Got this email last week from Jay Harper of Red Apple Lipstick. How many marketing insights can you glean from his bathtub story? The three best answers win a free copy of Niche Celebrity GOLD which is worth $299:
I just finally finished your celebrity niche book.
I finished it it in my bathtub at 4:30 in the afternoon, thanks to you.
I know you get a thousand emails but how many of them for a naked guy in his bathtub, seriously hoping he doesn’t drop his iPad??.
Oh and juggling a beer.
I wanted to tell you about a silly little success today. Your book talks a lot about osmosis, and I agree. Watching carefully is more powerful than note taking.
Well it’s been a year and some change since I stated red apple right? Because I paid attention to you, I have a list of about 6000 ladies. Most of them love me, but some hate me, but they love to email me and tell me how much they hate me, and I love that.
I moved the list over to infusion soft, I then promptly misprinted 720 glosses that cost me almost nothing to make. Easy way to test a lower price point right?
Well THIS time, I made them preregister to get a good deal on my “screwup” Of my list, 350 or so registered and I tagged them in infusion. I didn’t even show them a photo of the items.
I lined the thing today, everyone’s off of work and its payday, and I cranked out a heavy monthly newsletter shortly followed by a private mail to the 350 that had raised their hand on the glosses.
40% off right? And man, PayPal blew up. I moved almost every gloss in 3 hours… To ONLY 350 ladies!!! We’re not talking Facebook, twitter, nuttin, just a quick mail to 350.
The discount was steep, but the play was simple. My wife and I stood here astounded as a steady 4 grand rolled in, over the span of 3 hours (after expenses) … Thats 1.5 what she made at her J O B, Talk about 955.
Another couple k rolled In through the afternoon.
Is 4k a huge deal? Well it is and it isn’t, isn’t it? It fully demonstrates the power of a community, and it demonstrates the 80/20 rule, and it validates writing with balls. What if my big list was 80000?
But if it weren’t for you… I would be clueless to all of this, and in a lot of areas, I still am.
Loved the book, and while writing this, another 300 – scratch that – 400 – scratch , i keep editing , 475 bucks came in, and I just wanted to say thanks.
From my jacuzzi,
Jay Harper
Sent from my iPad
Then, 3 days later he sent me this:
Final count, $10,895.54
Do you notice how DIFFERENT Jay’s approach to selling lipstick is, compared to… pretty much everybody? Makeup counter at Macy’s, other direct marketers.
What do you learn just from his story?
The 3 best answers get a free copy of my Niche Celebrity GOLD course ($299 value). Post your comments below.
Perry Marshall
P.S. “Results not typical” and all that. Yada yada.
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
148 Comments on “How to make $10,000 per hour with a beer in your bathtub”
At first it is exciting to comment here for the opportunity to compete for the Niche Celebrity course…
…until I realized all of those responding would be giving away their best secrets. That’s worth more than meets the eye right there.
Lessons learned:
1. The lesson of 50/5. 50% of your work, produces 5% of your income. 5% of your work can produce 50% of your income. This story sounds like the latter.
2. All work environments are not equal. Like Perry says, 10,000.00 an hour usually doesn’t happen at the computer.
3. A screw up / misprint makes you human. Most of us like Perry because he is so relatable and human.
4. A on-purpose misprint is classic “reason why” advertising.
5. 350 of 6,000 raised their hands. That isn’t 80/20, it is 5/50. 5% of your list can make you 50% of your revenue?
So what’s all this talk about 50/5 instead of 80/20? When I heard Perry tell the coffee shop story about reading Richard Koch, I clicked over to Amazon and bought all the 80/20 titles. If you read anything this year: by and read everything by Richard Koch. The 80/20 Principle is my favorite. Some people say the 80/20 Individual is better; others will prefer The Star Principle or Living the 80/20 Way.
The lesson:
Learn from your mistakes.
I’m pretty sure that guy will be making that “mistake” again.
I agree!
1: Don’t be afraid to market to the opposite sex
2: Turn Lemons-ie: misprinted glosses-into Lemonade- more money
3: Make sure you use segmentation for specials and one-offs and “tag” them correctly for tracking and future use.
I found more than these three, but they stood out as the most important-to me.
The obvious ones are:
1. Build a list
2. Pay attention to others that are succeeding (like Perry)
3. Take action
The biggest strategy I pulled from it was to always be testing and segmenting. The misprinted product could have easily been shelved and left to collect dust. Instead, he figured out how to make a worthwhile offer and then segmented those buyers so he can better target them in the future with any number of special offers, letting them know they’re part of a special group that gets access to exclusive deals.
Stories sell
Relax… then…
Take action
Build your list
Engage folks
Screw up
Have fun
Segment
Write with balls
Leverage what you have
Work with a great mentor
Shoot for the moon
Relax… then…
Take action… :)
Bill Cosby said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
Jay couldn’t define that quote more, and a big take away for me was when he said, “but some hate me, but they love to email me and tell me how much they hate me, and I love that.”
Out of a list of 6,000 he connected with 350 women on a deep emotional level, enough that they prequalified themselves by raising their hands saying they wanted to buy what he’s got before he even showed it to them.
The further I move in my career, the more I realize it’s more about disqualifying people, just because of the simple fact you can’t please everyone. :)
What I learned
A “forgiveness marketing ad” can be very effective.
As long as you are honest and sincere people will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Found a niche? Drill down and keep drilling on your list.
Making outrageous statements can be a winner. Reminded me of the make a million dollars from your kitchen table in your underwear ad.
From time to time some of the Best Ideas come from the most unusual places. Learn to think outside of the box and furnish your mind with outrageous success stories not in your domain and see if they can be paralleled yours, example Perry’s Swiss Army Knife.
Thx for the story Perry,
Here’s what I got out of it.
1) He stats his story off in a way that grabs your attention…= Good Headline
2) “Watching vs note taking” shows the need to present your message in a way that your market will absorb.
3) Test your market, don’t assume you know.
4) Get a commitment-in Jay’s case it was making them pre-register in order to get a deal that will follow…get them saying “YES” with an action.
5) The money is in the list…but
6) Give your list true value and they will love you…or at least they will love to tell you they hate you (which probably means they can’t help liking you and continue opening your emails)
Always love your stories. Please keep ’em comin
Greg
-The most important lesson: Know Thyself, which stated that way is a little Greeky but comes down to being willing to look hard at your own attitudes and habits, hard enough to see them, hard enough to separate yourself from them enough to change them if they’re not working.
And see some humor in the divine comedy/tragedy.
-That’s where facts tell but stories sell. The bathtub and beer image is a powerful insinuant that gets right past the lizard brain into the fun and frolic realm, short-circuiting the doubt and delay module.
-Conversational tone, one-on-one even though it’s a business case study.
-Being willing to work and follow good advice, in this case Perry Marshall’s book about how cultivating a little sub-tribe of buyers from the big tribe can deliver a big jolt to a paypal account, another strong image.
-Semi-invent a reason to offer a special deal to the same double-opted-in (second list inside the list) group.
-Use higher quality email manager when list is ready.
-Reinforce image: begin with it, end with it. Like the sermon, here’s what I’m gonna say, I say it, Here’s what I just said.
Hi Perry,
This is my take, 5 lessons stayed for me.
1. Jay measures his success by conversion after all, no fancy stats about traffic, click through rates etc. Conversion is what matters, and net conversion (after expenses).
2. He somewhat reached the 80/20 of his 80/20: ~5% of his list was the highest responsive one and bought almost all his glosses, but most importantly, he needed a tool (Infusionsoft) that would allow him to easily record those higher responsive customers and act on them later. Without that he would still treat them like everyone else (the other 95%).
3. Customer intimacy. Their customers care enough about him to constantly provide him feedback, good or bad. This makes his mailing list more valuable than facebook contacts for example.
4. He managed his business to a level where money is not his only source of satisfaction. He can work from home now and his wife managed to leave her job, which I’m sure is rewarding in itself.
5. Well I don’t know the subject of the email Jay sent you, but you opened it. Who wouldn’t click an email from “a naked marketer in his bathtub, seriously hoping he doesn’t drop his iPad”? Well, the lesson is: I haven’t seen his newsletter, but from Jay’s language in this email (let’s say copywritting) I’m sure it doesn’t go unnoticed.
I also assume he has a USP that distinguish him from Macy’s and others however, as you’re already familiar with Jay’s business, he didn’t have to tell you about it in this message.
Jay’s story taught me:
1. Make a list.
2. Stay in touch with your list.
3. Offer relevant products.
4. Offer something of value.
5. Manage your list with good software.
6. Listen to the experts and follow the plan.
I don’t drink or have a Jacuzzi, so instead I’ll do milk and cookies in a hammock. That way, the only risk involved will be me taking a nap and waking up with diamond-shaped prints all over my back (better known as “lounge lines”). A risk, I’m willing to take.
Email is still a very powerful test platform.
You can’t out think your market- test everything no matter how crazy it seems- testing reveals the truth and the truth reveals opportunities.
Even a blind squirrel sitting in hot water, drinking a beer can get a nut- sometimes ;+)
1) A small e-mail list of highly-targeted prospects is far superior to a large list full of un-targeted prospects.
2) Test different price points. Don’t assume that the price you select is the price that your target market will bear.
3) Perhaps your greatest selling point is your personality. Express your personality in your e-mails and adapt / tailor your marketing strategy to your strengths.
4) Segment your e-mail list and develop a hyper-targeted offer to your target audience.
Hi Perry, I am helped by the story as it opened my eyes to the fact that if you have celebrity status, you are positioned as the go to guy even before the sale is made. You are trusted and your advice carries weight. This is ultimate leverage. I recently got your Kindle Book on Adwords, and you totally over delivered in that book. I am also looking forward to get more leverage from using your other products also, ultimately till I have everything from Planet Perry. By the way I am an Aircraft Engineer from India looking to delve deep into the online business world. Thanks.
What I learnt from Jay Harper’s story is this ..
No matter what business you are in, no matter what niche you wish to operate in .. you need to find (to quote the the late Gary Halbert) a “starving crowd”
I.e. You need to find and create a customer base, or list, of people who are desperate for your type of product or service, and market to them like crazy (even from your bath tub).
In this case Jay has a list of women extremely passionate about lipstick.
1.) Separate the wheat from the chaff in your list. Might he have made the same sales if he mailed to the whole list? Maybe, but I think getting them to sign up for the discount first caused higher response. Akin to the “early bird list” associated with many launches.
2.) “Scratch and dent sales” still work like crazy. Except it’s the first time I’ve seen it done on purpose! Pretty sneaky.
3.) Email marketing works just as well with physical products as it does with info products. I’ve never seen anyone with an ecommerce store really focus on building a list and having a conversation with them.
1. You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. (Quote from Rahm Emanuel)
2. Build (if you don’t have one already) a List/Community/Love-Group/ and always be transparent in emails.
3. No matter how you put it nothing can be more rewarding than providing for your family on your own terms. Taking control of your life and earning the freedom to be able to watch money come in while drinking a beer in your bathtub.
Great post : ) my takeaways:
1. Building a List is CRUCIAL
2. The size of the list doesn’t matter that much if its a highly relevant, high quality, responsive audience
3. Success is a formula, if you stick to it and just DO IT, the results will be awesome : )
Cheers!
I learned:
– huge success sometimes dresses up as temporary failure. There is almost always a silver lining.
– if you’re not failing everyday you’re not trying hard enough. Some of those failures might be huge opportunities on time-delay.
– be yourself, show your personality when connecting with people. People like to deal with real people. You won’t please everyone, but those who dislike you might be some of your biggest fans (Maybe I gotta stop unsubscribing haters ;-) )
Certainly one of the biggest lessons is you don’t need a big list to make money. You need a list that is passionate about you/your product.
It is good marketing to segment your list. Get people to raise their hands and show interest. People are more like to follow through once they have raised their hands. It’s one of the principles from Robert Cialdini’s book.
The most important thing in selling is making the right offer to the right audience. Clearly Jay made a great offer to a hungry audience.
One HUGE take away from his story for me…
Jay is a brilliant example of using personality in your marketing. Something Macy’s wouldn’t dare think about and what many direct marketers are afraid to actually do…
“I have a list of about 6000 ladies. Most of them love me, but some hate me, but they love to email me and tell me how much they hate me, and I love that.”
Think about this long and hard…. he now occupies a coveted and golden space inside his customers minds. That is he is associated with the emotions of LOVE and HATE. It doesn’t get more impactful than those emotions. Either “territory” is a WIN for Jay.
When the email program dings…and his customers see a new email from him… what do you think the open and consumption rate is for Jay? I am certain he is 100X any other makeup seller that sends an email to the same list.
Jay had the guts to travel the road less traveled, turn off of “Professional Image Ave” and head for that cliff lined with other direct marketers called “who cares what everyone thinks”. However, unlike others who haven’t jumped off the cliff, he did and is reaping the reward.
His communication drives people to conversation. Whether good or bad…love or hate as he puts it…HE is top of mind and I have not doubt his emails remain in his prospects head long after hitting delete.
I guarantee there is NO ONE still thinking about an email from Macy’s (if they even send them or even have a list) as they pour their coffee in the morning or drive to work. Jay wins because he has his customers laughing out loud as they curl their eyelashes on the way down the freeway.
Jay has effectively achieved “Customer Lock” status. His customers CAN”T LEAVE….even tho they “hate him”.
Nice work Jay. Masterful marketing!
Matt
List segmentation!!!
He was particular about who he sent the follow up email to after the newsletter.
He pre-qualified and tagged those that where interested by making them pre-register for the deal, so when the email arrived with the offer they were expecting it and most likely waiting for it to hit their inbox.
He also took the misprinted glosses and used the opportunity to his full advantage.
Many business owners would have taken the easy way out by throwing them in the bin.
Instead he took fast action – fire, ready, aim…
Ready, fire, aim. Reading it now. Wow!
What do I learn just from his story? 2 things: (1) Watching is sometimes better than note-taking; and (2) that e-mail marketing done right trumps all other methods of advertising!
Perry
I learned that I need to learn a whole lot more about OSMOSIS ;-)
Ive learned that success leaves clues and you have great abilities to teach them to those willing to learn and take action.
NOT action that is drawn between the lines and perfect but allows a real space for people to be human and then fashion
value (That infusionsoft would be a good investment to make marketing efficient)
ooooout of their being presented value
I learned how important it is to have a list of interested prospects or previous buyers. The reason this worked is because he had a list of customers who were already familiar with his product.
Turn adversity into your advantage. He admitted the screwup, discounted the price 40% and made sales like crazy.
Have chutzpa. Initiate some audacity and nerve. Some on his list hate him and he loves it. You can’t please everybody… Who cares!
Great lessons. Thanks!
– Carl Willoughby
Hi Perry,
First of all, even in the way he’s written his email it appears he has found his own voice as a writer.
In my opinion, the lead-in to his email is intriguing and certainly a pattern interrupt given he is writing it naked from his Jacuzzi!!! (conjures up all sorts of images I’m trying to erase from my mind!). Immediately you’re curious as to what his story holds and want to read further.
He’s capturing email addresses (captive audience, creating a community), always a requirement.
I’m also guessing he says what he thinks in his emails because his list either loves him or hates him. This also helps differentiate him from his competitors. Besides, who else is selling lipstick via email! Goes to show you can probably sell almost anything using email.
He deliberately misprinted the lip glosses providing a ‘reason why’ he was able to offer them at the lower price point (brilliant!). He’s testing. He has segmented his list with the 350 who responded (whom are also now pre-qualified).
To reinforce my point about his writing style, he emphasises at the end of the email that his test validates ‘writing with balls’….not the plain old sterile corporate writing you might find in an email from the big end of town.
What a great story!
Hope this enough to get me a copy of Niche Celebrity Gold!
Cheers,
Malcolm.
1. If you screw up: STRATEGICALLY announce it to your list.
2. Bond with your list by rewarding them because of your screw up. It shows you ARE human and appreciate them at the same time.
3. Screw ups are AWESOME! That shows your DOING something, uou can ALWAYS learn from them, and depending on the circumstance, you can PROFIT from them;)
BONUS: Beer in the hot tub is a good way to finish the day;)
I learned from Jay’s email that action is most important. He wouldn’t have made that $10k if he wasn’t taking action, even though it all originated from a “misprint”.
Specializing and building lists out of your list is very beneficial. I instantly started thinking about how to sell to the people that respond to everything that I put out rather than the whole list.
People love to be entertained and Jay’s misprint and including people to get in and take advantage of his mistake gave them something to do for the day. I’m sure that all of these 350 were excited about the special and most likely talked about it with friends. It was something out of the ordinary and rarely do those things work out for us everyday people. It’s fun, kind of like getting a bank error in your favor on the board game Monopoly.
Lastly, I learned that I am very interested in making money from my (future) jacuzzi. I’m gonna go home and sit in my bathtub and segment my list!
I learnt to chase change and don’t get offended by it! I learnt that you guys chase knowledge and share it……..you build bridges with people!
What Jay did is pretty simple to understand, he first created a better system to control and communicate with his list through Infusion Soft.
He then created a JUICY OFFER that was impossible to resist. Unlike a department store he sold his product at a deep discount–a product that the customers were used to paying A LOT more for.
He also offered a LIMITED SUPPLY creating an ingredient that few people ever create within their offer, (arguably the second most important one after the offer…URGENCY! Jay realized he had to let the limited time offer create urgency thus forcing an urgent response from the prospect.
Finally he made the offer at the perfect time when his prospects had money
Wow this was a great lesson. My favorite part of his message
“I have a list of about 6000 ladies. Most of them love me, but some hate me, but they love to email me and tell me how much they hate me, and I love that.”
Tells me not to be boring in your marketing or presentations. I’ve noticed most of the personalities on cable News channels have the same effect on their audience. You either Love them or really hate them. And those who really hate them love to let them know about it.
On flip side to people hating you, if your marketing message is done right then people who really really love you will show up in force to support.
Goes with the saying “If you’re not pissing people off then you’re not doing something right.”
