5 – The 12 Rules of Course Marketing

1. Selling to a warm audience can give a false positive

It’s why launches often fizzle out and then all you hear are crickets. Let’s say you were able to pitch your offer first on a list of proven buyers from someone with a lot of authority.  They trust and get whatever that person recommends. That trust will not transfer to your own outreach. If you can’t connect the two, you will struggle understanding why people are now not buying.

2. Converting a cold audience without a sales call is the hardest thing you can do

Cold traffic is the holy grail. The goal is to put in $1 and get $2 back. Then you throw as much money into the machine as you can. Everyone wants it and barely anyone succeeds. 

Sales calls make it easier as you can handle objections and get the prospect back on track. If just one variable is missing or off in your automated sales funnel… the prospect leaves never to be seen again.

3. The masses are predictable

I believe we all have the same operating software. So if you focus on the parts of human behavior that don’t change and dial your offer based on that. Scaling is easy. 

4. People are weird

I’ve had a client ask me why is it that we’re advertising a dental course and people are asking for dental treatments and dentist referrals?

Even when your keywords/audiences are dialed in perfectly the platforms always find a way to make exceptions. (Ex: Adwords testing similar keywords) Some people will just look at the word dentist, not read the ad and contact you about whatever is on their mind… why? … because people are weird. 

5. The non-scalable things give you an edge but the scalable things make you money

Examples:

Personalized outreach performs best but takes manpower. 

AI personalized outreach performs less but can be automated. 

Doing live webinars get higher conversions.

Automated webinars have lower conversions but can play 24/7.

6. Self interest is key

People buy when they see a benefit to themselves. This should be self-explanatory but isn’t. Your bio, accolades and the why behind your company barely matters. 

7. Trends are a short term fix

Creatives and copy will burn out the moment the trend is gone. This can happen overnight. 

9. The higher your social proof the less selling you need

The more trust and authority you have the less you need to market and sell. This is why famous people can sell out stadiums and 10x their offers. If you take this away from them they have to play by the same rules as everyone else… and they whine. 

You can watch the Undercover Billionaire – season 2 with Grand Cardone for a perfect example of this. 

10. Marketing itself is 80% creativity and 20% testing

If your audience is dialed in then attracting the traffic comes down to positioning, copy and creatives. You get there through testing. Its what marketers do.

Getting good leads and no sales? Let’s look at your offer and rest of the sales funnel.

11. Not everyone is your customer

Men and women between 20-40 years old are not an audience. People who do finances are not an audience. Teens that have jobs are not an audience. 

The more specific you get the faster you will make sales.

12. If they haven’t bought. Often comes down to timing and trust.

You’re not only competing with other companies but also with everything else that’s going on in the prospects life. They might have a child on the way, tickets to a show, sickness in the family or a thousand of other issues… such as past experiences.

A person might have been burnt before and does not trust the internet much. They’ve only heard of you today and you might not be around next week. This is why staying in front of mind (with weekly emails, remarketing etc…) tends to bring a lot more sales down the road. 

Until next week,

Tom

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
  1. If you’re still looking for traction in your online course, I’d recommend starting with an affordable guide:

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  1. Want an expert to take over or help you with your marketing?

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