Marketers: Never Overlook the Astonishing Power of Repetition

For my last article in my series on The 10th marketing fundamental, I want to emphasize something that I touched on briefly in a previous article: repetition.

I bet it’s a power you take for granted. Let me explain…

Can you remember the words to one of your favorite songs in high school, even if it’s been years or decades?

Of course, you can.
You sang that song over and over for weeks on end.
That’s the power of repetition.

Can you remember the name of your best friend in Elementary school?

You probably can.
You spent time with that person daily over many years.
That’s the power of repetition.

Can you recite the ABCs or remember the multiplication table?

Of course, you can.
You recited and practiced those things over and over and have used them in various ways for years and years.
That’s the power of repetition.

But that’s not all.

Do you have a habit that’s hard to break?
That’s the power of repetition.

Are there actions and behaviors that you do (right or wrong, positive or negative) that you only first began doing after someone constantly encouraged you to do this over and over again?
That’s the power of repetition.

Marketing Is No Different

Why do we think marketing is going to be any different?

If you want your company, product, or service to be remembered, it’s going to take repetition.
If you want to educate your prospects and or customers about their problems, needs, and goals – or about the benefits of your company, product, service, it’s going to take repetition.
If you want the use of your product or service to become a positive habit in peoples’ lives, it’s going to take repetition.
If you want to influence your prospects or customers to take certain actions or begin certain behaviors, it’s going to take repetition.

Let me say that again in a different way…
Without repetition, it will be very difficult to:

Create marketing that’s memorable
Educate your prospects or customers
Build habits in consumers
Influence prospects or customers

That means that if you want to experience the power of great marketing on your business, product, or service…

Never ever forget, never ever overlook, never ever take for granted, the astonishing power of repetition.

“This is the lesson that history teaches: repetition.”
Gertrude Stein

P.S. Did you notice how I even used the power of repetition in this article? It works.

The 10th Marketing Fundamental

If you missed my other articles in this series of articles on the 10th marketing fundamental, you can read them below:

Stay tuned for my next article on The 11th marketing fundamental.

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July 22, 2021July 22, 2021

A Quiet Place II and the Secret Behind Powerful Content Marketing and Copywriting

An Unexpected Content Marketing & Copywriting Lesson from A Quiet Place II

A few weeks ago, I went to see The Quiet Place 2 with my sons. It was one of the first movies I’ve seen since the pandemic started.

It was awesome. If you’ve seen the first movie, I’d say that the sequel was as good as the first one, if not better.

It’s such an intense and powerful movie. The crazy thing about this movie is that the intensity comes from the silence.

In fact, It’s so quiet at times that you feel like if you make a sound during that moment of the film, either you or one of the people on the screen are going to die. 🙂

Have you ever wondered why or how you can feel so connected to what’s happening on the big screen?

Well, I’ve been thinking about that and I’ve come to realize that there is a neurological explanation for why horror films work.

Why should you care about how horror films work?

Because it reveals the same reason that powerful content marketing or copywriting works.

The Neurological Reason Horror Films Work

Many years ago, I read a great book by Daniel Goleman called, “Social Intelligence.”

In the book, he talked about a then relatively recent discovery of brain cells that sort of act like a neural WiFi.

You might’ve heard of these cells. They’re called “mirror neurons.” What do these cells have to do with the way horror films work?

And, more importantly for us, what do these cells have to do with the force behind powerful content marketing or copywriting?

Let’s see if you figure it out from what I reveal to you next…

Mirror neurons are what allow us to pick up on, feel, and mirror what others are feeling.

Have you ever watched one person telling an exciting story and see their friend’s face and body begin to respond with similar signs of excitement? That’s the mirror neurons in action!

The way Goleman describes this phenomenon is very powerful. He simply says…

“Emotions are contagious.”

Did you catch that?

The only reason that horror films work is because of mirror neurons! If our brains weren’t designed in a way to cause us to feel what others are feeling, horror films wouldn’t work!

Without them, content marketing and copywriting wouldn’t work either.

Powerful Content Marketing & Copywriting Lessons from A Quiet Place II

Really think about what Daniel Goleman is saying.

The most powerful type of influence is when a person shares emotions, actions, and feelings with another. It influences us on a deep, even subconscious, level.

When John Krasinski wrote and directed A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II, he didn’t try to tell us what the characters were feeling

He wrote the stories in a way that would powerfully show the audience the emotions and feelings of the characters.

By showing us these emotions and feelings, he tapped into the audiences’ mirror neurons. This caused us to connect with the characters so that we felt what they felt.

The secret behind powerful content marketing and copywriting is to make sure that you show your audience the feelings and emotions that you want them to experience.

That’s the way you draw them into your content or copy and really influence them.

*SIDE NOTE: Just to be clear. I’m NOT talking about manipulating or deceiving people. I’m talking about motivating people in an honest way. But I am suggesting that you do this in a way that many people overlook or never think of.

How to Create Content or Copy That Powerfully Influences People

Have you ever wondered…?

Why is it that when you as a content marketer, copywriter, or business owner tell people about your product, service, or business, they aren’t influenced like they’d normally be?

In other words, why aren’t their mirror neurons activated?
It’s because you aren’t harnessing the secret that John Krasinski knows.

YOUR ERROR: **You are telling people things that you want them to feel.**

Instead, you need to show them what you want them to feel and experience.

Telling people what you want them to feel won’t help them see, hear, and experience the problems that others like them have had.
Telling people what you want them to feel won’t help them see, hear, and experience the solution that your product or service has provided for others like them.
And telling them these things will never activate their mirror neurons!

If they don’t feel and experience these problems and your solution, you will have little hope of influencing them.

What is the solution? Again, take a cue from John Krasinski.

THE SOLUTION: **Start showing people what you want them to feel through others’ stories.**

Another key reason that your content or copy doesn’t influence people is because it’s coming from you.

You see, when you tell others these things, they know you want to sell them something and this causes them to put up their guard. It blocks (or at the least somewhat dulls) the natural influence that happens between two people.

It stops the mirror neurons from doing their thing. What’s the solution?

Many years ago, I read another great book called, “Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends are the Key to Influence on the Social Web” by Paul Adams.

In it, he explains exactly why this type of content is so powerful. He says…

“When people are unsure about how they should act or feel, they observe people around them. This is known as social proof. Research shows that when we observe others, our brains simulate what they are feeling.”
Later, Adams explains, “Social proof can be used to show people the preferred course of action or appropriate behavior.”
– Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends Are the Key to Influence People by Paul Adams

Let me take what Paul said and put it into the context of what I’ve been talking about here…

In the same way, we begin to act like the people on the screen in A Quiet Place II (i.e. we become very quiet and afraid), people look to others for social proof.

Through that proof, they begin to act the way that they see others acting. They emulate them.

YOUR SECRET WEAPON: Social Proof

What I’m trying to get you to see is that top content marketers and copywriters know what John Krasinski knows.

They understand the power of stories that are packed with feelings and emotions that they want their audience to feel.

IMPORTANT: You don’t have to create fictional, false, or fake stories to do this. Instead, you can simply use the real-life stories of your customers.

Share their testimonials
Share their stories
Share their case studies

TIP: When do all of this, make sure that you share these things with a focus on the emotions of these stories and not just the facts of the stories. Why? Because emotions are what will make the mirror neurons kick in!

Think about it.

When you share testimonials, you are having others tell the truth about your product or service through their experience. Their words have a much greater chance of being felt than yours alone.
When you share case studies, you are allowing prospects to vicariously go through the experience that someone else has had. They get to “feel” the same process and results.
When you ask customers to submit testimonials and then share them with your prospects, it will have a much greater impact than your own words about your business ever will. This provides the social proof your prospect is looking for.

What you have just learned about mirror neurons and the neurological reason powerful content marketing or copywriting works is something that most content marketers and copywriters don’t know.

That’s why I used the word “secret” in the title of this article. (It wasn’t just a marketing trick.) For that reason, I would encourage you to read this article again.

And this time write down a couple of takeaways you can apply right away to your content or copy. Then begin actually applying them.

Over time, you will become better at creating content and copy that taps into the mirror neurons in a natural way. The end result will be that your content or copy will have a greater impact than it ever has before.

When that happens, reach out and let me know about it. I’d love to hear how this secret impacts your results.

If you liked this article, can you do me a favor and share it? I’d really appreciate it.

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July 20, 2021July 20, 2021

The 5 Obstacles All Successful Content (or Copy) Must Overcome

Successful Content Marketers and Copywriters Think Like a Lawyer or Speaker

Successful content marketers and copywriters are successful because they realize that their job is very similar to the job of a lawyer or speaker.

No successful lawyer ever wins a case without considering the questions or objections people listening will have to their arguments.
No successful speaker puts together a powerful and convincing talk without considering the same things.

Successful content marketing or copy is written with an understanding that the task before you isn’t to influence the convinced.

Your job is to convince the unconvinced and inspire the uninspired.
It’s only when you do that that your content or copy is successful and produces sales.

That means that creating successful content or copy comes down to creating content or copy that powerfully overcomes the objections and questions that your market has. (I touched on this briefly in #7 of The 11 Indispensable Elements Behind All Great Content or Copy.)

What are the objections and obstacles that are keeping your prospects from buying?
The answer to that question comes from something powerful that Zig Ziglar once said.

The Five Basic Objections and Obstacles Keeping You from Making a Sale

As a former door-to-door salesman, Zig Ziglar had amazing insight into the common things that keep people from buying.

In fact, he broke them down into five obstacles. He said…

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”
Zig Ziglar

Important Disclaimer and Why I Hope Some of You Fail:

The advice I am about to give you can be used in honest or dishonest ways.
It can be used to manipulate people for your own gain or to motivate people for their benefit.

In pointing these things out, I am assuming that you will use them in honest ways in order to motivate people for their benefit. In other words, I’m assuming you are offering a legitimate solution that really helps people.

If you aren’t planning on using these things in honest ways, to motivate people for their benefit, so that you can really help them, then I hope that all your marketing fails. 🙂

Otherwise, any “success” you achieve through dishonest marketing will ultimately make you, your business, and your life a failure.

Alright, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me reveal the five obstacles your content or copy must overcome.

The 5 Obstacles All Successful Content (or Copy) Must Overcome

1. No Need

Your content or copy must help your prospect to see their need for your solution.
It should do that by revealing and amplifying the problem that it helps them overcome.

Why? Because all of us tend to overlook or downplay the problems in our life because we’ve become so used to them.

If you don’t help them to see the seriousness of their problem, they will stay stuck.
And they definitely won’t buy from you.

2. No Money

Your content or copy must make your prospect see such a great value in the solution you offer that the price you’re asking for it seems like a deal.

You must also help them see the cost of staying in their situation with their sane problem.

Why? Because we all spend money on things that are valuable to us. Even those of us who say we don’t have much money, spend all sorts of money on things we value.

Do you want proof?

How much total money do you spend monthly on streaming services? According to Cord Cutters News, the average American household spends $47 a month.
How much money do you spend on going out to eat every month? According to The Simple Dollar, The average American spends $232 per month eating meals prepared outside the home.
How much money do you spend every month at Starbucks (or Pete’s, Dutch Bros, or ?)? According to Cliff & Pebble, the average American spends $12 a month at Starbucks.
How much money did you spend to buy your smartphone? According to Statista, the average price of a smartphone in the consumer segment in the United States is forecast to reach $580.27 in 2020. (NOTE: According to Engadget, the average American gets a new phone every 3 years. That means these phones cost us about $193.42 a year.)
How much money do you spend on your smartphone every month? According to Money Saving Pro, the average American spends $114 a month on their phone bill.

If you take all of these together, the total amount the average person is spending every month on these things is $423 a month!

Remember, this is all based on the average American, not wealthy Americans.

Look, I am not suggesting that you don’t need things like a smartphone. But do you need to pay the amount that you are actually paying for them? No!

So when any of us say that we don’t have the money to purchase something, it might be true.

But it’s only true because we’re already spending money on the things I listed above (and many other things I didn’t list), things that are valuable or important to us.

That means that the thing keeping people from purchasing from you really isn’t a lack of money. It’s that they don’t see what you’re offering as valuable or important.

Your job is to change this perception.

3. No Hurry

Let’s face it. If you don’t give people a compelling and valid reason to purchase now/today, they will probably delay the purchase.

Why? Because most of us are afraid to make decisions – especially purchasing decisions. We don’t want to waste our money, get ripped off, or look/feel stupid.

We don’t necessarily delay our purchases because we don’t need or want the solution today. We delay them because we are afraid to make a mistake.

Now, there obviously are some purchases we should delay. There are also some that we should probably never even make. (Maybe because we’re already in debt and/or we don’t really need the item.)

But there are other purchases that we shouldn’t delay (once we gather enough info) because the cost of delaying the decision ends up ultimately costing us more.

What kind of purchases cost us when we delay them? Here are just a few that I quickly thought of:

Certain insurance
A solution that can improve our health
A solution that can improve your business
A purchase that replaces another more costly, regular expense
Etc.

If you are selling something that can really help people right away, you should always make sure to give people enough information to understand that and to see the benefit of purchasing it now.

I’m not saying you should create content or copy that forces people to make a rushed decision. You shouldn’t do that.

But you also need to balance the fact in knowing that, by default, most of us will delay a decision, even when it’s to our own detriment.

That means that you will need to create content or copy to overcome this fact. If you don’t, you will not make as many sales and/or help as many people as you could.

4. No Desire

People won’t purchase your solution if it is not desirable to them. Why would they, unless someone or something is forcing them to?

That means that unless someone is forcing or requiring people to purchase from you, you will have to overcome this obstacle.

That means you have one of two choices:

You need to make your solution desirable.
You need to tie your solution to what your prospects already desire.

To accomplish that second choice, you have to know what people desire.
Here are some of the basic things we all desire:

What is attractive
What is helpful/useful
What is entertaining, fun, or pleasurable
What relieves current or future pain or problems
What helps us achieve our goals or desires

If you want to make your solution more desirable, it must honestly possess some (or many) of these qualities.

Or it must be connected to something that your prospect already wants that possesses these things.

5. No Trust

I will never, ever purchase anything from someone I don’t trust. Neither will you. Your prospects are the same.

That’s why you want to make sure that your prospects trust you or your company. You might think, “Why wouldn’t they trust me or my company?” Well, how about the fact that they’ve been burned by people like you or companies like yours?

That means that they’re not going to assume that they should trust you. They’re going to assume that they shouldn’t.

They’re going to want to trust you, and even look for clues that you or your company is trustworthy, but the burden of proof is on you and your company, not on them.

What are some ways that you can prove that you and your company are trustworthy? Here are a few ways that come to mind:

Share what customers think about you by using customer testimonials
Share your product or service’s ratings or reviews from third-party sites and sources
Share what industry experts or influencers think about you by asking for and then sharing what they have said about you
You should also share the names of influencers and experts that you/your company have worked with, alongside, or worked for.
Only create and/or sell solutions that actually work
Only offer them for a fair price
Have great customer service that helps and takes care of every customer or client
Have guarantees to take the risk off of your purchases and put it on you and your company

Those are just some of the ways you prove that you and your company are trustworthy.
But the key thing for you to remember is that you do need to prove this fact.

You cannot assume that prospects will automatically believe or think that you’re trustworthy.

Greater Results Than the Competition

There are other objections, questions, or obstacles that you might need to overcome for your specific niche or market.

But if you make sure to always address these 5 obstacles, your content or copy will produce greater results than many of your competitors will see.

And you will have a much better track record of creating successful content or copy.

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July 19, 2021July 18, 2021

The Century-Old Marketing Methods That Make Businesses Successful Today

(NOTE: After a two and a half month break, due to a combination of busyness at work and in life, I’m back to continue this series on the 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.)

New. Marketers know that people are attracted to anything new. That’s why marketers use the word whenever and wherever they can.

The funny thing is that “new” even attracts and mesmerizes marketers and companies.

Look, “new” is awesome. I love new things, new methods, new tools, etc.

But I’m here to tell you that when it comes to marketing, “new” is overrated and in many ways an illusion.

You might think that the only way your company can succeed in 2021 is by harnessing the latest, greatest marketing technique.

Well, I’m here to politely tell you that you’re wrong.
It’s not the new marketing techniques that you should be focusing on. It’s the old, forgotten marketing principles.

I’ll explain what I mean in just a second. But first, I need to tell you a quick story to explain what I mean.

Ancient Technologies and Inventions You Never Knew Existed

I used to love watching a show on The History Channel called Ancient Discoveries.

The show featured ancient technologies and ancient inventions that are thought to be modern but actually existed in the ancient world.

Why don’t we know about these ancient technologies and inventions? Because they’ve been lost and then reinvented. We basically forgot about them.

What were the types of technologies and inventions that they revealed in this series? Amazing ones like these:

A computer-like device that may have been used to calculate the movements of stars and planets called the Antikythera Mechanism
Automatic doors and coin-operated machines invented by a guy named Heron in ancient Alexandria.
A jar that appears to be an electric battery
Archimedes use of solar power to defeat the Romans
And many other amazing things you wouldn’t believe existed in the ancient world

Unbelievable, right? Who would’ve thought these things were invented centuries ago?

Well, you’d be just as amazed to discover that many of the new marketing methods have been around for almost a century (some longer than that).

Ancient Marketing Methods You Never Knew Existed

I love discovering and reading old marketing books. For me, it’s like finding a lost treasure that most people have forgotten ever existed.

One of the main things that I’m constantly discovering in these old marketing books is the fact that many of the marketing methods and marketing techniques that we think are new were actually invented

Split testing & ad tracking – Claude Hopkins was talking about tracking ads and split testing in his book Scientific Advertising back in 1923 – 98 years ago
Lead generation – As I’ve been reading some classic books on advertising by John Caples, I was struck by this realization: many of the famous ads he talked about all focused on capturing leads, not making direct sales from their ads. Many of these ads are from the early 1900s (over a century old)!
Content marketing – I’ve discovered the oldest known content marketing to exist. And they are over two hundred years old!

My point?

In the same way that the ancient technologies and inventions were overlooked until rediscovered or reinvented, many of the marketing methods many think were invented in the dot-com days were created way before then.

The early internet pioneers and the early dotcom companies just were smart enough to harness these methods that the mainstream business world had forgotten.

And this is the real reason for their massive success.

The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021

As I said at the beginning of this series back in January, I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.

You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.

What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.

In fact, I believe that there are 12 marketing fundamentals that all companies should be focused on if they want to succeed in the second half of 2021.

So far, I’ve revealed what the first seven marketing fundamentals are. Since it’s been a while since my last article, let me give you a quick recap…

The First 7 Marketing Fundamentals:

Here are the six marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:

The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow up at all. They don’t follow up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
The fifth marketing fundamental is your Who or what is commonly called your “target market.” Because if you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.
The 6th marketing fundamental is your offer. If you don’t create a powerful offer, even the right “whos” won’t end up purchasing from you.
The 7th marketing fundamental if your content or copy. Once you have chosen your “who” and your most powerful offer, you must choose the right words to inspire and influence your target audience to take action (whatever you decide that should be).

I’ve already shared two important articles on this 7th marketing fundamental:

Over the next few days, I will share two more articles on this particular fundamental.

One will be about the obstacles that all successful copy or content needs to overcome and the other article will be about the secret behind powerful content marketing and copywriting.

I think you’re really going to like them so stay tuned.

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

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If you would like to learn more about any of the above fundamentals, then click here to choose any articles you’d like to read. (There are now 34 articles you can read in this series.)

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April 14, 2021April 13, 2021

The 7th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Some Interesting Facts About Average Word Usage

Here are some facts about word usage that you might find interesting:

Studies have shown that the average English native speaker knows about 20,000 words. (BellEnglish.com)
30,000 (words per day) x 365 (days in a year) = 10,950,000 words per year. (Latg.org)
Vocabulary growth stops at middle age. (WordCounter.io)
University-educated people know around 40,000 words. (BellEnglish.com)
A child in first grade uses between 8,000-14,000 words. (Scholastic)
When actually speaking and with everyday writing (emails, letters, notes, etc.), the amount of words the average person uses goes down to about 5,000 very common words that are used repeatedly. (BellEnglish.com)
300 to 600 words may be enough to travel, but at least 1,000 words are necessary for a conversation in another language. (MosaLingua.com)

Keep those facts in mind. Why?

Because the marketing fundamental I’m going to reveal to you today has something to do with word usage.

Keep reading and you’ll discover what I mean…

The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021

Three months ago, on the first Monday in January, I began a series called “The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.“ Today, I’m going to reveal the 7th marketing fundamental you need to succeed this year.

If you haven’t read the other articles in this series, then you should read the next section. It will help you to understand the importance of the marketing fundamentals I’m sharing with you.

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I have continued to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

Before I reveal what the 6th marketing fundamental is, let me remind you what we’ve covered over these last two months.

Because it’s important for you to have these in mind as you discover what the 6th marketing fundamental is.

Here are the first 6 of the marketing fundamentals you need to succeed this year…

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals:

Here are the six marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:

The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow up at all. They don’t follow up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
The fifth marketing fundamental is your Who or what is commonly called your “target market.” Because if you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.
The 6th marketing fundamental is your offer. If you don’t create a powerful offer, even the right “whos” won’t end up purchasing from you.

Now that you’re all caught up, you’re ready to discover the 7th marketing fundamental.

When I revealed the 5th marketing fundamental, I told you that there’s a secret that successful direct response marketers all know.

They know that the most important element in a successful direct response campaign is the list. It’s what I called your Who.

When I revealed the 6th marketing fundamental, I told you that there’s another secret that successful direct response marketers know.

They know that the second most important element is a successful direct response piece is the offer.

Well, today I’m going to reveal the third most important element of a successful response piece.

After the who and the offer, it’s the most important component to creating powerful copy or content. This component is what I am calling the 7th marketing fundamental.

What’s the 7th marketing fundamental? It’s the words you use.

5 Important Facts to Understand About the 7th Marketing Fundamental

Now, that you know what the 7th marketing fundamental is, let me clarify some important facts that you need to understand:

Most marketers start with the words. That’s the wrong place to start. You must start with the right list, the right who, or the right audience. (They are all basically the same thing.)
If you are creating content or copy that is meant to directly influence sales, the second thing you must do is come up with the most powerful offer that will appeal to the list/who/audience you’ve chosen.
That is NOT to say that the copy/words/content that you choose to use are not that important. They are very important. But their importance doesn’t come into play until after you’ve chosen the right who and the right offer.
After those things are chosen, there is nothing more important to creating powerful marketing than the words you use. The most important elements are not the images you use or the layout of your page. Even though those things are important, the words you use are more important.
The words you use or don’t use will make all the difference between your company experiencing success or failure from the marketing you use in 2021.

That means your success in implementing the 7th marketing fundamental in 2021 comes down to how you answer these questions…

Do you know the kinds of words, phrases, and sentences that will make your prospects actually enjoy reading your copy or your content?
Do you know the kinds of words, phrases, and sentences that are the most effective to use to capture your prospect’s attention?
Do you know the types of words, phrases, and sentences that are the most important in helping your prospects to overcome their hesitancy to act on your offer?
Do you know the types of words, phrases, and sentences that will cause your copy or content to stand out from the sea of sameness?

In my upcoming articles, I’m going to reveal some of the elements that you can use to create powerful content and copy. Once you know these elements, you will enable you to answer “yes” to all of the questions above.

Stay tuned.

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 (INFOGRAPHIC)

Did you see my last article with the infographic of the first 6 marketing fundamentals?

If you haven’t, you can click the link above to read the full article. If you’ve already read it, I’ve included the infographic below again. Why?

Because I want to ask you to do me favor. Can you share it on your favorite social media platform and/or on your website?

When you do, you’ll not only be helping your followers and/or website visitors, you’ll be helping me to spread the word about this series I’m doing.

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Infographic

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals DIRECTRESPONSECONTENTMARKETINGcom 1

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April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 (INFOGRAPHIC)

Famous Indy Race Car Driver’s Surprising Success Secret

It’s been said that race car driver Bill Vukovich, the man who won the Indianapolis 500 race back in 1953 and 1954, had something surprising to say about his “secret to success“.

When he was asked the secret of his success in the Indianapolis 500, Vukovich shocked people with his answer.

He said, “There’s no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left.”

What Bill was basically saying was this: Success comes down to how you implement the fundamentals.

Bill’s Advice Applies to Business Success Too

As I’ve said, I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.

The people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.

That means that the secret of the companies that will succeed in 2021 and beyond will come down to this:

Understand the current opportunities
Successfully apply the fundamentals to take advantage of these opportunities

In other words, the secret of the companies that will succeed in 2021 will be very similar to Bill’s advice: “There’s no secret. After you see the opportunities, seize those opportunities by successfully pushing the accelerator on those fundamentals.”

Why I Stopped Posting for a Few Weeks

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been publishing a series of articles that reveal the 12 marketing fundamentals that will help you succeed in 2021.

But some of you might have noticed something. After posting the first six marketing fundamentals, I haven’t posted an article in a couple of weeks.

Why? Well, there are a few reasons:

I was really busy at work.
I went on vacation.
And we had friends come to visit.

Anyway, I’ll be continuing my series and will be posting the final marketing fundamentals you need to succeed this year. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, you’ll find a list of the first 6 marketing fundamentals below.

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Infographic

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The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Text Version

The 1st marketing fundamental is attention. Without attention, there’s no marketing.
The 2nd marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work capturing attention is wasted.
The 3rd marketing fundamental is follow-up. Two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up.
The 4th marketing fundamental is a USP. You need this if you’re going to get your prospects to choose you over your competition.
The 5th marketing fundamental is your “who.” Because if you don’t get this group right, all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.
The 6th marketing fundamental is your offer. If you don’t create a powerful offer, even the right “whos” won’t end up purchasing from you.

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

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March 15, 2021March 14, 2021

How Clubhouse Harnessed One of the 9 Elements of a Powerful Offer to Reach 8 Million Downloads

I’ve been talking to you about the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. I told you that it’s your offer. I went on to reveal these things about creating a powerful offer:

Well, today I what to show you how the extremely popular new app called Clubhouse harnessed one of the elements of a powerful offer to create a company that’s now valued at $1 billion.

But first, I need to make sure that you know what Clubhouse is.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse Home Page — Clubhouse home page

Well, this is what Clubhouse is according to Wikipedia…

“Clubhouse is an invitation-only audio-chat iPhone app launched in April 2020 by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth of Alpha Exploration Co. that offers room for discussions between two or more speakers. In May 2020, the social networking app was valued at nearly $100 million. On January 21, 2021, the valuation reached $1 billion.”
Clubhouse (app) – Wikipedia

How Clubhouse Describes Their App in the Apple App Store

Clubhouse is a space for casual, drop-in audio conversations—with friends and other interesting people around the world.
Go online anytime to chat with the people you follow, or hop in as a listener and hear what others are talking about.
Clubhouse Description in App Store

The most interesting thing about this popular social media app is that it didn’t become popular by accident or by using some new high-tech tool or technique.

It became popular by using an old-school direct response method for creating powerful offers.

Which One of the 9 Elements of a Powerful Offer Did Clubhouse Use?

The element they used was one of the most powerful elements of an irresistible offer: the power of scarcity.

How did they use scarcity? They used it really strategically. Watch what I mean…

1. When the Clubhouse founders, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, first provided the beta version of the app, they only allowed 1500 people in, many of these being high-profile venture capitalists and celebrities.

These people included people like MC Hammer, Van Jones, Shaka Senghor, and venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

Did you catch that? They not only used scarcity, but they also harnessed the power of exclusivity by bringing in people that people want access to.

Do you want to know how effective this strategy was? They launched the app in April 2020. By May 20, 2020, they were already valued at $100 million.

2. When they opened it to a wider audience, they didn’t open it to everyone. They limited it to only iPhone users.

This was a smart move because there are 1 billion iPhone users compared to 2.5 million Android users. This helped limit the users to a much smaller pool than if they opened it up to both phone platforms.

But they didn’t stop there. They made the Clubhouse app even more scarce.

3. They made access to it by invite only.

Instead of opening it up to all iPhone users, they made it only available to people who had an invite. This was ingenious. Because by limiting it, it made the app even more desirable to people.

This also made any user who got access to Clubhouse WANT to use their invite because it gave them social clout with their friends, colleagues, and followers.

Basically, they took the basic the old school direct response technique of limiting the number of people who can have your product and they 3Xed it by:

First making it only available to a limited number of celebrities and high-profile venture capitalists
Making it only accessible to iPhone users
Making only obtainable to iPhone users with an invite

Look, I don’t want to discount the fact that the creators of Clubhouse were very smart in making sure that their app had a really unique selling proposition (the 4th marketing fundamental).

That definitely helped give them an edge in the crowded field of companies trying to come up with the next hot social media app.

But it was the fact that they took this U.S.P and paired it with a 3Xed scarcity offer that made it gain such attention so quickly and made it desirable by so many.

My Clubhouse Confession

By the way, I need to admit something before you leave. I need you to know that I’ve never used Clubhouse. Why? Because I have an Android phone. 🙂

But guess what? As soon as they make it available to Android users, and as soon as I get an invite, I’m joining Clubhouse right away.

Their use of exclusivity and scarcity has made their app extremely desirable to me. You see, even though I understand the technique they used, I still can’t resist it. Haha.

The 7th Marketing Fundamental Might Be Delayed

This week and the next are going to be really busy weeks for me. For that reason, I’m not sure when I will be able to write my next article on the 7th marketing fundamental.

I’ll do my best to get the first article written as soon as I can. But it might take a little longer than usual.

Source for Information on Clubhouse: CNBC.com and TheGuardian.com

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March 10, 2021March 9, 2021

Why You Need to Make Your Offer So Great They’d Have to Be Crazy to Refuse to Buy

If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I know if the offer we’ve created is powerful enough?” Stick with me. This article is for you today.

“ Make your offer so great that only a lunatic would refuse to buy”
— Claude C. Hopkins

I’ve been thinking a lot about creating irresistible offers and this quote about offers from the great advertising pioneer, Claude Hopkins.

It’s made me think again about something I mentioned in my article “Why Your Prospects Need You to Follow-up With Them.“

In that article, I shared the fact that your prospects need you to follow-up because we all procrastinate and don’t do what we know we should. We do that because we’re scared.

Well, the reason you must create the most powerful offer you can is because you must do everything you can to inspire and motivate your prospects to take action.

Otherwise, they won’t.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m NOT telling you to trick your prospects. I’m also not telling you to manipulate them.

What I am telling you is this: If you are selling something that your prospects really need or want, then you must figure out a way to get them to take action.

How do you create an offer that gets a prospect to take action? It starts with understanding the purpose of your offer.

Let me share a story I came across with you to explain what I mean.

Your Offer is the Incentive to Take Action

In a Michigan State University study, 97% of the faculty members and staff who bet $40 that they could stay with a six-month exercise program were successful. Only 19% of a non-betting group stayed with their six-month program, however.

– MSC Health Action News, April 1993

Did you pay attention to the percentages in those two groups? They’re pretty impressive:

97% of the faculty and staff who bet money were successful.
Only 19% of the faculty and staff that didn’t bet any money were successful.

That reveals an important truth that you need to remember when you’re creating your offer.

The truth you need to remember is that people are more likely to take action when they have the incentive to do so.

But here’s the thing that amateur marketers don’t realize. The most effective incentives have a positive and negative aspect to them.

Something to Gain and Something to Lose

In other words, your offer should make your prospect see and feel that they have something to gain if they take action.

And more importantly, it should also make them see and feel that they have something to lose if they don’t take action.

Why did I say, “…more importantly” when I mentioned what they’d lose? Because a sense of loss is even more important than a sense of gain.

I guarantee that the reason that 97% of the faculty and staff were successful is because they didn’t want to lose $40. It wasn’t really because they cared that much about gaining $40.

The Two Important Emotional Elements of an Irresistible Offer

That means that besides the 9 elements you need to create a powerful offer, you also need to include two important emotional elements:

You need to clearly explain and paint a picture of what the prospect will gain – how their life will change for the better – if they take your offer.
You need to clearly explain and paint a picture of what the prospect will lose- how their life will change for the worse– if they don’t take your offer.

