We got our first major snowfall on the farm this year on Thursday this week…
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In fact, we got so much snow that we had to postpone our family Thanksgiving gathering to Black Friday (yesterday)…
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Which also happened to fall on Tylene’s Birthday this year (which in turn derailed a few plans that we had…)
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BUT…
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Every bright red early-morning cloud has an equally bright silver lining…
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Because as I wrote in this Thanksgiving Post, as I was looking out this window:
The COLD weather gave me an opportunity to get a jump on writing by the fireplace what has been an annual tradition for the last decade:
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My annual…
1 | Lessons Learned & Bold Predictions...
Every year since 2014, I’ve held an annual “Lessons Learned & Predictions” call for clients.
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And this year…
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Since it’s officially been a decade that I’ve been doing this, I was curious to see what I had shared way back on that very first call.
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(NGL – Some of my lessons and predictions were a little bit cringe.)
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But some are just as true now as they were then, like this one here:
On this slide, I explained that looking back over the last year, for one of my products – “Survey Funnel Formula” (SFF) – 74% of our customers came from just 29% of the webinars I hosted.
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And that for another one of my businesses, 33% of my Google Adwords spend, resulted in 79% of our email opt-ins.
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It was a reminder that NOT everything you do is going to work. You’ve got to try a bunch of things in order to find the 80/20 in your business.
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(BTW – If you were in my paid NLM community back in 2014, do you remember that call??)
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Because this brings me to…
2 | Cold Bold Predictions for 2025.
Because in a few short weeks, on December 19th I will be hosting my annual “Lessons Learned & Bold Predictions” call for private clients and members of my mastermind:
This is where I reveal actual numbers from our business from the last 12 months…
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The strategies and tactics that I’m secretly working on behind the scenes (based on where I see the biggest opportunities to take advantage of on the horizon…)
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As well as my industry predictions for the next 12-24 months…
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And based on data I’ve just recently uncovered, I am about to make some major shifts that I think are worth considering as we go into 2025…
BTW – While this LIVE call is only open to private clients and members of my Strategic Advisory Group Mastermind – you can get access to the recording of the session, as part of my “Zig when they Zag” Bundle.
Now, this predictions call will uncover everything in more detail.
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But today, I thought I’d share one of the predictions that I think is worth considering as you start making your plans for 2025, and that is…
3 | What to Do About this Widening "MoFu" Gap?
In [Issue #007] of this newsletter, There’s a Sea Change Afoot, I first introduced the concept of The MoFu Gap, which to summarize, refers to the following:
Top of Funnel, Bottom of Funnel, and the Middle of Funnel Gap…
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Top of Funnel (ToFu), or the Awareness stage, is when people first discover your brand online. And this typically takes place in an ecosystem you do NOT control (e.g. Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)
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Bottom of Funnel (BoFu), or the Decision stage – is when people are making a purchasing decision. And this typically takes place in an ecosystem that you DO control (e.g. on your website, on your webinar, on a discovery call, on your e-commerce store, etc.)
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The challenge today is bridging the gap between ToFu and BoFu.
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Because the platforms have never been more committed to keeping you ON platform:
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Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook. YouTube wants to keep you on YouTube… and LinkedIn wants to keep you on LinkedIn.
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If you advertise, they’re making it more expensive to include a CTA taking people off-platform.
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If you post organic content, they’re suppressing your reach if you include any external links…
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In other words:
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It’s never been more difficult to bridge the gap between the channels where your customers spend time online right now (Top of Funnel) – and your landing page / sales page / website, where they can actually make a purchasing decision (Bottom of Funnel).
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Hence the “Middle of Funnel” or MoFu Gap.
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Which takes us to…
4 | Trigger Words: Why the Comment Loophole May Be Closing...
One tactic that’s been effective in “closing” this MoFu Gap, has been to use “trigger words” in social posts, videos, and content to take people from a platform to your website, like you see me doing in this this post here.
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For example: “Comment with the word “BUNDLE” and I’ll send you a private message with a link to my new Black Friday Bundle page”.
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But rumors have just emerged that META may be actively working to CLOSE this loophole as we speak.
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In fact, over the past few months, META has been gradually introducing more and more restrictions in terms of how we as marketers can use Messenger in general to take people off platform, like shutting down messenger custom audiences and now introducing this new restriction here just last week…
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In other words, this “Trigger Word” tactic may have shelf-life that’s soon set to expire..
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So you might be asking:
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What’s the solution?
5 | The Future of Commerce Is...
