You might want to print out this page and keep it close to your computer – it’s a little goldmine of power words that capture attention and get your messages read & acted on:
– Free – Sale – New – Tested – Guaranteed – Immediately – Powerful – Popular – Special – Affordable – The truth about – Absolutely lowest – Daring – Pioneering – Unsurpassed – Obsession – Lifetime – Strong – Sizable – Confidential – Alert – Energy – Rare – Famous – Unparalleled – Superior – Bottom line – Special offer – Wealth – Last minute – Timely – Unconditional – Profitable – Emerging – Breakthrough – It’s here – Just arrived – Growth – High tech – Innovative – Exclusive – Valuable – Discount – Endorsed – Under priced – Launching – Reduced – Enormous – Now – Fortune – Authentic – Announcing – Introducing – Portfolio – Urgent – Proven – Weird – Surprise – Excellent – You
Start using these words in your marketing and sales copy today, and then stand back and watch as your business soars to new heights!
It’s tempting to send offer after offer to your list in the hopes of making the most money. Yet this is also a sure fire way to alienate your readers and send them packing. If all you ever do is pitch them in every email, they’re either going to stop opening your emails, or simply unsubscribe. In either case, you are no longer relevant to your list. So when it comes time to promote your own products, no one will be listening.
There is a better way, and it’s to provide content along with the promotions. The problem is in knowing what kind of content to give them. What do they want to know? How long is it going to take you to research it and write it? And will it even be read?
The key is to think ‘engagement’ over selling. If you can continually engage your audience, then you can continually sell to them as well, at a reasonable pace.
Think of it this way: Every engagement email is like building your goodwill account. Every promotional email is like cashing in on that account. Both are equally important.
Here are 4 reasons to send engagement type emails:
1. They take the pressure off of you and let you have fun with your list. Let’s face it – if every email you send is trying to convince people to buy yet another product, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to continually SELL SELL SELL. And you know in your heart of hearts that your list does NOT want another email telling them to BUY BUY BUY. Which means you are having NO FUN writing nothing but promotional emails. Who can blame you?
Even a born sales person likes to take some time off and just shoot the breeze, talk about sports, do some gardening, whatever. Well, you and your list need time off as well. And we don’t mean time when they don’t hear from you, but instead time when you have something to say that doesn’t involve them reaching for their wallets yet again.
2. You can be their go-to person in your niche. If all you do is sell, then they always have their guard up when they open your emails – and with good reason. But if you can show them how to do things without buying, and even how to buy better, you can become the authority they like and trust.
3. You can email more often. If you only send promotional emails, you better either keep the frequency down or expect to burn your list. But if you’re sending engagement type emails, you don’t have to worry about how often you email (within reason.) Who doesn’t want to hear the latest news or tips or tricks in their favorite niche? Send it out, they WANT to read this stuff.
A funny thing happens when you send out engagement type emails and then you take a few days off – your list will write to you asking where you are and if you’re okay. When this happens, you know you’ve created magic.
4. You can cheat. Big time. What I mean by this is you can reuse material you’ve already written. Did you write a dynamite blog post earlier this year that got rave reviews? Break it up into several emails and send it out. Do you have a report on how to do something that is full of great tips? Break it up into several emails and send it out.
You don’t always have to come up with new material for engagement emails – you can reuse stuff from your articles and posts. Nice!
Here are 10 topics you can write about besides the usual ‘buy this’ stuff:
1. The latest news in your niche AND how it might affect your readers. Don’t just give the news – personalize it with your own take and your thoughts on how it might impact your list.
2. Tips, tricks and great ideas on how to do things in your niche. Everyone wants the latest hack on how to do something easier/faster/cheaper/better. So let them in on the secrets.
3. Teach your list how to be a savvy shopper in your niche. What should they look out for? What features are must-have, and what should they avoid? This is a great way to make yourself into the authority.
4. 3 minute interviews. Send email interviews to authorities in your niche and create emails from those interviews. These don’t need to be long – 1 to 5 questions is all you need.
5. Spotlight your customers. Show how Bill bought your product and used it with good results. Talk about the obstacles he had to overcome, the problems he solved, and anything else that might interest your readers.
6. Show your list how to USE your product. If they’ve purchased, this is helpful. If they haven’t, they get to feel what it would be like if they did purchase. Either way, it’s a win-win.
7. Stuff for your list only. Give your list benefits that people can get nowhere else. This might be free products, insider information or special discounts. Make these special benefits expire to train your list to open your emails as soon as they receive them.
8. Stories. People LOVE stories. Don’t get wordy, do start in the middle of the story where the action is, and always make it entertaining as well as relevant to your niche.
9. Seasonal tips. If you’re in a niche that changes with the seasons, this is perfect. For example, if your niche is sports then fall is the time to talk about the upcoming ski season, while spring is when you can talk about baseball, soccer, etc. Is your niche cooking? Talk about seasonal foods. Even if your niche isn’t seasonal, with a little creativity you can still use this angle.
10. Personality and humor. You don’t want to ramble on about yourself or your business, but injecting your own personality is terrific and highly recommended. And anytime you can make your readers smile or even laugh, you’re sure to get them to open your next email.
What not to talk about in your emails:
– Too much personal info. A line or two about yourself is fine, but unless you’re telling a story that is of particular interest to your readers, don’t overdo it. No one wants to know your life history, at least not in a broadcast email.
– How terrible your competition is. There is an exception to this rule: If one of your customers has a personal story of their experience with your competition, you can use it. But YOU cannot trash your competition. Even if every word you say is true, it still makes you look like a jerk.
By sending out engagement emails, you won’t burn your list, you’ll build rapport with your list, and in the end you wind up selling more than if you simply sent promotional emails. Plus your list will actually LIKE you and say nice things about you in social media, which is always a plus.
Want to KNOW your product will be a hit BEFORE you make it? This is simple and easy to do. And it can save you a ton of time and frustration. Validating your next product idea is crucial if you want to be sure you’re going to have a winning product on your hands.
Here’s how to do it…
Create a pre-launch page.
On the pre-launch page, give a short summary of your up and coming product. This is like a mini sales page with a headline, bullet points, benefits and a call to action. In this case, the call to action is a waiting list to buy the product when it comes out.
Once they join this list, send them to a second page that again talks about the product, but also offers them the chance to buy it right now at a lower price.
Structure it with your offer at the top. “Buy your copy now and get $20 off, plus this extra bonus.” Then reiterate the benefits of the product, and make the offer again at the bottom. Some people will likely click the buy button at the top without ever scrolling. Others will want to review what’s in the product before they buy.
Send the offer to your list. Gauge your response. Obviously, if you get no or very few takers, refund anyone who did order and move on to your next project. If you get a lot of people joining the waiting list and quite a few pre-ordering, you have a hit on your hands.
If the response rate is somewhere in between then you’ll have to make a judgement call. In this case, you might want to survey people who did join your list to see what they like about it, and survey those who didn’t join to see what they don’t like. Then make adjustments.
That’s it! By using this simple system you can accurately forecast whether you should go ahead and create that product you’ve got in mind, or move on to another, better project.
This is an email launch sequence that anyone can do and enjoy success with, whether you’re launching your next $10 product or $1,000 product.
I’m going to assume you have a list, whether it’s one you’ve warmed up for a while, or a new list compiled from affiliate promotions for your new launch. Either way, the email sequence will be the same.
And we’ll assume you’re selling some type of information product that teaches something. For our example, let’s say you’re selling a product on how to make great videos for marketing purposes.
Here is the sequence:
Email #1: The first lesson on making great videos that sell products. You’re going to be delivering 3 lessons in all on making great videos. But you’re only going to teach about 5 – 10% of what you know. This way they’ll have to buy the paid course to discover the other 90%.
Email #2: A survey question. In this case, ask them what their biggest challenge is in creating great videos that sell.
Email #3: The second lesson. Take the results from the survey question and find their 3 biggest challenges. Then tell them what to do to overcome these challenges, but not how to do it. You’re delivering great info, but not complete info.
Email #4: The third and final lesson in this series. Here is where you create open loops – Telling them more of what they need to do but not how to do it. Again, you’re giving great info but they will need more to get the results you get.
Email #5: This is your introduction to the paid course. Here is where you raise a good deal of curiosity of what’s inside the course. You build the anticipation and desire of the prospects. Think of it as teasing the customer and you’ll be on the right track.
