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🧠 Flywheel Project for August: Sales Flywheel

Making sales on autopilot is easier said than done. And unless Phill Agnew or I intentionally promoted it, sales for Wallet-Opening Words (aka WOW) trickled in month after month.

That’s good, but not great. And I wanted sales to be knock-your-socks-off great.

So my goal for August was to create a flywheel that would double sales using ads and personalized, well-timed offers.

There were a few cogs designed to make this flywheel spin:

1. People would discover WOW through my newsletter or an ad and get directed to our sales page.
2. People who didn’t buy would see an exit pop-up encouraging them to sign up to grab an entire free chapter.
3. People who got the free chapter would love it (hopefully) and learn about a “genius” guessing game that would motivate them to buy—or so I thought.

People who *did* buy WOW were offered two complementary bonus products in exchange for giving a testimonial or sharing a picture of them reading WOW on social media, like this:

The idea was these social shoutouts would drive more people to discover WOW. And then we’d reinvest profits from product sales back into ads to get even more buyers.

Through all this, the flywheel would spin on and on like a merry-go-round—or so I’d hoped. 😅

And, this flywheel is zooming!

We launched our new flywheel in mid-August. And our new flywheel grew sales by…*drum roll, please*…

42%*

(*This number excludes sales from our back-to-work flash sale. If you include those purchases too, digital product sales are up 178% in the last 30 days.)

But before we call August’s sales flywheel a smashing success, let’s dig deeper into what worked…and what *REALLY* didn’t.

This month, let’s start with what went right this month…
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🤩 Big Wins

Alright, so what worked and how can you use it right now to sell more?

Opt-in pages​
​Created an objection-killing exit pop-up

Before, when someone left the Wallet-Opening Words sales page without purchasing, we’d lose them forever.

And we needed to fix that before we started spending money on ads. Otherwise, we’d be burning cash.

So we created an exit pop-up that addresses a top objection our buyers have—that this is yet another copywriting course bloated with video lessons they’ll never watch. And we offer them a free chapter to get them on our email list.

This shows people—instead of telling them—that WOW really *isn’t* another copywriting course.

And giving them a valuable freebie taps into the law of reciprocity, which makes people more likely to buy.

Once people grab their free chapter, they enter into a “genius” sales sequence (more below) where they’ll ideally be persuaded to grab WOW.

Email marketing​
​Used testimonials from happy customers in our newsletter footer

Did you notice anything different in Why We Buy 🧠’s P.S. section these past few weeks? 😏 WAIT, don’t leave to go see. I’ll tell you…

Remember how we use incentives to encourage WOW buyers to leave reviews?

Well, each week we showcase a new review at the bottom of our newsletter.

The testimonial acts as social proof and encourages people to reply to the email to guess which wallet-opening words were used in the review. Fun, right?

Ads​
​Creating ads that WOW

(Pun intended.)

We worked with Superside’s creative team to craft a series of ads promoting WOW.

Superside’s team pitched us 6 brilliant concepts, and we chose 3 to develop (including one concept using the Rhyme as Reason principle). Choosing just 3 was haaaaaard. But we did it.

We haven’t launched the ads yet because… well…read about my bonehead mistake below…but here’s a sneak peek at some of the ad creative:

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We’re sooo excited to get these ads running. I’ll update you on how they’re working once they go live and the data rolls in!

Ok. Onto my bonehead mistake…​
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😭 Big Wobble

Alright, so what mistake should you avoid like the plague?

Nurture sequence​
​My “genius” guessing game promo didn’t go as planned

I had an idea that I thought was pretty clever…

People who opted in to get a free chapter of WOW would have a chance to enter a fun contest.

​

If they could guess the exact number of wallet-opening words we used on the WOW sales page, they’d get WOW for free.

If they guessed wrong, they’d get a consolation prize—an expiring discount code that gave them 20% off.

Genius idea, right?

Wrong: People cheated.

We poured 34+ hours into creating the contest landing page *and* writing the emails for it.

And not ONCE in those 34+ hours did I consider the possibility that people would use multiple email addresses to submit multiple guesses.

In hindsight, of course, a few people cheated! It’s human nature. Doh!

So we’re scrapping the guessing game and will rework the automated email sequence that comes with the free chapter. *sigh*

🤓 Your Takeaway

If you want to build growth flywheels in your business, there’s lots to learn from our big wins and f*ck-up.

Ask yourself…
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Q: Is your lead magnet (and its email sequence) giving away too much?

It’s always easier to look back and see how it’s *obvious* something would (or wouldn’t) work. It’s not just you or me who experiences this—it’s everyone. Behavioral scientists call this Hindsight Bias.

But when you’re planning your lead magnet—especially if you’re offering deals and freebies—double-check for blind spots and ensure you aren’t unintentionally allowing buyers to take advantage of it.
​

Q: How can you smartly (but subtly) sell your offer?

The P.S. section in Why We Buy 🧠 is hard-selling done subtly. It’s brief. It’s not in your face. But it’s effective AF.

The P.S. section is arguably the most-read part of your entire email. So how can squeeze every ounce of value out of it and sell more of your offer?
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Q: Is your opt-in pop-up killing objections?

You have a few sentences to compel buyers to grab your lead magnet—or not. If they’re getting ready to bounce from your sales page or landing page, there’s a reason. And “grab your free eBook” is never going to compel them to stay. But y’know what will?

Speaking to the top objection that’s triggering them to hop off your page for good, then handing over the lead magnet.

To see your opt-in rates increase, identify the #1 objection that’s holding your customer back from buying from you and kill it. ​
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🔎 Sneak Peek Into September’s Flywheel

In September, we’re launching Why We Buy 🧠’s first-ever website—courtesy of the amazing designers at Studio! 🥳

Here’s a preview of what’s coming…

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And for the flywheel, we’re creating a website traffic flywheel to build the PAINKILLER waitlist.

Goal: Get 2,000 people to join the PAINKILLER waitlist.

​Until next time, happy growing!