Category Archives: Case Studies

Case Study: How to Make People Pay You for the Privilege of Promoting You

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You need a new roof on your house. What do you do? You ask your friend who she hired put the roof on her house last year.

This is a shortcut nearly all of us take in life, using the recommendation of other people instead of doing our own due diligence and research.

After all, your friend probably didn’t do any research, didn’t get several different bids, didn’t check on all the references of each company and so forth. Your friend probably did exactly what you’re doing by asking someone who they recommended.

Word of mouth is powerful. When someone comes to me asking for help or coaching, the first thing I ask is how they initially heard about me.

Almost always it’s from another marketer. “I heard Marketer X mention you on a call.” “I read your ABC report because Marketer Y was selling it.” “Marketer Z recommended your products and here I am.”

These folks find me the same way I find someone to put a new roof on my house.

Now here’s the trick and it’s a beauty:

This guy I know – we’ll call him Ralph – is quasi famous in the marketing realm these days. But back when he wasn’t as well known, he decided to white label much of his content. We’re talking about maybe 50 reports, some videos, a couple of ebooks, several courses and so forth. It was a ton of stuff.

He held back his best and more recent products and content for his own use, but everything else was up for grabs with white label licenses.

This means other marketers paid him for the right to sell his stuff, but there was a catch: Marketers who bought the white label rights could not change his stuff in any way. They had to leave Ralph’s name and URL on everything they sold.

Ralph’s marketing friends told him he was nuts because white labeling would devalue the products and his good name. They said he was giving away his business. They said it would be the end of him.

Not true, because here’s what happened:

First, Ralph made a lot of money selling the white label rights to other marketers. He was able to show how well they converted by sharing his stats, and the rights sold like hotcakes to marketers who knew a good deal when they saw one.

Second, these other marketers made a lot of money selling Ralph’s products. Remember, they got to keep all of the profits they made, so they promoted them like crazy.

Third, thousands of people who had never heard of Ralph before purchased his products, read and consumed his stuff and then went straight to the source to get more.

Ralph’s list of buyers swelled to epic proportions. Think about this… these were people who had already read Ralph’s reports or watched his videos. They liked what they saw so much, they clicked over to Ralph’s website to get more of his content. They signed up to Ralph’s list and many of them immediately started buying Ralph’s premium content because they already knew, liked and trusted Ralph.

Whoa.

If you don’t see the power in this, reread that last paragraph again.

Some of these people went on to spend thousands of dollars to get coaching from Ralph, too.

Ralph didn’t need to hard sell to all of these new subscribers because they already knew him and loved his content and products. There was no resistance to overcome.

A marketer they already trusted recommended they buy Ralph’s report, video, course or book. They liked it and became Ralph’s customer, too.

It’s incredibly simple. I wish I could tell you there was more to it, but there wasn’t. Ralph placed a compelling offer in each piece of white label content, right after the title page. “Come to Ralph.com/wow and get a free copy of Blow Me Away Marketing.” That’s it. Names have been changed, of course.

Could you do this yourself? Yes, if you already have products you can white label. But what if you don’t have a lot of content for which you can sell the rights?

My suggestion would be to get busy. Spend a year creating lots of great content, including dynamite reports that solve a single problem. Sell them, build your list, and keep track of your stats.

Then in the second year, offer your list the white label rights. Tell them the stats of how well these products sell. Be sure to include your name, landing page and call to action in every piece of content.

And watch your new customers join your ranks by the flock.

Really, it sounds like a blast to me, and something I’ll be working on myself.

$50,000 Per Year with Newsletters

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First of all, I’ve got to tell you that the $50,000 a year number is crazy super conservative. This gal Judy is earning more than that, but I wanted to make it realistic looking for even the newest marketer.

Okay, how does Judy (not her real name) pull in well over $50,000 a year with a monthly newsletter while spending only about 10 hours on it per month?

She promotes the newsletter to every single person who joins her list the moment they join. This means when she’s giving away a lead magnet to get someone on her list, or they buy a product from her, or they buy one of her products through an affiliate, they are immediately hit with the newsletter offer.

Judy is adamant about promoting this newsletter as her flagship product for four reasons.

First, when someone subscribes to the newsletter they are three times as likely to open and read her other, non-newsletter emails. Judy thinks this is because of name recognition and the trust she builds through the newsletter.

Second, they are more likely to buy other products from her, both her products and affiliate products, because they trust her.

Third, most of her coaching clients come to her from the newsletter. These coaching clients pay her $1,000 a month for 2 one-hour sessions. In case you’re doing the math, that’s $500 an hour.

Fourth, Judy noticed it’s about 4 times easier to get her newsletter subscribers to sign up for SMS messages, and we know how profitable those can be, right? That means direct offers to a cell phone, snap buying decisions and instant money.

Okay, now you know why she works so hard to promote her newsletter, which by the way she only charges $20 a month for. Yes, the recurring revenue from the newsletter is good, but the newsletter is also enabling her to have all of these other income streams as well.

Now then, having a newsletter forces Judy to create content every single month. She says that before the newsletter, she would put off creating content. Now she dives in each month and creates an awesome newsletter for her many subscribers.

She then uses the newsletter to promote new products AND to discover what products she should create.

Promoting products inside the newsletter is easy. She’ll teach step by step how to do something, and along the way she recommends tools or even a done-for-you solution.

And she asks her readers for feedback on her newsletter. She’s watching to see which articles get a lot of traction. With a little more investigation, she can use this feedback to determine if a popular article means she should create a product around that topic.

She also writes articles as test balloons to see what kind of feedback she gets before she creates a product. She says this has saved her perhaps a dozen times in the last few years from making products that almost certainly would have flopped.

Finally, repurposes her newsletter content into new products. Sometimes it’s as easy as bundling some old issues together and selling those to non-subscribers along with a trial subscription of her newsletter. Other times she’s created books from her newsletters and guest blog posts, too.

She partners with other marketers to offer their best products at drastic discounts to her newsletter subscribers ONLY. And 4 times a year she allows a marketer to guest post in her newsletter with a big spread in the middle of the magazine, calling it a bonus section. Of course, she charges these marketers for the privilege of writing this bonus section, and they are allowed to market a product of their own in this section.

As you can see, Judy’s newsletter is the very heart of her business. It helps her to sell far more of her other products, to sell more affiliate products, to decide which products to create next and it creates a monthly residual income she can count on no matter what else happens that month.

$2600 a Month Sending Motivational Reminders

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I LOVE this one!

As usual I’ve promised not to reveal who this is, their name or exactly what niche they are in.

That said, I can give you enough information for you to get started doing something quite similar almost immediately, if you choose to.

And bear in mind, this marketer has been doing this for just 3 months now and his business is growing fast. His first month was only a few hundred dollars, the second month was well over a thousand dollars and that $2600 figure I quoted you is from his third month. Based on his rate of growth, next month should exceed that by at least another $1000. As always, your results will vary based upon an infinite number of factors.

Here’s what “John” is doing…

He’s in the self-help niche but I’m not allowed to get more specific than that. From what he tells me, John has been in the niche for nearly a year now and was floundering. He does have his own line of three different products, none of which have sold all that well.

Then he hit upon the idea of BEING PAID by his subscribers to send them SMS messages.

I’m not kidding. His customers pay him $8.99 a month to receive a handful of SMS messages from him.

Here’s where he got the idea:

The University of Queensland’s Centre for Health Services Research reduced the number of sunburns young adults received by sending reminder text messages.

They found that three messages a week were enough to reduce sunburn rates from 40.3% to just 7%. And even after the study was completed, sunburn rates were still lower (23.5%) than at the beginning of the study.

Messages in which participants were asked to reply turned out to be the most effective. For example, “Dear Emma, have you used sunscreen today? Text back yes or no.”

But that’s not all…

A six month study in Australia was conducted to determine if text messaging could positively influence the behavior of coronary heart disease patients.

They found that patients who received text messages four times per week reminding them to exercise and eat right lowered their cholesterol, blood pressure and BMI.

And the patients who received these messages said the messages were helpful. Many of them even replied to the messages even though it was not a requirement. A typical response might be, “Thanks for the message, I’m on my walk right now and this morning my blood pressure had improved.”

But wait, there’s still more…

Motivational SMS text messages helped Weight Watchers members to lose weight. Those who received the messages lost 4.5 pounds more than participants who didn’t receive the texts.

Just two messages were sent out weekly with helpful info and reminders to do things like keep a bag of cut up veggies in the fridge for snacking. 80% of participants said they thought the text messages helped them adopt new healthy habits.

As you can see, the recipients of motivational and reminder SMS texts get tangible, measurable benefits from them, even when they’re only receiving the messages a couple of times per week.

I think it all goes back to accountability. In each study, participants were responding back and saying that yes, they were taking action on their goal.

It’s also about not feeling alone. When we start out to do something new it can be a really lonely feeling. The simple act of receiving a text message from someone who cares whether or not you’re successful can make a big difference.

A couple of points: John started his service by offering it to his readers and followers, people who already knew him from his writings and recordings. This service would likely be a little more difficult to sell to a cold audience, but it could certainly be done, especially if you have some great testimonials to share.

John uses Paypal to set up the subscriptions, letting his customers know that any time they want to cancel, they simply log into Paypal and do it. This gives his prospects a feeling of security that they won’t be roped into something they don’t want for months to come.

