What’s the point of building an email list?
I like y’all and all that, but at the end of the day, a boy’s gotta eat. Know what I mean?
Money.
It’s taboo to talk about for some reason. But the only way to know if your content and product are worth a crap is if people will pay you for it.
That’s where launch sequences come in.
A few days ago I introduced you to launch sequences. A launch sequence is a series of emails you send to your audience to prime them, educate them and get them to buy your product.
One Made $43,380 and the Other Lost $1,385.
Two years ago I built my first piece of software: an iOS app called Ad-Quiz. My partner and I spent $2,000 on it and one other app.
We built them, tested them, spent a bunch of money and time. Then…
Crickets.
Nothing.
We made $615 of our $2,000 back. We had no plan on how to get people to buy.
Fast forward two years.
I decided this past March to launch a coaching program. I’d learned my lesson, though., and knew that I had to have a plan in place. So I wrote a series of emails that led up to the launch of the program.
The program sold out in 2 hours.
Then I doubled the price and restarted the sequence to a new segment of the list.
It sold out again. It sells out in minutes every time I have new spots available.
Is that because I’m awesome? No.
It’s because I use an effective launch sequence.
Today, I want to share with you a tested and proven launch sequence that you can use to launch your next product.
Enter Nathan…
Last month he made $16,000 in 72 hours.
Nathan is a designer and author. He launches more high-quality products than anyone I know of. Look up the word machine in the dictionary and his face is right beside it.
I’m not kidding.
Last month he made $16,000 in 72 hours. The interesting part is how he did it.
And that’s what we’ll focus on today. I’m going to show you the overall strategy and exact launch sequence he used.
Also, I hopped on a call with Nathan just minutes after his launch and started to grill him on his tactics. Be sure to read all of the way until the end to watch. It’s fascinating.
First, let’s get one thing straight…
There is no magic series of emails that will turn your piece-of-junk product into a massive success.
There is no magic series of emails that will turn a used and abused email list that doesn’t like you into a super-responsive group of people salivating to buy from you.
So, I’m going to assume you’re not a weirdo. That you aren’t a spammy affiliate marketer and that you adhere to the philosophy of QUALITY FIRST that I preach on this site.
We straight? Onward.
A little background on Nathan’s business model.
Nathan has 18,000 people on his email list. He has three flagship products: Authority, Designing Web Applications and App Design Handbook.
His recent launch was for a secondary product called Building Profitable Audiences (BPA). It is a premium product priced at $699 and $2,499.
How would you go about introducing a new product like this to your audience?
Many people (including myself) would do something like this:
- Build awesome product
- Email all 18,000 people to tell them about it
- Wait for sales
Nathan took a different approach. He saw BPA as a second-tiered product and set up his sales funnel so only people who had bought his introductory product, Authority, would receive a launch sequence on BPA.
Why do this?
Think about it. If I emailed you tomorrow and asked you to buy a $2,000 Mastermind session (second-tier product) with me, and you had never bought anything from me in the past, would you buy?
Probably not.
However, if you were a current coaching client (first-tier product) who already paid $500 per month, and I introduced a $2,000 Mastermind session to you, would you buy then?
Probably so.
Tier 1: Coaching @ $500
Tier 2: Mastermind @ $2,000
(Note: I don’t have a Mastermind to sell you. This is make-believe.)
Soooo….If my #1 goal this month is to fill up my Mastermind group, what should be my primary focus each day?
Yup! Selling more coaching.
Take a look.
To positively affect the bottom of the funnel (BOFU) we have to focus on the top of the funnel (TOFU).
So, instead of Nathan emailing his entire list about a BOFU product, he only focused on past customers who had purchased his book, Authority.
It’s a natural progression of products.
Make sense?
This is what his sales funnel looks like.
Following this philosophy, he launched his product to only 1,200 of this 18,000 subscribers…
…and out of those 1,200 people came $16,000.
Not a bad day at the office for ole Nathan.
Now let’s look into exactly HOW he launched BPA to those 1,200 people.
Launch Sequence Nathan Used to Launch BPA
First, let’s take a look at the overall structure of the campaign.
In total there are 6 emails.
The first two emails are long-form educational emails. They are designed to build up intrigue and to re-establish Nathan as an authority on his subject.
The third email is a product description. It is designed to tell readers about the product, describe the outcomes they can expect, and to let them know it will be available for sale tomorrow.
The fourth email is the launch email. Short and to the point.
The fifth email is another long-form educational email that comes on day 2 of the 3-day launch window. This email is designed to solidify Nathan’s authority on the topic and create a knowledge gap that ends with a strong call to action to buy the product.
The sixth, and final email, is the urgency email. It informs the reader that registration to the course will end in 1 hour.
Now let’s take a peek at each email and go over the details.
Part 1: Story. The email opens with a story that sets up the educational content.
Part 2: Education. The meat of the email teaches. That is the primary purpose of the email and what he spends the most words on.
Part 3: Soft Call to Action. Notice the word SOFT. Nathan does not ask you to buy anything. He informs readers about the product, then gives a way to learn more
Nathan uses something called the “Reluctant Hero” to frame the entire email. The story told and teaching given is about the story of the product, why it was created, and the results achieved.
This approach drew me in and helped me connect with Nathan and the product.
What do you think sales more effectively? Hyping your product OR telling the story behind why you made it and what pains it solved for you?
Use that to your advantage.
The sub-headers are all benefit-focused and each section hits the highlights of the course.
The end of this email is vitally important. It lets readers know two things:
1. That BPA will be available for sale tomorrow
2. That it will only be available for 3 days (then you can’t buy it)
The last part gives readers a sense of urgency and encourages them to take action.
Life is busy. Stuff happens. I can read your blog posts whenever I want. So, I don’t read them now.
But if you tell me a product I’m very interested in is only available for 3 days, I take action.
Urgency = Action Taking.
Make sure you provide an element of urgency in this 3rd email.
1. Read Nathan’s blog
2. Bought his book, Authority
3. If they have implemented anything they have learned, they have seen results from his teaching
4. Just received 2 really long and quality articles helping them build on what they learned in the book
5. Been introduced to a new product that will take that learning to the next level.
The hard work has been done.
Now, the product is available and ready to buy. He keeps the email short and to the point.
The singular purpose of the email is to get readers to buy.
The 3-day launch window is now opened.
Day 2 arrives with this email. Educational email #3. Very deep and high-quality material.
This is the final push his readers need.
“If his free content is this good, the paid stuff must be incredible!”
<click. buy>
There is 1 hour left before readers can no longer buy the course.
Nathan communicates this very succinctly and gives them one clear call to action.
Click. The. Link.
Inside conversation with Nathan Barry (morning of the launch)
And that is how you launch a product.
The final result was $16,000 in sales over a 72-hour period.
THAT is why you need to grow your email list.
Have you ever pressed send on an email, waited three days, and made $16k?
It sounds scammy. It sounds to good to be true.
In all honesty, I used to think the same thing. And then I started paying attention to people that I respected online. People like Nathan, Noah Kagan, Ramit Sethi, Michael Hyatt and One Month Rails.
And I started to realize something. All of these people were having similar experiences. They were pressing send and making money.
(Disclaimer: What happens before you are actually able to “press send and make money” is an ungodly amount of work.)
That’s when I started studying what they were doing. That’s how I found Nathan. And how I launched a coaching programs that has generated over $30,000 in 6 months.
Two things before we end for the day.
1. Next week I’m going to walk you through 2 more launches. We’re going to break them down and show you the emails, the sales funnels, and the exact revenue numbers.
Stay close to your email for that.
2. I have a special treat for you today. No waiting around ’til next week for this.
On the morning of Nathan’s BPA launch, we hopped on Skype for a talk. He answered all types of questions I had and helped me formulate my upcoming launch.
The best part?
I recorded the whole thing for you.
Listen to my conversation with Nathan on the morning of his launch.See you next week.
