A few years back, a bizarre sandwich board appeared on a street in Melbourne, Australia. It read:
“Ed Sheeran peep show! $2 ——->>>”
Next to the sandwich board hovered a shady looking spruiker, stopping passersby.
“Get yer Ed Sheeran… Who wants some Ed Sheeran…”
He’d point to an unmarked door leading to a darkened room. Unsurprisingly, people avoided him in a wide arc.
So he got more desperate: “We’ve literally got Ed Sheeran sitting on a stage, waiting for you.”
(Ed Sheeran really was there in the darkened room, waiting behind a red curtain, guitar in hand.)
But nobody wanted Ed Sheeran for $2. Or more likely, they just didn’t trust this shady spruiker and his sandwich board peep show offer.
It’s much like when somebody is strolling along the Internet, minding their own business… and they hit upon your optin page. It reads:
“7 steps to fixing your biggest problem now! Enter your email ——->>>”
Do people want their biggest problems solved?
Of course.
So why do so few opt in — and why do even fewer read anything you send them afterwards?
Much like with that spruiker on the street, they don’t know you. They probably don’t trust you. They certainly don’t like you. You’re just some shady character, pointing to an unmarked door, promising an amazing experience behind it.
But that’s just a fact of direct response marketing, right?
Unless you want to spend weeks, months, or years cultivating a brand through blogging or podcasting or whatever… then you have to take this hard stance and lose a few people in the process.
Perhaps.
Or perhaps not.
I’ve been going through a newish course by Andre Chaperon. You might know Andre from his course Autoresponder Madness, where he introduced story-based, soap opera email sequences that suck readers in, build a relationship, and simultaneously create anticipation for a paid solution to a problem.
Fact is, story-based email sequences are not the only big innovation that Andre has created.
He also invented something he calls “multi-page presell sites.” These suckers build a relationship and trust quickly, before asking people to opt in (or buy).
Andre’s been using them for years, and he claims they are the bedrock of his business, along with his Autoresponder Madness email approach.
(I’ve also seen some serious direct response businesses switching over to this “presell site” approach — both for getting people onto their mailing lists, and as a replacement for traditional sales letters.)
In case you wanna know more about Andre’s presell site system… or if you wanna see it in action… then you’re in luck. Cuz I got it ready for you, in a darkened room hiding behind the link below. You won’t even have to opt in:
https://tinylittlebusinesses.com/manifestos/product-launch-marketing/