Tripwires are one of my favorite things in the blogging or online business world.
It’s how I was able to monetize my site almost from day one and it’s how I was able to focus my attention on growing my foundation and my email list while making money!
In fact, the majority of my income has come from digital product sales alone.
The thing is that every single blog is different. Some niches have wonderful potential for awesome ad revenue. Other niches are naturally fantastic for affiliate sales.
The one thing that ALL blogs have in common is a lead magnet and an email service provider.
So how do tripwires work?
- First, your reader subscribers to your email list in exchange for your freebie (lead magnet)
- Next, they get that freebie via email
- After they complete the sign-up form, it redirects them to a thank you page which sells your tripwire product
This product is a discounted, quick win type of product and relates very closely with your lead magnet. The more closely related, the better it will convert. You can check out my deep dive tripwire workshop if you want this ALL spelled out for you in baby steps including design and set up!
Let’s go over some awesome tripwire ideas!
Ebooks
Ebooks are a great way to create a tripwire product. You can also repurpose or expand on some current content.
While your reader shouldn’t be able to find ALL the content for free on your site, it’s a good jumping off point especially if you have a lot of related content or you’ve done a series of some kind.
Ebooks can easily be related to your freebie too! For example:
- Meal planning sheets as the freebie, a cookbook as the tripwire
- Marketing strategies cheatsheet as the freebie, marketing strategies ebook as the tripwire
Replays
A replay can really be anything that you originally did live. The great part of this is that you can repurpose any live event over and over and over and use it in your funnel to scale offers.
Some examples of live events include:
- Workshops (live training)
- Paid webinars
- Live multi-day challenges
You can package these things up in “course” format and re-sell them as your tripwire! Plus, if the point of this particular live event was to capture potential target customers for your larger products, it’s a natural fit for any great funnel.
Side note: I highly recommend Podia for selling downloads, videos, courses, and even memberships.
Workbooks
Workbooks make GREAT tripwires especially if they are “companion” workbooks to whatever your lead magnet is.
While your new subscriber should be able to see success with the lead magnet alone, the workbook is meant to level up that success to make it significantly easier. Which means they truly need to be directly related. Whatever you’re TEACHING in the lead magnet, make it actionable in the workbook.
Important to note here is that it should be made clear that these are two separate offers as to not confuse your new subscriber. I like to include the question in my FAQ on the tripwire sales page. Something like “I signed up for the free challenge/course, is this different?”
The reason these convert best is because the person has already signed up to solve this exact problem. The lead magnet will give them that 10,000 ft overview and the tripwire will DIRECTLY solve that problem.
Some examples:
- 10-day craft challenge (lead magnet), Craft challenge workbook (tripwire)
- Makeover your budget mini-course (lead magnet), Makeover your budget workbook (tripwire)
- 3-day design challenge (lead magnet), Design challenge workbook (tripwire)
Related post: 6 Tripwire Ideas & How To Make Them!
Planners
These can also be super related to your lead magnet, making it a high converting tripwire! Just the workbooks, these are actionable things that can help bring that lead magnet success to another level and help your reader directly solve the problem they signed up to solve.
Some examples:
- 10 day clean eating challenge (lead magnet), Clean eating meal planner (tripwire)
- 10 tips to pay off your student loans faster (lead magnet), The student loan payoff planner (tripwire)
- free sleep schedule for your new baby (lead magnet), Sleep schedule + Routine planner (tripwire)
A really clear benefit to the planner is that the person will be able to personalize your strategy to fit their needs. Take the sleep schedule example. The lead magnet will give them a generic one that will work for MOST people, however, the planner tripwire will walk them through the steps of planning a schedule that works for them and help them stick to it.
Strategy Guides
The reason strategy guides work so well is that in general, people like things to be spelled out in a step by step manner.
If you’re anything like me this is how it usually goes (I’m going to use an actual example from my life):
- OMG Facebook Ad strategy is literally the BANE of my existence I can NOT understand this.
- Ok, maybe I’ll surf around some of these experts sites…
- Ugghhhh I really don’t have time to try to figure this all out!!!
- Ohhhh a lead magnet- this looks really helpful, maybe it will make this a little less frustrating to figure out
- *tripwire for strategy guide* OH! Perfect, this is exactly what I need, done!
Actually, none of them had a tripwire strategy guide (probably because they wanted you to hire them to do it) but if they HAD I would’ve been ALL OVER IT!
Whatever problem someone is trying to solve, spell it out in a step by step way. This can even lead to a bigger problem-solving product down the line that involves working together or showing them HOW to accomplish each step in a more detailed way.
E-Courses
I don’t want you to give away the farm here. By NO means am I suggesting to give away your $100+ signature course for $7 but a mini-course? Absolutely!
In fact, going back to the example above, the one expert that DID have a tripwire on Facebooks ads had a mini-course as her tripwire. It was a higher priced tripwire ($27) but I bought it anyway. After taking it, I think it was a workshop replay re-purposed into a mini-course but it still works.
Why are these valuable? Well, people actually finish them!!! Big, expansive courses are valuable sure– but only if someone has the attention span to actually complete it. Smaller courses can be a great discounted product that someone jumps on AND they can actually finish it!
Finishing a course and implementing the steps is the only way to actually see success! Speaking of implementation…
Challenges
Challenges are great because they inspire implementation by “challenging” someone to take action.
Usually, these challenges are performed live with a mentor (you) to teach, answer questions, and offer the challenge.
You can re-sell this as your tripwire by downloading the material, videos, Q+A, and whatever else was part of the live challenge, and putting it in course format (similar to the suggestion in the “Replay” section above)
Templates
Templates are GREAT because they provide a done for you solution. The person simply makes a copy and can use whatever the template is for themselves. Some examples include:
- Design templates in Canva or Adobe format (like I do!)
- Spreadsheet templates (Excel or google sheets)
- Copy templates (fill in the blank type word documents people can use to customize the copy for themselves)
- Powerpoints
Swipe Files
In case you aren’t sure WHAT a swipe file is, it’s basically taking something that someone has already written and using it for yourself. The person that created the swipe copy is giving you permission to copy and paste something they wrote, personalize it to match you, your business, your product, etc and use it.
Similar to templates, it is a done for you product. Popular swipe copy examples:
- Pitch swipe file (the pitch you used to get new clients, sponsorships, partnerships, etc)
- Launch swipe file (the launch sequence you used when you sold you last product or service)
- Sales page swipe file (the copy you used on your sales page)
Most of the time, this is relevant to business that work with other businesses, not so much a parenting blog (especially since a mom who ISN’T a blogger might not have any idea what a swipe file is) but you can always get creative with it:
- The script I used to explain Santa to my kids
- The script I used to reconnect with my husband
- Note from Santa (toothfairy, easter bunny, etc)
Patterns
This one will probably only be relevant to certain niches like crafters, knitters, and crocheters. However, these do really well for a lot of people and you can even bundle together a bunch of your popular patterns for a better deal that is even more irresistible!
Bundles
Speaking of bundles, bundles are a great way to get more urgency on your discount, especially if you have a lot of smaller priced items.
With tripwires, if you don’t have something thats SUPER related (like a compatible workbook), the next best thing is a GREAT deal. Like 70-80% off. So, if you have a bunch of $10-25 products, and you bundle 2-3 of them together offering the bundle for just $7– how can anyone pass THAT up?
Printables
People love printables, so this makes a great tripwire BUT it needs to be really valuable. When I say printable, I mean like an entire binder (not a 2-page checklist). Some examples include:
- A home binder
- Medical organization printable pack
- Homeschool worksheet printable pack
- Motivational art bundle
This can also be a great way to get people into your shop to see the rest of your stuff!
Discounted Memberships
This can be a great tripwire– especially for someone already considering your membership and trying to decide if it’s right for them– a steep discount on the first month can help them make that jump.
Then, if they LOVE it, hopefully they stick around and you get recurring monthly income. Win-win!
Don’t over think your tripwire idea
Tripwires do best when they are directly related to your opt-in. Don’t over think it! It should be such a simple decision for people because they need to make it in a matter of seconds. So whether it’s a no-brainer because it will help them implement what they already signed up for (your freebie) or it’s a no-brainer because it’s such an amazing deal/discount.
Start turning those new subscribers into customers and make money while you grow your list!
Bonus: people that invest in you are more likely to buy from you again. Make sure your first impression is awesome and valuable!
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