Author Archive | Sungie Hickson

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.

Stuck for ideas on what to write in your next blog post, article or email? I’ve made a list of what readers want most to see from you. In fact, this is exactly the content that people crave, so get ready to make your next content a smash hit with your audience.

Your readers want content that:

– Reminds them that they matter
– Reminds them that they are one of a kind
– Tells a story
– Takes them on a journey
– Surprises them
– Shows them that dreams can come true
– Has unexpected twists and unforeseeable turns
– Reveals awesome secrets
– Shows little Davids beating big Goliaths
– Confirms their thoughts and beliefs
– Challenges their assumptions in a respectful manner
– Gives a fresh point of view
– Takes a stand
– Reminds them that life is short – really short
– Gives them faith to believe in something BIG
– Reminds them to get back to the “basics”
– Makes them smile and laugh
– Makes them cry
– Educates while entertaining
– Inspires them to take action
– Encourages them to never, ever give up

This is the sort of content your readers never get tired of and always have time to read. If it’s really good, they remember it long after they’ve read it. And even if it’s only somewhat good, if it meets any of the above criteria, they are very likely to share it with others.

In other words, this is the kind of content that has the power to inspire, influence and move your readers to ACTION.

Can you pick a topic, build a list of 1,000 and even promote your first product in just 7 days? Yes! Here’s how…

First of course is to choose your topic or niche. If you want a head start, pick something that will interest your friends – preferably both your friends in real life and your social media friends. Let’s say you’re interested in marketing, and you’ve got some business friends in your hometown as well as more business friends online. This is a good topic choice to hit the ground running.

Next, reach out to those friends you already have a relationship with. Let them know about your new endeavor. In our example case, you might write the following:

Hey George,

Quick question for you: I’m starting a new project where I give out the latest marketing tips for small businesses like yours on how to cheaply get more customers.

Traditional advertising just isn’t cutting it anymore, and we need alternatives that don’t cost a lot and flat out work.

Anyway, thought you might be interested.

I’ll be emailing the latest ‘how-to’ info as I find it.

Want me to include you?

Jill

When they reply back, manually add them to your list. Yes, this takes a little effort, but it’s an excellent way to get started. Go through your phone, email and social media contacts and get as many people as you can this way. Don’t stop until you have a bare minimum of 50. 100 is better.

Next step – create a contest for your new subscribers.

Brainstorm a list of 3 to 5 things you could give to the winner of your contest.

Do a quick poll of your list to see which of those 3 to 5 items they would most like.

Put up a giveaway page and announce it to your list. Use one of the contest sites to make this easy. Your goal is to get them to share it with everyone.

In our example, you might write something like:

Thanks for joining me in my new project!

To kick things off, I’m giving away the book, “How to Get More Customers Than You Need.”

In fact, I’m giving away 5 of them!

And since this email is only going out to 100 people, your odds of winning are pretty darn good.

Here’s what you need to do:

Enter the giveaway by clicking here to leave your email address.

Take the special link you get when you register, and share it with your friends to improve your own odds of winning.

For every friend of yours that joins, you get another entry. Good?

Great! Here’s the link.

Jill

You might be concerned about the cost of the prize(s). You can either give away something you own or have rights to, or you can get a sponsor who gives their products away in exchange for you promoting them to your growing list. Or you can simply buy them yourself.

The point is, don’t let obstacles get in your way. There’s always going to be something – web hosting, web design, copywriting, etc., that tries to throw up a roadblock to slow you down or even stop you in your tracks. Don’t let it. Just keep moving forward and tackle each bump in the road as you get to it.

The main thing is to always stay focused on your objective. In this case, it’s 1,000 subscribers in 7 days, followed by the immediate promotion of your first product. (And don’t sweat this part, either. If you don’t have a product, I have two work-arounds for you coming up.)

Continue to promote your contest. Let other list owners know, let blogs know, let the world know about your contest. If you get one good list owner to tell their list about your contest, that alone can snowball into a thousand subscribers. Remember, those who enter the contest can then promote their own link for more entries, thus further increasing your list size.

