How to Generate $1 Million Per Month From a Single Piece of Content
In this article you’ll discover how to bring in $1 million dollars per month in sales from a single piece of content.
And it all begins with the article you see here.
But this isn’t the only article that’s been responsible for outstanding performance. In fact, over the last 20 years my team and I have created literally hundreds of pieces that have generated millions in sales.
In this article I’ve deconstructed our best performers – most notably the piece you see above – and identified 3 steps that every one of them had in common.
A word about “engagement”…
Frankly most people have no idea how to create content that performs. Sure, they’re able to get likes… comments and maybe a few shares. But creating content that triggers an outcome – a key KPI that builds the business – is more difficult.
So let’s begin…
Step #1: Drill Into Your Market
What keeps your market awake at night?
What do they really, really want?
What frustrates them?
What makes them cry?
What are their priorities?
There are many ways to discover this information. Here are 7 ideas:
- Look out for clues
Whenever you or your team speaks to your target audience – whether face to face or on the phone – listen for clues. Ask lots of questions… and then make notes. You’ll be amazed what people reveal about themselves… if you pay attention.
- Monitor customer complaints
What we at www.fubbi.co do is ask customers to reply to our emails with any issues, concerns or questions. We don’t make them jump through a complicated survey process because we want to make it easy to hear their thoughts.
Live chat is another good source of feedback.
- Negative reviews on Amazon
- Research Tools
This is a screenshot of our content portal. When it’s finalised our clients will get access to our proprietary research tool. What you’re seeing here are the responses to the search term “build muscle”. You’ll see, on the left-hand side, associated to that keyword are a bunch of useful – and in some cases surprising – questions people ask.
And as great as this tool is, it’s not the only tool.
Google is becoming more powerful in understanding intention. That’s why you can get good results from simply typing in the keyword into Google and then glancing at “People Also Ask”.
- Amazon and Udemy
That’s because high ratings means the course or book resonates with the audience.
And you can see, quickly we get insights into what the audience wants to know.
This is an instant free hack.
- Buzz Sumo
This is valuable stuff!
You’ll see here, for example, the keyword “coffee”. These are the top 3 most viral pieces in the world when somebody types in “coffee”.
So, if I was to create content for coffee, I AT LEAST would want to know what aspects of coffee people get most engaged about.
- Ad Beat and Ispionage
Ad Beat and Ispionage are great tools because they let you legally spy on your competition. You can discover all sorts of amazing insights, including which ads and landing pages and keywords work best for them!
Putting All This Together
With all this research you’re casting a wide net. What you are looking for is the crossover between all these research sources – just as in this Venn diagram.
This partly explains why the “Deep Sea” article was responsible for tens of millions in sales. When the article was running nobody else was writing about a “a rare undersea discovery that could extend life.”
We were first in market and we tapped into a strongly held dormant desire.
That’s the exact process we ran for this article here:
Result: the client has driven droves of paid traffic to this article, very successfully! In fact, this has been their singularly most successful piece of content for over 6 months.
80% Of An Iceberg Is Beneath The Water
As you may know, 80% of an iceberg is actually beneath – it’s unseen.
Well the same applies with creating content that performs. 80% plus of the success or failure of your content – whether it’s video, email or an article – will be the research.
It’s NOT what’s on the screen!
The research is your iceberg.
Step #2: Specifics
Here’s a rule of thumb when producing high performance content…
If the piece of content can be used for any other situation then it’s too broad. Click To TweetIt’s a high hurdle, and not always possible but it’s what we strive for!
Your content should be so specific that it can’t be used anywhere else. This rule is how you create unique and novel content (we’ll discuss more about novelty in a moment).
Here’s a case study…
We produced a special report for a client who wanted a high performing way to generate new leads from paid media.
So our team went to work… and after initial testing it’s converting 92% of email traffic traffic into a lead.
That’s virtually an unprecedented result.
How did we do that? By understanding what the audience wants to know… and then answering their questions with rock solid specifics.
The report is a GREAT read and it’s filled with charts that bring the content to life.
Specifics are critically important. If you look at the examples I’ve shared so far, ALL of them have specifics.
Step #3: Create Novelty
Novelty Hack #1: Case study framed as story
I personally believe the most powerful way to open up content is by turning a case study into a story.
Here is an example of a Facebook Ad a client is running successfully. This ad sends traffic to an article that our team wrote.
So anybody in business who sees this ad finds it tough to resist the urge to click.
Here is another example we wrote for a client – that’s an attention getting headline if ever there was one!
They’re interior designers and initially wanted us to talk about their projects. And it’s a good – albeit obvious idea. But we dug a little deeper into their story to uncover the hidden nuggets.
And lo and behold, we discovered they have a celebrity list of clientele, including…
Bill Gates… Oprah Winfrey… The White House and Even Vladimir Putin!
As it relates to The White House, our clients worked on the rug that it’s in The Oval Office.
What if you don’t have celebrities as clients?
Work with what you have… and what most businesses have is successful, happy clients. If you’re not collecting your client success stories, well, start now. It’s a big weapon in your arsenal!
You also have your own personal story.
And, depending on your industry, you could even use famous people who have nothing to do with your business.
Another of our clients are management trainers. They run workshops and train leaders of companies on how to be better managers.
Some of their best performing content are articles that lead with these famous business people, such as Jeff Bezos.
One of their better articles our team wrote is this:
Novelty Hack #2: Use Data, Statistics and Trends
Data and statistics are another powerful way to create novelty.
In fact, many a time we’ve created content with statistics and handcrafted our own data tables and charts.
Often, we’ve generated our own statistics based on our own studies.
That’s a BIG way to add novelty – share proprietary data.
In the “Need a little help so you can buy your dream property?” article above, the design team created custom tables that bring the data to life.
And given that it’s the singular best performing content piece for 6 months, it seems to be working 🙂
Here’s another example for yet another client…
This time it’s a manufacturer of louvre windows. Their target market are architects – busy professionals, to say the least.
To get “cut through” we suggested narratives that architects absolutely MUST read because:
- The topic is so darn important
- They can’t ignore it because it would affect their job performance
One of the benefits of louvre windows is they provide safety during bushfires. You’ll see the headline and open here:
To sum up….
First, you must nail the inner dialogue of your audience.
Second, specifics… specifics… specifics.
Third, create novelty.
There are two key ways to do that: a) case study framed as story b) data, statistics and trends.
Good luck!