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Case Study: Dominating The Health Market With… Cookbooks?

Attention health and fitness marketers:

What if you had a simple go-to strategy to generate quality traffic and then monetize that traffic over and over and over again?

Because that’s EXACTLY what I want to share with you today–from one of the most popular health websites on the Internet.

As I write this, according to SimilarWeb, they’re generating a few hundred thousand visits each month.


They get untold amounts of  traffic each day.

That said, being “king of the hill” traffic-wise
DOESN’T necessarily equal big money.

After all, you have to know WHAT TO DO with all that traffic.

So how does this popular health site generate its revenue? And what are their “under-the-hood strategies” you can apply to your own online health and fitness business?

In this special Conversion Gods report, you’ll discover:

  • The high volume super strategy that helps this health-site-that-cannot-be-named sell hundreds of mini-reports each day…
  • The subtle copywriting techniques that cause customers to snatch up simple PDFs like they are going out of style…
  • PLUS: the covert marketing plan that has enabled Paleo Hacks to amass a gargantuan list of buyers–at a time when many health businesses are struggling to entice new customers

You’ll get it all right here on this page.

How do I know
their secrets?

It’s not because I’ve studied them. Although I DO study what they do.

It’s because I’ve lived it. My team and I are the copywriters behind this popular health site’s mega-launches. (Can you tell we can’t mention them by name?)

We understand the weight loss, diet, alternative health, and supplement markets intimately.

“So why are you sharing your
secrets, Matt?” you may ask

Fair question.

Well, I can tell you it’s not to publicly gloat and beat our chests like other copywriters do. Our work (when you realize we wrote it) speaks for itself.

Nor do we need to prove how smart or sophisticated we are, how many marketing books we’ve read, or how many copywriting courses we’ve taken.

Again, when you’ve got the goods? None of that stuff matters.

What does matter however, is sincerely and without remuneration, helping your fellow marketer, your fellow copywriter.

Giving back, in other words.

And that’s exactly what I’m doing here.

Giving back. Paying it forward.

So enjoy. What you’re about to read are THE REAL SECRETS behind their strategy for monetizing traffic.

Once the lightbulb goes on, it should change your marketing/copywriting life.

The Lean, Mean
Marketing Machine…

Underneath a simple, stylish blog design, high quality content and thousands of eyeballs hitting the site each day is a lean, muscular marketing machine.

The strategy is simple:

Every single day, this ultra-popular health site
emails its readers and
makes them an offer.

Now, most people are too scared to sell something EVERY SINGLE DAY.

They fear they’ll annoy their list… they worry about being too pushy or salesy… they sweat bullets a subscriber may — gasp! — unsubscribe.

As a matter of fact, if you can offer great products that complement their interests? If you can deliver premium offers that people LOVE? The entire marketing process becomes a joy–TO THEM. And your product is seen as a blessing rather than a money grab.

This high-traffic health blog understands this. And they also know a day not selling is a day leaving untold amounts of money on the table.

Plus, there’s ONE THING they do better than most:

They Know Their Market

I know, I know. Your eyes just rolled, didn’t they?

How many times have we, as marketers, been told we must know our market?

However, just knowing your site’s demographics or how many visitors are looking at your sales pages or reading your emails just isn’t enough.

Believe me, it’s not enough to get the monetization job done.

To really get the highest conversions… to transform browsers into buyers… we must understand what makes them tick… what challenges they face… what keeps them wide awake at night.

Let’s take a look at one of our most successful campaigns to see how we zeroed in and nailed the target market.

What does this health site mainly sell? Cookbooks.

Regular old cookbooks.

Incredible, isn’t it? Despite the internet containing thousands of FREE diet recipes, people are all too happy to hand over money for a collection. Why? One word…

Convenience

Rather than wade through recipe after recipe online, you can get them all together in one shiny, new PDF.

Of course, this is where the sales copy needs to work its magic.

