Idea Extraction SUPER SIMPLIFIED

[AgainstAllOdds]

Came across this thread: What are you struggling with?! (not worth the click), and got thinking.

The general advice online for idea extraction is crap. Basically, here's the easy way to do it when you're starting a business.

If you're trying to start a product business, this is what you ask:

• "What are you spending the most money on?"
• "What are you overpaying for?"
• "What can't you get?"

If it's a service based business, you ask:

• "What are you wasting the most time on?"
• "What services are you spending the most money on?"
• "What services do you want but can't buy?"

You don't really need any other questions. Just those basic ones to identify where the money and pain is. Figure out a way to meet with the prospects. Ask those questions. Then fill the need.

 

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[Andy Black]

Came across this thread: What are you struggling with?! (not worth the click), and got thinking.

The general advice online for idea extraction is crap. Basically, here's the easy way to do it when you're starting a business.

If you're trying to start a product business, this is what you ask:

• "What are you spending the most money on?"
• "What are you overpaying for?"
• "What can't you get?"

If it's a service based business, you ask:

• "What are you wasting the most time on?"
• "What services are you spending the most money on?"
• "What services do you want but can't buy?"

You don't really need any other questions. Just those basic ones to identify where the money and pain is. Figure out a way to meet with the prospects. Ask those questions. Then fill the need.

Exactly. I don’t do “idea extraction”, but I’d follow the money.

 

[Hijena1]

Came across this thread: What are you struggling with?! (not worth the click), and got thinking.

The general advice online for idea extraction is crap. Basically, here's the easy way to do it when you're starting a business.

If you're trying to start a product business, this is what you ask:

• "What are you spending the most money on?"
• "What are you overpaying for?"
• "What can't you get?"

If it's a service based business, you ask:

• "What are you wasting the most time on?"
• "What services are you spending the most money on?"
• "What services do you want but can't buy?"

You don't really need any other questions. Just those basic ones to identify where the money and pain is. Figure out a way to meet with the prospects. Ask those questions. Then fill the need.

Thank you for this advice!

I will be using these questions to approach different businesses. I just don't know how.
Should I use Email for media, where to get this kind of information? I personally don't like the idea emailing multi-million or billion dollar businesses per email. Whom to ask? This is the biggest one, how reach out to the right person who is willing to give you 20min of their time and take you seriously?
How do I represent myself, do I have a business or am I a private person?

Maybe it is not your field of expertise, but I am just trying to get the advice from the more experienced person.
Appreciate if you can give me some more insight.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Thank you for this advice!

I will be using these questions to approach different businesses. I just don't know how.
Should I use Email for media, where to get this kind of information? I personally don't like the idea emailing multi-million or billion dollar businesses per email. Whom to ask? This is the biggest one, how to reach to the right person who is willing to give you 20min of their time and take you seriously?
How do I represent myself, do I have a business or am I a private person?

Maybe it is not your field of expertise, but I am just trying to get the advice from the more experienced person.
Appreciate if you can give me some more insight.

If you're going the email route:

1. Create a list of leads (Research that online and create your own method for aggregating leads. I personally have a programmer I use to create scraping tools, and then use a team of 4 assistants to to clean the list; after that, my guys call each business and get the decision maker's email if we're running an email follow up).
2. Create good email copy.
3. Sign up for quickmail.io
4. Email those leads.

Make sure you're hitting the decision maker.

And don't care if you're emailing the CEO of a Fortune 500.

At one point I tested an idea emailing the top 1,000 charity CEO's in the nation. A good number told me to F*ck off, but 8 of them scheduled meetings. You get one of those guys and your life's changing forever. And if you don't? F*ck it. You're back to where you started.

 

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[vshetty.vs]

Thank you for this advice!

I will be using these questions to approach different businesses. I just don't know how.
Should I use Email for media, where to get this kind of information? I personally don't like the idea emailing multi-million or billion dollar businesses per email. Whom to ask? This is the biggest one, how reach out to the right person who is willing to give you 20min of their time and take you seriously?
How do I represent myself, do I have a business or am I a private person?

