We’ve been using manipulative sales tactics to sell The Great eCourse Adventure.

Don’t get us wrong. We were doing all the things the experts say to do:

• Freebies and sales funnels.
• Regular launch schedules.
• Scarcity tactics.
• Fast action bonuses.
• and all that jazz…

Even though we were doing all these things in a playful and transparent way, many of the tactics still felt a bit manipulative and lame.

This is NOT how we wanted to be sold to, so we knew we had to stop selling to others in this way.

So we asked ourselves:

“How do we sell our offering in a way that delights our audience and that we feel great about?”

It seems like EVERYONE is doing taking the “launch funnel” approach these days.

It makes signing up for a simple cheatsheet or “free” training feel like getting on a factory conveyer belt of automated email madness:

1. “Give me your email and I will give you my free gift.”
2. “Here’s your free gift (value $1 bajillion dollars).”
3. “Buy my thing”
4. “Limited time special offer when you buy my thing this week.”
5. “Social proof for why you should buy my thing.”
6. “You only have 48 hours to buy my thing or it’s gone forever.”
7. “Last call to buy my thing, don’t be a dumb dumb.”
8. “My thing is gonna be gone soon, you better buy it now.”
9. “1-hour to buy my thing or you’re a complete loser.”
10. “Didn’t buy my thing? Don’t worry, I’ll just try to sell you other things now and re-sell on the first thing when it reopens in 6 months!

(All that within the first week or two of getting to know each other.)

Admittedly, it works really well (or least it has up to now).

But, just because something works doesn’t mean we should do it.

It had it’s time. But the times are a-changin’.

Soft, slow and steady wins the race

There’s far more effective, awesome and gratifying ways to sell things.

Knowing this inspired us to throw all of the bullsh*t out the window and start creating experiences that delight, inspire and offer value, rather than be obnoxiously fixated on making the sale.

We made some big changes and now our sales process is soft, slow and steady.

Instead of a launch funnel, we created the Courses Worth Sharing interactive website. 

Instead of making you give us your email address in exchange for seeing it, we just let you experience it, no strings attached.

We’re just not into bribing folks for their sacred email address anymore.

Most people don’t want to be on your list. They wan’t the free thing you’re dangling in front of it.

So we thought “how can we set it up so people actually WANT to receive emails from us?”

The ah-ha moment

Instead of using opt-in bait to trick people into getting on our list, we made being on the list a desirable product in itself.

The result is ‘Beyond The Blueprint’ – a weekly newsletter for online course creators and adventurous entrepreneurs.

And when you sign up, you’ll never get anything that resembles a typical launch-funnel sales email.

We don’t feel good when others do it to us, so we’re not going to do it to you.

We also recognize that people are all so busy these days, so we want to ensure that the weekly email we send is simultaneously valuable, easy and enjoyable.

It’s simple: we curate about 5 links to interesting ecourse-related articles, tools and resources.

Some of it is our own content, and a lot of it is awesome things we discover in our work week.

And people are loving it.

At the bottom of every email is a little Trail Pass icon, inviting you to come explore The Great eCourse Adventure.

The opportunity is always there to join, but it’s never pushy or annoying.

Regardless of whether our “conversion rates” increase or decrease, we don’t care.

Priorities, priorities

Increasing conversions is not our top priority.

Yes, we need to make sales to build a business.

But obsessing over conversion hacks isn’t what builds a sustainable business.

Our #1 priority is building a long-term relationship with our audience, and crafting the best possible experiences and products we can.

Plain and simple.

We want to work with people who are in resonance with our work and want to go deeper with us.

NOT people who we tricked or pressured into purchasing our product.

We want folks to sign up for our paid courses because they actually want to be there on their own terms, not because their FOMO got the best of them right before we “close the doors”.

This new slow, soft and steady approach to selling feels freakin awesome.

Our #1 job now is to create awesome experiences for awesome people… the selling takes care of itself.

The big shift for us is making our sales and marketing content desirable in itself, rather than a necessary evil we need to use to make the monies.

So instead of chasing after the next marketing hack or tactic, try crafting experiences that people love and want more of. 

Hope this true story inspires you to look in the mirror and question your approach to marketing and selling.

It helped us a lot when we took the time to do it right.

Thoughts? Feelings?

Are you a recovering online marketing junkie too?

Share your confessions in the comments below!

Well, the answer is: start growing your list (now).

And by list, we mean start making connections and and building relationships!

But how?

Glad you asked.

Growing your audience (and mailing list) is the conversation we had in episode 7 of eCourse Adventures LIVE.

