The concept of pre-framing is really simple… it’s selling a person prior to them even seeing what you have to sell.
I’ve been using and teaching the opt-in page strategy for years. I’ve taught tens of thousands of people the strategy…put up an opt-in page, send- ing them to a sales letter and utilizing a bribe. I taught them exactly how I did it.
But I was puzzled because my conversions were substantially higher than those of my students. I just couldn’t figure it out.
I was getting a 50-60% conversion rate on my opt-in page, and I was get- ting from 6% to up to 15% conversion on my sales letters. But, my students weren’t even coming close to these numbers. My big question was, why weren’t my students getting results similar to mine?
After all, I taught them word-for-word what I was saying on my opt-in page. I gave them the same layout I was using for my opt-in page, yet they were not getting the same results I was getting from my pages.
It took me years before I figured out what the difference was between my students and my opt-ins.
First, even though I taught them to give a bribe, I didn’t give one. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in it. After all, a bribe could and often does increase con-
version on an opt-in. So why wasn’t I using one? The answer was that I was just too lazy to create a bribe! I didn’t have a bribe handy, I didn’t want to or have the time to create one. I can talk all day long, but I hate to write, so I never created a bribe.
Why were my conversion rates so much higher despite the fact that I didn’t use a bribe?
I “pre-framed” the prospective buyer into the product meaning I very briefly told them about the product.
I used phrases like, “How would you like to be able to do this? I asked a direct question that required a “yes” or “no” answer.
Here’s an example…
If my product was on Facebook marketing I would say something to the effect of, “Would you like to be able to market on Facebook and tap into the billions of people that are already existing there? If your answer is yes, fill in your first name, your primary email address and click the ‘Submit’ button below and I’ll see you on the very next page.” I’m asking a very simple question. What are the options? Their answer either has to be “yes” or “no”!
In this case, because of the way I was targeting people with my advertising and the way I stated my question, I already knew their answer would be yes. The question was rhetorical; I didn’t need to hear the answer because I already knew what it was.
They now had a preview of what I was going to offer and had already made a positive decision towards my product. They were very interested when they clicked the submit button.
So to answer the question, “why were my conversions so much higher?” I targeted my advertising and I “pre-framed” them towards my product in my very first contact with them.
It didn’t have to be on the opt-in page; it could have been in an ad or an email. What’s important was that they were “pre-framed” in my first contact with them. I’m pre-framing the product and what the product can do for them. At this point the opt-in is just a formality; they’re already sold on what the product can do for them. Because the opt-in page in now just a formality, I have much higher conversion rate and therefore the conversions on my sales letter are also higher. By pre-framing, the sale doesn’t start at the sales letter, it starts at my first contact with the prospect.
A lot of marketers try to depend on the sales letter to do the selling. Let me explain by giving a Sales Letter History lesson.
Sales letters historically try to use a “News Headline” font. Using the Facebook example from above, they might have a headline that read, “45- year Old Man From Raleigh, North Carolina Discovered A Secret Method To Unlock The Secrets Of Advertising On Facebook”.
They make it sound like a “News Headline,” a news article, an editorial etc. Some people even go as far as to make it look like a fake newspaper page. You may still see it, especially in the diet and weight loss market. Oddly enough, it still works in some industries.
They make the sales letter into a bait and switch. They hook you and then ease you into a sales message.
That makes no sense. I’m not ashamed that I’m going to ask you to buy a product or service. If I believe that my product or service is going to do you good, then I’m more than happy to ask you to purchase it, no matter what the price point is. And you should be able to do this for your products and services, too.
Can you see how “pre-framing” is so much more effective? People opt-in and read the sales letter because THEY WANT TO. They know there will be an offer. They are looking for the offer. There is no trickery involved.
If you understand and put into practice the concept of pre-framing, people will want what you have and your conversion rates will start to rise — it’s like magic.
