You need the stuff to sell - an offer. You need people to sell it to - leads. Then you gotta get those people to buy it - sales.
they’ve got the problem to solve and the money to spend.
I have a lifetime average return on advertising of 36:1.
I liken my reading preferences to that of a child: short in length, simple in words, and with lots of pictures.
Here’s a life hack I stumbled on years ago. If you listen to an audiobook and read the physical book at the same time, you read faster and remember more.
My offer was simple. I’ll fill your gym in 30 days for free. You pay nothing. I pay for everything. I sell new members and keep the first 6 weeks of membership fees as payment. You get everything else. If I don’t fill your gym, I don’t make money. You spend nothing either way.
Six. Thousand. Dollars. I floated out of myself and watched the conversation happen.
“So after I call those leads, I’ll start running ads. I'll post our success stories in a few gym groups to get leads from there. And I’ll also tell the gyms I’ll pay $2000 cash for any gym they send that signs up. That gives us ad leads, content leads, and referral leads.”
Within the first 12 months, our average portfolio company 1.8x’s revenue and 3.01x’s profits. And we partner for the long haul, that's just the first 12 months. Our average portfolio company who's been with us between 12 and 24 months, 2.3x’s revenue and 4.7x’s profits.
First, we talk about what a lead actually is. If we want more of them, then we better be darn well sure we’re talking about the same thing.
a lead is a person you can contact. We want engaged leads: people who *show* interest in the stuff you sell. If someone gives their contact information on a website, that is an engaged lead. If someone follows you on social media and you can contact them, that is an engaged lead. If people reply to your email campaign, they are engaged leads.
Okay everyone. So here’s the ad account of a gym we just launched. Here are the ads we ran. This is how much we spent. We sent them to this page with this offer. You can see how many leads we got here. They got this many people scheduled. This many showed. This is how many they sold. This is how much the gym owner made. This is everything we did. If you want help setting something like this up, we’ll do the whole thing for free. And we only get paid off the sales you make. If that sounds fair, book a call.
It took maybe 13 minutes. Simple. I swapped the webinar out for this video and changed the headline:
“FREE Case Study: How we added 213 members and $112,000 in revenue to a small gym in San Diego.”
Sometimes, though, people want to know more about your offer before they buy. This is common for businesses that sell more expensive stuff. If that’s you, then you’ll often get more leads to engage by advertising with a lead magnet first. A lead magnet is a complete solution to a narrow problem. It’s typically a lower-cost or free offer to see who is interested in your stuff. And, once solved, it reveals another problem solved by your core offer.
Think of it like salty pretzels at a bar. If somebody eats the pretzels, they’ll get thirsty and order a drink. The pretzels have a cost, but when done right, the drink revenue covers the cost of the pretzels and nets a profit.
A person who pays with their time now is more likely to pay with their money later.
make your lead magnet so insanely good people will feel stupid saying no. And yes, this means you may have a few insanely valuable offers (even if some are free). But that’s a good thing. The business that provides the most value wins. Period.
Example: Imagine we help homeowners sell their homes. That is a broad solution. But what about the steps before selling a home? Owners want to know what their house is worth. They want to know how to increase its value. They need pictures. They need it cleaned. They need landscaping. They need minor things fixed. They need moving services. They may need staging. Etc. These are all narrow problems–great for lead magnets. We pick one of the narrow problems and solve it for free. And although it helps, it makes their other problem more obvious–they still have to sell their home.
Example: You run a speed test that shows their website loads at 30% below the speed it should. You draw a clear line between where they should be and how much money they lose by being below standards.
Example: You do a posture analysis and show them what their posture should look like. You draw a clear line to what their pain-free life would look like if their posture were fixed and how you can help.
Example: You do a termite inspection that reveals what happens when the bugs eat their home. If they do have termites, you can get rid of them for cheaper than the cost of… another home. If they don’t, they can pay you to prevent the termites from coming to begin with! You can sell ‘em either way. Win-win!
Example: You hook them up to your faster server and show their website loading at lightning speed. They get more customers from your faster load times. If they want to keep it, they need to keep paying you.
Example: You give a free adjustment for their bad posture and they experience relief. To get permanent benefits, they must buy more.
Example: Food, cosmetics, medicine, or any other consumables. Consumables, by nature, have limited uses and solve recurring problems... with recurring use. So single serving, “fun sized,” etc. samples are great lead magnets. It’s how Costco sells more food than other stores–they give out samples!
A free drug sample is a leaf magnet. They can afford to give a ‘hit’ away because once people try it, they’re hooked. If anything, like a drug dealer, you’d wanna give the strongest ‘hit’ first.
Example: This book. I help you get to $1,000,000+ per year in profit. Then you’ll have new problems we can help you solve, and scale from there.
Example: You give away a free wood sealant for a garage door. But the sealing process requires three different coats to protect from all weather conditions. I do the first one free, explain how it only gives partial coverage, and offer the other two in a bundle.
Example: You give away free finance courses, guides, calculators, templates, etc. They are so valuable people really can do it all themselves. But, they also reveal the time, effort, and sacrifice of doing it all. So you offer financial services to solve all that.
Try and get a lead magnet that does all three: reveal a problem, give them a taste of the solution, and show it as a small piece of the total package.
Ex: I give away a spreadsheet or dashboard that gives a gym owner all their relevant business stats, compares them to industry averages, then gives them a rank.
Ex: I give away a mini course for gyms on how to write an ad.
Ex: I run gym owner’s ads for free for thirty days.
Ex: I sell a book for gym owners called Gym Launch Secrets.
With three different types of lead magnets and four ways to deliver them, that's up to twelve lead magnets that solve a single narrow problem.
David Ogilvy said, “When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents of your (advertising) dollar.” improving the headline, name, and display of your lead magnet can 2x, 3x, or 10x your engagement. Here’s what you do next- you test.
if you have any following at all, you can run polls like these. You don't need a lot of votes to get a directional idea. If you can’t do that, make a post on every platform and ask people to respond with a ‘1’ or a ‘2’, then count ‘em up. If you still can’t even do that, then just message people and ask
You can see 2x, 3x, and even 4x+ increases in take rates and consumption simply by making it easier to consume.
My book $100M Offers has a near perfect ¼, ¼, ¼, ¼ split between ebooks, physical books, audiobooks, and videos (free on Acquisition.com). Making the book available in multiple formats is the easiest way I know to get 2-3-4x the amount of leads for the same work. If I only made it available in one format, I’d miss out on the 3-4x the people who wouldn’t have read the book otherwise.
Give Away The Secrets, Sell The Implementation
The goal is to provide more value than the cost of your core offer before they’ve bought it.
Once the leads consume the lead magnet, some of them will be ready to buy or learn more about your offer. This is the time to give a Call To Action. Good CTAs have two things: 1) what to do and 2) reasons to do it right now.
Good CTAs have clear, simple, and direct language. Not “don’t delay” but instead “call now.”
Ethical scarcity - Maybe you’re limited by customer service, onboarding, inventory, time slots per week.
Ex: “The most convenient class times fill up fast. Call now to get the one you want.”
“I can only handle five people per week, so if you want it solved soon, do xyz…”
“We only printed one batch of shirts and will never reprint this design, get one so you don’t regret missing out forever…”
Urgency - the less time people have, the faster (more urgent) they tend to act.
Ex: “Our July 4th promotion ends Monday at midnight, so if you want it, take action now.”
“Our Black Friday promotion ends at midnight. There are only four hours left. Get it while the gettin’s good.”
“Through Friday, I’ll also throw in a free hat to anyone who buys more than three books. So if you wanna look slick in an Acquisition.com hat, buy now.”
I put time limits on bonuses. I like to make a handful of valuable bonuses and rotate them each week.
Harvard ran an experiment showing that people were more likely to let someone cut in line if they only gave a reason.
This is where experienced business owners beat newbies. You attract more customers because your lead magnet is more valuable than other people’s. Oftentimes, by a lot.
“The world belongs to those who can keep doing without seeing the result of their doing.”
I pulled out my phone and checked my bank account. $51,128.13. I let out a small sigh of relief. It’s amazing how years of work and saving can fit into such a tiny screen.
The application stared at me - How will a Harvard MBA help your short and long-term goals?
I spent three days trying to answer it. At the end of the third day, I saw the truth - it wouldn’t. $150,000 in loans and two years without income wouldn’t help me start a business. At least not as much as starting a business and taking two years to figure it out. I could make the same amount by the time I graduate and skip the debt.
I set up Impetus Group LLC. Check. I set up a business banking account. Check. I set up a merchant account to process payments. Check.
knew. “Hey, do you know anyone who’s trying to get into shape? I'm training people for free for twelve weeks. On top of that, I'll make them a custom nutrition plan and grocery list. All they have to do is donate to a charity of their choice and let me use their testimonial.”
after twelve weeks of the “pay a charity period,” I asked them to pay me instead.
Once they got results, I asked them to send their friends over.
If this business sounds straightforward, that’s because it was. I emailed clients their plans and they texted me the questions they had along the way.
So if you’re starting, you don’t need a lot. All you need is a tax ID, a bank account, a way to take payments, and a way to communicate with people.
Pick the platform you have the most contacts on. Phone, email, social media, mail, carrier pigeon, etc. It doesn’t matter.
Now, reach out to 100 of them per day with your personalized messages. You’ll call, text, email, message, send a postcard. And you will reach out to them up to three times. Once per day for three days* or until they respond. Whichever comes first.
*Once per week with physical mail.
Ex: Saw you just had a baby! Congrats! How is the baby doing? How are you?
Reply using the A-C-A framework:
• Acknowledge
Ex: Two kids. And you’re an accountant…
Compliment
Ex: …Wow! Supermom! So hardworking! Managing a full-time career and two kids...
Ask
Ex: Therapy/Life Coaching: …Do you get time for yourself?
Ex: Fitness/Weight Loss: ...Do you have time to get workouts in?
Ex: Cleaning Services: ...Do you have anyone who helps you keep the house tidy?
Does anyone you like come to mind? (Pause if on the phone) …and if they say no…Haha, well…does anyone you hate come to mind? (ha) This helps break any awkwardness.
There’s an important feature here. We’re not asking them to buy anything. We’re asking if they know anyone.
Since you didn’t ask them to buy anything, you don’t come off as pushy. Some people will show interest in your stuff. Some will refer you to those who might. Some will do both.
If you ask for a referral, get a three-way introduction. My favourite way to do this is to grab the customer’s phone, take a picture of the two of is, then text that picture to the referral and your own number. If I’m virtual, screenshot a video call and do the same thing. If you can’t do that then at least get a three-way conversation going with them initiating it.
“What would I have to do to make it worth it for you to continue?”
Once people start referring, start charging. When that happens, swap out ‘… free…’ in the script above to ‘80% off for the next five’. Then ‘60% off for the next five.’
Feel free to keep raising it by 20% every five until you find your sweet spot.
Once you’ve given value for a while, or see who wants value, probe your list with Dean Jackson's timeless "9-word email" template”
“You get all these weird messages from strangers. People threaten your family. Are you still happy you became famous?”
“If getting weird messages and hate from people I don't know is the price I have to pay to make the impact I want to have, I’d pay that price any day of the week.”
If someone is making more money than you, they are better at the game of business in some way.
More money means you more happy. Just kidding - it won’t do that. But it’ll give you the resources to remove stuff you hate.
Topics:
a) Far Past: The important past lessons in your life. Give them the story without the scar.
b) Recent Past: Do stuff, then talk about what you did (or what happened).
c) Present: Write down ideas at the exact time they come to you.
d) Trending: Go where the attention is. Look at what’s trending right now and make stuff about it.
e) Manufactured: This costs the most time and effort since you have to create the experience versus talking about one you already had. But, it can have the biggest payouts. Example manufactured experience: I lived on $100 for a month. Here’s how.
