These stories are pretty self-explanatory and simple to write. In fact, you can often tell the whole story with just pictures. But don’t let the simplicity fool you. These stories are powerful motivators, and you should use them often.
Amazing Discovery: “Oh my gosh, you guys . . . wait til you hear about this amazing new thing I just discovered! You’re not going to believe it, but I hit it out of the park on my first try! I wasn’t sure it would work, but it’s amazing. You’ve got to try it!” These stories are huge for selling webinars and teleseminars because they help people believe that the answer they have been searching for is finally available to them.
Secret Telling: “I’ve got a secret . . . if you want to find out what it is, you need to do ___________.” This is my favorite type of storyline. My whole company, DotComSecrets, is built around “secret” storylines. The lure of secrets draws the reader into your funnel and up your Value Ladder.
Third-Person Testimonial: Sharing other people’s successes with your products and programs provides powerful social proof. Get as many third-person testimonials from your customers, clients, and students as you can. Then sprinkle them liberally throughout your stories. Or use them as stand-alone stories and case studies.
Let’s Review: It’s time to get started creating your Attractive Character. When I say “create,” I don’t mean “make it up.” I mean to zero in on a story and personality you or one of your clients has. It’s real. Start assembling your identity, your stories, your flaws, and your line in the sand. Most entrepreneurs never think about this vital communication tool. And even if they do, they don’t put in the time and effort to do a good job creating a believable persona. Like I said before, creating your Attractive Character can mean the difference between making one thousand dollars a month and one hundred thousand.
Up Next: Now that you understand the strategy behind the Attractive Character, let’s shift the focus back to how we can use this tool to communicate with your audience and help them to ascend your Value Ladder naturally.
SECRET #7:
THE SOAP OPERA SEQUENCE
When somebody joins your list for the first time, it’s essential that you quickly build a bond between them and the Attractive Character. The way you introduce your character can mean the difference between a subscriber opening your emails consistently or hitting the delete key. For years I tried dozens of ways to build a quick relationship with people after they joined my list, but I always struggled until I learned a concept called the Soap Opera Sequence from one of my friends, Andre Chaperon.
If you’ve never watched a soap opera before, the stories rely on open-ended, high-drama episodes that hook the viewers in and keep them coming back every single day to find out what happens next. The programs are continuous narratives that never conclude. The characters are always either getting into trouble or getting out of trouble, falling in love or breaking up, heading to jail or escaping, dying or magically re-appearing. If you relate to the characters, you can’t help but get sucked into the drama and want to know what’s coming next.
We’re going to use the same story structure and elements to create your opening email sequence. The goal is to create an instant bond between your Attractive Character and the person reading the email. If your first email is boring, you’re done. They probably won’t open the next one. But if you give them something interesting and hook them with an open storyline in the first email, then they will look forward to the next one, and the next, and the next.
In your Soap Opera Sequence, you’re going to introduce your Attractive Character and build up an open-ended dramatic story that draws the reader in. There are a few different ways you can do this. For example, I’ve seen sequences that Andre has built out that have forty or fifty emails! I’ve never had the time or patience to be able to do that, so instead I built out a simple, five-day Soap Opera Sequence that I send out when someone joins my list. The key to making this sequence work (just like a soap opera) is you have to open and close loops that will drag your reader from one email to the next.
For example, I may tell readers in the first email that I discovered the secret to getting rid of their nerve pain forever without expensive pain medications or side effects . . . but instead of telling them all the details, I merely open that loop and tell them I’ll give them the secret tomorrow. Then, in the second email, I will give them the secret, but then I open a new loop that pulls them into email number three.
I’m sure you’ve seen directors do this on soap operas or reality shows. The tactic pulls you from commercial break to commercial break, from episode to episode. You see it every day on TV; now it’s your turn to become a master at it with email.
Let me walk you through the five-email Soap Opera Sequence that readers get when they join my lists. It’s simple, and it works to build a relationship with the Attractive Character fast. In this example, someone just joined my list by filling out a form on a squeeze page requesting more information about becoming an “Expert,” and the product I’m going to be selling them in this series is called “Expert Secrets.”
Email #1: Set the Stage. This is the first email, a thank you note, that people receive the minute they sign up for your list. It sets the stage for the emails to come and lets people know what to expect. Are you going to email them once a day, twice a day, or once a week? For this first sequence, I recommend once a day for the best results.
Here’s an Example:
Subject: [DCS] Ch. 1 of 5
Body: Hey, this is Russell, and I want to “officially” welcome you to my world.
About ten years ago, I started my first online business while I was in college (selling potato gun DVDs), and this little hobby became my obsession.
I started selling all sorts of things online and have become a student of marketing.
My other businesses are where I test and try stuff out...
DotComSecrets is where I share what I’ve learned.
My goal is always to give away better stuff for FREE than what other people charge for.
In fact, tomorrow I’m gonna do just that. Yes, I’m going to let you go through one of my BEST products for free—and then ONLY pay me if you think it’s worth it. . . BUT only if you open the email when it comes . . .
Yes, you heard me right. . .
I want our relationship to start out great. . .
So, I’m going to WOW you with SO much value that you’ll feel obligated to buy stuff from me in the future (just kidding . . . kinda).
Sound good?
Cool, then look for that email tomorrow.
Thanks,
Russell “Your New Marketing Buddy” Brunson
P.S. The subject line is “[DCS] Ch. 2 of 5: The day my education failed me” —so look for it!
Email #2: Open with High Drama. Okay, if you did a good job opening a loop in email number one, then the reader will be anxiously waiting for your next email to come in. For me, this is where the story “selling” process begins. I learned from Daegan Smith that you ALWAYS start any good story at the point of high drama. Most people mistakenly start their stories at the beginning, but usually stories don’t get good until the middle, so it’s better to start at the good part, and then you can go back and fill in the backstory after readers are hooked.
Backstory. Once you have their attention with emotional drama, you’re going to go back and tell them the backstory. Tell them the events that led up to the high-drama moment. How in the world did you get yourself into such a predicament? Typically, your backstory is going to take you back to a similar spot the readers may be in now. If you’re helping them to lose weight, you take them back to when you were overweight. If you’re teaching them finances, take them back to a time before you were successful. You want to bring them on a personal journey with you.
This backstory will lead up to a spot where you got stuck and hit a wall. Usually this is where the readers are in their lives right now. They are stuck, and that is why they are open to y
our answers. You explain to them how you hit that wall and then found the answer. But don’t give them the answer yet. Just open the loop, and promise to close it in email number three.
Here’s an Example:
Subject: [DCS] Ch. 2 of 5: The day my education failed me.
Body: “How did I get here?”
I sat in the middle of a full auditorium, feeling a little confused that after everything, it would all end here . . . like this.
I had been blindly following the status quo for fifteen years, moving towards one goal, only to find out the whole thing was a lie . . .
I looked to my left . . . and I looked to my right . . . and I saw hundreds of others in the same situation as me. Only THEY had smiles on their faces.
Didn’t they know what was about to happen to us?
It was Saturday, May 14th, 2005.
It was the day I was finally graduating from college, the day my parents had told me about for years.
“You need to get a college education so you can get a good job.”
Sure, tonight there would be a lot of celebrating . . .
But what about the next morning?
That’s when we all had a chance to meet the “Real World.”
And as we quickly found out, it’s not very nice or forgiving.
For most of the people who graduated with me, IF they were able to find jobs, they were going into entry-level jobs making thirty to forty thousand dollars a year. . .
Barely enough to cover the monthly payments for their student loans.
Loans which, by the way, are non-dismissible . . . EVEN if you declare bankruptcy.
The chains of debt and a job market that can’t pay enough to cover the costs of our education is what we each inherited when we stepped into the “Real World.”
So, when I looked around and saw them all smiling on graduation day, at first I was confused . . .
Not for me, but for them . . .
Because for me, I knew what my next step was. Just two years earlier, I had stumbled on a cool way to take the things I was good at in my life and turn those things into a business.
This was a business that had made me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars my senior year in college and would go on to make me over a MILLION dollars within just one year of graduation.
Would you like to know what I found out? Are you interested in how I was able to get my idea up and running with literally no money, while I was going to school, wrestling, and spending time with my new wife?
If so, then look for my email tomorrow. I’m gonna show you the epiphany I had, but more importantly, I’m going to explain how you can use it to get similar results in your life!
So, look for tomorrow’s email. The subject line is [DCS] Ch. 3 of 5: Expert Secrets.
Thanks,
Russell “Wish I Had My Tuition Back” Brunson
P.S. I almost forgot. I told you yesterday that I was going to GIVE you my best product for free . . .
