In my previous article, I mentioned that entertainment, experiences and escape are a priority for pretty much everybody…
And I kinda proved it’s true… but I didn’t really show you how to do it.
I’m not going to show you today, either. I just pulled an all-nighter finishing up a 68-page sales letter…
So I’m barely typing these words right now.
Here’s what I will do, though.
Let’s discuss what it means to “entertain” your readers with your copy – because it’s almost certainly different than you think…
And probably simpler than you think.
“Entertainment” in copy doesn’t necessarily mean trying to be funny, although that’s one option.
Entertainment, as I define it, is generating a desirable emotional reaction in your reader at some point in the copy.
So it can be humor, but it can also be:
Excitement – Most people are painfully bored all the time. Give them a jolt!
Connection – Reveal something you likely have in common with your reader. Growing affinity is a great thing.
Inspiration – Who doesn’t like feeling inspired?
Validation – People love finding out they’re right and/or that the right people agree with them.
Discovery – Education can go too far, but you want to help your reader feel like he’s stumbled across something valuable (especially something others haven’t discovered yet) when he reads your copy.
Nostalgia – I think everyone over 18 years old has fond memories of the “good old days.” Bring those memories to mind and your reader will associate you with those good feelings.
Curiosity – Curiosity creates its own discovery and positive emotional payoff when discover happens. Plus, once it’s sparked, curiosityis one of the hardest feelings to ignore.
Desire– Gets your heart pumping. Desire feels good, even before it’s satisfied.
Anger – Admit it, sometimes you WANT to be angry. And it feels good to be angry together.
Relief – If you can take away anxiety, pain or frustration, your reader will love you.
Story – An engaging story is an experience people gladly join along.
Hope – Help your reader believe his (immediate) future looks bright.
And the idea is to generate these desirable emotions consistently in your messaging over time that the reader WANTS to read before he even knows what your message is about.
He just knows he enjoys the experience of hearing from you, even if during those times he doesn’t buy from you.
Like Pavlov’s dog… ready for his tasty snack.
The good thing is, he’ll increasingly believe (partially unconsciously) buying from you or working with you will be even more emotionally fulfilling.
So that’s a quick overview of how I define entertainment in copy. Want more details? Check out this livestream recording:
See? There are lots of ways you can work it into your copy.
In case you hadn’t heard, Disney just had its best quarter ever. Its theme parks are making more money even though there are fewer visitors than there were pre-pandemic.
Revenue from legal gambling (which I guess is a form of entertainment and escapism) in American casinos and other legal gambling outlets “smashed all-time records.”
CEO of sports betting platform DraftKings said he sees zero impact from inflation. Revenue is up 68% year-over-year.
If you can offer the 3 Es as part of your product or service, great.
But if nothing else, add entertainment value to your marketing and make it an experience!
2) Your clients need you MORE now, not less.
You can help them make more money… save their relationship (which is strained by financial concerns)… get healthier (which is hard when you’re stress-eating)…
And you can come up with a way to give them the entertainment, experiences and escape they’re desperately looking for.
In good times, your ideal clients didn’t need help as badly. But now, even though they may be anxious about the economy, they really need to get results.
Position your business as THE solution your should-be client needs (including entertainment, experience and/or escape) – and promote your offers confidently and consistently.
People ARE spending money. They’re just being choosy about where and with whom.
3) Raise your prices – or at least add a premium version of your offer.
Once you implement Idea 2 above, it’s clear you have something people gotta have… and they’ll be willing to pay
Disney theme parks KEEP raising prices. It’s a major reason why they’re bringing in so much cash even with fewer guests. (Maybe fewer guests is a good thing.)
Keep in mind, it’s not just marketing. Disney delivers a memorable, share-worthy, braggable experience. You need to do the same.
Also, higher prices are attractive to clients who are less price-sensitive. Clients who make decisions primarily based on price (in your industry at least) are probably not the best clients for you.
Oh, and boosting your prices helps you fight off inflation, too.
Here’s to putting more dollars in your pocket!
P.S. You can’t control the economy. But you can control your response to it. It’s time to be proactive and aggressive. Let’s get it!
My friend Golibemade a great video this week exploring the power of a compelling story.
He briefly highlighted a point I haven’t heard too many gurus talk about:
How “unfair injury” connects you to a story character.
Golibe’s video just touched on the concept briefly, and it inspired me to expand on the idea a little more.
Because it’s a subtle but hard-hitting persuasion tactic.
It’s a key reason we form emotional bonds with characters (even if we don’t realize it) in countless books, movies and even marketing material.
