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Emily Hirsh:

I think we’re in this cycle where the market has previously demanded higher ticket, VIP, done for you, I don’t wanna do a course, I don’t wanna do the work, and now what I’m seeing is business owners are like, well, I either gotta step up and do the work and figure this out and watch that training or watch that course or implement these strategies, or I’m not gonna be in business. 

You are listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers podcast, episode number 435.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I am coming at you from Nashville. I am here for the week. I used to hate traveling by myself. I used to hate being by myself, like anything that I was by myself or like going out to eat by myself or traveling alone. I would hate it. And I’d use, you know, my phone or ways to just keep myself really busy. So I didn’t have to be in my own head. And the craziest thing has happened over the last, especially a year. I love it. Like being able to travel by myself and being in an Airbnb all by myself and wake up in the morning and nobody needs me and nobody’s talking to me and I can just like think and be inspired. And I end up working like 12 hour days, not at all because I have to, but because I love it and I get that time and it’s not all just like, I usually try to cancel as many calls as I can.

And it’s a lot more like thinking and just processing. And I know I talk about this a lot on my podcast, but there’s something so incredibly powerful about giving ourselves time to think. And I just think it’s one of the most undervalued and underutilized skills that we have as humans. And whenever I travel alone, but also in my day to day life, I try to create space for this, but it’s honestly really hard with kids cuz it doesn’t count to sit there and think with kids because they’re like, mom, I need this. And you know, they’re talking to you and so you don’t have that time, but I can sit outside and just think, and like 30 minutes goes by and it feels like two minutes. And I find that my best ideas just come to me when I give myself that time and space and it, I always like to do it.

And then I’m like, oh my gosh, if I did this more, I would be doing so much better because I’d be coming up with so many ideas. So just sharing that with you guys. I also have some really great friends here in Nashville that I get to see, but I’ve just actually wanted to be alone. I just spent a month in California with my kids. And so this is kind of like my gift to myself to just get some space after, before they go back to school and things get really busy. All right. You guys, I’m excited for today’s episode. I have so much inspiration coming to me one because I’m here, but also just doing these client strategy calls. It’s giving me so much inspiration and just overall connection back to why I do what I do and how the way I think about marketing is unique.

I think over the last couple of years, I’ve kind of felt back like, you know, what am I doing? That’s different. Like, what am I doing? That’s actually bringing value. And when I go into these strategy calls and I realize how many people need the way that I look at marketing, the way that I create strategies and the way that I, you know, piece together something custom for their business. And it comes so second nature to me, I realize that it just doesn’t exist out there and that some of these components are missing from so many strategies. And so one of the things that I was reflecting on is kind of this cycle that we’re in. And I think I’m a little ahead talking about this, but I was thinking about this last night and I, and I think it’s gonna give you guys something to think about.

So, you know, as with everything there’s like seasons and cycles, and I’ve been thinking about how a recession is very much just like a cycle, right? Like we almost have to go through it in our economy and, and country to reset things that have gotten out of place. Right. And that’s so true with most everything. Like we see history repeat itself and go through cycles. The economy goes through cycles. Like oftentimes I think we find that in our own lives. And so, you know, a recession a lot of times what happens is that prices either fluctuate or inflation happens or, you know, I think about like the job market and this might upset some people, but you know, like a year ago it was like ridiculous finding somebody really good, like as an employee, because of the level of entitlement that was out there of like just asking for way too much money with no experience.

And you know, there were a lot of companies hiring, so there were a lot of options, but now it’s completely shifted and there’s people who really need jobs because the layoffs have happened and it’s like, it’s humbling people. Right. And I felt that even in my own business, you get humbled when you kind of go back in a cycle and you’re like, okay, you know, I have to go work for work for this again. And like, it’s not easy and we’re in this maybe harder time. And so I think that, I said it a long time ago, like four or five months ago, it’s like, I can’t wait. I can’t wait till the layoffs start happening. And all these people who are not willing to work are like, now I have to go figure it out, because it needs to happen.

I think it’s true that prices have to fluctuate and go back and that’s kind of what a recession does is like resets because it got outta control. Right. And there was a bubble that burst. So in marketing, I think that’s happening right now. And let me share what I mean. I think that we’re in this cycle where some of the strategies that worked in like 2014, 2015 are coming back. Here’s also a deeper component to this. I think that in the last couple of years, like with the exception of probably the last three or four months, the last two years before that, so like 20, 20, 20, 21, maybe 2019 too, the online space was really booming and people got kind of this, people were making way more money than they should have for what they were doing. Like they didn’t necessarily have a good product.

They were paying really cheap ads, maybe not last year, they were paying cheap ads, but they were making more money than they really should have for the strength and validity of their business. And so when that happened, people kind of started to get egos around their business and felt like, well, I don’t wanna take a course. I don’t wanna learn that. I just want it done for me. Like I can invest all this money and cuz I have a ton of money and I have really good profit. And, and so what that pushed for is this desire and need that people wanted for done for you, high ticket services. They wanted as much hands on as much, you know, like VIP service they wanted it done for, then they didn’t wanna have to learn. Not that they didn’t wanna put it in the work, but they thought they were above some of it.

