The seed of the idea: a low-cost product

Before I ever offered a group programme, before I opened a Facebook group or ran a live event, I set up a little online store with the idea of recording and selling guided meditations. 

I had recently come across someone running this kind of subscription service, and I liked the idea. Her visuals were cute, her writing was *chef’s kiss*, and I wanted to see if I could do something similar. It was a fun and creative side hustle, and seemed like an easy place to jump in.

Once I had written a script and recorded the first file on my phone, I tinkered with some sound editing software, uploaded it to Dropbox.

I threw together a quick image and description (see archive image 😍👆🏻) and made it available to my shop, for the princely sum of £3

*dramatic pause*

Lead Gen’s secret code: quite literally 👇🏻

Then I used the shop software to create a 100% discount/coupon code and named it FRIENDS or THANKYOU or something equally heart-warming 👼🏻

^^ this was my accidental lead generation tactic. I created the code for the purpose of having a few people friends test the checkout process, but quickly saw and understood the incredible response. Here’s why it was a stroke of genius ☿ ✨

1. it came from an authentic and genuine delight and gratitude for everyone who was paying attention to my social media profiles.
2. my motivation was thank them for their encouragement, support and feedback.

So, what did I do next? I’m so glad you asked:

1. I shared my image and description – separately and together – and a few other posts announcing the existence of this thing I had made, that the making of it was a lovely experience, and that I had a discount code for anyone who would like to listen.
2. A small number of people commented to say ‘yes, please!’, and, being the polite little cherub that I am, I asked their consent to send a message/DM.
3. In the DMs I sent a link to the product page AND the discount code without specifying how much – a beautiful conversation opener with people who were interested in my work.
4. I also sent a message to just about everyone on my friends list, with words to the effect that “I made this, I love it, I want you to love it too, here’s the purchase link and you can use the code THANKYOU for a big discount”

You can probably imagine what happened next?

❤️ My friend would get a warm fuzzy feeling and click the link, see a reflection of the thing they asked for (same copy, or same image, or both) at an extremely affordable price

❤️ Whereupon they would likely add the product to their cart, and apply the coupon code out of curiosity

❤️ And be surprised and delighted to receive 100% off their purchase – emotion at the point of sale which HUGELY boosts the likelihood of them completing the check out.

Connection-Based Marketing

Now, they have a transactional relationship with my brand (they had to click a link, apply a code, complete a checkout process) and in return they got a beautiful meditation but more importantly, they experienced surprise and delight, reinforcing a positive pre-disposed towards my business. They’re actually looking forward to hearing from me again.

Hail Hermes indeed, past Anna, for that truly divine inspiration ☿☿☿

I had a method for reliably growing my list without ads, so when I was ready to launch higher ticket offer (which I did just a few months later, at approximately £120 as I recall), I had a small but growing audience of appreciative friends who were eager to see what I was up to,

Mind you, at the time the process was clunky – I was manually copy-pasting email addresses from £0 transaction shop receipts into my email list and triggering delivery of the audio file. But this was four years ago and could be executed much more cleanly and efficiently these days. 

But it’s worth noting, that it was the very messiness itself, that prompted me to quickly discover the power of automation in my business; even as a very beginner baby business, was very quickly apparent that rapid growth can consume a great of time. I was motivated to find a better way – which became a guiding principle that has grown my business ever since.

Should everyone try The Surprise & Delight Strategy?

If it’s easy for you to set up the back end, why not? And, whether you do or don’t try out this specific transaction, spend some time contemplating how you can introduce elements of surprise and delight to your marketing, and to your message as well. I’d love to hear your reflections on this, please join me on Facebook if you use it.

All of this, sweet kitten, is just one possible strategy for connection-based marketing that I teach as part of The Demand Shift.

You should definitely look into it 👇🏻🦊 and I will see you on the other side 💋