Lesson learned, don’t stand in the middle of the road when it comes to your marketing personality. I guess this is the celebrity effect. The either love you or hate you and those who love you will show up.
Love the headline to this post.
“How I made $10k sipping a Bud while soaking up suds.”
Build a list.
I learned that you can sure learn very much at Planet Perry, but the real things start to happen when you actually start doing them. And have fun doing them.
Thank you Perry
1. BEGINNING – Drop a word that makes people read more 99% of the time (naked, sexy, .. you get the idea)
2. MIDDLE – Make a story interesting, even a bit goofy to identify with your audience.
3. END – Show SPECIFIC amounts you made as the result EASY work activity, despite some minor disasters.
4. OVERALL – Don’t talk about your product at all – if they like you they’ll come , if they don’t like you nothing you say will make a difference.
As a Southerner, this illustrates another reason why people should bathe more than once a week…
That’s once a month for some of us, lol
Jay’s story confirms that honesty when selling shines through but identifying the right audience is equally important for success.
People try too hard – they pressure themselves. The best ideas come from a relaxed mind, where the ideas flow naturally. The trick is to ALLOW. Don’t force creativity because it won’t work – your anxiety will show through in your copy. The subconscious mind is an amazing tool, and when presented with a task it works in the background to provide possible solutions. I’m sure we’ve all “slept” on an issue, only to wake up in the morning with the answer. Allow your mind to work on things in its own time, without pressure. Relax and you’ll be surprised how soon that “out-of-the-box” thinking starts to happen to you!
Great point, as a database / software developer, my thinking comes from going and doing something else.
Reminds me of Steve Jobs and his walks, or Gary Halbert and his boat rides.
The answers come when you aren’t forcing them.
Which when you really need answers is hard to do.
The lesson of the 80/20 rule. When you become a ‘niche-celebrity’ or a ‘player’ you are the ‘go to’ person and qualify for high percentages of profit that’s available in the specific niche.
Ingredients that you need are really well described by Susan Scott.
The story says experiment, don’t get stuck in a rut with the same old ads, get creative, silly. It might not make sense to you but it might make sense to some one else. Try it, tweek it, test it and always check your results.
What I learned from this story:
If you screw up, but you have a list to tell about it (a list that’s interested in what you’re talking about), then your screw up is actually interesting for them.
I’m also reminded of a quote someone told me – you can be interesting TO others, by being interested IN others.
Though we don’t know the full details of how this list was built, I think Jay must have started his list building (a man selling lipstick from his bathtub… of all things), by showing a genuine interest in whatever these women were talking about.
Thank-you for sharing this story Perry. It’s motivating.
Best,
Jonathan Kraft
LOVE this story.
Here are the TRUE lessons I picked up on:
1. Get people to make a micro-commitment, segment those people from the flock, then sell to them directly.
2. Do the OPPOSITE of what everyone else does (or tells you to do). Aka… listen to Perry and ignore the other nut bars. :)
3. Change the game. Skew it in your favor. Don’t compete on price. Sell your experience, story, and personality.
4. Calling yourself out on honest mistakes often make MORE money than intentional gimmicks or ploys.
5. If Jay made $10k selling lipstick just from reading and acting on the info in your book, it’s a damn good book. I’m ready to beat that high score. :)
good take!
There are always a Eureka when you step into a bathtub
Fail Spectacularly, Fail Quickly and Fail Often.
Recognize the Opportunities that you have because of each failure and…
Make every conversation a story that Benefits your readers in specific and distinct ways.
Be human and be transparent in those conversations and you will develop passionate fans that respond when you “Ask For the Money”.
Pay Attention to Perry Marshall and simply follow the plan – The ROI is immeasurable.
I learned that a well-segmented, responsive list can net huge returns for my business.
TIL:
1. I probably need to dump Aweber.
2. When I make a mistake, go with it. See what happens. Could be a black swan.
3. I definitely need to spend more time in the hot tub drinking beer.
Or you could use AWprotools with Aweber.
Here’s what I learned from this story:
– get a Jacuzzi
– drink more beer
– make printing errors
– learn more by osmosis
All metaphoric of course.
What else:
– work with a list
– use the list smartly
– seize monetizing opportunities
Great story, Perry!
Cheers!
Don Coggan
I learnt;
1) that guy is funny
2)that’s probably why he sells lots of stuff, cause he is different and stands out in the clutter
3)he might have been a bit tipsy from too much beer :-) but what he said was very true and funny
I learned that being outrageous and bold can pay well.
Jay’s story tells me:
1. Know your audience
2 . Don’t be afraid to create a little controversy
3 . Relax! Don’t make this harder than it is.
Oh, and last but not least, always listen to Perry!