LY Podcast: Ep. 59: Behind the Scenes of Digital Businesses

Melissa Anzman (00:00): This is the Launch Yourself podcast episode number 59, where I take you behind the scenes of what's working and what's not working with digital businesses right now. So if you've ever wanted to peek behind the scenes, here is your chance for more information and show notes, go to launchyourself.co/59.

Melissa Anzman (00:25): Welcome to the launch yourself podcast. My name is Melissa Anzman. I'm a bestselling author and the founder of Launch Yourself where we help experts grow profitable digital businesses each week, we will peek behind the curtain of how you can launch yourself and your business to the next level, with actionable tips and strategies you can implement in your daily life to grow your profitable digital business. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's get started.

Melissa Anzman (00:56): One of my favorite parts about what I do and who I serve and who I help. And all those things is I get to see the backend behind the scenes of other people's businesses. Now, if there were an award for being nosy or interested, or maybe a better word, curious about how things work, I would win that award because to me, I could spend every day, all hours understanding what's going on in other people's businesses. Like the end, the nitty gritty, the things that no one else sees to understand how it's working, why it's working and all the things, because I like to find the problem and then troubleshoot and solve them. And so understanding what happens behind the curtain is one of the things that gets me out of bed every day. Now, I don't know if you're anything like me in that regard.

Melissa Anzman (01:56): However, even if you're not that serious about it, you probably have some sense of, Hey, like, I wonder how that person's doing, or I wonder how that launch actually went, or gosh, are they really making that much money on that thing? All those questions. Now I'm not talking about the comparison bog, which we know we should stay away from and definitely not go down that rabbit hole. But for me, it's more like if I can see how it works, I can engineer it. So it works for me or in my case, not just for me, but for my clients. And so with that, it is something that I have always incorporated into what it is that I do, how I serve my clients. When you do work with me, that's one big perk is that you understand and get to know what's working with my other clients.

Melissa Anzman (02:52): Names are withheld, don't you fret. But then I thought about it. And actually one of my friends keeps nudging me about it. Have like, Hey, you know, you have a lot of this backend knowledge. You see a lot of things in other people's business, you have a pulse on what's happening. You're continuously learning all those things. Why don't you start sharing them with people, not just your base besties, which I've always done and we've used in, uh, you know, to help figure out what we should do and mastermind situations and all the things. But she really encouraged me to start sharing it with my people. And so I've been doing it for a few months now in my email list, which if you're not on the list, you are missing out on some serious behind the scenes stuff. So you can go to launch yourself.co/join to get on the list.

Melissa Anzman (03:43): But I thought some of the insights and nuggets based on the great feedback I'm getting from my list, it, we should do some podcasting around this. So I want to share with you today, the most recent behind the scenes of what I have shared at some level, um, with my friends, with my list and community and so on, because it's happening and you can pick your nose behind the scenes too. So one thing that I want to talk about are quizzes. Now, quizzes are back quizzes is a lead generation tactic, or perhaps strategies, depending on how you use it. That is really kind of been in and out as of late, about three or four years ago. Um, they, they were huge. There was some big gurus who started doing quizzes to get some lead magnet or sorry, lead gen for their new, big launch that they were doing.

Melissa Anzman (04:42): And so, because that guru or a small subset of gurus who are all friends, didn't, everyone else started doing quizzes. And the thing was, is when that big guru reflected back on the launch, it was one of the flops of their launch in that it didn't bring in as many customers as they thought the cost wasn't there, um, her lead, or they didn't convert as high as the sort of other lead magnets, a PDF lead magnet per se. And so they dropped the quiz and then like, it went away for about like a year and a half. And listen, there were still a bunch in circulation. There were some that were doing really well. One that I think about, um, that I know was doing really well was very like Buzzfeed style of pop culture and pick the personality type of thing and all of that.

Melissa Anzman (05:33): So it CA it did work for some people during the past year and a half. But the thing is, is they kind of went away and I was curious as to, is this like a phase? Is it a fad? Is it something that is going to come back? And, oh my goodness, my friends, it came back now real quick. Let me just sort of explain what a quizzes as a lead gen tool, just in case you haven't used it, or, um, aren't sure what it is, but basically it is a lead magnet in that it's something that you share or send with cold leads, people who do not know you or your business or your offer, and they get to interact to figure out if they're a good match for the thing that you're selling. They don't know that, but you get to know that and to sort of understand where they are in the process.

Melissa Anzman (06:25): The cool thing here is it helps be interactive. Like it's definitely not a click here to download a PDF, which still works my friends, even though we think it doesn't, it does still work if we're adding a ton of value or half a position offer. Well, um, but this is really something that the person themselves learns about themselves through interacting in a quiz format who doesn't love a quiz. I mean, I still remember back in the day when I was a teen doing those quizzes in magazines, I'm not even gonna tell you which one to date myself even more, but I digress. It's the same idea. And at the end of the quiz, they get a score and they get assigned sort of an answer, whether it's a path forward or the personality type or the next step for them, or what have you. And then they get a little mini action, or at least they get knowledge about where they are in the process.

Melissa Anzman (07:20): And so this is really exciting because you also get to capture more information about your new lead in a quiz than you do. If somebody just downloads a PDF, right. We get to learn where they are in the journey, if they are our ideal audience member or buyer. And so quizzes in general, like at a high level are very successful for us as online business owners. Because of that, we get to see more, learn more about the people who are taking the quiz and for our new lead, they get to learn something about where they are or acknowledge or the gap missing or what's next for them. So it is a win win in general. And here's the thing like quizzes, like the key to a good quiz as a lead generation, um, situation or decision or tactic, or what have you, is that it has to directly relate and correlate to your eventual thing that you are selling now in general, in a quiz, you are not actually selling anything.

Melissa Anzman (08:29): This is not like a trip wire or us slow product where you enter your name. And the next screen they see is a bump sale where they're now getting sold something because they answered the question. I think that would feel a little dishonest. I think it would probably rub that new subscriber the wrong way. I know it would rub me the wrong way of like, Hey, I'm just taking this fun thing. And now you're selling me. I mean, probably in two or three months from now, that's going to be the case, right? Because we have interested people who are now ready to buy something. So someone's going to start trying a bump sale or a redirect, or what have you. But for now I wouldn't add that to your quiz situation. Instead, I would really think of it as a lead gen to re, to add, to, or replace or a test in a, at the same time as something like a PDF download or a, you know, get access to this swipe file type of thing.

Melissa Anzman (09:27): Okay. Now the key here to a quiz though, to make them successful and productive for your lead gen is it has to directly correlate, right? So if you're doing a quiz about something that's fun, but has absolutely nothing to do with your ultimate product, whether it's your signature course or, you know, just a PDF that you sell or a product or an ebook or whatever, you are not going to get the right people on your list, which means you're wasting your time and your money on leads that aren't going to buy, which is the whole point. Like, let's just be honest. Yes, you can have, um, the idea and the goal of cultivating an audience and relationship building at all those things. But at the end of the day, your email list is to sell to people. It's the hard truth. I'm not going to apologize for it because that's why it's there.

Melissa Anzman (10:26): Okay. And so you have to think about your quiz the same way. I see a lot of entrepreneurs, I think the first time around, in particular, several months, or several years ago, excuse me, who did the quiz thing and had like a super fun quiz, but it wasn't leading to a next step or how I am the solution or how it can actually work in the real world or something new about them. It was just a fun buzz quiz. And you don't want to do that. Don't waste your time, your money, your ad money, et cetera, on something that isn't going to convert. Okay. That's the key to quizzes. Now they are back in the game and they have worked really well. One of the gurus that I mentioned before did it again for their most recent launch. And it actually was pretty dang successful for them.

Melissa Anzman (11:15): So I'm glad that they were able to come back and test it, to see if it was really something that just wasn't for them or something that could convert for them. And it did convert for them the second go around, which means of course, we should try it. They did tweak their quiz slightly. And it had a lot bigger of a connection between not only what they were selling, but the next step in their own funnel, which was, um, going to either a bootcamp or a webinar type of thing versus just a quiz to something else. Okay. So just think about the next step. If you tie the whole process together as though you're opening one small door, second door and so on, it will all work. And just one more thing to just tell you about for quiz and why it could be something you want to test is that the cost per lead in Facebook ads, which we know Facebook ads are highly expensive right now.

Melissa Anzman (12:10): And I think that trend is here to stay like everyone else. They are much cheaper. Quiz leads for some reason are right now are much cheaper than other types of leads. So something to think about and test, I have it in my plan to test as well. I don't know if we're going to get to it in 2021, but if not, we're definitely going to get to it in 2022. And of course I will share more about what I learned through the quiz testing process to my community. Now, the other thing I want to talk about today is live webinars. Now live webinars is something that I have on my watch list every single month. Like it has been a profitable way to generate sales and interested customers for several years, like five, seven, maybe even 10 years now. And depending on your space, you could be hearing that webinars are completely done and you know, it's totally over and you need a new tactic.

Melissa Anzman (13:08): And some of you are like, what's a webinar. Like it is truly one of those things that you're either in it. And you feel like it's over and done, or you've no idea what it is. So there are many places on the spectrum you can be with webinars. Now, remember if you're sort of in the online or marketing space, like you're going to know more about these types of tactics and strategies than someone who isn't. So just take that into consideration. When you think about if a funnel tactic or a way that you're selling something is actually dead. And so for live webinars, like what I'm hearing across the board right now in general is they are not converting as easily as they have been in the past. Some of it's likely market fatigue and maybe smarter consumers, depending on the area of business you're in, but also their profitability for webinars is decreasing, which could be a little disconcerning.

Melissa Anzman (14:02): If it is your main launch method, if it's how you are selling, your course is through a webinar only, it could be a little scary right now in the webinar game. Now Facebook ads to get registrations have increased significantly, which again, true for all Facebook ads right now. But the thing is, is when your ads cost more and you're doing a webinar, that means that your entire funnel process is less profitable from the beginning. And then, you know, we're adding that to really cluttered inboxes and likes that are just hectic and crazy as always. It's really hard to get people to show up live and sort of watch replays, which truly replay watches have always been a low number thing. And so the math around a live webinar has really, really changed like the conversion rates for them used to be really high, like 10% high nowadays.

Melissa Anzman (15:01): Like it's probably closer to 5%. Um, and really now one to 3% is what I recommend to sort of plan for it is that, you know, you know, I'm always worst case scenario type of person. So I'm going to tell you to go for what's most realistic. And so in your planning, I want you to plan for a one to 3% show up rate percentage, okay. Of like people who buy and the way that you sell your webinar needs to change a little bit as well. Your pitch itself has not enough like the sales come in, the email follow-up, which has always been important, has always been the way that we sell. But now it's just taking more than watch the replay emails. So if that is your tactic, change it right now. Okay. Now there are still things that are really working for webinars, and here's the thing use them, like if it is something that you are great at and it is your process to sell stuff, use them, just keep all of these things in mind.

Melissa Anzman (16:05): So one thing that's really working is super quick turnarounds from registration to live attendance. So in the past, it used to be like, put your ads up or tell your list three weeks in advance so that people can sign up. Whereas now it's like the webinar's tomorrow and it's good. In fact, I would say, don't start promoting your webinar more than a week out. Now you can do what you want. It is your business. If you want to promote it before then, by all means do so. Just know that what I'm hearing, what I'm seeing one week or less out is where people are attending. Now, the other thing is give people a reason to show up live. And so here's the thing. Like I have been watching what people are doing and I am seeing some really interesting things. First I'm seeing people are not giving a replay option.

Melissa Anzman (16:53): Like, so that's something to test. And the other thing I saw the other day was someone was saying, show up live, or you can buy the replay for $500. Basically saying, if you don't show up, you don't get the, you don't get the information. The other thing that works, if you're not quite into that game are things like giveaways, cash, prizes, bonuses, and so on. So just sort of think about that as you're planning, what you want to do for your live webinar and webinars in general convert much better at like a higher percentage. I should say, I don't want to say butter. I want to use real math. So converts much higher percentages for warm audiences versus cold ones. And so this, this, if you are doing your webinars to a warm audience, it could bump your conversion rates up to the five to 10% range that being said, webinars can convert cold audiences.

Melissa Anzman (17:50): The key here is how you're positioning your webinar, how you're selling your product and offer in it and how your webinar is flowing in order to be focused on a cold versus warm audience. So those are the things that are happening right now. I want to continue to give you these behind the scene peek of what I'm seeing of what I'm my clients are doing and seeing what's working, what's not working. So please be sure to join my newsletter. If that is interesting to you, go to launchyourself.co/join. And if you have a topic or a tactic or a strategy that you would love to know more about behind the scenes, by all means, let me know. And we will do the digging for you.

Melissa Anzman (18:38): To join the free Launch Yourself workshop, where you'll learn why your digital products aren't selling nearly as much as you plan for and how to diversify and scale your income by launching the right way to launchyourself.co/join.