Got a bizarre marketing urban legend for you today.
Check this out:
Recently, I was watching a documentary about weird stuff going on in Disney Parks all around the world.
Some of these accounts were verified stories.
And some were urban legends.
One of the urban legends was about people constantly trying to dump the ashes of their loved ones on Disney property.
This has supposedly become so much of a problem over the years that employees have been trained on how to diplomatically handle a guest when they think remains are being scattered around Disney.
In the documentary, there was this one woman caught on a Disneyland camera sprinkling a powdery substance from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. The incident was enough to close the popular pirate ride for 45 minutes. (Yarrr…)
Upon being interviewed, the woman claimed that she was dumping baby powder from her ride car.
(Worst lie ever, right? Why would you pour baby powder to the pool? It’s not like mechanical baby alligators get rashes.)
Sounds too outlandish to be true, but…
I remember my first visit to Disneyland in Orlando. I was 9 years old.
According to family folklore, I saw the EPCOT Center and promptly informed my father in a tone that brooked no argument that I wanted to be buried there.
Apparently, some of these folks out there are more proactive than I am…
In the documentary, you witness a mind boggling number of illicit things happening inside Disneyland. So leaving grandma's remains in there to listen to that catchy song for all eternity definitely seems like a possibility…
Anyway, here’s the point:
Disneyland is a special place. People feel a great deal of emotional connection to the Disney brand.
It has a special place in our memory that we associate with fun, and innocence, and the unburdened freedom of childhood.
Your trip to Disneyland as a child stands out as something remarkable in your recollection. A once-in-a-lifetime experience that you take with you into your old age.
(And for some… to the afterlife, apparently.)
You can do the same thing with email.
You can make your marketing emails the Disneyland of your subscribers’ inboxes.
In fact, this is the easiest way to stick out in the inbox (even if you don’t have “guru status” in your market):
Make your emails fun to read - not a chore like everyone else’s emails.
Be the person who always has something bizarre and off-the-wall to share.
Be the person they can’t wait to hear from.
This isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
And it doesn’t require a God-given gift at entertainment.
You aren’t born an email prodigy. You become one.
It’s a learnable skill.
Take me for example. I’m nobody special. And clearly I’m no Steinbeck when it comes to writing.
No one has tried to sneak into my office and dump their loved one’s ashes on my keyboard (yet), but apparently I have become the last thing some of my subscribers read before bed:
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“You are fast turning into the last thing I read at night before bed! Your subscriber emails have replaced even my beloved Kindle.
#emaildoneright #getonhislist #goaheadandscreenshotthisalp”
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As Walt Disney says:
“Do what you do so well that people can’t resist telling others about you.”
And if you need a little help with that, the doors of Email Prodigy are always open to teachable and ambitious students who want to become the Disneyland of their subscribers’ inboxes:
