Step Two – Funnel Creation: TripWires
A Tripwire is an offer to your prospects at a low dollar entry point — normally $7 to $20. If you notice the graph above, the Tripwire should complement your lead magnet and feed into your core offer. The strategy is that once someone purchases a low dollar product, they are more likely to purchase a higher priced item – your core offer.
Definition: A super-low ticket offer that is available for one reason only, to convert the prospect into a customer and warm them up to the Core Offer. Your goal is not to earn money from the TripWire, your goal is to earn money from the Core Offer…but you are using the TripWire to gain their trust and to give them a small taste of what they really could have.
The goal of the Tripwire is to fundamentally change the relationship from prospect to customer. The conversion of a prospect to a customer, even for $1, is magical. The key is to make a Tripwire Offer that leads are unable to resist.
The most common way to make the Tripwire irresistible is by selling it at cost and, in some cases, at a loss to you.
That’s correct — you are not trying to make a living from selling Tripwire Offers. You are trying to acquire buyers because there is nothing more valuable than a list of buyers.
When you understand the rest of the Customer Value Optimization (CVO) process you will understand how the Tripwire Offer is the single most powerful addition you can make to your business — even though you make no direct profit from it.
Don’t get confused into thinking that a TripWire is a coupon or some sort of discount, it is not. Let me give you an example.
Let’s say my Core Offer is a $500.00 personalized weight loss program. My trip wire could be a $39.95 supplement and 7-day detox PDF, in their hands for $7. Yes, this is a “lost leader”, but it gets them in as a customer and allows me to market to them over and over until they upgrade.
Types of TripWires are:
1) Physical Products
2) Trainings
3) Books/eBooks/Reports
4) Consulting Offers
5) Paid Webinars
6) Software/Plugins
A Case Study that was presented by DM from a Trade Show is as follows:
* 2,000 attendees at the trade show
* Lead Magnet Banner: “Get 100 Free Customers”
* 603 people approached the booth
* Tripwire offer to try the service for $20
* 87 people of the 603 took the tripwire.
* 19 converted to the $500/month Core Offer on the spot
* 23 more converted later with follow-up
How effective was the TripWire? Before they would offer the $500/month option as the offer. Each trade show would average three new clients.
By adding the TripWire, a simple $20 option, 42 new clients at $500/month converted, which led to over $21k in new revenue from one trade show.
Now, do you know the #1 source of TripWires? Fiverr. Rarely do you actually get the gig for $5. That is the lure and you are “upsold” the actual Core Offer. This happens to you routinely and you may not even realize it.
You could even use supermarkets as an example of “TripWires” as almost every supermarket has the milk and eggs in the back of the store. Why the back? Those are the products that sell the most in quantity, and usually the products that people say, “I am just going to run into the store and get milk and eggs.” What happens? They load their cart with 8-10 more items. If the milk and eggs were at the front of the store, they would have just bought the milk and the eggs.
So…how do you discover what your TripWire should be?
What’s the one thing everyone wants, but doesn’t necessarily need in your market?
What’s the one thing everyone needs, but doesn’t necessarily want in your market?
What’s a valuable service you can perform quickly and inexpensively that will deliver results in advance and get your foot in the door?
There was a great “TripWire” done by a door-to-door vacuum salesperson decades ago. No one wanted to buy a vacuum from a door-to-door salesperson, but when he changed his question from “Do you want to buy this vacuum?” to “Would you mind if I vacuumed your carpet for free?”
That got the salesperson’s foot in the door and conversions skyrocketed. The same is true for you. I have heard many of you say that if you can just get the prospect on the phone you can close them without a problem. If that is the case, then brainstorm a TripWire to get them on the phone. Maybe a free 15-minute analysis of their business by phone. You now have them where you want them and can close the sale.
The “TripWire” concept should now be solid in your mind and you should be able to see how you can use it more effectively to close more business and increase your sales … of your Core Offer. Because once your foot is in the door, you are golden…
When you understand the rest of the Customer Value Optimization process you will understand how the Tripwire Offer is the single most powerful addition you can make to your business — even though you make no direct profit from it.
Resource Tools
You may find the following resources under the file tab on Facebook SEO Revolution.
Tripwire Handout
Tripwire Worksheet & Checklist
Tripwire Sales Letter