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Last week before I headed off to speak in Detroit at the Internet Marketing Made Easy event I recorded a quick video titled…
Well… The video was just meant to be a quick market test to see if there was any demand for a “Headline Testing Service”.
Unfortunately, I recorded the video at about 4:00 am after about 30+ hours without sleep, I used an ugly background and the video just kinda’ sucked overall.
When I went back and took a look at it I wanted to cringe. I just hated it.
However, apparently those of you who watched it didn’t hate it as much as I did because the dang thing had nearly a 17% conversion rate!
Before I continue I do want to explain the reason I threw the video together so quickly (and share an important success principle.)
You see… A few members of my Headline Testing Secrets course had emailed asking if I could write and test their headlines for them.
Typically the only way to hire me to run any testing on your site is to get on the waiting list for my $1,500 to $2,500 per month testing programs.
But, because there appeared to be an interest in a “Headline Only” testing service I decided to take some immediate action to test the market and see how serious the demand was.
The key point I’d like you to take away here is that I didn’t wait for the timing to be perfect, I didn’t spend days or weeks writing a salesletter (to possibly only discover the demand wasn’t there), I didn’t even spend a lot of time (obviously) recording the video.
Successful and wealthy people make decisions quickly, take immediate (and massive) action and try to either succeed OR fail quickly!
It’s like my friend Matt Bacak says, “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going!”
And that is exactly what I did.
The video sucked. But it still converted in the double digits and made me VERY nice chunk of change.
I’ll talk more about the incredible CR power of video in a future post and I’ve even got the Internet audio and video guy himself, Mike Stewart to agree to do a special webinar with us in a couple of weeks.
But if you think about it, if I had written a sales letter for this service it would have taken me DAYS and no matter how well I wrote it, getting a 17% CR on a $497 service from a salesletter would have been very tough. (I have done that before and even better, but it takes some SERIOUS work, effort and target market research to write something that pulls that well at that price.)
So my question to YOU is…
WHY?
Why do you think this particular video did so good?
Was it the over the top offer I made?
Was it the words I used?
Was it the tone of my voice?
Was it because of the massive conversion power of the video format?
Was it the MASSIVE performance guarantee and risk reversal I put into place?
Or was it simply the fact that the market appears to be VERY hungry for the type of service I was offering?
You tell me… I really want to know.
Watch the video, direct it and tell me (in the comments here) why you think it worked so well, even though it was so “homemade” and low quality.
The person who posts the most insightful answer (as judged by me) will get FREE access to my closed and sold out Headline Testing Secrets course.
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I guess I have three reasons why I think it is successful. I will go in what I think is Chronological order of receiving the email that lead to me watching the video and then wanting you to test my headlines.
1. Everyone that has a website online and has heard anything about SEO knows headlines are important. So I thought, I want to here more about headlines and how to improve the ones I write daily.
So I clicked.
2. You started talking in the video and I regularly visit your Blog to see if you have posted new stuff. So I think because of your hardwork to build your reputation and expertise through email and your blog as a Conversion Expert has paid off because I kept watching not really caring about the poor quality of the video. I just wanted to hear what this expert has to say about Headlines and Conversion because you usually have good stuff to say.
So I watched.
3. Then you said that you are going to make this sweet new service affordable. I was like I better wait some more and see this offer. Especially, since I just graduated form college and love affordable things that will help me in the long run. I do Freelance web design on the side which more often times than not I write headlines for small businesses.
I then saw the offer and wish I had started my full time job at the time. So those were the reasons why I went through the Funnel. If I had to say the biggest I would say it is because of the Reputation of Expertise you have built on this Blog that made me keep watching.
Hey Eric,
Here is my list of why I think it did well….
– You did sound very “down to earth” not too salesy
– Your offer was very powerful
– The video was not too long (kept my attention)
– You “qualified” your prospects + case study incentive was powerful
– The pricing was very affordable
– Your guarantee took away all of the risk
– Your “call to action” link was embedded in the video
That is my two cents worth…
Brett
http://www.FreeTrafficBigProfits.com/
Hi Eric,
Great contest you’ve got going here!
There wasn’t any single factor that was completely responsible by itself for the 17% conversion rate.
There were several factors responsible for the high conversion rate all working together. But I will pinpoint the most important factor that led to the high conversion rates. Without it the rates could have been as low as 5% or worse.
The Main Factors Were:
* Social proof that your headline testing course was in high demand by the course selling out quickly.
* The perceived value built up by the mention that you normally charge $15,000 or more for these types of projects, and at a minimum $1500 a month if you could get into your “high demand” monthly plan.
* The image I built up in my head as I imagined my website getting much higher conversion rates — driving up my emotions which are critical for a sale.