Headlines:
I’d rather give you the timeless principles that make great headlines. And, there’s no greater headline creator than “the news.” So let’s study them.
a) Recency:
Example: People pay attention to something that happened an hour ago more than a year ago.
b) Relevancy:
Example: Nurses pay more attention to stuff that affects nurses compared to stuff that affects accountants.
c) Celebrity:
Example: Normally, we wouldn’t care what another human has for breakfast every day. But if it’s Jeff Bezos, we do. Since he’s a celebrity, many people care.
d) Proximity:
Example: A house on fire across the country doesn’t get your attention. If it’s your neighbor, it sure does. Make it as close to home as possible.
e) Conflict:
Example: Pineapple vs no Pineapple on pizza? Conflict!
d) Unusual:
Example: Think of a six-fingered man at the old-time circuses. If it’s outside of the norm, people pay more attention.
e) Ongoing:
Example: If someone goes into labor, people want updates every ten minutes because anything could happen.
How good your content is depends on how often it rewards your audience in the time it takes them to consume it. Think value per second. For example, the same person who gets bored three seconds into a ten-second video may also binge a 900-page book. And that same person may binge a television series for eight hours straight. So there is no such thing as too long, only too boring.
the give : ask ratio has been well-studied. Television averages 13 minutes of advertising per 60 minutes of air time. That means 47 min are dedicated to ‘giving,’ and 13 min are dedicated to ‘asking’. That’s roughly a 3.5:1 ratio of giving to asking. On Facebook, it’s roughly 4 content posts for every 1 ad on the newsfeed. television and Facebook are mature platforms. They care less about growing their audiences and care more about making money from them. So they give less and ask more.
I’ve got a slight tweak on the traditional give-ask strategy that puts it on steroids: Give until they ask.
“I’m looking for 5 (specific avatar) to help achieve (dream outcome) in (time delay). The best part is, you don’t have to (effort and sacrifice). And if you don’t get (dream outcome), I will do two things (increase perceived likelihood of achievement): 1) I will hand you your money back 2) I will work with you until you do. I do this because I want everyone to have an amazing experience with us and because I’m confident I can deliver on my promise. If that sounds fair, DM me/book a call/comment below/reply to this email/ etc.”
Switch from “How to” to “How I.” From “This is the best way” to “These are my favorite ways”. When you tell a stranger what to do, it's hard to avoid coming off preachy or arrogant. This helps avoid it.
I like to measure my audience size and speed of growth monthly.
If someone won’t speak at your funeral, you shouldn’t care about their opinion while you’re alive.
Acquisition.com’s mission is to make business accessible to everyone.
This comes in handy for personal subject lines on emails, the first few messages in chat, or the first few sentences someone hears. Even if someone doesn’t know you, they will appreciate the time you took to research them before contacting them.
Pro Tip: 50% Email Response Bump Up
I took our cold outreach template and re-wrote it below a third grade reading level. The results: 50% more leads responded. I recommend running all scripts and messages through a free reading level app.
This comes in handy for personal subject lines on emails, the first few messages in chat, or the first few sentences someone hears. Even if someone doesn’t know you, they will appreciate the time you took to research them before contacting them.
I like to email first. “Hey I’m calling you to follow up about my email.” We either get a response or a real reason to reach out again. We win either way.
After you’ve attempted to contact them multiple times, multiple ways, wait three to six months. Then, do it again.
Let’s say you send 100 personalized emails per day. From there, thirty percent open our email. From there, 10% reply showing interest. That means we’d have three engaged leads (30% x 10% = 3%). The numbers will vary but shoot for 3% of your list turning into engaged leads.
If an investor can buy it from you without worrying your business will stop getting customers if you leave….your business is far more valuable.
Advertising is the only casino where, with enough skill, you become the house.
I start with the entire world as my audience (haystack) then narrow down to get a higher percentage of engaged leads (needles). First, I pick a platform that contains my ideal audience. Second, I use whatever targeting methods that exist within the platform to find them. Third, I craft my ad in a way that repels anyone else. Finally, I tell whoever’s left standing to take the next step.
Modern platforms will make lookalike audiences for you so long as you upload their minimum list size. If it’s not big enough, add your warm reach out list.
lifetime gross profit of a customer (LTGP) with the cost to acquire a customer (CAC)
First, you reach out to people who know you. Then, you start making free content. Then you start reaching out to people who don’t know you. Then you start running paid ads.