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This seems to be a much more effective "lead generation" strategy

by Bkelly301
27 replies
So as I've said several times on here, I'm still pretty new to paid traffic, but I'm determined to figure it out!

Selling to COLD traffic is a different animal than selling to warm traffic, which is what I've always done in the past.

When I send cold traffic to my offer, they see 3 payment options: $19/month, $99/1-year (non-recurring) or $199/lifetime.

All 3 of those options require a COMMITMENT. Even at the lowest buy-in, it still requires a commitment to a recurring subscription. Customer thinks "will it be easy to cancel if needed? Is this a scam?"

At the higher price points, it also requires a commitment as well. They've never heard of me before, so paying a random person on the internet $99+ is RISKY for them!

Therefore I have come up with a potential solution, which I have just implemented last night (so I still have to see how this test pans out)....

My solution is to make the offer $19 for a 1-month, non-recurring trial. This removes the "recurring" factor, and it also eliminates the "high cost" risk as well.

In the mind of the customer, they are risking $19. For most people, that is an affordable risk....

Anyone who takes me up on this offer is now a LEAD. However, they are a VERY HIGH-QUALITY lead since they have actually bought something as opposed to just grabbing a freebie.

This also allows people to thoroughly evaluate the product for a full month before deciding to go "all in" or not.

I currently have an ad running to this offer, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts too though!
#effective #lead generation #strategy
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

    My solution is to make the offer $19 for a 1-month, non-recurring trial. This removes the "recurring" factor, and it also eliminates the "high cost" risk as well.
    Are you still offering the other 3 options on your sales page? If you are, not only will that impact on your ability to draw effective conclusions from your test, it will also dilute the overall offer - especially with cold traffic.

    With visitors who don't know you or haven't been primed (ie not seen your YouTube vids) your sales page needs to focus on one offer together with a limited trial period (I'd go for 7 days).

    I don't see any benefit in having both a yearly and a lifetime offer. On the internet - and for those who don't know you - a year is a lifetime. For all they know, you could be gone in a month.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      Are you still offering the other 3 options on your sales page? If you are, not only will that impact on your ability to draw effective conclusions from your test, it will also dilute the overall offer - especially with cold traffic.
      Hey thanks for the quick reply!

      In response to what you said, well that's the thing...

      This is essentially just replacing "freebie" with "low cost offer" to aquire leads.

      Either way, they both will end up on my email list. However with the latter, I'm acquiring paid leads as opposed to the tire-kicking freebie leads.

      I don't have the "main 3 offers" on this landing page since the goal is to get $19 trials onto my email list.

      However in the explanation of the trial on this landing page, I do mention the other "permanent" offers, and I place a small link to the homepage of the site where those offers can be found.

      I definitely agree with your "1 year vs lifetime" thing. That makes perfect sense.

      However I'm not sure why you would say that this won't give me effective test results?
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      • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        However I'm not sure why you would say that this won't give me effective test results?
        If you still had the 3 other offers on your sales page, you wouldn't know which of them, if any, your free triallists might otherwise have signed up for. With one offer plus a free trial, it's an either/or.
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        • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
          Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

          If you still had the 3 other offers on your sales page, you wouldn't know which of them, if any, your free triallists might otherwise have signed up for. With one offer plus a free trial, it's an either/or.
          Well, anyone that clicks on the ad is clicking on a tracking link.

          Any sales that are made thereafter will be recorded by the tracking software that I am using (Clickmagick).

          So if someone clicks the ad, then decides to join for 1-year (even if it takes them several weeks or months to decide), it will be tracked!

          I'm not disagreeing with you. I know you know way more about this paid traffic stuff than I do, but I'm just pointing out that EVERYTHING is able to be tracked!

          Therefore this "test" is something that would require a few months to get effective results for. If I come to find out that 50% of people that sign up for the paid trial end up purchasing the 1-year membership within 30 days of their initial purchase, isn't that still valid test results?
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          • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
            Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

            I'm not disagreeing with you. I know you know way more about this paid traffic stuff than I do, but I'm just pointing out that EVERYTHING is able to be tracked!
            You can't track what your visitors might have done if your additional trial offer wasn't there. As it stands, why would a prospect not take the trial as opposed to signing up for the $19 monthly recurring offer? Or maybe they would have considered the $99 yearly option?

            A $19 trial is still a commitment. If you're after qualified leads, a limited free trial would be a better option, IMO.
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            • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
              Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

              You can't track what your visitors might have done if your additional trial offer wasn't there. As it stands, why would a prospect not take the trial as opposed to signing up for the $19 monthly recurring offer? Or maybe they would have considered the $99 yearly option?

              A $19 trial is still a commitment. If you're after qualified leads, a limited free trial would be a better option, IMO.
              I definitely understand your logic. However my next concern is the "optimization" then...

              If I have a free offer (lead) combined with a paid offer (purchase) on the same landing page, I still have to tell Facebook what to optimize for.

              If I choose "purchases", then Facebook looks for people that are likely to buy stuff.

              If I choose "leads", then Facebook looks for people that are likely to opt-in to stuff.

              My understanding is that having both a free and paid option on the same landing page would cause issues with Facebook attempting to optimize for a specific conversion result.

              That's kinda why I'm trying to drill it down to just ONE SINGLE option on the landing page.

              I'm still learning all this stuff though, so I'm not sure how important this "optimization for one single specific goal" actually is!
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              • Profile picture of the author Davids22
                Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

                I definitely understand your logic. However my next concern is the "optimization" then...

                If I have a free offer (lead) combined with a paid offer (purchase) on the same landing page, I still have to tell Facebook what to optimize for.

                If I choose "purchases", then Facebook looks for people that are likely to buy stuff.

                If I choose "leads", then Facebook looks for people that are likely to opt-in to stuff.

                My understanding is that having both a free and paid option on the same landing page would cause issues with Facebook attempting to optimize for a specific conversion result.

                That's kinda why I'm trying to drill it down to just ONE SINGLE option on the landing page.

                I'm still learning all this stuff though, so I'm not sure how important this "optimization for one single specific goal" actually is!
                It's on the campaign level.

                So you could have both on the same landing page - but then have separate campaigns to optimize for the different "conversion results".

                Usually what people go for is: Free Offer -> Tripwire offer -> Upsell/Downsell.

                In this case you can still optimize for the "purchase" conversion event, and get higher quality leads filling out the "free offer".
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                • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
                  Originally Posted by Davids22 View Post

                  In this case you can still optimize for the "purchase" conversion event, and get higher quality leads filling out the "free offer".
                  Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!
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              • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
                Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

                My understanding is that having both a free and paid option on the same landing page would cause issues with Facebook attempting to optimize for a specific conversion result.

                That's kinda why I'm trying to drill it down to just ONE SINGLE option on the landing page.

                I'm still learning all this stuff though, so I'm not sure how important this "optimization for one single specific goal" actually is!
                You'd optimize for the sale. Ideally, one paid offer. Then within that you'd have a free trial option (7-10 days max). Those taking the trial would become your leads.

                Optimizing for leads would mean having a different ad and a separate landing page. If you did that, you could compare the results from both sets of leads (from the free trial and from the dedicated ad) and tweak elements of both or either accordingly.

                But regarding your original point, what I'm saying is that if you want to test the effectiveness of one element of the offer (eg a trial), you need to reduce the other options to the minimum necessary.
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      • Profile picture of the author Davids22
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        Hey thanks for the quick reply!

        In response to what you said, well that's the thing...

        This is essentially just replacing "freebie" with "low cost offer" to aquire leads.

        Either way, they both will end up on my email list. However with the latter, I'm acquiring paid leads as opposed to the tire-kicking freebie leads.

        I don't have the "main 3 offers" on this landing page since the goal is to get $19 trials onto my email list.

        However in the explanation of the trial on this landing page, I do mention the other "permanent" offers, and I place a small link to the homepage of the site where those offers can be found.

        I definitely agree with your "1 year vs lifetime" thing. That makes perfect sense.

        However I'm not sure why you would say that this won't give me effective test results?
        Not a bad thought process imo. What you're referring to btw is called a "tripwire offer" to get people in the door. Can do upsells after they buy the tripwire offer, and go up from there to the $99 (or even $999++) if you've got a funnel in place.

        Regardless what you do, make sure to be split testing your landing pages (headline, etc etc).
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      • Profile picture of the author hometutor
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        Hey thanks for the quick reply!

        In response to what you said, well that's the thing...

        This is essentially just replacing "freebie" with "low cost offer" to aquire leads.

        However I'm not sure why you would say that this won't give me effective test results?
        I was never a fan of offering free anything. I've always felt it attracted the "givemees" not the serious business people willing to invest in their own business.

        Rick
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  • Profile picture of the author Davids22
    You're welcome.

    Though in case it wasn't clear, I do mean this in a funnel style.

    So: Landing page 1 (free offer) -> Landing page 2 (tripwire offer AFTER free offer) -> LP 3/4 (upsell/downsell)
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by Davids22 View Post

      You're welcome.

      Though in case it wasn't clear, I do mean this in a funnel style.

      So: Landing page 1 (free offer) -> Landing page 2 (tripwire offer AFTER free offer) -> LP 3/4 (upsell/downsell)
      Hey I'm interested in setting up a funnel like this. This sounds like a great way to do it.

      I'm wondering how I might go about setting something like this up considering that my main product is the membership (at varying prices).

      I have a freebie all set up. Check!

      Then they could immediately get sent to a "paid trial" page as the tripwire. Check!

      Then, I'm not quite sure what the best approach would be after that?

      If they take the tripwire offer...upsell to 1-year membership?

      If the don't take the tripwire...still upsell to the 1-year membership anyway?

      This is where things get tricky for me since I only have 1 primary product to sell.

      I'm wondering what you would suggest?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
    Awesome!! Thanks so much for the clarifications here. I've learned more about paid advertising in the last 3 weeks than I have in my entire time doing this IM stuff.

    Much appreciated!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I think you can make the $19/month recurring membership work. It's still a small price to pay, and I doubt that they'll think "is it a scam, how can i get my money back, etc". Especially if you offer a payment option like Paypal.

    Maybe you're overthinking it? You should test leading them to your main offer, and including a hover ad on your page also to collect leads. Worth a shot, if not now then at some point down the line if this current test isn't satisfactory for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I think you can make the $19/month recurring membership work. It's still a small price to pay, and I doubt that they'll think "is it a scam, how can i get my money back, etc". Especially if you offer a payment option like Paypal.

      Maybe you're overthinking it? You should test leading them to your main offer, and including a hover ad on your page also to collect leads. Worth a shot, if not now then at some point down the line if this current test isn't satisfactory for you.
      These are all very good points that you make. I keep forgetting that I can run "tests" now since the traffic is instant!

      I now have 3 campaigns running - One that goes direct to the 3 payment options, one that goes to the $19 trial, and one that goes to a freebie. I'll let these 3 campaigns run for a week or so and check the results.

      I'm finally starting to see this paid ads stuff as fun, even though I still have a long way to go until I figure out how to make them profitable!
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  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    Why not offer one month at $1.00 then recurring at the $19.00 monthly

    al
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

      Why not offer one month at $1.00 then recurring at the $19.00 monthly

      al
      I thought about that, but I don't want to just make $1 per sale. I'm aiming for lifetime sales ($199) as top priority. Whenever someone signs up monthly, I always get a bit let down because it wasn't a lifetime or at least a 1-year...this bummed out feeling would be a lot worse if it was only $1 sales!
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        I thought about that, but I don't want to just make $1 per sale. I'm aiming for lifetime sales ($199) as top priority. Whenever someone signs up monthly, I always get a bit let down because it wasn't a lifetime or at least a 1-year...this bummed out feeling would be a lot worse if it was only $1 sales!
        As much as I understand the goal is to get the $199 sale... You really need to consider what your "Average" Life of Customer is with the $19 a month re-occuring is? 10 months? ( $190 ) 12 months? ( $228 ) 24 months? ( $456 )

        $19 a month is right in there where people will discontinue a service. $17 a month interestingly is where people will begin to just let it ride. If we look at a BIG player in re-occurring... Amazon comes to mind at $14.99 and I can only imagine they have analyzed the ever living snot out of this to understand that is an expense that people will let ride for longer than they need. Netflix Standard is $15.49.