* The big demand generated by saying there is only a hand full of spots available.
* The emotions invoked by telling me that I CAN’T take your headline testing course, or your monthly plan.
* Then there was the performance guarantee and risk reversal.
Of all these factors, the performance guarantee and risk reversal is the most responsible for the 17% conversion rate. It turns it into a “no brainer”. I have nothing to loose in any way if you don’t smash the conversion rates of my existing headlines.
Cheers,
Glenn
Hi Eric,
Here’s my take on the high conversion…
1. The customers that responded are people who understand the true value of increased conversions…not your typical market.
2. Anyone who follows your work both have #1 in common and have the money to pay the $497.
3. The people with that kind of income and knowledge also have limited time, so your brief video cut straight through to the heart of the matter and gave us what we needed to know…FAST!
4. You cut us a deal on a high value service and made it limited with scarcity and value.
The overall thing here is that YOU my friend, have a following of people who know and believe in the value of what you do. Classic relationship marketing….and…your offer is congruent with what we currently think over and pull our hair out over all the time.
All of the factors you listed came into play. It was a well written pitch (sales letter) delivered in video format and personal.
We want it, you gave it, plain and simple.
Warmest Regards,
Rasheed Ali
Hey, Eric!
Interestingly, I don’t think the background is horrid. The color and image are both calming, as opposed to “high pressure” looking, if that makes sense.
Your voice is…You.
And funny, but because the image doesn’t change that often, it sort of compelled me to watch — along with the verbiage you were using, of course.
So, those things are all the almost subliminal factors getting me going, and yes, the offer is a powerful one. (Sorry I missed it!)
And the power is fueled by your master word choice, simple font and straight-forward text, and your bottom line.
If I had to offer one (or two) words to sum up my feelings on why you got the high impact, I’d have to say Simplicity & Clarity.
Bravo!
–Tom
Eric Graham’s Video Sucks Money Out of Extremely Happy Clients Wallets
The headline of your video “My Headlines Suck…” got people interested in watching your video.
Then the subheadline “….cold hard cash…..” and your easy going, friendly, conversational, relaxed voice drew them in.
Your “I’m not going to try to sell you that course” got them to relax and be receptive to your message.
You helped to turn off their BS detectors when you talked about their need to qualify and the facts that the Headline Testing Secrets Course had previously sold out & that you had a waiting list on other products.
That brought in the scarcity element, which if believable, helps sales.
You made it easy in that you offered to do absolutely all the work involved with the headline testing for them.
You answered any questions they may have regarding the testing process.
You gave compelling reasons as to why your headline testing service is so valuable.
You gave reasons why you were making the offer in that you were doing a market test to determine need for a headline testing service and that you needed case studies & testimonials if there proved to be a need for a headline testing service.
Your offer definitely resonated with the desires, wants and needs of your target market ie. Internet Business Owners
You offered them a solution/answer to their need for better headlines, which will in turn help them with their desire to better convert the traffic to their websites.
You basically offered to be their “headline writing & testing slave”
You established the value of what you were offering, by talking about your other products and services when compared to your offer.
Your guarantee of beating their current control & the risk reversal of double their money back if you should fail caused them give up any doubts that they still may have had.
I think the reason the video was so successful in the high conversion rate is the combination of the video media (thanks to YouTube) combined with the exceptional value in what you are offering.
I think in the end that it is the value of what you or in fact anybody else is offering that sell products, information & services.
I think the client/customer weighs the value in their minds and decides whether or not to trade dollars for value.
Your offer was an incredible value that was hard for anybody to pass up.
The Conversion Doctor was successful with his patient.
-Mike-
First and foremost, your audience OBVIOUSLY is hungry. A close second obviously is the fact your list is well-targeted. Everyone is busy, so video helps.
It helps, I think, that you do not drown your list with endless promos. Rather, you are focused on building relationships by providing valuable content whenever you do communicate with your list.
Have you done any testing with blog headlines? Distilling test results in a presentation revealing some general principles would be valuable.
Hi Eric,
The most important reason for such an incredible conversion is because your offer was to the point and very targeted to the most precise needs of every sales letter.
Headline is the key to success of a sales letter.
Based upon your expertise and value proposition makes this irresistible
Many people can’t efford to hire you because of the high cost associated with your service. This is probably the most cost effective way to get your attention to their project.
On top of all that, the video was short, informative as well as very nicely crafted to trigger all the glands to come together and make a strong purchase decision.
To be honest with you, I thought your offer will be gone withing very few hours because urgencyas well as scarcity was presented well in this video.
Thanks for everything you do.