Again, please don’t think I’m suggesting that you lie or exaggerate when adding these two emotional elements.

You shouldn’t do that.
In fact, you shouldn’t need to do that.

If your product or service really offers a benefit to your prospects, and if you have added things to make a powerful offer, then what they will gain or lose is real.

You just need to help them see and feel that gain or loss. The “one-two punch” of gain and loss will be a powerful incentive that will make it much more likely that your prospect will take action.

It will make the gain or loss more real to them just like the $40 bet made things real for the faculty and staff at Michigan State University.

I’m not saying that 97% of them will take action but it will be a much higher percentage than if you didn’t include these two emotional elements.

By the way, if you’d like to read Claude C, Hopkins’ classic book, Scientific Advertising, you can get free access to it in our free member’s area.

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March 9, 2021March 8, 2021

3 Important Lessons from McDonald’s on How to Create Attractive Offers

The ability to create attractive offers is a crucial skill for any marketer and/or company.

If you missed my two previous articles on the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021, you can see them here:

Today, I have a video for you in which I reveal three lessons that you can learn from McDonald’s and begin using right away.

Why McD’s?

Because they know how to create attractive offers that keep people coming back again and again.

3 Important Lessons from McDonald’s on How to Create Attractive Offers

In this video, I share three important lessons that we can learn from two limited-time items that I saw on their menu almost two years ago.

I also share 3.5 takeaways that you can apply to your own company.
Watch the 10:43 minute video now…

Keep an eye out for my next article.
In it, I will reveal the reason why you must create irresistible offers.

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March 4, 2021March 4, 2021

The 9 Elements You Need to Create a Powerful Offer

In my last article, I told you that the offer is the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. In other words, you need to learn how to create powerful offers.

I also told you not to make the mistake that so many do. Your offer is much more than just your product or service.

In fact, there are certain key elements that every powerful offer has. Today, I want to reveal those key elements to you.

But before I do that, I need to tell you a story that will help you understand the importance of what I’m about to show you.

Let me tell you the story and then I’ll explain…

The Dream That Led to the Discovery of the Periodic Table

Back in 1863, there were only 56 known elements.

That’s less than half of the 118 known elements today. At that point in time, some scientists had already noticed that elements seemed to have patterns in their chemical makeup that showed up in some kind of regular intervals.

But the process of discovering new elements took a very long time back then. How long? About a year. Well, that was about to change thanks to a man named Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev.

Dmitri was a Russian Chemistry professor. But he wasn’t just your average Chemistry professor.

After becoming a teacher in 1867, he wrote what was considered the Chemistry textbook of his time. It was called Principles of Chemistry. (He wrote it while he was preparing for a course he taught.)

It was while writing his book that he made an important discovery. As he tried to classify the elements according to their properties, he suddenly noticed something.

He noticed patterns. It was those patterns that led him to come up with what we know as the periodic table. But this is where the story gets interesting.

He later revealed that he had a vision of the complete arrangement of the elements in a dream.

Listen to how he describes this below…

DIMEND1 — By кабинет академика Михаила Михайловича Шульца – фото любезно передано мне в собственность вдовой М.М.Шульца Ниной Дмитриевной Шульц., Public Domain,

“I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.”
— Mendeleev, as quoted by Inostrantzev

That’s pretty amazing, huh?

At this point, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you about a periodic tables when you’re wanting to learn about offers.

Well, it wasn’t just so I could tell you an interesting story. I told you this story because of what the discovery of the Periodic Table enables people to do.

Let me explain.

What the Periodic Table Enables Chemistry Students to Do

If it wasn’t for the simplification of the elements in this chart, chemistry students would need to learn all of the properties of all 118 known elements.

But, thanks to the periodic table, chemistry students only need to master the properties of a handful of elements. Why? Because all of the other elements fall into groups or families that have the same type of chemical properties.

Did you catch that? The periodic table gave people a much simpler, condensed way to understand all of the many different elements.

That’s exactly what I want to do for you today.

Instead of trying to give you all of the different ways that there are to create a powerful offer, I want to do give you a simpler way to understand the key elements of a powerful offer.

Use These 9 Elements to Create a Powerful Offer

With these simple elements, you’ll be able to make all types of powerful offers.
Are you ready? Here are the nine elements you need to create a powerful offer:

A headline – In the same way that your content or copy needs a headline to capture people’s attention, so does your offer.
Identify solution – You need to clearly explain and show your prospects the problem that your product or service solves.
Describe offer and benefits – You need to describe what it is that you’re actually offering and why it’s a benefit to your prospects.
Determine price or pricing structure – This is where you need to describe the value that your prospects are getting, the price, and any pricing structure or payment options that you have set up.
Bullet points – Bullet points are a really important and effective way to make certain elements of your offer more digestible and/or draw attention to important points.
Scarcity – If you really want people to act now, and not wait, you should make your offer scarce in some way. You can do this by either having a limited amount that you are selling or by limiting the number of people who can purchase that particular offer.
Time-sensitive – Another way to get people to act now and not delay their purchase is by using time sensitivity in your offer. You do this by making your offer only available for limited times or limited days.
A bonus – An effective bonus can nudge a prospect across the line and get them to purchase your product or service.
A call to action – You need to tell your prospects what to do in order to get your offer. Examples of calls to action that you might use are: “Call us at…,” or “Fill out the form below…”

Two Final Thoughts About These Elements of a Powerful Offer

Let me leave you with two final thoughts about these elements of a powerful offer.

I haven’t shared everything that there is to know about each of these elements. If I did that, I would write an article about each of these elements. But I don’t have time to do that. I still have 6 additional marketing fundamentals to reveal! 🙂
You can obviously create an offer that doesn’t have all of these nine elements. But I would encourage you NOT to take away too many of these elements if you want your offer to be as powerful as possible.

That’s it for today. I will reveal some other important things that you need to know about powerful offers in my next article.

Stay tuned.

Source for Mendeleev Story and Periodic Table: Wikipedia and ScientificAmerican.com

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March 3, 2021March 3, 2021

The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Two months ago, on the first Monday in January, I began a series called “The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.“ Today, I’m going to reveal the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed this year.

If you haven’t read the other articles in this series, then read the next section. It will help you to understand the importance of the marketing fundamentals I’m sharing with you.

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I have continued to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

Before I reveal what the 6th marketing fundamental is, let me remind you what we’ve covered over these last two months.

Because it’s important for you to have these in mind as you discover what the 6th marketing fundamental is.

Here are the first 5 of the marketing fundamentals you need to succeed this year…

The First 5 Marketing Fundamentals:

Here are the five marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:

The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow-up at all. They don’t follow-up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
The fifth marketing fundamental is your Who or what is commonly called your “target market.” Because if you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.

Now that you’re all caught up, you’re ready to discover the 6th marketing fundamental.

The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

As you learned in a previous article, the most important element of a copywriting campaign is the list. The who.

Well, guess what the second most important element is? Again, if you asked a group of successful direct response marketers what the second most important element in a copywriting campaign is, after the list, they will tell you it’s this…

It’s your offer.

The offer is the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. But, do you know what the biggest problem with offers is?

It’s the fact that many companies are confused about what an offer actually is. Most people believe that your offer is just the product or service you sell.

But that’s incorrect. An offer is much more than that.

What Is an Offer?

Yourbusiness.Azcentral.com gives this great explanation of an offer…

“An offering in marketing is the total offer to your customers. An offering is more than the product itself and includes elements that represent additional value to your customers, such as availability, convenient delivery, technical support or quality of service. A strong offering differentiates your products from competitors and creates value by meeting customers’ wider needs better than other options.”

So you see, your offer is much more than just the product or service that you’re selling.
But misunderstanding what an offer is is only part of the problem.

The next problem with offers is that many companies don’t realize an important fact. How you create and state your offer makes ALL the difference.

In other words, the offers you make in your company’s marketing shouldn’t be just an afterthought. Offers are way too important for that. They should be one of the primary things you should focus on.

To show you what an offer is and how a great, well-thought-out offer can impact your business, let me tell you a quick story of how a powerful offer accidentally started a business.

How Avon Was Accidentally Started

Have you heard of Avon? If not, here is how Wikipedia describes the company.

“Avon Products, Inc. or simply known as Avon, is a direct sales company in beauty, household, and personal care categories. Avon had annual sales of $5.57 billion worldwide in 2019.“

I’d say it’s a pretty successful company, wouldn’t you? Well, most people don’t know this but this successful company was started by accident.

It all started back in 1886. David H. McConnell was a door-to-door salesman who sold books. David was a smart man. He knew that an offer was more than just his product.

He also knew that in those days his main customers were women. (He knew his who.)

In order to attract female customers, he decided to offer little gifts of perfume. That made his offer much more attractive to his target market. Little did he know, this decision would change his life forever.

Because before long, the perfume he was giving away had become more popular than the books he was selling.

He wisely decided to shift his focus from books to perfume and founded the California Perfume Company, which later became Avon.

Think about it. If a powerful offer can accidentally start a company that’s now worth a billion dollars, what can a powerful offer do for your company?

In my upcoming articles, I’m going to reveal some things you can do to create powerful offers.

Until then, let me leave you with three questions you should ask yourself so that you can be ready to get the most value from what I’m going to share in my upcoming articles.

Take a Look at Your Business Through the Lens of Offers

Now that understand the importance of offers, I would encourage you to take a look at your business through the lens of offers.

Then ask yourself these three questions:

Have we created offers for our products or services? Or are we just selling products and services?
How effective are our offers?
What are some things that we could add to our offers to improve them?

Don’t just answer these questions in your head. Write down some answers.

Write down some examples of the offers you’ve created and look at them separately from your marketing or your ads. Then judge whether they’re good offers or not.

Take a good look at the results these offers have brought your company. Would you say that they’re effective? Is there any room for improvement? Write down what you think.

If you think they can be improved, begin to think about things you can add to your offers or other ways you can improve them. Write down any ideas.

Once you have all of these things in mind, you’ll be ready for my upcoming articles that will begin to show you the elements of a powerful offer and much more.

Stay tuned.

Source for Avon Story: Mentalfloss.com

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

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February 26, 2021February 25, 2021

How Dawn Dish Soap’s Focus on Their Target Market Almost Made Them Miss a Massive Opportunity

If you stick with me today, I’m about to show you a different way to think about target markets (your who). Not only that, but I’m also going to show you a different way you can help certain target markets. And in the process, I’ll show you how that target market can help your company.

Are you ready? It all begins with the invention of a new dish soap that could clean away grease: Dawn dish soap.

Dawn dish soap is the leading dishwashing liquid in the U.S. Procter and Gamble introduced it to the marketplace in 1973. It was invented by a guy named Paul Andrecola who only 26 years old at the time.

(Interesting side note: Paul is the same person who later invented Febreze.)

So far the story doesn’t seem that exciting yet, does it? That’s because you haven’t heard about the amazing discovery that was made about Dawn…

The Amazing Discovery

Five years after it was introduced, something interesting happened that Procter and Gamble had nothing to do with.

In 1978, the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) was conducting a test. You see, Chevron had given the IBRRC a small grant to test how well all of the major dish soaps were at cleaning birds that were covered with oil.

That’s when they made an amazing discovery.

After testing all of the dish soaps, they discovered that one of them worked way better than the others. It was Dawn.

After making this discovery, they contacted Procter & Gamble to let them know the results of their test. They also asked Procter & Gamble if they would donate cases of the product to help them to save birds.

Dawn/Procter & Gamble’s Surprising Response

What was Procter and Gamble’s response? Surprisingly, they ignored the IBRRC’s requests. Before you get upset at Procter & Gamble, you need to know the reason why. It wasn’t because they didn’t care about birds.

It was because Procter and Gamble knew that they first had to make sure Dawn was doing well as a product before they could pursue causes they wanted to support.

Now think about that for a minute. The IBRRC has uncovered a new use for Dawn and a new target market for Procter and Gamble, but Procter and Gamble didn’t see a value in pursuing this new target market… yet.

But, after 10 years spent establishing the brand in the marketplace, Procter and Gamble finally felt they were ready.

The Decision That Changed Everything

In 1988, Procter and Gamble finally agreed to donate cases of Dawn to IBRRC. Their timing couldn’t have been any more perfect. Why do I say that?

It was just a year later, during the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, that volunteers used Dawn to clean the oil-covered birds. That moment changed everything for Dawn.

The media fell in love with the story of Dawn dish soap being used to clean the birds. They loved the story so much that they featured it in their news stories. The crazy thing is the media has continued to love and share that story over all the years since.

Think about how powerful that is for the brand Dawn. What else can better prove that it works at cutting grease and is also safe and gentle?

That’s why, after taking so long to decide to participate in bird rescues, Dawn isn’t just donating cases of its dish soap.

They are now so focused on this unexpected target market that they now take part in advocating and promoting animal rescue efforts in their commercials.

Commercials like this one…

Now, that’s a powerful and moving product demonstration!

3 Lessons on Targeting Your “Who” from Dawn Dish Soap

I believe there are several valuable lessons that we can learn from Dawn dish soap:

1. Focusing on the right target market is more than just about finding a group you can sell to. It also involves focusing on a group you can effectively serve.

2. When you find the right target market to sell to, the revenue that those customers generate for your company will generate the funds that enable you to serve another market.

3. When you find the right target market to serve and actively and passionately serve them, you will attract even more people that you can sell to. Why? Because you enable a target market to give their purchase meaning.

Don’t just pick a target market for your company to serve for the financial benefit. Choose one purely for the benefit of helping a group of people (or a group of people trying to help animals as in this case).

Just know that when you do choose a certain who to serve that you will, by default, attract a certain target market that wants to purchase from you.

That’s not all. Choosing a who/target market to serve will also give a unique way to stand out in the market.

And that will give you an advantage over the competitors who only focus on a who/target market to sell to.

Just look at how it has helped Dawn. Dawn dish soap is the leading dishwashing liquid in the U.S.

Next Week: The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Well, that’s all that I want to share with you about the 5th marketing fundamental (your who). Next week, I will reveal the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021.

Stay tuned.

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

Stay tuned. Subscribe below to be automatically be notified when the next article goes live.

In the meantime, if you want to catch up on the previous marketing fundamentals I’ve already revealed, then click here. (There are now 22 previous articles in this series.)

Sources: NY Times and Prezi.com

February 24, 2021February 24, 2021

Here Are Two Secrets of a Powerful Headline

Beginner marketers don’t focus on the headline as much as they should. To them, a headline is an afterthought.

Established marketers put much more thought into them. They focus on things like how their headline can impact SEO and impact SERP.

But when the most effective marketers put in the time to develop a headline, they not only think about the SEO aspect of a headline. They also think about the importance of the headline to the humans they’re wanting to attract.

Today we’re going to look at headlines through the lens of the 5th marketing fundamental. So far, I’ve revealed the 5th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. I called it your Who, but you might have heard it called your “target market.”

If you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.

Missed My Recent Articles?

If you’ve missed my previous articles on the 5th marketing fundamental, you can see them here:

Today, I want to show you how applying the 5th marketing fundamental to the 1st marketing fundamental (attention) can help you to capture the right people’s attention in 2021.

To show you this, you have to see what a marketing legend once revealed were the two key attributes of a good headline.

In 1958, A Marketing Legend Revealed These Secrets to Creating Powerful Headlines

On June 7, 2017, I wrote an article for MarketingInsiderGroup.com called “In 1958 A Marketing Legend Revealed These Secrets For Creating Powerful Headlines.”

In that article, I shared a powerful quote and two lessons that I want you to see…

“There are two principal attributes of good headlines. They select, from the total readership of the publication, those readers who are (or can be induced to be) interested in the subject of the advertisement. And they promise them a worthwhile reward for reading it.”
– Victor O. Schwab

Think about those two purposes of a headline:

To select the people who would be most interested in what you’re advertising
To promise them a reward for reading the ad

Most people who create ads never do either of those things, let alone both of them.

SOME good copywriters accomplish the first task, but only the GREAT copywriters also accomplish the second.

If you learned how to master those two things, your ads would outperform any of your competitors or fellow copywriters this year.

Do you see how these two things combine the 1st and 5th marketing fundamentals?

You’re writing an article to capture attention (1st marketing fundamental). But you’re making sure that the headline is written for select people (5th marketing fundamental).

(We’re not even halfway through the 12 marketing fundamentals you need to succeed in 2021 yet. But I couldn’t resist touching on that fact that combining these fundamentals will exponentially increase the impact of your marketing this year. I’ll explain more in future articles.)

Two Things Before You Go

Before you go, I want to mention two quick things:

I’m sorry. I haven’t had the chance to write my next story of how a popular brand achieved new levels of success after they found out about a new market. You’re not going to want to miss this one because their success came to them differently than the way it did in the Play-Doh story. I’ll see if I can get that story done by the end of the week.
If you like Victor O Schwab’s quote, you should read my whole article at MarketingInsiderGroup.com. You can read it here.

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February 22, 2021February 21, 2021

A Powerful Lesson on Market Segmentation from the Origin Of Play-Doh

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.”
– H Jackson Brown Jr

In my last two articles, I’ve been talking about the 5th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. I call it your Who. It’s what many call your “target market.”

You might think you don’t need to learn more about this because your company has already chosen your target market.

But what if there is an even more profitable market, or segment of the market, that you could be focusing on?

Because the fact is, once you’ve chosen a target market, you want to take time to make sure it’s the most profitable one or that there isn’t some valuable segment within that market that you’re overlooking.

What is Market Segmentation

That leads us to something called “Market Segmentation.” What is market segmentation? Don’t let the term intimidate you. It’s just a process of dividing a target market into smaller, more defined categories.

Market segmentation is an important part of determining the exact Who you should be marketing to. It can help a start-up company to have more success in its early stages or it can help an established company achieve a new level of success.

You’re about to hear the story of how one well-known company gained popularity and success after starting out focusing on a completely different market.

But once they changed markets, and then focused on a specific segment, they achieved success like they never did before.

You’re about to discover:

The surprising origin of Play-Doh
Market segmentation lessons from Play-Doh
3 ways you can uncover new opportunities and new customers

The Surprising Origin of Play-Doh

I am sure you’ve heard of the kid’s clay-like substance called “Play-Doh”.

But you might not have heard how it came to be the well-known toy we all know and remember fondly.

Believe it or not, Play-Doh didn’t originally have anything to do with kids and fun.

It actually was manufactured as a cleaning substance for wallpaper.

From what I hear, the dough-like substance was rolled against wallpaper to remove built-up, soot, and dirt.

The Teacher and the New Idea

But in 1955 it made the shift from a wallpaper cleaning product to a kids joy-maker.

How? Well, after World War II, the wallpaper market was changing.

The demand for a cleaning substance was decreasing because peoples’ heating systems were more efficient and vinyl wallpaper was easier to clean.

One day Joseph McVicker, the nephew of the inventor, heard his sister-in-law (a teacher) complaining about how difficult it was to work with her students and the clay they used in the classroom back then.

When McVicker heard that, on a whim, he gave her a supply of the wallpaper cleaner to use with the kids in her class.

She used it, the kids loved it, and McVicker realized he was on to something.

His next move was a genius one.

Tested by Thousands of Cincinnati Kids

He decided to supply the schools in the Cincinnati area with his substance, which basically got his “play dough” into the hands of thousands of young product testers.

You can guess what happened next.

News of this amazing squishy goop spread from kid to kid and parent to parent.

McVicker decided to keep the momentum going.

He did that by demonstrating and selling the item in the toy department of a store called Woodward & Lothrop Department Store that was located in Washington, D.C.

At this point, McVicker realized this could be a big thing.

Because of this, he formed Rainbow Crafts to manufacture what he began to call Play-Doh.

He later sold his company and all the rights to Play-Doh to General Mills.

This made him a millionaire before the age of 30.

Market Segmentation Lessons From Play-Doh

What is the lesson you can learn from this?

Always be open to new markets, market segments, and new uses for your products and services.
The current ways your products and services are being used might not be the most profitable.
The current type of customers you sell to might not be the only ones, or the best ones, for you to sell to.

IMPORTANT: Notice how the process happened for McVicker. First, he discovered a new use for his product, which led to him providing it to teachers (a new market). That led him to decide to sell it directly to kids/parents (new segment).

3 Ways You Can Uncover New Opportunities And New Customers

If you want to uncover new opportunities and new customers for your product or service in 2021, then here three ways you could do that:

1. Ask your customers how they actually use your product or service.
This can lead to new revelations about how your products or services can be used.

2. List all of the end results that your product or service provides.
Notice that I said “end results.” Thinking of these will help you to break out of the confines of its current use.

3. Look for customer groups that you currently don’t target who want those same end results.

Just do me a favor. Don’t wait till the current demand for your products or services lessens.

Begin the search now. That way if the demand lessens, you’ll be ready.

And if it doesn’t, you’ll increase your profits and have a stronger company that can better serve your current and future customers.

QUESTION FOR YOU:
What ways have you discovered new opportunities and new customers to serve?
Let me know in the comments below.

Stay Tuned for Another Story About Another Popular Brand

If you liked the Play-Doh story, you’re going to like the next one I have for you.

It’s going to be another story of how a popular brand achieved new levels of success – after they found out about a new market they had never known of before.

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February 19, 2021February 23, 2021

Without This One Thing, Your Marketing is Useless

Yesterday, I revealed the 5th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. I called it your Who, but you might have heard it called your “target market.” If you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.

But if you choose the right audience, you will be surprised at the different results you will get from the same marketing plan.

Today, I want to reveal a specific group that you must target with your who if you want your marketing efforts to produce a good ROI.

To help you realize the significance of this group, I need to start by telling you a revealing story…

Stop Trying to Get Any Old Horse to Drink

I once heard a story about a young salesman who had given the very best pitch that he had to a prospect. But despite all his effort, the prospect still didn’t make a purchase.

He went back to his office and told his boss that he didn’t get the sale.

Then he said to his boss, “I guess it’s true that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

The boss responded quickly with a lesson that the salesman never forgot.

The boss said, “Your job is not to make them drink, your job is to make them thirsty.”

I think that most of us think of sales in this way.

I completely agree with the idea… up to a certain point.

You see, I’ve been thinking about this recently: What is easier to sell? Something that someone already wants? Or something that someone has to be convinced to buy?

I’d prefer to sell something that someone already wants.

The Hamburger Stand with the Most Advantage

That reminds me of a lesson the late direct marketer, Gary Halbert, once taught to an audience.

He asked the group, “If you opened a hamburger stand, what advantage would you want to have?”

Someone would yell out, “The best hamburgers!”
Someone else would yell out, “The best location!”
Another would say, “The best prices!”

Gary would let them keep going for a while, watching the smug looks spread across the room, as each person became more and more convinced their answer was the best one.

Finally, Gary would surprise them all by saying something to the effect, “Those are all good ideas, but I only want one advantage: a hungry crowd!”

I’d add one more condition that I’d want: A hungry crowd – with money!

Of course, you want to offer the best possible product or service.
You want a great location.
You want to have competitive prices.
You want a great website, great content marketing, great SEO, great social media strategies, etc.

But if you don’t have a crowd of people with money – who are hungry for what you’re offering – then you’re going to have a very difficult time generating any revenue.

Your Content Marketing, Products, And Services Must Attract That Kind Of Crowd

All of the content and marketing you create must be designed to attract and help that hungry crowd with money.

Your products and services must meet the needs and/or desires of a crowd of people who have the money to purchase from you.

Otherwise, you’ll take a lot of action, and maybe see a lot of reactions, but you’ll never get any transactions.

And that will never lead to satisfaction!

(Don’t make me rhyme again! 🙂 )

I don’t know about you, but I am going to focus everything I do on this #1 priority in 2021!

I will continue discussing this 5th marketing fundamental on Monday. Stay tuned!

Miss Yesterday’s Article?

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The 5th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021.

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February 18, 2021February 17, 2021

The 5th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

On the first Monday in January, I began a series called “The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.“

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I will continue to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

The First 4 Marketing Fundamentals:

Here are the four marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:

The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow-up at all. They don’t follow-up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.

Now that you’re all caught up, you’re ready to discover the 5th marketing fundamental…

The Archer’s Secret and the 5th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

I once heard a story about a king who was hunting in a forest when he came across a tree that caught his attention. Why? Because it had several targets drawn on its trunk.

What amazed the king was that in the center of each circle was an arrow.

The king turned to his men and asked them, “Who is this amazing archer? I have to find him and recruit him for my army.”

At that moment, a boy walked by carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows.
Overhearing the king, he admitted that he was the one who had shot the arrows.

The king couldn’t believe it.
He asked the boy, “Are you sure you didn’t just push the arrows into the middle?”

But the boy said, “No, sire. I shot these arrows from a hundred paces.”
“That is amazing,” said the king in awe.

That was all the king needed to hear. He looked the boy in the eye and told him, “From now on, consider yourself to be in my service.” The boy was so happy.

But the king had to know how the boy had such incredible aim.
So the king asked the boy, “Tell me, how did you come to be such an excellent archer?”

That’s when the boy revealed his shocking secret. He said, “First, I shoot the arrow at the tree, then I paint a ring around it.”

The Secret of the Most Successful Direct Response Marketers

The secret of the most successful direct response marketers is very similar to the success secret of the boy in the story you just heard.

You see, if pick the right who, then you’ve just taken a major step towards success.

They make sure to pick the right list of people who:

Already wants what they’re offering
Has already purchased what they are offering

…then they offer that to that list.

The Most Important Element of a Successful Direct Response Campaign

If I get a room full of the top direct response marketers and I ask them, “What’s the most important element for a successful direct response campaign?” They will all unanimously give me the same answer.

It’s not the copy. Remember, these are people that get paid top dollar for the copy that they write but they know the most important element is not the copy.

It’s not the offer. Again, these people create amazing irresistible offers. but they know the most important element for a successful campaign is not the offer.

They will all tell you that the most important element in a successful direct response campaign is the list.

It’s the Who!

Because if you get the right, your offer doesn’t have to be perfect and you’ll still see a good response.

If you picked right who, your copy doesn’t have to be the best that’s ever been written and you’ll still see good results.

But if you pick the wrong who, you could create the best offer that has ever been created and still see hardly any results.

If you pick the wrong who you could create the most powerful copy that has ever been written, and you still will have a dud.

The Worst and Best Person to Sell Pizza To

Think about this…
How difficult would it be to get someone who hates Pizza to purchase pizza from you, no matter how good your offer is or your copy is?

Even if you offered free pizza, they wouldn’t want it.
Why? Because they hate pizza! The only offer that MIGHT work is if you offered to pay them to eat the pizza. And for some people that offer wouldn’t even work!

But now think of another person…

Think of someone who loves pizza. Someone who loves pizza of all different kinds.

Someone who buys pizza every week. Someone who loves thin crust and thick crust. Someone who constantly wants to try new places to eat pizza.

Think about the offer that will give them to purchase your pizza.
All you probably have to do is just mention that your pizza place exists and they’ll be there.

Your offer doesn’t have to be that powerful. Your copy doesn’t have to be that compelling. And you will still see a result.

That’s the difference between picking the right who and the wrong who. That’s the difference between a successful marketing campaign and an unsuccessful marketing campaign.

It’s the list. It’s the audience. It’s the who.

If you want to succeed in 2021, then you cannot forget to focus on the 5th marketing fundamental: the who.

If you target the right who in your marketing campaigns, then everything will be easier.

If you target the wrong who, then even with the same exact marketing everything will be more difficult.

The key is going to be picking the right who. In my next article, I’ll reveal one of the criteria for the right who.

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

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February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

The Unique Selling Proposition of a Man Named Harry

If you have missed my previous articles on the importance of having a unique selling proposition (i.e. USP), then you can read them here:

Today, I want to share with you a powerful story of a man who personally tapped into the power of a USP.

The Story of a Man Named Harry

I never heard motivational speaker Bill Gove speak.

But I heard that he was considered the founder of the public speaking industry. I also heard that he was an amazing storyteller.

I’m about to share with you an example of the type of story that made him so special.

It’s a story of his that I came across that reveals a simple way one appliance store owner established a powerful brand, a brand that helped his store stand out from the rest.

It was so powerful that it even helped his store compete against the discount stores in his neighborhood.

Bill Gove told this story…

How Harry Competed With The Discount Stores

“Harry ran a small appliance store in Phoenix, Arizona. Harry was used to price-shopping by young couples. They would ask detailed questions about features, prices, and model numbers, and one of them always took notes.

“Harry knew that as soon as they left the store they were going to head for one of the discount appliance dealers to make comparisons.

“Nevertheless, Harry would patiently answer all their questions, even though it took more than a half-hour at times. But here’s where Harry really shines.”

Harry’s Surprising Response

Bill would continue by saying, “When the couple would announce that they were going to look around at some other places, Harry had a standard spiel to deliver. ‘I know that you’re looking for the best deal you can find,’ he would say.”

“‘I understand that, because I do the same thing myself. I know you’ll probably go down to Discount Dan’s to compare prices. I know I would. But after you’ve done that, I want you to think of one thing.

“‘When you buy from Discount Dan’s, you get an appliance–a good one, I know, because he sells the same appliances we do’.”

Now watch closely how Bill describes how Harry presents his USP (unique selling proposition) because it’s so powerful…

Harry’s Powerful USP

Bill shared that Harry would say, “‘But when you buy here, you get one thing you don’t get at Dan’s. You get me. I come with the deal. I stand behind what I sell. I want you to be happy with what you buy. I’ve been here 30 years. I learned the business from my Dad, and I hope to be able to give the business over to my daughter and son-in-law in a few years.

“‘So you know one thing for sure–when you buy an appliance from me, you get me with the deal. That means I’ll do everything I can to be sure you never regret doing business with me. That’s a guarantee.”

Then Bill said, “Harry would then wish the couple well and give them a quart of ice cream in appreciation of their stopping at his store.“

Bill Gove finished the story powerfully by saying, “Now how far do you think that couple is going to get with Harry’s speech ringing in their ears and a quart of ice cream on their hands in Phoenix, when it’s 110 degrees in the shade?”

Awesome story, isn’t it?

I don’t know if you realized this but there are six powerful unique selling proposition lessons that any company can learn from Harry.

Continue reading and you’ll discover what they are…

6 Brand Lessons From Harry That Can Help You Succeed

1. Offer a powerful guarantee.

People are scared to be ripped off or to look stupid. Not many have a lot of extra money to risk. That means that if you take away the risk, you’ll increase sales.

2. Know the questions your customers have and be prepared to effectively answer them.

Customers will have questions before they buy, even if they’re just simple ones like, “I want it. What’s the next step?” Do your best to learn their questions and how to powerfully answer them.

If prospects have too many unanswered questions, they’ll usually take their purchase elsewhere.

3. Don’t just sell a product or service. Attach who you are (or “who” your business is) to it.

This is the power of a brand. It’s the personality of a product that makes one product more appealing than another. It’s what (who) it represents. Don’t just focus on what your product or service is. Focus on who is offering it, whether that who is you or the personality your business represents.

4. Know what makes you/your business different from your competitors and make it clearly known to your customers.

Are you clear about what makes your business different from the others? Can you easily explain the difference to someone? If you can’t, you need to become clear and learn how to explain this to others.

5. Be a real human being interacting with another real human being.

Maybe at some point in the past people preferred buying from entities over people (if that was ever the case), but nowadays people want to buy from real people – people they know, like, trust, and can relate to.

Even if your business isn’t tied to your personality, make sure it has a personality. Make sure it’s human. Make sure your employees speak to your customers as one real person to another real person.

Understand your customers. Care about them and make sure that they know you understand and care about them!

6. Give and you’ll receive.

Do whatever you can to make the first move in the relationship with a potential customer. Don’t make them take the first step. Give them value, make their day before – or even whether – they purchase from you or not.

When you do these things, you’ll create a powerful brand, just like Harry.

The 5th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

That’s it for the 4th marketing fundamental. Next week, I’ll begin to reveal what the 5th marketing fundamental is.

