Let’s talk about the ONE main thing you need to change about your offers in order to get lots more attention and interest in them – whether they’re high-ticket offers or freebies like masterclasses, opt-in offers/PDFs/lead magnets, free workshops and trainings.
(Even though I’m not a huge fan of all the freebies because I think they lengthen the sales cycle unnecessarily, reduce your leads and actually “hide” and bury your paid offer under too much other messaging.)
I used to post all the time about all kinds of things I was offering and get very little interest. And it was really frustrating because I knew I had incredible information to share, I thought I communicated well about all of it, and I couldn’t understand why more people weren’t interested in signing up.
Now, as I get plenty of interest pretty much every time I announce something (whether it’s my high-ticket offer or the occasional free presentation that I’m planning to do in my FB group), I see what I was missing before.
It’s actually very simple:
I wasn’t talking about the BURNING PROBLEMS that my ideal clients really wanted solved.
I know everyone talks about this idea of speaking to burning problems. But very few really understand how to APPLY this idea to concrete examples.
Here’s one:
I once offered a workshop on the topic of “How to Get Your Ideal Client to Notice You.” Interest was low. I think I did the whole livestream without a single viewer. I cringe thinking about it now.
I thought that was a burning problem…but it actually wasn’t.
It’s CLOSE…but it’s not the thing that “keeps my ideal client up at night” (to use a trite phrase).
Much more in line with a burning problem would be something like, “How to Sign Up One High-Ticket Client Per Week Over Messenger.”
(I’ve presented several times now on variations of that topic, and I’ve always gotten a lot of interest. The last time I did it, I only gave my FB group 25 minutes’ notice and many dozens stopped by to watch and/or leave comments and questions! I also got several leads and a new client as a result.)
P.S., you can watch that video here if you’re interested.
Can you see the difference between these two topics?
Not being able to sign up high-ticket clients easily and/or with regularity (or at all) is a burning problem. Many people have been beating their heads against that problem for years. In some cases it may literally “keep them up at night” (it did me when I was struggling in my business).
People spend years and their life savings trying to figure this one out. And if they don’t figure it out, the consequences are dire and can literally change the course of their lives (forcing them back into jobs they hate, having to move into their parents’ basements because they don’t have money, etc.).
But the same is not true of trying to get their ideal client to “notice” them (which was my original topic that didn’t get interest). It’s not that it never crosses anyone’s mind, but it’s not a burning problem in the way that NOT GETTING ACTUAL LEADS AND CLIENTS is.
Getting people to “notice” you is only the very first step towards what most business owners ACTUALLY want: clients, money, and the peace of mind that flows from those things.
So it makes total sense that when I’m talking about (or promising to talk about) the details of how to get floods of leads and clients, there are always some people who pay attention, sign up, attend, etc. That topic will NEVER get old because there will always be people who haven’t figured out how to solve this particular problem.
There are so many other examples of not having your topic speak to what your ideal client ACTUALLY wants.
I recently saw an invitation to a workshop on “How to Release and Move Past Your Inner Blocks.” The person offering it seemed to be a personal development coach.
That’s not solving a burning problem, either!
No human obsesses, stays up at night, or throws years of blood, sweat, tears, and money at the problem of “moving past their inner blocks.” The average human doesn’t even comprehend what “inner blocks” means. And even the sophisticated human who has actually studied inner blocks still often reverts to his/her reptilian brain when embroiled in a painful problem.
All that is to say, they obsess over the problems that “inner blocks” CAUSE.
Like feeling offended and wronged for years by someone in your life, replaying old scenes from hurtful moments, not being able to forgive, and having all of this consume enormous amounts of time and energy.
That’s just one example that comes to mind from my work with several clients in this subject area.
(FYI, the phrase “how to forgive and let go” gets 100-1,000 searches per month on Google. By contrast, the phrase “how to release inner blocks” gets 0-10 searches per month. I just checked for fun.)
What if that coach instead offered a workshop on how to finally let go of the angry feelings towards someone in your life that have been stealing your happiness and joy for years?
How much more interest would that get?
(The difference in Google results above gives us a preview.)
I had a colleague in a mastermind once who was a self-love coach for women and was constantly stressed out and frustrated because she got very little interest in her workshops and programs about self-love.
Various members of the group tried to help her see the point I’m making in this post: that “lack of self-love” isn’t a burning problem that keeps people up at night.
It took her a while to come on board, but she eventually realized that her business might blow up if she would shift her messaging to speak specifically to women who wanted to attract a loving soulmate relationship and had been beating their heads against that challenge for years or decades. After all, for many single women, more self-love solves that challenge as they transform from the inside out and attract better relationships.
This coach created a funnel and offer around attracting a soulmate.
She now makes a million dollars a year. Because she’s offering to solve the actual problem that’s top-of-mind for her ideal client.
If your topic talks about solving a very painful problem, you should always get at least some attention and interest for your offers.
Exactly how much interest you get will depend on the size of the audience you’re advertising to, of course. If you have 0 followers/friends on FB, for example, of course nobody will see what you’re offering. But even with a small following, you might be surprised at your results. I was making $20K/month when there were only about 500 people in my Facebook group, a few hundred on my email list, and about 3K on my profile/friends list. And I was making $5K/month with even lower numbers.
For further details on how to think through your offers and make sure you’re solving a painful problem, I suggest checking out my free video, “How to Sell Help That Your Ideal Client Doesn’t Know They Need.” I walk through many more examples and show you a simple one-page framework for thinking this through.
Positioning your offer with a compelling outcome, as well as posting content about that outcome, are two of the major keys to getting 4-8 clients per month (or more!) from your social media efforts.
And they’re two of the main things that I go over with a fine-toothed comb with clients in my 30-day 1-on-1 intensive. Just DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in that program and we’ll chat to see if it’s a fit – I’m enrolling clients for it right now. (More information on the program is available here.)
I’d also like to invite anyone to comment on this Facebook post who has an offer that they thought should have gotten more attention/interest, and I can respond in the thread below with some thoughts on how to position it as a more compelling problem.
Please just tell me the title or topic in a few words… or one sentence at most.
Looking forward to the discussion. 🙂