I received a great question today from someone who was uncertain about pitching a high-ticket offer directly in posts, as the Strong Method™ normally dictates.
This person wondered if perhaps it might be better to pitch a free training as their call-to-action at the end of a post, and use that free training to build trust and authority.
They thought that perhaps pitching a paid offer directly – and getting sales that way – only worked for people who were more “established” and already had a “captive” audience.
This is SUCH a great question and I had the wrong answer to it for so long – I really want to share my experience here!
What I want to emphasize is that using the method of pitching an offer directly in content is precisely what GAINED me a “captive” audience and helped me GET “established.”
Back when I thought I had to pitch something “intermediate” (i.e. a free training video) rather than my actual paid offer, I got WAY fewer clients (like 10X fewer) – and, also, not very many people viewing my free trainings!
Because here’s the thing.
When I had free trainings that I thought would build all the trust and authority that people needed to buy from me, I ended up putting ALL my efforts into getting people to check out the trainings.
(I usually had one free training/webinar at a time that I was trying to promote)
And because all my life-changing insights were buried in that free training video, I found myself holding back those insights in my written content.
(and why wouldn’t I? – I wanted people to sign up for the training, and surely they wouldn’t if I gave the insights away publicly!)
So instead I found myself writing vague, hype-y, teasing type content – just talking about how bad people’s problems were and how much insight would be available to them if they would just sign up for the free training.
The irony is that that teasing way of marketing works better for MORE established people – because they have an audience who has already tried their paid stuff and written testimonials about how it works, so those people spread the word for them and tell others that their free trainings are likely to be valuable.
Turns out that I as a virtually unknown person, with few testimonials/results, writing and writing and writing about how my free training was valuable didn’t magically make people believe it! Guh.
And so I got very few signups to the free trainings, and of course even fewer asking to work together after watching them (since the only way to receive an offer to work with me in a paid context was to watch the free training and stay until the end).
Your free training might be the best thing on earth, but if you can’t get people to watch it then it’s totally useless as a client attraction/closing tool.
On the other hand, once I got the God-sent idea to actually promote my paid offer at the end of my content, I instantly got clear on what would need to be in the posts in order to get the DMs from people actually wanting to buy.
Of course – my best, most life-changing insights would need to be in the posts! You know, the stuff I was previously saving for the free trainings.
And I would no longer need to plead and convince people to check out my insights in my free trainings and learn how I could help them, because those insights were freely given and floating right into their feeds!
Now, at this point in my business, I do actually offer the occasional free training (you can see some of the videos in my FB group and on this website!) – but I do them to supplement and give more detail on the points I cover in my posts.
Rarely do I use them as my sole call-to-action. Most often, I will pitch my paid program and THEN I might mention a free training that goes into even more depth than my post did, just in case some people want to research me/my method a bit more before reaching out about the paid program.
And now I have a nice little audience of people who’ve grown to realize how valuable my stuff is – precisely because I started making offers to paid programs and was thus able to gather plenty of client results and testimonials, and because I gave away real insights in posts that could easily be shared/have friends tagged in comments etc.
And because I have that audience, it’s now easier to get people to watch my trainings because they have an expectation of value and know it won’t be a waste of their time.
Interesting, right? So often the “right” answer (or the one that will get the best result) is the opposite of what we’d expect.
Making paid offers in posts and giving your best value in posts turns out to make far more sense for people who are “new.”
And saying “hey I’m doing this free training, it’s gonna be valuable” turns out to make far more sense for people who are more “established.”
I know that’s the opposite of what I initially thought, and I’m so glad I switched my strategy! 🙂
Does this make sense? Share any thoughts or reactions in the comments of the FB version of this post!