        If the "Goal" i to put as much cash as possible in your pocket... The re-occuring model is the ticket.
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        • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          If the "Goal" i to put as much cash as possible in your pocket... The re-occuring model is the ticket.
          I definitely do agree with that in theory, and in a perfect world everyone would stick around for years paying a monthly membership fee. However in my experience, the longest that anyone ever sticks around on my site is maybe 5 months TOPS (I've also tested with lower monthly cost subscription too).

          Based on my own experience with my own business..."lifetime" always seems to perform the best!

          That's kind of why I just kinda treat the monthly option as a "paid trial".

          Good info about the $14.99 threshold though. Maybe I'll try that price point too. Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author agmccall
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        I thought about that, but I don't want to just make $1 per sale. I'm aiming for lifetime sales ($199) as top priority. Whenever someone signs up monthly, I always get a bit let down because it wasn't a lifetime or at least a 1-year...this bummed out feeling would be a lot worse if it was only $1 sales!
        It is not about making $1.00, it is about the subsequent $19.00 monthly or Lifetime $199.00. You may continue to get free subs on your list that your email marketing can convert to buyers. But those that get on your list at the low $1.00 entry have already proved they will open their wallet for you. They are buyers.

        Think of all the companies that offer Free (for a short time) or low entry with the intention of keeping them on a subscription plan. It must work. Look at all the companies doing it.

        al
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        • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
          Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

          It is not about making $1.00, it is about the subsequent $19.00 monthly or Lifetime $199.00. You may continue to get free subs on your list that your email marketing can convert to buyers. But those that get on your list at the low $1.00 entry have already proved they will open their wallet for you. They are buyers.

          Think of all the companies that offer Free (for a short time) or low entry with the intention of keeping them on a subscription plan. It must work. Look at all the companies doing it.

          al
          Yes I do understand the purpose of a $1 trial. I was just saying that what I'm selling isn't really a "subscription". Those that do choose the monthly plan usually stick around for a few months at most, then cancel. Some of them upgrade to lifetime. The majority of people just go straight to lifetime at the start...

          In giving a $1 trial, that sets the primary "goal" as trying to get people on the monthly plan. But that isn't really what I want, nor is it what the market wants either.

          My "main product" is the lifetime membership, but you can't easily give low-cost trials to a non-recurring offer. They'd have to sign up for a new offer and re-enter thier details

          For that reason, the monthly subscription option always acted as "the trial" to my main product.

          My thinking with the strategy in the OP was to simply remove the "recurring" part of the deal. They are still paying for 1 month, but they aren't signing up for a subscription.

          However I decided against doing this after reading some of the replies above. I'm just going to keep it as is.

          If my main goal was to sell monthly subscriptions, then I agree with the $1 trial suggestion completely, but I have a different goal in mind.

          Thanks for your input, but I just wanted to clarify that!
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          • Profile picture of the author agmccall
            Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post


            If my main goal was to sell monthly subscriptions, then I agree with the $1 trial suggestion completely, but I have a different goal in mind.
            Then why not get rid of the subscription plan altogether.

            Again. The $1.00 is not about the monthly subscription nor is it about converting to the $199.00.

            It is about putting Buyers on your list

            al
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            "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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            • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
              Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

              Then why not get rid of the subscription plan altogether.
              Because $199 is too expensive for a lot of people, and selling the $19 offers is a way to make sales and get people onto my buyers list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ged3
    Hi,
    it probably goes against your thinking reading this thread, but a free trial can work very well - its what Amazon use - a 30 day free trial and they probably have the most successful subsrcitption site in history!


    I only mention this because as you probably know its always best to look at the life time value of a customer/subsriber.


    Kind Regards
    Ged
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  • Profile picture of the author pandikannan
    nice one lot of good points
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  • Profile picture of the author donovapreuss
    Hey! Offering a non-recurring trial at a lower price point is more attractive to cold traffic, which may not be ready to commit to a recurring subscription. Plus, the trial allows them to evaluate your product and build trust in your brand.
    It's great that you're already testing this strategy, and I'm curious to hear how it works for you.
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