30-Day Leads Challenge: How Melanie and Devin Duncan Generated Over 2,000 Leads in 30 Days (for Less Than a Dollar Per Lead)

Tim: How are your paid traffic campaigns working for you? If you’re like a lot of people, they’re costing you a ton and might not be getting you the results you’d hoped for. The good news though is that there’s a really simple way to get a really inexpensive cost per lead, turn those leads into paying customers and get an audience that’s thrilled that they found you all using Facebook advertising and not going broke. That’s what Melanie and Devin Duncan from MelanieDuncan.com are here to talk about today. One of their campaigns just one generated over 2100 leads in just one month and all of those leads only cost them 91 cents each. Intrigued? I know you are. Before we get into the episode though, I should note that there’s a bonus discussion with Melanie and Devin where we talk about the follow-up sequence they used once people opt in using this exact campaign. You can download that discussion by going to ConversionCast.com/duncan, that’s ConversionCast.com/D-U-N-C-A-N. It might make sense to do that first so you can listen once you’re done with this episode and then really implement. I’m Tim Paige, the conversion educator here at LeadPages and this is Conversion Cast. Hell folks, welcome to ConversionCast.  Thanks for coming on the show Melanie and Devin I really appreciate you being here. Melanie: We are thrilled to be here. Thanks for having us Tim Tim: Wonderful. So we’re going to talk about a really special way to actually use Facebook ads and get better results. Because as I was talking to you before we started on the biggest pieces of feedback I get is that people know they want to be doing Facebook ads because it’s a great way to get targeted traffic but they’re not really sure how to do it in a way that doesn’t break the bank and eventually turns into customers. But you’ve been doing something that has been working really for you. I’ve seen a bunch of other friends doing the same thing. I want to talk about that but first just to set the stage, can you share with us the results that you’ve been able to get with the case study we’re talking about today? Devin: You bet Tim. So the big win here is that we are able to get a lead from a Facebook ad for 91 cents from Totally Cold Traffic. This has been scaled up to over 2100 leads in the past 30 days. So these are actually big numbers Tim: I love it. Devin: — that are actually going to make a difference to the business. Melanie: And cold traffic. Devin: Yeah, totally cold traffic. Tim: Yeah. And I love that because we’re talking about 91 cents per lead. That doesn’t break the bank and that is way below the average cost per lead that a lot of folks are seeing especially driving straight to a landing page and that kind of thing. So this is going to be a really interesting discussion. But before we get into that, I would love to hear you talk about kind of who you are and what you do. Melanie: Yeah. So we have a fascinating background. Devin and I we’re married but we’ve also been running online businesses together for 10 years. We started our first company in college selling customized Greek apparel so clothing for sororities and fraternities online. We’ve scaled it into home décor businesses, and now really we focus mainly we’ve got those all automated on our education businesses where we teach other online business owners how they can grow their businesses online as well. Tim: I love it and one of the reasons why I was so excited to have you both on the show is that everything you talk about now is based on things that not only you do now but you have done in the past on businesses that aren’t, that didn’t have anything to do with teaching other business owners, how to be business owners. Melanie: Yes, we love to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Tim: I love it, okay, perfect and that’s what we’re all about here. That’s why we love the numbers and the data to prove that it works. So that being said, can you tell us a little bit about an overview of this strategy? Devin: Yes. So the strategy believe it or not usually people think when you’re running a Facebook ad, the common practice is to go straight to an opt-in page. We actually wanted to test something different and we have this ad going to a blog post right. Usually blog posts are just a bottomless pit where you know your opt-in rate is going to be super low but we were able to carefully choose a topic, make it timely, have a good hook in the blog post topic and then also accomplish a 40% opt-in rate on that blogpost. Tim: Wow. Devin: That’s higher than a lot of opt-in pages get. Tim: A lot. Devin: And it’s very long form but I’ll let Melanie get into actually what we do on that blog post to get a 40% opt-in rate. Tim: Yeah there are several little pieces of this that have made it work. You’ve given me a chance to see a little bit of it and hear a little bit about it. So you know, we could get into a lot of different things. We could dive specifically into the ad and why it works. We can talk about the blogpost, the content upgrade that you’re using. We could talk about the funnel in the backend because you’ve had success there. But I think it makes sense to first start with the blogpost itself. Can you tell us a little bit about what the blogpost was all about and why this was the one you chose to drive traffic to? Melanie: Yes. So the title of the blog post is Four Ways to Host a Sale or Promotion without Damaging Your Brand. We started running this what? Early November? Devin: Yes. Melanie: Yeah, right in the beginning of November. [0:05:07] Devin: About 30 days ago Melanie: Right before the big rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all of those big holiday sales and promotions. Originally we always start with the end in mine. So we wanted to actually use this blogpost to promote a particular guide topic for our membership site that is all about how to host a successful safe or promotion. So the title and the concept was based upon what we wanted to be selling on the backend of this actual post. So that being said, we knew that the biggest resistance we usually see from people or from our clients is when we try to teach them about sales is they’re worried it’s going to damage their brand. So we knew that was a number one objection we needed to kind of get people past in order for them to want to learn how to host a sale. Tim: Interesting. Okay, so the first thing and there’s a little takeaway there is that it’s important to understand what you want the blogpost in this case to result in. If you’re creating a piece of content what do you want people to do once they’ve read that blogpost and then what should that lead to? Everything kind of has a path that you’re trying to lead them down, is that right? Melanie: Exactly. I would say begin with the end in mind. Tim: Perfect, okay. So you created this blogpost around a problem that you knew your audience had and then within that blogpost you had a content upgrade. Talk a little bit about what that was. Melanie: Yes. So it’s really, really important the strategy to use what I learned from Ramit Sate called a congruent carrot. So using a particular lead magnet or a lead generation offer that is specific to the content in the blogpost. So I’m not just offering you know, some random eBook or some a video series on another topic but this is a specific I think for this particular blogpost we’re offering a successful sale checklist, so a checklist we found. We’ve tested a lot of different modalities from you know, workflows to worksheets. Checklists people seem to really like because it’s just bite sized contents, quick and easy to consume. So we made sure that it was a lead magnet that was related to the topic of the blog which sounds really obvious but a lot of people don’t do that. Tim: Yeah I find a lot of people gets something that’s like well it’s kind of related. You know, like if they’re a health coach and they do a blogpost about super foods maybe they’ve got like a five-day yoga experience or whatever. It’s like well yeah those two things are about health but you know if you’re reading that blogpost about super foods, you don’t have to inherently give a crap about yoga. Melanie: Right. And every single one of our blogposts has its own unique congruent carrot. So there’s tons of different types of lead magnets. Tim: I love it. Okay. So you’ve got the specific content upgrade or the congruent carrot that for that post. Now what are you doing for an ad to drive people to that blogpost? Melanie: So the ad we always focus on you know, something really fun and visual and on brand. We have like a really pretty picture of a woman entrepreneur’s desktop. Because I tend to target mainly women. And we’ve got text on the ad that just says  Four Ways to Host a Sale or Promotion without Damaging Your Brand. So just the title of the blogpost and then the copy just says I’ve laid out my exact step by step checklist for hosting a successful sale in my successful sale checklist which you can download here for free. So it’s very straight forward. It’s just promoting both the lead magnet and the title of the blogpost. Tim: Wow. Okay so this is interesting because I didn’t know that your ad actually promoted the checklist as well. So why did you not just send them in the ad focus on the blogpost. Why did you include the checklist in there? Melanie: People always respond stronger to tools we found not just content but actually tools. So whatever the lead magnet is, sometimes we even make that the central focus of the actual art of the ad or the image. Tim: Wow. Okay, interesting. And one of the reasons that you’ve been able to make this cost per lead is so cheap is partially because of the fact that you have such a high conversion rate on that blogpost. There is the congruency between the Facebook ad and the blogpost and the lead magnet that you’re offering. But also Facebook really likes when you drive people to a blog post is that right? Devin: Yes, absolutely. We’ve seen a big difference in cost per click when we run to a content piece like a blogpost especially if t’s a very long form compared to a webinar registration page or an opt-in page. Tim: Awesome. Okay. So the last thing I want to talk about as it relates to this part of what you were doing is can you just share with us is there any special sauce that you feel like made this all come together so well? Anything that we didn’t bring up but that was really key for you guys to make this work? Devin: Yes, absolutely. So earlier you asked why did you choose to run ads to this particular blogpost and Melanie said we begin with the end in mind. What’s important is after the opt-in, our main goal is not just to get the opt-ins. Our main goal is to actually be able to sell something because we have money going out because we’re spending money on ads. [0:10:06] The win isn’t just adding 2100 leads to our list. On the thank you page after they opt-in we actually put a video sales letter to make then an offer. So we can actually on a daily basis, we can see money going out from Facebook ads and then money coming back in from the offer we make from all those leads we’re getting. So this blogpost is actually creating sales for us and that’s the only time we like to spend money on ads is when it directly links to money being able to come back in. SO we know for every dollar we spend on ads, are we making $5 to $10 back? Tim: So that’s the thank you page is the video sales letter? Devin: Yes. Tim: Got you. Melanie: And people can still go and opt in there on that blogpost to see the VSL because I like to always put my own spin on things. It’s about like a 28-minute VSL. It’s pretty long. Tim: Wow. Melanie: It’s not just your typical, hey you like this so you’ll like that. But actually go in and like I talk about how to use we say your checklist is it’s on its way. Here’s how to really maximize it and I do about 15 minutes of training on what type of emails you should be using , what sort of email follow-up for a sale. I go and I teach and break them down one by one and then at the end I transition into the offer for a membership program business class. Tim: What’s the thought process behind having such an intense video on that thank you page sales letter? Melanie: Just really wanting to provide value. We’re doing some testing right now with the shorter version of it to kind of see you know, if that helps where the sweet spot is in terms of how long because that is a really VSL. But really what I want to do is since this is cold traffic is position myself and show them here’s how much you really don’t know about hosting a sale, here’s what can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing. Here’s what you should do instead. So by the time I actually talk about my offer, I’ve really qualified myself in their eyes that I’m the one to help them. Tim: Awesome. I love that. And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to end the episode here but after we do that, the three of us are going to keep talking a little bit because I think that what’s’ really interesting about this on top of what we’ve already talked about is that you have a really clean simple follow-up sequence that has gotten you amazing results. Can you just share with us what the results have been. Once people have opted in, what percentage of those people have turned into paying customers? Devin: 5.5%. Tim: I love that and people might go well that seems like such a small number but when we’re talking about this is people that have opted in and they found you from Facebook. It’s cold traffic. They’ve gone to your blogpost, they’ve opted in and they ended up buying your product right there either on the thank you page or in the follow-up sequence. So we’re going to talk about that after the episode and if you want to get access to that extra talk you can head over to ConversionCast.com/duncan, that’s ConversionCast.com/duncan. So thank you both so much for coming on ConversionCast. We rarely appreciate you being here. Melanie: Thanks for having us Tim.