9 Overlooked Steps to (Successfully) Selling Information Products Online
Stasia
Want to create and sell information products online?
In this post I’m going to share nine overlooked steps to being successful with information products, specifically targeted for the health and fitness professional.
First of all, it’s important to note that what I’m going to be covering is different than online training. If you’re doing personal training or coaching clients online and developing programs for them, that’s a different topic.
Here, I’m going to go over key points when it comes to marketing a course, an e-book, video series, or anything else that people can buy and access even when you’re sleeping.
That’s been my bread and butter for the past 11 years online. We’ve developed hundreds of online products including cookbooks, follow-along workout programs, nutrition courses, supplements, as well publishing 3 “conventional” best-selling books.
I’m going to walk you through nine steps that I wish I knew back in the day, because I made a lot of mistakesand even created products that people didn’t care about – and as a result, didn’t sell. I want you to avoid those same potholes, so let’s jump in.
9 Steps to Selling Information Products Online
1. Identify Your Who
This is the basis of your business. Who are you serving? Who is the audience?
You must identify your target market, as specifically as possible. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply ask yourself:
“If I could only serve ONE target audience, who would that be?”
A few things to think about here:
- Is this a starving crowd for something you could eventually offer? (pain and urgency sell easily)
- Are these people living in the world of “wants” or “needs”? (it’s a lot easier to sell a workout program to those who already have lots of them and love working out. Sell wants, not needs)
- What’s the potential average customer value here? Do these people have money to spend or are they living off food stamps? (Sure it’s noble to want to help those who need your help the most but they’re often those who don’t see the value in what you’re offering nor have the means to afford it)
2. Target Their Problems
What pain point(s) – pain, urgency, or strong desire – of your target market is your product going to solve?
Most people don’t think about these things before they start creating their products, and it’s very important. Your product has to solve a problem, otherwise there’s a good chance no one is going to want it.
3. Research the Competition
Next, you’ll want to do a bit of basic research and and look at what other people are selling that might be similar to what you are planning to offer.
I say this not so that you copy them but rather to help you make your offer stand out.
What offers are your competitors making, and what specifically are people getting when they purchase those products?
This research will give you a good idea about how you can start to position your product, and make you think about your product a little bit differently than what’s already out there.
A great place to do this research is on is ClickBank.com. We actually sell a lot of our stuff on ClickBank. It’s a terrific marketplace – it’s very easy for people to find your products assuming people are promoting them. And you can have affiliates that you don’t even know start promoting your information products, too, which is pretty cool.
What ClickBank will allow you to do is search under the any category (ie. health and fitness) and see which products are selling the best (based on their ranking).
You can see what these products have in common and what their marketing looks like. However, DO NOT copy them. Otherwise, you’re no different. Just another “me too” product.
Simply take note of what seems to be working and then use that intel to craft your own marketing that is unique to your business.
Why “Funnel Hacking” is Bad Advice
A lot of people these days talk about “funnel hacking” – which is basically looking at other peoples’ funnels and doing exactly what they’re doing.
Yes, to a certain degree it’s a good idea to MODEL what’s working, but it can be tough to make that work. It’s hard to stand out in a very crowded marketplace when everyone is doing the exact same thing. And everyone simply copies everyone else, then everything becomes the same. That’s how an initial product becomes commoditized. And that’s when your business starts to suffer because you can only compete on price.
The more important consideration is that your business should be a reflection of YOU, not someone else. If you don’t like long no value-adding video sales letters, then don’t use them. If you love doing webinars (like I do) and that’s a better fit for your offer, then use those.
Remember, there are many paths to Mecca. You need to determine which one “feels” right for your brand so that you can be as authentic as possible. Not just another slimey offer.
At the end of the day, you have to know what’s out there, how businesses are positioning their products, and thinking about how you can make yours different. That’s what I help you in our 1-day Marketing Makeover workshops.
4. Develop Your Big Idea
The BIG IDEA is the essence of your offer. It’s the hook or mechanism or unique method that makes it stand out as unique, novel, or different.
For instance, let’s look at one of my products, The All Day Fat-Burning Workouts.
The big idea there is that these workouts – in less than 60 minutes of exercise per week – will help you burn fat 24/7, thanks to my “Slow-Fast Method”.
That’s a unique method I coined myself, which essentially represents the tempo of the training that you’re going to be using in the workout.
In a very crowded marketplace, where people have been exposed to dozens – or more likely hundreds – of similar products promising the same thing, they’re going to be asking themselves, why and how is this different than the last thing that I used?
One of the greatest copywriters of all time, Eugene Schwartz, refers to this as “Market Sophistication” and this simple illustration depicts what you need to know…
If you want your health or fitness product to sell well, it needs to STAND OUT. And your big idea or mechanism is going to help it do just that.
So, what’s your unique method, your process, your secret sauce, or your recipe to helping your customer achieve their results?
Identify what it is, then give it a name and break it down so it’s simple to understand and captivating. Remember, we humans LOVE “new”.
As an example, let’s say you’re helping people lose weight by working out. So is everyone else, right?
But what is your mechanism?
Look at P90X – its mechanism is called “muscle confusion”.
That’s not new to us health and fitness professionals. We all basically say “don’t do the same workout all the time” so your muscles don’t plateau and get used to the same workout over time.
But BeachBody (creator of P90x) gave it a name. Now they OWN that concept and stand out in the marketplace as unique and different than other workouts.
5. Write the Sales Copy First
Now that you’ve got the important core elements of your offer figured out, it’s time to create your sales copy. This is basically how you’re going to communicate what it is you offer.
Yes, you’re going to create the marketing before you even create the product. (NOTE: If you already have your product, then just rework the marketing to better fit the product).
Don’t worry about feeling the need to be a copywriting wizard. Just focus on articulating how you’re product moves your prospect from where they are (ie. overweight) to where they want to be (ie. fit and healthy).
Here’s a simple plan to follow:
- List all the features of your product (no one cares about these)
- List the benefits for each of those features (customer really cares about these)
- Describe what the customer gets (breakdown components)
- Determine the actual offer and guarantee (ie. free trial, discount, etc..)
- Write 5-10 versions of main headline (refer to big idea)
- Write the copy
Without overwhelming you, here are 2 basic “sales copy” formulas…
It can be a “before and after” story, like:
“Before, I weighed 400 pounds, and then I used product, and now I weigh 150 pounds.”
Another way you can introduce your product from a sales copy perspective is by following the problem-agitation-solution formula.
Let’s use the example of food choices while dieting.
“You want to lose weight without giving up your favorite recipes or your favorite foods – and I get it. That sucks because there’s nothing worse than going on a diet and feeling deprived and like you’re starving yourself, and then looking in restaurant windows and seeing other people eating their favorite foods. And then you’re biting your nails because you’re so nervous-anxious.”
What I’m doing is agitating the problem.
Next, you present the solution…
“What if there were a way where you could actually lose weight and enjoy your favorite foods – by eating the right foods at the right time – and lose weight effortlessly without depriving yourself? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
That’s how you would segue into your products.
However you write your copy, the most important thing to remember is that…
Your goal is to articulate how your product moves someone from their BEFORE state to a more desirable AFTER state.
And that’s why it’s important to focus on the marketing first. That way, you can create an amazing product that lives up to your marketing claims. It’s very tough to come up with great marketing after the product has been created, especially if it’s a “me too” product that isn’t unique. Doing it the other way around is going to save you a lot of frustration.
6. Create Your Product
After you’ve created the marketing, it’s time to create the actual product.
Many “experts” say you should whip up the product over the weekend and make it available as soon as possible – and that can be valid advice if it’s a simple product.
But if it’s a product that you want to be a little more substantial, it’s going to take you longer than a weekend.
A better idea might be to start off with something relatively small and easy to execute. That way you can more quickly have something in the marketplace, and also get your toes wet, so you can get a feel for what it’s like to go through this process.
I won’t go too deep into the product creation here since I’m sure you’re a rockstar at what you do and packaging your expertise shouldn’t that difficult. Next, let’s look at how you can get out to more people once it’s ready to rock.
7. Distribute Your Product
How are you going to get your product in front of your target audience?
This is where the overwhelm starts to kick in. Should you do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook ads, YouTube … or something else?
What I’m going to suggest to you is pick one channel. Just choose one marketing channel and master that.
I think the simplest and the quickest way to have a return on your investments and see money coming in is to run Facebook ads.
It’s a fairly easy platform to understand and if you don’t understand it, you can have somebody else manage it for you in exchange for a percentage of the revenue or a flat monthly retainer.
Whichever traffic source you choose, remember this:
Traffic is never a problem. There’s an endless source of people for your offer and you can get MILLIONS of visitors to your site every single day IF…your offer converts!
For instance, if you spend $1 and acquire a customer that is worth $2, then you no longer have a traffic problem. You’ve literally won the lottery and can spend unlimited amounts of money to acquire more customers.
Traffic becomes a problem when you don’t have confidence in your conversions. Again, that’s why the marketing is so important!
Pick one marketing channel and nail it. If you really dial it in, you don’t even have to go to a second channel. You could just master Facebook ads, and you could have a multi-multi-million dollar business just doing that.
If you start to spread yourself too thin, you’re going to run into overwhelm and all sorts of issues that won’t support your goals.
8. Create Your Marketing Assets (Advanced)
I’m going to suggest something here that very few businesses ever consider. It’s not mandatory but strongly recommended over time.
Here’s why:
Most people only have one sales page for their product.
But what if someone saw that page and didn’t buy the product?
Would you direct them back to that same page every single time? Wouldn’t it make more sense if you had maybe two or three variations of the offer page to offer people based on where they are in your sales cycle?
If they saw the page the first time and didn’t buy, perhaps the next time you presented the offer to them (from a retargeting ad or via email) they would see a slightly different variation that meets them where they’re at in the buying cycle.
By doing so, you’re basically saying (not in these exact words),
“Hey, you saw the offer. Just thought you may want to know this as well,” offering a different angle in a more condensed format, that’s a little bit more to the point.
And then maybe the third time they see your offer, it’s more about overcoming objections.
“Hey, listen. We understand that you’re tight on time, and you think these workouts shouldn’t take forever. Here’s what other people had to say.”
And then you’d litter the page with social proof to overcome those objections.
You can also look at creating a video sales letter as well as a text sales page. Maybe you have a webinar. These are what I call different marketing assets.
Think about it like an octopus: your product is in the middle, and all the tentacles of the octopus are your different marketing assets, your video sales letter, your text sales page, your webinar, etc.
You don’t have to create all of these assets at once. Start with one, and then build them out over time.
9. Monitor Your Key Metrics
When you’re selling a product, obviously you’re going to want to know the conversion rate of people who land on the page to those who actually buy the product.
You’re also going to want to know the average cart value. For instance, if somebody buys a $50 product and there’s nothing after that, then the average cart value or the maximum average cart value is $50 for that one customer.
However, if you were able to add a couple upgrades after the purchase, where you basically say,
“Listen, you bought this product, and I thought you might enjoy this as well (for an extra $20 bucks)…”
Now you’ve increased the value of your cart to $70.
The greater your average cart value, the more you can spend to acquire a customer. And that’s extremely important for being able to rise above the competition.
Now I don’t want to overwhelm you with metrics here but help you understand the importance of identify a few important important and meaningful metrics for your offer so you know that it’s actually working.
If you’re running ads, the basic metric you want to look at is ROI – return on investment. How much are you making relative to how much you’re spending? Are you spending $5 and making $1? Maybe that’s not working out. But if you’re spending $1, making $5, then crank it up. Here’s a simple ROI calculator you can use.
Avoid These Steps at Your Peril
These are the nine often-overlooked steps to successfully selling information products online. Even if you don’t grasp all at once after reading this post, that’s ok. Just work on one at a time – preferably in order. I can promise that if you focus on these 9 steps, you’ll have much more success selling your awesome products than if you didn’t follow these steps.
And if you’d like even more help and have me work with you to help clarify your messaging and craft a winning marketing funnel for your product that can potentially DOUBLE your sales, then request an invitation to one of my upcoming 1-Day Marketing Makeover workshops.
How Much Should You Charge for Your Product or Service?
Stasia
How much should you be charging for your product or service?
You might be surprised at what I’m going to suggest in this post. Keep reading to see what I mean.
If you prefer to watch the video version of this post, watch it below…
One of the biggest questions people have when they first go into business is how much they should charge.
And whether you’re offering personal training or selling products and services online, I’m going to offer what I think is an interesting perspective – and maybe even something that you’ve never considered before.
But first…
Let’s look at the old way of looking at pricing.
If you’ve taken an economics course, you were likely led to believe that pricing is determined by supply and demand. If there’s a low supply or a high demand, the price goes up. And if the supply exceeds demand, the price goes down.
For example, there’s only a limited amount of gold, so we have to charge a lot of money for it. But there’s a lot of wood, so it’s not as expensive.
That’s a typical economic model that’s based on scarcity.
Supply and Demand Doesn’t Apply to Us
The problem with this scenario is this:
We actually live in a world of abundance, where we can create value out of thin air.
That’s exactly what entrepreneurs do – we get ideas and then create products or services that solve problems for others.
If you’ve ever written a book, guess what? That book never existed until it became an idea in your head and you brought it to fruition.
I’ve written three published books. Those were initially ideas in my head – and now they’re real tangible things that have transformed thousands of peoples’ lives.
That’s awesome, right? That’s the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur.
So what I want to share with you is an interesting way of looking at pricing that could apply to whatever you’re offering, whether it’s an e-book or a high-end service.
One Way to Consider Pricing
Basically, your price could be anywhere from down on the low side of the scale to all the way up at the other end, priced at the top.
One common way to figure out how much to price your product is to see what the market is willing to bear – what are people currently paying for something similar?
Here’s what some of the popular greens powders sell for on Amazon. How can you justify your pricing?
You can do some basic market research and check out your competitors are charging – say you go to Amazon and if something similar to your product goes for $20, then that’s what most people would use as the “barometer” of what they can charge.
I don’t like that model because it turns you or your product into a commodity.
Go Big, Go Low, or Go Home
I’m going to make an argument here – I think that comparing yourself to others is very poor way of deciding on price, because you end being the same as everyone else.
Remember this:
Tweet “There is no competitive advantage to being in the middle. “
You should be either the least expensive or the most expensive. And in either case you must JUSTIFY why your price is what it is. But don’t play in the middle, because that’s where everyone else is and that’s where you’ll struggle.
Don’t play in the middle because that’s where great ideas go to die.
I’ll give you a perfect example from the online fitness marketplace. Everyone is selling eBooks now for $10.
And it doesn’t matter what it is – workout, diet, blah blah blah. It’s all $10.
How are you going to make yours stand out if it’s just another one of those $10 products?
You’d have to be a very smart marketer positioning-wise, copy-wise, storytelling-wise. It’s very tough.
My friend Dean Jackson, one of the smartest marketers you’ll ever meet, says:
“It’s a lot easier to make a compelling offer than a convincing argument.”
When you’re selling products in the middle of the pack, you’re trying to make a convincing argument as opposed to a compelling offer.
Because everyone else is making the same offer and it simply doesn’t stand out as something uniquely special for your potential customer.
Kia vs. Rolls Royce
Let’s look at cars as an example.
Now, I’m not making any judgments if you own this car (Lebron James drives one!), but let’s just say on the low end we have a Kia, which is a really good car. It’s on the less expensive end of the scale price-wise. We’ll say it’s $30,000 (I think).
And at the other end of the scale we have a Rolls Royce, which sells for more than $200,000. Interestingly, it’s basically the same car as the BMW 740, but they add another $100,000 to the price simply because of the name Rolls Royce.
So, why is a Rolls Royce $200,000? Is it $170,000 more valuable than a Kia? Well that’s really in the eye of the beholder.
To continue this example, when you’re pricing products at a premium, what you’re really playing on is intrinsic and perceived value. And naturally, there will always be people who want the BEST or most expensive (of anything), even if it’s more or less the same thing as the next option.
As I mentioned, the Rolls Royce is basically the same car as the BMW 740 – but the Rolls Royce costs about $100,00 more.
Why is that? It’s the same engine, the same chassis, all that stuff. But the company Rolls Royce has said, “We are premium. We are exclusive.” And that attracts customers who feel the same way about themselves, who would rather walk than be seen driving a Kia.
Price very often appeals to our deepest desire to feel special…to feel acknowledged…to feel a “class” above others.
It’s the same reason why people fly 1st class. Sure the service and leg room are obviously better but there’s certainly an “ego” play lurking beneath the surface. Appeal to that in your potential customers – if you’re going high price.
And as much as pricing reflects how customers see themselves, how we price our own products and services reflects how we see (value) ourselves. More on that in a second.
Low-End Vs. High-End
What I’m getting at here is that you should go low or high. And justify either one.
Set yourself up in the marketplace as the Walmart or the Neiman Marcus – the Kia or the Rolls Royce.
That way, if you’re at the low end of the scale, that’s going to eliminate or “repel” the people who want the perceived higher-end product. And that’s fine if that’s the market you want to go after.
And if you want to go premium price? Guess what? A lot of people are not going to be able to afford you – and as a result you’re going to eliminate them. That’s cool as well.
Here’s something to remember:
The reason most people don’t charge more for their services or products is because of their SELF WORTH.
We can go into a whole Tony Robbins personal development séance on this topic, but if you don’t believe you are valuable or worthy, then you’re not going to charge higher prices. It’s really as simple as that.
What’s interesting is that I see people who start off in their business by charging $97 for a six-week course. But as they start getting more successes and more people going through their programs, they’re like, “Hold on. This is actually really valuable. I’m going to increase the price to $497.”
They use external successes to validate themselves or the product or service they’re offering. So they use the external successes of their clients to validate their offerings, which in turn increases their own self worth. That’s a little backwards if you ask me.
Work on Your Worth
If you become more valuable in the marketplace and truly get what you deserve then you need to do some “internal” work to grow your self worth.
All business growth starts with personal growth.
If you want to charge higher prices, work on yourself.
Work on the reasons why you don’t believe that you can charge more.
If it’s that you think you’re not good enough, that’s called imposter syndrome. Like, Who am I to charge these type of prices?” Right?
Work on yourself and the prices will take care of themselves because there’s no value in playing in the middle.
3 Great Reasons to Charge More
First of all, you tend to get better customers and fewer problems – if you’ve experienced this you know what I mean.
I’ll give you an example. When I first started my online business we offered a running program that was $14.95.
We had a lady from New York buy the program, and then she sent us an email saying that she wanted us to send her a $1.46 check for the exchange-rate difference between the Canadian and U.S. dollars.
Immediately I said, “Fire this customer.”
Because we were dealing with customers on the lower end of the price scale, we had many customers who were a pain in the butt – not all the time, but more than you would likely encounter at the higher end of the pricing spectrum.
If you go higher price you’re going to have better quality clients. People are going to be less of a pain in the butt. I’ve seen this time and time again.
The second reason that it’s actually good to increase your prices is because it’s very often the same amount of work to sell something that costs $1,000 as it is to sell a product that costs $10.
It’s the same amount of work to put into the funnel, to the messaging, to the offer, and everything else that goes into creating and selling a product.
But the third thing, and the real valuable part for you and your customer, is that it forces you to deliver immense value – much more than if it was just a $10 offer.
Let’s use an example here.
In my health business, we have a Defeating Diabetes kit. It’s a great program that helps people overcome their diabetes, and we sell it for $47. So we’re operating on the low end of the spectrum.
I’ve been challenged in the past by some of my mentors, who asked me what would have to be true to make it a $3,000 program.
Maybe that would involve me (or someone) showing up at the customer’s house and walking with them every morning. Maybe it’s going through their pantry and making their meals. Whatever it is.
But the whole idea here is that when you charge premium prices it forces you to think about how you can become infinitely more valuable to your customer.
Figure Out How to Provide MORE Value
There are always going to be people who just want to read the eBook. That’s cool, right? But maybe you don’t want to deal with those customers. Maybe you’d rather have fewer customers who are paying more money who you can actually deliver real results for.
Because we know that 90%+ of our customers are not going to take action (at least not right way). It’s human nature.
If you survey your audience, I guarantee you’ll find the same things.
“What’s the number one challenge standing in the way of your goals?”
- No motivation
- No time
- I don’t know how to get started
- (And obviously price)
What if you can offer a service that helps overcome all of those things?
If it’s at a premium price, it’s not going to be applicable to 95% of the people that are in your market, but there’s going to be 5% of the people who will be saying, “Yes! I want that, I want that personal touch. I want that high level of service. I want that person to show up at my door in the morning to drag me out of bed and get me going.”
That’s what happens when you charge higher, premium prices.
Not only do you get better customers, but you force yourself to become a better provider of services or value – which ultimately leads to better results for your customers.
Are You Worth It?
I believe you’re worth it, but you have to work on that. Don’t let pricing determine how you view yourself in the world.
Low or high, you determine where you want to price yourself, but don’t go in the middle.
This is something that we have re-evaluate in some of our own products.
In our Healthpreneur business we have some very high-level workshops that are small, intimate and exclusive, and guess what?
They’re probably not right for the vast majority of the people in the wellness and fitness space but you know what? I’m only looking for 10 to 20 of those people who are willing to invest, work with me personally and really skyrocket their business to the next level.
We have other products and services for everyone else. That’s the way I’ve decided to position our business and our products and services in this marketplace, because I know that when I can work at a higher level with a smaller number of people, that’s where I can create real change.
And again, it’s a paradigm shift. It’s a different way of looking at pricing based on a decision. It’s not market-centric, it’s literally your decision to say, “I’m going to price this 10 times higher.”
Try This Challenge
Here’s another challenge for you…
Let’s say you have clients that you serve online – you’re coaching or training clients, or the like. And right now you charge $100 per hour for talking with them for an hour on Skype.
I’m going to challenge you to add a zero to whatever it is you’re currently charging.
So now you’re charging $1,000 per hour.
How does that make you feel? Does it scare you? Excite you? Challenge you?
Well however it makes you feel, I challenge you to stay with it for a second.
Again ask yourself:
“Who do I have to become to deliver and command that type of price?”
Because it’s not about the doing… it’s about the who.
To provide the level of service at the $1,000 per hour rate, you have to become a certain person first – a person who is able to create results at that level.
So, that’s just a quick exercise to finish off with. It’s going to get you out of your comfort zone and I guarantee it will create some big breakthroughs in your business.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, then SHARE it with a fellow healthpreneur who needs to hear this important message.
How to Transition from Training Clients to Building Your Online Business
Stasia
How do you transition from training clients in person to building a successful online business?
In this post, I outline exactly how to do that – and also warn you about one mistake to avoid.
I want to help you turn your health or fitness expertise into a thriving online business that creates more impact, more income, and more freedom.
Maybe you’re a personal trainer, a boot camp owner, or maybe you’re already training clients online. And you’re tired of doing the one-on-one. You want more leverage in your life.
How do you go from that one-on-one scenario where you’re trading time for money, to building a leveraged business that’s built around products or your expertise? And is less focused on the one-on-one?
I’m going to share with you how I did it.
There are basically two ways that you can go about transitioning your business.
The Sudden Switch
You can suddenly go all-in. This is where you tell your in-person clients: “You’re all done. I’m done, I’m no longer doing this. I’m quitting cold turkey and I’m only focusing on my online business.”
But unless you have a year’s worth of cash sitting around, I would avoid this method of transitioning.
Because without a steady stream of income, you’re basically going to be cutting your livelihood. That makes it really hard to buy groceries and pay your bills. I don’t think it’s the smartest way to approach the transition unless you have Daddy’s money to bank on.
The Smart Transition
The second way to move your business online is similar to what I did. I gradually backed off from one-on-one training, putting those hours instead into my online business.
Now, back when I was training clients full-time (almost 20 years ago!), I worked as many as 16 hours a day. Some days I was at the gym from 7 a.m. to as late as 10 p.m. Eventually I realized there was no way I could continue at that pace.
But here’s the thing: during those long days, I had occasional one- or two-hour breaks between clients. If you’re a trainer you know what I’m talking about.
Those down times are your opportunity to build your online training business.
When I first considered going online, my first thought was to give my existing clients a product to use when I wasn’t with them. But then I also wanted to be able to sell that same product to people around the world, people I didn’t even know.
It’s Not Rocket Science
The steps I took to create my business weren’t anything special or tricky.
Basically, during my time between clients, I locked myself into one of the gym offices and I documented the workouts I was doing with them.
I basically sat down and said to myself: ”I’m doing this with Alana, I’m doing this with Howard, I’m doing this with Jeff. How do I develop a program around this, or a series of workouts that I could turn into salable products online?”
And I started creating frameworks and systems that I could use online.
Meanwhile, most of the other trainers were still talking amongst themselves, gossiping and happy with the status quo. The funny thing is, a lot of those same trainers are still training in the same gym.
There is nothing wrong with that, but I am so much happier with the lifestyle that I now have, where I’m able to walk my kids to school and pick them up afterwards.
How to Create a Business That Suits Your Lifestyle
Now, I work about five to six hours a day. I’ve built a massively impactful business over the last 11 years online, and I’m at the point now where I don’t train clients.
However, if I wanted to, I could charge an extremely high premium because I don’t need to train clients.
The beautiful thing about moving away from the one-on-one and building more of a leveraged business is that there’s a big distinction between choosing to train clients, and having to train clients.
When you choose – when you want to because you don’t have to – you can charge 10 times as much, assuming you’re delivering amazing value.
It shifts your mindset from, “I need to train this client, therefore I’m going to keep my prices low so they can afford me.”
As a result, it becomes a very different playing field.
Use Your Time Wisely
Again, what you want to do is you want to start to taper down some of your training hours.
I started working on my online business during those time gaps, creating content to help move it forward.
And the other key thing I did was start to cut back on training clients with whom I didn’t feel like I was a good fit or didn’t easily “click” with. Over time, I said: “Listen, I don’t think this is working out anymore,” and I cut them away.
I ended up with about half as many clients, which allowed me to spend more of my time on my online business. So, instead of working 16 hours a day I worked with six to eight clients a day.
This was before I had kids, so I could take that extra time and stay up a little bit later at night to produce content, work on my products, build my list, and all that stuff that you have to do as you’re starting to get things going.
Help More People, Make More Money
And that’s the course I’d recommend to take, if you want to create an online business.
Recommended Reading:
First, transition from training people in-person or online, to moving to a leveraged online business. That’s where you’re taking your knowledge and creating content that is everlasting, or turning it into a product that you create one time that thousands of people can use all around the world.
That’s how you start to create more impact, make more money, and enjoy more freedom.
BONUS TRAINING: 3 Tips to Help You Start Your Online Health or Fitness Business
Below is a recent episode of HPTV Live which goes into even more depth about how to transition from 1-on-1 to 1-to-many with your online platform.
In this episode you’ll discover:
* 3 common business models you can deploy online…
* The 3 types of freedoms must entrepreneurs are seeking…
* How to start your “side hustle” even if you have no time…
* The EASIEST (and most effective) product you should create out of the gate…
* How to get more traffic to your site and become the sought-after expert in your niche…
Watch it here…
If you’ve enjoyed this, let me know your thoughts. And share this video with a trainer, dietitian, nutritionist, or other clinician who may need guidance with how to leverage themselves, so they can create more impact in this amazing world of health and wellness.
Stop Writing Epic List Posts! (With One Exception)
Stasia
Think creating long epic list posts is the way of the future?
I’m going to make a radical suggestion. Maybe it’s time to stop.
You’ve probably seen these blog posts all over the web: 101 ways to do this, 125 reasons to do that.
These are called “epic list posts”.
Why should we stop creating them?
I’ll give an exception to this rule in just a second but the main reason I believe is that they overwhelm our readers.
Now, from an SEO perspective, these posts are highly valued. That’s because in today’s day and age, a list post with 107 “must-do” things will attract more readers than a post with offering a list of only 99.
The basic tenet is that “more is better”. And as we’ve seen in other areas of life (ie. food, exercise, etc…) that doesn’t usually end well.
But my question is:
When is it going to stop? Are we going to end up with posts that have 1,297 reasons to do this, that, or the other thing?
I believe, at some point, people will be looking for simpler, to-the-point solutions, and more condensed information.
As a LEADER, people come to you to simplify their lives and give them a clear path to their desired outcome.
But when it comes to these long list posts, it would be like me giving 101 routes from NYC to LA when all you want is the quickest one.
Instead of giving you a clear-cut answer, I’ve just complicated the heck out of your life.
The Only Time You Should Create an Epic List Post
Ironically (and even hypocritically), as I write this, on my health blog lists posts are staple form of content for us. But we do our very best to provide lists in a way that motivate and build desire instead of leading to overwhelm. More on that in a second.
As I alluded to earlier, I’m going to offer an exception to this “no list” rule. And here it is – it really depends on the type of list post you’re creating.
If it’s a list of reasons, things to know about, or specific actionable swipe-file ideas, then a list post is great such as:
- 93 of the Best Subject Lines for your Emails – sure, put that in a list. I can just copy those and put them in my email messages, no problem. No thinking required.
- 101 Reasons Why Sugar is Bad for You – yes, for sure. The more reasons I see, the more I’m motivated not to eat sugar. Awesome, keep doing that. Here are 2 examples:
But if you’re going to give me a list of things I have to do – like, Here are 101 Ways to Build your Email List – I’m done.
Because that implies I’ve got to start implementing (or doing) all 101 of those things. That’s overwhelming. It’s too much.
Here are a few examples:
I would be much more compelled and enticed by a post telling me the #1 way to build my email list. A post that told me, don’t do anything else, just do this one thing. Wouldn’t you agree?
Keep it Simple for Your Readers
I was at a conference recently and the lead magnet that they gave to all of the attendees was a business assessment checklist.
The headline was something like,
“There are 72 ways to grow your business online. Which ones are you using?”
It was a checklist of things like Twitter, Twitter ads, Facebook, Facebook ads, YouTube, YouTube ads, SEO, totalling 72 different items!
The conferences’ attendees were checking off things they were doing. Then, the company offered this lead magnet with the goal of getting people on a call so they could discuss how to use more of the strategies in their business.
As if business owners are not overwhelmed enough as is it, here are 72 more ways to grow your business. No thank you!
I’ll tell you from personal experience that…
Overwhelming readers (and customers) is the quickest way to increase refunds and to NOT have people comply with your suggestions.
Delivering Clear-Cut Answers is Delivering TRUE Value
As much as possible, guide your followers. Hold their hand and say,
“Listen, if you’re driving from New York to LA there are many different ways you can go, but I’m going to show you the fastest, most scenic and most pleasurable road that you can possibly take.”
That’s how you deliver value in the marketplace.
You are the expert – the trusted guide – who will lead people from where they are to where they want to be. And you’ll do it in the simplest, most streamlined fashion so that they’re not overwhelmed, they’re not confused, and instead they’ve got clarity and confidence.
And isn’t that your goal for your content – and your readers – in the first place?
Keep it simple, offer straightforward advice, and be their go-to for valuable information that they can actually use.
As you can probably tell, this post is much shorter than most of my posts. It’s less than 850 words. That’s I’ve said what I needed to say. No need for 10,000 words here. I rest my case.
7 Costly Online Business Mistakes to Avoid in 2017
Stasia
PLEASE…
Avoid the 7 online business mistakes I’m about to share with you in this post.
The reason I’m sharing these with you today is because even though over the past 11 years, I’ve built a multiple seven-figure online business, helping over half a million people to better health…
I’ve made a TON of mistakes, learned from them, and, quite frankly, I don’t want you to go down the same frustrating path I once did. So, I hope that you can benefit from what I’ve learned.
Ready to get started?
7 Costly Online Business Mistakes
1. Don’t Ignore Your Email List
The number one thing you need to avoid is ignoring your email list.
Everyone with an online business wants to build a bigger email list. And that’s awesome. But if you never email them out because you’re worried that they’re going to unsubscribe, then why even bother?
Email is still the most effective way at communicating with and influencing your following. In fact, research by salesforce.com found that for every dollar spent to acquire an email address, it yields $44.25 in return. That’s significant.
It was also shown that more than 44% percent of people purchase something within one year of receiving a promotional email.
That’s pretty significant, so email marketing is still very important.
Emailing them once a month is not going to work. You have to be top of mind with your followers when it comes to being a problem solver in your niche, because then you’ll be tip of tongue when they need help.
When you are in front of people with regular email messages, they’re going to think of you more often. Whereas, if they don’t ever hear from you, when you finally do send them an email, they’re going to be like, “Who is this person again? Am I on their email list? How did they even get my email?”
You want to be on top of their mind with great regular content, not just sales promotions.
At the very minimum of once per week, you should add some value to their lives via email. That way, you’re at the top of their mind.
2. Don’t Rely Solely on Email
Nowadays, we’ve got some amazing technologies that allow you to get in front of the same audience in different mediums or in different ways.
For instance, you can get in front of your audience on Facebook. If they’re part of a Facebook group, you can message them through the Facebook group. You can even message people through Facebook Messenger now with some really cool new technologies that are coming out.
You can get in front of them with Facebook ads, with YouTube videos, and with podcasts.
There are all sorts of great ways to get in front of the same people with a similar message on an ongoing basis.
That’s important because not everyone’s going to be regularly checking their email inbox. Some people hang out on Facebook. Some people listen to podcasts.
You want to think about your strategy and figure out the one, two, or three channels that you want to really master.
Let those be your playing ground. For me, my playing grounds are my blog, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. That’s pretty much it. I don’t really do much else, so if I can get in front of our ideal customers on those platforms, then that’s great.
Meanwhile, if I solely rely on email, I’m still going to get good results, but I’m going to be missing the boat to a certain degree.
3. Avoid Spending All of Your Time Online
It’s ironic that I’m going to say this, but to build a really successful online business, you actually have to spend more of your time offline.
What I mean by that is this: when I created the video accompanying this post, I wasn’t online.
My value to the world is not about being connected to the Internet. My value is to extract my ideas and knowledge.
Once I shared my thoughts on video, then (and only then) did I actually have to connect to the Internet to upload it.
Your unique value is your ideas, creating content, the writing of it, the typing of it, the shooting of the video, the recording the podcast or the interview, the creation of your course.
None of that requires connection to the Internet.
While eventually it is all posted online, the actual creative process is something you do offline.
On a related note, I would actually strongly encourage you to spend half a day or one full day each week thinking and planning.
Turn off your Internet, turn off your computer, get out a notepad, and just think. Go for a walk, spend some time in nature, sit in your favorite chair, and just think about stuff.
You will have breakthroughs galore.
The third way to get offline is to step away from your computer, table, or phone and actually meet people in person.
Here’s pic from a wonderful dinner party I hosted at my house with close friends (whom also happen to be industry leaders).
It’s a super effective way of building relationships instead of falsely thinking that Facebook friends are actually real relationships.
Let’s actually build relationships with people and connect with human beings again. Get off line. Get off the computer, and spend some time in real life.
4. Avoid Doing It All Yourself
Try, as best you can, to avoid becoming a one-man show. Don’t do everything yourself.
In today’s day and age, execution has become a commodity. You can hire someone to do practically anything you want.
You can hire a virtual assistant or you can hire someone locally. It’s just a matter of whether you are willing to invest in them or trade a little bit of your profit for building a team to give you a bit more freedom in your life.
You’re amazing at what you do best. But you’re not amazing at everything else.
I’m just being honest with you. I’m not amazing at everything. I’m amazing at what I do, which is two or three things. That’s about it. Everything else, other people can do better than I can.
Here’s my awesome team (although a few members have changed in the past few months). They’re the reason I haven’t jumped off a bridge from overwhelm.
It’s about identifying that, and finding people to fill those roles so that you can feel a bit happier and more productive on a day-to-day basis.
5. Don’t Be a Generalist
Don’t try be everything to everybody in your business. Become a specialist.
Specialize – go narrow and deep with whom you serve.
The health and wellness industry is loaded with trainers, doctors, and experts doing the same stuff. It’s the same thing over and over again.
So, why don’t you become the expert who helps a specific segment of that population do X, Y, or Z?
You can become the Hashimoto’s expert, the adrenal expert, the CrossFit-for-women expert, the post-pregnancy expert, the yoga-for-moms-who-have-two-kids expert.
Go narrow and deep. That way, it’s easy for people to put you in a specific category so that when they think of your niche, they think of you.
That’s a lot easier to build a business around than trying to be an all-around health and wellness expert, and end up competing against brands like Dr. Oz. Go and specialize.
Become the niched ninja.
6. Don’t Produce Crap Content
The days of thin, light, and superficial content are done, if they ever actually existed.
Now, Google is rewarding amazing content that people value and share, and if you’re not producing that, don’t even bother putting anything out in the first place. Seriously.
Remember, your reputation is on the line, so if you’re producing crap, what are people going to think of you? What reputation are you going to build?
When I’m creating my videos or publishing blog posts, I put a good amount of thought into what I want to say and how I want to structure it.
You have amazing expertise and knowledge. Use that. Give your best stuff away. Don’t hold anything back.
7. Don’t Channel Surf
Earlier I mentioned that I picked a couple channels and mastered them. I would recommend you do the same.
Don’t be the person who’s on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and whatever else is out there. It’s overwhelming.
There are plenty of examples of people who’ve done amazingly well on each one of those platforms by themselves. Just pick one, or two, or three at the most, and become the master of those channels.
I was once on Instagram but no longer am because I just got sick and tired of taking pictures of all my food, to be very honest with you. Yes, I still have an account, but it’s not being updated.
That’s because I want to focus on YouTube, my blog, Pinterest, and Facebook, and that is it.
A few random pics from my “old” Instagram account. So long.
Anything Else?
Those are the seven costly mistakes to avoid in 2017 and beyond. Follow it and you’re on your way to a profitable, healthy, and fun online business, helping more people. Is there anything you’d add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.
93 Best Email Subject Lines of 2016-2017 (For Health & Fitness Marketers)
Stasia
Hey YOU, open up!
That’s the message you want your email subject line to communicate. Because at the end of the day, if people don’t open your emails, then they certainly can’t click on the links inside and buy your products or read your awesome content.
As you might have guessed, writing compelling email subject lines is VERY important to your success online.
Keep in mind that this is coming from a guy who used to write emails with subject lines like “April Newsletter” way back in the day. I’ve learned a lot since then, and I want you to avoid the mistakes I made.
So with the year in full spring, I thought you would find it helpful if I gave you a full recap of the most successful email subject lines from my online health and fitness business from this past year.
The List
What follows are the 93 best email subject lines of 2016, in descending order from most opens to least opens.
These email subject lines are mostly from broadcast emails to my entire list or a large segment of it. Usually, with more segmented emails we see open rates that are much higher.
Also note that since my main health list is several hundred thousand people, a GREAT open rate for us is anything hovering around 20%.
To help you make sense of each email headline, I’ve included context where applicable.
1. Get a FREE jar of premium organic coconut oil (first 1,000 only)
- Open rate: 19.21%
- Destination: optin page for free coconut oil from Thrive Market.
2. The BEST cardio to lose weight
- Open rate: 19.16%
- Destination: Blog Post
3. How to beat sugar addiction | why you crave salty foods | Are smoothies healthy?
- Open rate: 18.74%
- Destination: this was an odd headline style that we occasionally used for our Saturday newsletters, eventually leading readers to a number of blog posts.
4. The 14 BEST ab exercises (I dare you to try #13)
- Open rate: 18.71%
- Destination: Blog Post
5. Hey, it’s Carey (Yuri’s Assistant)
- Open rate: 18.64%
- Destination: This is a last-day email leading to a blog post with a link to a specific product we were promoting.
6. Is peanut butter SAFE? (does it make you fat?)
- Open rate: 18%
- Destination: Blog Post
7. The 8 WORST breakfast foods (avoid these)
- Open rate: 18%
- Destination: Sales page for a related offer we were promoting.
8. The 4 Worst “Healthy” Snacks (and what to eat instead)
- Open rate: 17.67%
- Destination: Sales page for my All-Day Fat Burning Diet book
9. Are probiotics actually good for you?
- Open rate: 17.46%
- Destination: Sales page for our Probiotics report product.
10. Even this famous doctor was a victim…
- Open rate: 17.20%
- Destination: Sales page for a probiotic offer we were promoting.
11. 10 habits of successful people (done before 9am)
- Open rate: 17%
- Destination: Blog Post
12. The Ugly Hidden Truth About Calcium
- Open rate: 16.40%
- Destination: Sales page for a book called the Calcium Lie
13. One of my favorite 5 minute meals (perfect for Summer)…
- Open rate: 16.35%
- Destination: Sales page for our 5-minute meals cookbook
14. Do THIS before bed to feel happier
- Open rate: 16.22%
- Destination: Blog Post
15. The #1 cause of a slow metabolism
- Open rate: 16.14%
- Destination: Blog Post
16. 2 NEW recipes for you (#2 is my favorite – yum)
- Open rate: 16.11%
- Destination: Blog Post
17. The SECRET to getting the results you deserve
- Open rate: 15.98%
- Destination: Blog Post
18. Shockingly simple and delicious french onion soup (only 3 ingredients)
- Open rate: 15.93%
- Destination: Blog Post
19. Meet the “Perfect Painkiller” SPICE That Also Fights Inflammation (plus how to absorb it 20x better)
- Open rate: 15.84%
- Destination: Sales page for a turmeric offer.
20. 14.2 pounds gone in just 1 week (here’s how)
- Open rate: 15.83%
- Destination: Sales page for my All-Day Fat Burning Diet book
21. How to create healthy eating habits that stick (free step-by-step plan)
- Open rate: 15.81%
- Destination: Blog Post
22. The most DANGEROUS ab exercises (#8 will kill your spine)
- Open rate: 15.69%
- Destination: Blog Post
23. Do this. Burn 983% more fat (seriously)
- Open rate: 15.65%
- Destination: Sales page for Metabolic Factor promotion.
24. How to STOP Sugar Addiction
- Open rate: 15.61%
- Destination: Blog Post
25. The WORST exercise for women over 35 (avoid this)
- Open rate:15.55%
- Destination: Sales page for my All-Day Fat Burning Workouts
26. 2-Minute Morning “Miracle” Routine?
- Open rate: 15.53%
- Destination: Sales page for Bodyweight Flow workout program.
27. Healthy brownies? (recipe inside)
- Open rate: 15.51%
- Destination: Sales page for our free cookbook offer
28. [PDF] My 1-day beach body fix
- Open rate: 15.48%
- Destination: Optin page for our 1-Day Detox PDF
29. best cardio machine?
- Open rate: 15.43%
- Destination: Blog Post
30. The CHEAPEST “diet” on the planet (do this once a week)
- Open rate: 15.29%
- Destination: Sales page for Eat Stop Eat program.
31. 11 ways to sleep like a baby tonight (without pills)
- Open rate: 15.24%
- Destination: Blog Post
32. You’re likely DEFICIENT in this one mineral…
- Open rate: 15.09%
- Destination: Sales page for magnesium product.
33. The at-home secret fix for optimal health
- Open rate: 15.08%
- Destination: Registration page for Optimal Wellness Labs partner webinar
34. SCARY facts about the foods you’re eating (new research)
- Open rate: 15.08%
- Destination: Sales page for our Energy Greens drink mix powder.
35. AVOID this #1 thyroid-killing exercise (especially if you have Hashimoto’s)
- Open rate: 15.08%
- Destination: Sales page for Metabolic Prime offer.
36. 5 Delicious Ways to Eat More Vegetables
- Open rate: 15.04%
- Destination: Article lander leading into our free cookbook offer
37. 7 tasty and quick healthy recipes — which do you want to enjoy today?
- Open rate: 15.02%
- Destination: Sales Page
38. want to join me in Toronto? (business workshop)
- Open rate: 15%
- Destination: surprisingly solid open rate (to my health list) for a business-related offer for one of my Toronto-based Healthpreneur workshops.
39. Free gifts from Yuri (as promised)
- Open rate: 15%
- Destination: Blog Post
40. The Truth About Sitting and Your Health (And What to Do)
- Open rate: 15%
- Destination: Blog Post
41. 5 “tricks” to ENJOY vegetables (seriously)
- Open rate: 14.97%
- Destination: Article lander leading to our free cookbook.
42. 19 Important Alkaline Foods Your Body’s Craving
- Open rate: 14.97%
- Destination: Blog Post
43. The Healthiest Breakfast Cereal Yet (try it today)
- Open rate: 14.89%
- Destination: Blog Post
44. Have you seen this AMAZING movie?
- Open rate: 14.87%
- Destination: Opting page for Truth About Cancer documentary series
45. 19 Healthy Dessert Recipes So Good You’ll Think They’re Bad
- Open rate: 14.86%
- Destination: Quiz page for Truth About Cancer documentary series
46. Goooooood Morning 🙂
- Open rate: 14.85%
- Destination: Blog Post
47. Eat THIS healthy breakfast food for faster fat loss (and fewer cravings)
- Open rate: 14.77%
- Destination: Blog Post
48. 7 Shocking LIES That Will Ruin Your Health
- Open rate: 14.63%
- Destination: Blog Post
49. The 9 BEST Flat Belly Foods (eat these daily)
- Open rate: 14.60%
- Destination: Blog Post-
50. The 5 Healthiest Alternatives to Milk
- Open rate: 14.58%
- Destination: Blog Post
51. 7 most nutritious vegetables | 12 ways to enjoy greens | drink this to look & feel younger
- Open rate: 14.54%
- Destination: Another one of our Saturday newsletter emails leading to various blog posts.
52. Are Smoothies Really Healthy?
- Open rate: 14.46%
- Destination: Blog Post
53. The WORST fat loss exercise for women? (quiz)
- Open rate: 14.45%
- Destination: Quiz page leading into our All-Day Fat Burning Workouts
54. Which of these 2 ab exercises is a waste of time?
- Open rate: 14.43%
- Destination: Sales Page
55. Brand NEW just for you (and it’s FREE)
- Open rate: 14.42%
- Destination: Podcast page on iTunes
56. The ignored “health savior” that ends disease (and weight gain)
- Open rate: 14.37%
- Destination: Webinar registration page
57. 9 Healthy Midnight Snacks You Can Enjoy Guilt-Free
- Open rate: 14.30%
- Destination: Article lander leading to our Amazing Abs Solution program
58. The 8 Worst Breakfast Foods to Eat in the Morning (Stop Eating These)
- Open rate: 14.19%
- Destination: Blog Post
59. WOMEN: discover your #1 metabolism killer
- Open rate: 14.17%
- Destination: Quiz leading into our All-Day Fat Burning Workouts
60. Why DIETING will make you FATTER
- Open rate: 14.16%
- Destination: Sales page for our free cookbook
61. Are you a SLOW burner?
- Open rate: 14%
- Destination: Sales page for my All-Day Fat Burning Diet book.
61. I call him Jesus
- Open rate: 14%
- Destination: Sales page for Eat Stop Eat program and one of the highest unsubscribe rates from all of 2016. I wonder why.
62. What NASA’s “hidden agenda” can tell you about your health
- Open rate: 13.89%
- Destination: Webinar registration for Optimal Wellness Labs offer
63. What Are YOU REALLY Hungry For?
- Open rate: 13.76%
- Destination: Optin page for video series on emotional eating.
64. I’m doing this for YOU
- Open rate: 13.75%
- Destination: Replay page for our Fat Loss Summit.
65. FOR MEN: This 30-Second Quiz Shows You The BEST Way To Build Muscle
- Open rate: 13.67%
- Destination: Quiz leading to a muscle building program
66. Fix this ONE problem for better overall health
- Open rate: 13.67%
- Destination: Sales page for muscle building (only sent to men on our list)
67. An inspirational story to start your week
- Open rate: 13.65%
- Destination: Sales page for my All-Day Fat Burning Diet book.
68. Easiest Black Bean Brownies EVER! (and super healthy)
- Open rate: 13.64%
- Destination: Sales page for our free cookbook.
69. 4 Ways to Manipulate Your Diet to “See Your Abs”
- Open rate: 13.58%
- Destination: Sales page for an abs-related offer.
70. How to crush ANY goal (quickly)
- Open rate: 13.51%
- Destination: Blog Post
71. The #1 Cause of Back Pain (and how to FIX it)
- Open rate: 13.46%
- Destination: Sales page for back pain offer.
72. The scary TRUTH about “cleansing”
- Open rate: 13.44%
- Destination: Webinar registration page for our cleanse code webinar.
73. 3 Best Natural Cures for Constipation
- Open rate: 13.38%
- Destination: Protein quiz
74. The 7 stages of DISEASE (which are you currently in?)
- Open rate: 13.33%
- Destination: Webinar registration page.
75. Eating FAT makes you THIN?
- Open rate: 13.08%
- Destination: Optin page for Fat Summit.
76. This “Prehistoric Disease” Robs Life Energy
- Open rate: 13.05%
- Destination: Article lander leading to our Energy Greens product.
77. Struggling to lose weight this year? This is why…
- Open rate: 12.87%
- Destination: Sales page for our Fat Loss Summit.
78. The 4 worst “healthy” snacks (never eat these)
- Open rate: 12.77%
- Destination: Blog Post
79. Nature’s Ultimate Flu Shot (100% Safe and Effective)
- Open rate: 12.75%
- Destination: Blog Post
80. Banana sushi?!
- Open rate: 12.74%
- Destination: Sales page for our free cookbook.
81. Fwd: Ashley dropped 59 lbs by dropping these 2 health foods
- Open rate: 12.71%
- Destination: Sales page for weight loss offer.
82. Is your body AGING faster than it should? Answer inside.
- Open rate: 12.71%
- Destination: Anti-aging quiz
83. The at-home secret fix for optimal health
- Open rate: 12.71%
- Destination: Webinar registration page for Optimal Wellness Labs offer.
84. #1 muscle that eliminates joint and back pain, anxiety and looking fat
- Open rate: 12.70%
- Destination: Sales page for Unlock Your Tight Hip Flexors program.
85. NEW way to get great abs (special forces training secret)
- Open rate: 12.68%
- Destination: Sales page for abs-related offer
86. 4 reasons to NEVER do this workout (especially if you’re a woman)
- Open rate: 12.63%
- Destination: Blog Post
87. This man lived with monks. Now he’s EXPOSING their secrets!
- Open rate: 12.58%
- Destination: Optin page for Urban Monk course.
88. Is this toxic substance on your kitchen counter?
- Open rate: 12.50%
- Destination: Sales page for salt offer.
89. This exercise cools fattening inflammation (and boosts metabolism)…
- Open rate: 12.47%
- Destination: Sales page for Metabolic Prime program.
90. These 4 proven “lifestyle hacks” transform your body
- Open rate: 12.40%
- Destination: Sales page for 27 Habits book.
91. Chocolate Fudge That’s Actually Good For You 🙂
- Open rate: 12.36%
- Destination: Blog Post
92. A personal invitation from Yuri (time sensitive)
- Open rate: 12.35%
- Destination: Sales page for All-Day Fat Burning Diet online course.
93. 57 year old TURNS the clock BACK 10 years in 28 DAYS!
- Open rate: 11.73%
- Destination: Sales page for baby boomer fitness program.
What Makes People Open Emails?
There you have it – 93 proven email subject lines that work (at least for us).
In case you’re wondering, the 2 ingredients for a successful email subject line are CURIOSITY and BENEFIT. Knowing that, go back through the list and see if you can see how these 2 elements are infused in most of our winning subject lines.
Here’s What to Do Next…
If you’ve enjoyed this post and want to get better results from the emails you send your list, then I think you’ll really enjoy my “Irresistible Headlines” swipe file and worksheet, which will give you even more proven winning headlines you can use for your emails, blog posts, and sales copy.
This is a component of one my paid programs but it’s so helpful and relevant to this discussion that I figured it could really help you out. You can download it for FREE by clicking on the banner below.
Top 10 Health & Fitness Industry Trends and Predictions for 2017
Stasia
It’s almost time to ring in a new year – and if turning your health or fitness expertise into a thriving online business is on your goal list, you’ll love this post.
I am going to share with you the top fitness and business trends you need to know to have more impact, more income, and more freedom in 2017.
Whether it’s on- or offline, these trends can have a big impact on your business, so let’s jump right in.
Health and Fitness Industry Trends for 2017
1. Facebook Live
I don’t know if you know this, but Facebook Live is a feature you can use on your Facebook account to increase your organic reach, whether it’s from your fan page, personal profile page, or in your groups.
Here’s a snapshot of one of my recent Ask Yuri Live hangouts.
Not only does it help you increase your reach, but it’s an easy and seamless tool to use. For example, instead of having to record a video and upload it to YouTube, you can now record a video and it’s already on YouTube.
What makes Facebook Live a top fitness industry trend? Because it’s a great platform that will help you engage with your audience. You can answer their questions in real time – and show them that you’re a real person.
We’ve noticed that Facebook actually favors Facebook Live when it comes to organically reaching more viewers versus other types of videos. So, if you enjoy doing video, this is a big opportunity.
2. YouTube
Video will only become more popular. It’s now a major feature not only with Facebook but also on Instagram. Pretty much all social media platforms will eventually go towards adding more video on their platforms because people engage with video so much more deeply than other forms of content.
YouTube has been around for a long time and actually is now the second-largest search engine in the world. It’s an amazing place to offer anything that’s going to teach people something: tutorials, how-to demonstrations like recipes, workouts, or just answering frequently asked questions.
It’s also great place to develop a loyal following.
For example, I have 900 videos on YouTube that have been seen by over 23 million people. I obviously believe in it, and some of our best customers come from YouTube. If you have a gym or access to an area to demonstrate via video, YouTube is the place where you want to do that.
Plus, as the following graph shows, Youtube can yield some of your best customers since they’ve “binge” consumed a lot of your content or at least spent a lot of time on your channel/videos.
3. Personalization
Not many businesses are embracing personalization because it isn’t necessarily scalable. Before I explain, let me differentiate personalization from segmentation.
There are many different services that you can use online to help segment your audience through filtering, by asking them a simple question which will lead them into different segments of your email list.
And that’s totally cool because it’s a smart way to market – you’re segmenting people based on their interests or where they’re at in their health and fitness journey.
But personalization is about reaching out to people online and introducing yourself as a real person so you can build an actual relationship.
I know that’s not a scalable thing to do but I believe it is probably going to be the most impactful thing you can do in your online business.
Why?
Because if you want to build your online business, you have to do more of the same types of things you’d do to build an off-line business. And that basically means interacting with human beings at a deeper level. That’s a big opportunity not many people or businesses are going to take advantage of.
4. Millennial Mindset
We know the millennials are a big segment of the population – they presently range in age from about 18 to 35 years old.
The trouble is that a lot of people think that millennials don’t have a lot of money to spend. And that’s kind of true, at least compared to the baby boomers.
But here’s the thing: relative to the amount of money they make, millennials spend the highest percentage of their income on health and wellness, which is very interesting. They’re a very proactive group of individuals who value their health.
[sourced from infographic here]
What I’ve noticed in my business is that you can have a millennial mindset but not necessarily be a millennial.
I believe a great trend is to target people who have that millennial mindset, which is all being proactive. It’s someone who is what I call a health enthusiast – someone you don’t have to convince to exercise. It’s someone who already enjoys exercising, who’s going to yoga sessions and grabbing a green juice afterwards, who enjoys all of that stuff.
Tapping into that demographic is a big opportunity, especially if you’re somebody who is tired of convincing people that they should be eating well and exercise more regularly. Think about tapping into people who have the millennial mindset.
5. Baby Boomers
There is a great opportunity in targeting the aging population. People are living longer now and hopefully we, as wellness practitioners, can help them live longer with a better quality of life. I think developing training programs specific to the aging population is a huge opportunity as this infographic from the Heart and Stroke Foundation shows…
There are obviously a number of experts and facilities around North America that are already doing a great job catering to these individuals. But I don’t think there’s anything more gratifying than seeing a 90-year-old woman deadlifting 200 pounds, or throwing a kettlebell around, or using battling ropes. That’s pretty inspiring.
The baby boomer population is spending the largest amount of money on wellness. Whether it’s prevention or reversing conditions that they already have. From the strength-training perspective as well as a nutrition/supplemental perspective, it’s a demographic that should not be ignored.
6. Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes isn’t going away any time soon. But the thing is, type 2 diabetes is really the most optimistic disease that you can possibly have. As a health expert you probably know that it’s completely reversible through diet and exercise alone in most cases.
When we compared type 2 diabetes to things like cancer, heart disease, or obesity, type 2 diabetes is something that we can make significant progress on in a very short amount of time by helping people exercise more intelligently – and eating better as well.
More than 10 percent of the North American population has type 2 diabetes. That’s pretty alarming.
It used to be called adult-onset diabetes but now kids as young as 10 years old are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and it continues to become more of an epidemic across the entire age span.
That’s a massive opportunity for developing solutions because it is something that can go from despair to amazing results in a very short amount of time.
7. Smarter Workouts
There’s been a huge fitness industry trend over the past decade pushing really insane, insanity-type workouts like P90X and CrossFit. But with all of that comes a side effect, which is a body that is absolutely crushed.
You cannot maintain that level of intensity in exercise for too long. It causes tremendous wear and tear. Eventually you body just starts to wear down, whether it’s from adrenal fatigue, or your joints start to act up, or you’re just absolutely burned out.
As a former professional soccer player, I can tell you firsthand what happens. Think about it: you don’t know many professional athletes over the age of 35. There’s a reason for that. Their bodies cannot maintain that volume or intensity of training for very long – maybe a decade and a half at the most.
Here’s the thing when it comes to training and workouts: we want to look the minimum effective dose to get results. I think that’s going to be a big trend moving forward as more people simply can’t keep up with the intensity of all these workouts.
I think there’s going to be a big swing in the marketplace with respect to going back to smarter workouts, with less volume and more intelligently designed workouts.
8. Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger now allows you to communicate with your audience almost as if they were on your email list. Some of this app’s features are really cool.
For instance, say you send an email to your audience. You can ask them to respond to you via email or via Facebook Messenger. You can do this via a simple URL, which is: m.me/yourFacebookhandle.
That’s going to allow people to click on the link within your email , which will open up Facebook Messenger, allowing you to have a more engaged conversation.
There are also some cool automation tools that allow you to create auto-responder-like sequences inside Facebook Messenger. You can now even run Facebook ads that connect directly to your Messenger account.
I believe Facebook Messenger is going to be a huge opportunity to connect with your audience in a new way, especially for those who spend more of their time on Facebook rather than email.
9. More Certifications
If you’re somebody who has an educational company or you’re looking to provide certifications to health and fitness pros, I think the opportunity here is going to be massive.
One of the reasons certifications are becoming even more prominent is because of the democratization and demonetization of content. What that means is that information is now ubiquitous – it’s everywhere. Which means the perceived value of that information has become much lower.
One of the ways we can get around that is by tying in our teachings, our education, and our information into a certification component to increase the perceived value and obviously the usability of that information in the marketplace.
As an example (and seen below), my good friend, Jon Goodman at the Personal Trainer Development Center, has a great certification program (called the Online Trainer Academy) which “certifies” trainers on how to train clients online.
Precision Nutrition, my very own Super Nutrition Academy, and dozens of other organizations now offer certifications to help professionals become even better at what they do and rise above the noise.
Plus, as a professional, adding another certification to your belt is just one more way you can separate yourself from everyone else. It allows you to raise your prices because of the value you bring to the market.
10. Content Creation and Curation
Creating content – or curating existing content – that is niche-specific is going to continue to become even more important in 2017.
When it comes to being a health or fitness professional, it’s a crowded marketplace. It’s hard to stand out. There are riches in the niches when it comes to this market.
That’s why I always say you have to go narrow – you have to become a very specific kind of specialist.
With that said, one of the best ways to become a thought leader and increase your relevance and intrinsic value in the marketplace, is to bring content together, curated or create your own, in a way that serves that specific niche. Become the thought leader of a very small pool of people and watch what happens to your business.
Here’s What To Do Next…
So there you have it, the top 10 trends in health, fitness and wellness industry that are coming your way 2017 and beyond. If there’s s anything you feel that I’ve missed just let me know in the comments.
In the meantime, if you want an unfair advantage to “failure proofing” your online health or fitness business in this SUPER competitive landscape, then I’d recommend you download my “Idea Filter”.
I bet it will quickly become your 2-page secret weapon to figuring out which idea/product/service is worth pursuing, while saving yourself from terrible opportunities and ideas that suck away your time, money, and energy.
Click on this banner to download it now…
How to Find Your Target Audience (For Health & Fitness Experts)
Stasia
As a health and fitness professional, figuring how to find your target audience is vital to building your online business.
Often when people are just starting out with their online fitness or wellness business, they aren’t sure who their target market is – or even who they want to target.
In this post we’re going to go over a simple strategy – using my 4W Framework – to help you figure out who your target audience is, and how you can help them.
Be Specific About Your Audience
Let me give you an example of what not to do, using an example from my own online business.
Just in case you don’t know, I’ve been in business online at YuriElkaim.com for almost 11 years. We’ve helped over half a million people and we’ve done very well. But over the years, I’ve also made a lot of mistakes that I’ve learned from.
In that business, our goal is to make healthy and fit simple again.
Now, one of the things that I didn’t do when starting out was think about my target market. I created a lot of content – in fact there are more than 800 videos on my YouTube health and fitness channel – but I didn’t think about anyone specific that I wanted to target.
Instead, my attitude was: I’m going to help everyone get healthy and fit.
My mission is help 100 million people by 2040 – and 10 million people by 2018 – achieve those very goals.
The dilemma with that is I’ve gone super broad. People know me as the energy guy and the fat loss guy, but again we do a lot of stuff around natural healing, awesome recipes, bodyweight workouts, and losing belly fat.
Those are a few of things in our wheelhouse. The dilemma with that is that, again, it’s fairly broad.
What Is a Well-Defined Audience?
Let me give you some contrast to that with my friend Dr. Alan Christianson (aka. the smartest man on the planet).
He is known for being an endocrine expert – specializing in the thyroid and adrenal glands. And that’s what he’s built his online platform around.
He’s obviously very well versed in other things, but that’s what he specializes in.
Or how about my friend Dr. Izabella Wentz, who is known as a Hashimoto’s expert. That’s another example of a targeted audience.
And there’s also my buddy Vince Del Monte. You may have seen him on YouTube – he’s the Skinny Guy Savior, who helps skinny guys build muscle.
Those are a few examples of what I’m talking about. You are better off if you find a very specific audience and go deep and narrow with them. Because you will very soon – assuming you provide great content and have excellent solutions for them – become the sought-after leader in that specific marketplace.
That’s a lot easier than the road I’ve gone down – as in, ”Hey, I’m the guy who’s going to help you get healthy.” We’ve done very well, but it’s a tougher road to go down.
How to Find Your Target Audience
I’m going to walk you through my 4W framework to help you identify your target audience
1. Who
Now, you don’t have to overcomplicate this. Get out a notebook or open a document on your computer and write down your thoughts.
Ask yourself this question:
”Who do I want to be a hero to? Who do I want to serve? Who do I want to help?”
Just think about that and write down some ideas.
Maybe you’re deeply connected to something. Maybe you had a family member who had type 2 diabetes and you want to help type 2 diabetics.
Try not to say, “I want to help women lose weight.”
Why?
Because that’s very broad, and you want to go deeper and more narrow. Maybe, you want to help post-menopausal women get back to feeling their best again.
Really think about this. It matters – a lot.
And with that first W, I want you to ask yourself another question.
Once you identify that market or potential audience, then ask:
“Is this a starving crowd? Is there a massive need or big problem that needs to be solved there?”
Because not all markets have a massive amount of pain associated with them.
For instance, somebody who has stage 4 cancer has a great degree of pain, versus somebody who is in their mid-20s and not really conscious about their health.
You want to look at what that audience is starving need for.
Let me use that example of the mid-20s again.
For instance a lot of people on YouTube have done very well showing younger guys how to look great and build muscle. It’s not that they’re doing that necessarily from a health perspective.
I’ll be honest with you, because I’ve worked with a lot of these guys as well, their pain – their desire – is to be more attractive to women. That is their main pain point.
And that takes me into the second question.
2. What
What is their #1 pain point – the big problem they want solved or the big desire they want to meet?
You have to identify that – it’s really important.
If you don’t what your audience wants how can you ever deliver it to them?
3. Where
The third W is “where are they hanging out?”
Are they on specific Facebook pages or Facebook groups? Are they subscribed to certain YouTube channels, personalities or brands? What type of products are they buying?
If they’re into yoga, are they hanging out on Lululemon’s pages or Gaiam or related pages?
