Reverse Promotions – Using a Higher Price to Increase the Value of Your Products

Hello there, Jordan here 👋

“Of course, you’re giving me $75 after all!”

What an odd thing, I thought – I wasn’t giving him anything.

But perception is a powerful thing.

*CRACK… BZZZTT*

As the strange machine stops buzzing, you look at your watch.

9th of April 2023?!

We went back in time!

“Why don’t you JUST tell the story like a normal per—”

Wait! That’s the wrong one.

*BZZZTT*

Now, we’re talking! This is exactly 8 hours after I started the giveaway of my Newsletter Framework 2.0.

So, I messed up my giveaway earlier today.

While you’re doing a giveaway, you make people jump through a lead capture page or Gumroad, so you can stealpolitely get their email addresses.

But… I forgot to do that.

Luckily, I know myself and I’m using a link shortener. This allows me to change my links after I sent them. Good thinking past Jordan!

(or future Jordan using the time machine for mild amusement… again)

So, I changed my link to the correct link. Easy!

Again, I messed up. I didn’t test closely enough how Gumroad’s promotional codes work. You can’t actually input a promo code while buying something – they need to be preapplied. I didn’t know that.

(in hindsight, that’s just stupid UX, Gumroad, but I should’ve checked)

So, I made:

1. A promise to get my Newsletter Framework for $0 instead of $75.

2. A link to a sales page for $75.

3. A useless promocode that doesn’t do anything.

What a great job, Jordan. You’re amazing! 👏

The whole thing screamed:

Lame sales tactic

That was, of course, was horrifying.

You see, I put the price to $75 bucks for 2 reasons:

1. That’s closer to the actual price of a framework like this (which would be $500 for any sane person).

2. The $0 price of version 1.0 was not perceived as valuable.

So, I put a price on it. A price that I will continually rise from now on.

I’ll still give it away for free after every update, but having that does 2 things:

1. It creates real scarcity for the $0 offer – if you don’t follow me on Twitter you will, 100% miss out on that.

2. It makes the framework feel more valuable. This gets people to invest more time in learning how to use it. Which gives them more value. Figures.

But that was not a lame sales tactic. It was a well-calculated psychological move… which I accidentally made look like a lame sales tactic.

To my surprise:

No one thought it was a lame sales tactic.

People perceived so much value, that after giving the correct link, I got answers like:

“Of course, you’re giving me $75 after all!”

The price increased the perceived value so much, that everyone was happy waiting a bit longer. It was worth the wait.

Perception is a powerful thing.

Keep that in mind the next time you have to price your time and energy. Even if you end up giving it away (‘coz you’re a cool person).

Your biggest fan,
Jordan

PS: I won’t tell you how amazing my Newsletter Framework is or how fast you can build a newsletter with it. And I certainly won’t tell you to refer people to the newsletter or follow me on Twitter to get it for free if you don’t have the cash to spare. I won’t do that.

💡 Idea of the Week

⚙️ Tools, Apps, 'n' Gadgets

Here are today's picks:

• Coolors — Every good design starts with a color scheme. I love using Coolors because it’s fun (you just press the spacebar until you’re happy). Free too.

• Makerpad — Makerpad is a collection of nocode ideas. If you’re learning (or want to learn) nocode, it’s a great place to start for free.

• AutoGPT — This is super-technical but well worth it. AutoGPT is the answer to what would happen if we let ChatGPT use ChatGPT. It’s hilarious, a little scary, and super powerful.

🔦 Creator Spotlight

Sean is carrying the productivity torch for me. While I’ve been focused on finding new ways to educate about old topics, he’s been pushing the envelope on what can be done to master your productivity. He even wrote a book about it!

📰 Last Week with Jordan

I’ve been quite busy last week and in those times I’m glad I built my Twitter Emergency Kit. It’s a collection of 1-click Tweets I can use when I’m short on time.

Pick it up here – it costs $0:

(until I slap a price on to ironically get more people to use it)

That was it for today. Have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday!

— Jordan

PS: Help me out by sharing this with a friend who'll find it useful 🫶