Stay tuned. Subscribe below to be automatically be notified when it goes live.

In the meantime, if you want to catch up on the previous marketing fundamentals I’ve already revealed, then click here. (There are currently 21 previous articles in this series.)

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February 3, 2021February 10, 2021

14 Famous Unique Selling Proposition Examples You Can Use

In my last article, 4 Lessons About Unique Selling Propositions from the Man Who Made the Concept Popular, I revealed the four important things that Rosser Reeves said about USPs.

Today, instead of trying to teach you more about unique selling propositions, I thought I’d give you some examples of some powerful ones.

Some you might have heard of, some you haven’t. Some are USPs for new companies, some are for old brands.

Either way, if you study them closely, you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how to make your marketing or your brand stand out from your competition.

14 Famous Unique Selling Propositions Examples

I’ve shared a brief comment with each of these examples below.

But I want you to read these unique selling propositions with the four things that Reeves revealed in mind. That way, you will make your own discoveries and uncover your own insights.

1. Dominos Pizza – Old delivery guarantee: “30 minutes or it’s free.”

My Comment: This was a claim that no one else was making back then. If you were hungry and you wanted food now, then you knew where to get it.

2. NerdFitness.com – “We help nerds, misfits and mutants lose weight, get strong and get healthy permanently!”

My Comment: When most gyms are trying to attract athletes, they focused on a neglected group.

3. GEICO – “15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.”

My Comment: The genius of this claim is that it’s clear, simple, and very specific.

4. FedEx – Old guarantee: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.“

My Comment: When this claim was first made, it was an unheard of promise. And it was a promise that solved the need of many business people.

5. Schiltz Beer – Old campaign: They had a campaign that is now known as the “Purity” campaign. The campaigned basically went into detail about their brewing process. It explained the care that went into each step. It explained the science behind each step. It revealed all of the things that were meant to show why Schlitz was a “pure” beer.

My Comment: They were the first to point out things that many of the competitors also did. By claiming these things first, they stood out.

6. 7UP – Old slogan “The uncola.”

My Comment: Instead of trying to be like their competitors, they decided to emphasize what made them different.

7. Robinhood – “Investing for everyone.”

My Comment: Now that they’ve been in the news recently, I think this promise is stronger than ever.

8. Warby Parker – “Try 5 pairs for free at home.”

My Comment: They decided to address the problem that most people had: the difficulty of finding the right pair of glasses.

9. Head & Shoulders – “Clinically proven up to 100% dandruff protection.”

My Comment: They choose to be known for something that many other shampoos didn’t even talk about.

10. Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid – Old slogan: “It softens your hands while you do the dishes.”

My Comment: This slogan stood out because it suddenly made dishwashing liquid have a whole new purpose.

11. The Economist – “You’ve seen the news, why not discover the story.”

My Comment: I like this because it suggests that you’ll learn the behind-the-scenes stories that you won’t get anywhere else.

12. Tiffany & Co – “The right one is worth waiting for.”

My Comment: This is a creative way to express a double entendre that express their uniqueness and the uniqueness of the person you’re purchasing the jewelry for.

13. Ben & Jerry’s – “We make the best possible ice cream in the best possible way.”

My Comment: This is a great way to continue to remind consumers that they make amazing ice cream with a powerful purpose behind it.

14. Tuesday Morning – When this store first began, it was literally only open on Tuesdays.

My Comment: When most stores were trying to be more available, they chose a different strategy. By limiting the times customers could purchase from them, they stood out in the marketplace and made their company more memorable and desirable.

If you have any examples that I didn’t include, feel free to list them in the comments below.

Want More?

If you missed my first article about the 4th marketing fundamental, you can check it out at the link below:

The 4th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

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February 2, 2021February 10, 2021

4 Lessons About Unique Selling Propositions from the Man Who Made the Concept Popular

How to Create a Truly Unique Selling Proposition

I’m about to reveal to you some things about creating a unique selling proposition that most of your competitors don’t know. Once you understand these things, it will help you to create a USP that is many times more powerful than your competition.

But in order to do that, you first need to know about the man behind the concept.

Rosser Reeves: The Man Behind One of the Most Important Activities Companies Must Constantly Engage In

Theodore Levitt, a professor at Harvard Business School, once described the importance of differentiation with these powerful words…

“Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage.”

Do you know what I find so interesting about the concept of a unique selling proposition or point of difference?

Many companies these days think they understand the concept, but they don’t know the origin of the term.

And for that reason, they really don’t grasp the full meaning and potential of the concept.

I don’t want you to be like these companies that only know the general concept. I want you to understand the full meaning and power behind a unique selling proposition.

To do that, you need to know about the man who coined the term USP.

Who Was Rosser Reeves?

He was an American advertising executive who was a pioneer of television advertising. How good was he at what he did? Well, he generated millions for his clients.

Do you know what I’d say his own personal USP was?

He didn’t think companies should advertise just for name recognition. Instead, he believed the purpose of advertising is to sell.

In fact, he insisted that the purpose of an ad or commercial was to show off the value or unique selling proposition of a product.

He didn’t think that the purpose of an ad or commercial was just to be funny or clever.

So, what did Rosser Reeves actually say about the unique selling proposition? I found this quote below from him. In it, he shares some powerful thoughts about a USP.

Let me share this quote about the USP and then I’ll share some insights we can glean from it…

The Powerful Thing Rosser Reeves Said About the Unique Selling Proposition

4 Lessons About Unique Selling Propositions from the Man Who Made the Concept Popular

Now let me reveal four lessons we can learn from what Reeves said. To do that, let’s look closely at four things he said about USPs:

1. It should promise a specific benefit.

The mistake that some companies make is they don’t make any promise at all to their prospects. The mistake that other companies make is that they make a vague promise.

Why is that a problem? Because vague promises don’t stand out. How could they? When something is communicated in an unfocused or imprecise way, then its meaning isn’t clear.

Something unclear doesn’t stand out. Only a specific promise does.

If you want to harness the power of the 4th marketing fundamental, you need to make a specific promise to your prospects. That’s the first way to stand out and be different in the marketplace.

2. It must contain a claim the competition can’t or doesn’t offer.

Another mistake that some companies make is they just copy the promises of every other company in the market. That will never make a company different.

That means you need to start by asking and answering some important questions:

– What are all the claims that your competition is making in the marketplace?
– Is there a common theme? Are they trying to solve a common problem or relieve a common pain?
– What claim is not being made in the marketplace that your company can honestly make or that can be made about your product or service?
– What is the gap or blind spot that is being overlooked by your competitors? Is there a way to relieve the problems or pain in the marketplace that isn’t being offered? Or is there a problem or pain that is not being focused on at all?

If you feel stuck trying to answer these questions, then the next point might help.

3. It must express a uniqueness of the brand or the claim being made.

If you don’t feel like you can make a unique claim, in what other ways can your brand stand out?

You see, a unique claim is not the only way that your company, product, or service can be different and stand out. The other way is through your brand.

What makes your brand different than the others? You might not think that there are many ways to make your brand stand out, but there are actually 9 different ways you can do that.

I’m don’t have the time to go over all 9 of the different ways, but I will share three of them with you:

Personality or Brand – Who is the founder/CEO of your company or who represents your company? Do they make your company different? Examples: Steve Jobs & Wendy’s
Backstory –The story of how the company (or founder) got into this particular line of business. Examples: TOMs Shoes or Clif Bar
Experience – The experience people get from buying or using your product or service to get the end result they want. Examples: Disneyland and any “high end” restaurant

Hopefully, these will give you some ideas to get you started.

4. The claim must be strong enough to move the masses.

Wow. Now that’s setting the bar high, isn’t it? But before you just dismiss this completely, let’s think about what it says for a minute.

I think the key point is that you shouldn’t focus on a claim about your product or brand that just moves one person or a few people. You want to find one that hits the nerve of a large amount of people.

In other words, you want to find a claim that speaks to a universal need, desire, pain, or goal in the marketplace.

Look, I’ll admit something to you. It might not always be possible for you to literally come up with a unique selling proposition that moves the masses.

But if you don’t aim that high, you’ll fall so short of the power that the unique selling proposition could bring to your company and its marketing.

Now that you know the original concept of the unique selling proposition, you have insight that many companies have overlooked, which means you now have the opportunity to use it in a way that your competitors have no clue is even possible.

My hope is that you’ll take this insight and implement it to the fullest. By the way, if and when you do implement it, I’d love to hear about it.

If you missed my previous article, you can check it out at the link below:

The 4th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

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February 1, 2021February 10, 2021

The 4th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

On the first Monday in January, I began a series called “The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.“

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I will continue to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

The First 3 Marketing Fundamentals:

The three marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are:

The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow-up at all. They don’t follow-up enough.

The 4th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

The fourth marketing fundamental that you’re going to need in 2021 is the one that really has an impact on all of the marketing fundamentals I’ve revealed so far.

And honestly, it probably impacts all the fundamentals I’m still going to reveal.

What is the fourth marketing fundamental? It’s your unique selling proposition or USP. Some call this your point of difference or POD.

Whatever you call it, it’s a marketing fundamental you can’t overlook. Why?

Because if you’re ever going to have any chance of your prospects choosing your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to understand something important.

Your prospects have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.

I have two situations for you to imagine to help you see the need for this.

SITUATION #1

Imagine that you’re thirsty and want to buy a bottle of water. Now imagine a whole crowd of people who all look and sound similar. They are even dressed similarly.

They are all yelling your name, holding up water bottles, and telling you they have what you want! Which one are you going to choose?

It’s hard to decide, isn’t it? It’s actually pretty confusing. You’ll probably pick the closest and/or the loudest one.

Let’s look at the next situation and see how different it is…

SITUATION #2

Now imagine the same situation and the same crowd yelling out the same things. But suddenly you look closer at the crowd and you see one guy who is dressed differently.

He’s yelling your name too, but he’s saying something different. He’s telling you that his water is chilled at exactly 40ºF to make it extremely refreshing. He tells you that the others are just at room temperature.

He also tells you that his water comes from a pure spring at the top of a mountain and is filtered to remove any impurities. He tells you that even though it is filtered, it still maintains the important minerals your body needs.

He also mentions that all of the others are offering just filtered and bottled tap water. He tells you that his water is priced at the same as the others, but that it will be much more refreshing and helpful for your body.

Which one are you going to choose now? The one guy who is different! Why? Because you know why/how what he is offering is different and better than the others.

This is what it’s like when we make it clear to our prospects why/how we’re different from the competition.

The Van with the Generic Sign

Many years ago, I was driving through a city and saw a van with a generic sign on its door that just said, “Air conditioning and heating service.’ It also had a phone number on the sign that you could call.

I couldn’t believe that was all it said! Did they think someone who needed that service was going to see the van a scream, “YES! I finally found an A/C and heating service!” And then call them right away?

In a small town, with no competition for miles around, that might work. But it’s not going to work in most other areas! Why didn’t this guy at least have his name on A/C & heating sign? Something at least like, “Steve Smith’s A/C& Heating service?”

Better yet, why didn’t this guy ALSO have something on the sign that explained how his service was unique. He could’ve had something like, “We offer the guaranteed best-priced services that are fully guaranteed for 1 year!”

That would’ve been much more powerful and attractive to prospects looking for his services. My prediction is that his business is no longer in existence.

Successful companies make it very clear that their companies are different than the competition. They clearly spell out how their product or service is better/different.

If you want your company to have a chance of succeeding, then prospects must know how you’re different than other companies selling the same things.

USP or POD Applied to the Other Fundamentals

But remember what I said earlier? I said that this also applies to the previous marketing fundamentals. Well, think about that for a second and then answer these questions:

If you want to capture attention, do you think something different or the same will do it best?
If you want to capture attraction, do you think something different or the same will do it best?
If you want to capture attention with your follow-up, do you think something different or the same will do it best?

You know the answer.

Do you now see why I’ve said a USP or POD is so important?
I’ve mentioned the importance of your prospects knowing how your company or product is different or better is than the competition.

But the reality is that in this world that’s crowded with competition in every vertical, one of these things is more important than the other.

The short video below gives a pretty powerful argument as to why different is better than better.

Sally Hoghead – Why Different is Better Than Better

VIDEO DESCRIPTION: It’s no longer enough to be good, or better, or even the best. Now the question is…what makes you DIFFERENT? Sally Hogshead, New York Times Bestselling author, Hall of Fame Speaker, and creator of the Fascinate test speaks on the subject of why DIFFERENT is better than BETTER.

Want to Catch Up on This Series?

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January 29, 2021February 10, 2021

3 Unique Reasons You Need to Follow-Up with Prospects Who Aren’t Ready to Buy Today

One of the reasons your prospects might not be ready, willing, or able to purchase from you today is because they’re dealing with a problem.

It doesn’t matter what the problem actually is. It’s too distracting, annoying, or painful for them to think of anything else. It’s too much of a pain to think about making any decisions. So, instead, they delay purchasing from you today.

That’s why follow-up is so important.

Let me tell you a quick story about a big problem that a farmer had and to reveal to you more of what I mean…

The Old Farmer and the Large Rock

An old farmer had a large rock in the middle of his field.

Instead of getting rid of it, he plowed around that large rock for years.

He did this because he’d broken several plowshares and a cultivator on it.

After breaking another plowshare one fall, and remembering all the trouble the rock had caused him through the years, he finally determined to do something about it.

He was determined to pull it up and get it out of his field, so one day he grabbed a crowbar.

When he put his crowbar under the rock, he was surprised to discover that it was only about six inches thick and that he could break it up easily.

As he was carting it away he had to smile, remembering all the trouble that the rock had caused him and how easy it would have been to get rid of it sooner.

Most of us do the same thing with our problems.

Instead of really dealing with them, we try to ignore them. We try to work around them.

As I mentioned yesterday, we do anything we can to procrastinate instead of dealing with them. But what does this story have to do with the importance of following up with your prospects?

I told you that story because your prospect has at least one problem that they’ve been dealing with for a long time, just like this farmer.

They haven’t dealt with the problem. They’ve instead tried to ignore it or work around it. And that leads to the whole reason you need to follow-up.

I know that might sound crazy. If they have a big problem and can’t think about buying right now, why should anyone follow-up?

Let me give you three very important reasons.

Three Reasons You Need to Follow-Up with Prospects Who Aren’t Ready to Buy Today

If your prospect has a big problem and can’t think about buying right now, here are three reasons why you need to follow-up:

1. You want to be there when they finally deal with it.

When they finally realize it wasn’t as big of a deal as they thought and they finally deal with it, they will finally be ready to make the decision about purchasing what you offer from someone.

You want to be the someone who is still there when they’re ready.

2. You can help them to overcome their problem faster.

You can be the one to show them that the big rock in their life really isn’t that big. Not only will that help them be free of it much sooner, but you’ll also stand out from the competition because you relieved their pain.

(You’ll also feel good about being able to help them.)

Before I get to the third reason you need to follow-up with prospects who are dealing with a big problem, I need to talk to you about how we all see problems.

Our Problem With Problems

Actually dealing with our problems is only one of our problems with problems. (Try saying that 5 times fast!)

How well you can solve problems in your business or your life all depends on how you view your problems.

Many years ago, I came across a powerful perspective on problems while reading leadership expert John Maxwell’s blog.

He revealed this interesting perspective on how to view problems. He said…

“Problems always bring opportunities, and opportunities always bring problems. The two go hand in hand. If we can learn to appreciate that truth, we have a real advantage in life.“
– John Maxwell

It’s so easy to naturally see problems as negative things.

I do it. I am sure you do too. That means that your prospects do the same thing. And that leads us to the third reason you need to follow-up with them.

3. You need to show them the opportunity even in the middle of their problem.

You do this by answering these questions:

How can you help them to stop seeing their problem as a negative thing?
How can you help them see it as a positive thing?

But here’s the key.

Don’t do it just to get them to buy something. Don’t it to really help them.
When you have the mindset of following up with your prospects so you can actually help them, you will see follow-up in a whole different light.

Not only that, but your prospects will see you in a whole different light. When they do, some of them will gladly purchase from you.

Some of the ones who don’t purchase from you will tell all of their friends about your company and your product.

But whether they buy from you or not, or tell others about you or not, the best thing is you will have helped someone overcome their problem… and possibly gained a friend.

Now that you know these things, you should feel much better about following up and more confident about how to do it.

Next week, we’ll begin looking at the 4th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. Stay tuned.

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January 28, 2021January 28, 2021

Why Your Prospects NEED You to Follow-Up with Them

If you give me a few minutes, I’m about to reveal the reason you must follow-up with your prospects, if you care about them.

This might surprise you but the reason you must follow-up with them is not for your benefit, but for theirs.

Before I explain, let me ask you a few questions:

How many of the things that you KNOW you should do, are you currently, actually doing?
How many goals have you set for yourself that you haven’t achieved yet?

I don’t know you but let me make some predictions about your answers:

You probably aren’t doing all, or maybe not even many, of the things that you know you should be doing.
You probably have not achieved some, maybe not even many, of the goals you’ve set for yourself.

My bonus answer to a question I didn’t ask you: How do you feel about not doing all you know you should do and not achieving some of your goals? You feel bad about it all.

How’d I do? Good? Well, thanks.
No, I’m not psychic. The reason I knew these were your answers is because they’re MY answers.

You and I have a similar problem: We procrastinate.
Why? Because we’re scared.
Of failure. Maybe even more afraid of success.

So we keep putting off things, even important things we know we should do and want to do.

And this is the important part…
Your prospects are just like you and me.

They aren’t doing everything they know they should, and they aren’t achieving all the goals they have hoped to.

That’s why they NEED you to follow-up with them.
(Of course, that’s assuming your product or service is something that can really help them.)

They need you to follow-up because they’ve been procrastinating like we have.
They need you to follow-up because they’ve been delaying the decision about buying your product or service, even though they want to purchase it.
They need you to follow-up because they’re afraid your company or your product/service is not what you say you are. They’re scared you are not the answer to their problems.
They need you to follow-up because they might be even more afraid that your company or your product/service ARE all that you say you are. They’re scared that you do have the answer to their problems. And they’re not sure they’re really ready to go to the next level.

There are probably many other reasons why they need you to follow-up.

So, the next time you’re procrastinating and putting off creating that lead magnet, the next time you’re procrastinating and not emailing your leads – because you’re afraid of failure or success, remember you’re not alone.

I’m like you. And more importantly, those prospects you’re afraid to create that lead magnet for, or afraid to email, are like you.

And they need you to follow-up. Otherwise, they will never get unstuck.

The video below from AsapSCIENCE can help you to understand your and your prospect’s problem with procrastination.

The Science of Procrastination – This Is WHY You Do It (VIDEO)

If you want to know more of the reasons WHY you and your prospects procrastinate – and how to stop, watch this awesome video below.

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January 27, 2021January 27, 2021

How to Follow-Up with Prospects Without Being Annoying

The Stone Cutter’s Secret

In a Reader’s Digest issue, Jacob Riis just hinted at the invisible quality I want to talk to you about today. See if you can tell what this invisible quality is from what he said…

“I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow, it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
Jacob Riis in Reader’s Digest

Persistence is the invisible quality you need to possess if you want to see success with follow up, the third marketing fundamental. (Read more about the third marketing fundamental here.)

You must be persistent in following up in your efforts to gain attention, attract your prospects, and convert them into customers.

The question is: How do you follow-up with prospects without being annoying?

How to Effectively Follow-up with Your Potential Customers and Clients

When it comes to following up with the people you hope to convert to customers or clients, there are two groups you will focus on:

Prospects – When I say prospects, I’m talking about anyone who isn’t on one of your email lists. They’re not an email subscriber or they haven’t signed up for any of the lead magnets you offer. They might know about your company or products. They might not. They might have consumed your articles, blog posts, podcast, or videos or not.
Leads – When I say leads, I’m talking about anyone who is on one of your email lists. They have raised their hand and have shown enough interest to be willing to exchange their contact info with you.

Alright, now that that is clear, let me share with you ways that you can follow-up effectively with prospects or leads.

Follow-Up Tactics for Prospects

The key to following up with prospects is to continue to stay in front of them until they are ready to become a lead or a customer.

The most effective way to do this is through the use of content marketing. Why is content marketing so effective at multiple marketing touches with prospects?

Have you ever had a salesperson constantly contact you and ask you if you’re ready to buy? Annoying, huh?

Well, content marketing allows you to continue to be in front of prospects and have something more to say than just asking, “Wanna buy from us now!?!”

It helps you to not sound like (or feel like) that annoying salesperson.

Content marketing enables you to provide helpful information so that you’re viewed as an expert, not a pest.

Follow-Up Tactics for Leads

The key to following up with leads is to continue to provide them with content related to the lead magnet they originally signed up for.

While in the process of providing that information, you want to continue to educate them, encourage them, and explain to them why and how your solution is the one they’re looking for.

The most effective way to do this is through the use of email marketing. Why is email marketing so effective at multiple marketing touches with leads?

Have you ever met someone in a loud, crowded room (pre-COVID days) and tried to have a conversation with them? It wasn’t easy, was it?

But what if you got their contact info and texted or called them later? That’s a whole different story. Now your conversation isn’t drowned out by the distractions of a crowded and noisy room.

It’s now much easier to have a one-on-one conversation. That’s how you can build a friendship with someone whose messages and calls you look forward to.

Well, if you use email marketing effectively, it will enable you to speak one-on-one with your leads, through a channel that is much less crowded and noisy, instead of trying to communicate through the crowded space known as the internet.

Again, if you use email marketing effectively, your leads will look forward to your emails. They begin to enter into a relationship with you where they start to know, like, and trust.

When that happens, it’s only a matter of time (while you tap into the invisible quality of persistence) until they become a customer.

Two Resources to Help You Use Email Marketing to Effectively Follow-up with Leads

I don’t have the time in this article to go into all the details of what it takes to use email marketing effectively so that your leads will get your messages and even look forward to them.

But I can point you to two resources that can help you with that…

1) Case Study: How Brian Dean (From Backlinko) Built a Massive Email List (and How You Can Too)

How Brian Dean Built A Massive Email List And How You Can Too

Back in March of 2020, I wrote an article that revealed how SEO expert, Brian Dean, focuses on building an email list.

Yes, you read that right. He’s a SEO expert whose secret to success is building an email list of prospects that he can follow-up with.

You can read my case study that reveals what I discovered when I signed up for Brian’s lead magnet. You can see it here.

How to Grow Your Business with Email Marketing

Aweber is the company I use for my email marketing. It allows me to easily create different email lists for different lead magnets. It also makes it easy for me to create automated email nurture follow-up sequences and send email broadcasts.

They’ve put together a guide called “How to Grow Your Business with Email Marketing.”

You’ll learn everything you need to know to get started with email marketing.
You’ll walk away knowing how to:

Create sign up forms and landing pages
Write and design beautiful emails
Build your email list in creative ways
Measure email performance
Avoid the spam folder

Plus, you’ll get access to tons of fantastic templates that help you get up and running quickly.

You can learn more about the guide and sign-up to get access to it by clicking here.

*AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER: I proudly feature affiliate links for some products that I love. It adds no extra cost to you but enables me to earn a commission if you purchase. This is just one way I can continue to provide you with valuable information on this site.

Want to Catch Up on This Series?

If you missed the previous articles, you can go to this page I’ve created for the series.

In case you’re wondering, there are currently 15 previous in this series.

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021

The 3rd Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

On January 4, 2021, I began a series I’m calling The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I will continue to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

The First Marketing Fundamental: Attention

The first week, I revealed that the first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.

I then went to share ways you could capture, keep, and earn future attention.

The Second Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

The second week, I revealed that the second marketing fundamental is attraction.

I went on to reveal that without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.

Want to Catch Up on This Series?

If you missed the articles and want to read them, you can go to this page I’ve created for the series.

In case you’re wondering, there are 14 previous articles in this series.

The 3rd Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

After you have captured your prospect’s attention and then attracted the prospect, your work is not done. The next marketing fundamental you need to focus on is follow-up.

Because one of the biggest mistakes many companies make is tied to follow-up.

They don’t follow-up at all.
They don’t follow-up enough.

The “7 Marketing Touches” Principle

One well-known marketing principle is that you need, on average, 7 marketing touches before your marketing gets through to someone. That means it takes minimally 7 marketing touches to produce a sale.

I believe this is true today more than ever.

In fact, with how flooded our lives have become with marketing and advertising hitting us from all directions, we probably need much more than 7 touches.

You probably need more like 21 touches. Why? Because with so much information coming at us we’ve learned to block most of it out.

Even if we see an ad, and have an interest in what is being offered, we usually will forget about it unless we act on it right away.

The problem is that nowadays we’re all much less trusting of people, businesses, and organizations. We’ve been burned too many times by false promises to believe everyone.

This keeps us from acting on things right away, because we don’t want to look stupid.

We want to wait and find out more about this thing, person, or service. We want to make sure we don’t move too quickly and look stupid.

That’s why multiple marketing touches are needed today.

How This Applies to the First Two Marketing Fundamentals

When you realize how important the third marketing fundamental, it will help you to be more patient and better at applying the first two marketing fundamentals this year.

Let me explain.

The 1st Marketing Fundamental

When you realize how important follow-up is, you’ll be more persistent and patient in trying to get your prospect’s attention (1st marketing fundamental).

You’ll realize that you will never capture the majority of your prospects on your first effort to gain their attention.

That means when others mistakenly make only a single effort to gain attention in the marketplace, you’ll still be there long after, gaining the attention of prospects that your competitors gave up on too quickly.

The 2nd Marketing Fundamental

When you realize how important follow-up is, you’ll be more stubborn and determined in following up on the prospect’s whose attention that you’ve captured.

You’ll realize that the list of leads you gather, through your usual or “unusual” lead magnet, will need to stubbornly be followed up with in order to fully harvest the actual revenue potential they contain.

That means when others foolishly attempt to use lead magnets, and give up thinking they don’t work anymore, you’ll be generating revenue long after they’ve moved on to something else.

That’s it for today.

In my next article, I’ll help you to discover ways that you can follow-up with your prospects without being annoying.

A New Article in the Member’s Resource Area

I have a new article that reveals how another company used lead magnets in an “unusual” way to gain success.

The article is called “The “Unusual” Lead Magnet Behind the Most Popular Music Streaming Service.“

It’s in our Member’s Resource area. You can read just a minute or two from now. You just need to sign-up below. It’s free.

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January 22, 2021February 10, 2021

How One Company Used an “Unusual” Lead Magnet to Succeed in the Streaming Wars

With so many major media companies entering the streaming wars, what strategy would you use to succeed?

Well, one company decided to use an “unusual” lead magnet to enter the streaming wars. What was the result?

They reached #13 on PCMag’s “The Best Video Streaming Services for 2021” list.
They are ranked at the #4 spot on PCMag’s “The Best Free Video Streaming Services for 2021” list.
They made the #7 spot on CNET’s “Best free TV streaming services: Peacock, Plex, Pluto TV, Roku, IMDb TV, Crackle and more.”
They are ranked #17 on Consumer Report’s “Guide to Free Streaming Video Services” (beating out YouTube).
They ended up getting purchased for $440 million.

Today, I’ll share with you the “unusual” lead magnet they used and show you the path they took to achieve success.

NOTE: If you’ve read my previous articles in this current series, you can skip the next section.

Haven’t Read Previous Articles? Read This – Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On

As I mentioned in my previous article, lead generation and lead magnets could change your business forever. Why do I say this?

Because the greatest tech companies around today have actually been built using lead magnets.

The key thing to understand is that they didn’t do that by using lead magnets in the usual way. They’ve used them in an unusual way.

In a previous article, I also shared with you my definition of a lead magnet.

My Definition of a Lead Magnet: A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer to your ideal prospects in exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable (usually information of some kind).
From Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On

I told you that when you see this definition, you need to realize that a lead magnet can be much more than a PDF file.
You need to realize that prospects possess something much more valuable than just an email address they can exchange with you.

In my previous two articles, I showed you how Facebook and Canva both built such successful businesses by using a very unusual way to think of and implement lead magnets.

Tubi: An “Unusual” Lead Magnet That Led to a $400 Million Acquisition

TubiTV.com

Today, I want to show you another company that has used lead magnets in an “unusual” way.

But, unlike the other two companies, this one achieved success by applying this “unusual” understanding of lead magnets to streaming TV.

By taking a look at this story, it will help you see that what I’m sharing with you can be applied to all sorts of businesses.

The company I want to talk to you about today is Tubi TV.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Tubi is a free video streaming service that enables users to watch over 20,000 movies and television shows from nearly every major Hollywood studio.

Users can watch this content in multiple ways:

Through iOS and Android apps on your smartphone
Through apps available on Roku, Samsung TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Sony, Vizio Smart TVs, Xbox, and PlayStation
Or even through your web browser via your laptop or tablet

Now, let’s take a closer look at what their unusual lead magnet is…

Tubi’s Lead Generation Strategy That Led to Their Incredible Success

(IMPORTANT: Everything I’m about to share with you about their strategy is just from observations I’ve made as an outsider. I have no insider information.)

Stage 1: They offered a free video streaming service to anyone – no email required.

You can think of this first stage as the “free sample” stage. Because as you will notice, Tubi lets users access their content without offering anything valuable in exchange.

In other words, you don’t even need to create an account with them to view the TV shows and movies. One thing that Tubi does do at this stage, which makes them stand out, is they have some really unique categories that they list their content under.

Categories such as:

“Something Completely Different”
“Not on Netflix”
“Leaving Soon”
“Only Free on Tubi”
“Highly Rated on Rotten Tomatoes”
and more

The way they categorize their content makes it easier to sift through, so you can find what you like.

You might be wondering. Why would they let users view their content without asking for anything from those users? Because the main way Tubi makes money is from ad revenue. That means the larger audience they have, the more revenue they make.

If they would have just stopped at this stage, then they wouldn’t have qualified as a company that used an unusual lead magnet.

But they didn’t stop there.

Stage 2: In exchange for your email address, you can access the free content on all of your devices, sync your list, and continue watching anywhere.

They ask for your first and last name, an email address, a password, date of birth, and gender.

But actually, I hear that you can sign-up with only your first name and email address. The rest of the info is optional. You also have the option to sign-up via Facebook or Google sign-in.

Pay close attention because this is where their choice to let users have free access becomes an actual incentive for people to sign-up. You see, the more you use Tubi, the more an account becomes attractive to you.

Why? Here are three reasons:

1. You can create a watchlist.
The more you use Tubi, the more you will discover things you want to watch later. But if you don’t give them your email address, you will just have to remember these things.

In fact, when you try to add something to your list without an account, you get a prompt that encourages you to sign-up. (See image below.)

2. You get recommendations based on your viewing habits.
Once you create an account, you give Tubi a better way to make recommendations that actually match the things you like to watch. This saves you from having to manually find all the content you’d actually like.

3. You can access the free content on all of your devices, sync your list, and continue watching anywhere.

This might not seem like a very compelling reason, but it’s the reason I finally ended up signing up for an account.

The more that a person uses Tubi (the power of that first stage in action), the more this becomes a really valuable incentive for a user.

How Tubi’s Lead Generation Model Is Just a Variation of Facebook’s Model

If you remember in my previous post, Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On, I told you that Facebook offered “connection” as their lead magnet.

They did that until they gathered enough users to be able to sell other companies the chance to advertise to them. That’s how Facebook made so much money and became such a valuable company.

Now think about it.

Tubi had the same basic lead model: gather a bunch of users so that companies will pay you to advertise to them.

But Tubi implemented that lead generation model in two different ways:

Instead of relying on users to create content, like Facebook did, Tubi relied on media companies to provide the content.
Instead of making their content only available to people with accounts, like Facebook did, Tubi made the same content available to people with or without an account.

How Effective Has Tubi’s Variation of This Lead Magnet Model Been?

When I say that Tubi achieved success by using an “unusual” lead magnet, I don’t mean that other companies haven’t offered ad-supported TV streaming.

Other companies have used this model. Tubi has just been more successful:

Pluto has 28.4 million users
Vudu has 25 million users
Crackle has 26 million users
Roku has 27 million users

How many users does Tubi have? In August of 2020, Tubi announced that it had reached 33 million users – an increase of 65% year-over-year.

Why have they been so successful? I believe the reason they’ve been so successful is because of how well they’ve implemented this lead generation model.

The stats that I began this article with should prove that this isn’t just a personal opinion. But if you want more proof of how successful they’ve been at the implementation of this lead gen model, check this out…

Further Proof of Tubi’s Success

According to an article on TheVerge.com….

“Fox Corporation has acquired ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for $440 million, bringing more than 20,000 movies and shows to the platform.”
– From Fox buys Tubi for $440 million as it attempts to join the streaming wars

You read that right.

They’ve done such a great job at implementing their “unusual” lead magnet that Fox Corporation (no longer connected with 20th Century Fox) decided they were worth $400 million. That’s how valuable an “unusual” lead magnet, and the list of prospects it can attract, can be.

In Fox Corp’s press release, they revealed some of the reasoning behind their purchase…

“The acquisition of Tubi underscores FOX’s long-term strategic initiatives to broaden and enhance FOX’s direct-to-consumer digital reach and engagement.

“Tubi brings to FOX an expanded consumer offering with a sizable, younger-skewing and directly connected user base that spends over 160 million hours per month watching content on the service.

“Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Corporation, Lachlan Murdoch commented: ‘Tubi will immediately expand our direct-to-consumer audience and capabilities and will provide our advertising partners with more opportunities to reach audiences at scale. Importantly, coupled with the combined power of FOX’s existing networks, Tubi provides a substantial base from which we will drive long-term growth in the direct-to-consumer arena.'”

IMPORTANT INSIGHT:
I won’t get into this in this article, but I do want to point out something important that was repeated over and over in the quote above: “direct-to-consumer,” “directly connected user base,” and “direct-to-consumer arena.”

Fox Corporation, realizes the benefit of having direct access to a list or user base of consumers. That’s a benefit direct response marketers have known for at least 100 years.

In this disjointed and distracted world, more and more major corporations are coming to this realization. I’ll have to go deeper on this point in some other format in the future, but this is one of the most important reasons why you should focus on attracting leads in 2021. It allows you to speak directly to your leads.

Tubi’s Example Applied to My Lead Magnet Definition

Another reason I’m calling it an “unusual” magnet is because Tubi didn’t choose to go the way that many of the big-name streaming services have.

They didn’t decide to charge for their content. Instead, they decided to offer an “unusual lead magnet” in exchange for something valuable.

Let’s take my definition and plug in Tubi’s example. Then you’ll see their whole strategy at its simplest level:

Something valuable that you offer your ideal prospects: Tubi offered free access to TV shows and movies. (Canva offered the ability to create great designs.)
In exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable: When a user creates an account, they are trading more than just their email. They’re also giving Tubi the ability to track their viewing habits. That made Tubi such a valuable asset, Fox Corp was willing to pay hundreds of millions for it.

Many More Successful Tech Companies Have Used an “Unusual” Lead Magnet

I’ve now shared three examples of extremely successful tech companies that have used “unusual” lead magnet.

You’ve now seen three different businesses built off of just two different lead generation models.

Have I finally proven to you that many successful companies really have built their business models off of the second marketing fundamental (aka attraction)?

I hope so.

Because, as I’ve said, when you understand lead magnets in this deeper way, the right lead magnet really could be worth millions, if not billions of dollars to you.

I still have 9 other very successful tech companies that I’ve documented that have used lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way to build their company.

I need to decide what I will do with this information. Maybe I’ll offer another example via a lead magnet in my member’s resource area? 🙂

Then maybe I’ll later share the other examples through some paid option. I’ll let you know more once I decide.

I still need to get to my 10 other marketing fundamentals that you’ll need to succeed in 2021. So I’m going to move on to the next one next week.

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January 20, 2021January 20, 2021

This is Why Many Companies Ignore Lead Magnets

Why do many companies ignore lead magnets? If you surveyed the companies that ignore lead magnets, I bet you’d find they’re doing this for three main reasons:

They’re too focused on making sales today to focus on tomorrow’s sales.
They’re too busy taking care of their current customers.
They’re too busy managing all of the day-to-day tasks of running a company.

By ignoring lead magnets, these companies are unintentionally missing the opportunity to:

Build an email list they can make offers to
Gain trust with their prospects
Establish their company as a leader in their industry
And more

If you don’t want to be one of the companies making this fatal mistake, keep in mind the wisdom of loggers.

Yes, you read that correctly, the wisdom of loggers.

More Trees in 2021 Than 1921?

“By 1997, forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380 percent greater than it had been in 1920.”
From FAO – Northwest American Forrest Commission

Did you know that for every tree that loggers cut down they plant four seedlings?

Because of this practice, there are more trees now than there were in 1921!

If you think about it, this is a very smart practice. Because without new trees, loggers have no future.

That made me think.

Lead Magnets Are the Seeds That Lead to a Harvest in the Future

As I said in my previous article, “Lead magnets and lead generation are your way to secure your future, today.”

Using lead magnets today is, in a sense, planting seeds that you can harvest tomorrow.

When you think of it like this, how many companies are wise enough to do the same thing as these loggers? Don’t get me wrong.

Many companies start by focusing on doing everything they can to get customers or clients… until they start showing up.

Then, once they start showing up, something interesting happens.

They stop focusing on getting them (or lessen that focus) and begin to concentrate on helping those customers or clients.

Now, obviously, you need to focus on your customers or clients. I would never tell you not to do that. But think about it.

What will eventually happen to you if you stop focusing on getting new leads that you can grow (aka nurture) into customers?

That’s right. You’ll end up like unwise loggers.

You’ll soon have no future.

P.S. What I just shared doesn’t just apply to companies. It applies to schools, universities, doctors, hospitals, dentists, restaurants, etc.

P.P.S. I’m still working on my next article focused on “unusual” lead magnets, but I needed more time to finish it. Stay tuned. My article will be called “How One Company Used an “Unusual” Lead Magnet to Succeed in the Streaming Wars.“

January 18, 2021February 10, 2021

The Unusual Lead Magnet Canva Used to Build a Company Worth $60 Billion

A Brief Review – Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On

As I mentioned in my previous article, lead generation and lead magnets could change your business forever.

The greatest tech companies that are around today have actually been built using lead magnets.

But they haven’t used lead magnets in the usual way. They’ve used them in an unusual way.

In my last article, I also shared with you my definition of a lead magnet.

My Definition of a Lead Magnet: A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer to your ideal prospects in exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable (usually information of some kind).
From Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On

I told you that when you see this definition, you need to realize that a lead magnet can be much more than a PDF file.
You need to realize that prospects possess something much more valuable than just an email address they can exchange with you.

Then I showed you how Facebook built one of the most successful businesses around by using a very unusual way to think of and implement lead magnets.

Canva: Another Company That Used Lead Magnets in an Unusual Way

Today, I want to show you another company that has used lead magnets in an unusual way.

They used the same basic understanding of a lead magnet that I just shared with you.
But they built a different business model off of it.

The company I want to talk to you about today is Canva.

In case you’ve never heard of it, Canva is a website or an app that enables you to create graphic designs. You might be creating social media assets, website assets, or even posters or pdfs.

And you can do all of this for free.

So what is the unusual lead magnet that they offer?

Canva’s 4-Stage Lead Generation Strategy That Lead to Their Incredible Success

(IMPORTANT: Everything I’m about to share with you about their strategy is just from observations I’ve made as an outsider. I have no insider information.)

Stage 1: They offered the ability for non-designers to design professional-looking graphics very easily.

This is how the first stage of their lead magnet strategy worked. In other words, this was the “lead magnet” that they chose to offer people.

Their Lead Magnet’s Promise: Give us your email address and we will make it easy for you to create graphics at no cost.

And what an amazing promise it is!

In exchange for your email address, you get:

Access to over 250,000 free templates
Over 100 design types such as social media posts, presentations, letters, and more
Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics
You can invite up to 4 members to your Canva team for free.
You can collaborate and comment in real-time.
And you get five GB of cloud storage.

How Canva’s Lead Generation Model is Different Than Facebook’s Model

Now let me point out some important things.

Facebook’s purpose was to gather a bunch of leads so that one day they could make money by letting businesses and companies advertise to these people.

Canva had a different plan.
Canva’s plan was to offer you as many features as possible for free. But that’s not all. They wanted to make it as easy as possible to use these features to achieve success.

Once the user achieved success, that’s when their revenue plan kicked in.

Stage 2: Offer better or additional images, graphics, and more for a small price.

Let’s say you’re creating a graphic with Canva and you’re not satisfied with the pictures they offer for free. For just $1, you could purchase one of their better quality images.

Did you catch that?

They aren’t trying to make a large sale off of a small amount of people.
They want to make a small sale off of a large amount of people.

In fact, they don’t just want to make one small sale from a large amount of people. They want to make a bunch of small sales from a bunch of people.

How I Accidentally Became a Paying Customer

Originally, I didn’t sign up to use Canva with a plan to spend any money. I was just going to use the free tools, images, etc.

How did I end up becoming a paying customer? It was just too easy to spend $1.

After I purchased the first time, it made purchasing the second time easier… and the third time even easier. You get the point.

As an example, let’s use my “accidental purchase” history with Canva from 2020.

Over the year 2020, I spent $10 with Canva. That’s not a lot. I’ve spent more with them in previous years.

But let’s use it as an example because it’s from someone that didn’t plan on spending any money. Imagine how much was spent by someone who planned to spend a little extra on the graphics and pictures they wanted.

Now think about it.

Canva has 30 million users. If each of those users just unintentionally spent $10, like I did, that means Canva probably made AT LEAST $300 million last year.

Let me point something out, in case you missed it.

Canva Didn’t Do What Other Companies Selling Images Would’ve Done

Instead of just trying to sell me images, templates, or designs that I might want to use, they offered me a lead magnet.

They offered me this lead magnet in the form of a free tool, a tool to enable me to do something I desired to do: create better-looking designs.

Then, once I began using their tool and had the need for free images and graphics, they offered me some better images to purchase.

Stage 3: Offer users a chance to purchase access to a Pro Level.

Now, pay close attention. Because things are about to get good.
The third stage of their strategy was to offer what they call the “Pro Level.”

For $12.95 a month, you get:

Everything that I already mentioned in the free version
Plus, you can create one brand kit and upload your own fonts and logos.
You can use a special feature that’s not available for the free members. It’s called the “One-click design magic resize tool.” If you’ve ever created a design in Canva and wanted to resize it, because you realized you needed it in a different format, then you realize how valuable that tool is.
But wait there’s more… 🙂
You get over 420,000 free templates with new designs daily.
You also get over $75 million premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics that are free to use.
You can save designs as templates for your team to use.
Instead of 5 GB of storage, you get 100 GB.
You can schedule social media content for 7 platforms.
And all of this can be used by up to 5 members of your Canva team.

Think about the power of this additional offer.

A certain number of people, like me, signed up to try their free tools. They eventually decided to purchase a $1 image, and another, and another.

These users began spending so much on $1 images – and were getting so much value from Canva – this $12.95 offer was a no-brainer.

By implementing that simple offer, they moved people up the value ladder and locked in a guaranteed monthly revenue from a certain percentage of people.

(Listen to this “Marketing Secrets” episode from Russell Brunson and learn more about what a value ladder is: The Primary Question That Fuels Your Value Ladder.)

Do you see how adding that “Pro Level” boosted their sales and stabilized their monthly revenue?

Well, they didn’t stop there…

Stage 4: Offer more levels for larger companies to purchase.

Canva realized that there were probably users out there who required many more users – large companies.

That’s why they added higher-priced levels.

If you have 10 members on your team, it’s $77.70 a month.
If you have 15 people on your team, it’s $142.45 a month (and $9.50 more per person a month).
Or if you have up to 50 people, you can pay $595.70 (and $11.91 per person more than 50).

I didn’t even realize this until I started researching, but they actually have a Canva Enterprise level.

I won’t go into all the details that come with purchasing that level, but it provides a bunch of tools that an Enterprise level company would want to have for their team.

The cost? $30 a month per member.

How Effective Their Lead Magnet Model Has Been

Do you want to know how successful this lead generation model has been?

An article on TechCrunch.com, “Canva raises $60 million on a $6 billion valuation,” revealed this surprising fact about the company…

“Sydney-based Canva, the design platform for non-designers, has today announced the close of a $60 million funding round, bringing its valuation to $6 billion, according to the company.
“The startup has raised a total of more than $300 million, including this latest round of financing, from investors like Bond, General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital China, Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures.”
From Canva raises $60 million on a $6 billion valuation by Jordan Crook

In my last article, I said something that some of you probably thought was an exaggeration.

I said, “That means that when you understand lead magnets in this deeper way, you’ll realize that the right lead magnet is worth millions, if not billions of dollars.“

I think after revealing Facebook and Canva’s examples, you now see that I wasn’t exaggerating at all.

Canva’s Example Applied to My Lead Magnet Definition

Let’s take my definition and plug in Canva’s example. That way I can help you see their whole strategy more clearly and simply:

Something valuable that you offer your ideal prospects: Canva offered the ability for non-designers to easily design professional-looking graphics. (Facebook offered “connection” as their lead magnet. Canva offers the ability to create great designs as their lead magnet.)
In exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable: Canva got the user’s email address, but they got much more than that. They were able to build databases of people who had voluntarily shown their need for professional-looking designs and images. This gave Canva a massive amount of leads it could sell images to and eventually offer a monthly service to. This ultimately gave them access and opportunity to sell to larger and larger companies.

Many More Successful Tech Companies Have Used an “Unusual” Lead Magnet

So far, I’ve shared the examples of Facebook and Canva. I did that to prove to you that successful companies really have built their business models off of a fundamental marketing strategy.

And it’s this basic – but unusual – lead magnet strategy that has brought them such incredible success.

This second marketing fundamental (aka attraction) could also help your company achieve success in 2021 if you implement it correctly.

The thing I want you to realize is that these are just TWO business models I’ve discovered after thinking of lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way.

There are 10 other very successful tech companies I’ve documented that have used lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way to build their company.

As I said before, many of them have built completely different business models off of this fundamental marketing strategy.

Others have simply added their own variations to the different models.

I don’t have the time to walk you through all of these companies and show you each business model or variation.

But, I do want to show you one final example. Because I want you to see one other way you can use lead magnets in an “unusual” way.

Here’s a hint of what I’ll reveal to you in my upcoming article.

How One Underdog Company’s “Unusual” Lead Magnet Enabled Them to Enter the Streaming Wars Under the Radar

In my next article, I’m going to share the incredible story of a company that created an “unusual” lead magnet.

This lead magnet enabled them to enter the stream wars in such an amazing way that in 2020 they were purchased by a well-known company for $440 million.

You’re going to like this next story because it will show you a very different way to use “unusual” lead magnets.

This article will go live in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021

This is a Simple Way to Increase Your Leads (VIDEO)

If you read my last article, then you realize just how critical it is to increase your leads.

Because, as I also said in that article, capturing leads is the main thing you can do today to make more future sales tomorrow.

So when you increase your sales lead, you actually increase your chance for future sales tomorrow.

There are many ways that people try to increase their leads:

They try to optimize their web design.
They try improving their headlines.
They try changing their forms.
They test different CTAs.
They analyze their data.
And they try many other things.

These are all important things that you should test. But there’s one thing that some people never try.

And the sad thing about this is that this overlooked thing is such a simple way to increase your leads.

In this short, new video, I share an unbelievable (but 100% true) story that reveals this simple way to generate leads.

And I also share some simple ways you can be implementing it right away.

This is a Simple Way to Increase Your Leads (VIDEO)

My Apologies and What’s Coming on Monday

Some of you who have been following along with this series might have noticed that this article today is not the one I told you I’d be posting.

Last night, as I was trying to get the article I planned finished, I realized I was going to need more time to perfect it.

That’s when I decided to share this new video with you instead. I know it would be a helpful concept for you and I knew it would give me the weekend to finish the article I originally planned for today.

Stay Tuned

I think when you see the article on Monday, you’ll agree that it was worth the wait. To give you a little tease of what it will be about, here’s the title of Monday’s article…

The Unusual Lead Magnet Canva Used to Build a Company Worth $60 Billion

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January 13, 2021February 10, 2021

Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On

If you stick with me, I’ll help you see lead generation and lead magnets in a way that could change your business forever. In fact, it could help your business to reach new levels in 2021.

Because, believe it or not, the greatest tech companies today have been built using lead magnets.

In order for you to understand what I mean, you first need to see lead magnets on a deeper level than most people do.

So, let me give you a new way to think of lead magnets.

My Definition of a Lead Magnet

Most of us have such a limited and basic view of lead magnets that we are missing out on how powerful they are and will be in 2021.

When most people think about lead magnets, they think about them on just the simplest level. They mainly think of a lead magnet as a PDF that attracts your ideal prospects and causes them to exchange their email address for access to it.

Don’t get me wrong.

This is a very effective way to use a lead magnet.
But you can think of that understanding of a lead magnet as the white belt version of a lead magnet compared to the black belt level.

Today, I want to give you that “black belt” level of understanding. 🙂

I don’t want you to think of lead magnets in the usual way.
I want you to think of them in the unusual way.

I think of a lead magnet at a deeper level than most people. ..

My Definition of a Lead Magnet: A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer to your ideal prospects in exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable (usually information of some kind).

To get the most from my definition, you must understand some important things about lead magnets.

The 2 Things You Must Understand to Take Your Understanding of Lead Magnets to the Next Level

Here are the two things you must understand to use lead magnets at a “black belt” level:

You need to realize that a lead magnet can be much more than just a PDF file.
You must understand that prospects possess things of much greater value that they can exchange with you, besides just an email address.

When you truly grasp these two truths, you’ll start to realize that lead magnets are all around us.

Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Companies Have Been Built On

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, lead magnets are the fundamental element that the greatest tech companies of our day have harnessed to build their empires.

Yes, lead magnets are the primary method that successful companies employ to capture the attention of prospects (the 1st marketing fundamental) and attract them (the 2nd marketing fundamental).

That means that when you understand lead magnets in this deeper way, you’ll realize that the right lead magnet is worth millions, if not billions of dollars.

I’m not exaggerating.

Let me give you an example that I bet you’ve never noticed before, to prove it to you…

Facebook Was Built on This Greater Understanding of Lead Magnets

When you see lead magnets in the way I’m trying to get you to see them, you’ll realize that Facebook’s success was built on having an “unusual” lead magnet.

Once you see this and realize this is just one of many “unusual” lead magnets that great tech companies have been built on, you’re going to get more excited about lead magnets and their ability to help you attract prospects in 2021.

Facebook’s 3-Step Lead Generation Strategy That Led to Their Incredible Success

(IMPORTANT: Everything I’m about to share with you about their strategy is just from observations I’ve made as an outsider. I have no insider information.)

What was Facebook’s lead generation strategy?
Their strategy took place in three powerful, progressive stages.

Stage 1: The opportunity to connect with friends and family

The lead magnet they offered to us was not a simple PDF.
Here’s how the first stage of their strategy worked…

1. Give us your email address and we’ll connect you with friends and family.
Their marketing promise to us was simple but powerful.

Notice that Facebook didn’t just provide an initial connection with certain friends and family. They continued to provide new connection suggestions. But they didn’t stop there.

2. They allowed users to share pictures (information) in exchange for likes, comments, etc.

Think about this. Facebook was allowing its users to create content that they could share with other people on their platform (aka leads creating content for other leads).

IMPORTANT INSIGHT: All great lead generation strategies have a follow-up system that provides continual value – that way your prospect doesn’t just take your lead magnet and run.

Facebook took care of this need for a follow-up system by allowing their own leads to create value for each other (aka user-generated content).

3. Then they enabled their users to share videos (more information) in exchange for a chance to gain more likes, comments, etc.

This also offered a way for users to gain an audience and have a voice.

At each stage, they continued to offer users more functions/tools so that we could exchange much more than just our email addresses with them.

This first stage enabled Facebook to attract a massive amount of prospects. But they were just getting started.

Their next stage enabled them to set the stage to begin monetizing the whole thing. Watch what they did next…

Stage 2: The opportunity for businesses to connect with prospects and customers.

1. After attracting a significant amount of individuals with the offer of connecting with friends and family, they began to offer businesses and companies the chance to connect with prospects and customers.

2. To do that, they encouraged businesses to create their own pages where they could attract likes, comments, and followers. And they even encouraged businesses to create content.

Now think about how ingenious this was. By doing this, they accomplished two powerful things:

They now had more content on their platform. This gave the users on the platform more reasons to keep coming back to Facebook and to stay on Facebook (more user-generated content for their follow-up system).
They now had business owners who had self-identified themselves. That meant it’d be much easier to target them for the next stage – stage 3.

Stage 3: Finally, Facebook offered these business owners and companies a chance to advertise to the users (aka leads) they had gathered together on their platform.

It was at this point that Facebook began to make money on a level that they never did before.

I won’t get into this in this article, but you should also notice something important. Facebook chose to make money from the leads it had gathered in a much different way than most companies typically do.

Now don’t forget, this all began with a deeper, more “unusual” way of thinking of a lead magnet than most people do.

But even as different as it is, it’s still the same fundamental definition that I shared with you at the beginning…

“A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer to your ideal prospects in exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable (usually information of some kind).“

Facebook’s Example Applied to My Lead Magnet Definition

Let’s take my definition and plug in Facebook’s example to help you see their whole strategy more clearly and simply:

Something valuable that you offer your ideal prospects: Facebook offered this in the form of connection with family and friends or a connection with prospects and customers.
In exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable: Facebook got the user’s email address, but they got much more than that. They were able to build databases of users. A database that was valuable not only to Facebook but also to other companies.

What I’m NOT Suggesting

Over the years, Facebook has done some things with its user information that have gotten some people upset. (I’m not saying that they’ve actually done anything wrong. I’m just saying that some people have gotten upset with them.)

I’m NOT suggesting that you do things that make some of your leads feel uncomfortable or cause them to get upset with you.

You can actually use this basic led gen model that Facebook used without getting people upset.

In fact, many other social media platforms have used this same lead generation model effectively without seeing their users get upset.

I shared the example of Facebook with you today because I wanted you to see that this successful company really did build its business model off of a fundamental marketing strategy.

And it’s that basic lead magnet strategy that has brought them success in the past. It will bring other companies who use the same model success in 2021.

This is just ONE business model I’ve discovered after thinking of lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way.

There are 11 other very successful tech companies I’ve documented that have used lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way to build their company.

Many of them have built completely different business models off of this fundamental marketing strategy. And others have simply added their own variations to the different models.

If I had time to walk you through this list of companies and show you each business model or variation, you’d be amazed at how much opportunity there is for your company in 2021.

I, unfortunately, don’t have time to do that. I do want to show you another example of how you can use lead magnets in an “unusual” way.

I’ll do that in a couple of days. But first, I need to make sure you really understand why lead magnets are such a vital way to leverage the second marketing fundamental.

Stay tuned.

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January 11, 2021January 11, 2021

The 2nd Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Last week, I began this series I’m calling The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I will continue to build on. In that article I said…

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

The First Marketing Fundamental: Attention

Last week, I also went on to reveal that the first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.

I then went to share ways you could capture, keep, and earn future attention.

If you missed the articles and want to read them, you can go this this page that I’ve created for the series.

The Second Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

After you have captured your prospects attention, the next thing you’re going to focus on is the second marketing fundamental: attraction.

In other words, after you capture your prospect’s attention, you’re then going to have to attract them.

It’s the whole purpose behind attention.

Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will have been wasted.

In 2021, you’re going to need to realize the unbreakable connection between prospects and the future of your business.

Let me explain what I mean in my new video below.

Without a Prospect, You Don’t Have a Future

In my latest video, I’m going to reveal the unbreakable connection between prospects and the future of your business.

And I’ll do that by showing the surprising origin of the word “prospect.”

Not only that, but you’ll also discover:

Why this unbreakable connection exists
The easy and the hard way to get prospects
And more

The Most Effective Way to Attract Your Prospects

To effectively convert prospects into a future for you business, you must take the next critical step.

You must get your prospect to exchange their contact information with you.

In other words, you must create and offer a lead magnet. I’m sad to say this but many content marketers overlook this step. And that is a fatal mistake.

You see, you don’t just want to attract them. You want to attract them in a way that enables you to continue contacting them so you can build a relationship with them.

Why? Because the majority of the people who will purchase from you will not buy from you today.

I talk more about this in my upcoming articles in this week’s series. In the meantime, I want you to know where we’re headed…

Beyond the Basics in 2021

In order for you to see success in 2021, you’re going to have go beyond the basic understanding of lead magnets and lead generation.

You’re going to have to understand them on a whole new level. That’s why you don’t want to miss tomorrow’s article.

I promise you that it will help you see lead magnets in a way you never have before.

In fact, you’re going to discover that lead magnets are the foundation of the most successful companies in existence today.

You’re not going to want to miss the example I share tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s article will be called…

The Way to See Lead Magnets That Will Change Your Business Forever

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January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

How Marketers Can Capture Attention Using My ’31 Types of Content We Crave’ (Video)

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to write another article like I had hoped to do. So, instead, I’ve decided to share another video of mine with you about attention.

In this video, you’ll discover another way to capture attention (one of the three things you need to do with attention).

I’ll not only show you how to capture attention. I’ll show you how to capture your prospect’s attention, even if you don’t know a lot about them.

If you missed my previous articles (and one video), you can see them at the links below:

(Don’t worry. If you click on them, they won’t take you away from this page. They will open up a new window.)

We Pay Attention to What We Crave

Without knowing you personally, there are not a lot of things that I can predict will grab your attention every time – except for one thing: the thing you crave.

Because I know that if it’s something you crave, then you’re going to have your reticular activating system on “high alert” and on the lookout for that thing.

That means that if you want your marketing to capture your prospect’s attention, then all you have to do is figure out what they crave.

Now I CAN’T tell you what your prospect specifically craves, but I CAN tell you what they crave at a universal level.

And it has everything to do with what I call “content we crave.”

Watch my video below to learn about the “31 Types of Content We Crave” and how you can use them in your marketing to grab attention…

After you watch my video, you can download or print out my two “content we crave” infographics. You can then use them as your cheat sheets whenever you want to create copy or content that has a higher chance of capturing your prospect’s attention.

Go here to see my infographics: The 31 Types of Content We Crave and How to Use Them to Create Engaging Content (INFOGRAPHICS & PREVIEW VIDEO)

January 6, 2021January 6, 2021

The Secret of the Reticular Activating System and How to Capture Attention (VIDEO)

The Secret to Using the Reticular Activating System to Capture Your Prospects Attention HEADER Small

In case this is your first time here, you need to know something. This week, I started a series that I’m calling The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

You can see the first two articles at the links below:

(Don’t worry. If you click on them, they won’t take you away from this page. They will open up a new window.)

Anyway, today, you’re in luck. I have a treat for you.

I want to share a video with you today that will teach you something you’ve probably never heard anyone teach about the first marketing fundamental (aka Attention).

I call it… The Secret of the Reticular Activating System and How to Capture Attention.

(NOTE: This is a repost of a previous article and video I did back on May 11, 2019. I’m posting it here, again, because it’s a message that is just as important today as it was then.)

The Brain’s Reticular Activating System: Your Friend or Foe

You might not realize this but your brain is equipped with something that’s called the Reticular Activating System.

It’s the part of your brain that determines what you notice or pay attention to.

And that’s why content marketers and direct response marketers should learn the secrets of tapping into it.

If you figure out how to harness its power, it will be your friend and your copy and content will be welcomed in.

If you don’t figure out how to harness its power, it will be your foe and your copy and content will be turned away every time.

Watch my video to discover how you can use the reticular activating system to capture your prospects’ attention…

A Confession About This Video

I need to confess something. I started a YouTube channel 21 months ago intending to create content regularly for it. This video is one of a series of videos that I created during that time.

I created them but I didn’t really get a chance to promote them very much.

A major move from CA to ID stalled out that plan. Don’t get me wrong. That move has been such a great choice! But it did stall out my plan to create videos.

Well, I think in 2021 that it’s time for me to get back to that plan.

In this new year, I plan to get back to posting videos.
I’ll also be putting on some webinars (free and paid).
I also will be creating exclusive video content for the member’s area.

It’s going to be content that you’ll find interesting, entertaining, and, most of all, helpful for you personally, your company, and/or your career.

If you want to know when more videos go live, then you should do two things:

Subscribe to Direct Response Content Marketing YouTube channel.
Click here to subscribe and be automatically notified when it and other articles go live.

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January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

The 1st Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Yesterday, in my first article in this series, I told you that:

I believe the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
The people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.

If you missed that article, you can read it here: The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.

Today, I’m going to reveal the first marketing fundamental that you will need to succeed in 2021.

The 1st Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

The first marketing fundamental you need is attention. Why is attention the first marketing fundamental? Because without attention, there is no marketing.

In other words, you, your company, your business, your organization, or your non-profit will have a very hard time succeeding in 2021 without attention.

If we don’t capture people’s attention:

We can never educate them.
We can never build a relationship with them.
We can never capture leads.
We can never make offers to them.
We can never gain customers, clients, patients, donors, etc.

It all starts with attention.

Don’t believe me?

Ok. What do you plan on focusing on this year?

SEO?
Online or offline ads?
Your website?
Your emails?
Video?
Social media?

It all starts with all attention! You can’t be effective at any of these things if you don’t first capture your prospect’s attention.

Getting Attention Will Matter More Than Ever in 2021

Getting attention has always been a needed and fundamental first step.
And, I don’t think I need to convince you of this fact, it will matter more than ever in 2021.

With the continual onslaught of new content online, new social media platforms, the battle of streaming services, etc., it’s not going to get any easier to get the attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

The Right Attention vs The Wrong Attention

This goes without being said. But it’s not just any old attention that’s going to matter in 2021.

The key is going to be capturing the right prospect’s attention. If you capture the wrong prospect’s attention, you’ll waste a lot of time and money in 2021.

In fact, the better you can become at getting the right peoples’ attention, the more effective your marketing will be, the less money and time you’ll waste, and the more success you will experience this year.

The Three Things You’re Going to Need to Do with Attention in Order to Succeed in 2021

When it comes to attention, you’re going to need to master three things things:

1. You’re going to have to capture their attention.
This is the first step when it comes to attention. And it’s the one step that most people think of when they think of the need for attention.

It’s definitely where you must start with attention, but it can’t be where you stop. Because if you do stop there, even capturing the attention of the right prospects won’t be beneficial to you or your prospects.

2. You’re going to need to keep their attention.
This is the second step you must take with attention. Once you first gain or capture attention, you then need to figure out how to keep that attention long enough to get your message across.

This is the step that will help all of the work you’re currently doing to produce more results, whether that’s leads or sales.

3. You must earn the right to their future attention.
This third step is the step that only a small minority of people, companies, and organizations take. But it’s the step you will want to take because it will determine how easy it will be for you to capture attention in the future.

This will help your prospects to get to know, like, and trust you. If they don’t know, like, and trust you, they’ll never take any further steps along with you.

They’ll never raise their hands and ask for more info. They’ll never sign-up for trials. They’ll never share your content or your company with their friends and followers.

And they’ll definitely never buy from you.

We’re Just Getting Started

With this article, I just wanted to get you started thinking about attention. (I wanted to get your attention about attention. 🙂 )

In my upcoming articles, I’m going to look more closely at this topic of attention.

I’m going to share:

Some ways to capture attention
Some ways to keep attention
Some ways you earn future attention

And that’s just the first marketing fundamental that you’ll need to harness to succeed in 2021. I still have 11 more fundamentals that I want to reveal to you.

My next article in this series will go live on Thursday, January 7th.
Click here to subscribe and be automatically notified when it and other articles go live.

P.S. I’ll be revealing additional information and insights for each of the 12 marketing fundamentals in our DRCM Member’s Resource Area.

It’s free to join…

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January 4, 2021January 3, 2021

The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”
– Jim Rohn

Did you catch what Jim Rohn said?

Success is the NATURAL consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

If you apply the fundamentals, success is a natural consequence.

Keep that in mind because this will be an important truth in just a few minutes.

Marketing Predictions for 2021 and Your Sweet Spot

road 5799603 1920 — Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.

These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.

But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.

You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.

What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.

You might think this can’t possibly be true.
It sounds too simplistic to think that the marketing fundamentals really matter in 2021.

Oh really? Think about this…

(Article continues below…)

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(Continue reading below…)

The Fundamentals That Are All Around Us

The fundamentals are the key to success in many different areas of life.

They’ve mattered in the past and they’ll still matter in 2021.
Let me give you some quick examples.

The Army

What do they call the key training that every soldier goes through? Basic Training.

It presents the same key problems and their common solutions to each new recruit.

That means that even the complexity of warfare can be broken down into common problems and common solutions.

Understanding and mastering these common problems and common solutions (the fundamentals) provides the key to winning the battle.

But this isn’t just true about warfare.

Martial Arts

When I took martial arts, there were important things you had to learn at the beginning of your training.

What were these important things? The basics, the fundamentals!

We learned common attacks (problems) and common defenses (solutions).

But these important things weren’t just things you had to learn at the beginning of your training.

They were things we practiced at the beginning of every class.

The most complicated and cool looking moves were really just the fundamentals combined in a new way. (This isn’t just true about martial arts. It’s also true about marketing.)

Let me give you one more example.

Football

What does every football player learn and focus on regularly during their practices?

The basics! They learn the common offense and common defense plays.

The thing I want you to understand is that in just about every basic arena and field in life there are fundamentals.

And it’s when people harness these fundamentals to take advantage of the opportunities that they win, succeed, and conquer.

You might be thinking, “But what about the marketing fundamentals? Do they still apply and matter in 2021?”

The major companies that we all admire sure seem to think so.

The Major Tech and Entertainment Companies and the Intersection of Opportunities and Fundamentals

eye 1553789 1920 — Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

You might not have realized it but Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Disney+, and many others have harnessed these marketing fundamentals to take advantage of opportunities and ultimately succeed.

That’s why when others will be sharing about the new opportunities in 2021, I’ll be sharing with you about the 12 marketing fundamentals that you should harness, so you can seize the opportunities coming your way in 2021.

I’ll be sharing the first 2-3 marketing fundamentals with you this week.

I’ll reveal the first one in tomorrow’s article.

P.S. I’ll be revealing additional information and insights for each of the 12 marketing fundamentals in our DRCM Member’s Resource Area.

It’s free to join…

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December 21, 2020December 21, 2020

This is the Very First Business Owner to Dress Up as Santa

I used to love going to get my picture taken with Santa when I was a little kid.

But have you ever wondered how the tradition of kids getting pictures with Santa got started? Or have you ever wondered who was the first person to do this?

Well, you’re about to find out.

James Edgar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1843.

He arrived in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1878 and opened up a dry goods store there on Main Street.

It All Started with an Idea to Drum Up More Business

He would have lived a life of obscurity except for one thing: an idea he had one Christmas in 1890.

You see, he wanted to bring in more business during the Christmas season and so he came up with the idea to dress up as Santa Claus in his store.

James Edgar clown — Edgar dressed as a clown via Wikipedia

The crowds that showed up surprised Edgar. Within days, children began flocking to his store.

In fact, the news spread so far that kids began to show up from as far as Boston and Providence.

He discovered that they had come by train just to see Santa.

Because of this, Edgar is credited as the first business owner to dress up as Santa.

And malls and department stores around the U.S. carried on this tradition ever since.

Entering the Conversation in Your Prospect’s Minds

The brilliant thing about Edgar’s idea was that he tapped into the conversation that was already going on in many of his prospect’s and customer’s minds (conversations about Christmas and Santa) and figured out a way to enter that conversation.

Robert Collier famously said it this….

“You want to enter a conversation that’s already existing in your prospect’s minds.”
-Robert Collier

With so much going on nowadays and so many distractions, any way you can break through the static is a HUGE benefit for you.

Doing this is like giving you, your product, or service a little “hook” to hang on in someone’s mind.

It’s the power of association.

It’s time for you to associate your business with what is already on the minds of your prospects and customers. The question is: How will you do that?

(Example: I am doing that with this article.)

Maybe He Really WAS Santa?

One last thing…

Not only was Edgar a smart businessperson, but he also was extremely generous.

According to Elaine Allegrini...

“Edgar shared his good fortune, paying for children’s medical care, offering jobs to youths in need. and passing out pennies to children who came to his store.”

Isn’t that awesome?

Maybe he was the real Santa in disguise as a store owner? 🙂

Source: James Edgar (wikipedia) | Enterprisenews.com | Photo by Rochelle, just rochelle

June 19, 2020June 19, 2020

How George Washington Carver Used Content Marketing to Serve and Help People

George Washington Carver Content Marketing

George Washington Carver Content Marketing FINAL

In honor of Juneteenth, I thought I share a post about one of my favorite inventors, George Washington Carver. But I believe that he was not only an incredible inventor, he was also a person who used content marketing in a very powerful way.

Read on and you’ll understand why I say that.

By the way, this post originally appeared on one of my other sites in a post called Content Marketing Isn’t About Manipulation. It’s About Serving People back in January 2012.

George Washington Carver Inventor and Content Marketer?

You might not realize this, but…

George Washington Carver was not just an amazing inventor. He was a content marketer.

What am I talking about?

I discovered that he used “content marketing” (what I’d also call “educational marketing”) to help revive the south. (NOTE: You can see my personal definition of “content marketing” here.)

How did he do this?

George Washington Carver’s “School on Wheels”

He started a “School on Wheels” and went out to farms so he could teach farmers how to revive soil by planting peanuts and sweet potatoes.

Not only did he do that, but after teaching them, he went to his lab to create markets for these plants and ended up inventing 300 uses for the peanut and 118 uses for the sweet potato.

You see, Carver used content marketing (through teaching/speaking) to not only revive the soil but also revive the economy as well.

This teaches us something important that we all need to understand.

Content Marketing Isn’t About Tricking People, It’s About Serving Them

Content marketing isn’t about manipulating people or tricking them into buying your product or service. It’s about helping people.

If you have a solution to their problems, if you have an answer to their unanswered questions, if you have a way to genuinely make their lives better, it’s your duty to reach them.

Not just so that you can make a sale or receive income, but so they can be helped.

Content marketing allows you to do this by being able to educate people and build a relationship with them, so they can see working with you (or purchasing your product or service) as a natural foregone conclusion.

That’s what content marketing is really about… or at least should be.

It reminds me of this well-known quote from Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

So along with all of the other important ingredients for creating effective content marketing, let me add this missing ingredient… sincerity.

Adding that unwritten and unseen ingredient could change others’ lives and yours in the process.

Here are two questions for you to focus on as you try to achieve this with your content:

What do my prospects need to know and understand so they can see greater results in their lives?
What do they need to know and understand before (or so that) the solution you’re selling can really help them?

Figure out how to answer those questions and then go and serve people with your content.

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020

More Powerful Advice on How to Advertise During a Recession from a Classic Advertising Book

Scientific Advertising by Claude C Hopkins

An Advertising Lesson from the Message General Booth Gave to Attendees of an International Convention?

I heard a story that said that many years ago the Salvation Army was holding an international convention and they had a problem.

Their founder, General William Booth, couldn’t attend because of physical weakness.

Unlike the technology we have available to us today, he couldn’t just call in or “be there” virtually during the conference via Zoom to present his message to the attendees.

Instead, he cabled his convention message to them.
And what was the message he sent them?

It was just one word: “OTHERS.”

In just a minute, I’ll explain what this has to do with advertising during difficult times like the kind that the Coronavirus has brought us.

But first, let me remind you of what I shared in my last article on this same topic.

Previously on DRCM: How to Advertise During Difficult Times

In my last article, How to Advertise During Difficult Times: Powerful Advice from a Classic Advertising Book, I told you that the best way to know how to advertise during this time is to look at what others have done during similar times.

I then shared some advice from a book that has sold over 8 million copies and that marketing greats have recommended: Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins.

Well, today I have some more advice on how to advertise during a recession like we’re in right now.

And that advice comes again from the same book and the same author.

More Advice How to Advertise During a Recession from the Book Scientific Advertising

People Don’t Care About Your Product or Service

Remember what I said in my last article about this book.

In it, Claude Hopkins shared fundamental advertising lessons that he had seen work inside and outside all of those many years of recessions and economic downturns.

With that in mind, listen to the next important piece of advice he gives…

“Don’t try to be amusing. Money spending is a serious matter. Don’t boast, for all people resent it. Don’t try to show off. Do just what you think a good salesman should do with a half-sold person before him.
“Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before they plan or write an ad. One of the ablest of them has spent weeks on one article, selling from house to house. In this way, they learn the reactions from different forms of argument and approach.
“They learn what possible buyers want and the factors which don’t appeal. It is quite customary to interview hundreds of possible customers.
“Others send out questionnaires to learn the attitude of buyers. In some way, all must learn how to strike responsive chords. Guesswork is very expensive.
“The maker of an advertised article knows the manufacturing side and probably the dealer’s side. But this very knowledge often leads him astray in respect to consumers. His interests are not their interests.
“The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in the position of the buyer. His success largely depends on doing that to the exclusion of everything else.“
– Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Do you see the now see why I said General Booth’s message contained an advertising lesson? Let me explain…

The Common Advertising Mistake In a Recession

You see, the common mistake most businesses make during or after a recession is that they study and focus mainly on their product.

As Hopkins said, this kind of thinking will only lead you astray from influencing your prospect or customer.

(*You might be able to occasionally get away with that outside of a recession, but not when we’re in one and people are holding on more tightly to their money.)

How to Advertise More Effectively in a Recession

That’s where General Booth’s message and Claude Hopkins message line up.
The way to advertise more effectively during a recession is by focusing more on others.

Study the customer.
Put yourself in their shoes.
See things like they do.
Think like they think.
Feel what they’re feeling.

This is where effective advertising in (or outside of) a recession begins. Honestly, it’s where it ends too.

As Hopkins said, “Your success depends on it.”

Become a Free Member Now and Get a Copy of Scientific Advertising

When you become a member of my DRCM Member’s Resource Area, you’ll have access to a free PDF copy of Claude Hopkin’s book Scientific Advertising.

You’ll not only get access to that book, but you’ll also get access to other books, resources, and rewards such as:

Special limited member discounts on designated products
Early access to certain products or services
Content upgrades
Checklists
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Exclusive content
A private Facebook group (coming soon)
And other goodies

NOTE: All of this content will not available to the public! You can see the current resources in our member’s area here.

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April 23, 2020June 17, 2020

How to Advertise During Difficult Times: Powerful Advice from a Classic Advertising Book

How to Advertise During Economic Downturn

Many people are trying to figure out how (or if) to advertise during this time.

No one wants to be insensitive but businesses still need to make money, if they’re going to survive the economic impact that has come from the Coronavirus.

So what should a business do?
Look at what others have done during similar times. Let me explain…

Many of us know there was a Great Depression, but many of us don’t know there was a recession from 1920-1921 also known as “The Forgotten Depression.”

The Forgotten Depression of 1920-21

Wikipedia describes the depression of 1920-1921 like this…

“The Depression of 1920–21 was a sharp deflationary recession in the United States and other countries, beginning 14 months after the end of World War I. It lasted from January 1920 to July 1921.”
– Wikipedia Definition of 1920-21 Depression

But that’s not all.

What you need to realize is that this depression wasn’t the only difficult economic time that people had experienced.

Recessions in the U.S.

There were MANY recessions before this forgotten depression:

The Recession in 1899-1900
The Recession in 1902-1904
The Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1910-1911
The Recession of 1913-1914
The Post World War I Recession of 1918-1919
The Recession of 1923-1924

You might be thinking…

“Who cares about all of these recessions? What does that have to do with whether (and how) I should advertise during this current economic downturn?”

I’m glad you asked. 🙂

A Legendary Advertising Book Reveals How to Advertise During an Economic Downturn

You see, a very famous advertising book was published just two years later in 1923.

IMPORTANT: That means it must have been written in 1922 and it must have been based on advertising that was used during the (then) most recent depression and all of those difficult years before.

What book am I talking about?

It’s a book that has sold over 8 million copies and that marketing greats like David Ogilvy, Jay Abraham, and others have recommended.

Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins

The book I’m talking about is Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins.

In that book, Claude Hopkins shared fundamental advertising lessons that he had seen work inside and outside all of those many years of recessions and economic downturns.

And what was his advice about advertising that he learned from all of these difficult economic times?

Listen to what he says and pay close attention…

“When you plan or prepare an advertisement, keep before you a typical buyer. Your subject, your headline has gained his or her attention.
“Then in everything be guided by what you would do if you met the buyer face-to-face. If you are a normal man and a good salesman you will then do your level best.
“Don’t think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Think of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want what you sell.”
– Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkin’s Two Tips for Advertising During Difficult Economic Times

Claude Hopkins revealed two powerful tips you can use to help you advertise during difficult economic times:

1. How you advertise during this time depends on WHO your typical buyer is.

That means you need to know who you’re trying to reach in the first place.

And that means that you should have ALREADY CHOSEN a target group that needs or wants what you’re selling (and has the money to purchase it).

But you need to also ask questions like: How are they doing financially during this time? Are they doing well, just ok, or poorly?

This is what’s going to determine how you advertise during an economic downturn or recession.
This is going to determine how you get their attention.

2. After you figure out the “who” and how you will advertise to get their attention, then everything you say in your ad is what you would say to them if you met them face-to-face.

Hopkins warns us NOT to think of them as just a mass of people. That will only give you a blurred view. Instead, we must sharpen our view. How?

To do that, Hopkins says you must create your ad based on what you would say if you met one of the people from this target group.

When you do these two things, you’ll not only create advertising that doesn’t offend the people you’re targeting, but it will also resonate deeply with them.

That is how you advertise during difficult times like we’re facing today.
(HINT: It’s also how you advertise to them when everything is “back to normal.”)

STAY TUNED: 38 Experts Share How a Business Can Survive and Prosper in a Recession

During the last two recessions (in 2002 and 2008), I interviewed 38 business, marketing, sales experts and got them to reveal how businesses can survive and even prosper in a recession.

The best part? I reread them both recently and 90% of the books are still very applicable to today.

Stay tuned.

I’m getting ready to drop a new podcast soon where I’ll share some of the things that these experts shared with me in those interviews.

(Plus, I’ll also be re-releasing both books as a package.)

Become a free DRCM member now!

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7 Deadly Advertising Mistakes Small Version — **Rare “Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes” Ad (PDF)**

Click here to become a member right now.

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020

Why Do You Need SEO, Content Marketing, or a website? A Strange Story from 354 Years Ago Explains Why.

Yesterday, in my post yesterday called What’s the Primary Thing That SEO Expert Brian Dean Focuses On? Email, I told you that in an upcoming post I’d show you the two ways that Brian Dean builds his email lists.

I will still be doing that.

But for today, I have a post that deals with a common misconception that some business owners have. Let me explain…

Many business owners ask these same questions:

Why do you need SEO?
Why do you need content marketing?
Why do you need a website?

And they never realize the answer is a very simple one that is foolish to overlook.

I’ll explain what I mean in just a minute. But first I want to share a story that I found in an old book from 1910 called The Science of Advertising by Edwin Balmer.

Why? Because it will make what I’m about to tell you make much more sense.

In the book, Balmer tells this story…

“In 1666, London was practically wiped out by fire. The printer of the London Gazette, with almost prophetic acumen, offered his columns for notices of new locations of shops

“But though practically every important shop in the city was moved, there was absolutely no response to this offer.
“The old locations had never been known through the newspapers, so why should anyone look there for the new (locations)?”
— The Science of Advertising, Edwin Balmer

Why do you need to be concerned about things like SEO, content marketing, and/or a website?

Because that is the way your business will be found today.

Many years ago, people might have found out about you through the phone book. Or maybe they discovered your business by walking by.

Well, those days are long gone.

This Is Why You Need SEO

The way they’re going to find your business today is by typing in the product or service you offer and the name of your city (or just the words “near me”) into Google.

If your business doesn’t show up, then it doesn’t exist in that person’s mind.

SEO (search engine optimization) helps you to optimize your website so it shows up when people type in what you offer.

This Why You Need Content Marketing

Another way they might find your business is if you create content that answers their questions, solves their problems, entertains, or even educates them.

Then when they go to Google and type in their questions, your business (if it’s optimized and has great content) will be discovered by them.

If it doesn’t appear, they’ll never know that your business is an option.

This is Why You Need a Website

The reason you need a website is because it increases the chance that your business will show up in Google when people go searching for what you offer.

The reason you need a website is because it is the place that can hold the content you create, which will help your business to be found.

Don’t Just Rely on Yelp

You might say, “I don’t need things. People already find our business online.”

If that’s true, then it’s probably because you or someone else made sure that your business is listed on Yelp.

That’s great. But that’s not enough.

You see, people that find you on Yelp still want to know more about you, your business, your products, or your services.

If you don’t focus on SEO, then you will always be 100% dependent on Yelp.
If you don’t create content, then you will lose a very valuable way that you could make your business stand out from your competition.
If you don’t have a website, then you will never be able to break free from reliance on Yelp. Plus, you’ll lose your ability to stand out in the marketplace.

The choice is yours. You can just keep things the way they’ve always been. That’s what business owners in London did 354 years ago.

Does that look like such a smart decision now?

P.S. If you’d like help in making sure that your business is found, so you don’t get left behind in the past, then contact me and we can discuss services that I offer that can help you. Click here to contact me now.

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February 18, 2020February 19, 2020

What’s the Primary Thing That SEO Expert Brian Dean Focuses On? Email.

What would you think if you discovered that one of the top SEO experts today has a secret to his success and it DOESN’T have to do with SEO?

And how would you feel about discovering that his secret actually ties into an old school direct marketing practice?

Well, I discovered both of these things in an interview that I listened to recently.

And it confirmed to me more than ever the importance of what I call “Direct Response Content Marketing”.

Let me explain…

Who is Brian Dean and What is Backlinko?

Brian Dean is the person behind the popular website Backlinko.
He’s a highly respected SEO expert who has risen to popularity over the last few years.

How popular are Backlinko and Brian?

In this article on SingleGrain.com, called “10 SEO Lessons to Learn from Backlinko’s Success: Behind the Scenes with Brian Dean“, Eric Siu, CEO of SingleGrain, describes their popularity…

“Backlinko is an online marketing blog that Dean launched in 2010. The site has grown rapidly over the past five years and currently receives nearly 100,000 visitors a month—a significant number for a blog in the insanely competitive SEO niche. “
— ERIC SIU, SingleGrain.com

(NOTE: Make sure to check out Eric’s article to learn 10 SEO lessons we can learn from Brian.)

I personally discovered Brian and Backlinko back in 2016 when I first learned about his ingenious content marketing/link building method that he calls “The Skyscraper Technique“.

From that moment on, I’ve regularly checked in on what Brian is up to both on Backlinko and on his YouTube channel.

If you haven’t ever read or watched Brian, then you should do that.
(But why don’t you finish this post first!?!)

Anyway, I was researching some SEO methods at work the other day and I came across an interview with Brian which pleasantly surprised me.

(SIDE NOTE: I’ve been at my job for just over 6 months now and I really love the place, the people, and the projects.)

The Thing That Brian Dean Said Which Really Surprised Me

Brian shared some really great SEO advice, like he usually does, so that didn’t surprise me.

But what did surprise me was two things that he said:

I was surprised by what he said his main focus was.
And I was surprised by what he said he did when he didn’t know what to focus on.

Why did those things surprise me? Because neither of those things focused on SEO.

Both of these things focused on something that many people have foolishly believed isn’t important anymore: email.

You read that correctly. One of the top SEO experts today isn’t only focused on SEO. He’s focused very seriously and consistently on email.

Ignite Visibility’s Interview with Brian Dean

In an interview on Ignite Visibility’s YouTube channel called “1 Strategy That Built Over 1,000 Links For SEO With Brian Dean,” CEO and Co-founder John Lincoln got Brian to reveal some cool insights.

It was during this interview that I heard Brian reveal the two ways he focuses on email:

1. He said that his main focus on his SEO site is his email list.

He does this because he knows he needs to warm up and nurture his subscribers before they’ll be willing to become clients for his high-end course (that is only offered 2 times a year).

2. One of the things he does whenever he doesn’t know what to do is focus on building his email list.

Not only that, he says that everyone should focus on building their email list. That again is really interesting considering he’s an SEO expert.

Why does Brian focus on email?

Because when Brian first began experimenting online, he began to follow an online guru who said that there were two questions that he always asked himself to see how his day went::

1. DID I BUILD MY EMAIL LIST?
2. DID I SERVE MY EMAIL LIST?

If this old online guru was able to say, “Yes,” to both of these questions, then he considered it a good day.

If he couldn’t, he made sure to correct that problem that very day or the next day at the latest.

Brian never forgot this lesson. That’s why, to this very day, SEO expert Brian Dean is always focusing on email.

Don’t get me wrong. Brian does use SEO in very powerful and creative ways. But he doesn’t rely only on SEO to grow his business.

Brian Is Not Alone with This Focus on Email

In case you think that Brian is crazy or an anomaly, he’s not.

All of the smartest digital marketers and content marketers know the importance of an email list.

In a post on WPBeginners.com called Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons), they reveal an interesting truth that people overlook when it comes to the power of social media vs. email.

In that post, they show the image below and then they say…

social media vs email WPBeginner — Image from **WPBeginner.com**

“All these emails are from big social media platforms, so they can engage you with the content on their platform and get you to visit their app or website again.
“All social media platforms are building an email list because they are smart business owners. This helps their valuation when selling their business.
“While social media is a great way to reach your audience, it’s important to keep in perspective the timely nature of social media platforms.
“They come and go.”
– Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons), WPBeginner.com

Let’s take a look at what someone else says about the importance of email.

In an article on OptinMonster called Why You Need to Build an Email List Right Now – And the Exact Steps on How to Get Started, Syed Balkhi reveals just how important building an email list is…

“For business owners, email lists can yield dramatic rewards. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the US. Can you say that about your social media marketing campaign?”
— Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster.com

You see? That’s why I say that all smart digital marketers and content marketers also know the importance of building an email list.

But here’s where things get really interesting.

Spoiler Alert: This Focus on Building an Email List is a Very Old Direct Marketing Practice

The importance of building an email list actually comes from an old school practice that came long before email was even invented.

The early direct marketers knew the same thing that Brian Dean knows.

One of the most powerful things about direct marketing is the ability to build and own your own list of prospects that you can market to.

That’s not all.

If you sit all of the top copywriters down in one room and ask them what the most important thing in direct response is, do you know what they’ll say?

They will tell you that the most important thing in direct response is the list.

(*If you pick the right list, your job will be much easier. If you don’t, you’ll see very little results, no matter how powerful your content or copy is.)

In direct mail, you either build the list or you can rent one. But when it comes to email, your main option is to build your list. (Renting email lists can get you in a lot of trouble.)

The importance of a list was important in the early days of direct response and it still remains important today for all content marketers and digital marketers.

I Don’t Know About You, But I Know What I’m Going to Do

I hope this article was inspiring and eye-opening for you. (If you liked it, you can check out my other articles here.)

After listening to the interview with Brian and taking time to write this article, I know what I’m going to do.

I’m going to double-down, or even triple-down, on building and serving my email lists. (Help me out by joining my list below!)

I’d advise you to do the same.

And if we focus on this, and perfect this skill, I know that by the end of the year we’ll be very thankful that we have.

Stay Tuned and See the Two Primary Ways Brian Builds His Email Lists

In my next post, I’ll show you the two ways that Brian builds his email lists.

I’ll share some important lessons we can learn from him.

Subscribe below so that you’ll be one of the first to be notified when the post goes live.

Watch John Lincoln’s Interview with Brian Dean Right Now

Before you go, I’d encourage you to listen to the interview with Brian that I listened to.

You’ll want to hear Brian share the importance of email for yourself.
And you’ll also want to hear the other great SEO-related info that he shares.

You can listen to it below…

Practicing What I Preach

I can’t let you leave without offering you two opportunities to become a part of my exclusive email audience.

So here are your two opportunities below…
(Choose one or both options)

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December 4, 2019December 4, 2019

Marketing Lessons From Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday

Brown Black Friday Sale Marketing Lessons

“You Can Observe a Lot by Watching“

When You Come to a Fork in the Road Take It Yogi Berra

Today, I want to start by sharing a story with you from the book When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom From One of Baseball’s Greatest Heroes.

It is a book written by the late, great Yogi Berra (1925-2015), the fifteen-time Major League Baseball All-Star.

In that book, there’s a chapter titled, “You Can Observe a Lot by Watching.”
In that chapter, Yogi Berra tells a story I want to share with you…

“When I was announced as the manager [of the New York Yankees] after the ’63 season, a reporter asked me what I had picked up from Casey Stengel and Ralph Houk, the two managers I’d mostly played for. I said, ‘You can observe a lot by watching.’
Yogi goes on to say, “I always observed a lot. Even Casey used to call me his assistant manager because I was always observing everything. He trusted me to go out and tell a pitcher what he might be doing wrong.

“As a catcher, you do a lot of watching. You’re the only player who faces his own teammates. You observe the mannerisms and tendencies of opposing hitters and the actions of your pitcher. Observing is learning. If you pay attention, you can learn a lot.”
— Yogi Berra in When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom From One of Baseball’s Greatest Heroes.

You might not have realized it, but you just learned a very important lesson that all marketers must learn.

If You Pay Attention, You Can Learn a Lot

There is a lot of marketing going on around us all of the time. Some of it is effective marketing and some of it’s not. Some of it is good and some of it is bad.

But we can always learn something by observing the marketing that’s around us:. We either learn what to do or what NOT to do.

We all just experienced three days of sales: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

Besides getting great deals, we should also make sure to learn (or be reminded of) some great marketing methods.

3 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn From Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday

Today, I want to point out just three of the important marketing lessons that we can learn from these three big sales days.

1. The Power of a Great Offer

If you paid attention over the last few days, then one of the lessons you would discover is the power of a great offer.

All of these big sales days are all about making the best offer possible in order to entice the most customers.

Well, one of the key things an effective direct response ad must have is an offer.

Without an offer, it’s not direct response marketing.

What is an offer? Your offer is what exactly it is that you are offering to your prospects or customers. It’s not just price (see below). It’s any and all that someone is getting when they purchase from you.

If you want to create powerful marketing, then you and your prospects must be absolutely clear on what exactly it is that you’re offering.

And if you want your marketing to be really effective, then your offer can’t be average. You must create a powerful, attractive offer.

The criteria for a powerful, attractive offer: The advertising legend, Claude Hopkins, described how to know if your offer is powerful enough…

“Make your offer so great that only a lunatic would refuse to buy”
— Claude Hopkins

2. The Power of Discounts

Come on. Face it. We all love a good deal.

And if you paid attention over the last few days, then another one of the lessons you would discover is the power of offering a discount.

Discounts are effective because they allows the buyer to purchase something they want and end up keeping more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. And everyone wants to do that!

One of the underlying keys to succeeding on these sales days is to figure out how to give the best discount possible, while at the same time making enough profit.

I don’t have time to go into all the effective ways to offer a great discount, because there’s almost a science to it.

But let me give you three basic ways to offer a discount:

You can offer a straight discount on a product or service.
You can offer a discount for buying more than one of a product or service.
You can offer a discount in the form of a payment plan.

If you want to learn more, I’d encourage you to observe how the stores around you offer discounts and see what you can learn by observing.

3. The Power of Urgency

If you paid attention over the last few days, then there’s one last lesson I want to point out: the power of urgency.

Let’s face it. Getting any of us to take action is very difficult. Even when we know something is important or needed, we still tend to procrastinate and delay doing anything.

What’s the solution? You must limit what you offer to your prospects and customers. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s the only way to get people to take you up on your offers and discounts.

The two basic ways to use the power of urgency are:

You must limit the amount of items or services that you offer at a discount.
You must limit the time period that your offer or discount is available.

When we realize that only a certain amount of people are going to get a particular offer or discount, or when we realize that an offer is only available on a certain day and/or time, THEN we finally decide to stop procrastinating and take action.

That’s why all of these sales limit at least the time period (only on ___ day or days) and some also offer limits in the amount of items/services we can purchase on those days.

How to Apply These Lessons to Your Marketing

Let me be clear, I’m not saying that I like everything about Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

I don’t like the frenzy that Black Friday causes. I don”t like that people and/or businesses can become greedy on these days, etc.

But there are still marketing lessons that we can learn from these days that can be applied in ways that don’t go against our consciences or make us feel sleazy.

As 2019 comes to a close and as 2020 is almost upon us, I’d encourage you to think about ways that you can apply these lessons to your marketing.

What kind of powerful and attractive offers can you create?
What kind of discounts can you offer to people that help them and still help your business or company to make money?
What kind of limits can you add to these offers to nudge people to take action, so that you can help them and your business or company can also grow?

And most importantly, how can you creatively COMBINE these three powerful marketing methods?

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019

Did You Know That Ad Tracking and Split Testing Were Used in the 1930s?

Many people believe that marketing has changed a lot since the internet came along.

But that’s totally false.

Believe it or not, the marketing principles that today’s top companies use were being used back in the 1930s.

Don’t believe me? Then keep reading…

The Marketing Genius Behind the Success of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

220px How to win friends and influence people

Victor O. Schwab is considered to be one of the top copywriters of all time.
He was a marketing master.

Many people don’t know it, but he was the copywriter who helped Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People become a best-seller.

Schwab was also the man behind the ads for the famous body-builder Charles Atlas.

Not only that, but he was a copywriting pioneer.
He would use coded coupon ads to test and track ads.

He would use the codes to track which ads the coupon came from, which headlines, appeal, etc. was used in that ad, etc.

Powerful Example of How Victor Schwab Tracked Ads

Besides the work I mentioned above, Victor Schwab was the man who managed the advertising account for Sherwin Cody’s famous ad, Do You Make These Mistakes in English?

Do You Make These Mistakes in English — Victor Schwab, the man behind this famous ad for Sherwin Cody’s course

In fact, Schwab considered this ad to be an example of the scientific approach to advertising.

Schwab wrote an article in the September 1939 issue of Printer’s Ink Monthly titled, “An Advertisement That is Never Changed,” which explained why he thought of this ad in this way.

In that article, he gave a ten-year comparison of the responses to two different headlines:

Do You Make These Mistakes in English?
How to Speak and Write Masterly English

And he revealed that the response rate was near three times better for the ad that asked readers about their mistakes.

Testing ads via split testing (like Schwab did) is something that all of the top companies and marketers still do today.

So you see? Marketing really hasn’t changed that much.

Marketing tools have changed but the fundamentals of marketing have remained the same and many of the techniques have stayed the same too.

If you’d like to know how you or your business can tap into the fundamentals of marketing and harness the power of techniques that have proven themselves for decades, then contact me.

November 19, 2019November 19, 2019

The Edison Promise: The Fatal Marketing and Business Mistake That Many Make

Below is a post that originally appeared on my site BayBusinessHelp.com called, “The Edison Vow: The Fatal Business Mistake You Never Want To Make.”

I want to share it with you today because it contains an important lesson that we as marketers need to always remember.

The Fatal Mistake

There’s a fatal business mistake many people make.
And marketers make a very similar mistake.

If you’re not careful, it can bring you many headaches and trials.

Listen closely to this powerful story that reveals this fatal mistake…

Thomas Edison’s First Patent

Thomas Edison invented a vote-recording machine for use in legislative chambers early in his career.

He was very proud of his invention.

It worked by moving a switch to the right or left, so an official could vote for or against a proposal and never have to leave his desk.

He felt that the machine would replace the monotonous repetition of marking ballots, counting them, etc.

He was excited with the prospect of how well this machine would do that he obtained a patent for it – his very first.

His Surprising Trip To Washington

With his patent, he headed for Washington.

He demonstrated his machine with excitement to the Chairman of Congressional Committees.

This man, while complimenting Edison on his ingenuity, immediately turned it down!

He told Edison, “Filibustering and delay in the tabulation of votes are often the only means we have for defeating bad or improper legislation.”

The young inventor was stunned.

He knew his invention was good and so did the chairman, but still, it wasn’t wanted.

His Promise

This moment taught Edison a lesson that would stay with him for the rest of his life. He expressed the lesson in this way…

“There and then I made a vow that I would never again invent anything which was not wanted.”

Many businesses struggle and many fail – many marketing campaigns fail – because they’ve never learned this lesson.

We must sell what our prospects and customers want, NOT want we think they need.

If you are struggling in your company or small business right now, maybe you ought to find out if this is your problem.

If you want to take your business or marketing to the next level, then this could be your key.

Talk to your customers.
Interview them.
Survey them.

Find out their real needs, real problems, real desires and then figure out a way to give it to them.

But there is something important to remember.
Many times asking people what they want will reveal exactly what you need to offer them.

But sometimes you need to go deeper.

Why? You need to remember these facts:

Sometimes people don’t know exactly what they need or want.
Sometimes people don’t know exactly what their real problems are.
Sometimes people don’t know exactly what solution would help them or satisfy them.

When you listen to them you need to keep this in mind…

Take time to think about what they are really needing or wanting.
Take time to think about what their real root problems or desires are.

If you really ponder these things for a while, it can help you to think of creative products or services that they might have never have known they even wanted.

And the result?
You’ll stand out from your competition. (Think Apple and the iPhone.)

Historical Footnote:
After Edison made this vow to himself, his next invention did much better. It was an improved stock market ticker-tape machine (1869), which earned him an instant $40,000 [about $700,000 today].

What Do You Think?

Do you have any stories of this happening to you?
Have you had a product or service you thought people would want, but they didn’t?
Have you ever uncovered a new product or service from talking to your customers?

Share your answers in the comments.

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November 15, 2019November 14, 2019

The Wisdom of Loggers: Why Your Marketing (and Your Business) Must Attract Prospects

NOTE: What you’re about to read are excerpts from my book, 51 Content Marketing Hacks: Extraordinary Lessons on Creating Content That Will Help You Sell More and Gain More Customers.

(To be more specific, the excerpts below come from chapter seven called “5 Types of Content Marketing to Continuously Attract Prospects“.)

Universal Business Truth: Without a Prospect, You Don’t Have a Future

My wife and I used to like watching a show on History Channel’s now defunct network H2 network.

It was called America’s Secret Slang.

Each episode features the origin of commonly used phrases in our country. It’s a really interesting and fun way to learn where some of the words we use every day came from.

In one episode, the origin of the word “prospect” was discussed.
It originally meant “future,” as in “how your future will be.”

During the gold rush days, the word came to mean that a particular piece of land had a future — it had potential.

As time went on, people who could potentially become customers became known as prospects, because they are a potential source of future income.

What all businesses need to understand is that if you don’t have new prospects, you don’t have a future.

Later in the chapter, I share the following story…

The Wisdom of Loggers

wood 791403 1920 — Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

I once read something that I found very interesting: For every tree that loggers cut down these days, they plant four seedlings.

*Because of this practice, there are more trees now than there were in 1920.

If you think about it, this is a very smart practice. Because without new trees, loggers have no future.

How Success Causes Problems for Many Businesses

When many businesses start out they need clients, so they focus on doing everything they can to get prospects.

They do this regularly and religiously until customers actually start showing up.

But once they start showing up, something interesting happens: They stop focusing on getting prospects (or lessen that focus) and begin to concentrate on servicing the customers they’ve attracted.

Obviously, businesses need to focus on their clients, and no one would ever tell you that this isn’t a priority.

But what eventually happens if you forsake your prospecting efforts to focus exclusively on your current customers?

That’s right.

You’ll end up like loggers who don’t invest in seeding their future.

The Solution: Learn from Loggers

germ 2871773 1920 — Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

If you want to have a future in your industry, you must continuously bring in new prospects.

And that means you must begin planting seedlings today.

(In my book, I share five types of content that experts use to attract prospects.)

*IMPORTANT: When I say that there are more trees, that doesn’t mean we have the same amount of biodiversity today as we used to.

P.S. If you want to read some of my book, 51 Content Marketing Hacks, you can sign-up below to read three chapters from it right now…

November 7, 2019November 6, 2019

How I Discovered a Similar Concept from the New Book “Copywriting Secrets” in Little-Known 98-Year-Old Book

I LOVE reading old books.

I love reading them because many times I will uncover a powerful truth, concept, or idea in them that I THOUGHT was a new or recent truth/concept/idea.

But discoveries like this always remind me that no matter how much things change, the fundamentals never do.

And when I discover that what I thought was a new or recent truth/concept/idea is actually a fundamental truth/concept/idea, then I am even more excited about it than ever.

Why?

Because not only are the fundamentals unchanging, they’re also much more powerful and important than trends, fads, and “fly by night” truths/concepts/ideas.

Anyway, I say all of that because you’ll never guess what I discovered in an old, obscure book from 1921.

What I Discovered in This Old, Forgotten Book Proves That Jim is Teaching Us the Unchanging, Powerful and Important Marketing Principles in “Copywriting Secrets.”

I had just finished reading Secret #3 “Without a Strong Why, People Don’t Buy” in Jim Edwards’ new book Copywriting Secrets.

A few days later, I was skimming through this old 98-year-old book and I couldn’t believe what I saw…

“That is to say, under one or another of the six arbitrary groupings will be found all of the related human instincts to which ordinary advertising is likely at any time to find it necessary to address itself. The list follows.
1. Desire for Gain

This includes the emotions of:
Money-saving instinct
Money-getting instinct
Speculation in its various degrees Acquisitiveness Ambition (of a certain nature)
Desire for knowledge (as an end in itself, or as a means)
Self-interest
2. Caution

This includes the emotions of:
Desire to provide for the future
Desire to protect those dependent on one (whether family or employees) against poverty, disease, pain, or mental distress
Desire for health
Forethought or foresight
Fear
Self-interest
3. Utility

Which includes the instincts of:
Constructiveness
Convenience
Necessity
Desire for time-saving, labor-saving, and health promoting devices, and the enjoyment resulting from any of these
4. Self-Gratification

Which includes the instincts and emotions of:
Self-indulgence
Appetites and sense-pleasures
Love of luxury or ease or comfort
Vanity
Pleasure
Display
Ornamentation
Desire for personal adornment
Striving to imitate others
Sports and diversions
Love of the arts
Pride of possession
5. Competition

Which is inclusive of:
Ambition (of a certain nature)
Pride
Emulation
Coquetry
Desire for skill in sports, trade, mechanics, etc.
Desire for knowledge, progress, or improvement.
6. Moral and Esthetic Instincts

These are regarded as including:
Love of beauty or convenience in the home.
Desire for welfare and safety of others
Hospitality and Sociability
Cleanliness
Religion

If you haven’t read Jim’s “10 Reasons Why People Buy” on page 16 yet, then this list won’t mean anything to you.

But if you have, you know why I was amazed to see a list like this in a book from the early 1900s.

Even though this list and Jim Edwards list isn’t exactly the same, the overall concept and many of the things on both lists are surprisingly similar.

When I saw this, I realized that Jim’s concept of universal reasons that people buy, which need to be appealed to, is one that I better not overlook or dismiss.

And I’d encourage you to pay close attention to them too.
You might be wondering, “Well, could Jim have got inspiration from this old list?”

I seriously doubt it.

The reason I say that is because this isn’t a well-known, old school marketing book like Scientific Advertising.

It’s a random one that I hadn’t even heard of until I stumbled on to it one day.

The LONG Title of This Rare Book

This old book that contained this powerful and still relevant information is called…

BETTER ADVERTISING: A Practical Manual of the Principles of Advertising, Embracing Institutional and Direct Advertising, Reason Why and Human Interest Copy, Elements of the Advertisement, and the Make Up of Advertising Circulars and Folders

It was written by John M. Manly and John A Powell. Look in Chapter 3, called “Direct Advertising,” to find the section I quoted.

(If you’re a regular reader, you might recognize this title. I shared another excerpt from this book in a recent post. You can read it here: Marketing is Sales Talk Transformed into Words.)

The cool thing about this strangely titled book is that it contains a lot more information that is still relevant today.

Want to Learn More from Both of These Books?

If you would like to learn more from Jim Edwards’ new book, “Copywriting Secrets,” you can get a FREE copy (just pay for shipping) by clicking here.

If you would like to learn more from the old book, “Better Advertising,” then stick around.

I’ll be posting more information from the book in another article AND I will be uploading a copy of the book into our DRCM Member’s Resource Area.

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October 24, 2019October 24, 2019

Create More Potent Content or Copy by Harnessing the Underutilized Power of Examples

mark twain picture — **“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”**
— Mark Twain

The Story of the Surprising Way a General Improved the Conditions at Fort Benning

I came across a very interesting story about the supposed way that General George C. Marshall enacted change at the new post he was assigned to.

You see, when General George C. Marshall took command of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA, he found the post was in really run-down condition.

But, instead of issuing orders to clean up and improve things, he decided on a surprisingly different approach.

He simply got out his paintbrushes, lawn equipment, and other tools and went to work on his personal quarters.

The results of his example were amazing.

The other officers and men — first on his block, and then throughout the post — did the same thing with their personal quarters.

Because of his example, Fort Benning became a completely different (and better) place.

NOTE: General Marshall led the Army’s Infantry School at Fort Benning during the post-World War I period from 1927-1932.

Show AND Tell: A Lesson for Content Marketers and Direct Response Marketers

leadership 913043 1920 — Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

By default, most content marketing and direct response marketing tends to focus on telling people what to do.

And telling people what they should do is an important and needed part of powerful content or copy.

But the thing we must never forget is the annoyance that Mark Twain spoke of and that lesson General Marshall showed us.

Let’s never forget that the power of showing our prospects and customers what we want them to do by giving them an example.

How Do You Use This in Your Content or Copy?

How do you do this effectively? I just showed you two ways:

You can use powerful quotes, sayings, and testimonials from others. (Mark Twain)
You can use stories and case studies from others. (General Marshall)

Think about how much more effective this article is in influencing you to use examples, because of the simple fact that I used them. 🙂

October 22, 2019October 22, 2019

Could This Be the Secret To Becoming A Person Of Impact And Influence?

The post I am about to share with you today originally appeared on my site RecessionSolution.com back on October 4, 2011, in a post called The Secret To Becoming A Person Of Impact And Influence.

I want to share it with you today for two reasons:

The idea it’s based on is still needed today more than ever.
The idea is explored on a much deeper level in a new book that is coming out this week. (See below for more.)

First, let’s look at the idea and then I’ll tell you about the new book.

The Night a British Statesman and Financier Shocked His Dinner Guests

I once read a story about British statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes.

He is the one whose fortune was used to endow the world-famous Rhodes Scholarships.

People said that he was a real stickler for proper dress -–but not at the expense of someone else’s feelings.

A young man was invited to dine with Rhodes and he arrived late by train, so he had to go directly to Rhodes’s home in his travel-stained clothes.

Once he got there, he was appalled to find the other guests were already there and they were wearing their full evening dress.

After what seemed a long time, Rhodes finally appeared.

But what was shocking to this young man and to the other guests was that Rhodes was dressed in a shabby old blue suit.

Later on, the young man found out that Rhodes had been dressed in his formal evening clothes. But he had changed out of them and put on the old suit, when he heard of his young guest’s awkward dilemma.

How much influence and impact do you think that had on that young man?

I’d bet the young man never forgot what happened that night!
I bet he told everyone he knew about it. (In fact, I wonder if that’s how we know the story today.)
I bet he would do anything he could to help Rhodes from that day forward.
I bet he would take any advice Rhodes ever gave him and bend over backwards to return the favor!

The Secret to Impact and Influence?

*Do you want to know the “secret” to impact and influence?
The real secret has nothing to do with how many followers you have.

The real secret to impact and influence is empathy!

It’s putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and letting them see you know what it’s like to be in their position.

It’s then interacting with them and treating them based on that understanding.

But it HAS to be real. It can’t be fake.
If it is, you’ll lose any chance of impact and influence with that person and others.

When it’s real, you’ll have become a person of influence and impact, because you’ll be a person that people can genuinely trust.

Isn’t empathy the underlying principle of “The Golden Rule”?
Isn’t a lack of empathy one of the biggest reasons for strife and trouble between people?

We all want to have an impact and influence in this world.

The “secret” to actually experiencing this starts with thinking of others first and responding to them out of that understanding.

Mean People Suck: The Book

If this idea resonates with you, then you should consider getting your hands on a brand new book that is coming out on Friday. (You can pre-order it now.)

It’s written by Michael Brenner and it’s called Mean People Suck: How Empathy Leads to a Better Life.

I received a preview copy of Mean People Suck and just finished it today.

Inside the book, Michael does a great job of showing you how the power of empathy can:

Help your company to be better
Help you to be a better boss or manager
Help you to create more powerful marketing
Help you to better serve and satisfy your customers
And more

And he does all of this by sharing his own personal story — and the stories of other people and companies – to reveal how empathy has been a key ingredient to true success for him and many others.

Who is Michael Brenner?

In case you’re one of the few people who don’t know who Michael is, here is some info to get you up to speed:

He’s been recognized as a Forbes top CMO influencer.
He’s been acknowledged as a top business keynote speaker by the Huffington Post.
He’s been designated a top motivational speaker by Entrepreneur Magazine.
He is CEO of Marketing Insider Group, where he has worked with more than 75 brands in building effective thought leadership, marketing, and employee activation programs.
If that wasn’t enough, he’s also the author of “The Content Formula” and “Digital Marketing Growth Hacks.”

The Biggest Reason to Get This Book

But the biggest reason to get his book is because Michael practices what he preaches.

Even though Michael and I have never met in person (yet), our interactions by email and phone have shown me that he is a person of empathy who really cares about other people.

If you believe the only way to become successful is by pushing others out of your way and by focusing only on yourself, your needs, and your career, then you will hate this book.

But if you want to achieve success by pulling other people up, helping other people succeed, and feeling good about what you do, then I can’t think of a better person for you to learn from.

Because this is the good news Michael wants to reveal to you: it’s empathy, not apathy, that is the real key to success in business and in life.

October 15, 2019October 15, 2019

Marketing is Sales Talk Transformed into Words

“I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you. Someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.”
– An English Professor

We might not want to admit this, but sometimes this is the response our prospects have to our marketing.

They can’t understand what we’re trying to say.

And what’s even worse, they sometimes misunderstand what we’re saying completely.

When Marketing Goes Horribly Wrong

Check out these hilarious examples of marketing gone wrong that James S. O’Rourke and Elizabeth A. Tuleja share in Module 4: Intercultural Communication for Business (Managerial Communication) 2nd Edition…

“Communicating with a target market means more than tossing out catchy slogans.
“A few companies learned this the hard way when they tried to translate their catchy English slogans directly into Spanish.
“Braniff Airlines beckoned its passengers to ‘Fly in Leather,’ and Eastern Airlines proclaimed that ‘We Earn Our Wings Daily.’
“Both of these now-defunct airlines were terribly mistaken.
“A Spanish speaker would think Braniff was asking its riders to ‘Fly Naked,’ and a Spanish translation of the Eastern slogan evoked a final destination in heaven, following death.
“A few classic marketing blunders: General Motors discovered too late that ‘Nova‘ literally means ‘Doesn’t go‘ in Spanish.
“Coors encouraged its English-speaking customers to ‘Turn It Loose,’ but the phrase in Spanish meant ‘Suffer from Diarrhea.'”
From Module 4: Intercultural Communication for Business (Managerial Communication) 2nd Edition

Get Ready to Time Travel

steampunk 3222894 1920 — Image by Prettysleepy2 from Pixabay

Today, we’re about to go back in time.
98 years to be exact.

What you’re about to read below is pulled from a book published in 1921 called (get ready for a crazy LONG title)…

BETTER ADVERTISING A Practical Manual of the Principles of Advertising, Embracing Institutional and Direct Advertising, Reason Why and Human Interest Copy, Elements of the Advertisement, and the Make Up of Advertising Circulars and Folders by John M. Manly and John A Powell.

That’s quite a title, huh? 🙂

The title might be more exhausting than it is breathtaking, but this book really does reveal one of the keys to creating better advertising (and marketing).

Advertising is ‘Sales Talk’ Reduced to Type

typewriter 407695 1920 — Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I want you to pay close attention to the powerful truth from Manly and Powell that I share below.

Because it will reveal to you one of the ways to make your marketing more effective.

Ready? Let’s open the book and take a peek…

“Advertising is ‘sales talk’ reduced to type.

“Scientific principles must underlie any kind of successful sales talk, but—and this is the important feature—the personality of the talker envelops the scientific features with his magnetism and personal qualities, his persuasiveness, his knowledge of his subject, his very manners, even.
“His talk is not cold and formal, but sincere and warm and winning—with the psychological ingredients so well mixed as to be invisible in the solution.
“Advertising copy, then, is not to be thought of as a mere formal announcement, not a mere listing of goods with prices attached, not even as a formal solicitation to buy, but as a talk from the prospective seller to the prospective customer.
“No matter how highly educated the seller may be, he does not talk to his customer in the formal language commonly called ‘rhetorical.’
“He brings into his conversation all the elements that will make it interesting. He avoids anything but ‘homely’ language, suited to the occasion. He talks, he does not ‘converse.’
“So should advertising be — it must have the same warm elements of a conversation that draws and interests by being human.
“An attractive analysis of the proposition itself, accompanied by a common-sense appeal which is based on a thorough knowledge of the motives and instincts that actuate the average purchaser—that is the secret of good advertising.”
BETTER ADVERTISING by John M. Manly and John A Powell

The Best Content Marketing and Direct Response Marketing

I really love that excerpt above.

In fact, I would encourage you to reread that excerpt above a couple of times.

Because as I think about it, the wisdom it contains is the secret behind all of the best content marketing and direct response marketing I’ve ever seen.

But the four things that stood out the most to me are these:

Write with personality
Write as a real person would speak, with real people in mind
Write in a way so that you draw people in
Write in a way that presents your ideas in an interesting way

A Great Example for You

As I was writing this post, I happened to jump over to my open Facebook tab (bad habit!) and I came across a post that a friend shared from The South Texas Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (STC-ACHE).

In that post, they shared a bunch of pictures from a series of creative billboards from Baycare Health Systems.

The billboards were marketing to help people to understand when they should go to the E.R. vs Urgent Care.

As I looked at them, I realized that they are a creative example of what Manly and Powell were talking about:

They have a personality
Have real people in mind
Were done in a way to draw people in
Are presented in an interesting way

Want to See More of What’s Inside Manly and Powell’s Book?

If you would like to see inside BETTER ADVERTISING, I’d be glad to post a PDF version in our DRCM Membership Resource Area.

(Chapter 3 Direct Marketing has some more, powerful information in it.)

Or, if you’d prefer, I’d be glad to pull out more of the nuggets from this book and share them with you here.

Just let me know what you prefer!

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October 8, 2019October 7, 2019

Marketing Secrets from Legendary Marketer: Joe Sugarman (VIDEO)

Many rules/secrets that apply to direct response marketing also apply to content marketing.

In the short video below, you will understand exactly what I mean.

Why? Because as you will see in this video from Joe Polish’s Genius Network, legendary marketer, Joe Sugarman’s, copywriting tips apply to both content marketing and direct response marketing.

Learn to Write Copy That Sells with Joe Sugarman (VIDEO)

VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Joe Polish interviews the copywriting legend Joe Sugarman. Learn how his system can dramatically change your business.

October 2, 2019October 2, 2019

Intuit’s “Follow Me Home” Program and Another Takeaway from Content Marketing World

I haven’t posted anything since last Tuesday, because I was back in California for some onboarding training that all new hires at Intuit go through.

It was something that we were asked to do beforehand, and discuss during the training, that I want to share with you today.

The reason I want to share it with you is because it’s one of the keys to becoming a better direct response content marketer.

And, coincidentally, it reminds me a lot of another one of my main takeaways from Content Marketing World.

(You can see my biggest takeaway here: My Biggest Takeaway from Content Marketing World 2019.)

Follow Me Home: Intuit’s Innovation Secret

Intuit’s “Follow Me Home” Program

“Follow Me Home” is something that was started by Intuit’s founder, Scott Cook, in the early days of the company.

And it is, literally, what it sounds like.

Scott Cook would wait at the local Staples store until a customer would buy an Intuit product. Then he would ask the customer if he could follow the customer home to watch them use the product.

Over the years, Intuit has continued the tradition of “Follow Me Home.” Intuit now asks each of its employees to go on a “Follow Me Home” so the company can continue to know and understand our customers.

The group I was in visited a local small business owner who owns a coffee shop. (And who happens to be a good friend of mine!)

It was a great experience because it was a good reminder to me of who our company is trying to help.

It made me proud to be a part of a company that focuses on a simple, but powerful, practice.

And that leads me to my other takeaway from Content Marketing World.

My Other Takeaway from Content Marketing World

Intuit's "Follow Me Home" Program and Another Takeaway from Content Marketing World 216 — Content Marketing World 2019

One of the things I kept hearing over and over in different ways, and repeated in the different sessions that I went to, was something that “Follow Me Homes” are based on.

The thing I kept hearing repeated at Content Marketing World was the importance of knowing our prospects and customers.

You see, if we don’t know and understand who our customers and prospects really are, then our marketing will never have any impact.

Why? Because if you don’t know your prospects and customers, then how can you:

Know what they really need and want?
Know how to get their attention?
Know to influence them?
Know how to help them?

We can’t.

After my training last week and after going to Content Marketing World two weeks ago, it was an important reminder that the most powerful marketing and the most successful companies are successful for a reason.

They know their customers better than their competitors do.
That’s where all effective marketing starts.

I’d encourage you to do the same.

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September 10, 2019September 10, 2019

David Ogilvy on the Importance of Big Ideas (VIDEO)

The greatest marketing, whether it’s content marketing or direct response marketing, always starts with a powerful “big idea.”

In the video below, advertising legend, David Ogilvy, reveals information that was originally created to be seen only within his agency.

And the main focus on this short video is simply: ways to come up with a big idea for your marketing.

In this video, Ogilvy reveals:

Big ideas are what advertising is all about
Start by doing your homework
Why we can’t be a bore and influence people to buy
That we should study the precedence and discover how to create something better
Decide what benefit you should offer people
Boil down your strategy to one important, unique, and simple promise
Why you must test and what to test
And more

David Ogilvy – Big Ideas (VIDEO)

The video below is courtesy of The Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin.

Video Description:
David Ogilvy, in a 1981 film “The View From Touffou,” concisely shares some of his views on developing ideas that produce great advertising campaigns. The film, which was produced for internal use within his agency, provides some timeless suggestions for producing big ideas that drive brand success.

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019

My Biggest Takeaway from Content Marketing World 2019

Moderating at Content Marketing World 2019

Even though I’ve been involved with writing on and off for Content Marketing Institute (CMI) since 2011, this was the first year I’ve made it to Content Marketing World (CMW).

The Two Most Important Things You Can Gain from Any Conference You Go To

After attending a few conferences over the years, I’ve realized that there are two important things you can gain from attending any conference:

The content you are exposed to
The connections you make

Content Marketing World is no exception. I feel like I gained both of these things from this year’s Content Marketing World.

Let me explain…

Besides getting the honor to emcee/moderate the Content Creation and Development track on Thursday, I had a great time just being there.

I really enjoyed getting to:

Finally meet some people I’ve interacted with online for years
Hang out, laugh, and get to know my co-workers better
Learn great tips, strategies, and ideas in the sessions I attended

My Biggest Takeaway from Content Marketing World 2019

There are many things I learned this year from Content Marketing World and I will share some of my other takeaways in upcoming posts.

But my main takeaway came from something that Joe Pulizzi, the founder of CMI and CMW, said.

The End of Social Media as We Know It?

Joe Pulizzi the End Social Media — One of Joe Pulizzi’s slides in his keynote speech for Content Marketing World 2019

In Joe’s keynote this year, one of the things that he talked about was the huge change in how content is published on social media.

He said that social media sites like Facebook and YouTube see the content we create on their platforms as their biggest liability.

Why? Because our content usually pulls people away from their platforms to our sites.

Because of this, Joe said that we’re just now just beginning to see what he calls “the end of social media as we know it.”

The Solution to the Loss of Social Engagement

What was the solution that Joe gave to the impending doom that he’s predicted?

He solution was a simple but powerful one.
It was to focus on email and print subscribers.
As Joe said, “It’s 1999 again.”

Why was this my biggest takeaway?

First of all, because it confirms the things that I’ve been noticing over the past few years.

[See my last post, Food Network’s Little-Known Content Marketing Origin (And the Strategy You Need If Social Media Is Failing You), for one example.]

But there’s another reason that it resonated so much to me.

And that’s because the idea of focusing on building a subscriber list is built on one of the fundamental principles of direct response marketing.

And that confirms something that I’ve come to believe more and more…

Effective content marketing needs direct response marketing.
Effective direct response marketing needs content marketing.

(See my “Direct Response Content Marketing Manifesto” for more details.)

The Most Important Thing for Direct Marketers

In my marketing class that I taught for UC Berkeley Extension, I taught my students that most top copywriters agree that the three most important things in direct response are:

3. The Copy: These are the actual words you use. The words you use and how you use them are extremely important, but they’re not as important as two other things.

2. The Offer: Your offer is what exactly it is that you are offering to your patrons. When it comes to direct response marketing, what your offer is and how you frame it will make an even greater impact on your sales than just your copy alone.

But guess what the most important thing is?

1. The List: In the traditional sense, this is the mailing list that you send your sales letter to. In the digital world of today, this now also includes the email list that you send your sales letters and offers to.

The list is the most important thing because choosing the right list is what ultimately determines the success of your offer and your copy.

If you choose the wrong list, then a powerful offer, presented with engaging copy, will still fall flat.

But if you choose the right list, with a so-so offer, presented with average copy, it can still bring you decent results.

That’s how important the list is.
(And that’s not just true for direct response marketers. It’s true for content marketers!)

But that’s not all…

When It Comes to Lists, You Have Two Options

Since the list is so important, having access to the right list will be a major determining factor in your and/or your company’s success.

And you have two options when it comes to mailing lists or email lists:

Rent one – Renting mailing lists is expensive. And renting email lists is ineffective and foolish.
Own one – Owning a good size mailing list or email list is one of the most powerful assets a business can have.

So, you can obviously see what your best choice is! 🙂

That leads us back to Joe’s statement that was my biggest takeaway…

The Money Is (and Will Always Be) In the List

The reason Joe’s statement resonated with me so much is because it was an important reminder that no matter how much technology changes, the fundamentals never change.

From the indicators I see, I believe Joe’s prediction about social media is 100% true.
But guess what?

Even if Joe’s prediction doesn’t end up playing out exactly like he thinks it will, his advice will STILL BE the determining factor for you and/or your business’ success.

Because what was true in 1999 is still true in 2019 and will still be true in 2049…. “the money is (and will always be) in the list.”

(For those of you who don’t know, this is a statement which most of the early internet marketers continually emphasized back in the ’90’s. And do you know where they got the idea from? The early direct marketers!)

What I Am Going to Do (and What You Should Do Too)

There were many other awesome things I learned at Content Marketing World this year., but Joe’s statement inspired me to again focus the majority of my energy on:

Growing my email lists of prospects and customers
Consistently communicating with, caring for, and helping the prospects and customers on my lists
Continually coming up with more solutions and services to help my prospects and customers to become more and more successful

By doing these things, I’ll not only be insulating myself and my business from the possible social media apocalypse, but I’ll also be building a foundation that will give me, my prospects, and my customers stability no matter what happens.

RFM: A Way to Pick the Most Responsive Lists

In a video on our YouTube channel called, The Attention-Getting Secrets Marketers Can Learn from HGTV, I talk about something that direct response marketers call R.F..M.

Check out this video below to discover the way RFM can help you to pick the most responsive lists.

And if you use RFM creatively, you will figure out how to make your lists more responsive!

Check out the video now and please SUBSCRIBE to my channel now!
(I’m practicing what I preach and focusing on subscribers!!)

Listen to Joe and Robert’s Podcast Episode and Learn More About Joe’s Prediction

If you want to learn more about Joe Pulizzi’s prediction about the end of social media, then check out this episode of the podcast This Old Marketing…

If you’re not a subscriber to Joe and Robert’s podcast, This Old Marketing, then you should subscribe now. You can go to iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Before You Leave, Why Not Become a Free Member? When You Do, You’ll Get a List Building Cheat Sheet

Before you leave, can you do me and yourself a favor?
Become a member of DirectResponseContentMarketing.com.
(Click here to join.)

Why become a member?

When you become a member, you will have unlimited access to Member’s Resource Area which will contain special resources and rewards such as:

Special limited member discounts on designated products
Early access to certain products or services
Content upgrades
Checklists
Cheatsheets
Free reports
A special members-only newsletter called “Synergy”
Exclusive content
A private Facebook group (coming in May)
And other goodies

For Member’s Only: Cheat Sheet with 10 Ideas for Lead Magnets to Help You Grow Your List

10 Irresistible Lead Magnets to Help You to Grow Your List Today”

When you join today, you’ll have access to a brand new resource that I just uploaded to the Member’s Resource Area.

It’s a cheat sheet that will give you 10 things that you can offer to people as an incentive to sign-up for your email list.

Become a member right now and you can get access to…

“10 Irresistible Lead Magnets to Help You to Grow Your List Today.”

Click here to become a free member now.

August 31, 2019August 31, 2019

I’m Back! The ‘Natural Marketing Forces’ That Caused Us to Buy Our House

After a move to a new state and a new job, I’m back!

I am about to share with you a marketing lesson that you will find really helpful.
The most interesting thing about this lesson?

It was marketing that no one actually used on me.
It just happened naturally. I’ll explain more in a minute.
(*You’re about to learn how marketing taps into natural forces that influence us to make decisions.)

But first, let me explain why things went silent around here for so long…

A New State and a New Job

On July 14th, my family and I left the San Francisco Peninsula for a new adventure in a new land.

The name of the new land? Idaho.
The destination? The Boise area.

But moving to a new state wasn’t the only big change. I also started a new job.

On July 24th, we got the keys to our house and on July 29th, I started working at TSheets (now simply known as Intuit’s Boise site).

I’m really enjoying the company I work for, the area I work, and the people I work with.

(I work with 9 other people on the content promotion team. They’re all really great people who like to laugh and they’re all great at what they do.)

In other words, what I’m saying is that it’s been a great move that I’m really glad we made!

Why Things Went Silent on Here for a Little While

Even though things have been great, with all of that change in my life and my family’s life, things have also been very hectic.

There have been a lot of adjustments. New school for my kids. A new place to live. New neighbors to meet. And on and on!

With all of those things going on, I just didn’t have a chance to update this site or to record any new videos for you (click here).

But I’m back now and starting in September, I’ll continue sharing more of the direct response content marketing lessons with you (click here).

And I’ll be sharing more forgotten secrets of advertising legends, so you will understand more deeply and fully how to create content and copy that sells (click here).

But for today, I want to share some lessons that reveal the “natural marketing forces” that most of us don’t realize even exist or influence us.

The ‘Natural Marketing Forces’ That Caused Us to Buy Our House

I want to share with you some lessons that I relearned during the purchase of our house.

After I got the job at Intuit, we flew up to the Boise area and took five days looking at houses hoping to find one we liked.

We saw several ones that we liked and narrowed it down to two.
But we couldn’t decide.

That was until the natural marketing forces kicked in…

You see, when we went to the house we originally really liked, the “For Sale” sign was gone!

Someone had made an offer and beat us to it!

Our other problem was that this was the only house model currently on the market with the particular floor plan this one had.

(Actually, technically there was another house that was this same model, but it was more expensive and in another city.)

Suddenly, we really wanted that house.

Our realtor made a call to the agent and asked her if we should still make an offer. She said, “Yes! I am not sure the offer is a solid one.”

Long story short, we flew back to CA and a few days later found out that the other people withdrew their offer. WE GOT THE HOUSE!!

As this was all happening to us, I told my wife and our realtor, “I feel marketing has made me want this house more!!”

Now let me explain why I said this…

The Natural Marketing Forces You Might Have Missed

board 3772063 1920 — Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I said that because I realized that some marketing principles that are used frequently by marketers were at play here, but no one was using them on us.
They were just happening naturally!

These are the four marketing principles I’m talking about:

Unique Selling Proposition: This term was created by television advertising pioneer Rosser Reeves. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Wikipedia defines it like this… “A unique selling proposition (USP) refers to the unique benefit exhibited by a company, service, product or brand that enables it to stand out from competitors.”
Scarcity: Influence expert, Dr. Robert Cialdini, lists scarcity is one of his six principles of influence. He says people want more of those things they can have less of.
Urgency: If we can delay a decision, we usually will. That’s why marketers try frequently try to use urgency to get prospects to make a decision now.
Takeaway Marketing: I first heard of this principle from Dan Kennedy. Copywriter, Roy Furr, describes this principle by explaining the way top sales professionals use this. He says, “…as the prospect is in through this front door and needing personal attention, the rock star salesperson switches from PULLING the prospect in (using automation) to PUSHING the prospect away.”

Alright, now that you have these principles in mind, let me show you how these marketing principles naturally took place in the situation with us buying our house.

Here’s how these four marketing principles naturally happened in the process of us buying our house:

Unique Selling Proposition: The house we wanted had a unique floor plan that was not like any of the other houses in the neighborhood we liked.
Scarcity: This house wasn’t available at this price anywhere else.
Urgency: We couldn’t delay and debate whether we wanted this house or not since someone had already made an offer on it. We had to decide right then and there.
Takeaway: This house was literally taken away from us by the other people putting an offer on it.

Do you see now why I said that there were natural marketing forces at play?

Marketing is Based on Natural Forces of Influence

wave 1246560 1920 — Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Many people misunderstand marketing.

They think it’s manipulation. They think it’s unnatural. They think it’s all about making people do what they don’t want to do. That’s whey they think marketing is bad or evil.

But marketing is none of those things (when used properly, correctly, and honorably).

Marketing is really just tapping into the natural forces that already influence us all the time and using them to encourage people to purchase our products and services.

In fact, sometimes marketing happens on its own with no one pulling the strings.
That’s what happened when we bought our house.

When this happened, I relearned the important lesson of the natural origin of marketing.

And I’ve been waiting all this time to get the chance to share this with you.
I hope it has been helpful for you and I hope it helps you to market more effectively.

P.S. We really love our house and our neighborhood! You see? Marketing isn’t so evil or bad after all. 🙂

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019

The Good Times and Bad Times to Try to Capture Your Prospect’s Attention (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other sixteen videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

The Right and Wrong Time to Try to Capture Your Prospect’s Attention

Whether you realize it or not, there are good times and bad times to try to capture your prospect’s attention.

That means that if you try to spend all of your time trying to capture their attention when it’s the WRONG time, it will be a waste of your time and money.

But it also means that if you try to capture their attention when it’s the RIGHT time, then it will be much easier and you will see more ROI.

Watch my latest video to learn more about the good times and bad times to try to capture attention and what you can do about this….

May 30, 2019May 30, 2019

The Spoiler-Free, Surefire, Attention Getting Lesson from the New ‘Aladdin’ Movie (VIDEO)

Genie Version THE SPOILER FREE SUREFIRE ATTENTION GETTING LESSON FROM THE NEW ‘ALADDIN’ MOVIE 500

(*If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been the last few days, you’ll discover the answer in my video below.)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other thirteen videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

Disney Is an Attention-Getting Grand Master

When it comes to content marketing and attention-getting, Disney is at the “grand master” level.

If you understood only HALF of what they know about getting attention, then you would see a massive increase in your content marketing and your marketing in general.

Well, last weekend I went with my family to see the new “Aladdin” movie with Will Smith.

When it over, I was really happy.

Not only because I loved the new movie, but because I realized a connection between:

What they did with this new movie
What Backlinko’s, Brian Dean, revealed about how to increase traffic to your website

Watch the video below and you’ll learn Disney and Brian’s attention-getting secret…

May 22, 2019May 22, 2019

To Gain and Keep Your Prospect’s Attention, Focus on Relieving Their Fear Instead of Manipulating It (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other thirteen videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

There’s Nothing to Fear, But Fear Itself

Have you ever thought about the role that fear plays in keeping our prospects from buying?

Once you realize how often fear plays a part in stalling the sales process, you’ll begin to have a new understanding of why gaining and keeping your prospect’s attention is so important.

In my latest video, I share one of my favorite quotes about courage, a quote I once heard Dan Sullivan, from Strategic Coach, share on the 10X podcast.

I reveal what it is at the beginning of my video because until we realize our own problem with fear, we’ll never understand our prospect’s problem with fear.

To Gain and Keep Your Prospect’s Attention, Focus on Relieving Their Fear Instead of Manipulating It (VIDEO)

May 20, 2019May 20, 2019

The Companies and Marketers Who Give Shall Receive (VIDEO)

THE COMPANIES AND MARKETERS WHO GIVE SHALL RECEIVE 500

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other thirteen videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

Receive, If You Will Give

Most of us tend to focus on what we want to receive/get more than what we are giving. It’s human nature.

That’s why, when it comes to marketing, many companies and marketers focus mainly on what they can receive from a prospect or customer.

That’s what most people, companies, and marketers do.
So, if you want you, your company, or your marketing to stand out, you ought to consider a different game plan.

Focus on what everyone else is ignoring: giving.

When you do, you, your marketing, or your company will stand out in the most amazing way. As the late, great Zig Ziglar once said…

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
– Zig Ziglar

In my latest video, I will reveal how this all ties into keeping attention and how it can make your marketing more appealing and powerful…

The Companies and Marketers Who Give Shall Receive (VIDEO)

May 17, 2019May 16, 2019

Why Marketers and Companies with the Most Empathy Win the Attention Keeping Game (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other thirteen videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

A Marketing Super Power

As I mentioned in my last article, Empathy, Attention, and the Power Of Creating Content Marketing Focused On Others,

Empathy is one of the most overlooked forces behind the creation of powerful and engaging content and copy.

In fact, when it’s real – and not manufactured or artificial, it can be like a marketing super power.

In my latest video, I reveal why the companies and marketing with the most empathy with the attention keeping game.

And when that happens, you will be surprised at the impact that can have on your future sales.

Watch the video to learn more.

Why Marketers and Companies with the Most Empathy Win the Attention Keeping Game (VIDEO)

May 16, 2019

The Reason Why the MAJORITY of Your Sales Will Come from Your Ability to KEEP Attention (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other twelve videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

Where Will Most of Your Future Sales Come From?

In a previous post on this website, DRCM Principle #1: Only a Small Amount of People Are Ready to Buy Today, I revealed the first principle that is important to understand if you want to master what I am calling “direct response content marketing.”

Once you really understand this truth, you will realize that as content marketers or direct response marketers you must focus on people who aren’t ready to buy today but will buy “tomorrow.”

(I’ll go more in-depth on this in another post on this site later today when I share DRCM Principle #2.)

Once you realize this, you will realize how important it is to not just capture attention, but more importantly to keep it.

I explain more about this in my latest video below…

The Reason Why the MAJORITY of Your Sales Will Come from Your Ability to KEEP Attention (VIDEO)

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019

How Marketers Can Increase Traffic and Gain More YouTube Subscribers by Learning to KEEP Attention (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other eleven videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

What Could Happen If You Learned How to Keep Your Prospect’s Attention?

I’ve been talking a lot about getting or capturing attention in my current series on our YouTube channel.

Getting attention is important because, without it, there’s no marketing.

But after you get your prospect’s attention, you need to figure out how to KEEP their attention both now and later.

When you learn how to do this, you will be pleasantly surprised to discover how this increases your website traffic and YouTube subscribers.

In my latest video, I share some lessons that I learned from reading a LinkedIn post from Sumo.com’s Copy Chief, Chris Von Wilpert, and from watching a video featuring Rob Wilson, host of the YouTube channel Video Gadget’s Journal.

(Shout out to BrianG.Johnson.TV for featuring Rob and putting him on my radar!)

Watch the video now and discover these lessons and how they tie into my previous video: The Attention Getting Secrets Marketers Can Learn from HGTV…

How Marketers Can Increase Traffic and Gain More YouTube Subscribers by Learning to KEEP Attention (VIDEO)

May 14, 2019May 13, 2019

How Marketers Can Capture Attention Using My ’31 Types of Content We Crave’ (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other ten videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

We Pay Attention to What We Crave

Without knowing you personally there are not a lot of things that I can predict will grab your attention every time except for one thing: the thing you crave.

Because I know that if it’s something you crave, then you’re going to have your reticular activating system on “high alert” and on the lookout for that thing.

That means that if you want your marketing to capture your prospect’s attention, then all you have to do is figure out what they crave.

Now I CAN’T tell you what your prospect specifically craves, but I CAN tell you what they crave a universal level.

And it has everything to do with what I call “content we crave.”

Watch my latest video to learn about the “31 Types of Content We Crave” and how you can use them in your marketing to grab attention…

How Marketers Can Capture Attention Using My 31 Types of Content We Crave (VIDEO)

After you watch my video, you can download or print out my two “content we crave” infographics so you can use them as your cheat sheet whenever you want to create copy or content that has a higher chance of capturing your prospect’s attention.

Go here to see my infographics: The 31 Types of Content We Crave and How to Use Them to Create Engaging Content (INFOGRAPHICS & PREVIEW VIDEO)

May 14, 2019May 13, 2019

The 31 Types of Content We Crave and How to Use Them to Create Engaging Content (INFOGRAPHICS & PREVIEW VIDEO)

The 31 Types of Content We Crave INFOGRAPHICS and How to Use Them to Create Engaging Content

NOTE: Four years ago, I wrote a post for ContentMarketingInstitute.com (CMI) called “21 Types of Content We All Crave.”

Even though I really thought I had come up with an important concept, the response to that post still surprised me.

It was shared something over 800 times. (I stopped counting!)
It ended up with a 101 comments before CMI turned off the comments.
It has since been shared thousands of times.

You can see the infographic below…

21 Types of Content We Crave (INFOGRAPHIC)

“Scott has consistently been one of our top authors at the content marketing institute. His posts are timely, fact-driven and almost always drive a high-level of discussion.
His ’21 types of content we crave’ infographic post on CMI was one of our most popular posts of the year!”

*– Joe Pulizzi*
*The founder of ContentMarketingInstitute.com*
*One of the leading thought leaders behind the content marketing and social media movement*

That original post was so popular that they asked to repost it again as a “Back by Popular Demand” post.

And when they did, they asked me if I had any new thoughts to add. So I had another infograph created with 10 additional types of content that we crave.

That new post went live on June 24, 2016. 17 days after this was posted, this had already happened:

Tweeted 1127 times
Shared on Linkedin 711 times
Shared on Facebook 343 times
And shared on Google+ 282 times

Below is that infographic with more of the types of content that we crave…

10 More Types of Content We Crave (INFOGRAPHIC)

The Webinar I Put on to Show People How to Use “Content We Crave” to Create Engaging Content

I went on to put on a webinar based on how to use the the types of “content we crave” to create engaging content.

Here is what two of the original attendees said about what I shared…

“If you are involved in content creation in any way, 21 Types of Content We Crave is for you. It not only shows you what works, but why. In just a short time this webinar will help anyone learn to break through all the other noise and “content clutter” out there by creating powerful stories that people remember and want to share.”

*– Joe Basques,* Quality Analyst – Allergan

“Scott’s concepts in 21 Types of Content We Crave are absolutely brilliant! He simply breaks down an actionable approach that any content marketer can and should start using immediately. I highly recommend Scott Aughtmon as a valuable resource for both entrepreneurs and marketing professionals.”

I later taught the same, basic information at a Meetup for B2B content marketers. This is what some of the people who were there had to say.

“Scott is a fantastic speaker. His presentations grab your attention from the very start, then keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire duration. Scott had an audience of B2B content marketers hanging on his every word. Scott’s presentation sparked so many ideas that the subsequent Q&A with audience members ran long. Being a good sport, Scott stayed until every last question was answered.”

– **Dennis Shiao**
Former Director of Content Marketing, DNN

“The title of Scott’s presentation, ‘21 Types of Content We Crave,’ was completely misleading, and that’s a good thing. For most audiences, the phrase ‘types of content’ denotes the different content assets: data sheets, white papers, infographics, news releases, etc. Currently, there are many content experts who talk about content strategy and content assets – talks that have become content cliché. Scott’s presentation, on the other hand, was about the different emotional triggers that content should elicit and evoke – a truly brilliant and novel approach.”

– **Alok Vasudeva,** The Marketer’s Continuum

Want to Take a Peek at My Training?

You can watch the first 12 minutes of my 52:39-minute video training, if you’d like to understand more about “content we crave” and why we need to learn to use it.

You can watch it for free. All you need to do is sign-up below.

Watch First 12 Mins. of “31 Types of Content We Crave” for FREE

That way you can see if you would like to purchase it or not.

12 Min Image — Screenshot of the video you will get access to

May 13, 2019May 12, 2019

The Attention-Getting Lesson Marketers Can Learn from the 1st Millionaire of the Gold Rush (VIDEO)

Attention Getting Lessons Gold Rush600 4

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other nine videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

The Attention-Getting Secret That Made a Shopkeeper the First Millionaire of the Gold Rush

I was watching one of my favorite TV shows recently and I was reminded about a story I had forgotten about from the days of the California Gold Rush.

And because of my current focus on the need for marketers to capture attention (See: Without Attention, There Is No Marketing), all I could notice was the amazing attention-getting secret that one wise shopkeeper understood which made him very wealthy.

If you’d like to discover what that secret is so you can use it in your own marketing, then watch my latest video below…

The Attention Getting Lesson Marketers Can Learn from the 1st Millionaire of Gold Rush (VIDEO)

May 11, 2019May 11, 2019

The Secret to Using the Reticular Activating System to Capture Your Prospect’s Attention (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other eight videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

The Brain’s Reticular Activating System: Your Friend or Foe

You might not realize this but your brain is equipped with something that’s called the Reticular Activating System.

It’s the part of your brain that determines what you notice or pay attention to.

And that’s why content marketers and direct response marketers should learn the secrets of tapping into it.

If you figure out how to harness its power, it will be your friend and your copy and content will be welcomed in.

If you don’t figure out how to harness its power, it will be your foe and your copy and content will be turned away every time.

Watch my latest video to discover how you can use the reticular activating system to capture your prospects’ attention…

The Secret to Using the Reticular Activating System to Capture Your Prospect’s Attention (VIDEO)

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019

The Attention-Getting Lessons Marketers Can Learn from Podcaster John Lee Dumas (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other seven videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

John Lee Dumas Knows How to Capture Attention

John Lee Dumas (aka JLD) is an American podcaster. He’s the founder and host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, a business podcast where he interviews successful entrepreneurs.

How popular is it his podcast? As of 2018, his podcasts have received 70 million downloads with 1 million monthly listens.

John obviously understands what it takes to capture attention.

In my latest video, I reveal one of the attention-getting strategies he decided to use early on which is one of the secrets of his success.

But in order to really understand how important and powerful his strategy for getting attention is, I have to tell you the craziest story.

It all happened when I was 10-years-old and fishing with my dad…

May 8, 2019May 8, 2019

The Attention-Getting Secret That Marketers Can Learn from HGTV (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other six videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

HGTV Knows an Attention-Getting Secret That Most Marketers Don’t Know

Did you know that HGTV is the 6th most popular cable network?
Well, according to Statista.com they are!

That means they understand how to not only capture attention but also how to keep attention and build attention loyalty.

As content marketers or direct response marketers, wouldn’t it be cool to learn just a little of what they know about attention?

Well, in today’s video I reveal one of the secrets that HGTV knows about attention.

Watch the video below to discover this secret and learn how you can apply it to your marketing…

The Attention-Getting Secret That Marketers Can Learn from HGTV (VIDEO)

(Did I say, “HDTV” at the beginning of this video??? Hahaha!)

May 8, 2019May 8, 2019

The 3 Primary Ways to Get Attention (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other five videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

What Gets Your Attention As Your Scrolling Along?

Have you ever stopped to think about what gets you to stop scrolling and pay attention?

I was thinking about this as I was scrolling LinkedIn today. And as I thought about this I came up with what I believe are the three primary ways to get attention.

I believe that they will work whether you’re trying to get attention with email marketing, social media marketing, or whatever!

Check out my video below to learn what these three primary ways to get attention are…

The 3 Primary Ways to Get Attention

May 6, 2019May 7, 2019

Without Attention, There Is No Marketing (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other four videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

The Second Step to All Effective Marketing

After you take the first step (mentioned in my video below), then the second step of any/all effective marketing is attention.

Without this step, there is no marketing. Or I guess you could say that without this step there will never be any effective marketing of any kind.

Really think about that for a second. How can you create effective marketing of any kind – whether it’s content or copy – if you don’t get attention?

Watch the video below and you’ll understand exactly what I mean…

Without Attention, There Is No Marketing (VIDEO)

May 4, 2019May 4, 2019

Attention-Getting Lessons from ‘The Voice’ TV Show (VIDEO)

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other three videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

Now, let’s get to today’s post…

The Voice Producers Know How to Capture and Keep People’s Attention

The Voice is a singing competition television series broadcast on NBC. It premiered during the spring television cycle on April 26, 2011.

Besides understanding the music industry and how to find the next top artists, the producers of The Voice have perfected the art of capturing and keeping an audience’s attention.

Want to proof of how good they are at attention-getting? You do? Here you go… 🙂

According to Deadline.com...

“NBC’s The Voice “Top 24” episode (1.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, 7.20 million viewers) topped Monday among the Big 4 broadcasters in both metrics. “
– ‘The Voice’ Makes More Noise Than Competition In Monday Ratings | Deadline.com

According to GoldDerby.com...

“Even after all these years, ‘American Idol’ is still TV’s most-watched reality show. Per TV By The Numbers, ABC’s ‘Idol’ topped all others for the final week of April with 2.0 million viewers in the all-important 18-49 demographic. In fact, it was the #2 program of the week in that age group behind only ‘The Big Bang Theory’ with 2.3 million. As for its closest reality TV competition in the demo, ‘Survivor’ came in with 1.9 million while “The Voice” (Monday) scored 1.5 million and ‘The Voice’ (Tuesday) earned 1.2 million.”
– ‘American Idol’ ratings: Yep, it’s still TV’s most-watched reality show | GoldDerby.com

Do you see now why I say they’re so good at capturing and keeping attention?
Wouldn’t it be cool to learn some lessons on how to capture and keep your prospect’s attention?

Well, in my video today I want to reveal a technique that the producers use that enables them to capture and keep our attention.

And the cool thing about this technique is that it’s something that you can use in your content and copy.

Watch the short video below to learn the technique that The Voice producers use so that you can begin using it today…

Attention-Getting Lessons from ‘The Voice’ TV Show (VIDEO)

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019

The Spoiler-Free, Attention-Getting Lessons We Can Learn from Avengers: Endgame (VIDEO)

IMPORTANT: There are none (zero, nada, zilch) spoilers of any kind in this post or in the video below. So if you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame yet, you have nothing to worry about.

Previous Videos in This Series on Attention

If you haven’t seen my other two videos in this series, then you can check them out here:

The Avengers: Endgame is the end of a wave of attention that started with the first Iron man movie.

Now, with those things out of the way, let’s get to today’s post…

Have You Been Paying Attention to the Attention-Getting Lessons We Can Learn from Marvel?

As I talked about in my first video, the first lesson we must learn and the first thing we must do as direct response marketers or content marketers is to learn to how to gain people’s attention.

And whether you realize it or not, there are some lessons that we can learn from this final movie in this epic drama.

Powerful lessons that can help you to become much better at gaining people’s attention.

In this lesson, you will learn how Marvel has rewarded its audience with “Return on Attention,” which has resulted in their audience rewarded Marvel with greater and greater attention.

Learn these lessons in my latest video below…

The Spoiler-Free, Attention-Getting Lessons We Can Learn from Avengers: Endgame (VIDEO)

May 1, 2019May 1, 2019

What We Must Pay Attention to in Order to Get a Prospect’s Attention (VIDEO)

What We Must Pay Attention to in Order Get a Prospects Attention

In my last video, I told you that we need to make sure that anyone who pays attention to our marketing (i.e. pays us with their attention) is rewarded with “Return On Attention” (ROA).

If you missed that video, you can watch the short 3:32-minute video here: Make Sure Your Prospect Receives “Return on Attention” If You Want Them to KEEP Paying Attention.

Paying Attention In Order to Get Attention

If you really want to know the secret to getting your prospect’s attention, it starts with paying attention to certain things about them.

You must pay attention so you can uncover the things that will grab their attention.

If you start by paying attention to the right things, then you will have a much easier time getting your prospect’s attention.

Watch my video below to discover what things you be paying attention to…

What We Must Pay Attention to in Order Get a Prospect’s Attention (VIDEO)

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April 30, 2019April 30, 2019

Make Sure Your Prospect Receives “Return on Attention” If You Want Them to KEEP Paying Attention

Make Sure Your Prospect Receives a Return on Attention If You Want Them to Keep Paying Attention

Are You Making It Worth It For People to Pay Attention?

I was on a trip out of town yesterday and I wanted to share with you some quick thoughts about getting prospect’s to pay attention.

So I recorded a short video for you while I was stuck in traffic.

In order for any of our marketing efforts to work, we must first get people to pay attention.

It’s one of the most basic things that direct response marketers or content marketers need to do.

But I don’t think that most of us really think about what we’re asking people to do when we ask them to “pay attention.”

Because if we did, I think we’d realize the secret to not only getting them to pay attention once but also to pay attention to us AGAIN in the future.

In my video below, I reveal a way to think about getting people to pay attention that will help you to devise strategies that will make people want to keep paying attention to you/your marketing in the future.

And the when you figure out how to do this, you will move people from being just a prospect to becoming something much more valuable (to them and you.)

Watch my short video below and you’ll discover what I mean…

Make Sure Your Prospect Receives “Return on Attention” If You Want Them to KEEP Paying Attention (VIDEO)

Your LAST DAY to Get a Free Copy of My Book!

For a limited time, those who join in the month of April will get a FREE COPY of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks.

(It’s a book FILLED with stories. You will not only discovered powerful examples of content marketing from throughout history, you’ll also see how I use stories to draw people in.)

April 29, 2019April 29, 2019

This is Your Brain on Stories: What Happens to Your Prospect’s Brain When You Tell Stories

I hope you enjoyed my post last Friday called Direct Marketers Go Where Branders Fear to Tread- My Interview With “the World’s Greatest Copywriting Coach” (Video).

If you haven’t seen it yet, then make sure to check it out after you read this one.

The following post is from my website RecessionSolution.com. It originally appeared on October 25, 2016, but I feel it’s important to share it again here on my new site.

WHY? Because whether you’re a content marketer or a direct response marketer, you need to understand the power of stories to amplify any/all of our marketing efforts.

This post reveals the behind-the-scenes, neurological secret that reveals just why stories are so powerful.

This Is Your Brain on Stories

“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get into the office.”
– Robert Frost

(The image above shows activity in the brain when hearing stories http://gallantlab.org/huth2016/)

I’ve talked before about the reason why stories are so needed and so powerful when they are used in content marketing.

So I KNEW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that stories were powerful. I’ve seen the effect that they have on people!

But it wasn’t until I was listening to an episode of the “Freakonomics” the other day, that I knew the reason why this is true based on Neuroscience.

In other words, I suddenly understood what stories do inside our brains which, in turn, gave me the neurological reason why stories are so powerful.

Let me explain…

I was listening to a “Freakonomics” episode called This Is Your Brain on Podcasts yesterday and Stephen J. Dubner was interviewing a guy named Jack Gallant.

I found out that Jack Gallant is a professor at UC Berkeley who does research focused on Cognitive Neuroscience and Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience.

And it was during one of his research projects that he discovered what stories actually cause to happen within our brains.

The Study They Didn’t Have to Pay People to Be a Part Of

Gallantand his team decided to test people while they listened to The Moth Radio Hour. They chose this because normally laying in an MRI scanner is very boring because they just flash words at the person inside the machine.

This is not the way to get brain activity going! 🙂

But the stories they share on The Moth are much different than flashcards. The stories are very engaging and compelling. In other words, people can’t NOT pay attention to these stories!

In fact, people loved the stories so much that Gallant said that they didn’t even have to pay the test subjects like they usually do. It was the perfect way to test how the brain responds to stories.

The people in the MRI scanners listened to a couple hours of stories. As they did, Gallant and his team measured their brain activity by measuring the changes in blood flow and blood oxygen in different locations across the brain.

As they measured these things, Gallant and his team tried to figure out what information in the stories was creating the activity at the different locations in the brain.

And that’s when Gallant and his team found something they weren’t expecting.

Stories Light Up the Brain

Gallant said that stories didn’t really activate the normal auditory part of the cortex like they expected them to. Instead, stories activated a larger constellation of areas in the brain – areas that represent different aspects of meaning.

Listen to what Gallant says about it in his own words…

“…the one very surprising thing from this study is that semantic information, the meaning of the stories, is represented broadly across much of the brain. All of those various areas of the brain represent different aspects of semantic information, in these really complicated maps that are very, very rich but fairly consistent across different individuals.”
– Jack Gallant, Interviewed on Freakonomics episode This Is Your Brain on Podcasts

Why do stories do this? Read on and I’ll explain…

My Take on Why the Brain “Light Ups” on Stories

My “take” on what Gallant said about why our brains light up is this….

When we are hearing or listening to a story, our brain isn’t just listening to dry information:

It’s engaging with the stories.
It’s trying to comprehend what’s happening in the story.
It’s analyzing and calculating any numerical details in the story.
It’s connecting the details of the story with its past experience and knowledge.
It’s trying to anticipate what will happen next.
It’s seeing what you’re describing.
It’s feeling the emotions involved in the story

I’d say it simply like this: Your brain enters and experiences stories!

I’d say it simply like this: Your brain enters and experiences stories! Click To Tweet

Your brain can ignore dry facts. It passively takes in data and stats. But when you tell a story (if you tell it well), then the brain wakes up and plays along!

This is why stories are so powerful.
This is why you MUST use them in your content marketing.

How to Tell More Engaging Stories

If you want to learn more about how to tell stories that light up the mind, then check out my previous posts below:

3 Ways to Tap Into the Most Powerful Content Tool Ever Created – ContentMarketingInstitute.com

Have You Been Using the Most Powerful Content Marketing Tool Incorrectly? – MarketingInsiderGroup.com)

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If you would like to know more about this site and the new form of marketing that I’ve come up with, then check out my “Direct Response Content Marketing Manifesto.”

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The Direct Response Content Marketing Manifesto AD

April 26, 2019April 26, 2019

Marketing Lessons on Pricing from the “Try Guys” (VIDEO)

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of the videos from the “Try Guys,” who were formerly a part of Buzzfeed, but I find the ones where they try food at all different price levels very interesting.

Why? Because, even though the Try Guys didn’t intend this, it reveals that the same product can be priced at extremely different prices.

What’s the difference? It all has to do with:

The context in which you offer the product
The way you prepare the product
The ingredients or elements you use
How you present the product

Watch the video through the pricing lens and see what lessons you can learn about pricing from it…

$3 Sushi Vs. $250 Sushi

Some Additional Thoughts on Pricing

The point of showing this video isn’t to suggest that you should only or always price your products or services at the highest level you can.

The point is to remind you of some important things about price that you might not realize or have forgotten:

The price you have chosen for your product or service is much more elastic than you’ve assumed. That means your prices aren’t out of your control.
The price you have chosen for your product or service is impacting the kinds of customers that you are attracting. That means that your pricing is a part of your marketing!
If you’re marketing campaign isn’t making enough money to be profitable, you can probably raise your prices slightly without any negative consequences. In fact, you might be surprised and see positive results!

What Lessons Did You Learn About Pricing?

What prices did you learn about pricing from this video? I’d love to hear them. Comment below or contact me and let me know!

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April 23, 2019April 23, 2019

How You Create Marketing That Gives Hope Instead of Just Another Ad They Hate

Many people today hate most advertising and marketing that comes their way. Don’t believe me? Check out these headlines:

Millennials really hate advertising, study finds — here’s why (SF Gate)
New Data on Why People Hate Ads: Too Many, Too Intrusive, Too Creepy (Vieo Design)
New Study Highlights How Much People Dislike Digital Ads (Adweek)

(NOTE: If you click on any of the above headlines, it will open a new window.)

It sounds pretty hopeless for marketers and advertisers, huh?
But what if there was a way to create marketing that people don’t hate? What if there’s a way to create marketing makes people hopeful?

I think there is a way. And I will reveal it to you after I tell you this story that is an analogy for how to think of your marketing…

11,000 to 12,000 WWII Prisoners Escaped Thanks to Monopoly

You might not know this, but during WWII prisoners of war who were held by the Germans were allowed to actually receive care packages delivered by the Red Cross.

These packages were always carefully inspected by the Germans to make sure that the prisoners WEREN’T sent things that could help them escape.

But the British were STILL able to sneak silk maps, tiny compasses and metal files to their soldiers.

HOW were they able to pull this off?

The British hid the maps and compasses inside copies of the game MONOPOLY that they shipped to British prisoners.

And, because they had these maps and compasses, it’s estimated that somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 troops were able to escape captivity!

This reveals an important truth…

Important Truth: We’re All Lost Without a Map

Without a map or compass, it is very hard to know the right way to go. It’s easy to get lost or remain a prisoner.

This was true in the case of these prisoners, but it’s even more true for us in life in general.

If we want to have any hope of safely navigating through life and getting out of whatever trouble, problem, or pain we have, then we need a map and one that we know how to accurately read.

If we don’t have a map, then we needsomeone who can lead us in the right direction themselves.

Never forget that this is true of your prospects and customers. They’re all looking for a map or a guide!

If they see your marketing as a map to freedom from their problem, instead of an annoyance, then they will respond hopefully to it and not with hate.

Your Marketing Message Should Be a Map or Guide to Your Prospects and Customers

This leads to six important ways that you as a direct response marketer or content marketer can create marketing that brings hope:

BEFORE YOU CREATE YOUR MARKETING:

1. Before you create any marketing or take any of the other steps below, your desire must be to really help your prospects and customers. You must want to
really help them get unstuck and out of whatever mess they’re in.

2. Next, you must believe that the solution you’re offering through your marketing is the best (or one of the best) solutions or ways out.

AS YOU CREATE YOUR MARKETING, REMEMBER THESE THINGS:

3. Your marketing should speak to your prospects and customers with the understanding of where they’re currently at and in whatever way they’re stuck or trapped.

4. Your marketing must reach, or get to, your prospects and customers wherever they’re at. (In other words, they’re job is not to look for or find your marketing. It must find and reach them.)

5. The purpose of your marketing is to immediately communicate to your prospects and customers that you, your company, or your product or service, can show them the way out of the mess they’re in. (When they see your marketing, it should fill them with hope.)

6. The purpose of your marketing is to then communicate to your prospects and customers the steps they should take so that you, your company, or your product or service, can help them get out of the mess they’re in. (They should understand how you can help them and what to do to receive the help.)

Marketing That Brings Hope

If you remember this as you are creating your copy or content, then your prospects and customerswill feel hope when they see your marketing.

And that hope will lead them to take the steps to possess whatever you’re offering, which will lead to their “freedom” through whatever solution you’re marketing.

That’s much different than annoying people with another cold call, cold email, Linked pitch, or Facebook ad.