And if you were like, oh my gosh, I did this. It’s not a bad thing. Like in some cases, somebody earned that right earlier than they can today, I guess is what I’m saying. And so what the demand was for offers in products, it was very much in like high ticket services. It was like, how can you make it exclusive? How can you do as much of it for me and selling those higher ticket offers, which is where like the 9 97 course turned into a $2,000 course and low ticket, you know, $200 digital products started to not work as well because we had to offset ad costs and ad costs were going up. And so that wasn’t working, but now I feel like we’re in this cycle where somebody in the past who maybe could have afforded a $2,000 course or a $3,000 course or a done for you service, they can’t anymore.

And so the question then becomes, how do you still serve that person? And so I was talking to a few clients in these strategy calls and right now their offers are all like above $3,000 and that’s fine. And you know, in some cases like one of them, I didn’t change it. Another one I did for them obviously talked through it with them. So you have to take what I say with a grain of salt of like, don’t go duplicate what I’m saying. If it doesn’t make sense for your business. However, I think when you only have these extremely high ticket offers, you’re going to end up leaving a lot of money on the table right now. Because I think the percentage of people who can afford a high ticket offer at this moment with buyer hesitancy, increasing with profits down with people, feeling like they’re working really hard to maintain the same level of business or they’re going slightly backwards and they’re panicking, right?

A lot of people are in that place. And so with that happening, somebody a year ago or two years ago, who could have afforded a higher ticket service or a done for you V VI I P offer that you have now just a larger percentage of people, aren’t going to be able to afford that. So that doesn’t mean get rid of that offer. It means what are you gonna do to support all of those people who can’t afford that? And this kind of clicked for me and you guys are gonna see something in my marketing with this because I shared maybe like three weeks ago on my podcast that I was really focusing on my offer, my done for you offer, and I’m shutting down my done with you program. We’re in the process of that. We have about 30 more days to fulfill and, and then we’re shutting it down.

And I realized, why can’t I sell digital products again? Why can’t I sell digital products that don’t have the high level coaching high ticket offers because I have a ton of content and op opportunities for that. I’m not selling my done with you program anymore. And I’m like, look at all these people who want to get to the level of being able to sign up for our elite ads management, but they’re not ready yet. Like that’s just leaving money on the table. And here’s the thing: two years ago so many of those people would have signed up for my higher ticket offers. Now the question becomes, how do I support all those people who want to, but they can’t yet do it. What do I provide them? How do I serve them in a very easy and repeatable way for me? So like not coaching or done with you component, but in a way that I can provide them the tools and the resources and everything they need to get to that next level.

And so what I’m saying is I think there is now a, like it’s gone down this cycle where we’ve gone from everything people are selling is $2,000+ high ticket is the way to go. You have better margins. That’s how you offset increased ad costs to, if you wanna keep generating sales, you actually have to figure out how to also sell these lower ticket offers. And when I say lower ticket, I mean like a thousand dollars and below and sell them in a way that you can sell them at scale. And the delivery is really easy and you know, delivery is never really easy, but when you create a digital product, you record it all one time. And then like in my case, I have a ton of stuff recorded. That’s just sitting there and it’s like, I told my team this the other day, I’m like, it’s just profit.

Like these are all people that we’re already gonna generate the leads and we’re already gonna bring them into our world and they’re not gonna be able to afford Elite or our higher level profit package. And so what are they gonna do? Go get help from someone else. Like how do I help them? And if I have offers that are digital products and they’re already done, or they need some updating and I can help them and I can solve their problem and help them get to the next level, that’s just pure profit for me because I’m already paying for the leads. I’m already bringing them in. And so I was talking to another client about this and I was like, you know, I think in the next 90 days, since your highest level or, or your lowest ticket offer offers $3,000 that you’re gonna want a thousand dollars offer, because what about 90% of the leads who aren’t gonna buy from you?

What are they gonna do? And how are you gonna create those ideal customers for the next level? If I’m quoting my friend, George Bryant, who talks about that and put that mind in my head or that thought in my head. And so what I also think is that there’s been some humbling of audiences and people and business owners who in the past would have been like, well, I don’t want a digital product. I don’t want a course. I still think there’s like stigma around courses, but I really like the very specific to solving a problem, like low price, digital product that is really easy to consume for somebody and really easy for them to get a result if they purchase it and utilizing that to capitalize on leads, you’re already going to be generating, like in the case of this marketing strategy, I’m like, we’re gonna generate all these leads to drive to your application, to drive to your $3,000 offer.

