I will get to the tripwire ideas, but first I’ll cover:

• What I think a tripwire is (so you know I’m talking about the same thing you’re thinking of)
• Why you might want one
• The 3 things that make a good tripwire (in my experience and opinion)

Why use a Tripwire

1 – Tripwires will make you money

This is very useful if you’re spending money on getting those subscribers, like through Facebook Ads or Pinterest Ads. If you get the balance right you can build your list for free

2 – You’re priming the new subscriber to expect you to sell to them

This does require a bit of a mindset shift if you believe you need to nurture your subscriber, give them plenty of free value, and build know like and trust, before you ask for the sale.

Sure you don’t want to put the subscriber into an arm lock and force them to choose between buying from you or fleeing your email list as quickly as possible because your thank you page was such an awful experience.

But the moment someone signs up for your newsletter or free thing, they are very engaged, and are eager for more. Isn’t this a good time to ask for the sale?

And if you tell them that you have things for them to buy, this will quickly establish the nature of your relationship. Yes, you do have free content for them, and also you run a business, and you have things to sell, and you will be telling them about those offers.

Offering a tripwire is a lot like working in BlockBuster

Stay with me, this is based on 12+ years of experience helping online business owners with their sales funnels – it’s not just a vivid caffeine-induced hallucination.

Tripwires tend to work best if they are not really that related to the free thing that you’ve just given away, otherwise the conversation of the tripwire experience looks like:

You: Hey, do you want this thing, it’s free and it’s gonna help you with this problem, or it’s gonna help you achieve this outcome?

Soon-to-be Subscriber: Yeah, okay, I want that.

You: Great. Thanks for your email address. The free thing is on it’s way to your inbox. Do you want this other thing, at a discounted price. You’ve only got 15 minutes to make up your mind. It’s a super-duper gold upgraded glittery version of the free thing you are offering….

Subsciber: Ermmm but I don’t know if the free thing is any good? Or maybe the free thing will fix the problem or get me to where I want to go? But if I go away and check out the free thing, my 15 minutes will run out? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Do you remember the weekend trip to Blockbuster?

When you rented a film/movie, you don’t want to be offered another film/movie. Because you’ve already chosen the film you want to watch, you now don’t want to have to go to the effort of choosing another film and finding the 2 hours to watch it. You want to enjoy the thing you have already said ‘yes’ to.

But you are totally up for being sold a special offer on soft drinks and popcorn because they go with the film nicely.

That’s the synergy you’re looking for when you offer a tripwire.

Don’t offer another movie.

Offer something that goes beautifully with the movie (except I know you’re free thing wasn’t likely to be a movie and you’re not selling soft drinks and popcorn, but hopefully you’ve got the gist of my point there).

3 characteristics of a strong Tripwire Offer

#1 It’s not too similar to the free thing

You aren’t offering an upgraded thing of the free thing they haven’t even looked at. If that is the kind of offer you want to sell, that’s an ‘Upsell’ and the buyer needs longer to make a decision. This is the kind of thing you can pitch to them in your Lead Magnet follow-up emails.

#2 It’s a limited time opportunity

You totally can pitch an offer on your thank you page that isn’t discounted (more on this inside Thank You Next). But the nature of a tripwire is usually that it’s usually only available to buy for a limited time on the thank you page after signing-up for a free thing. You don’t have to use a countdown clock – it could be as simple as saying the opportunity is only available on that page, and when they close the page, the opportunity is gone.

#3 It’s an easy decision

If you’re asking the to decide with a bit of time pressure present, you need to make that decision as easy as possible. This is not just about price. Asking for commitment to specific dates, or a big input of effort from the buyer will make the decision harder.

Tripwire Ideas

What I can do is give you some examples of tripwires for different businesses, and then one specific instruction to get you started.

Examples:

• If you help small businesses with their marketing – give away a workbook to generate social media ideas, and sell a short course on how to write a blog post.
• If you help people have a better relationship with food – give away 5 sugar-free breakfast recipes, and sell a 5-day programme to curb sugar cravings.
• If you help people manage their mental and physical well-being – give away a meditation to help them go to sleep at night, and sell a journalling workbook to help them worry less.

Idea to get you started:

Start with what you’ve got. Write down a full list of content that you already have, both free and paid. It might be helpful to write each one down on a scrap of paper and then you can start mixing them around to try out different partnerships. You can turn a free thing into a paid thing. Or you might see some quick and easy opportunities to use an existing paid thing as a tripwire for an existing free thing, rather than starting from scratch and creating a brand new free thing, and a brand new paid thing.