+JMJ+
It’s one of the greatest “real-life” spy stories I’ve ever heard of with a hidden message about the secret to killer marketing.
It’s one of the greatest “real-life” spy stories I’ve ever heard of with a hidden message about the importance of daily emails.
It’s definitely one of those tales that falls under the category of “you can’t make this kind of stuff up.”
The details come in excerpts taken from a former spy’s diary, and they’re laid out in the final chapter of Jack Schafer’s book “The Like Switch.”
The tale was originally published in a 1914 book titled “The Secrets of the German War Office” by Armgaard Karl Graves.
Seriously, James Bond could learn a thing or three from this guy.
The story goes back to a certain “encounter” in the Swiss mountains between a certain German prince and an Englishwoman who had ties to royalty. (Isn’t that how it always goes?!)
Let’s just say “romance ensued.”
Normally, ze German government wouldn’t spend a lot of time worrying about this kind of relationship, but here’s the thing …
The prince had the bright idea of sending this woman love letters with state secrets in them.
You know how it goes: Loose lips sink ships, so ze Germans had to get ze letters back, but how?
Now, zis is where good ol’ Dr. Graves comes in.
He heads over to London, England, without any solid leads, but Herr Graves has his vays, which, coincidentally enough, tie in perfectly with Dr. Schafer’s friendship formula.
First, he does his research and asks the right people the right questions, and this leads him to discover that his target has a thing for horseback riding at a specific time and place every day.
So, Graves makes sure he’s there, too, but not to strike up a conversation.
At this point, all he wants to do is get noticed.
After a while, he shows off a few tricks he says he learned while riding wild horses in Australia, but he still keeps his distance until step two.
The next phase of the plan involved inching closer to “Ms. Love Letters” by “conveniently” showing up at one of her favourite local restaurants.
Mind you, he still isn’t saying a single word to her.
Instead, he thinks it would be way more effective to sit around devouring platter after platter of fresh strawberries (which was apparently excessively lavish) while remaining distant and aloof …
Except for the exchange of a brief smile.
This guy is behaving like some kind of cross between the Great Gatsby and the Count of Monte Cristo.
Once he got that smile, though, he knew he was in.
It takes a while, because Graves is playing the long game, which I always advise clients to do, but he finally gets himself introduced to the lady and finds out that she’s drowning in gambling debts.
This key bit of information is what he uses to eventually convince her to hand over the love letters from ze German prince – without ever having to resort to extortion and/or violence. (If only every sale were that easy!)
Mr. Graves used every part of Schafer’s “Friendship Formula,” without even knowing it, to gain the Englishwoman’s interest and trust: from the frequency and proximity of their initial “chance” encounters to raising the duration and intensity of their meetings over time.
It goes to show you how people haven’t really changed much over the past hundred years or so.
What’s really key to this story, as far as your email marketing is concerned, is what Mr. Graves realized about his mission from the start …
Know who you’re trying to reach and make contact as frequently as possible.
Mr. Graves made sure he knew everything he could about his target audience and crafted his outreach around the interests and pain-points of the Englishwoman.
Ultimately, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?
Find out as much as you legally and ethically can about your ideal customer and work those insights into your messaging …
And then make sure your customer sees you every day, because that frequency helps build trust and breakdown barriers.
I’m not saying you should spin a web of lies like the one used by Mr. Graves in this story, but the whole thing reads like the perfect Marketing 101 lesson.
That’s enough for now.
Stay holy my friend and God bless.
Vic
The Marketing Trad
P.S. If you’re interested, I can send you a link for a free version of that spy book I told you about, because it’s in the public domain. Just email me at [email protected].
P.P.S. The Gradual from today’s Mass in the Old Rite: Ps. 104 – Remember the marvelous works which He hath done; His wonders, and the judgment of His mouth. He placed in them the words of His signs, and of His wonders in the land.