Selling Like A Dude Part 2: The Experiment
All right, all right. Let’s get to it. If you missed Part 1 of this series, go back and read that first so you understand the context of Selling Like A Dude.
The experiment started in May 2020 when I decided to test my theory that I was overcomplicating my sales process. (Otherwise known as sales funnels.)
At that time, I was successfully selling my digital products with automated emails dripped out over weeks and months, but I had a hunch that I could have even better results if I just sold right away. Before the emails even started dripping out.
Specifically, I wanted to charge for my “freebie” instead of giving it away for free.
I can practically hear you gasping for air as you read that.
I know. How dare I?! The nerve. I must be some kind of monster.
Instead of the tried-and-true sales funnel that looked like this:
- Create oodles of free content to organically attract traffic to website and post it all over social media to “engage”
- Offer lead magnet [freebie] in exchange for email address
- Send emails of more free content to woo and impress subscriber so they keep opening emails
- Eventually make offer for paid services and hope like hell a few people purchase
I wanted to do this:
- Run paid ads to cold traffic (aka strangers on the internet) that had never heard of me before
- Tell them how my PDF could solve their problem in that ad
- Send them to a checkout page to purchase that PDF instead of giving it away for free
- Further engage and connect with them via email AFTER they had established themself as an action taker by purchasing the freebie-that-was-no-longer-free
- Invite them to go to second base with me in my other paid programs if it was a good fit for them
See what’s going on here?
If The Experiment worked, I was going to be using the proceeds of the $10 PDF to pay for the ads...making them basically free.
(As opposed to spending lots of cash money on ads to “build my list” without knowing if they were converting into sales, which is what most women are doing online.)
Ok, this is where I need to digress once again into the ultra-non-PC gender stereotyping that is really the central theme of our entire conversation for a minute.
Remember what I told you sparked this realization in Part 1?
I told my not-to-be-named internet marketing colleague that I was going to create some ads campaigns that linked directly to a checkout page instead of an opt-in that gave away my lead magnet for free, she told me with a totally straight face,
“That only works for men.”
As if this was a fact and she was just reporting the news.
Whoa. Well, challenge accepted, my friend!
But seriously, WTF?
Why do we believe this story that men can effectively close a sale by marketing to strangers on the internet but women need to earn the attention of their audience and build trust and rapport first?
Bullshit. We don’t have to.
Does it help create raving fans and long term customers when we build trust and rapport with them?
Yes! Of course! That’s a given.
But is it a prerequisite for making paid offers or asking for the sale?
Nope. It sure isn’t.
From this point forward, let’s question everything you *think* you know about how to grow your business using online marketing and make more sales so you can create those long-term, happy customers.
One commonly held belief is that you shouldn’t start paying for ads until you’ve grown your email list and made sales organically, first.
Again, I call bullshit.
As a whole, dudes don’t feel like they need to earn the opportunity to invest money in their business, nor do they feel like their time is worthless.
Because that’s what the core belief is, right?
You should spend your time grinding out your marketing efforts with months (and in some cases years) of effort instead of spending your money for leads by running ads.
Ladies, why do we tend to feel like spending our time is less expensive than spending our money?!
*face palm*
That's definitely not Selling Like A Dude. And I have been so guilty of falling into the same trap, so don't think for one minute I haven't DIY'd myself away from making money.
But now I'm writing this email so clearly there's been some cha-cha-changes over here. ;)
All right, all right. Let’s get back on track with The Experiment.
Basically, I decided to get way more serious about running ads instead of sporadically trying them with no metrics tracking and wasting my money.
Like I said, I wanted to make sure they were self-liquidating, which means I wanted to know that if I was giving Mark Zuckerberg $1 I was getting at least $1 back.
(Sidebar: When I had run ads in the past, it was always with the goal of getting email subscribers and I hadn’t been diligent about tracking if those subscribers turned into paying customers or not. So my paid ads inconsistency was totally my own fault.)
