Three Ways to Open: Break Part of Their Reality

If you don't know how to open your marketing or sales message to an audience of strangers, there are four ways to do it.

The one everyone uses all the time, and by far the weakest, is: we've made something or changed something, so sit tight and pay attention while we tell you about it. Garbage approach. Never do that. It's how almost every demo, sales or technical webinar, explainer and video starts.

The other three are far more arresting, and they share one underlying message: part of your reality is broken, and we fix that broken piece for our customers.

One: everyone said X was good, and it turns out X was never good.

Two: X is good, but something has changed, or is about to change, and it won't be good anymore. That's okay, we provide the solution.

Three: X is good for most people, but you're different. You're special. So X isn't going to be good for you.

A silly example with milk. One: everyone told us milk was good for us, and it turns out it never was. Two: milk is good, but because of a new law about what people are allowed to put in milk, that's changed. Three: milk is good for most people, but not if you have green eyes.

Much more powerful, and much more persuasive, than “here's what we made.”