Transforming customers from "How do I get them to buy" to "How do I get them to try"

Earlier this week, I was helping an author come up with their book launch strategy.

Her initial plan was to use a Facebook ad to drive traffic to a sales page and move buyers into an email sequence to promote her high-ticket coaching programme.

Her logic was sound—she didn’t want to “waste time with freebie seekers” and wanted to concentrate on promoting her course to those who had made a purchase, as they’d be much more likely to invest in her coaching programme than the low-volume, low-commitment organic reach.

But while it might be low volume, it’s certainly not low value, and I felt she was missing a trick by not having anything in place.?

Because if someone sees an ad and is interested, they might often Google the author and check them out before getting out their credit card… and book readers talk to other book readers… and they’d go hunt them out and look for more info.

The last thing you want them to do is to buy them from Amazon and miss the chance to get hold of details of your new reader so you can market to them.

Instead, I suggested some form of “freebie” on her website to capture interested customers’ email addresses—maybe the first chapter of the book as a free download or a lead magnet that supported the book's topic.

Then, through a series of emails, more concepts and ideas from the book could be teased out… vastly increasing the number of opportunities subscribers would have to buy and the number of buyers moving into the post-book coaching sequence!

And then we got chatting some more about the post-purchase strategy...

Because when I buy a business book, it normally takes its place in a queue of other books, each one staring, silently judging, wondering when it’s their turn to be taken down from the shelf.

And nobody’s going to invest in coaching from an author of a book if they haven’t even cracked the spine!

So now we have another challenge to contend with.?

It’s not “How do I encourage people to buy” anymore; it’s “How do I encourage them to try?”?

A struggle all online business owners have. To convince someone to use, log in, and try what they’ve just bought.

Because… buying a course or a book doesn’t magically transform your life. You actually have to consume it.

I know… it shocked me, too.

We need to grab their attention when they are most excited and get them to put reading this book above all else.

Normally I’d suggest focussing on the transformation the information in the book contains.?

Remind the soon-to-be reader of their reason for buying before they forget what the book is even about… Tease that their success lies just a few chapters in, and the longer you leave it, the more you have to struggle with living in day-to-day drudgery.

But getting someone to take action can be tricky.?

It’s like push-starting a broken-down car.?

Encouraging those wheels to start to turn feels like an impossible task, but with just a few inches of progress, suddenly, the challenge gets easier… then easier, and then momentum increases all the time, and the car rolls quicker and quicker and quicker until… all that’s left to do is jump in, get that engine fired up, and hope you don’t fall out in an embarrassing heap as your driverless pride and joy disappear out of sight.

And you can do this through email, too.

A sequence, spaced, say, a week apart, maybe delivering on a Saturday or Sunday morning when the thought of relaxing with a coffee and a book is much more preferable than doom-scrolling socials.

And with each email, you talk about a new chapter and the intrigue and promise it brings.

You offer bonus content. Ideas. Expanded concepts.?

It’s like a Director’s Commentary on a DVD, and people can’t resist.

It might be slow to start, but the FOMO and curiosity kick in until they can’t help but pick up the book and dive in.

This email read-a-long sequence can be crazy-effective.?

Your reader is much more likely to achieve the transformation you promise and be much more receptive to your coaching funnel that will start once the book is complete.

Her quiet book launch just got a lot busier…

Those are the sort of great ideas that can spark when you have two minds brainstorming over a task… and it reaffirms my ideas for an offer I’m going to be bringing in very soon…

Watch this space.