.
Does that make sense?
That makes total sense. Yeah. So I pull it out of the pull it out of the circle and use it for the close?
Use it to the pivot. Yeah.
That’s so helpful. Thank you. Because I have no idea how to transition. That’s kinda where I went like, oh, crap. It’s done. What?
Do you know?
That’s really helpful. Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks, Katie. Marina.
Hey, Claire.
You’ve got so many gems in there, and I was like, oh, that’s how you could say that. Oh, that’s how you could say that. But I had to listen so carefully because they were sort of hidden in just, like, I think a little bit of, like, vocal variety or, change in speed of saying things or, like, varying the energy so that, like, you’ve got a ton of good things in there. And I was like, oh, that’s really cool.
That if they just, like I know you’re nervous. I get it. You’re probably probably throwing up too.
Maybe I’m projecting. But, anyway I don’t know.
But but it would totally then it would be like these little zingers, And then you’ve got, like, this wicked under, like, quiet sense of humor that then it would bring that out too. And so then I I don’t know. I just think you’ve got a lot of good things going in there. And it’s kind of like, maybe just think about it as taking a highlighter mentally and go going, okay. I need to highlight these bits and, like, really, like, come out a bit more instead of ending, like, with your kind of, like, a question.
Right? And just Yeah. Yeah. This is me telling you. So this like, I’m try I I’m not one to talk.
But seeing it in yours, I was like, oh, okay. She could totally if you’re just, like, pushing this one little bit and pushing this one little bit. And I can’t remember all the things because I was, like, listening and going, oh, that’s how you can include something without it coming across seeming like, you were bragging on yourself, but it didn’t come across as like, oh, I’m so great, and I did this in a bad way. It came across as like, oh, she knows what she’s she’s talking about.
But then just, like, zing it out a little bit more so I don’t have to, like, listen for it quite so deeply, if that makes sense.
That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I I I’m really grateful for that feedback. It’s so specifically helpful.
Sun Sinic actually has a new course I’m presenting, which I’m desperate to do.
Yeah. He’s so convincing.
Yes.
Anyway, nice nice work. Obviously, lots of work has gone into it.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thanks, Marina. Todd.
Yeah. Mine is pretty quick, Claire. And I could be wrong. It might not be relevant, but I believe you spoke to email as a seven billion dollar industry.
And, you know, I will kinda just look at Joe for this one. In ten x emails, you speak to for every, know, every dollar you spend on email marketing, and the average return is, like, forty four dollars and twenty five cents or something. So maybe it could be a setup for ADA as you move them through. Like, did you know if you do this, you get this back?
And let them know, like, there’s not just we’re not just selling your service, but you should expect a return on what you’re getting kind of idea and just set them up. Like, you’re the expert again in it and just like, yeah. Come with me, and this is not a cost. This is an investment kind of idea and just really set it up because you’ve talked to such a big number.
But if you can bring that back and just put that in their in their court and let them know, like, we’re expensive for a reason kind of idea, but I’m not sure if that’s relevant or not.
Love that. Agreed. I think there were a few number of points in there that needed more, like, push on. That’s one of them. Your line eighty percent don’t come back. I wrote down and circled like, damn, that’s terrifying.
Eighty percent don’t come back.
So there are a lot of moments there. I was like, if you need calculators, you need, like, to show what that adds up to, how much you spent only to have them vanish. Like, no wonder marketing looks flat.
You early on, you picked a fight sort of with blast emails, but then it wasn’t until you were getting to the trigger part of the model that you really dug into why, like, a broadcast or blast email isn’t as good as a triggered one. I would have liked you to pick a fight with it earlier and then just continue the fight when you get to triggers.
So, like, bring me into the problem with blast or broadcast emails, which the vast majority of these people are doing.
So why they should stop doing that.
What else have we got?
You said it’s a game changer for activation, but not for acquisition. And I didn’t know why you bring up acquisition at all, just, like, focus on activation when you were talking about the overpowered onboarding framework. You’re like, this is a game changer for activation.
It is not for act for acquisition. It’s like, shush. Shush. Don’t talk about acquisition. No. No. That’s not actually activating.
I’ve got a great diagram if we have, like, a few minutes afterwards that I wanted to quickly If it shows up on the slide, then that’s one thing.
But I’m like, I don’t know if you’ve read straight line selling. I’m talking about it a lot these days, the Jordan Belfort book. But, it’s it’s what he would call Pluto.
So it’s too far out. Don’t bring come back. Come back. Let’s not talk about that part.
I also thought that you could okay. Two things and we’ll wrap up.
You did get more confident as you went. I totally noticed that. The more you practice, the more the parts are, like, second nature to you, the better and more engaging the whole thing is. And I know you hadn’t practiced the clothes or things like that, so that’s fair.
But just know that if it ever feels like, is it even worth it? The more you practice it, the you’ll it’ll be a natural thing. You are funny, and you’re friendly and likable. There’s a lot of good stuff there, but now we just gotta nail your delivery.
Like, that’s it. Just practice a bunch of times.
The thirty percent lift in the middle, I’d love to see you pause, and I think you’ll do that more as you get more chill with, like, presenting like this.
What’s nice about, like, Abby’s five k in the middle is it’s a number that I want. I want that number. Thirty seven thirty percent lift is not yet a number. It’s just like this wonder like, this great idea.
I would love you to be able to before you even draw your model, to put them through a very simple calculation, and just say, like, look. Don’t worry. We’re not using this for, like, the wrong purposes. Just set up just put context around it, but what you want is them to have a number to put in the middle of the circle.
So if you can help them do the calculation of what a thirty percent lift would look like and then extrapolate that, like, maybe say, okay. Now annual. Like, just figure it out how you can get that number in the middle to look really compelling. Like, oh, I could make eight thousand dollars a day, and I’m currently making four dollars a day.
That sounds awesome. Thanks.
But if you can do the calculation now, I’m, like, very keen on this instead of thirty percent lift.
My final note here is I’m not in love with some of the word choices across the model.
Foundation threw me because it was up high, and I want a foundation to be down low.
So I’m like, no. That’s a sky up there. I’m very literal.
But I thought that you could do a, like, a SaaS sweep.
Now that you’ve got these six parts in place with their three labels, go back through and make it feel what words can you use? Because right now, what we have for foundation conversation optimization, insights, journey, triggers, personalization, tracking, and testing, that’s all like, a course creator could follow the same thing, and an ecommerce business could follow the same thing. Right?
Lower journey might be replaced with funnel if you were really getting into it for, like, a specific course creator group. So to me, it felt too generic still. It feels like, good. You’ve got this, like, poor model in place. Now let’s SaaSify it. Now that twenty five to fifty million dollar group, what words will feel better?
Foundation doesn’t feel right.
Conversation might.
Optimization does, I think. But then inside of that, insight, I want you to work on that word.
Journey is good. Triggers are good. You already know you’re gonna work on personalization and segmentation and figure that out. Tracking and testing, can you do something that feels more if you know these people are using intercom, for example, intercom e language.
So, like and that’s your job. Just sweep through it and see if you can make it sound more sassy so I can see myself. Sassy this sassy, not Stacy’s sassy. But so I can see myself as a SaaS founder or marketer or whatever when I look at this model.
Does that make sense?
Just a little more pointed on your word choice.
Okay. That’s super helpful because I I like I’ve taken it way back. Do you know how how long it took to get like three shuns?
Sorry.
What did you say?
Three shuns. Three, like, activation. What is it? Conversation, foundation.
Oh, the shuns. Foundation. Oh, I see.
Yeah. But I can find a new shuns. I’ve done it now.
Find a new shuns. There are more shuns.
Yeah. K. Cool.
I’m a new shin.
Awesome. Good. How are you feeling, Claire?
Great. Great. Yeah. I’m really really excited to actually do this well.
Yeah. Yeah. You’ve got a really good starting point here. And, oh, Todd.
Nice job. Nice way to finish the meeting.
You’ve got great case studies too. Oh, one other note, the over twenty startups with, on the or onboarding flows with Forget the Funnel. I don’t know that you have to say it with Forget the Funnel because I’m just gonna go look up Forget the Funnel. So just say, like, twenty more onboarding flows. Like, wow. It’s a lot of onboarding flows.
Yeah. Nobody’s listening anymore because there’s a puppy in the room. So, we’re just gonna go look at the puppy now. But good job, Claire and Marina and Abby. Thank you. Well done, everybody. And thanks for giving your notes as well and tuning in to help your fellow to help your peers out here.
Good. Alright.
So next month kicks off a whole new month for, Coffee School Pro. We’ll be posting about that very soon.
Cool. Awesome. And, Todd, you have to tell us about this puppy. What’s going on here?
Sorry. We she’s a week and two days old, and we’re renovating the house. We’re actually getting a podcast studio ready for me in the basement, and, she sleeps at my feet. She’s on her little bed.
And, yeah, she’s she’s a great little dog. She’s learning quickly. And she’s just been at my feet all things, so I you might see me looking down. I’ve been trying to avoid it, but she just woke up.
So yeah. And she’s licking me like crazy.
So She is. But she’s got those little shark teeth too.
Yeah. She’s got little pearls as Tina said.
Oh my gosh. What’s her name?
Patty. Patty. Patty. Patty. The patty.
Yeah. Patty? Yeah. It’s a yeah. It’s a new dog for us. So, yeah, she’s she’s a great dog.
So Oh. Try and sorry if I interrupted everyone.
It’s just It’s end of meeting.
I’m amazed you were able to hold off this whole time.
Oh, it’s tough. You have no idea when she’s at my feet and she’s, like, nudging me with a bone, and then she’s nudging me with a toy, then another toy, and then she’s out cold and looking at her. So, yeah.
Oh, so cute.
So cute. Well, I saw your two as well.
So Oh, yes.
They just came in from Yeah.
Playing out at the lake.
Yeah. We’ll do it. Tina was the first one to meet her, I believe, as well. Uh-huh. So yeah.
Patty. Yeah. Super cute.
Patty is welcome to the crew.
Absolutely.
Awesome.
Okay. Thanks, y’all. Thanks so much. Well done, everybody. If you haven’t worked on your workshop, go do it.
And if you have, keep practicing. Thanks, everybody. Bye.
Thank you.
Transcript
Hey. Hey. Alright. Workshop day. Y’all ready? Yes?
Of course.
Good.
I’m excited. This is gonna be a lot.
We’ve got three p doing this a lot. I don’t know what’s going on with my brain.
My fingers never match what the number is that I say. So three. There. I had to think about it. We have three of you going today, and I know it just hit start time. So we’re just gonna let some people come on in.
Abby, you’re going. Marina, you’re going. And I think Claire is our third, and we’ll, go in that order.
Is that exciting? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Good.
Alright. We’ll let some people file in. How are you all feeling about your present your workshops?
I don’t know why, but I’m, like like, nervous about giving it.
Really? Yeah. I was like, I don’t know why.
They’re just, like, my friends. I can agree. I was saying to my partner, but I’m, like, really nervous.
It’s so much worse when you know the people.
It’s so much worse.
Is that what it is? Maybe.
Yes. Totally.
Three thousand strangers, easy compared to three people you know very well. Like, no. Thanks. I don’t need this. I’m good. I’ll do something else with my life.
Well, also these people, they know what it’s supposed to be. So what if you totally miss the boat?
I guess that’s true. Yeah. That’s fair. That’s fair.
Alright. Thanks everybody who’s attending today and not presenting.
We’re going to be attending as people in that person’s ideal audience. So, Abby, Marina, and when Claire gets here, if the three of you can please just let us know basically who your ICP is and the persona that you believe would be watching this, and we can do our best to sit in those shoes. And, otherwise, we’ll just, like, give other feedback as well.
So that’s our job for everybody who is filing in again.
Yeah. Really simply, we are here to watch and give feedback on three workshops. And if you’re working on your own work workshop, which you should be, it’s a great chance for you to do to see to see. So you can also learn like, oh, wow.
I loved that. Or, oh, okay. That’s gonna be a confusing part. It was confusing for their audience.
It’s probably confusing for mine. I didn’t think of it that way, etcetera, etcetera. So a caught not taught kind of workshop day. It is two hours, because we have three groups, three people going.
Each gets about thirty minutes, then we’ll have about five minutes of discussion time, which could turn into ten, which is why we have two hours blocked out. Thank you for this endurance approach. It’s not a sprint, today. So are we ready?
We’re gonna go Abby, then Marina, and then Claire, if any of you surprised.
And you’re like, wait. What? I’m going today? Yeah. That’s the sign up list I got.
So so, hopefully, that’s right. Going in that order, Abby, then Marina, then Claire. Are we ready? Or does everybody know why we’re here and what we’re doing?
Any confusion?
No? I wouldn’t think so. Alright. We are recording.
Let’s get cracking. If you’re not presenting, please go on mute and do your best to stay on camera if possible so that the presenter can see our faces and not feel like they’re talking to an empty room or people who are busy doing other things. Okay. Thanks.
Abby, take it away.
Cool. Okay. So, my ICP is a course creator, so you’re probably doing about three to four million. You wanna be doing ten million.
But at the moment, you’re just completely stuck with a live lodge roller coaster. You’re getting burned out because every time you live lodge, it just takes out of you, and you just cannot get Evergreen to work, and you don’t know why.
Okay. So can everybody, like, see my screen?
Okay. Cool. Right.
Okay. So this workshop is called how to make five thousand dollars a day with a mid ticket evergreen course.
So I’m Abby. I’m the founder of AT Content and the creator and author of day one evergreen, the only funnel that’s built to convert better every month.
I help course creators add one point eight million a year in revenue, which is five thousand dollars a day, without the nail biting stress of live launches. I’ve worked with hundreds of course creators. I’ve worked on evergreen funnels for Amy Porterfield, Becca Klein, Jel Sid, Coffeehackers, Ingrid Ana, Fast Needs a QBO, and some other names that you might recognize.
So you’re in the right place if you have a mid ticket offer between three hundred and two thousand dollars that you’d love to scale to five thousand dollars a day on Evergreen. The reason I say these amounts is just what I found is when it’s over two thousand, it tends to just take a little bit more nurturing. So the idea of this funnel is that you bring people onto your email list and you sell to them straight away.
So you’re already doing at least a million with your online course, but you really wanna scale with to ten million without relying on the nail biting trust of live launches.
And you’re already using paid advertising to sell your online course. So this isn’t a requirement.
So, generally, to to reach five thousand dollars a day, depending on how much your course is, you wanna be getting at least a hundred, maybe two hundred people into a funnel every day. If you can do this with organic marketing, awesome. Great.
But likely, you’re gonna be using some kind of paid advertising.
So a quick case study.
So one of my clients is Fast and Easy QBI. So back in January, they launched a brand new course with an email list of ten thousand, and we made six hundred thousand dollars. Their sales that month outpaced all of their sales in twenty twenty three. We straightaway took that launch funnel evergreen and made seventy six thousand dollars in month one, keeping in mind that they’d already pretty much exhausted that email list because we literally just live launched.
And then we continue to optimize.
And now in July, they’ve got a six point eight cent conversion rate with a three dollar cost per lead. So for a twelve hundred dollar course, they’re they’ve got a pretty good ROAS there, and they’re making five thousand dollars a day with they on Evergreen.
A few more case studies, which you can get in my book.
So one of my clients, Eric Petrus, he came to me because he he was selling guitar guitar repair course.
I worked on his evergreen sales page, and we tripled his weekly sales. At Harmusch, I wrote his evergreen sales page three years ago. Amazingly, he’s still using the same copy, and it’s converting at thirteen percent. He’s making hundreds of thousands of dollars from that. Becca Klein, I increased her final conversions by a hundred and fifty percent.
Jove said two hundred and forty percent increase in webinar sales.
This was actually for a live launch, but the coffee converted so well. She took Evergreen and actually tripled her course price.
And Fast and Easy QBO, another course I’ve worked on for them is a membership, and we’ve seen a forty percent increase in membership sign ups since setting up day one evergreen.
Okay. So to address the eye roll here, these aren’t friends or colleagues. These are course creators that have come to me to evergreen their funnels. This isn’t another just add a countdown timer, just set up deadline funnel, and it’s gonna convert. This is unique system designed to collect ongoing data via a ten point customer feedback loop so you can legitimately improve your conversions without ripping a funnel apart every month.
So deal with evergreen, the funnel that’s built to convert best every month. So now you can stop relying on unpredictable live launches that burn you and your team out or the unpredictability of them as well. I mean, live launches are fun and exciting when they go well, but, also, if you’re putting you’re counting on one live launch to generate your full year’s revenue. And one link doesn’t work, and then you potentially lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So this is to just build a bit more peace into your business. It’s not to say never live lodge, but just to have that one point eight million as well.
Without lining Zuckerberg’s pockets, while barely breaking even on your ad spend, so maybe we’re already running ads to your evergreen course, and it’s kind of converting. But, actually, after you paid your ad spend, you’re not making enough money. Like, yes, you’re getting those leads, but you’re then having to go back to live launching to sell to sell to them.
And without hiring expert after expert in the hope that someone can fix your evergreen funnel problem. And then again, just linking back to live launches because it just doesn’t work.
Okay. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do a little slice together. So I’d love you to just grab a notebook and pen.
Okay. So what I want you to do is in the middle of your page is to just draw a circle and write in there five thousand dollars. So that’s that’s what we’re going for here, five thousand dollars a day. And then I will need to draw four leaves.
Make them quite big so you’ve got room to write in them. I guess these are kind of kind of looking like petals here. So you should have what looks like a little flower.
And then in the first, leaf, I want you to write attract.
In the second leaf, I want you to write engage.
And the third, convert.
And then the fourth, optimize.
Okay. So the first thing you’re gonna wanna do, if you if you want to be making sales every day, you need to be bringing people into your funnel, and you need to attract the right leads. So we’re gonna be using Facebook ads to do that.
Then the second thing we need is an attraction device. So you need a way to bring these people into your funnel and instantly engage them. So this is like you’re gonna be an opt in page with a workshop.
And then you need a lead monitor. So you need some way of actually seeing, okay, are these good leads as the reason that my funnel isn’t converting because my sales messaging is awful. Am I just bringing in low quality leads?
Okay. And then we have engaged. So you need an irresistible offer.
We’re gonna be talking in a minute about deeper into what these all mean and how to assess, whether you’ve got it set up or not, and then mindset shift.
So rather than doing a traditional how to workshop, you’re gonna do a workshop that’s built out of mindset shifts the audience needs to, go through in order to be ready to buy your course.
And then, oh, sticky story. Sorry.
Brain brain fart.
So because this is you are bringing people in and selling to them straight away, it’s really important you build know, like, and trust here. So this isn’t just like putting a shit’s creep gif in your emails and being like, hey. I have a personality. Like, you wanna build these really sticky stories that, like, win them over to your world and make them feel ready to to buy from you.
Okay. And then we’ve got combat. So we want an easy yes pitch. So at the end of your webinar, you’re gonna pitch your offer, and it’s gonna make it very easy for them to say yes.
And then you’ve got a million dollar sales page. So this isn’t your typical templated sales page. This is a long form sales page that addresses any objections they have that by the time they get to the ends of it, they’re not gonna have any further questions about your course.
And then conversion emails. So, again, not just your generic sales emails, emails that are written to convert.
And then finally, we have optimize.
So data tracking.
Are you tracking your data across the whole funnel?
And then we have your customer feedback loop. So that’s your ten point customer feedback loop, which includes forms and surveys, AB tests to gain as much information about your customer as possible.
And then finally, we have conversion hotspots, which is where you want to implement your customer feedback to have the biggest impact on your conversions.
Okay. So you should have something that looks a bit like this. Maybe a little bit neater. Mine’s a bit. My handwriting’s still great.
And now we’re gonna go through and we’re gonna write where you are for each of these sections. So if you’re feeling really confident, you’ve got it set up, it’s all converting beautifully, you’re gonna give yourself a ten.
If you have it set up but conversions aren’t quite where they should be or you just feel like it could be better, you can give yourself a five. And if it’s not set up or it’s not converting at all, you’re gonna give yourself a zero.
Okay. So the first thing we’ve got is your Facebook ads.
So in order for to hit five thousand thousand dollars a day, your ads need to be profitable. So if you are your current ad spend is ten to twenty dollars a day and you have a five hundred dollar course, you’re just literally flushing away that money and not and not seeing any return on your ad spend. So we wanna ideally get your lead down to around five dollars, five to ten dollars.
And it’s also it’s not just about the cost per lead, but having someone on your team who’s gonna address seasonal changes, who’s gonna keep updating that so that what works in winter can then be made to work in summer. You’re not you’re refreshing the ads, so they can continue to go back, and you’re not just flushing that money away.
And then you want your attraction device. So your opt in page to your workshop. So, ideally, your opt in page conversion rate should be around forty to sixty percent.
You also want to make sure that people are then watching your webinar. So if people aren’t even clicking to watch your on demand webinar, then the chances are that it’s just not desirable enough. So if you have an issue there with people not watching, it might just be that your opt in page isn’t selling it hard enough. And then lead monitor.
So you’re gonna have a thank you page survey embedded after people sign up for your webinar, and this is gonna determine what drove them to to sign up. It’s gonna tell you whether these are good leads. So you might find that lots of people going in there are like, oh, I just wanna make more money or some other kind of quick win, and then this is a sign that actually those leads aren’t the ones that you want in there. You want ones that are ready to buy, they’re ready to invest, and understand that it’s it’s a long term game.
You also wanna be doing very strategic AB testing on your opt in page. So rather than just testing to see if you can get your conversion rate up a little bit, actually looking at the bottom of your funnel and seeing, okay. Is this one bringing in the leads that actually convert?
So, again, if you don’t have that set up, it’s gonna be a zero. If you have some of it set up at five, and if you’re really confident that you know what’s going on with your leads and who’s converting, then you’re gonna be self a ten.
Okay. And then going on to engage. So your irresistible offer.
Do is this something that people will, like, crawl through broken glass to get? Do you have a great offer that’s converted before? And is it converting with Evergreen? So it might be that it converts pretty well when it’s like you live launch, but on evergreen, maybe you don’t have the right kind of urgency set up. Do you have that authentic scarcity that gives people a reason to act now rather than later.
And then mindset shifts. So your workshop, is it built out of the mindset shifts that people need to go through to go from where they are now to where they need to be to say yes to your course, or are you just doing how to content that isn’t actually converting them?
And then sticky stories. So, again, building in that relatability stories that really stick. And you can the way you can tell this is are people staying to the end of your webinar? Are people sticking around? Are they opening your emails? Are they engaging with your offer? And if they’re not, then the chances are you need to just go back and build in more of that storytelling and more of yourself so that people can buy into that.
Okay. And then we’ve got Converse. We’ve got the easiest pitch.
So this is at the end of your webinar. Are you not just are you are you reading through your modules and your bonuses, or are you constantly making sure that you’re connecting the modules and the bonuses to what’s going on in their life at the moment, explaining to them how how it’s gonna improve their life, how it’s gonna aid the transformation that you’re promising. And, again, the way you can measure this is are people sticking around to the end of your webinar, or are they dropping off?
Your million dollar sales page, is this, is it converting? Is is the the first thing to think about? Are you converting at five to eight percent, which is what you should be getting with an evergreen webinar funnel like this?
Is it templated? Are you pulling out generic pain points, or are you have you got your customer research and you’re reading their mind and you’re empathizing with them deeply? You’re as they’re reading through, they’re thinking, oh my god. Yes. This person gets me. Important on an evergreen sales page because again, these people don’t know you. They haven’t been on your list for months and months and months.
So it’s even more important that you show them you understand where they are and that they can trust you to guide to guide them.
And then finally, conversion emails. Again, emails are rich in voice of customer that are addressing different objections objections that are coming up in your customer feedback loop, which we’ll talk about in a second.
Are people opening them? Are people clicking through? Is your click through rate for each email above two percent?
Okay. And finally, optimize. So data tracking. Are you tracking every point of your funnel, and do you understand how it all ties together? So your cost per lead, your click through rate on your ads, your opt in page conversions, how the amount of people that show up for your webinar, and the amount of time they spend on your webinar, your sales pitch, your versions, your open rates for emails, your click through rates. Are you measuring all that, and are you measuring it month monthly and looking at how things are changing each month?
Your customer feedback loop. Do you have a ten point customer feedback loop built in? Do you have survey set up? Do you have opportunities for your customers to engage?
Are you finding out why people are converting versus not converting? Are you running strategic tests? All of these things will help you understand your audience better. So if anything’s not converting, you can use your data tracking to identify where and you know what to change around your messaging.
And this also applies to seasonal changes as well. For example, let’s say you have an outgoing copywriting course, that converted amazing in twenty twenty two. Then in January twenty twenty three, your conversion rates dropped and you don’t know why. If you had that customer feedback loop set up, you could say, oh, okay.
Because everyone’s freaking out about about AI, but I’m not addressing that in my messaging. So do you have these points set up so you understand what is getting in the way for your audience? And then finally, conversion hotspots. Once you’ve got that feedback, do you know where to put it?
Do you know where to put that the voice of customers so that you are having the biggest impact of your conversions and you’re not just constantly randomly rewriting, ripping pile funnels, start again, wasting all this time just hoping, praying that something’s gonna convert.
Okay. Cool.
Thanks. So you should hopefully have something that looks a little bit like this, maybe a bit less colorful unless you you’ve got your crayons. So now we’re you should be able to identify three to four points, for you to now go away and work on. So if your problem is that, okay, you are making some sales, but it’s just not profitable because all of your money is going to Facebook ads. You wanna go and you wanna look at your Facebook ads, you wanna work on your opt in page, see if you can get that conversion rate up, and maybe have a look at your offer. Is there room to put the price up a bit more so you’re more profitable? And then, of course, getting this customer feedback loop built in so you can see why people, why your leads are expensive, what what you can do to actually improve that.
Is your is it the case that your sales are inconsistent? Sometimes, some months are gray, other months are poor.
Again, you wanna build this customer feedback loop in so you can see what’s changing. You want someone working on your Facebook ads so that they can respond to these seasonal changes and then be going through these conversion hotspots through your funnel from the top to the bottom to optimize based on what it is that’s changing.
And if you’re not getting sales at all, then or you’re you’re just making a couple, like, nowhere near that five k that you want, then the chances are you need someone to come in and set up this day one evergreen funnel for you.
So if you do just have a couple of points here, then that’s awesome. Go away. Give give this to your team. Get my book for the to get the ten conversion, the the customer feedback loop.
If you’re thinking, okay. I just really love someone to just set this up for me, then my team has one space available per month. Not only will we set it up, but we’re also available to optimize. So it’ll be like having someone on your team that’s gonna review the customer feedback loop every month and then improve the funnel so that you your comp until your conversion’s where you want them to be, and then, again, respond if anything dips. So I’m gonna be dropping a link to book a call with me, come to that call with your drawing today ready, and, yeah, we’ll have a chat and see if we’re a good fit. Any questions?
Okay. That’s it.
Good job, Abby.
Alright.
Let’s share any notes. Who would like to go first to share feedback for Abby?
Otherwise, I’ll choose you. So put up Andrew’s first and then Claire.
Right.
Yeah. That was really good, Abby. Definitely lit some fire under my butt to to get my workshop going and hopefully get it as good as yours is.
I would say my number one point of feedback, would be to really slow down, a good bit. There were parts where you were going through it really fast, and it’s like, I could keep up with you because I kinda know a lot of this stuff. And what you’re talking about, you know, getting customer feedback or, like, conversion rates and sales pages that add address objections, I’m right there with you. But I feel like if I’m someone who is that’s not marketing is not my main thing, I would need you to go a lot slower so that I can understand what you’re talking about.
I wrote that down when you were going through the diagnostic at the mindset mindset shift. Like, I know what you’re talking about about we need to, like, shift people’s mindsets, but you kinda blew through it a little bit. So I think if you went, like, maybe, like, half the speed, that would probably help, a little bit.
And then in terms of, like, stuff that I really liked was when you’re going through the diagnostic, when you had things like the exit like, when you were doing the customer feedback loop, you had like, you used the example of, like, AI. You know? Oh, is my messaging not resonating anymore? Because everyone’s freaking out about AI, and we haven’t addressed that.
That specificity was helpful.
Same thing with the last one, the conversion hotspots of, like, asking questions. Like, okay. You’ve collected this feedback. Do you know where to put it, where to implement it?
I feel like that was helpful.
And I just wanted to check on in the beginning, would you could you say it was supposed to be three hundred to two thousand dollars, or was it higher than the other typo?
No. Yeah.
You might have a typo.
So Okay.
Okay. Yeah. Three hundred to two thousand.
Yeah. It goes to twenty thousand. I was like, oh, damn. That is a high ticket offer.
Nice. Okay. Yeah. No mid ticket. Thank you.
I didn’t notice that.
But, yeah, big biggest piece of advice would be just, yeah, slow down. Like, the content taught the content is really good, I thought.
So Thank you, Andre.
Her goal was so nice.
Claire.
My feedback is is really simple.
First, like, there were a few points where I really loved. You got, like, super specific. You just gave me an example, and I went like, oh, okay. I get what that is now. But you didn’t do it for all of them. So I some of them, I was like, okay. Following along.
But those super specific points were, like, really convincing, I suppose. And then same feedback on slowing down. I’ve gotten that feedback, like, a million times as well. Slow it down. Say less.
Say say things simpler as well. I think, my biggest piece of advice that I got from Cody was, sometimes they don’t understand what you’re saying because you’re overexplaining, which is, like, kind of the opposite of what you’re trying to do when you’re overexplaining.
So just by keeping it to, like, one, I suppose, big idea, per section, it makes it a lot easier to slow down and not catch yourself over explaining.
And then lastly, I really loved your presentation. I haven’t done a presentation at all. I hope that I’m instantly jealous.
But I really loved your presentation. I thought it was super cool to be able to follow along.
I think as you go, you’ll probably find you don’t say as much as you did just as you get, like, more comfortable with the content. But, the end was also really, really great. I love the Calendly visual. I just felt so like, okay. Today.
Yeah. I hate that.
Thank you. Helpful.
Anyone else wanna share some notes for Abby?
No?
Okay. I’ll share mine. Abby, I loved it. I thought you did a great job overall. The opening numbers and the promise right out of the gate, it’s like a super solid hook.
The case studies, well done. I do have a note that you’re talking a blue streak. That’s not what I wrote.
So can you ask questions earlier on? Like, have you experienced this too?
Something like that just to bring people in. I know when it’s recorded in advance, then that’s really, like, tricky, but even maybe slowing down could solve it there.
Okay. So early on, I have at ten o seven my time, which is probably about four minutes into the presentation.
I I would love you to say, hey. Yes. You can work with me and my team directly, and, like, just get ahead of that because I am definitely in your target market. And as somebody who would rather outsource this work, then try to get my team to do it ourselves.
Yeah. I was like, my question was immediately. Can we just hire you for this? So you could say, yeah.
You know, you can work with me directly. I’m gonna walk you through this because we only accept three clients a month. Also, I think you should say three clients a month, not one. So it sounds bigger, like a larger group.
You can only take on one. Then if you want, you can take out as many as you want to at that time, but I would open it up to three.
So then say, yes. You can work with me directly. I would also love, at that point, for you to say what your prices start at.
There’s no reason to not do that. Yeah. So give it a shot, and make it a nice high number.
You’re presenting really well, and you clearly know your stuff, and you have good case studies.
The only thing that would make a person think you should be less than fifty thousand dollars at minimum is you not saying fifty thousand dollars to start. So, like, if you don’t have a fifty thousand dollar budget, you’re not a good fit to work with you. You’re just not. So no. So fifty, sixty, whatever that number goes to, but say it. Even though it’s scary, this is what the whole point of this thing is, not just to get the leads you could otherwise close, but, like, new leads, more money. So I want you to do that.
You need more build up to the fact that you’re gonna be drawing today. So I would say earlier on, hey. By the way, just as we’re kicking off and while people are still filing in, you’ll need a piece of paper and a pen today. It’s not that’s not an art class. Don’t worry. But you’re gonna wanna draw something. I’m gonna show it to you.
I don’t understand the leaf the need for the leaf shape.
Because it’s evergreen.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I know. It’s really corny, but I just like No.
Because I I I had a design when it’s not in the green belt.
Leaves are seasonal.
Yeah. I don’t I just gave it to a sign designer. I was like, can you make this, like, not look like Joe’s?
From your from my side of things, I was drawing it, and I didn’t know what the lines off the leaves are meant to be.
So, like, when you have a triangle and you put those lines in there, the triangle is meaningless. As soon as you make something a shape, then everything on it needs to be part of that, like, metaphor.
And so if I’m thinking, okay, these are leaves, what are the three pokey things coming off the side then? So for me, like, I’m just it didn’t connect, and so I didn’t know why I was drawing three leaves. I didn’t know what was expected.
I know Andrew’s really trying to make it evergreen there.
Yeah. So just know that as your audience drawing it, I didn’t give myself enough room possibly because I wasn’t set up to know to draw this thing. The leaves felt like a artsy exercise that I couldn’t do, and it’s one more point of friction. Right? Like, did I draw a good leaf?
That’s just like come on. But I love starting with the circle in the middle. I love the four parts.
What I a couple notes.
When you’re going through, you’ve got, like, metrics and yes, no. I’m gonna look through and see if I can find a blank version of the scorecard that they gave us at their workshop, because you might wanna also follow this workshop up with shipping out that or bring the work and I’ll show it to you, and I’ll send you separate loom so you know what I’m talking about. Simply because what you’re talking about like, you’ve got numbers and how to tell if this is a yes or no. I didn’t love zero five ten either. I I think simplify it down to red, yellow, green.
It’s just like five zero ten.
I was copying it.
I know. I hate it. And I only do it because the sun doesn’t have, like, the sunshine growth model and zero like, the red, yellow, green doesn’t work on a sun. So that’s where it’s bad, like, where it falls apart from me.
But I don’t I know I know that’s what I do. I don’t like it, and so I wanna coach you to do it the easier way, which to me is red, yellow, green, or something really simple like that where there’s a three part thing. Okay.
Bum bum bum. Let me see. I took some good notes on, like, the actual content. Like, that was good. I have notes here for self.
Oh, when we get to oh, yeah. Million dollar sales page, I would love you to rename that for the purposes of this workshop simply because that’s the only thing that has million dollar or a price or, like, a, like, a outcome attached to it. So for me, I was like I mean, easy yes is another thing. Also, it sounded like you were saying easy ass to me. Just so you know, it came off as easy ass. And I was like, let me see what she writes down here.
So there’s that. But million dollar sales page, I would give it something else that sounds different just because I wrote, makes it sound like success is all on this.
Suddenly million dollar sales page had much heavier weighting than anything else, and I was thinking, do we just need a better sales page?
And that’s not the takeaway that you want.
Ta da. Couple more notes, then I’m done.
Oh, yeah. When we get to optimize, I felt like so you opened with data tracking. I needed a story there. Like because you say you can find places where there’s where money is basically hidden is effectively what you were saying there.
Like, you won’t know unless you’re tracking that. And you walked us through a bunch of great metrics, which was great. But then I was like, wouldn’t it be cool if at this point you were to say, for example, or whatever that QBO one was, we noticed x here, we optimized it, and we brought in another twenty thousand dollars in that in the next quarter or something like that. Right?
So I’m like, oh, damn. But then I was like, well, if you could do that.
It closely tied to the data tracking ties to conversion hots hotspots. Once you track data, then you know where to put it in these hotspots. Right? So I was confused about why the ten point thing was between the two.
So I wrote, what if for optimize, you first open with the ten point feedback loop, then you do data tracking, and then conversion hot hot spots, which would allow you to finish with a case study example. Like, oh, and when we did this and now we’re ending on a really high note. Money outcome. I remember why I want you to do this because although I can see that I’m red here, green there, yellow there, I know that I want you to do it if I remember that you you make money for people, which leads me to final notes.
We dropped the model pretty quickly.
What I would love is you spent a lot of time, I think, saying, like, if this is true for you, if that is true for you, etcetera, I had just finished with you should have have an idea of where your weaknesses are and what you should work on next. Don’t say give it to their team. You can imply that. You can say that earlier on.
Like, I’ll give you enough that you can go forward and do this yourself. But at this point, like, close them, and that’s really it. Like, now is the point where I’m like, I’ve seen that I’m really right in a lot of places. Those all seem expensive, and, like, I’m really gonna need to train my team on how to do those things.
So don’t say go give it to your team. Instead, you could say, I mean, the red parts, is your team ready to do those parts? Are they qualified to optimize all of those parts?
Don’t minimize what you do. You started talking using verbs like set up. I’ll set this up for you.
No. Like, you’re not setting it up. That’s even when you do, it’s just not a good verb. Like, we’re we’re we’re this for you as we’re watching.
Like, wow. She, like, knows her shit. She can do this. And then I was brought down to maybe your team can maybe you can buy the book.
Maybe I can set it up for you. You know? So, no. And then book a triage call with team. Don’t put yourself in your Calendly even if you have to make somebody up. Someone else is your setter.
So make sure it’s like you can book a call with so and so from my team, and then go from there. It just elevates your price again and again. Like, oh, damn. Just sales team.
Yep.
The workshop’s selling. It’s doing a great job. I think if you simplify the model, slow down a bit, you’re good.
Tell people. Yes. You can charge me. You you can hire me. It’s fifty thousand to start or whatever the price is. What is the price to start?
Thirty five. To start. That prices start at thirty five.
Right. And then you build on the retainer after that?
Well, I’m gonna I think I’m gonna say like, I’m gonna build in an obligate not not a retainer, but just like, I’m here if you like if things don’t work. Like, I’m on I’m here for forty days just to work with your team if anything’s not working, and then recommend, like, you should really do the three the retainer as well.
Well, you should because your model Andrew knows what’s coming. You know your model.
Your this optimized you’ve sold us on it. It’s in the freaking model. It’s right here. How am I gonna go forward and data track and update those conversion hotspots?
You sold us on a thing here.
Like, you have done the work.
Okay.
That’s all. You know what my take is here.
So, yeah, any other notes or thoughts from anybody else for Abby?
I I just wanna tack on to what you just said, Joe, about, like, making this goes back to that that post that I made a while back about not making your monthly retainer separate from the offer to just make it part of the whole thing from the beginning so that it’s just the natural next stage of your product. It’s not a separate thing.
I so agree with that.
Yeah. Totally. It’s it’s it’s built in. I I attended this both as me here for you, but also as a person who would hire you for this. And if I heard, oh, you don’t necessarily need me for that part. I’d be like like, what are you talking about? But who’s gonna handle my conversion hotspots?
Like, what?
What’s happening? Who’s gonna look over my survey data? What?
So, yeah, Andrew made a really great point. I don’t know if you’re being tentative about selling yourself because you’re in a room with us and maybe with strangers. You’d be, like, more on the nose about how awesome you are, but wherever you do this next, lay it on.
Yeah. Reason to. Okay? Please?
One other tiny thing too. You just said a couple a couple minutes ago, Abby, about I’ll be there in case something’s not working. Like, you don’t even wanna say in case something’s not working because don’t even put that in their mind. Just if you wanna reframe that even as to make sure everything goes smoothly. Mhmm.
Mhmm.
You know?
But don’t even put in the possibility that something might not be working.
Yeah.
Okay. Love it. Good? Thank you. Bye. That’s Abby, nice work.
That’s lots of noise. Very helpful. Thanks.
Awesome. Marina, you’re up. You ready?
Of course.
K. After just a heads up for everybody who’s like, I need a bio break.
After Marina’s talk and our feedback session, we’ll take, like, a five minute break and then come back for Claire’s. Okay?
Cool. Awesome. Thanks, Marina.
Alright.
Take it away.
Tell us who your ICP is and everybody upfront first, please.
Yes. So ICP, CMO, VP marketing, twenty to a hundred million, b two b SaaS, with a reverse trial. So they start with a trial and then go to a freemium kind of model.
So that is who you are.
Alright. Thank you for Sorry, Maureen.
I hate to interrupt you. What remind me just really quickly.
Persona.
Sorry. Just just again. How much the persona who are you talking to at that ICP, and how much do they bring in a year? ICP years?
So we are b to b SaaS brands that are twenty to a hundred million.
Twenty to a hundred million.
And I’m talking to CMO, VP marketing, head of Okay.
Perfect. Sorry. Thank you. I had a restaurant instead of pen. Okay. Thanks.
Okay. All good.
Alright. Today, we’re gonna talk about how you can get more of your free users to convert to paid plans. So for our session today, grab a piece of paper and a pen. Don’t worry.
Not an art class. As long as you can read the notes on your diagram when we’re done, you will be good to go. So we’re specifically going to be talking about using, action triggered emails, message met sales pages to get your free users to to upgrade to a paid plan. Now these are users that have gone through your trial.
They have not converted yet, and there they are. We want them to feel good about the upgrade so they leave you a good review.
Now the next twenty five minutes, they’re gonna be valuable to you if you are a CMO, head of growth, VP of marketing, if you’re a b to b SaaS brand that generates twenty to a hundred million in annual revenue, these types of brands are the ones I work best with. Companies like Bitly, QR code generator, where we’re continuing to increase conversions strategically, by rewriting and optimizing emails and so on. Now I’m not the first person to share big brand names with you. So let me clarify.
These brands are not filled with people I knew before I started working with them. I got this work because this is exactly the type of work I’m building my reputation around. Further, I don’t pretend to have the perfect solution for you right here and now. Your company is not built on templates or you wouldn’t be here right now.
I may have the solution for you, but I’m not gonna hand you like it’s not like a trick where I say, oh, let’s all of a sudden stop letting those nine hundred and ninety five out of every one thousand free users sit in that free plan, sucking support resources indefinitely while taking space in your CRM, space you pay for every month.
Instead, I’m gonna help you see where your challenges are, and you’re going to discover them today for yourself in today’s workshop. So if by the end of our twenty five minutes together, you believe that my team is the only one that can stop the bleeding, fix what’s broken, reshape your conversion program into a superhuman sales generator, then you’ll be invited to book a conversion consultation with my team.
If that call proves that we should work together, you’ll be invited to invest twenty thousand dollars for my team of trained experts to establish your free to paid post convert, post trial free to paid strategy, roll out that strategy, including getting all of the automation set up. You won’t have to do a thing with that. And then five thousand dollars a month thereafter to optimize it. Because as you know, if you set and forget, it’s just going to go downhill.
Now my team has room for two clients. We take on very few clients, so we can serve them extremely well, and we always serve them on an ongoing basis.
Because while what I do seems magical, it’s not a magic trick.
So now let’s see what’s happening with your post trial free to paid program.
We’re gonna use my diagnostic tool to see what’s holding you back from driving more of those free users into paid plans.
So get that piece of paper out, and I’m gonna get you to go ahead and draw a triangle right in the middle of your paper.
So draw a triangle right in the middle of your paper, and here we go.
So we’re going to have, something on this side. We’re gonna say activate.
Don’t worry if your penmanship is awful. It’s alright. As long as you can read it, you’re good to go.
And we’re gonna have a few things on that activate side.
Alright. As we go along, I’m gonna get you to write the things in as we go, and then we’re gonna see where are you at, red, yellow, or green. Red being like, never even thought about this. We don’t have this, or it’s just not performing well.
Yellow is things are just like status quo. They’re not going up or down. We can’t seem to budget. And green, is we are doing great.
Now as we go through, you might think, my goodness. I don’t know the numbers for this.
Or you might be like, oh, I had some of the numbers for the last board meeting. I don’t know where we’re at right this second. No worries. We’re looking for sort of rolling averages. What is the general trend? Because we can always go back and get specific numbers later.
So let’s start over here, and let’s talk about open rates.
So you’re sending your free users emails.
Are they opening them?
Red, yellow, or green, generally?
Are you like, yeah. I’m happy with my open rate. I think people are opening them. We have some pretty cool subject lines. It’s getting them to open them. You might think you’re green.
Great.
Moving along then, we move to click rates.
So once they’re open and they’re in that email, are they actually clicking on the button or clicking on the link? And I don’t mean clicking unsubscribe. I mean, are they clicking on the call to action that you have in that email so they can go and do the thing that you want them to do?
So if your click rates are, like, great. Give yourself a green. If they’re, like, sometimes people are clicking, but it’s not going up at all. Or maybe it’s, not looking good at all, and you’re like, we can get them to open, but they don’t do anything.
So I’m gonna put us a yellow here.
And just on your diagram, put whatever it is that you think for your company.
Now the next thing we’re gonna think about as we are activating because these users, they might have gone through that free trial already. They may have opened things. They may not have opened things, but we know that they didn’t actually understand the value. Otherwise, they would be using or they would have converted to paid. They would have done something.
So now we have this time to value. Do you have your post trial, user journey map mapped out so that those users that went through that trial didn’t really get to value? How are you getting them to value post trial? Because they are there sitting in your free plan. Are they getting to value?
Now if that if you’re like, I don’t even have a map, we send out a few post, trial emails, and that’s it. Probably sitting at red there.
If you have thought about it, have a few things, you might be yellow. And if you’re like, oh, we’ve mapped out the whole process. We know how we can get them to, that value. Great. You’re green.
Now I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you might be red on that because if we would have had people already experiencing that value, we might not be talking.
Alright. So now this next side of the triangle of our conversion triangle, we’re gonna call it sticky.
How can we get these free users to actually use the product? So we might have them. Maybe we can get them opening, those emails.
K? We’re gonna it’s this progression. Maybe we can get them opening the email. Maybe we can get them clicking. Maybe we can get them to value, but can we get them to stay? Let’s see.
Because if they’re not gonna stay for the freed, they’re definitely not gonna a free plan, they’re definitely not gonna stay for the paid. So over here, we want them to commit to something.
So, they’re committed to something, and this could be maybe, you have as part of your, features that they can invite a team member, and maybe they can do still do that on a free plan. So if they’ve invited a team member, great. Perhaps they are uploading data In order to use your software, appropriately, they need to input data. And if they’re doing that, it shows that they’re somewhat committed. They’re invested in that. Or if they’re including it as part of their tech stack, maybe there’s some integration. They’re starting to integrate that.
So we wanna know, are they committed? And maybe you’re like, you know, some of people are doing this, but it’s not really it’s not really increasing.
Give yourself a yellow. If nobody’s really, taking advantage of it, give yourself a red. And if you’ve got lots of people integrating already, give yourself a green.
Alright.
Next up.
If they are doing that, then we need to look at daily active users or weekly active users. So this is dependent on, what your software is. Do people need to be in there every day? Do they set something up, look at it once a week? What is the process? So for your, software situation, think about how people are, how often people are in, the app doing something.
If they are increasingly doing things in app, give yourself a green. If it’s staying the same, yellow. And if it’s kinda tanking, give it a red. So you might be yellow here.
Alright.
Again, I don’t know your current situation. If we have a chat later on, if you decide to book a call with the team, we can dig into this more at that point.
Now the next thing on this sticky side is we have increased feature usage.
So if they have invited a team, great. If they’re in the app more often, great. They came to your app to solve a problem.
They’ve got your software. They because they think, hey. Your software is the answer to this problem.
If over here, we finally got them some value, they’re like, okay. Yes. I can do this thing.
Now in order for them to stick, we want them to expand that expand the number of your, features that they are using. So they’re using the thing they came for, and they have confidence in that. And now they’re like, I wonder what else we can do. Because as we expand this feature usage, that’s where we can start selling things in the plan. Like, oh, you want the plan because you can also do this other thing.
So, in general, are users using more features? Give yourself a green, staying the same yellow, and kinda decreasing, give it a red.
So you might think, okay. Well, I’m kinda yellow on that on that sticky side. Alright.
And, again, it’s kind of this progression.
Now we come to convert.
So here we are at the bottom, and we have looked at all these things. Now we can finally talk about conversion and what are some other things that are going to be influencing conversion. So now we’ve got them in the product. They have some value, and we’re like, great. They’re ready to convert.
And then we look, and we’re like, oh, but are they?
Let’s look at support tickets. Now you might think, oh, I don’t know. I’m not in there talking about support tickets all the time. I don’t know.
Do we have lots? Do we? K. If you have not heard about the number of support tickets your team is, processing, you’re probably good.
But if you’ve heard a lot of stuff and people are complaining and going like, can you do something about this? Like, our, we can’t handle the volume of support tickets. Like, it’s too much. If that’s the case, we’re looking at red.
If you’ve heard sort of murmurings, maybe it’s yellow. Yellow with the mind of, oh, we need to do something about this. Because if we have lots of support tickets and I don’t mean the support tickets that are asking simple questions. I mean, they’re angry about things because they don’t understand the product.
And so you think, why are they asking us about these things? It’s because look back to this first side, this activate side, we’re obviously not getting them the information they need so that they can see the value. Because once people start seeing the value, we’re gonna have a whole different kind of support ticket coming in. It might just be a simple question rather than a rage against the product.
Alright. The next thing, product reviews, and the review rating.
Now this is something that a quick search of Trustpilot, Capterra, g two, that’s gonna get you your star rating.
And what is it? Maybe think about the last time you looked. What was it? If it was under three, give yourself a red. If it was a three, give yourself a yellow. And four and five, give yourself a green.
We live in a society that people don’t buy stuff without looking for reviews. Think about it. When was the last time you bought something without googling to see a review?
Even simple things. Now think about this. They’re buying this for their business to help them increase their business. Of course, they’re gonna be looking at reviews.
Now, unfortunately, people leave for reviews if they don’t understand the product and don’t think they got value from it. So if we solve the things earlier on, we can get this up. So perhaps right now, you’re thinking, my reviews are not that great.
Don’t worry. It’s something we can do something about.
It is a solvable problem.
And this last thing on the conversion is this time to sale.
Is the time to sale so they finish the trial. They didn’t convert the during the trial. So now you’ve got them on this post trial, road map. You want to get them to that sale.
Perhaps they just needed more time. They didn’t have time to read the emails earlier. Whatever the case, they didn’t get there. Now you’re going to take them on that journey to get to the sale.
Is that time to sale decreasing? So as you look at the number of of users converting in a in a specific time frame, is that number going up, down, or staying the same?
And you might say, you know, it’s just staying the same. We can’t seem to increase the number of conversions in that time frame, meaning you’re having trouble decreasing that, time to sale.
So now at this point, you probably got a pretty good idea of what is happening. There should be no question into your in your mind of what’s getting in the way of you or your team increasing those post trial free to paid conversions.
We talked about perhaps time to value was too long. Users didn’t get there.
Maybe you didn’t have that customer journey mapped out. Maybe there was no plan. Whatever the case, perhaps they finally get to value, but they’re only doing the one thing. They’re not increasing the number of features that they’re using. They’re not exploring those, which means they’re going to sit in that free plan comfortably, sucking your resources forever because they don’t feel the need to, move on to a paid plan.
Perhaps your support tickets through the roof. Angry users feel misinformed, and, research shows that angry users tell nine to fifteen people about their bad experience.
Good experiences, people tell maybe six people.
So what is your customer experience, and can we change that, so that more people are telling about their good experience?
Alright. Here, we’ve gone through this whole conversion triangle in order you know what needs to be happening next.
Some of you, you might think, oh, great. I know what I need to work on.
Maybe share it with your team and they think, oh, yeah. We have capacity to do this. But I’m guessing since you’re here, that might not be the case.
It’s a lot of legwork.
So if you take this away, you think, yes. I don’t wanna leave money on the table. There are huge, possibilities and, for wins on the horizon, you can decide to book a call with my team.
Others are wondering, hey. How can I be one of these two brands that you work with next?
And we say I’m honored to consider, to be considered and say I’m sorry, though, that if we find we cannot work together, I can’t help all the brands that reach out to me. But I can give you a private link to book a call with my team, step one of three. So after you book, after you book, you will have the opportunity to answer three questions.
If you don’t complete the form, I’ll have to cancel the conversion consultation. If, however, you complete the form and my team assesses that we’re unlikely to be a good fit, we’ll have to cancel. But in all other cases, we will proceed with that call. Now bring your drawing from this session to our call because we’re going to use it to create a plan to work towards your goals, using our strategic solutions. So go ahead and start with scheduling your conversion consultation, complete the form, and then be ready to have a candid conversation with me.
Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks, Marina. Notes. Who would like to start? Abby. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. First of all, like, well done for doing it without a slide deck. I feel like it’s a lot to remember, and you just did it really calmly. You didn’t even stumble at all.
So that’s really cool. I have, like, some very specific notes. No. I’m not trying to be, like, nitpicky.
I just found it really helpful when I got specific notes. So Oh, please do. Yeah. I really like the superhuman sales generator.
I thought that was very cool. When you were talking about the optimization, you said about setting and forgetting it, like, and this is a note I’m gonna I’ve made for me as well. I’d love to hear, like, more, like, what because you just said it will go downhill. I could love to hear a bit of drama there, like, the worst case scenario if you don’t optimize.
When you were going through the diagnostic, it was quite high up. So where everybody is, I couldn’t actually see the top. So, like, it’s nice.
Like, we just the very, very top. So I just like to, yeah, make sure it’s lower down.
When you’re going through the activate, like, the open rates, click rates, I would have quite liked benchmarks. Like, I know it’s it’s always difficult with benchmarks because, like, everybody’s a different. But when you’re just saying, like, oh, if you’re getting, like, some some opens, it’s kinda I think a bit of specificity there would have been helpful.
And then yeah. Like, I guess, like, a bigger note with the I didn’t feel like there was, like, a very big clear promise. Like, it was kind of increasing the activations, but I’d love, like, something just a bit, like, sexier.
Like, a bit more like, really kind of selling that promise.
And then, like, this might just be a a meeting, but the with the three sections, you’ve got activate, sticky, and convert. Like, for my brain, I just love, like, three verbs. Like, the sticky just kind of like, even if it was just sticky, it just felt a little out of place for me.
And then when you were talking about support tickets, I loved that research point you gave that just really, like, build my confidence in you. I think just sharing those things really makes you seem like an expert.
But then you connected it to activate, instead of convert. And, like, I guess I can I can understand why it’s in the convert a bit, but I would like like you to kind of lay that out a bit? Like, this is why it has to do with conversions.
And then, yeah, just a really stupid thing, like, the traffic lights because you your your red was pink.
Like, I just because you said red, yellow, green. Like, I wanted to see red, yellow, green. But yeah. No. I thought it was really awesome. And like I said, it’s just, like, very impressive to me that you managed to remember all that without any slides or anything.
Thanks, Abby. Andrew?
Yeah. Cool. Just, great job, Marina.
Just a couple quick fire rapid fire thoughts. I thought that maybe, there might have been, like, compared to Abby with talking about, like, this kind of sales pitch part of it, there might have been a little bit of, like, an overcorrection that might have just been for me. But, like, there’s something you said in the beginning about, like, talking about, like, who you work best best with. And it for whatever reason, it felt to me, like, maybe a little bit too early, to to bring that piece in about telling, like, telling us who you work best with because we’re about to, like, get ready to learn from you. That might just be my opinion. Curious to hear what others say.
And I think there also might be some some work to do around, like, smoothing out the part where, like, I can tell that there’s, a part in the beginning where you were talking about, like, who you’ve worked with and that it wasn’t, like, exactly, like, who you’ve worked with isn’t exactly who you want to work with or something like that. And I I don’t necessarily have a good solution, but there was something Yeah. About that that sounded a bit tentative and sent sent a little bit of a signal that, like, you don’t do this all the time kind of thing. Again, might have just been my my opinion.
And I just felt like maybe it raised a little bit of an objection that I didn’t necessarily have. Like, I kind of assumed that you’re the expert, and then it was like, oh, wait. Like, now she’s telling me that she hasn’t worked with with those, with companies like mine or something like that that I don’t have an elegant solution for you yet.
And, two more quick things. One was along with what Abby said, I think that you could dive a little bit deeper into, like, what the problems are. You said something about, like, this you know, paying for space in my CRM. I could be wrong because I don’t know this audience or I don’t know this problem all that well, but, like, I feel like maybe that’s not the biggest manifestation of the problem is, like, they’re not really worried about space in their CRM. They’re worried about, like, getting more money.
And I agree with Abby that having some specific percentages around open rates and click rates, like, rather than just letting it feel like being left to their sub subjective opinion of how they’re doing. I think it can be really helpful to give me some percentages. Like, I think people love benchmarks and knowing, like, where they stand in comparison to other people.
On the reviews part of convert, I felt like that would be a good opportunity to bring in some data because there definitely is data to support the point that you’re making that people look at reviews. So if you had something where you could be, like, you know, x percent of people, say that the of b to b buyers, you know, say that they consult reviews before, making purchase decisions. Something like that could back that claim up.
And I think you could also get a little bit more granular there. Like you said, like, three, you’re kind of, like, yellow.
I feel like there’s a big difference between, like, someone who’s, like, three point nine, rated and someone who’s, like, four point six, or even, like, four point two and four point six. So I feel like you might be able to get a little bit more granular there, and I think that would make me feel like you’re more of an expert if you do, like like, to the to the tenth.
Like, what what signals, good versus bad. But, yeah, I think that’s about it for me. Hope that’s helpful.
Awesome. Thanks, Andrew. Todd, you had your hand up and then you put it down. So down?
Yep. I’m here.
Sure I’m here. Can everyone hear me? Because I had to restart. Cool. Yeah. Just didn’t wanna clutter it too much.
Mine are basically what everyone else just said. Pretty much the triangle was cut off. I’m really happy that the red, buzzed pink because I am colorblind.
So I was like, oh, okay.
The only thing for me really, there’s a lot of information.
So, again, everyone’s on on point. The only thing I would say, and it’s just because I come from a PR thing, is, to spell out certain words like daily active users, I think, weekly active users, maybe, time to sale. Just because they’re looking at so much information, if they can see it spelled out, it’s a quick reference for them.
And I think as well, I would say, I think you mentioned I don’t know your current situation at one point for clients, and I you you do, though. You’re the expert. So you do know their situation. You have been in that spot.
I would just maybe, if you want, you know, use a use I always call it pays off. Just maybe agitate it. You know? If you’re like some of my clients and give them a quick solution and agitate it, that’s the only thing.
I would say it was it was great. And I’ll be honest, everyone everyone says slow down here, but we are trying to bolt through this workshop. So I think that’s a given. But, yeah, if you can keep it in your mind just to keep your speech just kinda level throughout.
Also, I wanted to say though, great energy. That was really, really good energy. You had you came in with a smile. You came in with a pen and note, and you just kept great energy throughout.
So that was that’s basically it for me. So good job. Well done, Rena.
Thanks, Todd. Claire?
Yeah. I have two notes. The first one was on the product reviews.
I am not I’ve never worked with a company that has had less than four stars.
So I but I have worked with plenty of companies. We’ve had very few reviews and trouble getting reviews.
So I wonder if that’s also not a good signal of, like, review help, to maybe talk about is something that’s more universal. But, again, I don’t know your specific ICP or personas, so that might be useful. They’re showing me the support tickets.
I have haven’t seen people write into support angry. That’s not an emotion I’ve, like, heard of, but they do write in very confused and overwhelmed.
Also, I worry that your CMO doesn’t care that much about support and their outcomes, but is more, like, I guess, self centered. Like, if they can be the hero, great. But it’s not like a priority for them to remove all of support’s messages.
But if you tie supports like, if you tie that overwhelm and confusion of support, through to the time to sale, or time to value as you as you well did, like, in a more I wanna say in a stronger way, that could be really powerful.
Because support reviews are kind of emotional things for for people to fail at.
Awesome. Perfect. Thanks, Katie.
Hey, Marina. I thought you did a really great job.
Like Todd said, really appreciated your energy and, yeah, just like the comfort that you brought to talking about all of this. Like, props for doing it, some slides. The only thing so I agree with a lot of the feedback you’ve already gotten. The only thing that I found that nobody’s mentioned so far was just at the end. You said if your team doesn’t have capacity, and I feel like that can’t be the only thing that their team doesn’t have. Like, it’s, you know, strategy, vision, you know, and capacity, like, on top of that. So just, like, sure capacity is part of the equation, but not obviously not the only thing that they’re lacking.
Yeah. Thanks, Katie.
Agreed. I think one of the I think we’re out of everybody giving feedback, so I’ll jump in with mine. In addition to what everybody has said, yeah, definitely do check when you share your screen. Just make sure, because nobody will tell you. Like, none of us told you. Right? Because we’re all trying to not interrupt you.
So, yeah, double check. Never hurts.
Okay. You’re selling email, but where but but there was, like, very little push on how awesome email is for businesses.
So, for me, I feel like you you really quickly glossed over anything you had done with Bitly.
Spend some time there. Like, you’ve rewritten countless emails in their life cycle, series.
You’ve mapped a customer journey. You have seen that people get lost. Lots of leads get lost, and there’s real expense there. And yet all I really heard was, like like, twelve seconds max about Bitly and QR code generator.
What? Like, that’s anybody in that audience finds this a sexy topic. So you’re allowed to nerd out and spend some time here. So, like, spend time on that. Bring it back to money. Bring it back to how they’re spending money on bringing people into their flow, trying to attract trial users, and then they’re just sitting there. So have an opinion, and make it all about money because the right people will be sitting in the audience going like, shit.
Yeah. And that’s what you want instead of, oh, yeah. She seems nice.
Like, that’s not the point.
Yeah.
Right? Exactly. Abby’s message there. So you are minimizing the stuff that you need to really emphasize, And when you don’t emphasize it, the other parts land wrong because we haven’t heard that you’re an authority yet, and we haven’t got on side with you yet.
So when you say it’s twenty thousand dollars to start and then five thousand a month, we drop off. Right? Like, what are you talking about? What do you even do?
And because you don’t have slides, it’s very hard to go along with that. Right? Like, it’s hard to keep up, so you need if you’re not sharing a visual, you have to really talk through everything.
Like, make it clear, still have energy. And then there’s times when you just do want to share, I mean, you’re not slides. So I was looking up this thing, and this is I’ve talked a bit about how I’m gonna reward myself with this training at some point.
It’s not open right now. Let me just share this with you in chat.
You know, use the Stream Deck and a few other things. And, so you don’t have to show slides on the screen, but you can pop up things on your screen, and I want you to play with that.
Not necessarily take this, but just, like, follow inside the show and start looking at some of the things that they do. Because with a Stream Deck and a little plugin for Zoom, you can, like, hit a button and the Bitly logo pops up next to you. Right? So there are cool things you can do just like that.
You can pull in a testimonial and flash it on the screen from somebody. So it doesn’t have to be a slide deck, but unless you’re going to take a lot of time really driving things home, you need something on the screen. I also think you need, to show me some emails. Like, here are some examples of emails that I’ve written.
Just really ground me in as a member of your audience and, like, oh, okay. Okay. When she talks about this kind of email, here’s what she means.
So okay. Couple more things. Take a few breaks for breath.
Set more things up upfront too. Just like, if you have your water here with you, that’s great. We’re gonna settle in for twenty five minutes. We’re gonna do some drawing. I’m not gonna share a lot of slides.
Make sure you stop for water. I’m gonna stop every so often. Just, like, set that up up front, and then you can stop.
And you can pretend you’re drinking water and just take a fucking breath. Like, just take a breath, but I know what it’s like. I know what it’s like.
Definitely need a promise up front. Dig into the pain. Set up the desire.
I have a few more notes that I can’t read here. I don’t understand on the triangle, what product review rating and support tickets will have to do with you doing the work later. So you’re gonna go through and make sure that support doesn’t get tickets.
You’re gonna do work to increase their product reviews, but you’re really just saying, no. No. Once you have active activated users, these things will all go up. But if if you’re not working on it and it’s on the model, that’s like a flag.
And if you ignore it, it’s gonna be it’s gonna continue to be like but it’s never gonna feel right for you and maybe even for them. So rethink the convert part. There’s no money showing anywhere on your model. Where at what point?
Like, I’m like, where’s the when do I get the money from them? Like, I want the money from them.
So I would think through that as well. But overall, I mean, I think it’s good. You just need to spend more time on things so we really, really get what you can do. And that also means you have to get what you can do. So go over the stuff that you’ve done in Bitly and QR code generator and, like, come up with your cheat sheet of awesome that you, like, need to remember, and it’ll help you.
Cool?
Everything else everybody else said agreed as well.
Oh, yeah. No. I won’t worry about that. But, yeah, I drew a dollar sign with, like, circles around it galore.
Like, where’s the money? Where’s the money? This is the path we’re able to make money. Help them see that.
Okay. That is all.
Thanks, Marina. Any notes or thoughts, Marina or Abby so far? Or, Abby, go ahead.
Can I just ask a quick question? So because I noticed when I did the diagnostic, I, like, wrote it out and then went and did the review, and then read and I just went straight into the view.
I was just wondering, like No.
Agreed. It was actually one of my bigger notes too. I’m not ready to diagnose as I’m going through. Agreed. First, draw the model, tell them about it, and then walk them through. Now we’re gonna diagnose where you’re at.
Yeah. Not as you go. I was I was actually I lost interest a little bit, because I didn’t know, like it doesn’t feel right. So and that could be just for me because I know how it’s supposed to be presented.
But, yeah, just so you know, just do it the way it’s taught. First, you die first, you document everything. Show them the thing so I can zoom out, see that there’s, like, a map of my life cycle right here. And then you can zoom into the parts and say, are you red, yellow, green here, and give your examples in there.
For example, you might be yellow if your numbers are this. Yeah. Totally agree. Thanks for bringing that up, Abby.
Okay.
Abby, Marina, how are you feeling?
Well, I’m glad I have not pitched anybody yet, and I’m thankful for all the feedback because it’s actually helpful Good.
Because I know what to do now. And I think it it is a confidence thing.
Mhmm. Like, as far as, like, pulling out and saying, oh, I’ve done this and that.
So I just need to You just need to write it down and look at it.
Put it on sticky notes all over the place then. Like, I know that might seem like gel.
Why not? If you need to build your confidence, build your confidence, like, actively. It doesn’t build itself.
No.
But I wanted to do this today so that I could get Oh, and you did great. Let me be very clear.
Feedback. Totally.
Because I was just trying to follow that form formula that you add, and I was like, okay. Are these actually my words? I’m like, I’m just gonna do the thing, and then I can review. So thank you everybody for all the feedback. Super helpful.
And just to be clear, these notes are, like sometimes the the formula just needs to be adjusted for you. There are things that I mentioned to Abby for Abby to change, and I’m sure she’s like, but, Joe, I took that from what you taught me. Then she’s like, I’m just not gonna say anything, but this is annoying.
But so just know, like, that’s why we’re doing it live. Not to say, did you follow it exactly, but cool. Was cool. Here’s how you can make it cooler.
Yeah. Cool. Abby, how are you doing?
Yeah. I’m glad I did it because I was like, okay. If I if I, like, book it Monday, then that means I’ll actually make the damn thing. So, yeah, I think, like, tomorrow, I’m gonna start doing pitching five people every day and just see what happens and work on my closing because I know that’s my my week there anyway.
Love it. Amazing.
Okay. So we’ll take three minutes. We’ll be back at twenty two after the hour when Claire will be our final presenter.
Alright? Three minutes. Thanks, everyone.
Oh, a little bit overtime there.
Okay. We are back. We’re here. Good stuff. Ready? Where’s Claire? Claire’s not here. Karen. Oh, there you are.
I just like to lost it in calculation.
Awesome. Okay. Claire, are you ready to go?
I am ready.
I’m gonna stop this all by saying I’m very nuts for some bizarre reason. I was so confident up until, like, well, seven o’clock, which is when this started.
Okay. Wicked. Well, I’m excited. So, tell us who your ICP is, who you’re targeting this toward, and then we’ll dive in.
Sure. My ICP is pretty similar to Marina’s. So it is b to b SaaS companies within the twenty five to fifty million range, so a little bit tighter.
They are either doing a freemium or a free trial, sort of setup at the moment. And I’m talking specifically to the CMO or director of growth, head of growth, that kind of person.
Cool.
Awesome.
Then okay.
Okay.
Today, I’m gonna talk about onboarding your free trial and premium users so that more of them stick around, log back in tomorrow and the next day and the next because the reality is that eighty percent of the users that you’ve worked really hard to get through the front door and to click start trial or sign up now, eighty percent of those users don’t come back tomorrow. They try your product once, give you twenty minutes, and that’s it. They’re out the door, and they are never coming back, unless you can win them back. And using email is a great way to do that.
So specifically using triggered emails, I’ll explain more about that later, but it’s stepping away from the concept of timed emails and dripping things out slowly but surely and more than focusing on sending more relevant, messages at the right time and right context.
So this is gonna be a great use of your time if you are a CMO or head of growth at a b two b SaaS company doing around twenty to fifty million dollars a year.
Companies have worked with me to get results like a thirty seven percent lift in product adoption that was with Invoice Simple.
And then Synthesia has also worked with me to sorry.
For messaging optimization.
And I’ve also partnered with Forget the Funnel and worked on over twenty start ups, onboarding flows to optimize for their growth and retention.
So if this I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve caught email or that the email channel might be useful to you.
But there are some things that you need to remember. First, people do read. Else, LinkedIn wouldn’t exist, and it wouldn’t send you those annoying yet effective notifications to check your feed.
Secondly, you do not have to guess at what to put in your email, and you don’t have to worry that you’re going too long or too short, you’re including too many pictures, no pictures at all. All that is something that you can definitively answer through optimization and testing.
And then just so you know, email is also a seven billion dollar industry at the moment. So it is, again, really clear that people do still check their email inboxes.
Inboxes. So this is gonna be great if you are looking to improve your user activation, free to pay conversion rate, and ultimately conversion, what I’m not gonna do is give you another template or the two minute secret to a sixty eight percent reduction in churn.
This is going to be a bit of a hands on workshop, so get a pen and paper ready while I continue talking.
What we’re gonna walk through today is something called the overpowered onboarding framework. Now if you haven’t heard about what overpowered means, it is a term used for superheroes, and it basically means a character or an object that is so powerful it makes the game easy.
So Superman would be a great example of an overpowered character, and this is going to be something that really makes the email channel easy. It’s gonna answer all the questions and make it simple for you to prioritize what to do next.
So it’s not gonna be a game changer for your acquisition, but rather a game changer for your activation.
Okay. Let me go ahead and share my screen, and we can get into it.
There we go.
Alrighty.
Can everyone see my screen?
Yes. Okay.
Alright. So first step is to draw a big old circle.
Don’t worry if your circle is not perfect. That would prove to you’re insane.
And then another circle on the inside.
Here, I’m gonna write down and say our goal for today is a thirty percent lift in free to paid paid. You’re wondering how much that’s worth if you have, say, ten thousand users who are, signing up and actually paying every month, and they’re on on average paying seventy nine or sixty nine dollars each, then a thirty percent lift is equivalent monthly lift is equivalent to just over two hundred thousand dollars worth of revenue. So it’s a pretty big difference that you could be getting very, very quickly.
One of the best things about onboarding people effectively is that that revenue actually stacks up because your retention naturally increases now that your users fully understand and realize the value that you’re giving them.
Next is to draw a nice Mercedes symbol because we are winners.
And I’m just gonna go ahead and label, so please label with me as we go. Up at the top, we have foundation.
This is what sets the tone for your entire onboarding flow and what is a great foundation.
Next up, we have conversation, which is where you start talking to your oh, talking and writing is difficult. Conversation, let’s just pretend I wrote that correctly.
Where you are, actually talking to your customers and convincing them that creating this great idea. And then finally, on the left, we have personalization.
Sorry, optimization.
Alright. We’re gonna go ahead and divide this diagram in hop again, just each section, a nice little line.
Up at the top, we have insight.
And down below, we have journey.
Next up, we have triggers, and then we have personalization.
Then we have tracking.
And finally, we have testing.
K. I’ll give you all a second to finish writing down.
If you have some colored pens nearby, please feel free to grab those. You can do red, for poor or not so great, orange for it’s kind of okay, and then green for everything is absolutely rosy. I’ll also give you some examples so you’ll know which one you want. If you don’t have colored pens nearby, feel free to do a star system. Just one, two, three stars, three for excellent, one for so good, and two for okay.
Alright. We’re changing over.
Okay. Scientists.
When you are struggling to understand your customers, that means that ultimately what you’re struggling to do is connect your what with your why.
So insight predominantly consists of customer interviews, customer surveys. You could even do some social listening.
You could even do some analysis of your heat maps, basically understanding what people are doing.
You could keep recording and analyzing your demo calls or your sales calls. All of that stuff gives you insight into who you’re talking to, what they value, and what they care about most. So if you’re currently doing one or more of those and you are, actually analyzing it with a regular occurrence, then you can go ahead and give yourself a green. If you are recording things, but maybe not finding the time to analyze them because you’ve got a million other things on your plate, which is totally understandable, think of yourself in orange. And if you haven’t conducted any kind of customer research in the last six to twelve months, that would be a red.
Alright. Next up is journey.
So the customer journey is a very well known phenomenon at this point. It is, however you’re currently tracking it, what you need to hit on for your onboarding is to understand at what points your customer is seeing value. So if you have a customer journey map that walks someone that walks you through exactly where your users are seeing value when they sign up, fantastic.
Give yourself a green. If you’re not so sure and you’re kind of implementing a bit of guesswork, chances are that guesswork is gonna bleed over into the rest of the circle. Right? You’re gonna stop making more and more educated guesses, and they’re gonna start getting less and less educated and more and more guessy.
So give yourself an orange there, that’s something to look at. And if you are not sure about your customer journey at all, you’ve maybe undergone a lot of changes recently, a lot of product updates, If you saw a red, that’s something to prioritize.
Onto triggers.
So historically, we’ve all we’re all very familiar with sending out timed emails. Right? Those are the direct emails sent to you. Maybe you get eight, when you sign up to a new product.
The thing with timed emails is that their quality degrades exceptionally quickly. So sorry. Not quality, but their their metrics. So the open rate, the click through rate, how many people even look at them in their inbox. So if you’re sending more than three emails in a in a row to someone without any kind of interaction from them, so you’re not triggering any, chain reaction in your in your email marketing system, then that would be a red.
If you are sending, emails that are email chains or sequences that are for emails or less, so maybe you’ve only got one welcome sequence and it’s for emails. That’s great. That’s an orange.
If you are sending triggered emails, so you’re tracking your product, you’re tracking your product.
Usage. Sorry about that. You’re tracking your product usage, seeing what features they’re using, what what they’re actually onboarding onto. Maybe if you have multiple products within your within your software suite, then you could trigger emails based on how they sign up to things and and play around. You could also be triggering Winmax, when someone doesn’t hit a certain, beat of of your customer journey, that would be a green.
Next up, personalization.
So it’s very easy to generalize an email and very easy to say something very generic. Right? And the problem of saying things that are generic is that they’re specific to absolutely nobody.
For example, let’s say you are and this is a situation that I ran into with a client the other day. Right? They are serving lots of different types of businesses with lots of different types of use cases. Now the triggers are all the same, but the context is slightly different because these businesses are different types of businesses. We have a food truck or a nail salon.
So instead of saying businesses for every email here, how is how are things going in your business? We say, how are things going in your food truck? How are things going at your nail salon? It’s much more specific, much more personalized.
And that kind of attention to detail is what gets your open rates higher, your click through rates higher.
So if you are personalizing the if you’re personalizing your emails, then you can go ahead and, give yourself a green for segmenting by use case. Right? So if you’re separating people out into use cases like I just described, it could be yourself agree.
If you are not doing anything beyond maybe the name that’s getting personalized in every email and perhaps you’re also doing a trial date in every email, then you can go ahead and give yourself an orange. You’re on the way.
If you’re not doing anything at all, give yourself a red.
Alright. Onto tracking. Now most people are tracking the free to pay conversion rate.
That’s pretty common and pretty easy to do. Some people are also tracking the product adoption rate. Now if you haven’t bumped into that term yet, it’s another fun acronym. You know, marketers love them.
But the product adoption rate or PAI is what we use to tell if someone has truly adopted the software. Doesn’t mean that they’re paying for it yet, but they’ve adopted it. So, for example, Slack only considers someone debated, if they hit the product adoption indicator of getting sort of sending two thousand messages. Right? Anything less, they are not considered activated.
So are you tracking your free to page? Are you tracking your, product adoption indicator? If so, great. You are currently in orange. To take you to green, you will need to be tracking a few more details, something like the engagement rate, how often people are logging back into your software, how long they’re taking to get to various stages of their customer journey, and then as well as their time to value. Right? How long does it take for them to create ultimately?
K. So hopefully that was clear to you all.
Next up is testing.
Testing is really where the magic happens. Right?
So if you are not currently testing, then you’re probably really struggling with the guesswork that’s started over at Journey.
If you if you haven’t really looked at your welcome email in six to twelve months, Your new newest user who signed up, like, three seconds ago has just read it. Right?
Testing means that you can continuously maintain and optimize your results. And if you don’t test, the thing that will happen is that your, your metrics will just slowly decline. It’s like a slow gradual hill of sadness. And at the end of that sadness hill is, unfortunately, the sandbox, which is exceptionally difficult to get out of.
So in testing, you are doing a great job if you are currently checking on your open rate and click through rates every and deliverability every month.
You are also possibly, making some hypotheses about your customers, testing those up, disproving them, or approving them.
If you’re not doing that, but you are checking on things monthly just to see how things are going, or maybe, you have pretty regular product updates, which means that you’re going to be checking.
It means you’re gonna be updating your emails fairly regularly with new screenshots or new messaging, then that’s great. Give yourself a orange. If you’re not doing any testing at all, then you’d be a red.
So this is the onboarding to, the show about onboarding framework.
And it’s great. It’s a circle because you are going to start way back at inside once you’ve gone all the way around and keep going around, keep optimizing, and keep improving with time. And that ultimately is what makes that thirty percent lift a recurring lift rather than just a one sole win.
Alright.
So I haven’t practiced the closing very much.
In true honesty so let me just get my notes. Alright. By this point, you shall know, should know what’s getting in your way the most. Right? It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with a hundred different things, grabbing your focus. And the last thing you wanna do is walk into your next boardroom meeting and give your presentation and watch your CEO kinda glaze over in confusion as you go over the numbers in immaculate detail.
So now you know where to put your focus. You know how to explain what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and how you’re gonna improve it. If that’s something that you need help with or that you’d like to outsource, then you are welcome to book a call with me. I will pop it kindly into a spreadsheet slideshow later on for you to go ahead and click on.
And I’ve lost my track completely. I’m very sorry, but thank you.
Thanks, Claire.
Alright. Okay. Notes for Claire. Who’s up first?
Yeah.
I’ll I’ll I’ll go.
Yeah. Claire, I thought that was that was really good. Like, you’re so funny. I really wanna get coffee with you.
And we can work on our, like, shy girl energy together.
But yeah. No. It was really engaging. That was really fun. I took quite a few, like, notes or just bits I really like. Like, I love the overpowered onboarding framework. And if you do use that tool that Joe said when you, like, describe Superman, if you have a Superman come up, I just love that so much.
There was a bit when you’re talking about insights and you’re talking insights. Sorry. You’re talking about the customer research that you could do. You say you could do this. I kinda wanna be told, like, what I should do, not what I could do.
And then when you’re talking about personalization, like, that just felt like a really good place for a case study to just when you’re saying about specificity, if you could just say I did this for so and so.
And I thought the fact that it’s a circle is brilliant, like, the ongoing going round and round. Like, really, really like that. So, yeah, it it was good. And if you do wanna, like, work on the clothes together, because I just I just get so shy when, like, I’d be happy to do that.
Oh, and just another thing as well, like, because you seem to get a lot more confident as you went on. Like, that’s why I always use a slide deck at the beginning because it just I don’t know. It just makes me feel which, you know, maybe I need to go over that this well. But, yeah, just a tip if if you, like, need something at the beginning to yeah.
But, anyway, I thought it was really good.
That’s so helpful. Thank you. I have a quick question. I don’t just okay.
I went back and forth between personalizing personalization and segmentation for emails and ultimately decided that personalization is very different to segmentation, obviously, and that if different segments are identified in the insights area or the customer journey area, that those should have their own circle. So it’s like other circles for other for other, segments.
Does that track with everyone, or is that sounding fairly confusing and counterintuitive?
So you’re saying so you’re saying this is the core model, and then you’d have a separate one for the personalization part of the model. Like, let’s dig into that, and here’s what that looks like? No.
Like like a big circle is, like, the main say that’s their main identified job to be done. They know very clearly who they’re targeting, But they have all these little satellite ones to the side, which on that important.
Our first engagement would be focusing on the main one. But in future, if they realize that one of their satellites is actually a bit bigger than they thought, we could do the same thing for that one, but it would be a whole new process.
Yeah.
So I don’t know if I’ll I can’t answer that, but what I can say is each one of these sections you have is likely to have its own thing that you would draw. So insights, As you dig in and you’re working with the client more and more, then you’ll do you’ll help their team get up to speed on what you mean by how to tell if we’re doing insight right. So you’ll have a new model that’s, like, breaking down insight, and that might be speaking to, like, the satellite thing that you’re talking to.
But I wouldn’t I wouldn’t draw a satellite in here. I wouldn’t say anything more about these other parts. I might just call it personalization and segmentation just for the sake of, like, simplicity here with your audience.
But don’t I wouldn’t have more stuff going off the side.
You’ve also, like, the circle is in segments, so you could even say, like, the sec you know, segmentation is part of it.
That’s That’s cute.
Little orange segments. Cute. Awesome. Okay. Any other notes for Claire? Katie?
Hey, Claire. Just like kudos for putting yourself out there and doing it. I thought you did really well.
Okay. So things I thought were great. I love when you said, like, how much that’s worth and have that concrete number of, like like, we’re talking about a thirty percent lift, but here’s the what that would be worth to you. I thought that was a great way of bringing the money in.
And I’m sure, like yeah. I don’t know, not much about your client history, but I’m sure that there is room to bring in other case studies. But I did like how you had the food truck versus hair salon example just to give me something concrete, to work with when you’re talking about the personalization.
I also like the example with Slack. Like, Slack doesn’t consider, was it product adoption metric reached until two thousand messages?
So one thing I thought you could work on was, and I’m just looking at myself. Like, I don’t think I have actually had any other, like, changes. But I wrote the drama that moment that you talked about, like, your you have looked in your onboarding emails for six months, but the person who just signed up looked at them a few minutes ago.
I just felt like that’s such a good moment, and I felt like it needed a little bit more build up to really hammer home, like, what kind of, you know, how we, like, build up that moment of high attention. Like, why does that matter?
