This story will teach you a vital marketing skill in 2 minutes.
As you read, guess that that skill is. I’ll reveal at the bottom of the email….
Anyway…
The #1 theme of my career: I learn the hard way.
Especially with product launches.
In a past life, I was charged with relaunching a failed subscription service to 100,000+ warm email leads.
I spent 80+ hours on this project.
And it made $37.
46 cents an hour.
Prison inmates make more than that for stamping out license plates.
Here’s why.
1) It Was Hard to Write the Copy
Writing copy is not easy.
And it can be tedious.
But if you’re struggling to find the basic idea of the piece, just stop.
You’re on the wrong track.
2) The Offer Sucked
71% of failed launches come from bad offers.
In the case of the $37 launch, the offer was food but forgettable.
Now I follow Alex Hormozi’s simple rule: if an offer is so good it makes you nervous, it will make the prospect greedy.
3) No Hard Deadline
If there is no deadline there is no urgency.
Your offer is not special unless it ends soon.
4) The Customer Experience Sucked
In an ideal world, your product is so good you don’t need to sugarcoat anything.
You just tell people what it is and why it’s good for them.
But if your own team hates the product… they will not want to punish customers with it*.
*only applies to people with souls
And why did we hate the product?
5) We Were Dealing with an Unhinged Narcissist Who Was Unwilling to Change
The saddest thing in the world is an egomaniac blaming the market for not liking his product.
Because that person will never change.
Which brings me a happy ending… he’s out of my life!
So what’s the skill you just learned?
Storytelling.
Start telling war stories.
And resist the urge to always be the hero.
Losses show growth and make you more interesting.
Result: you won’t have to convince people you’re experienced.
They’ll just know.