Email #6: Details of the course. Time to lay out the bullet points and really hit the benefits in an impactful way. You’re getting them primed to hit the buy button when your course goes live. Let them know what the first buyers get that later buyers don’t get. And tell them when to be ready. For example, Monday, 9am EST.
Email #7: Let them know the product is live right NOW, and due to high interest the fast action bonuses will go quickly.
Email #8: Remind them that now is the time to order, before it’s too late. Show that the product is selling quickly and time is of the essence. Remind them of the deadline.
Email #9: At the last minute, extend the deadline by one or two days.
Email #10: Remind them that it all ends today. There will be no more extensions and no more opportunities to buy after the time you designate.
As you can see, this sequence is for a product you are going to sell for a short time and then pull from the market. If you want to continue selling the product, you still can by altering this sequence like this:
Emails 1-5 are the same.
Email #6: Tell them about the limited time bonus. Make this bonus BIG and VALUABLE.
Email #7: The product is live and the limited time bonus is only available for the next “x” days.
Email #8: Same as before, but with emphasis on the limited time bonus.
Email #9: Same as before.
Email #10: After your deadline they can still buy the product, but they will NOT get the bonus. No extensions and no exceptions.
If you don’t want to do a limited time bonus, you can also do introductory pricing to create urgency.
This is the exact email sequence used by 6 and 7 figure Internet Marketers to sell their products. And there’s a reason they continue to use it – it flat out works. Try it for yourself and see what results you get. You won’t be disappointed.
Let’s say you run across an affiliate program for a product with recurring payments, such as a membership site or software. Because it’s recurring payments, you sell it once and you get paid over and over again, for months or possibly even years. Everything else being equal, these are always the best types of products to promote because the income just keeps coming and coming.
Naturally you want to make as many sales of these as possible, so the question becomes: Other than your usual methods of promotion, how can you get more subscribers to this affiliate program?
Try an old school method that still works – creating a viral report.
In the report, teach how to do whatever it is that the product does. Teach the method in detail, step-by-step. Leave nothing out. Then at the end, let the reader know that they don’t have to do any of what you just said. Instead, they can get the same results a whole lot faster and easier by subscribing to the affiliate program.
Simple, right? First you show how complicated it is to do it by hand. Then you give them an easy way to get the same result – by subscribing. And you give your affiliate link.
And by the way, this is the ONLY affiliate link you put in the entire report.
Now then, here are few tips to make this work:
– Create a report good enough to sell. This should be high quality.
– Make the report short enough that readers can easily finish it in one sitting. You want every reader to reach the end so they see the affiliate link.
– Whenever possible, focus on telling your reader what to do, but not how to do it. This way they’re more likely to take the easy way out and subscribe to your affiliate program, rather than figure out details for themselves.
– Give your report an absolutely KILLER title that makes people want to read it and share it.
– Leave your name off of your report. This will encourage others to share it with their lists.
– Give anyone and everyone who has the report the right to distribute the report exactly as it is with no alterations. They can use it as a bonus, as a list building incentive and so forth.
– If you’ve written a sales page for the report, let others use the sales page and put their own name on it. Yes, they can absolutely charge for the report if they like, so long as they leave your affiliate link in place.
The idea is to get as many people as possible sharing your report. The more your report is distributed around the net, the more chances you have to make sales.
This is a very old school method that can still be quite effective if you follow these steps. And of course you can repeat this method as many times as you like.
Imagine if you have a dozen of these reports, each with an affiliate link to a recurring payment program. You let other marketers give your reports away as bonuses and whatnot. And you let marketers sell them and keep all the profits.
Thousands upon thousands of copies can be distributed using these methods. And even if only 1 out of 100 who get the report subscribe for a few months to your programs, you’ll still make out like a bandit.
Ready to avoid a big mistake and increase your bottom line? Do you have download pages? You know, pages where people pick up their product after buying it from you?…
If so, have you TESTED those download pages? Odds are it never even occurred to you. But why not? You test everything else, so why not test your download pages, too?
“Wait, I don’t sell anything on my download page, so why would I test it?”
Oh-oh, let’s back up.
