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Welcome to the L.A.U.N.C.H Newsletter.
We’re your buddy who explains what’s going on in the online business world.
And I mean a real buddy. Like, if your phone was plugged in charging at 15%…and our phone had 2%…we’d leave your phone plugged in. #realbuddy
We have another cracker for you today so let’s dive straight in….
L – Latest News
Brits To Kick GDPR To Touch
The UK Government has announced that it’s ditching GDPR regulations.
If you are into that sort of thing, you can read the official release here.
The principles driving GDPR are essential. Especially in a world where the tech giants have a front seat, access-all-areas pass to our lives.
It is fundamental in protecting people’s personal healthcare, finance, lifestyle, and intimate personal data.
The practical application of GDPR for small businesses and online marketers has been a nightmare.
A lot of annoying pop-ups and silly requirements for hairsplitting declarations that, in many cases, are unenforceable.
Well, the UK has had enough. So they’re kicking GDPR to the curb.
They want to simplify Data Protection.
Unfortunately, governments (not just the UK!) have a terrible track record with simplification.
The potential implication for us as online marketers is that we will need not just to comply with CCPA, CAN-SPAM, and GDPR but now some other UK Act.
The problem occurs when you try to draft a piece of legislation that governs a company like Facebook or Google while at the same time applying to a small business.
In our case a course creator or membership site owner targeting $1m to $10m a year.
I am sure they will try their best, but this is something to keep an eye on.
Twitter Goes Long
What an interesting couple of months for Twitter.
Elon offers to buy them (with some spare change he found down the back of the couch!)
Then he pulls out of the deal and plummets their share price, voicing concerns over the number of fake accounts.
All along, Twitter is still struggling to make profits on the scale of the other big tech companies.
All that aside, from a users perspective Twitter is a gold mine.
It is where all the really smart people hang out.
And they don’t just hang out, but they share what they do daily.
No platform holds a candle to Twitter when it comes to gaining knowledge, insight, and learning.
What’s more it’s by far and away the best platform to connect and interact with the top minds in any field.
Where other platforms are continuously coming up with new post formats to jump on the latest craze, Twitter has remained loyal to its roots.
Twitter favors text-based posts. Their last update bumped the limits from 180 to 240 characters per post.
Well, now they are about to GO LONG.
On June 22, 2022, Twitter announced that it was merging newsletter subscriptions into @TwitterWrite and releasing Twitter Notes.
Twitter Notes will allow people to write long-form content on Twitter.
I think this will be a massive addition to the platform. I learn so much from Twitter threads as it is, and I can’t wait to see how the Twitter community takes to Twitter Notes.
Virtual Events Defend Their #1 Title
Events are a crucial conversion tool in the course creator and membership site owners’ toolbox.
While webinars hit their peak during the pandemic and are now in decline. Virtual events are still going strong.
Event marketers expect that almost two-thirds of their future events will be virtual or hybrid.
Speaking to the big names in our industry their virtual events are cheaper to run, cheaper to fill and convert better than their IRL in person events.
This seems like a win-win-win to me.
Definitely something you should have on your radar if you don’t have them in your marketing mix.
Hopin is a virtual event hosting platform. The platform doesn’t get much attention in the knowledge commerce space but is massive in other industries.
Hopin have released a guide to hosting virtual events in 2022 and it is well worth a read.
You can get your copy here:
A – Awesome Swipe
I love simple opt-in pages.
People feel compelled to write loads of “stuff” to drive opt-ins and increase conversions.
Often refining the core promise and making it as attractive as possible in as few words as possible will get you a better result.
Last week when I was rooting around Ryan Levesque’s Quiz Funnel Workshop Launch I came across a secondary opt-in page.
This page was built specifically for JV Partners.
This is a great play by Ryan. It makes it easy for partners to explain a simple value proposition, “18 Proven Quiz Funnel Templates,” rather than a multi-part Workshop.
When people opt-in for the templates, they immediately get offered the Workshop. It’s like an upsell from one “free thing” to a higher value “free thing”.
It works best when the higher value “free thing” requires more input and effort from the requester, and there is a longer timeline to achieve the outcome.
If you can’t condense the reason, someone should opt-in to your lead magnet into a headline and 1-2 lines of text you will struggle to convert.
Some key takeaways:
- 18 – Use of number – makes it specific. 18 is an unusual number. This makes it seem more authentic.
- PROVEN – This speaks to the likelihood of success.
- TEMPLATES – Also speaks to likelihood of success. And it also decreases the perceived level of work required on behalf of the optee (optee – is that really a word?! It is now!)
- QUIZ FUNNEL – This opt-in page is targeted at people who are aware of the problem (I want more leads), aware of the solution (quiz funnels are suitable for lead generation), and possibly the product (I want to or I have launched a quiz funnel). As a result, I give Ryan a pass on having no transformation in his title.
- FREE – Notice the prominent use of the word FREE. Not only is it all caps it is also highlighted in orange
- BONUS CASE STUDIES: For people at this stage of awareness, finding out how other people have implemented their Quiz Funnels is extremely helpful. But guess what…. It is also a great way for Ryan to demonstrate how fantastic his coaching program and software are. This means he can sell and serve at the same time.
- CTA – Transformative CTA’s, in general, will convert better. Still, as there was no transformative promise in the headline or body, Get the Templates FREE!, rounds out the page nicely.
U – Uplevel Ads
AdEspresso is a Facebook, Instagram & Google Ad management platform. They simplify the ad creation, publication, and result reporting process. Definitely not for you if you are just getting started, but if you are looking to scale your adverting efforts and budget, then it is worth taking a look.
They have just released a blog post with 20 great examples of Instagram Ads.
Mission Possible! – Your Challenge, Should You Chose To Accept It
I love playing a game: How would I improve that ad?
Take 15 minutes.
- 3 minutes to scan all the ads
- 2 minutes to pick 2 ads to review
- 5 minutes review and improve the ads
One of the best frameworks for thinking about this is: AIDA
- A – Attention
- I – Interest
- D – Desire
- A – Action
Challenge yourself to find what they did well in each of the four areas and then redraft the ad based on the framework and what you know about the product and its end user.
If you were to play this game every day for 30 days your copy skills would be dramatically better.
N – Now Launching
Another friend of the L.A.U.N.C.H Newsletter, Ross Bridgeford, has just wrapped up his Live Energized Alkaline Diet Launch.
Watching someone selling a marketing or online business growth product is a great way to learn about launching. And, I think it is equally important to watch high-grossing launchers in other industries too.
Ross has built a large and loyal following.
47.4% of his traffic is direct. This means either traffic he or his JV’s send. 45.19% of his traffic comes from organic searches.
It looks like Ross spends $0 on paid advertising. Proof that you can build a big business online without running ads. (And if you have the patience!)
The remaining traffic all comes from Facebook. Proof that you don’t need to be on all the social platforms to build an online business either.
Some key takeaways:
- Pre-headers are valuable. Ross packs in 3 critical bits of info. It’s FREE. It’s on-demand – let’s people know it is pre-recorded, and they don’t need to attend live. The dates of the workshop. There is no need to list the specific dates, just the range so people can prepare.
- He uses a version of the primary promise + (without) headline and twists it positively. Get the result you want while making it easy and enjoyable.
- Ross immediately calls out one of the big frustrations – “yo-yo” and “stop-start” most people will connect with this as part of their journey.
- I don’t think he needs to repeat the headline in the body copy – “easy achievable lifestyle”.
- I think he misses a trick outlining the benefits of alkalinity. There is no transformation anywhere in this section. There is a big opportunity to up conversion rates on this page.
- “Click to Sign Up” is a lazy call to action. Include the outcome or transformation in your CTA for better results
- The below the fold section is strong. It would be stronger if it focused more on the transformation. It is primarily focused on the stuff of the workshop rather than what people’s lives will be like when they have completed the workshop. In saying that it does make me curious about what the 20% that will get me the greates results are and how I could make these habits automatic.
- By the way check out Atomic Habits. If you can work the principles of this book into your program you will get massive results for your audience.
C – Creator Central
Everyone Wants To Be Like……TikTok
Or my other favorite Mike >>>
Meta has announced that your Facebook feed will become much like TikTok.
They plan to overhaul the feed to make it content-based rather than friend-based.
This could herald a return to organic reach on Facebook, which would be a big thumbs up.
Likewise, Alphabet noted in their Q1 earnings report for YouTube that action on YouTube Shorts is through the roof.
They are adamant that there is nothing to worry about from TikTok.
This sounds a little like your drunk friend holding on to the bar for dear life at 2am in the morning, telling you they aren’t drunk…..
….or the politicians and bankers telling you the economy has never been stronger and that there is 0% chance of a recession, the day before the recession hits.
If you examine the layout of the YouTube home and feed pages, it is clear that YouTube is pushing shorts massively.
I don’t know how much of the popularity of YouTube Shorts is down to YouTuber’s desire to consume the content or YouTube’s ability to get shorts in the way of your eyeballs. Only time will tell.
Either way, even if you are not a fan of TikTok, you better pay attention to the format and how to gain traction on the platform. Because soon, no matter which platform you favor, everyone will be playing the TikTok game.
Speaking of Games
Want to understand how the different algorithms work?
Check out this awesome breakdown of how the algorithms for eight primary social media platforms work.
Socrates said that “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms”.
Similarly, the starting point of success on social is understanding the algorithms.
I love how this post breaks it down for each platform in an easy-to-read and understandable way.
H – Hot Take
“Experts tell you how they did it. A master will tell you how you should do it”
For every model you create understand that just because it worked for you or it got others a result, it may not work for everyone.
What works for one person may not work for everyone.
It is as important to teach people how to think through solving their problem as it is to give them a set of steps they blindly implement.
Everyone of your students is unique. They are all coming from a different place, they all have different goals.
Respect that by creating flexible frameworks and showing them where they can be bent and where they will break down.
What you do matters. Keep going. The world needs you.
Micheal
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