#182 - Q: Do I have the wrong offer... or the wrong audience?

Foreign.

Lovelies. It is Kate here from hellofunnels and welcome back to the Doing It Online podcast. Today's episode, we're actually going to be deep diving into a question that at least three clients have asked me in the last couple of weeks. So I figured if they're asking, you're probably asking. I wanted to kind of walk you through how I coach them and hopefully that can help you to figure this out and get yourself unstuck as well. So the big question that everyone seems to be pondering at the moment is when you have gone out there and you've created an offer and you've launched it to the world and it's had lackluster results and you're now coming back and you're questioning everything is how to know whether or not you have the wrong offer or the wrong audience. Because this is something I hear a lot again from clients and they're like, I've just built a list of freebie seekers, or I've created this list and they're all too beginner, they're not going to want what I want to sell. Or I've changed my topic slightly. And so this list is debt. So there seems to this innate little impulse that we have when things haven't gone exactly to plan, whether it's the first time or maybe it's after multiple times to do something big and brash and to like burn it all down. They want to delete the list, start again. Right. So before you go and delete your email list, before you delete your offer or your product and start from scratch, let's take a step back, take a deep breath, and let's walk through a few questions that you can ask yourself to help you to uncover whether you have built a list and an audience of the wrong people or whether or not you've just created the wrong offer for those people. So I'm going to just skip to the end quickly here and then backtrack. Because to be honest, for most people and most people I work with, it's actually a combination of both. And I want to give you a bit of a real world example again, so you can see, see how this looks inside a real business. And then I'm going to walk you through the process to be able to identify this for yourself. So one of our clients, years ago, again, if you've been following me for a while, excuse me, because you've probably heard this story before, but it is just one of the clearest examples I've ever seen of this issue. And how beautifully it was solved as well. So they had a successful consulting business, one to one, right. But their calendar was full. They wanted to create something more leveraged. So someone told them that they had to have a high ticket offer. So they went and created this high ticket coaching package which was I think six to 10, one hour coaching sessions with them above $5,000 anyway. So it was, it was a big investment of money and time. Someone had also told them, again, not rightly or wrongly, but they would have to do sales calls to sell this package. So and sales calls, they were not their favorite, they weren't necessarily great at doing them. And so they'll probably having to do around about 10 sales calls. So that's 10 hours to make one sale. And then when they made that sale, they then had another 10 hours in their calendar. So this was a person who really was like, I want more leverage, I want more time, I want to free up my time and yes, grow and yes, make more revenue. But time was like a really big value for them. But they had created an offer that need to be delivered and sold in very time consuming ways. So for them it wasn't a good fit. And then for their audience, their audience was really busy. Generally stay at home mums or working mums, juggling multiple kids and work life, all that kind of stuff. And I think we all know that moms sadly don't necessarily value themselves and their health. Like this was an offer that was helping those moms to get some energy back. They know it's a problem, but on their huge list of to dos and things they need to fix and solve, it's usually down the bottom. And when you've got young children, if you are a stay at home mom, if you're in a single income family or you're single or whatever it is, usually money is being spent on so many other things. And again, spending a big chunk of money and a big chunk of time on making you feel better is probably very low down on your list of priorities. So there was a real mismatch here. They wanted that solution, but they didn't want it in a way that was going to take them 10 hours of calls in the calendar. They'd have to juggle around daycare and all that kind of stuff. They didn't want it in that big of an investment. They needed something that was going to work around their crazy schedule. Something that wasn't going to feel like they're going to have to go and chat with a partner or take out another credit card to Be able to afford something that was a much easier. Yes for them. So looking at that as an example, what they did, they went away. They were still wanting to solve the same problem, still wanting to help the same person. So they didn't change their audience. The audience was fine. They were actually thinking that, oh, it's the wrong audience, the wrong audience. Well, it was a wrong audience for that offer. But actually the offer was also wrong. So it was both. So what they did in this instance, rather than go delete their list, start again and try to make this offer, which they weren't really excited about themselves, happen, they went back and go, what can we do and change to our offer to actually make it work for the list that I have and also for the lifestyle and the outcomes and the values and the things that they wanted as well. So they made a DIY style offer that didn't have any one on one coaching that could be done at their own pace and because of that could be significantly lower investment as well. And it went gangbusters. They were selling I think up to 20 a week versus selling one or two a month. And they didn't have to be doing any sales calls, any of that. Totally freed up their calendar and totally changed their business. So this is why I harp on about this stuff and why I really wanted to do this episode today. Because I think that if you