Cyberwalker Blog

Learn the magic technique to sell 10x more through email

Before I tell you about the amazing technique that will help you sell 10x more via email than you otherwise would, a quick reminder that this post will not be up for long. I am only putting it up this week for a few days (because it’s the basis for a chapter in my ebook which is going to sell for $39.95, but I am road testing it for feedback) so if you are one of the lucky ones to see it then be sure to read it all the way through, especially the last paragraph.

In this post I am going to teach you about scarcity. It’s a magic sales tool that can increase the likelihood that people who take the actions you ask them to, including buying faster, sooner and with more focused intention.

The magic of scarcity in email marketing

So what is scarcity? In the context of sales and email marketing it is limiting the availability of something you are selling such that the person who has received an offer is compelled to act for fear of losing out. Of course if it was just this definition alone it wouldn’t necessarily work. If I told you I have a house for you to buy in Greenland and it costs $20 million and its only for sale until tomorrow at midnight – that alone won’t necessarily have you rush out and buy my offer.

Why not? Well, scarcity requires five key elements to work well in sales:

1)  The offer needs to be limited in time and availability. e.g. Offer expires tomorrow at midnight

2) It needs to seem exclusive to the buyer – so only offered once in this current offer. Only being offered at this price to you and your fellow subscribers.

3) It needs to seem to contain great value that may never be offered again. It’s a $1000 value, but we are offering it at $99.99.

4) It needs to fulfilling a burning need for the buyer. The buyer will be on your email list for any number of key reasons. They want to learn. They want to solve a problem. They need help. They have a need of some kind. The reason they are on your list may be solved by the reason they need this product.

5) And it helps as if the buyer has an emotional connection to the opportunity. Their buying temperature needs to be heightened. So they need to be excited, inspired, connect or thrilled about what’s being offered. Or you need to get them there.

So my Greenland real estate offer is going to be much more appealing if you know house prices are skyrocketing in Greenland and it will be worth $4 million by next season. If you know that global warming will make Greenland as warm as the Caribbean within 18 months.And that its the hottest new opportunity in real estate. And you need a house there because there are lots of high paying jobs there…ok now you might be ore interested.

Suddenly my limited time offer will be much more appealing. And my short deadline to buy will be more likely to compel you to buy in the window.

Now the whole world of scarcity also needs one last thing to work well.

This one is the tough one:

The more authentic the scarcity seems is the better it will work.

So what does that mean? You need to justify why there is a short window of opportunity. And it can’t be made up. It needs to be a true and reasonable reason that the person understands and trusts. One whiff of fake or lacklustre scarcity and the whole technique will fall flat on its face.

How to invent legitimate reasons to limit availability

So what reasons can you give for the short offer window?

  • The product or service is in development and so you are looking for feedback and offering it at a lower price in return.
  • The product or service only has a few left and so you want to sell off the remaining inventory to move on to the next product or product version.
  • Perhaps its for a special season so you need sell it before a cultural deadline (Father’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, Summer, Winter, Year end).
  • Perhaps there is limited room in course or a hall has a maximum capacity.
  • Maybe what you offer is a course and it has a special guest who won’t be back for a while or ever.
  • Perhaps you are moving and need to get rid of inventory to save on warehouse or shipping costs.
  • Perhaps…well you get the idea. Make the reason real, compelling and convincing.

There is lots more to  learn about scarcity and there are further nuances in it’s usage. I will be talking about a lot in future posts as well as in my email list.

One final thing for the folks that read the first paragraph and bought the scarcity pitch. Read on…

The last paragraph:

If you skipped to the bottom from the top of this post then there, know that I’ve used scarcity – the topic of this post – to get you to engage with this post much faster and with great intent than if I hadn’t.

The truth is I won’t be taking this article down anytime soon (though I reserve the right to change my mind!). You have all the time in the world to consume it. But if I told you you did you may not have taken the time to read the whole thing. Now you can leisurely read through the whole piece. But you also now know how effective creating scarcity is. 🙂

The one highly effective strategy that most email marketers don’t know

The strategy most email marketers don't knowIn email marketing, there is one strategy that you can put into place that will super charge your results.

Just one simple thing.

Most people believe it can’t be so simple. And when you read the answer below it may seem counter intuitive. And you might even resist putting it into practice because you might believe it can’t possibly be true.

So what could possibly be so effective and so simple?

Here it is…

Give your best stuff away.

Really Andy? Are you nuts???

Yes, give your best stuff away.

Whatever you offer that has value to your subscribers. The core of your expertise.  Give. It. Away. FOR FREE.

Why on earth would you giveaway your best stuff for FREE?

There are a few critical reasons.

1) People get A LOT of emails, so you have to give them a reason to open your emails

Think about your inbox. Which emails do you open? The ones that give you value. That fulfil a need. Make you laugh. Give you a deal. Provide you with info you need. You don’t open the hard sell emails. You don’t open ads. You don’t open dry boring material.

