Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
March 17, 2009
Issue #631
Dear Marketing Top Gun,
In this Bullet I share the secret of how to sell anything. It’s a simple secret, and it works universally, no matter what business you’re in
But before getting into it, I want to make …
An Important Announcement
About These Bullets
I have always advised my clients to build their products, newsletters, books, and e-zines squarely on their strongest proof elements, namely their most persuasive and impressive credentials – including their strongest case histories, endorsements, testimonials, "reasons why" they offer better results and solutions, success stories, proven outcomes, expert status, areas of specialization, reputation within their industries, and especially a spirit of candor and integrity that never fails to delight clients and confound competitors.
When you make your credibility an essential, highly visible part of your marketing, persuasion can flow like silk because your most commonly encountered enemy – skepticism – is largely swept aside.
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
February 17, 2009
Issue #613
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
Do you often feel that there is not enough time in the day?
Does your ever-growing list of things to do — fires to put out, crises to manage, people to help, chores to do, commitments to honor, and deadlines to meet — leave you feeling like a bone-weary fox, panting for breath but forced to keep fleeing from a relentless pack of baying hounds?
Do you wish you could crawl through a hollow log and escape into a serene new dimension where the mongrels of hot pursuit can’t follow, a world of calm, relaxed, unhurried, and massively increased productivity that makes you so much happier?
Would you love someone to write you a gift certificate worth at least two hours of extra free time every day — at least an extra 14 new hours a week of heavenly "white space" in your schedule — to spend on whatever makes you more successful and fulfilled?
If your answer is yes to any of these questions, I urge you to start applying, every day of your life, the simple yet astonishingly powerful strategy I describe here.
The Greatest Secret of Higher Productivity
I refer to the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, or the law of the vital few and the trivial many. If you apply it to your daily schedule as I will show, you will free up hundreds of extra hours this year, generally about two hours per day, but many more if you apply it to everything.
You will not only be much more productive, but also earn a lot more money and be much happier because you’ll have much more time to devote to what really matters in your life, what truly produces the biggest results, both personally and professionally.
Top Gun, this is one of the most important secrets you will ever read, a rare Silver Bullet that I hope you will heed.
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
January 27, 2009
Issue #598
Because They Make Your Advertising
More Interesting and Believable
Dear Marketing Top Gun,
"You can’t save souls in an empty church," said David Ogilvy. "And you can’t bore people into buying your product."
That’s why Ogilvy sought to hire copywriters "with richly-furnished minds."
How can you have a richly-furnished mind and write copy so interesting that, in the words of legendary Copy Chief, Vic Schwab, it’s "easier to read than to skip?”
You can start with this advice to young writers, from poet Ezra Pound:
"Curiosity. Advice to the young. Curiosity."
Substitute "copywriters" for "the young," and you’re seeing the light.
And how can you easily become more curious and thus more interesting? I commend these words from Nobel prize-winning poet, Rudyard Kipling:
I keep six faithful serving men
Who teach me well and true
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
October 28, 2008
Issue #533
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
If you want the easiest, surest and most rewarding way I’ve found to succeed online, here is the simple 7-step formula:
- Carve out a niche. Be known for something specific. Use the rifle, not the shotgun. When in doubt, go narrower than others in your field. For specific examples, see The Fuzzy Dice Secret for Exploding Your Sales.
- Give something valuable away free. Within your narrow specialty, create an e-zine (or course, collection of tips, series of mistakes to avoid, seasonal recipes, any regular communication) that demonstrates your expertise and is so helpful, interesting and informative, your prospects will want to keep getting it regularly.
- Promote your free e-zine every way you can — in Google ads, articles you write for the media, speeches before trade groups, press releases, radio interviews, communications with your customers, take-ones at related retail outlets, space ads, newspaper classifieds, direct mail, co-ops and swaps with others in your industry, etc. Explore any and all avenues.
- Capture e-mail addresses. Never give away your valuable free tips on your website! Share them only in exchange for an e-mail address when someone signs up for your e-zine. Consider offering one of your best free tips in the form of a free report to induce people to sign up. This automatically gives you permission — and the means — to stay in touch with your market, building your most valuable direct marketing asset, your list.
- Pile on the value. Work hard to make your free e-zine so valuable and interesting, your prospects eagerly open it. As in romance, woo your new prospects with your bouquets of insight and pearls of wisdom. Don’t be shy about opening up and getting personal. Become a friend. Resist the urge to keep lunging at them with sales lust. Your goal: get your prospects into the habit of welcoming your e-mails like love letters because they are so valuable, useful and interesting … not in the habit of deleting them on sight because they are self-serving sales pitches. The rule: establish trust before you sell with lust.
- Never sell hard in your e-zine or free course. Instead, dance the two-step. The biggest mistake even savvy marketers make in their e-zines is selling too much, too soon, too hard, and too often. Let your e-zine be an oasis of value in a desert of hype. Always, and especially in your first several communications, let the value of your free information far outweigh your sales copy.
Eventually, after you’ve proven your value to readers and it’s time to sell something, dance the two-step …
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
August 19, 2008
Issue #484
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
My friends, star marketers Alex Mandossian and Yanik Silver, recently paid me a compliment by calling me, "The world’s greatest living reason-why copywriter."
I consider it such high praise because my mentor, David Ogilvy, was in my view the greatest reason-why copywriter of all time. In fact, when asked by a reporter if he was a strong proponent of "reason why" advertising, Ogilvy responded, "Is there any other kind?"
Thinking of Mr. Ogilvy (or "D. O.," as we staffers at Ogilvy & Mather called him) has prompted me to once again offend every English teacher whose classes I endured, and inspire everyone else who speaks the King’s English to cringe, by penning another of my infamous poems, this one entitled …
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