If they’re into running, maybe they’re using Nike Running, or iPod Plus. You want to think about what ancillary products this audience is likely already purchasing.
When you know this information, it provides you with the opportunity to get in front of them and in a meaningful way if you know their “what”.
For instance, if you know your target audience is hanging out on XYZ page on Facebook, you’re able to target those individuals with specific Facebook ads.
Assuming you’re providing value to them, you’re much more likely to appeal to them then if you were targeting a much more general or broad audience.
4. What²
The final W in this 4W framework is a second “what.”
Now that you’ve identified who they are, what their pain point is, and where they are, think about what you can give them for free to help solve that number one pain or desire.
This FREE thing should really give them a BIG WIN right out of the gate.
This free offer could be a lead magnet: a checklist, blueprint, or some type of template to help them reach their goal.
Maybe it’s a quick workout, a recipe guide, or maybe it’s a smoothie printable to make the best possible smoothie.
The idea here is that it needs to be:
- short and easy to consume
- quick to apply, and
- very outcome-driven.
They should be able to apply your “lead magnet” and as soon as they’re done – say in 5 or 10 minutes – they can achieve a specific result.
What that’s going to do is that’s going to build a massive amount of confidence in you, because now they’ve gotten a big win for them. You’ve shown them that you can help them by actually helping them.
They’d likely say to themselves:
“Holy cow, this is amazing! I did this, and I got this. Just imagine what else I could get from this individual.”
Start your relationship with some of your best stuff . It doesn’t have to be 300 pages long. It literally could be only one to two pages, as long as it’s something super helpful.
Offer them tangible results.
Remember, as a their trusted advisor you want to show them the FASTER route to the results they’re after. Make it simple and easy-to-follow. Don’t complicate their lives any further.
4W Recap
Let’s recap the 4W Framework:
- Who do you want to serve?
- What is their #1 pain point or desire?
- Where are they hanging out?
- What can you offer them for free to solve their pain or desire?
This framework will help you find your target audience and truly serve them. It’s straightforward and helps hone your thinking about who you want to help and how you can best serve them.
Remember, content marketing should be a major piece of your puzzle as a health and fitness professional looking to stand out in a crowded marketplace. After all, if you’re not producing epic content then how exactly are you adding value to your audience?
Targeting the right people with that marketing will help grow your business so you can serve even more people.
Here’s What to Do Next…
The 4th “W” in the above framework is all about figuring out what you can offer your audience – for FREE – that would be massively valuable to them. Other than great content, the most important thing you can offer them is a free Lead Magnet, which they would get in exchange for their email.
That way, you can start building a relationship with these prospects while delivering great value to them in the process. Email is still the most effective way to do so and that’s why building your email is critical to your online success.
So with that said, how would you like to easily create irresistible and high-converting lead magnets that turn more of your website visitors into email subscribers? Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, download my FREE Lead Magnet Generator below to help you do just that…
How to Create Great Content: Introducing the “EPICK” Framework
Stasia
How do you create epic online content as a health and fitness professional?
My five-step EPICK framework will help you create great online content that can help turn your expertise into a thriving online business that makes more impact – as well as create more income and freedom.
Together we can help millions of people around the world transform their lives and that’s what we’re doing this for, right? That’s what it’s all about.
How to Stand Out
Today you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, how do I grow my business and stand out in this crowded marketplace? Do I even have a voice? Why does somebody want to hear from me when they’ve read all these other diets and learned from all these other experts? I’m nothing special. I don’t have anything unique.”
First of all, I want to STOP you right there. I’m going to turn off that little negative voice in your head.
Here’s the thing – and I firmly believe this. Every single one of us has a book inside of us!
You have a unique story, perspective, experience, and education that nobody else possesses.
Let me give you an example from my life.
There Is Only One You
When I grew up I had a lot of health issues – digestive problems, eczema, asthma, and really low energy. And then when I was seventeen, I lost all of my hair in the space of two months to an autoimmune condition called alopecia.
Now why did all that happen? Well, basically I was eating garbage food for most of my life up until that point. Finally my body said, “Hey, wake up.” That’s when I kind of figured things out.
But that was just part of my story. I was also able to pursue a career in a professional soccer, which I did for a number of years. I also had an educational background in kinesiology and holistic nutrition.
What ended up happening over that period of time is that I started to piece all these different things together – things which are very unique to me.
Then, I was able to work as a strength and conditioning coach at one of the top universities in the world for seven years with the men’s soccer program.
Again, that gives me a very unique perspective and opportunity to work with athletes, and also lets me take what I’ve learned and apply it to the everyday person.
What I’m trying to say here is that you have a unique journey – just like I have a unique journey – that allows you to position yourself in a way that nobody else can.
I don’t know anyone else who:
- has alopecia
- played pro soccer
- worked as a strength coach
- is a New York Times bestselling author and
- has helped half a million people over the past ten years.
That is the progression of my story so far.
What I’m saying here is that you want to use whatever it is to your advantage, your health issues, your health journey.
Someone Needs You
What I love about being a health and fitness EDUCATOR, is that we all have come into this field because we’ve all dealt with our own health issues.
That’s awesome because we’re all in this to do good for others.
That’s why I love helping people like yourself because you deserve to get your message out to more people.
Understand that you have a gift that people need to hear about. Not sharing that gift is actually selfish because there might be one person or maybe 1,000 or 1,000,000 people who need to hear it from you.
And yes, sometimes might be talking about the same things as other health experts. But there are people who need to hear those things from you – and ONLY you – with your unique perspective and voice.
One of the ways to get that perspective and voice out into the world is through online content.
How to Create Great Content
Content, as I’ve mentioned previously, is the future of online business.
If you’re not producing content, how exactly are you adding value to your marketplace? How are you supposed to teach your audience what they need to know and help solve their problems? How are you supposed to build a relationship with them so they can do business with you?
Content is the key.
Here, I’m going to walk you through my five-step EPICK framework. And yes, EPICK is an acronym for this system, which applies to video, written content, audio, or any means of communication.
This framework needs to be applied because otherwise what you’ll create is just another piece of content that gets brushed under the table.
You need to stand out with quality information.
EPICK Content Framework
E – Educational and Entertaining
Now I don’t think my videos or articles are boring. They’re highly educational. But they’re also not super comedic, right? I’m not going to crack jokes and go all Louis C.K., but I’m also not reading anything off a teleprompter – I speak off the cuff.
I’ve actually filmed videos where my nose started running midway through the video and that’s at least pseudo-entertaining. Right?
But that’s me. It doesn’t have to be you.
You don’t have to do things that are outrageous; be yourself, but don’t be boring. Don’t be like, “Today we’re going to talk about how to lose weight” and then present completely factual information in a deadpan voice.
And if that IS you and your personality, that’s fine – just focus on writing. The entertaining piece usually applies more to audio and video.
Unless you’re an amazing writer, it’s a little bit more challenging to be entertaining through the written word. However, you can still use your “voice” to create more personality as you write.
So remember, help people by actually helping them with educational content. That’s why people search on Google and YouTube – they want to watch and learn new things. They want solutions to their problems.
P – Proof
Back up your claims with proof.
For instance, say you claim, “Many studies show that women who restrict carbohydrate consumption depress their thyroid function.”
Yes, that’s a great statement. But where’s the proof? Back it up with scientific research. If you’re making claims, show validation for them.
What that does is it makes the reader believe and trust you.
It’s very important to back up claims with scientific research from sources such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and other scholarly publications.
Proof is massively important. Find some statistics or reputable organizations who’ve done research, or cite from peer-reviewed journals. Support your claims. It will build trust.
I – Insightful
People are going to come to you because of your insights, perspectives, and experience. That’s all part of your uniqueness.
You want to use your difference to make a difference. The I is going to help you do that. You have a specific insight on the topic at hand.
Let me give you an example: I don’t believe that working out harder is a smart idea.
Now why is that? Yes, that’s a statement that a lot of people make, but let me share my unique insight with you.
As a former pro soccer player, I noticed that most pro athletes don’t last beyond the age of 35. Why is that? Well because their body simply breaks down from all the wear-and-tear of years of high-intensity training. The body can’t handle that.
That is an insight from my personal experience.
Now if somebody else were to say that, unless they had the personal experience, they’re most likely not going to have the same level of credibility.
Maybe they won’t have that insight because they didn’t even think of it because they didn’t experience it. Maybe they will have a completely different insight.
This goes back to you, and your experiences, perspectives and life’s journey.
Again, even if you’re telling people to do the same thing as a thousand other people are, your insight is massively needed.
C – Clear and Call to Action
As “trusted guide”, part of what we should be doing for our audience is making things very CLEAR (and even simple).
People are already overwhelmed, frustrated, and confused. Don’t make it worse. Your content should be clear and easy to follow. The best way to do that is have a rough outline of what you’re going to talk or write about and then fill in the gaps.
The other “C” in this formula is “call to action”. It’s vital that every piece of content you produce directs people to the next actionable step.
Here’s an example:
If you enjoy this article and you want to learn how to make your content stand out in this crowded marketplace, then I strongly recommend you click below to download my FREE content marketing launchpad.
It’s a 2-page worksheet that will help you get clear on who you want to help and how to develop content specifically for them and get your content machine off the ground.
Those two paragraphs are an example of a call to action.
Every single piece of content you publish – whether it’s video, audio, or written – should have some next course of action.
What do you want them to do?
Subscribe? Then, “Subscribe to my channel”
Do you want people to share your video? Then “I would love if you shared this video. Just click on the thumbs up button or share it on Facebook.”
These are examples of calls to action.
Going back to being clear.
This is pretty basic. Don’t ramble on forever.
I’ve made this mistake in the past and sometimes even still do today where I go off on verbal diarrhea tangents.
So, take a bit of time to structure your thinking and be clear with your messaging and have a specific call to action.
K – Kool-Aid
You want people to drink your Kool-Aid.
Your Kool-Aid is:
- your opinions,
- your voice,
- the way you hold yourself,
- your charisma,
- whether you swear or not,
- your position on certain topics,
- what you stand for,
- what you stand against,
- your beliefs,
- your core values,
- your vision/mission,
- etc…
You want people to buy in to who you are and what you’re talking about. The more they drink your Kool-Aid, the more they’re going to be by your side.
This is important. So important that even though I know EPICK is a misspelling of the word “epic,” I had to throw this one in.
Why? Because if you just put content out there without providing a stance or position, then you’re really no different from anybody else.
Let’s just talk about Healthpreneur as an example.
I help health and fitness entrepreneurs turn their expertise into a thriving online business to make more impact, income, and freedom.
With Healthpreneur, we are on a mission to help a billion people by 2040 collectively around the planet – and I can’t do that alone. That’s why Healthpreneur is in place. To help you and other health and fitness experts build your platforms, your presence, so that collectively, we can impact more people.
The only way we can do that is by being decent human beings and providing great value and content to our audiences. We do that by building a relationship with them, and eventually having them do business with us.
