Raise your hand if you’re on like 50 or more email lists…
Right…so was I until about 9 months ago.
That’s when I cut the ‘fat’ from my inbox and my writing, my funnels, and my REVENUES exploded!!
Before you say ‘ok Brad I’ll get off a couple of email lists, adios!” Please hear me out…
Because if you want to TRULY make more money and save time, you need to follow my SIMPLE plan.
Cool?
Ok, so for me, and you, and probably everyone else, you’re on those lists to actually learn something. See what others are doing, and testing it on your audience.
You saw an ad at some point that you said ‘oh that looks cool’ and clicked. And you thought that you might be able to glean some new methods to apply to your own business!
Years ago it was an AWESOME source of ideas of how to improve!
But today…not so much.
It really started when I realized I was spending about a hour or more a day, just DELETING emails that were either old, or from people I don’t follow anymore, etc etc.
Such a time suck!
But I didn’t opt out of everything at once, I had to have a plan that actually allowed me to still get premium content that challenged me, and improved my revenues.
Here’s the PLAN I executed a while back:
This is step one in your journey to make more money, save a TON of time, and improve your business.
When you’re watching a horse race, do you watch the horses at the front or the back?
THE FRONT!! That’s right!
Same is true with your inbox.
If you know I’m working with someone, and that person is making a TON of money…READ THEIR EMAILS! We’re doing something right!
We’ve got the messaging, timing, content, sales pages, squeeze pages, ads, etc etc that ARE WORKING!
And if you know someone who’s struggling, and their content isn’t great, and the sales pages aren’t compelling…CUT IT! Trust me you won’t miss it.
The ‘WIN’ here is two part:
First, you’re putting QUALITY INTO YOUR MIND and cutting crap out. If you read books by bad writers, will your writing improve…or get worse? You get it.
Second, by cutting junk you’ll free up a TON of time. Because you don’t always ‘delete’ the email right away. You might linger and see if what you’re expecting has improved…and when it hasn’t…you delete. But you’ve wasted 5 minutes.
See??
Never steal. Never. You’ll get caught and you’ll look like a fool.
Trust me. I’ve been doing this for 11 years (HOLY COW REALLY!?!?) and when someone steals they get busted. Never steal.
You analyze and adapt.
You HAVE to do this simply because YOU ARE UNIQUE!!
Just because Fernando and Palm Beach Letter are launching a huge webinar with a celebrity, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.
Jeff and Jason with RagingBull sharing their winning trades is KILLING it for them…but might not work for you.
HOWEVER…they’re doing SOMETHING right, so analyze what they’re doing and how it COULD be adapted to YOU.
It takes a lot of time and introspective analysis to crack the code of why something is working for someone else, and how that code could be applied to the assets that YOU have.
And it’s often more than what you would classify as ‘assets’ like ebooks, videos, products, etc etc.
Often you’re not even aware of the intangible assets that you have! Sometimes you need a third party to clarify what makes you…YOU. Those are the assets you need to leverage and apply to the parts of the decoded success plan that you get by following the quality people.
Make sense?
Little confused?
Probably. But that’s ok.
If you ask me ANYTHING about a straddle option trade I’d be drooling on myself trying to wrap my brain around it!!
HOPEFULLY you’re not overwhelmed with step two as that’s the hard one. But the idea is that you’ve cut out so much junk from your inbox you’re only reading Pulitzer Prize winners.
So your inbox will only leave you the golden nuggets to analyze and ADAPT.
Then start SMALL.
Start with what you can do.
If it’s a headline style/font, then try it.
If it’s the timing on the emails…adjust yourself.
Is it messaging that’s more positive? Try it.
But keep a close eye to make sure that your baseline numbers do not DIP BECAUSE OF YOUR TESTING!
Numbers should be improving with these tests, that’s why it’s small, and manageable.
If you’re doing it on your own, it’s gotta be small.
But if you’ve got a dedicated person/team (like ME!) working with you, you can do a LOT more and cut right to what SHOULD really be working for you.
Because if you’re working with someone who’s focused on marketing, then success should come faster simply because that person/team can analyze YOU and apply the things that SHOULD work based on their own testing…vs you testing a bunch of stuff based on your gut.
I’ve got 2 openings for consulting clients for 2019…contact me TODAY for guarantees and costs.
There’s the timing between emails, the subject lines to consider, the CONTENT, the time to actually make a sales pitch,
the many ‘if/then’ scenarios, and dozens of other factors.
Trust me, it’s NOT an easy thing to wrangle.
Now, add on top of those factors, let’s add the single biggest challenge we in the financial space deal with: We’re selling
FINANCIAL PRODUCTS!!
It’s VERY hard and requires a LOT of work…
We have a LOT more factors outside our control that HUGELY affect our market place. People have preconceived notions
about us as traders, about our products in general, and then we have to deal with their psyche in a way that they expect
us to know them fully and when we don’t…done.
There are times when I’m working with clients and they just drop their heads and say ‘I’m done…’
But let’s not give up my friends!
Even though the deck is stacked against us, we can breakthrough and help!
We can deal with market swings, presidential changes and can even manage the storm of a trader’s
emotional swings, with ONE common goal:
Because that’s what we want…to help.
So what’s the plan?
In all my testing, writing, building, breaking, reviewing, etc. etc. etc., I found out that the basic formula that’s laid out
in this article (5 Strategies To Improve Your Email Marketing) is pretty much a good starting point for how WE can
build better funnels.
The writer(s) lay out 5 basic steps that should be included/applied in your funnel:
Overall, these are GREAT topics to hit with your email funnel but in the article there’s really no depth of application
to OUR niche.
Yeah there are some do’s and don’ts that I’m sure you can navigate, but I’d like to highlight a few points of application
for OUR industry from each.
Now, take note that for me to really breakdown ALL aspects of a successful financial marketing funnel would take REEMS
of paper, hours of your time, and even still it would be very general…not specific to YOUR needs. That’s a service
that I provide to my customers, but bear with me as I try to do my best to give you as much as possible without
spilling gallons of ink 😉
Awareness/Consideration
(I’ve combined these two as if you can do the first well, the second flows into the conversion naturally).
Here’s what the article says about Awareness as the top portion of your funnel:
“At the top of your marketing funnel is awareness. During this stage, prospects that are strangers to your brand
and company learn who you are. Focus on establishing yourself as a thought leader within your industry. This is
your opportunity to start building a trust relationship with your prospects.”
Seems easy enough…basically send content 🙂
But WHAT content?
Here’s what I recommend and you’re not going to like it:
You can show them your methods are different, your strategies are different, and that YOU are different.
Who else would do that? Think about it…
See? now you get how you can raise awareness and set yourself apart!!
Look at what you normally charge for, and you’re going to give it to them for FREE because you truly care
about them and their trading success.
THAT’S how you stand out and start the top of a successful funnel.
This isn’t a one size fits all recommendation to raise awareness either. There are MANY ways to make it work from
your side and unless I actually see what you’re selling, I have no idea of the actual structure of how that
works, but thoughtfully CONSIDER doing it.
Conversion
This is where the rubber meets the road (and kinda why we’re all here).
Here’s what the article says:
“At this point in your marketing funnel, you can start talking about why your product and service is better
than your competitors’ and why it’s perfect for your prospect. Focus on the benefits of your product/service
rather than just explaining features.”
What’s hard about this point is that I believe the conversion process should be PART of the awareness
or consideration process as you can/SHOULD be seeding your product benefits for their CURRENT
trading situation.
Think about this in regard to your products…
If you’re educating people via your market analysis and insights, via your expertise in trading, via your
desire to help your leads to become better traders, then YOU’RE ALREADY CONVERTING!
Now is the point where you ask for the sale more clearly and more TIMELY regarding what’s going
on in the market NOW…and how YOU can help them…NOW.
Remember, what’s different about the financial space is the power of the market to actually
influence customers day to day, week to week.
With fitness stuff, it’s always a good time to exercise and stop eating chips on the couch.
But with trading products, the market might be BULL now which plays perfectly into XYZ set-up that you have.
See the difference?
Your CONTENT should be pointing back to your products most of the time.
