Thinking Outside The Box: Software Edition
If you’re into building online businesses, then it’s likely that you spend money on software, plugins, courses and the like.
These things can eat into your budget if you let them, but ultimately they’re investments – and hopefully they provide you a positive return.
Of course, you’ll want to maximise that positive return, and a great way to do that is to find more than one use for every piece of software you buy.
However, most people don’t do that. I didn’t make a process of finding new ways to use software until recently. It’s a shame, because for everything you buy, you can make a lot more money back on the investment if you follow the process I’m going to give you.
I’m not talking about writing affiliate reviews for the stuff you buy here, nor am I talking about reselling the software, hiring it out for days or starting businesses using the software. That said, those can be good ideas. That’s not what we’re here for though!
One Investment, Multiple Uses
Let’s say you spend $17 on a plugin like my friend’s Routine Writing.
If you read my review, then you’ll know that I immediately started thinking of other uses for the software on top of what it’s designed for; keeping track of how much you write for your blog.
It’s a simple plugin, but it has numerous secondary benefits:
- Analytics for personal development reasons
- Effective Pay-out Per Word (If you combine it with your earnings)
- Competitive uses if you get together with some friends
- Habit building (if you’re not a regular blogger)
… And so on.
If you think in investment terms, if you have a handful of uses for a $17 plugin, then you’ve effectively made each feature cost $2. Whilst internet salesmen often say things like, “When you can achieve your dreams and make six-figures on a beach, $197 for this course is nothing!”
But really… $2 is nothing.
Some of the things I’ve listed above are worth $17 on their own. If you’re new to blogging, would you spend $2 – or $17 for that matter – to build the habit of blogging? Of course you would, because $2 is nothing.
In any case, by thinking of multiple uses for a piece of software, you take the burden of payment down from a risk into a discretionary purchase simply by thinking of more ways to utilise it.
To illustrate this more efficiently, I’m going to talk about a more complicated plugin; Thrive Ultimatum.
Scarcity, Online Sales And My Friend’s [Expletive] Principle
I have a friend who runs an online course – but only some of the time. Essentially, it’s a labour of love for him. He loves the subject matter but he hates running an online course. He’s an outdoor person, so customer support, answering emails and the like is utterly boring to him.
As such, the course costs $99 and for most of the year, it’s completely closed to newcomers. This guy has a simple sales funnel – a free seven day course – and then you have to wait. Sometimes he’ll open this course up every month, other times you’ll have to wait nine months until he opens the course again.
I’ve always thought this was stupid. After all, one of the benefits of online business is that you can sell to anyone, anytime and anywhere.
I was wrong. (P.S. That’s the second time I’ve admitted that this week. Check out this other major mistake I made.)
A few weeks back, my friend opened up his course. He made nineteen thousand dollars in a day. I was impressed by this, and he told me it was due to the “I don’t want your [expletive] money!” principle.
Essentially, he was using what internet marketers call scarcity.
Now, Thrive Themes sell a lot of plugins. They released one a while back called “Thrive Ultimatum.” (I’ll probably do a full review of this at a later date.)
I’ve seen it pop up – and the feature itself is useful. You have a countdown timer, a “Get it while it lasts” set of messages that prompt people to take advantage of your launch.
However, this topic is about finding other uses for software.
In this instance, Thrive Ultimatum can be used (and will be used when I finish my latest online course project,) to artificially and automatically set up the “I Don’t Want Your [Expletive] Money!” system.
Essentially, you set the plugin to run once every month or once every year or whatever. You keep your course offline to new customers except when the plugin is doing its thing, and you’ve created scarcity and given the idea that your product/service is part of an exclusive club.
If you’re like my friend, then you can easily include high pressure sales techniques like saying, “I don’t know if I’m ever going to sell this again” or “This won’t be available again until 2018” with a clear conscience.
Essentially, you take a simple plugin and use it to create a much larger effect. There are lots of other ideas you can try with Ultimatum (or any plugin.)
As A Side Note – If You Get In The Habit Of Doing This, Your Sales Letters Will Be A LOT BETTER
When you write a sales letter, you’re often looking for an angle that nobody else has used. It might be a quiet engine inside a luxury car or a rare ingredient in a restaurant dish.
If you get in the practice of looking for different uses for software, courses, or any other product/service, then you’ll get many times better at finding these unique angles. This will absolutely translate into better sales letters and higher conversions.
Anyone can write, “Yeah… buy these headphones because the sound is great quality.”
Practically nobody is going to say, “These headphones are the best because the extra cushioning means that if you slip them around your neck they act like a travel pillow, allowing you to sleep on a long journey.”
Stupid example? Sure. But unique sales messages work a lot better than generic, “This product is good because it’s great quality, value for money and stylish.”
Final Thoughts
Any product can have multiple uses. I’ve talked about plugins here because I spend a ton of money on online software and I imagine most of my readers do too.
You can apply this principle to anything you buy. One friend of mine managed to fix his car with a spoon once.
Now, it was a pretty stupid idea to hold his car together with a spoon.
If I were the spoon manufacturer though, I’d make that the centre of a sales funnel. “Our £2 spoons are so tough; they can hold a three-ton car together.”
Nobody buys a spoon with the intention of holding a car together with it, but it’s a road-less-travelled marketing-wise and it would work.