Time Is The Great Validator
A “measure everything!” mentality eventually means nothing matters beyond making the cash register ring within 30 seconds of transmission.
Journalism and Great Ads
Never write ads like a journalist, write like a poet. The best ads build curiosity and engagement while leaving some things unanswered.
Pro Tip: Talk to Your Customers Like Friends
Most owners get this wrong in their preoccupation with delivering factual information. But buying decisions are almost never rational.
How Hot Wheels Beat Matchbox. When Imitation Becomes Innovation.
Why 10 Hot Wheels are sold every second. They saw what was lacking in the competition.
THE WIZARD (bi)WEEKLY
Twice a month we’ll send our best advice, no strings attached.
Let’s grow your business.
No spam. No nonsense.
Can You Be Replaced? Why Succession Planning Matters Now
If someone did the administrating, could you find a better use of your time to increase the company’s value?
Beefsteak and T-Bone
Brands can manufacture a nickname or shorthand that sticks through smart placement. But don’t approach it like George Costanza.
Brands Are Small Things — And That’s a Good Thing!
If your ads can be ignored, they will be. Which is a good thing. If your ads are high-impact and your competitors’ aren’t: you win.
She took a gamble and bet on girls. How Barbie defied expectations and won.
Focus group mothers literally would say, “Is this a gift for my daughter or for my husband?”
Partner Book of the Month
Latest Monday Morning Memo
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Ad Fraud: How Much of Today’s Internet Is Fake?
According to one study, 20% of ad impressions served programmatically were fraudulent. And that number is growing.
Your Best Defense Against Employee Turnover: Development
A 90-minute conversation changed everything. A mass exodus was averted and a $2.8M home services company grew to $5.2M.
Search Engines Don’t Pay You, Only Customers Do.
You don’t just need a marketing strategy that attracts traffic, you need the right kind of traffic.
The Two Universal Appeals — Understanding the “Cult” of Cult Branding
1. You are special. 2. It’s not your fault. What is your advertising doing to communicate those appeals to your prospects?
The Birth of the Rubik’s Cube: A Tale of Unexpected Opportunity
Erno created it to visualize 3D space, but people just wanted to solve a puzzle. The magic was in the pivot.
The Importance of Defining Your Business Narrative
You ask, “If we do not physically interact with our customers before doing business with them, how can we differentiate ourselves?”
Calamine Lotion or a Chainsaw?
Silly sales jargon and industry-speak are the sand traps of marketing. Avoid them in your ads if you want to break par.
Ad Relevance: The Secret To an Effectively Working Ad
Relevant ads answer the implicit and often unspoken questions that customers have when seeing your ads.
6 Overlooked Truths For B2B Marketing Success
B2B sales are intensely personal for the main decision-makers in the process. If things blow up, they suffer tremendously.
How Maker’s Mark Turned “Expensive” Into “Exclusive”
How do you sell a new product for twice the price? Bourbon is lowbrow. Demand is down. Marjorie’s solution got her into the hall of fame.
Empowering Employees: The Surprising Solution to Stagnant Business Growth
After Sam stopped micromanaging, revenues grew 81% and turnover rate fell from 47% to 0.
Outrunning The Bear
They’re going to buy from someone. It’s just a matter of getting them to prefer you. And some connection beats no connection.
Show, Don’t Tell
At best, hard data gets used to justify an action that is taken because of emotional instincts. First you need storytelling and bonding.
How Smirnoff saved itself with a Polaroid camera and a Moscow Mule
There were lots of companies before the internet who used influencers to build their brand.
Say It The “Non-Traditional” Way
Advertisers are so focused on where the ads will be seen, and who will see them, that they forget what matters most.
How Flexible Workspace Strategies Can Benefit Your Business
Work from home? Cubicle? Open office? Here’s what to consider when you’re making those plans.
Is Your Sales Team Falling Victim to the False Consensus Bias?
Your people may overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs and behaviors, which creates blind spots.
The Right SEQUENCE for Brand Building Success
What Aristotle and lawyers both know about persuasive sequencing that you don’t.
Singer Built a Better Sewing Machine But Nobody Bought It Until…
They couldn’t sell it. The industry was very conservative. Singer realized he needed to do something different.
Sales Today or Salience Tomorrow? Yes.
Let’s resolve the tug-of-war between the zealots of “WE MUST SELL STUFF NOW” and the stoics who say “we must brand for tomorrow”.
Building Business Resilience: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Maintaining a Positive Mindset
Resilience isn’t about avoiding failure; it’s about bouncing back from it.
How to Sequence Your Branding Campaign Part 1
The right recipe comes down to three ingredients: bonding, differentiation, and distinctiveness.
Paradise Won’t Be Found By Your Dashboard’s Light
What are you monitoring and why? Because you can only monitor the outputs, but you CAN control the inputs.
The Magic of Belonging – How Spotify Kickstarted Patreon
When Spotify interrupted his revenue stream, Jack Conte found a way to to help all creators.
The Power of Value Stacking: Mastering Pricing Conversations to Boost Sales
You can create a transparent, personalized sales experience that sets you apart from the competition.
Taming The A.P.E. (Advertising Performance Equation)
Any business can plot four key variables into a series of algebraic formulas to predict their marketing results.
From Cristiano Ronaldo To the Other Kind Of Advertising
Entrepreneurs live in the grand illusion of advertising. Let’s break down 12 aspects so you know what works and why.
Never Train On The Nerve
Leave some in the tank. All that extra “messaging” you want to stuff in the ad ends up trying the patience and goodwill of your audience.
Project Management 101 For Businesses: Don’t Solve Problems. Prevent Them.
Project management is all about making obstacles have less impact on your ability to deliver results.
Thinking Outside the Jar: Peanut Butter’s Surprising Origin Story For Two Top Brands
Lightning strikes twice. Rosefield invents one new product & TWO top brands.
Unleashing the Power of YouTube FAQs: Cultivating Customer Loyalty
Optimized YouTube videos rank higher in search results, attracting new customers seeking answers you have.
Five Hacks for Powerful Lead-Generating Guarantees
If a guarantee is supposed to place risk on your business, but it doesn’t feel risky… Then it’s not doing its job.
Ryan’s 2024 Predictions for Residential Home Services
Last year, I predicted 3 things that all came true. Now let’s talk about obstacles and opportunities in 2024.
What to do When Google LSA Stops Giving You Leads
Sudden drops often have identifiable causes, and with the right approach, you can get those leads flowing again.
Finding, And Using, Unleveraged Assets
An unleveraged asset may seem insignificant to you, but for potential customers it can be a tipping point.
Playing the Long Game: How Patience and Openness Led to Tetris’ Triumph
He built a video game, gave it away, waited, and then became wealthy.
How to Attract Local Customers in the Age of Online Shopping
74% of consumers prefer to buy locally but you have to make it worth their while. Here’s how to connect and bond.
Why State Farm Won the Super Bowl
Ads should be crafted to succeed in a world of divided attention and the humor must tie into the persuasion.
How Audiences & Influencers Drive Your Online Success (Without Breaking the Bank)
Micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) can be surprisingly effective and affordable.
Ad Messages We All Never Wanted
10 things you shouldn’t say in your ad messages. They’re lousy, and they should have never, never, never met the stamp of approval.
CFO or CEO? Who’s Really Responsible for Your Company’s Finances?
The CFO’s job is to answer the WHY questions relating to financial health — not to magically ensure financial health.
Uncertainty, Fear, and Solid Business Growth in 2024
An uncertain buyer never says yes, and we’re in uncertain times. How specifically can you overcome that?
From Mild as May to Marlboro Man: How to Reposition Your Brand for Success
They initially focused on women and struggled before pivoting towards men and becoming dominant. How?
