Brian Clark's two-year old podcast (see last post) set a high bar.
But it makes more sense than all the advice I've run across so far - from anyone, anywhere.
Let's recap:
- You take the most fascinating points of the story you're writing.
- You create a series of video's which build excitement and invite them on their buyer's journey.
- The closing video is the sale
Videos are nothing new. I watched them on Mike Dillard's corny "bootcamp" videos, which were opt-in. These will need a restudy. They were before he bought into Walker's Launch Formula, where he brought in the "sideways sales letter."
They both have one flaw: they use the sales letter format. Good old Internet Marketing crap we all have learned to hate. The testimonials, the odd "exact" amounts, the claims that you can make all sorts of insane income from what they are offering.
What's missing is the buyer's journey.
These guys haven't studied the 1920's classics of marketing like Clark did. They've instead swallowed the dope which has run through IM for so many years. Not too oddly, I've been planning to dissect Dillard's videos for years, just needed the time and reason to do so.
A series of fascinations in video format. That's what we are looking for.
Copyblogger has some podcasts on fascinations - Sonia Simone, I think. So that's on the list to study.
Also, it's collecting up and extracting the trailers for movies. Back to all those DVD's I've collected.
Of course, I'm telling a non-fiction story - so that will be examining and extracting the fascinations which my material covers. List them out, put them in a sensible order.
I have my work cut out for me.
What about the membership research
This actually forwards it. Sure, I have a lot of material to extract and put into the free version. The paid membership (and courses) will wait until I build the audience.
Extracting that material and copying it over will be a way to review all those posts and ebooks. As I do these, I'll also be looking to how I can utilize these - and more importantly, the value they can give.
These core desires (see Breakthrough Advertising) are what have to be channeled into this material. The research will be how these benefits integrate into the unique solution I'm offering.
When the video's are ready, most of the membership will as well. So the opt-in will give them a first look at the membership and my first feedback loop. From there, I'll be able to audience-build and find what they actually want.
I need this, as the book isn't written. Practically, it will be that book and several series - all published with the feedback of this new audience.
After those books, there will be courses to train on what those series provide. The point is to give these people a way to evaluate their lives and improve them as much as they want. Because after all these decades of research, I have tons of value to give away.
A membership is the best way to contain all this value and offer it up.
My to-do list:
- Dig out my copies of Dillard's bootcamp. Study.
- Dig out the sideways sales letter Jeff Walker himself used for his package. Study.
- Scrape out the better movie trailers from my DVD collection. Study.
- Start extracting all my materials for transfer. Adjust these as I enter them in.
- Review which ebooks should be part of the free membership - and which books should be offered as a low-priced print edition.
- Script based on the fascinations I've found during all this.
- Assemble the videos.
- Perfect the opt-in landing page.
- Do some serious promotion using IFTTT and Synnd campaigns on social signals.
- - - -
Make sure you're opted-in so you don't miss any white-knuckled adventures and cliff-hanger endings!
See you next time.
(photo: Håkan Dahlström)
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