Here’s where it gets tricky with your funnel…
IT WILL NEVER NEVER, NEVER BE THE SAME MONTH TO MONTH, WEEK TO WEEK!
Due to market changes, political changes, etc. etc., you have to update your funnel to highlight
your content AND products that matter to the clients in THAT market condition.
Make sense?
Questions or comments, just email or comment below. Let’s move onto the last stage.
Loyalty/Advocacy
I’ve combined these two as well for one good reason:
If you’re doing your job with the first part of the funnel these things happen almost naturally!!
If you’re sharing great market insight, if you’re showing that you care about their success, if you’re
giving your audience the BEST products/services, then you’re already building loyalty and advocacy.
Remember, traders want to follow and learn from other GREAT traders! And you ARE a great trader!
It’s your funnel that needs improvement 😉
But you have to EARN their loyalty.
If you do the above well, you’re EARNING IT! Keep it by being awesome and sharing the BEST stuff
with them while offering them the highest quality products and services you can provide.
What’s the takeaway?
First, you’d better be working on your funnel right this second.
Second, your funnel better have NEW content coming into your funnel that has content pointing to how
your products and services solve their trading problems in THIS CURRENT MARKET.
Fit your stuff to the market.
Third, you’ve gotta ask for the sale by SHOWING THEM that you’re the key to their trading success and future.
Fourth, just be you. Focus on being yourself and HELPING traders.
There you have it in 5 pages the BASICS that you need to build an amazing, deep relation, high
converting funnel that’s trading NICHE focused.
Think you can tackle it and make it a million dollar funnel?
GO OUT AND GET IT DONE!!
If you have questions or want me to check out what you have (or actually do it for you) just ask! I’m here to help!
Me: “After what you just told me, based on some numbers I’ve done in the past for clients, I’d guess that Agora is leaving between 50-75 MILLION on the table yearly…”
Insider: “Probably…”
There I sat, shocked. A 100 million dollar company with only ONE part of the lead monetization equation that I’ve seen work over and over and over.
I mean, I already kinda KNEW from working with several branches, but to hear it all but admitted it was shocking. The answer was given to them (literally in one case ;)), and the focus still wasn’t changing.
So what’s the problem with Agora? And how can my pointing out their flaws help you?
It’s simple really!
See where others are succeeding and copy that. See where others are failing and learn from that.
Their problem? LEAD GENERATION!
HUH??
Well frankly…THEY’RE NOT DOING IT!!
They all but gave it up years ago and due to some failings, or some misguided decisions, are leaving MILLIONS ON THE TABLE!!
Part of their problem (if you want to call it that) is that they’ve got so much cash that lead generation is an after thought. They had some bad experiences, or never really put in the effort, and decided “we’re done.”
Again, it’s a great problem to have. However, most of us don’t have the kinda cash to just focus on front end buyers. In addition to that fact, the lack of diversity in revenue generation COULD lead to missing massive opportunities…if done CORRECTLY!
So today I want to give YOU (and Agora, you’re welcome) the blueprint for them to follow to generate another 50-75mm a year…
First, what is NOT a challenge for Agora (or you hopefully): VOLUME
In the past I’ve seen the volume of ‘free offer’ leads that Agora can generate (it’s a METRIC TON) but have you done a list swap with them with one of their ‘free’ lists? If you have, you’ll know exactly what I’m about to say is true. Their free list stinks! They know their free lists are junk, that’s why they swap it around within the company where each division is COMPETING WITH THE OTHERS!
BUT…Why?
Are their lead generation offers bad? Bad ad sources? More writers? Less writers? Too many products? Too few products? WHAT!?!
Second, it’s NOT their copywriters or offers. Agora is the highest writing achievement around, and those writers are the greatest in the world without question. They’re ALL amazing…and if they’re not amazing NOW, they will be because they truly focus on training up teams of copywriters…it’s stunning to see.
Third, it’s NOT their internal ad people (sometimes)….
Their internal advertising buyers for the most part know how to really reach far and wide for people who might be interested in their offers. They’ve got the financial backing to spend, spend, spend!!! Which is great, unless it goes unchecked, or badly focused and dollars just swirl down the drain.
OK…so what SHOULD they do to make that 50-75mm a year??
