How can e-commerce marketers get a serious leg up on the competition? By "framing" their customers for the perfect sale in their emails and marketing automation systems.
There are two main parts to this article: the Pre-Frame (everything that happens before the opt-in) and the Post-Frame (everything that happens after the opt-in).
Smart marketers place high importance on attention to detail in both cases (not just before, not just after), and they figure out ways to use the two in tandem—creating in prospects both the appetite for their product and the opportunity to quench that appetite by buying whatever it is the marketer is selling.
The Pre-Frame: How to Extract More Profit With Less Effort
In the ratio of effort to result, the goal is to increase the result without increasing effort. In short, you are after leverage in marketing: less "doing," more "result." It just so happens that one of the most leverage-able ways to beef up results is the Pre-Frame.
There's a legend about a fisherman named Captain John Rade, who, when asked how he caught so many fish (hundreds of pounds of fish per day), grudgingly shared his secret: "Don't think like a fisherman, think like a fish."
In truth, that is the entire basis of good marketing: To catch the most fish—to acquire the most customers—you must reduce the friction between where your customer is currently and where you want them to be.
And the only way to effectively do so is by understanding where they are (objections, fears, desires, problems, etc.) and what must happen to move (or attract) them to where you want them to be.
We set up our Pre-Framing the way we do because it's an attempt to reduce the conversion friction.
Imagine this scenario: You are taken to a news page that describes the tale of a recent mugging. A father was unable to defend his two daughters from a street robbery downtown in a town close to where you live. His only regret was not being better prepared to protect his family.
Then, after reading this story, you are taken to a page where you can receive free self-defense tips so you'll always be prepared for whatever happens.
In that example lies the power of the Pre-Frame. Often, the only thing more important than what's on the sales or marketing page is what the prospect saw just before seeing your marketing. It's called "priming," and it's one of the most powerful concepts you can use to "reduce the friction" between where your prospect is and where you want her to go.
In this story, there are a few things at play, and I want to point them out so you do not miss them:
- The reason: In your landing page and your emails, it's important to reinforce and remind your prospects "why" they care (or should care) about whatever it is you are offering them. In our example, you've done so with a story, eliciting the fears or negative pressures of your market in an attempt to have them take action to avoid the unwanted outcome.
- Bridging: Once you've clearly painted the reason why they care, you need to link up the next step you want your prospect to take as the way out of their fear, or toward their desire. (See why "thinking like a fish" is so important? You must know these fears, desires, and objections like they were your own.)
- Set clear expectations: Here, you lay out exactly what will happen once they take the desired action. Give your "thing" a unique value proposition. I have a friend who calls this "showing up different": i.e., clearly being unique in a beneficial way that makes people focus on your offer as an opportunity, not a commodity. Don't just say, "Get Free Self-Defense Tips Here."
If the prospect can go google it and find competition, you lose. Give it a name or some unique aspect that only you have in order to keep the perceived value high. (For example, my "Fast Frame" technique, the thing I'm explaining to you now, is unique to me. If I just said "Learn How to Sell More Stuff," it wouldn't be unique).
At this point, you're probably wondering why this article is halfway finished and we haven't even gotten into the main topic: email. That's because if you don't have your framing systems set up properly, you severely inhibit the positive results email marketing can generate for you.
Without further ado, let's dive in.
