In today’s email I want to talk some more about how I use information from my 30 Second Surveys to figure out what products to build or promote to my email list.
Again, 30 Second Surveys are game-changers for most businesses because they’re good at helping you identify what problems the BUYERS on your list desperately want to solve and most importantly, what products they’ll whip out their credit cards to purchase.
In the last 2 emails (1, 2) I’ve shown you how I’m using the 30 Second Survey I just ran on this list to decide whether or not I should promote Jay Abraham’s Founders Circle mastermind as an affiliate.
At the conclusion of yesterday’s email, I said that I’d give the Founders Circle a “C” grade as a promotional fit with my list. And a “C” grade would normally mean I wouldn’t promote a product. (You can read back on those 2 emails if you want the full explanation)
But then I said that I could still promote Jay’s product successfully if I wanted to.
Why’d I say that and what do I mean?
Well, the data I get from the 30 Second Survey is not the only criteria I use to make decisions.
Here are the 3 criteria I have for my promotions (whether it’s my own product or an affiliate product).
The best promotions will satisfy all 3 of these criteria. I’ll show you what I do if a product idea only hits one or two in a moment.
Criteria #1: The Product Should Have Homerun Potential
What this means is that I don’t want to put time and energy into promoting a product that the majority of my list isn’t interested in.
I do not want to have to segment my list further than “customer of a product” versus “not customer of a product.”
In other words, I want my promotions to have mass appeal (to my list).
- I want the problems a product solves to be a common issue for the majority of my list.
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I want the topic of the product to be something I know the majority of my list is interested in.
Homerun potential is mainly determined by the 30 Second Survey.
But that’s only the first part.
Criteria #2: The Product Should Be Something I Use Or Have Done
If a product sounds great on paper: it solves a mass problem and/or satisfies a mass desire for my list, that doesn’t mean I should make the product or promote an affiliate product.
For example, most AI tools might fall into this category. A lot of people are interested in AI and its potential for copywriting (desire). A lot of people might be able to use AI to move faster (mass-list problem).
The only issue is – I don’t use AI to write copy. I use it for some research and occasionally some idea generation… but I do not use it to write copy for me.
Aside from AI, there are all sorts of products I’ve never used that I could promote as an affiliate, but I won’t do it.
There are a few reasons, but main one is this:
I write my best copy when I write from experience. If I have no experience with a product, I won’t be able to sell it very well (because I won’t truly understand how it solves a problem or understand the product’s full potential). So even if it’s a homerun idea, the promotion will probably fall flat or I’ll struggle to come up with promotional ideas, angles, or energy to email a bunch of times.
If I’m not using it, it might not be ethical to promote, I won’t feel good, and sales will suffer.
There are times, however, when a friend, colleague, or respected marketer releases a new product that I haven’t been able to use yet. In these cases, I’ll do this…
Criteria #3: The Product Must Be Created By A Trusted Source & Something I’ll Use Myself (Eventually)
There are products out there that I feel comfortable promoting even though I haven’t used them yet. And there are products that I can’t create (that I know my list needs) because they aren’t in my area of expertise.
For example, the List Snowball method by Ian Stanley that I just promoted.
My list is hyper-interested in building and growing email lists. This is something I know from experience and from my 30 Second Surveys.
When it comes to driving traffic and website visitors, my particular area of expertise is in affiliate marketing and word-of-mouth strategy. But these are SLOW strategies for growth and I’ve been doing this for 15 years.
Ian’s expertise is in using paid traffic to grow email lists fast. AND, Ian is a close and trusted friend of mine so I promoted his List Snowball method with full confidence…
But there’s one other part of this that’s critical.
In order to sell his product well (and do it with that full confidence), I committed to using Ian’s product myself.
The way that I commit myself to using products that I promote is by giving away bonus add-ons that require I use the product I’m selling you.
I don’t like to overextend myself – but if I’m not willing to at least take a product for a full test-drive, I won’t be able to ethically sell it.
To recap:
- I use the 30 Second Survey to determine if a promotion has homerun potential to my list.
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I make sure that product is something I’ve used or is a product created by a trusted source AND I can commit to using it eventually (often by adding bonuses that require I use the product myself).
So… let’s add all this up. I could actually promote Jay’s Founders Circle based on the criteria above.
The product doesn’t really have homerun potential to my list, but that’s fine because it could meet the 2nd or 3rd criteria.
- If I was using the Founders Circle and believed in its potential to change your business life for the better, I could promote it.
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Or, if I intended to get into the Founders Circle and committed myself to using it by offering you a bonus package, that could work too.
I’m not there yet and I won’t be promoting the Founders Circle in the next couple months.
When and if I do, however, there will be a very specific way that I run my promotion.
I’m out of space to dive into it now (this email is already long), but I’ll explain that later.
Tomorrow I’d like to talk more about how I’m using the recent 30 Second Survey to come up with product ideas that I can create – as well as how I’ll use the survey to write copy.
Talk to you tomorrow!
– Derek