Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 27, 2010
Issue #998
My Secret Weapon:
The “unfair advantage” that has helped me
beat the competition into submission since 1995:
How you can have it, too …
Dear Business-Builder,
They say the ultimate in “chutzpah” is killing your parents, then asking the judge for mercy because you’re an orphan.
I know – gross. But you gotta admire people who know what they want and who’ll go to just about any lengths to get it.
Like the guy I knew who landed an airplane, unannounced at a KGB listening post at the Arctic Circle and bribed a Soviet Colonel to lend him a helicopter – just so his son could make it into The Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest person ever to visit the North Pole.
Or the infamous mercenary and publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine I spent a day and a raucous evening with in 1980 who got himself invited to tag along on the Bay of Pigs Invasion just for grins.
Or the guy I met just last week, who sold Castro a boatload of coffee for $1.8 million – cash in advance – then told the Cuban authorities his boat had sunk on its way to Havana.
I don’t care who you are; this stuff is priceless.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 16, 2010
Issue #989
- Why 90% of today’s ad campaigns are a total waste of money …
- How Madison Avenue sleight of hand turns savvy business people into drooling morons …
- The four things every ad MUST accomplish to be successful …
- A great opportunity for copywriters – in a place you’d never even THINK of looking …
- Much more!
Dear Business-Builder,
Sometimes I wish I had gone into advertising instead of direct response marketing.
I can see myself nestled in a posh Madison Avenue corner office, hauling down six figures a year, creating beer-swilling frogs, taco-eating Chihuahuas and other madcap characters …
… And of course, personally casting ads in which scantily clad babes with legs up to here and bushels of bouncing booty and boobage cavort in soapy slow motion!
I can see myself being worshipped as an "advertising genius" for this "brilliant" work … getting huge bonuses and promotions … winning armfuls of creative awards … and getting my smiling face plastered all over the cover of Ad Age.
The best part? Knowing that nobody will ever ask the question, "… But do his ads work?"
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Posted by:
Troy White
July 8, 2010
Issue #962
In this issue:
- The Small Business ATM Machine – or the curse of the advertising sales rep?
- Silliness 101 and why most small businesses are fed up with their marketing and Yellow Pages efforts
- The three proven rules for writing a money churning display ad for any business
- And Much More!
Fellow business builder,
Over the past five years, I have noticed a very scary thing with small business owners. They tend to believe the people who are selling them advertising space! Considering that most advertising sales reps know very little about direct response (or even how to spell it), and that they are paid on the space they sell – not the results their clients get … there couldn’t be a worse place to get advertising advice.
Yet, a decent Yellow Pages ad or small display ad can bring in a constant stream of paying clients.
Today I want to discuss how effective display ads can be used for the average house painter, massage therapist, Laundromat, restaurant, printing company, etc.
These are not the type of ads that Clayton would be writing – these are much easier for the typical small business owner to write, and run themselves.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
March 5, 2010
Issue #5
- The 3 Types of Graphic Designers – And The ONLY One You Ever Want to Hire …
- How to Become A GREAT Designer In 3 Easy Steps …
- The 2 Simple Things A Designer Must Do To Create Bigger Winners, More Often …
- 4 Graphics Secrets for Generating Maximum Attention-Getting Power …
- 10 Design Strategies for Getting Your Promotions READ and responded to …
- And More!
Dear Business-Builder,
This issue of THE TOTAL PACKAGE will make everybody money – including you!
If you’re a business owner, marketing pro or copywriter, good graphic design is absolutely essential to producing peak response to your sales promotions. I’ve seen poor design cut sales by half or even more. Conversely, I’ve seen stronger graphic design bump response by 20% or even more.
If you’re a designer, reading this may be the most important fifteen minutes of your career. Because I’m going to tell you what’s what. If you can follow some simple guidelines, you’ll be booked solid. I’ll probably be the first in line to hire you!
First, a quick disclaimer …
I am NOT an “anti-artite!”
Please forgive me if anything I’m about to say offends you. Despite what you may think, I really like most of the graphics people I’ve worked with.
I helped put two kids through art school.
Some of my best friends – Ed Elliott, Rob Davis, Larry Owen and Brian Wilson, for example – are designers.
I even gave my blessing when my daughter married an artist.
But we’ve got to talk. Because sometimes, you guys drive me nuts. Much of what I see in first draft art – and a LOT of what I see on the Internet and in the mail – is abysmal.
And the fact is, if I get one more graphics draft with the same old blunders in it, my head’s going to explode.
So please – have a seat … you’re about to get your advanced degree – from The Makepeace School of Art and Design …
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Posted by:
Troy White
October 29, 2009
Issue #790
Fellow Business-Builder,
I am at a client event in Tampa this week and want to share some exciting news with you. The event I am at is for a very unique niche that targets the affluent buyers that you should be targeting. Why? Because they are the fastest demographic to recover from this economic mess we are all in. The trainers at the event are consistently sharing their success stories in the affluent market, and the rapid growth in demand they are seeing right now.
According to Pam Danzinger, the leading publication for affluent marketing, “At Parisian luxury fashion brand Hermes, best-known for its leather bags that start at US$7,000, sales are up 10%, while demand for Coach’s ubiquitous US$325 handbags has slumped. High-end New York City apartments may have seen their values plunge, but at Fifteen Central Park West, billed as the ultimate Manhattan luxury building, at least eight condos are reported to have sold for nearly 40% above what their owners paid for them in 2007. Now you’ve got to spell luxury with a ‘V’ and the ‘V’ is for value, and value doesn’t mean cheap." They want an experience, and are willing to pay for it”
One of the ways you can get your more affluent clients buying again is to give them what they want … a unique experience that no one else is giving them. What follows is aproven model for getting your affluent buyers buying again.
Even if you aren’t targeting a certain part of your business offerings to the affluent (which I think you should be), this STILL applies to you!
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