Free Intro Course, Consult Coupon

An idea that Iron Tribe Fitness mentioned today in their business presentation is that they do in their marketing is an ironfitness101 site for prospective customers. It has worked very well for them and seemed a prudent idea to borrow.

What I would like to do is create a (short) free Intro to Gymnastic Strength Training™ course to give for an opt-in instead of simply a free chapter. This lets us educate them on the most basic level, lends a great deal of perceived value, and shows off the look of customerhub/courses in general. We can be edgy here to grab their interest while still bringing in portions or whole of the free chapter, the "glossary" that Cole mentioned in the report, and anything else we can dream up to flip the prospect. Let's cap on the effectiveness of Coach's original dragondoor articles and give it an overhaul with some added goodies. The best part is being able to add a simple buy-now link at the end to instantly get them going on F1 or H1.

Iron Tribe also offers a free consult for the opt-ins (with some automatic screening to see if they qualify). Coach suggested that the first email from us gives them a significantly reduced price on an initial consult ($50 marked down to $20 or so). The idea is to get them directed towards OLC immediately while still making it a good value for them and not bogging Nic down with consults that don't produce money.

Any additional thoughts on how to structure this Intro to GST course? I see it as most important to be bold, direct, and turn them on to a new way of approaching training.

This is excellent news!

Just spit balling here, but I recall the articles on leg lifts and MN, and as they are together in the MN progression. What about instead of going lateral across elements we go vertically with MN as far as negHLL (maybe HLL)?

I like the MN because there are some competing products that stop at HalfHLL and have no mobility. I think the tuck-ups etc are classic gymnastic exercises that anyone can do and enjoy and it gives a good picture of the progressive nature of GST without giving too much away.

Of course this is already almost more than Pavel put out in his recent ab DVD and only 1/6 of F1

The cool thing is to connect HLL to the MN which being so rare will surely boggle some minds, and then connect that to the other 6 FGST elements.

The part I'm on the fence on is putting the Mastery Templates out there, I still think they are magic and hard to give away.

We just need to find some guy with a full sleeve to demonstrate and give us that edginess

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The Iron Tribe site is another with a good identity. A little too busy for me but some good ideas.

Are you at InfusionCon?

Maybe we don't give away the full mastery template.

The idea of an intro course if brilliant. Being what it is we can offer it as a modified template. Keeping true to the movements and progressive nature but with re-worked timing or even without timing.

Are we offering this as an Intro or a Demo? There is a difference between the two. With the Intro we are providing information and a tease inside, with the demo we would be detailing information.

For reference -

http://www.irontribefitness.com/Home/Crossfit101Content

From looking, not sure it's the same thing Cory's talking about.

I am talking more an intro to GST in general. We will not be giving away any course content free. This is more a mix of the best drag indoor articles, an exposure to final progressions in Foundation series (eg. What is a manna and why do I want to do one?, and anything else we need to get them from initial opt-in to serious prospect. The rest of the emails then automatically gain a great deal more power and effectiveness.

I also think we need Carmen, Orench, or another built student to act as a course guide. A handful of short 30sec or so clips of them talking to a script. Makes it more personal and gives us a face.

Cole Dano said:

For reference -

http://www.irontribefitness.com/Home/Crossfit101Content

From looking, not sure it's the same thing Cory's talking about.

It isn't, but my idea isn't an exact translation of what they do anyways.

I'm hurt you don't think any of us are built

Maybe a hint of the earlier work. Just a short clip of a couple progressions so people can see the entry level is indeed entry level and achievable, then the advanced work.

Nic Branson said:

Maybe a hint of the earlier work. Just a short clip of a couple progressions so people can see the entry level is indeed entry level and achievable, then the advanced work.

That's Coach's call. In terms of marketing , do we get more leverage showing some progressions or simply having the course guide state "I did it and so can you" ? It works with other systems, we just have actual truth behind it.

Ok this makes sense and sounds good. I can totally see the need for that kind of intro, it was where I was going with that report. I just missed your idea at first, in any case this is a much needed item.

Thinking about it, there really isn't any need to give earlier steps away. BUT I do like the idea of somehow illustrating the progressive nature of the program. Which was the main point of my earlier suggestion.

And that the programming is spelled out in detail. We ahve a great support team OLC etc which you already covered...

edit:

Actually, thinking more, this is better than a free chapter or progression, as it can give some actual background into what GST is all about, and add some sizzle. 

(I just have to get Coach back here on a Friday night so he'll let loose with some of the really good stories to include.)

Yeah, I don't mean full progressions at all, just more of a "This is where I started"

- I am not in favor of a free intro course.  

- I provided free GB WODs for 4 days a week for 5 years and the vast majority of the people using them did not make a purchase.  Rather they simply clamored for more and more "free" services.

What about snippets in emails. This is what I can do now and this is where I started from type of thing.

- Possibly.  However I see this as becoming involved in a never ending, constantly evolving process of being continually nit-picked to death for more and more free content by people who have no intention of making a purchase anyway.

