Stop educating, start provoking
How to use reframes
Somehow all marketers think you need to educate people, to win their trust and earn their business.
It sounds logical.
And it's a nice thing to say (everyone believes in education).
But this idea. That you should educate your leads or email subscribers…
With all due respect…
It couldn't be further from the truth!
I'm not here to educate you.
I'm not here to teach you how to do better marketing.
God, no.
I'm here to change your mind.
To offer a different perspective.
A different way to see the world. A different angle.
To learn anything new, is hard work.
Nobody likes to do hard work, especially while they've also got other things going on.
And while they read your marketing materials, they almost always have other things going on.
They're on the way to work.
They're having a break.
They're bored, and scrolling the internet.
That's not a time to educate them.
But there might be room to change their mind.
To say something provocative.
To change their perspective.
To give them a new pair of glasses, to see the world with.
We call them "reframes"
"Stop educating, start provoking" is, of course, itself such a reframe.
It's a different way to look at things.
And those reframes are helpful.
It's through reframes like that, that people become successful.
We drop the bad ideas in our head, and adopt better ones.
We get rid of ill-founded ideas that don't work, and try out new ones that might work better.
In fact, I'll say it stronger: to offer a reframe is much more impactful than to educate.
It's both more useful, and it also packs a stronger emotional punch.
And there's a third major benefit, too:
People don't have to work for it!
When a gym teacher teaches you how to do the perfect push-up, there's no excuses anymore — now you need to do the work. Now you need to do the push-ups!
Who wants that?!
Reframes are free from that baggage — you can try them out, but you don't have to do anything.
You can consume reframes passively, from the comfort of your couch.
Smart, smart, smart.
Now, there's one downside to reframes:
You need to actually have something smart to say!
But that's on you, and not on them.
Question: what has been an impactful reframe for you, recently?
Let me know. Just hit reply.
Cheers,
—Pieter