This time I was going for immediate results and it felt great to have a plan and some defined metrics ($$) to measure success.
I allocated $1000 for this experiment, which means I was willing to invest $1000 in the name of figuring out how to sell to strangers on the internet who had never heard of me before.
Turns out I was way off on that dollar figure, which you’ll hear all about in Part 3.
Here’s what I was committed to tracking and what it was going to tell me:
- How many people engaged with my ad by watching a video, commenting, or clicking the link. This would tell me if my messaging was resonating.
- How many people saw the offer versus how many purchased it. If a lot of people clicked the link to the checkout page but didn’t buy, that would tell me the messaging was on point but the offer wasn’t compelling.
Why do I tell you this?
Well, for one, I’m trying to be thorough so you understand why I chose to structure my little experiment the way that I did.
Perhaps more importantly, though, I’m getting lots of insights as I recap it that I want to bring to light.
One of those insights is the power of validation that paid traffic can give you for your business.
Again, I think this is a masculine/feminine thing.
Masculine: “I’ll throw some money at this thing and figure out if it’s valuable for people.” (low/no attachment to outcome)
Feminine: “I’ll spend a lot of time on this and see if people think I’m valuable.” (insanely personal attachment to outcome and worthiness)
Ok, I’m generalizing and using broad strokes on that one but I think you can see the truth of it.
When you’re Selling Like A Dude, you’re letting the data drive your decisions, and you can get a shit load of data by spending a few bucks on ads and testing out your messaging, website copy, sales copy, or offer.
Getting a whole lot of (Paid) traffic and some numbers to analyze can tell you in just a few days if what you’re doing is working or not.
Again, I feel like I have to talk about this insight because you might be in the same boat as most of my members in UPLEVEL and Membership Magic who absolutely agonize over choosing a niche.
You would think the future of the entire species hinges on choosing the “right” niche.
I hear it all the time, “I just don’t know if people in that niche will pay for __.”
Well how about ponying up $50 to run some ads this week and find out? #validation #sellinglikeadude
We can isolate pretty quickly if your lack of sales is a niche problem, an offer problem, or a messaging problem just based on the data that getting a lot of traffic will show.
Pro tip: It’s usually the messaging that needs to get tweaked just a bit. Quit changing your niche!
But to get those insights quickly, we have to start thinking AND selling like a dude, my friend. That’s why I’m writing this super lengthy and meandering recap.
Am I saying you have to start running ads to have a successful business?
Not necessarily, although I would be curious about what’s holding you back. Is it the belief that you’re not ready?
If so, ask yourself what a guy would do to get ready.
I know, I know, that whole gender stereotype theme is getting a little tired, but it brings up some shit, am I right?
“When you want some rice for dinner, do you plant a field or do you go to the store?”
Read that again. I'll wait.
I can’t remember what marketing podcast this came from, but it’s a quote that has stuck with me for years.
The context of the conversation was organically building your email list to sell to [planting a field] versus running paid ads to build your email list [going to the store].
But I’m a monster, remember? So I say do both. Buy rice for today's food prep while your crop grows in the field. I’ll teach you how. ;)
(Never not talking about food around here or making weird food analogies. Never.)
All right, let’s land this plane now that you know what The Experiment (aka Selling Like A Dude) entailed:
- Charge for my PDF Freebie instead of giving it away for free
- Figure out how to run a somewhat decent Facebook ad to sell that PDF to strangers
- Validate/tweak my messaging and offer based on the results of the ad
- Maybe even get lucky enough to make enough $ to offset the ad costs
Are you wondering how it went?
I admit, I was pretty surprised, myself.
Stay tuned for Part 3: The Results up next along with an invitation to implement this whole system yourself using my Ads Like A Boss step-by-step training where I’ll be teaching exactly how to Sell Like A Dude and build your first profitable ads campaign in real time right along with me.
Let's GO, my friend!
