How to sell free water
It’s a cold, foggy morning.
A man is standing on the street in a major city.
Maybe New York. Or London. Or Berlin.
The man is wearing a heavy coat, and with every breath he takes, a vapor forms in a small cloud on each outbreath.
Soon, another man walks by.
This man is in an exercise outfit. This second man is stopped by the first man in the heavy coat.
From within the coat, the first man pulls out a bottle of liquid in an aluminum can.
He offers it to the second man — the man in the exercise outfit.
“It’s free water,” he says, shaking the bottle in his face.
Naturally, the second man recoils. He’s not convinced, and barrages the man in the coat with a number of questions:
“How’s it free then, huh?”
“Where’s the water from?”
“Is the water bad?”
“Is this a prank?”
The first man — sensing trepidation (and perhaps a tinge of violence) — quickly explains himself:
“Don’t worry — it’s just water, and it’s good, clean water at that.”
“And yes, it’s free. You pay nothing.”
“How? Companies buy ad space from us on the bottle — just like they would buy ad space on a billboard — we get paid from it, and our service is to distribute the water to people so they see the ads.”
At that, the man takes the water.
Now … the response that the first man gave is simple, yet fascinating.
Instead of hoo-ing and hah-ing at the second man, the first man simply (and truthfully) explains how such a remarkable offer is possible.
If you’re wondering if I made this story up for the purposes of this email, I’m sorry to tell you you’re incorrect.
This company is real. It’s called freewater. And a very similar situation to the one I described above played out in a video the company posted on social media.
(Okay fine, I dramatized the interaction … but the conversation did roughly follow that format.)
The best part is that you can use this same idea in your copy, too.
The next time you’re writing for a product that could be met with a high level of skepticism — perhaps a too-good-to-be-true offer … an offer that produces a magical result … or an offer with an incredible price-to-payoff ratio …
It can help to explain why the offer is so good.
No tricks. Just a straightforward explanation.
There’s probably a name for this technique already. In my head, I call it an “offer mechanism.”
In other words, the mechanism — or reason — behind why an offer is so good.
Really, it’s just the truth behind why a certain offer is really good … explained simply.
Here’s the company if you want to study their marketing:
https://www.freewater.io
David Patrick