Twitter - An Open Letter To The Info-Product Industry

An Open Letter On The Future Of The Info-Product Industry By: Nicholas Verge To Whom It May Concern, I did not write this letter for everyone, I wrote it for the few people who can feel a shift coming in the business of selling information. This almost feels like the movie Jerry McGuire where I’m writing a manifesto that I believe can change the entire industry and many people are going to call me crazy, stupid, and just about every other name in the book. But I believe there’s a good majority of people who will recognize the validity and truth in what I’m saying. They’ll be able to have that “You explained what I couldn’t put into words” moment and hopefully they’ll actually implement what I’m saying. Coaches, my goal is that you start to apply this to the way you sell your products, and to all of you freelancers, my goal is that you start to apply this to the way you sell your client’s products. So let’s get past all of the fancy copywriting techniques, I have your attention, or I don’t. Either way, this industry is going to evolve, with or without you. This Letter Was Inspired From A Conversation I Had With Sam Ovens In Scottsdale, Arizona. Almost everyone in this industry will agree that Sam has had a deep impact on this industry. I personally remember the younger 19-year-old version of myself only getting 4-5 hours of sleep at night because when I wasn’t working my two restaurant jobs, I was rigorously consuming the content inside of his program, Consulting Accelerator. I discovered copywriting through his program, spent 4 years focusing on mastering that craft, and after generating $25,000,000 for clients I was sitting across from Sam in a one-on-one setting talking about the industry and specifically where he thinks its going to go. Pretty cool. He was exactly who I thought he was going to be. Kind of reserved, answering some questions with just one word, but after a bit of ice-breaking, we started diving deep on what’s wrong with the industry. After about two hours of conversation, I realized that Sam is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. He’s thinking 5-10 years ahead while everyone else is focused on this month. It’s extremely impressive and I’m going to do my best in this letter to explain the macro overarching concepts we discussed. So here’s the long and short of it all… People Are Craving Real And Intimate Human Connection In All Areas Of Life, And The Info-Product Industry Is Not An Exception. Just take a moment to think about the world we live in right now. Everything from people’s posturing on social media, the conversations on dating apps, the surface-level “how are you doing?” question that people ask in passing without caring about how you’re actually doing, and even the content we’re consuming on a day-to-day basis. It’s all really…fake. But this letter isn’t about society as a whole, it’s about the info-product industry. So you’re probably thinking, how does this apply to the business of selling courses, consulting, masterminds, and various other products and services? Well, basically what Sam and I discussed is that the majority of the industry is using methodologies and tactics which completely lack authenticity. I’ll expand on what that looks like here in a moment, but I think the offer owner or marketer that’s somewhat self-aware already understands what I’m saying, but they don’t see a problem with it because, on their end, all they’re seeing is profits. And why should you change anything you’re doing if it’s clearly working? Great question, and my answer is very simple. What You’re Doing Is Working Right Now, But Give It A Few Years, And Without A Doubt, That’s Going To Change. One of the only things that’s a given constant in this world of ours is change. People change. Trends change. Cities change. Markets change. Everything changes given a long enough timeline. For instance, Facebook used to be the main place where everyone was running ads. Then it spread to Instagram, Youtube, and now even TikTok. See what I mean? But these are just platforms where we distribute our messaging, and what I’m trying to explain to you is that the style of messaging that people will resonate with is inevitably going to change as well. This fakeness that I’m talking about, this lack of depth, this gimmicky marketing bullshit…it doesn’t resonate with people. Think about the average coach’s “newsletter” they send out. It’s not telling a story, it’s not them opening up and being raw and vulnerable, it’s not them sharing the truth behind who they are as an individual. (Note: This applies to all marketing mechanisms, not just email) Most of the time what you see is them (or their copywriter) speaking about theoretical concepts instead of real-world experience. For example, “Here’s What You Should Do To Quit Your Job And Become A Coach”, “How To Count Your Macros So You Can Lose Weight”, Or “The Best Products You Should Sell With Your Amazon FBA Store.” I get it, we’re trying to educate the audience which seems useful…but this is what makes you a commodity because with the sheer amount of funnels people are entering, your audience is bound to end up on your competition’s newsletters as well. And guess what? They’re doing the exact same thing you’re doing, so your audience is just seeing the same type of messaging over and over and over again. This Type Of Marketing Is Entirely Devoid Of The Human Element Which Makes People Actually Relate With You. Let’s be real…is your audience really interested in reading another email where you tell them about all the features of your program and push some fake bullshit scarcity? Or would they be much more interested in reading about the childhood experience you had with your mom and dad constantly arguing about money which created a lot of psychological blocks that were extremely difficult for you to break through? Do they really want to hear about how your product is so much better than your competition when in all honesty, it’s pretty much the same thing but dressed up differently? Or do they want to hear about the time you contemplated suicide because your life was such an absolute mess from you falling so deep into your vices that you couldn’t feel anything and had driven out everyone you cared about in your life? What do you think is more interesting? My friend, people buy from people. In the long run, being relatable is what will make you (or your clients) stick out from the rest of the competition. It’s what’s going to create a crowd of loyal supporters who are excited to buy whatever you put out because they connect with you on a deep intimate level. When you focus on being authentic, The human who’s reading that email, watching that VSL, or reading that ad copy…they actually FEEL something. This is what is missing not only from the info-product industry but from all those areas I touched on earlier like social media, content, entertainment, relationships, and so on. We’re missing that feeling of a deeply intimate connection. If You Don’t Change How You’re Communicating With Your Audience, The Strategies You’re Using Will Stop Working. And guess what? As time goes on, there are only going to be more and more personalities entering the market trying to sell the exact same transformation that you’re selling. Whatever market you’re in will continue to increase in saturation. The business owners who do nothing to try and humanize their marketing… You’ll start to become irrelevant, and your sales will slowly but surely fade away until the well drys up. And my guess is that before that even happens, a solid amount of you will more than likely just become resentful of the business you’ve built and either end up selling it or just turn the key and stop operations altogether. However, the business owners who start thinking long-term and focus on building real relationships with their audience by being authentic… Your business is going to continue to thrive. Your audience is going to be refreshing their inbox every morning to see if they got an email from you. You’ll continue to transform more and more lives, and after all, isn’t that why you started this whole thing in the first place? So the time to implement this change isn’t 3-4 years from now…it’s right now. Get ahead while you still can…open up, be real, be authentic, and be human. I don’t have a call-to-action for you other than to share this with a friend or reach out to me on Twitter if something I said here resonated with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Keep It Real, Nicholas Verge Copywriter, Truth-Seeker, Occasional Genius