Regards,
-Gaj
http://www.listbuildingsuperstars.com
Hey Eric,
I’ve given this a good deal of thought, and I’ve come up with what I think are the REAL reasons this campaign was so successful. The reasons are many, but it’s really all about the artful execution of a campaign that beautifully hits a very important emotional trigger. I’ll get to exactly what that emotional trigger is in a minute. First of all, though, the way you set the stage is brilliant.
You start by posing a great question: Since I’m so successful at this and I charge a ton of money to do this normally, well, Why the heck am I doing this?
The answer: You just want to test the waters. You want to see if there are people out there who would be interested in this service. Now, by telling you I am in fact interested in this service, I not only get the service, which is undoubtedly valuable, but I’m also getting something more subtle and much more valuable: Recognition.
I get the feeling that my opinion matters, and not just to anyone, but to someone I respect. This is a brilliant component of the offer, because as a fledgling business owner (and most likely copywriter – like you), I get to enter into a DIALOGUE with you. The “master” is actually asking his “disciples” — “Hey, what do you think about this?” Best of all, you actually DO care what the disciples think, and the personal gain YOU enjoy from finding out what we think only increases our level of respect for you, because you’re conducting your business with perfect transparency.
So, recognition. And recognition gets us PART of the way to that emotional trigger I mentioned above. Read on.
As others have pointed out, the price of this offer makes it extremely compelling, especially when compared to what you normally charge. Add to that the “closed doors” and “waiting list” to get into your course, and you’ve created a palpable sense of scarcity. And you imply that if you ever do this again, it’s going to cost more a lot more. So this is, in fact, a once in a lifetime opportunity. The real question is, “A once in a lifetime opportunity for what?”
My thinking on this is that it’s not the service you’re offering that’s the real reason this offer is so compelling. Nor is it the surface-level benefit — increased conversions, and thus, increased $$$. These are of course crucial, and without them, I don’t think the offer would work.
But the REAL reason this is such a powerful offer (and this brings us to my “emotional trigger”) is actually a secondary, mostly emotional benefit, which you might call “belonging.” Everyone wants, more than anything – money, health, stuff – to belong. To be included. In fact, that’s the main reason we go after money, good health, and stuff in the first place.
In my opinion, what you’re actually offering people (and you have to keep in mind who you’re pitching this to — not just prospects, but disciples), is an opportunity to be “part of the club.”
For example, the strongest part of the offer, in my opinion, is not the guarantee. Most people are used to strong guarantees, even ones that guarantee MORE than your investment in return, if the product or service or offer doesn’t live up to what the seller says it will. I’m not saying the guarantee doesn’t matter, but it functions more as an anxiety-reduction technique, NOT as a motivator.
The strongest part of the offer, as far as I’m concerned, is the “qualifications” part. The qualifications that the buyer must meet serve two important purposes. First, it helps you by simply qualifying your customers. You’re offering something fantastic, but you know that what you’re offering can’t work unless a certain number of things are there for you to work with. This way, you know you can’t end up with a customer you can’t help.
But more importantly, the qualifications are a device to get people to feel that they have an opportunity to be accepted into an inner, elite circle if they can “pass the test.” They don’t actually have to do anything, of course. They’ve either already met these qualifications, or they haven’t. But if they do, they’ve “passed the test” and they immediately feel a sense of pride because they’re part of an “in-group.”
This reverses the typical roles in a customer/provider relationship. Instead of “Hi, listen to me a minute and let me see if I can convince you that I’m good enough for you to spend your money on,” it becomes “Hi, listen to me a minute and let me see if you’re good enough to spend your money on me.”
And the kicker is the “you must agree to let me use your headlines as a case study,” because this is actually perceived as yet another opportunity. Your prospects would undoubtedly be THRILLED to be featured in your marketing materials, and not just because it would probably help their own business, but because that gives them an even stronger sense of being members of the club they would like to belong to. Their success, therefore, isn’t just success measured in monetary terms, but measured in social terms as well.
Finally, I don’t know if you sold out the program before you put up the blog post announcing the contest. If you did, then my next point is moot, but I’ll include it anyway.
These two sentences from the blog post above continue the “conversation going on in my head” (to paraphrase Collier), and amplifies the feelings of potential belonging I mentioned above. I personally think it’s your “ace in the hole,” although it’s not actually in the video itself. In fact, there are a ton of factors outside the video that were key to its success, but I’ve already gone on WAY too long here, so I’ll end on this point.
Here are the “ace in the hole” sentences from the blog post:
“The key point I’d like you to take away here is that I didn’t wait for the timing to be perfect, I didn’t spend days or weeks writing a salesletter (to possibly only discover the demand wasn’t there), I didn’t even spend a lot of time (obviously) recording the video.
