There are many ways to cook an egg. Fried, boiled, and microwaved are the three most popular. (I know there are basted eggs, poached eggs, and in the North Pole, I’m sure they have freeze-dried eggs.)

Microwaving is the quickest and yields tasteless results.
Boiling is the simplest way and takes the most time.

It’s time that makes a boiled egg taste the best. That and a stick of butter.

Think of your advertising like cooking an egg.

You can microwave the idea by getting quick results.
Sales promotions, deep discounts, special events, are all ways to get “immediate” sales.
The problem with microwaving your advertising is that it loses nutrients along the way.
It doesn’t taste as good. It works but the result is a bit rubbery.
Satisfied with your results, you use the microwavable idea again and again with more heat.
But it’s a microwaved idea.
More heat and time lowers the quality.
Eventually, the result turns to rubber.
It’s tasteless and impenetrable.

The microwave method yields immediate results.

In an environment where results are needed immediately, microwaving your marketing might be the option.
But it’s not the most ideal.

Gramma taught me how to boil a hard-boiled egg when I was 10. Here’s what she said.

  1. Fill a pot half full with water.
  2. Place eggs in the water.
  3. Turn heat to Max.
  4. When it starts to boil, time out 8 minutes.
  5. Remove heat.
  6. Remove shell and serve with butter.

To get perfect results, the recipe must be followed in this order.

Eggs, water, heat, and time

Here’s how you get bad results:

Put the eggs in the pot without water.
Boil water with no eggs.
Don’t turn on the heat or use too little heat.
Pull the eggs out too soon or too late.

The variables are easily controllable.
Time and heat are both measured.
And you need water.

Patience, Money, and Water.

Water to the egg is the blanket that takes heat and time and massages the egg.
It is the transference of energy through continuous touch that converts the egg.

Most people want to spend a bunch of money now to get results today.
They forget about patience.

The tortoise didn’t win the race because he was smarter. He was patient with his resolve that he would eventually finish. The lesson is as much about patience as it is about continuous movement.

The best eggs don’t cook immediately.
Neither will your advertising campaign.

Be patient.

Water is your message.

Any health nut will tell you the healthiest way to eat an egg is boiled or poached.
The healthiest way to advertise your business is the use of a well-composed message.

The message cradles your clients, slowly turning them toward you.

So the next time you want to run an advertising campaign. Ask yourself three important questions:

  1. Can you survive without immediate results?
  2. Do you have enough money to create the energy needed to get the fully boiled egg?
  3. Are you using water?

If you answer “no” to any of these questions, you might be a microwaver.
Microwaved ideas don’t need water.

They only need a great deal.

To attract transactional customers, you need heat.
Microwave the crap out of them.
But don’t blame anyone when you end up with tasteless, rubbery customers.

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