True story:
A few years back I wrote a ton of emails for the diet niche. I also wrote all the sales letters, Kindle book copy, and anything else related to the copywriting. Anyway, my business partner in it Jim Yaghi did the traffic and analytics and all that jazz.
When I was gathering Copy Slacker testimonials, he said:
“The list was being pitched the $20 product and we were converting the front-end at 40%. total list size vs sales volume. i have the emails about it somewhere here i could look through it and get some reminders. it was like magic bro i remember you were da bomb diggidy on that one!”
Goodie for me and who cares?
Well, think about this:
There are people who do much bigger numbers.
But 40% on the front end ain’t too shabby, either.
Still, here’s what we had going for us:
- Big rabid market that likes to buy
- Low cost product
- Tons of traffic
- Established brand via the author’s name, reputation, etc
- No-brainer offer/guarantee
I can tell you, with my Email Players newsletter I don’t get near those numbers.
And, I never will, because:
- Not nearly as rabid a market
- Higher priced product
- Continuity product
- Smaller market
- No guarantee
- And the list goes on
The point?
It’s futile to compare your numbers with anyone else’s.
In fact, if you ever get insecure after another marketer publicly (and figuratively) measures the size of their John Thomas by citing crazy numbers, ignore them. Their numbers have nothing to do with your offer and product and positioning, etc. John Thomas envy is a mind game you can’t win. There a lot of context and contingencies behind those numbers.
Speaking of that diet business:
With that 40% buyers on the front end, I deliberately used a special way of writing emails I learned from observing what Walt Disney used to do (in their classic animated movies) to get people looking forward to watching (and paying tickets to see) them. I have since used it in pretty much any other market I sell to or have sold to, as well.
Yes, it’s very simple.
But, very profitable, too.
And, it’s also very easily applied to email.
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Ben Settle
