Do “Brands” Really Matter
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue# 2722
- WEALTHY: Have you turned yourself into a victim? (Howie Jacobson)
- HEALTHY: The key to a lean, sexy body that makes heads turn (Shane Ellison)
- WISE: Warren Buffett on the business world
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The power of the T-Factor (John Forde)
- Why you should “make it up” (Matt Furey)
- It’s Fun to Know… about outsourcing special effects
- Add “obstreperous” to your vocabulary
* Highly Recommended *
Like to Increase Your Take Home from $60,000 a Year to $650,000?
Six years ago Brad Solomon’s business was netting him less then $60,000 a year, and the business itself had little or no value.
As a direct result of the “ETR / Agora Model” business-building ideas – Brad Soloman increased his sales to over $6.5 million annually.
“But the best part is that the business brings in net income of over $650,000 a year that goes right into my pocket. That’s not paper profits, but positive cash flow,” Brad says.
And it all started with some instruction in the “ETR / Agora Model”…
In Denver this week, ETR’s team of experts is giving over five full days of instruction on the “ETR / Agora Model” – and we’re capturing every expert guideline, Q+A session, step-by-step presentation so you too can follow along at home…
And use the model to build your own Internet money-making business…
Until 5:00 pm this Saturday, you can save 80% plus score an incredible cash-generating $2,000 bonus…
How to Handle the Ongoing Recession
This recession has revealed a psychological rift in the world’s consciousness.
A lot of people are scared and angry. They’ve lost their jobs, their businesses, their insurance, and in some cases their self-worth. They feel victimized by events, by elites, and by entities. So they bob up and down, waiting to be rescued by a government or a friend. They hunker down into a form of abdication of self-responsibility because it feels better to be justified in misery than vulnerable in power.
And the interesting thing about this group of people is how threatened they are by another group.
This second group of people may be suffering just as much in real terms as the first group, but they refuse to see themselves as victims. Instead of giving up and waiting to be rescued, they are scrapping and hustling and retooling. Starting businesses. Taking risks. Flexing muscles they may not have fully understood or claimed before. In crisis, they are making opportunity – and, in the process, taking responsibility for making themselves.
They are discovering something amazing about work: that it really isn’t about the money or the power or the status. In other words, not about the external rewards. Those rewards are nice (actually, they’re awesome when received in the right way) – but the real reward of work, or entrepreneurship, is the flowering of passion. When we take responsibility for our contributions to this universe, we discover that work truly is, in Khalil Gibran’s words, “love made manifest.”
[Ed. Note: Which group are you in? You can take a stand against the recession this instant. Not only can you pursue your passion, you can turn it into a moneymaking venture. Get all the details right here. Hurry - the price goes up $200 this Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
When not contemplating social issues, Howie Jacobson is an expert on Google AdWords and driving traffic to your website. Get his complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" at www.AskHowie.com.]
“In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”
- Warren Buffett
Do “Brands” Really Matter?
By John Forde
Ad agency guys love brands. They love brand-driven advertising too.
On the website for Ogilvy & Mather, the agency founded by legendary ad man David Ogilvy, I once saw the phrase “We’re all about brands.” Poor old Ogilvy probably did a double-tumble tailspin in his grave.
As readers of Early to Rise know, I love to trash the whole idea of brand marketing. And I’m not alone. The entire direct-response industry leans away from it.
It’s just not in our blood. And not for no reason.
Brand-based marketing logic, after all, is the planning you see behind all those Super Bowl commercials that make you laugh but sell nothing.
It’s the thinking behind sleek, wordless billboards and print ads that leave you scratching your head. (“Hmm,” you say to yourself, “I feel vaguely sexy… and crave salted pork products… but I have no idea why.”)
But the main reason we in the measurable, quantifiable world of direct response reject the strategy of introducing a product based on brand is because it is usually a long, laborious, and not measurably effective process. And, far too often, an exercise in self-adulation. But not much more.
However – and you’d better sit down for this – it turns out there’s at least one area in the world of direct response where… yes… even yours truly can spot some value in pumping up the profile of a product’s brand.
Not just a small area. A huge one. Very big.
How so?
How E-Mail Relationships Change Everything
Used to be, every marketing piece that went to your target customers was in an envelope, sent cold to a rented list. Your prospect didn’t know you from Adam.
