It’s a term that many marketing experts will be aware of, but unfortunately not many business owners. The term I’m talking about is “tripwire marketing”.
The whole ‘tripwire’ concept has been around and used in marketing for quite a long time – before the days of Internet and the days of colour television too! But before I go into creating a tripwire campaign, let me explain what tripwire marketing is all about.
What is Tripwire Marketing?
Put simply, tripwire marketing is a campaign that turns a lead into a customer by making them a low-cost, relatively painless offer. This would be something like “First fitness session for 99p.” Once they sign up to this low offer, we can try to upsell them to buying a main product or service.
What this basically means is, instead of asking someone to invest in your more expensive products or services straight away, you offer them something of less cost and then tease them into purchasing the higher-end product.
The reason for this is that, once people have bought something from you – anything in fact – they are more likely to purchase something else.
When you offer something for free, you will generate leads – yes, but you will also get doubters. These are the people that instantly think ‘what is the catch?’ They become suspicious, whereas with a low-cost offer it tends to convert better because it helps to alleviate that suspicion.
Also, when you offer something for free – the people who jump on the offer are not customers yet, they’re leads. You are still in the process of having to turn these leads into clients.
Tripwire campaigns turn people into instant clients are then more emotionally connected to what you offer next. It also allows you to sell many of these inexpensive items across different topics to test what your market wants and then customise follow-up communications that are more targeted.
So how do we create tripwire campaigns? I’ll show you how below…
Here are 5 Ways to Master Tripwire Marketing:
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Start building a list
The first step before you even begin looking at creating your tripwire campaign is building a strong database.
The best method to do this, if you don’t already have a database is by offering people something for free. This will then make them more eager to take the next step with you.
The important thing here is to offer something that your entire audience market will find valuable.
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Create your tripwire
To begin your tripwire you want to come up with an offer that solves a specific problem for your target audience and give it a low cost. To create a successful tripwire, your offer needs to solve a specific problem that your customers may have (for example fat loss or muscle building.)
Good ideas include, free fitness session, an eBook bundle or even a personal consultation.
Something to bare in mind here is that your tripwire campaign isn’t focusing on making profit – if anything they are sold at cost or a loss in order to bring in new customers.
Once you have created your tripwire outline, don’t just stop there. List all the different offers and topics you can cover and begin creating tripwires for each of these.
Let’s use a personal trainer as an example next. If they were to only focus on weight loss they are potentially leaving 2/3 of their market from finding them…those that want to lose fat or gain muscle.
A few good tripwire offers that your fitness business could delve into are recipe eBooks for weight loss. This would then upsell into the trainer’s 6-month program.
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Push out your tripwire to your list
Once your tripwire offer is ready, it’s time to begin pushing it out to your database. The best way to do this is by sending out 2-3 emails offering your product for a limited amount of time.
The best way to do this is by creating an email campaign in your chosen email platform and linking this to a sales page.
Something important to keep in your mind here is that not everybody in your database will click the offer. This is ok, don’t panic.
What this tells you is that your database has people who want different things. You want to segment your list at this point into different interest groups.
Compose your emails in your tripwire campaign so they clearly outline the problems of your subscribers and the benefits they will get for buying into the tripwire. The more specific, the more detailed your segments will be.
Once you have ran multiple tripwires offering different solutions for different problems, your lists will become chopped into different categories – some will want fat loss, some will want muscle building – for example.
You can then start sending certain types of emails to a certain segment.
Most email systems will allow you to segment your list automatically, however if yours doesn’t then you may be required to use different landing pages for people to opt-in again and enter a new list.
No matter what email-marketing program you use, you can still offer tripwires.
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Introducing low-offer buyers to your main product
The main goal of a tripwire is to introduce customers to a bigger offer and entice them to buy. Therefore you want your campaign to lead to a core product of yours that you wish to upsell to the customer.
To maximise purchases, I recommend running an offer on the upsell too, while the customer is hot.
Maybe look at offering them a certain discount for purchasing the core product. Try running along the lines of XX% off exclusive to you.
Another way of doing this is by putting a trial period on your core product – for example ’30 day free trial period at half price.’ These offers are very popular and tend to have a condition that you will start to be billed for full membership after the trial period unless you contact them and cancel. It gives customers the chance to check that the product is really for them and removes any doubt that the customer will opt in to the full subscription as they must opt out rather than opt in.
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Eat, Sleep, Tripwire, Repeat
There are most likely many possible tripwire ideas that can lead to offering your core product. This is a good thing as it gives you endless tripwires that you can create and test.
As you continue to set up new tripwires, these will join together to become a funnel that are targeted to solve a very specific problem, ultimately leading people into what you really want to sell.
Make sure you test your tripwires in detail. Test your headlines and copy and tweak them if needed, until you find one that’s best fit.
Some of your tripwires will be more successful than others, which is expected. It all leads you one step closer to knowing what your leads want and helps you fine-tune the issues your target audience want you to solve.
Final Tip
The simplest way of creating your tripwire is by breaking off a piece of your core offer and using this as your low-end product.
A Yoga tutor could offer a low-cost session, or a personal trainer could sell a nutritional eBook bundle. Take your time to determine your offer and plan out each detail of your tripwire for maximum success.
So now it’s your turn. Get your email database ready, a low-cost product and your email funnel with an end goal of selling your core product. Once you create your first tripwire you won’t be disappointed!
