Curating Content & Offers: How To Avoid Flinging Spaghetti Against The Wall To See What Sticks
Ready to give your audience what they want?
If you don’t know what they want I recommend that you read another of my blog posts first! Then come back here.
So you’ve got all the juicy info about your target market and your creative juices are biting at the bit?
Only problem is you’ve got lots of ideas but not a Scooby-Doo how to create content and offers efficiently and effectively.
You block out time to CREATE content but there’s no real strategy. So you start flinging stuff against the wall to see what sticks – aka the ‘spaghetti method’ … getting more frustrated by the day.
The spaghetti method is one option but there are plenty of other options too.
I’ll say it upfront… I value my time. I mean really really value my time (and you should too). Therefore I don’t recommend the spaghetti method.
Let’s get a bit more strategic. This is my recommendation:
- Create 3 pieces of signature content – blog posts work well – which address your audience’s most basic problem.
- If you have an existing free offer – a lead magnet – which is still relevant now that you’ve done so much research on your target market – then add it to your website. If you don’t already have a freebie created it’s no biggie. We’ll get to that in Step 4.
- Run Facebook ads to each of your blog posts purely to gain visibility – and maybe a few leads if you have a free offer on your site – and see which blog post is the most popular. Google Analytics will tell you this in a few clicks. We’ll use the info gained from this step in Step 2. below.
- Decide on your Value Ladder and then create the offers.
I’ve made a cheeky little assumption that you know what a Value Ladder is. But you may not. And fear not. It’s not rocket science.
A Value Ladder is the selection of your offers across 4 different price points.
I’ve created a free editable Value Ladder template to help you get clear on your offers! Grab it for free here.
There are the 4 rungs in your Value Ladder:
1. Freebie/s
Must be irresistible… people literally cannot resist clicking through, entering their precious email address and getting your hot little offer.
Make it on a very specific topic which is related to solving their biggest problem (or part thereof) and make it easily digestible. I’m thinking something they can consume – read, watch or listen to – in under 10-15 minutes. A 2-3 page guide, checklist or cheat sheet work well.
This freebie is what your Facebook ads will be ‘selling’. Yep, you gotta sell free.
2. Low cost offer/s (<$30)
Must also be incredible value and congruent with the free offer. Price point is under $30; I like $7, $17 or $27.
This is the hardest and most important transaction in the Value Ladder.
Once someone buys something from you – and providing they get incredible value from it – they are 10 times more likely to buy from you again than someone who has never purchased from you.
Don’t be afraid to make this offer INSANELY good. Add bonuses to push them over the line. In Step 3 above you determined your most popular blog post… base the low cost offer on this topic.
As with all your offers this should be part of the solve-agitate cycle. You solve one problem with this offer but then agitate another which is what your next offer solves and so on.
3. Core offer/s
Price this from $97-$197. For your business I envisage this as an ecourse.
You make incredible margins on ecourses, they are instantly accessible and you can reach a global audience.
4. Premium core offer/s
Price this from $497.
This is your signature offer and will usually need to be sold via a more personal method such as via a webinar or over the phone.
My mentor who is an internet superstar – I’ll tell you all about her another time – HATES anything priced between $200-$496. She calls it’s no-man’s land.
This offer should have some element of contact with you personally. By now, the person considering your premium core offer is a raving fan so they will expect some exposure to you.
Final point! Or two.
You must have at least one offer at each point on the Value Ladder for EACH avatar.
Are you a visual person like me? I just don’t GET some things if I don’t SEE them.
So I created this free editable Value Ladder template for peeps like me. You can add in your own offers on Slide 3 and then it’ll be clear where the gaps are in your Value Ladder. Doing this activity has been invaluable for my business.
Make sure you go to File / Make a copy… before you add in your amazing offers.
NEXT STEPS
I’m liking putting a ‘Next Steps’ section at the end of all my blog posts. I am so sick of reading blog posts which teach me a tiny part of the big picture but don’t guide me to the rest of the big picture. They leave me hangin’. And I don’t like it :).
You may well be thinking… what the heck did I create a Value Ladder for? My bad. I did not pre-frame that very well for you, did I?
Let me correct that now.
Funnels are the answer my friend, funnels are the answer.
If you don’t know what a funnel is… let’s take care of that right now:
“Sales Funnel (noun): The sequence your customers go through as they convert from stalkers to buyers, from the very first offer (typically the cheapest) to the very last (typically the most expensive).” – Jamie Jensen.
The first rung of your Value Ladder – the freebie – is the start of your funnel. You then nurture your leads (AKA as people) via email to build up rapport… until finally you earn the coveted ‘know, like and trust’ factor.
Once that happens you’re golden.
You will then be able to move them – AKA your leads who are now raving fans – through your entire funnel from the low cost offer to the core offer/s to the premium core offer/s with very little resistance. That’s the theory anyway!
EVERY business needs a sales funnel.
I could talk about funnels all day long but, sadly, this blog post must come to an end. I’ve already gotten carried away! I’ll be putting up some in-depth posts on funnels shortly and I’ll put the link here.
For now though…
Get your Value Ladder sorted out ASAP! We need that done to start creating your funnels! Remember to grab my free editable Value Ladder template here. You can enter in your own offers and it’ll help you get really clear on pricing and how all your offers fit together.
Talk soon,
Bec
P.S. I heart funnels. You’ve been warned. If you don’t love them… well, I love them enough for both of us. See how I help service-based business owners here and maybe I can help you set up some funnels for your business.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!