Last night, as lights dimmed around the city and the streets got quiet and a lonely owl started hooting somewhere in the distance, I settled into bed and started watching…
Psycho!
(The trailer.)
This was a 6-minute promo movie, made by Alfred Hitchcock, to drum up anticipation for the real Psycho movie.
The Psycho trailer features Hitchcock himself, showing off the Psycho set as if it were a real crime scene.
With cheery music playing, Hitchcock walks around the set, hints at the murders that happened in different rooms, and occasionally pouts and frowns at camera as if to say, “You there, in the second row, what odd thing are you doing?”
At the end of it all, Hitchcock walks into the motel, to the bathroom.
“Well they cleaned all this up now,” he says. “Big difference. You should have seen the blood. The whole place was… well, it’s too horrible to describe.”
In spite of this, Hitchcock continues his cheery tour. He points out the toilet — an important clue — and then the shower. The camera zooms in as he reaches for the shower curtain, pulls it back swiftly, and—
A screaming woman’s face flashes and the famous Psycho slasher music cuts into your ears.
The closing credits appear, and then a notice:
“PSYCHO: The picture you MUST see from the beginning… or not at all! For no one will be seated after the start.”
“What?” I asked my laptop. No one allowed in late? Is this for real?”
It turns out yes.
Hitchcock made a rule for the release of Psycho. Nobody would be allowed into the theater, any theater, anywhere around country, after the movie had started.
Studio honchos were worried that this arbitrary rule would hurt ticket sales.
But you, my dear marketing psycho, probably know better.
What do you think happened?
Did people hear they won’t be allowed in late, and decide to stay away?
Did a few people who did come late, and who got turned away, and who fumed about it… did these people sour everybody else from seeing the movie?
Of course not.
Lines formed around the block, in cities around the US, made up of people waiting to see Psycho, at the appointed time.
Of course, these people were not there only because of this “No late admission” rule.
But I’m 100% sure this rule contributed to the fact that Pyscho broke box-office records in its opening weekend, and has become such a keystone of pop culture since.
Maybe you see where I’m going with this.
People loooove draconian rules and restrictions, particularly in a take-it-or-leave it setting.
Sure, some people get turned away. Either because they know in advance they can’t make it to the theater in time, or more likely, because they dawdle.
But some people will be intrigued who wouldn’t care otherwise. And more important, many people will treat the person setting the rules with a new level of respect and deference.
Ben Settle recently wrote an email about his Psycho rule not to allow people who unsubscribe from his Email Players newsletter to re-subscribe down the line. Ben wrote:
“I’ve tested, tweaked, experimented with, and practiced this policy for nearly 10 years. And I have found, without exception, the harsher I am with this policy, the stronger my business gets with far more successful customers. On the other hand, the more lenient I am with this policy, the weaker my business gets with far more weak-minded customers. It’s such an integral part of what makes my business model work, that it’s ‘part’ of my marketing now, just like clean parks are ‘part’ of Disneyland’s customer service.”
So there you go. If you want a stronger business and more successful customers, stop allowing anyone into your theater after the lights dim.
Or stop allowing them back in, if they ever leave for a pee break.
Or come up with yer own Psycho rules. Ones that match your personality, your preferences, and your business objectives.
“Here it comes,” some oddball in the second row is saying, while rubbing his hands together. “Here come Bejako’s rules. He always likes to write about an interesting marketing and business idea, and then implement it in the same email.”
True. I do like to implement good ideas as soon as I write about them.
But another thing I like to do is to take a really important idea, and sit on it for a while, and then implement it in future emails, and throughout my business.
This particular idea, about Psycho rules, is big enough and important enough to warrant more time and space than I want to take for a single email.
But keep an eye out, if you have an eye to spare, and maybe will see me pulling back the shower curtain some time soon, and with scary slasher music suddenly playing, startling my list with one of my new Pyscho rules.
Meanwhile, if you want my advice, insights, and guidance (no copywriting) when it comes to your existing email marketing funnels, you can contact me using the form below.
No arbitrary rules or hoops to jump through — yet.
Here’s the link: