The out-of fashion idea that makes your emails unmissable

--> and super valuable too

I had a bit of an epiphany a few years ago watching a webinar.

Reading that back, it sounds a bit sad. But bear with me - there’s a useful lesson, I promise :)

I was studying the webinar because I knew the guy delivering it and I knew he was getting good sales from it.

Whereas my webinars were getting great feedback about how useful they were - but weren’t selling so much.

I came in to the webinar expecting it to be all sales pitch - but it wasn’t.

He delivered a ton of value - if anything, more than me.

But the crucial difference was the type of value he delivered.

My webinar was all detail.

I took something I knew my audience wanted to do and gave them the key steps they needed to do it.

His value was different. he took a problem his audience had and explained what the real way to solve it was.

In my case webinar attendees learned the steps they needed to get a result they were looking for. All very useful. But the problem was that for most attendees that was enough. They didn’t feel an urgent need to buy my course that gave even more details and hands-on support.

In his case, webinar attendees got an “aha moment” (3 in fact) when he revealed the unexpected reasons behind their problems and the things they should be doing to fix them.

His value was all in the revelation of a new idea - not in the details of how to do it.

My initial concern was that people would feel short-changed by not getting the implementation details. But they didn’t.

The “aha moments” were more than enough value for them. In fact going into details would have overwhelmed them. The new ideas needed time to sink in.

What was going through their minds at the time was “wow - I’d never thought of it like that but he’s right…I need to do that…and I should buy his course to find out how”.

In my case it was more “wow - those are the exact details of how to do what I want to do…I probably have enough to get started…let’s give it a go and maybe I’ll buy his course later if I get stuck”.

Both webinars gave value. But value in the form of a new idea creates pull to learn how to implement it. Value in the form of implementation details satiates the need and weakens demand.

It’s become kind of fashionable these days to decry the importance of ideas.

“Ideas are worthless, execution is everything” is the clarion call of the hustle-n-grind crowd.

But new ideas are perfect for webinars…and for emails.

Because new ideas are value-dense.

A new idea can deliver a ton of value in a few paragraphs. A detailed how-to guide needs a bit of an essay.

I said last time that because your readers mostly see your emails as a pleasant distraction from the drudgery of their inbox, they need to be interesting and entertaining as well as useful.

The problem with “how to” is it takes a long time to deliver value. And it’s pretty boring unless you’re a brilliant writer.

But an interesting new idea can give an “aha moment” in just a few sentences and leave your readers feeling like they’ve had a ton of value from you - without ever being boring.

Of course, no one has so many great ideas that they can pop a new one in every single email.

But please, don’t overlook the power of sharing new ideas and concepts in your emails rather than detailed “how to”.

(And don’t overlook just how much of what you - as an expert - might think is obvious is actually a brilliant new idea to your readers).

- Ian

There’s another type of “ah” moment which works in a similar way to give a lot of value in a few words. If I have time I’ll talk about it on Sunday.