Testimonial about "How Your Business Can Survive & Prosper In A Recession" Vol. #1 - Jay Conrad Levinson Best-selling author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books
Want To Learn How To Create Better Content?
Welcome. I have 21 years of experience in creating content on a regular basis, so I know it’s much easier for me to create content than it is for you. I realize that I know methods that you don’t. I know techniques for how to present my content that you don’t know.
Because of that fact, I want to teach you what I know. That way you can have a head start on creating compelling, engaging content.
If you are interested in this, I’d like to send you some free lessons, which are excerpts from my upcoming e-course.
These free lessons will teach you:
Read my most recent posts below...
Read MoreI once heard a story about a young salesman who had given the very best pitch that he had to a prospect, but despite all his effort, the prospect still didn’t make a purchase.
He went back to his office and told his boss that he didn’t get the sale.
Then he said to his boss “I guess it’s true that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
The boss responded quickly with a lesson that the salesman never forgot.
The boss said, “Your job is not to make them drink, your job is to make them thirsty.”
I think that most of us think of sales in this way.
I completely agree with the idea… up to a certain point.
You see, I’ve been thinking about this recently: What is easier to sell? Something that someone already wants? Or something that someone has to be convinced to buy?
I’d prefer to sell something that someone already wants.
That reminds me of lesson the late Direct Marketer, Gary Halbert, once gave to an audience.
He asked the group: “If you opened a hamburger stand, what advantage would you want to have?”
Someone would yell out, “The best hamburgers!”
Someone else would yell out, “The best location!”
Another would say, “The best prices!”
Gary would let them keep going for a while, watching the smug looks spread across the room, as each person became more and more convinced their answer was the best one.
Finally Gary would surprise them all by saying something to the effect, “Those are all good ideas, but I only want one advantage: a hungry crowd!”
I’d add one more condition that I’d want: A hungry crowd - with money!
Of course, you want to offer the best possible product or service.
Of course, you want a great location.
Of course, you want to have competitive prices.
Of course you want a great website, great content marketing, great SEO, great social media strategies, etc.
But if you don’t have a crowd of people, with money - who are hungry for what you’re offering - then you’re going to have a very difficult time getting any money.
All of the content you create must be designed to attract and help that hungry crowd with money.
Your products and services must meet the needs and/or desires that a crowd of people with money has.
Otherwise you’ll take a lot of action, and maybe see a lot of reactions, but you’ll never get any transactions.
And that will never lead to satisfaction!
(Don’t make me rhyme again!
)
I don’t know about you, but I am going to focus everything I do on this #1 priority!
P.S. If you are hungry to know how to create tasty content that can satisfy a hungry crowd, then consider purchasing the recording of my webinar below.
Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography
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Geico has never shied away from taking a risk when promoting their company.
(Quick trivia question – just for fun: What does GEICO stand for?
Government Employees Insurance Company.
Now you can see why they use their initials!
They have been providing auto insurance since 1936.)
Their latest risk is a bold content marketing move.
They decided to create a book by their spokesperson: The Gecko.
Check out this video about the book….
Just to be clear.
It’s not a joke.
They actually created a real book.
Click the link above to see it on Amazon.
It’s currently ranked #10,710 in Books. It’s ranked #19 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Parodies
That’s not bad for a gecko!
Well, actually the gecko didn’t really write the book and neither did GEICO.
The Martin Agency and more specifically Anne Marie Hite (the words) and Adam Stockton (the artwork) created the book for GEICO.
You can read their interview on AdWeek.com here.
Will they see direct sales from this type of content marketing?
I doubt it.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a dumb move on their part.
You need to remember that making sales today has a lot to do with two things:
1. Being liked
(See “Content Marketing Lessons From The Cake Boss“)
2. Being remembered
(See “Content Marketers: The True Art Of Memory Is Attention“)
If I asked you, “Name an auto insurance company,” I bet one of the first (if not one of the top 2-3 answers) you’d give would be, “GEICO.”
And putting out this book will help them achieve these two things at even higher levels.
It will make them stand out even more in people’s minds in the category they are trying to dominate: auto insurance.
