How a 1 page PDF made $100,000 a year: Their Timeline examines VV Part 2
In part 1, we documented how Visualize Value was created as an attempt to productize the whole system of allowing businesses to better market themselves to customers. It was not a smooth sailing journey- there was no clear product until 11 months in.
In part 2, we will focus on the growth of VV's first digital product- Daily Manifest.
We will learn how Jack:
- more than tripled the price of his product... and continued having incredible sales,
- created a community that was attuned to his creative process and eager to learn from him, and
- introduced synergy among his offerings so that each offering helped to drive the sales of others.
Let's dive in.
Recap
Here are some stats from Visualize Value around the point of Daily Manifest launch (December 16 2019):
π November 24 2019: Around 270 likes for a Tweet. While this is a major improvement over the initial tweets, there is nothing to suggest that Visualize Value will grow exponentially to its current scale of having a few thousand likes on each tweet.
βValue.β pic.twitter.com/dTYp5oqeU4
— Visualize Value (@visualizevalue) November 23, 2019
It is also hard to trace the exact factors that allowed Visualize Value to gain more exposure. A possible answer, aside from the natural compounding of his content, is that Jack has been going onto other platforms to talk about Visualize Value. An example is the interview that he did with Maven Adviser, released on November 28 2019.
At this point in time, Jack probably felt comfortable enough with the quantity and quality of Visualize Value's graphics that he decided it's time to gain more exposure via guesting on other platforms.
The key lesson here (discussed in Courtland Allen's interview with Dru Riley):
- Instead of rushing for the launch (or putting our product in front of as many people as possible), it is wiser to instead put it in front of a small audience and iterate until we find a product that works. If we refer to the first tweet above, we can already see the distinctive Visualize Value design in it. Contrast this with the account's initial tweets, which had different design elements.
Rise
π February 17 2020: 15,000 VV followers on Twitter. It took about 13 months for Jack to accumulate this audience size. Again, one of the key principles of Jack's success is leveraging on existing audiences of other individuals and adding value to those individuals. How can you do something similar for your product?
To celebrate 15,000 VV Twitter followers, a temporary price drop on the Daily Manifest & VV Community Access until the weekend is up.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) February 16, 2020
8 hours left.
Thank you all.
See you on the inside.https://t.co/YVOwmLzUdD pic.twitter.com/d6zKmXEIkj
π°π February 25 2020: 1,000th order for Visualize Value's Daily Manifest. This is inline with the rough approximation that less than 10% of your audience will be active product buyers. For VV's case, it was around 3%.
Just hit our 1,000th order. Thank you.
— Visualize Value (@visualizevalue) February 25, 2020
π March 6 2020: Build a community. Now that Jack has created a sufficient audience size on Twitter, the next step is to create an environment for your audience to interact more closely with each other and you. This community can also provide closer feedback on what they hope to get from you, and you can create products that satisfies their need.
You can make $100,000 a year selling a one page PDF.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 5, 2020
Join the VV community, and I'll show you how: https://t.co/cVL7gK6os9 pic.twitter.com/EOnbFMJr7j
π°π March 10 2020: $15.5k in revenue that took 14 months to grow. The first 11 months were spent iterating. Jack's ability to create bite-sized visuals (3 to 4 posts a day) allowed him to go through a huge number of iterations, thus speeding up the networking and audience building process.
It has taken me about 14 months to grow @visualizevalue from $0 a month to $6k~ a month.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 10, 2020
All while running an agency that is significantly more profitable, but significantly less specific, and all service based.
The product game is harder, but more satisfying. pic.twitter.com/zepfk4Ix31
π March 13 2020: Expanding on the community aspect, Jack launches his first office hours. You want to iterate a new product/service among a smaller (and ideally your close) audience, before launching it to the general public. Office hours also help to create a stronger bond among his community as it is a real-time event.
Just launched @visualizevalue office hours.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 13, 2020
How it works:
- Community members submit questions.
- I pull together visuals to answer/discuss.
First one was great. If you want to catch the next one, join the community here: https://t.co/YVOwmLzUdD pic.twitter.com/470CBmR98b
π°π March 30 2020: $5k sales in 24 hours. The trick? A substantial price increase + limited time is always an amazing combination to drive sales. This is a strategy often used- selling at a cheaper price initially to validate market + collect testimonials, then raising the price.
11 hours until a permanent 3x price increase on the @visualizevalue Daily Manifest & private community access.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 29, 2020
Jump in: https://t.co/Zepgmxfnke pic.twitter.com/nfgt6tLZW1
Transparency time:
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 29, 2020
Best day of sales of all time for @visualizevalue.
After deciding to put the Daily Manifest & Community access up in price 3x (but offer a window to get in before it does), here are the results.
6 hours left: https://t.co/Zepgmxfnke pic.twitter.com/D3zivHoHw2
Transparency time:
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) March 30, 2020
Results from a pre-price raise promotion:
$5k in 24 hours from a $19 product.
Thanks to all new members.
Now $57. Until it isnβt.
Iβll be breaking this all down in more detail in the VV community.
Hop in here: https://t.co/Zepgmxfnke pic.twitter.com/O1xay3CkOl
π°π April 16 2020: The Daily Manifest made over $10k in sales. This ridiculous amount of sales of a one-page pdf is not driven by the sole prospect of daily planning; rather, the audience is also enticed by the prospect of joining a community that can teach them how to communicate better and earn more.
Jack's genius is in integrating different products and services so that there is synergy among them. What is a simple product of yours that you can add value to by integrating it with other services?
Transparency time.
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 16, 2020
Record number of new signups today.
Grateful for you all, and the opportunity to make a living this way.
Next mission:
Continue to prove why $99 a year is still a no brainer.https://t.co/Zepgmxfnke pic.twitter.com/aYkrqUrjSW
This concludes today's time capsule on Visualize Value's Daily Manifest. In future installments, we will further examine how Jack created his other products such as Build Once, Sell Twice and the Permissionless Apprentice.
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Keep building! π¨