Issue 33 | 1

2. The offers have been running for at least one year.

Watch this funnel

3. The offers are evergreen, but they’re only promoted
via ads and occasionally by emails, making them appear
urgent for people who want a deal.

hack on video 4. Their purpose is to get both fresh customers and

backend sales.

Scan the QR code or go to 5. Both sell continuity on the back end and the continuity
www.FunnelU.com/FlashSaleFunnels is “more of the same,” meaning it’s very related to the
to watch Mike’s hack on video. main offer.

The purpose of a flash sale is the same as any other front end
offer. Just like a free plus shipping offer, you’re providing an
attractive, low resistant offer to acquire as many customers
By Mike Schauer, founder of Swiped.co as possible. You also want to profit from back end sales in
future campaigns.
Welcome back Funnel Hackers! It’s
Mike Schauer, the founder of One benefit a flash sale has versus other types of sales is
Swiped.co - the number one go to implied urgency, and urgency is super important.
swipe file resource online where I
reverse engineer the success of million
dollar marketing campaigns and 3 Flash Sale Don’ts
promotions. I’m excited to be back with another awesome
issue of Funnel U, so let’s get right to it! There are three common mistakes you should avoid when
promoting your own flash sale offers:
This month we’re going to look at Flash Sale Funnels.
You’ve likely seen or heard of a flash sale before where a 1. Discounting Your Core Flagship Product: This cheapens
company offers a special discount or promotion for a short your core offer. The only exception might be a rare
period of time. However, brands usually do flash sales occasion like Black Friday,
completely wrong, and they also don’t capitalize on the
back end. So, we’re going to look at two companies that are 2. Discounting Without A Long Term Strategy: If you have
doing it the right way. nothing else to sell and aren’t actively marketing to your
customers, you’re not going to benefit. You’re going
to end up losing out because when you discount your
5 Flash Sale Do’s products, you won’t make much money on the front end
and also won’t make anything on the backend.
The two successful funnels that we’re going to analyze have
these five things in common: 3. Promoting It Too Often To Your Email List: Quite simply,
the novelty is going to wear off. A flash sale’s power is
1. The front end offer is labeled a flash sale. taken away when you use it too much.

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Funnel #1: Digital Marketer
You may be familiar with Ryan Deiss’ Digital Marketer since
he is big in the internet marketing space. His core offer is
Digital Marketer Labs, which is a membership site. It used
to have just one membership tier, but now there are three:
a regular tier at $49 a month, a plus membership for $95 a
month, and an elite level for $925 a month.

Their strategy is to take structured content from the

membership, like courses, workshops, execution plans, and
offer them at a discount. They then upsell you on a free trial
membership, which goes back to the point I made earlier
about selling more of the same on the backend. We’re going
to look at a recent flash sale funnel that they promoted to
their house email list.

Step 1: Flash Sale Emails

Digital Marketer’s flash sale funnel all started with an email
campaign. The first email they sent out on Friday, October
12 was titled, “48 Hours: Up to 90% Off Our Most Valuable

urgency +
big savings
increase
desire to buy
Step 1: Flash Sale Emails

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Products.” The two most powerful things in this email are
urgency and big savings. They have a countdown timer and
emphasize their huge discount. In the following daily emails
they increase that urgency by reminding you that the offer
expires soon.

Their #1 goal
is to sell a
membership
Step 2: Landing Page
If you click through one of the emails, you’re taken to the
landing page. You can see there’s a countdown at the top
and that they have a ton of products listed here. All of them
have a photo, a quick description, the discount, and a “Claim
Deal” button that takes you to their respective landing pages.

What’s interesting about this page is that you can see the
different categories of products that they’re offering listed
right under the counter. Further down on the page, you’ll see
certification courses, workshops, and execution plans.

Each of these actually corresponds to a different level of their

membership. With the basic membership, execution plans
are included. The elite membership includes workshops, and
their plus membership includes the courses. You can see
with each of these products, they mention the price to buy
them separately. However, you can buy a membership for
instant access. Step 2: Landing Page

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Step 2: Landing Page, cont. Step 2: Landing Page, cont.

Issue 33 | 5
So, their primary goal is to get you into one of their
memberships. As you’re going to see, depending on
what you buy in the flash sale, you’ll then be sold on the
membership that corresponds to that product.

Step 3: $7 Discount offer

I chose the “One Minute Video Ad Blueprint,” which is one
of the execution plans, to go through the funnel. The sales
page is very simple - they have a quick description at the top,
the countdown, and a “Buy Now” button.