And 90% of them aren’t gonna be able to buy this month. And so why not create something that’s automated for you that isn’t your main offer? And I think that’s a key I wanna talk about, but that isn’t your main offer, but that is an option for these 90% of people who can’t purchase the higher level offers yet. They’re just not there and you’re already paying for the leads. So it’s profit and it’s easy for you to deliver and you already have the content. And I think the key with this is that depending on the business, I still believe that well, depending on the business, because there’s some, there’s some industries where you can have a $300 offer or a low ticket offer and you can absolutely be profitable. It all depends on your ad costs. But if you’re in the B2B space, like if you’re in my space where I, you know, have to pay 10, $15 a lead right now, I think that it would be hard for me to be an extremely profitable business if I only had a $300 offer.

Right? And so the key is that you, you, you do eventually build out a value ladder, not with every single step, but so that no matter what level a lead comes into your world, that you’re already paying for, you have something that you can sell them. And so that’s something I’m gonna be working on in my business because I was like, oh my gosh, I have all of this content that I can package into different really high value for a really good deal price and support these people. And to me too, I told my team, I was like, I don’t really care what we sell it for, because it’s pure profit to me. So whereas someone might charge a thousand dollars for that offer. Let’s sell it for 400 because I don’t care. Right? Like I just wanna help people get to the next level.

I wanna help them get to my higher ticket offer. And so I think we’re in this cycle where audiences, especially in the B2B space, this is especially true for B2B. I don’t know if it’s as true for B2C, but I do think in general when you’re in a recession, when buyer hesitancy is higher, when businesses are struggling a little bit that low ticket offers come back and they come back in, in, into popularity. So I think we’re in this cycle where the market has previously demanded higher ticket, VIP, done for you, I don’t wanna do a course, I don’t wanna do the work. And now what I’m seeing is business owners are like, well, I either gotta step up and do the work and figure this out and watch that training or watch that course or implement these strategies or I’m not gonna be in business.

And so now they need a solution that they can afford and they’re willing to show up and go through digital content again. So I think we’re gonna see this for the next one to two years that this is going to come back. And I was like talking to my team and we are considering an automated webinar going to a $400 product. And I was like, what the heck? This is 2015 again! Like, this is what I did then, it’s just crazy and maybe I’m the only one experiencing this cycle. But then when I got on strategy calls and I watched and I observed this kind of evolution in their business, and then I made these strategy suggestions, I was like, I think that this is something more people need to think about. So the thing to consider is do you have the opportunity to capitalize on leads?

You’re already generating organically or paid, you’re already paying for them or you’re paying for them via time through organic. And there’s no way they can afford your offer that you have right now, because it is such a high ticket that you’re leaving 90% of the leads on the table. And do you have a solution that you can deliver that you can create one time and obviously there’s updates to digital courses, but when you make these small digital products, like you’re not making this, like, you know, for me mark, like a pro was like 180 videos, right? Keeping it up to date was challenging. But when I break it down into a bunch of little pieces, I really don’t have to update it all the time. So it really does become more automated. Now, do I think you can build your entire business on a single automated product that is one funnel away from success?

No, but do I think you can add to your revenue and your profit with this and capitalize on things you’re already doing? Yes. And the key with it is that it’s extremely high value and the product creates a very quick and they can perceive the outcome very easily like, okay, I wanna achieve this. If I spend this $200 or I spend this $300 or whatever, the price is even a hundred dollars. I’ve seen that work lately. And again, it’s not the core offer. It’s capitalizing on what you’re already doing with this. And so it’s different than like a tiny offer, a slow funnel because that is going to cold traffic. That is, I still am like, not for those because I think you’re better off at least doing lead gen on the front end. And then they offer on the thank you page. So you’re generating leads, but a slow funnel or teeny offer is different because that’s trying to generate cold traffic sales.

I’m talking about taking leads and traffic you already have who aren’t ready for your offer and capitalizing on them with a lower price digital product that you already have the leads. So it really is just pure profit. And considering, you know, should I be adding this? Am I losing 90% of my leads who aren’t ready to buy my offer right now? And they’re having to go somewhere else for a solution, but I can help them. And if I incorporate this, it’s just profit for my business. It’s capitalizing on what I’m already doing more. So that is my message for you guys today. And hopefully this gets your brain churning with some ideas. You’re gonna see us do some of these things. Cause I always walk, walk the talk and kind of share that with you. And I’m seeing it in client strategies too. So I thought I’d share, we have some really exciting things coming up on the podcast. I’m gonna be doing another series. So pay close attention. Starting soon there will be a series that’s actually gonna be six parts. And I think you guys are gonna really enjoy it. So I’ll talk to you next week.

Thanks for listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support with your marketing head over to helpmystrategy.com to see how Hirsh Marketing can help take your marketing to the next level, no matter where you’re at today. We help our clients scale faster than ever, find hidden leaks in their funnel, experiment with new creative marketing strategies, and help their business explode and be more profitable than they ever dreamed possible. Head over to helpmystrategy.com and see if you qualify for a free strategy audit with Team Hirsh. 

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