What is that worst case scenario? Like, what are the implications of that, versus just, like, locating me in that moment, but not really, like, having me realize why it has been important for me to inhabit from that moment. Does that make sense? So, like okay.
So I’m thinking about that. I’m like, oh, shit. Yeah. Who knows if I have, like, COVID references in my in my onboarding emails or something?
But if that new user looks at it, what is what is that irrelevant is going to cost me, basically.
Yeah. And then so I just wonder I have a question mark if that if where you at it was the best place for that or if building that moment up more towards the end could be a great segue into your pitch of, like, this is your worst case scenario.
Don’t have that. Hire me. So maybe moving that from where you had it, I believe you had that within testing.
I wasn’t really clear on its relevance to testing. I saw it as more of, like, keeping your onboarding fresh and, you know, optimized.
So for me, it just felt like it should have been pulled out of testing and then use more as that pivot into your closed.
Does that make sense?
That makes total sense. Yeah. So I pull it out of the pull it out of the circle and use it for the close?
Use it to the pivot. Yeah.
That’s so helpful. Thank you. Because I have no idea how to transition. That’s kinda where I went like, oh, crap. It’s done. What?
Do you know?
That’s really helpful. Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks, Katie. Marina.
Hey, Claire.
You’ve got so many gems in there, and I was like, oh, that’s how you could say that. Oh, that’s how you could say that. But I had to listen so carefully because they were sort of hidden in just, like, I think a little bit of, like, vocal variety or, change in speed of saying things or, like, varying the energy so that, like, you’ve got a ton of good things in there. And I was like, oh, that’s really cool.
That if they just, like I know you’re nervous. I get it. You’re probably probably throwing up too.
Maybe I’m projecting. But, anyway I don’t know.
But but it would totally then it would be like these little zingers, And then you’ve got, like, this wicked under, like, quiet sense of humor that then it would bring that out too. And so then I I don’t know. I just think you’ve got a lot of good things going in there. And it’s kind of like, maybe just think about it as taking a highlighter mentally and go going, okay. I need to highlight these bits and, like, really, like, come out a bit more instead of ending, like, with your kind of, like, a question.
Right? And just Yeah. Yeah. This is me telling you. So this like, I’m try I I’m not one to talk.
But seeing it in yours, I was like, oh, okay. She could totally if you’re just, like, pushing this one little bit and pushing this one little bit. And I can’t remember all the things because I was, like, listening and going, oh, that’s how you can include something without it coming across seeming like, you were bragging on yourself, but it didn’t come across as like, oh, I’m so great, and I did this in a bad way. It came across as like, oh, she knows what she’s she’s talking about.
But then just, like, zing it out a little bit more so I don’t have to, like, listen for it quite so deeply, if that makes sense.
That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I I I’m really grateful for that feedback. It’s so specifically helpful.
Sun Sinic actually has a new course I’m presenting, which I’m desperate to do.
Yeah. He’s so convincing.
Yes.
Anyway, nice nice work. Obviously, lots of work has gone into it.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thanks, Marina. Todd.
Yeah. Mine is pretty quick, Claire. And I could be wrong. It might not be relevant, but I believe you spoke to email as a seven billion dollar industry.
And, you know, I will kinda just look at Joe for this one. In ten x emails, you speak to for every, know, every dollar you spend on email marketing, and the average return is, like, forty four dollars and twenty five cents or something. So maybe it could be a setup for ADA as you move them through. Like, did you know if you do this, you get this back?
And let them know, like, there’s not just we’re not just selling your service, but you should expect a return on what you’re getting kind of idea and just set them up. Like, you’re the expert again in it and just like, yeah. Come with me, and this is not a cost. This is an investment kind of idea and just really set it up because you’ve talked to such a big number.
But if you can bring that back and just put that in their in their court and let them know, like, we’re expensive for a reason kind of idea, but I’m not sure if that’s relevant or not.
Love that. Agreed. I think there were a few number of points in there that needed more, like, push on. That’s one of them. Your line eighty percent don’t come back. I wrote down and circled like, damn, that’s terrifying.
Eighty percent don’t come back.
So there are a lot of moments there. I was like, if you need calculators, you need, like, to show what that adds up to, how much you spent only to have them vanish. Like, no wonder marketing looks flat.
You early on, you picked a fight sort of with blast emails, but then it wasn’t until you were getting to the trigger part of the model that you really dug into why, like, a broadcast or blast email isn’t as good as a triggered one. I would have liked you to pick a fight with it earlier and then just continue the fight when you get to triggers.
So, like, bring me into the problem with blast or broadcast emails, which the vast majority of these people are doing.
So why they should stop doing that.
What else have we got?
You said it’s a game changer for activation, but not for acquisition. And I didn’t know why you bring up acquisition at all, just, like, focus on activation when you were talking about the overpowered onboarding framework. You’re like, this is a game changer for activation.
It is not for act for acquisition. It’s like, shush. Shush. Don’t talk about acquisition. No. No. That’s not actually activating.
I’ve got a great diagram if we have, like, a few minutes afterwards that I wanted to quickly If it shows up on the slide, then that’s one thing.
But I’m like, I don’t know if you’ve read straight line selling. I’m talking about it a lot these days, the Jordan Belfort book. But, it’s it’s what he would call Pluto.
So it’s too far out. Don’t bring come back. Come back. Let’s not talk about that part.
I also thought that you could okay. Two things and we’ll wrap up.
You did get more confident as you went. I totally noticed that. The more you practice, the more the parts are, like, second nature to you, the better and more engaging the whole thing is. And I know you hadn’t practiced the clothes or things like that, so that’s fair.
But just know that if it ever feels like, is it even worth it? The more you practice it, the you’ll it’ll be a natural thing. You are funny, and you’re friendly and likable. There’s a lot of good stuff there, but now we just gotta nail your delivery.
Like, that’s it. Just practice a bunch of times.
The thirty percent lift in the middle, I’d love to see you pause, and I think you’ll do that more as you get more chill with, like, presenting like this.
What’s nice about, like, Abby’s five k in the middle is it’s a number that I want. I want that number. Thirty seven thirty percent lift is not yet a number. It’s just like this wonder like, this great idea.
I would love you to be able to before you even draw your model, to put them through a very simple calculation, and just say, like, look. Don’t worry. We’re not using this for, like, the wrong purposes. Just set up just put context around it, but what you want is them to have a number to put in the middle of the circle.
So if you can help them do the calculation of what a thirty percent lift would look like and then extrapolate that, like, maybe say, okay. Now annual. Like, just figure it out how you can get that number in the middle to look really compelling. Like, oh, I could make eight thousand dollars a day, and I’m currently making four dollars a day.
That sounds awesome. Thanks.
But if you can do the calculation now, I’m, like, very keen on this instead of thirty percent lift.
My final note here is I’m not in love with some of the word choices across the model.
Foundation threw me because it was up high, and I want a foundation to be down low.
So I’m like, no. That’s a sky up there. I’m very literal.
But I thought that you could do a, like, a SaaS sweep.
Now that you’ve got these six parts in place with their three labels, go back through and make it feel what words can you use? Because right now, what we have for foundation conversation optimization, insights, journey, triggers, personalization, tracking, and testing, that’s all like, a course creator could follow the same thing, and an ecommerce business could follow the same thing. Right?
Lower journey might be replaced with funnel if you were really getting into it for, like, a specific course creator group. So to me, it felt too generic still. It feels like, good. You’ve got this, like, poor model in place. Now let’s SaaSify it. Now that twenty five to fifty million dollar group, what words will feel better?
Foundation doesn’t feel right.
Conversation might.
Optimization does, I think. But then inside of that, insight, I want you to work on that word.
Journey is good. Triggers are good. You already know you’re gonna work on personalization and segmentation and figure that out. Tracking and testing, can you do something that feels more if you know these people are using intercom, for example, intercom e language.
So, like and that’s your job. Just sweep through it and see if you can make it sound more sassy so I can see myself. Sassy this sassy, not Stacy’s sassy. But so I can see myself as a SaaS founder or marketer or whatever when I look at this model.
Does that make sense?
Just a little more pointed on your word choice.
Okay. That’s super helpful because I I like I’ve taken it way back. Do you know how how long it took to get like three shuns?
Sorry.
What did you say?
Three shuns. Three, like, activation. What is it? Conversation, foundation.
Oh, the shuns. Foundation. Oh, I see.
Yeah. But I can find a new shuns. I’ve done it now.
Find a new shuns. There are more shuns.
Yeah. K. Cool.
I’m a new shin.
Awesome. Good. How are you feeling, Claire?
Great. Great. Yeah. I’m really really excited to actually do this well.
Yeah. Yeah. You’ve got a really good starting point here. And, oh, Todd.
Nice job. Nice way to finish the meeting.
You’ve got great case studies too. Oh, one other note, the over twenty startups with, on the or onboarding flows with Forget the Funnel. I don’t know that you have to say it with Forget the Funnel because I’m just gonna go look up Forget the Funnel. So just say, like, twenty more onboarding flows. Like, wow. It’s a lot of onboarding flows.
Yeah. Nobody’s listening anymore because there’s a puppy in the room. So, we’re just gonna go look at the puppy now. But good job, Claire and Marina and Abby. Thank you. Well done, everybody. And thanks for giving your notes as well and tuning in to help your fellow to help your peers out here.
Good. Alright.
So next month kicks off a whole new month for, Coffee School Pro. We’ll be posting about that very soon.
Cool. Awesome. And, Todd, you have to tell us about this puppy. What’s going on here?
Sorry. We she’s a week and two days old, and we’re renovating the house. We’re actually getting a podcast studio ready for me in the basement, and, she sleeps at my feet. She’s on her little bed.
And, yeah, she’s she’s a great little dog. She’s learning quickly. And she’s just been at my feet all things, so I you might see me looking down. I’ve been trying to avoid it, but she just woke up.
So yeah. And she’s licking me like crazy.
So She is. But she’s got those little shark teeth too.
Yeah. She’s got little pearls as Tina said.
Oh my gosh. What’s her name?
Patty. Patty. Patty. Patty. The patty.
Yeah. Patty? Yeah. It’s a yeah. It’s a new dog for us. So, yeah, she’s she’s a great dog.
So Oh. Try and sorry if I interrupted everyone.
It’s just It’s end of meeting.
I’m amazed you were able to hold off this whole time.
Oh, it’s tough. You have no idea when she’s at my feet and she’s, like, nudging me with a bone, and then she’s nudging me with a toy, then another toy, and then she’s out cold and looking at her. So, yeah.
Oh, so cute.
So cute. Well, I saw your two as well.
So Oh, yes.
They just came in from Yeah.
Playing out at the lake.
Yeah. We’ll do it. Tina was the first one to meet her, I believe, as well. Uh-huh. So yeah.
Patty. Yeah. Super cute.
Patty is welcome to the crew.
Absolutely.
Awesome.
Okay. Thanks, y’all. Thanks so much. Well done, everybody. If you haven’t worked on your workshop, go do it.
And if you have, keep practicing. Thanks, everybody. Bye.
Thank you.
Writing Copy to Segment Your Leads
Writing Copy to Segment Your Leads
Transcript
Cool.
Alright. Before we get started, who has copied or review later or stuff that may require some extra time, and I’ll try to make sure we are pacing ourselves accordingly.
I have, like, a question that’ll take, like, two minutes.
Sweet. Yeah.
Cool. Cool. Alright.
Let’s dive in.
Alright. Everyone seeing this okay?
Cool.
So this is, like, one of my favorite things to geek out on because it’s, like, so simple and it’s, like, most basic format, and then it could get so tantalizingly geeky, like, as you expand out. So I’m gonna give us, like, the simple basic versions that can be implemented in, like, two minutes, and then the really exciting advanced geeky stuff that you can, like, either do internally or for your clients. And they’re like, I didn’t even know that was possible, which is that was such a fun reaction to get. So this is called the copy date segmenter.
It’s an email template, and it’s about how to use natural conversational type languaging to segment your leads into the right offer with the right message and sometimes at the right time. Cool.
What was so much fun about this one is going on Unsplash and typing in coffee images and just downloading a shit ton of stock images of coffee. So, yeah, side benefit.
So segmentation in sixty seconds, we’re not gonna have a whole conversation about that because we’re a bit limited on time. But, essentially, it’s about getting the right offer to the right prospect with the right message at the right time so that we can shorten buying cycles, increase conversions, and ultimately be more relevant.
One concept has, like, such a big, point of contemplation, right, is, like, I never want the reader to have a negative ROI on their attention. Like, if they’re gonna open an email and read their email, like, there’s gotta be relevancy. There’s gotta be value or else we’re we’re essentially in training them to not open our emails anymore. And I got so mad at Teachable, like, two days ago for, like, wasting my open.
Like, I gave them an open, and they totally wasted it. And I’m like, never again teachable. So, yeah, side note. Like, if you are going to get the open, make good on it and have relevancy in your offer and in your messaging.
Yeah. Stomata teachable. Not over it. So segmentation should ideally feel natural, not market research y, aka give me more info so I can better sell you.
Right? So many people when they segment or when they have emails or surveys meant to segment, it’s really clearly oriented around, you know, help me sell to you better. Right? And that’s cool.
That has its place. And I enjoy and appreciate when it doesn’t feel like that’s the reason, and it feels more conversation conversational and more natural.
And this is something I picked up from auditing a shit ton of sales calls and demo calls, which has always been my favorite part of the research process.
And what really good salespeople or enrollment coaches or people closing on demo calls do is they can qualify leads, and they can even segment those leads to present the right offer without that lead ever knowing it’s being done. It’s, like, so stealth. It’s conversational based. It’s question based. So they build connection.
They have these conversations. And in the background, they’re segmenting and they’re qualifying their leads so that they know what, if anything, to prevent that lead, during the pitch phase. So it never feels like they’re actively segmenting or qualifying while they actually are. Has anyone, like, had that experience either, like, qualifying a lead conversation with yourselves or, like, being on the other end of that. Like, it’s slow, magical, and it’s just, like, happening.
And, anyway, yeah, I wanted to replicate that via email. So the copy date segmentor was designed with this naturalness in mind and when to send it. So very obvious places to send it would be a new subscriber welcome sequence. Typically have this on, like, day one and a half or day two of a new subscriber initiation or welcome sequence, opt ins for webinars or new lead magnets, I guess, similar to number two. And, essentially, whenever you need to segment a list of undifferentiated leads. Right? If you have a ton of leads on your list and you don’t know who’s who and you don’t know what offer, if you have multiple offers, in your suite, you could send us out to get the right leads into the right funnel or to segment them into the right messaging depending on their persona.
So, essentially, for any new subscriber or simply when you’re ready to do, some meaningful work around the information you get. So this isn’t information to just, like, get to have fun and have a bunch of tags in your ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit that you’ll never actually use, which I am totally guilty of.
I would suggest doing this when you are ready to strategically, create new assets for the segments that you’re gonna receive, after sending out this email.
Cool. So very basic template.
Most of you could probably write this in literally ninety seconds.
In fact, if you ever do write this, I suggest put a ninety second timer. Test yourself, see if you can write it in under ninety seconds.
Subject, this just crushes copy chat question mark, like, always at least ten to fifteen percent higher than their normal open rates on a day one email.
Just just says really well. No one’s ever complained and said, I thought you want to actually go on a coffee chat. Like, I’ve never had that feedback. So, yeah, feel free to swipe it.
Feel free to overuse it. Coffee chat question mark. Bobby, real quick, if we were hanging out shooting the shit over matcha latte right now, what would you be most likely to ask me? Option a, natural languaging that would confirm segment a, like, in the voice of customer or in the voice of the prospect.
Like, how would they articulate the languaging that would make them a fit for persona a or option a, then same for option b. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links, and then an optional little bribe or curiosity loop to really get that click. So curiosity tends to work really well. Like, cool little bonus, like, cool little surprise without specifying exactly what it is.
That typically, especially if those links are literally, like, two lines above, like, they’re just gonna hit one of those links. So you’ll get a pretty pretty solid response rate, click through rate on that, and self segmentation if you have an extra little brag with a curiosity loop.
Cool. So now onto the fun stuff. So this is, like, the most basic thing ever. Takes ninety seconds.
The real strategy here is what are you going to be segmenting for and which ones should you be segmenting for. So first one, this is probably the starting point. If you don’t already have it done or your client doesn’t already have it done is segmenting on offers, so this works really well. If you have or if your client has multiple core offerings for a same or similar audience or persona with different more imminent needs.
So two very real examples of this would be freelancing school versus copy school. Right? A copy hacker a copywriter would be a fit for either, but which one is more imminent based on their current needs. Right?
That would be something to segment for, all coming down to getting the right offer in front of the right audience with the right messaging at the right time.
Where this full template began was, Amy Porterfield. She had multiple programs in her suite, like, twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen.
She had courses that convert for people who want to create a course. She had webinars that convert for people who want to learn webinars. And, essentially, the same audience for both, just different offers depending on what they most needed at that time. So, we segmented based on, which offer they would have more imminent need or interest in. So that’s number one, and let’s do a little walk through.
Cool. Actually, you know what? Let’s do number two, and then we’ll walk through two of them together. Second one would be same offer for a different persona.
So use this if you have multiple buying personas for the same offer that would require significantly different messaging, meaning audience one or audience two or persona a or persona b would have different stakes, different moments of high tensions, different pain points, different potential outcomes, different concerns, different contextual realities of how that problem shows up. So there is example, copy school for in house versus freelance copywriters versus founders, owners, and CMOs. So these would be three different personas for the same product that you would want to segment for. As
the way we talk about the offer, the way we talk about how the problems of being less than confident in your copy will have different stakes for these different audiences.
Alright. So that’s the easy stuff.
Let’s do two quick walk throughs on these two, and then we’re gonna get into the more advanced, slightly geeky stuff, yeah, that I have most fun with. Cool. So let me stop the share and jumping into This one.
Nope. Not that one.
This one. Cool.
Sweet. So this is the original one. So this is multiple offers for same persona.
Like, very quick opener, just just polishing up my espresso, double shot, of course, and wanted to take a quick second task if you were actually sitting here in my kitchen with Scout and I, and we had a few minutes to chat about anything you wanted. What we what would we talk about? What’d you be most likely to say? And this is, like, in their voice, in their words, how they would express it.
Enough of all these random list building tactics. It’s time to get serious about this growth and get my first thousand email subscribers the right way. Right? And I would segment them into, I think the course was called list builders lab at that time, and they would get on a sequence or an evergreen funnel for this program.
Or if you are or if you already have an email list but haven’t found a way to monetize it in a way that feels exciting or sustainable, you might be saying. So very very key language in here you might be saying and mirror it back in their own voice. It’s time to monetize my expertise and escape the time for money trap by creating an impactful and wildly profitable online course.
This one actually had three. Or maybe you’ve already built an offer you’re proud of and are now most likely to ask, how do I sell more product and scale my entire business with a fully integrated and automated webinar funnel? So all three of these led into evergreen funnels for different products, different courses in the suite with really simple languaging that would mirror the person or the persona, yeah, who would be most ready to be brought into those panels.
And then no bribe on this one. I was just like, I’d love it if you could take a quick second to let me know. PS, according to a nonofficial Hogwarts study. I don’t know.
Like, was I watching Harry Potter at this time? Maybe. I guess. It’s not even that clever.
It’s weird. Anyway, and then a final chance on the three different options. So this was, like, the original, original, original asset, and it performed really well. It took tens of thousands of undifferentiated leads, and we knew exactly which program in the suite, they would be most likely to purchase and benefit from.
And it did a whole lot of good for an email that took about two and a half minutes to write.
So, yeah, first one. Same persona, multiple offers.
Easy. Number two, same offer to personas, subject line, copy chat.
Hey. I was just sipping on a cold brew when I saw your name pop up on our attendance list for Friday’s beyond the love language master class. This is for a relationship coach, on a post webinar registration. It’s a great place to, inject this template as well.
And it got kinda got me curious if you were sitting across the Starbucks table for me right now. What would you be more likely to share? Option one, can’t wait for the master class. I’m currently not in a relationship.
I’d wanna gain the next level communication and connection skills to make sure I’m ready to enter my next partnership with full confidence. Or option number two, I am in a committed partnership. Can’t wait to learn some new practices to get deeply and meaningfully to connect deeply and meaningfully with my partner in ways that go beyond the go five, blah, blah, blah, languages. Cool.
So very simple. Right? Like, segmenting for a persona that is single and has a very different context and a different a very different motivating list of motivators for joining this kind of program versus, yeah, people who are already coupled. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links above and return all set over special pre workshop bonus that best matches up with where you’re at.
So nothing crazy. Like, nothing overly complicated here. Just like a simple bribe that just adds a little bit of extra incentive for what’s already a very easy click. Right?
It’s not a long email. Like, until, like, half of the email real estate is actually clickable and linkable.
So, yeah, there you have it.
Those are the first two. Are those two clear? Any questions on those before I geek out?
Can I just ask, like, how did you so with the Amy Portfield example, what is the transition from the click to entering the funnel?
Like, is it you click and then, like, you’re invited to the Evergreen webinar for this builders lab, or how does that what’s the next thing they see after they click?
Yeah. That’s a good question. So we consider different approaches. And if you were to use it, definitely consider different approaches with your client.
I think the approach we settled on was, like, there’s definitely a message match between them clicking on that link and the next page. I think it was, like, I think it was, like, a lead magnet for that funnel first, and then it warmed them up into the webinar funnel. It wasn’t just like a straight, you know, thanks for answering. Jump on our webinar. Although, I don’t see anything wrong with that approach either. Right? Especially if you have a good message match that disconnects those pages.
I think one thing we also considered, I don’t know if we tested it, was, like, a bridge page. Right? So, like, you know you know, thanks for taking this not to answer. You know?
What feels more most powerful as a next step? Like, there’s, like, a checklist or lead magnet or, like and then I think we framed it like you’re really ready to go all in on this, catch the webinar. So it could be a bridge page. It could be a webinar.
It could be lead magnet.
That’s how yeah. Those are probably the three options. Great. Thank you. Cool.
Sweet. Alright.
Any other questions before we geek out? Oh, yeah. Jessica.
Can you hear me okay, Rai?
Yep. I do.
Okay. Sorry. I’m on my phone, so I never know if it worked.
So I guess I was wondering, would you say that this is possible? I’m thinking about a problem that I’ve encountered with one of my clients, and then I thought I was the on the receiving end of it with a recent product I bought where, you buy a product from a company, and then they arbitrarily send you a new offer to some product, and you’re like, well, why would you give me a discount and free shipping on that? Why didn’t you just ask me, you know, something to make the offer more relevant?
Think about modifying this in some way for a post purchase to get a sense what do you think?
Like, any recommendations or advice or just what what comes to mind with that context?
Yeah. I think, like, you get to adapt that for the ecomm, space, right, and own it. Right? Because it probably looks a little bit different while still having the same basic format or the same psychology. Right?
Yeah. I think, like, that could definitely be an email that triggers different post purchase flows. Right? And, ideally, those per post purchase flows will convert better than the control because they’re segmented and they raise their hand and said, this is what I’m more into. Right? So I’d say it works really well with, that has, like, very clear distinctions between the different types of products that might be marketed post purchase. And I can’t think of, like, any specific examples off the top of my head, but maybe you can.
Yeah. But I would definitely inject it there, right, within the post purchase flows that branches off into your different directions.
Okay. Cool. I is it okay if I give you the example from myself and then you just riff on what you would have done? Is that cool? Okay. So I don’t know if you’re familiar, but there’s this company called Organifi, and that was the product that okay. So I brought no.
This is gonna tell you guys so much.
So I was following an influencer who recommended their, happy drops, and they have, like, saffron, you know, and then that’s, like, the primary ingredient, whatever. So I ordered these this month of gummies, and then the follow-up in my post purchase and first email that wasn’t related to, you know, transactional post purchase stuff was free shipping and, like, seventy five percent off on a green smoothie. And I was kinda like, interesting choice. I wonder if they just looked at their data and found that a lot of people tend to buy that as their second product. I don’t know. But it was that situation where I was saying they’re going, If they had done a little more research or asked me for maybe some voice of customer, something like this, I could have said to them what else I’d be interested in for my next purchase.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
I think, like so, like, supplement nutrition. Right? I think, like, you could segment based on two things post purchase. And right now, I’m literally brainstorming on the fly.
Right? Like, you can brainstorm for, like, a post purchase flow that would push them towards more volume of the same thing. Right? And that email might be, like, you know, like like, celebrating.
Right? Like, amazing. Your order is shipping. And we’re just curious. Like, what’s gonna happen once that package hits your door?
You’re gonna come inside, open it up, and, like, share it with the family and multiple people, and your collagen powder is gonna be gone within six days. Right?
Or is this all for you? Right? Like, you know, no one’s touching your shit, essentially. Right?
And now you know. Like, okay. They’re, like, a single buyer or they’re buying for a household. Right?
Buying for a household, have more volume based discount and more volume based promotions.
So that’s, like, one way, two segment.
Oh, I like that.
Yeah. That’s a really good I I would not have even thought of that, and it’s so true. That’s actually what happened. I thought I was buying for myself, and my husband and my daughter suddenly took my dummy.
So, yeah, that actually makes thank you. Yeah. Oh, very helpful. Right?
Then there’s the empathy and the natural languaging. Like, I get so annoyed when something I bought for myself is gone within, like, days. Right?
Like, I just bought, like it’s not even ecom. I just bought, like like, I was at, I was at, I guess, Canada’s version of a CVS, or I was at, like, yeah, drugstore pharmacy.
Those of you who were, like, on at the beginning of the call, heard that, like, I just, like, unplugged, like, the upstairs shower and felt so, like, amazing in it. So, yeah, yesterday, I was, like, buying, like, rubber gloves and, like, shower scrub and all this stuff. Like, I was ready for battle. And, of course, like, if I’m gonna do that, I gotta treat myself.
So I bought, like, three ninety percent, like, dark chocolate Lindt bars, and I’m like, yes. This is my this is my reward. Like, I got, like, two squares. Like, I don’t even have a big family.
I have, like, a wife and a seven year old. Like, why are my chocolate bars already gone? So it’s like yeah. Pick me as a go vegan.
So, like, yeah, that’s what I’m saying is reflect back that natural languaging of, like, their stuff being gone so fast. Right? Like, really get on their side so that it feels natural and not marketing research y. Right?
And I think, like, that’s that’s what’s gonna get the best response rate on this email is when it feels like you know them and their situation and how they’re articulating it, not just like, tell us how how we could best market to you. So yeah. Does that make sense?
It does. Thank you. That’s really, really helpful, and I I’m excited to go, implement something with this client because this client right now, as a bad example, has a post I think it’s a post yeah. Post purchase survey where, basically, it just comes right out and asks, how often do you plan on buying?
Right. And it gives me all the data.
That. Right?
Yeah. Exactly.
Like, you will get response, but you’re not actually building relationship or connection around that. Right? Like, no one feels good divulging that. Like, they’re gonna weaponize that against me. I know it. Right?
But, yeah, it’s just an opportunity to build connection while still getting the information you need and maybe even getting more accurate information because you’re framing it in a way that they actually understand.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Troy.
Another one you might wanna test just, like, while we’re in the brainstorm. So, like, there’s the volume based one.
Then, like, let’s say, like, still using the supplement health health ecom. Right? So, like, a company like Symbiotica, right, with, like, so many different, like, health supplements, that would be more, like, goals based. Right?
So, like, I would frame, like, a post purchase on, like, more kinda like, you know, what’s your, like, perfect day. Right? Like and kind of have one, like, that’s more, like, athletic based, like, they’re an endurance athlete or whatever, or maybe they’re a weightlifter. Right?
So just, like, getting information without, yeah, without, like, the marketing research y about it. That’s the only way I could frame it. Like, tell the story that mirrors their life that’s gonna give you valuable enough information and clear enough information to put them in the right flow.
Cool. Thank you. Cool. I’m taking curious notes.
Sweet. So, yeah, even on, like, the most basic versions of this, you can already accomplish so much. So I’m gonna, like, have that little disclaimer before we get into, like, the ultra nerdy stuff that you might never use this extra nerdy stuff. Like and use restraint because it’s so tempting to use it and then be like, what do we actually do with it?
But then again, it can be super helpful. So let’s take a look.
Alright.
Sweet. So application number three. So you could segment or buying intent or proximity to purchase.
I just call this, like, lead scoring. Right? You can use this click to essentially, lead score. Right? Lead score based on the click. So one of those, like, clicks could be worth, ten points on a lead score. One could be worth one.
And this is particularly useful if you are a solopreneur or have a really small sales team and need to be really selective in terms of which leads you are prioritizing in terms of manual sales qualifying or sent AKA reaching out to new leads. So super useful in that use case. And then the final one is my fave favorite. I haven’t had so many use cases on this.
I want more use cases on this because it would be just so badass. So this is more experimental, but segmenting based on core buying motivator. Right? So, branching it off into two core motivators.
Right? Some people, more motivated by perceived gain, exciting outcome while others are more motivated by, risk aversion or loss aversion. Right? Statistically, two times more likely to buy to avoid loss than to experience gain.
So if you know your prospect’s core buy motivator based on a segmentation email like this, like, where you’re literally segmenting for, are they more loss averse, or are they more, gain motivated?
You can use that information to essentially send the same emails or the same landing pages, but with different call to action languaging that best reflects that intent that they’re more likely to, yeah, respond to.
So game based languaging versus loss aversion based languaging and email call to action. You could use conditional messaging on that inactive campaign, or you could just send two separate emails that are essentially identical but different languaging on the call to action. So this is some really nerdy email stuff you could do, but it’s also really easy to track. So, essentially, let me get off this screen and show you what that email looks like.
Oh, no. Did I, like, close the other window?
There we go.
Cool.
So first one for buying intent. So this is just, like, how close they are to being ready to buy.
This one I think I wrote for guess this would make sense for traffic and funnels, like, two or three years ago. Once again, not getting overly clever on the subject line. If it works, it works.
So, yeah, just stop at my go to Starbucks, and it had me wondering if we were sharing a table right now, what would we be jamming on, would you be saying? Right? And a and b. So this is, I think, less qualified, so not an not a sales qualified lead just yet.
Hey, Taylor. I’ll be honest, man. I’m pretty new to this coaching and consulting world. I’m still trying to figure out what I do and my best path forward.
Can you help me out? Right? So this would, like, link to just kinda more nurture material, right, and not have a higher lead score. And And on skin, in, like, really natural languaging that I had literally picked up on some sales calls that went nowhere.
Right? So I think, like, this was written in response to this, like, a lot of their sales reps being overwhelmed with bad calls. And it’s like, why are we even on this call? Right?
So I’ll be honest, man. Just pretty new to this thing. Right? Like, that’s how it came out.
And then this one for the languaging that a more qualified lead would be using. Right? I’ve been at this for a while. Right?
Very natural languaging. It’s my full time gig, and I’m definitely getting by, but nowhere near the level of revenue that I know I should be. Right? So perceived injustice there.
I’m not afraid to ask for help. Right? So qualifying them for coaching, and I’m really hoping that this is the year to build real wealth and never have to worry about the threat of having to get a real job again. So this is the languaging that mirrors someone who is, presumably more ready to buy than this one.
Right? So if you were using lead scoring, this click would score more. Right? If you were a solopreneur running this kind of email, essentially, you would go into your system, track the link clicks on this one, and reach out proactively to the people who click that.
Right? Especially if you’re trying to conserve your own bandwidth or your team’s bandwidth, like, who do we actually reach out to?
Really simple. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links above so that I know how to best help you if we ever run-in run into each other inside the group or a Starbucks. Weird closing line. Why did I write that? I don’t even know, but it still worked.
So, yeah, that was for lead scoring. And now core buying motivator. So also pretty simple. Alright.
Hey. I just grabbed a seat at my fave coffee shop. I noticed you recently downloaded my free, couples meditation, and then I got curious. If you were joining me right now for a matcha latte or whatever your vibe is, what would you be more likely to share about your truest, deepest, realest reason for requesting it?
Would you say? So this is the motivated by gain or positive outcome. So thanks for the meditation. Things are going okay with my partner, but, obviously, I’d love to take things to the next level. I know there’s so much more passion, connection, and depth available to us, and I’d hate to miss out on that hold straight from voice of customer, voice of prospect data. Like, that was literally verbatim.
Or we really need this practice. To be honest, things have been tough lately. It feels like no matter what we do, we struggle to regain connection or even be in the same room without triggering each other. It’s painful, and I get anxious wondering if things can even get better at this point and what that means for us and our kids.
Right? So very clearly distinct languaging for perceived gain. Right? Like, this person is motivated by, what could be better.
This person is motivated by essentially things not deteriorating or, yeah, loss aversion.
So, yeah, key on this one. Right? Especially if you’re gonna nerd out on it, just make sure that what you are writing on these two options gives you enough confidence to tag them as as their motivator. Right? And then what are we gonna do with this? So, obviously, a tag, tag, motivator mote, mote for short.
Make sure, like, you have a good, like, taxonomy on that because someone’s gonna come into the system one day and be like, what the hell does that even mean?
Yeah, motivator gain, motivator loss aversion, not motivated by going to LA, which some people would definitely think if they ran into this one.
But, yeah, there you have it. And then you would be able to send out, segmented emails by literally just having different call to actions that reflect, that kind of languaging. So there we go. Different applications, different ways to nerd out. I’m sure y’all are smart enough to think of, like, probably multiple different ways to use this kind of segmentation.
And the key rule, right, is, like, only segment what you have a strategy to put to use. Otherwise, you just end up with so many segments and so little ways to use them. But, yeah, open to any questions, feedback, and considerations of how you might put it to use for yourselves or your clients.
Yeah. Katie.
I would love to ask about, like, with a new offer because I totally like, like, what you just said about only segmenting when you have something to do with it, get it. But when you’re launching so I just help like, I did sales page and and sales sequence for this new course.
Because it’s new.
Like, basically, this is the horrible plan I told you about. So it’s like, is it gonna be most appealing to, like, empty nest women who wanna do this for more joy, or is the, like, high performance market going to pick up?
So, like, we have in the second email, the welcome sequence, a segmentation where I’m essentially trying to see, like, who’s actually signing up for this lead magnet Mhmm.
So that we can eventually double down on messaging for them.
Yep.
So I guess, like, is segmenting for market research, like, what what would you do with that click immediately? Like, I have a long term plan for it, but what’s the short term next action?
Right. So I think there are options. Right? If the client has, like so this is gonna be a course that hasn’t been marketed yet. Right?
Yeah. So it’s like we we rebranded it, like, repositioned an existing course at a way higher price point. So it’s like there’s a general ICA, but there’s not a really specific one because it’s a new product.
Right. Yeah. And you haven’t created the marketing for that yet, like, for the for the course?
We’ve like, I’m just saying it, and I’m like, we did it backwards, didn’t we? We have a sales page, and we have a the nurture sequence.
Mhmm.
Yeah. But I think, like, the the it’s it both of those are so far pretty general.
Mhmm. Yeah. How many people are on this client’s list?
Five hundred.
Mhmm. So at that volume, right, like, what would have the most ROI? Like, I think yep.
So She is she’s not, like, she’s getting a ton of press.
She’s basically gone on this huge publicity tour lately. So, like, we were optimizing for people who’ve heard her speak or heard her on a podcast.
Like, this is the freebie that she’s pitching on when she talks, and then this the freebie sells the program that then Right.
That she point to.
Yeah.
Yeah. Let me think of how I would do that. Like, does she have any kind of one on one services or higher end coaching, like, for people who would be qualified for that?
So she has offered this program one in one on one in the past, and she’s done a lot of one on one coaching. But, at the higher price point, we’re anticipating it being quite a different market.
Mhmm. Yep. And, when is the offer gonna be, like, available or launched?
It it is available.
Okay.
And, like, I don’t see her existing audience as really being the market for it. It’s more like right now, she’s, like, using this freebie to build it, putting it in front of them in the welcome sequence. But, like, right now, it’s more building that audience and then trying to get a sense of who is actually in it. Mhmm.
Right.
Yeah. I think, like yeah. I mean, the obvious one, I guess, is, like, segmenting for persona and seeing, like, who is actually on that list and which of those personas are moving through into that sale sequence and actually converting so that you could double down on your marketing efforts later. I think that would be useful.
Yeah.
The other one would be, essentially, like, lead scoring. Right? So, like, if someone clicked something where they have, like, a more imminent problem and a more imminent need for that thing because she has such, like, small lead volume already and you really gotta make the most out of everyone, Like, for those who will have a high lead score, right, I would have, like, personal reach outs or someone on the team. Right? Like, just essentially, like, further enabling that sale with more intimate touch point.
Mhmm. Okay. Yeah.
And then if you’re doing like, when you said about the different personas, if you’re doing that, but they’re dramatically different Mhmm.
I guess, are you just taking your best like, if I’m like, okay. So either it’s the, like, adrenal fatigue executive who needs this program because, like, they’re so burnt out that like or maybe they’re, like, on burnout leave, and they need they’re looking for something to help them. Or it’s like a holistic, like, energy healer who is burnt out from their own practice taking care of other people, and they really need to do something for themselves.
Like, I don’t know. Do you risk the, like, dissonance of having those two voices next to each other?
You’re like, which one sounds more like you and then they’re totally disparate?
Like, I I think if it’s possible, like, she just her her leads are just that undifferentiated, right, and you need to create distinction, then that’s just what it is.
And the value there, right, is like and and you could change this at any time. Right? This is gonna be the email that is there for the next five years. I think initially, if she had just so many leads and she doesn’t know who they are and they could be in either of those, categories, it’s very useful to see which segment or which persona is more responsive to the offer.
Right? So now you actually know what to create top funnel in terms of content. You know which podcast to try to get on to. You know what your Facebook ads look like.
You know, who you’re calling out on that, especially when they’re two very different audiences, and you can talk to both of them top funnel. Right?
So, yeah, I think the main benefit right now is, like, strategically, like, which persona is our buyer here. Right? Both of them can be our buyer. Right? And which one which one is our buyer?
So, essentially, then you’re tracking it through, like, who converts and looking at which persona tag they have.
Yep. Exactly that. Yep.
That makes a lot of sense. Cool.
Sweet. Lindsay, are you in the, Edmonton office there?
Nice. Cool. Is, like, everyone going crazy about, like, the right now?
Yes.
And you’re, like, two two minutes away from it. Right?
Yeah. It’s just down the road. It’s about two blocks. Fun.
We’re in the same place.
Yep. We’re always just waving.
Oh, nice.
There behind me.
Cool. Cool.
I had a chance to pop into that office for forty hours to sing Semisonics closing time and then go home. It was fun.
I’ve seen that video.
Yeah. That was a fun day.
It’s a great day. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I think, like, you warmed up, Lindsay. Like, your your voice was projecting towards a little bit. It’s great.
I mean, it is a classic song. So, you know Yeah. If you’re a particular age, you’ll definitely know the song very well.
Right?
Yeah.
Awesome. Cool. Abby, I think you’re up.
Yeah. So it’s like just a challenge I’m trying to kind of figure out for my clients. So, for contacts, so we launched a course, in January. It’s like a bookkeeping course, my bookkeeping clients.
And, the the kind of big idea for the funnel was, to make twenty twenty four your six figure year, And it it killed, like, we did, I think, like, thirty percent of the email list converted. So it was a great launch. And then we evergreened it. And then I think I’ve mentioned this before.
Like, there was some weird weird stuff going on. So the the webinar funnel was converting at two percent, but traffic to the sales page is converting at, like, four point six percent.
Yeah. Just couldn’t figure out why. So but, basically, they they want to meet to rekind of redo the funnel rather than it being a webinar funnel, like, put them into a mini course where they can practice.
And I’m just, like, I’m not sure, like, how kind of long to give them to go through it, how long the email sequence should be. I was thinking, like, ten days. Like, four days of reminders, six days of sales with some reminders put in. And then, like, I guess I would need to kind of change up the messaging on the sales page as well so that it but I I’m I’m struggling to, like, come up with a new idea that’s, like, around because they want it around, like, the hands on kind of practice. But I’m just struggling to, like, connect that to, like, an attractive enough kind of desire that they want or, like, a problem.
Yeah. I mean, the main hook that crushed was really kinda, like, money based. Right?
Like Yeah.
So, like, trying to, like, I mean, like, money or status or something.
But And, the new sales page is, like, for the mini course, which is free or paid?
Well, I mean so I’ve done the opt in page for the new mini course, but then I’m thinking the long form sales page.
Like, at the at the moment, it’s like, make, make six figure years the norm or something.
Mhmm.
So but then because they’re coming in Yeah. To, like, get it it feels, like, disconnected.
Right.
Based on, like, your research and your intel or even, like, the client’s, like, perspective your client’s perspective, like, is this audience, like, just that motivated to practice and get hands on experience? Like, is that a hook hook for this audience?
Oh, I I don’t think so. I think that’s the that’s their differentiator for sure.
Yeah.
And, yes, they do they do want practice because that’s another product we have. Like, they’re super motivated by practice, but this is a lot more expensive. So fourteen hundred. So I’m kinda like, look, if the sales page isn’t bursting at four point six percent, like, just leave it, like, for fourteen hundred dollar product. They’ve got a good, like, ROAS, but, yeah, they want you know, I’m just doing what the client wants.
Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with your perspective and, right, like, if we were to entertain it and build it, which it sounds like we are.
So how do you really make that attractive?
I kinda it brings me back to actually something that, like did I suggest this to you?
Yeah. Dea, DBM Boot Camp. DBM, digital business manager boot camp. Right? So she runs an agency and a certification called DBM Boot Camp for VAs to get paid more by essentially upscaling into DBMs.
And she had a mini course, or she still has a mini course. And I think one of the hooks we optimized for there was so, yeah, like, there’s the upskilling part, which is, like, kinda cool, kind of attractive, but you’re leaving it to the reader to quantify what that means. Right? And it’s kinda, like, vague.
Like, how does upskilling actually, like, contribute to me doubling my revenue next year? Right? I think one way we work with that, right, is it’s, like, almost every upscale module or lesson, right, like, had an estimated, like, estimated salary raise, right, of, like, you complete this and, you know, your hour is now twenty dollars per hour more. Right?
So as they complete things, it’s kinda, like, gamified of, like, they’ve umped their value from x to y. So it’s like if the bookkeepers have a very, like, a very standardized, like, dollar per hour at their current level, Right?
Yeah.
And these different skill levels or these different abilities or capacities or whatever, like, up level their ability to earn more, like, just, like, frame it that way.
Right? Like, almost on a timeline. Like, by the time they’re done these five lessons, their, you know, value on the market has gone up x amount. Like, I think that could be a way to anchor that in.
Yeah.
I mean and if no one else is, like, wants is volunteering for a copy review, can I show you the sales page and kind of Yep?
Certainly. Cool.
Okay.
I’ll put it in my chat.
Cool. Alright. This is the one you’ve already kinda, like, written?
Like, or Yeah.
This is on it’s converting at four point six percent.
Like because, I mean, yeah, I just think when it’s upskimming, like Mhmm.
It’s for money.
Right. Like, because and and it I mean, it is a a big salary raise. Like, so because I so that’s their headline, and then I do, like, the math underneath.
Okay. And they’re dropping onto the sales page, like, after they’ve gone through that mini course, essentially?
That’s that’s what it would would be, yeah, with the new funnel.
Mhmm.
But then it’s like the message is gonna feel abrupt, whereas before, it was after doing, like, a webinar, like, called, like, how to make six figures the norm with cleanup or something.
Mhmm. So they’ve gone through this mini course. Right? They’ve, like, skilled up with some hands on experience.
Mhmm.
I think there’s, like, an opportunity to have a bit of connective tissue with that. Right? It’s like and I and don’t use these words. Like, I’m not a good copywriter on reply, but it’s like you’ve essentially, the the essence of it is, like, you’ve just elevated your earning potential, turned your earning potential into an earned reality. Right?
So it’s like earning potential versus earned reality would be kind of a way to, like, continue the momentum they’ve already built Yeah.
That’s versus wasting it. Like, kind of when you I guess, like, similar to when do they go for a challenge. Yeah. So I suppose I could I could change as well, like, to the freelance.
But keep who’d love to, like, upscale their way to Mhmm.
Their bigger, the this, that, sexy, six figure year vibes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
But I wouldn’t lose the essence of, like, what’s working. Like, if it’s converting at over four percent, like, have the minimal amount of, like, connective tissue, like, from the new experience. Right? Because it’s still essentially the same audience.
Like, they’ve just had a different different, you know, presale experience.
So, this is, like, really similar to the one that was converting at, like, over four percent?
Yeah.
Yeah. Honestly, like, I would make as little changes as possible.
So optimize rather than rewrite. Right.
Optimize for, like, consistency between their past experience and this one, but don’t rewrite according to that past experience.
Right?
Yep. I was hoping you’d say that.
Yeah. I don’t rewrite. That would yeah.
Like, only rewrite if and when the data tells you to, but now when a page is converting at four percent for the exact same audience this is going to. Right?
Yeah. I mean, the problem with this client is that they they’re like they’re ideal in so many ways, but they have crazy expectations.
Like, they wanted a million dollar launch, and they had, like, five thousand people on their email list. Mhmm.
It’s it’s kind of yeah. So they’re like they don’t think four point six percent is they’re like, oh, we want, like, ten percent. I’m like, okay. Well, we you know, we can let’s try for, like, six.
Right. This is the one, we were discussing on, like, Slack, like, three weeks ago or two weeks ago.
Probably. Yeah. They’re, like, my main client at the moment. Mhmm.
Yeah. Because they’re great because they have great offers and or, like, a great audience and that all their copy is terrible. So it’s nice to actually see the results from my copy, rather than, you know, the other things not being in place. But it’s just never it’s never good enough. Like, they just want more.
Yep.
Like, if you feel like making minimal changes will trigger the client to feel like you’re not doing enough, right, and that’s a becomes a client management and expectation thing.
I think, like, that’s a separate conversation. And, like, if you did if you did wanna provide more output than very small changes here, like, are there other aspects of the funnel you could look at, like, you know, the email sequences?
Well, that’s it. It’s gonna be the emails because if they’re if they’re going in, yeah, it’s gonna need to be a longer sequence.
Yep.
Sales page converting at ten percent. Like, I love I love, like, ridiculous benchmarks. Right? I think, like, it pushes us into, like, new ways or new ways of, like, innovating and doing things.
Right? But, like, you know, like, I would optimize in other ways than, like, just writing different words and adding different sections because I don’t think that’s gonna take you from four percent to ten percent. Like, just different cop like, your copy is already really good. Right?
Like, it’s it’s not gonna be four percent to ten percent better, right, no matter what you do.
But it’s just yeah. I mean, that weirdness that the webinar funnel converting worse than the direct the sales page. So I’m thinking, well, if we like I mean, she just she was really into, like, the fact that it’s hands on. It’s like it’s such an awesome differentiator, but it’s just, like, at the top of the funnel. Like, I’m just not convinced Mhmm. That it like, their customers love it as much as she does, or it’s gonna, like, attract them in. It’s kinda like, once they’re in there, they’ll love it.
But Right.
Yeah. It’s like yeah. Knowing the battles to fight. Right? Like, if she’s really fixed on that idea.
Yeah. But I would look at, like, if you feel, like, keeping the page static, right, or more or less static is gonna have resistance, right, I would propose or, like, other other levers that are likely to yield more result. Right? So, like, one example of that is, like, if there’s the, if they’re all in this, like, upskilling mini course. Right? Like, where’s that mini course being hosted?
It will be on their course platform, which is experienceify. It’s like a gamified course platform.
Sweet. Right? So you would have, like, the metrics of, like, what they’re doing.
Completed. Yeah. Yeah.
So so those who are highest on the scoreboard, presumably, the best leads. Right?
Or so I would use that almost, like, as a form of lead scoring. Right? And, like, who on the team? Like, is there a customer?
Is there, like, a sales specialist? Is it her? Right? Is there someone who could just, like, reach out to those students, like, as a check-in, right, like, before the sales experience. Right? So, like, that can move the needle more towards, like, converting those who are most engaged than optimizing copy that is already converting at four percent on the sales page.
So Yeah.
Because that with the challenge, like, if people took the challenge, they’re gonna they were gonna buy. Like, for this is for the other offer.
Yep. Yeah. The problem was it’s just that we’re getting people to, like, do the work that they that they said they were gonna do when they signed up.
But Yeah.
Right. But it’s like and this this, like, comes back down to, like, challenge funnels as well, right, where, like, I find that people are way too quick to disqualify people who didn’t drop everything in their lives to fully participate in a five day thing in the middle of the week. Right? And it’s like, every everything is information.
Right? And then you tailor messaging for that segment based on presumed information. Right? So, like, if someone signs up for this, mini course and they do nothing, like, didn’t even watch a video, like, that is a really specific segment to write two or three emails to.
Right?
Like Mhmm.
You know, you signed up for this, which tells me, like, you have this intention. You want to be making more. You even need to be making more because you’re overwhelmed and overworked. And because you didn’t even have a chance to watch a single video, something tells me that you are already stretched to your limit.
Right? How do you use that information to make a sales argument for the program regardless of whether or not they watch the video? Right? So it’s like, how do you take presumed information and work that in your favor instead of disqualifying someone?
Yeah. Yeah. That’s good advice. I did use the email that you suggested for the challenge final, but that I’m, like, that jumped straight to the good stuff. Yep. So I’m curious to see how that performs.
And the one other question, like, so with this audience, like, they don’t have they really do want the products, but they just they don’t have the budget. But I think, like, I get the impression that, like, it’s kind of a few months down the line. They might be able to, like, get the the money together, and I’m just wondering, like, how to build that information, like, into the win back sequences because that’s just not something I’ve kind of ever touched. Like, I just do the kind of quick sale.
Do you have any advice on on on that, on how to, like, reengage and then sell to people?
So, obviously, the more information you have around why they didn’t buy, the better. Right? So, like, if in your, post launch Yeah.
So it’s just money. Like, eighty percent of people are like, I just can’t afford it, but I want it.
Mhmm. So is it, like, framed that way? Like, I really want it, but I don’t have the money?
Or is it, like Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. So there’s so there’s intent there. Right?
Have you or the client, like, ever tried, like, remarketing around, like, a payment plan after or a guarantee or, like, she doesn’t really want to do that?
I’ve done, like, retargeting ads, like, around the payment plan.
Like, it definitely did that during the launch. There is that you can pay with Klarna.
Mhmm. Yep.
Like and I have, like, built onto the emails, like, after receiving that feedback that, you know, like, it’s Mhmm.
It’s just this and blah blah blah.
Does she have a sales team or anyone who sells by chat or DM?
Not not for this product. No.
Mhmm. So right. Like, we could, like, really overengineer it with, like, email sequences.
Like but what I would do if this were my business, right, is just, like, you know, I think I teach this somewhere, like, called, like, the Tyler Durden thing.
Oh my god.
I love that. I love Fight Club.
Yeah. It’s definitely a fight clubby reference on the template. Like, I’ll make a note, and I’ll send it to you after because I think you could take the gist of it. But, essentially, the short version of it is, like, like, like, remember the scene with, like, the, like, like, liquor store clerk, Raymond Hessel.
Right? And, like, Tyler Durden, like, pulled him outside, and he’s like, what’s your dream? What do you wanna be? And he’s like, I wanna be a dentist.
And he’s like, you know, if you’re not on your way to being a dentist, like, I’m gonna come back. And if you’re not on your way to being a dentist, like, that whole scene, so cool. But, like, similar concept.
I mean, like like, don’t drag your prosthetics out of the store.
Like right. No. Don’t do that. Right? But, like, they’re saying they want it. They’re they’re saying they need it. Right?
And life can’t just continue on the same trajectory forever. Right? So, like, the basic essence is, like, three weeks after the purchase, right, like, you know, just checking in, right, on their core intent. Like, it’s so not necessarily a nine word email. Like, is this something, like, you’re still interested in? Right?
Mhmm.
But, essentially, that. Right? And, like, what needs to change. Right? And this is where it’s so much easier if you have, like, a setter or a salesperson doing it because it’s, like, in real time.
But, essentially, use a Tyler Durden type email sequence if you are going, like, one to many on it. Right? Like, a very clear, like, what is your trajectory? Right?
Like or even yeah. Anyway, that’s a whole other conversation. But you can create that sequence. Create, like, the three week didn’t buy, didn’t had no money sequence.
Right? Like, it’s a super valuable sequence to have.
So make it your own.
Yeah. And I think I will put, like, this self segmenter email as well into the the sequence just to find out, like, exactly what it is that they want, like, how big they wanna build it.
Yeah.
Cool. Thank you. Oh, yay. This is gonna be fun.
Good stuff. Good stuff.
Cool. I got an extra five minutes if anyone still has something.
Sounds like we’re all good.
Sweet. Well, thanks for hanging out, everybody. Have an awesome rest of your Thursday, and we’ll chat soon. Take care, Ralph.
Thanks, Brian. Bye.
Worksheet
Worksheet
Transcript
Cool.
Alright. Before we get started, who has copied or review later or stuff that may require some extra time, and I’ll try to make sure we are pacing ourselves accordingly.
I have, like, a question that’ll take, like, two minutes.
Sweet. Yeah.
Cool. Cool. Alright.
Let’s dive in.
Alright. Everyone seeing this okay?
Cool.
So this is, like, one of my favorite things to geek out on because it’s, like, so simple and it’s, like, most basic format, and then it could get so tantalizingly geeky, like, as you expand out. So I’m gonna give us, like, the simple basic versions that can be implemented in, like, two minutes, and then the really exciting advanced geeky stuff that you can, like, either do internally or for your clients. And they’re like, I didn’t even know that was possible, which is that was such a fun reaction to get. So this is called the copy date segmenter.
It’s an email template, and it’s about how to use natural conversational type languaging to segment your leads into the right offer with the right message and sometimes at the right time. Cool.
What was so much fun about this one is going on Unsplash and typing in coffee images and just downloading a shit ton of stock images of coffee. So, yeah, side benefit.
So segmentation in sixty seconds, we’re not gonna have a whole conversation about that because we’re a bit limited on time. But, essentially, it’s about getting the right offer to the right prospect with the right message at the right time so that we can shorten buying cycles, increase conversions, and ultimately be more relevant.
One concept has, like, such a big, point of contemplation, right, is, like, I never want the reader to have a negative ROI on their attention. Like, if they’re gonna open an email and read their email, like, there’s gotta be relevancy. There’s gotta be value or else we’re we’re essentially in training them to not open our emails anymore. And I got so mad at Teachable, like, two days ago for, like, wasting my open.
Like, I gave them an open, and they totally wasted it. And I’m like, never again teachable. So, yeah, side note. Like, if you are going to get the open, make good on it and have relevancy in your offer and in your messaging.
Yeah. Stomata teachable. Not over it. So segmentation should ideally feel natural, not market research y, aka give me more info so I can better sell you.
Right? So many people when they segment or when they have emails or surveys meant to segment, it’s really clearly oriented around, you know, help me sell to you better. Right? And that’s cool.
That has its place. And I enjoy and appreciate when it doesn’t feel like that’s the reason, and it feels more conversation conversational and more natural.
And this is something I picked up from auditing a shit ton of sales calls and demo calls, which has always been my favorite part of the research process.
And what really good salespeople or enrollment coaches or people closing on demo calls do is they can qualify leads, and they can even segment those leads to present the right offer without that lead ever knowing it’s being done. It’s, like, so stealth. It’s conversational based. It’s question based. So they build connection.
They have these conversations. And in the background, they’re segmenting and they’re qualifying their leads so that they know what, if anything, to prevent that lead, during the pitch phase. So it never feels like they’re actively segmenting or qualifying while they actually are. Has anyone, like, had that experience either, like, qualifying a lead conversation with yourselves or, like, being on the other end of that. Like, it’s slow, magical, and it’s just, like, happening.
And, anyway, yeah, I wanted to replicate that via email. So the copy date segmentor was designed with this naturalness in mind and when to send it. So very obvious places to send it would be a new subscriber welcome sequence. Typically have this on, like, day one and a half or day two of a new subscriber initiation or welcome sequence, opt ins for webinars or new lead magnets, I guess, similar to number two. And, essentially, whenever you need to segment a list of undifferentiated leads. Right? If you have a ton of leads on your list and you don’t know who’s who and you don’t know what offer, if you have multiple offers, in your suite, you could send us out to get the right leads into the right funnel or to segment them into the right messaging depending on their persona.
So, essentially, for any new subscriber or simply when you’re ready to do, some meaningful work around the information you get. So this isn’t information to just, like, get to have fun and have a bunch of tags in your ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit that you’ll never actually use, which I am totally guilty of.
I would suggest doing this when you are ready to strategically, create new assets for the segments that you’re gonna receive, after sending out this email.
Cool. So very basic template.
Most of you could probably write this in literally ninety seconds.
In fact, if you ever do write this, I suggest put a ninety second timer. Test yourself, see if you can write it in under ninety seconds.
Subject, this just crushes copy chat question mark, like, always at least ten to fifteen percent higher than their normal open rates on a day one email.
Just just says really well. No one’s ever complained and said, I thought you want to actually go on a coffee chat. Like, I’ve never had that feedback. So, yeah, feel free to swipe it.
Feel free to overuse it. Coffee chat question mark. Bobby, real quick, if we were hanging out shooting the shit over matcha latte right now, what would you be most likely to ask me? Option a, natural languaging that would confirm segment a, like, in the voice of customer or in the voice of the prospect.
Like, how would they articulate the languaging that would make them a fit for persona a or option a, then same for option b. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links, and then an optional little bribe or curiosity loop to really get that click. So curiosity tends to work really well. Like, cool little bonus, like, cool little surprise without specifying exactly what it is.
That typically, especially if those links are literally, like, two lines above, like, they’re just gonna hit one of those links. So you’ll get a pretty pretty solid response rate, click through rate on that, and self segmentation if you have an extra little brag with a curiosity loop.
Cool. So now onto the fun stuff. So this is, like, the most basic thing ever. Takes ninety seconds.
The real strategy here is what are you going to be segmenting for and which ones should you be segmenting for. So first one, this is probably the starting point. If you don’t already have it done or your client doesn’t already have it done is segmenting on offers, so this works really well. If you have or if your client has multiple core offerings for a same or similar audience or persona with different more imminent needs.
So two very real examples of this would be freelancing school versus copy school. Right? A copy hacker a copywriter would be a fit for either, but which one is more imminent based on their current needs. Right?
That would be something to segment for, all coming down to getting the right offer in front of the right audience with the right messaging at the right time.
Where this full template began was, Amy Porterfield. She had multiple programs in her suite, like, twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen.
She had courses that convert for people who want to create a course. She had webinars that convert for people who want to learn webinars. And, essentially, the same audience for both, just different offers depending on what they most needed at that time. So, we segmented based on, which offer they would have more imminent need or interest in. So that’s number one, and let’s do a little walk through.
Cool. Actually, you know what? Let’s do number two, and then we’ll walk through two of them together. Second one would be same offer for a different persona.
So use this if you have multiple buying personas for the same offer that would require significantly different messaging, meaning audience one or audience two or persona a or persona b would have different stakes, different moments of high tensions, different pain points, different potential outcomes, different concerns, different contextual realities of how that problem shows up. So there is example, copy school for in house versus freelance copywriters versus founders, owners, and CMOs. So these would be three different personas for the same product that you would want to segment for. As
the way we talk about the offer, the way we talk about how the problems of being less than confident in your copy will have different stakes for these different audiences.
Alright. So that’s the easy stuff.
Let’s do two quick walk throughs on these two, and then we’re gonna get into the more advanced, slightly geeky stuff, yeah, that I have most fun with. Cool. So let me stop the share and jumping into This one.
Nope. Not that one.
This one. Cool.
Sweet. So this is the original one. So this is multiple offers for same persona.
Like, very quick opener, just just polishing up my espresso, double shot, of course, and wanted to take a quick second task if you were actually sitting here in my kitchen with Scout and I, and we had a few minutes to chat about anything you wanted. What we what would we talk about? What’d you be most likely to say? And this is, like, in their voice, in their words, how they would express it.
Enough of all these random list building tactics. It’s time to get serious about this growth and get my first thousand email subscribers the right way. Right? And I would segment them into, I think the course was called list builders lab at that time, and they would get on a sequence or an evergreen funnel for this program.
Or if you are or if you already have an email list but haven’t found a way to monetize it in a way that feels exciting or sustainable, you might be saying. So very very key language in here you might be saying and mirror it back in their own voice. It’s time to monetize my expertise and escape the time for money trap by creating an impactful and wildly profitable online course.
This one actually had three. Or maybe you’ve already built an offer you’re proud of and are now most likely to ask, how do I sell more product and scale my entire business with a fully integrated and automated webinar funnel? So all three of these led into evergreen funnels for different products, different courses in the suite with really simple languaging that would mirror the person or the persona, yeah, who would be most ready to be brought into those panels.
And then no bribe on this one. I was just like, I’d love it if you could take a quick second to let me know. PS, according to a nonofficial Hogwarts study. I don’t know.
Like, was I watching Harry Potter at this time? Maybe. I guess. It’s not even that clever.
It’s weird. Anyway, and then a final chance on the three different options. So this was, like, the original, original, original asset, and it performed really well. It took tens of thousands of undifferentiated leads, and we knew exactly which program in the suite, they would be most likely to purchase and benefit from.
And it did a whole lot of good for an email that took about two and a half minutes to write.
So, yeah, first one. Same persona, multiple offers.
Easy. Number two, same offer to personas, subject line, copy chat.
Hey. I was just sipping on a cold brew when I saw your name pop up on our attendance list for Friday’s beyond the love language master class. This is for a relationship coach, on a post webinar registration. It’s a great place to, inject this template as well.
And it got kinda got me curious if you were sitting across the Starbucks table for me right now. What would you be more likely to share? Option one, can’t wait for the master class. I’m currently not in a relationship.
I’d wanna gain the next level communication and connection skills to make sure I’m ready to enter my next partnership with full confidence. Or option number two, I am in a committed partnership. Can’t wait to learn some new practices to get deeply and meaningfully to connect deeply and meaningfully with my partner in ways that go beyond the go five, blah, blah, blah, languages. Cool.
So very simple. Right? Like, segmenting for a persona that is single and has a very different context and a different a very different motivating list of motivators for joining this kind of program versus, yeah, people who are already coupled. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links above and return all set over special pre workshop bonus that best matches up with where you’re at.
So nothing crazy. Like, nothing overly complicated here. Just like a simple bribe that just adds a little bit of extra incentive for what’s already a very easy click. Right?
It’s not a long email. Like, until, like, half of the email real estate is actually clickable and linkable.
So, yeah, there you have it.
Those are the first two. Are those two clear? Any questions on those before I geek out?
Can I just ask, like, how did you so with the Amy Portfield example, what is the transition from the click to entering the funnel?
Like, is it you click and then, like, you’re invited to the Evergreen webinar for this builders lab, or how does that what’s the next thing they see after they click?
Yeah. That’s a good question. So we consider different approaches. And if you were to use it, definitely consider different approaches with your client.
I think the approach we settled on was, like, there’s definitely a message match between them clicking on that link and the next page. I think it was, like, I think it was, like, a lead magnet for that funnel first, and then it warmed them up into the webinar funnel. It wasn’t just like a straight, you know, thanks for answering. Jump on our webinar. Although, I don’t see anything wrong with that approach either. Right? Especially if you have a good message match that disconnects those pages.
I think one thing we also considered, I don’t know if we tested it, was, like, a bridge page. Right? So, like, you know you know, thanks for taking this not to answer. You know?
What feels more most powerful as a next step? Like, there’s, like, a checklist or lead magnet or, like and then I think we framed it like you’re really ready to go all in on this, catch the webinar. So it could be a bridge page. It could be a webinar.
It could be lead magnet.
That’s how yeah. Those are probably the three options. Great. Thank you. Cool.
Sweet. Alright.
Any other questions before we geek out? Oh, yeah. Jessica.
Can you hear me okay, Rai?
Yep. I do.
Okay. Sorry. I’m on my phone, so I never know if it worked.
So I guess I was wondering, would you say that this is possible? I’m thinking about a problem that I’ve encountered with one of my clients, and then I thought I was the on the receiving end of it with a recent product I bought where, you buy a product from a company, and then they arbitrarily send you a new offer to some product, and you’re like, well, why would you give me a discount and free shipping on that? Why didn’t you just ask me, you know, something to make the offer more relevant?
Think about modifying this in some way for a post purchase to get a sense what do you think?
Like, any recommendations or advice or just what what comes to mind with that context?
Yeah. I think, like, you get to adapt that for the ecomm, space, right, and own it. Right? Because it probably looks a little bit different while still having the same basic format or the same psychology. Right?
Yeah. I think, like, that could definitely be an email that triggers different post purchase flows. Right? And, ideally, those per post purchase flows will convert better than the control because they’re segmented and they raise their hand and said, this is what I’m more into. Right? So I’d say it works really well with, that has, like, very clear distinctions between the different types of products that might be marketed post purchase. And I can’t think of, like, any specific examples off the top of my head, but maybe you can.
Yeah. But I would definitely inject it there, right, within the post purchase flows that branches off into your different directions.
Okay. Cool. I is it okay if I give you the example from myself and then you just riff on what you would have done? Is that cool? Okay. So I don’t know if you’re familiar, but there’s this company called Organifi, and that was the product that okay. So I brought no.
This is gonna tell you guys so much.
So I was following an influencer who recommended their, happy drops, and they have, like, saffron, you know, and then that’s, like, the primary ingredient, whatever. So I ordered these this month of gummies, and then the follow-up in my post purchase and first email that wasn’t related to, you know, transactional post purchase stuff was free shipping and, like, seventy five percent off on a green smoothie. And I was kinda like, interesting choice. I wonder if they just looked at their data and found that a lot of people tend to buy that as their second product. I don’t know. But it was that situation where I was saying they’re going, If they had done a little more research or asked me for maybe some voice of customer, something like this, I could have said to them what else I’d be interested in for my next purchase.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
I think, like so, like, supplement nutrition. Right? I think, like, you could segment based on two things post purchase. And right now, I’m literally brainstorming on the fly.
Right? Like, you can brainstorm for, like, a post purchase flow that would push them towards more volume of the same thing. Right? And that email might be, like, you know, like like, celebrating.
Right? Like, amazing. Your order is shipping. And we’re just curious. Like, what’s gonna happen once that package hits your door?
You’re gonna come inside, open it up, and, like, share it with the family and multiple people, and your collagen powder is gonna be gone within six days. Right?
Or is this all for you? Right? Like, you know, no one’s touching your shit, essentially. Right?
And now you know. Like, okay. They’re, like, a single buyer or they’re buying for a household. Right?
Buying for a household, have more volume based discount and more volume based promotions.
So that’s, like, one way, two segment.
Oh, I like that.
Yeah. That’s a really good I I would not have even thought of that, and it’s so true. That’s actually what happened. I thought I was buying for myself, and my husband and my daughter suddenly took my dummy.
So, yeah, that actually makes thank you. Yeah. Oh, very helpful. Right?
Then there’s the empathy and the natural languaging. Like, I get so annoyed when something I bought for myself is gone within, like, days. Right?
Like, I just bought, like it’s not even ecom. I just bought, like like, I was at, I was at, I guess, Canada’s version of a CVS, or I was at, like, yeah, drugstore pharmacy.
Those of you who were, like, on at the beginning of the call, heard that, like, I just, like, unplugged, like, the upstairs shower and felt so, like, amazing in it. So, yeah, yesterday, I was, like, buying, like, rubber gloves and, like, shower scrub and all this stuff. Like, I was ready for battle. And, of course, like, if I’m gonna do that, I gotta treat myself.
So I bought, like, three ninety percent, like, dark chocolate Lindt bars, and I’m like, yes. This is my this is my reward. Like, I got, like, two squares. Like, I don’t even have a big family.
I have, like, a wife and a seven year old. Like, why are my chocolate bars already gone? So it’s like yeah. Pick me as a go vegan.
So, like, yeah, that’s what I’m saying is reflect back that natural languaging of, like, their stuff being gone so fast. Right? Like, really get on their side so that it feels natural and not marketing research y. Right?
And I think, like, that’s that’s what’s gonna get the best response rate on this email is when it feels like you know them and their situation and how they’re articulating it, not just like, tell us how how we could best market to you. So yeah. Does that make sense?
It does. Thank you. That’s really, really helpful, and I I’m excited to go, implement something with this client because this client right now, as a bad example, has a post I think it’s a post yeah. Post purchase survey where, basically, it just comes right out and asks, how often do you plan on buying?
Right. And it gives me all the data.
That. Right?
Yeah. Exactly.
Like, you will get response, but you’re not actually building relationship or connection around that. Right? Like, no one feels good divulging that. Like, they’re gonna weaponize that against me. I know it. Right?
But, yeah, it’s just an opportunity to build connection while still getting the information you need and maybe even getting more accurate information because you’re framing it in a way that they actually understand.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Troy.
Another one you might wanna test just, like, while we’re in the brainstorm. So, like, there’s the volume based one.
Then, like, let’s say, like, still using the supplement health health ecom. Right? So, like, a company like Symbiotica, right, with, like, so many different, like, health supplements, that would be more, like, goals based. Right?
So, like, I would frame, like, a post purchase on, like, more kinda like, you know, what’s your, like, perfect day. Right? Like and kind of have one, like, that’s more, like, athletic based, like, they’re an endurance athlete or whatever, or maybe they’re a weightlifter. Right?
So just, like, getting information without, yeah, without, like, the marketing research y about it. That’s the only way I could frame it. Like, tell the story that mirrors their life that’s gonna give you valuable enough information and clear enough information to put them in the right flow.
Cool. Thank you. Cool. I’m taking curious notes.
Sweet. So, yeah, even on, like, the most basic versions of this, you can already accomplish so much. So I’m gonna, like, have that little disclaimer before we get into, like, the ultra nerdy stuff that you might never use this extra nerdy stuff. Like and use restraint because it’s so tempting to use it and then be like, what do we actually do with it?
But then again, it can be super helpful. So let’s take a look.
Alright.
Sweet. So application number three. So you could segment or buying intent or proximity to purchase.
I just call this, like, lead scoring. Right? You can use this click to essentially, lead score. Right? Lead score based on the click. So one of those, like, clicks could be worth, ten points on a lead score. One could be worth one.
And this is particularly useful if you are a solopreneur or have a really small sales team and need to be really selective in terms of which leads you are prioritizing in terms of manual sales qualifying or sent AKA reaching out to new leads. So super useful in that use case. And then the final one is my fave favorite. I haven’t had so many use cases on this.
I want more use cases on this because it would be just so badass. So this is more experimental, but segmenting based on core buying motivator. Right? So, branching it off into two core motivators.
Right? Some people, more motivated by perceived gain, exciting outcome while others are more motivated by, risk aversion or loss aversion. Right? Statistically, two times more likely to buy to avoid loss than to experience gain.
So if you know your prospect’s core buy motivator based on a segmentation email like this, like, where you’re literally segmenting for, are they more loss averse, or are they more, gain motivated?
You can use that information to essentially send the same emails or the same landing pages, but with different call to action languaging that best reflects that intent that they’re more likely to, yeah, respond to.
So game based languaging versus loss aversion based languaging and email call to action. You could use conditional messaging on that inactive campaign, or you could just send two separate emails that are essentially identical but different languaging on the call to action. So this is some really nerdy email stuff you could do, but it’s also really easy to track. So, essentially, let me get off this screen and show you what that email looks like.
Oh, no. Did I, like, close the other window?
There we go.
Cool.
So first one for buying intent. So this is just, like, how close they are to being ready to buy.
This one I think I wrote for guess this would make sense for traffic and funnels, like, two or three years ago. Once again, not getting overly clever on the subject line. If it works, it works.
So, yeah, just stop at my go to Starbucks, and it had me wondering if we were sharing a table right now, what would we be jamming on, would you be saying? Right? And a and b. So this is, I think, less qualified, so not an not a sales qualified lead just yet.
Hey, Taylor. I’ll be honest, man. I’m pretty new to this coaching and consulting world. I’m still trying to figure out what I do and my best path forward.
Can you help me out? Right? So this would, like, link to just kinda more nurture material, right, and not have a higher lead score. And And on skin, in, like, really natural languaging that I had literally picked up on some sales calls that went nowhere.
Right? So I think, like, this was written in response to this, like, a lot of their sales reps being overwhelmed with bad calls. And it’s like, why are we even on this call? Right?
So I’ll be honest, man. Just pretty new to this thing. Right? Like, that’s how it came out.
And then this one for the languaging that a more qualified lead would be using. Right? I’ve been at this for a while. Right?
Very natural languaging. It’s my full time gig, and I’m definitely getting by, but nowhere near the level of revenue that I know I should be. Right? So perceived injustice there.
I’m not afraid to ask for help. Right? So qualifying them for coaching, and I’m really hoping that this is the year to build real wealth and never have to worry about the threat of having to get a real job again. So this is the languaging that mirrors someone who is, presumably more ready to buy than this one.
Right? So if you were using lead scoring, this click would score more. Right? If you were a solopreneur running this kind of email, essentially, you would go into your system, track the link clicks on this one, and reach out proactively to the people who click that.
Right? Especially if you’re trying to conserve your own bandwidth or your team’s bandwidth, like, who do we actually reach out to?
Really simple. Do me a quick favor and hit one of those links above so that I know how to best help you if we ever run-in run into each other inside the group or a Starbucks. Weird closing line. Why did I write that? I don’t even know, but it still worked.
So, yeah, that was for lead scoring. And now core buying motivator. So also pretty simple. Alright.
Hey. I just grabbed a seat at my fave coffee shop. I noticed you recently downloaded my free, couples meditation, and then I got curious. If you were joining me right now for a matcha latte or whatever your vibe is, what would you be more likely to share about your truest, deepest, realest reason for requesting it?
Would you say? So this is the motivated by gain or positive outcome. So thanks for the meditation. Things are going okay with my partner, but, obviously, I’d love to take things to the next level. I know there’s so much more passion, connection, and depth available to us, and I’d hate to miss out on that hold straight from voice of customer, voice of prospect data. Like, that was literally verbatim.
Or we really need this practice. To be honest, things have been tough lately. It feels like no matter what we do, we struggle to regain connection or even be in the same room without triggering each other. It’s painful, and I get anxious wondering if things can even get better at this point and what that means for us and our kids.
Right? So very clearly distinct languaging for perceived gain. Right? Like, this person is motivated by, what could be better.
This person is motivated by essentially things not deteriorating or, yeah, loss aversion.
So, yeah, key on this one. Right? Especially if you’re gonna nerd out on it, just make sure that what you are writing on these two options gives you enough confidence to tag them as as their motivator. Right? And then what are we gonna do with this? So, obviously, a tag, tag, motivator mote, mote for short.
Make sure, like, you have a good, like, taxonomy on that because someone’s gonna come into the system one day and be like, what the hell does that even mean?
Yeah, motivator gain, motivator loss aversion, not motivated by going to LA, which some people would definitely think if they ran into this one.
But, yeah, there you have it. And then you would be able to send out, segmented emails by literally just having different call to actions that reflect, that kind of languaging. So there we go. Different applications, different ways to nerd out. I’m sure y’all are smart enough to think of, like, probably multiple different ways to use this kind of segmentation.
And the key rule, right, is, like, only segment what you have a strategy to put to use. Otherwise, you just end up with so many segments and so little ways to use them. But, yeah, open to any questions, feedback, and considerations of how you might put it to use for yourselves or your clients.
Yeah. Katie.
I would love to ask about, like, with a new offer because I totally like, like, what you just said about only segmenting when you have something to do with it, get it. But when you’re launching so I just help like, I did sales page and and sales sequence for this new course.
Because it’s new.
Like, basically, this is the horrible plan I told you about. So it’s like, is it gonna be most appealing to, like, empty nest women who wanna do this for more joy, or is the, like, high performance market going to pick up?
So, like, we have in the second email, the welcome sequence, a segmentation where I’m essentially trying to see, like, who’s actually signing up for this lead magnet Mhmm.
So that we can eventually double down on messaging for them.
Yep.
So I guess, like, is segmenting for market research, like, what what would you do with that click immediately? Like, I have a long term plan for it, but what’s the short term next action?
Right. So I think there are options. Right? If the client has, like so this is gonna be a course that hasn’t been marketed yet. Right?
Yeah. So it’s like we we rebranded it, like, repositioned an existing course at a way higher price point. So it’s like there’s a general ICA, but there’s not a really specific one because it’s a new product.
Right. Yeah. And you haven’t created the marketing for that yet, like, for the for the course?
We’ve like, I’m just saying it, and I’m like, we did it backwards, didn’t we? We have a sales page, and we have a the nurture sequence.
Mhmm.
Yeah. But I think, like, the the it’s it both of those are so far pretty general.
Mhmm. Yeah. How many people are on this client’s list?
Five hundred.
Mhmm. So at that volume, right, like, what would have the most ROI? Like, I think yep.
So She is she’s not, like, she’s getting a ton of press.
She’s basically gone on this huge publicity tour lately. So, like, we were optimizing for people who’ve heard her speak or heard her on a podcast.
Like, this is the freebie that she’s pitching on when she talks, and then this the freebie sells the program that then Right.
That she point to.
Yeah.
Yeah. Let me think of how I would do that. Like, does she have any kind of one on one services or higher end coaching, like, for people who would be qualified for that?
So she has offered this program one in one on one in the past, and she’s done a lot of one on one coaching. But, at the higher price point, we’re anticipating it being quite a different market.
Mhmm. Yep. And, when is the offer gonna be, like, available or launched?
It it is available.
Okay.
And, like, I don’t see her existing audience as really being the market for it. It’s more like right now, she’s, like, using this freebie to build it, putting it in front of them in the welcome sequence. But, like, right now, it’s more building that audience and then trying to get a sense of who is actually in it. Mhmm.
Right.
Yeah. I think, like yeah. I mean, the obvious one, I guess, is, like, segmenting for persona and seeing, like, who is actually on that list and which of those personas are moving through into that sale sequence and actually converting so that you could double down on your marketing efforts later. I think that would be useful.
Yeah.
The other one would be, essentially, like, lead scoring. Right? So, like, if someone clicked something where they have, like, a more imminent problem and a more imminent need for that thing because she has such, like, small lead volume already and you really gotta make the most out of everyone, Like, for those who will have a high lead score, right, I would have, like, personal reach outs or someone on the team. Right? Like, just essentially, like, further enabling that sale with more intimate touch point.
Mhmm. Okay. Yeah.
And then if you’re doing like, when you said about the different personas, if you’re doing that, but they’re dramatically different Mhmm.
I guess, are you just taking your best like, if I’m like, okay. So either it’s the, like, adrenal fatigue executive who needs this program because, like, they’re so burnt out that like or maybe they’re, like, on burnout leave, and they need they’re looking for something to help them. Or it’s like a holistic, like, energy healer who is burnt out from their own practice taking care of other people, and they really need to do something for themselves.
Like, I don’t know. Do you risk the, like, dissonance of having those two voices next to each other?
You’re like, which one sounds more like you and then they’re totally disparate?
Like, I I think if it’s possible, like, she just her her leads are just that undifferentiated, right, and you need to create distinction, then that’s just what it is.
And the value there, right, is like and and you could change this at any time. Right? This is gonna be the email that is there for the next five years. I think initially, if she had just so many leads and she doesn’t know who they are and they could be in either of those, categories, it’s very useful to see which segment or which persona is more responsive to the offer.
Right? So now you actually know what to create top funnel in terms of content. You know which podcast to try to get on to. You know what your Facebook ads look like.
You know, who you’re calling out on that, especially when they’re two very different audiences, and you can talk to both of them top funnel. Right?
So, yeah, I think the main benefit right now is, like, strategically, like, which persona is our buyer here. Right? Both of them can be our buyer. Right? And which one which one is our buyer?
So, essentially, then you’re tracking it through, like, who converts and looking at which persona tag they have.
Yep. Exactly that. Yep.
That makes a lot of sense. Cool.
Sweet. Lindsay, are you in the, Edmonton office there?
Nice. Cool. Is, like, everyone going crazy about, like, the right now?
Yes.
And you’re, like, two two minutes away from it. Right?
Yeah. It’s just down the road. It’s about two blocks. Fun.
We’re in the same place.
Yep. We’re always just waving.
Oh, nice.
There behind me.
Cool. Cool.
I had a chance to pop into that office for forty hours to sing Semisonics closing time and then go home. It was fun.
I’ve seen that video.
Yeah. That was a fun day.
It’s a great day. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I think, like, you warmed up, Lindsay. Like, your your voice was projecting towards a little bit. It’s great.
I mean, it is a classic song. So, you know Yeah. If you’re a particular age, you’ll definitely know the song very well.
Right?
Yeah.
Awesome. Cool. Abby, I think you’re up.
Yeah. So it’s like just a challenge I’m trying to kind of figure out for my clients. So, for contacts, so we launched a course, in January. It’s like a bookkeeping course, my bookkeeping clients.
And, the the kind of big idea for the funnel was, to make twenty twenty four your six figure year, And it it killed, like, we did, I think, like, thirty percent of the email list converted. So it was a great launch. And then we evergreened it. And then I think I’ve mentioned this before.
Like, there was some weird weird stuff going on. So the the webinar funnel was converting at two percent, but traffic to the sales page is converting at, like, four point six percent.
Yeah. Just couldn’t figure out why. So but, basically, they they want to meet to rekind of redo the funnel rather than it being a webinar funnel, like, put them into a mini course where they can practice.
And I’m just, like, I’m not sure, like, how kind of long to give them to go through it, how long the email sequence should be. I was thinking, like, ten days. Like, four days of reminders, six days of sales with some reminders put in. And then, like, I guess I would need to kind of change up the messaging on the sales page as well so that it but I I’m I’m struggling to, like, come up with a new idea that’s, like, around because they want it around, like, the hands on kind of practice. But I’m just struggling to, like, connect that to, like, an attractive enough kind of desire that they want or, like, a problem.
Yeah. I mean, the main hook that crushed was really kinda, like, money based. Right?
Like Yeah.
So, like, trying to, like, I mean, like, money or status or something.
But And, the new sales page is, like, for the mini course, which is free or paid?
Well, I mean so I’ve done the opt in page for the new mini course, but then I’m thinking the long form sales page.