Watch, download the MP3 and read the show notes below…

(Tune into eCourse Adventures Live every Wednesday at noon PST)

Show Notes:

“If you need certainty to move forward, then you’ll never move forward” – The Great eCourse Adventure

1. Instead of the old fashion online marketing “opt-in bribe,” why not take people for a walk in the park (or digital cup of coffee) as a way to get to know who you are and what you’re all about? Here’s an article to go deeper into that idea.

2. Unless you are paying for Facebook Ads and have a solid on boarding process set-up, making memes for social media is a hobby, NOT marketing. If that’s your marketing strategy, is time for a change of plans. Here’s an article on our no FB Ads approach to marketing.

3. Don’t make a crappy free offering. This should not be a second thought. This is people’s first impression of you and your work. Make an effort to truly WOW them!

4. You don’t need 10 bajillion humans on your email list to “make it.” 1000 true fans is all you need!

5. Go where the hubs are. Serve the hubs and serve the hub leaders. Better yet, create your own hub where YOU are the center.

6. Create a strategy on paper and DO IT!

7. Choose TWO marketing strategies to start. Do those things REALLY well, rather than doing a bunch of things mediocre. Keep it simple and enjoyable for you. (but be consistent)

We gave a bunch of specific strategies for building relationships and growing your list, but we don’t wanna spoil the surprise.

Enjoy the show! We’d love to hear your top takeaways after checking it out.

AND if you want to join us on the mountain for the greatest eLearning adventure in the history of the internet, then come on over here and get the goods on how to acquire your very own Trail Pass. 

Assuming this is accurate: I knew it was bad, but how the hell could it be this high..? 

Part of our code of conduct in our Manifesto is: “Our Success lies not in the numbers in our bank account, but in the number of transformations we facilitate.”

Could it be that the focus on “making money” has deterred many from the thing that’s most important: helping people get results?

Our team has been having a lot of conversations amongst ourselves, as well as with leaders in the online world, trying to figure out how, where and why eCourse creators are failing our customers.

We really want to understand what it takes to craft the Ultimate Customer Experience that supports the people who sign up for our offerings to actually get the results they paid for (our brand promise and purpose).

The purpose of this conversation is to explore that question: How do we create the ultimate customer experience through our online courses…

So first, let’s explore our theories on why people are failing…

In every transaction that occurs online, each party is equally responsible for their part.

The seller is responsible for being honest, clear in their communication about what the customer is buying and transparent about what’s to be expected. The seller is also responsible for delivering on their ‘brand promise’ (the reason the buyer signed up).

The customer is responsible for doing their homework and making an educated decision of whether the course is right for them based on what’s being presented by the seller. They are also responsible for showing up, doing the lessons and putting what they’ve learned to practice.

Note: As we dive into the next section on marketing tactics, it is not to point the finger at people selling their eCourses. It’s more to bring awareness to what we are doing and how it may be influencing the wrong people to sign up for our courses. We’d love to open up a conversation on how we can use these proven techniques in a way that honours the humanness of every person who comes across our work and may become a customer.

We believe the old-school marketing tactics of using scarcity, manipulation and pressure are causing people to make ungrounded decisions. Here’s how some of those tactics might look and how they impact the customer’s decision making process.

1) They get pressured into buying the course due to scarcity tactics. ie: You have one hour to decide. This is your last chance. This will never be $___ again. So instead of thinking about whether it’s a right fit for them, they hit the purchase button because of FIMO (fear of missing out). Usually when we make decisions based on fear, we end up not following through on what we signed up for because our motivations were coming from an impure place. (we didn’t REALLY want it)

Scarcity is okay, but a lot of those internet marketing types are using what’s called “False Scarcity,” meaning they’re saying they only have five spots left when they actually don’t give a shit how many people buy. Or they say you only have until Saturday at midnight, when in reality their course is on Evergreen (meaning the shopping cart is always open) and they just say that to pressure you into buying.

These are douchebaggy things to do. We don’t recommend it.

This is a conversation that feels important and uncommon amongst online entrepreneurs. We’ve all been made to believe that there is fierce competition “out there” and we need to outsell (aka: out hype) everyone else doing what we do as a way to survive.

In order to stand out, we’ll generally see people try to appear better, have a more attractive website and claim to have more benefits. This is what leads to hyped up, empty promises which are the root-manipulator that persuade people who actually aren’t a fit for our course to buy it.

What we should be doing to find our tribe and communicate our value is own our unique, creative edge and express the shit out of it!

In our opinion, no matter how good our eCourse is, no matter how much we’ve narrowed our niche down and no matter how aligned the potential customer’s symptoms are a fit for our solution, WE DO NOT & CAN NOT KNOW if our thing is a right fit for them.