Oh, they’re all 4 good
Customers put you into 1 of these 4: Essential (to live, or to feel happier) A treat (when you feel you deserve it) Optional (can always take it or leave it) Sure, definitely, but not right now There’s nothing wrong with any category. But thinking you’re in one category, when you’re in another, can get pretty frustrating […]
Oh, show me your box
Here’s why marketing is such an awesome and terrible profession. Everyone wants you to be in a box. You resist being put in a box. You don’t want to be 1-dimensional. (who does?) Everyone else wants you to be 1-dimensional so they can understand you (or your Busines, or your product), using the least amount of labor. And they have all the money. […]
Oh, like a switchboard
Note: This idea helped me a lot. I hope it helps you, too. It’s from an old, tiny book called The Art of Profitability that lists about two dozen concepts like this. It’s an easy read. In small-business marketing, a switchboard is a business who needs to find the same customers you do, but they’re not a competitor. So, a […]
Oh, just smile through it
In B2C you can be vulnerable. You can absolutely talk about your problems with weight gain: “I used to be big. When you’re big, people stop seeing you. They disrespect you. They act like words don’t hurt. They act like being hurtful doesn’t matter. They think you’ll never change. They’re wrong. In the […]
It’s 2024
Oh, it’s 2024? Since 2024 should be the most important year in marketing, ever, I’m going to send some emails over the next few weeks. I’ll make them the most useful ones in your inbox. Cheers, dean PS when you were a kid, did you realize you’d be an adult, and working, in the third decade of […]
I was laid off 5 times in 30 minutes
Years ago, when my manager called me on a Friday afternoon (never a good sign) I just knew I was being laid off. But this isn’t about being laid off. It’s about starting communications with the main point. Our Skype call (remember Skype?) kept dropping. So what should have been a rip-off-the-bandaid short session kept […]
People like us, for us
One way to show people that you understand them is to show how a part of their reality is broken. Over at Best Damn Webinar Co, they use a concept called The Gap to open every webinar they write. It grabs the audience’s attention, and keeps it through the following section, where the speaker introduces […]
What you want doesn’t matter, yet
Tech companies do this. You see it in healthcare, and engineering, and manufacturing and especially in consulting. Visit their homepage, and it’s the company telling you who they are and what they do (or what they sell). Hey, sorry, excuse me… Hi, I’m your reader. I’m still a stranger here. Why are you making ME […]
First, Say This To Them
Last week I did a closed session with the 4,000-member strong Fractionals United. Karina Mikhli has done an incredible job building that community. The session was a tutorial about how to create a HOOK. (That’s a headline or first sentence that makes the reader want closure through knowledge). And I let everyone in on the […]