Monday, June 1 (2020) / 3 min read

Enrollment for this intake of Sphere of Influence and AutoResponder Madness is open.

Two questions we get a lot are “where do I start (Sphere of Influence or AutoResponder Madness)”, and “what do I do if I don't have an audience yet?”

If you're choosing between SOI and ARM it's important to understand where each fits into the bigger picture.

Sphere of Influence is a framework for producing better prospects. AutoResponder Madness is a framework for converting prospects into happy customers.

If the flow of high-quality leads into your business is good already, then you'll likely get the biggest impact with AutoResponder Madness.

On the other hand, if you don't have a consistent flow of high-quality prospects into your world, then Sphere of Influence probably is a better place to start.

The simple question to ask yourself is this: in order to achieve my business goals, where's the highest leverage in the next 30 — 90 days? Better prospects (to fill the funnel), or better conversion (to extract more value from the leads you're already getting)?

Better prospects = Sphere of Influence.

Better conversion = AutoResponder Madness.

One more thing to add — SOI and ARM together produce emergent effects that are difficult to predict. Your business is a system, and the way each part functions on its own is far less important than the relationships between the parts. SOI and ARM together, done well, are not 1 + 1 = 2. They're 1 + 1 = 5, 9, 15+.

What do you do if you don't already have an audience or offer?

Start with Sphere of Influence. SOI is based on timeless marketing principles and it is an upstream decision that will produce far better downstream results for whatever choices you make in the future.

To help with audience research and offer creation, we're including access to the two-part Audience and Offer Masterclass from The Traffic Engine with SOI and ARM.

That masterclass provides a three-part framework and series of exercises for identifying potential audiences and offers, and creating specific value propositions likely to resonate with those audiences.

If you don't have an audience already, we recommend starting with the Audience and Offer Masterclass followed by Sphere of Influence.

(If you purchase both SOI and ARM to save 15%, we recommend Audience and Offer Masterclass first, then Sphere of Influence, then AutoResponder Madness.)

Note: If you enroll now (today), you'll not see the Audience and Offer Masterclass (yet). It'll be made available later in the week.

Comments are open if you have questions (or feel free to reply to this email). We'll be answering your questions and sharing ideas, insights, and tips until enrollment closes on June 8 at midnight PST.

Enroll here.