How I moved my pitch earlier and increased revenue 89%

Recently I made a small shift in my sales process that almost doubled the revenue of my core product. Literally, I made one tiny move (that I honestly didn’t think would make much of a difference) and saw a near 2X bump in cash, month in and month out.

What did I do? I moved my pitch earlier in my sales process. Way earlier!

My original autoresponder sales sequence

When someone opted in to my email list (for my business Recording Revolution) to access one of my lead magnets, they used to trigger the following sequence of events:

  1. They’d get taken to a “Thank you” page and given the PDF download.
  2. The next day, they received email 1 of about 30 in a pre-written sequence, a mixture of more free bonus content and pitches for my premium courses.
  3. On Day 3 of that sequence, I email out a registration link for a super awesome auto-webinar that has proven to be very popular in the past year.
  4. At the end of that webinar is a pitch for my core product, something called the “Radio Ready System.”

This webinar is the only place I offer the product.

  1. Sign up for carrot (100%)
  2. Taken to “Thank you” page, given PDF Download
  3. Email 1 (35% would open)
  4. Email 2 (32% would open)
  5. Email 3 – Link to webinar (30% would open)
  6. Sign up for webinar (7%)
  7. Attend webinar (3.2%)
  8. Get pitched product
  9. Buy product (70% of attendees)

$13,101 / month avg.

For every 1,000 people who opted into my list, about 300 people (30%) would actually open this email on Day 3. Roughly 70 people (or 7%) would click the webinar registration link in the email.

Of those who clicked, 42 would follow through and register and 32 people would actually attend the webinar. That usually averaged $13,101 per month in sales from Radio Ready System.

What would happen if I mentioned the webinar sooner?

Things were working fine, and sales of this product were coming in regularly, but I had some experience in the past of selling sooner and seeing results and I asked myself:

“Would more people attend the webinar and buy the Radio Ready System if they simply heard about it sooner than three days into my email sequence?”

It sounds crazy to anyone who’s made money with complicated email funnels, but it occurred to me that the absolute soonest I could offer it to someone who opts into my list is immediately after they opt in, on the “Thank you” page!

So I got rid of the old “Thank you” page that featured a giant “Download” button for the lead magnet and instead directed new subscribers to a minimally tweaked version of my webinar registration page.

Old “Thank you” page after opt-in

The only difference was at the top of the page I put: “Your PDF guide has been emailed to you. Watch this important video now…”

They still get the lead magnet they wanted emailed directly to them, but before they check it out I’m inviting them to the webinar, instead of three days later.

The new “Thank you” page is really the webinar registration page

The results were mindblowing (and instant)

So quick recap: All I’ve done at this point is simply take my awesome free webinar sign-up page and instead of emailing it to new subscribers on Day 3 of my funnel, I’ve shown it to them on Day 0: literally seconds after they opt in.

Same copy. Same webinar. Same pitch at the end.

Five months into this change we are now averaging $24,759 per month from the same product. That’s a whopping 89% bump in sales!

What’s fascinating (and somewhat obvious if you think about it) is that the reason for the increase in sales is simply because more people are attending the webinar and seeing the pitch.

For every 1,000 people who opt in for the lead magnet and immediately see the sign-up page, 200 register for the webinar (20% registration rate).

Of those 200 people who register, roughly 100 attend (50% attendee rate).

So for every 1,000 people who opt into my list, 100 attend the webinar and see the pitch. This is the new funnel:

  1. Sign up for carrot (100%)
  2. Taken to “Thank you” page, emailed PDF download, invited to webinar
  3. Sign up for webinar (20%)
  4. Attend webinar (10%)
  5. Get pitched product
  6. Buy product

$24,759 / month avg.

By shifting our webinar sign-up earlier we are now getting three times more attendees (10% vs 3.2%)! That’s 3X the people being shown the pitch than previously, hence the higher sales numbers.

And the best part? If they don’t register for the webinar on the spot after opting in, they get the emails anyway! So they still have an opportunity to sign up and get the free training (and eventually see my product pitch).

(Note: We segment out the people who DID attend the webinar.)

The best time to sell

If you have an online business that offers valuable free content upfront and a mouthwatering lead magnet (to get people on your email list) there’s an obvious takeaway here: Your new subscribers are most interested in you the second they opt in.

In that moment they have found you, enjoyed your free material, and are literally asking you for more by giving you their email address.

Given a few days and weeks, their interest will wane, their attention will shift, and their time will be spoken for. This is why email open rates are so high in the first day or two and then tend to drop off to their statistical norms. People get distracted and move on.

Let me put it bluntly: If you want to increase sales, pitch your product sooner in the relationship.

If your product is truly as good as you say it is, then it’s best for your new subscriber to offer it as soon as you can. It’s not overly sales-y, it’s serving them well by giving them what they want when they want it.

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