The lesson to learn from GEICO is that being creative with your content marketing is very important.
With more and more companies using basic content marketing, your job is not just to create exceptional and engaging content.
It’s also important to be creative with the types of content you create.
Oh course, your primary goal is to make sales from your content marketing.
But your secondary goals should to be remembered and liked.
Think of creative content forms that help you to achieve those goals and you just might propel yourself beyond the other companies in your niche who are using basic content marketing.
What do you think about GEICO writing a book? What have you experience from getting creative with your content types?
Comment below or contact me and share your thoughts with me.
AFFILIATE LINK DISCLAIMER: I almost always uses affiliate links to Amazon, but I never mention a book simply for the commission. (It’s not big enough to be worth that.) I just think that Amazon might as well cover an occasional Starbucks drink for me in exchange for sending people to buy books from them!
**If it bothers you that the links above are affiliate links, then copy the title above and go to Amazon.com here. No commission will be given if you use the link in the previous sentence.
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I recently found a new reality show that I like. It’s called Comic Book Men.
Comic Book Men is a reality television series on AMC. It’s set at Kevin Smith’s comic book shop, called Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, which is located in Red Bank, New Jersey.
If you want to know what the show is like, it’s kind of like Pawn Stars for the comic book world. (Make sure you check out my previous content marketing lessons from Pawn Stars called Content Marketers: How To Exploit Patterns To Effortlessly Produce Powerful Content .)
Anyway, it was during one of the Comic Book Men episodes that I learned about He-Man’s content marketing secret.
First of all, for those who don’t know who He-man is, he was the main character of an animated series that was released in 1983. Here’s the intro to the show…
The Show’s Content Marketing Secret
I really liked that show when I was young and I never would have guessed this secret about the show.
The He-Man series was created solely to sell the action-figures.
You see, Mattel’s CEO Ray Wagner make a huge mistake.
He rejected the chance to produce action figures for Star Wars, because he didn’t want to pay the $750,000 license that was required upfront.
After the commercial success of the Star Wars trilogy and its related merchandise, Wagner realized his mistake.
Mattel tried and tried to bounce back from that mistake.
They tried to make their own successful toy-lines, but after several unsuccessful attempts they still couldn’t capture the public’s imagination or impact the toy market.
A guy named Roger Sweet, who was a lead designer working for Mattel’s Preliminary Design Department during most of the 1970s and 1980s, decided he would try to create the next hit action-figure.
Here is how Sweet describes it in his book Mastering the Universe: He-Man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-Dollar Idea…
“The only way I was going to have a chance to sell this [to Wagner] was to make three 3D models – big ones. I glued a Big Jim figure [from another Mattel toy line] into a battle action pose and I added a lot of clay to his body. I then had plaster casts made. These three prototypes, which I presented in late 1980, brought He-Man into existence. I simply explained that this was a powerful figure that could be taken anywhere and dropped into any context because he had a generic name: He-Man!”
He-Man was originally presented to Mattel executives in the form of a He-Man Trio: three three-dimensional prototype models depicting He-Man as a barbarian, a soldier and a spaceman.
Out of the three concepts, the barbarian version was chosen to be the basis of the toy-line.
From the very beginning, Mattel used content marketing to promote their He-Man action-figures.
They started out with mini-comics that were released with the first series of toys. Through this comic series they began to develop the storyline for the action figures.
Mattel must have realized that the Star Wars movies served as a powerful vehicle to promote the Star Wars toy-line, because it wasn’t long until they decided to come up with an animated series based on He-Man.
Mattel partnered with Filmation animation studio to make the series.
Filmation then conceived and developed the back-story for the He-Man figures.
Later Mattel and Filmation both went and pitched the idea to the ABC network.
But ABC wasn’t impressed. They turned them down.
The only way the series made it on the air in September 1983 was through barter syndication (a program distribution method in which the syndicator retains and sells a portion of the show’s advertising time.).
But the risk paid off for Mattel.
It became the first syndicated show to be based on a toy. The show was a huge success.
By 1984, it was seen on 120 U.S. stations and in more than 30 countries.