TWO SIMPLE THINGS…
1. FILTER
The lead quality is bad. If it wasn’t, their lists would be rocking, and buyers would be coming in from those sources at high volume throughout the year!
First, let’s refer back to the swaps as I mentioned above.
TRUE STORY:
E: Hey we’re going to hit 200k for you!
Me: Sounds great! Awesome!!
Me internally: Game changer…
Me analyzing results: PUKE… “100 clicks…wow”
E: Oh really? Yeah our stock list really doesn’t respond to stock stuff.
Me: … (SHOCK FACE)
It’s a ‘click and your in’ system which produces a TON of volume, but…LOW QUALITY.
Now, where have YOU seen the lead generation ads running? HINT: EVERYWHERE! I’ve seen them on clothing sites on my wife’s computer as she got to the bottom of the page. It’s a ton of outbrain and taboola stuff.
Now, those aren’t all together bad sources but the FILTERING (HINT HINT:SOLUTION) required from those sites needs to be MASSIVE. You’re getting a lot of junk from there. People might read a killer headline and have little to no interest in trading anyway, but might be kinda interested, and they become a lead and take up space on your list where no matter what you do, they’ll never buy. Then you just keep bragging about 200k people where 90% are worthless because your copywriters are better then your ability to filter out the scum.
I know…we (TradersNewsMedia) run ads on there and we have to filter out a MASSIVE amount of fake names, tire kickers, etc, etc.
So without FILTERING, you’re basically fishing with TNT and anything that dies goes into the boat which is a bad analogy, but true in this case…a lot of dead stinking fish just taking up space when upon further examination are all junk fish.
Sure they’re hitting the financial sites/lists/sources…and that’s where most of their decent free offer leads are coming in. But a drop in the bucket vs the massive volume of BAD leads from other sources.
They need to FILTER their sources, just like you do, to get the best quality possible.
HOW should they filter?
Well there are three approaches:
Run it in house where your advertising targets the demographics of your BUYERS so even if they don’t buy right away they’re already closer to what your buyers look like. You can target demographics on Facebook, Google, and other sources. Just build the audiences, create multiple ads for testing, run traffic, review results, and boom ‘Bob’s your uncle’ 😉
With the leads you BUY, don’t even put them on a path to buy anything. Nope…your first path for those leads is a path to actually QUALIFY them for your offer(s). Think about it as creating a ‘hot list’ from the leads you buy. Again this is achieved by knowing the demographics of your BUYERS, writing specifically to those type of people, and make it hard to get onto the next level which is your ‘hot list’ funnel.
Third approach…let someone else do that for you. It’s not being done ANYWHERE else but here: www.TradersNewsMedia.com.
2. CONNECTION
The last place you need to focus on, and where they’re missing is the CONNECTION with their leads.
With volume, and filtering, you’ll improve the quality of the leads flowing in…but what about the CONNECTION to turn them from lead into buyer? Or buyer time and time again? Loyal company follower that could say run a chat room? Or be a bigger part of the organization?
That’s a HUGE part of growing and monetizing leads BEYOND what the old metrics say…it’s about really connecting.
Here’s why it’s more important NOW then ever before…
NOISE!!!
There are so many people competing for your leads’ attention. They’re ALL trained to your marketing methods and pitches. Their ‘bs’ detector is WAY up. And they want to CONNECT with someone they learn from and buy from.
The impulse sales will still be there but the HUGE MARGIN value is in taking care of the quality leads that come in, build a REAL connection, and get them sold out for YOUR mission.
Do you filter your leads to produce QUALITY people?
And are you CONNECTING with your leads to really get them on board with your mission?
If you’re not, fix it.
Fix it because your BUSINESS DEPENDS ON IT!
Buckle up and say ‘ok, I need to fix X in this process…’ AND DO IT.
If you need a hand, I’m here. I know what I’m doing and I am going to make myself available FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS (heading back to Africa in September) to take on some special clients for an intensive that is SURE to blow up their business!
P.S. Even if you’re not sure which part of the process you might be missing, ASK ME! I’ll help walk you through it, and SHOW YOU! Your success is MY success…
