My “professor of harsh reality,” Dan Kennedy, was a great teacher of marketing techniques when I was an up-and-coming Marketing Maniac.
Most people can learn most of the marketing techniques they really need to know in a few years.
The reason I still hang out in Planet Dan after 12 years is because Dan is also a great business philosopher.
Some Dan-isms that have deeply affected my own thinking about money, wealth and prosperity:
A student asks:
“How can one get experience with ppc campaigns, in order to help real brick-and-mortar companies afterward, if you don’t have your own product to promote? I already have the knowledge about Adwords, but i need where to apply it.”
“WANTED: Slightly obsessive ADHD person with 2-5 years experience in as many of the following fields as possible: Alchemy, Multi-Tasking, Creative Writing, Strategic Planning, Project Management, Salesmanship, Website Design, Pay Per Click Advertising, Direct Marketing, Quality Control, Purchasing, Product Development, Management of Psychotic People, and Herding of Cats. Apply between 10:30 pm and 2:30 am any weeknight….”
As best I can guess, that’s pretty much YOUR job description right now, as it would appear in a classified ad.
Right?
Only an entrepreneur would be crazy enough to apply for such a job.
Live teleseminar today. PG-13, at least, maybe R. Not for the squeamish. It’s this afternoon, Friday June 12 2009, at 2pm Central Time with Tom Hoobyar.
People are going through a lot of @#$% right now. Not just economically, but in all realms. The battle is real and it’s not for pussies. Tom is going to take the gloves off and share some things he’s never shared in public before.
It’s plenty gritty. Stories you’ll hear:
There are two aspects to marketing:
1) The Mechanics. Things like knowing how to build a pay-per-click campaign or a web page; knowing how to write copy; knowing how to research a market; knowing a market itself.
2) Alchemy. It’s the creativity, the thing that makes customers’ heads turn in joyful surprise, the ability to conjure up compelling offers, to take undervalued and seemingly unrelated things and combine them together.
People who understood “the mechanics” gave the world MP3 players.
People who understood “Alchemy” gave the world the iPod and the iPhone.
Notice how those products skillfully blend hardware, software, user experience, and even completely new services like iTunes (where you can pay three bucks and instantly watch a movie on your PC) to create something that’s irresistible.
I recorded a video where I talk about two of my most successful promotions and where they actually came from. Both of these had that alchemy element which is why they worked so beautifully.
The video is here on my blog:
Long ago alchemy was the bold, if naïve attempt to turn lead into gold.
Every day you and I do something that’s much, much more valuable than that. We transform things that are worth less than lead and make them MORE valuable than gold.
Fraternities are well known for “hazing” – forcing new recruits to endure grueling punishments and all manner of shameful behaviors before being accepted as members of the tribe.
“OK, you guys have to drink a pint of Vodka, spend 10 minutes on the merry-go-round, then run nekked from the park to the Frat House without getting arrested….”
Now, after a few months of work, he’d whittled down his cost per click, his margins were much fatter, and he was sittin’ pretty nice.
But he was still afraid of the throttle. Afraid to pour on the gas.
Finally after much urging, prodding and cajoling from us he did something SCARY. Something he’d never done before:
He doubled his bids.
His ad moved up from position 7 to position 3.
SUDDENLY: An AVALANCHE of traffic.
Most businesses are in retreat right now. When General Motors is wheezing like a dying animal, the natural instinct for all of us is to draw the shades and huddle around our kitchen table and be thankful for our one bowl of thin cold porridge.
But…. not everyone is in retreat. We just had our Roundtable meetings two weeks ago and at least four members achieved record sales during the last three months.
This is a GREAT time to press forward. The breadlines are longer but the competitive lineup is shorter. The competition is thinner, less adept, less alert. Click prices in some markets have gone down by half.
A few weeks ago one of my emails really HACKED OFF one of my customers.
He replied back:
Perry,
I’m fed up of receiving emails like these. Actually I’m fed up of being on lists like these. Actually, what I’m really fed up with is still needing to be on lists like these..