A better choice in my opinion is to make more effective use of the many YouTube videos we have already released as teasers.  "... This is what is possible with proper training.  What are you waiting for? ..."

- We already have the best GST program in the world.  We have the credentials, the success stories, the videos and photos to back it up.  No one else is even close.  We are already giving them a free chapter.  They are a ton of free videos available on youtube.  They have free access to the general forum.  The courses already come with a 30 day 100% money back guarantee.

If this is not enough to convince them to climb aboard then to be quite frank; they are not worth our continued investment in time and resources.

Coach Sommer said:

- Possibly.  However I see this as becoming involved in a never ending, constantly evolving process of being continually nit-picked to death for more and more free content by people who have no intention of making a purchase anyway.

 

A better choice in my opinion is to make more effective use of the many YouTube videos we have already released as teasers.  "... This is what is possible with proper training.  What are you waiting for? ..."

 

- We already have the best GST program in the world.  We have the credentials, the success stories, the videos and photos to back it up.  No one else is even close.  We are already giving them a free chapter.  They are a ton of free videos available on youtube.  They have free access to the general forum.  The courses already come with a 30 day 100% money back guarantee.

 

If this is not enough to convince them to climb aboard then to be quite frank; they are not worth our continued investment in time and resources.

Coach,

What I am speaking of is not an actual course: I only mean to use the term for marketing purposes. "Free course" sounds much more valuable than a free chapter. We would be simply consolidating the free chapter and some other resources of your choice all in one spot while taking advantage of the new course interface. Why make them go to multiple places when we can have it in one and then reinforce it with the follow up emails? There's nothing new we're giving them for free, just using what already has worked and putting a pretty face to go with it to tell them how the program works and that it's the best. 

I am not comfortable calling something a "course" which is not.  

- Coach, pardon me if I am off here, but your reply sounds like you took Cory's OP the same way I did.

What he's actually proposing is more of an extended educational advertisement which would contain no free material in that sense. And isn't that different than what you propose.

I totally missed his point, so please disregard my initial reply.

I'm all for what Cory called a glossary of GST showing what the end elements are. I'm sure many people think things like PL are near mythical, if they know they exist at all.

Not disregarding your experience with the WODs, but the current thinking on email marketing is it takes about 7 contacts before a person trusts an e-vendor enough to actually buy. Not sure it's really 7 but the idea with this is to sort of an online wooing process.

No reason we can't use material we already have, but I can see sitting Orench down and doing a video testimonial for example....

- What's this about a free chapter?

Coach Sommer said:

I am not comfortable calling something a "course" which is not.  

Well if you think of it as a course that educates people what the 7 FGST elements are, then it's not so far off is it?

Let see 7 elements, seven contact to sell.... works out nicely!

edit: Actually with this idea, not sure there is any need to give a chapter away at all.

Coach Sommer said:

I am not comfortable calling something a "course" which is not.  

We can call it anything you'd like. My point is that I see a simple free chapter as a more passive tactic. I want to develop something with  more spoon feeding, more edginess,  and more in their face. We have great resources to make a "marketing pamphlet" that takes advantage of web technologies and multimedia. I see this as the potential meat of the selling process with the emails reinforcing this. I want them to have something they keep coming back to to look at several times before buying. If it's compelling enough, they will without any additional prompting.

"Jump Start"

- Could be comprised of the free chapter with embedded videos and photos illustrating the seven GST at the end and a promo for the courses.

Cory's correct about one thing for sure. The marketing program you invested in is very powerful, and there are a lot of smart people involved who have taken marketing to a new level. 

Anything we can do to utilise it's capabilities is time well spend IMHO.

Coach Sommer said:

"Jump Start"

Works for me. How do we phrase it in the call to action and what noun do we use to describe it if not a course?

Coach Sommer said:

- Could be comprised of the free chapter with embedded videos and photos illustrating the seven GST at the end and a promo for the courses.

Exactly. I still think we need a short video call to action or testimonial from a student to ice the cake.

The other reason I am pushing so hard for using customerhub is that it gets them an account up front so the transition to course content is instant and easy for them.

Jump start sounds great!

Will keep beating this dead horse

- why give a way a free chapter, when we can show the final steps and illustrate how the system works by analogy and maybe show success stories?

A course in the sense that it could be split into a few parts and sent over a few weeks....

For example -

Week one FSAS + success stories 

Week two FBAS + progressive method

Week three FLS + cool gymnastic stuff / nutrition 

This is an interesting thought. I can easily make it so that the link in the email automatically enables the next segment when they click it.  My vision is to see the email and promotional jump start working together with powerful synergy.

- If a goal is to have them check in multiple times this would give a much better chance

- If I buy a software app they sell it with some nice videos showing how lovely it makes the users life, not a free chapter don't see why this should be different, but it will take more effort on our part to get together.

I sort of assumed that's why we started with the fancy software in the first place