How to make people pay
for FREE stuff…

Ok, now for the good stuff. The intel you’ve been waiting for.

There are 3 major components to the cookbook sales page puzzle:

1) The Story

2) Romance (yes, really!)

3) Killer emails

Let’s get started…

Component #1:
Stories Sell Cookbooks

While it may seem counter-intuitive for a cookbook, you ABSOLUTELY need some kind, any kind of a compelling story to suck people in emotionally. Yes–even when selling a mere cookbook!

It’s simply not enough to list recipes and expect people to buy–no matter how delicious sounding the meals.

First, figure out the thoughts, emotions, the conversation they are having in their own heads… and then meet them there.

What I like to do is hone in on a particular pain point for my prospects and build a story around that.

I’m always thinking…

What is our prospect going through right now?
Why would they even consider buying a cookbook?

  • For instance, with a launch called ‘Paleo Snacks’ (that at last count, sold upwards of 25,000 copies) we focused on the common complaint of walking into a store and having little to choose from except overpriced protein bars.

  • Paleo Breakfast Recipes addresses the morning MISERY of eating the same damn breakfast each day…
  • And for the 100,000+ Paleo Eats cookbooks that were sold, I was fortunate enough to create copy around a Cordon Bleu-trained chef.

The big takeaway here?

Pick a pain point based upon your knowledge of your market and exploit and expand on it with a story.

Trust me, when you pick the right pain point, the story pretty much writes itself.

Now I know copywriters are fond of talking about stories. But not the way *I* do stories.

The difference is night and day.

These stories are designed to speak to an individual prospect’s PRIMAL urges and desires. The things they sense deep within themselves.

Cookbooks are PERFECT for this. Because everyone understands the need for food at a primal, psychological level.

You can’t help it. The moment you see an image of a tasty meal you’d like to have, a deep psychological trigger is flipped. Even your mouth starts watering.

For instance, take a gander at this story that opened the Bone Broth Cookbook:

It’s been a long, rewarding day…

Your ancient ancestral tribe of hunter-gatherers have just finished a long overdue, fruitful hunt.

Everyone in the tribe is hungry and excited. As you look on, they’re harvesting every part of the dead animal.

Mouth-watering muscle and organ meats are taken first. Even things that can’t be eaten are scavenged to make clothing, weapons and tools later on.

Everything is precious. Nothing is wasted.

But what about the parts of the animal too tough to chew? What about those that don’t work so well for shelter, weapons or clothing?

What about the bones, hooves, knuckles and so on?

What do they do with those?

Short answer? They burn them.

That’s right.

Early ancestors would insert fired rocks into the empty carcasses of hunted animals. They discovered the heat would break down tough animal bones, creating a strangely-satisfying elixir.

Initially, they’d sip the simmering brew from hollowed-out tortoise shells.

It gave them strength, it gave them stamina, it kept them strong and vital and healthy–even in the most challenging of environments…

Notice we’re not intellectualizing here. We’re not taking them on some long winded, Luke Skywalker hero’s journey either.

No. We’re getting to the point. We’re tapping into primal archetypes and desires they can’t deny. In this case, being hungry and in want of a meal that nutritiously satisfies. Using stories EVERYONE in the market appreciates as the communication device.

Did I plan on this going in? The answer is ABSOLUTELY.

And you should as well.

With every cookbook, there is always a hook… a story that’s so compelling, it DEMANDS your attention.

Next…

Component #2:
Romancing the recipes

Merely having great recipe names inside the cookbook is not enough for massive success. (Although it helps A LOT.)

You want the reader salivating at the thought of your cookbook’s recipes.

That’s why we spend the time fine tuning the descriptions of the recipes…

… the delectable taste, the vivid color, the rejuvenating health benefits…  

… teasing the reader as if we have a hot meal waiting for them on the other side of the buy button.

Let me give you an off-the-wall example. It does the job better than I ever could.

