“‘Violets always mean man,’ said one girl to another in a Broadway florist’s recently. ‘If a girl wears violets once, it may be accident; twice coincidence; after that it means a man.'”
— New York Sun, May 7, 1905
It might mean “man” even at just two violets. For example:
Last night, I went on YouTube. On the front page, I saw a thumbnail for a 2-hour-long documentary about Gordon Ramsay. I clicked to watch it immediately.
Trust me, there’s a reason why you might care about this. And it’s because of the big question:
Why?
After all, I’ve never seen Gordon Ramsay’s TV show. I have no emotional attachment to the man or his public persona. And I don’t care about celebrity chefs or celebrity cooking.
So why did I unthinkingly click and watch this 2-hour documentary?
The reason is a podcast I’d listened to the day earlier. It was all about how Gordon Ramsay’s TV show is a great illustration of control techniques.
If you’re curious about those control techniques, I will tell you my big takeaway about them tomorrow.
My point for today is simply this:
Two seemingly independent sources can often get compliance where one source can’t, regardless of the amount of persuasive arguments.
I bet that last sentence is as clear as a marble wall. So let me give you an illustration of what I’m trying to say:
A couple of years ago, I found out about a new email newsletter. It was called Daily Insider Secrets, and it was about Internet marketing.
I signed up. And that’s how I first heard the name Rich Schefren. Rich was one of the guys behind the newsletter.
I kept reading the emails. I found them interesting. And then came the pitch:
A big campaign, trying to sell me something, using a multi-day launch, hours of video, thousands of words of copy. Many, many persuasive arguments, which I didn’t even look at. (Silly me right? It’s kind of my job. But I’m slow to learn.)
Anyways, here’s the climax:
A few months later, a copywriter whose emails I read did an interview with Rich Schefren. And I decided to watch the interview, because I already knew Rich’s name from the Daily Insider Secrets emails, which I found interesting.
Forty minutes later, after I finished watching the interview, I was pulling out my credit card to buy Rich’s offer. The same one I had completely ignored earlier. Even though Rich only mentioned it in passing during the interview.
Coincidence? I’d say “man”.
Because Rich doesn’t just do these interviews for kicks or as a way to kill time. He does them to get his name out there, in multiple formats and multiple channels. And that’s my point for you today:
If you’re trying to sell something, get your name out there, in two channels, or three, or more.
You will reach more prospects, sure. But you will also convert prospects you’ve already reached, but who wouldn’t buy from you otherwise. And you won’t even have to sell hard to do it.
Because your prospects will just think it was all just a happy coincidence. You and I will know the truth, though. We will know it was man.
Now here’s something that’s probably not going to work:
I have an email newsletter. You can sign up for it by clicking here. I don’t expect you to do it, because odds are, this is the first and only channel you’ve seen my name so far. But maybe I will get you later, in some other format.