Brand mattered little, because you had little footing with the prospect in the first place. Benefits and features, instead, told the story.
Then we started marketing online.
You can’t do cold e-mailing online, because that’s what we call sp*m. So the best and brightest e-mail-driven businesses went about it another way.
First, they built relationships with their prospects. With e-zines. With product fulfillment and digital extras delivered to inboxes. With membership sites that brought visitors in free, then kept them coming back for more.
And what’s more important in e-mail marketing than getting a recipient to open your steady stream of e-mail missives? Nothing. Without that, your efforts are sand on a sea turtle’s back. Going nowhere in a hurry.
The relationship is what gets the e-mail opened. The relationship is what gets the e-mail read. The relationship is what makes way for the sale. And that relationship is based on… yep… a kind of “brand” trust that surrounds you or your organization as the source of that e-mail.
The Power of the T-Factor
In short, you’re counting on your name… which IS your “brand”… to carry enough “T” factor (Trust) to keep the reader from clicking “delete.”
The best way to earn any kind of noble brand status, in e-mail or anywhere else, is via the quality of the product itself. Online, that means quality content. Content that informs. That entertains. That gets results. Or at least shows the reader how to get results.
Occasionally, that can happen in a single flash of brilliance. More often, it happens as a trickle. Over time.
First, there’s the e-zine or the valuable online report. There also might be a website, full of content and trustworthy testimonials.
Then there’s the respectful treatment. The lack of sp*m. The html that doesn’t take forever to download. The ideas never heard or seen elsewhere.
A thank you note for sign-ups. Delivery that actually sticks to the promised mailing schedule. And so on.
Until the reader can’t wait to hear what you have to say next. You’ve become part of his online “family.” A member of his inner circle of trust. And that’s where you reap the rewards.
You can now endorse products you’re pretty sure your readers will want. And if you’re right, they’ll even buy.
Continuing to offer them good products deepens that trust cycle. And your brand takes on an even brighter shine. Every subsequent sale, even for higher-priced stuff, gets that much easier.
Of course, bungle it and you’ll lose your brand power pretty darn fast. But there’s no denying it – the deeper this cycle goes, the more valuable that idea of a brand becomes.
The new customer becomes the loyal customer. Ready to spend more, too. Not just a little, but often by multiples. And you’re soon selling lots of specialty items to your serious fans.
This is where fortune building begins.
Yet again, a lot of this depends on how well you lay the groundwork… on having quality information to offer your prospects, right up front.
And that has to happen long before the marketers and copywriters come along.
[Ed. Note: To get more of copywriting expert John Forde's wisdom and insights into marketing (and much more), sign up for his free e-letter, Copywriter's Roundtable. Get a free report about 15 deadly copy mistakes and how to avoid them when you sign up today.
You can start your own powerful e-mail marketing business in just 5 days with help from ETR's team of experts. In ETR's Internet Business-Building DVD Library, you'll discover how to build a website and pick a product. Plus, you'll learn about product marketing, customer list building, joint venture and affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing and Google AdWords, content creation, and much more. Pick up this A-to-Z business-building program before July 18 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, and you can save $200 AND get a $2,000 bonus.]
* Highly Recommended *
Learn the World’s Most Financially Valuable Skill – in One Short Weekend
If you can persuade and influence others, you can command top-dollar from companies eager to beat a path to your doorstep. Or, start your own business and use your skills to move the masses to buy your own products and services.
And now, it’s easier than ever for you to master the art of persuasion because three of today’s top ad writers and businessmen have dissected the teachings of a legend in the business world. A man who was directly responsible for over $2 BILLION in sales, working just four hours a day.
You can quickly learn his secret techniques and apply them however you wish. To land your perfect job… sell more for clients who hire you… start your own business… even apply them in your personal relationships…
When you master this skill, a whole new world opens up to you because you have the ability to persuade others. See exactly what we mean and get all the details by clicking here.
Where Ideas Come From
By Matt Furey
Many people wonder where so-called “creative” people get their ideas.
They’re looking for answers that are profound. There aren’t any.
Ideas are in the air at all times. You simply reach in and pull one out by doing something that all young kids do in their imagination each and every day.