Maybe it is not your field of expertise, but I am just trying to get the advice from the more experienced person.
Appreciate if you can give me some more insight.

I've had a lot of success with sending extremely specific cold emails to prospects. A typical email would have
1. An inside joke or two, to keep things light.
2. Some advice on how I can help them
3. A simple yes/ no CTA

I usually get a reply rate of around 60-80%. Being a freelancer, I can only work with a limited number of clients at a time. So I tend to be very selective with the guys I contact. This may factor into why my emails get such a high reply rate.

 

[Hijena1]

If you're going the email route:

1. Create a list of leads (Research that online and create your own method for aggregating leads. I personally have a programmer I use to create scraping tools, and then use a team of 4 assistants to to clean the list; after that, my guys call each business and get the decision maker's email if we're running an email follow up).
2. Create good email copy.
3. Sign up for quickmail.io
4. Email those leads.

Make sure you're hitting the decision maker.

And don't care if you're emailing the CEO of a Fortune 500.

At one point I tested an idea emailing the top 1,000 charity CEO's in the nation. A good number told me to f*ck off, but 8 of them scheduled meetings. You get one of those guys and your life's changing forever. And if you don't? f*ck it. You're back to where you started.

Love your attitude. Thank you for your response.
1.) The method I will be using: Buying leads/data from a website. It is pretty good because you can specifically target your leads and pick up the niche that you want. Do you have any experience buying the data?
2.)This is the most complicating part for me, I am bad as sh*tt. Outsourcing.
3.)Some valuabe info here!

I've had a lot of success with sending extremely specific cold emails to prospects. A typical email would have
1. An inside joke or two, to keep things light.
2. Some advice on how I can help them
3. A simple yes/ no CTA

I usually get a reply rate of around 60-80%. Being a freelancer, I can only work with a limited number of clients at a time. So I tend to be very selective with the guys I contact. This may factor into why my emails get such a high reply rate.

If you can post/PM an example of email it would greatly help. For me personally it is much better to deal with solid example.

 

[Andy Black]

Love your attitude. Thank you for your response.
1.) The method I will be using: Buying leads/data from a website. It is pretty good because you can specifically target your leads and pick up the niche that you want. Do you have any experience buying the data?
2.)This is the most complicating part for me, I am bad as sh*tt. Outsourcing.
3.)Some valuabe info here!



If you can post/PM an example of email it would greatly help. For me personally it is much better to deal with solid example.

Check the quickmail.io podcast.

 

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[vshetty.vs]

Check the quickmail.io podcast.

This. Those guys are super-underrated. I have re-watched old episodes multiple times. Always nuggets to be found.

If you can post/PM an example of email it would greatly help. For me personally it is much better to deal with solid example.

Posting the examples here should help others as well. But if you still have any questions that you don't want to discuss publicly feel free to PM and I'll try my best to solve them.

Before you read any further
I lied earlier. I don't always follow the structure shared in the last post. the ONLY thing I keep in mind is "How can I keep their attention?"

Most top clients probably get 20-30 sales pitches a day.

How will you stand out?

Why should they reply to you over the others?

I have been really successful by creating e-mails that solve their specific problem. In the long run, your writing skills don't matter as much.

If you were dying of thirst and somebody offered water, would you really care about the packaging it came in?

The same logic applies when you pitch to a business owner. Some of my e-mails below are pretty trash but you don't have to be a good writer to help


Example 1:
Hello <Name removed>,

Did you need a copywriter?

I help brands with personalities create marketing messages that are true to their voice, passion, and vision but still "get the job done".

Any monkey with $5 template, can crank out a pushy sales letter or email.

Anybody can create marketing messaging the blends in.

I want to help you create powerful connections that last.