Brand Like a Wizard, Market Like a Mouse
What makes Disney World magical? Here are 3 lessons you can apply to turn customers into loyal fans.
Soup Up Your Marketing: Find Your Unique Superpower And Trust Your Team
How to use your secret ingredient if you can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle.
The Irresistible Power of Belief in Sales: Lessons from Phil Knight
Conviction and confidence in his product drove the former encyclopedia salesman into the stratosphere with Nike.
Ethos, Pathos & Logos: 3 Musketeers Of Persuasive Ads
Humans are complex and respond differently to all 3 types of persuasion. Let’s break down when to use each.
Why You Probably Don’t Have a Brand — Even If You Think You Do
You can have a name, logo, brand colors, uniforms, and all that jazz, but without this one thing, you don’t have a brand.
The Gentle Art of Selling Sans Fear: A Nod to FUD and Beyond
Replace Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in your business with a more sophisticated and sustainable approach.
Tax Loophole to Beer Empire: How Jim Koch Brewed Success with Samuel Adams
He paved the way for craft ale to become a thing, and his lessons go beyond beer.
10 Most Common Digital Marketing Mistakes
Keyword-stuffed AI-generated content won’t cut it. In today’s digital world, trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.
Beyond the Laugh: Crafting Ads that Capture Attention and Form Bonds
Which is the bigger risk: offending a few people with a joke, or going unnoticed by everybody?
How To Get To YES Faster Than Ever
Daniel Kahneman introduced the concept of System 1 and 2 thinking. Tiny tweaks can shift buyers to the easier system.
Craft The Face Your Customers See, Connect Through Personas
Understand when to use a mascot, spokesperson, celebrity endorsement, and a game-changing 4th option.
Answering a Competitor’s Killer Campaign
Ries and Trout famously advised challenger brands to “find the weakness in your competitor’s strength.”
No Such Thing As Neutral: How Every Employee Shapes Your Business Legacy
The adage “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” resonates with undeniable truth.
Weird Branding Wins: Lessons from Wolfman Jack on Standing Out
From gas station attendant to radio icon. How can you build a brand like his?
Your Company Is in a Relationship, And It’s Complicated
The customers won with a single flashy pick-up line often don’t stay long.
10 Most Innovative Direct Mail Examples From Known Brands
For example, Jeep’s DNA Box had a stunning 76 percent response rate.
Benefits Package Evaluation: What Really Matters To Your Team?
How to structure your perks to attract, engage, and get your desired return.
The Unseen Zamboni: Why Your Best Marketing Assets Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight
Frank had a big problem, but he saw an opportunity.
Why Do Salespeople Ask Too Little and Talk Too Much
Salespeople should speak for just 30% of the time, yet they can’t stop themselves.
9 Dangerous SEO Myths
MYTH 5: META KEYWORDS ARE CRUCIAL. Nope. At worst, they can actually get you marked as spam by search engines.
Symptoms of Selling Your Soul
If down in your soul your marketing is “cringy”, it’s time to confess and resolve to make amends.
The Perfect Ad Campaign That Failed
The four reasons why good ad campaigns turn into failed ads. And one campaign that was disastrously successful.
What is the Most Direct Cause of Customer Loyalty?
Don’t settle for mere Transactional Loyalty on price, ease, and quality. You need Relational Loyalty to get rich.
(Anti)Predictions in Marketing for 2024
We love stories of the next big thing. But the “thing” is rarely next…or big. So what will be true next year?
Griffin Service – Pt. 2 – Turd buckets beware!
He received complaints from his very first ad. You have to stick your neck out a little bit and get them, or you blend in.
People Buy People, Or Do They?
What’s more important? Establishing trust & rapport with customers, or the actual quality of your product?
Love Letter to the Forgotten: Intimacy of Analog
We miss the vinyl era because music back then was relational, not transactional. So what can we learn?
Post-Hire Interviews: The Only Way To Discover Crucial Insights
Employees generally set their priorities based on reactive factors that are hidden from management.
Stronger Ads: Are They More Harmful Than Good?
Well crafted ads that instigate emotions are sure to put someone in a tizzy.
Stop Promising, Start Surprising: The Pivotal Tweak for Customer Loyalty
It’s not what you say in the ads. It’s all about what you leave out.
Griffin Service – Pt. 1 – Tom Casey is an S.O.B.
Most companies send 1 piece to 100,000 people. Tom Casey would send 10 pieces to 10,000 people. It made all the difference.
Practicing With A Purpose – Lessons Learned From Top Gun
Sales training often fails to deliver tangible results. The real life Top Gun school shows us what’s missing.
Customer Loyalty Is a Two Way Street
I wish I could just call “my guy” and get it over with. But all too often we are let down after the service.
Unique Has To Start With “You”
If it looks and sounds like advertising, it’ll be tuned out faster than you can say, “Helpful, friendly staff members.”
Beyond Tenure & Attitude: Building a Team To Keep Up With Your Growth
Some employees find a specialization and excel as the company grows. Many don’t.
The Myth of Marketing Specialists
Following the same path “your industry” follows guarantees you’ll blend into the competition. You need to break a rule or three.
Storytelling & Showmanship: How Memories & Experience Are Created
“Showmanship and storytelling don’t change objective reality, but they do change perceptual reality.” – Roy H Williams
Understanding the 4 Customer Languages for Remarkable Sales Results
When you match your customer’s social style, you see a surge in sales.
Just Do It – Nike – The everyday athlete anthem
Facts tell, but stories sell. Nike needed to relate to the everyday athlete.
Personal Touch: REQUIRED
AI can create content for you. But it can’t reach out and create meaningful bonds with relational buyers.
Google Ads: the tax you pay for not having a strong brand
When people think of you first and like you the best, the rest of the list becomes irrelevant.
I Hate a Roman Named Status Quo!
Mr. Status Quo preys on people and makes them fearful of failure. He even takes the shape of friends and family.
Avoid This Mistake To Convert Deal Hunters into Loyal Customers
How to attract word-of-mouth referrals and repeat customers.
Chevy’s Holiday Message: How to Bury the Brand
Chevy deserves high marks for attempting something not bathed in beige. But being bold won’t ensure you are loved.
Jenga – Take a block from the middle…
Her mom sold the house. Car has been towed away. Sold 0 units. Then she learns to demonstrate it being played.
Candy Lady Secrets: How to Make Customers Feel Like They’re Winning
It was always her line that drew a crowd. Why?
You May Have a Sales Problem If…
When you notice a steady decline in sales, it’s too late to respond. The hurricane has already hit your shores.
Why You Need to Rethink Your CSR Department
If the people speaking to customers are mere “Order Takers” with no empathy, you’ll damage your brand.
Kayak – The lifetime value of a customer
They made billions with a referral strategy while losing 80 cents of every dollar spent on a visitor’s first click.
Inductive Reasoning: The Fingertips Of An Ad Genius
Ad geniuses are those who can think distinctively using patterns and trends to generate creative solutions.
The Overlooked Strategic Value of Processes, Procedures, & Standards
With business, unlike art, variety is the enemy of success.
When you exist to serve, all you need to do next is invite people.
What a book I read at age 7 can teach you about business growth. It starts with connection.
PIT – Pit Crew Training to Business Training
Ben Cook describes how brilliantly trained NASCAR Pit Crews inspired an amazing business consulting division.
The Push-Pull Method of High-Performance Lead Generation
When your brand design language mismatches your business model, you run into trouble.
How to Make Sales Training Stick
90% of your training investments are typically wasted, $9 out of every $10 out the door. But there’s a solution.
Category vs. Product vs. Client-focused Ads
We’ll give you good and bad advertising examples to give you a more concrete idea of what works and why.
Not all who wander are lost. Unless your brand’s marketing wanders.
Chasing shiny new frontiers means you never get traction anywhere.