That is – you “make it up.”
Yes, you may “make up” your ideas based upon things you’ve already seen and heard – or felt. Yes, you may combine one thing with another thing until you have something unique. But you still “made it up.”
And when you make things up, you do so without resistance. You simply imagine – then move.
The other day, my eight-year-old and five-year-old were pounding me with punches while I was lying on the couch. They were yelling “Inside Kung Fu!” – then chopping me. A minute later, they were flexing and strutting around, saying “Errh, muscles!”
Where are they getting this stuff?
Sure, they’ve been influenced by me. But I have never gone around our home saying “Inside Kung Fu” while throwing punches. Nor have I ever flexed in front of my kids, grunted, and said “Muscles.”
Yes, there are bits and pieces of these elements at play – though most certainly NOT in the way my kids put them together. But as soon as the ideas “popped” into their creative little minds, they began expressing what they were thinking.
Becoming successful in business is much the same.
My successes – on the Internet as well as off the Internet – have NOT been a result of long-term planning, trying to get every detail right before doing anything. They have been a result of using my imagination to come up with an idea. Then moving forward on the idea – and continuing to move forward on it until the idea got completed.
And coming up with ideas isn’t hard. They’re all around us. Just look at little kids and you’ll see what I mean.
[Ed. Note: Matt Furey, an internationally recognized expert in self-development, fitness, and martial arts, is president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. With Matt's 101 Ways to Magnetize Money, you can learn the REAL SECRETS of financial success known only to the most prosperous men and women who have ever lived. Find out more right here.
Once you've got the idea, you need to put it into action. Get a step-by-step guide for turning your thoughts into a money-making business with Michael Masterson's runaway best-seller, Ready, Fire, Aim: From Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat.]
5 Essential Fat-Burning Foods for Women
By Shane “The People’s Chemist” Ellison
My wife recently competed in the Arnold Amateur Figure Competition – the largest competition of its kind in the world. This is like a beauty contest in a bikini. Women are judged on their muscular physique and posing.
A 30-year-old mom of two, she swept the competition! (And the women she was competing against were 21- to 25-year-old non-moms.) What is her secret to staying lean and muscular? For one thing, she sticks to five essential foods:
1. Organic eggs
2. All-natural grass-fed beef
3. Wild salmon
4. Avocados
5. Whey isolate
These five fat-burners are staples in her diet. Why are they so critical to keeping the fat off? You see, unlike men, women are very sensitive to the fat-storing hormone insulin. (It’s because they have lower testosterone levels.) These five foods help keep insulin – and blood sugar – low, therefore helping to keep fat off.
These foods are also rich in healthy fats, which help us stay fuller longer, thereby warding off binge eating and snacks.
[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison's entire career has been dedicated to the study of molecules - how they give life and how they take from it. He was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. He is a bestselling author, holds a master's degree in organic chemistry, and has first-hand experience in drug design. Take advantage of his knowledge and insights to look and feel your best in 90 days.]
It’s Fun to Know: Outsourcing Special Effects
India has long been the go-to country for companies looking for low-cost customer service and software programming. And now Hollywood studios are increasingly looking to India for special effects artists to help make movie magic. Currently, the Indian companies are doing mostly midlevel work. But they hope the higher-end jobs, such as creating entire computer-generated landscapes, will start coming their way as their expertise grows.
(Source: Associated Press)
* Highly Recommended *
Transform Your Life In Only 15 Minutes A Day!
Would you be willing to set aside 15 minutes a day if it meant you could…
- Pay off your credit card bills?
- Rebuild your financial portfolio?
- Buy or sell a house?
- Grow or start a business?
- Lose weight?
- Prepare for early retirement?
I thought so.
I’d like to show you exactly how you can dramatically increase your chances of achieving these (or other) goals in 2009.
Word to the Wise: Obstreperous
Someone who’s “obstreperous” (ob-STREP-ur-us) – from the Latin for “to make a noise against” – is noisily and stubbornly defiant.
Example (as used by Marilyn Stasio in a New York Times review of Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich): “Eye on the reward, Stephanie’s obstreperous fat friend, Lula, decides to enter the cook-off, which she reckons will attract the killer.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker... build your self-confidence and intellect... increase your attractiveness to others... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Comments