Like, at the at the moment, it’s like, make, make six figure years the norm or something.
Mhmm.
So but then because they’re coming in Yeah. To, like, get it it feels, like, disconnected.
Right.
Based on, like, your research and your intel or even, like, the client’s, like, perspective your client’s perspective, like, is this audience, like, just that motivated to practice and get hands on experience? Like, is that a hook hook for this audience?
Oh, I I don’t think so. I think that’s the that’s their differentiator for sure.
Yeah.
And, yes, they do they do want practice because that’s another product we have. Like, they’re super motivated by practice, but this is a lot more expensive. So fourteen hundred. So I’m kinda like, look, if the sales page isn’t bursting at four point six percent, like, just leave it, like, for fourteen hundred dollar product. They’ve got a good, like, ROAS, but, yeah, they want you know, I’m just doing what the client wants.
Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with your perspective and, right, like, if we were to entertain it and build it, which it sounds like we are.
So how do you really make that attractive?
I kinda it brings me back to actually something that, like did I suggest this to you?
Yeah. Dea, DBM Boot Camp. DBM, digital business manager boot camp. Right? So she runs an agency and a certification called DBM Boot Camp for VAs to get paid more by essentially upscaling into DBMs.
And she had a mini course, or she still has a mini course. And I think one of the hooks we optimized for there was so, yeah, like, there’s the upskilling part, which is, like, kinda cool, kind of attractive, but you’re leaving it to the reader to quantify what that means. Right? And it’s kinda, like, vague.
Like, how does upskilling actually, like, contribute to me doubling my revenue next year? Right? I think one way we work with that, right, is it’s, like, almost every upscale module or lesson, right, like, had an estimated, like, estimated salary raise, right, of, like, you complete this and, you know, your hour is now twenty dollars per hour more. Right?
So as they complete things, it’s kinda, like, gamified of, like, they’ve umped their value from x to y. So it’s like if the bookkeepers have a very, like, a very standardized, like, dollar per hour at their current level, Right?
Yeah.
And these different skill levels or these different abilities or capacities or whatever, like, up level their ability to earn more, like, just, like, frame it that way.
Right? Like, almost on a timeline. Like, by the time they’re done these five lessons, their, you know, value on the market has gone up x amount. Like, I think that could be a way to anchor that in.
Yeah.
I mean and if no one else is, like, wants is volunteering for a copy review, can I show you the sales page and kind of Yep?
Certainly. Cool.
Okay.
I’ll put it in my chat.
Cool. Alright. This is the one you’ve already kinda, like, written?
Like, or Yeah.
This is on it’s converting at four point six percent.
Like because, I mean, yeah, I just think when it’s upskimming, like Mhmm.
It’s for money.
Right. Like, because and and it I mean, it is a a big salary raise. Like, so because I so that’s their headline, and then I do, like, the math underneath.
Okay. And they’re dropping onto the sales page, like, after they’ve gone through that mini course, essentially?
That’s that’s what it would would be, yeah, with the new funnel.
Mhmm.
But then it’s like the message is gonna feel abrupt, whereas before, it was after doing, like, a webinar, like, called, like, how to make six figures the norm with cleanup or something.
Mhmm. So they’ve gone through this mini course. Right? They’ve, like, skilled up with some hands on experience.
Mhmm.
I think there’s, like, an opportunity to have a bit of connective tissue with that. Right? It’s like and I and don’t use these words. Like, I’m not a good copywriter on reply, but it’s like you’ve essentially, the the essence of it is, like, you’ve just elevated your earning potential, turned your earning potential into an earned reality. Right?
So it’s like earning potential versus earned reality would be kind of a way to, like, continue the momentum they’ve already built Yeah.
That’s versus wasting it. Like, kind of when you I guess, like, similar to when do they go for a challenge. Yeah. So I suppose I could I could change as well, like, to the freelance.
But keep who’d love to, like, upscale their way to Mhmm.
Their bigger, the this, that, sexy, six figure year vibes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
But I wouldn’t lose the essence of, like, what’s working. Like, if it’s converting at over four percent, like, have the minimal amount of, like, connective tissue, like, from the new experience. Right? Because it’s still essentially the same audience.
Like, they’ve just had a different different, you know, presale experience.
So, this is, like, really similar to the one that was converting at, like, over four percent?
Yeah.
Yeah. Honestly, like, I would make as little changes as possible.
So optimize rather than rewrite. Right.
Optimize for, like, consistency between their past experience and this one, but don’t rewrite according to that past experience.
Right?
Yep. I was hoping you’d say that.
Yeah. I don’t rewrite. That would yeah.
Like, only rewrite if and when the data tells you to, but now when a page is converting at four percent for the exact same audience this is going to. Right?
Yeah. I mean, the problem with this client is that they they’re like they’re ideal in so many ways, but they have crazy expectations.
Like, they wanted a million dollar launch, and they had, like, five thousand people on their email list. Mhmm.
It’s it’s kind of yeah. So they’re like they don’t think four point six percent is they’re like, oh, we want, like, ten percent. I’m like, okay. Well, we you know, we can let’s try for, like, six.
Right. This is the one, we were discussing on, like, Slack, like, three weeks ago or two weeks ago.
Probably. Yeah. They’re, like, my main client at the moment. Mhmm.
Yeah. Because they’re great because they have great offers and or, like, a great audience and that all their copy is terrible. So it’s nice to actually see the results from my copy, rather than, you know, the other things not being in place. But it’s just never it’s never good enough. Like, they just want more.
Yep.
Like, if you feel like making minimal changes will trigger the client to feel like you’re not doing enough, right, and that’s a becomes a client management and expectation thing.
I think, like, that’s a separate conversation. And, like, if you did if you did wanna provide more output than very small changes here, like, are there other aspects of the funnel you could look at, like, you know, the email sequences?
Well, that’s it. It’s gonna be the emails because if they’re if they’re going in, yeah, it’s gonna need to be a longer sequence.
Yep.
Sales page converting at ten percent. Like, I love I love, like, ridiculous benchmarks. Right? I think, like, it pushes us into, like, new ways or new ways of, like, innovating and doing things.
Right? But, like, you know, like, I would optimize in other ways than, like, just writing different words and adding different sections because I don’t think that’s gonna take you from four percent to ten percent. Like, just different cop like, your copy is already really good. Right?
Like, it’s it’s not gonna be four percent to ten percent better, right, no matter what you do.
But it’s just yeah. I mean, that weirdness that the webinar funnel converting worse than the direct the sales page. So I’m thinking, well, if we like I mean, she just she was really into, like, the fact that it’s hands on. It’s like it’s such an awesome differentiator, but it’s just, like, at the top of the funnel. Like, I’m just not convinced Mhmm. That it like, their customers love it as much as she does, or it’s gonna, like, attract them in. It’s kinda like, once they’re in there, they’ll love it.
But Right.
Yeah. It’s like yeah. Knowing the battles to fight. Right? Like, if she’s really fixed on that idea.
Yeah. But I would look at, like, if you feel, like, keeping the page static, right, or more or less static is gonna have resistance, right, I would propose or, like, other other levers that are likely to yield more result. Right? So, like, one example of that is, like, if there’s the, if they’re all in this, like, upskilling mini course. Right? Like, where’s that mini course being hosted?
It will be on their course platform, which is experienceify. It’s like a gamified course platform.
Sweet. Right? So you would have, like, the metrics of, like, what they’re doing.
Completed. Yeah. Yeah.
So so those who are highest on the scoreboard, presumably, the best leads. Right?
Or so I would use that almost, like, as a form of lead scoring. Right? And, like, who on the team? Like, is there a customer?
Is there, like, a sales specialist? Is it her? Right? Is there someone who could just, like, reach out to those students, like, as a check-in, right, like, before the sales experience. Right? So, like, that can move the needle more towards, like, converting those who are most engaged than optimizing copy that is already converting at four percent on the sales page.
So Yeah.
Because that with the challenge, like, if people took the challenge, they’re gonna they were gonna buy. Like, for this is for the other offer.
Yep. Yeah. The problem was it’s just that we’re getting people to, like, do the work that they that they said they were gonna do when they signed up.
But Yeah.
Right. But it’s like and this this, like, comes back down to, like, challenge funnels as well, right, where, like, I find that people are way too quick to disqualify people who didn’t drop everything in their lives to fully participate in a five day thing in the middle of the week. Right? And it’s like, every everything is information.
Right? And then you tailor messaging for that segment based on presumed information. Right? So, like, if someone signs up for this, mini course and they do nothing, like, didn’t even watch a video, like, that is a really specific segment to write two or three emails to.
Right?
Like Mhmm.
You know, you signed up for this, which tells me, like, you have this intention. You want to be making more. You even need to be making more because you’re overwhelmed and overworked. And because you didn’t even have a chance to watch a single video, something tells me that you are already stretched to your limit.
Right? How do you use that information to make a sales argument for the program regardless of whether or not they watch the video? Right? So it’s like, how do you take presumed information and work that in your favor instead of disqualifying someone?
Yeah. Yeah. That’s good advice. I did use the email that you suggested for the challenge final, but that I’m, like, that jumped straight to the good stuff. Yep. So I’m curious to see how that performs.
And the one other question, like, so with this audience, like, they don’t have they really do want the products, but they just they don’t have the budget. But I think, like, I get the impression that, like, it’s kind of a few months down the line. They might be able to, like, get the the money together, and I’m just wondering, like, how to build that information, like, into the win back sequences because that’s just not something I’ve kind of ever touched. Like, I just do the kind of quick sale.
Do you have any advice on on on that, on how to, like, reengage and then sell to people?
So, obviously, the more information you have around why they didn’t buy, the better. Right? So, like, if in your, post launch Yeah.
So it’s just money. Like, eighty percent of people are like, I just can’t afford it, but I want it.
Mhmm. So is it, like, framed that way? Like, I really want it, but I don’t have the money?
Or is it, like Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. So there’s so there’s intent there. Right?
Have you or the client, like, ever tried, like, remarketing around, like, a payment plan after or a guarantee or, like, she doesn’t really want to do that?
I’ve done, like, retargeting ads, like, around the payment plan.
Like, it definitely did that during the launch. There is that you can pay with Klarna.
Mhmm. Yep.
Like and I have, like, built onto the emails, like, after receiving that feedback that, you know, like, it’s Mhmm.
It’s just this and blah blah blah.
Does she have a sales team or anyone who sells by chat or DM?
Not not for this product. No.
Mhmm. So right. Like, we could, like, really overengineer it with, like, email sequences.
Like but what I would do if this were my business, right, is just, like, you know, I think I teach this somewhere, like, called, like, the Tyler Durden thing.
Oh my god.
I love that. I love Fight Club.
Yeah. It’s definitely a fight clubby reference on the template. Like, I’ll make a note, and I’ll send it to you after because I think you could take the gist of it. But, essentially, the short version of it is, like, like, like, remember the scene with, like, the, like, like, liquor store clerk, Raymond Hessel.
Right? And, like, Tyler Durden, like, pulled him outside, and he’s like, what’s your dream? What do you wanna be? And he’s like, I wanna be a dentist.
And he’s like, you know, if you’re not on your way to being a dentist, like, I’m gonna come back. And if you’re not on your way to being a dentist, like, that whole scene, so cool. But, like, similar concept.
I mean, like like, don’t drag your prosthetics out of the store.
Like right. No. Don’t do that. Right? But, like, they’re saying they want it. They’re they’re saying they need it. Right?
And life can’t just continue on the same trajectory forever. Right? So, like, the basic essence is, like, three weeks after the purchase, right, like, you know, just checking in, right, on their core intent. Like, it’s so not necessarily a nine word email. Like, is this something, like, you’re still interested in? Right?
Mhmm.
But, essentially, that. Right? And, like, what needs to change. Right? And this is where it’s so much easier if you have, like, a setter or a salesperson doing it because it’s, like, in real time.
But, essentially, use a Tyler Durden type email sequence if you are going, like, one to many on it. Right? Like, a very clear, like, what is your trajectory? Right?
Like or even yeah. Anyway, that’s a whole other conversation. But you can create that sequence. Create, like, the three week didn’t buy, didn’t had no money sequence.
Right? Like, it’s a super valuable sequence to have.
So make it your own.
Yeah. And I think I will put, like, this self segmenter email as well into the the sequence just to find out, like, exactly what it is that they want, like, how big they wanna build it.
Yeah.
Cool. Thank you. Oh, yay. This is gonna be fun.
Good stuff. Good stuff.
Cool. I got an extra five minutes if anyone still has something.
Sounds like we’re all good.
Sweet. Well, thanks for hanging out, everybody. Have an awesome rest of your Thursday, and we’ll chat soon. Take care, Ralph.
Thanks, Brian. Bye.
Your Inner Authority (Part 3)
Your Inner Authority (Part 3)
Transcript
This is part three. Wrapping it up. And as I was, like, writing part three, I was trying to think of, like, the best trilogies in movie history.
Like I don’t know. What’s the best trilogy? Was, like, Batman a trilogy?
Yeah. That’s three. Yeah.
Pretty solid trilogy. Home Alone? Is that a trilogy?
Lord of the Rings.
Lord of the Rings, actually.
Lord of the Rings.
Yeah. That that is probably the best trilogy of all time. Yes. Agreed.
That’s where my mind went.
Yep.
Sweet. So, this is the third and final installment of DeepCraft and our authority, and this one’s all about how to use the scene, heard, felt framework to reveal pain, highlight natural urgency, and compel action. So as a recap, part one, which we did in February, there should be a replay somewhere, was all about deep voice of customer data, how to use three piercing questions to go beneath the surface and extract rich insight that your customers aren’t saying but want to say but don’t have the words to say, and you get to say them in your copy. Part two was shadow copy, how to balance virtuous and forbidden desire to elicit your prospects full range of the app. Yeah. I need this.
And then I think in April, we took a break and did something else, and now we’re wrapping up the trilogy. So recap. The inner authority is one who knows the prospect better than they know themselves, exposes, and illuminates that which the prospect is unable or unwilling to articulate or divulge, build stress and resonance through the whole damn, are you in my head phenomenon.
Four, make sure their one reader is fully fully seen, heard, felt on the page, or at least more seen and felt than any other competitor is willing or able to see them. So best way to make your prospect feel, seen, heard, and felt is to literally see, hear, and feel them.
So the mostly driven direct response copy will engage as many senses as they can to generate a reaction that moves a prospect towards action.
And we do this by painting scenes, like, literally seeing them, hearing, and feeling them in a very specific moment or type of moment that we’re gonna talk about in a second.
So before I get into all that, this is one of my all time favorite copy hacks. I guess I’ll call it a copy hack.
Especially if I’m getting tasked to write email email copy or ad copy on, like, a really short turnaround where, like, the client just, like, doesn’t care about due process or research. Right? Like, we need five emails and five ads by next week.
But, like, yeah, they they don’t care that it takes x amount of time to do research to the proper, like, mining and all this stuff. Like, they just need it done. So this is what I turned to because the research to generate this type of copy is minimal. It could be done in under an hour, and the results have gotten out of this kind of copy, especially on ads and sales emails that point to, pricing pages or application forms has been awesome. So, yeah, little hack if you have to write ads or emails on a really tight, timeline with kind of a minimum bible research phase.
So sensory dominance hierarchy. So I did a lot of, like, research on this and tried to find, like like, I’ve heard all, like, all these years. Right? Like, engage as many senses as you can and, like but which ones are the most important?
Like, not all senses, like yeah. Not all senses can be created equal. Like, people must be more dominant in a certain sense. And what I found, and I can’t find any sources.
Everyone just says this to be true. And, like, they’re quoting some, like, outdated journals that I’ve never heard of, but, essentially, comes down to seen, like, visual data seems to be the most universally strong and dominant sense followed by sound, so heard, and felt. So these are the three that I’m gonna focus on. Touch, taste, and smell, like, I’m very smell oriented, but for whatever reason, that ranks very low on the hierarchy.
So in my copy, I rarely talk about, like, the scent of a wafting candle in the next room, because yeah. I don’t know. Maybe I should talk more about scent and see who responds to scent. But seen, heard, and felt are the most dominant ones that I found in my research and that I tend to rely on most when it comes to writing copy.
So when when we talk about scene, I mean, literally, like, be seen. Like, where are they at? Place them as a character in a certain environment.
And, like, what they see, give a three hundred sixty degree view. Like, what are they seeing within that scene? What is the visual data that they are processing? So that could be facial cues from people in the room. That could be, like, what they’re seeing on a screen in front of them. It could be markups on a Google Doc if you’re a copywriter.
What is the visual data that they are processing and interpreting?
And with that, we get to see them and their experience. So this is where someone feels seen, when we actually see them where they’re at and see kind of through their eyes what they’re processing, what they’re interpreting, what they’re experiencing.
Next one is heard. So very similar. Like, what are the sounds in their environment? What are they processing auditorily?
So there’s that. And then there’s my favorite, which is their inner sound. Right? Their secret desires, their story making, their inner critic, like, just abusing them with nonsense all the time.
Like, what are they telling themselves? What are they hearing internally?
Then dialogue from key stakeholders. Right? What is their boss saying to them? What does their colleague saying to them?
What does their spouse saying to them? What does their child saying to them? What does their client saying to them? What is the dialogue that is being processed from the outside in?
This really makes good subject lines. I’m gonna show you that in a second in our example.
And when we do this, they get to feel heard in their experience. Right? So we get to mirror back what they’re hearing. We get to mirror back what their internal dialogue is as they interpret that environment, and then we mirror that back, and they get to feel heard almost in the same way as if they had shared that with a therapist.
And then felt is how they are reacting to the visual and the auditory data. Right? So they’re seeing stuff, they’re hearing stuff, and then they’re having an emotional or bodily or somatic reaction to it. So this could be feeling anxious, fearful, angry, sad, betrayed.
It could be somatic, feeling contracted, butterflies, burning with rage, and, essentially, what they are feeling in response to the visual and the auditory data. Is that clear? Like, I’m gonna stop for a second because I just, like, give a lot of information.
Cool.
Cool. Alright. So let’s move on.
Sweet. So your prospect is obviously seeing, hearing, and feeling in response to what they’re seeing and hearing a ton, right, a ton in their daily experience. So how do we choose the ones that are gonna be most effective in mirroring back in our copy? So what I what I essentially, like, bring this down to is moments of heightened receptivity or moment moments of highest tension, which I kinda be as interchangeably right now.
So a moment of heightened receptivity is a moment where your client or prospective client would be most receptive and most responsive to to an offer. So it’s where the stakes and the consequences associated with the problem or the gap are no longer bearable, no longer tolerable, and no longer avoidable. And it’s a very real moment. Right?
It’s a very real moment. Every prospect who has ever invested a good sum of money, right, has had a moment that triggered that purchase or triggered the need to seek a solution and overcome that problem. Almost universally, I haven’t found any case where this hasn’t been true, where there hasn’t been a moment that it could be anchored to where they decided this problem just can’t persist any longer or it’s reached this boiling point and something has to change. So this is a very real moment that your voice of customer and your voice of prospect data should be revealing.
So what I love about voice of prospect data and how I differentiate the two is voice of prospect data is the data you get before they’ve made the purchase. So they’re in that buying decision. They haven’t yet purchased and landed on, the post purchase. Thank you survey.
This isn’t an interview you do after the fact. This is them while they are considering that decision. So the classic, most obvious way to extract this is on a sales or demo call with a very simple opener. Right?
What was happening in your world? What was happening in your life that made you want to book this call? Right? And typically typically, a prospect at this point will give kind of, like, the placeholder that is the entry point to that moment of heightened receptivity, and a really good salesperson is gonna dig deep enough to really paint that picture.
Like, in part of where they were, what they were experiencing, and how that landed for them, and why that feels urgent and important. And I’m gonna walk you through an example, in just a second. So let’s get practical.
Step one is going to be to choose a moment a moment of heightened receptivity from your voice of prospect or your or your voice of customer data.
Step number two would be to take fifteen minutes to fill in that SHF data. So if you do audit sales calls, right, if you do audit demo calls, like, find that moment of heightened receptivity. Like, this is something you could be that could be done in client interviews that you’re relying on that. This is could be something that could be done in auditing sales calls. This is something I’ve even done in taking sales calls for a client. Like, when they had an overflow, I jumped on the phone to literally extract this data myself. So this is something you could get from a very from a variety of sources.
Once you have a moment of heightened receptivity, simply, like, unpack it on these three levels. Right? Like, during a moment of heightened receptivity, what are they seeing? What is in their visual field? What is the data they are interpreting visually?
During a moment of heightened receptivity, what are they hearing? What are the sounds? What is the inner dialogue? What is being said to them? And then finally, how are they reacting to that? So this is, like, a fifteen minute exercise to just really process the information coming out about my moment of heightened recitivy.
And then for that, we could craft an email or an ad.
So let’s look at an example.
Gonna get off this share.
So many windows, so many tabs.
Sweet.
Cool.
So this is one that I wrote for a client in the relationship space. So pulled I pulled the moment of heightened receptivity from the voice of prospect data extracted from a sales call. So this is a loose transcript from the sales call that I pulled it from.
So the salesperson essentially started, you know, what was happening in your life that made you wanna reach out, that made you wanna get on a call.
And this is pretty close to the verbatim that I heard from the conversation. So last night, I found found myself in bed watching Netflix on the iPad, and I effin’ hated it. I hated that I’m so resigned to intimacy even happening with my wife that this is just my routine, and I’ve accepted it and feel like there’s nothing else I can do to change at this point. Right?
So that puts us in a scene. Right? It gives us good data. And then a good salesperson or a good copywriter will ask for elaboration.
Right? So can you tell me more? Then the prospect got a little bit confused. He’s like, what do you mean?
Then the salesperson, like, can you be more specific? So this is a really good follow-up question to ask on sales calls, right, on, customer interviews. Just simple. Can you be more specific?
What were you watching? What was what happened as your wife walked into the room?
And then he elaborated. Like, I found this was funny. Like, I was watching Sons of Anarchy. I’ve never seen Sons of Anarchy, by the way. I don’t even know if it’s a good show.
And my wife came to What are you talking about?
Never seen it.
It’s a good show.
Yeah. I wanna see it now.
A good show. You should watch it. Yeah.
You could be on that. Right? I feel What?
Alright. Maybe.
I’m kidding.
Never seen it. I was watching scent of anarchy, and my wife came into the room, and I barely looked up. Like, very subtle data that communicates so much information about that pain. Right? And I don’t know why. I just felt like I didn’t wanna make eye contact and end up in a thing.
Salesperson, great question here. What kind of thing? Right? Like, what kind of thing? And that the conversation about where our marriage is going.
Is this for frequent conversation? Yeah. And it’s effing exhausting. Right? So this was all extracted in about a minute, a minute and a half of auditing a sales call.
Like, if you were writing an ad or an email for this client, do you think you can write something half decent with just this data?
Right?
Yeah. So other moments of heightened receptivity that I could draw from other emails and ads. Right? So, like, one thing I’ve noticed, there tends to be at least two or three or four, like, really strong moments of heightened receptivity, like, that come up in these types of calls.
Right? This is kind of like the late night argument version of it.
I audited a sales call, right, where he’s like, I downloaded the secret Tinder account, and I’m like, that’s a great subject line. I don’t know if it’s universally relatable, but you get so much good stuff out of just, like, auditing the first few minutes of a sales call. You don’t need to go through the full forty five minutes, hour long, hour and a half where they start getting into the offer specific details. Just hearing what motivated someone to get into a solution seeking state can give you all you need to craft really good emails and really good ads.
Step two, optional as we said. Right? Like, typically, once I have this data, I feel like I could just, like, go to the races and write. I don’t necessarily need to distill it into those three categories. But if you feel like that’s a useful part of your process, definitely take fifteen minutes, watch the scene in your mind’s eye, and just, like, fill in that extra commentary and, like, unpack, like, what are they seeing, what are they hearing, what are they feeling, And engage all three of those, within your email.
Step number three, craft it.
And this is what I love about, like, the what are they hearing, right, within the subject line. Like, where is this going? I think this got, like, one of the highest open rates this client got. Like, where is this going? It’s like those words that just anchor someone right in that scene.
And, yeah, I’ll do a quick read through, and you could just see how pretty much every line is mirroring back either the visual data, the auditory data, or the reaction and the emotional feeling as it relate as it relates to it. So at eight forty nine PM, it may have taken a double round of little blue truck, but you finally got kids to sleep. After a crazy ass day of working and child wrangling, you glance down at your iPhone clock anxiously debating whether you could squeeze whether you should squeeze out some cursory, check the box connection time with your wife or take solo comfort in a mini two episode max sense of anarchy binge vest, falling asleep to a chorus of Ron Perlman and one liners.
You offer Ron’s massive ass mug. He really has a big face. That’s what I noticed in my research. Like, the longest part of writing this email was, like, finding gifts, then realizing how big this man’s face was, and then, like, Googling Ron Perlman Young to see if he always had a big face or if, like, his face enlarged over time.
Manzo’s had a big face. What can you do?
Somehow, he triggered the less than rattling off the day stresses followed by a peck and a turn to the other side of bed that your connection time has become. Right? So all data here, right, of what they’re seeing. Two episode max, substance of anarchy, Ron Perlman, you know, his face, one liners. That’s, like, scene.
You glance down at your iPhone clock. That’s sight. That’s literally what they’re seeing. And then this is the reaction. Right? Anxiously debating whether you should squeeze out some cursory check the box connection time.
So, sight and then the feeling. Right?
We’re mixing in seen, heard, and felt.
Just as your nervous system self soothes to the iconic Netflix ta dum. So we have feeling and we have hearing.
The oak floors creak, that’s hearing. Your wife walks into the room, visual.
You don’t even need to see her face to know it ain’t good feeling. Right? So, like, one sentence, right, or, like, one line has a heard, a scene, NFL.
You barely look up. You know, the moment you do, you’re committing to an agonizing three hour where is this marriage going combo when you played out dozens of times over the last half decade of the guitar script. Then we go into the feeling each time running the same circuit of blame over unmet needs, frustration, over ongoing stagnancy, and errant tossing of emotional grenades over ancient wounds and resentments, or for you both concede to resolution via exhaustion, AKA a temporary peace treat until the next flare up. But this time, it somehow feels different, worse.
Instead of anger, you feel her sadness. Instead of fight, you feel failure, and part of you misses a version of one another that at least fought for your match to survive. It’s as if you’re each waiting for the other to deliver the final death blow, but you can’t say it. You can’t say anything.
You’re uncommitted in both directions, and you’ve been stuck hoping and waiting that your relationship would somehow just revive itself with itself, apply a defibrillator, but it hasn’t. Of course, it hasn’t. And now your wife with sadness in her eyes is asking you, where is this marriage going? Right?
So back to the herd and the same. If you don’t have an answer, that’s a problem. We should talk.
If you have an answer and it’s anything but a clear f, yeah, we’re heading into greater connection, deeper passionate, stronger commitment. That’s a problem. We should talk. If you’re holding so much blame, anger, and hostility that you don’t even want to offer her an answer because you can’t discern what’s even true for you anymore, That’s a problem you should talk. But most of all, if deep down, you know, she deserves the best of you, and there’s just been a wounded part of you unwilling to offer it, but you’re willing to do whatever it takes to step up, show up, and reignite what’s possible for you and your wife, then we got a spot on our account with your name on it. Right. So this is what’s possible, like, in just getting the moment of heightened receptivity.
Like, you don’t need Mattell’s data to write an email that has someone, like, fully seen, heard, and felt in a critical moment of heightened receptivity where they would do anything to solve it. So that’s what I got. Opening to questions, comments, feedback, and up your views if y’all have anything you want feedback on.
Yeah. I oh, go ahead.
I was gonna say, do you have, like, a specific order that you try to get them in?
Because it sounds like you try to rotate them.
Within the email itself?
I like to start I like to start with seen just because, like, it’s a really easy way to anchor them into it.
But other than that, it’s just kind of how I process and play out the scene as I write. But yeah.
Good question. I think starting with site tends to, like, anchor the scene really well.
Yeah. It’s kind of like a stupid comment, but I I’ve had, like, a question in my head for, like, years about because, like, your copy is very specific, and I kind of aim for that standard of, like, specificity.
But then sometimes I feel like my copy is too specific or, like and it’s not working. And I always wondered, like, what’s going on? But I think from doing that, I’ve kind of just sussed it. It’s like, you pick, like, a universal problem, and then you get specificity rather than just doing a specific problem because then it’s like then you can alienate people. If you pick universal problem and then get specific, like, you’re not gonna alienate people. I’m just very pleased I’ve just solved that because I’ve been like, what’s going on here for ages?
Wait. Are you doing that again, Harry? I’m not sure I followed that.
Okay. So, like, choose the universal the universal problem, like, the most common So if you’re, like, surveying mining or something and then you’ve got the problem that comes up the most and then get really specific within that problem rather than just going for, like, a specific problem.
Because then it can feel too specific and then the client could be like, oh, like, people don’t think this. But if you if you choose the general problem and then add specific details and it adds that, like, color and depth.
And it’s isn’t gonna make people think, oh, well because no one’s gonna be like, oh, I don’t watch Sons of Anarchy. That doesn’t, like, apply to me. But they might but if it’s a specific problem that they don’t feel, then you can alienate them. Does that make sense?
I think so.
I mean, why would explain it better?
I I think, like, the simplest way I could put it, right, is, like, any, like, any so the audience for this was, like, men in marriages. Right? And the main problem it fixes is, like, disconnection and numbness. Right?
So it’s like any man who is feeling disconnected and confused and not sure what to do will relate with the man in that scene, right, regardless of the specifics of it, regardless of whether or not he actually, like, sons of anarchy or not. Like, he knows what it’s like to like, there are some details he’ll pick up on. Right? Like, the averting the gaze.
Right? Averting the eye contact is not wanting to engage in that space or not knowing how to. So it’s like yeah. Essentially, he can see himself in that man’s shoes because they share the common ground of the core problem, if that makes sense.
I have another question.
Yep.
So I I think that filling in a lot of these details is possible in a more b to c space. But, again, like, for example, one of I think I brought up this copy a couple of times. This company I’m working with is called Novena. They do AI powered, health care.
Mhmm.
And they’re dealing with, like, health care organization.
Not like a doctor, a nurse, like an office, like the management organizations Mhmm.
Of health care providers.
Like, how do I go about filling in the sensory details in that kind of client when those kind of details are not things that you’ll find on a sales call? And it’s so far removed from my daily life. Like, where do I go without even starting to look for those kind of details?
Right. Like, who is the ultimate, like, decision maker?
Like, of Like, care management groups that, like, deal with health care regulations and, like, payers, insurance, things like that.
Like, they’re managing either hospitals, like, different hospitals and, like, hospital chain or, like, a bunch of, like, a a bunch of physicians that are part of, like, a physician care group.
Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, I’ll acknowledge. Right? Like, there are limitations. You probably can’t tell that same type of story in that context.
Most likely not. Right? Like, I think that you do run into challenges with clients being comfortable with a full on kind of, like, story and immersion into that kind of case.
Where there is where there is, like, clarity on what the, you know, the main purchaser, right, is experiencing as it relates to solving that problem. I think injecting some of those details is is useful. Right? Like, I don’t know what the specific experience is of a moment of heightened receptivity in that buying decision. But if you can even just, like, reflect on, like, what is the tipping point that moves them towards consideration here. Right? Like, is does something actually happen that triggers a we need to fix this or we need to seek a solution here?
Then you can bring that in. Right? Like, in a obviously tone down way, but there’s still probably a moment that triggers a buying decision, likely.
Yes. I think one of the issues, though, is in a lot of really complex b two b solutions, the person who has the pain point is not the person making the decision. So in this case, the doctor is the one feeling the pain because the pain point is they have a lot of patient records to read through before they see a patient. And they don’t have time to go through it all, and they don’t have the, they oftentimes miss important details. But the person buying it is the person managing those positions, and they might have been a position themselves at one point, but now they’re in more of an administrative role.
And so Right.
Yeah. Do they have, like, challenges in managing those positions or serving those positions, like, because of the physician stress? Does it kinda, like, bleed over?
Yeah. So it’s a lot about, like, making sure that they’re getting that they’re they’re having good care and a lot about, like, how they interact with insurance if they’re on more of a value based model, meaning that they’re being paid based on the outcome of the patient as opposed to, just a fixed amount, then they wanna make sure that they are going through all of these records and things like that.
Yeah.
So it’s a lot about being efficient and optimizing workflows and Mhmm. Avoiding time wastage.
Right. And they there’s a cost to them when the physicians are inefficient. Right? Like, some of that moves through. Yeah. So, like, they have yeah.
Patients aren’t being healed. Mhmm. Things like that. I mean, this is just one example, but I Mhmm. Like, it’s also relevant for lots of different examples.
Yeah. So, like, if you could identify, like, you know, the two or three biggest motivators. Right? Like, if it’s, like, inefficiency, for example, inefficiency or, like, reduction of quality of patient care. Right? That’s, like, two of them.
Mhmm.
And if you can almost highlight, like, two or three scenarios for each of those two that they would be hearing, seeing, and feeling, right, like, either as a complaint, right, or a lawsuit or a reduction of billings, like, whatever that translates to. Mhmm. I think that there’d be an opportunity to craft, like, tone down versions of this email around that. Right?
Mhmm. Like, especially if the buyer of this is in contact with the doctor or the physician and maybe the physician is communicating some of that stress to them, and they don’t have a solution to it, right, other than, like, keep going. Right? Like, do your best.
Right? Like, I don’t know how that plays out.
Mhmm. But I can only imagine there are stressful scenarios for both the buyer and the position they serve here. Right? And, like, just highlighting some of those without being too excessive in the scene painting, could go a long way.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I definitely include those kind of elements. But, like, I wish I could include more sensory details, like, bring in what the office looks like or who they’re meeting with. And I just I am so far removed from that world.
I Mhmm.
Would be embarrassed to even venture a guess. Especially, like, I remember when I was working in house, like, I would collect these anecdotes, like, after over a long period of how like, over six to twelve months, you could collect a lot of anecdotes to sort of create that picture in your head.
Mhmm.
But, like, if you’re just going into a project, it’s hard to sort of absorb that in an organic way.
Yeah. Understandable.
Is there kind of, like, a standard system that they use, like, visually? Like, are things being processed through, like, you know, a common system? Like, where things are signaled as being inefficient or, like, how do they know something’s inefficient other than, like, the feeling of it?
Like, is it in the reduced billings and a report at the end of the month?
Like Yeah.
Yeah.
There would be issues with payments and Mhmm.
Doctors would be burned out. That’s a big one. Doctors would not wanna there there would be a lot of turnover.
So so, like, a missed payment, like, that’s where I would dig. Like, what is, like, what is the experience of a missed payment? Is, like, an is it an email notification from, like, x payment processor system? Like and they get that on their phone or they get that, like, at the office, and then they have to like, that would be a moment, for example.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
So yeah. Sometimes. So yeah. Obviously, like, obviously, like, familiarity and the more conversations you have with it, the easier it gets. And there are certain limitations when, like, you’re newer to that world and not a lot of people are interacting with you about these details, and there’s not a lot of opportunity to get them.
Mhmm.
But, yeah, where where you do have the ability to, like, ask those probing questions. Right? Like, so much can come out of it. Right?
Like, what does that what does inefficiency actually look like? What does that moment it signals to you? Right? Like, and have you feel in that moment.
Yeah. I love the idea of the notification on your phone. I just like, the client is also a marketer, and so Yep. They’re not as familiar with it.
And Mhmm. These people are pretty high up in their career ladder, so they’re not, like, people who would be really readily available to just casually jump on a call. And customer success is not always willing to let you jump on a call with them. Right.
So but, like, I like that idea, but I feel like I might have to find other sources to sort of validate that kind of language.
Right.
Yeah. I would start with, like, what’s most within reach. I think, like, the visual would would be the easiest. Right?
Because you don’t really need to go too deep into their personal experience of how did you react to that. Like, you can kind of fill in the gaps. Right? Like, if they’re getting a notification of a missed payment or whatever, like, it’s a pretty universal experience of how that feels, right, to the end user.
So, yeah, just, like, get that data. Right? Like, are they checking it on their phone, on their lunch break, and that pings them? Like, does that warrant a conversation with, like, the office manager or the head phys like, I don’t know enough about that industry to fill in those gaps, but, yeah, I feel like, some light digging might yield some pretty cool results.
Okay.
Cool. Jessica, I see your hand up.
I was just getting in line for a copy review, if that’s okay.
Yeah. That’s cool.
For sure. Any other questions about the topic before we jump into Jessica’s review?
Sweet. I think that means you’re up.
Okay.
So, Ry, I don’t I don’t know, if you’ve heard, but I was kinda shifting. You know, I was focusing on seasonal sales, holiday sales?
Mhmm.
Yeah. Red thread. Okay. So as that kind of, was explored deeper, I redid my home page, all the things, then it kinda became more of a helping ecommerce brands on the either other side of the discount.
Like, once they’ve acquired a client through a discount, what do we do? Because we can’t may we can’t create loyalty with a discount. Right? Mhmm.
And so and then it kinda became, the phrase for my, hopefully, future podcast newsletters, ditch the discount. And not to say never do discounts, but be more strategic.
Mhmm.
And so but my big thing is I’d like to build, ideally, a more email funnel, SMS funnel, service package through, you know, the intensive Joe’s teaching, the standardized project and the retainer. So my goal is to create, like, the email program audit, and that’s what I’ve actually done for a couple brands now, and then retainer being the optimization, especially of their flows. So just so you kind of have context of what I’m kinda building now. And Abby kind of helped me through my home page website.
And, I just that’s what I wanna share. And, Naomi, by the way, I was just saying, I I believe that you’ve done interviews. I was just saying that that for me, when I was working at my my Utilizer, that was where I got all my stuff. I didn’t mean to say you weren’t doing it. That was that was just my comment. Okay. So, anyway, here’s my home page.
Yes, please feel free to be as brutal as whatever. But the ultimate I don’t know. We did, like, a fast rewrite, and I just I walked away going, well, it’s better than my seasonal sale focused version, but I still don’t think as I go through it. I’m like, do they know what I do? Do they know what the next step like, I’m I really stripped back. I took my services page off and all that, and I just really wanna focus on let’s optimize the home page, and then I’ll go from there. So that’s kind of what I’m looking for is help with making this better so that they know what I do and know the next step, which would be a call with me, essentially.
Cool. Alright.
Let’s go through it.
Sweet. DTC and ecommerce brands. I’ll read in my head so it’s not annoying.
If anyone has a comment as I go through this, feel free to just jump in.
Do you have a picture of yourself where you’re facing to the right? Because I feel like if you had well, I think number one, if this image was slightly larger, it might feel a little bit more balanced because I feel like there’s a lot of empty space here at the top.
Or maybe even if the text was on the left and the picture’s on the right.
Because I feel like having the text in the middle and the picture on the right feels a little bit imbalanced because the empty space on the left.
So that might help make it a little bit more like, fill up the space more.
Did you catch that, Jess?
I did. I’m just it’s cool. Yeah. I I appreciate that. Know that it’s not really, it’s funny that you bring that up because Abby and I Abby, was that not on the left side of the thing the person you’re like, And we were like, yeah.
It’s better than the central. But the problem also is me figuring out Squarespace and spacing. Because if you put this on a different size window or on a different, a different device, you will see something almost totally different. So, yeah, I know that, but it’s it’s not my priority right now.
But, yeah, I mean, it’s on the notes of things to do eventually. I’m sure.
Yeah. I mean, I think the text is fine in the middle. It just with the image. It might need a maybe maybe just leave the image off.
Yeah. Just a lot.
So it’s your, like, ideal client over five million?
Yeah. That was, that’s kind of what I found is that if they don’t make at least five million in annual revenue, it’s it’s not an ideal client who would invest in me.
Cool.
Jessica, this is I know, like, it’s really difficult because we’ve we’ve just kind of been guessing that, like, for a client over five million, like, do they still want more sales? Is that still, like, the thing that they want?
Like, it it seems like a really silly question, but I don’t know. I’m just wondering now with the like, you want more like, you need more sales. Like, is that is that still what they’re trying to to do?
Like As opposed to what?
Exactly. I don’t know. Like, to build more profit, more profitability. I don’t know.
Well, we said sales. I think you and I talked about changing it, but, I mean, ultimately, the biggest challenge with this group that I’ve interacted with and then done, of course, more research on is, that email channel specifically is not generating the revenue they feel it should Mhmm. And especially from the flows. Like, I’ve heard I’ve had a a client and then a couple leads and then just researched their where usually, they can’t this big shocker, their campaigns, they’re not too unhappy with their campaigns because guess what they lead with, a discount, or it’s a holiday or whatever.
But it’s their flows, their automation.
Leave it that then, like, rather than needing more sales? Because I guess if they need more sales, they can just, like, increase the ad spend if they’re at, like, five million or whatever. Maybe just maybe lead with, like, literally what you just said about the email flows. I don’t know.
And I know this is really annoying because I’ve we’ve been over the phase together, and I’m adding something new. But I just missed that bit about over the five million mark, and now I’m yeah. I don’t know. I’m just curious.
You might be able to talk about scaling because meeting sales means like, in my mind, that means, well, I’m desperate for sales where once you get to a certain point, it’s not that you desperately need them. It’s that you’re looking to put things on autopilot. You’re looking to make things more efficient. You’re looking to optimize things. So it’s wanting more scale wanting more sales, but wanting them, in a way that’s scalable.
No. I think that’s that that’s a great how does that hit with you, Ry? Because I definitely saw, the word scale, scaling, and the other versions of it in, VOC research.
Mhmm.
So why does that hit you with opening that as opposed to just generally the word sales?
Scaling is stronger than more sales, I think, for this audience, especially if you’re really targeting people who are already over five million, and they’re probably looking to scale sustainably.
Right? And the margins are a really big part of that, I’m guessing.
Like, would that be accurate?
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yep.
I think so so that’s one way to lead in. Another way to lead in would be, like, obviously, like, this pain point. So it’s like, how strong is the pain point in their VOC of, like, the discounting? Is it something that they really, really hate and it’s a necessary evil, or is it something that you think they hate? Like, how much are they talking about, like, dreading discounting?
Oh, that’s a really good point.
Like, I know you hate discounts for them. Right? But how much are they like like let’s say, like, it’s Monday morning after their, like, Mother’s Day promotion. Right? Yeah. And they’re putting the numbers on the screen, like and it was, like, great sales volume, like, poor margins. Are they complaining about the margins there, or are they just happy with the volume?
Like So the meetings I’ve been in on, it’s celebrate celebrate the win of whatever was the latest promotion.
Mhmm.
And then it it almost in between the promotions is talking about retention.
So, like, we talk about cause. We talk about that a little bit maybe in the in betweens.
But when we’re talking about post sale Mhmm.
It’s pretty rare that I’m in on a Trevani a long time. It was pretty rare that you’d come off of a a promotion and go, oh, crap.
But how are we gonna keep these people? And, they were they didn’t seem to be obsessing about the discount. They were celebrating either the win or the not, I guess, the not.
Mhmm. Yeah.
I didn’t So yeah.
And it’s an important note. Right? Like Yeah. With that that retention, like and without, like, actually getting nondiscounted sales after that customer’s been acquired, like, they’re not gonna grow. Right?
Right.
One thing comes to mind is, like, a really kind of more of an unconventional format as a headline. Like, you could take it or leave it that might capture that. Right? It’s like what was it?
You know, great news. Like, great news. Our, yeah, great news. Our mother can’t mother to stay campaign crushed, you know, bringing in over x.
Bad news. Our margins were thinner than a next gen iPad. New app. Right?
Now we got now what what now what do we gotta do? Essentially, like, be the third one, which is, like, how do we increase our LTV? How do we retain them? How do we get repeat sales at higher margins? Right? Like, if that’s the scenario you fix of, like, they’re flush full of, like, new customers that have been discounted.
The margins are thin. They’re aware of it, and now they have this opportunity of needing to maximize, right, repeat purchases, nondiscounted purchases, and the email flows that support it. Like, I think that could be a really cool way to drop into the conversation.
So how would you because that’s always been a disconnect for me is making sure it’s really clear that when I talk about that, that I then is it clear? Or how do I make it clear that and the solution is your email and SMS marketing, not basically any like, I’m not gonna do ads. We’re not gonna talk. I’m not I’m not gonna do I’m not diving back into the ads. So is that how do I make sure that connection is clear?
I mean, it’s clear here.
Okay. Alright.
Mhmm. Okay. Good email strategy and conversion copy.
Email strategy and conversion copy. I mean, I maybe have SMS here, right, if that’s a big part of what you do and a big part of what they know they need.
Yeah. Okay.
SMS may mean more to them than conversion copy. I’m not sure.
Like Mhmm.
Good point.
That creates repeat customers so you can boost your revenue. Do you have, like, special IP names for your, like, email frameworks or your SMS flows?
Or No.
I did for my seasonal sales, but, no, I haven’t created something. But I that’s a great you’re right. I need that.
What would you do with it since you were thinking of it?
Oh, I mean, I would just, like, note that here. Right? Like, if you had a different term for email strategy or a different term for, like like, ex SMS type flow. Right? Like, your branded SMS flow. Right?
Okay.
Like, it would be too much of a mouthful to say, like, post discount purchase SMS flows. Right? Like, I don’t know. But I think, like, what I’m hearing you do, right, is, like, you maximize everything out of these discounted customers. Right? And you do that. So it is kind of like a post seasonal sale strategy.
Is that correct?
Yeah. It’s the, yes. Exact yeah. Either seasonal sale or some form of a promotion, but yeah.
So that moment of heightened for them really is, like, analyzing their seasonal sales data, being hyped about, you know, you know, the top line kind of meh about the margins and our team, let’s maximize it. Like, I would really enter the conversation there and then talk about how you fit into that post seasonal sales flow.
Okay. Yeah. Because it really anchors it to a very specific use case. Right? Like, you’ve had this win, now you have this opportunity. Right? Or you’ve had this win, this is what you sacrificed to get the win, but this is how you make it up and then some.
Okay.
Wait. Can I have a I have a question? How how focused are they on the margins?
Because I know, like like, if you’re I I don’t know anything about ecommerce, but I know in SaaS, like, there was a big, big shift when the market crashed when, like, twenty twenty one, the only thing anyone talked about was growth, and no one could possibly care about how much marketers were spending.
And now the only thing everyone cares about is profitability.
But if you had said like, if I were to say you should hire me because I’ll help you make your campaigns more efficient, like, no one would care.
But, like, if that’s the case, then it would be more help like, my strategy would be to go in and, like, introduce a little bit of doubt. Like, try to start by almost waking them up to the problem.
Like, what, like, you’re you’re celebrating these wins. That’s what you said. But there’s, like, a creeping doubt in the back of your mind that this growth is is not as profitable as it could be or this growth is happening only because, you’re putting a lot of money into it.
Is that clear? No? Yes?
I think I’m pausing before I respond because I’m thinking about what you just said. Yes. Profitability and, profit margins are important to ecommerce for sure. It’s also why I can’t work with certain brands because the the profit margins are just too too small.
So, yeah, I mean, that’s definitely a conversation.
At the top of their mind, or are they just, like, celebrating these wins and not thinking about the margins?
No. If there if there’s someone at the level that I’m speaking to, yeah, they’re paying attention to it.
Okay. Makes sense.
Do you have, like, data even if it’s, like, an estimate of, like, the average profit margin of your ideal client and, like, where they’d like to be? Or is it or does it vary too much from company to company?
I don’t think I have a no. I don’t have a well, obviously, I’m pausing. So, no, I don’t have that a solid statistic. But you’re that’s a good point.
Mhmm.
Yeah. I don’t think you need to define it. Right? I think, like, as as long as you call it out, right, like, you have a win of your volume, you have an l, right, and the margins you had to accept by discounting, and now you have an opportunity to make up for it and experience, like, true growth. Right? Mhmm. Yep.
So, like, I think that’s I think that’s the sales argument. Because when you really think about, like, what your ideal client is experiencing, like, what is true about them? They are experiencing a win in volume sales, right, from discounting, and they’re experiencing the need for, yeah. Exactly what you do. Right? More sales, nondiscounted.
K.
Cool.
Your email list isn’t responding to your discount heavy designed heavy emails.
So depending on what you do with the headline, right, like, it may change Oh, yeah.
The section. Yeah.
It’s yeah. It’s gonna change.
Mhmm. Cool.
But the tough part for me on that one is, that is directly from an ideal client. But yeah.
I mean, that’s why they invested so big. It was our email channel. We figured out the ads game. We’ve figured out the other stuff.
Our email channel is not generating the revenue it should, and we’re tired of leaning on our discounts and our image pretty images. And we wanna go and they were the ones who said, like, copy first. And, you know, so it was and it’s a nine figure plus business, pet meds. I mean, it was just that was from an ideal client is, like, guessing.
Yeah.
Yeah. So it depends on the conversation you wanna have. Right? Like, it depends on, like, how you wanna orient the sales conversation based on why you feel they would hire you.
Like, this definitely makes sense in a broader context.
And if we’re and if we’re gonna operate from, like, the conversation of, like, you’ve had a win, You accept it, and now now let’s make good on it. Then I would continue the conversation on you could agitate it. Right? That could be an option. Or you can move straight into, like, your process of of, like, you know, making good on what do we do after you’ve had a boatload of sales from your discounted push. Right? Yeah.
And then kind of bridge into Oh god.
Don’t worry. I hate that section. Hate that section.
Alright.
Well, we like, Farna’s whatever lesson, and I hate the intro of that.
Now now I can’t not read it. You understand?
It’s the first lines. But, hey. You’re here. I’m am here. Like, who the hell talk like that? I don’t talk like that. Like, stupid.
Am I right? Am I right? Yeah.
This is oh, painful. I can’t even stand you’re looking at it and recording this.
It’s on the record.
Jess wrote, am I right? Record.
Like, you should unlock a badge for the usage of am I right? Like, unlock a new level. Hey. Hey, Sam. Sam’s eyes. What is those eyes?
Like He has piercing eyes.
They’re Actually, when he’s not smiling.
How did you get a testimony from Sam? I didn’t know you had that.
The intensive.
Gotcha. Nice.
Thank you, Andrew, for the comment. I appreciate that.
Cool. Does that give you some enough insight for today, like, to work with and to consider?
Yeah. That’s fine. That’s great.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you all. I appreciate it.
Cool. Cool.
Alright. We are at the hour. So if anyone has to jump off, that is totally cool. Does anyone have any questions or things they urgently needed reviewed?
If so, I’m happy to stick around. So, hi, Andrew.
Could I ask one Oh, oh, oh, you’re I thought you were waving goodbye.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
Can I ask one question? You need to keep it running on if not.
But, yeah. So, this is kind of touching back on what we were talking about before, and there was, I think Abby wrote in chat, you know, she wrote, this is why I hate writing for SaaS. How do how do you add dollar and d m l to optimizing workflows?
And so that’s, like, my whole, that’s, like, everything I work with is b to b SaaS and tends to be, like, really technical products, like, data heavy stuff where all the people buying it have, like, data in their title and stuff like that. Mhmm. And something that I struggle with is that as I’m researching the the client, like, all of their materials are written in this, like, very academic language. Everything is optimized, accelerate analytic productivity, this and that. And as I research, I find myself almost getting, like, sucked into that a little bit. And at some point, I go, oh, I get why they came up with this because this is, like, the most accurate summary of what it is. Right?
And they couldn’t they couldn’t find out what it wasn’t a human and specific way to say that that’s, like, completely accurate or something like that.
So I I guess I’m just wondering if you have any tips for how to, not drink the client my client’s Kool Aid. And and then the other thing is that the BOC is like that too because then they go, okay. We really wanna try to, like Mhmm. Like, even the voice of the customer is not always very human.
How to not drink the client’s Kool Aid. I mean, I’ve I’ve drank the client’s Kool Aid and then hated whatever and after the fact. It’s really convincing. Right? Because they’re so authoritative in their Kool Aid, and they’re serving a bit Kool Aid.
So I think, like, the most practical thing I could offer, right, is to not necessarily try to, like, rewrite every aspect of the offer and what it does in more human language, but, like, choose a very specific scenario in which the use case is, like, needed, like, when they know they have the problem. Right? So it’s like like, I mean, taking the example. I know, obviously, like, coaching is very different from SaaS.
Right? But, like, is there a moment when they their workflows were broken? Is there a moment when a project fell through the cracks? Like, if you’re selling project management software, right, it’s like, you know, what are they hearing?
Like, is this done yet? Like, question mark. Like, where is this? Question mark. Like, what is a product manager saying as a follow-up, and then what’s the oh, shit moment?
Right? So it’s like you’re not gonna be able to necessarily capture the entire marketing message, but can you capture a moment in which the software you’re selling would be a solve for it. Right? And just, like, see if that hits and if that resonates, especially on the email or the ad level.
Yeah. That that works. Yeah. That works. And I’ve seen it done well. So I yeah.
Yeah. The email and the ad level are, like, the easiest places to try to, like, weave this in and test it out. Obviously, obviously, landing pages and sales pages that are more static are more difficult.
So, yeah, I I like testing things out in email and ad scenarios where, like, yeah, you have a little bit more leeway.
Cool. Good job. Alright. Thank you.
Sorry to hear that.
Wait. Can I ask one more question, please?
Yeah. Of course.
I meant to ask this earlier, and I totally forgot. What I really like that you do, you do such a good job of coming up with, like, metaphors, And I forgot the one in the example.
Automatic or self operating defibrillator, I think, was Oh, yeah. Was when you Self self applied defibrillator.
Yeah.
And there was another one that you used. I don’t even remember the email. It was ages ago that I read it, and you used the phrase diabetic fruit fly to describe, like, a computer charger, like an old computer. And, like, that I don’t even remember what the rest of the email was about, but that phrase stuck with me. And I haven’t been able to come up with metaphors that are, like, kitschy like that, but, like, actually descriptive and not over the top.
I was wondering if you have, like, how you come up with those, if you have a process or Gosh.
Like, I I have a process for, like, not writing white noisy ones. Right? Like, I do have an aversion to, like, if I write a metaphor the first time and I’m like, I’ve seen that a million times before, like, I will, like, not include that intentionally.
How to come up with the good ones, like so there there’s an orientation towards, like I wanna put something on the page that no one’s read before, like, a combination or a string of words that no one’s read before, and there’s a really real strategic reason. Right? That is reader engagement. That’s some kind of, like, being tuned in to the message. And Right. So, like, how do I actually come up with them?
Just kinda like my brain works in a really strange way. It’s like, I don’t know why I’m thinking of diabetic fruit flies. I really don’t. Like, I’m concerned that my brain goes there.
I used to read so many screenplays, and, like, screenwriters get really crafty in describing scenes.
Like like and you could probably still find a lot of screen screenplays out there. Like and I wouldn’t read classic ones. I’d read the ones from, like, up and coming writers. Right?
Like, I think the blacklist is, like, a really good source for that. I don’t know if it still exists, but, like, yeah, that’s typically where I picked up, like, language patterning is because, like, they’re trying to impress agents. They’re trying to be interesting. They’re trying to be engaging.
Right? And they just come up with, like, really cool and interesting ways of saying things, and it just kind of repatterns, you know, how I think about things at least.
But, yeah, I’d say, like, there’s an intentional orientation around not being white noisy, not being boring, challenging certain ways of saying things. And sometimes that happens on the first pass. Sometimes that comes when I’m rereading it a second or third time and be like, this would be a cool way of saying that. So yeah.
I wish there was a formula. Maybe there is a formula, and I just haven’t discovered it yet.
Maybe I’ll try reading more screenplays.
Yeah.
Cool.
Struggle bus. Gosh. I’ve never talked about the struggle bus.
Ton every sales page for entrepreneurs. Yeah. It’s true.
Cool. Awesome. Any other, questions, comments, or we’re feeling good and complete for today?
Awesome. Well, thanks for your time, everybody. Catch you all soon. Take care.
Thanks, Roy. See you.
Bye,
Worksheet
Worksheet
Transcript
This is part three. Wrapping it up. And as I was, like, writing part three, I was trying to think of, like, the best trilogies in movie history.
Like I don’t know. What’s the best trilogy? Was, like, Batman a trilogy?
Yeah. That’s three. Yeah.
Pretty solid trilogy. Home Alone? Is that a trilogy?
Lord of the Rings.
Lord of the Rings, actually.
Lord of the Rings.
Yeah. That that is probably the best trilogy of all time. Yes. Agreed.
That’s where my mind went.
Yep.
Sweet. So, this is the third and final installment of DeepCraft and our authority, and this one’s all about how to use the scene, heard, felt framework to reveal pain, highlight natural urgency, and compel action. So as a recap, part one, which we did in February, there should be a replay somewhere, was all about deep voice of customer data, how to use three piercing questions to go beneath the surface and extract rich insight that your customers aren’t saying but want to say but don’t have the words to say, and you get to say them in your copy. Part two was shadow copy, how to balance virtuous and forbidden desire to elicit your prospects full range of the app. Yeah. I need this.
And then I think in April, we took a break and did something else, and now we’re wrapping up the trilogy. So recap. The inner authority is one who knows the prospect better than they know themselves, exposes, and illuminates that which the prospect is unable or unwilling to articulate or divulge, build stress and resonance through the whole damn, are you in my head phenomenon.
Four, make sure their one reader is fully fully seen, heard, felt on the page, or at least more seen and felt than any other competitor is willing or able to see them. So best way to make your prospect feel, seen, heard, and felt is to literally see, hear, and feel them.
So the mostly driven direct response copy will engage as many senses as they can to generate a reaction that moves a prospect towards action.
And we do this by painting scenes, like, literally seeing them, hearing, and feeling them in a very specific moment or type of moment that we’re gonna talk about in a second.
So before I get into all that, this is one of my all time favorite copy hacks. I guess I’ll call it a copy hack.
Especially if I’m getting tasked to write email email copy or ad copy on, like, a really short turnaround where, like, the client just, like, doesn’t care about due process or research. Right? Like, we need five emails and five ads by next week.
But, like, yeah, they they don’t care that it takes x amount of time to do research to the proper, like, mining and all this stuff. Like, they just need it done. So this is what I turned to because the research to generate this type of copy is minimal. It could be done in under an hour, and the results have gotten out of this kind of copy, especially on ads and sales emails that point to, pricing pages or application forms has been awesome. So, yeah, little hack if you have to write ads or emails on a really tight, timeline with kind of a minimum bible research phase.
So sensory dominance hierarchy. So I did a lot of, like, research on this and tried to find, like like, I’ve heard all, like, all these years. Right? Like, engage as many senses as you can and, like but which ones are the most important?
Like, not all senses, like yeah. Not all senses can be created equal. Like, people must be more dominant in a certain sense. And what I found, and I can’t find any sources.
Everyone just says this to be true. And, like, they’re quoting some, like, outdated journals that I’ve never heard of, but, essentially, comes down to seen, like, visual data seems to be the most universally strong and dominant sense followed by sound, so heard, and felt. So these are the three that I’m gonna focus on. Touch, taste, and smell, like, I’m very smell oriented, but for whatever reason, that ranks very low on the hierarchy.
So in my copy, I rarely talk about, like, the scent of a wafting candle in the next room, because yeah. I don’t know. Maybe I should talk more about scent and see who responds to scent. But seen, heard, and felt are the most dominant ones that I found in my research and that I tend to rely on most when it comes to writing copy.
So when when we talk about scene, I mean, literally, like, be seen. Like, where are they at? Place them as a character in a certain environment.
And, like, what they see, give a three hundred sixty degree view. Like, what are they seeing within that scene? What is the visual data that they are processing? So that could be facial cues from people in the room. That could be, like, what they’re seeing on a screen in front of them. It could be markups on a Google Doc if you’re a copywriter.
What is the visual data that they are processing and interpreting?
And with that, we get to see them and their experience. So this is where someone feels seen, when we actually see them where they’re at and see kind of through their eyes what they’re processing, what they’re interpreting, what they’re experiencing.
Next one is heard. So very similar. Like, what are the sounds in their environment? What are they processing auditorily?
So there’s that. And then there’s my favorite, which is their inner sound. Right? Their secret desires, their story making, their inner critic, like, just abusing them with nonsense all the time.
Like, what are they telling themselves? What are they hearing internally?
Then dialogue from key stakeholders. Right? What is their boss saying to them? What does their colleague saying to them?
What does their spouse saying to them? What does their child saying to them? What does their client saying to them? What is the dialogue that is being processed from the outside in?
This really makes good subject lines. I’m gonna show you that in a second in our example.
And when we do this, they get to feel heard in their experience. Right? So we get to mirror back what they’re hearing. We get to mirror back what their internal dialogue is as they interpret that environment, and then we mirror that back, and they get to feel heard almost in the same way as if they had shared that with a therapist.
And then felt is how they are reacting to the visual and the auditory data. Right? So they’re seeing stuff, they’re hearing stuff, and then they’re having an emotional or bodily or somatic reaction to it. So this could be feeling anxious, fearful, angry, sad, betrayed.
It could be somatic, feeling contracted, butterflies, burning with rage, and, essentially, what they are feeling in response to the visual and the auditory data. Is that clear? Like, I’m gonna stop for a second because I just, like, give a lot of information.
Cool.
Cool. Alright. So let’s move on.
Sweet. So your prospect is obviously seeing, hearing, and feeling in response to what they’re seeing and hearing a ton, right, a ton in their daily experience. So how do we choose the ones that are gonna be most effective in mirroring back in our copy? So what I what I essentially, like, bring this down to is moments of heightened receptivity or moment moments of highest tension, which I kinda be as interchangeably right now.
So a moment of heightened receptivity is a moment where your client or prospective client would be most receptive and most responsive to to an offer. So it’s where the stakes and the consequences associated with the problem or the gap are no longer bearable, no longer tolerable, and no longer avoidable. And it’s a very real moment. Right?
It’s a very real moment. Every prospect who has ever invested a good sum of money, right, has had a moment that triggered that purchase or triggered the need to seek a solution and overcome that problem. Almost universally, I haven’t found any case where this hasn’t been true, where there hasn’t been a moment that it could be anchored to where they decided this problem just can’t persist any longer or it’s reached this boiling point and something has to change. So this is a very real moment that your voice of customer and your voice of prospect data should be revealing.
So what I love about voice of prospect data and how I differentiate the two is voice of prospect data is the data you get before they’ve made the purchase. So they’re in that buying decision. They haven’t yet purchased and landed on, the post purchase. Thank you survey.
This isn’t an interview you do after the fact. This is them while they are considering that decision. So the classic, most obvious way to extract this is on a sales or demo call with a very simple opener. Right?
What was happening in your world? What was happening in your life that made you want to book this call? Right? And typically typically, a prospect at this point will give kind of, like, the placeholder that is the entry point to that moment of heightened receptivity, and a really good salesperson is gonna dig deep enough to really paint that picture.
Like, in part of where they were, what they were experiencing, and how that landed for them, and why that feels urgent and important. And I’m gonna walk you through an example, in just a second. So let’s get practical.
Step one is going to be to choose a moment a moment of heightened receptivity from your voice of prospect or your or your voice of customer data.
Step number two would be to take fifteen minutes to fill in that SHF data. So if you do audit sales calls, right, if you do audit demo calls, like, find that moment of heightened receptivity. Like, this is something you could be that could be done in client interviews that you’re relying on that. This is could be something that could be done in auditing sales calls. This is something I’ve even done in taking sales calls for a client. Like, when they had an overflow, I jumped on the phone to literally extract this data myself. So this is something you could get from a very from a variety of sources.
Once you have a moment of heightened receptivity, simply, like, unpack it on these three levels. Right? Like, during a moment of heightened receptivity, what are they seeing? What is in their visual field? What is the data they are interpreting visually?
During a moment of heightened receptivity, what are they hearing? What are the sounds? What is the inner dialogue? What is being said to them? And then finally, how are they reacting to that? So this is, like, a fifteen minute exercise to just really process the information coming out about my moment of heightened recitivy.
And then for that, we could craft an email or an ad.
So let’s look at an example.
Gonna get off this share.
So many windows, so many tabs.
Sweet.
Cool.
So this is one that I wrote for a client in the relationship space. So pulled I pulled the moment of heightened receptivity from the voice of prospect data extracted from a sales call. So this is a loose transcript from the sales call that I pulled it from.
So the salesperson essentially started, you know, what was happening in your life that made you wanna reach out, that made you wanna get on a call.
And this is pretty close to the verbatim that I heard from the conversation. So last night, I found found myself in bed watching Netflix on the iPad, and I effin’ hated it. I hated that I’m so resigned to intimacy even happening with my wife that this is just my routine, and I’ve accepted it and feel like there’s nothing else I can do to change at this point. Right?
So that puts us in a scene. Right? It gives us good data. And then a good salesperson or a good copywriter will ask for elaboration.
Right? So can you tell me more? Then the prospect got a little bit confused. He’s like, what do you mean?
Then the salesperson, like, can you be more specific? So this is a really good follow-up question to ask on sales calls, right, on, customer interviews. Just simple. Can you be more specific?
What were you watching? What was what happened as your wife walked into the room?
And then he elaborated. Like, I found this was funny. Like, I was watching Sons of Anarchy. I’ve never seen Sons of Anarchy, by the way. I don’t even know if it’s a good show.
And my wife came to What are you talking about?
Never seen it.
It’s a good show.
Yeah. I wanna see it now.
A good show. You should watch it. Yeah.
You could be on that. Right? I feel What?
Alright. Maybe.
I’m kidding.
Never seen it. I was watching scent of anarchy, and my wife came into the room, and I barely looked up. Like, very subtle data that communicates so much information about that pain. Right? And I don’t know why. I just felt like I didn’t wanna make eye contact and end up in a thing.
Salesperson, great question here. What kind of thing? Right? Like, what kind of thing? And that the conversation about where our marriage is going.
Is this for frequent conversation? Yeah. And it’s effing exhausting. Right? So this was all extracted in about a minute, a minute and a half of auditing a sales call.
Like, if you were writing an ad or an email for this client, do you think you can write something half decent with just this data?
Right?
Yeah. So other moments of heightened receptivity that I could draw from other emails and ads. Right? So, like, one thing I’ve noticed, there tends to be at least two or three or four, like, really strong moments of heightened receptivity, like, that come up in these types of calls.
Right? This is kind of like the late night argument version of it.
I audited a sales call, right, where he’s like, I downloaded the secret Tinder account, and I’m like, that’s a great subject line. I don’t know if it’s universally relatable, but you get so much good stuff out of just, like, auditing the first few minutes of a sales call. You don’t need to go through the full forty five minutes, hour long, hour and a half where they start getting into the offer specific details. Just hearing what motivated someone to get into a solution seeking state can give you all you need to craft really good emails and really good ads.
Step two, optional as we said. Right? Like, typically, once I have this data, I feel like I could just, like, go to the races and write. I don’t necessarily need to distill it into those three categories. But if you feel like that’s a useful part of your process, definitely take fifteen minutes, watch the scene in your mind’s eye, and just, like, fill in that extra commentary and, like, unpack, like, what are they seeing, what are they hearing, what are they feeling, And engage all three of those, within your email.
Step number three, craft it.
And this is what I love about, like, the what are they hearing, right, within the subject line. Like, where is this going? I think this got, like, one of the highest open rates this client got. Like, where is this going? It’s like those words that just anchor someone right in that scene.
And, yeah, I’ll do a quick read through, and you could just see how pretty much every line is mirroring back either the visual data, the auditory data, or the reaction and the emotional feeling as it relate as it relates to it. So at eight forty nine PM, it may have taken a double round of little blue truck, but you finally got kids to sleep. After a crazy ass day of working and child wrangling, you glance down at your iPhone clock anxiously debating whether you could squeeze whether you should squeeze out some cursory, check the box connection time with your wife or take solo comfort in a mini two episode max sense of anarchy binge vest, falling asleep to a chorus of Ron Perlman and one liners.
You offer Ron’s massive ass mug. He really has a big face. That’s what I noticed in my research. Like, the longest part of writing this email was, like, finding gifts, then realizing how big this man’s face was, and then, like, Googling Ron Perlman Young to see if he always had a big face or if, like, his face enlarged over time.
Manzo’s had a big face. What can you do?
Somehow, he triggered the less than rattling off the day stresses followed by a peck and a turn to the other side of bed that your connection time has become. Right? So all data here, right, of what they’re seeing. Two episode max, substance of anarchy, Ron Perlman, you know, his face, one liners. That’s, like, scene.
You glance down at your iPhone clock. That’s sight. That’s literally what they’re seeing. And then this is the reaction. Right? Anxiously debating whether you should squeeze out some cursory check the box connection time.
So, sight and then the feeling. Right?
We’re mixing in seen, heard, and felt.
Just as your nervous system self soothes to the iconic Netflix ta dum. So we have feeling and we have hearing.
The oak floors creak, that’s hearing. Your wife walks into the room, visual.
You don’t even need to see her face to know it ain’t good feeling. Right? So, like, one sentence, right, or, like, one line has a heard, a scene, NFL.
You barely look up. You know, the moment you do, you’re committing to an agonizing three hour where is this marriage going combo when you played out dozens of times over the last half decade of the guitar script. Then we go into the feeling each time running the same circuit of blame over unmet needs, frustration, over ongoing stagnancy, and errant tossing of emotional grenades over ancient wounds and resentments, or for you both concede to resolution via exhaustion, AKA a temporary peace treat until the next flare up. But this time, it somehow feels different, worse.
Instead of anger, you feel her sadness. Instead of fight, you feel failure, and part of you misses a version of one another that at least fought for your match to survive. It’s as if you’re each waiting for the other to deliver the final death blow, but you can’t say it. You can’t say anything.
You’re uncommitted in both directions, and you’ve been stuck hoping and waiting that your relationship would somehow just revive itself with itself, apply a defibrillator, but it hasn’t. Of course, it hasn’t. And now your wife with sadness in her eyes is asking you, where is this marriage going? Right?
So back to the herd and the same. If you don’t have an answer, that’s a problem. We should talk.
If you have an answer and it’s anything but a clear f, yeah, we’re heading into greater connection, deeper passionate, stronger commitment. That’s a problem. We should talk. If you’re holding so much blame, anger, and hostility that you don’t even want to offer her an answer because you can’t discern what’s even true for you anymore, That’s a problem you should talk. But most of all, if deep down, you know, she deserves the best of you, and there’s just been a wounded part of you unwilling to offer it, but you’re willing to do whatever it takes to step up, show up, and reignite what’s possible for you and your wife, then we got a spot on our account with your name on it. Right. So this is what’s possible, like, in just getting the moment of heightened receptivity.
Like, you don’t need Mattell’s data to write an email that has someone, like, fully seen, heard, and felt in a critical moment of heightened receptivity where they would do anything to solve it. So that’s what I got. Opening to questions, comments, feedback, and up your views if y’all have anything you want feedback on.
Yeah. I oh, go ahead.
I was gonna say, do you have, like, a specific order that you try to get them in?
Because it sounds like you try to rotate them.
Within the email itself?
I like to start I like to start with seen just because, like, it’s a really easy way to anchor them into it.
But other than that, it’s just kind of how I process and play out the scene as I write. But yeah.
Good question. I think starting with site tends to, like, anchor the scene really well.
Yeah. It’s kind of like a stupid comment, but I I’ve had, like, a question in my head for, like, years about because, like, your copy is very specific, and I kind of aim for that standard of, like, specificity.
But then sometimes I feel like my copy is too specific or, like and it’s not working. And I always wondered, like, what’s going on? But I think from doing that, I’ve kind of just sussed it. It’s like, you pick, like, a universal problem, and then you get specificity rather than just doing a specific problem because then it’s like then you can alienate people. If you pick universal problem and then get specific, like, you’re not gonna alienate people. I’m just very pleased I’ve just solved that because I’ve been like, what’s going on here for ages?
Wait. Are you doing that again, Harry? I’m not sure I followed that.
Okay. So, like, choose the universal the universal problem, like, the most common So if you’re, like, surveying mining or something and then you’ve got the problem that comes up the most and then get really specific within that problem rather than just going for, like, a specific problem.
Because then it can feel too specific and then the client could be like, oh, like, people don’t think this. But if you if you choose the general problem and then add specific details and it adds that, like, color and depth.
And it’s isn’t gonna make people think, oh, well because no one’s gonna be like, oh, I don’t watch Sons of Anarchy. That doesn’t, like, apply to me. But they might but if it’s a specific problem that they don’t feel, then you can alienate them. Does that make sense?
I think so.
I mean, why would explain it better?
I I think, like, the simplest way I could put it, right, is, like, any, like, any so the audience for this was, like, men in marriages. Right? And the main problem it fixes is, like, disconnection and numbness. Right?
So it’s like any man who is feeling disconnected and confused and not sure what to do will relate with the man in that scene, right, regardless of the specifics of it, regardless of whether or not he actually, like, sons of anarchy or not. Like, he knows what it’s like to like, there are some details he’ll pick up on. Right? Like, the averting the gaze.
Right? Averting the eye contact is not wanting to engage in that space or not knowing how to. So it’s like yeah. Essentially, he can see himself in that man’s shoes because they share the common ground of the core problem, if that makes sense.
I have another question.
Yep.
So I I think that filling in a lot of these details is possible in a more b to c space. But, again, like, for example, one of I think I brought up this copy a couple of times. This company I’m working with is called Novena. They do AI powered, health care.
Mhmm.
And they’re dealing with, like, health care organization.
Not like a doctor, a nurse, like an office, like the management organizations Mhmm.
Of health care providers.
Like, how do I go about filling in the sensory details in that kind of client when those kind of details are not things that you’ll find on a sales call? And it’s so far removed from my daily life. Like, where do I go without even starting to look for those kind of details?
Right. Like, who is the ultimate, like, decision maker?
Like, of Like, care management groups that, like, deal with health care regulations and, like, payers, insurance, things like that.
Like, they’re managing either hospitals, like, different hospitals and, like, hospital chain or, like, a bunch of, like, a a bunch of physicians that are part of, like, a physician care group.
Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, I’ll acknowledge. Right? Like, there are limitations. You probably can’t tell that same type of story in that context.
Most likely not. Right? Like, I think that you do run into challenges with clients being comfortable with a full on kind of, like, story and immersion into that kind of case.
Where there is where there is, like, clarity on what the, you know, the main purchaser, right, is experiencing as it relates to solving that problem. I think injecting some of those details is is useful. Right? Like, I don’t know what the specific experience is of a moment of heightened receptivity in that buying decision. But if you can even just, like, reflect on, like, what is the tipping point that moves them towards consideration here. Right? Like, is does something actually happen that triggers a we need to fix this or we need to seek a solution here?
Then you can bring that in. Right? Like, in a obviously tone down way, but there’s still probably a moment that triggers a buying decision, likely.
Yes. I think one of the issues, though, is in a lot of really complex b two b solutions, the person who has the pain point is not the person making the decision. So in this case, the doctor is the one feeling the pain because the pain point is they have a lot of patient records to read through before they see a patient. And they don’t have time to go through it all, and they don’t have the, they oftentimes miss important details. But the person buying it is the person managing those positions, and they might have been a position themselves at one point, but now they’re in more of an administrative role.
And so Right.
Yeah. Do they have, like, challenges in managing those positions or serving those positions, like, because of the physician stress? Does it kinda, like, bleed over?
Yeah. So it’s a lot about, like, making sure that they’re getting that they’re they’re having good care and a lot about, like, how they interact with insurance if they’re on more of a value based model, meaning that they’re being paid based on the outcome of the patient as opposed to, just a fixed amount, then they wanna make sure that they are going through all of these records and things like that.
Yeah.
So it’s a lot about being efficient and optimizing workflows and Mhmm. Avoiding time wastage.
Right. And they there’s a cost to them when the physicians are inefficient. Right? Like, some of that moves through. Yeah. So, like, they have yeah.
Patients aren’t being healed. Mhmm. Things like that. I mean, this is just one example, but I Mhmm. Like, it’s also relevant for lots of different examples.
Yeah. So, like, if you could identify, like, you know, the two or three biggest motivators. Right? Like, if it’s, like, inefficiency, for example, inefficiency or, like, reduction of quality of patient care. Right? That’s, like, two of them.
Mhmm.
And if you can almost highlight, like, two or three scenarios for each of those two that they would be hearing, seeing, and feeling, right, like, either as a complaint, right, or a lawsuit or a reduction of billings, like, whatever that translates to. Mhmm. I think that there’d be an opportunity to craft, like, tone down versions of this email around that. Right?
Mhmm. Like, especially if the buyer of this is in contact with the doctor or the physician and maybe the physician is communicating some of that stress to them, and they don’t have a solution to it, right, other than, like, keep going. Right? Like, do your best.
Right? Like, I don’t know how that plays out.
Mhmm. But I can only imagine there are stressful scenarios for both the buyer and the position they serve here. Right? And, like, just highlighting some of those without being too excessive in the scene painting, could go a long way.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I definitely include those kind of elements. But, like, I wish I could include more sensory details, like, bring in what the office looks like or who they’re meeting with. And I just I am so far removed from that world.
I Mhmm.
Would be embarrassed to even venture a guess. Especially, like, I remember when I was working in house, like, I would collect these anecdotes, like, after over a long period of how like, over six to twelve months, you could collect a lot of anecdotes to sort of create that picture in your head.
Mhmm.
But, like, if you’re just going into a project, it’s hard to sort of absorb that in an organic way.
Yeah. Understandable.
Is there kind of, like, a standard system that they use, like, visually? Like, are things being processed through, like, you know, a common system? Like, where things are signaled as being inefficient or, like, how do they know something’s inefficient other than, like, the feeling of it?
Like, is it in the reduced billings and a report at the end of the month?
Like Yeah.
Yeah.
There would be issues with payments and Mhmm.
Doctors would be burned out. That’s a big one. Doctors would not wanna there there would be a lot of turnover.
So so, like, a missed payment, like, that’s where I would dig. Like, what is, like, what is the experience of a missed payment? Is, like, an is it an email notification from, like, x payment processor system? Like and they get that on their phone or they get that, like, at the office, and then they have to like, that would be a moment, for example.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
So yeah. Sometimes. So yeah. Obviously, like, obviously, like, familiarity and the more conversations you have with it, the easier it gets. And there are certain limitations when, like, you’re newer to that world and not a lot of people are interacting with you about these details, and there’s not a lot of opportunity to get them.
Mhmm.
But, yeah, where where you do have the ability to, like, ask those probing questions. Right? Like, so much can come out of it. Right?
Like, what does that what does inefficiency actually look like? What does that moment it signals to you? Right? Like, and have you feel in that moment.
Yeah. I love the idea of the notification on your phone. I just like, the client is also a marketer, and so Yep. They’re not as familiar with it.
And Mhmm. These people are pretty high up in their career ladder, so they’re not, like, people who would be really readily available to just casually jump on a call. And customer success is not always willing to let you jump on a call with them. Right.
So but, like, I like that idea, but I feel like I might have to find other sources to sort of validate that kind of language.
Right.
Yeah. I would start with, like, what’s most within reach. I think, like, the visual would would be the easiest. Right?
Because you don’t really need to go too deep into their personal experience of how did you react to that. Like, you can kind of fill in the gaps. Right? Like, if they’re getting a notification of a missed payment or whatever, like, it’s a pretty universal experience of how that feels, right, to the end user.
So, yeah, just, like, get that data. Right? Like, are they checking it on their phone, on their lunch break, and that pings them? Like, does that warrant a conversation with, like, the office manager or the head phys like, I don’t know enough about that industry to fill in those gaps, but, yeah, I feel like, some light digging might yield some pretty cool results.
Okay.
Cool. Jessica, I see your hand up.
I was just getting in line for a copy review, if that’s okay.
Yeah. That’s cool.
For sure. Any other questions about the topic before we jump into Jessica’s review?
Sweet. I think that means you’re up.
Okay.
So, Ry, I don’t I don’t know, if you’ve heard, but I was kinda shifting. You know, I was focusing on seasonal sales, holiday sales?
Mhmm.
Yeah. Red thread. Okay. So as that kind of, was explored deeper, I redid my home page, all the things, then it kinda became more of a helping ecommerce brands on the either other side of the discount.
Like, once they’ve acquired a client through a discount, what do we do? Because we can’t may we can’t create loyalty with a discount. Right? Mhmm.
And so and then it kinda became, the phrase for my, hopefully, future podcast newsletters, ditch the discount. And not to say never do discounts, but be more strategic.
Mhmm.
And so but my big thing is I’d like to build, ideally, a more email funnel, SMS funnel, service package through, you know, the intensive Joe’s teaching, the standardized project and the retainer. So my goal is to create, like, the email program audit, and that’s what I’ve actually done for a couple brands now, and then retainer being the optimization, especially of their flows. So just so you kind of have context of what I’m kinda building now. And Abby kind of helped me through my home page website.
And, I just that’s what I wanna share. And, Naomi, by the way, I was just saying, I I believe that you’ve done interviews. I was just saying that that for me, when I was working at my my Utilizer, that was where I got all my stuff. I didn’t mean to say you weren’t doing it. That was that was just my comment. Okay. So, anyway, here’s my home page.
Yes, please feel free to be as brutal as whatever. But the ultimate I don’t know. We did, like, a fast rewrite, and I just I walked away going, well, it’s better than my seasonal sale focused version, but I still don’t think as I go through it. I’m like, do they know what I do? Do they know what the next step like, I’m I really stripped back. I took my services page off and all that, and I just really wanna focus on let’s optimize the home page, and then I’ll go from there. So that’s kind of what I’m looking for is help with making this better so that they know what I do and know the next step, which would be a call with me, essentially.
Cool. Alright.
Let’s go through it.
Sweet. DTC and ecommerce brands. I’ll read in my head so it’s not annoying.
If anyone has a comment as I go through this, feel free to just jump in.
Do you have a picture of yourself where you’re facing to the right? Because I feel like if you had well, I think number one, if this image was slightly larger, it might feel a little bit more balanced because I feel like there’s a lot of empty space here at the top.
Or maybe even if the text was on the left and the picture’s on the right.
Because I feel like having the text in the middle and the picture on the right feels a little bit imbalanced because the empty space on the left.
So that might help make it a little bit more like, fill up the space more.
Did you catch that, Jess?
I did. I’m just it’s cool. Yeah. I I appreciate that. Know that it’s not really, it’s funny that you bring that up because Abby and I Abby, was that not on the left side of the thing the person you’re like, And we were like, yeah.