John charges a low fee for his service, and he offers two variations: One is SMS texting only ($8.99 a month), and the other one is SMS texting and short, motivational daily emails. The price point between the two options is extremely small, so naturally almost everyone takes the bigger package which is still pretty cheap, just $9.99 a month.

You might think that daily emails are a pain, but it’s actually much more profitable for John to send the daily emails because he also includes an offer each day in the P.S. Sneaky, right? He’s got customers PAYING to receive offers from him. I asked if anyone complained and he said no because he makes the offers extremely low pressure, just helpful resources if they want more results faster.

I would suggest keeping your price under $10, at least to begin. This is a volume business rather than something where you charge big bucks to just a few people.

That said, you could offer an upgrade for a high price that includes sending individual texts custom tailored to each recipient. In other words, you’re sending motivational or reminder texts, but you’d probably also be carrying on a dialog at times through texting.

And you would know something about this person and their goals and stumbling blocks, so that you can do what you might call ‘mini-coaching’ via texting.

This is a service that John is considering adding but he hasn’t done it yet. He wants to wait until he has more regular subscribers before he offers it, because his goal is to bring on a virtual assistant (VA) to help him handle the one-on-one texting, and to do this he wants to immediately get at least 10 premium subscribers at $100 a month to pay for the VA.

With the number of paid subscribers he already has, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for John to get at least 10 of them upgraded as soon as he’s ready to add the premium service, but time will tell.

John’s texts are one part tip and one part motivation and sometimes he adds a question. Again, I can’t reveal his exact niche, but if he were working with people who are trying to stay sober (he’s not) then an example text might be:

“Fatigue lowers willpower. Go to bed by 10:30 to avoid getting over tired. You’re doing great – I’m proud of you! What time will you go to bed tonight?”

Simple, right?

You get people signed up at a low monthly fee and you use an SMS service to send out the texts. You can sit down once a month and write out the texts you’re going to send for the entire month. Also, you might write a short sequence for brand new subscribers welcoming them and explaining how it works.

Each month John creates content just for his paid subscribers and he sends out the link to that content via SMS text. So far, he’s created weekly videos where he talks directly to the subscribers, giving them more useful tips, motivation and empathy.

John says that empathy is crucial. When people are struggling to reach a goal, it’s super helpful for them to feel there is someone who understands what they are going through.

If you genuinely like helping people, then this business might be a great fit for you. I don’t recommend this to someone who strictly just wants to make money, because I’ve seen how John pours himself into the content he creates and also the time he takes to respond to people, even though he doesn’t advertise that he does that.

And his results speak volumes, because so far his attrition rate is nearly zero. People are sticking with him because they like his service and because they like him. I’ve seen their comments and they think of John as a mentor and a friend, which is pretty special.

John estimates that half of his new subscribers come from referrals from current subscribers, which is incredible. He doesn’t offer any kind or affiliate or reward system for referrals yet, and when I asked he says he doesn’t plan to add one. But if he did, I think his business could totally explode.

Avatar = $1,000 in 24 Hours

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Noah Kagan of AppSumo is known for starting several companies and growing them to 7 or 8 figures in revenue.

Recently, while participating in a 24-hour business challenge to prove that anyone can start a business today, Noah asked his followers what business he should start.

The answer? Believe it or not, the answer was beef jerky.

One day later Noah reached the goal of earning $1,000 in 24 hours. In fact, his total revenue in the first day was $3,030.

Here’s how he did it:

  • He located a source for his jerky.
  • He made a basic budget to work out how much he needed to sell to clear $1,000.
  • He made a customer avatar to determine who he needed to target.
  • He sought out people who fit the customer avatar.

Yes, it really was that simple.

The question is, what action did Noah take that most aspiring marketers fail to do? Did you catch it?

The avatar. Noah made a customer avatar so he would know who to target. Once he knew who his customers were, he looked online to see where they could be found and he reached out to them.

Knowing who his ideal customer is has been a cornerstone of all of Noah’s business success stories. And creating the avatar, crafting personal messages to the avatar and then finding people that match the avatar has enabled him to be successful in just about any business he starts.

If you don’t know who your target audience is, then it’s nearly impossible to find your customers or create an effective marketing strategy.

“But I don’t need an avatar for my little business, right? Noah is a big time marketer, so that’s fine for him. I just want to sell my stuff, not waste time with some silly marketing exercise.”

If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re not alone. You want to get busy making money as fast as possible and I totally understand that.

But creating an avatar for your business will actually SAVE you time and MAKE you more money, I guarantee it.

First, what is a marketing avatar?

Simply put, it’s a fictitious person that represents your ideal customer.

And your ideal customer is the person most likely to repeat buy from you, be loyal and recommend your product or services.

Naturally, your ideal customer is the one you want to attract with your marketing.