In The Story Solution, Eric Edson says:
“After courage, the second quickest way to bond an audience to your hero is to place that character in a situation where blatant injustice is inflicted upon her.”
This isn’t necessarily the same thing as the “rags to riches” story arc. There are levels to this.
Let me share an example.
I worked with a few years ago who was paralyzed from the waist down as a teenager.
We occasionally mentioned that fact in sales copy. It was the catalyst that drove him to learn the skill he turned into 3 multimillion-dollar business.
One day, the client had the idea to take the story to another level.
He talked about how a group of older teens beat him so badly that he’d never walk again. Then the medical bills crushed his family financially. And that series of events forced him to do something different…
Fleshing out the unfair injury kept people glued to their screens and practically forced viewers to root for my client.
Sales on that webinar were off the charts. (I don’t remember the stats, but I get there were fewer returns, too.
You can use unfair injury to draw readers/viewers into your copy and keep them emotionally engaged.
Share painful stories — and especially of injustices — against your main character. The more vivid the better.
Maybe your boss gave the promotion you deserved to someone else. Better yet, she gave it to the new guy the one who always wears tight shirts — the guy YOU TRAINED.
There are a thousand variations.
As long as the story is believable, your reader/viewer’s heart will go out to your character, which advances the sale.
That’s your homework: Spend some time thinking about how you can use unfair injury in your own marketing.
It’s not the only trick you’ll use. But it’s a good one to have in your repertoire.
Have a productive day!
P.S. Presenting a perfect picture of yourself in your promotions is less persuasive than you probably think.
I know, it’s a little scary to tell your darker stories.
But it works. It can help you with sales now and retention/ascension over time.
Your ideal clients will feel even more connected to you. They’ll be even more excited to hear from you.
I promised this post would explore a kind of urgency that goes deeper than deadlines and emergency situations and cuts to the emotional core of your ideal customer.
Let’s go back to Jonah.
His attitudes and actions are also fascinating illustrations of urgency’s other side.
As you remember, your boy did NOT want to go to Ninevah.
He was happy about its coming destruction. And he knew if he did his job as a prophet, the LORD might spare the city.
You know the story. Jonah hopped on a boat to get as far away from Ninevah as possible… but he couldn’t avoid delivering the warning forever.
And his fear came to pass. The people repented and God was merciful.
Throughout this story, there’s an intense battle of urgency going on in Jonah’s mind.
On one hand, he was convinced if he did what he was put on earth to do… the outcome would be transformational.
He even complained to God after the fact: “I knew this was going to happen. That’s why I got on that boat in the first place!”
On the other hand, Jonah’s actions were driven by his (cultural and spiritual) identity and his attachment to it.
Why didn’t he want the people of Ninevah to “turn from their evil ways”?
As he saw it, God was on his side, not theirs. Mercy for them was a threat to his identity.
So when God spared the city, Jonah expressed it’d better for him to die than to accept a different perspective.
Like Jonah, we’re all attached to our identities.
We’ll go to extreme lengths to protect ourselves from threats and to take actions that line up with how we perceive ourselves (or a future version of ourselves we desperately want).
It’s an urgent need.
Here’s the lesson:
1. When you pursue your purpose so intently… when you become so convinced of the transformation that’s possible when you share your message, product or service…
The urgency of who you are and why you do what you do comes through in your communications in a way that’s impossible to fake.
Every interaction and all your communications resonate with it. Your Ninevah, the people you’re here to help, will feel that urgency and respond.
2. Get familiar with your ideal customer so that you have a solid understanding of how he sees himself and his place in the world.
That identity is a key driver of many of decisions, including the content he consumes, the products and services he buys, and how he connects with experts like you.
What’s the future version he urgently wants to grow into? What role can you play in helping him get there?
That’s a different, deeper way to leverage urgency in your sales copy and marketing.
P.S. If your business is related to the reason you were put on this planet, don’t run away from your “Ninevah.”
Believe in the transformation that you can help create and move boldly forward.
I’ve been watching Love is Blind… purely for research purposes.
Whether or not you enjoy this sort of entertainment, you can learn a lot by studying the content people have strong emotional reactions to, positive or negative.
(This is why a Netflix subscription should be tax deductible for marketers.)
We’re going to tackle the show’s most captivating aspect:
How can people fall in love & decide to get married in 10 days or less?
Because we want your should-be customers to fall in love with you enough to give you money… as quickly as possible.
The dynamics at play are FASCINATING — useful for your marketing efforts, too.
I’d like to share 5 actionable insights to make people fall for you fast.
These insights will be valuable for you even ifyou’ve never seen an episode of the show.
Check them out in the following video or read about them below.
Or both.
1. Pick the right folks (or let them select themselves)
One of the biggest reasons Love Is Blind “works” is that the producers have curated people looking for the specific outcome:
They want to find the love of their lives. They’re frustrated with the polluted dating pool and they’re actively looking for a solution.
As a marketing concept, this seems basic. But it’s shocking how often we lose sight of it.
In the first place, make sure your offer is something people have a strong desire for. It should help them achieve a dream they already have… or eliminate a pain point they’re already frustrated about.
You don’t need everyone to buy your product/service. Concentrate on the small percentage of the population that’s actively looking for the transformation you produce.
You could argue the Couples on Love Is Blind don’t really fall in love in mere days. Which is probably true. But they certainly develop strong attachments at warp speed.
And they do so based solely on the words they hear in their conversations.
One of the comments you hear on the show constantly is that cast members feel that their future fiancé knows them better than anyone else in their lives.
They feel understood. The feel seen. (Ironic, right?)
Humans crave that feeling… and we attach ourselves to those who make us feel that way.
You can use your words to have a similar effect in your marketing.
And that’s exactly what you need to do to make your prospects fall in love with your business or offer.
It’s more than just using “power words” or hyping up your product or service. It’s communicating a deep understanding, shared values and painting a vivid picture of the beautiful future that’s possible with you.
There’s another theory I feel like we need to address.
Another reason cast member fall in love so quickly can at least be partially explained by a psychological theory called “object relations.”
To keep it easy-breezy, object relations theory describes how someone can instantly form a deep emotional bond with a new person because the new person reminds them of an important emotional experience or relationship from their past.
Most people are constantly looking to recreate that feeling (even if they don’t consciously think about it) in the present.
Now…
It’s impossible to predict how this will work, especially when marketing to groups of people who each have their own unique pasts.
But what you can get close by going for nostalgia.
When you understand your ideal customer, you can predict certain things from the past they likely have strong feelings about.
Work these into your marketing… and even into you own personal brand.
For example, if you know your best customers loved Axel Foley in the 80’s… see if you can embody some of his characteristics in the way you present yourself.
It’s more powerful than you might think.
Google shared data finding that 75% of GenXers watch YouTube to relive the good ol’ days.
Think about ways you can add nostalgia to your marketing to attract prospects, hold their attention and (hopefully) win their business.
3. Use scarcity to position yourself as “The One”
One of the biggest motivators for cast members on Love Is Blind is that they have limited options… and they know it. There are just 15 men and 15 women in the group – and there’s plenty of potential competition.
Having too many options can prevent you from ever moving forward. You may always be looking for the next best thing.
Scarcity helps you focus.
There’s two ways you can use scarcity to help your ideal customers fall in love with you quickly.
Position yourself in a niche where you have few, if any, competitors. No one else delivers exactly what you do… for the exact people you do it for.
Use real limits in your business. Produce a limited quantity of a product… work with a limited number of clients… put a cap on the number of attendees of an event.
Don’t make up fake scarcity to trick people. Honest scarcity can be a spectacular motivator.
4. Commit to spending “Quality Time”
No matter how fast they fall in love, couples on Love Is Blind have to spend quality time together. The more time, the faster they build the bond.
You don’t really see it on the show, but the reality is that cast members can spend as much time as they like in the pods with the people they want to talk to. They don’t have to cram everything into 60-minute daily sessions or anything like that.
The same thing is true for you as an entrepreneur. Your prospects and customers need to spend time with you. It may be less time than you think, but you can’t expect to maximize your relationship with (and profit from) them with just an occasional text message.
You need to be consistent & frequent in your outreach.
The more “love letters” you send… the more marathon phone conversations… the more moonlit walks on the beach… the faster they can fall in love with you.
If you need help coming up with more ideas about topics to write about for emails and social content, check out Inbox X-Factor.
You’ll get access to weekly content plans (so you’ll ALWAYS have a timely topic to write about), proven subject line templates, video trainings and more.
5. Urgency
The Love Is Blind experiment would fall apart if cast members were given an infinite amount of time to propose marriage.
Cast members know they have a short amount of time – just 10 days – to get what they came for. They have to be decisive & take action to avoid missing out.
Urgency also works in marketing. Set real deadlines. Use (honest) countdown timers.
Let people know they don’t have an eternity to make a choice
Using urgency the right way can help everyone get what they want faster, both in relationships and in marketing.
There you go.
I hope you’ll take time TODAY to think about how you can put these insights into practice in your business.
Because they really can maximize the speed with which prospects become paying customers… the amount of money they’re eager to spend with you…
And the positive impact you’re able to have in their lives.
