WATCH THE FULL VIDEO BELOW

Primed traffic vs Unprimed Traffic

Everything shifts when you make this change. Most conventional advice of FB ads totally misses this part. They all have you sending totally cold, no idea who you are traffic to your OPT IN PAGE!

Money loves speed

Every time I create a programme FAST, it makes me a lot of money. If something if lighting a fire under you –  don‘t let it go out!

You are responsible for your brand.

No one else gives a shit. No matter how much you love the people in your team, no matter how much they love you, one day something will  get messed up and the only one to pick up the pieces  will be YOU.

Start thinking beyond email lists.

Email is only ONE of the many ways you can reach people. This launch I had 30k on my email list but TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND on my pixel list.

Likeability vs Authority:

Some brands position themselves as an authority. They are cool, aloof, they don’t  engage. Then you have me.  I built my brand on being approachable, I respond to everyone, I send voice notes, I reply to emails.  It’s like Ellen vs Oprah (I’m Ellen btw)

Heavy people or light people.

And NO I don’t mean weight.  It is how they make you FEEL. Work with people for a small bit first, and notice how you feel when you have to communicate with them. That is going to set the scene for the rest of your relationship.

Courses alone don’t cut it anymore.

If you plan to offer a course, plan another element to go with it. My programs, for example, include my community, my presence, my feedback.   And that is what cannot be ripped off.

Live events are the best and the worst.

Suddenly dealing with people one on one – having lunch and dinner and meeting people you have NEVER MET BEFORE.  It is all a bit much and totally enriching at the same time

Human beings are assholes.

When you put a human in a position where they can judge you, the assholes will put themselves on a pedestal which they have no place being on. They will be judgy & they will be mean…because YOU just gave them a license to be so. Unless you can handle  any kind of feedback  at all, do not ask them for it.

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The book teaches you how to craft sticky, memorable messages and how to do that even if you think your idea is lame. . You might think that some ideas are inherently sticky, I did too – but Chip and Dan share a six part framework that allows you to make even lame ideas sticky.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO BELOW

S – simple. Simple here means presenting an idea in an easy to understand way and to do that quickly. The best way to simplify a hard to understand idea is to use a metaphor. Or equivalence as I call it. For example “Uber for lawnmowers” conveys the idea quickly without having to go into unnecessary detail.

U – unexpected. Our brains react to disruption FAST and it also allows us to cut through the clutter FAST. And let’s be honest if you are talking in the same way that everyone is used to, it’s highly likely that you’ll be ignored. (check out Nordy Stories in the book for more on doing the unexpected in a really good way)

C- concrete. This is all about painting a mental picture. Using sensory words & phrases in your copy is how you best do this. People need to be able to clearly see in their mind what you’re describing.

C – credible. Credibility comes from 2 angles. External; such as an accreditation or endorsement or Internal; where it’s your credibility comes because you found an innovative way to solve a problem. There are some really great examples in the book of these.

E – emotions. Emotions are what drive people …always has, always will. So why is there so often more focus on the logic or the rational aspect of the product? The book has some great ideas on how to tap into emotions to get people to pay attention to your message including the need to belong to a specific group.

S – stories. we all know that stories sell but Heath brothers show us HOW to sell through stories, what kind of stories are the stickiest and why not all stories are created equal.

Even if you aren’t in business the way you present your ideas, how you craft an argument, how you communicate with your children even will CHANGE FOREVER!
Check it out here (NOT an affiliate link)

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As an example what mental image do you get when I say:
Uber for Lawn Mowers
Airbnb for cars
LinkedIn for musicians.
TONY ROBBINS for tropical monkies (not really)

You know that Uber for lawnmowers means that this business allows people to sublet their lawnmowers when they aren’t using them.

You know that Linkedin will be a specialized professional social media platform for musicians

This is what I call equivalence.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO BELOW:

When to use equivalence?
When you want to get your point across quickly
When your business is a bit complex and hard to explain
When you are talking to someone who has no clue to the subject matter
When you want to stand out amongst many similar businesses
Frames of Reference & Associations:

Use a familiar frame of reference, for example, Spain doesn’t have Uber so even though they may have heard of it the won’t necessarily get it.
Please make sure it has a positive association – you don’t want a negative association.
Make sure it has the right association
Do not choose a reference which has more than one predominant association.

