The Worst Self-Marketing Strategy Ever Devised

Issue #2325

• WEALTHY: Want a new client? Don’t do this… (Bob Bly)
• HEALTHY: 2 easy ways to add more physical activity to your days (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: Ben Franklin on criticism

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• My personal secrets to becoming a best-selling author (Michael Masterson)
• Would you like an umbrella with your groceries? (Suzanne Richardson)
• It’s Good to Know… about tray table and seatback rules (Charlie Byrne)
• Add "locution" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

PhotoReading

You know that reading at least one non-fiction career book a week can help untap your hidden potential for success. But what if you could quickly and easily read one book - or even two or three - every single day? A brighter future to wealth and success is literally at your fingertips!

With PhotoReading you can zip through your reading at a mind-boggling 25,000 words a minute. That’s like getting through any success, management, or leadership book in just a few minutes. Imagine what this ability to absorb information can do for your business and personal success!

International learning expert Paul R. Scheele can teach you to:

• Process and understand any book at least three times faster than you can now.
• Propel yourself to new levels of personal performance.
• Increase your productivity - so you make more money!
• Improve your memory and sharpen concentration.
• Gain a significant competitive advantage in your business.
• Create more time in your day.
• Catapult yourself into a bright future.

To learn more, please click here.

PhotoReading comes with lifetime Success Coaching and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, which you can extend to six months, so you get plenty of time to prove for yourself how easy it is to read with speed, comprehension, and enjoyment.

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain and most fools do."

Benjamin Franklin

The Worst Self-Marketing Strategy Ever Devised… and Why It Fails So Spectacularly

By Bob Bly

Many years ago, I taught a class at the Learning Annex in New York City on how to make a six-figure income as a freelancer. One student, JR, wanted to break into writing TV commercials for Madison Avenue, and he had devised what was (according to him) a brilliant self-marketing strategy for getting hired.

In actuality, it was the second-worst self-marketing idea I’d ever heard in my life.

JR told the class that he had written some "brilliant" TV commercials.

The Super Bowl was only a few weeks away at the time. JR’s strategy was to show up at the offices of Madison Avenue’s biggest ad agency and show the copy for his commercials to the creative director.

The creative director, he reasoned, was under tremendous pressure to produce great Super Bowl commercials for the agency’s clients. By bringing those great commercials with him, JR would save the day - and be hired at an enormous salary.

This was a terrible idea for all the obvious reasons:

• All the commercials for the Super Bowl had been written and shot months earlier.
• The creative director had never heard of JR. She didn’t know who JR was or whether he had any qualifications or talent. So the chances of her agreeing to see him were miniscule to none.
• JR had no idea which of the agency’s clients were going to be running Super Bowl spots. Even if he did know, he hadn’t been briefed on the product positioning or the campaign strategy… so how could he possibly write commercials that achieved the clients’ marketing objectives?

I gently told JR - and the rest of the class - that doing work on spec for a client who hasn’t asked you to do so is an absolute waste of time. However, stupid as it is, there is a self-marketing strategy that’s even worse: giving an unsolicited critique of something a potential client has done - a new product design, an ad campaign, a website - in the hopes of being hired to fix it.

Why is giving an unsolicited critique even worse than doing unsolicited work on spec? Well, think about it.

You send a letter to a business telling them their website stinks… or their customer service people are idiots… or their product is lousy. There’s a good chance that the recipient of your letter is the person responsible for approving that website, training the customer service staff, or designing the product.

So right away, you have begun the relationship by insulting them - saying, in effect, "You don’t know what you are doing."

They probably don’t agree that they’ve done a bad job… or else they wouldn’t have produced the site, training, or product in the first place. You come along and give a contrary opinion - highly critical and negative. They think, "Who the heck are YOU, bub? Why should I listen to what YOU say?"

As they see it, your opinion is self-serving: You are a vendor, so your objective in reaching out to them is to get them to hire you. Worse, here you are, spending your time reviewing websites, calling companies that aren’t your clients, and telling them how bad their sites are - without being paid to do so.

This causes them to think that if you were really any good at what you do, you’d be swamped with projects - and not cold calling strangers trying to rustle up work.

I’ve frequently been on the receiving end of this "You’re doing it all wrong and I can help you fix it" strategy - especially from Web designers. And speaking as a prospect, I can tell you it not only doesn’t work with me, it’s also annoying and offensive.

Just last week, I got yet another such call from a Web designer.

"I was looking at your site and it really is poorly designed," TN, the Web designer, told me. "I would love to help you improve its performance."

"Do you know my marketing objective for my website?" I asked TN.

"Uh, no," he admitted.

"Well, TN," I said. "If you don’t know what I want the site to do for my business… and you don’t know its current performance metrics… how can you possibly know that you can improve it?"

I let him stutter and stammer for a few seconds, before politely ending the call.

My friend RA, who once ran a mail-order business selling information products for gamblers, was also a victim of the "You’re doing it all wrong and I can help you fix it" gambit.

SH, a newbie freelance copywriter, wrote RA an unsolicited two-page critique of his latest direct-marketing package. SH closed his letter by suggesting to RA that his marketing results would be greatly improved by letting a "professional copywriter" (like SA) work his magic on it.

RA and I both had a good laugh over this… because RA is universally acknowledged (except by SH, who didn’t recognize his name) as one of today’s top direct-response copywriters.

Irritated, RA sent SH a testy letter pointing out this fact… and noting that the package SH thought was so terrible was, in fact, a blockbuster control. Which made SH look stupid and silly.

Conclusion: Doing a critique OR work on spec for a potential client who has not asked for it seems, on the surface, a sensible approach to marketing your professional or technical services. But it is not.

My advice:

• Never give unsolicited advice or criticism.
• Don’t offer solutions until you really know what the problem is - and the only way you can really understand the problem is for the potential client to tell you.
• If you want to show the potential client how smart you are, stop pontificating. Instead, ask intelligent questions and listen to the answers.

[Ed Note: Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter, the author of more than 70 books, and co-creator of ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters Edition program.

Sign up for Bob’s free monthly e-zine, The Direct Response Letter, and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]

Click to comment on this article.

== Highly Recommended ==

It Should Be A Crime To Be So LAZY And Still Make This Much MONEY!

I’ve never in my life heard of a lazier way you could make a ton of dough online this quickly. But, turns out it is entirely possible. You can be up and running in under a week. Then the fun begins… Before long, you could be looking at 24/7 cash flow… no income limit on what you might make.

This opportunity is fully guaranteed and risk-free. Please check out all the details on how to get started making money this month by simply clicking here.

Dear ETR: "This might be a personal question…"

"Michael, this might be a personal question, but you seem to cross boundaries when it comes to helping people, so I’ll ask anyway. What were your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for becoming a writer? How did you accomplish those goals? Also, did you self-publish your books? Finally, what is the best platform for selling your books? Any guidance you have will be greatly appreciated.

"Thanks from a loyal reader."

Robin Fulcher

Spring Hill, TN

Dear Robin,

I always wanted to be a writer, but wasn’t much more than a dabbler until I started following my own advice. You can find that advice in past ETR articles on personal productivity. Or you can buy a copy of my Confessions of a Multimillionaire.

This year, I’ve been rethinking and revising my ideas about attaining goals. And I’ve been publishing essays in ETR on that important subject. Read them. They will be put together at the end of the year and offered as a book. The working title is How to Master Plan Your New Life. It will contain all my latest thinking, plus examples of what I actually do on a day-to-day basis.

In the meantime, here are some short answers to your specific questions.

Question: What were your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for becoming a writer?

Answer: My writing goals change every year. This year, they are very ambitious. I am writing no less than six books (plus revising a seventh!). To accomplish that, I have to write every day. I write an average of 10 words a minute. Based on that average, I’ve calculated how much I must write on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. It’s a simple formula. I’ve attached a worksheet that shows you the actual figuring I did:

Question: How did you accomplish those goals?

Answer: I’ve accomplished my writing goals the same way I’ve accomplished all my other goals: by making them a priority. I described the process I use for doing that in a recent ETR article.

Question: Did you self-publish your books?

Answer: No and yes. Most of my books have been published by John Wiley & Sons, one of the largest book publishers in the world. Two (Words That Work and Confessions of a Multimillionaire were published by Early to Rise.

Question: What is the best platform for selling your books?

Answer: Though Wiley does an excellent job of selling books through bookstores, the best platform, by far, is the Internet. One way ETR promotes my books is through joint-venture relationships with other Internet companies. ETR has a great program on how to sell on the Internet - including how to develop joint ventures. It’s sold out for this year, but you can sign up for next year’s hotlist.

- Michael Masterson

[Ed. Note: Send your questions to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.]

Click to comment on this article.

