Many of you have emailed me some great questions:
Entrepreneurs: “What can I do to increase the number of return customers?”
Students: “What can I do to increase my popularity?”
Bloggers and Webmasters: “What can I do to increase return traffic?”
Speakers and writers: “What can I do to make my audience hunger for more?”
Although these questions may seem unrelated, they all boil down to one central question: What can you do to make sure your message gets stuck in someone’s head and never let’s go?These are all good questions bloggers, business people, sales professionals, and attention seekers have asked at one time or another. I am going to give some examples of how to answer this question. But first, let’s see if you can derive the answer from my examples…
A few months ago, I bought an excellent CD called Declare a New State by the Submarines. The music is longing and moving, with just the right amount of “Je ne sai quoi” to keep me interested. However, one of the troubling aspects of the CD is it seems too short. There are only 10 songs and I am left wanting more.
When they release their next CD I’ll be first in line to get it.
There’s a clue in my example above can you spot it?
If you get the nugget of wisdom, you can command repeat business no matter what you do.
Here’s an example of how it isn’t done right. Let’s say you write a self-help book. The book solves a whole host of problems. At the end, the reader closes the book, completely happy and satisfied.
You take the next two years carefully researching and writing your second book. It is even better than the first! But for some reason the second book tanks at the book store. You don’t make as many sales. People don’t seem to care you wrote it at all.
Can you spot why the first book was a winner but the second fell flat?
If not, here’s why. The first book resolved everything. The reader was 100% satisfied. All questions were answered. All open loops were closed. The reader wasn’t left wanting more!
The TV show 24 isn’t the most popular show in the entire world because Jack kills all the terrorists on the first night. No, each episode leaves lots of unanswered questions. There are open loops all over the place. There is curiosity in the mind of the viewer.
Result: Viewers can’t wait for the next episode!
There’s a saying in direct marketing that goes “the second sale is where the money is.” You see, when a company is marketing a product or service, there is overhead, there is advertising, there are copywriters to pay, there are delays in waiting for ads to appear, and a whole host of other setbacks to get that first sale.
As a result… Many products don’t break even on the first sale!
Only on the second sale do many companies start to see a profit. The Sony Playstation 3 is a good example of this. How much money are they losing on the front end just to get you to buy a Playstation 3? Some say at least $240 per unit.Sony’s plan is to make all that up on the repeat business – otherwise known as the back-end. They know that once someone plays one game, they’ll want another and another.
As someone who wants repeat business; be it return traffic to your blog or website. Or more sales, or just more popularity, you must leave your audience wanting more.
Leave some mystery. Don’t answer all the questions. Leave the person at the other end curious for your next move!hanging on the edge of their seat.
Tomorrow, I’ll detail a funny personal experience I had experimenting with this method. I got in big trouble because I took it too far – in front of a live audience of about 400 people!
{ 1 comment }
Nice..nice post.