See what we’re doing here with the Kool-Aid? That’s just a small sip of some of my Kool-Aid and there’s a lot more where that came from that you’ll get to enjoy as we move forward together.
EPICK Framework for Awesome Content
So there you go…
This is the framework for how to develop great content that will help you stand above everything else – and get people to share your content, talk about it, and help you become a leader in your niche.
Now it’s your turn take your “magic” and put pen to paper (figure of speech) or get on camera and share your gift with the world!
Here’s What To Do Next…
If you’d like more help putting together your own content marketing plan, be sure to download my free Content Marketing Launchpad.
The launchpad is a two-page worksheet that will help you come up with winning content that rises above the noise and helps you monetize your expertise.
Click below to download it now – for FREE!
How Gregory O’Gallagher Used Video Content to Become an Internet Fitness Sensation
Stasia
Despite being only in his early 20s, Gregory O’Gallagher – the man behind Kinobody – has developed a major presence in the fitness world.
In this interview, we’re going to dive into how he has used content and his unique perspective to grow his online presence – and his business.
(The transcript is here…)
Yuri: Thanks for agreeing to speak with us, Greg. I wanted to talk to you about the importance of content in helping you build your online business. Over the last couple years you’ve really exploded online.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen Greg’s videos on YouTube or other places.
But before we get into all that, Greg, please tell our readers in your own words what your website is and who you help.
Defined Bodies, Balanced Life
Greg: My website is Kinobody.com and I teach men and women how to build a lean, chiseled Hollywood physique while enjoying life.
They don’t have to be obsessed with going to the gym six days a week, allowing them to have a balance in their life. I create content speaking to them, and I create workout programs around that model.
Yuri: What did life look like for you before you started your online business? Were you training clients?
Greg: Yes, I was doing personal training. I was young when I started, so I wasn’t charging a lot. I was charging $50 or $60 an hour. I trained four or five clients a day.
After about six months it wasn’t fun for me. I wasn’t excited. I wasn’t building something and I was trading my time for money.
I knew there was something I had to do that was bigger. I saw these people doing Internet marketing with online fitness blogs, and they were actually successful. I was like, “This is what I need to do.”
Yuri: For you, what was the dream? Instead of taking your business online and developing one-on-one coaching programs for people around the world, why did you decide to go into the information product route, and create what you’ve done with Kinobody?
Creating Info Products
Greg: That’s the model that I learned from Rusty Moore, who was my first mentor.
He was doing affiliate marketing and writing his own programs. I didn’t have a mentor that did online coaching so it made sense to follow Rusty’s model, and then also, it’s more scalable.
If you’re doing coaching, you get capped at a certain point. When your business builds up, it’s hard to put the effort into blogging, making videos, and working on improving your sales pages when you have to handle coaching clients. Unless you can create a system where it doesn’t take up much time.
Yuri: Yes, that’s the big problem. I think many wellness and fitness professionals come online because they want to enjoy the lifestyle that we have, which gives us time off to travel, and still allows us to impact a lot of people around the world – without being tied to creating programs or seeing people individually on a regular basis.
Helping More People Across the Globe
Greg: One of my buddies does very well with online coaching, but when we were in Vegas together, he had to wake up early to do his coaching stuff. He left the club at 1 a.m.
It was hard for him, though, to build his brand because when you’re spending six, seven hours a day on the computer or writing emails and all that, building the business is much harder.
Yuri: You’re now impacting far more people than you were one-on-one.
Greg: Oh yeah, beyond, it’s just ridiculous. Every night now when I go out to a bar or anywhere, there’s five or six people saying: “I’ve seen your videos,” or “You’re awesome.” It’s nuts.
Yuri: It’s pretty crazy.
Greg: I’m still getting used to that aspect.
Yuri: That’s awesome. When you were getting your business started, was there a period of time where you felt there was some type of fear or frustration or a moment of insight that was like, “I don’t think I can push through this,” or, “This is holding me back”? Was there something that got in your way initially that you were able to overcome?
Greg: It was funny. It all felt so new and fresh to me. I was young when I was building my business. I was 19 so I didn’t have any stresses. I wasn’t like, “Oh my God, I have to get to 5 grand a month very fast.”
I had no stresses. I was having a lot of fun with it. It was exciting to me. I wasn’t focused on the big goals at the time. Instead, I was would think: “You know what, let’s get to a hundred visitors a day on my blog,”or, “Let’s try to get one affiliate sale this week.” And it started to happen. I had small goals so it happened pretty fast.
Then I got more excited and I started to go a little bit further with my goal setting.
Small, Sustainable Goals Build Over Time
I learned about Facebook pages. I liked the idea being able to put out a video or a blog and people reading it, and seeing the comments I received.
I never had that pressure of wanting to get a million subscribers in six months or anything like that. I was reasonable.
There weren’t any huge challenges. Although, the challenge for me at the time was I was focusing on blogging in the beginning.
I was figuring things like how to get my posts to rank on Google. You have to do this whole game where you build one article and you do six more articles linking back to each other, and you have to do all this research.
That was the big challenge for me. I hated doing it, but I did it enough so that my site got good traffic and I started blogging about what I really wanted to talk about.
And then I realized if I created videos, I could take a blog that would take me four or five hours to write and I could just flesh it out in a video that would take me 20 minutes to film.
That’s when I decided to focus on videos. Over time, I got better, and when I started posting videos with good titles frequently on YouTube, I started to gain momentum.
Some of these videos would get 50, 60, 80,000 views, 100,000-plus, especially the ones really speaking towards intermittent fasting and getting to a low body fat.
And I was like, “This is way easier than blogging.”
So, I kept going with that model.
Publishing Content in Different Outlets
One of the things that worked well for me was getting a double or triple bang for my efforts. If I was put a lot of thought into a video, we would create a blog post or article from the video, and then create a podcast from it, too.
If it takes you a lot of time to create one piece of content, it’s going to be a lot faster to also create the other two.
Yuri: It’s smart.
Video has risen to the top of the totem pole in terms of leverage, because you can always go from video to podcast to an article. It’s smart. I know one of the biggest problems our fellow health and fitness entrepreneurs have is coming up with content, and having the time to spend creating it.
Believe me, Greg and I are the same. We’re not big writers. We’d much rather do video. There’s definitely ways you can automate the process as Greg has shown.
Greg, for you, why content? Why has content been so powerful for your business?
Don’t Worry About Perfection
Greg: Before I answer that question, I want to add one quick thing.
Some people are really skeptical about video, because they don’t have a film team to create their videos or they don’t have an expensive camera.
When I was blowing up on YouTube, a lot of my videos were shot on my iPhone.
People have no idea what you’re using to create your videos.
Why is content marketing so important to building successful an online brand? I think one of the biggest reasons is because for the last five years, the internet business has changed where people are more skeptical. They’re less likely to open their wallet.
There are a lot of people who are – I don’t want to say scamming people – but they’re ripping people off a bit online.
It’s About Building Relationships
People have to know you, like you, and trust you first. When you share your content, that gives people a chance to read it, understand it, see what they think about it, and put it to the test.
If your free content is working well for them, and they start to follow it, then they’re going to want to buy your full program.
Most people are not going to buy from you as soon as they discover you. They might be reading for a couple weeks. They might go into one of your funnels where you follow up with them, and then maybe after a week or two, then they’re ready to buy.
But if you don’t have content, they’re buying off with no knowledge of you – like a sales page which is a little bit vapid, just going for the sale.
I think content is huge. And then the more people listen to you, whether it’s on a podcast or on a video or an article, the more attached they get to you. The more they feel like they know you, your product offers become much more powerful.
Content is free marketing. It costs a lot of money to advertise online. If you can get some views and build an audience with free content, that’s the best way to go.
Struggling with Newfound Celebrity
Yuri: I couldn’t agree more. As you mentioned before, people notice you all over the place. It’s not that we’re in this game to become celebrities, but there is a level of celebrity status that’s achieved when you’re putting your content out there.
Whether it be on Youtube, Facebook or Instagram, we’re in a day and age that the Hollywood celebrities are becoming less of a big deal. Now, personalities online like yourself and other people in our space, are becoming the new age celebrities – which is inspiring to anyone else who wants to do what we’re doing.
Greg: There are people who aren’t watching TV and movies as much anymore. They’re watching YouTube. It’s weird to me. Now, I think movies and TVs are awesome. But no, they watch YouTube.
They’re more excited about some Instagram or YouTube stars that they follow.
I never expected to get the reaction I get when I bump into some people. Some people are like, “I love your stuff.” But other people react with,”Holy cow. Oh my God, is that you?”
Yuri: The real Greg O’Gallagher!
Greg: Wow, I didn’t think it would be like that for people that do YouTube fitness content.
Yuri: There are a lot of people in the fitness and wellness space creating content, but there’s plenty of opportunity and room for everyone as long as they carve out their space.
What one piece of advice would you give to a health or fitness professional coming online, looking to build their brand and presence to help more people?
Find Your Voice
Greg: Really find a strong central theme that fits with you. People like that consistency.
If you’re too all over the place, if you’re talking about being a vegan one month and then paleo, and then doing this type of fitness and constantly switching gears and changing, people don’t trust that.
That’s one of the things I’ve done well. I’ve been very clear what my approach is over the past three or four years.
People trust that and they buy into that.
Otherwise you’re going online just to have the same message as everyone else. What’s the point? If you’re going to say the same thing as someone else – unless you make it unique from your own voice – what are you offering people?
Really focus on that, and then find the content setup that best works with you.
If you’re great on video, then really focus on video. Experiment with the content that works and then experiment with the way you shoot and create your videos.
Some people might want to do a video with a camera set up a few feet away, and stand and talk to the camera. Others might want to hold the camera in front of them and talk to it up close one-on-one. Or you might want to go really over the top with some other technique.
Have Fun with It
Find your style of writing. For example, one of the challenges of my business was I was trying to write two articles a week. Because I don’t love writing it just didn’t happen.
But doing two videos a week was fun. It was easy for me.
If you find your theme and really focus in on it, then find the style that best works with you to do content, those two forces together create a powerful message.
Eventually you want to get into split testing and making sure if you’re doing sales pages that it’s all converting to its absolute best.
Putting in the effort there matters because if you send thousands of people to the sales page, a little improvement can make a huge difference.
Yuri: You’ve offered us several important nuggets of information. That’s great.
Picking up on one of the most important things you said was taking that stance, that position on whatever it is.
Having a Stance Sets You Apart
For example, some people say intermittent fasting is amazing, other people say that it’s terrible for you. It doesn’t really matter. Whatever it is for you, state your claim and be that person that really stands out. That’s great advice there.
And split testing the conversion rates on your offer pages, and focusing on what you’re great at doing in terms of your content, that’s also awesome advice.
If you’ve enjoyed this interview, check out kinobody.com to learn more about what Greg is up to.
If you’ve enjoyed this, please share it with your friends. Let’s get this message out to more people so that you, the health and business professional, can make an impact in this world by sharing your gift, your message, and your awesomeness.