The next step is key: Immediately start building rapport and delivering great content to your list. Give them exactly what you promised and a whole lot more. What you send them is of course going to depend on your niche. Just make sure it is info they can use to solve problems and you will do well.

Also inject humor when you can, write like you’re having a conversation with your best friend and enjoy yourself. If you’re having fun creating content, your list is having fun reading or watching it. That’s right – recording videos for your list is a great idea and can work to build rapport far faster than simply sending emails.

Finally it’s time to promote your first product. If you don’t already have a product of your own that fits this list, don’t worry about it. Choose something that your list wants and be an affiliate for that product. If you don’t know what your list wants, take a poll.

And here’s an even better technique than promoting an affiliate product – sell a product you haven’t even created yet. That’s right. Take a poll to find out exactly what they want. Then sell it to them. Let them know if it’s a book or video series or what. Let them know exactly what’s in it for them. Let them know that if you don’t get “x” amount of orders, you won’t make it. And lastly, let them know that because they are preordering before it’s even made, they get special bonuses and / or a special discount. Make it an offer they cannot refuse.

Just think: If you get 50 sales from your new list for $30 each, that’s $1,500 for a product you haven’t even created yet. Your results will vary.

Things to remember:

Your friends want to help you. Sometimes it’s easier to ask strangers for help than it is your friends and family. But the people who know you are the ones who will join your list first and promote your contest first. They get the ball rolling for you because they want to see you succeed.

Don’t hide. Yes, you can email until you’re blue in the face, and you will get results. You can also pick up the phone and call people to let them know about your new endeavor. Guaranteed, those you call will be far more likely to promote your contest and buy your product.

You might even randomly call people from your list just to thank them for joining. They will be blown away. In fact, send out an email to your list telling them you will call them on Skype for a 2 minute chat if they like – just reply with their Skype ID and you’ll call. Even those who don’t answer will be intrigued that you would do something like that. It shows you are a real person who wants to make real connections. And that counts for a lot.

You can also send private messages to people on your list through Facebook and Gmail if they have a Gmail address. Ask what kind of help they might need and what they want to accomplish.

If you want to make more sales of your first product, wait another week or two before promoting to build more trust with your list. Build rapport. Build a relationship. THEN promote your new product or future new product. Sales will likely double the amount you would make by promoting after just the first week.

Continue to build your list. 1,000 subscribers is a good start. Now go for 3,000. You can do it. In fact, it gets easier and easier as you go. Do lots of guest blogging – it’s a great way to list build.

Create a list-building incentive that drives people wild. This will take some brainstorming, but the perfect incentive is one that people would gladly and eagerly pay for with real money. When you figure out what this is for your niche, your list building will skyrocket.

Don’t get lazy. Building a good list quickly takes effort. Building rapport with that list takes even more effort. But in the end it can pay off big. VERY big.

This is so basic, a lot of people might dismiss this without another thought. However if they do, they’ll be missing out on one of the single greatest secrets to continuously increase their income month in and month out, for the rest of their lives…

Here’s how it works: Look at what you earned last month. Whatever it is, write it down.

Now set a goal to earn a certain percentage more this month. 5% works well. For example, if last month you earned $500, this month your goal is $525.

Now track what you earn every day. That’s right – every DAY. If you’re not on target to beat last month’s total, then do something. Send out another promotion. Create a viral report. Do another guest post. Whatever it takes, make sure you reach your new goal. Odds are you will not only reach it, you will exceed it.

Now rinse and repeat month in and month out.

“But this is too hard!” You might be thinking. Nope. It’s not. You’re taking 2 minutes a day to record how much you earned the day before. You’re keeping track of whether or not you’re on target. And you’re pushing yourself to do a little bit better each month.

