Today I was on Facebook — don’t ask why — and I saw a post from a dude whose email list I’ve been on for the past two years.
The dude was announcing that he’s shutting down his info publishing business and that he’s making all his courses available in one heavily discounted bundle, which will presumably go away some time soon.
About 90 seconds later, I had entered in my credit card details and paid the dude $500 for this heavily discounted bundle.
Point being:
Discounting works great — IF people already value what you’re selling at the full value.
The dude above has been emailing for years, practically every day.
I didn’t read all his emails, but I read a good number.
He has been building up the case for buying his various courses.
He made the case over and over for the value of knowledge inside… he showed results that people who were applying this knowledge were getting… he kept digging and prodding into soft spots in my flesh, making me suspect that I’m missing out on something really important.
I grew to believe what the dude was saying, and I grew to want what he was selling.
My “no thank you” defenses were good enough to resist his sales pitches while I thought I still had time, while the offer was basically “Get started today OR tomorrow OR the day after if tomorrow doesn’t work.”
But once this became a last-chance matter, and once there was also a significant discount over what these courses had been selling for previously, I saw myself involved in an instant, almost involuntary action to pay the guy $500.
So discounting can work great.
As can launches, promos, and special offers.
But none of them will work unless people in your audience have grown to want the thing you have, and have grown to value it above and beyond the offer you will be making on it.
How do you get people to that point?
Well, I told you above.
Email every day, or practically every day. Make the case, over and over, for people buying what you’re selling. Tease, provide proof, and dismiss alternatives.
Do this over and over, and then, when you make a special deal and you give a deadline for it — you don’t have to close down your entire business, or bundle all your stuff for $500 — people will buy, instantly.
And on that note, let me remind you:
The price for my Daily Email Habit service is going up this Thursday at 12 midnight PST, from a modest $30/month to the Martin Shkreli-like $50/month.
Daily Email Habit helps you start and stick with consistent daily emailing, so you can gradually move people to wanting what you have to sell, and so you can get them to value it at the price you sell it for.
If you wanna get started today, and start moving people to where you want them to go, before the price goes up: