The first thing they teach you when you take a CPR course is how to overcome bystander apathy.
It goes like this. If you're the first on the scene of an accident, you should never call out, "Somebody get a blanket! Somebody call an ambulance!”
Why? Because to everyone, “somebody” means “somebody else.” In other words, somebody means nobody.
Instead, you should make eye contact with a person, point to them and say, *"You, get a blanket…. "*You, call an ambulance….” and so on.
Now, the odds of those two people calling an ambulance and getting a blanket are exponentially higher. Because you’ve singled them out and you’ve made the connection.
You see, the moment you make eye contact with someone, they know you're talking to them. And they cannot NOT listen and execute the order.
The same rules apply when you write emails to your list…
If you send emails like, “Dear clients, I just want all of you to know…” that’s like calling out, “Somebody get a blanket!” It’s broadcasting. It’s talking to a group.
But as you know, when you’re talking to a group, it’s like talking to nobody...
But as you know, when you’re talking to a group, it’s like talking to nobody...
And your readers now think, “Well, Dean’s not really talking to me. I don’t have to respond. I can just hide in the group here, I can blend in and ignore this…"
That’s why, when you want to engage with your readers, you must write in a way that makes them feel like they’re the only one who got the email from you.
And that kind of email has three key ingredients:
It's short, it's personal and it's expecting a reply.
I call it the “9-word email.” And it’s specifically designed to overcome the bystander apathy.
In a way, it’s like establishing "eye contact” with one reader at a time.
That’s why they work so well... even when people KNOW they’re not the only ones who get them.
I lost count how many times somebody comes up to me and says, “Dean I know that you send those emails to everybody, but every time I get them I feel like you’re sending them just to me... and I have to respond."
Isn’t this amazing?
If you want to overcome your reader’s bystander apathy, personal communication is key.