The alternative is to flounder around like a dying fish, hoping you somehow land back in the water. Odds are most months you’re not going to. A year passes, and you’re making the same amount of money each month as you are now – or maybe you’re making less. Not pretty.

But increase your income just 5% each month, starting with just a current income of $500 a month, and it can look like this:

12 month mark $900 a month
18 month mark $1,200 a month
24 month mark $1,600 a month
What if you’re currently earning $1,000 a month, and you increase your goal by 10% each month?

12 month mark $3,100 a month
18 month mark $5,500 a month
24 month mark $9,700 a month
Now do you see the power of setting goals and continually tracking your results? Two minutes a day can produce riches. Or, you could spend those two minutes watching a cat video on YouTube. Your choice.

Let’s say you write and sell a fairly successful monthly newsletter. How can you get your subscribers to bring you new subscribers? Or maybe you have a growing membership. How do you get your current members to bring you more paying members? The answer might be as simple as giving your existing members certificates to GIVE to their friends…

In the case of the newsletter, let your subscribers give away 1-6 months for free. Limit the number of gift subscriptions they can give away to keep the perceived value high. Make the gift certificates look like they were paid for by your current subscribers, so that when they give them out, it appears they’re giving a valuable gift (which they are.) This also makes it more likely your subscribers will give the certificates out because there is a sense of pride in the giving of the gift.

When the gift recipients sign up to get their free subscriptions, you can offer them the chance to subscribe for a longer period of time at a reduced rate. Some will accept your offer, others won’t. Those who opt only for the free subscription will receive your offers to renew before their subscription ends. If you’ve provided a great value to them, some will subscribe. And when they do, you can then offer them certificates to give to their friends as well.

Remember, since your newsletter is delivered electronically, it costs almost nothing to give out gift subscriptions. And even if your newsletter is printed and mailed, the cost is still low compared to the number of new subscribers you are likely to get using this simple method. Of course, you’ll want to track your numbers to be sure it’s profitable.

Memberships can work the same way. Let your current members give away limited-time memberships to a small handful of the people they think will appreciate it the most.

You might even do special promotions using this method. For example, you give out certificates in late April for Mother’s Day with instructions to give them to moms who would enjoy the subscription or membership. Or prior to Christmas as gifts, and so forth.

If your membership or newsletter delivers a high value, using your current customers to bring in more customers can be the easiest, fastest and most cost effective way to get a continuous stream of new, happy customers into your business.

Therefore, instead of only thinking about how many of your paid newsletter subscriptions or memberships you can sell, start directing your creative juices to finding ways you can leverage your existing subscriber and customer base’s enthusiasm for your services to start GIVING AWAY everything you have to offer. As you do this, your business and influence can start growing exponentially, and with less overall effort and advertising investment on your part.

Guaranteed, you’ve been on the customer side of this equation. You buy a product and you think you’re going to be directed to the download page. Instead, you find yourself on an upsell page trying to sell you another product.

No problem, you scroll to the bottom and click the ‘no thanks’ link, thinking you’re about to get to the download page.

No such luck. You’re on another upsell page. You scroll down and click ‘no thanks’ again, and you’re taken to…

… yet another upsell page. Now you’re getting irritated. You scroll down, click the ‘no thanks’ button, and you’re finally taken to…

… another upsell page! @#$%&

You’re no longer just irritated, you’re annoyed, mad and even downright ANGRY. Odds are you are talking to your computer and what you’re saying is not very nice.

Who can blame you?

Now then, let’s look at this from the marketer’s standpoint: The more offers you as the marketer can make, the more money you will make.

Today, that is.

But when you make your customers angry, what happens? They remember how you made them feel. In fact, they will remember how you made them feel long, long after they’ve forgotten your product. And the next time you try to sell them something, they’ll decide they’re going to stay far away from your offers because they do NOT want to get caught in upsell hell ever again.

So what’s the solution? Offer ONE upsell. Just one. Then take your buyers straight to the download page.