As I shared in one of my Town Halls earlier this year, back in August, Amazon announced a landmark partnership with TikTok & Pinterest – and two weeks later YouTube announced a competing partnership with Shopify…
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In each of these partnerships, the objective was the same:
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To create “deep e-commerce integrations” where platform users can purchase products directly in-channel, without ever having to click away or leave the platform on which they’re spending time.
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In other words:
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For Awareness, Consideration, and Decision (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu) to take place 100% in-channel.
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What that means is this:
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With this new “In-Channel Commerce” paradigm, you don’t need worry about closing the “MoFu Gap”, because the entire “funnel” (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu) takes place within the channel itself.
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Here’s how this works:
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Imagine a world where a prospect searches for information around your topic or product category on YouTube.
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They stumble on your YouTube video, which takes them to your YouTube channel, which in turn takes them to your sales or product video (also on YouTube), which in turn takes them to your Shopify checkout page (embedded directly within YouTube) where they purchase your product.
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The entire experience takes place on their phone, on the native YouTube app, without ever having to leave that ecosystem, or even having to take out their credit card – because of Shopify’s frictionless “ShopPay” integration.
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There’s no need to “go to your website” because the entire funnel takes place inside of YouTube.
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And by the way, this is already happening right now.
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(More on that below…)
6 | Why YouTube is Betting BIG on This Approach
All signs indicated that YouTube is betting BIG on this new paradigm.
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And here’s why:
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Think about it like this. If you were YouTube, and you were generating $50 Billion per year in ad revenue on your platform (ads which ultimately drive people to purchase products and services off platform…)
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Wouldn’t you like to get a piece of each transaction that originates from your platform that you’re currently not capturing right now?
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This is a massive untapped opportunity for YouTube.
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To put some numbers into perspective:
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Prior to the YouTube / Shopify integration, Shopify’s GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), the total dollar value of orders processed on the Shopify platform, including shipping, handling, duty, and value added taxes, was on the order of $240 Billion annually.
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If you were YouTube, you must be wondering how much that number could grow with over 2.5 Billion active users visiting your site every month.
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Could that number grow to $500 Billion? A TRILLION dollars? MORE?
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Because after all, if you were YouTube, and you can take even just half a percentage point on a Trillion dollars worth of transactions…
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That’s an extra $5 Billion per year added to your bottom line…
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In other words, YouTube is heavily incentivized to cut out external funnel “middle-ware”, and instead get people to buy stuff directly on YouTube, and keep all that revenue in-channel and on-platform.
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And by the way…
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If you don’t think the other big platforms will be responding to this with their own in-channel checkout integrations like this?
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Then you’re missing what’s likely to be one of the biggest shifts coming to your “sales funnel” going into 2025 and beyond…
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So this prediction is simple:
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The Future of Commerce… Is “In-Channel” Commerce.
7 | Where Do We Go From Here?
What I’ve shared with you here is just one prediction to be thinking about going into 2025…
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I have 5 BIG ONES.
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And in my “Zig When They Zag” Bundle, you’ll get access to the raw recording of the entire Bold Predictions for 2025 call that I’m exclusively hosting for private clients and members of my mastermind.
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AND if you’re like some of the hundreds of readers of this newsletter who have already grabbed a copy – like this one buyer who has already devoured, started implementing, and already gave it 5-STARS – I think this could be the best investment in your business this year.)
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And the reason for that is simple:
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You’re not only getting access to my “Lessons Learned & Bold Predictions” call, you’re also getting access to SIX (6) Tactical Sessions filled with practical strategies and insights you can begin immediately putting into action…
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Like my deep dive call with Will Hamilton, who has already started using (and profiting from) the YouTube / Shopify integration.
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(Yeah, that’s right.)
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Will took me inside his YouTube account, showing me he’s sending organic YouTube traffic to purchase products he’s already setup through the YouTube/Shopify integration – without ever leaving the platform.
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In this call he shares his actual data. The tests he’s run so far. AND you’ll get to see how he has everything set up – including how he’s been optimizing his short-form YouTube shorts to drive organic traffic to his long-form sales videos directly YouTube, and more.
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And the best part?
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You’ll get instant access to this session (which you can start watching and using) immediately after you complete your purchase, in literally minutes…
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OKAY. I’ll leave you with that for now.
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After going overboard on Turkey yesterday… And missing three days in a row at the gym between the holiday and this snowstorm, I need to get my butt into the gym!
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Have a GREAT rest of your weekend and I look forward to seeing you inside!
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Until next week,
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Ryan :-)