Successful and wealthy people make decisions quickly, take immediate (and massive) action and try to either succeed OR fail quickly!” (I added the bold text for emphasis.)
This is really incredible salesmanship. I’m honestly in awe. These two sentences do double duty: First, they give me another opportunity to be a part of a “club” I’d like to be part of (successful and wealthy people), and you really grease the funnel by giving me a very easy way to enter that club RIGHT NOW, even before I’ve started working with you, by acting the way a successful, wealthy person would act. That is, by taking action NOW, and signing up for the service you’re offering.
I’ll tell you, this one little thing should be very quickly entered into the swipe file of every aspiring copywriter (and that includes me!).
Whether or not I “win the contest,” I feel like I’ve already won, because by analyzing your video and the blog post above, I feel like I’ve learned a TON. Thanks, Eric. You’ve made a disciple out of me, for sure!!
Warm Regards,
David Jacoby
http://www.thecopycub.com
Hi Eric,
The video was seductively persuasive for THREE very important reasons.
Reason # 1 – Instead of teaching a man to fish you offered to do all the hard work of fishing so he can just enjoy the fish. I think this is the BIGGEST REASON for the high conversion rates.
Explanation: Everyone who’s in marketing for even a few months knows “do it all for me” stuff sells more than “teaching me how to do it” stuff. This is the same reason why good quality resell rights products (like ebooks and software etc. ) convert much better than stuff that teaches you how to write ebooks and software. If you are still in doubt just look around at all the PLR and Resale rights packages floating around even though most of them are utter junk.
Reason # 2 – Killer “no brainer” Guarantee
Explanation: You not only offered to do all the hard work but you are also guaranteeing the quality of your work and assuring you will perform. Essentially the prospect thinks I have everything to gain and nothing to lose + I don’t have to do any work at all.
Reason # 3 – Not Desperate For the Sale and Price Conditioning
You set up the frame of super high end service (15K to 30K + royalties). Then got into a slightly less expensive services to the point where even your cheapest service was probably beyond the means of most businesses. i.e. You effectively price conditioned the viewers…So when you then offered to do all the heavy lifting for a limited time test price of $497 it simply shocked most people into grabbing your offer ASAP.
Those three are the biggest reasons.
A few other supporting reasons IMHO…
- You masterfully broke down the entire process of testing headlines into about 7 or so discrete steps (e.g. analyze, research, brainstrom 70 to 100 headlines, setup test, analyze statistically, select winner and continue etc.)
That made it sound like a LOT of work and then you offered to do it all for them.
- Attention Grabber – I thought your attention grabber headline “My headlines suck” was REALLY good given the context in which it’s used. (Plus everyone reading it already knows you are an expert so it caused an incongruity in the readers mind)
- Market is hungry for an affordable service. Plus years of listening to “test your headlines” but most not actually following the advice caused them to jump when the gurus guru offered to do it for them for a decent price.
- Good Metaphors plus “social proof phrases” such as Doors closed down – Completely sold out – need an invitation to even know about the offer etc. etc. etc.
- You weren’t desperate to get the sale and I think that reflected in your tone of voice. Personally I like your voice…and no I’m not making it up. I’ve heard hundreds of hours of Audio/Video from other marketers and most voices suck…i.e. they suck all the interest of learning anything right out of you. (Mostly because of monotone voice and hype coupled with zero empathy)
Your voice on the other hand actually modulates quite well (instead of being monotonous) which automatically oozes qualities like trust, dependibility etc. (Ok, this is hard to explain…it’s a feeling…Probably the best explanation is to compare the voice of a used car salesman VS the voice of your loved one)
Ok, that about sums it up.
If I think of anything else I’ll post…
Best Regards,
Bhavani Jampala
PS: If you could sell like that when you are dead tired at 4 AM imagine what it would have been like if you had recorded this while fully alert and awake!
I think it’s funny that TC says, “Everyone is busy, so video helps.”
Because I feel the absolute opposite. Video takes more time to watch than text takes to read.
And that’s the main reason I feel your offer was such a success.
Would I spend 10 minutes and 57 seconds reading an offer? Probably not. I’d just scan it. Even if I read it in-depth, I’d still be done in 5 minutes or so.
But with the video, you just engaged your “readers” for almost 11 minutes straight. They could not scan your video. They had to watch every second to get the whole message. And that made the difference.
Just from Matt’s quote: “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going!” is the main reason why. Period! Your video was genuine, not pushy to close the sale, and was personal. Your guarantee sealed the deal. Overall however, “you got it going” and “you didn’t have to get it right” which made it genuine and personal from you.
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