People pay for stories

I was just kidding.

You don’t have to pay to read the ending.

Both of those button clicks lead here, but aren’t you curious to know how many people clicked each one?

(I certainly was, and I’ll share that data with you at the end.)

I told you this story over the last several days to prove THIS point:

People pay for stories.

People pay for stories.

People pay for stories.

Inside of an email, it may sounds silly at first.

But think about it.

What does Disney really sell?

What about Netflix? Marvel? JK Rowling? Star Wars?

All are worth billions of dollars.

People pay for stories.

Are you attaching stories to your products and services?

Are you using stories in your emails and other marketing?

If not, you’re making a huge mistake.

And if you see the value but aren’t sure how to do it, stick around.

Now, for the conclusion:

I walked into work the next Monday with an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I really did feel awful for letting the joke go too far.

I saw Jeff look up at me, them immediately look back down.

Was he completely ignoring me?

Suddenly, Jeff stood up.

“Oh hey, good morning bleep hole!”

He walked towards me.

“You’re really bleeping funny, you bleeping bleepsucker. I didn’t sleep at all Friday night because I was afraid to move!”

Unfortunately, this struck me as funny, and I desperately tried to choke back a laugh.

Jeff noticed.

“Bleep you, dude!”

But I noticed that there was some humor twisted up with his anger.

I spoke. “To be fair, I didn’t sleep at all last night because I was worried about being sued, and fired, and then having to explain to my wife how I managed it all.”

Suddenly, Jeff laughed. “Hah! Good! Serves you right. Bleephole.”

I could tell that now, there was more humor than anger.

“And I might still sue you.”

Thankfully, Jeff never did sue me.

He was pretty mad for several days, but we are still friends over a decade later.

But I learned the power of creating an open loop over a weekend, both by doing it to someone else and having someone else do it to me.

I never forgot that lesson, and I hope you don’t either.

The End…is always just the beginning,

Greg

P.S. Do you want to see the results of this experiment? Were people willing to pay? How many? Get the answers here.