On the download page, you can offer them another product with a nice discount. You’re not holding their purchase hostage at this point because they’re able to download it. So they’re not going to resent you for making them another offer, especially if they get it at a reduced price.

Then in your autoresponder sequence, you can offer them all the upsells, down sells and cross sells you like interspersed with helpful info, news and so forth.

The bottom line comes down to this: If you want to be a flash in the pan and make all of your money today, use a ton of upsells. No one will buy from you again, but it won’t matter because you’ll be living on the beach somewhere carving coconuts.

But if you want to build a long term business, then respect your customers and never, ever put them through upsell hell again.

First, the bad news: If you’re telling customers that you’re only selling “X” number of your digital product, they’re going to think you’re a scammer.

Think about it. Back in 2000, you could tell people you’re only selling 1,000 copies and they would believe you. But it’s 2020, and people have seen this tactic so many times, they not only don’t believe you – it makes them question everything else you say.

Plus, how shortsighted can you be to limit how much money you make? Let’s say you put out a truly great product, but to create scarcity and make sales you decide to limit either the number of products sold, or the time during which you will sell them.

You make the sales, you pull the product, and your income goes to zero. That could be a big long-term loss for you.

Or worse yet, you claim you will pull the product but you don’t. Or you say you “may” stop selling, but you don’t. Or you stop selling for 2 days or 2 weeks or 2 months, and then you open it up again.

And your credibility goes out the door.

So how do you create scarcity of digital products without losing sales and credibility?

You need to have a legitimate reason for creating the scarcity. For example, if you’re selling PLR, then obviously you can’t flood the market with thousands of copies or the PLR will lose its value.

But most products can be sold forever without causing the buyers a problem. So in that case, what do you do to create scarcity? You use the second method, which is…

… Bonus packages. And the good news: It’s easy, it’s highly effective, and done correctly it can create sales for you for a long time to come.

Here’s how it works:

Go to other marketers who sell products that compliment yours. These should be products that have only been sold and have never been given away. Otherwise they lose their value.

Ask these marketers if you can do a deal: You get to give away their product to your next 50 / 500 / 1,000 customers or all of your customers during the next week / two weeks / month. In return they get a percentage of your profits, along with the email addresses of all the buyers.

Not many marketers will say no to this offer. They get paid for sales they’re expending no effort to make. PLUS they get the email address of every buyer so they can sell them more products later.

And the best part is, you can repeat this as many times as you like, always offering new products as your limited bonuses. Maybe you offer the “XYZ” product to early bird buyers during the first 10 days only. Then during the next month you offer the “ABC” product, and the month after that, the “DEF” product and so forth.

True, in theory you could offer this bonus forever, except that in reality the owner of the product you’re giving away has the final say on how many copies you can give out. And as you tell your customers, you have to follow their rules or you can’t give away any of their products.

See how this works?

Added bonus for you: You’re creating alliances with these product owners. If you treat them right you’ll be able to do more deals with them in the future as well.

Bottom Line: By using REAL scarcity in this manner, you can continue to sell your product for a long time to come. And your customers will respect you for it, too.

Which one would you remember: “Pete and Earl’s Hair Salon for Men,” or “Best Head Salon?” How about “The Best Irrigation Installation and Repair” or “Dirty Boots Irrigation?”

Choosing a memorable name for your business, service or product can actually increase your business, for 3 reasons:

– People can remember it in conversation with others. “Check out the “Stealth Remodeler,” he does work during off-hours so he won’t bother your customers.

– People remember it each time they see it. They might forget a generic name and not realize they’ve seen it over and over again online in forums, on blogs and so forth. But a memorable name they will remember. “Hey, I see that product or service everywhere, it must be good!”

– People can remember it when they need your product or service. “I’ve got to get a new window, so I’ll call the one window place I remember: ‘Peek-a-boo Windows.’” Or, “I need help with my website SEO, I’ll Google ‘Naked SEO’ because I remember their name from an article I read.”

Everything else being equal, the catchy, memorable name will win the business.