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Ready To Grow Your Business Quickly From Day One?
It’s been established that the best way to grow a profitable and scalable online business is to have an email list.
Your email list if the lifeblood of your online business, and how you’re going to reach the success you’re looking for, because your audience is most likely to engage with you and actually see your offerings through email, rather than social media, where only a fraction of your following will actually see your content.
I’ve gone in-depth into why an email list is critical in this post.
Are you ready to bring in income while you’re growing your email list and growing your business?
Because it is possible to do that, even from day one.
All you need to do is create a tripwire.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: What Even Is A Tripwire?
First of all, let me take a second to answer the question, what IS a tripwire?
A tripwire—no, it doesn’t mean something that’s attached to a landmine—is simple. It’s all about turning new subscribers into customers, by putting forth a low-price offering, right after they sign up for your opt-in.
Some hallmarks of a tripwire are that they are directly related to the opt-in (the most successful ones are), and are a product, program, or service, offered at a discounted rate for a limited amount of time, often somewhere between 10 to 20 minutes.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to tripwires is that it has to be an absolute no-brainer of an offer.
And the easiest way to create that offer is to think about the product you want to create as your tripwire first, and then work backwards to determine the opt-in that will lead to it.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: It Warms Up Your Cold Audience Faster
As I mentioned above, a tripwire is all about turning new subscribers into customers, and that’s really important to keep in mind.
Why?
Because if someone is willing to buy one of your low-level products, right off the bat—when they’re still considered a part of your “cold audience’—they’re are most likely going to be inclined to buy more of your higher-level products once they’re warmed up.
And they’re going to be likely to do it much faster than someone who does not buy from you early on.
Getting your new audience a taste of your paid work is critical for your online business success, and a tripwire is a great, and more importantly easy, way to do it.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: It Helps Your Determine Your Marketing
One of the most important tests you’re going to do early on in your business is, is your opt-in actually converting?
When you have a high-converting opt-in, then you know that you’re marketing to the right audience, and getting that audience to your list, into your community.
And when you add your tripwire into consideration, you can further determine what types of products your audience is willing to buy from you.
Do they want a video series, an e-course, a 1-1 consultation? Whatever it is, you can easily test that, and then once you determine which one is working for your, you market the crap out of it.
If you think you’re not marketing your offerings often enough, then you’re probably not, and with a tripwire, it’s a matter of getting your opt-in that leads to the tripwire in front of as many eyes as possible.
Never be afraid to market yourself. That’s the only way your audience is going to find its way to you.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: It’s Easy To Create
Don’t be afraid to create a tripwire, even if you’re new to online business. In fact, people who are new to online business should prioritize the creation of a tripwire product to offer alongside their opt-in.
Not only does creating a tripwire allow you to dip your toes into digital product creation, but it does it within the scope of something easy.
Considering the fact that an opt-in is something that you create to offer your audience a quick win, all a tripwire is, is a deeper dive into that quick win. It’s not a full-fledged course, but just a slightly deeper dive into the how to r elated to the what of your opt-in.
Remember: the opt-in teaches the what, the tripwire—and all of your other digital products and services—teaches the how.
Or, it can be more of what’s offered for free. If you’re a graphic designer, then you can offer a pack of Pinterest pin templates as your opt-in, and your tripwire can be…more Pinterest pin templates. When you frame the offering as making your non-graphic design inclined audience’s lives easier, they’re going to be willing to pay a few dollars to make the graphic creation efforts all the easier.
Whatever kind of tripwire to create is completely up to you.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: The Low-Cost Makes It A No-Brainer
Here’s something important to keep in mind:
You’re not likely to make yourself rich off a tripwire. It would take hundreds of conversions a day in order to bring in significant income through a tripwire.
It would be nice if it were that simple, but that’s not how it works.
A tripwire is a supplement to your income.
It’s an easy way to bring in a few hundred dollars per month into your business, which can be a lot, especially when you’re just starting out.
As I’ve mentioned above, a tripwire is a low-cost offering, which means anywhere between $10 and $50, depending on the scope of the product. Considering that it’s not going to be something in depth like a full-fledged course, it’s not likely to convert a tripwire priced more than $50.
You want to ensure that the product you are showcasing has a lot of value, which makes it easy for your new audience to look past the price, and just click ‘buy’.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: It Generates You Passive Income
The best part of a tripwire is that it’s a passive product.
You create it, and set up the opt-in and thank you page that the tripwire lives on, and that’s all the front-end work you have to do. All that’s left, once you’re done, is for people to buy it.
Now, there are some tripwires may involve your time, if you offer a 1-1 service, but since those offerings tend to be of higher value, they’re not often offered as tripwires.
Once you have your system in place for your tripwire, the effort that does come in from your part is of getting peoples’ eyes on your opt-in, having those members of your cold audience subscribe to your opt-in, and then seeing your tripwire.
The more people see your opt-in, the more likely people are to opt-in, and then the more likely they are to see your tripwire offering.
And you can make tripwire sales at any and all times, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
Ergo, passive.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: Set It, Test It, Forget it
Of course, there is some testing involved to be sure that your audience wants what you’re offering, both the opt-in and the tripwire offering.
When it comes to making sales, you’re not going to really have an idea of how well your opt-in is converting until you get your first hundred subscribers.
It may take time to reach that threshold, but it’s worth it to wait. Obviously if you’re converting high on both the opt-in side and the tripwire side, you’ll see that quickly.
Remember, when it comes to converting your opt-in, industry standard is about 10 percent, and the standard conversion rate for a sale is somewhere between one and three percent.
It’s not a lot, but if you’re converting higher than that, you know you’re on the right track.
But if it’s not converting the way you want, before you completely scrap the idea of the product and start from scratch, consider the way you’re marketing the tripwire on the thank-you page. Could you change it up, add some testimonials, social proof?
Keep testing until you’re satisfied.
And once you’re done testing, you are pretty much done. Set it and forget it.
Your Opt-In Needs A Tripwire: You Can Use Tripwire Profit To Grow Even Faster
The question, of course, is what do you do with the profit you earn from your tripwire?
While yes, you can go on a little shopping spree, buy that pair of shoes, or maybe book a hotel for a staycation weekend, but when you’re starting off, you’re probably going yo be better served by reinvesting that profit into your business.
How?
There are a lot of ways.
You can use the profit from your tripwire to hire a VA to manage your social media accounts, like your Pinterest or your Instagram, or you can invest it into something like Facebook or Instagram ads, so you can continue to get more eyes on your opt-in and tripwire.
Or you can save up the tripwire funds to buy personal development books, like the ones I feature in my Required Reading series, or even put a few hundred dollars into a course that you’re dying to take.
Invest it in your business, and you’ll grow all that much faster toward your goals.
Do you have a tripwire? Tell me about it in the comments!
Ready To Start Your Own Online Business?
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