It’s very hard to get my attention. There are 3,000,000 things I could be doing right this very minute, and I need to be reasonably convinced (Tyler Cowen style) that what I’m reading is the best possible thing I could be reading right now.
Getting my attention with a bulk email is exceptionally hard, especially when your generic newsletter is right below an email from a close friend detailing her upcoming trip to Lithuania and right above an email from a new client with an exciting, challenging new efficiency conundrum for me to solve.
Ryan Lee is a long-time fitness professional with an impressive portfolio of membership services and sites geared to people who want to get in [better] shape. All that said, Ryan is doing something very, very right, and if you are trying to reach a large audience, you should do what he does:
- His emails are short, like a Seth Godin post.
- He’s honest. If you’re not in shape, it’s because you’ve been lazy, not because McDonald’s hides secret hypnotic messages in its radio commercials. However, at the same time, he’s encouraging — after all, you can choose to *not* be lazy any more and get in great shape.
- He makes sense. I have a fitness background, and whenever I hear people talk about their new low-carb diet or how they’re taking a new weight loss supplement, I want to scream and hit them a book on Nutrition and Weight Loss 101. Most people hawking fitness products do it by playing on weaknesses, lying, and furthering myths. From what I’ve seen, Ryan makes a serious effort to dispel these myths and builds his programs on what really works.
- He’s not always selling something. Sometimes he’ll send a quick note about an experience he had on an airline, or to share a story about something one of his daughters did. Over time, I have found myself caring just as much about what Ryan is up to as I do about my favorite bloggers in other fields.
- He’s human. Ryan has been doing a lot of videos lately, and it’s clear he isn’t reading from a professionally-written script. I love this. It makes him approachable and makes his videos more interesting to watch, and it follows, to learn from.
- He stands by his guarantees. I’ve been working on my own information products and was curious to see what Ryan’s physical materials were like, so I signed up for his “Millionaire Workout” program. The information was great for someone unfamiliar with the Internet, but far too basic for me (as I expected), so I canceled (as I had planned). No hassle, and I even got a nice personal note back. That makes me confident in any future purchases I may make.
This post was inspired by Chris Brogan’s “Example of a Great PR Pitch.” If you know someone who’s “doing it right,” give them some credit!
