Master Email Tripwires: Convert Subscribers into Customers

In the latest episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, I dive deep into the transformative strategy of using email tripwires to convert new email subscribers into paying customers swiftly. Drawing from my personal experiences and insights, I share how to effectively implement tripwires and build a product ladder that maximizes revenue and customer engagement.

What is an Email Tripwire?

An email tripwire is a low-cost offer presented immediately after a user opts in for a freebie. This strategy leverages the momentum of the subscriber’s initial “yes” to entice them into making a small purchase. The concept is simple yet powerful: capitalize on the subscriber’s engagement and willingness to buy by offering a compelling product at a nominal price.

Show Notes:

• MiloTreeLeads Beta
• MiloTreeCart
• Book a FREE 20-minute call with me
• MiloTree Pop-Up App
• Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create?
• Join My Blogger Genius Email List
• Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
• All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes

Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast:

• iTunes
• YouTube
• Spotify

Key Elements of an Effective Tripwire

Immediacy: The offer should be presented right after the user opts in for the freebie. This timing is crucial as it taps into the subscriber’s current state of engagement.
Irresistibility: The tripwire must be perceived as a steal. It should offer significant value at a low cost, making it an easy decision for the subscriber.
Relevance: The tripwire should be directly related to the original freebie. This ensures that the offer aligns with the subscriber’s interests and needs.

Implementing Tripwires: A Case Study from Catch My Party

At Catch My Party, our sister site, we offer a variety of free printable party decorations. After users opt in to receive these free printables, they are presented with an upsell for additional items in the collection, such as personalized banners and invitations, for a nominal fee. This approach not only grows our email list but also generates revenue on the back end.

Steps to Create a Successful Tripwire

Identify a Popular Freebie: Start with a freebie that has high demand among your audience.
Create a Related Low-Cost Offer: Develop a product that complements the freebie and offers additional value.
Set Up the Automation: Automate the delivery of the tripwire offer immediately after the subscriber opts in using a tool like MiloTreeLeads
Test and Refine: Monitor the performance of your tripwire and make adjustments as needed to improve conversion rates.

Building a Product Ladder

I like to talk about this strategy using the concept of a product ladder, where each step represents a product that increases in value and price as the customer progresses. This strategic approach helps in nurturing the customer relationship and guides them through a journey of increasing value.

Crafting Your Product Ladder

Identify a Significant Problem: Start by understanding a major pain point in your niche.
Offer a Freebie: Provide a free resource that addresses a specific aspect of the problem.
Introduce a Tripwire: Offer a low-cost product that provides a more comprehensive solution.
Develop Higher-Ticket Offers: Create premium products such as personalized coaching sessions, memberships, or advanced courses.

Example of a Product Ladder

• Freebie: A fitness coach offers a free PDF on morning exercises.
• Tripwire: A discounted online workout session.
• Mid-Tier Offer: A monthly subscription to a workout program.
• High-Ticket Offer: Personalized coaching sessions.

Testing and Refining Your Strategy

It is important to test and refine each step of the product ladder. Experiment with different offers and monitor customer responses to identify what works best. Use email to build the connective tissue between each step, nurturing relationships and guiding customers through their journey.

Tips for Effective Testing

Test different versions of your tripwire to see which one converts better. Gather feedback from your audience to understand their needs and preferences. Use data to track the performance of your offers and make data-driven decisions.

Leveraging MiloTree for Seamless Integration

Our new product under our MiloTree banner, MiloTreeLeads, allows users to offer unlimited freebies and lead magnets to grow their email list. This tool can seamlessly integrate tripwires and product ladders into your email marketing strategy, making it easier to nurture customer relationships and drive business growth.

Benefits of Using MiloTree Leads

• Unlimited Freebies: Offer a variety of lead magnets to attract different segments of your audience.
• Automatic Delivery: MiloTreeLeads automatically delivers your digital downloads directly to your new subscriber.
• Automated Tripwires: Set up automated tripwire offers to convert subscribers into customers quickly.

Conclusion

Email tripwires and product ladders are powerful strategies for converting subscribers into paying customers and maximizing revenue. By focusing on immediacy, irresistibility, and relevance, and by building a well-structured product ladder, you can guide your customers through a journey of increasing value. Experimentation, audience engagement, and agility are key to success in this journey.

I invite everyone to explore the seamless integration of tripwires and product ladders using MiloTree’s products. Please schedule a call with me to discuss your product ladder strategy and how MiloTreeCart and MiloTreeLeads can help you build a successful business.

Other Related Blogger Genius Podcast episodes You’ll Enjoy:

• #335: Why Freebies Are the Secret Sauce to Email List Success with Jillian Leslie
• #321: How Email Marketing Helps Bloggers Increase Ad Revenue with Cassie Noyes
• #299: Skyrocket Your Income: The Blogger’s Guide to Cutting-Edge Email Marketing in 2023 with Kyle Stout

MiloTreeCart, the Best Tool for Non-Techies to Sell Digital Products

I also want to introduce you to the MiloTreeCart, a tool designed for non-techies to sell digital products easily. It comes with features like fill-in-the-blank sales pages, check-out pages, a sales dashboard, upsells, and customer support. MiloTreeCart is currently available for a lifetime deal of $349 or three easy installments of $116.33.

#336 Transcript: Master Email Tripwires: Convert Subscribers into Customers

Jillian Leslie (00:00:07) – Hello and welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast. I’m Jillian Leslie, your host founder of Milo Tree, which includes Military Cart, the easiest way to sell digital products, military pop up, the easiest way to grow your social media followers. And our new product, Milo Tree, leads for offering unlimited freebies and lead magnets to grow your email list. Speaking of growing your email list today, I am talking about a powerful way to turn your new email subscribers into customers quickly. I am talking about email tripwires. What are they? How do you use them and why? They can be a game changer for your business. About eight years ago, I was at a blogger conference and a woman started sharing how she was making money with her tripwire strategy. I had never even heard the word tripwire, but she was talking about making money, so of course I was very intrigued. She shared that after someone opted in to get her freebie on the next page, once they pressed enter, she was selling something and I thought, wow, that’s super interesting.

Jillian Leslie (00:01:30) – And in fact, she was using the money she was making from offering her tripwire to pay for Facebook ads to get people to opt in to her freebie. So in this way, she was growing her list for free. After I learned about this strategy, I started implementing it all over Catch My Party, which is our first site. We are the largest party ideas site on the web. So at Catch My Party we give away a ton of free printables. These are party printable decorations. I started by looking at which printable collections were the most popular. It turned out it was themes like mermaid or princess or superhero, so we created additional items in the collection we could sell. So now what happens is you find our free mermaid printables and we give away a lot of them. Then we ask for your email address to get the download. Once you enter your name and email address, you immediately get those free printables sent directly to your inbox. But on the thank you page that says, hey, thanks for signing up! Your free printables are on their way to your inbox.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:56) – In the meantime, how about these additional printables? So if you want to personalize the Happy Birthday banner with your child’s name, we will upsell you an alphabet of all of the letters so you can spell it out. We also upsell invitations. We give away a lot for free, but if you want all the bells and whistles, you pay $7 and you get the full collection. And guess what? Many people upgrade. So not only are we growing our list, but we’re making money on the back end. Because this may sound confusing, let me go through exactly what a tripwire is and why you might want to be offering them. Imagine this someone signs up for your freebie or lead magnet on your website. It could be a checklist, an e-book, a template. After they enter their email address, a page shows up, usually saying thank you for subscribing. So you might still see those words, but the page will also offer a special product, a product related to your freebie that is too good to pass up, and it’s priced so low that it’s a no brainer.

Jillian Leslie (00:04:15) – This is your tripwire. It’s a low cost offer, typically ranging somewhere between 5 and $50, designed to transform that lead into a paying customer almost immediately. The psychology behind this is simple once someone signs up for your freebie, they’re in a yes mode. They’re saying yes to you, so it’s much easier to incentivize them to make a small purchase from you. And if they buy from you once and you deliver, they like what they’ve purchased, they are more likely to buy from you again. And it’s about making that first transaction irresistible and easy. That sets the stage for future engagement and higher value sales. So when we set out to create Milo, Tree leads our new product where you can offer unlimited freebies and lead magnets. We of course built into our software the ability to offer tripwires so that after somebody opts in for your freebie, they will say see a thank you message, and then they will see a product from you, and you can determine what kind of special pricing you want to offer.

Jillian Leslie (00:05:42) – And we built this directly into our product right at the start, because we know how powerful this is for you when you are growing your business. So how do you create an effective tripwire? Well, I recommend you focus on these three elements. One, it needs to be an immediate offer. Timing is crucial. This is why you want to offer this right after someone opts into your freebie while their interest is high. Two it needs to be irresistible. The offer should be perceived as a steal. A $200 course available now for $20. Who wouldn’t buy that? Also, it should feel exclusive and something they shouldn’t miss. And three, it needs to be relevant. Your tripwire must be directly related to the original freebie. If they signed up for a baking guide, your tripwire could be a discount on your baking cookbook. Let’s look at some examples. Imagine you’re a fitness coach. You offer a free PDF on five simple exercises to start your morning. The tripwire a discounted online workout session with you available for, say, just $50 instead of your typical $100 price or $150 price.

