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.
And then we’ll discuss how you can turn that data into cash.
Back in June, I worked on a project where we sent 3 emails using 3 very different appeals:
Email #1 pointed to a big opportunity
Email #2 shared a unique story tied to the opportunity
Email #3 went hard on urgency, with a deadline just hours away.
Take a look at some of the raw data:
Let me quickly paint the picture:
Before Delta flared up so fiercely, the travel bug started ravaging the American populace. My client suggested that was a money-making opportunity for investors in the stock market.
That first email pointed out facts: the travel industry was down $4 trillion… but was on pace to more than make that up in the coming months.
The second email took a different approach. I told a story about Qantas Airlines “flight to nowhere” (which Inbox X-Factor members may recognize from one of the Weekly Email Plans)…
…and how that PROVED people were so desperate to travel that they’d get on a plane that landed at the same airport it took off from.
Again, the third message warned the reader he had just a few hours to take advantage of to travel industry’s recovery.
Take another look at the stats above…
The open rates are all pretty similar.
The click-to-open rates are wildly different — and not directly correlated to conversions.
The benefit-driven, “here’s how much you can make” email was the worst performer of the bunch in terms of sales.
The story-based email destroyed the other two in conversion rate. Readers who clicked were at least 49% more likely to buy from this email than the others.
(It’s worth noting that my client sends promos like this every week. The second email is almost always the worst performer of the three. It’s usually not so story-focused, though.)
And the urgency email had the most sales by a wide margin, even though it had a much lower conversion rate. The higher number of clicks more than made up for it.
How Does This Put Money In Your Pocket?
In 3 ways.
Understanding the lessons we learned in this instance (and which I’ve seen bear out in multiple scenarios over the past few months), I encourage you to:
1. Build urgency into your promotions wherever you can (which is probably more often than you think).
This particular client uses urgency the same way week after week after week… and it keeps on working.
It’ll work for you, too.
2. Tell stories more often…
… but consider letting urgency take the lead as you get close to a deadline.
Good stories tend to generate higher quality clicks and significantly higher conversion rates.
By the way, you only need 3 things to write a good story, as you’ll discover in this video:
Quick Copywriting Tip #10: Make your copy empowering, not condemning or depressing.
If the reader benefits just from reading the marketing message, you’ve made the sale before the sale.
One of the most effective ways to empower your reader…to make it easier for him to take the next step towards his desired outcome…is to add an educational element to your copy.
In campaigns I’ve worked over the past few months, I’ve boosted orders as much as 25 to 40% by providing valuable tips, actionable recommendations, etc. right in the sales message instead of just “selling.”.
Quality educational content proves that
you actually know what you’re talking about — you’re not just a product-pusher and
begins to demonstrate to the reader that HE CAN DO THIS, that this can actually work for him.
When you do it well, a sense of hope may begin to form in the reader’s mind: hope that result he imagines can finally become reality.
When you instill real hope, you win an important victory — and the long-term benefits accrue for both you and your reader.
I got an email a couple weeks ago gets it terribly wrong, I think:
The “expert” shared some valuable tips, then implied I’d struggle to implement them successfully without his on-going help.
Seriously?
I have no problem with sales pressure and urgency, but if this is a big turn-off. At least for me.
So be careful how you approach this. In the long-run, it pays off to be genuinely helpful.
There’s a psychological reason the words “I’ll be back” from customers are the kiss of death for salespeople.
It’s the reason that you have to sell prospects when they’re “hot,” and any delay between receiving your marketing material is costly.
Watch this video:
This is the trailer for the newly-released book You’re Not So Smart (which, for the record, I haven’t read yet).
I don’t think this book is aiming at business education or sales training, but I’ve gotta ask: What are the implications of procrastination/present bias for your marketing and sales?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, but first, I’ll share some of my own observations.