Not many people feel the same way, so I wanted to ask, if you are happy with the typical direct response copy or if you were looking for something a bit more authentic?

Analysis:
This email got me one of my biggest clients.

One of his posts showed him ranting about 'how he was sick of direct response copy". This was something I vibed with and contacted him

He was also rebuilding his site but I wanted him to form the connection himself.

Sadly, I didn't get to work on his site as he had already hired someone but he did hire me to create an e-mail campaign for his new e-book.

Example 2:
Hey <Name Removed>,

I noticed that you were rebuilding your site and was gonna offer my copy services but godamn!! you have some super fine writing skills.

I love how you let your personality shine through. Not many <XYZ> do that. Did you write it yourself?

Regards,
Vedant


Analysis:
We got to talking and realized that I could help her with some additional copy work. 4 emails later I got a new client.

Just goes to show that you don't really need to be good at writing to make a sale. I found her website really cool and dropped her an e-mail. I wasn't even expecting to sell.

Honestly, she was better suited to write the copy herself but was probably too busy.



Example 3:
Hello, Mr. <Name Removed>,
I would love to work for you and help you with any tasks you might have.

This could range from replying to your emails to researching content for your next sales page. Think of me like the Alfred to your Bruce Wayne.


<A LITTLE INFO ABOUT ME>
What I'm trying to say is that although I am not a master copywriter, I am not a total noob either. You can dump all you boring tasks to me. So if there's anything you would need. I can help.


Regards,
Vedant
P.S: If you want to see some more samples of my work, I'd be glad to show you
P.P.S: My goal is to secretly steal all your copy skills and become a better marketer

Analysis:
This e-mail really made me believe in the power of cold-emails. I had been on upwork for 3 years and was failing terribly. I wasn't sure if it was the market or my skills and knew I had to do something different.

So I found one of the best copywriters in the industry. Studied him like a serial killer and dropped him a message on facebook asking if I could help.

He asked me to pitch him on his email id which is when I dropped him the above message.

He later told me that gets pitched all the time - some guys ever offer to work for free. But no one had put in the effort I had. And when he saw my email he was really blown away.

Personalliy I think I was just lucky that he replied and would probably be in a dead end job if it weren't for him.

If you want I could go more into the exact process. But honestly, the mindset is 90% of it.

 

[amp0193]

• "What can't you get?"

So simple, but this is really what my business was founded on.

My niche exists in country A, but doesn't exist in U.S. (because customers can't get it).

And now I'm scooping up accessory products for main product, because same thing: People who do have the main product, can't get the accessory in the U.S. I literally just watched the niche facebook group for a while and saw people trying to order these from overseas one at a time. So I just ordered 2 pallets, sold half of the units, then got an exclusive U.S. distribution for the products. Now I'm the go-to guy in the U.S.

Not rocket science. Just give people what they can't get.

 

[Hijena1]

Thank you, everyone!

Andy always with hidden nuggets.
Here's the link for others, very useful:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJA1kziF1s

 

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[eliquid]

Came across this thread: What are you struggling with?! (not worth the click), and got thinking.

The general advice online for idea extraction is crap. Basically, here's the easy way to do it when you're starting a business.

If you're trying to start a product business, this is what you ask:

• "What are you spending the most money on?"
• "What are you overpaying for?"
• "What can't you get?"

If it's a service based business, you ask:

• "What are you wasting the most time on?"
• "What services are you spending the most money on?"
• "What services do you want but can't buy?"

You don't really need any other questions. Just those basic ones to identify where the money and pain is. Figure out a way to meet with the prospects. Ask those questions. Then fill the need.

I lot of this is the same thinking on what I based my "be a domain authority on" that I talk about in several threads and my presentation at the summit years ago.

I was so tried of people having threads or guru's saying to talk to hundreds of people and survey them, blah crap.

No.

Build what you need. Build what you know. Scratch your own itch.

That's what being a domain authority is. Just knowing more than the next lay person.

That's what you build to, and expand from that.

.