And before you can create an effective marketing campaign to attract your ideal customer, you must first know who that is. In other words, know your avatar so that you can locate and accurately engage with those most likely to buy from you.

Simply targeting anyone and everyone doesn’t work because it’s too general and not cost effective.

Imagine if you target everyone: You might reach a thousand people before you stumble on one buyer.

But by targeting your perfect customer, your advertising costs will plummet and your conversion rate will soar.

Once you have your avatar then the conversations you design will address your audiences’ wants and concerns. You’ll know where to reach your customers and you’ll know how to make offers they naturally respond to.

When you create a customer avatar, you’ll…

  • Be more effective in your advertising
  • Learn which social media platforms your customers follow
  • Won’t waste advertising budgets on the wrong platforms
  • Create branding that specifically appeals to your ideal audience

Entire books and course have been written on how to create your customer avatar, but for now let me give you a few pointers…

First create a name and physical description.

Think of a loyal customer who champions your products and is quick to leave a stellar review. What will you name this person? What do they look like?

Next, zero in on demographic details

Create a well-rounded vision for your avatar. Determine demographics such as:

  • Age
  • Income
  • Amount in assets
  • Geographic location
  • Job
  • Homeownership status
  • Marital status
  • Parental status
  • Pet ownership
  • Educational status

Finally, flesh out their humanity

This is a (nearly) real person, not a robot. Add the emotional elements of personality that will come into play when they are deciding whether or not to purchase your product. Figure out:

  • Their pain points
  • Their personality characteristics
  • Their fears
  • Their desires
  • Books, movies, music, tv shows and websites they consume
  • Their hobbies
  • Their favorite celebrities

When you finish this exercise, you should feel like you’re friends with your customer avatar. You should be so connected with this imaginary person that you’re inspired to work just for them.

This is the person you will aim all of your marketing, all of your advertising and all of your product creation towards.

This is your ideal customer; the one that – if you play your cards right – will make you rich.

Newbie Case Study: $1,000/mo in 30 Days

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Here’s how you can begin earning a consistent $1,000 a month or more while building your list and do it starting in less than 30 days.

I’ve seen this done before and it’s been tried and tested by many over the years because it’s simple and easy to do. It’s sort of a classic, and it performs as well now as it did 5 or 10 years ago. Here’s how it works, and I’ll use Gina for our case study.

Gina was brand new to marketing 2 months ago and wondering what to do. On a bit of advice, she spent a week in a deep dive creating a free report, an upsell product and a squeeze page.

Notice she owns her own upsell. Doing this with an affiliate product as your upsell won’t work, and you’ll see why in a moment.

This is a self-liquidating funnel, meaning the upsell pays for the traffic she drives to the offer. She’s building a list of people who get her free offer as well as a list of buyers who took the upsell. In her case her upsell is just $9, but it’s converting well enough to easily pay for her traffic which comes from ads.

To create her free offer and her upsell, she started with some premium PLR and then changed it to her own voice so that it’s unique to her and something she’s happy to offer her visitors.

Okay, so far that’s a traditional funnel, but here’s the twist: Ginna created a second sales page with a video that tells her visitors how well her funnel is performing. She mentions the front-end freebie opt-ins, the number of sales on her upsell offer, sales that are coming in from emailing her growing list and so forth.

She really sells the benefits of how well her funnel is working. Of course, the first week she did this her video was a little different, in that she talked about the potential benefits because she didn’t have numbers yet. But by week 3 she had her permanent video up with stats.

She shows this video sales page to everyone who opts into her funnel, and then she offers them full white label rights to the entire thing for $99. The white label rights have the condition that it cannot be resold but only used.

At $99, 11 sales a month equals a $1,000 income. Her first month she did in fact make 11 sales, but this second month after a little bit of tweaking and increasing her traffic she is on track to triple that amount.

Remember that these customers who are buying the rights have already been through the funnel themselves, so they have already seen how effective it is. Gina lets them know that buying the white label rights is a great way for a newbie like themselves to get started building their own list.

If you try this yourself then keep mind you can charge whatever you like or whatever the market will bear. I might recommend increasing the price or even offering a payment plan, such as $97 for three months.

You might be wondering about saturation and that’s a good point. But the fact is, 95% of people who buy an offer like this never use it. That’s not something I’m happy about, but it is a fact.

And if you do indeed see a bunch of your funnels popping up, you can simply revise your funnel to look different. In fact, you might want to update it every so often anyway, to give it a fresh look and test it to see if you can’t continually increase your conversions.

This is a great way to get started in the online marketing niche. You’re building a list for no cost and making money besides.

And remember that these folks opt into your funnel before they see the white label offer, so they end up being their own testimonial or social proof that it works, making easy sales of the rights for you.