A Little Extra Goes a Long Way

By Suzanne Richardson

Having top-notch customer service doesn’t necessarily mean you cater to your customer’s every whim. But it does mean that you should always be thinking about how you can enhance your customer’s experience.

Take, for example, the Wegmans grocery chain. Ask a stocker in the produce department how long your lettuce will last, and he’ll answer you or find someone who can. Need to know where to find truffle oil? Ask anyone and they’ll walk you to the right aisle themselves. I shop at Wegmans every week, and I’ve never met an employee who was anything but friendly and helpful.

But it’s the little extras that Wegmans offers that really stand out. For instance, the store has a bucket of umbrellas you can use when it’s raining. Better yet, some employees (called Helping Hands) will hold an umbrella over you and your cart as you walk to your car.

It’s clear that this company cares about its customers.

What can you do to show your customers that you care about them, not just about their money? How can you make each customer’s experience a little easier or a little more enjoyable?

[Ed. Note: One of your business goals should always be to make your customer service better. Learn how you can achieve that goal - and accomplish all your other dreams - with ETR’s Total Success Achievement program. Click here for details.]

Click to comment on this article.

Just Do It

By Craig Ballantyne

The American population is slowly turning into a nation of couch potato slugs.

According to a recent study published in Medicine, Science, Sports and Exercise, 78.7 percent of Americans get less than 25 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. In fact, on most days, the average American gets less than one minute of vigorous activity.

If exercise is a struggle for you, here are my recommendations:

1. Pick any physical activity you enjoy. It doesn’t matter if its salsa dancing, running, swimming, kettlebell training, bodyweight exercises, soccer, or energetically walking your dog. All that matters is you take up Nike’s motto and "Just do it."
2. Aim to "just do it" at least three days per week for 30 minutes. Try not to save up all of your activity for the weekend.
3. If you need the extra incentive, "make a date" with a friend to exercise together once a week or book regular sessions with a trainer. And to give yourself even more incentive, have your friend or trainer penalize you in some way if you blow off the workout. Maybe agree to treat your friend to a night out if you don’t show up… or have the trainer ding your credit card even if you cancel.

[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR’s free natural health e-letter.]

Click to comment on this article.

It’s Good to Know: Tray Table and Seatback Rules Finally Revealed!

By Charlie Byrne

"Make sure your seatbacks and tray tables are in their fully upright and locked positions."

You’ve heard these orders every time your flight has taken off and landed. But have you ever wondered "Why?"

I have. And I’d sometimes suspected it was part of the airlines’ nefarious plot to establish themselves as authority figures. Better to "keep the passengers down" and in their rightful place alongside sheep and cattle.

But alas, my research turned up no such malevolence. Not in this case, at least.

Turns out the airlines are only following orders themselves - from the FAA, in particular.

The Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14: Aeronautics and Space Part 121, Section 121.577 says "No certificate holder (airline) may move an airplane on the surface, take off, or land unless each food and beverage tray and seatback tray table is secured in its stowed position."

According to the Journal of Air Transport Management, approximately 90 percent of all aviation accidents occur during the first two minutes or the last four minutes of flight. So this rule was put into effect to make emergency egress easier. It’s the same reason your bags "must fit completely underneath the seat in front of you."

Good to know that at least the carriers didn’t come up with these rules simply to annoy us. This time.

[Ed Note: Charlie Byrne is Associate Publisher at Early to Rise. Sign up for e-mail delivery of his blog and get edgy and useful ideas on copywriting, marketing, and other category-defying posts.]

== Highly Recommended ==

How to Get the Heart of 370 Business Magazines in Just 30 Minutes a Month

Did that headline catch your eye?

How about this one:

"32 Ways to Save Time and Money From the Pages of Good Housekeeping."

Gene Schwartz knew the power of a compelling headline. He wrote those two - and went on to generate over $2 billion in advertising sales during his career.

Now you can find out, step-by-step, how to accomplish breakthrough marketing results no matter what you are selling, with our "accelerated marketing" program.

If you are involved in any form of sales, the benefits you’ll receive could be worth hundreds of thousands to you in future earnings. Click to continue…

Word to the Wise: Locution

A "locution" (loh-KYOO-shun) is a form of expression - a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations. The word is derived from the Latin for "to speak."

Example (as used by Emma Brockes in a New York Times review of Julie Andrews’ memoir Home): "[Her] memoir is full of crisp locutions like ‘poor unfortunate’ and ‘banished to the scullery.’"

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008