2) I said your best stuff, not all your stuff. 

Anything you are selling or providing to a subscriber is a package deal usually. A series of information. So when i say give away your best stuff. Give access to the most exciting 3-4 minuet video you have made. Demonstrate how amazing your stuff is. Talk about what’s in it then give it away, then debrief it. Then tell them about the more stuff. Give away the icing and get them to dream about the cake.

3) After your freebie, not everyone will buy, but many will and they will be hungry 

The best stuff positions you as an expert. It makes people think you and your expertise are awesome. It should make them feel like they have been give gold. And some of them will be willing to pay for more.  (The one that don’t are not ready or willing, but they may be in future) And let’s face it the freebie really is part of a bigger bundle. And your ability to demystify that big ball of expertise is what you are selling in the end. You are building credibility

4) Giving away excellence builds your brand

Even if someone consumes your best stuff and does not buy what you later offer, its ok because they consume and get value from the freebie and are left wanting something more but may not engage in the offer that comes later for a variety of reasons. They don’t need it now. They can’t afford it now. They don’t see the whole grand offering as necessary but they are curious. Giving away great stuff builds a perception you are good and leaves them wanting more of that. They might even refer you to someone that will also consume the best giveaway who will buy.

5) Giving away your best stuff for free builds TRUST

Trust is the commodity that you want the most from a web audience. If people trust you they will pretty much take an advice you offer and if it’s “buy my stuff” then trust will disengage their barriers and they will take action without having to process the “what ifs”. That leads to sales.

 

Why giving away free stuff works in digital marketing

There is one strategy that you can put into place in your email marketing practices that will super charge your results.

Just one simple thing.

Most people believe it can’t be so simple. And when you read the answer below it may seem counter intuitive. And you might even resist putting it into practice because you might believe it can’t possibly be true.

So what could possibly be so effective and so simple?

Here it is…

Give your best stuff away.

Really? Am I nuts???

Yes, give your best stuff away.

Whatever you offer that has value to your subscribers. The core of your expertise.  Give. It. Away. FOR FREE.

So why on earth would you do that?

There are a few critical reasons.

1) People get A LOT of emails, so you have to give them a reason to open your emails

Think about your inbox. Which emails do you open? The ones that give you value. That fulfil a need. Make you laugh. Give you a deal. Provide you with info you need. You don’t open the hard sell emails. You don’t open ads. You don’t open dry boring material.

2) I said your best stuff, not all your stuff. 

Anything you are selling or providing to a subscriber is a package deal usually. A series of information. So when i say give away your best stuff. Give access to the most exciting 3-4 minuet video you have made. Demonstrate how amazing your stuff is. Talk about what’s in it then give it away, then debrief it. Then tell them about the more stuff. Give away the icing and get them to dream about the cake.

3) After your freebie, not everyone will buy, but many will and they will be hungry 

The best stuff positions you as an expert. It makes people think you and your expertise are awesome. It should make them feel like they have been given gold. And some of them will be willing to pay for more.  (The ones that don’t are not ready or willing, but they may be in future) And let’s face it the freebie really is part of a bigger bundle. And your ability to demystify that big ball of expertise is what you are selling in the end. You are building credibility

4) Giving away awesome builds your brand

Even if someone consumes your best stuff and does not buy what you offer later, it’s ok because they consume and get value from the freebie and are left wanting something more but may not engage in the offer that comes later for a variety of reasons. They don’t need it now. They can’t afford it now. They don’t see the whole grand offering as necessary, but they are curious. Giving away great stuff builds a perception you are good and leaves them wanting more of that. They might even refer you to someone that will also consume the best giveaway who will buy.

10 awesome ways to grow your email list

If you are going to engage in email marketing you need to drive people to signup for your email lists. But how do you do that? Here’s 10 ways to build you email list

1) Offer something of value to subscribers: A downloadable, a video, an ebook, rare and special content no available anywhere else, an unreleased chapter, song or bonus

2) Create scarcity: Whatever you give away on your list, ensure it is not available anywhere else. Be sure that the ticket to the gold is available only by signing up for the list

3) Put a registration form on your home page – you did do that right? Right?

4) Place a registration form in the sidebar on every page on your site (see best lead capture practices)

5) Offer your freebie from Item #1 (above) on your Twitter account and Facebook page.

6) Look at your Google Analytics and determine  what are you most popular pages then install a squeeze page that asks people who visit the well trafficked page to sign up for your email list before they get to the hot content

7)  Offer your freebie to conference attendees or at events where you speak. tell them to go to your web site to get it and then advertise it as part of your email sign up process.

8) Connect to your giveaway on Pinterest.com. It’s the hot new social media platform.

9) If you use Vimeo Pro -link to the offer at the end of the video (Vimeo has a tool for this)

10)  Offer massive value in the content in your list and ask happy subscribers to refer friends.

10 awesome ways to grow your email list

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