Here’s a clever way to turn free helpful content into more sales.
It comes from Taki Moore, who helps coaches earn a million dollars a year.
Here’s what he does:
In his emails, he provides a link to a video where he teaches helpful content.
Below the video, he has an application form where you can apply for a consultation.
(He doesn’t say it’s an application form. He just asks a bunch of questions and then ends by asking you to get on a call. Very clever. Because people may see “Click here to get on a strategy call” and leave because it’s obvious it’s a sales call. But if they start answering the questions, they begin to see how much they could use his coaching. By the end, they’ll be more likely to join the call.)
And below the application is a handful of case study videos. So people see proof his stuff works. And they start to feel a bit of FOMO.
Now this particular case study is very good. In it, the customer covers:
- The pain he was in before joining Taki’s Black Belt program — how he was working crazy hours and his business wasn’t growing
- The major insight he learned from Taki that changed his business — which was going from a 1-to-1 coaching model to a 1-to-many
- Other big lessons he got from Taki — like planning your life a year in advance and using lead magnets to create a sales sequence
- Results: How he went from a $300k business to $1 million in 3 years using what he learned from Taki
It’s great stuff. And there are three changes they could make to help close even more sales using these case studies.
First, make it easier for readers to immediately see themselves in the person being interviewed.
Right now the only reason we have to watch Jason’s video is the quote of how he didn’t think Taki’s program was for him.
Is that a compelling reason to watch the video?
It’s okay.
The problem is, the reader doesn’t know who Jason Everett is or anything about his business. So they may see that and think “Well he has a totally different business/problem than me. Just because he had doubts and it helped him doesn’t mean it can help me.”
Second, there is a ton of amazing information in this case study. But it’s buried in the video. And the only thing getting people to click that video is the quote about how he didn’t think it could work for him — which we just said could be much stronger.
They can do a lot more to bring those great quotes and stories front and center to suck people in.
You can do this using what I call the “multiple doors” strategy.
To start, you’ll want to beef up the case study. Rather than a video, you combine video and text. And you tell a more in-depth and compelling story rather than sharing the highlight reel.
You can then use various quotes as crossheads on the copy. That way, a reader who is skimming will see quotes that call out their specific pains, objections, and desires. They’ll stop dead in their tracks and start reading.
Here’s an example. A while back, I did case studies for Alexis Fedor, who helps artists build 6-figure businesses.
The case study starts with a quote that hits the exact problem the reader has in their mind. Then there is copy and a video to give that quote context and tell the story behind it. All of this is designed to show right away that the problem this woman has is the same as what the reader is facing.
Next, we dig even deeper into the problem. We twist the knife on the pain and show how Alexis’ program can work for anyone.
Think back to the quote introducing Taki’s case study: The one about how he “didn’t think it would work for him.” There’s no context as to why he thought that. So it won’t resonate strongly with readers.
But if you create a quote to demonstrate WHY people think it won’t work for them, you can connect more deeply.
For example, for my art client, customers may think that they simply don’t have the talent or connections to sell their art. And because of that, no program will work for them.
We dispell that objection right away with the quote below. We talk about how this woman was turned down by every gallery in her area. This shows that this woman had the same struggles that the reader has now. In fact, she may even be worse off.
Showing someone at a bigger disadvantage than the reader is how you get the reader to realize “Oh, if this can work for them, maybe it can work for me, too.”
Someone can read the headline on Taki’s page and think, “Yeah, but maybe this guy already had a great business. He may not have had the same problems I have…”
With the case study I did for my client, we don’t give the reader the option to think that. We show right away the struggle this woman had. This removes the skepticism the reader has and proves this can work for them.
Nobody can read the quote below and think something like, “Oh yeah but well this person probably had more talent/connections… ” We are proving that’s not the case and this can help people just like the reader.
You can even use this to bring testimonials front-and-center.
The fact Jason went from $300k to $1 million in 3 years is huge. But it’s buried at the end of this 3-minute video.
I want to make it hard for people to miss quotes like that. Especially after they have connected with the person’s struggles and sees themselves in that person. Because when they see those results, they’ll realize they can have a transformation like that, too.
For example, in this case study, we make the quote about hitting her income goal impossible to miss.
Finally, the third big thing I noticed is that they could go into way more detail on the lessons he learned from Taki.
Why? Because then you can repurpose the content you get from the case studies. It goes from merely being a proof element you slap on a sales page to content you can reuse over and over in emails, social media, etc.
For example, this one case study could be broken down into at least 3 different posts teaching different pieces of Taki’s method. Best of all, the proof is built into each post. It wouldn’t be Taki talking about this thing he does and then giving some vague claim about how it helped others. It would be one of Taki’s students sharing this great thing he learned from Taki and how much it helped him. See how much more powerful that is? The proof and FOMO is all built right in.
Recap
We covered a lot. Here are the main takeaways:
- Add an application form to the bottom of your content along with case studies
- Make sure the case study has a quote that attracts the right reader to dive into the story
- Beef up the case study. Use text and video. Use quotes that target the thoughts, pains, desires, and objections going on the reader’s mind. Make these quotes impossible to miss.
- Get lots of stories from your case study interviews on how you helped them. You’ll be able to repurpose the material to have more content with proof built in.
The other advantage of more in-depth case studies: You can use that material to create avatars, nail your positioning, and build a system that lets you and your team write A-level copy fast — all without having to shell out a ton of money for a copywriter. You can learn more about that here.
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