That’s how you create marketing that brings hope instead of hate.

Want Examples of How to Make of How to Create Marketing That Brings Hope?

As I was finishing this article and looking for some links to add to my opening section of examples of people hating ads, I came across an article that gives some great examples on how to create marketing that brings hope.

It’s a great article by Robert Overweg on TheNextWeb.com called We all hate advertising, but there’s an easy fix.

Click the article title above to see his great examples now.

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April 19, 2019April 19, 2019

The Old Blind Man & The Young Ad Writer: Marketing Lessons on Why Your Word Choice Matters

Today I want to share a modern fable.

It’s a fable that reminds us of the fact that it’s HOW you communicate your ideas in your content marketing or copy that will make all the difference in the effectiveness of your marketing.

Here’s the fable…

The Fable of the Old Blind Man & The Young Ad Writer

Once an old blind man was sitting at a busy street corner in the middle of rush-hour and begging for money. He had a cardboard sign and an empty tin cup.

On the sign, he’d written: “Blind – Please help.”
But no one was giving him any money.

That is until someone special came by.

You see, a young ad writer walked past the blind man and saw him with his sign and empty cup. He also saw all the people passing by without giving any money.

And that gave the young man an idea.

The ad writer took a thick marker from his pocket. He turned the cardboard sheet over and re-wrote the sign. He put it back next to the tin cup and then he was gone.

Immediately, things changed.
People began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man couldn’t understand what had happened. He finally asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

The stranger told him, “Your sign says, ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’”

The Moral of the Story: Words Matter

The moral of the story is that words matter.

It’s not just WHAT you say that influences how people respond to whatever you’re offering. It also has to do with HOW you say it.

This is true for content marketers and direct response marketers.
The content you create and the copy you write will succeed or fail based on HOW you present or say the information.

Check out these two quotes from advertising legends and you’ll see that what I am saying is not just my opinion…

“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.”
– David Ogilvy

“I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.”
– Leo Burnett

Whenever I am creating content or any other persuasive words, I always spend the majority of my time trying to figure out HOW I am going to express my ideas in the most intriguing and interesting way.

Today, I want to challenge you with this.

As you are working on your content or copy, remember this fable and let it inspire you to really take time to think about HOW you’re going to express your ideas.

And if you have been having a problem getting customers, clients, or patients, then take a look at your content and/or copy and see if you can improve how you’re expressing your ideas. Then see if that brings you better results!

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April 17, 2019April 17, 2019

What Content Marketers and Direct Marketers Can Learn from 8-Year-Old Boy Who Drove HIMSELF to Get a Cheeseburger

This post originally appeared on my website RecessionSolution.com on May 2, 2017.

I am reposting it here today because it contains a story that reveals an important lesson about the type of people we should target with our marketing if we want to see the maximum results.

Here is the post…

The Surprising Thing an 8-Year-Old Boy Did When He Really Wanted a Cheeseburger

mcdonalds Cheeseburger — *McDonald’s Cheeseburger – Photo from* https://www.mcdonalds.com/

It was 8 pm April 9, 2017, and a young boy in East Palestine, Ohio was really craving a cheeseburger from McDonald’s, so he decided to do something about it.

Instead of waking his sleeping parents and begging them to take him (who were asleep after a long day of playing with the kids outside), he decided to take matters into his own hands in the most unbelievable way.

He went online and looked up videos on YouTube on how to drive.

After he felt like he knew enough from watching the videos, he took action:

He stood on his tippy-toes and grabbed the van keys down from where they were hanging.
Then he got into the family van, with his 4-year-old sister in the passenger seat, and drove to McDonald’s!

And this is the amazing part of the story.

According to witnesses who saw the young boy driving, he must have been a fast learner!

The witnesses said that the boy followed all the rules of the road, stopped at all stoplights, and even kept within the speed limits – all within the mile and a half that he drove.

When the boy pulled up to the drive-through window with his piggy bank, the McDonald’s workers thought it was a prank. They thought that his parents were hiding in the back.

It wasn’t long until the police finally arrived at the McDonald’s, because they had received multiple calls from the people who saw the young boy driving.

The boy burst into tears when he found out that he had done something wrong and told the police officer that he just really wanted a cheeseburger! 🙂

A family friend who was eating at McDonald’s recognized the kids and called their grandparents.

The GOOD NEWS is this…

1. No charges were filed.

2. They got to eat a cheeseburger while waiting for their grandparents to pick them up! 🙂

THE Factor That Either Frustrates or Liberates Content Marketers and Direct Marketers

So what does this have to do with the factor that either frustrates or liberates content marketers and direct marketers?

Well, when I read this story, I realized that it reveals an important factor that effective content marketers and marketers understand that ineffective content marketers and marketers are unaware of.

Let me explain.

Who Would You Rather Market To?

Who do you think would be harder to market a McDonald’s cheeseburger to?

1. People who are like the 8-year-old boy in the story above and who would do anything to get a McDonald’s cheeseburger

2. People who don’t like McDonald’s cheeseburgers, but prefer In-N-Out cheeseburgers

3. People who are like my niece, who hates cheeseburgers of all kinds, because she hates the texture of ground beef

If you were on McDonald’s marketing team and you wanted to pick a group of people to market to, so that you could have the most success, then which one would you choose?

That’s a pretty easy choice, isn’t it? It’s group #1.

Why is it such an easy choice? Because you know that that group of people loves McDonald’s cheeseburgers. And the other groups? Well, not so much!

Well, THAT’S the factor that effective content marketers and content marketers take into account and that’s why they experience better results than ineffective content marketers and marketers.

They understand that one of the most important factors in effective marketing of any kind is doing everything you can to target the people who are most likely customers.

When you do that, then everything else becomes easier. (I didn’t say “easy,” just easier!)
When you do that, your results are much better. (I didn’t say that the results would be amazing, but they will be better.)

Effective content marketers and direct marketers know the importance of this factor to effective marketing.

They know how important it is because they understand… what marketing really is (and what it’s not) and what it can really do (and not do).

So before you work on your next content marketing or marketing piece, remember the little 8-year-old boy and remember to focus everything you do on getting your marketing message to the people in your market who are like him, when it comes to what you’re offering.

Sources: 8-year-old learns to drive on YouTube, heads to McDonald’s (USA Today) | Young driver gets help from YouTube (Weirton Daily Times)

April 16, 2019April 16, 2019

Peter Drucker: The Aim of Marketing (Marketing Quotes)

Peter Drucker quote on the aim of marketing

I love this quote from management guru, Peter Drucker, below.

It reminds me a lot of what I just talked about in our member’s only email newsletters “Synergy” that I sent out this morning.

It also goes really well with the ideas I shared in my article The Secret to Getting People to Buy (Buried in a Book Written by an Advertising Legend in 1927).

After writing about a similar idea in the above-mentioned post, writing that article in “Synergy,” and thinking about this quote, I’ve come to believe this more than ever before…

The marketers and companies who know and understand their customers the best will be able to create to most powerful and effective marketing and have the greatest success in their markets.

Copy and Paste Version of This Quote

If you’d like to copy and paste this quote, then here you go…

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
– Peter Drucker

What Are You Going to Do About This?

After thinking about the above quote for a while, take a look at your content marketing or direct response marketing and then really ask yourself:

How well do I know and understand our customers?
What are some ways that I can begin to know and understand them even more?

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April 12, 2019April 12, 2019

Prove It! (Our Problem with Trust and My Plans for This Site)

(DISCLAIMER: I just wrote this post quickly and wanted to post it quickly before I announced this site to the public. Please excuse any typos or errors! I will fix them later.)

I want to start by telling you a story about Austrian-born violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962).

I want to tell it to you because it’s a story that reveals two important things that I want you to understand:

The importance of proof in all marketing
My plan for this website

Fritz Kreisler: One of the Most Famous Classical Musicians in the World

According to Encyclopedia.com, he was one of the most famous classical musicians in the world during the first decade of the twentieth century.

Why was he so famous? Well, besides the fact that he had amazing skill at playing the violin, Encyclodpedia.com reveals this interesting reason…

“Kreisler led a long and colorful life, the substance of which he embellished still further through a consistent habit of exaggeration and storytelling.”

– Encyclopedia.com

I don’t know if this story that I came across below is one of those stories or not, but I think you will like it anyway…

The Day Fritz Kreisler Robbed Himself

One day violist Fritz Kreisler, just an hour before getting ready to set sail to give a concert in London, decided to wander into a music shop.

He didn’t realize it at the time, but he would soon regret that decision. Why?

Because the proprietor of the shop stopped him and asked if he could look at the violin Kreisler was carrying.

After Fritz let him, he quickly vanished and returned with two policemen.

Immediately, one of the policemen told Fritz, “You are under arrest.”
Fritz responded, “What for?”
The officer said, “Because you have Fritz Kreisler’s violin.”
Totally caught off guard, Fritz said, “I am Fritz Kreisler.”

But the policeman didn’t believe him, so he said, “You can’t pull that on us. Come along to the station.”

Fritz didn’t have time for this. His boat was sailing soon! There wasn’t time for drawn-out explanations.

So Fritz quickly came up with a solution.

He asked the officer if he could have his violin for a second and then quickly began playing a piece he was well known for.

He stopped and the looked at the police officers and the shop owner and asked them, “Are you satisfied now?”

They were! The quickly apologized and let him go!

The Reason Our Marketing Is Failing?

You might not realize it, but many of us who are involved in marketing in any way have the same problem that Fritz Kreisler faced that day. People don’t believe us!

An article on The Atlantic.com called, “Trust Is Collapsing in America,” by Uri Friedman, reveals what we’re up against…

“Only a third of Americans now trust their government ‘to do what is right’—a decline of 14 percentage points from last year, according to a new report by the communications marketing firm Edelman. Forty-two percent trust the media, relative to 47 percent a year ago. Trust in business and non-governmental organizations, while somewhat higher than trust in government and the media, decreased by 10 and nine percentage points, respectively. Edelman, which for 18 years has been asking people around the world about their level of trust in various institutions, has never before recorded such steep drops in trust in the United States.”

– Uri Friedman, TheAtlantic.com

Whether we’re creating content marketing or direct marketing, we always have to remember that people don’t trust us – or anyone.

What can we do about this? We have to “overwhelm them.

The Importance of Proof in All Marketing

In all of the marketing we do, we must remember that all of our strategies, ideas, or techniques will fall flat, if we don’t make sure to provide proof.

How much proof? Marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, says this

“The battle for trust in decidedly un-trusting times, to be secured from anxious, skeptical, suspicious, worried and mistrustful prospects, is best waged with overwhelming proof.” – Dan Kennedy in No B.S. Trust-Based Marketing

So before you release your next piece of content or copy, you need to ask yourself, “Have I provided an overwhelming amount of proof?”

How do we provide proof? Let me answer that by showing you what I am going to do on this site…

My Plan for This Website

Because I understand this problem with trust and the need for proof, I know that in order to prove to you that “direct response content marketing” can be a game changer for you or your business, then I am going to need to prove it.

Don’t worry. I plan to do just that.

In order to do that, I am going to use four elements of proof.

Evidence and Examples– As I did with my “21 Type of Content We Crave” and my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks, I will show you evidence of the existence of direct response content marketing and the use of it throughout history.
Testimonies – I will quote and interview people who can tell you the powerful results that they experienced when they combined the incredible powers of direct response marketing and content marketing together.
Demonstration – I will demonstrate direct response content marketing through the things I do on this site itself and through other channels.
Results – I will present to you results that prove that direct response content marketing works. I will do that through the results I produce for myself and others. (*If you would like for me to use you and/or your company as a future case study, by producing results for you – risk free – then let me know.)

Your Invitation: Prove It Yourself

But I don’t want to attempt to prove all of this alone. I want to invite you to join me in this journey.

Don’t just watch me go on this ride. Jump on with me!

P.S. The first 100 people who become members get a free, PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks. (It doesn’t cost you anything to become a member.)

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019

The Secret to Getting People to Buy (Buried in a Book Written by an Advertising Legend in 1927)

Marketers in general, whether content marketers or direct marketers, sometimes believe a commonly accepted lie about what their marketing can accomplish.

They mistakenly believe that if they get their marketing just right, then people will be helpless to resist their incredible offers.

Yeah, that’s never gonna happen.
(And that’s a good thing! We shouldn’t want our marketing to hypnotize people and “force” them to buy!)

And that’ not just my opinion.

A little-known advertising legend named Theodore F. MacManus (1872–1940) said the same thing.

(Who is he? He was a copywriter who revolutionized advertising with his work on advertisements for luxury cars by General Motors which included Cadillacs.)

Listen to what MacManus said in his book from 1927…

“The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus

The False Assumption About Marketing

Here’s what he said about this commonly believed lie…

“This sounds as though the buyer were a helpless factor in the situation—that he must respond when subjected to certain influences in certain volume with a certain degree of skill and persistency. The word “must” does not apply. The buyer is always a free agent. He can refuse. “
-“The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus

How DO You Create Marketing That Influences People?

So, how can content marketers and direct marketers create marketing that influences (or at least encourages) people to buy?

The Real Secret

MacManus goes on to reveal the secret in that same book. He says…

“He buys because he wants to buy, and he wants to buy because his ‘want’ has been catered to in such volume and in such force that he has no disposition to refuse.”
– “The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus

The Place Where Powerful Content Marketing and Direct Marketing STARTS

That means that if we want to create marketing that gets people to buy, then
the place we need to start is with our prospects wants, not with our wants or the wants of the company we’re creating our marketing for.

Once we start at that place, we need to create content marketing or direct marketing that speaks and “caters” to their wants “in such volume” and in “such force” that they will fully understand how the thing we’re offering gives them what they want.

That’s when they will, in MacManus’ words, “have no disposition to refuse.”
It WON’T be because they’re helpless. I won’t be because they can’t resist.

The will respond simply because they want to… because you showed them that what you were offering them actually satisfied their wants/desires.

That’s the secret of getting people to buy.
It worked 92 years ago and it still works today!

April 10, 2019April 12, 2019

3 Important Lessons from McDonald’s on How to Create Attractive Offers (VIDEO)

Lessons from McDonals on How to Create Attractive Offers

A Crucial Skill Every Marketer and Company Must Possess

The ability to create attractive offers is a crucial skill for any marketer and/or company.

This video will reveal three lessons that you can learn from McDonald’s and begin using right away.

Why McD’s? Because they know how to create attractive offers that keep people coming back again and again.

3 Important Lessons from McDonald’s on How to Create Attractive Offers

In this video, I share three important lessons that we can learn from two current, limited time items on their menu right now.

(I also share what an offer is and how it is different from whatever product or service that is being sold.)

IMPORTANT: The best way to watch the video below is to watch it in full-screen mode.

Feel Free to Embed this Video on Your Site and Share It

If you are looking for content to share on your website, and like this video, then you are welcome to share it on your website.

Here is the code you can use to embed it on your site…

<iframe width=1280 height=720 frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://screencast-o-matic.com/embed?sc=cqf6naZIK1&v=5&ff=1" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>

April 9, 2019April 9, 2019

Old Fable Reveals Error You’re Making and Reason Your Content Marketing or Direct Marketing is Falling Short

Do You Make This Error That Some Content Marketers and Direct Marketers Make?

Today’s post was inspired by some things that I talked about in two recent posts.

The inspiration came to me after thinking about the first step that I talked about in our post THE 5-STEP CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY THE WORLD’S LARGEST HEALTH AND WELLNESS MEDIA COMPANY USES.

And it came from thinking about what we learned the skillful content marketer or copywriter does in our post HOW TO CREATE CONTENT AND COPY THAT SELLS (LESSONS FROM A FORGOTTEN BOOK FROM 1912) – PT. 1.

And when I thought about these things, I couldn’t help but think about an error that some are making.

And if I am honest, I make this error sometimes too.

As I thought about this error, I remembered a fable that I once heard that I think will help us to see the error of our ways and how to fix it.

An error limiting our marketing and the results that we see from it.

(*And if you don’t consider yourself a marketer, but you are trying to figure out how to get more customers, clients, patients, etc. from your marketing efforts, then keep reading. Because what you’re about to read will help you fix this problem.)

The Sharpshooter and the Royal Duke

Once a duke was hunting in the forest with his advisers, men-at-arms, and servants.

Suddenly he came across a tree that caught his attention. Why? It was because he noticed targets painted on it. But that wasn’t the shocking part.

What caused him to stop was the fact that right in the middle of each target was an arrow. When he saw this, he spontaneously yelled out, “Who is this incredibly fine archer? I have to find him!”

Not seeing anyone around, they continued through the forest for a few miles.

Until something stopped him again. This time he came upon a small boy carrying a bow and arrow. They began to question the boy to see if he was the amazing sharpshooter.

At first, the boy pretended to not know what they were talking about. But eventually, the boy admitted that he was the person who shot the arrows in the center of all of the targets.

But the duke wasn’t sure if he could believe the boy or not.

“Are you sure you didn’t just walk up to the targets and hammer the arrows into the middle?” asked the duke suspiciously.

But the boy said, “No, my lord. I shot them from a hundred paces. I swear it by all that I hold holy!”

When the duke heard this, he was amazed and said, “That is truly astonishing!” And then he said something unbelievable to the little boy…

“I hereby admit you into my service!” The boy didn’t know what to do except to thank him over and over again.

But then the duke asked the boy if he could do him a favor.
He said to the boy, “You must tell me how you come to be such an outstanding shot.”

And that’s when the boy revealed his secret…

“Well“, said the boy, “first I fire the arrow at the tree, and then I paint the target around it.”

Source: This story is a well-known fable, but this version of the story comes from the book “The Collapse of Chaos” by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart

What We Have in Common with That Boy

The error that some of us make, some of the time, is very similar to this boy.
We fire our marketing out there, and then after it hits, we try to draw a target around it.

Sometimes we get lucky and this method works.

But many times, the results of our marketing fall short of what we hoped for, dreamed of, and thought they would be. And if you think about it, how could they not?

We’re just firing our marketing out there and we’re having to settle for whatever target we hit and whatever results we get.

If you’re happy with the current target market you’re reaching and/or satisfied with the results you’re getting, then stick to your current strategy.

But if the people that you’re reaching aren’t the best for you, your company, or the company you’re creating marketing for, then you need to decide on your target first.

And then you need to create all of your content and your marketing with that target in mind.

When you do that, and continue to test, tweak, and improve your aim, then you will get closer and closer to reaching/impacting that ideal target market and the results you will get will become more and more to your liking.

The First Step to All Effective Marketing

What I’ve been talking about here really goes along with something I teach my UC Berkeley Extension marketing students that I call “the first step to all effective marketing.”

I call it that because it’s the first place you need to start with any type of marketing that you use. If you don’t, then the results will always be less than you hope for and less than they could be.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can listen in to some of the lessons that I teach my students, then check out the links below.

Some Helpful Links for You

Here is a list of links that I mentioned in this post and also a link to an additional resource:

THE 5-STEP CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY THE WORLD’S LARGEST HEALTH AND WELLNESS MEDIA COMPANY USES

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT AND COPY THAT SELLS (LESSONS FROM A FORGOTTEN BOOK FROM 1912) – PT. 1

HOW I STUMBLED INTO MARKETING (AND THE MARKETING LESSONS YOU CAN LEARN FROM IT)

“A Different Way to Think of Marketing” Audio Recordings

Target Marketing Magazine (A website that’s all about targeting!)

Affiliate Link Disclaimer

NOTE: This site uses affiliate links to Amazon. If you click on a link and are taken to their website, we might make a small commission. But we only link to or recommend products or services that we like and think are actually good and helpful! The commission is not worth it to recommend books or products we don’t believe in.

April 4, 2019September 1, 2019

Leo Burnett: The Greatest Dangers of Advertising (Marketing Quotes)

Leo Burnett: Legendary Ad Man

Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett Company, Inc.

He is responsible for creating some of advertising’s most well-known characters and campaigns in the 20th century.

Here is a list of some of the characters and campaigns that he was responsible for:

Tony the Tiger
The Marlboro Man
The Maytag Repairman
United’s “Fly the Friendly Skies”
And Allstate’s “Good Hands”

Source: Wikipedia

Leo Burnett’s Quote on the Greatest Dangers of Advertising

He said something really interesting about what he considered the danger of advertising that I wanted you to see…
(The danger is probably not what you think it is.)

Copy and Paste Version of This Quote

If you’d like to copy and paste this quote, then here you go…

“The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself.”

– Leo Burnett

Side Thought: Marketing Déjà vu

This quote reminds me of something that marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, says… “The greatest marketing sin is being boring.”

What Are You Going to Do About This?

After thinking about the above quote for a while, take a look at your content marketing or direct response marketing and then really ask yourself:

Am I (or Are we) neglecting this danger and committing this marketing sin?

Affiliate Link Disclaimer

April 3, 2019April 4, 2019

How I Stumbled into Marketing (and the Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from It)

Stumbling into Marketing

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I didn’t get into marketing the typical way that many marketers have. I didn’t walk through the front door. Instead, I sort of slipped in through a side door.

What do I mean? What I mean is this…

I didn’t originally plan (or even want) to be a marketer.
I didn’t even really know (or care about) what marketing was.

Instead, I stumbled into marketing accidentally.

You see, I was trying to figure out a solution to getting traffic to a website that I had started in the late ’90s and I realized that in order to get more traffic, I needed to understand marketing.

So I began looking into what marketing was and how to do it effectively.

And that initial pursuit to understand marketing and figure out how to do it has led me on a journey I never planned or expected to take.

My Unexpected and Unbelievable Journey in the Marketing Arena

In spite of that fact that I stumbled into marketing, when I discovered what marketing really was and how it could help me personally to reach my goals, I decided to dive in head first.

And when I did that, my unexpected and unbelievable journey began.

Here are some of the things that I have happened to me along the way:

I ended up interviewing 38 top business, sales, and marketing experts for a book I put together.
I ended up being interviewed as a recession solution expert on a couple radio stations.
I became known in the content marketing arena.(I unintentionally used content marketing back in my earliest days of marketing, even before it had a name.)
I am the person behind the popular infographic called 21 Types of Content We Crave.
I have written for several top marketing websites. (Here links where you can see some of my posts and some of my other ones.)
I wrote a book called 51 Content Marketing Hacks which was nominated for Smallbiztrends.com’s 2016 “Small Business Book Awards.”
In 2016, I was listed as one of the “Top 25 Content Marketing Bloggers to Catch Up On.”
I am the person who discovered the oldest known examples of content marketing that are known to exist.
In 2017, I became a marketing professor for UC Berkeley Extension in Belmont and began teaching what I’ve learned about marketing over the last 20 years to the young marketing professionals who have taken my class.
And most recently, I came up with a new form of marketing that I call “direct response content marketing.”

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t jump from one success to another.

Not at all. Instead, I learned certain concepts, tried them, and then learned from the results.

Some of my efforts lead to great results.
Some of my efforts were faulty and led to failures.

But it didn’t matter, because whether the results were exciting or embarrassing, I took whatever happened and learned from it.

What I am trying to say is that my path hasn’t been a straight line. It was more like a zig-zagging path.

The 4 Marketing Lessons I’ve Learned That Can You to Better Market Yourself or Your Business

But the benefit of this path was that I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way. (You tend to learn more from failures and mistakes and I’ve had enough failures and made enough mistakes to learn many lessons.)

I’d like to let you listen in to my story as I told it to my UC Berkeley Extension marketing class recently (the audio is only 32:53 minutes).

And as you hear my story, I will reveal four marketing lessons that can help you to better market yourself in the marketplace and/or how to more effectively market your business.

I’ll show you:

Why being positioned well in the market is even more important than your marketing (and one way to do this)
How to increase the exposure of yourself, your ideas, your products, or your business to a larger audience than you reach now
How to present your ideas to the marketplace in a way that really resonates with people
Why changing the form or format of how you present yourself/ideas will change people’s response to you and your ideas

Testimonial from One of My Past Students

“I have never been involved in marketing before, but I took an ‘Intro to Marketing’ class with Scott Aughtmon at UC Berkeley Extension in Belmont and I really enjoyed it. I not only enjoyed Scott’s speaking style, materials, and quizzes, but it was really helpful for me to put together the required marketing plan for the class. It really helped me to be able to consolidate what I learned in the class. And the suggestions and feedback that Scott gave me while I was putting together my plan was like magic and worked great for me!”
– Ken Imai, Sr. Marketing Manager at Renesas Electronics America Inc.

**Ken Imai**
– Sr. Marketing Manager at Renesas Electronics America Inc.

Listen to My Story and Learn My Hard-Earned Marketing Lessons for FREE

I’d like to let you listen to my story and learn the lessons that I’ve learned from my successes and failures for free.

All you have to do is fill in your name and email address below and then hit “submit.”

Once you do, you’ll be able automatically sent a confirmation email.
Click that link and you’ll be sent an email with the URL and password where you can listen to my story and learn my lessons.

Sign-up below right now…

March 27, 2019April 1, 2019

This Rare Elmer Wheeler Movie “Selling the Sizzle” Will Improve Your Marketing (VIDEO)

This Rare Elmer Wheeler Movie "Selling the Sizzle" Will Improve Your Marketing (VIDEO). http://ht.ly/jiwT30ocMKq Click To Tweet

Who’s Elmer Wheeler and Who Cares?

Elmer Wheeler (1904-1968) was one of the pioneers of persuasion, best known for his advice “Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.”

It was 7 words are what make Elmer Wheeler very famous.

What did he mean by this saying? By saying this, Elmer Wheeler was expressing the importance of focusing on the emotional benefits of what you’re offering someone over the logical benefits.

By saying this, Elmer Wheeler was expressing the importance of focusing on the emotional benefits of what you're offering someone over the logical benefits. Click To Tweet

Well, I’ve got a special treat for you today.

I discovered a rare movie from 1952 in which Elmer shares some of his most powerful ideas.

P.S. Make sure to check out the rest of this post below the embedded video. If you do, you’ll discover his “5 Wheelerpoints” and you’ll learn how you can get a free copy of his book.

Elmer Wheeler Movie: “Selling the Sizzle” (VIDEO)

In this rare, powerful video from Periscope Film, Elmer Wheeler answers a question that he asks at the beginning of the movie, “What makes people buy?” (03:20)

Then he goes on to show you how to “sell the sizzle” to get yourself that job, that sale, etc.

WARNING: The movie definitely has some cheesy, NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT, 1950’s scenes, sound effects, and humor, but don’t let that keep you from watching it.

The powerful things that Elmer Wheeler shares in this video aren’t just important for salespeople. It will also be a huge help to both content marketers and direct response marketers.

(He also shows you how to use his principles in your own life.)

One thing you’ll appreciate in this move is that Elmer actually gives you examples of some successful (and unsuccessful) “signatures sizzles.”

He also takes the last part of the film (in an after scene part of the movie) and shows how to apply what he teaches in a real-world situation.

You can watch the video below…

The Five Wheelerpoints from the Book Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentences

In the movie above, Elmer shares his five “Wheelerpoints” that he was famous for.

And to make sure that you don’t miss them, I decided to share them with you below in the way that he presents them in his book Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentences.

(*You can download a FREE copy of this book in our Member’s Resource Area.)

1. DON’T SELL THE STEAK SELL THE SIZZLE!

“Its the sizzle that sells the steak and not the cow.

“Steers can’t take orders for their shank bones, but, when the waiter carries a sizzling steak across the restaurant, you hear, see, and smell that sizzle and buy!

“Find the sizzle in what you sell and you find success.”

2. “DON’T WRITE TELEGRAPH.”

“Learn how to speak telegraphically how to boil your words down.

“The more you concentrate sunbeams the deeper they burn. The finest steak in the world loses its sizzle if the waiter takes too long in delivering it.

“So learn the new art of verbal shorthand.”

3. “SAY IT WITH FLOWERS.”

“‘Happy returns of the day’ means much more when you say it with flowers.

“It’s as much what you do as what you say. So? fortify your words with gestures. Back up your sizzles with action. Synchronize them with showmanship.

“Say and do all in one motion.”

4. DON’T ASK IF ASK WHICH!

“Always give the other person a choice between something and something never between something and nothing.

“Be a good lawyer and ask leading questions. Ask ‘Why?’ or ‘Where?’ or ‘When?’ or ‘How?’ or ‘What?’ Not ‘if’ but ‘which!’

“Give others a choice between two things you want. You can’t lose on this principle.”

5. WATCH YOUR BARK!

“The little dog has only one word, and only one tail to wag; but the way he barks and the way he wags his tail convey his meaning.

“So watch your bark. The best sizzle in the world flops with a thud if your voice is flat.

“Your voice, remember, is the carrier of your message. How you say it is as important as what you say.”

Download Our Member’s Resource Area: Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentences

You can grab your copy for free in our Member’s Resource Arena.

Direct Response Content Marketing Members Resource 2019

Click here to become a member! It takes just a minute or two!

Learn More of Elmer Wheeler’s Story

If you would like to know more about Elmer Wheeler, you need to check out an old article about him in the April 16, 1938 issue of The New Yorker.

The article is called The Sizzle by John McNulty and it’s really interesting.
It contains details that I’ve never seen before about Wheeler.

You can read the article here.

Marketing Is No Different

The 10th Marketing Fundamental

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

An Unexpected Content Marketing & Copywriting Lesson from A Quiet Place II

The Neurological Reason Horror Films Work

Powerful Content Marketing & Copywriting Lessons from A Quiet Place II

How to Create Content or Copy That Powerfully Influences People

YOUR ERROR: You are telling people things that you want them to feel.

THE SOLUTION: Start showing people what you want them to feel through others’ stories.

YOUR SECRET WEAPON: Social Proof

Become a free DRCM member now!

Successful Content Marketers and Copywriters Think Like a Lawyer or Speaker

The Five Basic Objections and Obstacles Keeping You from Making a Sale

Important Disclaimer and Why I Hope Some of You Fail:

The 5 Obstacles All Successful Content (or Copy) Must Overcome

1. No Need

2. No Money

3. No Hurry

4. No Desire

5. No Trust

Greater Results Than the Competition

Share This Article and Become a Free Member

Become a free DRCM member now!

Ancient Technologies and Inventions You Never Knew Existed

Ancient Marketing Methods You Never Knew Existed

The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021

The First 7 Marketing Fundamentals:

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

Are You a DRCM Member Yet?

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

Some Interesting Facts About Average Word Usage

The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021

*Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series*

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals:

5 Important Facts to Understand About the 7th Marketing Fundamental

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 (INFOGRAPHIC)

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Infographic

Share this Image On Your Site

Are You a DRCM Member Yet?

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

Famous Indy Race Car Driver’s Surprising Success Secret

Bill’s Advice Applies to Business Success Too

Why I Stopped Posting for a Few Weeks

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Infographic

Share this Image On Your Site

The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 – Text Version

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

What is Clubhouse?

How Clubhouse Describes Their App in the Apple App Store

Which One of the 9 Elements of a Powerful Offer Did Clubhouse Use?

My Clubhouse Confession

The 7th Marketing Fundamental Might Be Delayed

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

Your Offer is the Incentive to Take Action

Something to Gain and Something to Lose

The Two Important Emotional Elements of an Irresistible Offer

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

3 Important Lessons from McDonald’s on How to Create Attractive Offers

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

The Dream That Led to the Discovery of the Periodic Table

What the Periodic Table Enables Chemistry Students to Do

Use These 9 Elements to Create a Powerful Offer

Two Final Thoughts About These Elements of a Powerful Offer

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

*Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series*

The First 5 Marketing Fundamentals:

The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

What Is an Offer?

How Avon Was Accidentally Started

Take a Look at Your Business Through the Lens of Offers

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live

The Amazing Discovery

Dawn/Procter & Gamble’s Surprising Response

The Decision That Changed Everything

3 Lessons on Targeting Your “Who” from Dawn Dish Soap

Next Week: The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021

Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series

Missed My Recent Articles?

YOUR ERROR: **You are telling people things that you want them to feel.**

THE SOLUTION: **Start showing people what you want them to feel through others’ stories.**

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series

Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series