Not only was the series a success, but the sales of the toy-line exploded.
In 1986, at the its height of success, it was pulling in $400 million in profits from US sales alone.
The key thing that made the He-man toy-line a success compare to Mattel’s other failures was that it used content marketing to promote it.
Repetitive exposure is one of the keys of success for any business.
Content marketing is a great way for you to get this exposure while building the “know-like-trust” factor in your prospects.
Mattel knew that they had to create fun and imaginative content if they wanted kids to actually watch the show and in turn want to buy their toys.
Boring content is a waste of your time. No one will read it. You won’t get any exposure or sales from it.
But entertaining and helpful content will produce results – if you keep planting and watering those seeds.
Want proof?
Marcus Sheridan started River Pools and Spas in 2001.
He decided to post content that was helpful for his core audience. He just began to blog the answers to the questions he repeatedly received from prospects. Questions like: “How Much Do Inground Pools Cost? or “Which is Best: Fiberglass, Concrete, or Vinyl Liner?” (You can see the type of content he wrote here.)
How successful was this content?
His pool company grew to be one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Mattel didn’t try to create an animated series. Instead they partnered with Filmation.
You can do the same.
You can hire a freelance writer to create content for you.
You can go to a site like Writtent.com and hire one of their writers.
You can probably even find some local, free or low cost writers to create content for you in exchange for the exposure.
Content marketing can be very powerful force.
If it can help a toy company and a pool company, then it can help your company.
The key is in creating engaging content and using it correctly.
If you would like to learn how to create engaging content, then make sure to check out the “21 Types Of Content We Crave” webinar recording below.
Additionals Sources: Wikipedia (He-Man, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, and Mastering The Universe)
AFFILIATE LINK DISCLAIMER: I almost always uses affiliate links to Amazon, but I never mention a book simply for the commission. (It’s not big enough to be worth that.) I just think that Amazon might as well cover an occasional Starbucks drink for me in exchange for sending people to buy books from them!
**If it bothers you that the links above are affiliate links, then copy the title above and go to Amazon.com here. No commission will be given if you use the link in the previous sentence.
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If you haven’t seen this video yet, you need to take the six minutes and nineteen seconds to do that now.
Go ahead. Do it right now. I’ll wait.
You see? I told you it was worth it!
I didn’t want you to watch it to see them perform together. I did it, because it’s a powerful example of something that most of us are afraid to do: ask for something.
This video shows Billy Joel singing “New York State Of Mind” with Vanderbilt University student Michael Pollack.
It was filmed during “An Evening of Questions and Answers and a Little Bit of Music” at the university in January 2013.
During the “Question And Answers” portion Billy is standing there taking questions and Michael Pollack stands up to ask a question.
But it’s not just a simple, expected question.
He has the nerve to ask an audacious and bold question: ”Can I play ‘New York State Of Mind’ with you?“
And, after a half-second pause, Billy says simply, “Ok.”
Can you imagine the guts it took for Michael to ask Billy Joel if he could play that song with him?
I imagine he must have gone back and forth in his mind wondering, “Should I or shouldn’t I?”
But finally in the moment when he had the spotlight, Michael decided to go for it and ask BIG.
And the result? He received a moment that he will never forget - a moment that could change the trajectory of his life forever.
It is also a moment that is now being shared online and inspiring many others to ask bravely.
Most of us don’t do what Michael Pollack did. Not only do we not ask big, we don’t ask at ALL!
Look, sometimes waiting around and hoping, waiting, and expecting will produce results.
But USUALLY it doesn’t.
And if it does produce results, they’re usually NOT the results, answers, or permission we really wanted.
Sometimes the only way you will RECEIVE is if you ASK.
And sometimes if you’re brave enough to ask BIG, you’ll receive BIG!
What? You say you’re scared to ask? So am I!
What’s the worst thing that could happen if you ask?
You might not get what you asked for. But if you think about it, that’s not really any worse of a situation than the one you’d be in if you didn’t ask, right?
But what’s the best thing that could happen?
You might get not only what you wanted, but more than that.