It’s a pretty funny (if you’re a copywriter) comedy skit from Conan, called:

The Tea Copywriter Cage Match

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyga_sa1WLE[/embedyt]

With cookbooks, select a few of THE BEST, most delicious looking and sounding recipes and then romance the heck out of them.

Whatever you do, don’t hold back.

That said, you could do everything right on-page, but there’s one thing you need to ensure your success.

Before they even get to the sales page, you need
to put them into the right frame of mind…

I call it warming them up.

And there’s no better way to do that than with:

Component #3:
The Killer Emails

Now, Paleo Hacks is typical of a health info-business in this space by leveraging affiliates to suck in untold amounts of traffic.

Nothing new here. EXCEPT…

Cleverly, they give affiliates the lion’s share of the sale knowing this will make them promote HARD.

That way, this superior health blog gets a ton of new customers with very little effort.

And what really gets affiliates pumped, along with a high-converting sales page, are CREATIVES (such as email swipes) that resonate with their lists, priming the pump for the sale.

With the Paleo Breakfast campaign, we did just that with an email subject line that landed like a nuclear bomb. it said simply:

Subject: “Bacon and eggs, AGAIN?”

Amazing as it may seem, the sale is made right there in that headline.

Why?

The problem of being restricted at breakfast time is so great and so common for Paleo lifestylers that this single line immediately resonated.

They thought: “You know how I feel!”

And we really do.

And from that point on, it’s really a case of making sure you don’t screw up the sale.

Here’s the rest of the email:

I can remember when I first committed to Paleo.

My energy was bursting. Fat was flying off. My health was returning with a vengeance.

For breakfast?  Sizzling strips of bacon and eggs–sunny side up.

Who knew bacon and eggs would be the catalyst of my Paleo transformation?

Every day, I’d wake up, and look forward to the sound, the smell, the taste.

Until one day… I didn’t.

I had to admit to myself, I was sick of them. Not just bored or fed up of the taste, but truly SICK of them.

Now I was in a quandary. What to eat. What to do?

Going back to previously unhealthy options was out of the question. It’d been months since I had an English muffin, a donut or bowl of cereal.

And skipping breakfast altogether was simply not an option.

Scouring the Internet for a tasty and satisfying Paleo breakfast ideas proved frustrating and time consuming.

And then suddenly I discovered these recipes from Paleohacks…

Paleohacks Paleo Breakfast Recipes

Hmmmmmm, delicious. Recipe after recipe, everything I tried, tasted sooo good.

Now I finally had what I craved… Variety.

The best part?

These Paleo-friendly breakfast meals can all be made within 10 short minutes! Just as fast as whipping up bacon and eggs.

In the process, my health exploded.

Whoever said it is right. Breakfast *IS* the most important meal in a Paleo day. And double that, especially when you’re following these kick-butt recipes.

=> Paleohacks Paleo Breakfast Recipes

Let’s wrap this up…

I have to tell you, it’s kinda weird being one of the top cookbook copywriters on the face of planet.

First time I wrote for a cookbook, I admit I had my doubts.

Then after 500,000+ cookbooks sold,
I’m thinking it can’t be this simple, can it?

That’s why I decided to write this blog. I mean, who knew so much much money could be made with things that are readily available for free via Google?

But that’s exactly my mindset going in, writing a cookbook promo.

Look at it this way: I’m competing against FREE STUFF.

I simply have to do a better job. Each and every word has to count.

And that’s probably my biggest tip I can give you…

Put some muscle
into your copy

Work on it U.I.S.–Until It Sings.

Combined with the marketing strategies I’ve shared with you, I have no doubt of your ultimate success.

Good luck.

Matt and the Conversion Gods team.

P.S. If you have a project or you’d like me to review some copy of yours, feel free to reach out.

Paleohacks, as well as other long term client/partners keep us pretty busy, but we’ll make the time for you: matt@conversiongods.com

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