I apparently misled a bunch of people yesterday.
At the end of the email I sent out to my newsletter subscribers, I promised a copy of a free book on how to get rich as a repositioning consultant.
People wrote in to ask for their copy.
But unfortunately, there is no book. My offer was supposed to be a demonstration of the idea in the email (“If it’s not selling, reposition it as a business opportunity”).
But I wasn’t clear enough or tongue-in-cheek enough about it. So people took my offer at face value.
I wrote back to everybody who responded to explain what had happened.
Most people shrugged, and said that if I ever do write anything on this topic, they hope to get their promised copy. Which they will.
A few people said they had a kind of a-ha moment after re-reading the email. A guy named Nathan put it this way:
I sat there for around 5 minutes debating whether it was sarcastic or not.
Everything in me said, “there is no book”…
FOMO got the better of me though.
I’ve been there myself. And it’s kind of the point of what I wrote yesterday.
This direct response stuff works. And a cocktail of “opportunity” mixed with “FREE” is powerful and heady.
Anyways, the two types of reactions above cover all the responses I got…
Except one.
It came from a guy who’s responded a few times before to my offers and emails. And a few times before, he upset my evening equilibrium with his entitled and loaded comments.
This time, after I explained what had happened, he sent back a highlighted copy of my promised offer from yesterday, along with,
“So… you lied?”
Perhaps I’m overly sensitive.
But I don’t like to create outrage. And I don’t like outrage directed at me. Even passively. Even if it’s supposed to be good for business.
So this became the first time I proactively unsubscribed somebody from my list. It felt good.
Because my thinking is, if you’re planning to be at something for a long time, the way I do with these emails, you have to be happy to come into work every day.
So let me just say thank you. For reading. For being understanding. For not being outraged. And tomorrow, we will be back to our usual marketing topics… along with, who knows, maybe another hidden demonstration.
And by the way:
If you’d like to sign up to my email newsletter so you can read tomorrow’s email and not be outraged by it, here’s where to go.