You’ll get the courage to ask again for something bigger, for something more.
But wait. Don’t stop there.
What’s the worst thing that could happen if you DON’T ask?
The worst thing is that you will miss out on something you could have had or experienced – if you only would’ve asked!
Not receiving something that you never could have had anyway isn’t a big deal. But missing out on what you actually could have had seems to be a very sad result of being too afraid to ask!
Doesn’t it?
And do you realize that there is only one way you can actually know what you could have had or could have experienced?
Yep. You guessed it.
The only way to know is by asking!
You need to be ready like Michael Pollack was. He had practiced and prepared for that moment, so when he got what he asked for he was ready.
You might just get it. And not everything we want and desire is always what’s best for us.
Just because you’re told “No” once doesn’t mean you will be told “No” a second time… or even the FIFTEENTH time. Maybe you weren’t ready the last time. Maybe the stage wasn’t set for you. If what you’re asking for is really important and really worth it, then ask again and again and again!
This week I want to challenge you to have enough courage to ask for ONE thing you need, want, hope for, or expect. And for bonus points, make that thing a BIG THING!
Photo from BillyJoel.com
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Sorry you haven’t heard from me recently.
I have been juggling multiple projects and some paid content creation work, which didn’t leave me with very much time to create content for you.
You can see some posts I wrote during this time over at Writtent.com:
I would encourage you to take time and read some of the above posts. Why?
Some of the lessons I shared in those posts are such important lessons that I, myself, will be using them as the focus of my business in 2013.
Now that I have some time, I want to share with you an important content marketing lesson from a surprising content marketing experience I wasn’t expecting.
It answers the question that some of you might still be asking:
My sons have wanted a pet for a while and the hamster we got (aka “Tingoe”) wasn’t satisfying that craving.
So despite the fact that we haven’t had a cat in years, we decided to adopt a very friendly 8-week old kitten back in December.
We decided to name him “Toby”.
We’ve had him for three months now and he is a great cat.
He’s very patient with my two younger sons who seem to want to hold or harass him every five minutes.
And unlike many cats he’s very affectionate.
My family LOVES Toby. He’s brought a lot of happiness to our lives.
And that leads me to my surprising content marketing experience.
The other night I was up late and on my iPad.
I had found some old classic 80′s arcade game apps and I was playing them.
I looked over at Toby sitting on the couch next to me and I thought, “They have apps for everything. I wonder if they have a game app for cats?”
I searched ” game apps for cats” and up popped some games for cats from Purina, the maker of Friskies cat food.
I ended up downloading one called “Jitterbug“ and a few others.
But now I wondered, “Will a cat actually play and interact with an app?”
I started the game and showed it to Toby.
And to my surprise he actually attacked the bugs on the screen!
If you don’t believe me, you can see other cats playing the Jitterbug app in this short video for proof!
When you hear I downloaded an app for my cat, please don’t misunderstand.
I’m pretty basic when it comes to pets. I don’t go for all the “extras” that many pet owners do today.
When some pet store workers told me I should buy some expensive cat litter because it was supposed to be “less harmful for your cat if it accidentally eats some of it” I didn’t buy it.
I told them, “I’m old school. I’ve never bought special litter for my cats in the past and they were fine. If he eats it he’ll poop it out.”
But I did give in and ended up buying Toby some special (expensive) cat food that was supposed to be better for him than “regular store brands”.
He liked it at first.
But recently, he hasn’t seemed to care for it.
And today we finally finished off the bag.
Yep. You guessed it: Friskies.
Why?
I remembered the brand because of the app. I liked the brand because I liked their app.
And guess what happened when I got home?
I emptied out the rest of that expensive cat food that was just still sitting in Toby’s bowl and I poured in the Friskies.
I whistled and he came to check out the new food. And then he ate it up!
And being remembered, believe it or not, is a very important thing these days.
I remembered Friskies because of the app they created. That caused them to be at the forefront of my mind when I went to buy some new cat food.
That wouldn’t have happened from another commercial I ignored. But it did happen because of content marketing.
Purina has been very wise. They created a whole website with games for cats.