One of many
discount
offers
That leads
up to the
membership
I think the modern design looks really good. Plus, they
explain to you what the product is and what’s inside. There’s
not too much copy and nothing too special about it with a
few testimonials down further on the page. But since it’s for
a flash sale, and it’s only a $7 product, it doesn’t necessarily
warrant that much copy. Step 3: $7 Discount Offer

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 Step 4: Checkout Page

Step 4: Checkout Page Because I got an execution plan, the upsell page reads:
Once you click through the landing page, you are taken to a “You’re invited. Join the premier online community for
checkout page. There’s nothing special about this checkout digital marketers.”
page. However, if you have been through a Shopify website,
you’ll notice that this is the exact same design that Shopify Execution plans are a big part of the basic membership of
uses for all of their users. So, I’m guessing that Digital Digital Marketer Lab. This page has a very simple design
Marketer swiped this layout from Shopify. and is very similar to the previous landing page with nicely
formatted bullet points.
Step 5: $49/Month Upsell
Moving on, we’re brought to the upsell page. Now, as I At the bottom, you can see the basic membership is only
mentioned earlier, depending on what you bought in the $0 upfront, which is smart. It’s a free trial for a month, so it’s
flash sale, you’re then going to be sold on the membership low resistance. Then after the trial period, you’re going to be
that corresponds to it. billed $49 a month.

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 Step 5: $49/Month Upsell

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 Most of the selling on this page is done in the seven minute
long video. The video is a combination of Ryan talking and
showing the backend of the website. I think this is a smart
strategy. Then, there are a few slides in the video that tell
you about the benefits. It’s a nice mixture of highlighting
different parts of the membership, which is the only upsell.

If you say “No Thanks” to that, you are then taken to the
Thank You page.

Step 6: Thank You Page

The Thank You page is really simple. It has some basic
information about support with their email address and
phone number for customer service. The page gives you
a message that, “Our system should be done processing
shortly. Please allow 10-15 minutes for processing before
logging in.” This is just to notify you to not jump the gun so
that everything goes smoothly.

Step 5: $49/Month Upsell, cont. Step 6: Thank You Page

Issue 33 | 9
Funnel #2: BioTrust they started charging more, most likely to increase average
cart value. So, smart move in that sense.
BioTrust is an over $100 million a year supplement company
that is run by some very smart marketers. Their main front Building the product’s value and calling it, “The World’s Most
end offer for the last year has been an ongoing flash sale for Expensive Protein” also helps justify the $9 sample cost.
their protein powder. They also use the same type of funnel When the price for the offer is free, you don’t have to justify it
for their probiotic supplement so we’re going to compare as much. But because it’s $9, they had to frame it a bit better.
some examples from both. So, there’s an example of one ad. You can see it had 1,900
likes, so it did pretty well.
Step 1: Facebook Ads
First, I want to show you what their ads look like for their The second ad is similar to the first one, but with a different
protein powder. What’s interesting is that BioTrust actually image. Again, the copy focuses on being “The World’s Most
used to offer a free protein sample via a free plus shipping Expensive.” That way, the $9 seems like it’s not a big deal.
offer. They used the “power of free” to carry that offer. But Also, they focus on a charitable deed of “feeding a hungry
then they changed it up and started calling it “The World’s child for every order that you make” and that there are no
Most Expensive Protein” and now they charge $9 for it. subscriptions or strings attached.

In the first ad example, the copy mentions that the protein The third ad is different but similar. This ad is for their probiotic
powder retails for $98 on Amazon. They made a pivot where flash sale. You can see at the bottom it says “Flash Sale,” which

Step 1: Facebook Ads (Example 1)

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Step 1: Facebook Ads (Example 2)

Step 1: Facebook Ads (Example 3)

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 Step 2: Landing Page (Probiotic) Step 2: Landing Page (Protein)

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is similar to the other ads, but the offer is for 50% off. is something that BioTrust is not offering in their regular store,
and that makes these bonuses special.
Step 2: Landing Page
If you compare the landing page for the protein offer and You’ll notice that, unlike the Digital Marketer funnel, they
that for the probiotic offer, you can see that they have don’t have a countdown. They don’t have a specific time
literally the same exact layout. that this flash sale is going to end. However, you can only
access it through their advertising. You can’t get to this page
They both have, “Flash Sale: Today’s Special Offer” right at otherwise, and that’s what makes it exclusive. So they get
the top. I like how BioTrust keeps this bar at the top so that away with calling this a flash sale because of the offer; it’s not
you can choose to buy it at any time while viewing the page. available in the store and they don’t make it easily accessible.
If you do click on “Try It for $9,” you are directed to the area
on the page where you put in your email and you choose This is a different way of using the whole flash sale concept.
your desired flavor. It’s not necessarily all about the exact amount of time
that you get to take advantage of the offer. This approach
What’s smart about this design is that, by putting in your makes it more about how special the offer is and how you
email first, BioTrust keeps it in their list and then can follow won’t easily find it, as well as the idea that it could go away
up with you if you don’t complete checkout. at any moment.