are in this place right now where you're like, it just feels stuck, everything feels hard, like people aren't lining up around the block to get your offer. Is it the offer or is it the list? How do you know? It sounds like you're in a very similar situation. So let's walk you through some questions, some ways to self diagnose. We have a full version of this, we call it the Hells Yes Offer audit that we take our clients through. I'm going to kind of give you some like Cliff Notes. Okay, so to start off with, is it the wrong offer? So as you've already kind of seen, when you are looking at your offer at how much the investment is, how much time is needed to take the actual promise of the offer. And then you look at, okay, who is the target market? Who is the ideal client for this? Like who am I trying to help here? And then just sort of sense check it and go, well, how much time do they want to spend on this? How much time do they have to spend on this? How quickly do they want their results? How much are they wanting to do it themselves versus wanting someone else to do it for them because the reverse can be true when you are going for different audiences. Maybe audiences of, you know, maybe you're targeting CEOs. CEOs are very happy to outsource, to delegate. They know how valuable like every 10 minute block of their time is. Not saying that theirs is more valuable than other people's, but they know it to a monetary sense. So they're happy to spend the money to speed things up and have people do stuff for them. So if you were creating an offer that was very much, let's go through this process and you're going to learn, you know, spend a couple of hours watching videos at every week and then you're going to do homework and then you're going to do it yourself and you're targeting that person. They're going to be like, no, no thank you. Can I outsource this to someone on my team? If not, then I'm not interested. So you just have to do that number one sense, check it. And if you have to go back to the drawing board, quite often it's not even a matter of recreating your program. It might be just tweaking how it's delivered. Looking at like if you got one of those programs that I call it kitchen sink program where you're teaching people like hundreds of hours of videos thinking that you know, more content is more valuable and you're targeting people who are time poor, maybe go like, can we just condense this down to the real, real juicy stuff? So that's step number one. Is there a match between the people you really want to help and the way they want to be helped? Is your offer a match for that? Next is you have to now look at you like how do you want to show up? How do you want to sell? I mean most people don't love selling, but there's probably ways of selling that you enjoy or are happier to do more. Like some people love doing live launches. I personally think those people are insane. But that's fine. That's just not me. Other people love doing sales calls and love having that, you know, that one to one connection. They wouldn't want to lose that. Great. It's all about finding this happy place between how you deliver, what they want, how you sell and in that middle is your health. Yes, offer. So make sure. Now your next step is what are you wanting this program to do for you? Are you wanting it to give you more time? Are you wanting to be something that's easy to sell? Are you wanting it to allow you to work with People more deeply. Are you wanting it to allow you to create bigger impact? Like, again, does it fit? Does it make sense? You might have seen someone's told you that you have to have this type of offer or this price point or this thing. And you're all these shoulds are not taking into account you and how you want to run your business, what you need to actually be doing to be successful. Next thing. Next little sort of symptom that it might be the wrong offer, not the wrong list, is when you do have some kind of engagement activity. So whether it's you've done a workshop or you've done a webinar, or you've done a challenge, or you just did some related content, you got good engagement. People were, they were reading it, they were clicking it, they were taking part, they're doing all the things but they weren't buying. That would seem that the promise is good. The topic you're talking about is good, but the offer, the way that it's structured, whether that's the pricing, whether that's the delivery, or whether it's just any kind of perceived investment from that person is not matching up with how much they value solving that problem. So that's definitely a clear sign that it's not the list. The list are hanging out and like, this is great. I love this. I'm all for this, but I don't want that. So that's another kind of clear sign that your list is good, often not so much. And the final thing that I think is really important, again, it's another one that comes from inside, is do you actually believe in your offer? Do you believe your offer is going to do and does do what it says it's going to do? If you don't, if this is something that you're feeling like, you know, you're faking it till you make it kind of thing. And there's always, you know, a certain aspect of that. When you're getting started again, you might want to re look at that offer and think about, like, what can I offer? What can I promise that I know I can help people with that I know is going to be the outcome. If you're kind of feeling like, oh, I feel like I'm lying to people. I feel like I've got to kind of like pretend that it's better than it is to get people to buy. That's a clear indicator that your offer needs some work, it needs some attention, it needs some fixing. Okay, next, wrong audience. How do you know if it is the Flip side, if actually you have through various strategies, like for example, a strategy that I both love and loathe is doing any kind of giveaway. So you can run big giveaways, big competitions, and you'll traditionally get a huge influx of new leads, new subscribers on your list. However, the quality of those subscribers is pretty poor. Maybe you've been doing lots of things like that. You've got this