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Archive for September, 2010

The Power Of Titles

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 30th, 2010 5 Comments

In high school, I was in a play ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’. I thought it was about character. Turns out it was the guy’s name. Anyway, mail-order veteran Melvin Powers once told me the most important thing about a book is – the title.

Some titles are so powerful you can get something just by looking at them even if you never read the book. Think And Grow Rich. Magic Of Thinking Big. Tony Rubleski’s book: Mind-Capture Advertising. You say, well, that’s right, I need to think! I need to think bigger! I need to advertise in a way that captures their attention and interest.

Some titles brilliantly convey the much desired promises of speed and simplicity. One-Minute Manager. (Wanda Sykes said she’d dated the author of another book in that series: One-Minute Lover).
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Marketing Prediction for 2011: Call to Action Strategy

By: Brian Horn on: September 29th, 2010 1 Comment

After the headline, the call to action is the most important element of successful copywriting.

The “new” call to action strategy for 2011 actually harkens back to best practices from the past century: make your message good, stress benefits, and keep branding in sight at all times.

Craft convincing marketing messages. Every part of the sales message can be a subtle call to action, leading inexorably to the click or purchase. There’s no need to hide the call to action or trick prospects; simply make it clear that yours is the only product or service the customer needs.

Stop over using exclamation points, flashing type, and all excessive caps to catch the prospect’s attention. By all means, use some to keep the prospect reading and make the sales message visually interesting, but dont’ over do it.
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Some Great Quotes

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 28th, 2010 4 Comments

Here are two country-western song titles I heard in a backstage conversation at a SUCCESS event with Johnny Cash, Colin Powell, a couple staffers and me. I don’t know if they’re real or not. The first a true Hallmark sentiment, the second an ode to the conflicted emotions of a commitment phobic.

If My Nose Was Full Of Nickels,
I’d Blow It All On You

I Don’t Know Whether To Marry You
Or Go Bowling

As a very brief practical note, you gotta admit, they’d get attention as headlines.
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Do It Now Not Someday

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 27th, 2010 3 Comments

Will the size of your funeral be determined by the weather?

Founder of NSA, a friend, the late Cavett Robert used to say that the size of your funeral will be determined by the weather. I’m embarrassed to admit, I missed his.

More importantly, I did not find time to visit him in any of his last years. Here are two separate thoughts about President Reagan and his funeral:

One, I wonder how many people were at the Reagan funeral who hadn’t bothered or ‘hadn’t had time’ to communicate with Nancy once in the prior year, two years, three years?

I’m not talking about the nearly 200,000 ‘regular folks’ who came to pay respects; I mean people the Reagans knew and who knew them, people he worked with, helped. I’ll bet, a bunch.

Funny how a death gets people to do things they had no time for when the deceased was still alive.
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Secret To Maximum Achievement So Simple It’s Almost Embarrassing To Talk About

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 24th, 2010 3 Comments

In a program on investing, 7 STEPS TO 7 FIGURES, which I have sent to my Wealth Group in the past, its author makes this statement: it’s not the stocks you pick that make you rich, it’s that you choose to invest in stocks.

This premise is correct for long-term, blue chip stock investors. But it contains a much bigger ’secret.’

In abbreviated form, here it is: it’s not the specific actions you take that make you rich as much as it is that you take a lot of actions.

One day, while doing my private coaching calls for 48 Gold/VIP and Platinum+ members; I was struck by several of my conversations.
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Can It Be Done?

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 23rd, 2010 2 Comments

In my previous post, I talked about your goals and hitting your targets. Now I want to talk about making fundamental choices in life.

Who Can Carry The Message To Garcia?

Hopefully, you’ve read and are familiar with the ‘message to Garcia’ story, a classic. If not, I’ve reprinted here.

There’s a profound shortage of such people. Few “get it”.

You remember the last episode of Trump’s first season, Quame vs. Bill – if the situations had been reversed, Bill at the casino, Quame at the golf tournament; sign lost at the tournament; would you have seen Quame headfirst into a dumpster finding that sign? No. And that’s why the right guy of those two won.
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Make Like Customers and Get Mobile

By: Brian Horn on: September 22nd, 2010 3 Comments

I just got back from Ryan Deiss’s Traffic & Conversion Summit in Austin. It was an awesome event…seriously…the guy puts on the best events in all of internet marketing.
 
I spoke about SEO to the crowd of 600..and heard a few guest speakers that are leaders in other areas of internet marketing.
 
One topic really stood out…the crowd was going nuts about mobile marketing.

This lucrative method of spreading your brand amongst the masses is advantageous for numerous reasons.
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Are You Playing Blind Archery?

By: Brian Horn on: September 21st, 2010 1 Comment

In yesterday’s post I talked about how to adapt and find a market for anything. I want to change gears now and talk about your goals. First you have to think like …

Today Is The First Day
Of The Rest Of Your Life

…unless you live on the other side of the international dateline, in which case yesterday is the first day of the rest of your life.

Might be a good time to take stock. Are you at least 50% of the way to achieving each goal you set for yourself for the year? If not, why not? How much is the deficit? What can be done – fast – to get up to speed?
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A Market For Anything

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 20th, 2010 3 Comments

Once upon a time….

There were only BASEBALL trading cards. Somebody thought: why not football? Basketball? Soccer? World Wrestling Federation? Somebody else thought: naked women. Famous criminals.

Only BANKS had drive-in windows. Then restaurants. Dry cleaners. The sports betting operation at the Imperial Palace. Liquor stores. Wedding chapels. Why not drive-up instant tax refunds? Drive-up confessionals?

There was the BOOK of the month club. Then fruit, cheese, wine, steaks, low carb meal samplers. Records, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD’s. Cosmetics. Lingerie. Why not a “themed night out of the month’ promoted by a local restaurant?
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Start Bearing Good News

By: Dan Kennedy on: September 17th, 2010 6 Comments

I have frequently suggested that it is incumbent on you to be shouting good news, to constantly tell your clientele that things are good, business is great, this is the time to be happy, optimistic, aggressive, to buy, buy, buy.

I have told you, find the news items buried on page 48C about how good the economy is and quote them in communications with your customers. Make good economic news part of your marketing message.

But I have just plowed through over 100 critiques. I have reviewed over 20 newsletters sent by niche “gurus” to members of their industries, over 30 “customer newsletters” put out by real estate agents, dog groomers, dentists, you-name-its.

Not one, not one has included news about how robust and thriving the economy is. Not one.
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