The D.O.E. Email

That's right --

We're getting tactical today.

It occurred to me that my $10m Case Study is quite "strategic", so I wanted to bring you something practical.

That's right - ya boy can do detail too!

Let's go...

Calling B.S. on Olly Richards

Recently, I've been in the market for a new wealth manager

Running one set of company and personal finances is one thing...

But having taken equity positions in 7 different companies last year, I've realised that my sophistication level around more complex tax planning is only marginally better than a chimpanzee.

An accident looking for a place to happen...

So anyway...

I asked around some friends and groups, got some recommendations, followed by a bunch of phone calls with prospective money managers.

Poor guys...

Talking to me must have been the low point of their week.

My problem is that I'm super skeptical of the entire managed finance industry, and I don't think I do a good job of hiding it.

(Isn't the whole industry just designed to legally relieve enterprising people of various percentages of their hard-earned dough?)

Anyway...

It occurred to me after a week of phone calls, that these guys did get one thing out of me...

A very long list of objections!

And the smart ones among them could quite easily craft a highly-compelling sales pitch aimed directly at entrepreneurs like me, addressing every single objection and stating why I'm full of s*** and should sign with them.

The point is...

This was a good reminder that people in the services game spend a lot of time interacting with clients.

Whereas us internet people tend to hind away behind emails, sales pages, and customer support people.

This makes for nicely automated businesses.

But it also means that most online educators' sales processes are far less effective than they could be.

But wait!

Isn't the whole point of online business that you don't want to be on the phone all day long?

Indeed it is.

And that's why today's newsletter is all about a kick-ass, completely passive way to:

Grab "objections" by the horns, rattle them around, knock some sense into them... and add 12-18% to your bottom line on autopilot.

(At StoryLearning.com, our lift from this was 15%. But I'm adding a range here, because... well, it's obvious why.)

The point here isn't to get on the phone.

The point is to create 1-to-1 level energy around the humble email, so that an objection turns into an opportunity.

HOW THE D.O.E. EMAIL WORKS

Let me jump straight to the punchline.

Then I'll step back and give you the "why".

What you're going to do is this...

Here's what you see here:

1. This is a "Why didn't you buy?" email that gets sent at the end of a sales cycle. (e.g. after 3-4 weeks)
2. But instead of asking for a written response, the email contains links. Each link corresponds to a known objection.
3. You ask them to click the link that matches their reason for not buying.
4. When they click the link, they're taken to a landing page
5. On that page is a piece of content and offer that directly address that specific objection...

What I've shown you here is a D.O.E. -- Dynamic Objection Email.

Liking it much?

First, it's an interactive process, so they're more engaged than otherwise.

Second, you get to directly counter the objection while they're paying attention.

Third, you're making a "custom offer" that appears tailored to them.

From the perspective of the person going through this process, it's a powerful, intimate experience.

It's dynamic too -- customised to them.

Not the same as being on the phone...

But also not far off.

And that's why it works so well.

However, to pull this off, you've got to bring together a combination of skills, including good copy and strong offer creation.

So let's see how you'd do it...

BREAKDOWN: Implementing The D.O.E. at StoryLearning

Before you can put this into play, you've got some homework to do.

I'll walk you through the process I went through, so you can see the thought process behind it. Then at the end I'll leave you with some action steps.

I first put this in place while working on a paid funnel, where we were building audience for our Spanish courses.

After a couple of months, we were at around 0.5X ROAS on the funnel. This was fine as a starting point, but needed to move North, and fast.

I already had surveys throughout the funnel, asking people what was stopping them buying.

So, I combed through the surveys and there were a few things coming up over and over again:

1. I don't have the money
2. I don't have the time
3. I'm too old to learn Spanish
4. I wasn't clear on the price after the free trial

With that data, there's already a tonne of stuff you can do...

Including reworking your sales page, new emails on these topics, etc.

But sometimes it pays to go direct --

And I wanted to find a way to yank people out of that passive reader experience, into a direct engagement -- like the sales calls I talked about earlier, where you're in a live conversation.

So I wrote an email. (Isn't that how all the best stories start?)

And I stuck that email at the end of the main sales process.

(i.e. after people have been on the list for 3-4 weeks, seen the sales material, received a strong offer, but didn't buy for whatever reason.)

Here's the email - you saw it earlier...

In the email, you see I ask them why they haven't bought, and ask them to click the link that matches that reason.

Each link then takes them to a landing page.

Here, most people would just write some copy and include a link to buy to the usual stuff.

But I went a step further, and actually created a specific offer around each objections.

Here they are:

• Objection: I don't have the money
• Offer: 12-month payment plan
  
  
• Objection: I don't have the time
• Offer: New product - an introductory 10-day Spanish course with short, 10-minute lessons, for $10. ("10-10-10")
   
• Objection: I'm too old to learn Spanish
• Offer: A reassuring video from me, giving reasons why they can do it
  
  
• Objection: I wasn't clear on the price after the free trial
• Offer: Clear breakdown of price 

If this sounds like a lot of work...

Realise two things:

1. All the emails, landing pages and videos are super quick and casual. No editing, nothing. Just me on my iPhone.
2. Do it once, it makes you money forever

So this functions a lot like a simple sales call.

And the fact that this experience feels so personalised to the reader gives them high confidence in the product itself.

The "10 minutes a day" product was the one that required significant work. But not that much... maybe 2 days of work. A pretty good investment of time in my eyes. And when you think that "Not enough time" is always one of the major objections to any product, it pays to put some proper welly into addressing it, don't you think?

Using Objections To Upgrade Your Funnel

You might not think that much can happen with one email, but you might be surprised.

If you're doing a good job with your email, it'll get opened and clicked:

The results from this were pretty awesome.

As I said before, we saw a 15% immediate uplift in revenue from this, from a combination of payment plans, $10 offers, and people who just needed a nudge.

But in reality it's much more.

Because people who end up converting here are customers that you wouldn't otherwise have...

Who -- you guessed it -- will go on to buy more in future.

Especially if you build a sophisticated product ecosystem, as I describe in the $10m Case Study. 

You can see the impact here, where over 50% of products sold within the funnel are from this "D.O.E." approach:

But the real power in this comes later.

Once you see which offers are working, you can put them elsewhere.

For example, our 10-10-10 offer did so well that we started selling it as a self-liquidating offer on ads.

The 6-month payment plan also did well, so created an entire email sequence around it.

Point is...

The D.O.E. isn't just a one-trick pony.

It's a full-grown stallion!

And I bet you the biggest steak in Texas it'll make you a lot more money if you carefully and diligently do the work to implement it.

5 Steps To Create A D.O.E.

Here's how to do this yourself.

1. Put simple surveys throughout your funnel, asking people what's stopped them buying so far? (We use Google Forms. Keep it simple.)
2. Wait a few weeks for the replies to come in, then look for the objections that rise to the top.
3. Brainstorm an offer that you could create for each of these objections. Create the offer.
4. Add the D.O.E. email to your funnel (the text is above), after the end of the main sales sequence, and link to each of the landing pages.
5. Sit back and enjoy all the new customers you'll see roll in!

Use Smart Email To Increase Sales 

Automated sales funnels are great...

But they can be a very passive experience, where people don't actively engage with you.

When the process lacks energy and fission, you inevitably leave a lot of sales on the table.

You can inject an energetic "personal touch" into your sales process by using:

- a deep understanding of your customers' objections
- clever offer creation that satisfies these objections

And executing it with the D.O.E. email.

Once you see what's making your more cautious customers convert, you can use what you've learnt to build out entire new offers in your business.

And if you've enjoyed this newsletter...

Why not go ahead and subscribe? I'll send you a free case study about how I grew a $10m online education business using a lot of juicy tactics like this one.

Namaste.

Olly

P.S.

On the topic of D.O.E...

It just occurred to me that the word "email" is totally redundant.

It ends up being Dynamic Objection Email Email.

Oh dear...

You won't tell anyone will you?