big list. These are all people who are coming in because they wanted to get the free iPad that you were giving away. And they've got very little interest in you and what you're doing. So how do we know that this is case? So one of the number one things I look for is your email open rates and your click through rates if your open rates are terrible. So if they are like I'd say 18% or lower, particularly for a list that you've actually been communicating with regularly. And it's always been like that. It's not like maybe something weird's happened with your email service and their deliverability has gone bad. If your open rates are bad, it just shows that people are not engaging. If you're doing any kind of live webinar, you're creating a challenge and people aren't engaging, they're not signing up, they're not jumping in. That kind of sounds like, yes, that list, that group of people, they're not particularly interested or excited in the topic and the thing that you're helping them with. Another clear indicator is when people do buy, you get a lot of refunds and also a lot of customer service issues. Again, if there is a mismatch with the audience and they're coming in and this is not what's actually going to be a good fit for them, for how to deliver and how to get the right outcome, there's going to be a lot of complaining. So, you know, if you're finding that they're spending a lot of time putting out fires, having people whinging about general things about your program, firstly, make sure that there isn't actually an issue with your program. Listen to when people complain and try and solve it. But if it's just a more general vibe, you're like, oh, these people, they, they come in here and they seem to want the world. They've only paid $27. Like, why are they being so demanding? Again, this could be a, this is the wrong audience for you, for how you want to show up, for how you want to deliver, how you want to have an impact, that's fine. And if it is Wrong audience. I'm not saying you go and delete your list also, by the way, that's not what I'm saying here, okay? And then the final indicator, it is the wrong audience, which sucks. And if this is the case, I'm sorry, I know this is a hard thing to hear, is when they seem to get mad at you for selling. And this is something that used to be really common. Like back in a previous life when I helped coaching bloggers. It was really quite common for when people had built this audience and this list of giving everything away for free, just giving so much value and they built this great audience, people loved them. But then the second they were like, hey guys, this isn't a charity. I'm going to create something that you're going to actually have to pay for. The backlash was crazy. Like, people were like, how dare you. Dare you. When really it's like, what? How dare I actually earn a living from all this time and effort and knowledge that I have that I've been giving with you for free for so long. So again, if that is happening, yes, it could mean that you have, I'll say, the wrong audience or that there is a good number of people in your audience who are wrong. So what do you do, guys, if this is the case, if you either have the wrong offer or the wrong audience, or what is most common, A mix of both. Well, first of all is you want to diagnose, figure out where is the biggest hole here. And then secondly, now you're going to have to test. Now you're actually going to have to make some changes, put it out to the world and see. So before you burn everything down, before you delete your list, let's test. Usually it is easier to tweak your offer than to tweak your audience. Growing an audience is something that takes time. It takes usually money invested. If you wanted to speed it up. So we're not wanting to burn that down. So if you're like, I'm definitely here, it's definitely one or the other, the first thing I would do is see is, can you tweak your offer to make it a better fit for that audience? That would be the easiest thing to not do. But always, always, always make sure you're putting that sort of layer over the top of, we're not just doing this because we want to make some easy money and it's the easier option. Like, I'm all about building businesses that last. Like, I want you to have a business that has offers that you love and you love to shop and you love to deliver and you love to market for years, not just next six months. Yes, it's normally the easier one, but you got to make sure that it still fits in with you. It's still sitting in alignment with you, with how you want to show up, with how you want to deliver. So that would be sort of my first two steps is like number one is look at your offer. Can you fix this offer or change this offer so that better suits your audience that you do have number two, run it through that filter. Is that going to work for me? Does that feel good? Am I happy to show up? Am I happy to deliver like this? If I get a thousand customers in the month, next six months, is this going to feel great? If it's a high ticket offer, probably not a thousand customers, but you know, if I get a lot of customers, am I going to really love this? And then the third step is just test it, guys. You've got to get it out there, you got to relaunch it or do a webinar and just show the new offer at the end and just see does this work better? And if it does, great, double down on that. Not back to the drawing board, tweak test again, we're all mad scientists here, guys. So anyway, guys, I hope this was helpful. I hope that you've had a lot of aha moments. I hope you've been listening and you are having some issues with your conversions, with making those sales that you've been able to find at least one thing to go and implement to help you to make more sales, to help you to find that thing that's keeping you stuck, get it unstuck and get moving. And if you loved it, if you do have aha's, make sure you let us know, Snap a screenshot, share it over on Instagram, tag us at hellofunnels or just leave a comment below. Otherwise, guys, I'll be back next week with more nerdy goodness. Until then, have an awesome week and see you then. Bye.