How to use equivalence for the win?

Look at the best global brands out there (Interbrand) and see how they do it, look at the best movie characters and fictional characters. For example Hermione from Harry Potter.
Look at what they stand for, is is longevity or loyalty for example – “I’m the Energiser Bunny of…” for longevity.

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Even your kidneys shiver at the thought of undertaking this monumental task?

Don’t worry precious, I got you.

In the last 2 years I have done 8 launches grossing over $600,000 in sales…all with a job, kids, house and husband to juggle. Seriously I’m wondering if I should actually join a circus…oh wait, my house IS a circus…and I am the monkey!

But this monkey does one thing right…LAUNCHING!

I have a very specific, kinda mad system to plan & execute my lanches and the reason it works so well is because it allows me to gather everything in one handy little checklist.

I look at my launches in three phases and assign objectives for each phase. These objectives are then broken down into tasks..easy peasy!

Here are the three phases:

Pre-Launch, which runs from 6 – 8 weeks before to 1 week before the cart open day.
The actual launch, of course.
And then so important but forgotten more often than a wedding anniversary is the post-launch period. (no, not post LUNCH. That is also fun, but not what I’m talking about here.)

You can get all of this in easy to follow, checkoff-able tasks right here along with a walkthrough video.

Clickety click below to swipe the checklist and video right NOW

How to Plan the Pre-Launch:

T-Minus 6 – 8 weeks
Now is the time to validate your idea, set your goals, plan your resources, finalise your product and lock down timelines and collaborators.
Your final offer should be locked at this point!

T-Minus 4 – 6 weeks

Pre launch assets planned: All things you need to create buzz about your launch such as social media updates, blog posts, videos, podcast interviews etc.
Launch assets planned: What on earth is a launch asset? Good question. Essentially the things we use to during the launch phase; emails, sales pages, webinar pages, thank you pages.
Your payment mechanism (you do want to get paid, right?)and please for the love of all that is good TEST IT.
Post purchase mechanism sorted: How do people get their sticky mitts on the actual THING that they are so desperate for and plan out any post purchase follow up emails.
Lead generation activities: Every activity (ads, boosted posts, guest posts etc,) needed to get people to know that you exist. Quite important really…because they can only buy FROM you if they KNOW you exist.

T-Minus 2 – 4 weeks

External communications locked. This is the time to make sure your collaborators have given you their content, no last minute Sallys please. It’s also a good idea to let your payment processor know in advance to avoid issues like being mistaken for a suddenly active drugs lord or money launderer.
Internal communications locked. If you have a team make sure their roles are clear, also pre-warn friends and family. They may be nice and offer support, otherwise get them out of the way.
Launch assets READY & TESTED: Yes ALL of those money-making things!
Pre-launch assets are ready to deploy (Sir!). This means all social media updates and blog posts are ready and bonus points for being scheduled. Plus your tease and prime emails are written and ready to go. And not forgetting your wait list page (yes, you will have a wait list) is ready and linked up to your auto-responders.
Product created. The small matter of the THING needs to be taken care of too. All worksheets, bonuses, modules, packaging should ideally be done (full disclosure: My THINGS are usually pending till the last minute but don’t be ME)

T-Minus 1 week (be sure to have enough gin and cake in the house)

Tech checks. Go through the entire process from start to finish and get other actual people to do it as well. All of it.
Pre-launch starts. All those teasing, juicy updates and blogs – line em up and send em out

What happens during the launch period:

Pull the trigger, baby: This is the time when the launch trigger is …well..triggered and the cart opens. Make sure you have support staff on hand to handle tech glitches and lots of chocolate to celebrate each new sale.
Welcome new sales. Like a long lost friend! These people have handed over their hard earned (probably) cash, make them feel welcome. The internet equivalent of tea and cake would be nice.
Keep up the momentum, don’t let it fall as flat as my last souffle. Screenshots of sales are great for this.
Automatic testimonials. A system for capturing and another for sharing them is what you need here.

