Cre values

How to Use This Document?
This document consists of strategies, ideas and suggestions that were originally created by
me and were intended to help Mindvalley (www.Mindvalley.com) boost its products’
bottom line.

Mindvalley is an info publishing company specializes in publishing products in self
improvement market and uses direct response marketing strategies as their core
marketing strategies.

This document is intended to show you the way I think, how I think and what kind of
values I can add to CRE at this young age.

It follows a specific fashion of research and analysis, and has taken me some time to
research its weaknesses.

It might not be only about conversion rate optimization, it consists of a more diverse set of
strategies. (Which again, shows that the way I think and how I think can be of great value
if applied properly to conversion optimization)

Hopefully, CRE can see where my talent is and how I can maximize my talent to help take
CRE to the next level.

Let’s start.

10 Things Mindvalley Isn’t Doing, That Are Hurting
Mindvalley’s Profits, and What to Do about It.

This document is intended to show what kind of values I can add to Mindvalley.

If I were to ask you a question such as “What will you do in order to stay ahead of the game
and still be the market leader”, what will you answer be?

Well, I’m sure there are tons.

Because there are just tons of ways to do it.

Here’s my simple answer. (In general)

Think about what the competitive landscape are, and the strategies that you think will work
very well in the next 5 or 10 years time and do it NOW.

Simple eh?

Just do what you think works in the future and test it now.

Well, before we even get started I would like to say that I do not own any kind of
information about MindValley’s product right now.

I have no access to any analytics information.

(Because if I do, the company is in danger of data intrusion right?)

So the best information I can acquire is through various competitive intelligence tools.

I will be using those to gather some information and make an educational judgment based
on it.

I might be wrong and I might be right when I’m suggesting the strategies that I’m going to
outline to you.

But that doesn’t matter right?

What matters is you can see the way I think, how I think and what my approaches
are.

Let’s be honest.

I can only demonstrate that much.

It is just impossible to show everything in this document.

With that said, my skills weren’t limited to just this document.

So, please question me during the interview.

I will happily answer all your questions and doubts.

Pricing Strategy Most Never Thought About

You heard it before, do price point testing and find the best dollar value per conversion.

That is the winner.

Then use the pricing for the product permanently.

Problem solved.

For some, they do price point testing regularly.

That’s fine, but these are tactics.

Not strategy.

What do I mean by that?

Let’s talk about real estate.

If you ask a Japanese to purchase a property in China, chances are they will think it is cheap.

Because compare to what they have earned and the price of property they are about to
purchase, it is cheap to them eh?

What about the sale of luxury property in Malaysia, how does it work?

Ask any property developer around, they will tell you that the property was sold based on
what the price that the buyer is willing to pay.

(Of course, you face competition from other buyers too)

So what does that mean?

Price is relative.

For women, compare the price of a Hermes bag in Paris and the one in UK.

Chances are, you will find it to be cheaper or more expensive in either places.

Those bags were never sold at the same price.

Again, price is relative.

So the question is:

Who says you can’t sell your product at a different price to:

- Different people with different passion levels.
- Different people at different geographical areas.
- Different people with a different age.
- And etc.

They did that in property market.

They did that in luxury market.

So why can’t you do it?

Effective segmentation is the future.

Segment your audience base on geographical areas, passion levels, different ages, and any
other segments you can think about.

Using Geosurf, I’m able to know that the price of SilvaLifeSystem(SLS) is different for Russian
audience and other audiences. www.SilvaLifeSystem.com

That is awesome.

But it can be even better.

What if you do the entire price point testing all over again for people from different
geographical areas, with different currencies?

What if you charge pound sterling to UK audience and they are willing to pay for it.

What if you charge more to audience in California than those in Ohio and they are willing to
pay for it.

Will that open up whole new windows of opportunities to test the price with the best dollar
value per conversion for people at different geographical areas?

You bet!

They say traffic was not created equal.

So why do you think customers are willing to pay equally?

They don’t.

Some willing to pay more, some lesser.

…For the same product.

So what is actionable?

The idea is to find out the highest value per conversion for people at different areas and
charge accordingly.

(Price that brings in the highest return)

Set a baseline of price that you are not willing to sell it short for, and test it from there
onwards.

I can assure you, you will be ahead of the game.

At this point you might be thinking that you may create angry customers because you charge
differently.

Let’s not forget that most of them are not marketers, they won’t know.

Most importantly, they are willing to pay for it to improve their life.

Other markets did it, why don’t you?

ONE size doesn’t fit it all?

It holds true to price as well.

So how do you do it?

A simple geolocation script can do the job.

Mindvalley is running adwords campaign.

Revise the target destination landing page and segment the location of the audience
accordingly.

Will that easily add more profits?

You bet!

Cost?

Next to nothing.

How expensive is a geolocation script anyways?

;)

Praise

Analysis - No bullshits. Well done. Frankly, I think you did a report much better
than I would expect any trainee would be capable of. Therefore your competency
looks really good.

- Michael Teh, Founder of GMETechnical

What Harm Does Physical Product Does To Your Profits?

Let’s talk about delivery process optimization.

Again, let’s take SLS as our case study.

I’m going to assume that it is going to be an instant download for the entire course.

And for those who purchased both physical course and digital course, physical course will be
sent as a whole to customers.

Same for those who have chosen physical course only as their preference.

Now that’s a great strategy to include physical course.

That lowers the refund rate isn’t it?

Yes, it is.

BUT with a downside.

Let’s take chocolate eating as example.

Most of us consume chocolate bit by bit right?

I’m assured that there are those who consume the whole chocolate bar at one go.

Few bars later, they are now sick of chocolate.

Indigestion happens.

For those who consume it bit by bit, they will purchase even more bars of chocolate.

Why?

Because they are able to consume it.

And they are to CONTINUE to consume it.

Same like buffet eh?

The customer is going to eat hungrily.

Then go from hunger to greed.

From greed to indigestion.

Forty five burps later, your customer is now sick of your ‘buffet’.

This wasn’t the plan, was it?

You wanted the customer to keep coming back.

You wanted them to be able to consume, and then keep consuming.

Most business tends to be like a buffet.

If you dump all your information; all your skills; all your products on your customer at one go,
instead of creating a situation where you staggered the consumption, you actually created
over-consumption.

Chances are, they will not purchase your products any further if they are not able to
consume the product they have already purchase right now.

So does physical products lowers refund rate still?

Yes it does.

So does tying physical product and digital product together and deliver it as a whole
increases the perceived value and thus the dollar per conversion?

Yes it does.

But at the expense of consumption.

The current method of delivering content is broken. Truth is … it was flawed from the very
start.

The responsibility to consume (and understand) the information is put solely on the
customer's shoulders. Now let's be honest … that's hardly ideal.

People get overwhelmed … quickly!

The result … little, if any, consumption … and zero action.

Which in turn means it is going to take some time for your customers to buy another
product from you again.

Your backend product sale is going to suffer.

You could not measure the exact time where you know your customers are going to
purchase from you again.

Not too good.

Smart marketers know two things.

1) They know that customers take time to work things out.

2) They also know that consumption leads to increased consumption.

So what can Mindvalley do about it?

Well it is pretty simple isn’t it?

Break the whole course down into few different modules (You’ve already done it) and send
it to customers modules by modules. (Now we’re talking :p)

If you have bonuses, send it to them AFTER they finish the entire course.

Send more surprise bonuses to them to keep them coming back to you.

Alternatively, you can transform the entire course into email courses that will be sent out to
customers in a pre-defined period of time. (Example: 30 days/6 weeks)

Something like this:

(Look at the image below)

BAM!

Customers are now able to consume your product.

They will be extremely happy that they gain something out of it. (Instead of buying it and
keep it on the shelf or in their hard disks.)

You can now measure the exact time to make product recommendations to them. (Now you
know exactly when they will buy another thing from you again because you dictate the best
time to upsell them again. Actionable metrics!)

AND they will continue to buy from you again.

Isn’t it great?

You bet!

But what about the idea of lowering refund rate dude?

Well if they are able to consume it and gain something out of it, do you think they will
request for a refund?

Highly unlikely.

In fact, if you are using the methods above where you stagger the entire course throughout
6 weeks or 30 days period, that instantly slows down the thought of refunding the product
because they haven’t finish the entire thing isn’t it?

(Not to mention you build deeper relationship with them at the same time too.)

Winning!

Oh ya, while others are busy testing out headlines and content of emails to get higher CTR,
you are actually training your customers to open your emails at the VERY START of your
relationship with them.

(They will want to open your emails in order to get the course and gain more from you)

Talking about strategies ;)

-------- Updates --------

I noticed that Mindvalley is all about creating kickass knowledge consumption experience for
customers to learn.

How do I know?

Every single upsells, and finally the page for library logins appreciate the customers’ sale A
LOT.

Like a ton.

Never saw something like this before. (This is superb.)

But it can be better.

Since customers are able to login to Mindvalley library to continue their education,
Mindvalley should leverage the existing technology to create staggered consumption.

Which means breaking down the course in X amount of days and allow them to access to it
day by day. (They are unable to “skip” any parts; they will have to follow the procedure)

A bit of knowledge a day with actionable advice for X amount of days.

BAM!

Superb learning environment, high consumption rate, measureable results.

Mindvalley SHOULD definitely do it.

-------- /Updates --------

The Curse of Choice

Take a look at SLS’s sales copy, we’ll get to know that there are essentially 3 choices of price
for customers to choose from.

Now that is smart.

Because while everyone else in the market is only offering 1 payment choice, 1 type of price
and 1 type of product, MindValley did the otherwise.

Is choice good?

Definitely!

We all want choices so we can pick what’s best and what suits our needs.

But too many choices are bad.

Too many choices will only cause increased confusion.

And confusion leads to cart abandonment.

So the question is, is Mindvalley offering too many choices for customers to choose
from?

Truth is, I have no idea.

I mean, I have no idea whether is MindValley offering too many choices for customers to
choose from.

(Because I have no access to any analytics data remember?)

But here’s what I suggest and what MindValley can do right now to get the answer.

Narrow down the current choices to just 2 choices.

(Instead of 3)

And measure the conversion rate against the control. (3 choices)

Throw 2 bones in front of a dog and it will start sniffing the 1st one and then the 2nd one.

Back and forth.

Then select the best.

Throw 3 bones in front of the dog and it will confuse the heck out of it.

Because it has 3 choices right now, it will need to think more and think deeper of what’s best
to select.

That in turn means more work for the brain.

Same applies to human.

Your customers dislike more brain work.

They dislike thinking.

So what can you do right now?

Narrow down the choices to only 2 choices.

Shift format based selling (Choices between digital and physical product) to value based
selling. (Create 2 offers, with different values and thus different price)

For example, the “normal course” that was priced at $97.

And another choice where you tie in more values such as more courses, seminar recordings,
memberships, etc and price it higher.

Then measure the conversion rate and see which one brings in higher ROI.

That’s it!

Let’s move on to the next topic.

Whoever holds the key to massive distribution wins the game.

True isn’t it?

If you have access to massive distribution and you are able to convert it, you are almost
there eh?

So I’m gonna make this real quick.

Using Adbeat,Mixrank and WhatRunsWhere, I get to know that SLS is currently being
advertised in Google and Google only.

And it is in a form of text ads and image ads.

There weren’t any retargeting. (I’ve checked it)

There weren’t any traffic from ad networks. (Media buys)  More about it later.

There weren’t traffic from Yahoo and MSN PPC.

So the question is.

What about flash ads?

What about Yahoo and MSN PPC?

What about media buying? (Weird thing is that I noticed MV do have staff that does media
buying. WhatRunsWhere is unable to find any data about it. Might be my ignorance!)

What about video advertising?

What about retargeting?

So these are the stuff that Mindvalley can do right now to widen its distribution channel.

Again, I might be wrong.

Here’s a recommendation, once MindValley does media buying, other PPC networks and
retargeting, try video advertising.

It is on the rise.

Video ad networks are booming.

It is worth the try.

Head over to Brightroll, Yume or even Tremor Video and check it out.

Get there 1st before anyone else.

MindValley have the team to do it.

Enough said.

Hidden Values Via Analytics.

Ah, one of my favorite.

But I can’t provide much value right now because I do not currently have access to your
analytics data.

But here’s what I can do.

I will point out some misconception in the market place about the metrics that are using
when it comes to analytics.

Head to any CPA networks or sites such as Clickbank, the way they measure the success of
an offer is through the use of EPC (Earnings Per Click)

Now I’ve experience talking to affiliate managers and when asking questions such as what is
the most specific EPC for PPC traffic (Or any other specific traffic channels), they will tell you
that they do not have those kind of data.

Which is pretty funny considering they did millions in transaction but unable to build a
system where they segment their data to the most insightful and actionable level.

Now I don’t blame the marketplace.

And I might be wrong.

The point is, if you want to be the best in the marketplace in attracting affiliates that
performs, the best way is to give them the best possible data that is actionable, and can be
refer to.

That cuts down a lot of risk for them eh?

You bet!

So is EPC the best metrics to refer to for affiliates?

Might be, might not.

I personally think that average order size is more actionable.

Average order size is the final and concrete data where you measured what customers
ALREADY bought.

You can then further measure the AOS for different traffic.

EPC is too general.

Some traffic comes from PPC, some from SEO, some from warm lists.

No segmentation or whatsoever.

Check this out: http://bit.ly/uGxRAt

But everyone else in the market includes the big dogs does that aren’t they?

They are, that’s why they are “Everyone else”.

Not you, not Mindvalley.

Mindvalley must be different.

Now again, I might be wrong.

And that dude in the forum post has his own perspectives where he expect affiliates to test
everything themselves because they are paid to do so.

And I respect that.

But you and I knew it.

If you are different and if you help your affiliates more than others did, you are
ahead of the game.

And again, I might be wrong.

Enough said.

How about life time value dude?

Ah, we heard it in the direct response industry.

LTV, LTV, and LTV.

Super important?

Yes!

Actionable?

Don’t think so?

Do you need to get into an industry for 10 years to know the LTV of a customer?

That is a tough thing to do isn’t it?

Because not everyone is in the industry for so long.

(Mindvalley has the advantage because you have been in the industry for a long time)

But the real question is, what metric is more actionable?

In my humble opinion, annual customers value.

Measured based on a predefined set of time. (365 days or 1 year)

Numbers can be carry on to the following year and crank out an insightful data again.
#Winning!

Technologies

In summary, I can bring in a lot of different technologies to the company.

I will share the database with y’all.

But it is far from complete.

And will never be complete.

Because there are just a ton of them out there.

Ftrricker

Now Mindvalley is advertising in Google, you have access to all the demographics and other
form of data.

Consider using a tool called Ftricker.com to find out the competitive landscape of Facebook
PPC.

Now this tool is not for general public. (Because it is against FB’s rules.)

But it is not against your rules to use it isn’t it?

Use the tool, spy on your competitors’ ads and run your own ads.

If there aren’t any, which I predict there won’t be much, you can use the tool to spy on ads
that were run closely to the demographics of your audience and check out the response or
don’t use the tool because of its high cost.

Again, the idea is to demonstrate my ability to be ahead of the game when it comes to
technologies adoption, which is crucial because technologies change the way we
communicate.

And it change the way we do business.

Clicktale

The next tool I think would be VERY useful for Mindvalley is ClickTale.

Now I did a background check for SLS with waybackmachine.org and found out that SLS’s
landing page is most of the time long copy.

Now the question is how do you know long copy works better or short copy works better?

If you slap an A/B testing on it, you might get the answer.

But not thoroughly accurate.

Best way to do it is to measure the effectiveness of long copy 1st THOROUGHLY, then
measure it against the effectiveness of short copy THOROUGHLY.

When I mean thoroughly, it means every single details such as the content, eyetracking,
heatmapping, mouse flowing and etc is being considered.

How do you do that?

ClickTale has a function where most other analytic tools envy.

The scroll reach function.

It instantly let you know which part of the copy isn’t being viewed , what can be improve and
what can be eliminate.

How do I know if Mindvalley isn’t using the tool already?

Did a check on page source and there weren’t any ClickTale codes 

This tool comes in a suite; it consists of other functions such as heatmapping, mouse flowing
and etc.

And it is a low cost but highly effective tool.

Consider using it.

MobiRescue

Next tool we are going to talk about is a mobile SMS tool called MobiRescue.

Now I came across SLS’s cart and I assume it is a custom made cart by Mindvalley.

Which is perfect because you have data such as cart abandonment rate and etc.

What’s best is that you have the ability to modify the cart.

MobiRescue helps you to bring back your customers that abandoned your cart using SMS.

I’ve talked to the guy behind MR.

In order to implement it, you will need to issue a coupon code before customers make a
purchase, collect their cell phone number (More about cell phone numbers later) and install
tracking pixels in your cart.

Then you are almost there 

Imagine having this kind of technology working at your side.

Isn’t it great?

Bringing back your customers to your cart will instantly bring in more profits without much
hassle.

Everything is automated.

And it is cheap.

Why not right? ;)

Personyze

The age of personalization is here.

You and I knew it.

But how do you use it in direct response copy?

Answer: Personyze

This tool performs content personalization based on the visitors’ data.

I did a background check on SLS’s customers profile and found out that most customers are
aged 50 and above with almost 50% of them are male and female evenly.

Imagining personalizing the content and sales copy based on their gender, age and etc.

Will it increase the conversion rate?

You bet!

View my technologies addiction here: http://mm.tt/126414305?t=A9FzUnYkhL

Innovation In Business Process (LP,Sales Process, etc)

This part will be fairly short and straight to the point.

It’s best to refer to the Jing videos I’ve made for Mindvalley.

Now, there are tons of innovative ideas in my mind but I’m going to only reveal one that I
see right now in SLS’s landing page.

Again, you can’t explain innovation right?

The best way is to show it.

Now head over to SLS’s lander and look at the opt in box there.

