James: James Schramko here with John Lint from 10XPRO.io. We’re going to talk about a great bonus you can include when it comes to including a premium to incentivize someone to go ahead and make a decision to order from you. So, John, what have you found works really well for people with courses and memberships?
John: Yeah, this is a good question. You know, I get this question all the time. Like, John, what kind of bonus should I add? Because we all know, right? If we want to increase our conversions, we need to increase the value of our offer. And a great way to do this is to add bonuses to that offer. Why? Because then you make the price ridiculous for everything that they’re getting, right?
So, the comment I get from, especially new members, who, you know, they spend all this time creating their first online course, it takes a lot of effort, you know. When you’re starting out you need to create all these videos and they tell me, John, so now you’re telling me I need to create two more courses, extra products to be able to offer bonuses? And actually, no, you don’t.
The easiest and, actually, one of the best bonuses is you. You don’t have to create anything, you just need to give some of your time. Your time is so valuable. Your expertise is so valuable. You don’t have to create anything. There’s so many things that you can just simply offer. For example, you could do a private coaching via chat, like text chat. They send you a question and you reply whenever you are available. It’s kind of leverage. You could do weekly calls with all your members. So, that’s kind of like group coaching where you are, for example, every single week you can be live and you can answer questions.
James: Well, let’s stop there. I’ll comment on each one of these. Firstly, the chat thing. you mentioned a key point and not many people realize this and that is, you can answer the chat in your own time. And frankly, that’s what I love about the way I operate my membership is, I can answer that first thing in the morning; I could answer it during the middle of the day; I could answer it at night, and sometimes I do.
So, it’s not the same as having a scheduled call which is where people often get ground out when they’re selling their personal time. So, if you are going to sell access to you, at least you can do it on your own time. And I’ve been able to sustain that for 10 years using that method so it’s a very powerful one, and I just wanted to add that.
We do a live training, and now I’m also doing one every second week just for people in the highest-level group. And this is a tremendously valuable thing. In fact, when you go to the highest level like the SilverCircle level, that is one of the top three things that people are really interested in and that is, learning from other people who are peers and cross-pollinating best practice. So, you don’t even have to do any homework for that call. If you don’t want, you can just facilitate.
John: Yeah. exactly. You can do so many things. And it’s just about thinking about how can you leverage your time but give some of your time which is super valuable, like we said. And you don’t have to create anything.
Group calls are another great example. Having some type of community inside your membership site like a forum or maybe a special group, that’s also a great bonus you can add because people like to connect with each other.
You could do office calling hours where you say, Alright, well, call me every Thursday. At, let’s say, 6:00 PM, feel free to call me. And you can do that through Skype; you can give them a phone number. And then if they call you, great. You pick up.
James: So that’s office hours.
John: Yeah, office hours, right? And some people would call, other people won’t call, but for one hour you’re there for whoever wants to call. There are many things that you can do like that that would instantly increase the value of your offer, instantly help you be different from your competition. And when someone’s going to look at, Hey, what do I pick? Do I pick this? Between two courses, let’s say, you teach they all have access to training and all that, and then they see yours Oh, but I get to talk to the creator of the program. Oh, I get to connect with other people. Oh, look at that I can actually get my specific question answered. It’s a no-brainer, right? Then you instantly become different and that will help you increase your conversions, boost your sales.
James: It’s a great tip. It’s a terrific way to differentiate from competitors. And these days, it lends itself well to influencer marketing. If you have built up a personal brand then you’re actually creating high value in your personal attendance. And frankly, when I started online, all I really wanted was for someone to show me what they’re actually doing and nobody would.
They’ll sell me a course but I’d never be able to contact them even via email. I wouldn’t get a reply and these days it’s probably the most powerful thing you can offer is personal access. So, consider that.
If you like this tip then give us a comment where you see this video. We’ve got a whole series on jamesschramko.com which is free for you to access in our podcast series. It’s the Membership Series. John and I are riffing about all sorts of things relating to courses and memberships. Check it out at jamesschramko.com.
I’m James Schramko and that there’s John Lint from 10XPRO.io which is the greatest platform on the planet for having your own courses and memberships.
John: Thank you!
What a golden tip from James and John. Don’t ever forget the value of personal contact for customers. Ever walked into a shop and the staff dont even ask how they can help you ? Online is the same (maybe worse) What a waste after all your expense of establishing the business.