What happens Post-launch:

Upsell or downsell to non buyers. Take advantage of all the buzz of your launch and sell to people who missed out on the core offer OR bought it but can now upgrade to something better and/or shinier
Launch postmortem. This is where all your metrics are captured… these are like gold for planning your next launch, as are points of resistance (which I talk more about in the video). You can use a survey for non-buyers to identify the points of resistance and use that data to optimize your next launch.
Follow up. Thank you notes, personal welcome – all the make-you-feel-warm-and-fuzzy type of stuff.

So, there you have it my darlings. Get all of this goodness in a handy, print off and cover your kitchen cupboards in it pdf checklist here along with a walkthrough video.

Get your hot little hands on the checklist and video INSTANTLY below.

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That made you want to drop everything (kids? what kids? I have kids?) shut out everyone and just curl up with your phone as you devour every single word and laugh out loud like a maniac who has had too many colas?

Now let me ask you this:

When you sit down to write your own marketing emails, do you visualize this reaction when your mail hits the inboxes of your subscribers

or

Do you visualize a bored grouch, scrolling through his inbox, scowling at the screen and wondering why everyone is trying to rip him off and make him buy something he doesn’t  need?

Which one of these reaction do you WANT?

I am assuming it’s the first one. It’s the first reaction that creates loyal fans, grows lists, makes sales, gets I love yous in your inbox every day and makes you infinitely more persuasive than everyone in your industry.

So how do you get that reaction?

Three words

Tease

Please

Squeeze

No, it’s not as dirty as it sounds.

It simply means this:

Create an emotional arc in your email that starts from the TEASE and ends at the SQUEEZE

umm still a bit dirty…

OK..try this..

Tease them with an information gap, a disruption of their mental patterns, a nagging unanswered question in the subject line
Please them with the answer to that question in the email itself but then open another tease tied in to the primary objective of the email
Squeeze a YES out of them by giving them a chance to do something  that will leave them dazed as oxytocin fountains explode all over their brains

Let’s take a look at how this works.

Example One: Ramit Sethi wants us to click to his website

Tease: He uses a new spin on The Ice Bucket challenge but the subject line hints at something better and different so there is an insistent need to OPEN!

Please: He shows an image that delivers on the implied naughtiness in the subjectline…but since he wants us to go to his website, he only provides a tiny “please” and follows it up with another tease..”It’s not a video, just an image that looks like a video!”

Squeeze: The click to his website is almost automatic. He doesn’t even need to ask you to click. The play screen image squeezes a click right out of the reader.

Example Two: I want people to sign up for my free challenge

Tease: The subject line hints at an image that is interesting and the note about viewer discretion creates even more of “what could it be?”

Please: I satisfy their curiosity by showing them the picture. But on the heels of this “please” comes another tease that squeezes a “click” out of them. 

Squeeze: The claim that I have “accidentally” created something exciting creates an insistent urge for them to click through and check it out.

Bonus point: They come to the landing page, primed with the expectation that what they are about to see is unbelievably exciting.

Example Three: Fran Kern wants people to sign up to his free training.

Tease: The subjectline is simple but it makes you want to at least open and see what is so exciting that it’s making a grown man act like a zitty teenager.

Please: He closes the information gap (the sweet sweet feeling of satisfied curiosity ensues) and then he opens another tease by swerving into the main objective of the email.

Squeeze: Since his tease is more of a digital lollipop (126 slides, fun, sell…drooool) the YES that comes with it is effortless.

The Power of Intent & What Makes Unignorable Emails

No I am not going all woo woo on you, trying to convince you of the power of visualizations. What I am talking about is intent, more specifically emotional Intent.

Emotional intent when set right makes people open your email, devour every single line and then do exactly what you ask them to do.

Do not send any email without setting the intent and then using the Tease, Please & Squeeze framework to make it unignorable.

Tease, Please & Squeeze Framework works in every industry and with every type of email in business.

I have a training workshop on how you can use this framework for intro emails, pitch emails, webinar reminder emails and even apology emails in case you mess up (which is bound to happen..it’s a veritable rite of passage for entrepreneurs)

The workshop shows you exactly how to use this framework; what tease openers to use, how much to please and when to squeeze…. with real life examples on all the different types of emails we need to send our lists.

This workshop is a bonus that everyone who signs up for Email Persuasion Sequence 2.0 gets access to.

What is  Email Persuasion Sequence 2.0?