Something that I want to point out with the offer on this page Step 3: Checkout Page
is what really makes it compelling: three free bonus gifts that Once you click through the landing page you’re taken to
are included. In addition to the lower price sample, you’re also the checkout page. Right at the top of the page, there is a
getting a recipe book, health coaching and VIP discounts. This great image of everything that you’re getting and a recap of

Step 2: Landing Page (3 Free Gifts With Protein Sample)

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the free bonuses. It makes the $9 price tag look even better in your information and click continue, then the second step
because it’s now not just $9 for the protein powder itself - it will explain where you put in your credit card information.
looks like you’re getting a lot of awesome stuff.
Step 4: $35/month Upsell
The top of the page is very simple in design, with just the Once you checkout, you’ll be directed to the first upsell. This
“As Seen In” logos and a customer service number, which is is BioTrust’s subscription offer for you to get the protein
important. Down the page, an amazing guarantee is placed powder delivered every month without paying anything
boldly right next to the checkout form. I love this guarantee - upfront. So, you pay nothing today, and then a month from
it’s for a whole year. now they’re going to charge you $35 per container. It’s not
going to be the sample container – it will be the full size
Now, the checkout form just shows step one. Once you put container. You also get extra bonuses.

Step 3: Checkout Page

14 | Funnel University
Step 4: $35/Month Upsell

Issue 33 | 15
 Step 6: $10 + $49/Month Upsell

Step 5: $25 Downsell Step 7: $9 Downsell

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This upsell is very similar to the Digital Marketer membership But this offer includes a membership of their Ship-N-Save
upsell we looked at. The difference is that you’re getting a Club where every month you’re automatically going to get
physical, replenishable product in the mail versus a digital billed $49 for a new bottle.
membership.
Step 7: $9 downsell
The video features one of the cofounders of BioTrust in his If you don’t get a subscription to this offer, then they’re
kitchen. It’s very personal, and there’s a little bit of copy after going to offer you another one-time purchase for their Belly
that but otherwise, it’s a very simple page. Notice that the Trim XP where there’s no subscription. You can see that they
offer is very much driven by urgency. A countdown timer is highlighted this point in the headline. This second downsell
both in the left hand corner and top of the page. has another video, which is for Belly Trim XP.

Step 5: $25 Downsell Something different about this downsell is that they give
If you don’t take BioTrust up on the subscription, they’ll you the option to get one, three, or six bottles at $9 each. I
offer the protein for less money, but you don’t have to think this is a really excellent offer.
get a subscription. They figure if you don’t want to get a
subscription, you maybe would want more protein powder Remember, BioTrust is trying to attract first time, brand new
and at a discount. Again, they have a minute-long video of customers. They want you to try as many of their products
one of the co-founders in his kitchen. And just like the first as possible because it’s more likely you’ll continue to buy
upsell, they also display a timer. as long as it works. Even though this is an inexpensive offer,
they’re hoping you’ll love it and will come back to subscribe.
Step 6: $10 + $49/Month Upsell
The second upsell features a completely different product - a I like how BioTrust wrote the copy in between the picture of
fat burner supplement. The offer is to pay $10 for a bottle, the bottle and the Add to Order button. Even though the copy
which is really good considering that the normal price is $69. is formatted in small font, each option says, “Recommended
for...” with a weight loss range. For one bottle, the text reads
“Recommended for less than 10 lbs to lose.” Three bottles,
“Recommended for 10-30 lbs”. If you’re trying to lose more
than 30 pounds, you’re going to see, “Recommended for 30+

both upsells
lbs” right below the six bottles. This is a cool little association
trick that encourages you to buy more.

Step 8: Thank You Page

are for a
The thank you page is similar to Digital Marketer’s.
It’s nothing too crazy, no offers - they just show basic
information about your account and when to expect your

membership
order to ship.

More at Swiped.co
I hope that you got a lot out of this issue and that you now
have some ideas for your own flash sale funnels. As I hinted
at earlier, my site is Swiped.co. If you’ve been enjoying my
Funnel U issues, you’ll really like my site. I reverse engineer

Issue 33 | 17
 Flash Sale Funnels

18 | Funnel University
successful sales pages, Facebook ads, print ads and all types you will find a signup form for a free two week trial. I have 20
of examples. The site is 100% free - I don’t even ask for an of my breakdowns in there already. As one of my members
opt-in. Go to Swiped.co and enjoy the content. I do update put it, it’s like NASA-level funnel hacking. I go super in-depth
the public archive every so often. dissecting webinar transcripts, email sequences, all types of
advertising, metrics, and so on.
However, if you want full access to me and weekly updates
about the latest funnels, copy breakdowns, and my newest There’s also a private Facebook group, a swipe file hotline
research, my Insiders Membership is where I put all of where I do research and deliver custom inspiration for
my time. Russell’s a member and a bunch of other funnel you, custom tools like one that reveals the ad stats of your
hackers are in there. Facebook competitors, and just a ton more value.

Even though it’s not open to the public yet, I’m letting So if that sounds good to you, join my Insiders Membership at
Funnel U subscribers check it out for free. You just have to go Swiped.co/funnelhackers. I look forward to connecting with
to Swiped.co/funnelhackers when you’re ready. At that link, you personally. Otherwise, I will see you in another issue!

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Issue 33 | 19
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