Any virtual real estate you have – including download pages – can be selling something for you. In fact, download pages can be the PERFECT place for promotion because your customer just made a purchase. This means they’re already in a buying mood. And who buys products? BUYERS do. If you’re not promoting something on your download pages, you are missing out on what might be thousands of dollars of revenue a month, depending on how much traffic those pages get.
So how do you best promote a product on your download page? Forget flashy banners and things that look like ads. Simple is better, which is why adding a link to your list of download links will usually give you the best results. For example, if your download page has a list of videos, at the end of the list you will place a link in the same font and the same color offering them their customer discount on the product you’re promoting.
But don’t take my word for it – test it out for yourself.
When they click this link they are led to a slightly altered version of your regular sales page. At the top of the page is a line or two letting them know that because of their purchase, they are entitled to a special discount on this product today.
Of course, you’ll want to remember to give them that discount, too.
So what should you test on your download page? The links you use, the placement of links and the pages you send them to. Remember to promote a product that is in some way directly related to the one they bought for best results.
Making this one simple change can potentially add thousands of dollars to your bottom line each and every year. Now that’s a great return on the investment of your time.
…yet it’s a technique most marketers aren’t even aware of yet. And it’s as easy as turning video PLR snippets into lists and cash. Here’s how it works…
Find some good, solid PLR videos that instruct on how to do something. They should cover the step by step method to achieve a goal. They don’t need to be fancy but they do need good information that people want.
Once you’ve got your videos, watch them to find the “good” parts. These are the little 2-3 minute segments that teach something especially useful most people don’t know. Really you only need one of these segments, but if you find several, that’s even better.
Copy that segment into a file of its own. You can use most any video program to do this. Basically you make a copy of that video, then cut out everything you don’t want, leaving that 2-3 minute segment.
Place that video segment on its own page on your website. Once you’ve gotten this far, you’ve got choices on what to do next – LOTS of choices. You can…
1. Add a lead capture form to build your list. “To get the entire 30 minute video series for free, just let us know where to send it.” Drive traffic to your lead capture page from social media, guest blogging, paid traffic and so forth.
Visitors watch the 2-3 minute segment and quickly learn something valuable. You’ve now earned a level of trust. And they are impressed and curious enough to give their email address in return for the rest of the video series.
Taking this a step further, you can monetize your lead capture page by adding an upsell to the sequence. Once they subscribe, you offer them another, related product. Done right this will make your list building profitable enough to pay for advertising.
And with a self-liquidating offer, you can build your list as fast as you like.
2. Promote your membership site. “This entire video series is just one of many in my XYZ membership. Click here to get more info / sign up.”
You’ll find it’s much easier to drive traffic to your membership sales page by promoting your free video clip. And you can add this into your autoresponder sequence to make more sales of your membership as well.
3. You can sell the actual PLR series. Placing a clip on a stand-alone page is a great way to promote your product. Be sure to rename the video series and give it an entirely different look with a new cover as well.
Visitors watch the clip, like it, and click the link to get the rest of the video series. This takes them to a short sales page with an attractive price tag.
Guaranteed, you will make more sales using this method than if you simply send them straight to the sales page without letting them view the segment.
4. Give the video series away when they purchase an affiliate product. “Would you like to get this entire video series for free? Simply click his link, purchase ABC product and the video series is yours.
They are then taken to the sales page for ABC product. Of course this works best when the affiliate product is directly related to the video series you’re giving away.
5. Give the video series away when they buy your product. “This entire video series is just one of the bonuses you get when you purchase my product.”
Again, letting them preview the video series greatly increases the perceived value and heightens their desire to see the rest of the video series. Thus it’s a much better enticement to get them to buy your product.
BIG BONUS TIP: This tip alone can put thousands of dollars in your pocket, and it’s super simple. Ready?
For options 2-5, you can add them into your autoresponder sequences to make additional sales on autopilot.
And you can repeat this with as many PLR video products as you like, too.
Just show a teaser video and then offer the full course when they join your list, join your membership, buy your product, etc. It’s such a simple technique, yet very few marketers have caught on to this yet so it’s still wide open. Go for it!
This idea has been proven to work GREAT for insurance agents, and it can work phenomenally well for other businesses as well. Imagine you walk into Joe’s insurance to sell your marketing services. Joe is sitting at his desk, looking bored and sad. “Joe,” you say, “How’s business?”