It’s the first license-based system that walks you step-by-step through the process of turning every single email into a persuasion powerhouse..…

It gives you the process, the swipes, the scripts, the templates everything… And the best part?

They are all backed by psychology and use some of the best NLP techniques plus gripping storytelling methods you will ever come across.

EPS 2.0 is opening in 2 weeks and since I only have a very (VERY) limited number of licences available, it sells out fast. EPS 1.0 sold out before my affiliates had a chance to send out all their promotional emails…I had to cancel my “last call” emails because guess what? No need!

So if you want to be the first to know when EPS 2.0 opens and you can get your hot little paws on the Tease, Please, Squeeze Workshop as a bonus, get on the VIP list so I can roll out the red carpet and you can saunter over to EPS 2.0 as the others stand around looking at you, hating you and wishing they were you.

See you behind the rope!

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Yes, you can leave it to me to blame my carb addiction on the entire human race.

But seriously, we like to think we are all rational, reasonable, stable-minded creatures but are really no better than Pavlov’s lab mates…. helpless in the hands of our basic human nature…or quirks if you will.

And this post is about two such human quirks that can make your $10,000 site fall flat on its dashboard or turn an obscenely ugly webpage into a million dollar cash churning machine.

Why do these quirks matter so much?

Because human beings have no control over them!

And they aren’t even consciously aware of their existence…which makes them even more lethal.

Ready to find out what these quirks are?

Quirk Number One: Humans can only follow one command or none at all:

I know it’s popular to be a multi-tasking ninja, but the research is clear and conclusive. Human beings actually can’t multi-task well…or at all.

For many years the psychology research has shown that people can only attend to one task at a time.

To be more specific, your brain can attend to only one cognitive task at a time

Yes you can dance and sing at the same time but brain tasks? Not so much

You can either talk or listen

Write or read

Grasp a concept or make a decision

One task at one time

And if the brain is forced to handle 2-3 cognitive tasks simultaneously, it either abandons the tasks all together or does a poor job of all but one.

How this affects your business and what can you do about it?

If you have one of those websites where the home page is a medley of too many things asking for way too many actions, you might be taxing the brain of your visitor to the point where he won’t do anything at all.

Ask them to do one thing and one thing only (sign up, like your page or donate for example). Define your primary objective for each page and just ask for the action that would help achieve that objective.

Nothing else!

Don’t ask them to like, share, subscribe, add to bookmarks or do any of the things that will take the attention away from your primary objective.

Don’t fatigue their brains, period!

Quirk Two: The Bizarre Power of Three:

The Rule of Three suggests that messages that come in threes are inherently more effective than other numbers of things. You can see this principal in action almost everywhere from Goldilocks and 3 bears to the 3 ghosts in Christmas carol and the three blind mice.

Researchers working in the field of decision-making tell us that people can’t effectively choose between more than 3 to 4 items at a time.

How this affects your business and what can you do about it?
If your sales page has 10 different offerings and 5 different payment plans, you are making it almost impossible for the potential buyer to make a decision.
Grouping things in chunks of 3 would make it more brain friendly for the visitors and they would be more likely to explore each group on its own.

For best results you can make categories of offerings based on the problem they solve, chunk your offerings underneath and then use these nifty little tricks to price them so they seem like a bloody steal!

At the end of the day, human beings and their brains crave comfort and ease. If you make a task unnecessarily difficult, the brain would be quick to abandon it even if there are benefits to it.

Websites that adopt this key principal (don’t make the brain do undue work) will always outperform websites that believe in cramming as much information as possible in a web page.

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You see them in New York Times and you see them on Buzzfeed and ohhhh you see them so much on Facebook, you want to take out your eyeballs and slow roast them along with a couple marshmallows.

You see people describing their pets using these words and you see them describing the efforts of Mother Teresa using the same words (does anyone else feel that’s disturbing?)

Their sex life is described using the same word

And their new carpet too.

And that is what is wrong with these words….

They are like beige wallpaper…

A wallpaper that no one notices….it doesn’t mean anything…doesn’t do anything…just stays there in its miserable beigeness…doing nothing but being beige…unnoticeable, unremarkable…invisible.

Not ugly, not pretty…just invisible.