You can get it here (but please don’t share it with anyone else)—this is for my faithful subscribers only:
www.ExpertSecrets.com/freeaccess <= my best product
This course has made more of my students independently wealthy than anything we’ve ever done in the past. So go signup for the training now and let’s see where it could take you!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Email #3: Epiphany. Now it’s time to start bringing in the dawn. You have an epiphany. You realize something you hadn’t thought of before. Maybe it’s something that was right in front of you the whole time. It’s the moment that everything turned around for you. By now the reader is so hooked in, they want to know (and hopefully buy) your solution. Most of the time, your epiphany email will lead back to your core offer—whatever you’re selling that solves the problem.
• My epiphany was I needed to build a list, and that’s when I learned about_________________.
• I had to get a support system to help me get over my addiction; that’s when I found_________________.
• I had to address the emotional roots of overeating, and that’s when I discovered_________________.
The epiphany ties into the solution you’re selling. If you’re selling someone else’s product, it’s enough to say your epiphany led to the discovery of the product.
Here’s an Example:
Subject: [DCS] Ch. 3 of 5: Expert Secrets.
Body: I was sitting in my college classroom. doing the math and trying to figure out howmuch my college professor was making per hour.
I assumed he was making about fifty thousand dollars per year. (My estimate may have been low or high; I have no idea.) If he was working forty-hour weeks, then he was probably making about twenty-five dollars an hour.
I then looked at a “how to” book I had bought the night before. I had paid fifty dollars for the book, and I thought it was awesome.
I knew the person who wrote the book had said that he sells, on average, one hundred copies of that book per day. One hundred copies!
I was doing the math, and at fifty dollars per book, he was making about five thousand dollars per day! Or $1,825,000 per year!
But the craziest part is the guy only spent a few days writing the book (it was 90% pictures and just 10% text), and when he was done, he NEVER had to write it again. The book did the teaching for him! He was able to create it once and then get paid for it over and over again!
That’s when I realized I didn’t want to sell my knowledge by the hour like my professor was doing . . . I wanted to sell it like this author!
And so that’s what I did . . .
And by my senior year in college, I had made about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!
And within a year of graduation, I had made over a million!
And I did this all by focusing on ONE thing . . .
Selling my knowledge the right way!
Would you like to know how I did that?
If so, I just posted a video online that will show you how I took twenty dollars and a simple idea and turned it into a million-dollar-a-year “how-to” business.
I posted the video here: www.ExpertSecrets.com/freeaccess
Go check it out, and let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Russell Brunson
P.S. Tomorrow I want to show you a few hidden benefits that being an “expert” will give you, benefits you probably don’t even know exist. Look for that email tomorrow!
Email #4: Hidden Benefits. In this email, you want to point out benefits the reader is getting by knowing you and following your plan or by using your product. You want to focus on benefits that probably aren’t as obvious. This gives you another reason to email them, and it gives the prospect another chance to build an even stronger bond with the Attractive Character. This email will point out the hidden benefits they may not have thought about before.
Sure, you’re going to make more money—but you also get more freedom to travel.
Sure, you’re going to lose weight—but you’ll also live long enough to enjoy your grandchildren.
Sure, you’re going to be able to work from home—but did you realize you’ll be able to take vacations whenever you want?
Often, it’s the hidden benefits that really grab the reader and move them to take action. So, you want to come up with parables (stories) that demonstrate those hidden benefits. Show them how you can take time off whenever you want, and explain how that makes you feel. When the reader thinks, Man, I want that for myself! That’s when they click the link and buy your products.
Here’s an Example:
Subject: [DCS] Ch. 4 of 5: The Hidden Benefits.
Body: When I first became an “Expert”, I was concerned because I didn’t have any credentials, degrees or anything. . .
I just knew that what I showed people worked and I wanted to share it.
But what caught me off-guard was how helping people get what they want in life actually changed the quality of my own life.<
br />
Sure, I started to make a lot of money, BUT... more importantly, each person I helped opened up new doors for me. Through my “Expert” business, I’ve been able to travel around the world and meet cool people like Tony Robbins and Richard Branson...
But the REAL hidden benefit has been the fulfillment I get when I see someone else change his or her life. And that is what this business really is about for me, I’m guessing if you’re here, then it’s probably the same thing for you too—am I right?
If so, then you NEED to signup for my Expert Secrets course. Normally I charge $3,000 to attend, but I am going to do two cool things for you:
I’m giving you a HUGE 90% discount
You’re ONLY gonna pay if you like it!
Yes, that’s right—you get to come signup, attend, get all of my best ideas—and then IF (and only if) you love it, will you pay.
And if you don’t like it for any reason—then you’re getting it for free.
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