Traditionally, everyone sees 2 opt in box.

So your prospect will either fill it or exit.

But there are better ways to cut down risk at your prospects’ part aren’t there?

Fortunately there are.

Head over to DobermanDan.com and test out his opt in box.

Simple but effective.

Prospects will see it as a low risk activity to fill in their email address.

The name field opt in box then pop up, prompting them to fill in their names.

At this stage of activity, your prospects will see it as another low risk activity to fill in the
name field.

Micro-tasks for them.

Highly effective for you.

High conversion rate for you ;)

Oh ya, should you collect cell phone numbers too?

Using the methods above, what is stopping you?

Nothing ;)

Cool Nic, how about sales process innovation?

Remember we talked about shifting format based selling to value based selling?

What else can you do to add value for your customers that lead to higher average order size?

Answer: Memberships.

I have no idea if do SLS have any sort of membership programs as upsell or backend or not.

If you do, great!

Tie them with the front end product by offering 30 days trial.

Create a new product to replace the gap left by the membership program in the upsell area.

If you don’t have any membership programs, great!

Now you can create one.

Residual income.

Sweet!

Read on…

Praise

Nicholas Ho is a great friend who is always on the forefront with the latest marketing
strategies. His persistence and perseverance in trying to find the perfect marketing
solution and bringing the promised results created trust in people that he work with.

– Wayne Liew, Founder of WayneLiew.com

Uncover New Opportunities

Of course, there are tons of ways to uncover new opportunities within the marketplace itself.

However, we will not talk about that in this document.

We will talk about uncovering new opportunities in a different or totally new market.

What do I mean by that?

I was exchanging emails with one of my friend who is in self improvement niche and this is
what he told me:

“Personal Development niche is a broad market. Look at Bob Proctor, he taught just about
anything in any areas of life”

Is it true?

I have no idea.

But here’s what I see.

If you can transform one product and figure out a new position for the product and cater it
to a specific market, you are almost there.

Take SLS’s copy as example.

This is what I found:

“Melt away debilitating stress like butter in a microwave, even if no other stress-busting
solutions have ever worked for you.”

SLS can help to decrease stress through meditation.

See what I’m seeing?

Let’s verify this market with Google Keyword Tool (Look at the video)

There is market for it.

In fact, the people in this market are categorized as hyper responsive customers because
they already know that meditation may work for them. (Not looking around for just general
stress decreasing solutions)

Now you can position the entire product, sales copy, and message and cater it to the people
in this market can you?

Of course you can!

Marketing is creative isn’t it?

There are tons of different markets I see with SLS getting into it, example sleep apnea and
insomnia. See what I see?

Great!

Now let’s move to new market.

By pulling out Google global market finder tool, I’m able to recognize French market as a
potential market to enter because there are searches for it. (Refer to the video)

Now you can translate the entire product and cater it to the French market can you?

You can.

But of course, what we are talking about here are mere surface research.

Deeper research is required.

That’s for sure.

Now let’s move on to the final part.

Resources, Connections & Fresh Perspectives

Now I know what you are thinking.

You don’t need more resources.

After all, less is definitely more isn’t it?

You need more MEANINGFUL and USEFUL resources.

Knowledge, technologies, connections and etc.

So to be specific, I’m going to bring in these resources that are going to positively
impact Mindvalley’s profits.

I can’t quantify my knowledge.

I’ve showed you the kind of technologies that I can bring to the team.

I can’t quantify connections.

So let’s talk about the final part of types of values that I’m going to add to the team.

Different ideas and perspectives.

Ideas are abundant.

Applicable and actionable ideas are scar.

One thing that I think Mindvalley can do to SLS is to integrate your current campaigns and
design with seasonal offers.

Now I’m sure you have seasonal promos to your list.

How about PPC traffic?

Do you have the seasonal ads ready to roll on PPC?

How about integrating reward points to those who purchased your products to encourage
more consumption?

So these are some of the ideas that are actionable and can be tested right now.

So what’s next?
Awesome!

You’ve came this far.

I believe you roughly know the way I think, how I think and etc.

Here’s what to do next.

Step 1: Head over to CRESelfImprovement document and start reading it.

Step 2: Open the “normal” resume and start connecting what I said about myself in my
resume to what I said in the CRESelfImprovement document.

Step 3: Enjoy my infographic resume.

Step 4: Go over my CaseStudies document.

Step 5: Go over the CREQuestion document.

Step 6: Give me a direct call or email me. Talk to me. My contacts are in my resume.

Note: Or facebook me. Nicholas Ho

Cre values

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Cre values

Recently uploaded

Cre values