What are those words? Behold the most commonly used ambiguous adjectives ever created:

Awesome
Fantastic
Amazing
Great
Wonderful

Here’s a fun fact; do you know that the word Fantastic when used in Real Estate ads actually give the signal to potential buyers that they should bid low (reference: Freakonomics)

When I tested these words in my Language of Persuasion experiment, I saw similar results. I intuitively knew that these were not powerful words but I was using them out of sheer laziness and I told myself “they can’t possibly be doing any harm”…right?

WRONG!

These words hint that there is nothing worth mentioning in the subject being described…that you are eluding to its lack of substance when you use such an ambiguous adjective.

If it was “proven through years of research” or “backed by a rock-solid guarantee” or “the first choice of dentists across the country” or “hand-crafted by French virgins” you would not have to use the word “fantastic” to describe it.

So next time, you are tempted to refer to your offering or product or service or even to yourself as great or fantastic or awesome…do keep in mind that it doesn’t do NOTHING…in fact it does the opposite of great, fantastic and awesome….it makes your offer look lame.

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Today I want to tell you about that time in 5th grade when I was taken to the principal’s’ office because I was caught cheating. This was a school I hated & a principal I despised so it was doubly mortifying. I still remember how my cheeks burned and my legs shook as I stood there wanting to die.

Let’s do a story “after”:

Have you ever been so embarrassed that your cheeks burned, your legs shook and you just wanted to die? What if this was because you were caught cheating and now stood outside the principals’ office waiting your turn to be reprimanded? What if this was at a school that you hated and a principal you despised?
This was me in the summer of 1995 and if you have been there, well my sympathies because I would not wish that fate on my worst enemy.

The before story actually reads pretty well,  it looks like an interesting tale, there are word pictures and you get pulled in immediately.

The problem is the reader is still reading the story like an outsider. Like someone who is detached from the situation, like someone watching a movie with mild interest. Her emotions are under control and she is calm.

She can not feel herself shaking in her boots, instead her mind eye sees a scrawny , miserable 5th grader stuck in a tough situation.

In short, with the “before” story, she is not emotionally invested in the story, while in the “after” she sees herself… and THAT is what makes the “after” so much better.

The ability of your reader to see themselves in a story, to connect and engage and be pulled in hook, line and sinker because now it has become her story.

What every good story needs is story activators. These are phrases that get people fully invested in your story (mind, body & soul) and I am giving you 10 of these magic phrases to activate your own stories and get your people pulled in withal their heart and soul and emotions.

Here are those story activator phrases:
1. Have you ever been in a situation?
2. Imagine yourself at 5 years of age
3. Do you ask yourself…
4. Do you ever notice that…
5. Do you know anyone who…
6. Ever wonder how…
7. Remember when you were in school…
8. Remember the touch, feel & smell of…
9. Do you remember the story of…
10. Can you recall what a (insert strange thing) sounds like?

Use these phrases at the start of your story or even in a story within a story (more on that in a later post) and you will amazed at how quickly and effortlessly, people will get attracted and invested in your story.
Also, in case you don’t know…these phrases also rank quite high on The Language Of Persuasion index…

Don’t know what that is?

Well, in August I started this crazy human experiment. I went through some of the BEST sales pages, emails, call to actions and videos in my “inspiration” section and decided to test their efficacy. I took words, phrases, call to actions, buzzwords etc. from these pages and tested these with the masses to gauge the emotional reaction of people reading those words…and the results? Blew my freakin’ mind all over my keyboard!

If this intrigues you, don’t forget to get on my list by signing up below…I will be sharing these results very soon.

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Microlesson One: You don’t ALWAYS have to use fear tactics to sell. Here’s when and how to use pain points in your email with class.

Microlesson Two: Is your email Gone Girl or is it Pretty Woman and which one works best?

Microlesson Three: Are you selling to The Accounting Clerk or to The Social Butterfly In Your Emails?

Microlesson Four: 3 Story Hooks To Use in Your Emails So That people Get Pulled In From The Very First Line

Microlesson Five: 4 quick (and dirty AND hugely effective) brain hacks for emails that get opened, read and clicked

Microlesson Six: My one non-negotiable rule for writing persuasive emails

Microlesson Seven: 5 Sales Emails You MUST Send If You Ever Plan on Selling Anything

Microlesson Eight: How to Tease in an Email Subject Line (without the sleaze)

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