Who Do You Work For?
As a development manager for a real-estate project I consult with, SB takes direction from three people: a profit-center manager, a project manager, and me. Most of the time, our advice and recommendations work together. Sometimes, however, we disagree. And when we do, it throws SB into a frenzy. SB…
READ MORESummarizing Is Death
In all forms of expression, summarizing is lethal. But that’s what many copywriters do. At the end of a sales letter, they methodically recount all the important points they just made. What happens is that the energy of the copy is dissipated, the blood drained off. A much better approach…
READ MOREWhat Is the Tipping Point for Online Success?
KJ, like many of my subscribers these days, wants to get into Internet marketing. But she feels frustrated and unable to move forward. “Where should I begin?” KJ asked in her e-mail. “What was your tipping point to online success?” My answer: “The tipping point in Internet marketing success is…
READ MOREA Word To Use Next Time You Get a Chance
I learned a lovely word today: MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an irrelevant interest grabber — a story whose purpose is to draw attention to itself and away from something else. It comes from a plot device invented by Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from a shaggy-dog story that goes something…
READ MOREMy Heart Went Out to Her… and Then Came Back!
Profiled in The Wall Street Journal the other day: A single mother, hit hard by the recession. She can barely keep a roof over her family’s head. Her salary was cut by 60 percent. And buying even the basics is a struggle. A story we’ve heard again and again. “How…
READ MOREA Concatenation of Confusables
In my reading, I frequently encounter misused and confused words. Here are five recent sightings, most from major newspapers: “Anyone who passes even feint praise on anything containing Adam Sandler…” The writer means faint praise — not very much. A feint is a deceptive or diversionary action.
READ MOREThe Truth About Happiness
We seek it here, we seek it there. We seek happiness everywhere. Yet it eludes us. All of our activities — our pursuit of fame and fortune, our quest for meaningful relationships, our drive to build or change things — are directed searches for this ephemeral state. We get there, but…
READ MOREMake a Strong Impression by Being Last
When you are going to be interviewed for a job, try to be the last one they see. Studies show, and my experience confirms, that the people who do best in multiple interviews are those who are first or last. And that’s regardless of how good they actually are.
READ MOREI Blinded Them With Science
Our sales were hurting. Every one of our distributors was selling three to five times more of our competitor’s cheaper, inferior air ionizers than ours. It seemed that consumers decided at the shelf that all ionizers are pretty much the same. So why should they spend 67 percent more on…
READ MOREMarketing Tip: The “Eureka” Moment
When writing or reviewing long marketing copy, you’ve got to get to the point where you find yourself thinking, “Yes! This is good! This is really, really good!” I call it the Eureka Moment.
READ MOREWhat’s More Important in Marketing?
Products — the most successful products — meet urgent needs and solve important problems. But what solves today’s problem won’t necessarily solve tomorrow’s. We must constantly refine and reinvent to make our products “new.”
READ MOREKnowledge and Action
I’ve been starting businesses for 30 years. And after taking a look at those that failed right away, those that lingered and then failed, those that puttered along, and those that soared, I have come to the conclusion that to be successful, you need a “ready-fire-aim” approach.
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