I just visited the site of an EXCELLENT marketer who knows his stuff. But…
Here’s what happened. I’d clicked over to one of his blog posts. Black background, BIG long hard to read headline. Okay, it’s a little much, but I can handle that.
Wait, there’s a banner across the bottom in bright blue. Hmmm, I’m leaning towards the screen, trying to figure what it says and what it means when…
BOOM!
A bright pop up covers the entire right side of the screen, causing me to jump back from the computer. Too much.
I hadn’t totally grasped the headline when I spotted the banner. I was still trying to decipher the banner when the pop up appeared.
What next? Lions and tigers and bears doing a jig across the screen?
Three headlines and I can’t tell you what any of them said because I kept getting interrupted.
Does your site distract and overwhelm visitors?
I hope not. 😊
Remember the KISS rule for success. Keep it simple, stupid. It is principle which states that designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible. Wherever possible, complexity should be avoided in a system—as simplicity guarantees the greatest levels of user acceptance and interaction.
Your website will likely create far better results, and more conversions if you keep it simple for your users. Keep this in mind, and have a re-look at your own website and sales pages to see where you might be muddying the water for your visitors, and how you can simplify to increase the results you want.
You’re watching a television show and it ends with a dark scene of a hand firing a gun at the hero. You don’t know if the hero lives or dies.
You don’t know who shot the hero or why.
And you’re in suspense.
So what do you do?
You watch the next episode, of course.
Humans have a desire to KNOW stuff.
When they don’t know, it bugs them. It’s like an itch that needs to be scratched, and they’ll do whatever it takes to scratch that itch.
You can do the same thing with your emails – make it so your readers MUST read not only the email you just sent them, but also your next one and the one after that.
Andres Chaperone does a great job of teaching this email marketing technique.
In fact, here are three different open loop methods he recommends:
The Fake Out Open
You start out telling your readers that you’re going to tell them something. But then you tell them something else, instead. For example:
“Dear Reader,
I’m going to show you exactly how I managed to lose 83 pounds while watching television, eating whatever I wanted and never exercising – other than to go to the fridge.
The secret to my weight loss involved three magic words, and I’ll tell you what those words are and why they work to make you effortlessly lose weight tomorrow.
But right now, I want to tell you about my 21 year old college roommate who died from a heart attack because of a single Oreo cookie.”
You’re telling them what you’re going to tell them, but you’re not telling them right now.
That’s because you have something else to tell them now.
This is an open loop – the magic 3 words that caused the 83 pound weight loss – combined with value stacking. They get a secret tomorrow, and they get a story about the dead roommate and the Oreo cookie today.
This makes the recipient feel like there’s a ton of great stuff coming from you.
This creates surprise, curiosity, desire and anticipation.
And they love you and your emails for it.
Delayed Gratification
For this one, you’re going to throw in an open loop somewhere inside your content. It could be almost anywhere – near the beginning, in the middle, near the end… where you place it will depend on what it is and how it relates to the rest of your email.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an email about weight loss, and you’re telling the story of how one of your weight loss students lost 143 pounds thanks to your coaching. In the middle of your email, you might write…
“And when I told her how to perform the belly blaster technique in the shower every morning, and that she would effortlessly lose another pound of ugly fat every week… well, she just about lost it.
***If you’re not familiar with my belly blaster shower technique for losing fat, tomorrow I’ll tell you exactly how to do it. You’ll be shocked at the results.
So she tried the technique anyway, even though she thought I was crazy, and a week later she called with the results.
‘I lost 2 inches off my stomach, and I didn’t do anything else differently!’”
Notice how we mention something that’s bound to provoke curiosity, and then we tell the reader they will find out all about it… tomorrow.
3. Cliff Hanger P.S.
This is perhaps one of the most commonly used techniques for creating an open loop. It’s easy to do and keeps you on the minds of your readers long after they close your email.
You simply tack on a P.S. with a teaser for whatever you’re going to share with them tomorrow, like this:
“PS: Did you ever hear about the guy who decided to tie balloons to a lawn chair, to see if he could fly?
