Unlikely Innovation

I spent the latter part of last week and the weekend in Austin, Texas. To get there, I flew through Atlanta. Having an hour or so to wait for my flight, I decided to grab some breakfast. I gravitated toward Pascals (a southern tradition) because of an enthusiastic looking line. Weird, because I normally avoid lines. But they seems to be cooking up some very serious breakfast. So I get in line, and within seconds, a gentleman who had just been wiping down a table comes running up to me asks, “Table for one?” Now remember, I’m standing in the food [...]

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Headline Help

Here’s something I want to share with you. A friend of mine and great marketer, Dave Dee recently sent me this article on Headlines. I think it is brilliant, and I thought you guys would get a lot of value out of it. Here are four critical tips for writing those “double your sales” punch line headlines. 1. MAKE SURE YOUR HEADLINE IS THE FIRST WORD GROUP YOUR PROSPECT SEES. I know this may seem a “no-brainer” but I see this mistake time and again, particularly in local newspaper advertising. And, even more amazing, the ads the newspaper “experts” use to [...]

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Clear…Good 2 Step Offer

Saturday morning. Food Network. This is my life. I saw a commercial for a law firm agitating a recall of certain pacemakers and defibrillators. Now without passing judgement about the right or wrongs of this sort of advertisement, I’d like to point out something of educational merit. At the end of the commercial, the attorney says: “To find out if your defibrillator or pacemaker is on the recall list, call….” What’s the big deal? Well there isn’t one. But little hinges swing big doors. Frequently, the offer an ad makes can be the difference between success or failure. Most advertisers [...]

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I Was Literally Shivering

I’ve recently become a fan of the TV show 24. As if I have time for this… Anyway, to make matters worse, WGN recently played all of season 1 during one weekend. I recorded every minute – and I must admit, have now watched every minute. So, in the middle of season 1, there’s this scene where a member of a presidential candidate’s staff is wired and acting as bait to lure out a terrorist. Now, I usually only get half-involved in TV or movies. I don’t ask a lot and I don’t expect a lot. But this scene was [...]

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The Reciprocal Nature of Testimonials

So, we haven’t written much lately. That’s mostly because we were gone for about a week at the Glazer-Kennedy SuperConference in Chicago. We believe in dedicating uninterrupted, highly-focused attention to our learning and networking, so we didn’t even turn on the laptop the whole time we were there. That focus created so much energy and momentum that now we’ve been literally buried in activity since we returned. Anyway, I’m forcing myself to share some thoughts with you today. While we were at the conference, we approached a gentleman name Joel Bauer to show him some of the successes we accomplished [...]

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