It’s better than the central. But the problem also is me figuring out Squarespace and spacing. Because if you put this on a different size window or on a different, a different device, you will see something almost totally different. So, yeah, I know that, but it’s it’s not my priority right now.
But, yeah, I mean, it’s on the notes of things to do eventually. I’m sure.
Yeah. I mean, I think the text is fine in the middle. It just with the image. It might need a maybe maybe just leave the image off.
Yeah. Just a lot.
So it’s your, like, ideal client over five million?
Yeah. That was, that’s kind of what I found is that if they don’t make at least five million in annual revenue, it’s it’s not an ideal client who would invest in me.
Cool.
Jessica, this is I know, like, it’s really difficult because we’ve we’ve just kind of been guessing that, like, for a client over five million, like, do they still want more sales? Is that still, like, the thing that they want?
Like, it it seems like a really silly question, but I don’t know. I’m just wondering now with the like, you want more like, you need more sales. Like, is that is that still what they’re trying to to do?
Like As opposed to what?
Exactly. I don’t know. Like, to build more profit, more profitability. I don’t know.
Well, we said sales. I think you and I talked about changing it, but, I mean, ultimately, the biggest challenge with this group that I’ve interacted with and then done, of course, more research on is, that email channel specifically is not generating the revenue they feel it should Mhmm. And especially from the flows. Like, I’ve heard I’ve had a a client and then a couple leads and then just researched their where usually, they can’t this big shocker, their campaigns, they’re not too unhappy with their campaigns because guess what they lead with, a discount, or it’s a holiday or whatever.
But it’s their flows, their automation.
Leave it that then, like, rather than needing more sales? Because I guess if they need more sales, they can just, like, increase the ad spend if they’re at, like, five million or whatever. Maybe just maybe lead with, like, literally what you just said about the email flows. I don’t know.
And I know this is really annoying because I’ve we’ve been over the phase together, and I’m adding something new. But I just missed that bit about over the five million mark, and now I’m yeah. I don’t know. I’m just curious.
You might be able to talk about scaling because meeting sales means like, in my mind, that means, well, I’m desperate for sales where once you get to a certain point, it’s not that you desperately need them. It’s that you’re looking to put things on autopilot. You’re looking to make things more efficient. You’re looking to optimize things. So it’s wanting more scale wanting more sales, but wanting them, in a way that’s scalable.
No. I think that’s that that’s a great how does that hit with you, Ry? Because I definitely saw, the word scale, scaling, and the other versions of it in, VOC research.
Mhmm.
So why does that hit you with opening that as opposed to just generally the word sales?
Scaling is stronger than more sales, I think, for this audience, especially if you’re really targeting people who are already over five million, and they’re probably looking to scale sustainably.
Right? And the margins are a really big part of that, I’m guessing.
Like, would that be accurate?
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yep.
I think so so that’s one way to lead in. Another way to lead in would be, like, obviously, like, this pain point. So it’s like, how strong is the pain point in their VOC of, like, the discounting? Is it something that they really, really hate and it’s a necessary evil, or is it something that you think they hate? Like, how much are they talking about, like, dreading discounting?
Oh, that’s a really good point.
Like, I know you hate discounts for them. Right? But how much are they like like let’s say, like, it’s Monday morning after their, like, Mother’s Day promotion. Right? Yeah. And they’re putting the numbers on the screen, like and it was, like, great sales volume, like, poor margins. Are they complaining about the margins there, or are they just happy with the volume?
Like So the meetings I’ve been in on, it’s celebrate celebrate the win of whatever was the latest promotion.
Mhmm.
And then it it almost in between the promotions is talking about retention.
So, like, we talk about cause. We talk about that a little bit maybe in the in betweens.
But when we’re talking about post sale Mhmm.
It’s pretty rare that I’m in on a Trevani a long time. It was pretty rare that you’d come off of a a promotion and go, oh, crap.
But how are we gonna keep these people? And, they were they didn’t seem to be obsessing about the discount. They were celebrating either the win or the not, I guess, the not.
Mhmm. Yeah.
I didn’t So yeah.
And it’s an important note. Right? Like Yeah. With that that retention, like and without, like, actually getting nondiscounted sales after that customer’s been acquired, like, they’re not gonna grow. Right?
Right.
One thing comes to mind is, like, a really kind of more of an unconventional format as a headline. Like, you could take it or leave it that might capture that. Right? It’s like what was it?
You know, great news. Like, great news. Our, yeah, great news. Our mother can’t mother to stay campaign crushed, you know, bringing in over x.
Bad news. Our margins were thinner than a next gen iPad. New app. Right?
Now we got now what what now what do we gotta do? Essentially, like, be the third one, which is, like, how do we increase our LTV? How do we retain them? How do we get repeat sales at higher margins? Right? Like, if that’s the scenario you fix of, like, they’re flush full of, like, new customers that have been discounted.
The margins are thin. They’re aware of it, and now they have this opportunity of needing to maximize, right, repeat purchases, nondiscounted purchases, and the email flows that support it. Like, I think that could be a really cool way to drop into the conversation.
So how would you because that’s always been a disconnect for me is making sure it’s really clear that when I talk about that, that I then is it clear? Or how do I make it clear that and the solution is your email and SMS marketing, not basically any like, I’m not gonna do ads. We’re not gonna talk. I’m not I’m not gonna do I’m not diving back into the ads. So is that how do I make sure that connection is clear?
I mean, it’s clear here.
Okay. Alright.
Mhmm. Okay. Good email strategy and conversion copy.
Email strategy and conversion copy. I mean, I maybe have SMS here, right, if that’s a big part of what you do and a big part of what they know they need.
Yeah. Okay.
SMS may mean more to them than conversion copy. I’m not sure.
Like Mhmm.
Good point.
That creates repeat customers so you can boost your revenue. Do you have, like, special IP names for your, like, email frameworks or your SMS flows?
Or No.
I did for my seasonal sales, but, no, I haven’t created something. But I that’s a great you’re right. I need that.
What would you do with it since you were thinking of it?
Oh, I mean, I would just, like, note that here. Right? Like, if you had a different term for email strategy or a different term for, like like, ex SMS type flow. Right? Like, your branded SMS flow. Right?
Okay.
Like, it would be too much of a mouthful to say, like, post discount purchase SMS flows. Right? Like, I don’t know. But I think, like, what I’m hearing you do, right, is, like, you maximize everything out of these discounted customers. Right? And you do that. So it is kind of like a post seasonal sale strategy.
Is that correct?
Yeah. It’s the, yes. Exact yeah. Either seasonal sale or some form of a promotion, but yeah.
So that moment of heightened for them really is, like, analyzing their seasonal sales data, being hyped about, you know, you know, the top line kind of meh about the margins and our team, let’s maximize it. Like, I would really enter the conversation there and then talk about how you fit into that post seasonal sales flow.
Okay. Yeah. Because it really anchors it to a very specific use case. Right? Like, you’ve had this win, now you have this opportunity. Right? Or you’ve had this win, this is what you sacrificed to get the win, but this is how you make it up and then some.
Okay.
Wait. Can I have a I have a question? How how focused are they on the margins?
Because I know, like like, if you’re I I don’t know anything about ecommerce, but I know in SaaS, like, there was a big, big shift when the market crashed when, like, twenty twenty one, the only thing anyone talked about was growth, and no one could possibly care about how much marketers were spending.
And now the only thing everyone cares about is profitability.
But if you had said like, if I were to say you should hire me because I’ll help you make your campaigns more efficient, like, no one would care.
But, like, if that’s the case, then it would be more help like, my strategy would be to go in and, like, introduce a little bit of doubt. Like, try to start by almost waking them up to the problem.
Like, what, like, you’re you’re celebrating these wins. That’s what you said. But there’s, like, a creeping doubt in the back of your mind that this growth is is not as profitable as it could be or this growth is happening only because, you’re putting a lot of money into it.
Is that clear? No? Yes?
I think I’m pausing before I respond because I’m thinking about what you just said. Yes. Profitability and, profit margins are important to ecommerce for sure. It’s also why I can’t work with certain brands because the the profit margins are just too too small.
So, yeah, I mean, that’s definitely a conversation.
At the top of their mind, or are they just, like, celebrating these wins and not thinking about the margins?
No. If there if there’s someone at the level that I’m speaking to, yeah, they’re paying attention to it.
Okay. Makes sense.
Do you have, like, data even if it’s, like, an estimate of, like, the average profit margin of your ideal client and, like, where they’d like to be? Or is it or does it vary too much from company to company?
I don’t think I have a no. I don’t have a well, obviously, I’m pausing. So, no, I don’t have that a solid statistic. But you’re that’s a good point.
Mhmm.
Yeah. I don’t think you need to define it. Right? I think, like, as as long as you call it out, right, like, you have a win of your volume, you have an l, right, and the margins you had to accept by discounting, and now you have an opportunity to make up for it and experience, like, true growth. Right? Mhmm. Yep.
So, like, I think that’s I think that’s the sales argument. Because when you really think about, like, what your ideal client is experiencing, like, what is true about them? They are experiencing a win in volume sales, right, from discounting, and they’re experiencing the need for, yeah. Exactly what you do. Right? More sales, nondiscounted.
K.
Cool.
Your email list isn’t responding to your discount heavy designed heavy emails.
So depending on what you do with the headline, right, like, it may change Oh, yeah.
The section. Yeah.
It’s yeah. It’s gonna change.
Mhmm. Cool.
But the tough part for me on that one is, that is directly from an ideal client. But yeah.
I mean, that’s why they invested so big. It was our email channel. We figured out the ads game. We’ve figured out the other stuff.
Our email channel is not generating the revenue it should, and we’re tired of leaning on our discounts and our image pretty images. And we wanna go and they were the ones who said, like, copy first. And, you know, so it was and it’s a nine figure plus business, pet meds. I mean, it was just that was from an ideal client is, like, guessing.
Yeah.
Yeah. So it depends on the conversation you wanna have. Right? Like, it depends on, like, how you wanna orient the sales conversation based on why you feel they would hire you.
Like, this definitely makes sense in a broader context.
And if we’re and if we’re gonna operate from, like, the conversation of, like, you’ve had a win, You accept it, and now now let’s make good on it. Then I would continue the conversation on you could agitate it. Right? That could be an option. Or you can move straight into, like, your process of of, like, you know, making good on what do we do after you’ve had a boatload of sales from your discounted push. Right? Yeah.
And then kind of bridge into Oh god.
Don’t worry. I hate that section. Hate that section.
Alright.
Well, we like, Farna’s whatever lesson, and I hate the intro of that.
Now now I can’t not read it. You understand?
It’s the first lines. But, hey. You’re here. I’m am here. Like, who the hell talk like that? I don’t talk like that. Like, stupid.
Am I right? Am I right? Yeah.
This is oh, painful. I can’t even stand you’re looking at it and recording this.
It’s on the record.
Jess wrote, am I right? Record.
Like, you should unlock a badge for the usage of am I right? Like, unlock a new level. Hey. Hey, Sam. Sam’s eyes. What is those eyes?
Like He has piercing eyes.
They’re Actually, when he’s not smiling.
How did you get a testimony from Sam? I didn’t know you had that.
The intensive.
Gotcha. Nice.
Thank you, Andrew, for the comment. I appreciate that.
Cool. Does that give you some enough insight for today, like, to work with and to consider?
Yeah. That’s fine. That’s great.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you all. I appreciate it.
Cool. Cool.
Alright. We are at the hour. So if anyone has to jump off, that is totally cool. Does anyone have any questions or things they urgently needed reviewed?
If so, I’m happy to stick around. So, hi, Andrew.
Could I ask one Oh, oh, oh, you’re I thought you were waving goodbye.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
Can I ask one question? You need to keep it running on if not.
But, yeah. So, this is kind of touching back on what we were talking about before, and there was, I think Abby wrote in chat, you know, she wrote, this is why I hate writing for SaaS. How do how do you add dollar and d m l to optimizing workflows?
And so that’s, like, my whole, that’s, like, everything I work with is b to b SaaS and tends to be, like, really technical products, like, data heavy stuff where all the people buying it have, like, data in their title and stuff like that. Mhmm. And something that I struggle with is that as I’m researching the the client, like, all of their materials are written in this, like, very academic language. Everything is optimized, accelerate analytic productivity, this and that. And as I research, I find myself almost getting, like, sucked into that a little bit. And at some point, I go, oh, I get why they came up with this because this is, like, the most accurate summary of what it is. Right?
And they couldn’t they couldn’t find out what it wasn’t a human and specific way to say that that’s, like, completely accurate or something like that.
So I I guess I’m just wondering if you have any tips for how to, not drink the client my client’s Kool Aid. And and then the other thing is that the BOC is like that too because then they go, okay. We really wanna try to, like Mhmm. Like, even the voice of the customer is not always very human.
How to not drink the client’s Kool Aid. I mean, I’ve I’ve drank the client’s Kool Aid and then hated whatever and after the fact. It’s really convincing. Right? Because they’re so authoritative in their Kool Aid, and they’re serving a bit Kool Aid.
So I think, like, the most practical thing I could offer, right, is to not necessarily try to, like, rewrite every aspect of the offer and what it does in more human language, but, like, choose a very specific scenario in which the use case is, like, needed, like, when they know they have the problem. Right? So it’s like like, I mean, taking the example. I know, obviously, like, coaching is very different from SaaS.
Right? But, like, is there a moment when they their workflows were broken? Is there a moment when a project fell through the cracks? Like, if you’re selling project management software, right, it’s like, you know, what are they hearing?
Like, is this done yet? Like, question mark. Like, where is this? Question mark. Like, what is a product manager saying as a follow-up, and then what’s the oh, shit moment?
Right? So it’s like you’re not gonna be able to necessarily capture the entire marketing message, but can you capture a moment in which the software you’re selling would be a solve for it. Right? And just, like, see if that hits and if that resonates, especially on the email or the ad level.
Yeah. That that works. Yeah. That works. And I’ve seen it done well. So I yeah.
Yeah. The email and the ad level are, like, the easiest places to try to, like, weave this in and test it out. Obviously, obviously, landing pages and sales pages that are more static are more difficult.
So, yeah, I I like testing things out in email and ad scenarios where, like, yeah, you have a little bit more leeway.
Cool. Good job. Alright. Thank you.
Sorry to hear that.
Wait. Can I ask one more question, please?
Yeah. Of course.
I meant to ask this earlier, and I totally forgot. What I really like that you do, you do such a good job of coming up with, like, metaphors, And I forgot the one in the example.
Automatic or self operating defibrillator, I think, was Oh, yeah. Was when you Self self applied defibrillator.
Yeah.
And there was another one that you used. I don’t even remember the email. It was ages ago that I read it, and you used the phrase diabetic fruit fly to describe, like, a computer charger, like an old computer. And, like, that I don’t even remember what the rest of the email was about, but that phrase stuck with me. And I haven’t been able to come up with metaphors that are, like, kitschy like that, but, like, actually descriptive and not over the top.
I was wondering if you have, like, how you come up with those, if you have a process or Gosh.
Like, I I have a process for, like, not writing white noisy ones. Right? Like, I do have an aversion to, like, if I write a metaphor the first time and I’m like, I’ve seen that a million times before, like, I will, like, not include that intentionally.
How to come up with the good ones, like so there there’s an orientation towards, like I wanna put something on the page that no one’s read before, like, a combination or a string of words that no one’s read before, and there’s a really real strategic reason. Right? That is reader engagement. That’s some kind of, like, being tuned in to the message. And Right. So, like, how do I actually come up with them?
Just kinda like my brain works in a really strange way. It’s like, I don’t know why I’m thinking of diabetic fruit flies. I really don’t. Like, I’m concerned that my brain goes there.
I used to read so many screenplays, and, like, screenwriters get really crafty in describing scenes.
Like like and you could probably still find a lot of screen screenplays out there. Like and I wouldn’t read classic ones. I’d read the ones from, like, up and coming writers. Right?
Like, I think the blacklist is, like, a really good source for that. I don’t know if it still exists, but, like, yeah, that’s typically where I picked up, like, language patterning is because, like, they’re trying to impress agents. They’re trying to be interesting. They’re trying to be engaging.
Right? And they just come up with, like, really cool and interesting ways of saying things, and it just kind of repatterns, you know, how I think about things at least.
But, yeah, I’d say, like, there’s an intentional orientation around not being white noisy, not being boring, challenging certain ways of saying things. And sometimes that happens on the first pass. Sometimes that comes when I’m rereading it a second or third time and be like, this would be a cool way of saying that. So yeah.
I wish there was a formula. Maybe there is a formula, and I just haven’t discovered it yet.
Maybe I’ll try reading more screenplays.
Yeah.
Cool.
Struggle bus. Gosh. I’ve never talked about the struggle bus.
Ton every sales page for entrepreneurs. Yeah. It’s true.
Cool. Awesome. Any other, questions, comments, or we’re feeling good and complete for today?
Awesome. Well, thanks for your time, everybody. Catch you all soon. Take care.
Thanks, Roy. See you.
Bye,
The People at My ICP
The Buyer Handbook: The People at My ICP
Transcript
Yep.
Let’s dig into the actual training. So I shared the worksheet out in Slack. If you need it, please go to the Copy School Pro Slack group, and you will find the worksheet in the events area.
So this month, we’re trying out themes for the month in Coffee School Pro. The idea for this month is to get you really crystal clear on, all things ICP and persona. And when I say ICP, for those who are maybe watching the replay from other places, you might say I c a.
We say I c p, which in my brain, I was just like internal client. No.
Ideal client profile is what that is. I was going to share the inverted pyramid, but I didn’t want to overwhelm us with all talks of, like, market audience, and all of, like, the parts of the inverted pyramid, but there is one out there if you want. And what I don’t love about the inverted pyramid is it finishes at the bottom with persona.
So if you can imagine, there’s a world where there’s this inverted pyramid, and it has, like, market at the top and then, like, kind of target market. Then ICP, that’s the type of business that you’re really trying to target, and everybody here that I know of is trying to target a business of some kind.
So you’ve got the business, and then you have persona at the bottom of this inverted pyramid. But the challenge is that it looks like it’s one thing that it looks like you should have one, persona and that it’s small when in fact, most of us are gonna have three, maybe four different personas, the people that we are trying to reach out to in organizations, and that’s what I wanna talk about today.
Hi, Abby. Welcome. Just saw you show up.
Cool. So I’m going to share my screen. And, Abby, you just got here, so know that this worksheet is over in, in Slack. So you can get that there. If you would like to, please do. I would like you to work on the the free drawing area that we get into later. You can just do it on a piece of paper that you have.
So all this month, we’re working on this buyer handbook idea. Who are the people you are trying to sell to? That’s the persona you’re trying to connect with.
And then, where do they work? So getting really clear on that. And when your clients come to you and say, can you help us write for this segment? You can be really clear on that too. So between Perna and Rai teaching about, like, what to do for the copywriting side of things, research, etcetera, for your clients, And then myself and Shane helping you with, the stuff to do for your own business.
You should come out of this with a really rounded, education. Some of it reminder stuff, some of it brand new stuff by the end of June.
Book of the month. Does anybody remember what the book of the month is?
I don’t.
I will look, and we will share it with you.
So watch for that. Okay. So we wanna talk with the people at our ICP. Our ICP, again, ideal client’s profile, personas fit in neatly underneath that Challenger sale. Thank you, Jessica.
So the Challenger sale.
There. One second.
The Challenger sale got some bookmarks in it.
The reason that we want to read this is because everything to do with our buyer is in the sunshine growth model under the money side of things. So it can feel administrative. It can feel extra, but it’s really, really critical to get this stuff right if you’re going to make more money. You may make some changes to your ICP. You may add a new persona. Maybe you don’t even have personas at this point. That expect some of that to be kind of stirred up, some changes that you might make to make sure you’re attracting people who value what you do and have money to spend on it as well.
So the great thing about a persona is that it helps you visualize the person that you’re talking to, the person who’s consuming your content on social media or wherever that might be in your email list, and the people that you’re going to be working with internally as well.
Personas and jobs to be done are often talked about in, like, conflict with each other, but every persona has a job to be done, at least one. Right? So you can use everything you might know already about jobs to be done.
You can use that alongside personas. So if you have any resistance in your mind, if you’re like, oh, I’m pure jobs, I don’t wanna hear about it, don’t worry about it. You can do both. You can both follow persona stuff and job stuff.
Okay? By the end of this month, we have shifted some things around so that Shane is working toward, ideally, being able to say, now that you’ve got all these insights into your buyer, into who you’re trying to target and how to get in front of them, what’s what they’re looking for, etcetera, you can, like, have AI put together your buyer handbook for you. So this is all building up to something, then you can hand that handbook off to anybody that you might hire and yourself. You can, of course, reference it.
So keep that in mind, and it’s always gonna be a work in progress.
Okay.
Your ICP, it could be useful to have a representative brand. If you’re watching this, open up your workbook now. This is where you’re going to be writing some stuff in, this worksheet.
So does anybody have a representative brand for their ICP?
Johnson, Katie, Jessica, Stacy, Abby?
No?
Like, a brand that would be the most ideal version of it.
I I do, but then I worked with that brand, and now I’m looking for a new one because they were not ideal. Yeah.
Hey. Okay.
Johnson, you put up your hand a bit on that. No?
Okay. Yeah. It can be useful too. Some people start with that representative brand, and it’s it doesn’t have to be a dream brand either.
It can be a brand you already worked with. So if there’s someone who stands out to you, it’s usually better to start with the brand you already have worked with so that you can really clearly fill this part out. Now this isn’t, like, from any sort of book putting together your ICP. This is what I find useful in understanding, the organization that I’m talking to.
For us, we’re often talking to, very two very different ICPs. So for copy hackers, we have at least two ICPs. One of them is a very small business. One person with, like, a VA or two, obviously, all the freelancers that we work with.
And then there’s this other ICP that is extraordinarily large organizations that have copy teams in them and creative teams. So we have two different ones with different personas in each, which is not recommended. It’s not gonna make your life any easier. So do choose one that you can target well with your offer.
And then this is really like, it feels, maybe administrative, but if you haven’t written down what industry they’re in, where they’re located, that doesn’t have to be, like, down to a city. Right? It doesn’t have to be just for this brand. So if you’re like, my ICP is Facebook.
Well, let’s say Meta. So my ICP is Meta. Their industry is tech slash social media slash advertising.
Their location is they’re in Palo Alto. Last I knew of the Facebook headquarters.
You don’t have to go into that. So it doesn’t have to go that far. You don’t have to say Palo Alto. You can just say they’re in the UK or North America slash Canada, whatever you wanna put there.
So the representative brand does not necessarily dictate everything that goes under here. It’s really just shorthand for the kind of brand you’re looking for. So if it is Meta, you might say, okay. Well, I want I want the company I work with to have, like, five thousand plus employees.
Meta has far more than that. But then at least, you know, if the organization has fewer than five thousand employees, they’re probably not a good fit for me. And you can be really, like, dedicated to your ICP, and you should be because the more narrow you are with that, the more you commit to that, the less guesswork you really have to do so you can identify what their revenue is. This is annual revenue.
This is the department that they’ll that you’ll likely be working with, the one that reaches out to you most commonly. So if you’re like, it’s always creative services or it’s always their growth team, or they’re likely to have, like, a sales pod that reaches out to me, then you write down that department and that becomes can you imagine how you would use that then? If you know that it’s always going to be a sales pod at, a large organization of five thousand people in tech that reaches out to you. Now you can really clearly figure out how to use LinkedIn sales navigator to get in front of more of them.
You can do a little voice of customer research and open up tons of information that’s just for them. So you can do far less work and still have it look like you’re a freaking genius because you’re focusing on this narrow group, which can be scary, but there’s only one of you. So if it’s like, but there’s only five thousand peep groups in the total addressable market. How am I ever gonna get rich?
You will. Don’t worry about it. It’s good. Like, you’re one person. You’re not a team of five thousand.
That would be a scarier proposition. There’s one of you. Most of the time, you’re you can’t go too narrow as long as you’re choosing people who have money and value what you do. If they don’t value what you do, no matter what, you’re never going to make any money.
If they don’t have money, no matter what you do, you’re never going to make any money. So that’s, like, pretty important.
Is this all clear and making sense and not weird?
Okay.
Do they have a creative team? Who’s on their creative team? And what’s important to answer here is if you are like, I only work with coaches, and there’s usually the coach plus their admin person who turns into a bit of a partner for them, and they use freelancers, that’s okay. Just write down here that their creative team is made up of freelance designers, freelance, freelance copywriters, maybe that you wouldn’t you you would even put in there any AI they use to, like, sub in for a creative person.
You also wanna put the tools that they use for your specialization or for things related to your specialization.
Canva could be one.
If they do wireframing, let’s say, in their tools they use for your specialization, if you’re in email, that’s your specialization.
What’s their CRM most likely to be? What is the what are the tools that they’re using? Again, that way you can say, hey.
Coach struggling with ActiveCampaign and segmenting in there. And, obviously, the the more you know about this, the easier it is to create content, which is what we are always, always going to be actually talking about when we’re talking about growing our businesses. There’s always an element of, okay, but what are you gonna put out into the world so that people know that.
What’s their budget?
Be honest about their budget for the kind of work that you do. Not their budget overall, but their budget for the kind of work that you do. If you don’t know, this is where it’s great to look at your past clients and better understand what their budget has been. If you’re like, I don’t want anymore, like, my past clients. Fair. Totally fair.
Now is the time where you are resourceful. Then you go out and you do the hard work of saying, how can I get my ideas, the persona at my ICP? We’ll get into personas next.
To sit down and talk to me about what their budget is and be honest with me. Like, I have to get that information or else I won’t know if they can afford my services. So you have to get that information. How can you go get it? Be resourceful about getting an answer to that important question. You’re the CEO.
CEO has to answer these important questions. You can’t just pretend they don’t exist. Right? So how do you find the budget? How do you find out what their budget is? How are they solving their copy struggles today?
I but I’ll be saying struggles more than problems going forward. I had a really good talk with Bob Mastat, this retreat I was just at from jobs.
And, yeah, struggles, just know going forward. I mean, problems, but struggles are typically we’ll talk more about that.
But it’s struggles slash problems.
And then time to close. How long does it take for them to say yes to you from the point that they feel that early problem slash struggle, through to getting on a call with you and everything else that happens so that you cannot be frustrated when this stuff takes time. Some the larger the organization, the more time it’s likely to take for them to say yes to you. And if you’re like, well, I need to close a client by the end of the month, they take three months to make a decision.
Now you know what your time is to close. And it’s critical to be really honest about these things or it’s very difficult to move forward if you’re, one, guessing. I think it probably takes, like, a month. If you don’t know, you really have to get on a call with that persona that you’re more likely to get honest information from.
Find a way to get on a call with them. Any questions about this for the ICP side of things?
Does everybody already have this sorted out?
Clearly, in a way you could hand it off to somebody.
Why haven’t you? Can I ask? And it could just be because, like, busyness, but I’m really curious. Yeah.
Me? Yeah. Katie. Yeah.
Because I am still lost in this model of, like, do I just change industries completely, or, like, am I looking at talking to a higher level person in the industry I’m already in?
Mhmm. Okay.
So, like, is it worth trying to figure out who this is, like, in the coaching space, or do I wanna just be like, you know, if it Joanna says to go to SAS, like, do that and, and dive in?
Yeah. I wonder about, like so I say SaaS because it’s easier, in everything that I’ve seen, but but I’ve also never built a brand in a different space. I’ve never been the one people go to when they’re a coach.
I’ve been asked, you know, a copywriter by all of the big coaches out there, but it’s never been understood to be me. That would be that one. Whenever, like, Joe, can you write this? Because I think they know damn well. Like, I don’t know what I what?
So can you do anything with coaches? How what I really mean is can you find a group that talks to each other so you can get easy referrals, that has ongoing work to do, and that thinks of themselves as a business? Part of the problem with a lot of coaches is that they follow this launch idea, which makes it hard for you to think of it as a business. It’s not until you cross over to Evergreen that in my experience, people seem to understand.
Now I’m a business. Now I’m making regular recurring revenue, not I just did a three million dollar launch, and I’m gonna take three months to freaking decompress because that was so much work.
But is there a way to go upmarket, Katie, for you? Is there an upmarket version of your audience?
Yeah. I definitely think that there is. I just think that, like I think I mentioned this before. It’s kind of like the further up you go, the more people are just teaching, like like, kind of the higher market you go, the less I wanna work with them.
Like Okay.
It’s more then I feel like it gets really and just, like, not the ethos that I wanna be in. Yeah. So, like, I’m in this program with lots of coaches at the, like, multi six to seven figure level, and I see them.
Like, so when I I used to feel like I knew who this ICP was, but then, like, working on the standardized offer, like, wanting to have some like, wanting to have something in that model Yeah.
I don’t think that that, like, ICA that I had previously mapped out wouldn’t necessarily go for the, like, optimization package, and that’s where I’m still, like, trying to marry this altogether.
Yeah. That’s fair.
I have a call booked with Rai, actually. I booked a one along with him for his insight into this market specifically to try and get this nailed down by the end of the week.
So that’s like Oh, damn. Why am I am, like, trying to figure it out.
Nice. Good deadline. I love it. Okay. Cool. So that makes sense. You’re actively working through it, and you’ll know more, hopefully, after talking with Rai.
Okay. Okay. Cool. Thanks, Katie. Anybody else wanna share what’s holding them back from pinpointing a little more, at least, their ICP?
I can, share something. I, I I told you I brought someone on recently, and, this person is someone who I want to take on, this portion of work that we’re doing at the moment with a client who works in ERP solutions Okay. Like NetSuite.
These consultancies, he’s, you know, he he runs a consultancy.
They the the the kind of the smallest versions have a revenue of about half a mil, and it goes all the way up to sort of fifteen to twenty mil before they start to really scale up. And what this client that I work with is, a great client, really, dedicated, but struggles with lead gen. Basically, it’s kind of just running running the business is taking everything. So we’ve developed an offer, sort of following a good chunk of what we’ve been doing, where I’m gonna be pitching, essentially kind of authority building, on LinkedIn, and Reddit because a good chunk of these customers are there, plus maybe a little bit of, lead gen, and sort of pitching it at a sort of ten k initialization and then an ongoing five k retainer.
But this is brand new. We’ve sort of been working day and night to put this together and build the pitch and kind of get into the direct selling sort of direct response, sorry, techniques to to really, like, sell it to this client. And then it was only, like, a week or two ago, we were like, oh, we should also, of course, prepare the like, we’ve developed a whole product now. We should start to look at, like, who else we could sell this to, because the might say no.
And, so we’ve we’ve got a good idea. We know the industry. We know the location. We know the revenue.
We know the employees, the department.
I guess we know the creative team. It’s freelancers.
Budget is trickier to figure out because they hire consultants, on a sort of ad hoc basis to complete their projects.
And I guess the the reason why we don’t have this all filled out is because, I don’t know the level of detail to go into yet.
Okay.
Because it’s new. Right? So that’s because it’s new. Yeah.
Yeah. So, this is a side note. Curious, though, about this pitch that you’re building.
Do you feel like it’s going to be something you can easily replicate for others?
So the whole as we built out this process, we’ve been building basically, we built the whole, service out of soaps. So, as as much as is possible, I will not be involved at all, and this other person will take over so that I can focus on, doing life cycle emails. And but this will be a, sort of a source of revenue for the business, an opportunity to to train this this person to a sort of management position.
So it’s a sort of long it’s sort of like a little bit of upfront work to get some long term distance out of the business.
Okay. Makes sense.
Cool.
So work in progress. Once you have this pitch done, you’ll have a little data. No. One data point is not, like, good.
But it’s better ish than nothing.
So it might be worth at least starting to to fill this in. But right now, you have a general idea of some of these points.
Sure. And I guess the one question I maybe had was if you so I know it’s in ERP solutions.
But to be honest, because of the nature of the service, there’s no real reason why it couldn’t be in, you know, any industry as long as the the company had a motivated founder who wanted to build a personal brand or, you know, and understood the the significance of that. Do you have any, do you have any advice on sort of thinking, laterally across industries for this kind of I know it’s a very sort of different.
No.
Well, that’s simply because I was just thinking so wait. I I now as a total side note. So wait. You want to help people who are in organizations build their personal brand?
Yeah. Well, to general yeah. To build their authority, to to, yeah, to build their their their company’s brand and their own personal brand.
So it’s sideways.
I actually have a lead for you then. They’ll send along to you. Someone just reached out to me for exactly that. So, anyway, I’ll send that to you, and that could be another data point for you to at least get in on a conversation with the what, the why, and all that kind of stuff to help fill this in. So that’s why I got distracted there and couldn’t answer your question because I was like, that’d be cool if I can solve that ask.
Okay. So yours so repeat your question then, please.
I’ve got the words from it, but not how it all goes together.
So so just how to think about I’m you know, I’m I’m basing this on the industry that that this this plan is in because we now I now know it very well. I mean, it works for them. But, you know, reasonably, with maybe a little bit more preparation upfront, we could do this for any industry.
Yeah.
So, do you have any advice about sort of thinking, laterally to move, you know, across industry or or just advice on maybe industries that are likely to have a a wealth of companies that are sort of in the, I I don’t know, one mil to fifteen mil revenue range, small ish teams and motivated founders.
Yeah. So many.
Definitely. Let me let me give some thought to that. I can say if that’s something you wanna do, if you wanna say, hey, founders, I can help you build your brand that is you’re ready to write a book. I assume all of those sorts of things will fit under that. Yep. Yeah.
Then just know that there’s a large market for this. There are a lot of people, a lot of founders who are doing exactly that. But it’s probably worth at minimum starting with one industry still. I would say it’s definitely worth that because then you can say, okay.
If it’s a founder and they’re making so much money, then you can start looking for the influencers, and that would, like, get into, the personas. So they might not even be at that ICP. So I would think of something like, if you’re trying to target those people, then we’d wanna get more into, like, figure out who the influencers are because there’s the SaaS Academy that’s filled with founders who are ready to build their brand. There’s, Matt Lerner with System, and that’s just in, like those are two groups that have founders who are highly motivated to do what it takes to get out into the world so that people use their solution the way that Jason Fried and DHH did for base camp.
So no, but there’s lots there, and let me give it some more thought.
Cool. That’d be amazing. Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks.
Anybody else have anything about ICPs before we move on?
Okay. So when it comes to your ICP, the inverted pyramid, as I mentioned at the start of this call, the inverted pyramid has, like, ICP, and then at the bottom is persona.
That, to me, visually, doesn’t leave enough room for the many personas that might be under there, and this, to me, feels more like pillars. But I I hate old school business diagrams with pillars. I just have a strong aversion to them from my day that Intuit. So I didn’t want this to look like a pillar.
But this is really a question of who are you targeting. So we need to fill in your ideal client profile, which just, like, take everything here and write a statement. Now if you’ve done the intensive freelancing, you’ve already done this work. You’ve already got this figured out. You know already that you will be refining the personas and a little bit of your ICP, but you should have that down, pretty well. Now the personas are, of course, the people at the ICP, typically, that are going to be the ones that you are targeting in your marketing.
But I don’t want you to stop there. And I know this can start to feel like a really big exercise, but if we only ever think about the people that we are targeting with our marketing, then we miss the point of all of the decision makers internally, and other people who help them make a decision. So when you’re thinking of personas, I would like you to think about what I just said to Johnson.
Who are the bigger influencers and make a persona out of one of those key influencers that might be they have a coach. They have an executive coach in Johnson’s case. Right? There’s an executive coach. They’re trying to make them better.
If you were to message toward executive coaches for these founders, then they could be a really good, opportunity for you. Right? But they don’t technically work at the ICP.
If you’re working with really small businesses, maybe they’re highly profitable, very small businesses, it could be the partner of the person who runs that business. So they’re like, the James clears of the world. They’re, like, super well known for one thing. They’re not planning on building a big business out, and their partner or, someone that they trust really closely.
Again, that could be an executive coach. It could be the partner that they have in life. It could be, a person in that they met in a mastermind who they call up all the time for help. So James Clear could say, hey, Nathan Barry.
Let’s hop on a call and talk through this. So one of your personas could be the Nathan Barry’s of the world.
So that would be something to consider. So I don’t just want you to think about only about the personas that you are likely to talk to directly on the path to getting a client, but do start there. Start with the people that you or the person usually that you are likely to, who is usually your point of contact or the one who kicks off working together.
So a good way to go about that, I have found and this is like a blank page for you to fill this in. I’d like you to take just five minutes to basically map out whatever that looks like for your org chart with personas and influencers. Now this org chart doesn’t have lines between it, because it’s really unnecessary. Grower, nobody. No. You can’t eat that plant. Nobody.
You’ve got the so in this case, I have VP of marketing, life cycle lead, and senior copy likely to be people that I connect with directly. The senior copywriter finds me and follows me, and this is if I was working on life cycle as my specialization. That’s the example here. This isn’t for me.
This is for an example of a freelancer who’s working on life cycle. So who’s your primary point of contact? This is the person who’s likely to work with you directly throughout. So the senior copywriter may find you online and start in their meetings with their manager, life cycle lead in this case, let’s say.
They’re in these meetings, and they’re like, hey. I’m really still struggling with x.
But I’ve started following, Abby, and I’m learning this cool stuff. And I wonder if there’s any way we can bring her into the org to help us with why.
And then that person would be the one who actually reaches out to you. Like, okay. Maybe just connect me with them or send me their email address, send me their website, and I’ll look into it. So the life cycle lead could be the actual person who reaches out to you, but your advocate internally might have been the senior copywriter or in other cases, other people.
But this is the example. Right? So if you know, generally, some people watching the replay of this will have been working with an organization or, like, sorry, an ICP for a long time, and they can more clearly document the I say org chart, it really means, like, influencer chart.
They can more easily document that because they’ve set they can say like, I can say for a SaaS company who wants to bring me in to rewrite their website and then optimize it. I know exactly who that point of contact is. I know who the influencer was that like, the advocate who first said we should go with this person. I know where they found me. I generally know when they found me, and I know who has to agree to this, who I have to really impress in order to get them to say yes, to say yes to a large amount of money. So I would know that a senior designer is gonna be involved.
Always brand managers are somehow involved. I gotta get them to believe that I understand brand at the same time I understand CRO. The CFO is gonna be the one approving usually going over budget because almost nobody comes to me and says, like, perfect. That’s exactly what I was hoping you would say.
It’s usually like, shit. Let’s see what we can do. So I have so these are lighter boxes here. These are the people, the CFO, the brand manager, the senior designer, those are people who are likely to come up a lot in meetings and in Google Docs.
So I want you to take five minutes to figure out the key personas that you will be typically talking with, that will find you, that will email you, that will follow you on social and DM you, and then the people who influence them.
Five minutes just to knock it out. Is that cool? Can we do this?
Hopefully, it’s a good useful exercise. I will be quiet until ten forty when I will be noisy again.
How’d we do?
Anybody want to share or talk through what you put down on the page?
Yeah. I I felt like like looking back at my past clients, so, like, seven figure course creators, I think I’m struggling to think of the time where it wasn’t the CEO that reached out to me and kind of approved the work. Like, I’ve maybe once had, like, an ad strategist come to me, but, otherwise, it’s it’s always gonna be the CEO.
And then where I’m struggling there is that like, with printing out content and stuff because it’s like I’m just skeptical whether, like, a CEO is gonna kind of watch my webinar or anything.
Yeah. Do they so then it’s good to look out at influencers. Right? If it’s difficult to get them directly, who influences them? Do they have a coach?
I guess so. Yes. Probably. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. If they’re doing seven figures, they probably have a coach because a coach probably targeted them at some point and sold themselves to them.
That’s at least been my experience is having coaches reach out, probably why I have three of them. And then, if you were to find that they have a coach or they’re part of a mastermind, have you experienced that at all that they’re part of a mastermind or they’re coached?
Yeah. I mean, I this is something I’ve been thinking about for years because it seems like such a strategic way to market, but I just I’ve not found, like, those masterminds.
Okay.
Yeah. I would say the next thing, you you just need to identify who first has introduced them to you or could introduce them to you, where has is the better one, but could is still an opportunity.
How do they find you? Who says at Usually Facebook groups. Facebook groups.
Yeah.
Or, like, LinkedIn.
But it’s always the, like, the founder that that reaches out, not a member of the group.
Figure or six figure? Yeah. Yeah. Seven figures. And they’re involved in Facebook groups that aren’t run by a coach.
Sometimes it’s their Facebook group.
Oh, okay. So what can be all so I don’t know if anybody else has any thoughts, but we know that they don’t summon us from the air. Right? We are not genies out of a lamp. We have to come from somewhere. They have to find us somewhere. They have to build a belief in us somehow.
Our job is to write down the path and figure out, like, who on that path is is the person that’s most likely to open the door for us.
So I would encourage you to really dig into it, Abby. If it’s always a Facebook group that they run, then that’s just good to know. Then you can say, okay. The CEO is always my number one persona. They’re the one I’m gonna reach out to all the time.
And if they find me in a Facebook group, then that’s not about this at all. That’s just gonna be marketing that further fleshes out your, both your ICP and your persona because they’re obviously hiring the Facebook group to do something for them slash for their business. So that’s just good to know.
Is it what you think the future ideal client looks like? Do you think it’ll be the same sort of experience, or do you have reason to believe the next group that you target the or sorry, the next group that, should be hiring you that they will find you the same way.
I mean, I don’t know. I think this is the trouble is, like, I find it, like, I find the ideal avatar exercises really hard because it it’s like, well, if I’m not kind of engaging with them already, like, how do I know what they like, who they are or what they want and how to speak to them?
Yeah. You have to speak to them. That is actually the work of it. It’d be nice if there was an easier way.
But the easier way is ultimately, usually, the harder way anyway if you like. Yeah. Buy insights somehow.
You’ll probably eventually end up having to go back to, you know, I actually do have to just get on a call and talk with them.
And how do you do that?
Oh, you gotta find them. That’s LinkedIn sales navigator. Try to find them. Yeah. And then DM them and offer them a really compelling offer to get on a call with you so you can pick their brain and get that advice that you need.
But that will be that’s the work.
What are sorry to Jen. What are some of those compelling offers just, you know, for fun?
What what their currency? Like, what moves them? If you know that you’re working with heart centered people, you could say, hey. So you have to ask yourself, what is this call worth to me potentially?
Is this a thousand dollar call for me? Would I pay a thousand bucks to get information out of them? If I knew I was paying a thousand dollars, then what questions would I ask? So you probably have better questions because you’re like, I’m gonna get the most of this thousand bucks, for an hour.
On their end, they’re like, holy. An hour is a long time for me to tell you how to target people like me, so you better make it worth a thousand bucks to me. So let’s say, you know that your ideal your persona, the one you are trying to reach out to, loves dogs, then you can say, okay. My offer is I’ll make a thousand dollar donation to the soy, I think it’s pronounced soy, s o I, dog foundation on your behalf if you get on this call with me for an hour and really get honest with me about this sort of thing. That could be a great offer, but not everybody will have the same offer because everybody is moved by different things.
So I would say the more you know about that person so research them on LinkedIn. Follow every other thing that you can. This is a this is, like, critical work. Right? This is how you potentially shape a multimillion dollar business.
I was talking to my team about this earlier, and I’m not saying this about you at all, but the money that we have to put up to start an online business is so minor compared to a florist. I wanna start a flower shop. There’s so much friction, so much money that has to go into that. This is this is the kind of thing where you have such an advantage over, like, a florist. You make more money than they ever will as well.
But this is the investment. This is like filling out the lease and spending money on leasing the space.
This is that hard cost for you. Find a thousand bucks. Do the hard research of figuring out who you need to talk to at what organization, what they need to hear from you in order to say yes hopping on a call with you.
Do that work, and you could have literally millions of dollars in value there. Don’t do the work. Have you guys seen that that that diagram of the easy life versus the hard life?
It’s like you I’ll I’ll find the diagram and send it to you. It’s like you ask easy questions, and your life it’s easy until you have to climb back. I’ll show you the diagram. It’ll make a lot of sense, but it’s the hard work.
You’re doing the hard thing. You’re valuing it the way you expect to be valued as well, by giving it a thousand bucks or whatever that is. And then, just make sure make sure you make the most of it. Does that all make sense?
A hundred percent. That makes perfect sense because I wanna do this for, life cycle emails too. That is my next job. Yeah. So that’s, mega super duper helpful. Thank you, Jeff.
Cool. Awesome. Abby, how are you?
Yeah. I’m just thinking, like so if I was gonna do five interviews and be like, okay. I’ll donate five thousand dollars for those five.
If, like, they’re the wrong people, then I’m gonna be like, like, really on time.
That’ll be a giant waste of money. Yeah. I mean, it’s good you donated. It’s not a waste, but for you, they’ve you that’s why you have to make sure it’s the right person. So the best you can do is start with one.
So who is the purse so if you actually believe that it is the CEO who reaches out to you Mhmm.
Then you need to find the CEO of this seven figure training business and really make sure that that they’re the one.
And that’s good. That’s the thing. But just do one first. Don’t book five of these things out of the gate because you might find that although the CEO has reached out to you in the past, just like in this diagram, life cycle lead is likely to reach out to me, not the senior copywriter, but senior copywriter was the one who found me.
So you need to first talk to the CEO who you hypothesize is the person and ask them as a question. Like, really dig into it. Don’t take the first answer. Don’t even take the seventh answer.
Like, dig deep into how they found you, and we’re willing to take that leap to hop on a call with you. You could find out that someone they listen to mentioned looking for a copywriter in a podcast. I don’t know what it is. You don’t know what it is, but you’ll find out when you do that first interview.
Just do them one at a time. Give yourself time to synthesize what you learn so that you can ask better questions the next time and make sure you’re talking with the right person. By the time you reach number five, you know you’ve spoken with the right person slash people.
Yeah. Don’t book five out of the gate. Okay. Just a point. Okay. Cool. Awesome.
How’s everybody else feeling, Katie? How are you doing?
Yeah. I mean, the personas, like, was clear for, I feel like, my current slash, like, slightly art market ICA, like, CEO, CMO, whether it’s fractional or, like, some kind of marketing person in house, then they typically have a VA or an OBM who does, like, the CRM management.
Then I’ve I’ve dealt with, like, the social media manager, if you remember that issue on the call, and the designer. And then I know that I’ve been recommended by, like, a content strategist. Mhmm.
I know a big one for me and, like, Abby, maybe this is helpful for you, but, like, I’ve had kind of two big rounds of clients come through a coach who has hired me and then recommended me within their masterminds.
So, like, one client who’s probably responsible for, like, forty percent of the business I’ve had, she uses my freebies in her group programs as resources, and then people come to me through that. But, like, that’s, you know, that’s a market that I’m, like, moving beyond, but it has so now I’m like, okay. How do I get in, like, the next level mastermind to have that same kind of effect? Yes. And that’s where I guess yeah. Sorry.
Go. Keep going.
Well, this is just, like Yeah.
That I mean, that’s, like, great, and I love that. And the idea of, like, something like, okay. Marketing, like, road to pursue is, like, teaching in more mastermind like, group, guest teaching in more programs.
But then I just I’m like, I have my my existing of, like, stuff that I’ve created and trainings that I’m ready to do, but I don’t know if any of that is relevant to who I wanna be speaking to now.
And I think I’m having this bigger, like, identity crisis around, like, do I really leave behind everything that I’ve created up till now, or, like, should I really just be doing a better job of marketing everything that I’ve already created?
Yeah.
It’s a tough call. Right? Sometimes the answer is yes. You do have to cut ties with everything that you’ve done in order to move on to what’s next.
Sometimes that’s really, really the true thing, and it’s the hard thing. But it doesn’t have to be. Right? You possibly could do you think people who value what you do and can afford your services are in are are somewhere in this audience you already have access to?
Well, I don’t know if you remember when you looked over my, like, visibility funnels offer idea, but, like, my stretch audience was still way below who you were telling me to go for. So it’s like maybe.
Yeah. Yeah.
I can tell you that I know it can I know it’s scary? I get that it’s totally scary. If it helps, we at CopyHackers are making hard cuts in our audience.
Very hard cuts, intentionally. And it means like, okay. We built this really great, solid seven figure with lots of profit business with this one group, but they’re not the future for us. They’re not what’s next.
And it’s hard to it’s technically difficult to say goodbye to that audience.
But how else are we gonna grow? You know? How else are we going to we’re going to have the business that we envision as a team going forward, if we just we have to let them go. And for us, it’s actually been exciting that Alex Catani is on the scene now because she’s serving a lot of, like, brand new freelancers, and I’m so happy to say, like, go learn from Alex.
Don’t don’t don’t hang out here. I don’t have anything for you. I and I do have things for them. I have lots of things for them, but that’s not the future.
So just know that it is a hard decision a lot of us has to have to make, to say no to a certain audience in order to open ourselves up for what’s next. And it’s risky, but that’s the business that we’re in. It’s all about reward for risk and sometimes getting a punch in the face for taking the risk too. And that’s just, like, the freaking joys of what we’ve signed up for.
So I don’t know. If you’re struggling to believe that the people who can afford you and value you are in your current audience without having to shake them off entirely because it’s scary too. And, potentially, scary also means, like, costly because you’re you’re saying no to things.
What can you do to mitigate that risk?
How can you and I just Mhmm. Oh, I’m so bad at this part of it because my gut is always just just just jump into the next pond, both feet in, just jump.
And not a lot of people want to, but when you dip your toe, I don’t know that you get the same rewards versus jumping all in.
But I also am extremely comfortable with risk.
Yeah.
I feel like I have, I have a retainer client and, like, payment plan that cover my bills for, like, the next four months.
Okay.
So I’m kind of like, okay. That’s, like, that’s there. So I do have this space to be doing this work. It’s just, yeah, like, that feeling of I’m because I know that, like, the the work that I get in three months is based on the marketing that I’m doing now. So, like, am I gonna drive off a cliff in into which when, you know, if that when that payment plan ends and that retainer offer is over, like, will there be anything left to to pick up?
Yeah.
Anyway, I’m I’m I’m I can do, like, mindset work around that, but, yeah, that’s where I’m at with the full audience shift.
Okay. Yeah, I get it. I mean, I think that’s huge that you’re even considering making the shift.
It’s also a really nice sign that you’ve got a cushion right now, for the next couple of months at least. So is there ever gonna be a safer time to make this call? Like, it feels like with the cushion, you’re covered, sounds like, for the next four months.
This could be the best time in your business history to really make this call.
It’s just you have to make the call, which is so challenging.
Not as fun as we want it to be.
Always fun when you look back later, like, oh, it was the best call ever.
But in the moment, stuff.
Okay. Thanks, Katie. Have you talked to Kirsty about any mindset stuff around making that change?
Not lately. But I feel like I’m in the so the other program that I’m in with all these coaches is very mindset focused.
So, like, I do a lot of stuff around that. It’s just the it’s more the practical like, what Johnson was asking about, like, actually getting in front of people Yeah.
Like, where to find them and how to figure out who actually has the budget and the priorities.
Have you used LinkedIn sales navigator? Like, have you given it a shot?
No. I don’t I’m not on LinkedIn at all.
My yeah. We’re I’m I’ve been very focused on, like, SEO and blogging Yeah. Which I know is, like, also on my on my little website. It probably gets little traffic. But that’s where like, other than direct referrals, that’s where most of my people come from.
Interesting.
Yeah. If you’re wondering about I would just say, like, go put together a quick LinkedIn profile. Say yes to the ninety seven bucks for LinkedIn sales navigator and just see if you can start.
What I find is useful with Sales Navigator is even if you don’t do anything with it right away, you can at least say, cool. There is a market out there. Cool. There are like, you could find that there are five thousand coaches, and then you can start narrowing down with their filters a bit more to the point where potentially you could reach out to a few of them and say, can I pick your brain? I’m trying to figure this stuff out. Yeah. Cool.
And, of course, you’ve got the group that you’re in, which probably has some of these coaches you can also just Mhmm.
Ask. Yeah. Okay. Cool, Katie. Johnson?
Yep. So, I because I’ve missed a few things. I remember seeing someone else and talk about SaaS navigator. Have you you’ve have you covered you’ve covered that in something somewhere?
Lightly. We covered it a few weeks ago. I think it was in CSP.
Really lightly, the new copy school professional dot com.
Sarah, I know we just talked about it this morning.
Tina, maybe you know the answer. Wait. Sarah’s coming on screen.
When Why you hate me?
Why do you gotta hate me on this?
When will Johnson have access to?
I don’t know. When is Johnson gonna work on it? Just kidding.
Johnson would I wanna say by the end I’d wanna say by the end of this week.
Okay. So then you’ll be able to answer.
I’ve been snacking on working on, the CSP website. That’s my bad.
Yeah. Thank you for finally admitting that.
It’s it’s about time.
Awesome. Yeah. By the end of this week, we’ll have a link so it’s already invitation.
Awesome. Oh, there we go. Stacy says it was April twenty second. Thanks, Stacy.
So you can go back through some close to that.
I’m not sure on the exact date, but around then.
Okay. Wicked. Thank you.
Okay. So we have about fifteen minutes, because I actually have unfortunately, someone booked a meeting immediately at quarter after instead of thirty after, thirty past. So my bad.
Worksheet
Worksheet
Transcript
Yep.
Let’s dig into the actual training. So I shared the worksheet out in Slack. If you need it, please go to the Copy School Pro Slack group, and you will find the worksheet in the events area.
So this month, we’re trying out themes for the month in Coffee School Pro. The idea for this month is to get you really crystal clear on, all things ICP and persona. And when I say ICP, for those who are maybe watching the replay from other places, you might say I c a.
We say I c p, which in my brain, I was just like internal client. No.
Ideal client profile is what that is. I was going to share the inverted pyramid, but I didn’t want to overwhelm us with all talks of, like, market audience, and all of, like, the parts of the inverted pyramid, but there is one out there if you want. And what I don’t love about the inverted pyramid is it finishes at the bottom with persona.
So if you can imagine, there’s a world where there’s this inverted pyramid, and it has, like, market at the top and then, like, kind of target market. Then ICP, that’s the type of business that you’re really trying to target, and everybody here that I know of is trying to target a business of some kind.
So you’ve got the business, and then you have persona at the bottom of this inverted pyramid. But the challenge is that it looks like it’s one thing that it looks like you should have one, persona and that it’s small when in fact, most of us are gonna have three, maybe four different personas, the people that we are trying to reach out to in organizations, and that’s what I wanna talk about today.
Hi, Abby. Welcome. Just saw you show up.
Cool. So I’m going to share my screen. And, Abby, you just got here, so know that this worksheet is over in, in Slack. So you can get that there. If you would like to, please do. I would like you to work on the the free drawing area that we get into later. You can just do it on a piece of paper that you have.
So all this month, we’re working on this buyer handbook idea. Who are the people you are trying to sell to? That’s the persona you’re trying to connect with.
And then, where do they work? So getting really clear on that. And when your clients come to you and say, can you help us write for this segment? You can be really clear on that too. So between Perna and Rai teaching about, like, what to do for the copywriting side of things, research, etcetera, for your clients, And then myself and Shane helping you with, the stuff to do for your own business.
You should come out of this with a really rounded, education. Some of it reminder stuff, some of it brand new stuff by the end of June.
Book of the month. Does anybody remember what the book of the month is?
I don’t.
I will look, and we will share it with you.
So watch for that. Okay. So we wanna talk with the people at our ICP. Our ICP, again, ideal client’s profile, personas fit in neatly underneath that Challenger sale. Thank you, Jessica.
So the Challenger sale.
There. One second.
The Challenger sale got some bookmarks in it.
The reason that we want to read this is because everything to do with our buyer is in the sunshine growth model under the money side of things. So it can feel administrative. It can feel extra, but it’s really, really critical to get this stuff right if you’re going to make more money. You may make some changes to your ICP. You may add a new persona. Maybe you don’t even have personas at this point. That expect some of that to be kind of stirred up, some changes that you might make to make sure you’re attracting people who value what you do and have money to spend on it as well.
So the great thing about a persona is that it helps you visualize the person that you’re talking to, the person who’s consuming your content on social media or wherever that might be in your email list, and the people that you’re going to be working with internally as well.
Personas and jobs to be done are often talked about in, like, conflict with each other, but every persona has a job to be done, at least one. Right? So you can use everything you might know already about jobs to be done.
You can use that alongside personas. So if you have any resistance in your mind, if you’re like, oh, I’m pure jobs, I don’t wanna hear about it, don’t worry about it. You can do both. You can both follow persona stuff and job stuff.
Okay? By the end of this month, we have shifted some things around so that Shane is working toward, ideally, being able to say, now that you’ve got all these insights into your buyer, into who you’re trying to target and how to get in front of them, what’s what they’re looking for, etcetera, you can, like, have AI put together your buyer handbook for you. So this is all building up to something, then you can hand that handbook off to anybody that you might hire and yourself. You can, of course, reference it.
So keep that in mind, and it’s always gonna be a work in progress.
Okay.
Your ICP, it could be useful to have a representative brand. If you’re watching this, open up your workbook now. This is where you’re going to be writing some stuff in, this worksheet.
So does anybody have a representative brand for their ICP?
Johnson, Katie, Jessica, Stacy, Abby?
No?
Like, a brand that would be the most ideal version of it.
I I do, but then I worked with that brand, and now I’m looking for a new one because they were not ideal. Yeah.
Hey. Okay.
Johnson, you put up your hand a bit on that. No?
Okay. Yeah. It can be useful too. Some people start with that representative brand, and it’s it doesn’t have to be a dream brand either.
It can be a brand you already worked with. So if there’s someone who stands out to you, it’s usually better to start with the brand you already have worked with so that you can really clearly fill this part out. Now this isn’t, like, from any sort of book putting together your ICP. This is what I find useful in understanding, the organization that I’m talking to.
For us, we’re often talking to, very two very different ICPs. So for copy hackers, we have at least two ICPs. One of them is a very small business. One person with, like, a VA or two, obviously, all the freelancers that we work with.
And then there’s this other ICP that is extraordinarily large organizations that have copy teams in them and creative teams. So we have two different ones with different personas in each, which is not recommended. It’s not gonna make your life any easier. So do choose one that you can target well with your offer.
And then this is really like, it feels, maybe administrative, but if you haven’t written down what industry they’re in, where they’re located, that doesn’t have to be, like, down to a city. Right? It doesn’t have to be just for this brand. So if you’re like, my ICP is Facebook.
Well, let’s say Meta. So my ICP is Meta. Their industry is tech slash social media slash advertising.
Their location is they’re in Palo Alto. Last I knew of the Facebook headquarters.
You don’t have to go into that. So it doesn’t have to go that far. You don’t have to say Palo Alto. You can just say they’re in the UK or North America slash Canada, whatever you wanna put there.
So the representative brand does not necessarily dictate everything that goes under here. It’s really just shorthand for the kind of brand you’re looking for. So if it is Meta, you might say, okay. Well, I want I want the company I work with to have, like, five thousand plus employees.
Meta has far more than that. But then at least, you know, if the organization has fewer than five thousand employees, they’re probably not a good fit for me. And you can be really, like, dedicated to your ICP, and you should be because the more narrow you are with that, the more you commit to that, the less guesswork you really have to do so you can identify what their revenue is. This is annual revenue.
This is the department that they’ll that you’ll likely be working with, the one that reaches out to you most commonly. So if you’re like, it’s always creative services or it’s always their growth team, or they’re likely to have, like, a sales pod that reaches out to me, then you write down that department and that becomes can you imagine how you would use that then? If you know that it’s always going to be a sales pod at, a large organization of five thousand people in tech that reaches out to you. Now you can really clearly figure out how to use LinkedIn sales navigator to get in front of more of them.
You can do a little voice of customer research and open up tons of information that’s just for them. So you can do far less work and still have it look like you’re a freaking genius because you’re focusing on this narrow group, which can be scary, but there’s only one of you. So if it’s like, but there’s only five thousand peep groups in the total addressable market. How am I ever gonna get rich?
You will. Don’t worry about it. It’s good. Like, you’re one person. You’re not a team of five thousand.
That would be a scarier proposition. There’s one of you. Most of the time, you’re you can’t go too narrow as long as you’re choosing people who have money and value what you do. If they don’t value what you do, no matter what, you’re never going to make any money.
If they don’t have money, no matter what you do, you’re never going to make any money. So that’s, like, pretty important.
Is this all clear and making sense and not weird?
Okay.
Do they have a creative team? Who’s on their creative team? And what’s important to answer here is if you are like, I only work with coaches, and there’s usually the coach plus their admin person who turns into a bit of a partner for them, and they use freelancers, that’s okay. Just write down here that their creative team is made up of freelance designers, freelance, freelance copywriters, maybe that you wouldn’t you you would even put in there any AI they use to, like, sub in for a creative person.
You also wanna put the tools that they use for your specialization or for things related to your specialization.
Canva could be one.
If they do wireframing, let’s say, in their tools they use for your specialization, if you’re in email, that’s your specialization.
What’s their CRM most likely to be? What is the what are the tools that they’re using? Again, that way you can say, hey.
Coach struggling with ActiveCampaign and segmenting in there. And, obviously, the the more you know about this, the easier it is to create content, which is what we are always, always going to be actually talking about when we’re talking about growing our businesses. There’s always an element of, okay, but what are you gonna put out into the world so that people know that.
What’s their budget?
Be honest about their budget for the kind of work that you do. Not their budget overall, but their budget for the kind of work that you do. If you don’t know, this is where it’s great to look at your past clients and better understand what their budget has been. If you’re like, I don’t want anymore, like, my past clients. Fair. Totally fair.
Now is the time where you are resourceful. Then you go out and you do the hard work of saying, how can I get my ideas, the persona at my ICP? We’ll get into personas next.
To sit down and talk to me about what their budget is and be honest with me. Like, I have to get that information or else I won’t know if they can afford my services. So you have to get that information. How can you go get it? Be resourceful about getting an answer to that important question. You’re the CEO.
CEO has to answer these important questions. You can’t just pretend they don’t exist. Right? So how do you find the budget? How do you find out what their budget is? How are they solving their copy struggles today?
I but I’ll be saying struggles more than problems going forward. I had a really good talk with Bob Mastat, this retreat I was just at from jobs.
And, yeah, struggles, just know going forward. I mean, problems, but struggles are typically we’ll talk more about that.
But it’s struggles slash problems.
And then time to close. How long does it take for them to say yes to you from the point that they feel that early problem slash struggle, through to getting on a call with you and everything else that happens so that you cannot be frustrated when this stuff takes time. Some the larger the organization, the more time it’s likely to take for them to say yes to you. And if you’re like, well, I need to close a client by the end of the month, they take three months to make a decision.
Now you know what your time is to close. And it’s critical to be really honest about these things or it’s very difficult to move forward if you’re, one, guessing. I think it probably takes, like, a month. If you don’t know, you really have to get on a call with that persona that you’re more likely to get honest information from.
Find a way to get on a call with them. Any questions about this for the ICP side of things?
Does everybody already have this sorted out?
Clearly, in a way you could hand it off to somebody.
Why haven’t you? Can I ask? And it could just be because, like, busyness, but I’m really curious. Yeah.
Me? Yeah. Katie. Yeah.
Because I am still lost in this model of, like, do I just change industries completely, or, like, am I looking at talking to a higher level person in the industry I’m already in?
Mhmm. Okay.
So, like, is it worth trying to figure out who this is, like, in the coaching space, or do I wanna just be like, you know, if it Joanna says to go to SAS, like, do that and, and dive in?
Yeah. I wonder about, like so I say SaaS because it’s easier, in everything that I’ve seen, but but I’ve also never built a brand in a different space. I’ve never been the one people go to when they’re a coach.
I’ve been asked, you know, a copywriter by all of the big coaches out there, but it’s never been understood to be me. That would be that one. Whenever, like, Joe, can you write this? Because I think they know damn well. Like, I don’t know what I what?
So can you do anything with coaches? How what I really mean is can you find a group that talks to each other so you can get easy referrals, that has ongoing work to do, and that thinks of themselves as a business? Part of the problem with a lot of coaches is that they follow this launch idea, which makes it hard for you to think of it as a business. It’s not until you cross over to Evergreen that in my experience, people seem to understand.
Now I’m a business. Now I’m making regular recurring revenue, not I just did a three million dollar launch, and I’m gonna take three months to freaking decompress because that was so much work.
But is there a way to go upmarket, Katie, for you? Is there an upmarket version of your audience?
Yeah. I definitely think that there is. I just think that, like I think I mentioned this before. It’s kind of like the further up you go, the more people are just teaching, like like, kind of the higher market you go, the less I wanna work with them.
Like Okay.
It’s more then I feel like it gets really and just, like, not the ethos that I wanna be in. Yeah. So, like, I’m in this program with lots of coaches at the, like, multi six to seven figure level, and I see them.
Like, so when I I used to feel like I knew who this ICP was, but then, like, working on the standardized offer, like, wanting to have some like, wanting to have something in that model Yeah.
I don’t think that that, like, ICA that I had previously mapped out wouldn’t necessarily go for the, like, optimization package, and that’s where I’m still, like, trying to marry this altogether.
Yeah. That’s fair.
I have a call booked with Rai, actually. I booked a one along with him for his insight into this market specifically to try and get this nailed down by the end of the week.
So that’s like Oh, damn. Why am I am, like, trying to figure it out.
Nice. Good deadline. I love it. Okay. Cool. So that makes sense. You’re actively working through it, and you’ll know more, hopefully, after talking with Rai.
Okay. Okay. Cool. Thanks, Katie. Anybody else wanna share what’s holding them back from pinpointing a little more, at least, their ICP?
I can, share something. I, I I told you I brought someone on recently, and, this person is someone who I want to take on, this portion of work that we’re doing at the moment with a client who works in ERP solutions Okay. Like NetSuite.
These consultancies, he’s, you know, he he runs a consultancy.
They the the the kind of the smallest versions have a revenue of about half a mil, and it goes all the way up to sort of fifteen to twenty mil before they start to really scale up. And what this client that I work with is, a great client, really, dedicated, but struggles with lead gen. Basically, it’s kind of just running running the business is taking everything. So we’ve developed an offer, sort of following a good chunk of what we’ve been doing, where I’m gonna be pitching, essentially kind of authority building, on LinkedIn, and Reddit because a good chunk of these customers are there, plus maybe a little bit of, lead gen, and sort of pitching it at a sort of ten k initialization and then an ongoing five k retainer.
But this is brand new. We’ve sort of been working day and night to put this together and build the pitch and kind of get into the direct selling sort of direct response, sorry, techniques to to really, like, sell it to this client. And then it was only, like, a week or two ago, we were like, oh, we should also, of course, prepare the like, we’ve developed a whole product now. We should start to look at, like, who else we could sell this to, because the might say no.
And, so we’ve we’ve got a good idea. We know the industry. We know the location. We know the revenue.
We know the employees, the department.
I guess we know the creative team. It’s freelancers.
Budget is trickier to figure out because they hire consultants, on a sort of ad hoc basis to complete their projects.
And I guess the the reason why we don’t have this all filled out is because, I don’t know the level of detail to go into yet.
Okay.
Because it’s new. Right? So that’s because it’s new. Yeah.
Yeah. So, this is a side note. Curious, though, about this pitch that you’re building.
Do you feel like it’s going to be something you can easily replicate for others?
So the whole as we built out this process, we’ve been building basically, we built the whole, service out of soaps. So, as as much as is possible, I will not be involved at all, and this other person will take over so that I can focus on, doing life cycle emails. And but this will be a, sort of a source of revenue for the business, an opportunity to to train this this person to a sort of management position.
So it’s a sort of long it’s sort of like a little bit of upfront work to get some long term distance out of the business.
Okay. Makes sense.
Cool.
So work in progress. Once you have this pitch done, you’ll have a little data. No. One data point is not, like, good.
But it’s better ish than nothing.
So it might be worth at least starting to to fill this in. But right now, you have a general idea of some of these points.
Sure. And I guess the one question I maybe had was if you so I know it’s in ERP solutions.
But to be honest, because of the nature of the service, there’s no real reason why it couldn’t be in, you know, any industry as long as the the company had a motivated founder who wanted to build a personal brand or, you know, and understood the the significance of that. Do you have any, do you have any advice on sort of thinking, laterally across industries for this kind of I know it’s a very sort of different.
No.
Well, that’s simply because I was just thinking so wait. I I now as a total side note. So wait. You want to help people who are in organizations build their personal brand?
Yeah. Well, to general yeah. To build their authority, to to, yeah, to build their their their company’s brand and their own personal brand.
So it’s sideways.
I actually have a lead for you then. They’ll send along to you. Someone just reached out to me for exactly that. So, anyway, I’ll send that to you, and that could be another data point for you to at least get in on a conversation with the what, the why, and all that kind of stuff to help fill this in. So that’s why I got distracted there and couldn’t answer your question because I was like, that’d be cool if I can solve that ask.
Okay. So yours so repeat your question then, please.
I’ve got the words from it, but not how it all goes together.
So so just how to think about I’m you know, I’m I’m basing this on the industry that that this this plan is in because we now I now know it very well. I mean, it works for them. But, you know, reasonably, with maybe a little bit more preparation upfront, we could do this for any industry.
Yeah.
So, do you have any advice about sort of thinking, laterally to move, you know, across industry or or just advice on maybe industries that are likely to have a a wealth of companies that are sort of in the, I I don’t know, one mil to fifteen mil revenue range, small ish teams and motivated founders.
Yeah. So many.
Definitely. Let me let me give some thought to that. I can say if that’s something you wanna do, if you wanna say, hey, founders, I can help you build your brand that is you’re ready to write a book. I assume all of those sorts of things will fit under that. Yep. Yeah.
Then just know that there’s a large market for this. There are a lot of people, a lot of founders who are doing exactly that. But it’s probably worth at minimum starting with one industry still. I would say it’s definitely worth that because then you can say, okay.
If it’s a founder and they’re making so much money, then you can start looking for the influencers, and that would, like, get into, the personas. So they might not even be at that ICP. So I would think of something like, if you’re trying to target those people, then we’d wanna get more into, like, figure out who the influencers are because there’s the SaaS Academy that’s filled with founders who are ready to build their brand. There’s, Matt Lerner with System, and that’s just in, like those are two groups that have founders who are highly motivated to do what it takes to get out into the world so that people use their solution the way that Jason Fried and DHH did for base camp.
So no, but there’s lots there, and let me give it some more thought.
Cool. That’d be amazing. Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks.
Anybody else have anything about ICPs before we move on?
Okay. So when it comes to your ICP, the inverted pyramid, as I mentioned at the start of this call, the inverted pyramid has, like, ICP, and then at the bottom is persona.
That, to me, visually, doesn’t leave enough room for the many personas that might be under there, and this, to me, feels more like pillars. But I I hate old school business diagrams with pillars. I just have a strong aversion to them from my day that Intuit. So I didn’t want this to look like a pillar.
But this is really a question of who are you targeting. So we need to fill in your ideal client profile, which just, like, take everything here and write a statement. Now if you’ve done the intensive freelancing, you’ve already done this work. You’ve already got this figured out. You know already that you will be refining the personas and a little bit of your ICP, but you should have that down, pretty well. Now the personas are, of course, the people at the ICP, typically, that are going to be the ones that you are targeting in your marketing.
But I don’t want you to stop there. And I know this can start to feel like a really big exercise, but if we only ever think about the people that we are targeting with our marketing, then we miss the point of all of the decision makers internally, and other people who help them make a decision. So when you’re thinking of personas, I would like you to think about what I just said to Johnson.
Who are the bigger influencers and make a persona out of one of those key influencers that might be they have a coach. They have an executive coach in Johnson’s case. Right? There’s an executive coach. They’re trying to make them better.
If you were to message toward executive coaches for these founders, then they could be a really good, opportunity for you. Right? But they don’t technically work at the ICP.
If you’re working with really small businesses, maybe they’re highly profitable, very small businesses, it could be the partner of the person who runs that business. So they’re like, the James clears of the world. They’re, like, super well known for one thing. They’re not planning on building a big business out, and their partner or, someone that they trust really closely.
Again, that could be an executive coach. It could be the partner that they have in life. It could be, a person in that they met in a mastermind who they call up all the time for help. So James Clear could say, hey, Nathan Barry.
Let’s hop on a call and talk through this. So one of your personas could be the Nathan Barry’s of the world.
So that would be something to consider. So I don’t just want you to think about only about the personas that you are likely to talk to directly on the path to getting a client, but do start there. Start with the people that you or the person usually that you are likely to, who is usually your point of contact or the one who kicks off working together.
So a good way to go about that, I have found and this is like a blank page for you to fill this in. I’d like you to take just five minutes to basically map out whatever that looks like for your org chart with personas and influencers. Now this org chart doesn’t have lines between it, because it’s really unnecessary. Grower, nobody. No. You can’t eat that plant. Nobody.
You’ve got the so in this case, I have VP of marketing, life cycle lead, and senior copy likely to be people that I connect with directly. The senior copywriter finds me and follows me, and this is if I was working on life cycle as my specialization. That’s the example here. This isn’t for me.
This is for an example of a freelancer who’s working on life cycle. So who’s your primary point of contact? This is the person who’s likely to work with you directly throughout. So the senior copywriter may find you online and start in their meetings with their manager, life cycle lead in this case, let’s say.
They’re in these meetings, and they’re like, hey. I’m really still struggling with x.
But I’ve started following, Abby, and I’m learning this cool stuff. And I wonder if there’s any way we can bring her into the org to help us with why.
And then that person would be the one who actually reaches out to you. Like, okay. Maybe just connect me with them or send me their email address, send me their website, and I’ll look into it. So the life cycle lead could be the actual person who reaches out to you, but your advocate internally might have been the senior copywriter or in other cases, other people.
But this is the example. Right? So if you know, generally, some people watching the replay of this will have been working with an organization or, like, sorry, an ICP for a long time, and they can more clearly document the I say org chart, it really means, like, influencer chart.
They can more easily document that because they’ve set they can say like, I can say for a SaaS company who wants to bring me in to rewrite their website and then optimize it. I know exactly who that point of contact is. I know who the influencer was that like, the advocate who first said we should go with this person. I know where they found me. I generally know when they found me, and I know who has to agree to this, who I have to really impress in order to get them to say yes, to say yes to a large amount of money. So I would know that a senior designer is gonna be involved.
Always brand managers are somehow involved. I gotta get them to believe that I understand brand at the same time I understand CRO. The CFO is gonna be the one approving usually going over budget because almost nobody comes to me and says, like, perfect. That’s exactly what I was hoping you would say.
It’s usually like, shit. Let’s see what we can do. So I have so these are lighter boxes here. These are the people, the CFO, the brand manager, the senior designer, those are people who are likely to come up a lot in meetings and in Google Docs.
So I want you to take five minutes to figure out the key personas that you will be typically talking with, that will find you, that will email you, that will follow you on social and DM you, and then the people who influence them.
Five minutes just to knock it out. Is that cool? Can we do this?
Hopefully, it’s a good useful exercise. I will be quiet until ten forty when I will be noisy again.
How’d we do?
Anybody want to share or talk through what you put down on the page?
Yeah. I I felt like like looking back at my past clients, so, like, seven figure course creators, I think I’m struggling to think of the time where it wasn’t the CEO that reached out to me and kind of approved the work. Like, I’ve maybe once had, like, an ad strategist come to me, but, otherwise, it’s it’s always gonna be the CEO.
And then where I’m struggling there is that like, with printing out content and stuff because it’s like I’m just skeptical whether, like, a CEO is gonna kind of watch my webinar or anything.
Yeah. Do they so then it’s good to look out at influencers. Right? If it’s difficult to get them directly, who influences them? Do they have a coach?
I guess so. Yes. Probably. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. If they’re doing seven figures, they probably have a coach because a coach probably targeted them at some point and sold themselves to them.
That’s at least been my experience is having coaches reach out, probably why I have three of them. And then, if you were to find that they have a coach or they’re part of a mastermind, have you experienced that at all that they’re part of a mastermind or they’re coached?
Yeah. I mean, I this is something I’ve been thinking about for years because it seems like such a strategic way to market, but I just I’ve not found, like, those masterminds.
Okay.
Yeah. I would say the next thing, you you just need to identify who first has introduced them to you or could introduce them to you, where has is the better one, but could is still an opportunity.
How do they find you? Who says at Usually Facebook groups. Facebook groups.
Yeah.
Or, like, LinkedIn.
But it’s always the, like, the founder that that reaches out, not a member of the group.
Figure or six figure? Yeah. Yeah. Seven figures. And they’re involved in Facebook groups that aren’t run by a coach.
Sometimes it’s their Facebook group.
Oh, okay. So what can be all so I don’t know if anybody else has any thoughts, but we know that they don’t summon us from the air. Right? We are not genies out of a lamp. We have to come from somewhere. They have to find us somewhere. They have to build a belief in us somehow.
Our job is to write down the path and figure out, like, who on that path is is the person that’s most likely to open the door for us.
So I would encourage you to really dig into it, Abby. If it’s always a Facebook group that they run, then that’s just good to know. Then you can say, okay. The CEO is always my number one persona. They’re the one I’m gonna reach out to all the time.
And if they find me in a Facebook group, then that’s not about this at all. That’s just gonna be marketing that further fleshes out your, both your ICP and your persona because they’re obviously hiring the Facebook group to do something for them slash for their business. So that’s just good to know.
Is it what you think the future ideal client looks like? Do you think it’ll be the same sort of experience, or do you have reason to believe the next group that you target the or sorry, the next group that, should be hiring you that they will find you the same way.
I mean, I don’t know. I think this is the trouble is, like, I find it, like, I find the ideal avatar exercises really hard because it it’s like, well, if I’m not kind of engaging with them already, like, how do I know what they like, who they are or what they want and how to speak to them?
Yeah. You have to speak to them. That is actually the work of it. It’d be nice if there was an easier way.
But the easier way is ultimately, usually, the harder way anyway if you like. Yeah. Buy insights somehow.
You’ll probably eventually end up having to go back to, you know, I actually do have to just get on a call and talk with them.
And how do you do that?
Oh, you gotta find them. That’s LinkedIn sales navigator. Try to find them. Yeah. And then DM them and offer them a really compelling offer to get on a call with you so you can pick their brain and get that advice that you need.
But that will be that’s the work.
What are sorry to Jen. What are some of those compelling offers just, you know, for fun?
What what their currency? Like, what moves them? If you know that you’re working with heart centered people, you could say, hey. So you have to ask yourself, what is this call worth to me potentially?
Is this a thousand dollar call for me? Would I pay a thousand bucks to get information out of them? If I knew I was paying a thousand dollars, then what questions would I ask? So you probably have better questions because you’re like, I’m gonna get the most of this thousand bucks, for an hour.
On their end, they’re like, holy. An hour is a long time for me to tell you how to target people like me, so you better make it worth a thousand bucks to me. So let’s say, you know that your ideal your persona, the one you are trying to reach out to, loves dogs, then you can say, okay. My offer is I’ll make a thousand dollar donation to the soy, I think it’s pronounced soy, s o I, dog foundation on your behalf if you get on this call with me for an hour and really get honest with me about this sort of thing. That could be a great offer, but not everybody will have the same offer because everybody is moved by different things.
So I would say the more you know about that person so research them on LinkedIn. Follow every other thing that you can. This is a this is, like, critical work. Right? This is how you potentially shape a multimillion dollar business.
I was talking to my team about this earlier, and I’m not saying this about you at all, but the money that we have to put up to start an online business is so minor compared to a florist. I wanna start a flower shop. There’s so much friction, so much money that has to go into that. This is this is the kind of thing where you have such an advantage over, like, a florist. You make more money than they ever will as well.
But this is the investment. This is like filling out the lease and spending money on leasing the space.
This is that hard cost for you. Find a thousand bucks. Do the hard research of figuring out who you need to talk to at what organization, what they need to hear from you in order to say yes hopping on a call with you.
Do that work, and you could have literally millions of dollars in value there. Don’t do the work. Have you guys seen that that that diagram of the easy life versus the hard life?
It’s like you I’ll I’ll find the diagram and send it to you. It’s like you ask easy questions, and your life it’s easy until you have to climb back. I’ll show you the diagram. It’ll make a lot of sense, but it’s the hard work.
You’re doing the hard thing. You’re valuing it the way you expect to be valued as well, by giving it a thousand bucks or whatever that is. And then, just make sure make sure you make the most of it. Does that all make sense?
A hundred percent. That makes perfect sense because I wanna do this for, life cycle emails too. That is my next job. Yeah. So that’s, mega super duper helpful. Thank you, Jeff.
Cool. Awesome. Abby, how are you?
Yeah. I’m just thinking, like so if I was gonna do five interviews and be like, okay. I’ll donate five thousand dollars for those five.
If, like, they’re the wrong people, then I’m gonna be like, like, really on time.
That’ll be a giant waste of money. Yeah. I mean, it’s good you donated. It’s not a waste, but for you, they’ve you that’s why you have to make sure it’s the right person. So the best you can do is start with one.
So who is the purse so if you actually believe that it is the CEO who reaches out to you Mhmm.
Then you need to find the CEO of this seven figure training business and really make sure that that they’re the one.
And that’s good. That’s the thing. But just do one first. Don’t book five of these things out of the gate because you might find that although the CEO has reached out to you in the past, just like in this diagram, life cycle lead is likely to reach out to me, not the senior copywriter, but senior copywriter was the one who found me.
So you need to first talk to the CEO who you hypothesize is the person and ask them as a question. Like, really dig into it. Don’t take the first answer. Don’t even take the seventh answer.
Like, dig deep into how they found you, and we’re willing to take that leap to hop on a call with you. You could find out that someone they listen to mentioned looking for a copywriter in a podcast. I don’t know what it is. You don’t know what it is, but you’ll find out when you do that first interview.
Just do them one at a time. Give yourself time to synthesize what you learn so that you can ask better questions the next time and make sure you’re talking with the right person. By the time you reach number five, you know you’ve spoken with the right person slash people.
Yeah. Don’t book five out of the gate. Okay. Just a point. Okay. Cool. Awesome.
How’s everybody else feeling, Katie? How are you doing?
Yeah. I mean, the personas, like, was clear for, I feel like, my current slash, like, slightly art market ICA, like, CEO, CMO, whether it’s fractional or, like, some kind of marketing person in house, then they typically have a VA or an OBM who does, like, the CRM management.