By providing content in the form of a game for my cat, they caught my attention and they caused me to like them.
They now reside on my iPad in the form of a game. I’ve liked them on Facebook. I’ve become a “follower“.
I have never particularly liked or disliked the Friskies brand in the past. I was ambivalent.
But the game (content marketing) made them become favorable to me. And now that Toby ate up their food I like them even more!
Liking and remembering your business are two of the most important keys to success today.
If people don’t like your business, or they don’t remember it, then your business is dead in the water.
Any old content won’t make you likable or memorable.
But good, creative, fun, and helpful content marketing is one of the best ways to become likable and memorable.
That is why you should use content marketing.
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You need to hear this story I came across. It’s a story that will teach you the three things you must know to succeed in business.
In New York in 2009, there was a Internet auction to sell a comic book.
Now that wouldn’t be anything special except for the amount that it sold for.
You see, at that point in time, the amount it sold for was one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book.
Why? Keep reading. You’re about to see why.
The winning bid was for the 1938 edition if Action Comics, which featured Superman lifting a car on its cover.
The winning bid was submitted by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down.
It was submitted to the auction site ComicConnect.com which ran the auction of this rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman.
You might not realize this, but besides being a musician, Dolmayan is a dealer of rare comic books.
This comic is so rare that they say that only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they hardly ever come up for sale.
The amount that was paid for the comic book shows just how valuable the issue was in the opinion of the buyer.
What I thought was ironic was that the guy who previously owned the comic book originally purchased it in a secondhand store in the early 1950s when he was only
9 years old.
And do you know how much he paid for it when he purchased it?
He paid 35 cents.
And do you know what the winning bid for his comic was? $317,000!!
Can you imagine paying 35 cents for something that you can later sell for $317,000!?!
There is something about these types of stories that really appeal to many of us.
In fact, I think this type of story appeals to us so much that it’s the underlying basis for many of the top reality shows on TV these days.
Think about the common theme in these shows: American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Property Wars, Storage Wars, Antiques Roadshow…
These shows all have 2 common underlying themes.
They’re about:
There is also a common bidding element on most of these shows.
Once the item is found bidding takes place before someone can get the treasure.
I’ve learned a lot about negotiating from watching these shows. But the key lessons I’ve learned are that to be successful in bidding and in auctions you must know two things:
Why am I telling you these things today?
I believe the same things that are required to succeed in these situations are the same things you must know to succeed in business.
There is something very important that separates very successful businesses from those that continue to struggle.
The successful businesses know how to create what I would call “rarity” so the amount they get for their products and services is way beyond what other businesses can expect to receive.
It’s what sets Apple apart from the average computer company.
It’s what separates the Four Seasons from Motel 6.
1. Know what your product is worth – to you and your customer.
2. Know the amount you are willing to accept for payment and what you won’t.
3. Don’t sell average products. Sell treasures. Products and services that are rare. Products and services that people will gladly pay top dollar for.
This is the only way to increase the value of what you offer in the eyes of the buyer.
That is how you receive what you deserve (and more) for your products and services.
That is how you succeed instead of struggle in business.
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You create content, because you want it be consumed, right?
You want it to help others and to influence people, right?
Well, consider these two quotes before you sit down to create your next piece of content…
“The true art of memory is the art of attention.”
Samuel Johnson - English Poet, Critic and Writer. 1709-1784
Physician to patient: “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times–I do not treat amnesia cases!”
If we are going to succeed with content marketing, then we have to admit how the two above truths apply to our world today:
1. It is becoming more and more difficult to get people’s attention.
2. People have so much going on and so much information coming at them that they are forgetting much of it – even the things they want to remember!
That means that your content and/or your business is being continually ignored and forgotten.
I’ve been thinking more and more about the fact: being successful today is all about being paid attention to and being memorable.
My personal strategy this year is going to hinge on the concepts I wrote about in this post over at Writtent.com..
What are you going to do about this fact?
Photo by michi003
If you want to learn how to create unforgettable content,
so you can stand out in your prospects’ and customers’ minds,
then consider this resource…