Jillian Leslie (00:07:03) – Another example a graphic designer offers free logo templates, the tripwire a website audit at a fraction of the usual cost. These examples show the tripwire in action, converting a free download into a paid commitment, and it’s all seamless. But a tripwire is just one piece of the puzzle. When selling products and services. The most crucial aspect of successful selling, and I talk about this a lot, is solving a big problem in your niche that people are willing to pay to resolve. The magic lies not just in identifying the problem, but in how you guide your audience through the solution step by step. This is where the concept of a product ladder comes in. I talk about this again a lot, so think of your product offering as steps on a ladder. Each step represents a product that increases in value and price as your customer ascends. Here’s how to craft a strategic product ladder. So the first thing first step identify that big problem. Start by pinpointing a significant challenge your audience faces. For example, let’s say you’re in the digital marketing space.

Jillian Leslie (00:08:28) – A common problem might be how do I increase traffic to my website? This is something I think we all struggle with. Okay, so the freebie, your first step is to offer a freebie that addresses a specific aspect of this problem. It could be a checklist titled ten SEO Quick Wins to Boost Your Site traffic. I know I would opt in for that. This freebie solves a small part of this larger problem and importantly, it starts to build trust. The third step is to identify what you could sell as your tripwire. So after your audience claims the freebie, you want to quickly introduce the tripwire. And this should be, as we talked about, a low cost product that further helps them with the problem, but also leads to your more comprehensive solution. So continuing our example, your Tripwire could be an e-book priced at $27, titled The Beginner’s Guide to Mastering SEO. This e-book expands on the checklist and starts to engage your customers in deeper solutions. The next step your main product to following the tripwire.

Jillian Leslie (00:09:40) – Your main product should offer a substantial solution to a significant chunk of that problem. Perhaps it’s a course called SEO mastery from Beginner to Pro in 90 days, and you could price this at, say, 199. And this course should be comprehensive enough to be a standalone solution for their. SEO needs. And finally, then you end up with your high ticket offer. So the top of your letter could include more personalized solutions such as one on one coaching sessions, advanced workshops, a membership, a mastermind. And it can be called something like an SEO Elite Mastermind with maybe a monthly subscription fee. And remember, the money is in the subscription. This could be where members get direct access to you, direct coaching and continual updates on the latest SEO strategies. So, using a practical example, let’s imagine a parenting coach. The big problem might be managing toddler tantrums. Start with your freebie, a simple like infographic on five quick tips to Calm a tantrum. Next, the tripwire could be a detailed guidebook, The Ultimate Guide to Toddler Emotions, and you could sell that for something like $15.

Jillian Leslie (00:11:03) – The main product could then be a comprehensive course, Positive Parenting Solutions for $150. And finally, the high ticket item might be personalized coaching sessions to help parents implement strategies from your teachings. Each product in your letter not only offers more value, but also builds upon the last, making the next step the logical progression. This strategy not only maximizes your revenue potential, but also continually enriches the value you provide to your audience, solving their problems more deeply at each step. Now I lay this out and it seems simple. It’s not as simple as it sounds because the piece for you is this idea of testing. I recommend you open a blank Google doc and at the top of it, write what problem you are solving and then put these blanks underneath it, which is the freebie, the tripwire, the first product, the second product, the third product, and start filling them in. And remember, this first bit of the exercise is just a hypothesis. Over time, you’re going to put different offers out there at each step and you’re going to refine them.

Jillian Leslie (00:12:34) – You’re going to go, okay, I’m going to test these certain freebies and these tripwires, and you’re going to see, does this one work? Which one is getting the most traction? Which ones are which tripwires are people actually willing to pay for. And you’re going to slowly build out this latter piece by piece as you’re laying out this latter, recognize that the way you build the connective tissue between each step is through email. That is why email is so valuable. You get to cultivate that relationship, get them to know, like, and trust you. So they want to go on this journey with you. If this sounds like something you want to build out, I recommend you purchase Milo Tree card with our add on military leads so the entire ladder is seamless and the tech is crazy simple. If you purchase our lifetime deal of military cart for 349, you can get Milo Tree leads for an additional $50 a year. And I recommend you grab this now, because this is by far the best deal we are offering.

Jillian Leslie (00:13:56) – We will be phasing out our military cart lifetime deal and everything will be a monthly subscription. If this is interesting to you, you want to get on a call with me to see how the whole thing works and to see how simple the tech is, go to Military.com, scroll down, you’ll see my calendar book, a free 20 minute call, and we can talk about your entire product ladder strategy again. Go to Milo tree.com. Book a call with me. I’ve got some time this week and I would love to talk to you. I wish growing a business was this linear thing. It’s not. It’s messier than you think. It takes more experimentation. It takes talking to your audience. It takes lots of tries, lots of failure, lots of pivoting. And as I always talk about moving faster than you think, if you have any questions about what I’ve shared in this episode, please reach out to me at. Jillian at Military.com. If you have a freebie or lead magnet that’s working for you, I’d love to hear about it.

Jillian Leslie (00:15:10) – I’d love to see it again. Email me if you think this episode would be useful for a friend, please share it. If you like the podcast, please rate it and I will see you here again next week.