Then I’ve I’ve dealt with, like, the social media manager, if you remember that issue on the call, and the designer. And then I know that I’ve been recommended by, like, a content strategist. Mhmm.
I know a big one for me and, like, Abby, maybe this is helpful for you, but, like, I’ve had kind of two big rounds of clients come through a coach who has hired me and then recommended me within their masterminds.
So, like, one client who’s probably responsible for, like, forty percent of the business I’ve had, she uses my freebies in her group programs as resources, and then people come to me through that. But, like, that’s, you know, that’s a market that I’m, like, moving beyond, but it has so now I’m like, okay. How do I get in, like, the next level mastermind to have that same kind of effect? Yes. And that’s where I guess yeah. Sorry.
Go. Keep going.
Well, this is just, like Yeah.
That I mean, that’s, like, great, and I love that. And the idea of, like, something like, okay. Marketing, like, road to pursue is, like, teaching in more mastermind like, group, guest teaching in more programs.
But then I just I’m like, I have my my existing of, like, stuff that I’ve created and trainings that I’m ready to do, but I don’t know if any of that is relevant to who I wanna be speaking to now.
And I think I’m having this bigger, like, identity crisis around, like, do I really leave behind everything that I’ve created up till now, or, like, should I really just be doing a better job of marketing everything that I’ve already created?
Yeah.
It’s a tough call. Right? Sometimes the answer is yes. You do have to cut ties with everything that you’ve done in order to move on to what’s next.
Sometimes that’s really, really the true thing, and it’s the hard thing. But it doesn’t have to be. Right? You possibly could do you think people who value what you do and can afford your services are in are are somewhere in this audience you already have access to?
Well, I don’t know if you remember when you looked over my, like, visibility funnels offer idea, but, like, my stretch audience was still way below who you were telling me to go for. So it’s like maybe.
Yeah. Yeah.
I can tell you that I know it can I know it’s scary? I get that it’s totally scary. If it helps, we at CopyHackers are making hard cuts in our audience.
Very hard cuts, intentionally. And it means like, okay. We built this really great, solid seven figure with lots of profit business with this one group, but they’re not the future for us. They’re not what’s next.
And it’s hard to it’s technically difficult to say goodbye to that audience.
But how else are we gonna grow? You know? How else are we going to we’re going to have the business that we envision as a team going forward, if we just we have to let them go. And for us, it’s actually been exciting that Alex Catani is on the scene now because she’s serving a lot of, like, brand new freelancers, and I’m so happy to say, like, go learn from Alex.
Don’t don’t don’t hang out here. I don’t have anything for you. I and I do have things for them. I have lots of things for them, but that’s not the future.
So just know that it is a hard decision a lot of us has to have to make, to say no to a certain audience in order to open ourselves up for what’s next. And it’s risky, but that’s the business that we’re in. It’s all about reward for risk and sometimes getting a punch in the face for taking the risk too. And that’s just, like, the freaking joys of what we’ve signed up for.
So I don’t know. If you’re struggling to believe that the people who can afford you and value you are in your current audience without having to shake them off entirely because it’s scary too. And, potentially, scary also means, like, costly because you’re you’re saying no to things.
What can you do to mitigate that risk?
How can you and I just Mhmm. Oh, I’m so bad at this part of it because my gut is always just just just jump into the next pond, both feet in, just jump.
And not a lot of people want to, but when you dip your toe, I don’t know that you get the same rewards versus jumping all in.
But I also am extremely comfortable with risk.
Yeah.
I feel like I have, I have a retainer client and, like, payment plan that cover my bills for, like, the next four months.
Okay.
So I’m kind of like, okay. That’s, like, that’s there. So I do have this space to be doing this work. It’s just, yeah, like, that feeling of I’m because I know that, like, the the work that I get in three months is based on the marketing that I’m doing now. So, like, am I gonna drive off a cliff in into which when, you know, if that when that payment plan ends and that retainer offer is over, like, will there be anything left to to pick up?
Yeah.
Anyway, I’m I’m I’m I can do, like, mindset work around that, but, yeah, that’s where I’m at with the full audience shift.
Okay. Yeah, I get it. I mean, I think that’s huge that you’re even considering making the shift.
It’s also a really nice sign that you’ve got a cushion right now, for the next couple of months at least. So is there ever gonna be a safer time to make this call? Like, it feels like with the cushion, you’re covered, sounds like, for the next four months.
This could be the best time in your business history to really make this call.
It’s just you have to make the call, which is so challenging.
Not as fun as we want it to be.
Always fun when you look back later, like, oh, it was the best call ever.
But in the moment, stuff.
Okay. Thanks, Katie. Have you talked to Kirsty about any mindset stuff around making that change?
Not lately. But I feel like I’m in the so the other program that I’m in with all these coaches is very mindset focused.
So, like, I do a lot of stuff around that. It’s just the it’s more the practical like, what Johnson was asking about, like, actually getting in front of people Yeah.
Like, where to find them and how to figure out who actually has the budget and the priorities.
Have you used LinkedIn sales navigator? Like, have you given it a shot?
No. I don’t I’m not on LinkedIn at all.
My yeah. We’re I’m I’ve been very focused on, like, SEO and blogging Yeah. Which I know is, like, also on my on my little website. It probably gets little traffic. But that’s where like, other than direct referrals, that’s where most of my people come from.
Interesting.
Yeah. If you’re wondering about I would just say, like, go put together a quick LinkedIn profile. Say yes to the ninety seven bucks for LinkedIn sales navigator and just see if you can start.
What I find is useful with Sales Navigator is even if you don’t do anything with it right away, you can at least say, cool. There is a market out there. Cool. There are like, you could find that there are five thousand coaches, and then you can start narrowing down with their filters a bit more to the point where potentially you could reach out to a few of them and say, can I pick your brain? I’m trying to figure this stuff out. Yeah. Cool.
And, of course, you’ve got the group that you’re in, which probably has some of these coaches you can also just Mhmm.
Ask. Yeah. Okay. Cool, Katie. Johnson?
Yep. So, I because I’ve missed a few things. I remember seeing someone else and talk about SaaS navigator. Have you you’ve have you covered you’ve covered that in something somewhere?
Lightly. We covered it a few weeks ago. I think it was in CSP.
Really lightly, the new copy school professional dot com.
Sarah, I know we just talked about it this morning.
Tina, maybe you know the answer. Wait. Sarah’s coming on screen.
When Why you hate me?
Why do you gotta hate me on this?
When will Johnson have access to?
I don’t know. When is Johnson gonna work on it? Just kidding.
Johnson would I wanna say by the end I’d wanna say by the end of this week.
Okay. So then you’ll be able to answer.
I’ve been snacking on working on, the CSP website. That’s my bad.
Yeah. Thank you for finally admitting that.
It’s it’s about time.
Awesome. Yeah. By the end of this week, we’ll have a link so it’s already invitation.
Awesome. Oh, there we go. Stacy says it was April twenty second. Thanks, Stacy.
So you can go back through some close to that.
I’m not sure on the exact date, but around then.
Okay. Wicked. Thank you.
Okay. So we have about fifteen minutes, because I actually have unfortunately, someone booked a meeting immediately at quarter after instead of thirty after, thirty past. So my bad.
Your Inner Authority (Part 2)
Your Inner Authority (Part 2)
Transcript
Awesome. So this is part two of this Deep Craft inner authority, series.
This one is called shadow copy, how to balance virtuous and forbidden desire to elicit your prospects. Full range of f yet, I need this. So this is one that I’ve been, like, saving to teach somewhere for probably at least a year. And I’m like, who can I teach this to? Like, who’s already got a lot of the basics, the foundations and even the intermediate stuff, lockdown, and it’s ripe to talk about some advanced stuff that we just don’t get to talk about very often. So, yeah, I’m excited to share this one. This is part two, part one.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, that was last month, Deep VOC three piercing questions to go beneath the surface.
Not a prerequisite for it, but definitely related. And today’s is shadow copy, and we’ll see if there’s a part three, at some other point. But I love just going into the deeper, more nuanced stuff that is highly practical that just doesn’t get a lot of airtime. So, yeah, that’s kinda my thing, and happy to geek out on all that anywhere.
Slack, call me up, email me. Let’s Zoom. Let’s nerd out on weird deep inner authority stuff that, yeah, no one else really likes to geek out on. So, who is the inner authority?
To me, like, I’ve just defined this nice and simply as, one who knows the prospect better than they know themselves. That is typically the feedback I get when a page does really, really well. It’s like, oh my goodness. You know me better than I know myself.
And what it’s really achieving is it’s exposing and illuminating that which the prospect is unable or unwilling to divulge or articulate themselves. So that’s kind of the mechanism of it.
And what it achieves, it builds trust and resonance through the damn, are you in my head phenomenon or effect.
That’s what I aim to get to, in pretty much everything I write. And it makes sure that your one reader is fully seen on the page or at least more seen than anywhere else on the Internet or than any other competitor is willing to see them.
So that’s a term that gets talked about a lot. It’s like, make sure they’re seen on the page. And I actually wanted to unpack that a little and go a little deeper. What does it actually mean to have your prospect fully seen?
Well, it partly means to have their full range of desires mirrored. That means more than this. Right? To be seen on page also involves their problem, right, their stakes, their situation, their context, all that other stuff.
But in terms of desires, there’s a full range of desire and motivation.
In my view, only one and two really get the most, real estate on a page or explored in one’s research. So these four layers are they’re socially acceptable desires, they’re known and they’re owned desires. So the stuff they know about themselves. This is why I desire this. This is something I’m willing to own and something I’m willing to share.
But everybody, without exception, I would say, I would dare to say, has secret desires and secret motivations, things that they wouldn’t want to say out loud or even confess to themselves. Right? Disowned desires or even unknown desires, things they haven’t even, contemplated about themselves around why they might want something or why they might want to achieve something. So three and four, definitely in that darker, lesser known, disowned territory.
And as a marketer or copywriter, number one and two are really easy to gather and mirror on the page. Right? They appear readily in the VOC and surveys and interviews and message mining because they are known, they are owned, they are socially acceptable, people feel cool and even good in divulging them. So that’s cool.
Number one and two are easy. We got that on lock. Number three and four, more rare, but I would argue definitely no less powerful and maybe even more powerful. Right?
There’s kind of this operating theory that that which gets disowned may have greater pull. Right? And people may not even know why these things pull them. But three and four, definitely strong strong strong motivators.
The unknown, the disowned, and the less socially acceptable desire. So I’m gonna give you a little story from a past life. Two thousand six, two thousand seven, one of my first jobs, like, after I quit corporate life was a personal trainer at a gym.
And one of my roles was to, get people to move from thirty dollars a month memberships to personal training packages. And, you know, very typical sales script, like, what’s your motivation? What are you doing this for?
And almost universally, this is more common in men, actually. Like, men in their thirties and forties, they would say, I just wanna stay in shape. Right? I just wanna maintain. I just want to, yeah, I just want to stay in shape. Right? That was the common language that we almost knew would come without exception.
And it’s easy to sell a thirty dollar per month membership to someone who wants to stay in shape. It’s really difficult to sell a higher ticket, package, right, to someone who just wants to stay in shape. There’s not a lot of charge or a lot of juice behind that motivation. There’s not a lot of stakes behind that motivation. There’s not a lot of drive behind that motivation.
And me and the gym owner and manager and the other people, you know, on the floor and trainers We constantly have these conversations of, like, how do we get people to actually own a wider and a deeper breadth of desire?
And I think I came up with eight words, right, that I just kind of blurted out randomly that became part of our script. Like, it’s cool if you just want to look good. Right? Like eight words.
That’s it. And whenever we would catch someone who wouldn’t own that full desire, that that became part of the script. It’s cool if you just want to look good. Right?
Like, that’s totally acceptable and a fair motivation for doing this. And that would totally flip the conversation because we were taking the lead in owning this disowned desire for them. We made it safe. We gave them permission to actually say what they wanted, maybe even what they were thinking, but didn’t wanna be judged for claiming as a desire.
So all this to say, people are far, far, far, like, I Yeah. I think I put it in caps. Good. I put it in caps because they are far more willing and capable of sharing virtuous and socially accepted politically correct desires than they are. They’re disowned motivators that may actually be driving the decision.
So one thing that we could do as marketers, as copywriters, as salespeople, and offer creators is to give our one reader a permission slip for the full spectrum of their desires. Right? This is a gift we get to give them. Right? It’s cool if this is what you want. It’s cool if this is your main desire driving this decision.
So we claim it on the page for them or the sales call so that they don’t have to so that they can remain in their virtuous, you know, acceptable version of themselves while feeling like our offer and what we’re, enrolling them into, is all inclusive of that more shadowy desire. Does that make sense? Because I’m throwing a lot of terms really quickly. Cool.
Sweet. So let’s do a deeper dive into this topic, shadow desires and virtual desires. So what is the source? Where are these desires coming from?
Shadow desire, you know, the deep, unknown, underworld, subconscious, ego, typically a shadow drive, right? A drive to be better, to be richer, to be more resourced, to look better, to win over. It’s very competition based. It’s very comparative.
It’s rooted in identities they’ve already lived and motivations they’ve already experienced and therefore have a high degree of charge around. Whereas a virtuous desire, they haven’t really lived that person yet. It’s who they’d like to be. It may be an aspirational ideal, but there’s no experiential data and therefore less charge, less emotionality to that virtuous desire.
And if emotions drive decisions, there’s going to be far, far, far, far more stuff driving the decision in that shadow desire.
The orientations of it. Right? The orientation of the shadow desire is typically more selfish. Right?
How it benefits me, how it puts me at an advantage over others. Once again, very competitive based, even zero sum based. I remember, one of my first really big clients in the copywriting space was to write a launch. And it was one of the first times I quoted a really big package to do the full spectrum of a launch.
And he was saying the whole time, I just want to hire the best. I just want to have the best launch. I just really want to blow this out of the water, right? You know?
And, like, I asked him, like, why is this important to you? Right? Like, because it felt like there’s a lot of charge there beyond just the business doing well.
Right? And his desire was, I don’t like the people who are essentially owning this space right now. I feel like my stuff is better, and my end result is I I wanna be ahead of them in a year from now. I want my name to be the household name in this space.
Right? Competition based. Right? And it took him a while to own that and to state that and to admit to that.
But that was what was driving him signing off on a big copywriting project on the first launch he was doing on a program. So these things are at play, and they don’t necessarily need to be unearthed in every conversation, but we can mirror it on the page in our copy.
Orientation for virtuous desire, typically, it’s going to be altruistic, right, where they’re kind of deflecting it for someone else, for the greater good, for their families.
And there’s truth to this, but it’s not the totality of truth.
Riskiness, right? To own and to admit a shadow desire tends to have a high degree of risk, right? You kind of risk being judged, right? Because these aren’t things that people typically state out loud, right?
These are things that get filtered. And almost rightfully so, it’s really difficult to maintain great friendships and relationships if if you go around talking about your shadow desires. So, high risk in them owning it, and therefore, what a relief when it’s on the page and they don’t have to own it and claim it for themselves. Virtual desire, virtually no risk at all.
Right? They almost look good and sanitized, right, in claiming just their virtual virtuous desire.
Awareness on a shadow desire, it could be totally disowned, or it could be unknown completely, and we’re the first ones to really make them say, you’re right. That is why I want that.
Virtuous desire is something that is readily owned and already there within awareness. So when we’re talking about a sales page or an email that really captivates and draws an interest and intrigue, if we’re mirroring back something that’s already known to them, that’s great. They feel seen on the page. But if we’re the ones to expose a part of them, it’s like, oh, shit. That is there. Right?
Now we’ve really hooked them in on something cool and interesting. So awareness, typically disowned on a shadow desire. Permission, certainly less permissible for them to own a shadow desire or admit to it. High permission, full permission, unvirtuous.
Core emotions, typically on a shadow desire, we’re working in the realms of lust, greed, pride, competition, retribution. Right? Show them, get back at them, prove something to somebody, virtuous desire, joy, love, and cooperation. So there’s a lot going on here.
You can screenshot it, just as a reference point.
But this comes into, yeah, full clarity when we actually start looking at examples, and it’s pretty simple to pull off once you start getting the hang of it.
So examples.
I just kinda crafted this one because I know Abby was working with, a bookkeeper, a client who is working with bookkeepers to leave their nine to five, start a profitable business. So this is like this could apply to anything that teaches people to go freelance. Right? So shadow desire, maybe to be crazy rich, be better than those stuck in the nine to five.
Right? How many people wanna go freelance and feel like they’re getting ahead of the people who aren’t there yet? Right? That is so out there and so rarely claimed.
Right? Give the proverbial f u to a boss that they hate, that always makes makes them work late, and slacks them on the weekend while they’re on family time. So all this would be in the realm of shadow desire.
Virtuous desire, this is what you’ll typically find right in the VOC, right, or on an interview, you know, to provide more for their family, to double their salary, enjoy a flexible schedule that allows them to pick up their kids from school at lunch and take them to Chipotle for a burrito. We don’t have Chipotle in Canada. So I kind of, like, always talk about Chipotle because it’s one of my personal personal unlived desires for more Chipotle in my life. So anyway, just keeps making its way there.
Fitness coach, right? Same thing.
Like virtuous desire, stay in shape. Like, those were the three dreaded words. Being able to play with my kids without getting tired. That is another one, like, you hear all the time.
Get a stamp of approval on annual health checks. Right? All virtuous desires shadow desires. Right? They wanna turn heads, you know, be attractive, all these things that, like, are right there that they just don’t want to claim. So this is really how it works, balancing out the shadow desires and the virtuous desires.
And the problem with virtuous desires is it leaves a whole lot left to be desired. It is incomplete. It is not entirely true. It’s only what our social selves want others to know about our motivations, but that we know is not our true or our complete motivation. So our job as marketers, just because our prospect is leaving it out doesn’t mean we should leave it out as well. So a simple template bringing this all into practice, for weaving in the shadow and virtuous desires.
Really simple. So this is a piece of copy you could put in your moment of highest tension section of the fifteen or sorry, moment of highest pleasure section of the fifteen point sales page in a day formula if you’re using, that template from ten x sales pages or in the desire section within any ADA formula you’re using. This would be something to weave into the desire section.
And it’s simple. So it’s not just about, you know, shadow desire one, two, or three. Right? Or or it’s not about forbidden one, two, or three.
And then validate it. Right? Say, it’s totally cool. If that’s what you’re striving for, we’ll stand with you in that.
Right? So give them permission. That’s the permission slip.
And then say it’s about virtuous desire one, two, three, so that. So it’s kind of a sandwich there. Right? You’re introducing the shadow desires and saying it’s not just about that.
You’re validating it for them, permission slip, and then leaving the desire off. So the last thing you write is the things that they want to feel, like those were their, driving motivations. So let’s look at an example.
So back to the fitness one.
So this is not just about, you know, the shadow desires of filling your iPhone’s camera roll with shirtless gym selfies and loving what you see, and it’s definitely not about the secret satisfaction you’ll get and being the only dad at the camping trip rocking a six pack instead of binge drinking ruined. That reads a little weird, but it makes sense. But hey, don’t let anyone judge your motivations for getting healthy. We’ll celebrate you and whatever gets you moving.
And then the virtual virtuous ones. But at its core, this program is about feeling more strong, vital, and confident in in your body at forty than you did at twenty, setting an exam setting an epic example for your kids and knowing that you’ve set yourself up to stay lean, fit, and healthy while most succumb to a state of slow and controlled erosion. So, you honor the shadow desires. You give them the permission slip, and then you tell them what it’s really about in a way that they would feel good and virtuous in enrolling.
So that’s what it looks like. Very simple, worksheet for you. It’s really just listing what the acceptable, safe, virtuous desires are, listing the forbidden ones.
And this can come through your VOC, it can come through your interviews, or it could come what you believe would be true and lurking, beneath the surface, just based on your knowledge of your audience.
And then essentially, craft it into this formula. Right? It’s not just about shadow one, shadow two, shadow three. Validate it and then share it’s about those virtuous desires.
And just see what that looks like and how that reads as a desire section, on a sales page, on an email, and test it out. You might be surprised in how it flows and just the responses you get, once your reader feels more fully seen on the page. So I think that’s all we got. Twenty minutes.
I’m getting good at these short presentations.
Sort of.
Cool. Any questions, thoughts, comments? We could definitely continue the conversation if y’all have further thoughts on how to elaborate on that or how you might see it applying for the work you do.
I have a question.
Mhmm.
It’s gonna be the same question probably that I ask you every time. Yes. But there was a very, very brief moment in time when my boss didn’t really, supervise me that much. So I was able to try more creative things, but nothing as creative as this because anytime you try to introduce this negative language in SaaS, you get hit with a that’s going to make people feel bad.
So my question is, how do you water this down? I And you’re you’re not gonna like to to answer this kind of question. But what kind of ways could you water this down so it’s still palatable for more of a corporate audience?
Yeah. So it’s a spectrum. Right? I think, like, the core of this is, like, what are the desires that are just a little less safe than the safe ones.
Right? And that are true most of all. Right? So it’s like, there’s no part of this that is shaming or making them feel bad, right?
It’s just saying this isn’t just about X, Y, and Z, and those X, Y, and Zs are the things that they actually want, that the reader really, really wants.
So you’re disowning that desire with them, right, and then wrapping it up with the things that are more acceptable.
So I wouldn’t go extreme with it. I wouldn’t use languaging, especially on the darker, more competitive edges of being so much better than someone else. You could definitely rein in that language.
But what are some of those things that they want that they’re kind of afraid to admit out loud, right? And see what’s a safe version of that, like the five on ten. If the virtuous desires are the one on ten on safety, just make the shadow desires a three or four on ten and see if you can push the envelope to that level.
So what might you say for somebody who’s a middle manager? Because that’s gonna be, like, the most typical audience. Like, a middle manager in sales, or a middle manager in project management or whatever it might be? What’s what might be language that you could use for them? Because nine times out of ten, that’s the person I’m talking to.
Yeah. So, like, what do they want out of the product? Like, what are they buying it for?
Usually, to have more efficiency, more control over their team, get rid of admin, make things more efficient. This is very generally speaking for a variety of different companies, but that’s sort of the concept.
So yeah.
Like, and what does it look like once those are achieved? Right? Is there, like do they get kinda, like, a special bonus on that? Do they get to, wrap up their days earlier because efficiency is in place and admin tasks are off their plate?
Right? So, like, that would be and I’m not saying that this is the accurate desire, but it would be like, this isn’t just about, you know, getting, you know, a glowing review from your, you know, higher ups, and getting to check out on weekends because everything is fully dialed in. Right? And enjoying your, you know, workout without being tethered to your phone.
Right? However that appears for them. This is about x, y, and z. So, like, the shadow desires are still in that play it safe range.
They’re just really kind of like giving a bit more of their selfish motivations, right, versus the altruistic or the company and for the team motivations, if that makes sense.
Okay. Especially if they’re the the decision maker. Right? To get them in touch with some of their more personal, quote unquote, selfish motivations without making them feel selfish for wanting it. Like, that’s the key for it. Make them feel like this will help them achieve what they really want selfishly without them having to feel selfish for wanting it, if that makes sense.
Interesting.
So let’s take let’s take a monday dot com example because that’s the most well known. Monday dot com being a competitor of Asana and Trello and Wrike, and all these other project management tools.
Instead of saying something along the lines of, if you have a spreadsheet with seventeen tabs open and you are tired of reading through long in long email threads, and you feel overwhelmed, or the reverse, the virtuous, which would be you can be a better team manager and help your team members and be more efficient and hit more business goals.
What would sort of be the middle ground there?
So project manager. Right? Like, so so I’ve worked with many project managers, like, who’ve managed me as a copywriter, right, both, you know, internally and also, like, I’ve worked closely with project managers on teams I’ve kinda, like, implanted myself into during bigger launches.
And, you know, one piece of feedback, like, I’ve given project managers who are really dialed in, right, and really streamlined on their process and systems is, like, you know, no project I’ve been on has ever run more smoothly. Right? Like, that’s the feedback they love getting. Like, be the project manager that every freelancer loves working with, right?
That taps into their sense of pride, right? Pride being one of those emotions we talked about for shadow desires.
So pride is a good one to work with as well, because it’s a little more acceptable than competitiveness You don’t need to always go to competitiveness.
But what would make that project manager who’s using Monday feel really good about themselves? Like when they go home and they have dinner with their partner or their spouse, what are they saying? Like, so and so said this about me. Right?
And they’re confiding that to their spouse because that’s that feels safe. Right? But how can we incorporate that into our copy, if that makes sense?
So, like, just what are those little moments that you can Yeah.
It almost sounds like you’re like, all of the benefits that you typically see on a sales page, like, be more efficient, get more ROI, be a better be a better manager. It’s almost like instead of saying, like, the actual benefit, say, be the person that people say this about.
Yeah. Exactly.
Benefit, but just Yeah. Framed it.
Because that’s what they really want. Right? That they can’t say out loud. Yeah. Yeah.
That is a very cool point.
Mhmm. Yep. And you can make the language as, like, safe as it needs to be for any industry. It’s just really about the, quote, unquote, more selfish, personally driven desires for the thing.
Okay. I like it.
Cool.
I have a quest a question.
Let me come on camera. Sorry. So so talking about that and, you know, safe language and and how to weave this in. So assuming you have, like, a big tech you know, like, enterprise tech. Right?
Mhmm.
This is not something where we’re you’re doing sales letter type stuff, and it’s a it’s a they they they live in a completely different universe, and it’s a little bit more buttoned up. So Of course. But I have this situation where I have a product. And the thing is people are really afraid of if they choose the wrong vendor, they’re gonna lose their job, you know, because it’s a it’s a mission critical service.
Right.
So how how have you ever had a situation where you’re working in something like that? Because that’s really what is going on under the surface. They’re they’re, you know, they’re afraid of of they’re afraid of losing their job if they choose the wrong company.
Mhmm. And what’s the upside if they choose the right company?
That’s a good question. I hadn’t you know?
I I guess I’ve been worrying about, like, how to get past this fear that they have of choosing.
Mhmm. It’s that it’s that old thing of, like, you know, nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM. You know? Yeah.
That Right.
The upside would be that nothing happens, really. It’s quiet and everything works well.
I mean, you know, no more no more support calls, no more, you know, emergency meetings because some country is having lag time or whatever.
Yep. For sure.
I mean, this copyright, I’m guessing, like, the one making the decision, right, their main desire is simply to make the right decision, right, in this case. Right?
It it is. Yeah. Yeah. It is. I I mean, some of there’s a certain sub sub segment that’s motivated by, you know, being cutting edge and being on the bleeding edge with technology and doing the latest and greatest thing.
Yeah.
But that’s that’s a certain percentage.
You know, those are the people that tend to those would be, I’d say, like, the ideal customer avatar. You know? The ones that are that wanna be on the bleeding edge are the ones that are an easier sell.
Yep.
It’s the question is how to get those other ones.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’d say, like, this copy is definitely or this kind of format and template is definitely meant for a specific context where the one reading it is the one who stands to benefit, right, and therefore they’re owning their desires, how would we work that principle, right, into, into that enterprise environment? That’s a great conversation. Right?
I think it’s, like, just wherever we can identify any desires that they haven’t claimed yet. Right? And this is mostly going to come out in kinda like the one to one communication, I’m guessing. Right?
Not necessarily on, like, the page.
Yeah. Like, I think I think a fair question is, like, what does it look like when you’ve made the right decision? Right? Like, how is that celebrated? Like, how do you feel when like, maybe it’s literally just watching the new new tech be integrated and having a sense of pride in it, right, that they let it, that they champion it. Right?
Getting to talk about that, right, that they kind of, like, championed and spearheaded this new initiative. Right? So it’s probably more pride, I would say.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Pride that their due diligence and their decision was behind, you know, a multi six figure, you know, reconfiguration of something. Right? And getting to watch that in real time as it gets kind of implemented. So I would tap into the pride aspects, and, yeah, have that conversation, like, with that kind of audience of, How does this actually play out in real time?
And what are the moments within that that feel really good, really validating? So I think feeling validated is also really important for people, you know, in that position because validation brings the security that they really want. Right? That they’ve really cemented their place within the organization because of this thing that they helped, you know, usher in.
So I suppose, you know, performance KPIs would would be something that would be a a tangible outcome, you know? And that’s not like an ROI thing. It’s like a, you know, uptime performance and stuff like that. So technical those technical performance KPIs, I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. That makes sense. I think, like, the simplest version of it, and every context has its own nuances. Right?
Mhmm. Yeah. Especially in what that person could admit at lab. Right? A middle manager who’s making that decision might not even answer the question of, like, you know, why do they really desire to do this?
I mean, this would be a VP or a c level person.
You know? A CTO, CIO, the Yeah.
Director of engineering, that kind of Yep.
You know?
Yeah. I think, like, for what a successful decision and implementation means for them in their career and their sense of pride in their position pride in their position and also, like, cementing their status in the organization is probably probably gonna be something to play with, and it’s very nuanced in how you communicate.
Sort of like be the one be the one responsible for for your company’s zero downtime or something like that. Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, a headline that comes to mind. Right? And I’m not saying that we use headlines in this context, but it would be kinda like, you know, you know, this will be on your LinkedIn profile by June, right? Like some big thing that they led. Like that’s what they would be doing with you. Exactly.
Yeah. Like imagine this on your LinkedIn profile, right? Yeah.
So yeah, pride and accomplishment. Definitely play with those two.
Okay. Thank you.
What comes out of it. Thank you.
Hey, Ryan. I have a question. I feel like I work, you know, with, like, the coaches and and course creators where you might have already used this.
I like, I, I really like this technique. Just writing down like the seven deadly thins as ideas for places to find, the shadow desires.
But I guess, like, in the context of helping people make money online Mhmm. Like, is so the shadow desire in that is what they’re gonna do with the money or what they will be able It’s why they want it.
Why they want it. Okay. So I wrote I wrote the three that I came up with were like, this isn’t just about making yourself so personally secure that if your partner emptied your bank accounts and walked out the door tomorrow, you’d be like, solid for the next six months?
Yeah.
Having a program that your clients save rave so much about, they’re even talking about it inside other people’s coaching containers. Mhmm.
I don’t know. That one fell down. I was like, and out earning your early mentors so that your nervous system finally recognizes unequivocally that you’ve made it to the top?
That’s so good. I got chills on the last one. Right? Because it, like, brings in the competitive aspect, and it does so really art really artfully. Right? It’s not just like, crush your competitors.
Like, it’s not so, like, on the nose.
But but competition is a really good one when you can weave it in artfully, right?
Because that’s a really difficult one for people to own.
And I’ve never met anyone who was a hundred percent hundred percent altruistic and cooperative, right? It’s on a spectrum. It’s not like you’re either cooperative or competitive. It’s always on a spectrum. And even if you’re like eighty percent, you know, cooperative, rooting for everybody, there are these shadow parts of us that just want to win. Right?
For the most part, I don’t wanna overgeneralize. Right? So when you could speak to that, even if that’s, like, fifteen percent of who they are, right, or who they’re operating as, it’s such a charged fifteen percent.
And that’s what we’re looking for. Right? The charged part that’s really gonna make the decision.
So I guess my question is like, okay. Two parts. One, because I’m, like, writing about my own audience feels easy.
But do you have any tips for, like, is there a question you could ask in the voice of customer research or like teasing these out of other people’s audiences?
So one thing I mean, I I feel like I always return to this. Right? It’s the sales calls and the sales call recordings, and I’ve consulted with sales teams for, you know, the offers that I’m writing for. Mhmm.
So it’s like, first step, I’ll usually audit those calls. Right? And sometimes you’ll get a hint of that as like, well, why do you really want that? Why is that important? So kind of like those layers of why will sometimes reveal it.
Oftentimes, it’ll only partially reveal it, and then it’s my own kinda, like, empathetic nature, right, that will kinda read between the lines, right, of what they really want, right, but that they’re not actually saying.
So it’s rare that I’ll get this verbatim in VOC or an interview.
A lot of it will be, like, a person who said x, what do they really mean, and what do they really want? Right? And it’s me just kind of, like, bringing it to that level.
And that’s my favorite part about the research phase. Right? Like, it’s easy to get the stuff that’s verbatim. Right?
That’s already there. Right? I’m like, but what does this really mean? A person who said x, what are they really feeling but aren’t divulging?
And that’s usually where, the gold comes from. So, the short version of it is, yeah, sales calls, sales call audits, consulting with the sales team, even consulting with sometimes the customer service manager, if they’re really kind of, like, you know, involved day in and day out with, those students or with those clients, sometimes they’ll get that kind of rich detail that is, like, amazing. So even, like, thirty minutes or forty minutes with the customer success manager.
And they typically love being involved because marketing rarely loops them in even though they should be looped in. So yeah.
Okay. I can I can totally confirm that?
I’ve gotten some amazing insights from customer success Right.
That I never got from sales because they work with them long term. And so sometimes they can see those benefits play out and I never thought to bring in customer success.
I just brought her in because she was really smart and helpful and was was willing to talk to me, and Mhmm.
Like, she gave gold that I was never able to find in the discovery calls on Gong.
Yeah. That’s amazing.
Yeah.
And they yeah. They typically love being looped in because they just have so much to share and, like, no one listens.
Like, I once had a call that had, like, the head of sales, like, the director of sales and the director of customer, success, and, like, it’s like they barely talked to each other, right? I think that’s the first time they were in the same room, like in months, and they were learning things about each other’s departments in real time, and it was so cute. I’m like, Y’all don’t talk, ever?
Yeah. And there’s sort of a hierarchy within go to market teams, and it goes like, sales, customer success, marketing, sales engineer.
So, like, if you can talk to people lower down on the hierarchy, they’re more excited to Oh, totally.
Yeah. They’re like, my opinion matters. Yay. Yep. Exactly. Great point.
But the thing I just wanted to ask is, like, in I guess it’s similar to what, Naomi was asking, but, like, when you are dealing like, you know, on the online coaching space, there’s a whole, like, oh, but talking to pain points is yucky or, like, icky thing. Mhmm. Like, I guess I don’t know. I I don’t know what the question is there, but just I’m, like, getting customers or, like, clients on board with this. Like, have you ever had any pushback to somebody being, like, that’s too I don’t know. It makes the client uncomfortable to use these kind of techniques.
So the only time I’ve ever gotten pushback on this specific technique is when I personally overindulged and took it too far. Right?
Just because sometimes I enjoy writing shit. And I’m like, okay. Maybe this is a little too far from reality. Right?
And it needed to be reined in. Right? So it’s like, as much as possible, like, keep it once again within that threshold, right, of what is safe and appropriate for that industry and for that client and for their voice.
But, yeah, the only pushback I’ve ever got was when I took too many liberties on what was actually true and accurate and real. So you’re really trying to still keep it grounded in realism. Like, what is a person’s desires, like, legitimate desires for this, that they’re unlikely to be tuned into themselves or divulge even if it were true. Right?
But you don’t want to make assumptive leaps that are just too far out of reality. Right?
So it’s like in the example that you wrote, can you can you, like, read it out loud again?
Like, I just wanna Just the last one about out earning your early mentors.
Yep.
So that your nervous system finally recognizes unequivocally that you’ve made it to the top.
Yeah. Like, I don’t think you would get pushback on that cause that is such a legitimate desire, and you’re connecting it to overcoming that pain point of feeling anxious and destabilized in your career and your standing within it. Right? Like, and what you can do when you have pushback, right, is once again, like, you could link back that statement to voice of customer data that suggests that without saying it. Right? Like, someone who divulged this on the VOC or on this survey, they’re not saying this, but do you see the congruence, how someone who’s saying this would be experiencing this? Right?
So, yeah, I think, like, being being able to match match the shadow desire to what’s actually divulged and be like, no. This is actually is our data.
We’re just kind of revealing what isn’t being said or what’s being said between the lines.
Yeah. And how do you, well, it’s so powerful powerful because like everybody’s be everybody’s speaking to like, you want to make more money, but like, it’s really stand out to be like, we’ll be And, and we know that these are the reasons why.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That that’s a really powerful exercise in kinda make more money offers, right, is, like, the why. Like, what happens when they make more money, right, versus just a claim of make more money or double your salary.
Like, once again, white noise, and it just doesn’t connect to the actual experience of having more money. Right? And typically, it comes back down to security and survival related things. Right? Most things go back to security and survival, and nervous system, you know, regulation, as you mentioned. So, yeah, really great conversation.
And how do you how do you make those judgment calls? Because I consider myself a pretty intuitive person. Mhmm. But making these kind of judgments for people, that you’ve never met, can be a very difficult exercise.
Yeah. So so intuitive leaps when necessary. Right? Obviously, we’re not going to be in constant conversation with the prospects we’re writing for. Right? Sometimes we’re literally just, like, dealing with the data and the survey results, and all we really have are the intuitive leaps we can make based on what we have.
My defense for that is, like, you know, transcribing BOC is really easy. Right? I could do that, and I want us to write a ten on ten sales piece here. Right?
I wanna write something that hits a point that no one else is hitting that could help that prospect, that one reader feel fully seen here where no one else is willing to see them. Right? Like, in Katie’s example, like, that reader and that prospect likely will never have seen an ad, an email, or a sales page, or a sales call, or been on a sales call that suggested this is about outpacing their mentors and finally feeling like they’ve made it. Right?
Like, they probably will not have seen that before. And therefore, when that hits, and if it’s true, you just formed a connection that is incredibly powerful there. Right? So there is an intuitive leap based on data and based on hypothesis, and it’s like this tracks, right?
Someone who said this tracks to someone who would have this desire, and I feel good making that leap and putting that on the page, right? And ultimately, that’s the artfulness of it, right? It’s like using your intuition wisely because to me, like, that is still where there’s so much magic in being a copywriter and being a marketer, right? Like, one day AI is going to have all, you know, all the information to just, like, spit it out, and that’s cool and that’s amazing, but where can we use our own kind of intuitiveness to connect us that aren’t so obvious?
Cool. Okay.
Yeah. That is not a dog. That is my child. Casey, we’re hearing that. Okay. Good.
Zoom noise cancellation.
Sweet. Comes in handy. Sweet. Any other questions or comments or thoughts?
I have a non training related question, but happy to defer until if there’s any other questions about the training.
Can I just ask, can you maybe give some throw out some examples of things that aren’t related to pride or maybe related to some of the other, vices?
So not related to pride? Yeah.
Because I feel like pride is an easy one to understand. I’m interested in how it applies to others.
Sure.
So it’s like let me pull back that slide.
I’m revisiting, like, the seven deadly sins is actually a really good idea. So Jo had a framework on that, I believe, like, a long, long, long time ago. I’d ask her if she can dig that back up.
I think it was her fascinations, the seven deadly sins one.
Maybe. Yeah. It’s familiar.
But, Yeah.
I’ve seen it. I just find it hard to apply. I think the concept is very cool, but execution, I find challenging.
Right. Cool. So pride is obvious.
I I use laziness all the time. I use that all the Mhmm. Often.
Mhmm.
Sloth, I guess, would be the technical sin.
Sure.
I think read is a really, really important one if you can, once again, mirror that artfully because that’s a really difficult one for people to believe is true about themselves.
So it’s kind of like, what does greed look like in a way that isn’t so spiky, right, and isn’t so difficult to accept. Right? Because in some ways, like, any make more money offer is somewhat greed based. Right?
And yet those who buy them don’t feel necessarily greedy in buying them, right, or wanting that.
So it’s like greed is where you kind of like when you’re suggesting out earning your mentors, right? That is essentially greed based, right? Greed and competition. I’m kind of like looping those in together right now.
And you make it totally acceptable because physiologically, that gives you a response that feels like you’re returning to safety, right, and turning to nervous system regulation and all those things. So, yeah, so pride, greed, lust, right?
I mean, there’s literal lust and there’s other forms of lust.
You know, kind of like the, you know, the fitness example I just brought, right? Wanting to be desired, wanting to be attractive, right? That is a form of lust.
You know, and it doesn’t even need to be a sexual lust, it could just be lusting to be liked, lusting for approval, right? So when we talked about the project manager, that is kind of a form of a lust for approval.
There we go.
Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.
So you’re saying essentially that a lot of it is the same desire sort of packaged in a different way.
Yep. Exactly. It kinda gets filtered through, like, these different lenses of these, you know, more shadowy motivations. Right? Or you can call them, like, the deadly sins.
Like, the difference between pride and lust being that pride emphasizes how good you are, and lust emphasizes how much other people envy how good you are. Mhmm.
Yep.
Yep. Okay.
That’d be a way to put it. So it’s like, that’d be a really cool exercise. Like, I’m just kinda visualizing the framework of, like, there’s desire, and then there’s, like, these seven different kind of filters it gets kind of put through and that can have the same idea articulated in seven different ways.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Cool. Yeah. Thank you.
I think you’re good, Katie. Sorry.
Thank you, sir. You guys got totally wrapped up trying to remember all seven deadly sins.
But Haven’t you seen the movie seven?
The Bradford?
Yeah. That’s that’s my reference point, not not the Bible.
I I think that’s everyone’s reference point. It’s like and all I think of it is, like, Brad Pitt at the end with the box and, like, what’s he saying? What’s his famous line there?
I don’t remember.
Don’t know, but I was like, Brad. Yep.
What’s in the box? Yeah. I think it’s that. I don’t know.
Anyway.
So I had a client that I wrote a long form sales page for her hybrid course and coaching program.
And now she wants to launch just the course as a DIY downs well, I it’s not it so it was previously conceived as a downsell, but now she wants to launch that as a standalone offer.
Okay.
Like how and she’s she just emailed me saying, do is it a different sales page or do we just cut the group coaching components out of the existing sales page, which is a beast. Like, it’s like the longest sales page I’ve ever written in my life. So I’m curious to your thoughts on, like, a starting point for that.
Yeah. So she sold it as a downsell before. Right?
Yes. But only on a call. So she doesn’t offer that anywhere. And like, she hasn’t launched before. She just has, like, amazing SEO and she gets a tons of leads that way. So this would be her first launch style.
Yep.
The thing, of the DIY.
And it wouldn’t be within the context of them having, like, not bought, you know, the coaching package, right, or the coaching version. Like, this is really fully stand alone, even stand alone in the conversation. Right? Cool. I mean, if the sales page as it was written, speaks to everything that is still true about that audience, their desires, the problems that the product helps overcome, then I think the path of least resistance and even most effectiveness is just retooling that sales page to definitely remove anything that would be delivered only through coaching.
But, yeah, how do you feel about it?
Yeah, I I did like, I mean, definitely there’s gonna be chunks that need to go because, you know, she’s a, like, she’s a trained therapist. So we talked a lot about the benefits of like talking things through in that group container and everything.
Sure.
I guess, I’m just like, is it a different how much does it change the nature of the relationship? Like, I don’t I don’t know. I feel like because the the tone of the sales page was very much like, I’m gonna walk you through this and, you know, we’re gonna have all of these opportunities for feedback. And I’m I’m just wondering if it well, I guess if you’ve ever done anything like that before, like amending an existing sales page to pitch a slightly different version of the product?
Or if you would Yeah.
I haven’t I haven’t done that specific project before.
Yeah, kind of like definitely an accuracy sweep and an edit and a check, like, a hundred percent.
Even things that are implied or insinuated in terms of, like, the level of intimacy and feedback that they’re gonna have, I would definitely be mindful of that.
The things that are, in my view, like, definitely keepable, especially if the audience has resonated with them before and they’re accurate and true is anything that points to the desired outcomes and anything that points to the the current problem states and, you know, how that’s showing up for them. Like, all these things, if they’re accurate and they’ve been resonating, you can probably keep all of that. Right?
Testimonials might be something to, like, really, make sure you’re being accurate as much as possible. Like, try to get testimonials from those who have gone through the DIY. Right? Or if they’ve been private clients or the ones in, like, the coaching, container for it, I would just, like, make a note, right, like, you know, part of the the coaching container, right, to just not have that, yeah, that kind of, like, insinuation, right, that that’s an accurate kind of, like, one for one.
But, yeah, I think, like yeah. If you feel really good about how the copy presents and how it’s been resonating and the edit is a decent sized job, like, to be clear.
But yeah, I’ll just go for Yeah, go ahead.
At first I was thinking of pitching that in a day rate, but I actually feel like it might need the time and like repeated passes of a project versus trying to Yeah.
Okay.
Yep. Yeah.
Yep. I think so.
But what does that look like for you in terms of, like, the multiple passes?
Like, maybe we could just see Just like coming back to it, like, having more than a day to, like, kind of, like, leave it, come back and make sure that I haven’t missed something where they’re talking about a a call or a Yep.
I think, like, the first step of it would be to audit the current page. Right? Like, you know, yellow highlighters of, like, this has to go, this has to go, this has to go. Right?
Mhmm. Especially around, like, the languaging, as you said. And say that, like, in this filter and the sweep, I’m sweeping for x, y, and z. I’m sweeping for, like, accuracy.
What’s still going to be true for insinuation around intimacy and access. Right? So, like, kinda list the things you’re sweeping for and auditing for, make the check, and then kinda, like I would present that to her, right, and then say, like, my the next part of my sweep is to, like, remove these sections, make things more relevant and appropriate for the actual experience.
But, yeah, that’s not a one day thing. That’s multi stage, multi step. But, yep, I think yeah, that’s an interesting project. Keep me posted.
Cool.
I have a question. I’ve, I think I’ve asked this to Joe, but I’m interested to hear your opinion because I’m still struggling with it.
Okay.
In my area, meaning I work with mostly Israeli companies because I’ve been working in Israeli tech scene for five years, and so my whole network is here. Mhmm.
And I think that’s relevant because the Israeli tech scene is like, the whole tech scene is struggling, but Israel is struggling a little bit more because there’s less investments because of the ongoing war.
Sure.
So that means marketing budgets are even lower than they would be elsewhere.
Mhmm.
And so more and more companies that I talk to are cutting their paid media budget and putting more effort into social selling, meaning organic social media posts, but they’re calling it social selling because they’re putting a lot more of a strategic emphasis on it than they would have five years ago, or even three years ago.
So my background is more in acquisition, more in demand gen, optimizing landing pages, optimizing web copy, really very, very conversion focused. Mhmm. But the vast majority of people that I talk to are interested in more organic content.
Mhmm.
And so I’m wondering if it’s worth like, we don’t know what the future holds. Right? We can’t necessarily predict, where the market or where the geopolitical scene will be in the next six to twelve months.
But I’m grappling with the idea of, like, I’ve already taken on some of these clients, and I’ve learned a lot about these different forms of content.
I’m wondering how much should I be considering shifting my positioning as a company, to accommodate what I see as a shift in the market, or should I continue with this very conversion focused angle that I’ve been taking?
Yeah. That’s interesting. There’s, like, a few variables at play. Right? One of them you already kinda highlighted is, like, is this shift more kind of, like, temporary and seasonal and cyclical?
Or for all you know, right, or maybe once they’re in that, the ROI, right, is gonna be better than their other paid media channels, and they’re gonna wanna continue, amplifying that channel. So I think there’s variable number one is, like, how confident are you that the demand for that is going to continue and increase?
Right? Like, give that a confidence score on a scale of one to ten. Like, if it’s over seven, right, like, maybe yes or at least making that part of your official services and offerings, would be wise, especially if you think that they’re going to continue, wanting more of an organic presence, right, and more strategies around that.
The next variable I would consider is how necessary is it for you to position yourself as that to gain business in that? Because it sounds like those conversations are already happening just just like in your network, right? And that as long as you’re available to it, you’re going to get those projects anyway. So like, if that’s low importance, then I would wait a little bit, right? I wouldn’t, like, reposition yourself, so immediately. Like, wait to see where that trend line is heading, especially if you don’t need to reposition yourself to get that business, if that makes sense.
Yeah. That’s a really good point because it’s not like, like, it’s not goo Google is gonna disappear. Obviously not. Yeah.
Mhmm. But what I see is it’s becoming more and more common for, or it’s becoming more relevant for larger companies. So if you’re thinking in the VC world, you have series. Right?
Like, series a, series b, series c, series d.
And series a is, like, they still don’t they still haven’t finished building the product. Series b and c is, like, they’ve sort of hit product market bit, but they’re still growing. Series d and beyond is, like, they’ve got their shit together. They’re, like, they’re moving. Like, they have they have somewhat of a working workflow.
And I think that series d is sort of, like, seven hundred employees plus in mind. Right. Like, roughly speaking.
So it’s more like series d and up, where they’re really starting to ramp up their paid media channels. But by the time they reach that five, they probably have enough resources in house to manage that kind of CRO. And so, they’re not really looking to outsource it as much.
And so, I’ve gotten lots of job offers for that kind of position, but a lot newer freelancing the only really freelance opportunities I’ve got is from a reseller, actually, by Monday dot com.
So it’s a very, very different kind of company than the actual fast company.
Right.
And, obviously, the budget is small Sure. For paid media.
Mhmm.
Because if if it’s small, then there’s only so many landing pages they’re gonna have. They’re only gonna have, like, two, three campaigns.
Right.
But I think that I think it makes sense that, like, these because, especially, like, we talk a lot about, oh, am I a copywriter? Am I a conversion? Like but, like, clients don’t care about that language. Like, especially in a non English speaking they just give us content.
Like, what the hell are you talking about? Like, content is content. And content is emails and content is social and content is blog. Like, they they don’t think that way.
I’m actively imagining my Israeli uncle responding to that conversation right now in his very Israeli uncle y voice. Yeah.
Exactly. Like, there’s no word for copywriter in Hebrew. It’s.
What is this? I don’t care. I don’t care.
Exactly. Okay. You got it. You got it.
I get it.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. So I think that that’s how, like it’s helpful to think, like, if you have to make that dilution, you don’t necessarily have to make it now.
Mhmm.
Is what I’m taking from that.
Yep. Exactly.
Does that, give you something to move with or feel a little bit more sweet?
Awesome. Yeah.
I would add on to that too. It’s also, you know, instead of changing positioning, it’s you’re it’s more like, you know, the right thing to do at the right time and you’re responsive and savvy to what’s going on. You know? Does that make sense?
I mean, look, a girl’s gotta eat. Sometimes you just gotta take the grudges to come to you.
I know how savvy it is, or it’s just like, you know, I wanna Making sure you can eat is savvy.
Not that I owe my last dollar, but, like, I’m not at the point where I’m regularly turning away large amounts of work.
Awesome.
Cool. We feeling good for today?
Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Well, enjoy your long weekends for those taking long weekends.
I’m really hungry now all of a sudden. I’ll just talk about Chipotle and eating and, yeah, that’s my plan. So, yeah, catch you all on Slack. Hit me up if you have any follow-up questions on this as you begin to consider it or implement it.
Definitely here for it. Cool. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Bye.
Thank you.
Worksheet
Worksheet
Transcript
Awesome. So this is part two of this Deep Craft inner authority, series.
This one is called shadow copy, how to balance virtuous and forbidden desire to elicit your prospects. Full range of f yet, I need this. So this is one that I’ve been, like, saving to teach somewhere for probably at least a year. And I’m like, who can I teach this to? Like, who’s already got a lot of the basics, the foundations and even the intermediate stuff, lockdown, and it’s ripe to talk about some advanced stuff that we just don’t get to talk about very often. So, yeah, I’m excited to share this one. This is part two, part one.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, that was last month, Deep VOC three piercing questions to go beneath the surface.
Not a prerequisite for it, but definitely related. And today’s is shadow copy, and we’ll see if there’s a part three, at some other point. But I love just going into the deeper, more nuanced stuff that is highly practical that just doesn’t get a lot of airtime. So, yeah, that’s kinda my thing, and happy to geek out on all that anywhere.
Slack, call me up, email me. Let’s Zoom. Let’s nerd out on weird deep inner authority stuff that, yeah, no one else really likes to geek out on. So, who is the inner authority?
To me, like, I’ve just defined this nice and simply as, one who knows the prospect better than they know themselves. That is typically the feedback I get when a page does really, really well. It’s like, oh my goodness. You know me better than I know myself.
And what it’s really achieving is it’s exposing and illuminating that which the prospect is unable or unwilling to divulge or articulate themselves. So that’s kind of the mechanism of it.
And what it achieves, it builds trust and resonance through the damn, are you in my head phenomenon or effect.
That’s what I aim to get to, in pretty much everything I write. And it makes sure that your one reader is fully seen on the page or at least more seen than anywhere else on the Internet or than any other competitor is willing to see them.
So that’s a term that gets talked about a lot. It’s like, make sure they’re seen on the page. And I actually wanted to unpack that a little and go a little deeper. What does it actually mean to have your prospect fully seen?
Well, it partly means to have their full range of desires mirrored. That means more than this. Right? To be seen on page also involves their problem, right, their stakes, their situation, their context, all that other stuff.
But in terms of desires, there’s a full range of desire and motivation.
In my view, only one and two really get the most, real estate on a page or explored in one’s research. So these four layers are they’re socially acceptable desires, they’re known and they’re owned desires. So the stuff they know about themselves. This is why I desire this. This is something I’m willing to own and something I’m willing to share.
But everybody, without exception, I would say, I would dare to say, has secret desires and secret motivations, things that they wouldn’t want to say out loud or even confess to themselves. Right? Disowned desires or even unknown desires, things they haven’t even, contemplated about themselves around why they might want something or why they might want to achieve something. So three and four, definitely in that darker, lesser known, disowned territory.
And as a marketer or copywriter, number one and two are really easy to gather and mirror on the page. Right? They appear readily in the VOC and surveys and interviews and message mining because they are known, they are owned, they are socially acceptable, people feel cool and even good in divulging them. So that’s cool.
Number one and two are easy. We got that on lock. Number three and four, more rare, but I would argue definitely no less powerful and maybe even more powerful. Right?
There’s kind of this operating theory that that which gets disowned may have greater pull. Right? And people may not even know why these things pull them. But three and four, definitely strong strong strong motivators.
The unknown, the disowned, and the less socially acceptable desire. So I’m gonna give you a little story from a past life. Two thousand six, two thousand seven, one of my first jobs, like, after I quit corporate life was a personal trainer at a gym.
And one of my roles was to, get people to move from thirty dollars a month memberships to personal training packages. And, you know, very typical sales script, like, what’s your motivation? What are you doing this for?
And almost universally, this is more common in men, actually. Like, men in their thirties and forties, they would say, I just wanna stay in shape. Right? I just wanna maintain. I just want to, yeah, I just want to stay in shape. Right? That was the common language that we almost knew would come without exception.
And it’s easy to sell a thirty dollar per month membership to someone who wants to stay in shape. It’s really difficult to sell a higher ticket, package, right, to someone who just wants to stay in shape. There’s not a lot of charge or a lot of juice behind that motivation. There’s not a lot of stakes behind that motivation. There’s not a lot of drive behind that motivation.
And me and the gym owner and manager and the other people, you know, on the floor and trainers We constantly have these conversations of, like, how do we get people to actually own a wider and a deeper breadth of desire?
And I think I came up with eight words, right, that I just kind of blurted out randomly that became part of our script. Like, it’s cool if you just want to look good. Right? Like eight words.
That’s it. And whenever we would catch someone who wouldn’t own that full desire, that that became part of the script. It’s cool if you just want to look good. Right?
Like, that’s totally acceptable and a fair motivation for doing this. And that would totally flip the conversation because we were taking the lead in owning this disowned desire for them. We made it safe. We gave them permission to actually say what they wanted, maybe even what they were thinking, but didn’t wanna be judged for claiming as a desire.
So all this to say, people are far, far, far, like, I Yeah. I think I put it in caps. Good. I put it in caps because they are far more willing and capable of sharing virtuous and socially accepted politically correct desires than they are. They’re disowned motivators that may actually be driving the decision.
So one thing that we could do as marketers, as copywriters, as salespeople, and offer creators is to give our one reader a permission slip for the full spectrum of their desires. Right? This is a gift we get to give them. Right? It’s cool if this is what you want. It’s cool if this is your main desire driving this decision.
So we claim it on the page for them or the sales call so that they don’t have to so that they can remain in their virtuous, you know, acceptable version of themselves while feeling like our offer and what we’re, enrolling them into, is all inclusive of that more shadowy desire. Does that make sense? Because I’m throwing a lot of terms really quickly. Cool.
Sweet. So let’s do a deeper dive into this topic, shadow desires and virtual desires. So what is the source? Where are these desires coming from?
Shadow desire, you know, the deep, unknown, underworld, subconscious, ego, typically a shadow drive, right? A drive to be better, to be richer, to be more resourced, to look better, to win over. It’s very competition based. It’s very comparative.
It’s rooted in identities they’ve already lived and motivations they’ve already experienced and therefore have a high degree of charge around. Whereas a virtuous desire, they haven’t really lived that person yet. It’s who they’d like to be. It may be an aspirational ideal, but there’s no experiential data and therefore less charge, less emotionality to that virtuous desire.
And if emotions drive decisions, there’s going to be far, far, far, far more stuff driving the decision in that shadow desire.
The orientations of it. Right? The orientation of the shadow desire is typically more selfish. Right?
How it benefits me, how it puts me at an advantage over others. Once again, very competitive based, even zero sum based. I remember, one of my first really big clients in the copywriting space was to write a launch. And it was one of the first times I quoted a really big package to do the full spectrum of a launch.
And he was saying the whole time, I just want to hire the best. I just want to have the best launch. I just really want to blow this out of the water, right? You know?
And, like, I asked him, like, why is this important to you? Right? Like, because it felt like there’s a lot of charge there beyond just the business doing well.
Right? And his desire was, I don’t like the people who are essentially owning this space right now. I feel like my stuff is better, and my end result is I I wanna be ahead of them in a year from now. I want my name to be the household name in this space.
Right? Competition based. Right? And it took him a while to own that and to state that and to admit to that.
But that was what was driving him signing off on a big copywriting project on the first launch he was doing on a program. So these things are at play, and they don’t necessarily need to be unearthed in every conversation, but we can mirror it on the page in our copy.
Orientation for virtuous desire, typically, it’s going to be altruistic, right, where they’re kind of deflecting it for someone else, for the greater good, for their families.
And there’s truth to this, but it’s not the totality of truth.
Riskiness, right? To own and to admit a shadow desire tends to have a high degree of risk, right? You kind of risk being judged, right? Because these aren’t things that people typically state out loud, right?
These are things that get filtered. And almost rightfully so, it’s really difficult to maintain great friendships and relationships if if you go around talking about your shadow desires. So, high risk in them owning it, and therefore, what a relief when it’s on the page and they don’t have to own it and claim it for themselves. Virtual desire, virtually no risk at all.
Right? They almost look good and sanitized, right, in claiming just their virtual virtuous desire.
Awareness on a shadow desire, it could be totally disowned, or it could be unknown completely, and we’re the first ones to really make them say, you’re right. That is why I want that.
Virtuous desire is something that is readily owned and already there within awareness. So when we’re talking about a sales page or an email that really captivates and draws an interest and intrigue, if we’re mirroring back something that’s already known to them, that’s great. They feel seen on the page. But if we’re the ones to expose a part of them, it’s like, oh, shit. That is there. Right?
Now we’ve really hooked them in on something cool and interesting. So awareness, typically disowned on a shadow desire. Permission, certainly less permissible for them to own a shadow desire or admit to it. High permission, full permission, unvirtuous.
Core emotions, typically on a shadow desire, we’re working in the realms of lust, greed, pride, competition, retribution. Right? Show them, get back at them, prove something to somebody, virtuous desire, joy, love, and cooperation. So there’s a lot going on here.
You can screenshot it, just as a reference point.
But this comes into, yeah, full clarity when we actually start looking at examples, and it’s pretty simple to pull off once you start getting the hang of it.
So examples.
I just kinda crafted this one because I know Abby was working with, a bookkeeper, a client who is working with bookkeepers to leave their nine to five, start a profitable business. So this is like this could apply to anything that teaches people to go freelance. Right? So shadow desire, maybe to be crazy rich, be better than those stuck in the nine to five.
Right? How many people wanna go freelance and feel like they’re getting ahead of the people who aren’t there yet? Right? That is so out there and so rarely claimed.
Right? Give the proverbial f u to a boss that they hate, that always makes makes them work late, and slacks them on the weekend while they’re on family time. So all this would be in the realm of shadow desire.
Virtuous desire, this is what you’ll typically find right in the VOC, right, or on an interview, you know, to provide more for their family, to double their salary, enjoy a flexible schedule that allows them to pick up their kids from school at lunch and take them to Chipotle for a burrito. We don’t have Chipotle in Canada. So I kind of, like, always talk about Chipotle because it’s one of my personal personal unlived desires for more Chipotle in my life. So anyway, just keeps making its way there.
Fitness coach, right? Same thing.
Like virtuous desire, stay in shape. Like, those were the three dreaded words. Being able to play with my kids without getting tired. That is another one, like, you hear all the time.
Get a stamp of approval on annual health checks. Right? All virtuous desires shadow desires. Right? They wanna turn heads, you know, be attractive, all these things that, like, are right there that they just don’t want to claim. So this is really how it works, balancing out the shadow desires and the virtuous desires.
And the problem with virtuous desires is it leaves a whole lot left to be desired. It is incomplete. It is not entirely true. It’s only what our social selves want others to know about our motivations, but that we know is not our true or our complete motivation. So our job as marketers, just because our prospect is leaving it out doesn’t mean we should leave it out as well. So a simple template bringing this all into practice, for weaving in the shadow and virtuous desires.
Really simple. So this is a piece of copy you could put in your moment of highest tension section of the fifteen or sorry, moment of highest pleasure section of the fifteen point sales page in a day formula if you’re using, that template from ten x sales pages or in the desire section within any ADA formula you’re using. This would be something to weave into the desire section.
And it’s simple. So it’s not just about, you know, shadow desire one, two, or three. Right? Or or it’s not about forbidden one, two, or three.
And then validate it. Right? Say, it’s totally cool. If that’s what you’re striving for, we’ll stand with you in that.
Right? So give them permission. That’s the permission slip.
And then say it’s about virtuous desire one, two, three, so that. So it’s kind of a sandwich there. Right? You’re introducing the shadow desires and saying it’s not just about that.
You’re validating it for them, permission slip, and then leaving the desire off. So the last thing you write is the things that they want to feel, like those were their, driving motivations. So let’s look at an example.
So back to the fitness one.
So this is not just about, you know, the shadow desires of filling your iPhone’s camera roll with shirtless gym selfies and loving what you see, and it’s definitely not about the secret satisfaction you’ll get and being the only dad at the camping trip rocking a six pack instead of binge drinking ruined. That reads a little weird, but it makes sense. But hey, don’t let anyone judge your motivations for getting healthy. We’ll celebrate you and whatever gets you moving.
And then the virtual virtuous ones. But at its core, this program is about feeling more strong, vital, and confident in in your body at forty than you did at twenty, setting an exam setting an epic example for your kids and knowing that you’ve set yourself up to stay lean, fit, and healthy while most succumb to a state of slow and controlled erosion. So, you honor the shadow desires. You give them the permission slip, and then you tell them what it’s really about in a way that they would feel good and virtuous in enrolling.
So that’s what it looks like. Very simple, worksheet for you. It’s really just listing what the acceptable, safe, virtuous desires are, listing the forbidden ones.
And this can come through your VOC, it can come through your interviews, or it could come what you believe would be true and lurking, beneath the surface, just based on your knowledge of your audience.
And then essentially, craft it into this formula. Right? It’s not just about shadow one, shadow two, shadow three. Validate it and then share it’s about those virtuous desires.
And just see what that looks like and how that reads as a desire section, on a sales page, on an email, and test it out. You might be surprised in how it flows and just the responses you get, once your reader feels more fully seen on the page. So I think that’s all we got. Twenty minutes.
I’m getting good at these short presentations.
Sort of.
Cool. Any questions, thoughts, comments? We could definitely continue the conversation if y’all have further thoughts on how to elaborate on that or how you might see it applying for the work you do.
I have a question.
Mhmm.
It’s gonna be the same question probably that I ask you every time. Yes. But there was a very, very brief moment in time when my boss didn’t really, supervise me that much. So I was able to try more creative things, but nothing as creative as this because anytime you try to introduce this negative language in SaaS, you get hit with a that’s going to make people feel bad.
So my question is, how do you water this down? I And you’re you’re not gonna like to to answer this kind of question. But what kind of ways could you water this down so it’s still palatable for more of a corporate audience?
Yeah. So it’s a spectrum. Right? I think, like, the core of this is, like, what are the desires that are just a little less safe than the safe ones.
Right? And that are true most of all. Right? So it’s like, there’s no part of this that is shaming or making them feel bad, right?
It’s just saying this isn’t just about X, Y, and Z, and those X, Y, and Zs are the things that they actually want, that the reader really, really wants.
So you’re disowning that desire with them, right, and then wrapping it up with the things that are more acceptable.
So I wouldn’t go extreme with it. I wouldn’t use languaging, especially on the darker, more competitive edges of being so much better than someone else. You could definitely rein in that language.
But what are some of those things that they want that they’re kind of afraid to admit out loud, right? And see what’s a safe version of that, like the five on ten. If the virtuous desires are the one on ten on safety, just make the shadow desires a three or four on ten and see if you can push the envelope to that level.
So what might you say for somebody who’s a middle manager? Because that’s gonna be, like, the most typical audience. Like, a middle manager in sales, or a middle manager in project management or whatever it might be? What’s what might be language that you could use for them? Because nine times out of ten, that’s the person I’m talking to.
Yeah. So, like, what do they want out of the product? Like, what are they buying it for?
Usually, to have more efficiency, more control over their team, get rid of admin, make things more efficient. This is very generally speaking for a variety of different companies, but that’s sort of the concept.
So yeah.
Like, and what does it look like once those are achieved? Right? Is there, like do they get kinda, like, a special bonus on that? Do they get to, wrap up their days earlier because efficiency is in place and admin tasks are off their plate?
Right? So, like, that would be and I’m not saying that this is the accurate desire, but it would be like, this isn’t just about, you know, getting, you know, a glowing review from your, you know, higher ups, and getting to check out on weekends because everything is fully dialed in. Right? And enjoying your, you know, workout without being tethered to your phone.
Right? However that appears for them. This is about x, y, and z. So, like, the shadow desires are still in that play it safe range.
They’re just really kind of like giving a bit more of their selfish motivations, right, versus the altruistic or the company and for the team motivations, if that makes sense.
Okay. Especially if they’re the the decision maker. Right? To get them in touch with some of their more personal, quote unquote, selfish motivations without making them feel selfish for wanting it. Like, that’s the key for it. Make them feel like this will help them achieve what they really want selfishly without them having to feel selfish for wanting it, if that makes sense.
Interesting.
So let’s take let’s take a monday dot com example because that’s the most well known. Monday dot com being a competitor of Asana and Trello and Wrike, and all these other project management tools.
Instead of saying something along the lines of, if you have a spreadsheet with seventeen tabs open and you are tired of reading through long in long email threads, and you feel overwhelmed, or the reverse, the virtuous, which would be you can be a better team manager and help your team members and be more efficient and hit more business goals.
What would sort of be the middle ground there?
So project manager. Right? Like, so so I’ve worked with many project managers, like, who’ve managed me as a copywriter, right, both, you know, internally and also, like, I’ve worked closely with project managers on teams I’ve kinda, like, implanted myself into during bigger launches.
And, you know, one piece of feedback, like, I’ve given project managers who are really dialed in, right, and really streamlined on their process and systems is, like, you know, no project I’ve been on has ever run more smoothly. Right? Like, that’s the feedback they love getting. Like, be the project manager that every freelancer loves working with, right?
That taps into their sense of pride, right? Pride being one of those emotions we talked about for shadow desires.
So pride is a good one to work with as well, because it’s a little more acceptable than competitiveness You don’t need to always go to competitiveness.
But what would make that project manager who’s using Monday feel really good about themselves? Like when they go home and they have dinner with their partner or their spouse, what are they saying? Like, so and so said this about me. Right?
And they’re confiding that to their spouse because that’s that feels safe. Right? But how can we incorporate that into our copy, if that makes sense?
So, like, just what are those little moments that you can Yeah.
It almost sounds like you’re like, all of the benefits that you typically see on a sales page, like, be more efficient, get more ROI, be a better be a better manager. It’s almost like instead of saying, like, the actual benefit, say, be the person that people say this about.
Yeah. Exactly.
Benefit, but just Yeah. Framed it.
Because that’s what they really want. Right? That they can’t say out loud. Yeah. Yeah.
That is a very cool point.
Mhmm. Yep. And you can make the language as, like, safe as it needs to be for any industry. It’s just really about the, quote, unquote, more selfish, personally driven desires for the thing.
Okay. I like it.
Cool.
I have a quest a question.
Let me come on camera. Sorry. So so talking about that and, you know, safe language and and how to weave this in. So assuming you have, like, a big tech you know, like, enterprise tech. Right?
Mhmm.
This is not something where we’re you’re doing sales letter type stuff, and it’s a it’s a they they they live in a completely different universe, and it’s a little bit more buttoned up. So Of course. But I have this situation where I have a product. And the thing is people are really afraid of if they choose the wrong vendor, they’re gonna lose their job, you know, because it’s a it’s a mission critical service.
Right.
So how how have you ever had a situation where you’re working in something like that? Because that’s really what is going on under the surface. They’re they’re, you know, they’re afraid of of they’re afraid of losing their job if they choose the wrong company.
Mhmm. And what’s the upside if they choose the right company?
That’s a good question. I hadn’t you know?
I I guess I’ve been worrying about, like, how to get past this fear that they have of choosing.
Mhmm. It’s that it’s that old thing of, like, you know, nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM. You know? Yeah.
That Right.
The upside would be that nothing happens, really. It’s quiet and everything works well.
I mean, you know, no more no more support calls, no more, you know, emergency meetings because some country is having lag time or whatever.
Yep. For sure.
I mean, this copyright, I’m guessing, like, the one making the decision, right, their main desire is simply to make the right decision, right, in this case. Right?
It it is. Yeah. Yeah. It is. I I mean, some of there’s a certain sub sub segment that’s motivated by, you know, being cutting edge and being on the bleeding edge with technology and doing the latest and greatest thing.
Yeah.
But that’s that’s a certain percentage.
You know, those are the people that tend to those would be, I’d say, like, the ideal customer avatar. You know? The ones that are that wanna be on the bleeding edge are the ones that are an easier sell.
Yep.
It’s the question is how to get those other ones.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’d say, like, this copy is definitely or this kind of format and template is definitely meant for a specific context where the one reading it is the one who stands to benefit, right, and therefore they’re owning their desires, how would we work that principle, right, into, into that enterprise environment? That’s a great conversation. Right?
I think it’s, like, just wherever we can identify any desires that they haven’t claimed yet. Right? And this is mostly going to come out in kinda like the one to one communication, I’m guessing. Right?
Not necessarily on, like, the page.
Yeah. Like, I think I think a fair question is, like, what does it look like when you’ve made the right decision? Right? Like, how is that celebrated? Like, how do you feel when like, maybe it’s literally just watching the new new tech be integrated and having a sense of pride in it, right, that they let it, that they champion it. Right?
Getting to talk about that, right, that they kind of, like, championed and spearheaded this new initiative. Right? So it’s probably more pride, I would say.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Pride that their due diligence and their decision was behind, you know, a multi six figure, you know, reconfiguration of something. Right? And getting to watch that in real time as it gets kind of implemented. So I would tap into the pride aspects, and, yeah, have that conversation, like, with that kind of audience of, How does this actually play out in real time?
And what are the moments within that that feel really good, really validating? So I think feeling validated is also really important for people, you know, in that position because validation brings the security that they really want. Right? That they’ve really cemented their place within the organization because of this thing that they helped, you know, usher in.
So I suppose, you know, performance KPIs would would be something that would be a a tangible outcome, you know? And that’s not like an ROI thing. It’s like a, you know, uptime performance and stuff like that. So technical those technical performance KPIs, I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. That makes sense. I think, like, the simplest version of it, and every context has its own nuances. Right?
Mhmm. Yeah. Especially in what that person could admit at lab. Right? A middle manager who’s making that decision might not even answer the question of, like, you know, why do they really desire to do this?
I mean, this would be a VP or a c level person.
You know? A CTO, CIO, the Yeah.
Director of engineering, that kind of Yep.
You know?
Yeah. I think, like, for what a successful decision and implementation means for them in their career and their sense of pride in their position pride in their position and also, like, cementing their status in the organization is probably probably gonna be something to play with, and it’s very nuanced in how you communicate.
Sort of like be the one be the one responsible for for your company’s zero downtime or something like that. Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, a headline that comes to mind. Right? And I’m not saying that we use headlines in this context, but it would be kinda like, you know, you know, this will be on your LinkedIn profile by June, right? Like some big thing that they led. Like that’s what they would be doing with you. Exactly.
Yeah. Like imagine this on your LinkedIn profile, right? Yeah.
So yeah, pride and accomplishment. Definitely play with those two.
Okay. Thank you.
What comes out of it. Thank you.
Hey, Ryan. I have a question. I feel like I work, you know, with, like, the coaches and and course creators where you might have already used this.
I like, I, I really like this technique. Just writing down like the seven deadly thins as ideas for places to find, the shadow desires.
But I guess, like, in the context of helping people make money online Mhmm. Like, is so the shadow desire in that is what they’re gonna do with the money or what they will be able It’s why they want it.
Why they want it. Okay. So I wrote I wrote the three that I came up with were like, this isn’t just about making yourself so personally secure that if your partner emptied your bank accounts and walked out the door tomorrow, you’d be like, solid for the next six months?
Yeah.
Having a program that your clients save rave so much about, they’re even talking about it inside other people’s coaching containers. Mhmm.
I don’t know. That one fell down. I was like, and out earning your early mentors so that your nervous system finally recognizes unequivocally that you’ve made it to the top?
That’s so good. I got chills on the last one. Right? Because it, like, brings in the competitive aspect, and it does so really art really artfully. Right? It’s not just like, crush your competitors.
Like, it’s not so, like, on the nose.
But but competition is a really good one when you can weave it in artfully, right?
Because that’s a really difficult one for people to own.
And I’ve never met anyone who was a hundred percent hundred percent altruistic and cooperative, right? It’s on a spectrum. It’s not like you’re either cooperative or competitive. It’s always on a spectrum. And even if you’re like eighty percent, you know, cooperative, rooting for everybody, there are these shadow parts of us that just want to win. Right?
For the most part, I don’t wanna overgeneralize. Right? So when you could speak to that, even if that’s, like, fifteen percent of who they are, right, or who they’re operating as, it’s such a charged fifteen percent.
And that’s what we’re looking for. Right? The charged part that’s really gonna make the decision.
So I guess my question is like, okay. Two parts. One, because I’m, like, writing about my own audience feels easy.
But do you have any tips for, like, is there a question you could ask in the voice of customer research or like teasing these out of other people’s audiences?
So one thing I mean, I I feel like I always return to this. Right? It’s the sales calls and the sales call recordings, and I’ve consulted with sales teams for, you know, the offers that I’m writing for. Mhmm.
So it’s like, first step, I’ll usually audit those calls. Right? And sometimes you’ll get a hint of that as like, well, why do you really want that? Why is that important? So kind of like those layers of why will sometimes reveal it.
Oftentimes, it’ll only partially reveal it, and then it’s my own kinda, like, empathetic nature, right, that will kinda read between the lines, right, of what they really want, right, but that they’re not actually saying.
So it’s rare that I’ll get this verbatim in VOC or an interview.
A lot of it will be, like, a person who said x, what do they really mean, and what do they really want? Right? And it’s me just kind of, like, bringing it to that level.
And that’s my favorite part about the research phase. Right? Like, it’s easy to get the stuff that’s verbatim. Right?
That’s already there. Right? I’m like, but what does this really mean? A person who said x, what are they really feeling but aren’t divulging?
And that’s usually where, the gold comes from. So, the short version of it is, yeah, sales calls, sales call audits, consulting with the sales team, even consulting with sometimes the customer service manager, if they’re really kind of, like, you know, involved day in and day out with, those students or with those clients, sometimes they’ll get that kind of rich detail that is, like, amazing. So even, like, thirty minutes or forty minutes with the customer success manager.
And they typically love being involved because marketing rarely loops them in even though they should be looped in. So yeah.
Okay. I can I can totally confirm that?
I’ve gotten some amazing insights from customer success Right.
That I never got from sales because they work with them long term. And so sometimes they can see those benefits play out and I never thought to bring in customer success.
I just brought her in because she was really smart and helpful and was was willing to talk to me, and Mhmm.
Like, she gave gold that I was never able to find in the discovery calls on Gong.
Yeah. That’s amazing.
Yeah.
And they yeah. They typically love being looped in because they just have so much to share and, like, no one listens.
Like, I once had a call that had, like, the head of sales, like, the director of sales and the director of customer, success, and, like, it’s like they barely talked to each other, right? I think that’s the first time they were in the same room, like in months, and they were learning things about each other’s departments in real time, and it was so cute. I’m like, Y’all don’t talk, ever?
Yeah. And there’s sort of a hierarchy within go to market teams, and it goes like, sales, customer success, marketing, sales engineer.
So, like, if you can talk to people lower down on the hierarchy, they’re more excited to Oh, totally.
Yeah. They’re like, my opinion matters. Yay. Yep. Exactly. Great point.
But the thing I just wanted to ask is, like, in I guess it’s similar to what, Naomi was asking, but, like, when you are dealing like, you know, on the online coaching space, there’s a whole, like, oh, but talking to pain points is yucky or, like, icky thing. Mhmm. Like, I guess I don’t know. I I don’t know what the question is there, but just I’m, like, getting customers or, like, clients on board with this. Like, have you ever had any pushback to somebody being, like, that’s too I don’t know. It makes the client uncomfortable to use these kind of techniques.
So the only time I’ve ever gotten pushback on this specific technique is when I personally overindulged and took it too far. Right?
Just because sometimes I enjoy writing shit. And I’m like, okay. Maybe this is a little too far from reality. Right?
And it needed to be reined in. Right? So it’s like, as much as possible, like, keep it once again within that threshold, right, of what is safe and appropriate for that industry and for that client and for their voice.
But, yeah, the only pushback I’ve ever got was when I took too many liberties on what was actually true and accurate and real. So you’re really trying to still keep it grounded in realism. Like, what is a person’s desires, like, legitimate desires for this, that they’re unlikely to be tuned into themselves or divulge even if it were true. Right?
But you don’t want to make assumptive leaps that are just too far out of reality. Right?
So it’s like in the example that you wrote, can you can you, like, read it out loud again?
Like, I just wanna Just the last one about out earning your early mentors.
Yep.
So that your nervous system finally recognizes unequivocally that you’ve made it to the top.
Yeah. Like, I don’t think you would get pushback on that cause that is such a legitimate desire, and you’re connecting it to overcoming that pain point of feeling anxious and destabilized in your career and your standing within it. Right? Like, and what you can do when you have pushback, right, is once again, like, you could link back that statement to voice of customer data that suggests that without saying it. Right? Like, someone who divulged this on the VOC or on this survey, they’re not saying this, but do you see the congruence, how someone who’s saying this would be experiencing this? Right?
So, yeah, I think, like, being being able to match match the shadow desire to what’s actually divulged and be like, no. This is actually is our data.
We’re just kind of revealing what isn’t being said or what’s being said between the lines.
Yeah. And how do you, well, it’s so powerful powerful because like everybody’s be everybody’s speaking to like, you want to make more money, but like, it’s really stand out to be like, we’ll be And, and we know that these are the reasons why.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That that’s a really powerful exercise in kinda make more money offers, right, is, like, the why. Like, what happens when they make more money, right, versus just a claim of make more money or double your salary.
Like, once again, white noise, and it just doesn’t connect to the actual experience of having more money. Right? And typically, it comes back down to security and survival related things. Right? Most things go back to security and survival, and nervous system, you know, regulation, as you mentioned. So, yeah, really great conversation.
And how do you how do you make those judgment calls? Because I consider myself a pretty intuitive person. Mhmm. But making these kind of judgments for people, that you’ve never met, can be a very difficult exercise.
Yeah. So so intuitive leaps when necessary. Right? Obviously, we’re not going to be in constant conversation with the prospects we’re writing for. Right? Sometimes we’re literally just, like, dealing with the data and the survey results, and all we really have are the intuitive leaps we can make based on what we have.
My defense for that is, like, you know, transcribing BOC is really easy. Right? I could do that, and I want us to write a ten on ten sales piece here. Right?
I wanna write something that hits a point that no one else is hitting that could help that prospect, that one reader feel fully seen here where no one else is willing to see them. Right? Like, in Katie’s example, like, that reader and that prospect likely will never have seen an ad, an email, or a sales page, or a sales call, or been on a sales call that suggested this is about outpacing their mentors and finally feeling like they’ve made it. Right?
Like, they probably will not have seen that before. And therefore, when that hits, and if it’s true, you just formed a connection that is incredibly powerful there. Right? So there is an intuitive leap based on data and based on hypothesis, and it’s like this tracks, right?
Someone who said this tracks to someone who would have this desire, and I feel good making that leap and putting that on the page, right? And ultimately, that’s the artfulness of it, right? It’s like using your intuition wisely because to me, like, that is still where there’s so much magic in being a copywriter and being a marketer, right? Like, one day AI is going to have all, you know, all the information to just, like, spit it out, and that’s cool and that’s amazing, but where can we use our own kind of intuitiveness to connect us that aren’t so obvious?
Cool. Okay.
Yeah. That is not a dog. That is my child. Casey, we’re hearing that. Okay. Good.
Zoom noise cancellation.
Sweet. Comes in handy. Sweet. Any other questions or comments or thoughts?
I have a non training related question, but happy to defer until if there’s any other questions about the training.
Can I just ask, can you maybe give some throw out some examples of things that aren’t related to pride or maybe related to some of the other, vices?
So not related to pride? Yeah.
Because I feel like pride is an easy one to understand. I’m interested in how it applies to others.
Sure.
So it’s like let me pull back that slide.
I’m revisiting, like, the seven deadly sins is actually a really good idea. So Jo had a framework on that, I believe, like, a long, long, long time ago. I’d ask her if she can dig that back up.
I think it was her fascinations, the seven deadly sins one.
Maybe. Yeah. It’s familiar.
But, Yeah.
I’ve seen it. I just find it hard to apply. I think the concept is very cool, but execution, I find challenging.
Right. Cool. So pride is obvious.
I I use laziness all the time. I use that all the Mhmm. Often.
