Two days ago, Tuesday, around 6:45pm, I snuck out of my house.
The streets were quiet and full of police.
There was no traffic, just people clustered in bunches along the curbs.
I waited for a while to watch a cavalcade of police motorcycles and two black and tinted vans drive by in the direction of Montjuic, where the Barcelona Olympic stadium is.
Then I started walking in the same direction.
Like I wrote last week, the Pope came to Barcelona this Tuesday.
I made plans with my friends Sanda and Victor to meet at the Olympic stadium and to participate in the drama of tens of thousands of people watching and cheering just some guy (I’m not Catholic).
It turned out that there wasn’t any drama. It was all very orderly. There were no giant crowds outside the stadium, even though the Pope was supposed to speak there in a little more than a half hour.
It also turned out we needed to register in advance to be allowed into the stadium. In other words, we weren’t getting in. We could just peak inside and see the promised tens of thousands of worshipers in there already, singing chipper and modern Christian rock songs, and waiting for the Pope.
So we couldn’t get in to see the Pope. Oh well.
It was a beautiful afternoon, and Montjuic is a beautiful place.
So Sanda and Victor and I decided to walk to a nearby pool (famous from photos of high divers during the ’92 Olympics) and get a drink.
And as we headed up the street, within the first few steps, on a little stretch where there was nobody else on the curb with us, another cavalcade of police motorcycles and black cars slowly came our way.
Except this time, one of the black cars had its window rolled down.
There was the Pope, about 15 feet away from us.
He saw us and waved. I guess it’s what popes do, but I still felt special, seen. I instinctively smiled and waved back.
So that’s my selfie with the Pope.
I don’t use my phone much. Even if I did, it would have taken lightning reflexes to pull it out and to grab a selfie with me in the foreground and the Pope waving in the background.
That’s ok. This email is effectively painting that picture for you, and serving the same purpose of gloating about something noteworthy in my life.
Like I said, all this happened two days ago.
I didn’t write about it yesterday because — and here’s the marketing lesson for today — you shouldn’t hide your new offers.
I’ve seen a problematic behavior among several people I am coaching.
It’s particularly problematic because it’s a behavior I also engage in.
It goes like this:
1. I come up with a new, potentially risky offer.
2. I write an email that doesn’t refer to this offer in any way in the subject line, the lead, or really the body of the email.
3. I then stuff the offer at the end of the email.
4. More often than not, I throw up my hands in frustration that nobody (or very few people) took me up on my offer, and I scrap the whole thing.
That’s kind of what I did two days ago.
I wrote an email about Dean Jackson… and how great Dean is… and about a lead gen method Dean has.
At the end of that email, I put in an offer for what I am calling the Core Promise Workshop and Q&A call, which is free and is happening live next Tuesday.
I sent out that email in the evening two days ago (right around the time I was hanging out with the Pope).
Result:
By the end of the evening, 6 people had registered for the call. Not even the Pope could save me.
I checked the stats again the next day.
21 people in total had registered by now. Better, but still, less than 1% of my list. For a free, live workshop, one where I’m offering to answer your questions and help you come up with a new core promise for your business.
Am I such a loser?
Are my readers losers?
Is this new offer a loser?
Or is it just that I really really worked hard to bury the lead?
That’s why yesterdays email was just the offer.
It’s my fix, my deal with myself, why I allow myself from time to time to bury a new offer like I did two days ago. My deal with myself is, if I ever bury it one day, I have to put it front-and-center the very next day.
In fact, yesterday’s email was just the tail end of the previous day’s email, with the copy completely unchanged. Even though I had this selfie with the Pope to tell you about.
Result:
66 registrants so far. Meaning, the second email brought in twice as many people as the first.
Which is good, and it supports the point I made to you above. I think I can do still better though. So let me remind you:
The most important part of your marketing message is the promise you make. That’s equally true whether you’re selling a service, coaching, a course, or yourself as a person of trust and influence.
Based on my 1-1 work with dozens of online business owners, I can tell you that most business owners DO NOT DO A GOOD JOB with the core promise they are making in their marketing.
Next Tuesday, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST, I will hold a Core Promise Workshop and Q&A call.
It’s free & you can Register Here.
I’ll share the most important parts of:
* What makes a good promise
* The importance of being clear over clever
* Choosing a promise that sounds credible
And we’ll end with a Q&A session to answer your Core Promise questions.
Don’t forget to register so I can send you the details.
See you there.