“Not great, he answers.”
“Joe, I’ll bet you a steak dinner that I can get your phone ringing off the hook in days.”
Joe takes you up on your bet. You then launch an advertising campaign via social media or traditional media, in which Joe offers a big steak or shrimp dinner if he can’t save a customer money on his or her insurance. Because the offer is so attention getting and so bold, the phone does indeed ring off the hook.
Just make sure before you run a promotion like this that Joe can indeed save most people money.
You can do something similar with other trades, too, such as tax preparers, travel agents and even auto repair shops. That’s right – auto repair. The offer might be – “Bring in your estimate from any other shop. If we can’t do the work for less money, we’ll buy you dinner.”
Can you do something like this with online marketing? Why not?
“Follow my step by step system. Show me you did all the steps, and if you aren’t making “x” amount of money in 6 months, the course is one me.”
Or…
“Follow my recommendations, keep an exercise and eating journal for 6 weeks while following the program, and if you haven’t lost 10 pounds, I’ll send you my competitor’s program for free.”
The possibilities are endless. By making an offer no one else is making, you will stand out from the crowd, get noticed and make sales.
The fact is, most people have an expertise that would make a good product others would happily pay for. But some people either don’t feel confident enough to charge for what they know, or they really don’t know enough to charge.
So what kind of product can these folks create? That’s easy – software.
With software, you don’t have to record videos and write PDF’s and give case studies and examples and so forth, other than what you need to sell the software.
All you need to create a software product is basically two things: A good idea and a coder. Coders are easy to come by – just go to any of the freelancing sites and take your pick.
So how do you get a good idea for software? Study your market. See what people need. Make a note when you wish you had software that would do ____, because odds are other people are wishing for the same thing.
Look at the new software introduced in your niche – how could you improve it?
What are the latest, biggest, fastest growing trends? What software can you make to piggyback on these trends?
The fact is, new ideas for software are everywhere if you’re looking for them.
And software generally has a higher perceived value than information. This means you can either charge more than an information product, or keep your price low and get more buyers.
Either way, you’re making sales and building a list of buyers.
All you need now is an idea and the guts to see that idea through.
Let’s say you promote an affiliate product and it does pretty well, earning you some nice sales. The question is, now that you’ve found a product that is selling well to your list, how do you make even more sales? Here are 3 methods:
1. Send another email to those who opened your last email but didn’t click the link, and to those who didn’t open your last email. Offer them the same product, but with an additional 7 days of free email support from you.
This works if you’re familiar with the product, which you should be if you’re promoting it. The addition of real live support can often double your sales or better. And it can be fun making new friends with people on your list.
2. If it’s your product that you’re promoting, send out another promotion to those people on your list who didn’t click the link or open the email, offering the same product with a twist for more money.
The twist might be a special bonus, email support, a coaching call, etc. You can charge more because you’re offering more value. Again, some people will take you up on this offer who wouldn’t otherwise have purchased.
3. Send out the “bugging” email. This is the email that you again send to those who either haven’t opened your other emails or opened them and didn’t click the link.
Admit right up front that you are bugging them with your emails, but you have a very good reason for bugging them. You know this product can make a real difference in their lives. In fact, you’re so sure this product can make a difference that you’re willing to risk your friendship and their patronage just to get them to look at it. Because that is what friends do.
And if you think about it, that IS what friends do. If your friend knows you would be far better off if you only did ___, wouldn’t your friend bug you to do it? Of course. Your email list should be no different. Because you only promote the products you KNOW will help them, and because this product is a life-changer, you’re sending this email.
This technique flat out works – try it.
What NOT to do: Do not be the person who sends that annoying, “Frankly, we’re puzzled why you haven’t bought “x” product yet.” This conveys the message that you think they’re idiots for not buying it and is an instant turn off to any thinking person who receives the email.
Instead, always take the high road of, “I completely understand why you might be skeptical, which is why I’m throwing in free coaching, or which is why I’m offering email support to help you get started, or which is why I keep writing to you.”
By using any one of these 3 techniques, you can double your sales without a lot of effort. This means you can promote half as many products and yet make just as much money, or promote the same number of products and quite possibly double your income.