Mhmm.
Sloth, I guess, would be the technical sin.
Sure.
I think read is a really, really important one if you can, once again, mirror that artfully because that’s a really difficult one for people to believe is true about themselves.
So it’s kind of like, what does greed look like in a way that isn’t so spiky, right, and isn’t so difficult to accept. Right? Because in some ways, like, any make more money offer is somewhat greed based. Right?
And yet those who buy them don’t feel necessarily greedy in buying them, right, or wanting that.
So it’s like greed is where you kind of like when you’re suggesting out earning your mentors, right? That is essentially greed based, right? Greed and competition. I’m kind of like looping those in together right now.
And you make it totally acceptable because physiologically, that gives you a response that feels like you’re returning to safety, right, and turning to nervous system regulation and all those things. So, yeah, so pride, greed, lust, right?
I mean, there’s literal lust and there’s other forms of lust.
You know, kind of like the, you know, the fitness example I just brought, right? Wanting to be desired, wanting to be attractive, right? That is a form of lust.
You know, and it doesn’t even need to be a sexual lust, it could just be lusting to be liked, lusting for approval, right? So when we talked about the project manager, that is kind of a form of a lust for approval.
There we go.
Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.
So you’re saying essentially that a lot of it is the same desire sort of packaged in a different way.
Yep. Exactly. It kinda gets filtered through, like, these different lenses of these, you know, more shadowy motivations. Right? Or you can call them, like, the deadly sins.
Like, the difference between pride and lust being that pride emphasizes how good you are, and lust emphasizes how much other people envy how good you are. Mhmm.
Yep.
Yep. Okay.
That’d be a way to put it. So it’s like, that’d be a really cool exercise. Like, I’m just kinda visualizing the framework of, like, there’s desire, and then there’s, like, these seven different kind of filters it gets kind of put through and that can have the same idea articulated in seven different ways.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Cool. Yeah. Thank you.
I think you’re good, Katie. Sorry.
Thank you, sir. You guys got totally wrapped up trying to remember all seven deadly sins.
But Haven’t you seen the movie seven?
The Bradford?
Yeah. That’s that’s my reference point, not not the Bible.
I I think that’s everyone’s reference point. It’s like and all I think of it is, like, Brad Pitt at the end with the box and, like, what’s he saying? What’s his famous line there?
I don’t remember.
Don’t know, but I was like, Brad. Yep.
What’s in the box? Yeah. I think it’s that. I don’t know.
Anyway.
So I had a client that I wrote a long form sales page for her hybrid course and coaching program.
And now she wants to launch just the course as a DIY downs well, I it’s not it so it was previously conceived as a downsell, but now she wants to launch that as a standalone offer.
Okay.
Like how and she’s she just emailed me saying, do is it a different sales page or do we just cut the group coaching components out of the existing sales page, which is a beast. Like, it’s like the longest sales page I’ve ever written in my life. So I’m curious to your thoughts on, like, a starting point for that.
Yeah. So she sold it as a downsell before. Right?
Yes. But only on a call. So she doesn’t offer that anywhere. And like, she hasn’t launched before. She just has, like, amazing SEO and she gets a tons of leads that way. So this would be her first launch style.
Yep.
The thing, of the DIY.
And it wouldn’t be within the context of them having, like, not bought, you know, the coaching package, right, or the coaching version. Like, this is really fully stand alone, even stand alone in the conversation. Right? Cool. I mean, if the sales page as it was written, speaks to everything that is still true about that audience, their desires, the problems that the product helps overcome, then I think the path of least resistance and even most effectiveness is just retooling that sales page to definitely remove anything that would be delivered only through coaching.
But, yeah, how do you feel about it?
Yeah, I I did like, I mean, definitely there’s gonna be chunks that need to go because, you know, she’s a, like, she’s a trained therapist. So we talked a lot about the benefits of like talking things through in that group container and everything.
Sure.
I guess, I’m just like, is it a different how much does it change the nature of the relationship? Like, I don’t I don’t know. I feel like because the the tone of the sales page was very much like, I’m gonna walk you through this and, you know, we’re gonna have all of these opportunities for feedback. And I’m I’m just wondering if it well, I guess if you’ve ever done anything like that before, like amending an existing sales page to pitch a slightly different version of the product?
Or if you would Yeah.
I haven’t I haven’t done that specific project before.
Yeah, kind of like definitely an accuracy sweep and an edit and a check, like, a hundred percent.
Even things that are implied or insinuated in terms of, like, the level of intimacy and feedback that they’re gonna have, I would definitely be mindful of that.
The things that are, in my view, like, definitely keepable, especially if the audience has resonated with them before and they’re accurate and true is anything that points to the desired outcomes and anything that points to the the current problem states and, you know, how that’s showing up for them. Like, all these things, if they’re accurate and they’ve been resonating, you can probably keep all of that. Right?
Testimonials might be something to, like, really, make sure you’re being accurate as much as possible. Like, try to get testimonials from those who have gone through the DIY. Right? Or if they’ve been private clients or the ones in, like, the coaching, container for it, I would just, like, make a note, right, like, you know, part of the the coaching container, right, to just not have that, yeah, that kind of, like, insinuation, right, that that’s an accurate kind of, like, one for one.
But, yeah, I think, like yeah. If you feel really good about how the copy presents and how it’s been resonating and the edit is a decent sized job, like, to be clear.
But yeah, I’ll just go for Yeah, go ahead.
At first I was thinking of pitching that in a day rate, but I actually feel like it might need the time and like repeated passes of a project versus trying to Yeah.
Okay.
Yep. Yeah.
Yep. I think so.
But what does that look like for you in terms of, like, the multiple passes?
Like, maybe we could just see Just like coming back to it, like, having more than a day to, like, kind of, like, leave it, come back and make sure that I haven’t missed something where they’re talking about a a call or a Yep.
I think, like, the first step of it would be to audit the current page. Right? Like, you know, yellow highlighters of, like, this has to go, this has to go, this has to go. Right?
Mhmm. Especially around, like, the languaging, as you said. And say that, like, in this filter and the sweep, I’m sweeping for x, y, and z. I’m sweeping for, like, accuracy.
What’s still going to be true for insinuation around intimacy and access. Right? So, like, kinda list the things you’re sweeping for and auditing for, make the check, and then kinda, like I would present that to her, right, and then say, like, my the next part of my sweep is to, like, remove these sections, make things more relevant and appropriate for the actual experience.
But, yeah, that’s not a one day thing. That’s multi stage, multi step. But, yep, I think yeah, that’s an interesting project. Keep me posted.
Cool.
I have a question. I’ve, I think I’ve asked this to Joe, but I’m interested to hear your opinion because I’m still struggling with it.
Okay.
In my area, meaning I work with mostly Israeli companies because I’ve been working in Israeli tech scene for five years, and so my whole network is here. Mhmm.
And I think that’s relevant because the Israeli tech scene is like, the whole tech scene is struggling, but Israel is struggling a little bit more because there’s less investments because of the ongoing war.
Sure.
So that means marketing budgets are even lower than they would be elsewhere.
Mhmm.
And so more and more companies that I talk to are cutting their paid media budget and putting more effort into social selling, meaning organic social media posts, but they’re calling it social selling because they’re putting a lot more of a strategic emphasis on it than they would have five years ago, or even three years ago.
So my background is more in acquisition, more in demand gen, optimizing landing pages, optimizing web copy, really very, very conversion focused. Mhmm. But the vast majority of people that I talk to are interested in more organic content.
Mhmm.
And so I’m wondering if it’s worth like, we don’t know what the future holds. Right? We can’t necessarily predict, where the market or where the geopolitical scene will be in the next six to twelve months.
But I’m grappling with the idea of, like, I’ve already taken on some of these clients, and I’ve learned a lot about these different forms of content.
I’m wondering how much should I be considering shifting my positioning as a company, to accommodate what I see as a shift in the market, or should I continue with this very conversion focused angle that I’ve been taking?
Yeah. That’s interesting. There’s, like, a few variables at play. Right? One of them you already kinda highlighted is, like, is this shift more kind of, like, temporary and seasonal and cyclical?
Or for all you know, right, or maybe once they’re in that, the ROI, right, is gonna be better than their other paid media channels, and they’re gonna wanna continue, amplifying that channel. So I think there’s variable number one is, like, how confident are you that the demand for that is going to continue and increase?
Right? Like, give that a confidence score on a scale of one to ten. Like, if it’s over seven, right, like, maybe yes or at least making that part of your official services and offerings, would be wise, especially if you think that they’re going to continue, wanting more of an organic presence, right, and more strategies around that.
The next variable I would consider is how necessary is it for you to position yourself as that to gain business in that? Because it sounds like those conversations are already happening just just like in your network, right? And that as long as you’re available to it, you’re going to get those projects anyway. So like, if that’s low importance, then I would wait a little bit, right? I wouldn’t, like, reposition yourself, so immediately. Like, wait to see where that trend line is heading, especially if you don’t need to reposition yourself to get that business, if that makes sense.
Yeah. That’s a really good point because it’s not like, like, it’s not goo Google is gonna disappear. Obviously not. Yeah.
Mhmm. But what I see is it’s becoming more and more common for, or it’s becoming more relevant for larger companies. So if you’re thinking in the VC world, you have series. Right?
Like, series a, series b, series c, series d.
And series a is, like, they still don’t they still haven’t finished building the product. Series b and c is, like, they’ve sort of hit product market bit, but they’re still growing. Series d and beyond is, like, they’ve got their shit together. They’re, like, they’re moving. Like, they have they have somewhat of a working workflow.
And I think that series d is sort of, like, seven hundred employees plus in mind. Right. Like, roughly speaking.
So it’s more like series d and up, where they’re really starting to ramp up their paid media channels. But by the time they reach that five, they probably have enough resources in house to manage that kind of CRO. And so, they’re not really looking to outsource it as much.
And so, I’ve gotten lots of job offers for that kind of position, but a lot newer freelancing the only really freelance opportunities I’ve got is from a reseller, actually, by Monday dot com.
So it’s a very, very different kind of company than the actual fast company.
Right.
And, obviously, the budget is small Sure. For paid media.
Mhmm.
Because if if it’s small, then there’s only so many landing pages they’re gonna have. They’re only gonna have, like, two, three campaigns.
Right.
But I think that I think it makes sense that, like, these because, especially, like, we talk a lot about, oh, am I a copywriter? Am I a conversion? Like but, like, clients don’t care about that language. Like, especially in a non English speaking they just give us content.
Like, what the hell are you talking about? Like, content is content. And content is emails and content is social and content is blog. Like, they they don’t think that way.
I’m actively imagining my Israeli uncle responding to that conversation right now in his very Israeli uncle y voice. Yeah.
Exactly. Like, there’s no word for copywriter in Hebrew. It’s.
What is this? I don’t care. I don’t care.
Exactly. Okay. You got it. You got it.
I get it.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. So I think that that’s how, like it’s helpful to think, like, if you have to make that dilution, you don’t necessarily have to make it now.
Mhmm.
Is what I’m taking from that.
Yep. Exactly.
Does that, give you something to move with or feel a little bit more sweet?
Awesome. Yeah.
I would add on to that too. It’s also, you know, instead of changing positioning, it’s you’re it’s more like, you know, the right thing to do at the right time and you’re responsive and savvy to what’s going on. You know? Does that make sense?
I mean, look, a girl’s gotta eat. Sometimes you just gotta take the grudges to come to you.
I know how savvy it is, or it’s just like, you know, I wanna Making sure you can eat is savvy.
Not that I owe my last dollar, but, like, I’m not at the point where I’m regularly turning away large amounts of work.
Awesome.
Cool. We feeling good for today?
Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Well, enjoy your long weekends for those taking long weekends.
I’m really hungry now all of a sudden. I’ll just talk about Chipotle and eating and, yeah, that’s my plan. So, yeah, catch you all on Slack. Hit me up if you have any follow-up questions on this as you begin to consider it or implement it.
Definitely here for it. Cool. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Bye.
Thank you.
The High-Class Problem Sell
The High-Class Problem Sell
Transcript
Today is, copywriting lesson, and then that’s followed an AMA that will go until we’re just done talking.
There’s a small group of us today, so no need to, maybe it’s just like a good time if you have, like, something you’re going through that you maybe didn’t want to share with more people or something, which I know happens.
It could be a good time to talk through that today too. So, as usual, be ready to bring any questions that you got any wins to preface them, and that can be any kind of win, just celebrating those good things that happen. This is being recorded. The worksheet for today’s session already went out that went out on Friday. It is the high class problem sell, which I’m really excited about. We’ve used it a couple times. And then I’ll show you the one example for a new page in progress that we’re working on, and how we use it there.
But as usual, yeah, just kind of be with me here, set your intention, just be present, closing down other distractions. If you can, I know life is real and all around us, but, whatever you can do to just kind of ignore your phone for a bit and other, you know, notifications that come in?
Yeah, everybody’s feeling cool. I’m I’m feeling really good today. Awesome. Okay. So open up that work If you haven’t already, got it open.
I will only share my screen if you don’t know what worksheet I’m talking about. Because what I’m going to do today is, a little different format that we’re trying for our training now which so far I quite like, but I’ve never done it live. And I have never done it one live, two unsupported by somebody on my team who can, like, talk and fill in the gaps while I’m like, oh, no. The text’s broken. So we’re just gonna try it here today, and see what happens.
But yeah. So the context for this is, you’ve got. I mean, we have so many ways to try to get into stories, into the argument that we wanna make when we’re writing copy.
Lots of different things that you can do but sometimes when it comes down to it and you’re actually writing the page or writing the email, I find that things can feel boring and repetitive pretty fast, not for your right not for your reader necessarily, but for you as a copywriter, I mean, we do data driven things and use better practices and frameworks, etcetera, but it can be tedious sometimes when it’s like a rule of three. So you’re always hitting three points in a row and it’s just like, kinda wanna break out of it. So that’s how I feel about it. The longer you write copy, the more likely you are to feel that way too.
If if this isn’t resonating, stick around. It’s going to eventually. So I like finding and identifying, and I’m sure you do too, identifying little new ways to attack parts of pages in particular. So what I’m gonna show you today is from a long form sales page, I first saw it on someone else’s long form sales page.
I wanna say a bazillion years ago, but it could have been last year. It all blends into one now. And I was really I was really interested it. So I kinda broke it apart and tried to reverse engineer what they were doing.
Tried it in a sales email for our freelancing school, promotion over the Black Friday weekend.
And, yeah, I’m feeling kinda cool about how it could be an unlock for you when you’re stuck. So, I’m going to share Just half a second while I choose the right one.
Okay.
Cool. So you should be seeing my iPad now.
Oh, are you?
Yeah.
Fancy.
I’ve just never shared my iPad before. So, but this is where we’re going to be working today. So This is an example of the opening of that that sales page that we’re working on for copy school pro. So you set up a big promise, like big.
The bigger, the better, and it doesn’t have to be a promise necessarily as in we promise you’ll get this. But something that’s really going to grab their tension. So really thinking about your audience and what they’re trying, what they most want. And that’s where on the worksheet, we have the, what’s really good about this is I can use three monitors now, which is cool.
We’ve got good outcome and then a high class problem. So we often talk about the good outcomes that people have. And these are good outcomes. These here are good outcomes that you might be looking for.
Right? It’s not a promise because it’s in the first person in quotation marks, which, of course, as anybody who has taken any of my training knows, unless I feel like I’m saying it all the time, but maybe I’m not, first person headlines in quotation marks are my favorite across the board. So how I, big thing, big thing, big thing, ending with the big thing, and then and then overcoming an objection right here.
But don’t you need a lot of money that, etcetera. So with the fifty thousand dollar ad budget, which is basically nothing. Okay. So we’re capturing their attention.
I’m not this doesn’t mean it’s ADA. I know as soon as I hear its attention, doesn’t mean it’s ADA. It might be though. But we’re gonna break it really fast.
So don’t try to look too hard for a framework here yet. Okay. Then we get into kind of something a little bit old school. So that is this.
Step one is opening up this idea that there will be something that follows later, a step two. So a small, not curiosity gap, but like an open loop. Right? There’s more to come.
This is just the first step, even if you forget that later. The point is not that you’re waiting around for step two, but it’s an interesting way to start, opening up that attention into something more kind of like a little more intrigue.
Re time, really old school. You don’t have to do any of this stuff for the framework that I’m teaching you or the cell that I’m teaching you today to work. I’m just walking you through kind of the decisions that were made here.
From the desk of, again, old school. I do like old school, founder of copy hackers, grader of copy school, inventor of conversion copywriting, and this is an important thing, mother of kittens, just because what we’re about to get into, we need to set a tone. So far, the tone is kind of bro y. Right? Like, look at all the, you know, money you can make and crap like that. And that can feel a little bit weird.
The tone can be a little bit. We have to make what I’m trying to do here is set it up so that we can have a little bit of fun going forward because this framework, as I’ve used it, has been about tapping into, like, a little bit of fun. The high class problem cell is, like, we’re going to talk about some high class problems And if you make it sound like a problem, that’s not gonna work. Right? Like, that’s the bad thing we don’t want to do.
Okay. So I’m just gonna pop over to the next one. So then we get into the next part of the page.
So we set set up this big cool thing that you can do. Oh, Sorry here. Let me just go back to this. So it opens with so I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve landed on this isn’t the first page you’ve landed on with big promises and enticing numbers.
And I’ll get to that in a second, but let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to? And this really means you could have put almost anything before this part. So I’ll get to that in a second is like, again, you could have done anything before that.
Accept what follows here in these bullets that are about to follow down here is we’re basically building on that cool outcome. So let’s say your cool outcome that you’re trying to hook somebody with is you’re gonna land a thousand customers in a month. You’re gonna land a thousand thousand dollar customers in a month. Really big, really desirable thing that they want that would, attract their attention.
And then from there, we’re going to find that less desirable outcome of that thing, the high class problem. So again, it could be anything to open.
But we want the bullets that follow the good outcomes and then the high class problems, to speak to that thing that just hooked them. So we have, and I’ll get to that in a second, but let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to? Then we have good outcome, Deliver World class copy.
Number one thing. It’s gonna be short in, like, actual length because we’re trying to pull them in. So a short bullet most of the sentences are short at this point. As you can see, they all end here.
Make lots of money for your clients or team and also for yourself good outcome. Cool. And now we start getting into the high class problems associated with those good outcomes, and we spend more time on them because we’re having more fun with it. We’re just kind of like enjoying our time talking to our prospect about the things they want being frankly as we’re about to see similar to the things that, we want.
So do you actually want to have super smart people ping you late at night when they’ve needed, when they need to crack a conversion problem when you become their go to copywriter? That’s a high class problem. You just got a ping in the middle of the night, but it’s pretty solid because someone cool is asking you for help and they trust you a lot. Do you really want to?
Do you actually want to go through life with a sense of guilt that everything is falling into your lap and you haven’t had to toil in the coal mine or perform open heart surgery after building years of schooling to get it? Wanna get so good at selling products that jealous people begin whispering about you and you have to start hanging out with a whole new crew of high achieving nerds? These are high class problems. And the reality is your prospect should want them.
Right? So then we say great. Then you and I want the same things, and then you continue on telling the rest of the story and still building on the stuff that you did. Although I can’t help you with another high class problem, which is the anxiety that overachievement brings or an outcome of a high class problem recommend a marriage counselor for when you spend half your summer texting with a network of smart people who’ve sought you and your genius out.
I can do these things, and then you get into what those things are, and that’s what we’re really here to talk about. But you’re capturing their tension with this like unexpected outcome.
And it’s not just the usual good news, good news, good news, life is always gonna get better as you get better and the levels are higher. Life is like way better. There’s real problems that are gonna come with it, but we’re not positioning them as problem problems. Just as a high class problem. Does this make sense?
Can you imagine how you might use this in your work?
Potentially? Okay. Cool.
So I’ll stop sharing that part and then just quickly walk through the worksheet.
So that you’ve got it. Okay. So the high class problems sell, as always, the worksheet and lesson will help you find a new way into writing about comes so that new way in particularly if you’re bored, but also if you just wanna try something else. Write sales emails or sales pages with that What you wanna do is list out your good outcomes and then the high class problem that comes with it. And this is the framework effectively, bit of a template for you to use. Cool.
Have what you need to use it. Alright. I’m not gonna make you. We can go through and do an exercise if you’d like to try it out. Otherwise, we can just kind of hop into question time or talking time.
Good talking time. Does anybody have any questions they wanna bring to the table today?
Everyone’s quiet.
Do you wanna do this as an exercise?
Go right for something? Okay. I think that’s a good use of time. So what I would love for you to do if you have a productized service, if you have a package of some kind, anything that you already have pre written copy for. So ideally not for a new campaign or something.
Anything that you might have on your site today or that you wish you had on your site today?
I would like you to take the next ten minutes to come up with the good outcomes and the high class problems and then try to fill this part in.
Doable?
Okay. Cool. I’m gonna stop sharing.
And then be sure to come off mute if you have any questions as going through it, and we’ll be back in ten minutes.
Joe, can I ask a quick question?
Love it. Yes.
I’m really I really struggle with ten saying. Right? It’s just my thing.
Like, am I am I writing it, like, in the future terms as or, like, am I writing it as if it’s happening or so it’s do you actually want to in the future?
Yes. So do you actually want to but it’s still written in the present tense. Deliver, not will deliver. So deliver world class copy. Do you actually want to And then it’ll just follow in, I guess, the imperative, really, because it’s just two. Does that make sense?
Yeah. It’s just my noob thing. Like, this is why I can’t write fiction because I struggle with Ted’s sake. That no.
That’s like Latin. Did you take Latin in school?
No.
Oh, okay. That messed me up for some things. So when I when people struggle with these things, I’m like, oh, you probably took Latin. So yeah, this is just like, do you actually want to, and then these are all just present tense. Do you want to have a call that sort of thing. Right? Just happening right now.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Jay. Sure.
Alright. Should we talk about that’s how to go?
Any luck?
Did it suck? Was it awesome? Is it hard? Did you get anywhere?
That was fun. I liked it.
Okay. What’d you work on, Abby?
I did for my day one evergreen package.
And, yeah, what I like about it is because, I find myself, like, using the same kind of messaging it with different clients like this kind of like, you can make more money. You can make six figures, and it’s starting to feel, like, quite stale. So I like the the high problem approach is a farmer around that, and I feel like it really boosts credibility because you’re not just saying, like, this is how awesome, like, life is. It’s like. Yeah. Yeah, take them out. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Okay. Cool. That’s wicked. That’s how I feel about it too. Like, it’s just a more interesting way to position of good outcome?
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Everybody else needs them any anything that didn’t feel that good or, like, you’re not it’s not clicking.
It wouldn’t work for you maybe.
I like that it’s very fresh, but it feels a little bit it feels a little bit exaggerated to me.
It feels a little bit Oh, yeah.
It’s on the sales. Page.
It’s gonna be a little. I hear you there. So what would you what how would you modify it?
Any idea?
Well, I mean, the the goals that I have are are more immediate goals. But the tone feels a little bit of still feels a little bit much even though the actual things I’m writing about are realistic.
Okay. Can you read yours and just share so we can hear what that sounds like?
Yeah. So I am looking at the, the service page I have for, PVC.
So Google Landing Pages and, social ads. So I wrote do you actually want to watch your pipeline fill up with qualified leads effortlessly?
Capture all of the great top of funnel demand your social media. Is generating, become so efficient at attracting new leads that AEs are so overwhelmed with demos that they tell you to slow down the campaign so they can focus on the lead they have and attract so many good opportunities that you actually cringe when influencers cry about pmax ridiculously broad, broad campaigns, and Google’s ever changing algorithm on LinkedIn over and over again.
But the tone, the tone still feels off to me even though those are like very realistic. Things.
Okay. What feels off to you? I guess I wonder as, like, for me, I I heard it and I was like, cool. That sounds dope. That sounds like Yeah. Who wouldn’t react well to that?
Some won’t. Some won’t. But usually, those are the people who are just like I I won’t I won’t think about those ones as much as the people who are like, yeah, I’d like to have that problem, you know, and you’re like really getting there, but how did everybody else feel when you were hearing it?
Any notes for Naomi?
I thought it was really cool. I liked it. Yeah. I didn’t feel like the tone was off. I mean, obviously, I don’t know what you’re going for, like, generally with your tone, but, yeah, I thought it was cool.
Okay. Yeah.
I didn’t feel like the tone pull up either, but yeah, again, same as Abby, but the tone didn’t seem like off to me for off footing.
And I know it can feel like a certain audience, your audience, Naomi, wouldn’t respond well to that, and you may absolutely be right. I would just be curious to test it out, give it a shot, see if they do.
Yeah.
Cool. Awesome. Anyone else wanna share?
Yeah. I’ll share mine. I’ll be. I’ll be able to get feedback on it. Okay. Cool.
It’s a bit it’s obviously a bad fish drop. Okay.
But let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to wake up to sales every day, automate your entire sales process? Miss out on the I mean, Rausch, you usually get when you get a sales notification because it happens so darn frequently that the sensible thing to do is to turn stripe notifications off altogether.
Stop having those indulgent. Ugh, it’s just so stressful conversations with fellow course creators because you’ve hopped off the live launch roller coaster and are now making launch size revenue while on vacation.
Having awkward tail between your legs conversation with your SSO when they ask why you spent twenty k on ads this month and you have to loan that you turned that twenty k into two hundred and twenty k, and now you’d like to buy a vacation rental five minutes down the road from the end loss.
It’s fun. That’s fun. Those are some high class problems to have to have that awkward conversation anyway.
I just can’t relate to the last point about moving close to your in laws. But other than that, it was so infuriating that you’re that good at writing copy that quickly, which I always tell you that.
That’s awesome. Yeah. It really does it was what I liked was. It was so great about qualifying who she’s speaking to. It’s ridiculous.
I mean, if you can’t relate to that, you’re gone and Yeah.
It’s a good side effect. Right? Like, all of these other outcomes of that. That’s really a really good point.
Yeah. Thanks, Jessica.
And you can tell you had fun writing it. It doesn’t sound like it was a slog or you, like, it gets I think it’s exciting. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that it’s, like, it’s a fun framework to use. It’s, like, nice to to deviate from, like, the usual, like, I just always use PAS.
So Yes. Same. Yeah. Cool. Anyone else wanna share? Jessica?
Yeah. Let me follow Abby.
Jessica.
No. I honestly I mean, I could It was for my seasonal sale thing, which I think you know I’m fleshing out to turn from a what used to be a productized service like thing to a signature.
So I and actually I get I don’t know if this is I think where I struggle is the whole dream state because I feel like I haven’t confirmed this desire for a e commerce client yet. That they really see the connection between. No. No. You can really double your, you can increase your sales for your seasonal sale. But at the same time, you can be creating these long term relationships.
And so it kind of I think that’s where I struggle. So, I mean, I can read you parts of it, but it you know, it’s nowhere near what Abby’s is and it’s partial as per usual with me. Jessica.
Read the whole m thing.
We wanna hear get to that.
Do you actually want to double your next seasonal sale revenue? See a massive increase in LTV over the next? Whatever months, clear out your inventory and have to work quickly with your team to figure shit out. Provide on-site therapy because your team dressing out and worried they can’t get orders out on time, which will inevitably lead to unhappy customers.
And that’s as far as I got.
Cool.
Took a little extra negative on the last one there. It wouldn’t pull back on that one a bit, but no. It was good.
It’s yeah. Just make sure it stays a high class problem. Like Okay. Well, yeah. Like, my diamond shoes are too tight. That’s gotta be the effect. Right?
So yeah.
Okay.
Cool. Cool. Love it. Jessica, you did that so fast. Really?
Oh, thank you. I’m always asking I’m begging Abby for tutorials on how to be fast. That’s what I wanna know.
You just did it.
Nice.
Nice. Cool. Anyone else?
I won’t put you on the spot by calling on you, but I’m probably looking at you.
No one.
Alright. Alright, Katie. Welcome to the crew. You just missed the the tutorial there, but you’ll get the replay after. So I think it I think we had fun with it.
So yeah. Now, if anybody has any questions or wants to talk shop, what are you going through right now? What should you be working on that you’re not that we can help, like, unlock? Jillian.
Okay. I have well, I’ll start with a win. It’s not a money win. I guess I shared that in Slack recently, but my current win is that, I’ve been severely low in iron for like my whole life and didn’t know it.
So I was like this year I’ve been like fainting and like feeling really dizzy and I’m finally back a normal iron level. So it means I can exercise again, which is life changing. So I wasn’t really able to exercise this past year. But it really helps with, like, energy and productivity.
And it’s really Yes. Exciting. So I was going to use it in Doing a lot of stuff.
Congrats. That’s amazing. Yes.
So that’s why I win.
Coming with a little more energy.
Huge. Energy is everything. Yes.
Everything. Yeah.
So on that note, my question is maybe a bit unwieldy, but as I mentioned, I’m like I was going through your training again from a couple weeks ago.
Started watching Shane’s training.
And I’m thinking about, like, the brand also reading PenX is easier than two x, and so I just feel like I have a lot of ideas. Swirling and kinda wanted to like throw them out there and just like get some thoughts.
So I’m focusing on pricing pages, which is a new, you know, I haven’t worked in SaaS that much. I worked with a lot of different companies on websites, a little bit of SaaS that like kind of across the board. So I’m trying to figure out how to balance, like, my current client, and so I do websites with who are not SaaS primarily, and still have, like, my website is geared towards that. I kinda wanna put up a different website so that I can still serve my current customers in the meantime and not be like out money and just, you know, diving into this new thing. Yeah. So the idea that I have is, like, I know you said the brand really starts with, like, your opinion and your viewpoint, which I feel like I’m still developing, but I have, like, a general idea since no one’s really talking about pricing pages yet, which is that like everyone’s kinda missing the point. Of the pricing page, like, they’re all doing it wrong, basically.
And that’s, like, very general. There’s more that goes into it, but the the name that I have or the idea for, like, a book and a podcast and maybe, like, my site, I’m wondering if they can all be the same, is, like, the pricing point. I’m talking about how I don’t know if that’s, like, even a good title or not, but that’s the idea that I’ve been working with. Okay.
Just like, yeah, talking about how everyone’s missing the point, and like they’re all treating it like, you know, they’re putting so much time into their other pages and optimizing, and then they get to the pricing point and it’s just like they get to the pricing page and everything just deflates. Like, that’s the point of the sale, and it’s like, you know, very matter of fact. Here’s the even big brands, like even huge companies they look at are doing this. I think they’re all kinda dropping the ball at that point.
When it should be like the height of excitement value and, like, it’s the most critical point. Yeah. Absolutely. I know it’s a big I’m like rambling now, but, like, I’m just wondering if, like, Should I go in this direction? Because I’m, like, wanting to start doing this stuff, but I just, like, wanna know if that makes sense if it’s, like, on the right track to start with.
Okay.
I’ll jump in first and anybody who would like to add anything.
I’m so happy that you’re doing this, Jillian. Like, I know I’ve expressed that to you, but men, there’s nothing but room out there for this. And it’s it’s like, that’s it’s the money page. Right? Like, it seems like such an easy sell once you start raising awareness for the problem.
Sounds like you understand what your point of view is. I know you said it’s developing, but it’s like y’all are doing it wrong. Like, that’s a good place to start. Right?
Especially since it’s, like such a blue ocean still. There’s not that much competition out there. So I think it’s safe to go with something big like you’re doing it all wrong. Like, full stop.
That’s it. Like, you’re I’m you’re gonna need a lot of help, and I can help you with that. It leaves a lot of room for you to have thought leadership, and to say contrary in things or to, like, make them aware of things that they hadn’t had any clue about, which is always good for, you know, likes on so and comments and things like that. So the pricing point, how did you get to that name?
I don’t know. How do we get to anything?
There. I think it like came to me first. I also thought the URL was available. Also it kind of like ties into this whole thing of like like maybe I can say what the point is. Like, everyone’s missing the point. Like, they think the point is this, but the point is really this.
And also, like, Yeah. I don’t know. That was kind of the the main. And it seemed like kinda short and Yes. It’s not gonna be a subhead.
Like, if it was a book, there’d be like a subhead of I don’t know what that is yet, but Yep.
Totally agree. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think great. And it does, like Jessica chatted out.
Leaves a lot of room for expansion.
Yeah, and you can speak to value, like, what the actual point of pricing is. Right? And those are bigger conversations that are really intriguing. Yeah.
Everyone loves it.
Yeah.
Who else wants to share thoughts with Jillian?
Can I can I offer a, perspective? Sure.
When it comes to SAS, you should keep in mind that there are a lot of very complicated SaaS products that don’t have a pricing page because a lot of that happens in sales negotiation.
Because a lot of times they have to customize the software to fit the solution.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be like a fifty thousand dollar software product. It happens at lower pricing points too, and a lot of companies choose not to put pricing anywhere on the website because either they’ve tested it or they believe that adding the pricing will increase the, or will reduce conversion rate, regardless of whether that’s true or not. That’s what a lot of companies think. And it may be true on desktop versus mobile or the reverse.
So I would make I think that it would be worth while to expand the conversation, they use because they they usually have a plans page that just doesn’t have pricing on it and it goes through like what you would get with the enterprise suite versus the mid tier versus the small, mini business tier. So I would make sure to not leave them out of the conversation.
Because there are a lot of companies that fit into that category, and your point can still be relevant. It would just have to be adapted to a much more business mindset.
Well, and I think that that’s a fair point. I think it does speak to the need to just identify who that audience is.
I think the SaaS that you’re talking about, Jillian, are people who have Who have.
Have a debt that says pricing in the nav of which there are bajillion so versus people who have sales teams. So we’re talking more people who are product led growth and are likely to have pricing pages at some point that they, and usually, visitor facing ones, and then behind the scenes.
Post use post activation ones. Yeah. Is that accurate, Jillian?
Yeah. That makes that makes sense. But, yeah, it’s a great point, Naomi.
Thanks for thanks for Yeah.
There’s a huge market. SaaS is enormous, obviously.
So it’s just really identifying. Okay. These are although it can be useful to get the enterprises that don’t have pricing pages, it’s just like anybody who doesn’t have copy. It’s really I can’t do much for you.
Like, you’re gonna need to believe in copy or else. It’s like, I can’t sell you copy school, and you can’t sell a person without a pricing page. Pricing page insights. So cool.
Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Anybody else wanna share?
With Jillian or feedback on what Jillian’s working on.
Nope. Awesome.
Jillian, you feeling good?
Yeah. I love that.
It’s like a book cover.
Yeah. And it gives it fine to have, like, you know, a, like, a book, like, if it was a book and a podcast, and, like, even the site, like, just have it all have the same name, like, even where I’m selling my services, keep the same name for everything.
That’s I mean, g n Claire did that with forget the funnel. Yeah. Everything is forget the funnel.
And I mean, juries out. It’s they’re doing, like, a bad ass business. So I would say it’s probably, like, a good Studiesing that story brand, same thing.
Mhmm.
Yeah. So probably okay. A thing to overthink at least.
Okay. I well, I got the URL for it, so I think it’ll just, like, start and I can keep my current site, like, with my current customers.
And kind of start doing the new thing at the new place.
Yeah. Totally. Totally. Cool.
Oh, thanks everyone.
Thanks. Thanks for sharing a nice win.
Excellent. Life changing.
I mean, energy for real though. Like, I have a new energy going with some life changes that I’ve made too, and it’s like energy. It’s a good thing. It changes everything. So that’s cool.
Anybody else wanna share what they’re working on or going through or struggles? Esther Grace.
Hey. Can everyone hear me?
Yep.
Okay. Awesome. So a win. I shared this in channel already, but copy hack is closed. Still excited about that.
Well done.
Thank you. And okay. So I need help with lead generation.
So I’ve nailed down my ideal clients, my customer avatar, all of that.
My offer, even a bit of the delivery system, But right now, I really just want to get on more sales calls.
So I realized last week that I love sales calls. So I did resales calls in the past two weeks. And just those three made me feel so energized about my business. I’m like, this is awesome.
Like, I love talking to these people and selling them on what I on what I do. So where I am right now is I’m also, like, couple of us here. I’m also reading ten x is easier than two x. So I’m not creating any plans to just gradually increase revenue from year to year.
Like, this was one of the thing, Joe, I think you talked about during the CSP info session. About want to be a copywriter who’s gradually increasing revenue from year to year and then in five, ten years before you hit, like, five hundred k. You want to be the one that just ten x is essentially. So that’s kind of where my mindset is now.
It’s more of how do I get this new offer, this new system that I’m building to generate one m in revenue in the next twelve months. And I actually ran the numbers, and I realized it’s actually very possible.
Okay.
It would just take, like, two clients with a high retainer fee and a performance based assistance.
It’s email marketing, so I can do performance basis as well and track everything. So it would literally say two clients if I was going to work on it solo. But if I was building a small team, then I can take on even more. So just running those numbers made me realize how possible it is for me. And so now it’s just like, okay. How do I get on those sales calls to book those two major clients that are going to bring in the revenue.
So what are you doing for lead gen right now? What’s top on your list?
So right now, I’ve been doing a lot of warm outreach. So just people I know asking for referrals, The the that has been my most active lead gen method. So it’s like being in groups, responding to messages, networking, pretty much.
Thought about cold outreach because I’m also still doing my authority building, like, systems. I’m still doing all of that, but I’m like, okay. I still want to get those leads, like, in the next one thirty days, thirty, sixty days. So I’m trying to do some more active, outreach methods as well. So that’s pretty much where I am.
Okay. So how many people are you reaching out to? A day for the warm leads. Let’s pause cold. We’ll ask that next, but warm leads, how many a day?
About two a day. K.
Do you think that’s enough?
About ten people.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so it’s a numbers game. Right? Like, There’s the two. There’s several ways you can go about this. One part is authority building stuff with content that you put out there all the time and then bigger content, and that can feel like a long game. It doesn’t have to be, but it also is a long game too.
Then we’re talking warm leads and cold outreach. So outreach to warm and outreach to cold. It’s good to do both.
But the more you have to do a lot of Right? Like, this is you’re reaching out to people, and you have to hit them right and at the right moment. So It’s a numbers game. So if you’re just doing two a day, what’s stopping you from doing twenty a day?
Oh, so the warm outreach, I just don’t know that many people.
That’s what you think. You don’t know that many people. But I would say really, like, think through everybody that you know and that they know. And I know that can feel like, oh, aren’t I getting in people’s way? I mean, you’re an entrepreneur and this is part of the job. If if your goal is get more leads in because you wanna get to a million dollars a year.
You have got to earn what you want, and that’s how you earn it. It’s hard. It’s hard, but you pick up the phone or you send the email, and but you have to do a lot of it, like, a lot a lot.
Like, an uncomfortable amount. And this is where some people, when they have, like, partners, and they’re both invested in it. That can, like, you spread the job out across two people, which is why a lot of people end up building companies together because it’s a lot of quantity, quantity, quantity, and then there’s the cold outreach. And it’s a doable thing.
People do it all the time. Don’t do it. That’s because I didn’t have to do it. But if I had to do it, it would be a matter of, like, go a hundred a day.
And this is like figure out, you’ve said you’ve you’ve run the numbers. So if What’s your close rate right now? Do you happen to know what it is when you get someone on a call? How many people close out of ten?
So I haven’t had that many sales calls.
That’s the problem with Okay.
Yeah. That was right. Yeah.
So getting in leads, so you wanna make sure that you’re getting these leads into a sales process that isn’t just going to, like, burn up all of these people that you spoke with. But you’re energized about them when you actually get to talk to them and have that sales call.
Make sure you’re running that right. So we have that Huka, sales call training this Wednesday, attend it. Take notes. It’s smart.
And it’s an hour to fucking nail this stuff. So attend that.
And then it’s if you’re gonna do leads, cold outreach and warm, the numbers game, get up every morning, put it in your calendar, do it when you have energy, do the hard thing, personalize the cold stuff, obvious we’ve got that training in copy school dot copy hackers dot com.
But it’s it’s an because it’s a numbers game, if you get one and one hundred people to hop on a call with you.
You gotta, like, that’s why you have to do. A hundred of them a day. You can’t do two a day. It’s not gonna lead to anything except for frustration.
And you’re like, nothing works. No. It it can work, but it’s you have to do Does that make sense? So what I would like you to do is put together, like, a list of warm outreach and cold that you can do, like, give yourself a a to do list of every single day.
I’m going to reach out to five people I know and fifty people I don’t know every morning without fail. And if you can get in that habit, which you have to get. This is your job. You have to get in that habit.
Then you can start to see the needle move, and then you’ll be more inspired to go like, okay. Well, if I’m doing fifty cold outreach, cold attempts a day, And it’s bringing in four people.
If I double it to a hundred, now I’ve got eight, and that’s a lot better to deal with, and you’re gonna get so much better at cold outreach that you can outsource it to a VA because you’ll have it nailed down what to say, how to say it, how to get people onto that call, how to get them to show up, Like, all these reps, all this practice work is the stuff that’ll get you there. But two reps, and you expect you’re gonna, like, build muscle, I lifted the weight twice.
It’s gonna take a little more than that. But you’re doing it. Just do more of it.
Yeah.
And would you see those are the, like, two main, like, lead gen strategies? Or is there anything I’m missing besides those two of an authority?
Oh, yeah.
No. There’s more. It depends if you have money to spend. If you’ve got money to spend, there’s lots of other things you can do. And it doesn’t have to be a lot, but you have to have, like, fifty bucks a day to spend boost things to hire people to do the work for you, stuff like that. I would say start there. Start getting traction.
There. Your immediate network is the place to go first. The people you know that you’re just not thinking of how to really go after them, and then it’s follow-up. As well without saying the word follow-up.
Like, it’s it’s, hey, I talked to my cousin who has a skin care who works at a skin care company. I talked to her one time about it. Okay. Well, now you have to go back and talk to her again.
And again, and wear her down. She’s your cousin. She’s gotta give you work, and that’s just the way it is.
But really it’s like quantity.
More and more and more if you’re still trying to build up leads. If you had and I sit and still do all your authority building stuff as to grace, you’re, like, all of these things work together. Have you read hundred million dollar leads by Hormoza?
That’s next on my list. Yeah.
I was planning to read It’s really practical, like super practical.
And it comes with a bit of a course as well. So check that out, but it really will come down to quantity. Yeah. Cool. Anybody got any notes? For Esther Grace based on what you have done to get leads.
In person networking, going to things. But, like, every single thing you do, you need to do intentionally. Like, I know people who have gone to networking events and they kinda just stand at a table.
It’s like, no. No. No. No. No. You have to work it. You gotta, like, get in there and say hi.
And like, have a pitch ready to go, like, be able to open. So there’s opening and then there’s closing. Right? And so a lot of people suck at the open part.
Maybe you’re okay with closing, but all we’re talking about to get leads is like constantly opening.
So being able to go to a networking event event that’s possible and and do the open. Be ready to start asking questions about their business and Sounds like you’re working on x, y, or z. I do that too. Do you think would it make sense for us to have a talk about this?
Like, should we book a call? Like, be ready to to get moving on something, not just like, oh, cool. And, like, falling into the friend zone, which can happen a lot. So just, like, everything you do, be intentional about what you’re gonna do with it.
Katie also said the five day five k challenge. Totally. It’s, it’s still available.
Yes. So take that too, but don’t just do it once a month. Do it every five days. Yeah. Cool.
Jessica, do you wanna say that out loud?
I was just gonna say Abby wrote a blog post and did a tutorial on utilizing Facebook groups And I know she, of course, has had huge success with it, but I know other people have too applying what she taught. So I don’t know if where your audience is, but can’t hurt.
Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely.
Love it.
I think I’ve read the post op yet.
I think I told you about it.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s the her tutorial is, pinned to the top of our YouTube channel right now over on. On YouTube. So check it out.
It’s great. Perfect. Okay. Good luck, Esther Grace. Set a goal too. How many warm, how many cold, you’re gonna do a day, and how many you need to get in booked calls every week.
And then post, follow-up in slack when you get those wins, just let people know, like, and my goal was four bookings this week, and I got five. And, like, make that happen. You can. Cool.
Anybody else have anything else? Thanks, Esther Grace. Any questions or anything you wanna share with others?
Hi. One question. Yeah.
Well, I have lots of questions, but, I will start with the most relevant one. So I was approached by a, sorry, I spoke in an event, about a few weeks ago. And so afterwards I was approached by a marketing agency, and it seemed I really feel like marketing agencies are an ideal source, an ideal client because They’re focused specifically on demand gen. They don’t have to answer to a CMO or to upper leadership quite in the same way that somebody who works in house would.
And they’re very data driven. And they tend not to be creatives. So they tend not to provide as much pushback, as somebody who works in house. So anyway, I had a call with the, with a guy again today, and we agreed on a to start with, like, a social ad, for more top of funnel work.
And what I ended up doing this time around, which is different than what I did last time around, last time around, I sold a company just like a bank of ours. And this time, I gave him a pricing page and I said, okay, a set of ads is this much, and a landing page is this much, And then so I’m gonna send him a proposal. We’ll sign the proposal, and then he can just add whatever he needs as he goes, and then at the end of the month, I’ll send the invoice to HR to accounts receivable, and then I’ll be able to bill them. But I’m wondering there’s anything I because I feel like this is such an ideal client, if there’s something I’m missing out on that I could be doing to make it easier for them or to increase the amount that they would get from me from the beginning and that initial conversation.
Whether that’s like, should I expect them to say, oh, well, you should get at least this amount, to increase the amount that they would get from me, or would that be a little bit too aggressive because they sort of get projects rolling in as they come? I’m not sure exactly.
What they’re working on, it could be a little bit too demanding for them right at the outset. So I’m wondering if there’s something I’m missing out on that I should have done and could do hopefully next time.
Yeah. Cool. Who’s working with agencies? Who has been through what Naomi’s going through? Nobody subcontracts?
I used to, but I’ve just always do it on a day. Right? So I can’t I don’t really know how to haven’t got anything to give. I’m afraid.
So what did you do? Why did you choose to do a day rate or why did they like a day rate? What was the reasoning there?
Well, actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I told them it was a date. Right? I think I just priced it in my mind. It was, like, lead gen like, I’ve done a few. I did for a lead gen funnel.
Oh, like a lead gen agency, like, a few emails and stuff for a, SaaS company. So I’d yeah. I was like, oh, I’ll just it was always gonna be, like, fifteen hundred or whatever, for the emails. But in my head, I was like, okay. I’m booking myself for VIP to do those. And then I did the same thing with, like, course agency as well.
But, yeah, that’s I mean, that’s just because at the time, I really liked the IP days.
Yeah. Okay. That’s fair. But they responded well to it as a day rate. Did you did they ever know it was a day rate? Did you tell them that?
I don’t even think so. I just, like, they just didn’t really seem to care. They were just like, okay, like, we need you to do this. What does it cost? And that was kind of it.
Yeah. Okay.
But, like, every time they need like, did you work with them multiple times? And every time they needed you, they booked a day rate.
No. They just said, can you do these, emails or whatever? And I was like, yeah, sure. And then booked myself in as, like, a day and build them the same.
So I was just kinda like, if I I would always say yes. I was just at a time in my life where if I was, I would be happy to give up a Sunday for, like, the extra money. So I’ll just be like, sure. Yeah.
I’ll do it.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I’m wondering about I’ll go ahead, Naomi.
The difference in these kind of agencies are specifically working on Google and social. They’re demand gen agencies, or or it’s usually either Google, or Google and social or LinkedIn.
So it could be like the ads aren’t working. It’s time to refresh the or we want to start a new campaign for this specific persona, or we have a new ABM approach that we want to do, and so we need copy but they don’t necessarily know when they’re gonna need those ads or when they’re gonna want to improve the landing page because it depends on how the campaign performs. And so there’s a level of unpredictability, and which is good to have work rolling in. Like a lot for most of my clients, I’ll have work coming in on a rolling basis.
And I think that having something that’s not connected to ours is definitely more efficient, but I I don’t think that possible to be efficient to the point where I can say like, okay, I can do this within a day.
Yeah. No. I mean, I know, like, some summer, she used to do, like, credits. I think, like, someone was talking about this in Slack today, but, so she would have, like, kind of a menu of what each credit can buy, and then the credits roll over if they weren’t used in, like, the month. So it was kind of like a retainer y type thing.
So she’d get paid, like, every month they’d buy, like, two credits or whatever.
So they would have to commit to a certain number of credits?
Yeah. Yeah. But then they could rush. She would let them roll over So if they only used one, she’d be like, okay, that’s fine. We can use it next month. If next month, you have, like, more clients. So that kept the client happy, but also had that kind of security of a retainer for her.
Yeah. I mean, to me, it’s kind of tricky because every time you work for an agency and they have multiple clients, you have to learn new things about each client in order to write for them. Right? So it’s like you’re taking on a new client every time. Even if you redo and you work for the same client effectively a month later, whatever.
But it’s still it’s a lot of, like, learning time.
Have you experienced that Naomi?
That it is.
I’m, like, Yeah. This is the first agency that I’ve Oh, okay.
Okay. Cool. So and that’s where it’s tricky with credits. We had our credit based agency years ago called Snap that Leanna and James now have.
And it was it was good in some ways, but you do have to spend time thus spend a credit on, like, learning a thing. Like, what’s the what is this product?
And so that has to be baked in, and that’s where I really like the VIP day.
Because it’s like I can do all sorts of things. In that time. I can, like, and if it’s really important to them, I guess I’m just worried, Naomi when you say you, like, you would sell them a landing page.
It’s fine. It’s doable.
It’s, how are the margins though? Like, the reason that I rarely recommend sub tracing to an agency is you just don’t make as much money because they’re charging what you would charge, and now they have to make a profit on you. Yeah.
No. They’re they’re giving me work. They’re the client.
Yeah. But they’re an agency, a demand gen agency that pays that gets paid by their clients.
Yeah.
They’re an agency. Yes.
But I’m not doing the subcontracting contracting.
There’s subcontracting to them. They’re they’re so the client has the contract with them, and they have a contract with you.
Right. So I’m the subcontractor.
Yeah. So you’re the subcontractor. Exactly. Okay. And so every new contract down is, like, losing money losing money losing money lose.
So if you have a subcontract you’re gonna pay them half of what you would charge, and the agency is gonna pay half of what they’re gonna charge at best on a good day. Because they also have overhead and all sorts of other expenses. So if they’re charging it’s probably if it’s demand gen, their performance base, they’re on retainer with the client, it possibly getting a percentage of how things perform depending on who the client is. Okay?
So if they’re making, let’s say, they’re making, they’re billing their client ten thousand dollars a month for services.
They, as a business, need to make a profit to continue to exist.
So they’re trying to get three thousand dollars off that. That leaves them with seven thousand dollars a month to spend on resources for that client. They have their own people that they’re paying and all of the expenses that go along with shipping something out, taking someone to lunch, whatever that other crap is too. And then comes money for the subcontractor.
That’s you. So that’s where I hear subcontracting, or work for an agency as a subcontractor. And, I don’t love it because you have to really optimize your time because you’re not gonna be able to make that much. As much money as you could if you were direct to the client. If you were like, I can do that for you instead and here’s what I charge.
And so that’s it. So how can you if you’ve got three thousand dollars that you might make off them in a month for that one client, let’s say, what can you do to ensure that you are maximizing the amount of money you get for the time you put in. Obviously, it’s all it’s always our game.
And that’s where a VIP day sounds like really good. You could charge two thousand dollars. They can budget that in easily for their differing clients. And as they’re planning on what to do next month with their clients and new clients they take on, they’re like, okay.
Well, Naomi can write a landing page in a day. If you can. Naomi can do, analysis in a day. So we always have to book for every client every month.
We need Naomi two days for each client. So we’re going to budget in four thousand dollars when we’re estimating something with clients. Right now, you have to figure out what they’re estimating with clients right now because of their thinking and have you it sounds like you haven’t talked to them about what you’re what you cost or have you?
Yeah. Give them a pricing sheet.
Okay. So you what what does your pricing sheet? What do you have on it, Naomi? What does it say?
I have an add landing page web copy.
I think I added research can bring it up.
Yeah. It’s like a it’s like a menu.
Yeah.
I made it very simple because, I I figured selling hours was just not going to be sustainable so I Yeah.
Figured this would be a good solution, but I didn’t over complicate it.
Yeah. It’s good not over comp of course. That’s great. And a rate sheet can be a good thing to share.
But if the objective is to make good money off them, on an ongoing basis.
So what’s wrong do you think is broken with giving them the rate sheet right now? What’s not working there?
It’s I I would say it’s more that I would like a more long term commitment, where if it’s just going to be, if it’s going to be like five to ten thousand chat, three to five thousand dollars a month.
Like, that would be good to have it, like, rolling in to have them on retainer.
If it’s gonna be just like a few like a thousand dollars here, maybe a few hundred dollars there, then it’s not going to be efficient. Yeah. But if they’re a marketing agency, then they’re gonna do this on a long term basis. And because tech is in such a bad place right now, more and more and more companies are choosing to outsource a lot of their marketing. So it’s also just practical because they’re trying to cut down on people in house.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s that. So okay. So all you’re really looking to do is set up a retainer with your this agency and then make sure that you aren’t working non got for them. Like, you’re having good boundaries around your retainer. Is that right?
Yeah.
So make sure that the effort that I put in to learning about each company pays off in the long run by not having to acquire new clients.
That meaning that is a long term relationship that is worthwhile because it’s not just like a couple hundred dollars here and there.
Yeah. Totally it. So what’s stopping you from having a conversation with them or have you had that conversation? I think if you gave them a rate sheet, you probably haven’t had the conversation then about, here’s what I would love to get out of this relationship.
Here’s the problem that I’ll solve for you. All of them but here’s the only way that that could work and here’s how great it’ll be when it does work. So the here’s the only way that will work part is I have to learn about all of your clients. Like, that’s that’s real work.
It’s if you had a salesperson, they would have to learn about all of those clients too. So understanding that. And by the way, I’m your scalable online sales person. So I need to learn everything about them.
I need this these engagements to go on. And you also need these engagements to go on. You need, you know, all of the reasons that they don’t wanna just, like, swap in and out crappy freelancers and just, like, have somebody that they love etcetera, etcetera. So the whole conversation, and then you tell them that you want a need and they need.
You position it as what is the best solution for them, a retainer minimum of six months for each client. Is that what you think it is for each client?
So each client that they have, if they have five clients, you have five different retainers with them, or you have one big retainer that covers everything.
See, I think, yeah, I think it would be too aggressive to say that I have five retainers with each of your clients. That’s fair.
Yeah. So it’s like one pool that they get to draw from. For their various clients.
Mhmm. That’s what you want. Is that right? Like a like a bucket. You’re the bucket every week. Yeah.
Because when I went into they were like sort of sold on me. They were like, how do we start? And I thought what I was gonna do was like I’ll just have you pay via credit card for the first project, and then we’ll open up a proposal. But then he was like, oh, well, actually we’d rather just be paid by invoice because that’s how we just manage everything. And so now I was like, oh, well I’ll send you a proposal. And then I thought, like, oh, well, I should have had the conversation that I was expecting to have afterwards, because I thought that they were just gonna pay via credit card who were like, oh, we just want one ad.
But I wasn’t because I thought that that would be a good way in and then afterwards, I’d be like, oh, I’d love to build a more long term relationship with you, because I can’t say like, well, we just wanna have a long term relationship on the star. That’s a little bit.
A little bit much.
So Is it?
I guess I wonder why would it be? If they’re pre sold on you, Why would it be too much to say, like, cool y’all.
Here’s how I work. And then say it’s like, you’re an agency and really, like, help them understand why the best thing to do is put you on retainer.
Know you mentioned the word aggressive a couple times, but to me, it’s only aggressive if you’re, like, if your tone is aggressive about it. Otherwise, it’s just They have a problem to solve. And you know demand gen agencies have it’s constant, test everything, and they need they need you to come up with hundred add variations in a day. So there’s going to be just lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots.
There’s a big numbers game too. Right? So So if you know the demand for what you have is real, then you can solve that. Who else are they gonna hire who can do as good a job as you can. Yeah.
No. Like, they they they got that. They were they were convinced that I was their that I was their person. But also for my sake, like how do I price that?
How do I price in testing and landing pages and ads on a rolling basis with all of these other things and potentially add variations, and then maybe nothing because the campaign is working, Yeah. That’s why I didn’t push it right away. Like Yeah. We could figure that we should have a, like a trial almost.
Yeah. I’m I I I to me, it sounds like I don’t think that the trial is a necessary thing, but I wasn’t in the conversations you’re in, obviously.
To me, it sounds like, okay. You just need to protect your time, but give them a lot of things that they need. Typically, I have not seen and I don’t know if your experience is different. Naomi, but when a campaign is going well, nobody sits back.
Like, now we’re, like, it’s just more. Like, oh, it’s going great. We can do even more. Or let’s shift you over to new client now where the campaign isn’t going as well and where we need your resources over there.
So for me, I hear this If they’re a big enough agency that you think they actually have money to spend on you, if they have a real need for copywriting services, conversion copywriting in particular, if that’s what’s going on and they already like you, but you don’t want to sell your life to them. Of course not, but you wanna be able give them a menu of services without them having to go through and pick and choose one and, like, call you up for one ad at a time. You know, because that’s not how this works. Why not sell them?
Can you sell them?
I don’t know if it has to be a specific day or whatever whatever that looks like. But to me, why not charge x amount for a retainer? This is what it costs to hire you. Say this is what it costs to hire me. And that’s it. And if they’re, like, that’s too expensive, well, then one that you you probably should have, like, spent more time in the sales process to make it so that they understand the value you can bring or two, they might not have ever been a good fit to begin with.
But I wouldn’t worry that it’s too aggressive to say it’s five thousand bucks a month for a retainer to retain me. You’ll get x many hours with that or better for you to have, like, outputs that gives you either a package of a hundred ads for one cloud, whatever. Like, you figured that out because you had the conversation with them. But you say this is the amount five thousand, ten thousand, whatever it might be. And it’s a minimum of six months.
I I don’t know. Is is there you would be wrong with that?
You wouldn’t you would skip the trial entirely and say these are my for all agencies.
I don’t know what the trial solves.
Well, I mean, it also might be budgeting constraints on their side. Like, he may love me, but he had to get the green light from their CFO because the CFO needs to green light everything these days.
For sure.
So other ways until proven yourself.
And I I think like proving yourself is something that I wouldn’t say you should ever even let in the conversation.
Nobody nobody who has proven themselves ever again says I have to prove myself. So to me, it sounds like, oh, I need to prove myself, is the thing that you say when you know that that’s not that common to be able to prove yourself. So it’s kind of a signal. Don’t say. Robin from your vocab.
Prove me fine. He needs to accrue my value.
And I get it, like, to see the level to the rest of the team because he’s not in charge of the the bank account.
There are a totally. And there are other ways to get the CFO to sign off on things. Right? It’s not necessarily going to be a trial.
It could be hey, if once you lock in six months, you automatically get ten percent off for the entire six month thing, which I don’t love discounting, but CFOs love discounting. So if you’re trying to say, get that CFO picturing this person who’s just trying to make sure that profits are great. What’s the solution for them? A trial Could be it. Don’t get me wrong, Naomi. It could be a trial thing. I just don’t know that that’s that’s a chance for them to go.
Was she perfect?
And it’s like, well, no. Nobody would be.
Rather, hey, I’m badass. You already like work that I do, you already need the job done.
What’s, like, the only thing that’s really gotta move you forward is getting the CFO happy So here’s what we do. And if if you sign on for six months, you get ten percent. If you sign on for twelve months, you get fifteen percent off. And now the CFO has something to work with. And everybody knows you can cancel any time, and the the lawyers will cover the contract with, like, after thirty thirty days notice to to cancel the contract, etcetera.
Yeah, I don’t I considering I already agreed to a trial for this specific agency, it would make more sense to say like Okay, like, send time a, send time a proposal with just like the price list that I have, and then say, okay, work with that, and then like, see how that goes, and then say, look, I have a limited availability if you want to get me on the books, then you can either then hear the packages I have for agencies.
Otherwise I Can I see the guarantee availability?
Yeah.
Or should I, like, call them up tomorrow and be like, oh, actually I wanna change everything and No.
If you’re already down the path. What I just don’t wanna do is have you become a commodity for this agency. That’s all. It’s just I want everybody in this room to go into every call in a power position. That’s that’s it. Like, that’s where we I don’t.
I don’t think I’m a commodity.
I I Oh, no.
I just a menu list is a commodity. That’s the thing. So it requires that you have a good, context for it. That’s all. So Naomi, if you’re already down that path, Cool.
Really the is the question then if you’re doing this trial, how do you lock them into something that’s profitable for you? After the trial ends. Is that what we’re looking for?
Yes. For this one specifically.
Yeah.
And I I guess for all of them because, like, I I also would not wanna commit to a tend to a huge retainer without having any sense of what to expect from somebody who’s relatively new at running a business.
Yeah. Justin. Definitely. Yeah.
Is that okay? Go for it.
Yeah. So I’ve been, speaking with Adri Yedlyn, he’s been, like, sharing a bit of, like, Blair. Is pricing strategy, and I it’s just so curious to me. And I wonder if it could work here.
So basically, offering pricing tiers, but doing it by the likelihood of success. So you’ve got the so the first one is basically your, like, champagne popping kind of retainer. Like, it’s like ten hair month you’d be, like, over the moon if you got it, and they get, like, x, y, and zed in it. And then your middle one is the one that you’re happy that’s the one you’re going for, like, the five k and it includes, like, this amount of deliverables it’s capped here.
And then your like lowest likelihood of success, which is one that’s meant to be like the best value for your time. So like a VIP day or something that you can and I wonder if you could do something like that presented in them like that. And then for the trial, do, like, a month under the kind of care that they want. So rather than doing, like, a trial is, like, an or something, be like, okay.
You wanna go for this option. Let’s try it, see how it goes, see if we need to, like, increase scope or decreased scope. And then, yeah, it was just a a thought.
No. I think it’s I think it’s a great idea I would love, in theory, I love it, but measuring success.
Well, it’s not like to increase the likelihood of success.
You’re gonna do, like, way more voice of customer research.
You’re is gonna include a lot more of that stuff.
Whereas when I’m working for agencies, don’t do any of that. Like, I don’t do that great job, to be honest, because they don’t, you know, they’re not paying me, like, the amount to go and interview their customers. So I’m like, okay, I’ll do your sales agent like, I’ll do it in a day. Like, and I don’t think of it as, like, good sustainable income. I treat it like a cash injection, like, just those, you know, when it’s opportunity to get a bit a bit of extra cash. If you wanted to yeah.
What was that about Revshare?
No.
I I thought that you were saying, like, like, if they Oh, like, no.
No. No. No.
No. It then performs well then.
Yeah. Yeah. No. It’s just like this is what I’ll do too. If you want the maximum chance of success, we’re gonna go for the, like, all in option if you Yeah.
Not etcetera.
Yeah. That could be a good way to go. Have you read Naomi pricing creativity?
Blaren’s.
No. It’s it’s got he’s got a bunch of books. But that’s it’s good. It’s very helpful, for something like this.
Yeah. So you’ve got the trial.
It’s really hard to say how to come up with, but I love Abby your ideas there with, like, you I can give you the full service everything every month for every client, or I can you could buy the VIP day, one a month or something, but at least a VIP day can keep you locked in contained and people don’t expect that they can reach out to you anytime, whereas a block of hours, I could reach out to you for one hour hypothetically on a Thursday and expect you to get back to me. The problem with trials, just as a side note, trials are good for systems. If this was a system that you were selling to them, then the trial would prove out the system or not, but the work we do is so custom.
It’s so specific to what’s going on in the market with the audience with the product. The offer with medium, all of it. That it’s very difficult for a trial to perform because the work we do often doesn’t perform until you’ve had a few takes at it. And you were able to go like, oh, that hypothesis was wrong, but look where it led us.
And then you can go along and get better and better and better. And that where, like, the payoff is with a really good copyright. That’s why agencies that’s why the agency you’re talking to doesn’t sign up for month to month. Because that would that does it doesn’t work.
It doesn’t work until you’ve committed to doing something, and trying a whole bunch of different things. I know for certain that demand gen agencies don’t do month to month.
So any any good ones at least don’t. So That’s my only pause for you going forward with trials. If it’s a system, it’s easy not to trial out. If it’s a human engagement, it’s very hard to trial.
And maybe go for a VIP day.
As like the easiest way in and then from there, they can start to look in to bring you in on projects and other things.
Yeah.
That’s my take.
I’ve done a bunch of VIP days with, a couple agencies too, and I feel like it’s a good, like like what Joe said, you don’t want them to be like, oh, we did an hour here and there or two hours for this. It’s like, it’s a contained main time. And I’ve had an easy time, like, selling those.
Sorry.
My biggest concern with the IP days is really the creative component because so much of what in in more performance based mediums the design is such a big part of it that I really have to work very, very closely with the designer to make sure that they follow, like, conversion CRO principles and UX principles, the way that I would like them to.
So I’d be worried that the VIP day, like, oh, oops, the designer isn’t available. You have come back on Monday and finish up for us. So that’s that’s really my biggest concern with VIP Day. Do you have that issue?
I haven’t had that issue because I’m working and like working on different kinds of things, but it sounds like if if that is a thing, even if it’s not a VIP day, is that still going to be annoying schedule if they’re like, oh, hey, the designer’s not available today. Like, is it still gonna be like they’re kinda calling the shots and they’re like, oh, actually, let’s You know, does that make sense? Or does it have the IP plan out? Sure. But even if it’s not a VIP day, they stop the plan ahead and be like, this is when the designer’s available. Right? So whether it’s a VIP day or not, you have to to expect for your schedule.
Right?
Yeah. Like, you don’t pay for that premium, like, then they’re not paying, like, that’s the fact that you work, like, on UX for the designer, like, that’s that’s more value really than a VIP days for, I would think. So that’s where, like, if you were to offer the different options. It’s like the more expensive option is the one where, like, you’re gonna collaborate a bit more with their team and they’re gonna pay, like, the premium for that.
Yeah.
And it’s two VIP days maybe, right, where you get in a flow of VIP day one is you doing the work VIP day too is you doing the checks over how it’s been implemented and then making any changes accordingly.
If that’s a real if that’s a real problem or the other side is, it’s an agency. It’s a subcontract.
Sometimes you just have to be okay with stepping back. You hand over the copy doc. You give all the best direction you can do. The designer is going to do do what the designer is going to do, though. And so, unless you work directly with them very often, and can establish a relationship there. It can be tough to get a designer to do what the subcontracted copywriter wants them to do.
Yeah. Doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s just like, do you pick your battles here and just like, is If if working with agencies was your full business model and that’s what you were doing going forward, then we could come up with different things here. But my hope and prayer is that it is not so that we can get you, like, scoring big ass projects and competing with that very agency, not necessarily demand gen. But, depending on what you what you want to do, of course, that’s the goal is not to keep. I is that is that in line, or do you want to keep working with agencies in the long term?
Well, I want to work with demand gen professionals because that’s really my area of expertise. So if they are in an agency, maybe that would work. If they’re in house, great. But Yeah. If they’re in house, maybe they already have a team of copywriters that they they they work with, or they have very strict brand principles, and they don’t wanna outsource anything.
So, like, is there a sweet spot?
Yeah. Working with in host demand gen.
Twenty twenty one.
I have worked with in host demand gen, and they are the best. They get excited about everything that you do because they don’t have a lot of fresh ideas coming in. So That’s where if you love DemandGen, cool, you know, do some stuff with the agencies, whatever, have it be that cash that you need, have it be some, like, experience that you get more and more and more with them so you can try different stuff. But then if you like DemandGen, go work as a freelancer for demand gen that’s in house at, like, almost any e commerce company, and it’s it’s fun and ego boosting, which never hurts. And you make good money. Yeah.
Right. So that’s what I’ve been that’s what I did in house for many years.
Nice. Love it.
That was what I did over and over and over and over again.
So I know that they that they like me.
The the trick is figuring out, do they have the budget to hire me, hire somebody out out of house.
And do they are they even thinking that way?
Yeah. And it’s true that a lot of tech companies have laid off people.
Not necessarily because they have to these days, because it looks good on the books to do it. But hiring agencies can be have its own downfalls. It can be expensive too. So it’s not that they’re only looking at agencies. They’re also looking at freelancers, to fill in those gaps. So I would just keep that in mind too. Yeah.
Okay. Cool.
That was fun.
I didn’t mean to think up so much time.
No. That was a lot of working through a big thing. Hopefully, we got, you know, kind of nodding things a bit, which takes work.
Good. Let us know what what happens with this conversation. Naomi over in Slack too. Cool. Well Yeah. I know we’ve got three minutes technically left, even though we’re over sort of by thirty. Does anybody have any last thoughts or question or, like, a rapid something where we good to go.
Yeah. Quick question.
When is the the free month trial, like, officially and, like, for CSP. Do you know the day?
That’s a Sarah. I think February. I think this is the free month for you.
Yeah.
Yeah. I just wondered if there was, like, a I think the date.
I think the next payment is on February twenty eight, I think.
Okay. Yeah.
What I think? Check with Sarah.
Okay. Yeah. Sarah knows all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Abby. Anybody else?
Alright. Have a good week. We will see you in Slack. And, this Thursday is Percy’s mindset session on rethinking failure.
So make sure you check that out if you struggle with things like the word failure.
Cool. Okay. Thanks, everybody.
Have a good day.
Thanks, Joe. Bye.
Worksheet
Transcript
Today is, copywriting lesson, and then that’s followed an AMA that will go until we’re just done talking.
There’s a small group of us today, so no need to, maybe it’s just like a good time if you have, like, something you’re going through that you maybe didn’t want to share with more people or something, which I know happens.
It could be a good time to talk through that today too. So, as usual, be ready to bring any questions that you got any wins to preface them, and that can be any kind of win, just celebrating those good things that happen. This is being recorded. The worksheet for today’s session already went out that went out on Friday. It is the high class problem sell, which I’m really excited about. We’ve used it a couple times. And then I’ll show you the one example for a new page in progress that we’re working on, and how we use it there.
But as usual, yeah, just kind of be with me here, set your intention, just be present, closing down other distractions. If you can, I know life is real and all around us, but, whatever you can do to just kind of ignore your phone for a bit and other, you know, notifications that come in?
Yeah, everybody’s feeling cool. I’m I’m feeling really good today. Awesome. Okay. So open up that work If you haven’t already, got it open.
I will only share my screen if you don’t know what worksheet I’m talking about. Because what I’m going to do today is, a little different format that we’re trying for our training now which so far I quite like, but I’ve never done it live. And I have never done it one live, two unsupported by somebody on my team who can, like, talk and fill in the gaps while I’m like, oh, no. The text’s broken. So we’re just gonna try it here today, and see what happens.
But yeah. So the context for this is, you’ve got. I mean, we have so many ways to try to get into stories, into the argument that we wanna make when we’re writing copy.
Lots of different things that you can do but sometimes when it comes down to it and you’re actually writing the page or writing the email, I find that things can feel boring and repetitive pretty fast, not for your right not for your reader necessarily, but for you as a copywriter, I mean, we do data driven things and use better practices and frameworks, etcetera, but it can be tedious sometimes when it’s like a rule of three. So you’re always hitting three points in a row and it’s just like, kinda wanna break out of it. So that’s how I feel about it. The longer you write copy, the more likely you are to feel that way too.
If if this isn’t resonating, stick around. It’s going to eventually. So I like finding and identifying, and I’m sure you do too, identifying little new ways to attack parts of pages in particular. So what I’m gonna show you today is from a long form sales page, I first saw it on someone else’s long form sales page.
I wanna say a bazillion years ago, but it could have been last year. It all blends into one now. And I was really I was really interested it. So I kinda broke it apart and tried to reverse engineer what they were doing.
Tried it in a sales email for our freelancing school, promotion over the Black Friday weekend.
And, yeah, I’m feeling kinda cool about how it could be an unlock for you when you’re stuck. So, I’m going to share Just half a second while I choose the right one.
Okay.
Cool. So you should be seeing my iPad now.
Oh, are you?
Yeah.
Fancy.
I’ve just never shared my iPad before. So, but this is where we’re going to be working today. So This is an example of the opening of that that sales page that we’re working on for copy school pro. So you set up a big promise, like big.
The bigger, the better, and it doesn’t have to be a promise necessarily as in we promise you’ll get this. But something that’s really going to grab their tension. So really thinking about your audience and what they’re trying, what they most want. And that’s where on the worksheet, we have the, what’s really good about this is I can use three monitors now, which is cool.
We’ve got good outcome and then a high class problem. So we often talk about the good outcomes that people have. And these are good outcomes. These here are good outcomes that you might be looking for.
Right? It’s not a promise because it’s in the first person in quotation marks, which, of course, as anybody who has taken any of my training knows, unless I feel like I’m saying it all the time, but maybe I’m not, first person headlines in quotation marks are my favorite across the board. So how I, big thing, big thing, big thing, ending with the big thing, and then and then overcoming an objection right here.
But don’t you need a lot of money that, etcetera. So with the fifty thousand dollar ad budget, which is basically nothing. Okay. So we’re capturing their attention.
I’m not this doesn’t mean it’s ADA. I know as soon as I hear its attention, doesn’t mean it’s ADA. It might be though. But we’re gonna break it really fast.
So don’t try to look too hard for a framework here yet. Okay. Then we get into kind of something a little bit old school. So that is this.
Step one is opening up this idea that there will be something that follows later, a step two. So a small, not curiosity gap, but like an open loop. Right? There’s more to come.
This is just the first step, even if you forget that later. The point is not that you’re waiting around for step two, but it’s an interesting way to start, opening up that attention into something more kind of like a little more intrigue.
Re time, really old school. You don’t have to do any of this stuff for the framework that I’m teaching you or the cell that I’m teaching you today to work. I’m just walking you through kind of the decisions that were made here.
From the desk of, again, old school. I do like old school, founder of copy hackers, grader of copy school, inventor of conversion copywriting, and this is an important thing, mother of kittens, just because what we’re about to get into, we need to set a tone. So far, the tone is kind of bro y. Right? Like, look at all the, you know, money you can make and crap like that. And that can feel a little bit weird.
The tone can be a little bit. We have to make what I’m trying to do here is set it up so that we can have a little bit of fun going forward because this framework, as I’ve used it, has been about tapping into, like, a little bit of fun. The high class problem cell is, like, we’re going to talk about some high class problems And if you make it sound like a problem, that’s not gonna work. Right? Like, that’s the bad thing we don’t want to do.
Okay. So I’m just gonna pop over to the next one. So then we get into the next part of the page.
So we set set up this big cool thing that you can do. Oh, Sorry here. Let me just go back to this. So it opens with so I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve landed on this isn’t the first page you’ve landed on with big promises and enticing numbers.
And I’ll get to that in a second, but let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to? And this really means you could have put almost anything before this part. So I’ll get to that in a second is like, again, you could have done anything before that.
Accept what follows here in these bullets that are about to follow down here is we’re basically building on that cool outcome. So let’s say your cool outcome that you’re trying to hook somebody with is you’re gonna land a thousand customers in a month. You’re gonna land a thousand thousand dollar customers in a month. Really big, really desirable thing that they want that would, attract their attention.
And then from there, we’re going to find that less desirable outcome of that thing, the high class problem. So again, it could be anything to open.
But we want the bullets that follow the good outcomes and then the high class problems, to speak to that thing that just hooked them. So we have, and I’ll get to that in a second, but let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to? Then we have good outcome, Deliver World class copy.
Number one thing. It’s gonna be short in, like, actual length because we’re trying to pull them in. So a short bullet most of the sentences are short at this point. As you can see, they all end here.
Make lots of money for your clients or team and also for yourself good outcome. Cool. And now we start getting into the high class problems associated with those good outcomes, and we spend more time on them because we’re having more fun with it. We’re just kind of like enjoying our time talking to our prospect about the things they want being frankly as we’re about to see similar to the things that, we want.
So do you actually want to have super smart people ping you late at night when they’ve needed, when they need to crack a conversion problem when you become their go to copywriter? That’s a high class problem. You just got a ping in the middle of the night, but it’s pretty solid because someone cool is asking you for help and they trust you a lot. Do you really want to?
Do you actually want to go through life with a sense of guilt that everything is falling into your lap and you haven’t had to toil in the coal mine or perform open heart surgery after building years of schooling to get it? Wanna get so good at selling products that jealous people begin whispering about you and you have to start hanging out with a whole new crew of high achieving nerds? These are high class problems. And the reality is your prospect should want them.
Right? So then we say great. Then you and I want the same things, and then you continue on telling the rest of the story and still building on the stuff that you did. Although I can’t help you with another high class problem, which is the anxiety that overachievement brings or an outcome of a high class problem recommend a marriage counselor for when you spend half your summer texting with a network of smart people who’ve sought you and your genius out.
I can do these things, and then you get into what those things are, and that’s what we’re really here to talk about. But you’re capturing their tension with this like unexpected outcome.
And it’s not just the usual good news, good news, good news, life is always gonna get better as you get better and the levels are higher. Life is like way better. There’s real problems that are gonna come with it, but we’re not positioning them as problem problems. Just as a high class problem. Does this make sense?
Can you imagine how you might use this in your work?
Potentially? Okay. Cool.
So I’ll stop sharing that part and then just quickly walk through the worksheet.
So that you’ve got it. Okay. So the high class problems sell, as always, the worksheet and lesson will help you find a new way into writing about comes so that new way in particularly if you’re bored, but also if you just wanna try something else. Write sales emails or sales pages with that What you wanna do is list out your good outcomes and then the high class problem that comes with it. And this is the framework effectively, bit of a template for you to use. Cool.
Have what you need to use it. Alright. I’m not gonna make you. We can go through and do an exercise if you’d like to try it out. Otherwise, we can just kind of hop into question time or talking time.
Good talking time. Does anybody have any questions they wanna bring to the table today?
Everyone’s quiet.
Do you wanna do this as an exercise?
Go right for something? Okay. I think that’s a good use of time. So what I would love for you to do if you have a productized service, if you have a package of some kind, anything that you already have pre written copy for. So ideally not for a new campaign or something.
Anything that you might have on your site today or that you wish you had on your site today?
I would like you to take the next ten minutes to come up with the good outcomes and the high class problems and then try to fill this part in.
Doable?
Okay. Cool. I’m gonna stop sharing.
And then be sure to come off mute if you have any questions as going through it, and we’ll be back in ten minutes.
Joe, can I ask a quick question?
Love it. Yes.
I’m really I really struggle with ten saying. Right? It’s just my thing.
Like, am I am I writing it, like, in the future terms as or, like, am I writing it as if it’s happening or so it’s do you actually want to in the future?
Yes. So do you actually want to but it’s still written in the present tense. Deliver, not will deliver. So deliver world class copy. Do you actually want to And then it’ll just follow in, I guess, the imperative, really, because it’s just two. Does that make sense?
Yeah. It’s just my noob thing. Like, this is why I can’t write fiction because I struggle with Ted’s sake. That no.
That’s like Latin. Did you take Latin in school?
No.
Oh, okay. That messed me up for some things. So when I when people struggle with these things, I’m like, oh, you probably took Latin. So yeah, this is just like, do you actually want to, and then these are all just present tense. Do you want to have a call that sort of thing. Right? Just happening right now.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Jay. Sure.
Alright. Should we talk about that’s how to go?
Any luck?
Did it suck? Was it awesome? Is it hard? Did you get anywhere?
That was fun. I liked it.
Okay. What’d you work on, Abby?
I did for my day one evergreen package.
And, yeah, what I like about it is because, I find myself, like, using the same kind of messaging it with different clients like this kind of like, you can make more money. You can make six figures, and it’s starting to feel, like, quite stale. So I like the the high problem approach is a farmer around that, and I feel like it really boosts credibility because you’re not just saying, like, this is how awesome, like, life is. It’s like. Yeah. Yeah, take them out. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Okay. Cool. That’s wicked. That’s how I feel about it too. Like, it’s just a more interesting way to position of good outcome?
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Everybody else needs them any anything that didn’t feel that good or, like, you’re not it’s not clicking.
It wouldn’t work for you maybe.
I like that it’s very fresh, but it feels a little bit it feels a little bit exaggerated to me.
It feels a little bit Oh, yeah.
It’s on the sales. Page.
It’s gonna be a little. I hear you there. So what would you what how would you modify it?
Any idea?
Well, I mean, the the goals that I have are are more immediate goals. But the tone feels a little bit of still feels a little bit much even though the actual things I’m writing about are realistic.
Okay. Can you read yours and just share so we can hear what that sounds like?
Yeah. So I am looking at the, the service page I have for, PVC.
So Google Landing Pages and, social ads. So I wrote do you actually want to watch your pipeline fill up with qualified leads effortlessly?
Capture all of the great top of funnel demand your social media. Is generating, become so efficient at attracting new leads that AEs are so overwhelmed with demos that they tell you to slow down the campaign so they can focus on the lead they have and attract so many good opportunities that you actually cringe when influencers cry about pmax ridiculously broad, broad campaigns, and Google’s ever changing algorithm on LinkedIn over and over again.
But the tone, the tone still feels off to me even though those are like very realistic. Things.
Okay. What feels off to you? I guess I wonder as, like, for me, I I heard it and I was like, cool. That sounds dope. That sounds like Yeah. Who wouldn’t react well to that?
Some won’t. Some won’t. But usually, those are the people who are just like I I won’t I won’t think about those ones as much as the people who are like, yeah, I’d like to have that problem, you know, and you’re like really getting there, but how did everybody else feel when you were hearing it?
Any notes for Naomi?
I thought it was really cool. I liked it. Yeah. I didn’t feel like the tone was off. I mean, obviously, I don’t know what you’re going for, like, generally with your tone, but, yeah, I thought it was cool.
Okay. Yeah.
I didn’t feel like the tone pull up either, but yeah, again, same as Abby, but the tone didn’t seem like off to me for off footing.
And I know it can feel like a certain audience, your audience, Naomi, wouldn’t respond well to that, and you may absolutely be right. I would just be curious to test it out, give it a shot, see if they do.
Yeah.
Cool. Awesome. Anyone else wanna share?
Yeah. I’ll share mine. I’ll be. I’ll be able to get feedback on it. Okay. Cool.
It’s a bit it’s obviously a bad fish drop. Okay.
But let me ask you a question. Do you actually want to wake up to sales every day, automate your entire sales process? Miss out on the I mean, Rausch, you usually get when you get a sales notification because it happens so darn frequently that the sensible thing to do is to turn stripe notifications off altogether.
Stop having those indulgent. Ugh, it’s just so stressful conversations with fellow course creators because you’ve hopped off the live launch roller coaster and are now making launch size revenue while on vacation.
Having awkward tail between your legs conversation with your SSO when they ask why you spent twenty k on ads this month and you have to loan that you turned that twenty k into two hundred and twenty k, and now you’d like to buy a vacation rental five minutes down the road from the end loss.
It’s fun. That’s fun. Those are some high class problems to have to have that awkward conversation anyway.
I just can’t relate to the last point about moving close to your in laws. But other than that, it was so infuriating that you’re that good at writing copy that quickly, which I always tell you that.
That’s awesome. Yeah. It really does it was what I liked was. It was so great about qualifying who she’s speaking to. It’s ridiculous.
I mean, if you can’t relate to that, you’re gone and Yeah.
It’s a good side effect. Right? Like, all of these other outcomes of that. That’s really a really good point.
Yeah. Thanks, Jessica.
And you can tell you had fun writing it. It doesn’t sound like it was a slog or you, like, it gets I think it’s exciting. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that it’s, like, it’s a fun framework to use. It’s, like, nice to to deviate from, like, the usual, like, I just always use PAS.
So Yes. Same. Yeah. Cool. Anyone else wanna share? Jessica?
Yeah. Let me follow Abby.
Jessica.
No. I honestly I mean, I could It was for my seasonal sale thing, which I think you know I’m fleshing out to turn from a what used to be a productized service like thing to a signature.
So I and actually I get I don’t know if this is I think where I struggle is the whole dream state because I feel like I haven’t confirmed this desire for a e commerce client yet. That they really see the connection between. No. No. You can really double your, you can increase your sales for your seasonal sale. But at the same time, you can be creating these long term relationships.
And so it kind of I think that’s where I struggle. So, I mean, I can read you parts of it, but it you know, it’s nowhere near what Abby’s is and it’s partial as per usual with me. Jessica.
Read the whole m thing.
We wanna hear get to that.
Do you actually want to double your next seasonal sale revenue? See a massive increase in LTV over the next? Whatever months, clear out your inventory and have to work quickly with your team to figure shit out. Provide on-site therapy because your team dressing out and worried they can’t get orders out on time, which will inevitably lead to unhappy customers.
And that’s as far as I got.
Cool.
Took a little extra negative on the last one there. It wouldn’t pull back on that one a bit, but no. It was good.
It’s yeah. Just make sure it stays a high class problem. Like Okay. Well, yeah. Like, my diamond shoes are too tight. That’s gotta be the effect. Right?
So yeah.
Okay.
Cool. Cool. Love it. Jessica, you did that so fast. Really?
Oh, thank you. I’m always asking I’m begging Abby for tutorials on how to be fast. That’s what I wanna know.
You just did it.
Nice.
Nice. Cool. Anyone else?
I won’t put you on the spot by calling on you, but I’m probably looking at you.
No one.
Alright. Alright, Katie. Welcome to the crew. You just missed the the tutorial there, but you’ll get the replay after. So I think it I think we had fun with it.
So yeah. Now, if anybody has any questions or wants to talk shop, what are you going through right now? What should you be working on that you’re not that we can help, like, unlock? Jillian.
Okay. I have well, I’ll start with a win. It’s not a money win. I guess I shared that in Slack recently, but my current win is that, I’ve been severely low in iron for like my whole life and didn’t know it.
So I was like this year I’ve been like fainting and like feeling really dizzy and I’m finally back a normal iron level. So it means I can exercise again, which is life changing. So I wasn’t really able to exercise this past year. But it really helps with, like, energy and productivity.
And it’s really Yes. Exciting. So I was going to use it in Doing a lot of stuff.
Congrats. That’s amazing. Yes.
So that’s why I win.
Coming with a little more energy.
Huge. Energy is everything. Yes.
Everything. Yeah.
So on that note, my question is maybe a bit unwieldy, but as I mentioned, I’m like I was going through your training again from a couple weeks ago.
Started watching Shane’s training.
And I’m thinking about, like, the brand also reading PenX is easier than two x, and so I just feel like I have a lot of ideas. Swirling and kinda wanted to like throw them out there and just like get some thoughts.
So I’m focusing on pricing pages, which is a new, you know, I haven’t worked in SaaS that much. I worked with a lot of different companies on websites, a little bit of SaaS that like kind of across the board. So I’m trying to figure out how to balance, like, my current client, and so I do websites with who are not SaaS primarily, and still have, like, my website is geared towards that. I kinda wanna put up a different website so that I can still serve my current customers in the meantime and not be like out money and just, you know, diving into this new thing. Yeah. So the idea that I have is, like, I know you said the brand really starts with, like, your opinion and your viewpoint, which I feel like I’m still developing, but I have, like, a general idea since no one’s really talking about pricing pages yet, which is that like everyone’s kinda missing the point. Of the pricing page, like, they’re all doing it wrong, basically.
And that’s, like, very general. There’s more that goes into it, but the the name that I have or the idea for, like, a book and a podcast and maybe, like, my site, I’m wondering if they can all be the same, is, like, the pricing point. I’m talking about how I don’t know if that’s, like, even a good title or not, but that’s the idea that I’ve been working with. Okay.
Just like, yeah, talking about how everyone’s missing the point, and like they’re all treating it like, you know, they’re putting so much time into their other pages and optimizing, and then they get to the pricing point and it’s just like they get to the pricing page and everything just deflates. Like, that’s the point of the sale, and it’s like, you know, very matter of fact. Here’s the even big brands, like even huge companies they look at are doing this. I think they’re all kinda dropping the ball at that point.
When it should be like the height of excitement value and, like, it’s the most critical point. Yeah. Absolutely. I know it’s a big I’m like rambling now, but, like, I’m just wondering if, like, Should I go in this direction? Because I’m, like, wanting to start doing this stuff, but I just, like, wanna know if that makes sense if it’s, like, on the right track to start with.
Okay.
I’ll jump in first and anybody who would like to add anything.
I’m so happy that you’re doing this, Jillian. Like, I know I’ve expressed that to you, but men, there’s nothing but room out there for this. And it’s it’s like, that’s it’s the money page. Right? Like, it seems like such an easy sell once you start raising awareness for the problem.
Sounds like you understand what your point of view is. I know you said it’s developing, but it’s like y’all are doing it wrong. Like, that’s a good place to start. Right?
Especially since it’s, like such a blue ocean still. There’s not that much competition out there. So I think it’s safe to go with something big like you’re doing it all wrong. Like, full stop.
That’s it. Like, you’re I’m you’re gonna need a lot of help, and I can help you with that. It leaves a lot of room for you to have thought leadership, and to say contrary in things or to, like, make them aware of things that they hadn’t had any clue about, which is always good for, you know, likes on so and comments and things like that. So the pricing point, how did you get to that name?
I don’t know. How do we get to anything?
There. I think it like came to me first. I also thought the URL was available. Also it kind of like ties into this whole thing of like like maybe I can say what the point is. Like, everyone’s missing the point. Like, they think the point is this, but the point is really this.
And also, like, Yeah. I don’t know. That was kind of the the main. And it seemed like kinda short and Yes. It’s not gonna be a subhead.
Like, if it was a book, there’d be like a subhead of I don’t know what that is yet, but Yep.
Totally agree. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think great. And it does, like Jessica chatted out.
Leaves a lot of room for expansion.
Yeah, and you can speak to value, like, what the actual point of pricing is. Right? And those are bigger conversations that are really intriguing. Yeah.
Everyone loves it.
Yeah.
Who else wants to share thoughts with Jillian?
Can I can I offer a, perspective? Sure.
When it comes to SAS, you should keep in mind that there are a lot of very complicated SaaS products that don’t have a pricing page because a lot of that happens in sales negotiation.
Because a lot of times they have to customize the software to fit the solution.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be like a fifty thousand dollar software product. It happens at lower pricing points too, and a lot of companies choose not to put pricing anywhere on the website because either they’ve tested it or they believe that adding the pricing will increase the, or will reduce conversion rate, regardless of whether that’s true or not. That’s what a lot of companies think. And it may be true on desktop versus mobile or the reverse.
So I would make I think that it would be worth while to expand the conversation, they use because they they usually have a plans page that just doesn’t have pricing on it and it goes through like what you would get with the enterprise suite versus the mid tier versus the small, mini business tier. So I would make sure to not leave them out of the conversation.
Because there are a lot of companies that fit into that category, and your point can still be relevant. It would just have to be adapted to a much more business mindset.
Well, and I think that that’s a fair point. I think it does speak to the need to just identify who that audience is.
I think the SaaS that you’re talking about, Jillian, are people who have Who have.
Have a debt that says pricing in the nav of which there are bajillion so versus people who have sales teams. So we’re talking more people who are product led growth and are likely to have pricing pages at some point that they, and usually, visitor facing ones, and then behind the scenes.
Post use post activation ones. Yeah. Is that accurate, Jillian?
Yeah. That makes that makes sense. But, yeah, it’s a great point, Naomi.
Thanks for thanks for Yeah.
There’s a huge market. SaaS is enormous, obviously.
So it’s just really identifying. Okay. These are although it can be useful to get the enterprises that don’t have pricing pages, it’s just like anybody who doesn’t have copy. It’s really I can’t do much for you.
Like, you’re gonna need to believe in copy or else. It’s like, I can’t sell you copy school, and you can’t sell a person without a pricing page. Pricing page insights. So cool.
Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Anybody else wanna share?
With Jillian or feedback on what Jillian’s working on.
Nope. Awesome.
Jillian, you feeling good?
Yeah. I love that.
It’s like a book cover.
Yeah. And it gives it fine to have, like, you know, a, like, a book, like, if it was a book and a podcast, and, like, even the site, like, just have it all have the same name, like, even where I’m selling my services, keep the same name for everything.
That’s I mean, g n Claire did that with forget the funnel. Yeah. Everything is forget the funnel.
And I mean, juries out. It’s they’re doing, like, a bad ass business. So I would say it’s probably, like, a good Studiesing that story brand, same thing.
Mhmm.
Yeah. So probably okay. A thing to overthink at least.
Okay. I well, I got the URL for it, so I think it’ll just, like, start and I can keep my current site, like, with my current customers.
And kind of start doing the new thing at the new place.
Yeah. Totally. Totally. Cool.
Oh, thanks everyone.
Thanks. Thanks for sharing a nice win.
Excellent. Life changing.
I mean, energy for real though. Like, I have a new energy going with some life changes that I’ve made too, and it’s like energy. It’s a good thing. It changes everything. So that’s cool.
Anybody else wanna share what they’re working on or going through or struggles? Esther Grace.
Hey. Can everyone hear me?
Yep.
Okay. Awesome. So a win. I shared this in channel already, but copy hack is closed. Still excited about that.
Well done.
Thank you. And okay. So I need help with lead generation.
So I’ve nailed down my ideal clients, my customer avatar, all of that.
My offer, even a bit of the delivery system, But right now, I really just want to get on more sales calls.
So I realized last week that I love sales calls. So I did resales calls in the past two weeks. And just those three made me feel so energized about my business. I’m like, this is awesome.
Like, I love talking to these people and selling them on what I on what I do. So where I am right now is I’m also, like, couple of us here. I’m also reading ten x is easier than two x. So I’m not creating any plans to just gradually increase revenue from year to year.
Like, this was one of the thing, Joe, I think you talked about during the CSP info session. About want to be a copywriter who’s gradually increasing revenue from year to year and then in five, ten years before you hit, like, five hundred k. You want to be the one that just ten x is essentially. So that’s kind of where my mindset is now.
It’s more of how do I get this new offer, this new system that I’m building to generate one m in revenue in the next twelve months. And I actually ran the numbers, and I realized it’s actually very possible.
Okay.
It would just take, like, two clients with a high retainer fee and a performance based assistance.
It’s email marketing, so I can do performance basis as well and track everything. So it would literally say two clients if I was going to work on it solo. But if I was building a small team, then I can take on even more. So just running those numbers made me realize how possible it is for me. And so now it’s just like, okay. How do I get on those sales calls to book those two major clients that are going to bring in the revenue.
So what are you doing for lead gen right now? What’s top on your list?
So right now, I’ve been doing a lot of warm outreach. So just people I know asking for referrals, The the that has been my most active lead gen method. So it’s like being in groups, responding to messages, networking, pretty much.
Thought about cold outreach because I’m also still doing my authority building, like, systems. I’m still doing all of that, but I’m like, okay. I still want to get those leads, like, in the next one thirty days, thirty, sixty days. So I’m trying to do some more active, outreach methods as well. So that’s pretty much where I am.
Okay. So how many people are you reaching out to? A day for the warm leads. Let’s pause cold. We’ll ask that next, but warm leads, how many a day?
About two a day. K.
Do you think that’s enough?
About ten people.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so it’s a numbers game. Right? Like, There’s the two. There’s several ways you can go about this. One part is authority building stuff with content that you put out there all the time and then bigger content, and that can feel like a long game. It doesn’t have to be, but it also is a long game too.
Then we’re talking warm leads and cold outreach. So outreach to warm and outreach to cold. It’s good to do both.
But the more you have to do a lot of Right? Like, this is you’re reaching out to people, and you have to hit them right and at the right moment. So It’s a numbers game. So if you’re just doing two a day, what’s stopping you from doing twenty a day?
Oh, so the warm outreach, I just don’t know that many people.
That’s what you think. You don’t know that many people. But I would say really, like, think through everybody that you know and that they know. And I know that can feel like, oh, aren’t I getting in people’s way? I mean, you’re an entrepreneur and this is part of the job. If if your goal is get more leads in because you wanna get to a million dollars a year.
You have got to earn what you want, and that’s how you earn it. It’s hard. It’s hard, but you pick up the phone or you send the email, and but you have to do a lot of it, like, a lot a lot.
Like, an uncomfortable amount. And this is where some people, when they have, like, partners, and they’re both invested in it. That can, like, you spread the job out across two people, which is why a lot of people end up building companies together because it’s a lot of quantity, quantity, quantity, and then there’s the cold outreach. And it’s a doable thing.
People do it all the time. Don’t do it. That’s because I didn’t have to do it. But if I had to do it, it would be a matter of, like, go a hundred a day.
And this is like figure out, you’ve said you’ve you’ve run the numbers. So if What’s your close rate right now? Do you happen to know what it is when you get someone on a call? How many people close out of ten?
So I haven’t had that many sales calls.
That’s the problem with Okay.
Yeah. That was right. Yeah.
So getting in leads, so you wanna make sure that you’re getting these leads into a sales process that isn’t just going to, like, burn up all of these people that you spoke with. But you’re energized about them when you actually get to talk to them and have that sales call.
Make sure you’re running that right. So we have that Huka, sales call training this Wednesday, attend it. Take notes. It’s smart.
And it’s an hour to fucking nail this stuff. So attend that.
And then it’s if you’re gonna do leads, cold outreach and warm, the numbers game, get up every morning, put it in your calendar, do it when you have energy, do the hard thing, personalize the cold stuff, obvious we’ve got that training in copy school dot copy hackers dot com.
But it’s it’s an because it’s a numbers game, if you get one and one hundred people to hop on a call with you.
You gotta, like, that’s why you have to do. A hundred of them a day. You can’t do two a day. It’s not gonna lead to anything except for frustration.
And you’re like, nothing works. No. It it can work, but it’s you have to do Does that make sense? So what I would like you to do is put together, like, a list of warm outreach and cold that you can do, like, give yourself a a to do list of every single day.
I’m going to reach out to five people I know and fifty people I don’t know every morning without fail. And if you can get in that habit, which you have to get. This is your job. You have to get in that habit.
Then you can start to see the needle move, and then you’ll be more inspired to go like, okay. Well, if I’m doing fifty cold outreach, cold attempts a day, And it’s bringing in four people.
If I double it to a hundred, now I’ve got eight, and that’s a lot better to deal with, and you’re gonna get so much better at cold outreach that you can outsource it to a VA because you’ll have it nailed down what to say, how to say it, how to get people onto that call, how to get them to show up, Like, all these reps, all this practice work is the stuff that’ll get you there. But two reps, and you expect you’re gonna, like, build muscle, I lifted the weight twice.
It’s gonna take a little more than that. But you’re doing it. Just do more of it.
Yeah.
And would you see those are the, like, two main, like, lead gen strategies? Or is there anything I’m missing besides those two of an authority?
Oh, yeah.
No. There’s more. It depends if you have money to spend. If you’ve got money to spend, there’s lots of other things you can do. And it doesn’t have to be a lot, but you have to have, like, fifty bucks a day to spend boost things to hire people to do the work for you, stuff like that. I would say start there. Start getting traction.
There. Your immediate network is the place to go first. The people you know that you’re just not thinking of how to really go after them, and then it’s follow-up. As well without saying the word follow-up.
Like, it’s it’s, hey, I talked to my cousin who has a skin care who works at a skin care company. I talked to her one time about it. Okay. Well, now you have to go back and talk to her again.
And again, and wear her down. She’s your cousin. She’s gotta give you work, and that’s just the way it is.
But really it’s like quantity.
More and more and more if you’re still trying to build up leads. If you had and I sit and still do all your authority building stuff as to grace, you’re, like, all of these things work together. Have you read hundred million dollar leads by Hormoza?
That’s next on my list. Yeah.
I was planning to read It’s really practical, like super practical.
And it comes with a bit of a course as well. So check that out, but it really will come down to quantity. Yeah. Cool. Anybody got any notes? For Esther Grace based on what you have done to get leads.
In person networking, going to things. But, like, every single thing you do, you need to do intentionally. Like, I know people who have gone to networking events and they kinda just stand at a table.
It’s like, no. No. No. No. No. You have to work it. You gotta, like, get in there and say hi.
And like, have a pitch ready to go, like, be able to open. So there’s opening and then there’s closing. Right? And so a lot of people suck at the open part.
Maybe you’re okay with closing, but all we’re talking about to get leads is like constantly opening.
So being able to go to a networking event event that’s possible and and do the open. Be ready to start asking questions about their business and Sounds like you’re working on x, y, or z. I do that too. Do you think would it make sense for us to have a talk about this?
Like, should we book a call? Like, be ready to to get moving on something, not just like, oh, cool. And, like, falling into the friend zone, which can happen a lot. So just, like, everything you do, be intentional about what you’re gonna do with it.
Katie also said the five day five k challenge. Totally. It’s, it’s still available.
Yes. So take that too, but don’t just do it once a month. Do it every five days. Yeah. Cool.
Jessica, do you wanna say that out loud?
I was just gonna say Abby wrote a blog post and did a tutorial on utilizing Facebook groups And I know she, of course, has had huge success with it, but I know other people have too applying what she taught. So I don’t know if where your audience is, but can’t hurt.
Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely.
Love it.
I think I’ve read the post op yet.
I think I told you about it.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s the her tutorial is, pinned to the top of our YouTube channel right now over on. On YouTube. So check it out.
It’s great. Perfect. Okay. Good luck, Esther Grace. Set a goal too. How many warm, how many cold, you’re gonna do a day, and how many you need to get in booked calls every week.
And then post, follow-up in slack when you get those wins, just let people know, like, and my goal was four bookings this week, and I got five. And, like, make that happen. You can. Cool.
Anybody else have anything else? Thanks, Esther Grace. Any questions or anything you wanna share with others?
Hi. One question. Yeah.
Well, I have lots of questions, but, I will start with the most relevant one. So I was approached by a, sorry, I spoke in an event, about a few weeks ago. And so afterwards I was approached by a marketing agency, and it seemed I really feel like marketing agencies are an ideal source, an ideal client because They’re focused specifically on demand gen. They don’t have to answer to a CMO or to upper leadership quite in the same way that somebody who works in house would.
And they’re very data driven. And they tend not to be creatives. So they tend not to provide as much pushback, as somebody who works in house. So anyway, I had a call with the, with a guy again today, and we agreed on a to start with, like, a social ad, for more top of funnel work.
And what I ended up doing this time around, which is different than what I did last time around, last time around, I sold a company just like a bank of ours. And this time, I gave him a pricing page and I said, okay, a set of ads is this much, and a landing page is this much, And then so I’m gonna send him a proposal. We’ll sign the proposal, and then he can just add whatever he needs as he goes, and then at the end of the month, I’ll send the invoice to HR to accounts receivable, and then I’ll be able to bill them. But I’m wondering there’s anything I because I feel like this is such an ideal client, if there’s something I’m missing out on that I could be doing to make it easier for them or to increase the amount that they would get from me from the beginning and that initial conversation.
Whether that’s like, should I expect them to say, oh, well, you should get at least this amount, to increase the amount that they would get from me, or would that be a little bit too aggressive because they sort of get projects rolling in as they come? I’m not sure exactly.
What they’re working on, it could be a little bit too demanding for them right at the outset. So I’m wondering if there’s something I’m missing out on that I should have done and could do hopefully next time.
Yeah. Cool. Who’s working with agencies? Who has been through what Naomi’s going through? Nobody subcontracts?
I used to, but I’ve just always do it on a day. Right? So I can’t I don’t really know how to haven’t got anything to give. I’m afraid.
So what did you do? Why did you choose to do a day rate or why did they like a day rate? What was the reasoning there?
Well, actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I told them it was a date. Right? I think I just priced it in my mind. It was, like, lead gen like, I’ve done a few. I did for a lead gen funnel.
Oh, like a lead gen agency, like, a few emails and stuff for a, SaaS company. So I’d yeah. I was like, oh, I’ll just it was always gonna be, like, fifteen hundred or whatever, for the emails. But in my head, I was like, okay. I’m booking myself for VIP to do those. And then I did the same thing with, like, course agency as well.
But, yeah, that’s I mean, that’s just because at the time, I really liked the IP days.
Yeah. Okay. That’s fair. But they responded well to it as a day rate. Did you did they ever know it was a day rate? Did you tell them that?
I don’t even think so. I just, like, they just didn’t really seem to care. They were just like, okay, like, we need you to do this. What does it cost? And that was kind of it.
Yeah. Okay.
But, like, every time they need like, did you work with them multiple times? And every time they needed you, they booked a day rate.
No. They just said, can you do these, emails or whatever? And I was like, yeah, sure. And then booked myself in as, like, a day and build them the same.
So I was just kinda like, if I I would always say yes. I was just at a time in my life where if I was, I would be happy to give up a Sunday for, like, the extra money. So I’ll just be like, sure. Yeah.
I’ll do it.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I’m wondering about I’ll go ahead, Naomi.
The difference in these kind of agencies are specifically working on Google and social. They’re demand gen agencies, or or it’s usually either Google, or Google and social or LinkedIn.
So it could be like the ads aren’t working. It’s time to refresh the or we want to start a new campaign for this specific persona, or we have a new ABM approach that we want to do, and so we need copy but they don’t necessarily know when they’re gonna need those ads or when they’re gonna want to improve the landing page because it depends on how the campaign performs. And so there’s a level of unpredictability, and which is good to have work rolling in. Like a lot for most of my clients, I’ll have work coming in on a rolling basis.
And I think that having something that’s not connected to ours is definitely more efficient, but I I don’t think that possible to be efficient to the point where I can say like, okay, I can do this within a day.
Yeah. No. I mean, I know, like, some summer, she used to do, like, credits. I think, like, someone was talking about this in Slack today, but, so she would have, like, kind of a menu of what each credit can buy, and then the credits roll over if they weren’t used in, like, the month. So it was kind of like a retainer y type thing.
So she’d get paid, like, every month they’d buy, like, two credits or whatever.
So they would have to commit to a certain number of credits?
Yeah. Yeah. But then they could rush. She would let them roll over So if they only used one, she’d be like, okay, that’s fine. We can use it next month. If next month, you have, like, more clients. So that kept the client happy, but also had that kind of security of a retainer for her.
Yeah. I mean, to me, it’s kind of tricky because every time you work for an agency and they have multiple clients, you have to learn new things about each client in order to write for them. Right? So it’s like you’re taking on a new client every time. Even if you redo and you work for the same client effectively a month later, whatever.
But it’s still it’s a lot of, like, learning time.
Have you experienced that Naomi?
That it is.
I’m, like, Yeah. This is the first agency that I’ve Oh, okay.
Okay. Cool. So and that’s where it’s tricky with credits. We had our credit based agency years ago called Snap that Leanna and James now have.
And it was it was good in some ways, but you do have to spend time thus spend a credit on, like, learning a thing. Like, what’s the what is this product?
And so that has to be baked in, and that’s where I really like the VIP day.
Because it’s like I can do all sorts of things. In that time. I can, like, and if it’s really important to them, I guess I’m just worried, Naomi when you say you, like, you would sell them a landing page.
It’s fine. It’s doable.
It’s, how are the margins though? Like, the reason that I rarely recommend sub tracing to an agency is you just don’t make as much money because they’re charging what you would charge, and now they have to make a profit on you. Yeah.
No. They’re they’re giving me work. They’re the client.
Yeah. But they’re an agency, a demand gen agency that pays that gets paid by their clients.
Yeah.
They’re an agency. Yes.
But I’m not doing the subcontracting contracting.
There’s subcontracting to them. They’re they’re so the client has the contract with them, and they have a contract with you.
Right. So I’m the subcontractor.
Yeah. So you’re the subcontractor. Exactly. Okay. And so every new contract down is, like, losing money losing money losing money lose.
So if you have a subcontract you’re gonna pay them half of what you would charge, and the agency is gonna pay half of what they’re gonna charge at best on a good day. Because they also have overhead and all sorts of other expenses. So if they’re charging it’s probably if it’s demand gen, their performance base, they’re on retainer with the client, it possibly getting a percentage of how things perform depending on who the client is. Okay?
So if they’re making, let’s say, they’re making, they’re billing their client ten thousand dollars a month for services.
They, as a business, need to make a profit to continue to exist.
So they’re trying to get three thousand dollars off that. That leaves them with seven thousand dollars a month to spend on resources for that client. They have their own people that they’re paying and all of the expenses that go along with shipping something out, taking someone to lunch, whatever that other crap is too. And then comes money for the subcontractor.
That’s you. So that’s where I hear subcontracting, or work for an agency as a subcontractor. And, I don’t love it because you have to really optimize your time because you’re not gonna be able to make that much. As much money as you could if you were direct to the client. If you were like, I can do that for you instead and here’s what I charge.
And so that’s it. So how can you if you’ve got three thousand dollars that you might make off them in a month for that one client, let’s say, what can you do to ensure that you are maximizing the amount of money you get for the time you put in. Obviously, it’s all it’s always our game.
And that’s where a VIP day sounds like really good. You could charge two thousand dollars. They can budget that in easily for their differing clients. And as they’re planning on what to do next month with their clients and new clients they take on, they’re like, okay.
Well, Naomi can write a landing page in a day. If you can. Naomi can do, analysis in a day. So we always have to book for every client every month.
We need Naomi two days for each client. So we’re going to budget in four thousand dollars when we’re estimating something with clients. Right now, you have to figure out what they’re estimating with clients right now because of their thinking and have you it sounds like you haven’t talked to them about what you’re what you cost or have you?
Yeah. Give them a pricing sheet.
Okay. So you what what does your pricing sheet? What do you have on it, Naomi? What does it say?
I have an add landing page web copy.
I think I added research can bring it up.
Yeah. It’s like a it’s like a menu.
Yeah.
I made it very simple because, I I figured selling hours was just not going to be sustainable so I Yeah.
Figured this would be a good solution, but I didn’t over complicate it.
Yeah. It’s good not over comp of course. That’s great. And a rate sheet can be a good thing to share.
But if the objective is to make good money off them, on an ongoing basis.
So what’s wrong do you think is broken with giving them the rate sheet right now? What’s not working there?
It’s I I would say it’s more that I would like a more long term commitment, where if it’s just going to be, if it’s going to be like five to ten thousand chat, three to five thousand dollars a month.
Like, that would be good to have it, like, rolling in to have them on retainer.
If it’s gonna be just like a few like a thousand dollars here, maybe a few hundred dollars there, then it’s not going to be efficient. Yeah. But if they’re a marketing agency, then they’re gonna do this on a long term basis. And because tech is in such a bad place right now, more and more and more companies are choosing to outsource a lot of their marketing. So it’s also just practical because they’re trying to cut down on people in house.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s that. So okay. So all you’re really looking to do is set up a retainer with your this agency and then make sure that you aren’t working non got for them. Like, you’re having good boundaries around your retainer. Is that right?
Yeah.
So make sure that the effort that I put in to learning about each company pays off in the long run by not having to acquire new clients.
That meaning that is a long term relationship that is worthwhile because it’s not just like a couple hundred dollars here and there.
Yeah. Totally it. So what’s stopping you from having a conversation with them or have you had that conversation? I think if you gave them a rate sheet, you probably haven’t had the conversation then about, here’s what I would love to get out of this relationship.
Here’s the problem that I’ll solve for you. All of them but here’s the only way that that could work and here’s how great it’ll be when it does work. So the here’s the only way that will work part is I have to learn about all of your clients. Like, that’s that’s real work.
It’s if you had a salesperson, they would have to learn about all of those clients too. So understanding that. And by the way, I’m your scalable online sales person. So I need to learn everything about them.
I need this these engagements to go on. And you also need these engagements to go on. You need, you know, all of the reasons that they don’t wanna just, like, swap in and out crappy freelancers and just, like, have somebody that they love etcetera, etcetera. So the whole conversation, and then you tell them that you want a need and they need.
You position it as what is the best solution for them, a retainer minimum of six months for each client. Is that what you think it is for each client?
So each client that they have, if they have five clients, you have five different retainers with them, or you have one big retainer that covers everything.
See, I think, yeah, I think it would be too aggressive to say that I have five retainers with each of your clients. That’s fair.
Yeah. So it’s like one pool that they get to draw from. For their various clients.
Mhmm. That’s what you want. Is that right? Like a like a bucket. You’re the bucket every week. Yeah.
Because when I went into they were like sort of sold on me. They were like, how do we start? And I thought what I was gonna do was like I’ll just have you pay via credit card for the first project, and then we’ll open up a proposal. But then he was like, oh, well, actually we’d rather just be paid by invoice because that’s how we just manage everything. And so now I was like, oh, well I’ll send you a proposal. And then I thought, like, oh, well, I should have had the conversation that I was expecting to have afterwards, because I thought that they were just gonna pay via credit card who were like, oh, we just want one ad.
But I wasn’t because I thought that that would be a good way in and then afterwards, I’d be like, oh, I’d love to build a more long term relationship with you, because I can’t say like, well, we just wanna have a long term relationship on the star. That’s a little bit.
A little bit much.
So Is it?
I guess I wonder why would it be? If they’re pre sold on you, Why would it be too much to say, like, cool y’all.
Here’s how I work. And then say it’s like, you’re an agency and really, like, help them understand why the best thing to do is put you on retainer.
Know you mentioned the word aggressive a couple times, but to me, it’s only aggressive if you’re, like, if your tone is aggressive about it. Otherwise, it’s just They have a problem to solve. And you know demand gen agencies have it’s constant, test everything, and they need they need you to come up with hundred add variations in a day. So there’s going to be just lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots.
There’s a big numbers game too. Right? So So if you know the demand for what you have is real, then you can solve that. Who else are they gonna hire who can do as good a job as you can. Yeah.
No. Like, they they they got that. They were they were convinced that I was their that I was their person. But also for my sake, like how do I price that?
How do I price in testing and landing pages and ads on a rolling basis with all of these other things and potentially add variations, and then maybe nothing because the campaign is working, Yeah. That’s why I didn’t push it right away. Like Yeah. We could figure that we should have a, like a trial almost.
Yeah. I’m I I I to me, it sounds like I don’t think that the trial is a necessary thing, but I wasn’t in the conversations you’re in, obviously.
To me, it sounds like, okay. You just need to protect your time, but give them a lot of things that they need. Typically, I have not seen and I don’t know if your experience is different. Naomi, but when a campaign is going well, nobody sits back.
Like, now we’re, like, it’s just more. Like, oh, it’s going great. We can do even more. Or let’s shift you over to new client now where the campaign isn’t going as well and where we need your resources over there.
So for me, I hear this If they’re a big enough agency that you think they actually have money to spend on you, if they have a real need for copywriting services, conversion copywriting in particular, if that’s what’s going on and they already like you, but you don’t want to sell your life to them. Of course not, but you wanna be able give them a menu of services without them having to go through and pick and choose one and, like, call you up for one ad at a time. You know, because that’s not how this works. Why not sell them?
Can you sell them?
I don’t know if it has to be a specific day or whatever whatever that looks like. But to me, why not charge x amount for a retainer? This is what it costs to hire you. Say this is what it costs to hire me. And that’s it. And if they’re, like, that’s too expensive, well, then one that you you probably should have, like, spent more time in the sales process to make it so that they understand the value you can bring or two, they might not have ever been a good fit to begin with.
But I wouldn’t worry that it’s too aggressive to say it’s five thousand bucks a month for a retainer to retain me. You’ll get x many hours with that or better for you to have, like, outputs that gives you either a package of a hundred ads for one cloud, whatever. Like, you figured that out because you had the conversation with them. But you say this is the amount five thousand, ten thousand, whatever it might be. And it’s a minimum of six months.
I I don’t know. Is is there you would be wrong with that?
You wouldn’t you would skip the trial entirely and say these are my for all agencies.
I don’t know what the trial solves.
Well, I mean, it also might be budgeting constraints on their side. Like, he may love me, but he had to get the green light from their CFO because the CFO needs to green light everything these days.
For sure.
So other ways until proven yourself.
And I I think like proving yourself is something that I wouldn’t say you should ever even let in the conversation.
Nobody nobody who has proven themselves ever again says I have to prove myself. So to me, it sounds like, oh, I need to prove myself, is the thing that you say when you know that that’s not that common to be able to prove yourself. So it’s kind of a signal. Don’t say. Robin from your vocab.
Prove me fine. He needs to accrue my value.
And I get it, like, to see the level to the rest of the team because he’s not in charge of the the bank account.
There are a totally. And there are other ways to get the CFO to sign off on things. Right? It’s not necessarily going to be a trial.
It could be hey, if once you lock in six months, you automatically get ten percent off for the entire six month thing, which I don’t love discounting, but CFOs love discounting. So if you’re trying to say, get that CFO picturing this person who’s just trying to make sure that profits are great. What’s the solution for them? A trial Could be it. Don’t get me wrong, Naomi. It could be a trial thing. I just don’t know that that’s that’s a chance for them to go.
Was she perfect?
And it’s like, well, no. Nobody would be.
Rather, hey, I’m badass. You already like work that I do, you already need the job done.
What’s, like, the only thing that’s really gotta move you forward is getting the CFO happy So here’s what we do. And if if you sign on for six months, you get ten percent. If you sign on for twelve months, you get fifteen percent off. And now the CFO has something to work with. And everybody knows you can cancel any time, and the the lawyers will cover the contract with, like, after thirty thirty days notice to to cancel the contract, etcetera.
Yeah, I don’t I considering I already agreed to a trial for this specific agency, it would make more sense to say like Okay, like, send time a, send time a proposal with just like the price list that I have, and then say, okay, work with that, and then like, see how that goes, and then say, look, I have a limited availability if you want to get me on the books, then you can either then hear the packages I have for agencies.
Otherwise I Can I see the guarantee availability?
Yeah.
Or should I, like, call them up tomorrow and be like, oh, actually I wanna change everything and No.
If you’re already down the path. What I just don’t wanna do is have you become a commodity for this agency. That’s all. It’s just I want everybody in this room to go into every call in a power position. That’s that’s it. Like, that’s where we I don’t.
I don’t think I’m a commodity.
I I Oh, no.
I just a menu list is a commodity. That’s the thing. So it requires that you have a good, context for it. That’s all. So Naomi, if you’re already down that path, Cool.
Really the is the question then if you’re doing this trial, how do you lock them into something that’s profitable for you? After the trial ends. Is that what we’re looking for?
Yes. For this one specifically.
Yeah.
And I I guess for all of them because, like, I I also would not wanna commit to a tend to a huge retainer without having any sense of what to expect from somebody who’s relatively new at running a business.
Yeah. Justin. Definitely. Yeah.
Is that okay? Go for it.
Yeah. So I’ve been, speaking with Adri Yedlyn, he’s been, like, sharing a bit of, like, Blair. Is pricing strategy, and I it’s just so curious to me. And I wonder if it could work here.
So basically, offering pricing tiers, but doing it by the likelihood of success. So you’ve got the so the first one is basically your, like, champagne popping kind of retainer. Like, it’s like ten hair month you’d be, like, over the moon if you got it, and they get, like, x, y, and zed in it. And then your middle one is the one that you’re happy that’s the one you’re going for, like, the five k and it includes, like, this amount of deliverables it’s capped here.
And then your like lowest likelihood of success, which is one that’s meant to be like the best value for your time. So like a VIP day or something that you can and I wonder if you could do something like that presented in them like that. And then for the trial, do, like, a month under the kind of care that they want. So rather than doing, like, a trial is, like, an or something, be like, okay.
You wanna go for this option. Let’s try it, see how it goes, see if we need to, like, increase scope or decreased scope. And then, yeah, it was just a a thought.
No. I think it’s I think it’s a great idea I would love, in theory, I love it, but measuring success.
Well, it’s not like to increase the likelihood of success.
You’re gonna do, like, way more voice of customer research.
You’re is gonna include a lot more of that stuff.
Whereas when I’m working for agencies, don’t do any of that. Like, I don’t do that great job, to be honest, because they don’t, you know, they’re not paying me, like, the amount to go and interview their customers. So I’m like, okay, I’ll do your sales agent like, I’ll do it in a day. Like, and I don’t think of it as, like, good sustainable income. I treat it like a cash injection, like, just those, you know, when it’s opportunity to get a bit a bit of extra cash. If you wanted to yeah.
What was that about Revshare?
No.
I I thought that you were saying, like, like, if they Oh, like, no.
No. No. No.
No. It then performs well then.
Yeah. Yeah. No. It’s just like this is what I’ll do too. If you want the maximum chance of success, we’re gonna go for the, like, all in option if you Yeah.
Not etcetera.
Yeah. That could be a good way to go. Have you read Naomi pricing creativity?
Blaren’s.
No. It’s it’s got he’s got a bunch of books. But that’s it’s good. It’s very helpful, for something like this.
Yeah. So you’ve got the trial.
It’s really hard to say how to come up with, but I love Abby your ideas there with, like, you I can give you the full service everything every month for every client, or I can you could buy the VIP day, one a month or something, but at least a VIP day can keep you locked in contained and people don’t expect that they can reach out to you anytime, whereas a block of hours, I could reach out to you for one hour hypothetically on a Thursday and expect you to get back to me. The problem with trials, just as a side note, trials are good for systems. If this was a system that you were selling to them, then the trial would prove out the system or not, but the work we do is so custom.
It’s so specific to what’s going on in the market with the audience with the product. The offer with medium, all of it. That it’s very difficult for a trial to perform because the work we do often doesn’t perform until you’ve had a few takes at it. And you were able to go like, oh, that hypothesis was wrong, but look where it led us.
And then you can go along and get better and better and better. And that where, like, the payoff is with a really good copyright. That’s why agencies that’s why the agency you’re talking to doesn’t sign up for month to month. Because that would that does it doesn’t work.
It doesn’t work until you’ve committed to doing something, and trying a whole bunch of different things. I know for certain that demand gen agencies don’t do month to month.
So any any good ones at least don’t. So That’s my only pause for you going forward with trials. If it’s a system, it’s easy not to trial out. If it’s a human engagement, it’s very hard to trial.
And maybe go for a VIP day.
As like the easiest way in and then from there, they can start to look in to bring you in on projects and other things.
Yeah.
That’s my take.
I’ve done a bunch of VIP days with, a couple agencies too, and I feel like it’s a good, like like what Joe said, you don’t want them to be like, oh, we did an hour here and there or two hours for this. It’s like, it’s a contained main time. And I’ve had an easy time, like, selling those.
Sorry.
My biggest concern with the IP days is really the creative component because so much of what in in more performance based mediums the design is such a big part of it that I really have to work very, very closely with the designer to make sure that they follow, like, conversion CRO principles and UX principles, the way that I would like them to.
So I’d be worried that the VIP day, like, oh, oops, the designer isn’t available. You have come back on Monday and finish up for us. So that’s that’s really my biggest concern with VIP Day. Do you have that issue?
I haven’t had that issue because I’m working and like working on different kinds of things, but it sounds like if if that is a thing, even if it’s not a VIP day, is that still going to be annoying schedule if they’re like, oh, hey, the designer’s not available today. Like, is it still gonna be like they’re kinda calling the shots and they’re like, oh, actually, let’s You know, does that make sense? Or does it have the IP plan out? Sure. But even if it’s not a VIP day, they stop the plan ahead and be like, this is when the designer’s available. Right? So whether it’s a VIP day or not, you have to to expect for your schedule.
Right?
Yeah. Like, you don’t pay for that premium, like, then they’re not paying, like, that’s the fact that you work, like, on UX for the designer, like, that’s that’s more value really than a VIP days for, I would think. So that’s where, like, if you were to offer the different options. It’s like the more expensive option is the one where, like, you’re gonna collaborate a bit more with their team and they’re gonna pay, like, the premium for that.
Yeah.
And it’s two VIP days maybe, right, where you get in a flow of VIP day one is you doing the work VIP day too is you doing the checks over how it’s been implemented and then making any changes accordingly.
If that’s a real if that’s a real problem or the other side is, it’s an agency. It’s a subcontract.
Sometimes you just have to be okay with stepping back. You hand over the copy doc. You give all the best direction you can do. The designer is going to do do what the designer is going to do, though. And so, unless you work directly with them very often, and can establish a relationship there. It can be tough to get a designer to do what the subcontracted copywriter wants them to do.
Yeah. Doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s just like, do you pick your battles here and just like, is If if working with agencies was your full business model and that’s what you were doing going forward, then we could come up with different things here. But my hope and prayer is that it is not so that we can get you, like, scoring big ass projects and competing with that very agency, not necessarily demand gen. But, depending on what you what you want to do, of course, that’s the goal is not to keep. I is that is that in line, or do you want to keep working with agencies in the long term?
Well, I want to work with demand gen professionals because that’s really my area of expertise. So if they are in an agency, maybe that would work. If they’re in house, great. But Yeah. If they’re in house, maybe they already have a team of copywriters that they they they work with, or they have very strict brand principles, and they don’t wanna outsource anything.
So, like, is there a sweet spot?
Yeah. Working with in host demand gen.
Twenty twenty one.
I have worked with in host demand gen, and they are the best. They get excited about everything that you do because they don’t have a lot of fresh ideas coming in. So That’s where if you love DemandGen, cool, you know, do some stuff with the agencies, whatever, have it be that cash that you need, have it be some, like, experience that you get more and more and more with them so you can try different stuff. But then if you like DemandGen, go work as a freelancer for demand gen that’s in house at, like, almost any e commerce company, and it’s it’s fun and ego boosting, which never hurts. And you make good money. Yeah.
Right. So that’s what I’ve been that’s what I did in house for many years.
Nice. Love it.
That was what I did over and over and over and over again.
So I know that they that they like me.
The the trick is figuring out, do they have the budget to hire me, hire somebody out out of house.
And do they are they even thinking that way?
Yeah. And it’s true that a lot of tech companies have laid off people.
Not necessarily because they have to these days, because it looks good on the books to do it. But hiring agencies can be have its own downfalls. It can be expensive too. So it’s not that they’re only looking at agencies. They’re also looking at freelancers, to fill in those gaps. So I would just keep that in mind too. Yeah.
Okay. Cool.
That was fun.
I didn’t mean to think up so much time.
No. That was a lot of working through a big thing. Hopefully, we got, you know, kind of nodding things a bit, which takes work.
Good. Let us know what what happens with this conversation. Naomi over in Slack too. Cool. Well Yeah. I know we’ve got three minutes technically left, even though we’re over sort of by thirty. Does anybody have any last thoughts or question or, like, a rapid something where we good to go.
Yeah. Quick question.
When is the the free month trial, like, officially and, like, for CSP. Do you know the day?
That’s a Sarah. I think February. I think this is the free month for you.
Yeah.
Yeah. I just wondered if there was, like, a I think the date.
I think the next payment is on February twenty eight, I think.
Okay. Yeah.
What I think? Check with Sarah.
Okay. Yeah. Sarah knows all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Abby. Anybody else?
Alright. Have a good week. We will see you in Slack. And, this Thursday is Percy’s mindset session on rethinking failure.
So make sure you check that out if you struggle with things like the word failure.
Cool. Okay. Thanks, everybody.
Have a good day.
Thanks, Joe. Bye.
Worksheet
Selling Service Packages on Autopilot via Email
Selling Service Packages on Autopilot via Email
Transcript
So today is all about it’s kinda building off on what I talked about the last time, what on that last time, which was basically creating your packages and product side services.
What I wanted to, you know, get into now and start preparing y’all, even if you feel like, oh, I don’t have an email list right now, or maybe my email is just tiny or, you know, the If you don’t have an email list, this is something you definitely wanna start thinking about right now because this is something that future you will need. So If you don’t have an email list, I would highly encourage you to sign up for an ESP after this call and start thinking about your automated sales sequence for your productized services. And if you do have an email list, then your action item will be to write that, email sequence and put it into your ESP.
So yeah, I know I’m, like, kind of, jumping the downhill literally, but I definitely want us to want to encourage you to not wait till you have a big list or, you know, like, a big list or whatever. Like, this is definitely something you wanna start doing right now way too many service providers and, literally losing out on valuable reads and clients because, you know, we haven’t really thought about this ahead of time. So Let’s go. So stack themselves, you it’s essentially an effortless email framework for filling your packages on autopilot.
For those of you who don’t know this, like, literally our business, our entire copywriting service business is built on the foundational packages. That is what, you know, like, last year, four hundred k was copy packages.
It’s what has helped us scale.
And they I would say almost but not proof. We are like, you know, we do have periods when I get, like, tired, but we know when kinda watch for and just kind of step away a little bit, but it’s it’s beautiful. And this is an email sequence. I have tested multiple multiple times and have used it even when I did not have a huge list or used it on social for that matter.
So The reason most packages do not sell via email is because they’re missing a welcome or sales sequence to start with. Like, you know, if you’re if you have a package, even if it’s like an audit, and you aren’t talking about a new welcome sequence, you’re missing out on sales there. You’re missing CDA’s to sign up for your packages. A lot of people just talk about the package, but they don’t tell prospects or leads.
That this is what you need to do to get it. It’s amazing how many emails I have critiqued where clear CDS and other, and Clarity is key. All of you know that. Keeping sales emails in your in your newsletter strategy.
Okay. Hang on. Yeah. I found it over twenty five years ago. I’m trying to meet you.
Okay.
Alright. I no. I can’t mute people apparently. You have to mute yourself.
So The third reason is if you’re sending out emails, you aren’t including any sales emails. As part of that newsletter strategy.
And that is, again, something that you wanna start thinking about intentionally. So if you’re sending out a weekly email to your list, You wanna think about, okay, if I’m sending up four emails a week, do I have a sales email in the mix?
Over not showing your leads in prospects, where which is like, oh, I wanna give value. I wanna give value. And I’ve been on that end of the spectrum where, you know, I really wanna give value, but pointed there is something like too much value. So you need to remember that you’re all business owners, and yes, we want to nurture all these. We wanna give code on code value, but we also wanna sell.
And then selling without context or nuance, this is something that I have seen.
A lot of creative entrepreneurs make where We, in our heads, know what the package is for and what it does, but we forget that for a prospect This is just one of many things that’s been, you know, that’s coming at them, and they need to, and then to help to have to then add context to it or, like, okay, where is this gonna fit into my marketing system? Or how is this gonna help me accomplish those goals? We don’t want them to have to do the heavy lifting of kind of figuring out how will this help them. We wanna give them the context. We wanna give them those new answers of how is our package going to help them, or how is a productized service going to help them?
So these are things you wanna kind of avoid in any of the emails that you write for when it comes to selling your packages for sending TLS.
Okay.
So one thing all of you need to remember is emails are the engine that can clear demand and fuel sales for your serve services and packages, but only when you use them with intention and purpose, which is exactly what we’re gonna talk about today.
And again, emails are a authority pillar that you should be building, and I cannot stress enough the importance of doing that. Even even if you’re, I would say, even if you’re in and building of, you know, even if you’re just in house, like, you know, Randall is, like, I would still say start building your email list, you know, or and especially if you’re in house and freelancing start building your email list. It goes this holds good in all cases and all scenarios. So With that, let’s talk about my go to framework for sales viewing automated emails for packages. I say automated because that’s pretty much how I tend to use them, but you could use them as broadcast.
Last year, and this year, I have mainly used them as broadcast mainly because we’ve been kind of book solid, but, I have used them as automated emails. Hold on a lot. So specific, timely, unteachable, engage, motivate to act. That’s my framework. I’m a huge fan of frameworks just to kind of simplify things for myself. So this is what I keep in mind when I’m writing emails for my services and packages.
Alright. Well, let me see. Before we look at it, the two. Okay. Hada has a question.
Do you actively sell and include include those links in the welcome sequence, or do you leave it for the end of the sequence?
I would actively sell and include those links in the welcome sequence. So, in fact, I’m going to talk about that too at the end, as well. Like, you can you can actually just have a one email sale sequence as well. So we’ll talk with you about that, towards the end. Cool. Let me move forward.
So this is an email that I sent out to our list. This was for our Tysmal, which was for, you know, it’s a VIP package, VIP day kind of package that I was selling way back in the day. I’m still selling it.
And this was one of the emails I used when we were launching it. So the reason I’ve shared this here is because it like literally lays out everything. It starts with specificity, and you’ll see context.
So how much copy do you need for an upgrade launch? Okay. Simply use what I use from a live launch when I turn this. What’s the difference between live launch?
Copy. So very specific about the problems that it would be solving for them. And these are three of the most popular questions to adapt, and then this is what led to my framework, my process. Now this is like a really long email.
This does not, by any standards means that all of you need to write long emails, please, this is just to kind of give you an idea of how, like, kind of all the different elements that come in. These could be, like, shorter or faster paced emails as well.
It’s timely. So why I developed this teachable to your other six copy barrels, and this is again content Bistro. We have a lot of foodie references going. So I talk about, you know, what everything that they need here I include a lot of specificity also in terms of things like, you know, these actors clip bars and, you know, so it’s engaging. There’s more, you know, there’s a little bit of personality there.
And then, of course, motivations, like, why do they need this? So you need to connect with your audience’s pain. You need to strongly, you know, you have to tap empathy. You wanna You need both strategy and copy assets, all of that. So this was an email that was a blended set, like this value pass series of the precursor to Artezno, your VIP already, we had people on the wait list. So this went out to them.
Fairly, fairly simple and relatively standard.
So specificity, how do you wanna craft that? You wanna use we’ve had you worded subject lines that increase your open rates. You wanna keep that up within your email. Examples, use specificity to add that context, use specificity to highlight why would they need it, use specificity to, you know, even talk about their motivations so you can use them interchangeably.
Specific results, specific steps, specific outcomes, specific deliverables. Be very, very clear about what it is and why they need this. So this was like a presale email. If you’re sending it directly for a set for a package, tell if you wanna be very clear about what are the deliverables in there, what, and, you know, how do they lead to the certain outcomes?
And then, of course, experiment test optimizes goes without saying.
Rule of one, applies everywhere, one email, one package. Acceptions are, you have two tiers to a package, like fully loaded launch for a very long time, had two tiers. Artasional, I think has half a day and full day, I think, right now. Point is, if you have two tiers, that’s fine.
That does not mean that you’re talking about two different packages, you know, But what email one package? New packages that lead to a similar outcome? Yes. You could, you know, maybe talk about it because you’re you’re then you’re using one email, one come as the guiding goal.
But do not try and talk about an audit or a website copy package and a launch copy package in one email. Unless, of course, it’s like, say, you’re doing, like, a catalog style email or something like that. But for these automated sales emails, you wanna keep it to one email one package.
Soup specificity super powers emote relevant emojis that are very specific to your brand numbers, dollar figures, key adjectives, you know, like, click bars for us is very on brand or just term benefits, you know, and use all of this again for your subject lines or for your body copy.
Use words and phrases that involve visual images that, you know, like, literally for, like, for our audience, again, Harry Potter was a big part of our brand for the longest time ever until Jacob Allen ruined it for everybody. But, so things like, you know, hybrid sized mountains of unfolded laundry instead of a laundry pile.
As copywriters, y’all have the gift of leaning into specificity, lean into it, and music.
But with specificity like makeup, less is more that don’t go overboard, know when to dial it down. And when you do your sweeps, that is when you need to look at and think about, like, okay. Am I just overdoing it here?
Or is this real needed to make a point?
Then we have timely unteachable.
So, again, timeliness and copy can usually be created with strategic calls to action. So Why do they need to act now? What’s the urgency there? Along with that, you can be timely with content. That’s actually timely. So seasonal specific emails or seasonal specific packages, for example.
If you’ve got, like, screenshots and case studies that have just come in, that may be a good point to include in your cell sequence. References to current world situations. Now if you’re automating this and if you’re setting this up for your work for your welcome sequence or for a and always on wakeless sales sequence, this references to current world events may not be a good idea, but you can obviously be timely in other aspects.
And then teaching. Now, t this is where you need to be extra, extra careful because we tent we can tend to go to the side of teaching too much.
And We don’t wanna do that, not because we wanna withhold information, we wanna keep, but because we do not want to cause more confusion.
For our prospective clients. We do not want them to start feeling like, oh my gosh. This is way too overwhelming or Oh my gosh. This is easy and I can do it only to realize that this is not easy and they will struggle to do it.
So you know, which ways we wanna be very careful about what we teach. So five things that I’d like tested out is process. You saw an example of that, like, I talked about, you know, cures. Well, it’s included in this.
And here’s what you need, you know, when it comes to every launch copy cures, everything that you need in it. You can also talk about mistakes your clients made before they hired you. You can talk about the importance of the key elements in your package kind of ties in with the process as well. You can talk about amplifying results your packages, and you can also talk about what comes after and what should they be preparing for?
Once they worked with you. So that’s like future pacing with a twist. You will lean on your case studies and customer success stories here to talk about it. Okay.
My client had to hire a customer service executive just to kind of deal support all the new clients that they got after our, you know, she worked with me on a fast sale package. So that’s just something you may wanna start thinking about right now. That kind of a team. Help them see themselves two steps ahead or even ten steps ahead of where they are right now after they work with you.
Now the goal here for teaching is you wanna, you know, pick the curiosity, but you also wanna give great value. You wanna, you know, help them see that you know your stuff. So that’s why it’s like a fine balance and a good idea whenever in doubt, again, take the time to give it a suite, take the time to get it critique if possible, you know, just so that you feel very confident about it. But the point is don’t hesitate from teaching. Just be careful that you don’t just go way overboard here.
Engaging personality, humor, pop culture, trivia, books, TV, and music, values. We are huge, like, personally, you know, I bring up the fact about our about financial stewardship. I bring up the fact about integrating life with work. I, you know, it’s super these are like values that are key to us.
So, We talk about that all the time, and we, you know, and we use them to create a point of differentiation as well. So Think about, you know, if you feel like, oh, I I’m not into pop culture or I don’t listen to a lot of music or I don’t read a lot of buzzer. I have not interesting happening in my life, which honestly trust me you will be. But don’t hesitate from talking about your don’t have different talking about words and phrases that you, you know, use all the time or you made up.
I’ll give you an example. I just reasonably, like, I started using the word truth biscuit instead of truth bomb because, again, on brand for us. So don’t hesitate from adding in personality to make your emails more engaging.
And of course, what makes you you, what makes you data from everybody else and maybe doing the same thing. So personality types, like, literally everyone on our list knows that our Maya script types. Those are Integram types because they’re big on those. But if you’re not, like, think about it, maybe you have a habit, maybe you have a pet peeve, all of the research that you would do for your clients and their audiences, you need to do for yourself as well. So you need to be kind of clear on what makes you you, and then use that in your emails.
Don’t be afraid to listen humor.
This is something I personally had to learn, because humor does not come. I’m not one of those that it comes naturally too. So I did do some learning here. And humor seriously is a book I really I really enjoyed it in getting some really good, you know, strategic tips.
And then, of course, I don’t know if he’s still running it. Justin Blackman had a course called write more personality, which I took. And absolutely loved and have used, used it extensively. So, yeah, but if it comes naturally to you, you’re one of the, you know, lucky ones.
Please go ahead and definitely use humor.
Formadding basic rules of copywriting out everybody just be sure, like, when you’re reading your emails, make sure you preview them both for mobile and for desktops format your content with bold and italics, bullet at a number of layers, short type paragraphs.
You’ve got, you know, the gist.
Jiff it up.
Very, very easy to add, you know, engagement and personality with GIFs.
Don’t be afraid to use them. But again, you don’t wanna kind of overdo them mainly because we’ve seen, at least, I’ve seen it in fact deliberately in certain cases.
Also don’t hold back on your opinions. You know? So they do make for a lot of engaging reading. You’ve got hot takes, on things. So, you know, like Abby mentioned her her hot take or her, you know, contributing point of view was, you can go evergreen from day one. Something that, you know, you should be definitely talking about. And if you, you know, if you’re when you put together emails for your evergreen package.
And then finally, we have motivations. Now motivations is what basically answering the question. Why should they care?
Why should they care about your package? So your package or productized service was created with the intent to help, solve, heal, undo, redo, improved, increased, decreased something in your prospects lot.
You need to talk about that, lean on it, shine a spotlight on it. Does not mean you poke the pain or, you know, do all of the things that we don’t wanna do. You want it, but you do want to highlight why they need it. Again, this is what adds context and nuance to your emails.
Okay. Before we get into the tactical side, questions. Okay. Oh, if you asked, how are people entering this funnel?
Your welcome sequence feedback for application funnel? It depends. You could use it as it depends on what packages you wanna sell. Like, we’ve reached the stage where we’ve got so many packages, so we don’t, you know, we don’t have them in a welcome sequence.
Excuse me.
But what we do, we did earlier was we had a vacress. We used to build a vacress, and then we used to have a sequence here. But if you have, like, say, one big package right now, which is what I would hope all of you do have, I would use the welcome sequence for that. You could simultaneously also below wait list for it.
So for people who don’t wanna sign up to say a welcome sequence, your wait list could be would be actually a really good idea because those would be active warm leads saying, Hey, I wanna hear more about your packages. So I would actually do both they could enter the funnel, through an automated sales. See oh, they could also enter the following something that we tested out with a client of ours is a noted for sales newsletter sequence. Those are automated newsletters that go out every week and sell her coaching activist.
So, we wrote up I wrote up email newsletters for six months for her. So And every email followed the same same format. She she offers she’s an executive career coach, office career coaching services. Point is you could use them in multiple different ways.
Alright.
So how many emails to send?
My favorite answer, it depends. It depends on your package cost. It depends on how warm your list is, how the list temperature essentially, and audience fairness? Like, does your audience know that they are they pain aware?
Are they solution aware? Are they brand aware? Like, where exactly are they is somewhere in the middle there. So if you would know more about that, that would be great.
It would depend on all of these factors.
Having said that, three to five is usually a solid number to start with.
Now you could take each element in stem and turn that into a sequence. So you could have an email that’s super specific about the pain that you’re solving. And, you know, what what your offer is. You could have an email that’s timely and teachable.
So it walks them through your process or gives them a behind the scenes, and, you know, it’s exactly what to expect from every deliverable. It could be just engaging in storytelling, you know, so you could have, like, just four email and then motivation have, like, two emails because that would be, like, the last two emails that they would get. So you could turn stem into its own sequence or you can send three emails with all of the elements in it. I tend to lean towards sending three to five emails that include all the elements in it. You saw that example earlier, But, you could, you know, totally turn them into an automated sales sequence by itself as well.
So when this is, you know, I’ll leave you kind of answering your question as well. You could send it as a welcome sequence. You can sell it at when you launch a new package as an automated sales sequence to everybody who’s clicked on the link in your emails before that to show interest or been on your wait list, you could send an automated wait list sequence, digit results, email newsletters, and then also for pre selling and getting looked up for package, which is what we kind of did with with artisanal when we launched it initially as we presold it.
And then clients were booked in for, like, say, thirty days later or sixty days later. It was a while ago. But, you could use it in you could send these emails in so many different points, the easiest would be the welcome sequence or the note to fulfill email newsletters. Like, if You know that you have a certain audience segment on your list, but not yet for sales email newsletter sequence would be great. For them because then you can just batchrate these emails, send them out every week, they’re curing from you, and you’re selling your packages as well.
Should you sell in every email?
Yes?
And no? Yes. You do need to talk about the package in every email. No. You don’t need to create false scarcity.
You don’t need to make it appear that this is this is never going to be offered again or or that, you know, you’ll be increasing your prices unless, of course, you will be increasing your prices. So, Sally, every email, don’t sell in a way that doesn’t make you feel good. And if it doesn’t make you feel good, it would definitely not make a few of your clients feel good. That’s, you know, because Yeah.
That’s kind of what I’ve come to realize. So, yeah, don’t hesitate from from Sally.
The one email sales sequence.
If you decide to send only one email to your list, to talk about your package. I hope you said more than that, but if you say, like, okay, but I’m not gonna say, hey, thank you. I don’t I don’t wanna send the sales sequence, etcetera, etcetera. I would highly recommend you use the confirmation email to sell your package or, you know, to talk about, like, write a stem email.
And why? Because not only does this email have the highest open rates because people are taking to to confirm you, or they’ve just gotten on your list. They’re like, They they know and remember who you are, but it’s also a great opportunity for you personally to build a connection with a prospect, maybe very new to your brand. Right?
And, if you’re running, say, Facebook ads, or even, like, from social, or if you’re using affiliates or, you know, like partners or JV partners and things like that, or muted newsletter swaps, point is, again, it does not have to feel pushy or safety when done. Right? So what you wanna do is you wanna share your story in it, give some backstory about how you started. We are, you know, what it is that, you know, you’re known for, what can they expect, from the freebie that they’ve signed up for.
And why should they, you know, go ahead and actually watch it, download it, use it whatever your freebie is. If you have a freebie there, you wanna validate and empathize with their struggle. You wanna celebrate their action taking spirit.
Educate them. We talked about what you can teach them.
But the opportunity here is for you to share your credibility markers. So things like, I’ve been doing this for x number of years. Here are some mistakes that I’ve seen, you know, or here’s what a client said after, you know, we finished implementing their, their funnel or their website copy or, etcetera. So you wanna use the education part to teach about your process, but also share credibility markers. And then you wanna just set it seating and soft selling. So you wanna give them a sneak peek of what’s included in your package, what can they expect, and buy them to check it out and come back to if they have questions or book a call with you, to get more details.
But, yeah, So, yes, you can definitely just sell with one email.
I would hope you would use more than that. But if you have to, then, yeah, this the confirmation email do not overlook it.
Alright.
Soft selling your package for maximum sales. This is something you wanna kind of keep in mind for your emails, whether you’re using it in your confirmation email or even in your sales email and you’re like, you know, okay, I feel like this is getting me too salty.
So You can share a time lapse video if you’re working on a package deliverable. You can share case studies, testimonials, screenshots from clients, like, you know, that they leave in Google Docs.
You can drop a personal video these days. There’s so many tools that make it so much easy. So that make it so easy for you to kind of be at these personalized videos at scale and share why you created the package in the first place. I think I did that I did I did that one time when we launched, a package version of, of my program, ready to sell.
It did really, really well. So You could for social, you could create a carousel, explain why, you know, what’s in that package, why do they need it, and then embed that carousel in your email. So you again, the idea here is for you to get that package in front of your audience in as many ways as possible and not hesitate from the idea of selling, in a way that feels good to you. Eglopedia.
We have we have one. We use one regularly for our packages. So we need people to download to see examples, case studies, and your and the process that we use as well. Key elements, invite them to get on a zero pressure call with you. Make it really, really easy for people to know what offer and to buy from you via emails.
Next steps, identify the package you wanna sell. But those of you who have created packages since our last call, amazing. Happy to give you feedback on those.
Write up one to three emails or she’ll do five emails using STEM, upload them into your email system and send. And then, yeah, just keep testing and optimizing a simple log. Cool. We have plenty of time for questions.
Okay.
Chris asked, would you recommend having subscribers sign up for a sales sequence from one of the weekly newsletters if so how Yes. Great idea. I absolutely recommend it. So let’s say you’re setting up weekly newsletters and you want to get people to sign up for a sales sequence for one of your packages.
Is that correct? That’s what you wanna okay. Good. So there are a couple of ways you could do this.
You could do this, but if since they’re already on your email list, you could, you know, skip the step of having them subscribe again for their details in again. You could just say, if you’re interested in my ABC package that would help you do x y z tap this link and I’ll send you more details. So when they tap the link, an automation kicks in, that would put them into the sales sequence.
Most ESPs make it really simple to do that. So that’s all you would need to do. So when you do that, the system would the automation would kick in, and you would tag them as ABC interest list, for example.
Does that help?
Yeah.
I was wondering, also, like, considering I haven’t sold anything to my list, for example. Right? So I guess the less aware or less or the lower the intent is probably the longer the sequence will will have to be to kind of educate them. Right?
Not really. The you’ve had your list for a while. You have been emailing them regularly. Right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So honestly, you would all you would need to do is just let them know that this is something that you’ve, you know, fit in your working on and he if they’re interested in working on it with you or if they’d like to hire you for it, here’s, you know, to tap here and you’d send them more details. And when it happens, they know that they’re going to get details about a package. So your first email itself could be a pitch email.
You know, it could be a case.
The the the click is the qualification. So, yeah.
Exactly. Exactly. That is the qualification. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
You’re welcome.
I’ll ask how you all manage the tech side of all these phones, do you outsource it at DFI? So the the welcome sequence and, nurture hotel users. These are, like, fairly, like so here’s the thing. I would I’ve been with ConvertKit for seven years now.
So for me, it’s really easy to go in and set these up. I know. I also like to know a tool inside out, even though, like, right now, we be hired someone who’s working on setting up the whole evergreen side of things for us. But, for for a program, that that is something I would not want to do, at all.
But something like a welcome sequence and all, I would do it myself.
But yeah, I would be keen to share what the group has to say, like, do y’all do your, DIY or automations?
Or hire it out, but they’ll let like techy is who can easily help you do that as well.
Abby, Jessica Johnson.
I do.
I do. I think ConvertKit is pretty it’s pretty easy. The screening tags.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.
And and the automation are visual.
So it’s pretty easy.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So most of us set it up ourselves. I would for your business, and this is just a piece of side you know, like, from someone who’s been there and done that.
Oil business, I would say it I would highly recommend knowing the tools your business uses in setup. You can definitely hire out the setup later on, like, like I gave you the example of the open funnel setup. Or for example, design, you know, like website design. I don’t do it, but I can go in and make quick changes. I can go in and the reason being it just makes it a lot easier and less stressful, and also because I’m kind of anal about control, so there’s that too. But I would highly recommend, like, knowing your ESP and knowing what it can do. So you don’t have to, like, be you know, just kind of wait for someone else to do it for you.
Cool. Just Yeah. Jessica has another good point, but I’m offering emails for I have to copy many clients ask so many questions about set up in their ESP because it’s an easy upsell for me. Amazing.
I love that. Yeah. Wait. Wait.
Okay. Cool. What other questions do you have about packages or selling your packages?
Abby, can I ask that?
Yeah, I’m looking to, like, increase the profitability of my package. I’ve been selling it for a while. I just felt like you’re the perfect person to ask because you’re all about profitability.
So I’d love to, like, do two.
So I, yeah, I guess my option, like, the the obvious thing to hire.
I have like I’m also curious, like, how much you template, like, the the copy deliverable. So I’m doing an open funnel photo. So it’s kind of similar to your, like, fully loaded launch.
Do you I do have templates for all the bits, but I always feel guilty using them. So I’m like curious if you if you template it out. And, Yeah. With the hiring up for research, like, I have a block there.
I don’t know what it is. I think it’s probably just because I’ve I’m not really hired out for stuff like that. So That was a real question. We’re just like some thoughts.
I might be waiting, like, how we sort out.
Okay. Cool. So let me just kind of clarify so that I know I have it right, and I’m I can give you information that would help you. So, you wanna know how to increase the profitability of your packages, by either hiring it out or by speeding up the process. Correct?
Yeah.
Okay. Great. Alright. So, yeah, hiring it out highly highly recommend research take took a lot of time on and also for me because I’m in India.
Time zones, and our clients are all in the US and, you know, North America, essentially. So time zones were Royal pain.
So that was my big motivation of hiring it out because I I used to be up for calls, and then, you know, I would not be my best. Yeah. So, hi, workman, hiring out research, if you can, and you factor the pricing into your package. Basically.
So to give you, I think I mentioned this somewhere in the group earlier, like, research I’ve hired out in the, you know, our research assistant takes, you know, twenty five hundred or upwards depending on the depth and breadth of research. For instance, if you have clients who have, like, so we’ve had clients who’ve had big server responses that have over thousand responses. We obviously are not gonna come to thousand responses, but we still would have, like, there’s a few hundred responses that we would, like, kind of pull from. Right?
So that’s more data there. It kind of depends on data, but essentially, like I would say, twenty five hundred is a decent package price kind of keep in mind if you’re hiring a research, but you also for the other thing you wanna look at is opportunity cost. Right? So When I calculated the amount of time, actually, my uncle calculated the amount of time, I was spending on the research phase of product.
It just made more sense for us to hire it out so that I could take on another package line. Right? And that kind of then You know, that is what helped us to really do more work without burning out. I mean, like I said, like last year, just the one the one hundred k package that I did was, like, twelve different sales pages and don’t know how many hundreds of emails.
It was, like, I could have easily said, like, okay. Yeah. After this, I’m not gonna do another project.
But I just wasn’t stressed out at all. And large part of that would be, research, but the other is going to answer the other part your question, which is process package delivery is all about your processes. And this is for everybody, whether you do, you know, like launch copywriting, your email rating or any kind of copywriting point is for your packages, you need to look at what can you systematize and In my case, I do not have used templates for copy.
I have a huge thing against templates for cockney.
It’s on my pet peeves. But I do have what I call recipes and frameworks. So I’m a huge, huge I would like if I write a sales page for the first time at it conversely well, you can be one hundred percent sure it’s going to become recipe. And when I say recipe, it’s essentially I would write down, okay, like, so here’s step one.
Like, literally, write it out like a recipe. So I would say, okay, here are the ingredients that I use for this. Here’s step one. You’re step two.
You’re step three. You’re step four. You’re step five. And then when I’m sitting down to write, all I do is I open up a recipe.
I copy that into a Google doc, so I’m not starting with a blank page. And then I just Follow the steps, put my copy in the relevant sections. And when needed, because again, audience is wary. So it may be the same recipe, but I can move steps around and gives me flexibility.
So that is another way that I’ve been able to really speed up my process. That’s made a huge, huge difference.
Going back to hiring, yes, research is one thing, but you also need to know that our very first hire was an editor. Because editing was my least favorite thing to do. We did not hire VA. I know that Joe encourages us to hire via, like, you know, first thing.
But went against the grain there, hired an editor because editing was my most time consuming job, and an editor was our first full time hire and has continued to be part of our team sense. So, that saves me a ton of time because I know the copy that I get I’m like, I’m not worried that I’m sending off copy that hasn’t been seen by another pair of professional copywriting, copy editing files. So our editor right now is someone who’s also trained in BrandVoice. So that means really, really you know, it’s really helpful for me to know where I’m going off voice sometimes for a brand, you know, especially because I do multiple projects for the same brand.
So she’s she can recognize, like, hey, you know, this should you be using these many exclamation marks and, you know, things like that because it’s not on them. So that really helps save time for me. I’m not spending time editing. Anything that helps us save time is a hire that we would we would consider.
I don’t do my own wireframes either.
We hire that out too. So I save a ton of time on just focusing on doing my writing.
That is that is basically what what’s really really helped.
Okay. Cool. Yeah. Because I don’t I don’t wireframe. I didn’t realize you did that.
But I yeah. I think like So a project will take me fifty hours, and I don’t really see room to, like, speed up. So I do use frameworks and stuff, but I think with the hiring out the research, like, because that’s such a key part of where, like, the ideas happen, like, when I’m finding it all, like, that’s usually when I get, like, the big idea. So I think I just, worry that if I hired that out, like, I mean, what do you think of, like, if I have, like, a kind of a framework for a master guide and I tell them what race I should do and, like, to put it in there, and then reviewing that. Is that kind of?
Yeah. Exactly. You can absolutely do that. So I have a framework for my messaging and recommendations guide as well, and I would let my researchers just know that, hey, you know, this is how I needed it.
So and, yeah. I mean, we worked with three different research specialists over the years and all through, like, because we had so many projects, so we would, you know, like, and they would have that limited So we would hire out different projects to all of them. All three of them have same standard instructions, same briefs, everything. So it yeah.
And I completely agree with this. This was, like, one of my big too. It’s like, you know, okay. How would we get sticky messaging?
How would I know about, you know, things like, okay. Again, the big idea here, all of those things, but Yeah. I mean, hiring research, Abby has made zero, I would say.
Difference tune. In fact, if anything, I’m more creative. Like, I find that because I’m approaching the messaging and the research data with those fresh eyes. So I would say it’s it’s been a huge huge help.
Oh, sorry. One more question. I’m really sorry to be like a hog, but, how how do you hire someone? How where do you find these people? To do.
Yeah. Yeah.
I I actually so sorry. I I want to add to this. I also wanted to ask, like, I’m curious For the research part, do you hire someone who already knows how to do copy research, or are they like generalist researchers or what?
Copy research. They they specifically work with copywriters, to research for their client. Projects. So, I’ll tell you how we found.
So here’s, so one of the first researchers we worked with was in our programs, for creating packages, and created a research package, and we ended up hiring her. So that was easy. The second researcher was, Melissa Harstein, I found it to another copywriter, and the third researcher was essentially she started as our content support, and the community concierge, assistant, and then she we realized, like, you know, she she had the potential. And so we started asking, like, would you like to do research?
And she did, like, a bunch of projects where it went really well. And now she specializes only in research. So, but how would you find these is by asking people in your network. Like, this is the group you would wanna ask.
I’m happy to recommend who we work with for research. Should you decide to hire, and you could ask on social. Like, generally, And that’s how we found our editor as well. A copywriter who was in my program was working a second editor.
Our first editor, we found through an ad. You can also do job ads But, but I I feel like you make way, way better hires through, you know, like asking people who they work with and getting referrals. So very happy to recommend both our editor and our research people. To you, one of them has gone in house and is no longer doing research, and the other one This also is on a short hiatus from work, but the third one, I’m very happy to make an introduction to any of you needed.
Thank you.
That’d be great.
Hi, buddy. Hi, everyone. How are you?
Hey, honey.
Hi. Sorry. I I didn’t realize it was so early this morning. I had the kids walking them to school. So apologies.
This has been so helpful, and I’m right with Abby and Chris about Christopher about, you know, trying to outsource as much as possible.
And I know Abby, you are looking at a VA. So I think it’s I would love to really dive into this outsourcing because I think what I was hearing a little bit muddled was, you know, it’s like relinquishing control and what parameters because I think When I’ve heard of people who they start to outsource, they spend early days a lot of time trying to figure out a process. And that can be a really valuable time spent, but it’s also with the who you do that work with.
I’ve been cautioned about, you know, there’s a lot lost in translation that can happen when you’re when you’re partnering. So I know that, you know, the turning over some of this really important work that you mentioned is really my next step. And so I’d love to hear from the group or from anyone about the work of relinquishing control, I guess, as the mindset.
Yeah. I feel like that. And I I’d love for the groups to weigh in as well, but I feel like, that I I’m as I type a overachiever who, like I said, I’m anal about control, is what I realized is that I actually have more control more creative freedom when I’m not stressing over things that, you know, someone else can do and do well. I will say, though, and again, this is something for for future you that you wanna start thinking about is even before you hire, answer your question about processes, processes and systems, is you wanna start documenting your process. Right? This was really helpful.
For us when we hired is, like, just have well documented processes to share with whoever came on board. So they knew exactly what do and when, and that makes it really easy because it, you know, it’s a shorter runway.
Also for certain jobs, like, when you hire them out and you hire, like, say, research, for example, you’re hiring someone who is a research specialist, the runway is way shorter because they’ve already done so many projects. They work with so many different copywriters. They know different styles, and they’re really easy to work with. So that makes it that makes it much, much simpler too, which is why I’m a huge fan of asking your network peripherals, about people that they really enjoy working with.
That’s great. I think, I’d love to know, who those trusted people are within our network and, you know, building out maybe a directory of those people that we could turn to.
And then I think the last thing is out outside of the network is upwork or any of those places, reasonable places to go to from your experience.
Yeah.
Early days off of business, you hired a lot of people off of fiber. It was really great, especially with things like video editing or, like, quick graphic design jobs and illustrations and all of that. I’ve never personally heard from Upwork, but I’ve heard of some great people out of work as well. Like, people have had some great experience, there.
So Also, there’s a site called hire my mom, hire my mom dot com. That’s a that’s another really quick like, I her first hand from peers who’ve had great success, finding excellent people there as well. So, yeah, I would definitely say that. And Again, for, when you’re looking to hire, it would be great when you if you could, like, ask in the group and, you know, like, hey, I’m looking hire a VA or looking to hire an editor, does anyone have references, or referrals to, you know, kind of send my way.
So, yeah, we could obviously absolutely do that.
So just in terms of a source for for hiring, I’ve been in the ten x freelance copywriter group for, like, years. And anytime I’ve posted about, like, subcontracting opportunities there, I’ve gotten a ton of responses So, again, it, like, when I’m saying, like, there’s people who are already trained in, like, the copy hacker has approached to research.
You know, so you’re not, like, fully educating somebody who’s never heard of VOC or or something like that.
Exactly. Great idea, Katie.
I have, like, two questions up on this call.
Sorry.
Sure. Sure. No. Alika, give me just a minute. I wanted to answer Hannah’s question also, and then I’ll come to you.
So Hannah asked in the chat, I feel like an order for this kind of model to sell really well. You need right for tier clients on the list. Currently, my smallest list is a mix of people in my target audience and copywriters slash service providers. I wouldn’t engage my service for this.
So, for this, you mean, the package you currently have Hannah? It’s Hannah here. Yeah.
Hello?
Okay. I don’t know whether it had us here or not like Sorry, Elythea. I was about to ask, like, just get more clarity from from Hannah about her question because I saw that come up a short while ago. We let Hannah come back to us. I wanna get some more context around that.
Why did you go ahead?
Oh, no worries. So I have two questions and one is I’ve been, like, Two months ago, my dream was just a contract for operators because I wasn’t called with one of the leading operators right now. She’s a co she’s a coach of Galaxy. And then she told me her story about subcontracting subcontracting for another operator.
So the the thing that you’re all talking about research I wanna share the other side of the story that what Abby just said that the the research was all done for me, and I’ve really struggled with that. When I sat with the writing part. Like, because I I did not I had not done the research. Like, I had not gone and done the interviews.
I struggle a lot with, like, reading through all those heaps and heaps of transcripts.
Then, And although it was like an airtable and very organized, but I struggle with coming up with big ideas and specific VOC, which So how how do you overcome that when you’re writing and when the research is done? Like, do you read it again and again or especially when the the product or offer is not very familiar to them.
Okay.
So here’s the thing. So my research process essentially includes the VLC, which is your you know, survey data and your interview transcripts and your kickoff call transcript and all of that. Right?
But then the second part of my research is offer optimization where I go into their offer, and that is something I still do. It’s like I go through their I work with course creators, right, and coaches. So I essentially experience their course or service firsthand to get, a direct look at how a student will experience it.
So I am familiar with the offer of what with the research document as well. Like, here’s the thing, if you get them the way you would want it to be presented the way you kind of use your, like, how do you package your research so you present it to the client? And, you know, or how do you package your research so you use it?
Either which ways If you let your research, you know, assistant know that this is how you would want it, you would be starting with a done feed document. Would you have to read it Yes. But you don’t have to read all of the transcripts. I’ve I don’t read the transcript unless, of course, I wanna kind of double check something that, you know, or I wanna kind of get some more insight on a, you know, a particular, messaging area.
But or you don’t have to go through the surveys. You’d yeah. And the kickoff call is with you in any case. How our researchers can is done is I do a fairly in-depth kickoff call.
The client fills out an in-depth questionnaire, and then our research assistant takes over, does the interviews, survey responses, forum mining, coming through, like, competitor analysis, all that the research assistant does. And then they presented in a format that I wanted them to present it in because that is how I’ve been, you know, approaching my research. Like, after I’ve done all of this, I put it into, like, a fairly hefty document divided into, like, the usual sections, you know, your pains, wants, etcetera, etcetera. And then if it just yeah.
So they basically shortcut all of that for me. But it’s not like I don’t know the product because I do know it because I’ve gone through it. Sub contracting is different because you may not have contact with the client themselves. So I because I don’t subcontract, I can’t really speak to that experience.
And I have another question. And that is, like, I’ve been about hiring from day one. Like, even if it’s only been a year, I’ve hired multiple multiple things and also so what I do is, and I felt a little bit of resistance here. So when I hired for the first for three or four times. It was a higher class, bio class thing. And then I realized that I, I needed to add test like, so I added, like, a test project and or just just to see, like, if they’re fit for this job.
And there, I feel like some, like, beginners opt in for that, and then they don’t qualify.
But then the people who are actually doing great, they don’t opt in for that because they think that that, like, you know, I’m that other spammy because they’ve opted for other test projects and been, like, they’ve they’ve been born out for that. So how how do you deal with that? Like, how do you How would you approach that?
Because when I’ve hired someone with a test project, it has been, like, if someone is really qualified, it has been really beneficial for me through, like, clicking out the perfect person instantly.
But how do I encourage someone to do that? With all enthusiastic.
You you cannot.
It depends on the person who’s applying for the job. Right? Like, you cannot do the job of generating enthusiasm for applying for something for them. You can make it simpler and easier by laying out everything that they would have, what they would what you would expect, having clear expectations, also highlighting why they should wanna work with you and what what’s it for them, that kind of a thing. But beyond that, like, whether they decide to do a test project or not do a test project, essentially, up to them. Right?
I mean You recommend, like, doing a mini sales pages thing that that also walks them through, like, what’s in it for them?
No. I just do like a regular job ad. Like a well written job ad would be fine and as long as, you know, it just kind of you don’t need to sell them on sound working with you and for you to pay them. You need to sell them on, you know, the here’s why we need a test project here’s how it’s gonna help me understand and, you know, the the skill level you have and the expertise you have.
And, you know, the, you know, whether we’d be a good fit working together. So, so yeah, I would go with that. Again, full disclosure for us test projects have been for when we hired from Safe Fiber, and that test project has or up we are not work, but I would say if you have, I believe, wanna start with a single project, like a small project to see how it goes, look at turnaround times and all of that In other cases, how we’ve worked with it. It’s been with social media managers or VA’s or content support assistants or graphic designers or research assistants or, you know, editors, it’s always been we start with one project.
So we just do, like, one project, like a full project and see how that goes. Worst case scenario. It may help go really well, but then that’s just one project. Right?
And you’d never work with the contractor again.
Touch with. We’ve been very lucky. We’ve had a couple of, like, instances where we’ve not, you know, like, we’ve had, like, I think, literally say a couple of instances. But where, you know, contractors haven’t have dropped the ball have, like, literally ghosted us after, you know, saying yes and taking payments.
So, yes, it happens. But we’ve been very, very lucky with our team of contractors that we work with. So, yeah, very grateful for that. It’s been I know because it’s it’s hard hiring.
I completely agree. Thank you. That’s very helpful.
You’re welcome. Kaye said I color code everything by team. I think it’s a matter of figuring out the presentation in a way that works for your brain. Exactly.
Like, do you approach your research? Like, I always would categorize it into different categories. I needed it in, like, a Google Doc format. It’s presented to the client and like a very beautiful PDF, but I needed it like that.
And that is exactly how I get it, which makes it so much easier. So you need to figure out, like, when you are working on a copy project, how do you approach your research? Do you start by, like, going through everything and but do you document everything? Like, where does where does that documentation happen?
And that is what you need someone to do for you when they’ve done all of the other parts of the research.
Okay, Hannah, I had a couple of questions around context for your, you know, what you said about, I feel like in order for this kind of file to sell really well. You need to, like, right fit target audience clients on the list. So when you said your, your current list is a mix of people in your target audience and copywriters who that wouldn’t get your service with this, but you can still sell to people in their target audience. Right?
And then you say they’re assuming your package. Correct?
So I’m just I’m just saying that, like, I haven’t done much of this kind of setting because I feel like my list is so It’s not such a big list, but it’s like mixed of I have some of the right fit lines in there and some not. So I would have to do you segment when you send out when you have Yes.
Yes. I would feel like when I’m going to send out this kind of, to do such a fun, I would have it first focus on growing. Like you said at the beginning, going to list with the right fit to help people on the list. Yeah. I would say that too, and I would also say that segment you’ll list right away. Like, if you’d know you have a mix of charter audience clients. I would, again, do not wait for when it reaches a decent number, segment them right now.
And let them know that, hey, you know, I if you are a whoever your target audience is, if you’re this, you know, and would like to know more about what I have coming up in twenty twenty four, like, right now. So, you know, just click here and my email automation would do the rest. That kind of thing, and then you just tag them. So you have that signal building away.
Then you can set up your sales sequence to go to that segment. Right.
Cool.
Katie had a question.
Sure. We’re a little over time, but if everyone’s cool with it, we can stick around and answer Katie’s question about creating a package. Go ahead.
Okay. So I think, like, this may be beyond the scope of this call. So feel free to, I’m like, I’ve got today to to work on this kind of thing, but, my current audience is like coaches, experts, course creators, and Through conversations with Joe about my Red thread, we had talked about, like, what I currently do being profitable signature offers, so a lot of for optimization, like core messaging and sales pages and and funnels, but wanting to create some IP that’s applicable to a broader audience potentially into ecomm I can like see all of the big picture of that, but just when I think about like a q one sales plan, I’m totally lost on what to sell to my existing audience now that also allows me to be like ticking the boxes on our you know, our, like, towards celebrity status, spreadsheet because it feels like I would have to be creating content for the business I have now and creating content for the future business, which I just don’t have capacity to do.
So I guess my question is like, do you have any tips on the packages to bridge that gap or like finding kind of the overlap in the Venn diagram between where we are now and where we’re, like, hoping to go in the in the context of this program.
Oh, oh, I think you’re muted.
You wanna you are sorry. You wanna start working with e commerce businesses on their the entire profitable offer suite. So their offers and then their sales copy on their emails. Is that right? And right now you’re working with coaches and course creators on a similar thing.
Yes.
So there’s your overlap. It’s the outcome. Right?
Like, it’s the Well, I guess it’s not my question.
I guess I’m like, do I because you work with course creators. Do you Like, if I want to go as big as this, like, if I wanna go as big as possible, is there space to do that in the coach’s course creators realm, or do you think that it’s easier to have a, like, bigger outcome from the bigger pie that is e commerce.
You are asking the wrong person because, like, I believe, yes, there is a lot of scope in the coaching and course creation industry.
It honestly, we could we should have this conversation in Slack as well, but the point is, like, I feel like there’s a lot of the coaching and course create create an industry. You don’t wanna just look at your marketing coaches. Right? You wanna look at beyond that like this. So much learning happening. There are courses for for equine business owners. There are courses for, you know, like, in all the finishes.
That’s one of the reasons why I, you know, never need to down per se to something like a specific as I write for female marketing coaches, you know, So Yeah.
So, yes, there is. Oh, is e commerce a more profitable, Leech?
Maybe, maybe not. Like, define profitable. Right? Right? Is it profitable for you? Is it profitable for, in terms of, like, the people who are hiring?
Like, what is yeah. I mean, like, for me, I feel like it’s very profitable.
Okay. And also from, Katie, the other deciding factor for personally for me is also the the stress level when working on a project. I find because I’ve worked with with EdTech, where you have, like, multiple state stakeholders. I have also worked with e commerce as well. So I I work a lot of e commerce intact.
Before I focused, kind of focused on the coaching industry.
I find that stress levels in this industry way less because they’re very fewer stakeholders in the project. Right? It’s usually the person behind the brand and maybe they’re OBM and maybe someone, you know, like, a CTO or a marketing person, but Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Probably it’s moved much faster.
Okay. Thank you. That’s all really good food for thought.
So I’ll be I’ll do in Slack on this as well. Yes.
Please. Please. I, you know, yeah.
Tag me and post it in Slack, and I’m, like, I love coming up with packet ideas. So, yeah, happy to help.
Christopher’s last question for the day, SLP, do you pay them? Have you ever yes. Yes.
Have created them myself and lately have had, like, our community concierge. I totally is transitioning into full time research right now. So she created all one of the SOPs for the person who will be coming into the community conflict role because she’s been doing all of it. Right?
Like, so, it just made sense for her to document everything. And she’s also documented. She used to do our comment content, support thing as well, like the blog post uploading and, you know, sending out the email you said, all of that. So she’s documented SOPs for for all of all of that.
So but the initial SOPs that I gave her were created by me. So when you do bring in someone, you could you can definitely have that conversation with them that, hey, I would love for you to document your workflow and your, you know, the whole process as you go along so that it becomes easier for us to know how things are going, and if there are any gaps, then we need to fill them. But, yes, you can do it both ways.
Both. Thank you.
Awesome. Everybody, great call. Great seeing y’all, and I will catch you inside.
Worksheet
Launching Productized Services
Launching Productized Services
Transcript
Alright.
Before we begin, these launches are not essential. You can sell your product services or your package offers without doing a launch launch. The idea, however, is that you do need to share them in some way. I call them launches because that’s, you know, that’s how I approach them, and that’s how we in the past sold, these packages, especially when they’ve been, you know, like brand new, or, when we know we would like to say see the next quarter booked out. So you would still see me doing that, a lot of times with the newer packages that we launch.
So getting straight to it. The first stop, this is the launch that I have probably used the most because this is really great for high ticket offers.
And it has natural urgency because with the high ticket offer, you generally put a cap on the number of spots because there’s only so many that you can take, or you can give them, like, an extended payment plan.
Something that we’ve done in the past is we’ve prebooked clients and each, like, given them, like, say, a six month or a nine month or even a twelve month period to use the package, which means they can book it, say, in January, they can keep paying for it over time. Let’s say they wanna launch in September. I’m talking about, like, the fully loaded course package. Right?
So we can if, you know, we can give them, like, an extended payment plan. So they they’re paying we’re getting paid in advance in any case. Before we even kick off the project. Right? So we they get, like, that extended payment plan as well. So I love limited urgency focused launches for obvious reasons.
But, yeah, it totally depends on what you want. So You can create urgency for your launch by using any of the following, offering a special payment plan. Like I just told you about limiting the number of spots because, you know, well, you have. It’s like a high touch service generally. And then making the package available only for a limited time. So when the fir when the very first time I launched, the fully loaded launch package.
It was not a high dynamic variety standard. Any one of you who’s watched my tutorial Tuesday knows exactly how much I charge for it. To begin with. It was what it included, you know, underpriced. However, let it also be known that it was my first time offering that package. I had never done something like that before. So I feel like there’s basically what Maikan and I thought was, like, let’s test the waters and see.
It obviously all sold out really, really fast. So that time, what we’ve done is we’d like kind of just post it on social, and I’ll talk about that in a bit too. But we’d limited the time that people could, you know, have for signing up for this. So you can, you know, create urgency in many different ways. You don’t always have to discount your package.
You can choose to combine two or even all of these to run an urgency focused launch.
So what are the copy assets that you need for this? Your opt in page, your sales page goes without saying you need thank you pages for both of these, but All of your smart people, you know that, emails, blog posts, and I’ll come to that in a bit, and then social media updates. If you’re using a shopping cart, for a prioritized service, you obviously need that too, for most of our packages. We do not use a shopping cart, especially for our high ticket packages.
So, basically, because we either, help, you know, let people pay over time so that, you know, if they wanna spread their payments out, or sometimes we need to customize it even further. So so there you go. But anyway, these are, like, the copy assets that you need, or you may wanna use. I hesitate from things absolutely be because sometimes you don’t need a blog post.
I’m just sharing everything that I’ve used in the past. So often, you wanna create a simple opt in form. This is not the opt in form we’ve used in the past. This is just an example of the opt in form we currently have on the site, but point is you wanna create a simple opt in form and to collect your leads, especially if you’re gonna be using blog posts that are specific or social media updates that are specific to your product type service.
A sales page. We’ve already talked about what a sales page could look like for a productized service in, one of the previous sessions. So, if you haven’t watched that, I would highly recommend watching it, but tweet as your sales pitch needs to let prospects know what it is, who’s it for, how can they, you know, use it, what the benefit in it for them? Why do they need it? And why do they need it now?
Because remember, this is an urgency focused launch.
And then let’s talk emails. So these are emails that we’ve, you know, used in the past, and have had really, really great results with for, especially even for, especially, not even for, especially for high ticket packages. So the teaser email is the email that kind of goes goes ahead of time, letting people know what’s coming up. It also gives people who are not interested in the package to opt out. The second is, of course, the launch email, which is, you know, like Gmail. It’s a plural sales email.
And then I have the four f emails. I love creating frameworks pretty much everything. It just makes it easier for me to remember what I’m supposed to be, right, writing in those emails. So first step is my fans and followers emails, which is essentially a social proof email, testimonials, social proof, for p, you know, from people who’ve used your services or if you’re, you know, it’s a tested out product type service who’ve used their service before.
The FAQ email, again, fairly standard. You wanted to move objections by answering their questions, and then they’ve got the future pacing email, which shows them what their life is gonna be or their business is gonna be once they worked with you. And then we’ve got the final countdown emails. So very, very standard emails, and there’s not, you know, like a lot of you don’t wanna get too complicated with them.
Couple emails that we’ve also occasionally used include the authority emails and then grab the bonus email, which are which is both great. Like, if you have authority content, or you’ve got you’re offering a bonus.
Again, something that we’ve also done with our packages in the past. For instance, like last year, I did a Flash sale spritzer package that sold out really fast. It was, you know, basically a package for writing emails a flash sale and the bonuses that I included were, social media blurbs, not full blown posts. No.
Social media posts and then blurbs and news, you know, to use in your newsletter or or even as short social media captions. So why did it include those bonuses because it was they were really easy to create. I’m writing the emails in any case. I can choose full social media copy from those emails itself.
And it kind of removes the hesitation and objection that our audience has, that my audience may have around the Flash sale emails. But, okay, I’m doing this Flash sale, how do I promote it? Well, I’ve got you covered.
So, yep, grab the bonus email. We’ll be one of those. Yep. Money.
Hi. Quick question for you. I’m, I’ve never done a lot before. So and I was asking about software and etcetera. So for somebody who’s, like, never gonna launch.
Where do you start? I guess that’s where maybe there’s more courses I should be taking back in copy school. But if you were like an absolute beginner because, I’ve never launched a package, I’ve Mhmm.
Where where is there, like, a good how to or checklist guide because I feel a little bit lost to be frank. When I I go through this, I’m like, oh my god. I have done none of these, and I don’t know where to go to get you know, frameworks or starting points.
So that’s and maybe I’m the only person in the room that has that, but that’s where That’s a really good question.
So for a launch like this, right? You could use you if you have an email list You could use your ESP for sending out the emails. It’s that simple. You don’t need any fancy software.
You can just use the email system you’re using to send out emails to your list. If you, let’s say, do not have an email list, you can use social media. I I know you started posting on LinkedIn and use your sync script. Traction with it as well.
I have a social only launch as well that I’ll share with you in just a bit that you can just use social media to sell your, you know, productize service.
For the sales page or the opt in page, all you need is basically like your website. Right? You can They got opt in page would be on our website. Our sales page is on our website. So as long as you have a website and ESP, or an email service provider, and like a social platform.
You’re good. And, of course, oh, wait. We accept payments from people. Honestly, like, Aleafia’s recommended, click funnels, click files is, it’s great.
But it’s okay.
Oh, okay. Has that even used click funnels. Yeah. I haven’t used click funnels personally, but I do have clients who’ve used click funnels. It offers way too much for what you all need to sell product. I service selling productized services is the lowest tech.
Kind of launch that you can never think of as long as, like I said, as long as you have a website, you have an ESP, and you have a social platform and a way to accept payments from people.
You’re golden.
It’s such a hackathon.
Well, because it’s interesting that you asked that question about click funnels because there’s go high level. And then there’s Exactly. Yep. And glow go high level, which is really interesting about it, allows you to like, as a full service with email, I think hosting.
Yeah.
I’m It said Quick address as I do.
Yeah.
Yeah. So it would be really interesting at what people thought about that as an option because it’s sort of like the all in one built in I don’t know how efficient it is to do these kind of email sequences, but if the software itself, is an all in one solution would be interesting.
Yeah. Funnel gorgeous. Katie said is another one. So quick funnels, funnel gorgeous, go high level, even kajabi for that matter. You know, they are all all in one solutions.
If that’s what your business needs, definitely look at them.
The re so what I would kind of caveat this with is the last thing you wanna do is over complicate your tech stack.
So you want your tech stack to be as simple and efficient for you to be able to use and lean on as your business grows. And also Also, where most importantly, you want your tech stack to make you feel comfortable and not intimidated.
The What I find that happens with a lot of our clients is, like, especially with things like kajabi or or click funnels, or even funnel gorgeous because I did have a plan who used funnel gorgeous is that they need to bring in someone to be able to set things up for them, to be able to, you know, do a lot off the back and work for them. If you’re cool with that, that’s great.
I personally like to know how my website works. So even if, say, our tech team, we both have a tech support person and a designer and a developer.
If they were to say be sick or unveiled, I can go in and really make sure everything’s running running smoothly, which is probably why we haven’t moved to all in one solution also is because Everything is speaks well to each other. Our website is on WordPress.
Our ESP can work our social platforms are obviously all sorted. So we didn’t really see the need for it. So definitely explore the solutions, but then make a decision that feels good and comfortable for you. Because, Do you need all of these to sell, you know, your your packages?
No. You don’t.
I’m proof of that. I have so many other, copywriters who who don’t use any of these. As long, like I said, you need your website. Yes.
You need your email service provider. Yes. Need a social platform. Yes. You need a way to accept payments.
Yes.
If your current tech stack is doing the job and you’re happy with it, that’s fine.
Katie, said, I use ConvertKit Squarespace and Triclip launches. There you go. Yeah. Triicot is what we use as shopping, car too. So one time payment and has an integrated app. Jessica Business Center once had system before software. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Cool. That was a really, really great question you asked me. Thank you so much for asking. And, yep, Chris, you’re right. Click files is seen up as a bit. It is, you know, it’s got, it’s got, Russell Brunson behind it, who is the author of quick final, oh, sorry, expert secrets as well. He’s a smart marketer, but some of the things that they do don’t just sit right, with with McAfee personally, which is why we don’t use the calls for us.
Cool. Great discussion. Alright.
So, yes.
Moving on.
Quick notes about blog post authority content.
All of you here are supposed to be building a authority. How I was not supporting the, you know, when I was starting out was was with block posts, which is why I lean on them heavily I since have added a lot of other, elements to our authority plan, but block host is what I I still love a lot and use heavily for both launches or or for, sharing our services and all of that. See, again, you can choose which you wanna leverage to share your content, I choose walkways. You could choose a podcast. You could choose a YouTube channel. But point is you do need to build your authority.
Preferably on a platform that you also own because, yes, social is great.
That social is a fickle friend.
Social will change at the turn off a hat, and, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one social basket.
So which brings me to social media posts. I four sharing our services, our packages, you will find. I usually lean on the, what I call, the ABC firm framework. It just makes it very easy for me to create social content as well.
Katie, I think it asked me in the Slack group, how it creates social content I use, for me, it’s really simple. Authority but it’s called action kind of a thing. So authority is like blog post point of view. You’ll see a lot of my point of view posts on social, like takes and things like that, and also just, you know, value content, buzz posts are, you know, behind the scenes, T as opposed.
These are launch specific.
General assignment field updates that you about what you’re working on. Again, you’ll see a lot of these in the Instagram stories.
Call the action post for your, for your package or your productized service would be like, okay. Here’s what you’re gonna get. And then, you know, you also wanna do a few playout updates. Like, oh, I’ve sold these many spots, and I’ve only got one spot left. Again, you’ll see me me do a lot of this on on Instagram, which is the social platform of choice for me. Like, it is our main platform, then I’ve since added in LinkedIn.
And a little bit of Facebook and threads. But, yeah, Instagram and LinkedIn is pretty much where it’s at.
Now this is the list building Evergreen launch. This is like a lovely launch to give you more. If you have a service, productized service or a package that you sell as a subscription model.
So back in the day, we used to have a service, package service, project service called grab and go. Those were essentially done for you social media captions. I think they used to be oh gosh. I think they used to be, like, sixty of them that we used to do for a client.
They used to be custom creative for them, but we used to get them, like, all sixty. We were not responsible for posting them, but they would have, like, and they would not, like, templates or anything. They were, like, custom created social media updates that they could use to, you know, populate on the probably their social media feeds. It was a subscription based thing because it used to cover them for three months, if they were to post x number of times.
And that it so well. So for something like that, this was a a launch that worked really, really well.
So here’s what you need for this is, again, same assets just kind of slightly flipped over. So social media updates Facebook ads if you wanna run those, again, haven’t run those for our productized services, but feel free to do so. Which take people to the opt in page or the opt in content, which could be a blog post. You’re right, where they have the option of opting in.
And then when they opt in, your email sequence kicks in that sells them into your prioritized service. Which is the sales page.
Again, copy asset, social media updates, five to seven to kind of cycle through. Optent page and a raw content with content upgrades essentially means, they need to probably their email address to get some additional content or just to kind of, you know, know more about your service. You could just give it very clear and simple.
You know, sequence, obviously, sales page.
The emails, updates, and block content for this, like I said, are exactly the same as they were for the emergency launch. It’s just a different flow, and it’s on autopilot.
And you kind of just keep sending people to your opt in, and then getting them to sign up for your subscription based service.
This money is what I was talking about is the social only launch? This is how I launched our fully loaded launch. Happy package the first time ever. This is how I launch.
I’ve launched a lot of different packages since, something that you need to know about me is I am a huge believer in the launches of least resistance. I like to do something that feels easy to me is fast to execute and doesn’t take a ton of time. So this is one of those things. It’s a minimal effort, massive ROI launch.
It works for just about any kind of package or productized service.
It’s a good launch model to use when your email list is not too big. It’s tiny or maybe like a midsize list, but you do have an engaged social media presence.
So it’s also, like I said, ideal if you wanna be that has to package. Right? You don’t wanna create a full blown, like, all of the emails and social media copy and all of that before you launch it. So it’s a really, really great package to use.
You could use I’ve I’ve used Instagram for this. I’ve used Facebook for this. I haven’t used LinkedIn for this. So I will yeah.
But both Facebook and Instagram work really, really well for this. So, it can be both urgency driven or or Evergreen.
Cool. Copy assets. You need to focus and engage presence on one or two social network You need social media updates. Of course, it’s a social only launch.
You need your sales page. Again, caveat, you don’t need a design sales page. It could be a Google doc sales page. I’ve shared a Google doc sales page a previous call with you.
Again, low tech, very, you know, easy to pull together. So that, and then you know, here’s how you wanna kind of plan it out.
You wanna start at least two weeks before you wanna start selling. Your package. So why? Because, again, like I said, social is can be a fickle friend.
So not everyone’s gonna see your updates And when you post them and not everyone will see all updates either. Right? So give yourself some time to kind of I keep two weeks. You may wanna test out a short appear, but two weeks is what’s worked for for both for us.
You need to have multiple updates, and you’re hoping to have multiple types of updates again, photos, texts, videos of your overlap. And again, the three ABC goals, you want authority, buzz call it action. Once you again created those updates, give yourself two weeks to share those updates.
Share them on platforms of your choice. And like I said, I repurpose and repurpose both stuff all the time. I highly recommend. So just kind of adapt them to suit the platform of your choice.
How you wanna split it is week one is authority and buzz. Right? Because you’re sharing, why are you the best person for this package? What’s your point of view?
How is your process different? What kind of proof do you have? All of those things? What’s happening?
How are you working on restructuring this, etcetera, etcetera. Right? And then you start showing up at the peak because it’s, you know, you built thirty posts tend to build a large engagement as well. So do buzz posts.
That’s the whole idea here.
We do is a combination of buzz and call it action. So you still continue with updates on, you know, social proof and what’s, you know, your own excitement around the the package of secrets and tips and all of those things. And the last half is going to be all about a push to sales. So three to five days.
So if you’ll have, like, a five day week, gotta keep day one and two for buzz, you know, if this is coming, keep them your eye open to this. It’s gonna have, like, I’m gonna have only three spots, etcetera, my past clients have shown. Obviously, you don’t wanna lie. If past clients have shown interest, you wanna kind of talk about that.
If they haven’t, then, you know, you wanna say I’m gonna be limiting spots because it’s gonna be very, you know, high touch, etcetera. And then the last half is gonna be called the action to push sales. If you’re using the sales page, all the action updates will include the link to the sales page, whether it’s a Google Doc or a new website. If you’re not using a sales page, again, you don’t need one for this.
You can ask them to message you or comment on your post, and then you can, like they say, take it to the DMs.
For most of these productized services or packages, the card open duration is around three to five days.
Caliet, as always, depending on your audience, your niche, the service that you’re actually offering all of those things. So just kind of keep that in mind. You know your audience and your business best. You can always put your specific business and productized service ID. You can always lean on us in CSP to kind of say, okay. I’m thinking five days, but I feel like my audience may need more time to decide What should I do? And then, yep, happy to lay in.
If you keep keep the card open for three to five days off for your package, This may seem a bit excessive to y’all. I would recommend, though, share a call to action update during the current twice or even twice a day at different times. Your audience knows you’re in launch mode.
People totally understand and respect that. Let them know that you’re letting them you’ll be letting them know that before, you know, during the authority building phase as well. And again, remember, not everyone is gonna see all your updates.
Not everyone is gonna see all the updates. So they’re not gonna it’s just the nature of the game. So it’s okay. I know you may feel like, I’m posting too much.
Trust me a lot. So just enjoy enjoy the process here.
So I want you to keep some of the teams in mind during the social media launch, you wanna encourage people to comment and our message you to engage with you. You wanna be responsive to those comments and likes, like and reply. Always, this you should be doing in any case, but especially during the launch.
Please create your updates in advance. However, be prepared to do a few on the fly updates as well. For instance, you had someone snap up a package. Right? That isn’t on the fly. I think. You may, someone who signed up, you know, gives you permission to share that they’ve signed up to work with you.
There’s an update, or it could just be, you know, yeah, you know, this is me having a good time while my service launch is going on.
Some of those on the fly updates are great from behind the scenes and also for for social proof and credibility.
How do you decide which one’s perfect for you? Depends on your season of life. I’m a huge believer in that. Your productized service positioning and your own secret superpowers. And what do I mean? Season of Life?
You need to think about do you have a lot going on? Is it relaxed with, you know, more manageable responsibilities on the client and family fronts?
Or is it a really busy season right now? Do you have a lot on your plate? Your season like is super important to take into account when you’re creating a launch time, not just for this, but for anything that you may be launching in the future, whether it’s your workshops, whether it’s your course, whether, you know, anything.
So there’s no fun in launching while you’re feeling kind of stressed out and exhausted or overwhelmed.
And again, after working on, countable number of launches, there is no right or wrong way to launch. You don’t even have to make a big sum and dance about launching this. You would just do an under the radar launch, aft and plenty of those as well. But point is you do need to share your productized service or package when you have it ready with the people who may be the best fit for it.
Offer positioning is your package exclusive and high ticket urgency launch, maybe the best option. Is it a subscription based service? Like I said, you know, it may be do a social only blast or do an evergreen for it. Is it a starter package?
Like an audit? Great. Put it on Evergreen. You can mix and match things. You can create your own hybrid version of it.
But keeping your positioning in mind can help you create a launch plan that gives it the greatest chance of succeeding.
And then your own secret super powers. This is really important. Now if you don’t enjoy social, don’t do a social on your launch. Like, in our business, Mike and I, Bank wouldn’t even have a Facebook account if it weren’t for the business.
I mean, he’s not a social person. Social media person. He’s a social person. He’s not a social media person.
At all. I, on the other hand, can live and breathe social media all day long. I love it. It’s a happy place.
So for me to do a social and relaunch, when we first launched started doing our prototype services and packages made complete sense because I thrive on it.
For you, maybe using your email list may be a good idea. So maybe go and agree with your packages, or maybe you’re really great at outreach and writing, you know, emails to connect with as clients or pitch the core pitches. I think Oh, it feels great at that. Right? So leverage that point is create you could create your own hybrid launch model, right, just decide what works best for you, but decide as soon as you create your package and decide right now because overthinking your launch isn’t going to do you any favors. Alright. That’s it for me.
Let’s just chat.
Can I can I ask a question about the timeline of the urgency launch? And specifically, like, you mentioned the blog post of the authority content, and then the opt in How far in advance would you share that blog post and often before you went into your urgency or your email sequence?
Yeah. For the urgency launch, what I would do is I would write in a blog post.
I would keep like a let me just pour some water for myself.
I would keep, like, a four week period, essentially. I would write my blog post, send it out to the email list, send out shared on social, get some people signing up for, you know, the, like, an interest list of things, and then keep my usual three to five day card open period. This isn’t an ideal situation, Katie.
Sometimes And this is more probably me. You may be better at this than I am. I sometimes get a great idea. Discussed it tonight, he’s, like, on board with it. And then I decide that we need to launch it. So so I write up a quick Google Doc Saleslate. I literally did this today.
I write up a good quick Google Doc Saleslate, and then what I do is I will keep, like, earmarked a five day period to start talking about it on social. So my social launches are all urgency for the launches.
But if you have the time, I would say, kind of be smart about it.
Like, do your blog post first week of the month, do your blog post and let you email us get people talking about it week, you know, use week two for your the authority of the buzz updates. And week three, you could use for, you know, your buzz and call to action updates. That’s how it would be like a smarter way. To do it. But again, if you let me have lots of great ideas, I wanna test them out, do a social only low lift launch.
And when you have to often sorry, friend. When you have that often, are you are you having, I mean, generally? Are you having people opt in for a freebie or for to hear more about the offer that you’ve teased in the blog post?
Both.
Both.
I, for instance, I share let me actually show you this in.
An option. So before I launched ready to sell, Right?
I had a blog post that was all about selling evergreen courses.
And it’s like a fairly detailed post.
You’ll see this this often right here is not for ASL, but earlier, this often was for, if you’d need my help to write your evergreen funnel, get on our wait list for when I open up, you know, the I have the excitingly evergreen package, so it was for that. So I used to do specific freebies. Like I shared with you earlier, it just became very confusing. And then those rebies would not be updated, and I would be like, all like, you know, I don’t have the time to kind of work on them.
So I just went with this. It’s been working. So I guess, plus, you know what, I realized, like, people who opt in without getting a freebie are actually genuinely interested in learning about your sources. So or your program.
So, yeah.
Thanks. That’s really helpful.
You’re welcome. Abby, I know you asked the same thing. What are they opting in for? You could give them a specific you know, and offer specific opt in.
Like, for instance, let’s say you are you have the day when evergreen thing. Right? Like, so you could give them, like, say, hey, here’s how you could do an audit. To see if your offer is ready to go Evergreen from day one.
That could be your freebie, but, personally, I don’t they just opt in to be the first to know when I have availability.
So, yeah.
Any other questions about launching your productized services and packages about structuring them, anything else?
I I have another question if nobody else wants to go.
I would love to know, like, how do you decide what, what becomes a productized service versus what is just your bespoke packages. Like, for example, fully loaded launch, you know, how do you reconcile doing like a custom launch strategy for people versus them buying fully loaded launch and having that kind of set menu. Okay. Good.
Good. Good question. Alright.
So For me, essentially, it is about solving a problem for applying.
Like, what would be What would make it an easy yes for them?
Like I just shared with you, I’m, like, literally right now about to beat a test new package for our existing clients who want more from us. So I will keep you posted with how that goes, but essentially we look at what what are people? What do people need the most? What does our audience need the most?
Can we give it to them in a way that’s effective and efficient for us? Is the last thing you wanna do? It’s like, let yes. We can give them the world on a pattern but is that sensible?
No. Right? So how can we do that? And once we kind of figure that out, that’s when something becomes a prioritized service.
Going back, for instance, I used to have an affiliate swipe copy package. Again, it was because, you know, I had a lot of people approaching me like, hey, have dig I have a digital product. This is gonna, again, we were working, as social media managers and content creators essentially. Right?
So we had like a lot of our clients were bloggers, and all of them had, like, ebooks and, you know, like, digital products, workbooks, and things like that that they that affiliates were selling for them. So we had an affiliate swipe copy package for them that would give them, like, say, for affiliate emails, it would give the their affiliates, it would, it would to use a swipe copy, for selling their products.
And from those emails, it became easy for me to pull social media updates.
So I did that. And then What I did was, which was like a one time thing was create, a PDF with, you know, fifteen different ways to promote so and so is a affiliate product. So, basically, those ideas were transferable because the audiences, like, our clients essentially all had, like, nine dollar, nineteen dollar, twenty nine dollar ebooks. So it was easy.
So, essentially, what how we approach this is What’s the problem we’ll be solving for our clients? And how can we do it in a way that’s effective and efficient for us? Because, again, we wanna stick to our our internal hourly rate. Yeah.
Does that help? Cool.
Monique, what courses in copy school are the best to watch, for prioritized services?
I think that’s more, a free Yeah.
I’ll I’ll elaborate on that because I, I feel like I’m going cold into the launch of, like, creating a and I had on Slack, which I saw thank you for your comment about workshop versus productized service.
And have two different types of services or products in mind.
A little bit about, like, where do you prioritize which one first? Because when you’re starting to in that early stage to do both, it’s a question of prioritizing one over the other. And I was just curious if there’s something that you know, as a how to walk me through a guide if there was something that I just missed in Copy school that I could go refer to.
I think.
So what you would need help with is Looking at what to launch or how to launch? What would be most helpful for you?
Well, both actually went to launch, like, in what stage and what order to go for a productized service versus going at it from a workshop perspective. So what was yeah.
I feel like, you know, I feel like what Joe’s doing in freelancing school would probably be a better fit for this. I haven’t had a chance to watch the what rise, sessions, but I believe he did some sessions on as part of master of product type services. I think that would be a better place to start, but I’d like the group weigh in on this, like, for those of you who’ve seen this or who are, you know, who’ve seen freelancing school because I think all of you have access to it as well. Right?
I haven’t been into freelancing school, but it sounds like in terms of developing product based services that rise recent sessions would be the best fit and then ten x launches, I think, is still available. And, Mike, if you’re looking for, like, an overview of, like, what launch emails to send to different phases or, you know, like, I think that’s probably your best bet.
Okay. Yeah. Great.
Perfect.
And you have questions on the blog, Printa’s own resources are amazing. So go on Printa’s blog, and check out your content.
I love that. I haven’t been here in your blog.
Oh, thank you. Yeah. No. I’m a big blog person.
So, alright. Any other questions?
Jessica, read everything Thank you. Okay. All of you. This is very nice. Thank you.
I’m glad I asked the question.
Perfect.
Okay. Cool. Anyone else got a prioritized service idea? You wanna run past me or a question about launching one. Go ahead. You have time.
Hi. I’m gonna offer some a question and maybe it’s an observation at the same time. On LinkedIn, has anybody turned on their product services, feature, and I don’t know how many are you aware of it, like, have you had anything come through it?
Is it I have like What what, you know, what are you getting value from that?
I know there’s a lot of hidden features on LinkedIn in a way if you don’t know about you don’t know to use them.
Any questions about that would be your answers to that would be insights talking about that that view by store button.
Are you talking about that one?
Yeah. Like, all you profile, it can say right under your, in the head in the header section. I will call it up front before a vote.
That’s the number for You want me?
Yeah. That’s available for premium users.
Yeah. I have that access. Yeah.
So it’s just the the first. So it changed recently, like, I think two months ago. So first, there was a custom link where you had to go on your and someone have to click customer link, but now that the button has, now that they have the button, so you post anything and then anyone reading your post can see that button so they can go directly to that click your website or there are only three options or blog portfolio website and store is here. Okay.
And have you found that anything has come of that? You know, just out of curiosity? Is it is it actually a pathway that should be considered.
Going to ask that to pre prenup because last time she taught the application funnel and the product has launched. I did I didn’t write my sales stage, and I I never knew that there’s something associated with me, but I guess I didn’t don’t do a cart open cart close to it. But I think I wrote, like, ten days ago, and then I’d be promoting it. And I’ve got like three times the amount of sales calls I usually get from midterms.
I don’t think. About seven days ago, I had no clients, no goals. When I backed up the new year. And then some because when people check my call emails, they go to my LinkedIn and then I don’t know if it’s exactly this button, but the sales page, Google Docsales page.
It did work, but have this one question regarding that that, the current launch package, it’s like I’m doing two offers. One is not not available to people like on on the sale space, which is they pay upfront and then they pay a small amount upfront and then it’s performance based. Have you go to the hot seat section, Ryan Shane had been shamed here at his business model. So it’s really curious to try that since I don’t have those many case studies.
So and it did work really well because I got like two really Really big names would would have ever said yes. Without that, one is Dave Sharp and second Jira got stuck if anyone is familiar.
So they replied to that saying that mister Smith.
But I’m curious that if, like, you share your your high ticket packages on the law firm’s sales page or you get them to a call.
Because Oh, gosh. I don’t know if on the sales page, people are resistant.
Okay.
Yeah. For me, okay. I’m sorry. I I interrupted you. How you feel, but, yeah, for me and, those are, like, Jessica and Katie, and Abby, if you’ve seen the site, you would know that I do share our pricing on the sales. But for me, it’s very important to not get on a call and have people get or shock.
So it’s not a good use of their time or mine for that matter. So, so, yeah, I’m, again, always, we’ve always always, even when we do not have high ticket packages or news, but, always had our pricing on the sales, which just kind of makes our life so much simpler. But I’m sure there is, like, again, a case to be made. So you gotta test it out for yourself. You’ve noticed that people are getting on calls and saying yes to you, so I haven’t stick know, you’re not keeping it off the sales very quick. Whatever was for you.
Yeah.
I love that.
I just looked at your And I saw that you put on store and you put a Google Doc.
That’s I hadn’t seen that. Did anyone do that? Honestly, it’s more the product I or the product services. So good for you. That’s really great idea.
I guess you can’t tell how many people are clicking on that.
Yeah. Yeah. That that’s the thing.
You can’t tell the clicks, a, I’ve put a little video so so that I’ve hacked, like, okay, how many people are seeing the Oh, as you mentioned.
Nice. Nice idea.
How many people are clicking? But here’s the question. So people who are only booking the calls are being nurtured via the DMs. And then someone said that you should, like, if it’s this high ticket, you should not reveal the price. I would really like to know, like, how do you approach it? Because in the launch space, some people are saying that or like fifteen k for now, the economy is really downturn and nobody wants to see that unless they’re getting coached on a sales call.
To to really justify the price point. Like, what I would just like to have a conversation about that. What are your thoughts?
I love for the group to kinda weigh in. My thoughts are very straightforward on this.
I’ve closed packages, upwards of fifty k, even a even a hundred k, with a proposal and not a sales call. Like, I mean, I’m just, like, people have come in knowing that, okay, yes, I wouldn’t call it a sales call. It’s more like a, you know, like a what I call our our copy chat where I go in, ask about their the project scope, So so when we sign our hundred k copy project, and then after that, I did another one for eighty k, it was exactly like that. Like, I went in, got the scope, let them know that, you know, they’d come in knowing, you know, what our where our pricing starts.
And also, like, say, the fully they their scope, I had to create proposal to them because their scope was so big that I needed to create proposal. Otherwise, if I can avoid it, I will avoid creating a proposal.
But in both cases, none of the clients had any you know, like, oh, so your sales pitch is like how much? There’s no there was no none of that, you know, because they knew, you know, what we charge. They so that is my argument. Again, very, very important for something to you, and I think everybody know is that you will always find people making an argument for and against something in business, and that’s probably why they fall, you know, you can call them best practices.
Like, people say, oh, the best practice is to do this, but the point is we can make those best practices better for us. So how do you do that? You do that. I’ve seen what works well for you.
For me, it doesn’t And I also tried, like, for my company, for us, it’s very important to build a business that aligned with our values for us financial stewardship and transparency. Super important. So which is why we’ve never charged interest for payment plans, but then something that people always say you should do is like, oh, you know, you’re giving a payment plan for your program, admin costs. So you need to try or The worst is PayPal fees.
You need to bill your client for PayPal fees. Like, your service fees needs to do, like, kind of, that’s Those are the things that I have very, you know, like my hot takes on. But point is it’s not the only way to do something. It’s not this is just what’s working for us.
So I’d love for the group to weigh, and I’m gonna shut up right now.
Yeah. I just wanted to add, I think, as well, when working with coaches, it’s just it’s like about getting in front of the ones that see fifteen k, like, the way that we see, like, a hundred and fifty dollars.
Like not everyone’s gonna see that. I’d be like, whoa, like, if they’re making, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, then it’s like, they’ll see that. I’m gonna be like, oh, cool. So, yeah, I think it’s it’s just getting in front of those people. Like, I’m only just starting to, like, comprehend, like, how much money like some business owners have and yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
You’re welcome.
Also, ultimately sharing prices.
I’ve like, I’ve talked to clients about how if you have a lot of time and you like getting on calls, like sure test out not sharing the price. But if you, like, friend, I was saying, like, if you more value only speaking to qualified people, then at least having, starting from, like, bracket or something on your site is probably a good idea. Think, like, when I was saying, like, it really comes down to which do you prioritize, like, volume of people that you’re gonna speak to, and then maybe even if they do have a sticker shock, you, like, downsell them into a day rate, or are you really only looking to get on the on a call with, like, people who are prequalified for that specific offer?
Yeah. I just I added a link. I found this, download on the upside.
Definitely check it out. It is probably the only resource to date, and I’d love to know if it helps anybody in Slack. Let me know that it opened my eyes to some of the language to use, as well as the starting point, you know, where what what was a big aha for me is under your services, definitely say starting at you know, let’s say it’s a pack of ten thousand dollars because then to your point, you don’t limit yourself on the upper end because you can scope out the upper end.
But it is anyone who can’t even come close to the ten thousand, let’s say, you weeded them out, and it’s a way of qualifying them. And so I thought it was a really powerful language, that I haven’t seen in many places, but, you know, I I think we saw that who did it recently in the group?
Stacy did it, right, where she had her own you know, buy now link to cart package, which was fantastic. So I I it take a look at it. If anyone comes across anything better than this pricing book, as a tool, please let me know because I’m kind of devouring all these ways of sharing your your fee without having to be selling your self and not in regard.
Perfect. Thank you so much, honey. Awesome. Great. Cool. Last minute questions folks, or do you wanna wrap up?
Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. It’s it’s co quite a nosy one. It’s harder.
So, I follow you with the owner console answer on it, but I’m I’m really curious, like, how many of the fully loaded loaded launch, you sell like a month, and, I would love to know, like, how much time it takes you to Yeah.
Yeah. No. Absolutely.
How many of those do we make So full disclosure, Abby, like, right now, we’re at a stage where most of this fully loaded launch copy packages get expanded.
So they usually include way more emails than what’s on the page right there.
Sometimes they include other collateral, as well, including webinar scripts that are right or create, you know, student onboarding sequences and things like that. So when it is, And because it’s me doing all the writing of the copy, if it gets expanded into something like that, then it usually means I do one of those a month and then book the rest for the rest, you know, rest of the year. Though, and that but I still take on, like, you know, smaller projects, like, say, okay, a short email sequence and to say that because, again, I write really fast.
That’s the others think is I I feel like I, you know, it it’s it’s just fast for me to write. So, So that that helps for sure. How much time does it take? I will I actually, you know, will have hard numbers for you. I tracked all my time, but for maybe an idea. Hang on.
Like, I have, like, show to give you context.
I have the screenshot handy so I’ll share that with you. But Queen is, I we try and keep our hours to, you know, below or around this number for the year. So this is twenty twenty two.
Hang on. Let me Yeah. This is this is twenty twenty two. I also have the numbers for twenty twenty three.
How much time does it take? It’s hard. It’s actually hard for me to say. For instance, twenty twenty two is, I think when we did the hundred k package, which is May and June.
So that, basically, I think, took me this is where it was, but I was also working on other other projects at the time.
I can look up my last, you know, fully loaded copy package numbers and share that with you, but it generally would Katie, I use to follow. I have been using to follow for years, t o g g l. You know what? It’s free.
And it’s amazing.
And I track literally everything I do like from If I’m in Slack chatting with you all, I will track that.
And same with our clients. So for client work, I try calls. I tracked the writing. I tracked the edits. I tracked the communication. I have with them in their Slack. I tracked them or in the Asana or in my Notion workspace or any email.
I track edits, So when I look at the number, it gives me everything.
So, Abby, all of this to say, I can review my toggle stats for the last couple of fully loaded launch copy packages and come back to you, but it generally tends to vary depending on the scope.
Yeah. I mean, I would I would love to look at it if it’s not too much. How soon to share it?
Thank you. Abs absolutely cool with it. So yeah.
I love this idea because I think it’s the starting stats. Like what, you know, for me in particular, I’m like, what success look like out the door? And I know that’s a part of, you know, setting a vision for your business, but also the metrics. And sometimes it’s a little bit like, are you following your like, number of followers on LinkedIn that, you know, then it’s the conversions on the conversations, but it’s the the number of potential KPIs you can have starting out is bewildering and you can almost overemphasize, let’s call social media stats. In some ways, and then that’s where your time goes. But it’s almost like, how do you break down what the most critical stats are for starting out product high service. What’s realistic?
What’s a really great ballpark average? Because I think you can fluctuate between doing a, you know, low end.
Maybe a higher sell or reach, or you can do high end ticket, but it’s sort of like the mix of what, you know, maybe you’ve gone through of okay. Here’s just the baseline. If you can achieve something to this effect over x number of months, These are the metrics that will really help you because I feel that’s what I need. I I work well off of metrics and goals, and I just don’t even know where to start, to be honest.
Yeah. Really important fee. I I’m the same, Monique. I I work well on goals, like tangible metrics and goals. So I would say, you know, you need to kinda figure out what’s most important, for you, for us, it is that number.
It’s, yes, for me, revenue is, like, I love looking at, okay, and gamifying the system and, like, oh, you know, just kind of enjoying the game of entrepreneurship, but so I love the revenue number, but, for us more importantly, it’s also the number of hours work and the kind of work we’re doing.
So, why? Because we have both of us deal, my husband and I do chronic illnesses. When we started our business, our daughter was a toddler, so spending time with her was super important for us and being there for her and just sting her grow up. And, like, she’s sixteen.
She’s gonna be sixteen in March, but it still doesn’t stop. Right? Like, for instance, in March, we’re taking off to you know, taking her to Singapore to see Taylor’s veteran concert. So for us looking at the number of, hours that we spend in our business and the kind of life that we are building for ourselves is what defines success for us because just chasing a constantly moving goal post when it comes to revenue or social media numbers, like you said.
You know? Yeah. It’s easy to just get distracted from the big picture.
So Yeah. I feel like that’s probably where I’m stuck right now, if I’m being very transparent, it’s like that balance between time doing, building authority because, you know, in our authority plans, it’s the book, it’s the the podcast, it’s the newsletter, and I I’m like, oh my god, it’s building all that, and it’s not even the actual business development and the launching of a product.
And If I’m being really clear because I think that’s the whole vulnerability aspect of being in a mastermind is that it’s overwhelming right now. So I don’t know if anyone else is feeling that, but I thought I’d share it.
Sure. You know, like, I think Katie had shared something similar in Slack. You know, I think last month or so, you know, where you’re, Okay. As I have the limit authority, but then how do I also get money into the store, which is a very, very real concern. So thank you for for sharing this. And this is definitely something you could consider chatting about on on a hot seat and, you know, getting more insight there.
Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it’s I don’t know how to present it, I guess, is the thing when you’re in a hot seat. It’s sort of like you feel like you need to have copy as opposed to or something to react to, not a necessarily a mindset thing. And I I guess when it comes to mind, that’s Well, I mean, hey, I’m open to it. I’m open to it for sure as if I wanna if I wanna be the the case study on it.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. No. I think, mindset is definitely, definitely qualifies for for a hot seat. So you should definitely, you know, volunteer for one. That’s, you know, that’s the whole purpose of being in this room.
Now that I have everything in my calendar, and I’ll say that that was don’t know how I missed some things, but I honestly anyhow. Long story. Cool. Check issues.
Awesome.
I asked one last question, though.
If anyone if anyone else hearing and seeing all these creator opportunities come out like Justin Welsh, so there’s a whole bunch of these courses. There’s the upside that people are sharing with me.
There’s another one Donald Miller, like all these you know, essentially, there are the programs that are kind of said to have answered the the questions and the challenges I’m having. And and I’m wondering whether I should be taking any of them, but I don’t know. Like, you can sign up for endless courses. And I guess any thoughts on that?
Yeah. You need to see what you would will those courses give you what you need? If you can decide that on your first second to agree of a sales page, then it probably not the right thing for you. One of the, you know, I don’t know if this would help, Monique, but one of the things that, you know, Mike and I did way back, we, you know, we need to probably go back to it now because but when we were probably at, I would say, at the stage that you are at right now, what we did was we made a commitment to at least finish a course and get the most get what we wanted out of it before signing up for something else.
Because, again, it kind of tied back to the fact that we had limited energy, limited capacity, limited time because you’re also running a business with it. So signing up for a course is the easy thing going through and doing the work is where you wanna see. Okay. Do I really have the time, mental energy, focus, capacity to be able to take on implementing what, say, Justin Welch or a Donald Miller would teach you.
And if so, what would that look like?
So right now, we we don’t do that as religiously, but then that we all set a very different stage. Of life and business both. So it’s kind of, you know, it’s I would say it’s okay.
But point is, it’s tempting to sign up because it feels like the course would be the band aid or the quick fire solution to the problem, and you still label it. Right? But the fact is that you are You already have access to a lot of the courses that you need and the community and the training.
Mhmm.
What is it that you’re hoping to get from those courses that you’re not getting here and how can we kind of fill that gap?
Yeah. I think that’s a great point. Like, for me when I looked at the upside, it’s like step by step. It’s sort of the for me, it’s and maybe I’ve just missed some aspects of some of the courses along the way in in our our community that I’m just need needing to to get that.
And maybe maybe if there’s anyone in the coaching side that can say, hey, these courses, Munich, you have to take that maybe I haven’t seen or taken. That would be helpful. I just don’t know. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know.
And when you’re driving the yeah.
It seems like a lot.
Personally, Monique, I’ve taken the Justin Washes courses and a couple of other ones.
But I can tell you that there’s nothing new, and most of them are pretty outdated.
It’s stuff that you use to work and now everybody’s doing So it’s, basically, it’s seen as a bit of, like, yeah, pushy, like, even the, like, the LinkedIn stuff and Justin Wiresh, basically, all he’s doing is looking at what tweets work, creating templates out of those tweets, systematizing them, and then basically every day sitting down and doing. Okay. Today, you want to write about this. I’m gonna freeze it this way, changing the words. So it’s kind of like a mechanical thing, a repeatable thing, but you can learn all of that for free. Just reading stuff that these creators write on social media or on their blogs, I think.
Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Okay.
Cool. I wanna chat everybody.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Worksheet
Crafting Application Funnel Questions
Crafting Application Funnel Questions
Transcript
Cool. I’m excited to share this one.
Application questions. I don’t think they get spoken about very often or at all. And, yeah, when you really think about it, right, they’re like a critical piece of copy, especially in, like, higher ticket, funnels, whether it’s for selling services or coaching programs, and it’s, like, this intermediate piece between your main sale space, if it’s, like, sales page or a webinar or a VSL, and the sales call, it’s like this middle thing. It’s kinda like the middle child of hot ticket funnels, do middle child actually lack love or is that just a myth? I don’t know. Have have there ever been studies done on middle childs or middle children?
I don’t know, shoulder shrugs. Anyway, this is for now, the middle child of high ticket sales funnels, and we’re gonna show some love. So that’s my invitation for you is to show the application, question some love, and your own funnels, and your clients’ funnels because they deserve it. And people make more money when they write good application questions.
So that’s what we’re gonna be talking about. This is how it’s gonna go down. I’m gonna set some really important context on this one because there are some specific nuances around the way I do things, and it’s not necessarily applicable for everyone and everything you’ll ever write for. And then we’re gonna talk about it from the coaching, the conversion perspective.
So what exactly are we coaching on your application questions?
We’ll go through a template, which of course as hyper intelligent people, you could definitely assume creative control on your own and not swipe question for question.
But yeah, use your own conversion backgrounds and orientations to really make it your own. We’ll go through an example. And then Yeah. I invite you to see how and where you see yourself applying it either in your own business or for clients.
So a little bit of backstory.
Or doctor awkward or how I learned to stop worrying and love the sales call. So I’m doctor awkward, by the way. Like, I am the doctor awkward, especially on sales calls.
I don’t have that, like, sleek and smooth, smooth high ticket closer vibe, I kinda just, like, show up and I’m casual, and I hope it’s chill, and sometimes it’s not chill, and I get all sweaty, not nervous. Just like, I don’t wanna be doing this. I don’t wanna be having awkward conversations because I’m already having awkward conversations, like, eighty percent of the day. Don’t make me have another one.
So that was me. And no sales scripts really used to, vibe with me, right, like these highly orchestrated questions that would disempower people and then obviously dealing with price objections. Right? Like, I’ve never wanted to nor have I, you know, gone into people’s, you know, financial histories.
Like, I could never ask people, like, what credit sources do you have access to? Do you wanna sell the gold watch that you inherited from your grandfather to buy this program? Like, like, no to all of that. So a lot of the sales call things that I disliked were in my view, for lack of better word, let’s call them handicaps, right, things that I needed to, Yeah.
Needed to play a more winnable game around. So that was really kind of where these questions were born. It was like, how can I use these questions to set up a better and more optimized sales environment for myself, because what I was really good at, and what I loved doing was I loved helping people make really good decisions that made a lot of sense for their businesses, and that was really good? Had answering questions well authentically, and in a way that made sense, I was really good at helping contextualize people situations, their problems, their desires, things they’re working towards, things that haven’t worked with my program, right, and seeing how these things kinda mesh together.
I was not good at, once again, was money objections, right, getting people, ask that resistance, right, or doing these massive presentations of here are all the components on the program. Like, yeah, I’ll do that on a webinar. Right? But I couldn’t do a sales call where I had to go through a program overview and a pitch every time.
Like, that sounds and was so exhausting. Right? So this was about playing a winnable game because I was a product creator and service provider first, and I still am. Right?
And a high ticket closer and borderline sociopath last. So I had to play a more winnable game on sales calls. And that all started with the application questions.
This really came into focus for me from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two.
When I had a higher ticket program called automated intimacy, that I think started at three grand, and then we had some packages that were five figure investments. Right? And this this was the first time I was taking a lot of sales calls for my own program, and I learned very quickly what I want to optimize for, what I didn’t want to optimize for, what I certainly didn’t want optimize for as a product creator and service provider first was a ton of calls, a ton of calls that didn’t feel good and a ton of calls that went nowhere. Right?
So this was really kind of the game I was playing for myself to make sure that every call, felt fruitful, felt powerful, felt relationship building, and ultimately yielded a positive result for myself and my potential client. So This was automated intimacy. This is that program I ran. We’d ran three cohorts.
My business partner off from twenty twenty, yeah, twenty twenty, twenty twenty one to twenty twenty twenty two. That’s a lot of twenties in there.
And when I was preparing this, I was just looking back at some of those older stats. Right? And across these three cohorts, we had sixty four total calls.
Only one no show, and it wasn’t because there was some elaborate gift that they would get and showing up like they didn’t need to bribe them to show up on calls.
You know, I think it was a very simple pre call email sequence, you know, in a reminder sequence, but only one no show. Right? So that kinda points to the safety being created on the call, which is one thing we’re really gonna be talking on the session, how do you create safety on your sales calls so that you reduce no shows. And ultimately, we had fifty five enrollments on the sixty four calls. So fifty five positive outcomes out of sixty four calls.
Math eludes me today. I think that’s somewhere around, like, eighty two, eighty three percent. So Not bad. But of course, let’s create some context.
So this was used on a very warm internal list where there was existing trust. So this is probably not going to be the best approach for cold application funnels where they don’t really have the trust or the buy in in you and therefore the willingness to go through what could be perceived as a bit more friction on your application. So this is recommended for program creators and service providers who, I’d say, want to create an appropriate level of friction and filter out pretty much all the poor fits before you waste time and energy on a call that is essentially not gonna be a fit and gonna be dead on arrival and gonna be one of those things where, you know, it’s hour on your calendar, but you’re already kinda thinking about it forty five minutes before, and then you need to kind of recover after if you’re introverted like me and go for a walk and take a shower and listen to music.
And it’s pretty much like a four hour half day investment for sales So, you don’t wanna waste four hours, right, about least mental and emotional energy and thinking about it energy on something that is unlikely to be a good fit. And once again, this is something you could use for your own offers, and or for your clients. So this is something that I’ve bundled into some packages that I’ve created prof created for clients, especially webinar funnels that have pointed to masterminds, write VSL funnels that have led to applications for higher ticket programs, simply asking them, right? Like, you
know, what application are you currently using? Can I take a look? Right. That’s part of my intake process.
And if I feel like their application is causing friction, right, I’ll ask questions. Right? Like, what’s your, no show rate? Like, are people showing up for your call, and this is where I get to dig deeper into problems within the problem and solve for them with better app location. So really good thing to integrate into, declined services as well, especially if it’s relevant, especially if you’re helping them sell higher ticket services, masterminds, coaching programs, etcetera, etcetera.
Cool.
So, yeah, context continued. So this is really an extension of my coaching of the conversion ethos, which is a fancy way of saying that every touch point in your funnel matters. Right? If I’m going to ask a reader, or a pre customer to experience anything, whether it’s written or video, it needs to be intentional.
It needs to have a place. It needs to serve a pre precursor for the final conversion. Otherwise, it’s just noise. Right?
And the more noise you have obviously the less they’re going to absorb the vital points within your funnel. So your application questions absolutely matter. They need to be crafted with intentionality and have purpose behind everything you’re asking.
Not just asking questions for the sake of asking questions, not just having you know, seven questions because you think you should have seven and you’re filling space. You know? Every question matters. You’re orienting their mind in a certain direction with everything you ask.
So having that level of intentionality, as part of that coaching the conversion ethos And in my view, the sales process and the sales conversation itself begins in earnest on the application page, right, intent is there. Right? If someone clicked through onto an application, there’s existing intent, and you get to guide that intention a little bit further down that line towards the conversion. So this is really where that sales conversation begins.
And done right, you’re essentially pre framing the sales call, right, like how that is gonna go down, the information that you’re gonna be talking about and sharing all that sales call. There’s so much that is pre framed just from the application.
It’s a great way to prevent no shows so that you don’t end up, you know, in sad, solo, zoom rooms, you know, wondering why you’re in the Zoom room alone, right, on, you know, Wednesday at two PM with someone who is supposed to be a great fit for your program but decided to go So creative preventing those moments on Wednesday afternoons and generating momentum towards a point of no return, getting them bought in and invested before you’ve even had that Zoom caller that sales call with them. Cool. And then this is my favorite part as captain awkward. Right? Great application questions give you really good starting points on your sales call. Things about them that you can mirror back and say, this really stood out for me. Can we talk more about that, or can you share more about this?
Instead of just asking them how the weather is in Cincinnati.
I don’t know why I’m picking on Cincinnati. I have nothing to gain Cincinnati But I don’t really care what the weather’s like. Right? And everyone knows.
You don’t care about what the weather in Cincinnati. So why would you ask for it? So this really helps you in having authentic starting points for your conversations, great questions, reveal information that allow you to begin calls on, yeah, really cool starting points. So most applications, I hate over generalizing, but most applications do nothing but really ask in some you know, uncloaked way, right, if you have money to spend and are ready to spend it, literally.
Like, I don’t know if you’re gonna be able to see my phone on the screen. But I was just like, I was looking for a Facebook ads person recently, and this was one of the questions. Can you see it? I don’t know.
Yeah. So it essentially says, are you ready to invest in yourself and your biz right now? I only move forward with calls if you’re ready to commit within the next thirty days if we’re a good fit. You know, yes, let’s go.
Not yet. It doesn’t say the price. It doesn’t say anything. It’s act essentially asking you to consent to a blank check.
Which is so frustrating. Right? So no. Of course, I’m not ready to make that commitment of that investment that I’m not even sure about.
And we’re gonna talk about yeah, the reasons behind mentioning your price on the application a little bit later. So, yeah, so much more we could do on our applications, your application auto work far harder than just qualifying someone if they have money to spend and we’re gonna do that through coaching the conversion. So stellar application should and could And maybe I’ll even say must. We gotta chat.
The number of sarcastic responses I’d have for that person, I know. Right? I said them all in my head, and I’m like, oh, I kinda wanna say them all. Right?
So I got I got, like, stuck in not knowing what sarcastic response to sent. I sent nothing at But, yeah, like, it’s frustrating.
So Stella App should have them reflect on why you, so have them selling themselves on you before you’ve even gotten on the call. Have them prove to you why them, so this ties into, the exclusive exclusive empowerment concept in ten x launches and ten x sales pages if you’ve come across that.
So essentially have them qualify themselves to you.
Build trust, magnetism, resonance, so that if it’s going to be anyone, if they’re gonna hire any copywriter, if they’re gonna hire any Facebook ad specialist, it’s gonna be you because there’s that resonance built in already.
Require investment of energy inside and time. Right? So I error, like my application aren’t short as you’re gonna see in a moment.
You know, I think the one that you’re gonna see in a second hopefully took people close to twenty, twenty five minutes to fill out, which is a lot of time, especially for, like, people who are busy professionals and really solid business owners. But the question I kept asking myself is, like, what’s fifteen to twenty minutes if the program will involve, you know, dozens of hours over multiple months? Right? So it’s like a way of qualifying right off the bat, are they willing to put in time as long as they are feeling confident that there’s gonna be an ROI in that time? So, great way to filter out for people who give really short brief answers that really say nothing, that tell they’re just trying to get to the end of it as soon as possible.
Not shaming those people. I’m totally one of those people when I’m just filling out applications without any truths in severity, you know, or true desire. Right? So I should be filtered out of that funnel. Right? I’m not serious enough to make that investment if I can’t take a bit of extra time, like sixty seconds of mindful focus to answer a question fully and accurately.
An application should give them a chance to feel powerful, resourced, capable, confident, and empowered. So these are all favorable states for making larger investments. So this is something that I could, like, have a really long, anal discussion or argument with other marketers around. Right?
I don’t think, especially for higher ticket investments, that you want people buying out of fear, like fear of consequence, fear of missing out, fear of, you know, staying stuck. Right? To me, that isn’t the ideal emotional architecture of someone who invests five grand, ten grand, fifteen grand. On a programmer mastermind.
Right? I want someone experiencing these questions and then experiencing the sales call feeling these states. To me, these are the states that are most congruent with these larger investments, especially larger investments where they’re going to be poised to get an even better ROI out of it. So I love creating context on my questions, on my applications for, having folks feel these states within, right, before getting on the sales call.
An app should also begin mentally and emotionally integrating your into their situation, life, or context, which sounds complicated, and the example that you’re gonna see, how easy it is to do that. And also, once again, give you plenty of material to question them on, mirror back, celebrate them for. Right? It doesn’t even need to be, like, unpacking something they said. You could just honor and celebrate something that they had on their applications. Hey, this really stood out to me as something awesome. I just want to congratulate you on that.
To me, that is authentic, legitimate. Rapport, not, you know, caring about the weather in Cincinnati.
So this is what an app should do and could do We’re gonna make the super practical by going through.
I don’t know at all. It becomes fifteen points.
Such a cool number, fifteen point sales page, fifteen point application questions. I swear I don’t have, like, a secret affinity for the number fifteen. Just keeps happening.
So let me stop this here and we’re gonna actually, you know what, I’m gonna chat out the Google Doc here as well so that you have access to that for later.
And any questions before I pull up pull up, the Google Doc, or are we good?
Perfect. So doc is in the chat. You can save that, make a copy.
And we’re gonna go through the format for these questions, and then the questions I’ve used myself on that application funnel that resulted in one no show. I still don’t know where that person went. Right? I’m at. Like, I really hope they’re okay. I should have followed up. Make sure they’re okay.
But yeah, let’s do it.
Cool.
So fifteen point framework for application funnel questions.
So first one, Very basic, relevance. Am I in the right place, calling out your segments with specificity so someone knows without any doubt that they’re in the right room, that they’re going to have a potential payoff to filling out this application and investing their time in it. Relevant. So a recent recent snapshot as it relates to the goal and program, resourcefulness, number three, right, connecting them to that sense of power, resourcefulness, pride of accomplishment, relevance, and integrating what they’d like to achieve with you and your program, Relevance around the problems they’re experiencing that they want fixed, relevance, and selling themselves, what gives them confidence that you specifically can help.
And then we flip it. Right? What gives them confidence in themselves? So the three exclusive empowerment qualification questions, ethos, right, for residents around your way of doing things, Number twelve is any remaining friction question.
So the questions you have that you feel may create the most friction usually save those for last. Right? Once there’s already all this momentum, all this investment around the first ten or eleven questions, yeah, but the most friction based ones for last. And then I have three, what I call transparency alerts I haven’t seen, Anyone do this.
And I don’t know why. It’s been such a well received thing. People have literally talked about this on sales calls. Like, thank you for including that.
Thank you for saying that. So one of them is going to be about essentially creating a sense of ease and safety on the call. This is where you defend against the no show, really assuring them, right, that it’s not going to be high pressure without saying this isn’t gonna be high pressure. Right?
Because no one believes you when you just say it like that. Yeah, this is where you can use some copy to create reassurance, to create safety.
The second one is really about creating your own safety and your own boundaries. Right, knowing who you want to work with, who you don’t want to work with, this is where you get to really state that boundary and see if they consent to that, if they’re a match for it. And the last one is price transparency. So I’m a big fan of price transparency, especially if you’re a solopreneur selling your own program. If you don’t have a big sales team, if you don’t want to spend a lot of time on a lot of calls, managing price objections. I love.
I just feel so much more confident on a sales call knowing that they already already know the price. Right? That’s just a personal thing. When I know that they already know the investment level and they’ve chosen to be there, I just feel so much better.
And another thing I’ve experienced both as a consumer and from clients I’ve worked with, right, is that if they don’t know the price, there’s a part of them that almost doesn’t want to be bought into your program where it doesn’t feel safe to feel desire for your thing because that desire is attributed to an unknown price investment. Right? So they’re gonna be a little bit more guarded, not necessarily wanting to give themselves fully to the desire, to the excitement, to the possibility of working with you. Whereas if the price is known, if the range is known, That’s out of the way.
That’s out of the room. And if they’re on that call, the focus is really gonna be about making sure they’re a great fit. If there’s going to be a great athway towards that ROI and making sure there’s resonance. And to me, that’s what it means to play a winnable game or sales environment that you want to be able to participate in fully.
Cool. So let’s take a look at how this played out on this automated intimacy funnel. Right? So the first question was really about relevance.
Are they in the right place? So what’s the best way to describe your awesomeness We had multiple choice. You know, number one, I’m a data service provider, copywriter automation specialist looking to level up my skills, differentiate from the crowd, and add high profit product type services to Mustact.
I’m an experienced coach consultant course creator actively marketing my programs to my audience, more three. I might be a newer coach consultant course grader, but I want to set up the most robust marketing and automation foundation possible that will set me up for scale, and I’m ready So very easy for people to see themselves on the page.
All three of these are essentially, people we would qualify. Right? We just wanna make sure that they’re choosing the one that says, yep, that’s me. And the rest of this application will be relevant for me.
Next one, give me a taste of what the last sixty days have looked into your life and business. So for me, the recency aspect is the most important here. Right? Like, I would even go with thirty days.
Like, I want to know who I’m going to be experiencing right now. Right? Like, I don’t want biographical data of, like, what they were doing three years ago or two years ago or even last year, especially in industries where things change so drastically and so sharply.
I want that recent snapshot.
So, yeah, that’s also about creating that relevance to make sure that they are experiencing, movement towards that goal and friction with the problem that my program solves and that that is active, right, happening right now, not something that might happen in the future, or something that happened, like, two years ago, and they still haven’t had movement on it. But, yeah, something they’re actively working towards right now. Question number three, what’s the most exciting and expansive step you’ve taken in your business over the last month or two? So once again, recency, recency matters so much.
And this is really about making sure that, like, they are capacitated to take action, right, that they have some degree of movement and momentum. So this is really about qualifying them to some degree. Right, making sure that they can connect to their power, their resourcefulness, some pride of accomplishment. I want them to feel proud.
Right, of things they’ve done. I want them to feel connected to their ability to do really cool things and get results out of them. So this is really the state that I am trying to engineer with number three, and number four, probably one of the most important questions on this application The phrasing is very specific here. So what are the most vital, heart pounding, business and life achievement you’d like to whiskey or kombucha clink to with us in the next few months.
Right? So it’s like, these are their goals, but it’s very clearly with us, right, inside our program. So this is about tying their goals with your program or your service it’s really subtle, but it’s also future pacing them inside your program where they could celebrate those wins with your guidance. So We’re this in a less clunky way whiskey and kombucha clink is really tough to say out loud, and I never wanna say it out loud again.
But the corp piece of this, right, is like Thai excitement.
Right? Big things, big, desirable things they want. With you and your program. Married those two together, and you’re gonna be setting the stage for them to future pace themselves experiencing those within your presence really powerful stuff.
What do you currently perceive as your biggest misopportunities, leakages, or inefficiencies in your marketing or sales process So very specific languaging here as well. Right? I’m not necessarily looking for those, like, big bleeding neck game points here, like those really big things. I’m looking for kind of those, like, smaller details that a sophisticated business owner would be aware of.
Right? So it’s not necessarily like and I know in my copy, training. I talk a lot more about, you know, Roma burning moments, right, moments of moments of highest tension. This really kind of gets a more expansive view, right, of their motivations for joining.
So, like, what are the leakages, what are the inefficiencies? I don’t wanna be a savior to someone, in my coaching programs. I want to help them seize opportunities and make good on this stuff in front of them. Right?
So this is just a way of framing that question.
And then we move into them selling themselves on you. Once again, this is most relevant for warm list internal lists or you know, I’d say a cold funnels if they’ve gone through, you know, a webinar that would give them some sense of this information and an ability to answer it accurately. But get them to reflect on it. Right?
What gives you a sense of confidence that we might be able to help? Really cool. So they get to start thinking about what really did resonate. Why do I trust this person, and they make that real for themselves?
What resonates about the concept of automated intimacy? So at this stage, I think I already had a PDF guide. I had already done a webinar.
People who are on this application are people who’ve gone through that process. Right? So once again, them selling themselves on a process. Like, why are you interested in this? Right? This gives me a lot of information to mirror back on the sales call and is also really good for, voice of customer data, voice of prospect data, in this case, for your future launches.
Then exclusive empowerment qualification.
Okay. So this is where we go so much further beyond, right, just qualify them based on, you know, are you ready to invest? If you’re a fit, are you going to invest without me even telling you the price. Right? There’s not there’s no way someone can answer that in a way that feels good and empowering for them. Right? So this is where I wanna create questions where if they say yes, right, or if they’re giving, you know, eight on tens, they build their own confidence as they qualify.
Right? So on the scale of one to ten, how confident are you in your or your team’s copywriting abilities? Not only do I want them to feel a confidence boost and putting a seven or an eight or a ten, I want them to feel like they’ve cleared a hurdle that not necessarily everyone else can. Right?
And not only that. It’s all only about how they feel. This is me playing a winnable game where the people who are entering my program. Right?
I don’t think people can have success in automated intimacy unless they have at least a decent baseline of copy skill Right? So this is so important for me to legitimately qualify, potential, prospects or potential members and it’s good for them to clear that hurdle and feel good and confident about it. And then same question about your tech and automation abilities, And then another question, do you have team supporting you and copy automation page builds, or are you rocking these solo? So, yeah, just some questions that they can clear that hurdle of being a good fit being poised to get that result or things that might, you know, signal something that on that sales call, you may wanna ask them about Right?
And this happened very frequently. Like, I’d have people who would say somewhere like, you know, a five on a ten five on five on ten on copy. Right? And I’d be able to go deeper on that topic.
Right? And that might mean that I included some bonuses or included some extra copy coaching sessions or copy reviews copy audits, to really support them in that process.
So eight to ten qualifying them and also making sure that they’re a great fit for your program, giving them confidence to have cleared those hurdles.
Eleven, really light, ethos based. Right? Do you believe that taking the time to explore the nuances of ethical marketing in South Strata is a solid use of time, yes or no. So anything to create resonance on an ethos level is something you could have on eleven. And then twelve was our kind of Big friction question. So all the tech walk throughs of automated intimacy were built in active campaign. It was really best suited, I’d say, for active campaign users.
Even though the concepts could, of course, be translated to any system.
But that was kind of like our big friction question. Right? So, you know, we ask that at the end, do you currently use active campaign? Or if not, would you be open to migrating?
In the end, Yeah. We didn’t need people to be on active campaign. They were smart enough to make it work in in birdkit and HubSpot and all sorts of other programs. But, yeah, biggest friction question, save till the end once there’s been all this momentum and investment already made, leading up to it. And then the transparency alert. So number one, designed to prevent no shows such a waste of time and money, showing up for calls where your prospect goes on you. So demoralizing.
So transparency alert number one, your call will either be with myself or Phil, aka the co founders of automated intimacy, we’re not hired gun salespeople or closers, but we’re damn good at knowing if AI will be the right fit for you because, well, we created it. Is that cool? Yes or no? Right? So this is creating safety.
Transparency alert number two, this is about stating our boundaries, people we just don’t want to work with. Right? So we do best with self sufficient entrepreneurs and business owners who don’t have some urgent life or death problem. That they need us to save them from, yes, solving problems is cool and something we’re great at, but helping you scale up these new ops and get from great to f and epic is where we love to play with us on that.
Yes or no. Right? So this is where we protect our own space from people who need us to save their businesses, right, and all of the pressure associated with that. And then the final one, the big one, the price one.
So, yeah, no discussing it and no use hiding it in my view.
The investment for AI ranges from four to fifteen k depending on the level of one on one support. You would most that would most serve you at the stage. If you’re a solid fit with a clear path to an ROI, are you empowered to make the time energy financial investments without stomach clenching fear maxing out your credit cards or sacrificing your enjoyment of spa days, shiatsu, massages, and organic grass fed steak. Yes or no.
Right? So a few techniques at play here. Right? Like, I do enjoy, mixing humor with what could otherwise be kind of a charged and contracted questions.
That is more of a technique thing, injecting some humor into this type of question.
But really this is about creating that safety, right, where they can give a very real and true Yes or no. Right? And I feel so good. Like, I remember when these applications would come through.
Like, part of me would almost, like, immediately, like, scroll down to their answer, of question or the transparency alert, because if I saw, like, yes, there. Right? Like, I just got excited about that call because I just felt like this was a call where I can show up and serve this person really kind of contextualize their situation with what we’re doing inside our program and be fully focused to, like, create that pathway, like, how can I make this person five times that investment in the next three months? Like, that was a really empowering question for me to enter these calls for knowing that they were already aware of this element.
So once again, a lot of people would disagree with being transparent about price. And there may be very good reasons not to. Sometimes. Right?
And, you know, to me, if you’re going to talk about price and ask people if they’re empowered to make a decision, say the price. Like, Don’t do this one. Right? This one kinda sucked saying, you know, are you willing to write a blind check?
But in most cases for a service provider, where someone at least senses the value you’re bringing, right, and the stakes and the costs related to their problem.
Like, you shouldn’t have a problem stating your price. Right?
And if they’re going to have a lot of resistance to it at this stage, You know, obviously, they’re gonna have resistance to it on the sales call and how equipped, willing, and even to some degree desiring are you to have, you know, thirty minutes or forty minutes around price objection. Right, around asking them about how much money they have in their business account about their sources for credit, about, you know, making and this is where you kinda get into the territory, right, of, like, guarantees, right, that you didn’t wanna be making, right, as well as making promises that you can’t necessarily always keep.
So I don’t know. I feel like transparency alert number three, being very clear on the price. Really sets things up for clean sales call, and one where you get to stay, more likely in your zone of genius. So, yeah, that’s what I have on these fifteen questions.
This is a long application. It doesn’t need to be this long I encourage you to see kinda more of the methodology around what we’re coaching throughout it. You could certainly shorten it, depending on your audience.
But yeah, start being mindful about your application questions, what role and what role they serve in your overall sales process and how you could actually have it, move the needle in some key areas before your sales call and also set the stage for type of sales call that you feel best participating in. So that’s what I got. I think we got twenty more minutes for conversation about how and where you might see yourself applying this. Any questions? And Yeah. I’m gonna take a sip.
Great stuff, Ry.
I you gave us a little bit of of a hint of what the sales funnel looked like. Could you map it out a little more clearly just so we have a better sense of where this all comes together. Yeah. For sure. So we launched this one three times each funnel looked a little bit different.
The first one was a webinar to an application.
The second one was, well, webinar sales page. So we had, like, the application button on the sales page.
So, yeah, they were either coming from a webinar, a long form sales page, or I think we also had it in the PDF guide, which was like fifteen page, like, really thorough breakdown of what was inside the program. So these people were product aware. For the most part, they were really kind of sold on the ethos of the program.
But yeah, great question because that context certainly matters, especially if you’re gonna be asking people like what resonates most about, you know, the program.
So, yeah, thanks for asking it.
You’re right. Since you have such a familiarity now with my seasonal sale kind of packages and ideas, just off the top of your head. I know I’m putting you on the spot, but are there any because obviously this was more of a, you know, for mastermind and all that kind of thing. But for a service, are there any other side notes or anything we should know if we were going to do this for example, to sell a higher ticket package or something like that, a productized service?
Yeah. Of course. I think Well, I guess I’d start my question with a bit of a cheat question and ask you, like, how your application currently looks, you know, what you’re currently doing there.
You know, honestly, what I’m currently doing there is it’s I think it’s the exact same because I I wasn’t happy with my form play I think I was doing type form but so I send them right now. It’s the same application as my contact us. It’s not It’s not specific to the seasonal sale. So very little and not targeted at all.
Got it. Yeah, I think that aspects I would certainly borrow from are qualifying them very specifically around their trustee or team makeup or whatever is needed on their end to be able to implement what you do really well and get results from what you do. Right? I think, like, that’s the biggest piece for me.
It’s like, if I were you, I would wanna make sure that anyone I am getting on a call with or creating a proposal for is at least well situated in their business and their team makeup. To work with you. So, yeah, I think that that would be, yeah, that would be probably the most important part. And then, obviously, like, this can blend into, you know, their current list size, right, their current sales volume, you know, amount of, like, SKU numbers, like, just things that matter for what you do, essentially.
Cool. Cool.
Ryan, when we have, some more time to review the doc you shared with us and as we’re creating you know, there’s just, I was trying off the top of my head to come up with, well, what would I ask right there? I’m not sure. So as we’re coming up with our own questions for these things, can we, tag you and just throw ideas and get your feedback a little bit?
Yeah. Of course. Please do. Okay. I love that. Yeah. Cool.
I just I’m not good off the top of my head, especially the ethos kind of thing.
I struggle with that kind question.
And so I can’t think of any right now to throw at you otherwise I would.
Yeah. And I mean, there’s certainly, like, audibles that you can call for your audience. Right? So, like, ethos matters a lot to my audience and my list.
Right? Like, they’re mostly you know, smaller business owners, service providers, and, like, they’re humans. Right? And I mean, I know everyone who buys us human, but, like, you may not ask that question to an ecomm company unless you can really see clearly that they would share resonance around a certain belief or a certain way of doing things.
And that may tie in, right, especially I think you mentioned on a previous call that, like, you want to own that how did you word it?
I don’t wanna, like, butcher your Oh, the Bernae Brownos?
Selling stuff that part?
Yeah. That selling stuff is good. Right? Or Yeah. However you worded it.
Oh, yeah. Oh, I know what you’re talking about.
When I went on my tangent about there seems to be this, oh, selling products is just encouraging people to acquire stuff, but Right.
I wanna fight that with products solve problems.
I think so. So, like, that’s a really cool ethos. Right? If there’s a way to articulate that in a clean way that matters and would resonate with your potential buyer? And, yeah, of course.
Okay. No. That’s thank you. That helps. Actually, now that’s got my brain. Okay.
Cool.
How would you, one of my recent leads, it’s This is always the one when you have it’s fine when I have an e commerce company in my head because that’s clear. But then when I have for example, I have a a fractional CMO reach out recently and do my latest project with and so I’m not you know, it’s her client that that’s an e commerce client and all that. Do you how do you modify when you know it’s the client of the client? Know what I mean?
When it’s the client of the client.
Yeah. So if I’m talking to someone who owns Yeah. I think she’s considered her own agency but yeah that’s always the one where I’m sitting there going. Oh, if I could just think of one person if it’s if I’m talking to the marketing person or the the CEO or whoever it is at a e commerce, then I’m good. I can think of that one person. But when I started getting more CMO and this whole fractional thing, I was like, oh, I I struggle with thinking two people, but making a common anything, really.
Yeah. Is the fractional CMO the one who’s really kinda making that decision or you know, and evaluating the process?
Or Yeah.
Yes. But she still has to go to her client and say, look, I found this person, this is why I think we should hire. And then they give the yeah.
So it’s that kind of relationship.
So I I are on the side of catering it to the CMO. Because unless you first sell them, you’re not getting to that next level anyway. They’re not gonna bring it bring it to that second stage.
So I think, like, It’s two phase. Right? Like, you definitely wanna cater those initial pieces of your funnel and process for that CMO. They’re the first gatekeeper. They’re the first CS you have to have. Right?
Yeah. Yeah.
And then sometimes, like, A really simple question to ask, right, is like, what will empower you most to take this conversation to the company. Right?
Oh, yeah.
And allow them, right, because that process could look different in many different contexts depending on their relationship with the company. So it’s like, what would help you be most successful in going to so and so with this. Right?
Yeah. Yep. That’s great. Thank you.
And and let them share that with you so you could be really collaborative in getting it across the finish line. Okay.
Cool.
Thanks for those questions.
Alright. Anything else for today or shall we wrap it?
I’m good. I think we’re I think we’re good. Yeah.
I just got ISBNs for my new book. I’m excited. Yeah.
Oh, did you how many did you get?
So Maybe you can correct me on this, like, in Canada, you get them for free. Right?
You do. And it as an American, it’s so far. Trading because we have to pay for every single one.
Yes. You do. I’m like, they’re like, how many do you want? I’m like, a hundred.
So, yeah.
Yep. And I thought it would take, like, forever to get them, but only took two days even over the holidays.
So Oh, nice.
Time to rest.
We had to wait.
We had to wait for Joe’s for a little while. So that’s good. They’ve gotten faster.
Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t know. I’m gonna write a hundred books now to use all my ISBNs and not feel like, you know, I was greedy and frivolous and asking for a hundred ISBN.
So Oh, but if you think about it, there’s if you think about all the different formats and files you could have for one book, It’s surprisingly a lot. So Oh, totally.
Yeah. Well, I’m I’m stacked with ISBNs now, which I’m really happy about. So Yeah. Awesome. Cool. I definitely wanna talk more about, yeah, your publishing experience at some point because it sounds like you’ve done significant amount of that.
Oh, yeah. Happy to yeah. Abby and I actually were talking about that recently. So and I think Joe said that we would, at some point, when there’s enough people wanting to talk about it. We would. So, absolutely. But, yeah, reach out.
Really cool.
Awesome. Well, great hanging with you, Jessica Randall. And all those watching on the replay. And, yeah, enjoy the rest of your week. We’ll talk soon.
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