How This Voice Mail Message Could Change Your Fortunes
The other day I left a voice mail message for my friend Russ.
He’s the man behind the highly successful Crazy Egg blog, The Daily Egg, that I contribute to and I had some exciting news to share with him.
So I left him the following message…“Hey Russ. It’s Adam. I owe you a big thank you and’ve got some exciting news to share with you. Give me a call when you have a minute.”
About 10 minutes later Russ calls back and says “Dude, even your voice mails are compelling! How could I not immediately call you back after getting a message like that?!”
How could that change your fortunes?
Well, the formula I used in that voicemail (not intentionally, it’s just a sickness habit from years of marketing and copywriting) is one of the most powerful headline formulas around.
If you wanna get someone’s attention…
If you want them to read your email…
If you want them to read your web page…
If you want them to read your direct mail piece…
…then this formula is golden!
What’s the formula?
Curiosity + Benefit
Simple, right?
Go back to that voice mail.
“I owe you a big thank you” – He had no idea what I was going to thank him for which created curiosity. And I was going to thank him and who doesn’t want to be thanked? That’s the benefit.
“…and’ve got some exciting news to share with you.” – Again, same thing. He didn’t know what the exciting news was (curiosity) and there was an implied benefit that the news was good for him in some way.
Curiosity + Benefit is a simple, yet extremely powerful formula you can use to write incredible headlines that’ll get more people to pay attention to your marketing messages.
Oh, and one more thing.
I could have called Russ and left a mundane “Hey Russ. It’s Adam. Give me a call when you get a chance” and he would have called me back (though maybe not as quickly!).
Why? Because we’ve established a great relationship over the years and he knows me, likes me and trusts me (and the feeling is mutual).
Big lesson there too…
the more you can build a relationship with your prospects and get them to know you, like you and trust you, the more likely they’ll be to respond when you come calling.
