Yesterday concluded the magnificent and possibly final Black Friday Bundle.
In case you weren’t following along, there was a bundle of courses for sale by 11 copywriters and marketers, supposedly masters of persuasion and selling, myself included.
The bundle was capped at 349 copies (because scarcity, and because that’s what the last such bundle sold). But if you go to the finalized sales page right now, you will see…
“349 292 seats remaining”
… and you will hear a few lonesome crickets chirping, and a melancholy wind blowing through the trees.
Clearly, the bundle under-performed. What done it? And what does it mean for me, or you, if you want to do something like this in the future?
After every promo, I like to sit down and make a list of conclusions. I did so today. Here are 3 big ones:
#1. “Only two ways to make money…”
My friend Sam, who reads these emails, yesterday sent me a quote by Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape. Says Barksdale:
“There are only two ways I know of to make money. You can bundle, or you can unbundle.”
Whether it’s time to bundle or unbundle will depend, as all other things in business do, on where the market is, and what they’ve grown to expect.
“Bundle a buncha random copywriting courses at a discount” worked great at the start of this decade, during the corona and post-corona surge in interest for online side hustles or business opportunities, back when there were fewer copywriting courses and course creators on the scene than today.
Today, that basic approach is clearly no longer working.
Of course, bundles can still work.
I wrote just last week how I happily spent $495 on a bundle of courses. And earlier this year, a bunch of bundled trainings on AI in copywriting sold those now-impossible-seeming 349 copies.
In other words, a copywriting or marketing bundle can still work today if it has either 1) an exciting concept (the AI thing from earlier this year) or 2) a convincing reason why (eg. a clearance bundle due to the business shutting down, like that bundle I happily bought last week, though that was not about copywriting).
This Black Friday Bundle didn’t have either an exciting concept nor a convincing reason why, and given the fact that copywriting is no longer HOT, the bundle did as it did. And yet, my conclusion is…
#2. I should participate in more bundles
In spite of the milquetoast performance of this bundle, it was still a good deal for me.
I made a bit of money promoting the bundle directly. Not enough to pay for a house, but also not terrible for four emails and no obligations to deliver anything after the promo.
But much more important, I got 50+ new subscribers, most of those buyers of a $299 offer, and a few $598 buyers (who got both the front end and upsell).
At least some of those people are likely to spend thousands of dollars with me down the line.
That’s why, even though I recently wrote that promos featuring a bunch of affiliates make no sense for me to participate in, I’ve concluded I should do more of these bundles. The new subscribers and new buyers on my list make it worthwhile.
That said…
#3. I should have had an immediate offer for new buyers
I read this in a book before bed last night:
“Every touch point your prospect or customer has with your business should be monetized. Every page your customer lands on, every response to a support ticket, every action a prospect or customer takes (or doesn’t take) must be monetized. If not, you’re hemorrhaging money and it’s only a matter of time before you bleed out and die.”
I felt a little faint after I read this.
The fact is, I should have had a special offer for people as soon as they sign up, and a second offer after that, in the welcome email in which I told them they are in for Daily Email Habit, or in the delivery of the offer itself.
I should have, but I didn’t, and I still don’t.
The fact is, I am launching new offers, but it’s largely happening inside my Daily Email House community, and even there, behind the scenes.
Daily Email house is my free community where the mission is, “Use your email list to pay for a house.”
(Much more doable than you might think, since the monthly mortgage or rent payment is around $3k on average).
If you’d like to get inside this community, the front door is at the link below. But beware, because once you’re inside, one day, when you least expect it, I might make you an offer, one which you will be free to accept or reject.
If that doesn’t turn you off: