Marketing

The Art of Listening

February 26, 2010

The other day in my post about the Future of Information Marketing, one of the commenters asked about some practical applications of how this idea (the one where you treat people like people) could look in reality. Here’s one idea: It’s a simple skill called LISTENING. For some reason, one of the most satisfying things [...]

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Banking is Broken

February 18, 2010

My wife hates banks. She doesn’t like them… She doesn’t trust them… And without asking, she is provided with a good reason not to use a bank over and over again. Earlier this week, she walked into her bank to deposit a check. In the middle of the deposit, the teller proceeded to ask her [...]

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How to Get Paid a Lot to Be a Musician

February 12, 2010

I used to be a church organist… At my last full-time church job, my salary topped out at about $31,000 per year. Not much in the way of material compensation for going to one of the best music schools in the country and winning a major organ competition when I was 19. I could have [...]

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7 Ways to Boost the Results of Your Next Promotion

February 11, 2010

1. Bundle. Don’t forget that people like value. The trick is, only the customer can define what that is. But for some odd reason, more usually seems better. It’s hard to communicate quality out of context… before the sale. Sure you can sell a book for $67 dollars, but in my experience, it’s much easier [...]

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The Fundamental Flaw with Membership Sites

February 10, 2010

I was on the phone last night talking to a good friend of mine and he asked me about whether or not he should put effort into growing and expanding his paid membership site. I said no. You hear a lot of hype about membership sites and other clubs etc. that produce continuity income. And [...]

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10 Things I Learned from Marketing Emails

February 9, 2010

For the past few years, I’ve subjected my poor little email address to the brunt of many a marketer’s promotions. Product launches, coaching clubs, limited time discounts, once in a lifetime specials. Bleh. As of yesterday, almost all the noise is gone. If I missed any, it won’t be long till those are zapped too. [...]

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I’ve Never Eaten SPAM (But Does That Make It Evil?)

October 29, 2009

I’ve been doing some lead generation promotions recently with folks who are HUGE publishers. Businesses that are dealing with email lists in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands. They treat email marketing just a bit differently than your average joe online. Because when you sign-for their LIST… you’re really signing up for their LISTS. And [...]

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Price Testing Secrets of a 6 Year Old

July 16, 2009

My daughter is officially an entrepreneur. She’s 6 years old and she’s just gone into the art business. She’s selling her art on the internet and she’s selling it face to face when people come over to the house. I remember Michael Masterson talking about his friend who sold art. He had one “go to” [...]

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What to Do When Pay-Per-Click Doesn’t Cut It

July 7, 2009

I love the marketing business… It seems there are two outcomes. You either become wealthy, or you go crazy tryin’ You can take a strategy and apply it to one market and product and become a millionaire. Then you can take that very same strategy, apply it to a different market and product and fall [...]

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Finding Your Voice: an Example from J.S. Bach

July 2, 2009

About a week ago, Seth Godin had a short but powerful post on his blog titled, Find Your Voice. A really great post… I write about this idea quite often… since it’s something I’ve worked on a lot, both as a musician and a marketer. Before you find your voice, you spend your time doing [...]

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