Hi there,

Next week, I will have Michelle Chesser on the podcast, and her interview was one of the best ever. Definitely don't miss her episode!

And last week I hopped on a live within her membership, which was a fantastic discussion where we covered many topics, including one that I haven't talked about before in this newsletter: social triggers.

Social triggers are such an important aspect of marketing and sales, and by understanding them, you can increase the chances that a potential customer will buy from you.

Today I want to talk about one important social trigger: anticipation.

Did you see what I did up there at the top? I started building anticipation for next week's great episode, and by building up excitement in advance, in increases the chances that you'll take the time to listen to it.

So many entrepreneurs make the mistake of keeping their business idea, product idea, or new recipe a secret until it's "ready" for the world. Then they say, "Hey everyone, look what I just created! Come buy it!"

In fact, that's exactly what my friend and I did 14 years ago when we started Forrager. We worked on it in secret for over a year before we were ready to announce it. We thought everyone would be excited about it once we launched it into the world. Instead, our launch completely flopped, and we eventually abandoned that idea entirely.

Just think about how Hollywood does it. Do they work on a movie in secret and then say, "Hey everyone, look what we just put in theaters!"? Of course not. They start promoting a movie months, or even years, before it is available. They build up a massive amount of anticipation, which enables them to have a big opening weekend at the box office.

So the next time you're working on a new recipe, a new offer, or new phase of your business, do yourself a favor and tell people about it in advance. Promote it on social media or your newsletter to help people get excited for what's to come.

Your fans want to know what you're working on, and by building up anticipation, you can pre-sell them on an idea before you're ready to launch it into the world, and thereby increase its chances for success.

Although anticipation is an important social trigger, there are other social triggers that are far more important and can impact your cottage food business in a major way. I will be discussing those throughout the summer, so keep your eye out for future newsletters from me.*


Forraging ahead,

David


* Did you see that? I just used anticipation again! :)