He did, with unexpected and totally scary results. In fact, he even scared the heck out of an airline pilot at 30,000 feet!
And what happened next, you’re not going to believe. In fact, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise.
See you then!”
It’s easy to create open loops in your emails.
And don’t stop there. You can place open loops everywhere. For example, at the end of a blogpost, in your videos and so forth.
It’s a great way to get people to read several posts instead of just one, or to watch several videos.
You just keep ‘open looping’ them, and they keep clicking to satisfy their curiosity.
You’ve just finished writing the sales copy for your new product. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to test your copy BEFORE you actually send prospects to it?
Because think about this – if you send 1,000 people to your sales letter and NOBODY buys, you’ve just wasted all that traffic. And if you spent money to get that traffic, you’re out that investment.
Even if it was free traffic, you’ve still burned your chance to sell them on your product. Odds are, even if you do rewrite the copy, they’re not going to go back a second time and read it again. (Unless you offer some kind of incentive, in which case you might be able to bribe them into taking a second look.)
If only there were a way to know ahead of time whether your copy is good or not… Wait, there is!
Here’s what to do – turn off the phone, sever your Internet connection and refuse to be distracted for the next hour.
Now then, imagine you are the prospect. You are thinking like the prospect, feeling like the prospect, experiencing the same issues, same problems, same questions as you prospect, etc.
Put yourself in their shoes and reread your letter from start to finish. Do not spend time making corrections or anything else – simply read the letter as though you are a prospect considering buying this product.
Finished?
Now rate how well your copy accomplishes the following, assigning a number 1 – 5 to each element.
1 means “Practically non-existent” 2 is “Room for serious improvement” 3 means “Not horrible, but could be better” 4 is “Strong” And a 5 indicates “You positively NAILED it.”
Ready? Here we go…
Does the headline instantly grab your attention? _____
Does the lead-in compel you to read further? _____
Are the headline and lead-in completely believable? _____
Is the headline and lead-in combo likely to resonate powerfully with a significant number of your prospects? _____
Does the headline and lead-in combo offer powerful benefits? _____
Does the spokesperson establish his/her qualifications beyond doubt? _____
Do the emotions you experience while reading the first few paragraphs compel you to want to read further? _____
Is the prospect given a reason why he or she must read this, and must read this now? _____
Does the copy read like a conversation between two friends? _____
Is it clear that the spokesperson truly has the best interests of the prospect at heart? _____
Are the product’s benefits fully explored? _____
Are the emotional reasons for purchasing fully developed? _____
Does the letter entertain and inform as well as sell? _____
Is the price fully justified? _____
Is the guarantee prominent and does it restate the benefits? _____
Is there a compelling reason why the prospect should immediately make the purchase? _____
Is there a sense of urgency? _____
Do you feel yourself getting more and more excited as you move through the letter? _____
Is the call to action compelling enough that you would feel silly for not ordering immediately? _____
Is the prospect told exactly what to do next, how to order and how s/he will receive their product? _____
If you were a prospect, would you make the purchase? _____
Scoring
21- 50: Stop right there. Do NOT use this copy until you make significant changes.
51 – 65: Not good, but at least you’ve made a start. Now go back and make the adjustments your letter needs.
66 – 80: Not bad for a draft, but not good enough to use unless you just don’t have the time to fix it, OR your offer is so compelling ($100 cars, for example) that it doesn’t need a strong letter.
81 – 95: Looking good. A little tweaking here and there can still improve your conversions.
96 – 105: Congratulations! Maybe you should be writing copy for a living!
Work expands to fill the time allotted – and even more time beyond that – if you don’t have a hard deadline. Thus, if you make it a goal to finish your new ebook in 3 months, at the 3 month mark you’ll either just be finishing, or worse yet you’ll realize you’re only halfway done. If, however, you had a hard launch date, then you’ll have the book ready. Deadlines are a magnificent thing – they give you permission to ignore the email, ignore Facebook, turn the phone off, tear yourself away from the video games and television and actually get your work done.
So how can you create a product in a short amount of time? By doing two things:
First, set a deadline that is almost impossibly close, such as 10 days from right now.
Second, hold yourself accountable on a massive scale. That is, call up your best marketing buddy and schedule a live webinar with him or her to sell your new product. Now promote the webinar heavily.
Guess what? For the next 10 days you’re going to move heaven and earth to get your product finished for that webinar, and on Day 11 you are going to party!
First, you’re going to be celebrating the sales you made on the webinar.
Second, you’re going to be looking forward to all the sales you will make in the future with your new product. In fact, you’re going to take the momentum that webinar created and use it to contact other marketers and set up more live webinars for their lists.
Third, you are going to feel fantastic. That new product that you thought would take 3 months of your life only took 10 days!
Fourth, you’ve now got a system for not only getting products done fast, but also getting your first sales the moment the product is completed for an immediate payoff.
It’s a fact that the vast majority of the great online marketing ideas have already been thought of and executed.
Do you really think you’re going to invent the next greatest thing?
Maybe the social media platform that puts Facebook in its grave?
Or the marketing course that makes everyone else throw up their hands and go home?
Or maybe the dating app that makes all the other ones shut down?
Nope.
Sorry, but the odds of that are about as good as getting hit by lightning twice.
Mind you, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. I’m just saying it’s not likely.
But here’s the good news – you don’t have to invent something radically new that changes the world as we know it.
You don’t even have to have an idea no one else has thought of before.
The smart marketer knows that you can take the best ideas out there and re-use them to make them new again.
Now before you get in a tizzy, let me say this: It’s not unethical to repackage information or use someone else’s marketing techniques, as long as you change it.
Obviously you’re not going to just rip something off and do exactly what’s been done, or use exactly the same copy, the same product, etc.
No sir. You’re not going to rip anybody off.
But the fact is, the best ideas have already been used. But there is no reason why you can’t make them your own.
Walk into a bookstore, go to the non-fiction section and you will find hundreds of books that have basically the same information as thousands of books that came before them.
Yet these books are selling.
Why? Because the authors put their own unique spin on the information.
Let me use a cake recipe to illustrate: Let’s say you want to sell your own cake recipe. Are you going to start with a whole new list of ingredients that no one has ever put in a cake before?
For example, “To bake this cake, you’ll need 2 cups of chopped chicken, a package of onion soup, 6 fresh catnip leaves, one half cup of coffee, 12 dill pickles, 2 boiled eggs, a pound of potato peels…”
You get the idea.
Of course you’re going to start with flour, sugar, butter, baking soda or baking powder, etc.
You’re going to use the exact same basic ingredients that a million chefs and cooks have used before you.
But you’re going to put your own twist on your recipe.
Maybe you add maraschino cherries and cinnamon. Or peppermint extract and dark chocolate. Or blueberries and lemon juice.
It’s still a cake recipe, and it’s not all that different from other cake recipes, except that you put your own twist on it.
Stop trying to come up with a world-shattering idea and simply look around at what’s working and what resonates with you.
Take that information and make it your own.
And then teach what you learned.
It’s so simple, and you don’t need an amazing idea.
Now here’s where a lot of people get bogged down – they think it’s unethical to take information they got elsewhere and make it their own.
So let’s put some context on this…
You go to college for 4 years. For this privilege, you pay a great deal of money. Professors and textbooks teach you a whole lot of knowledge that THEY DID NOT THINK OF FIRST.
That’s right – it’s what you might call regurgitated info, in that other people discovered it, came up with it and so forth.
But they are getting paid to teach it to you anyway.
Then what happens?
You go out and get a job, where you use this same information. And you get PAID for it, too.
So now then, here’s your question: How is this any different from taking information that’s already available, putting your own unique spin on it, and selling that same information?
You are doing the same thing the professors and the college are doing. And you’re doing the same thing anyone who gets a job and uses this info in their job is doing.
You’re just doing it online.
Now then – feel better?
Good.
Because for many of you, I have just removed your very last excuse for not making your own product.
Assuming you already have your niche picked out, go find your very favorite products in that niche. Study them. Learn all you can. Put the information to work in your business or your life.
And then make your own product with your own unique personality and skill set.
I know you can make it a success, and you don’t even have to invent the wheel to do it.
