The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg [68]
By the way, all of the people I mention below graduated from college, unless I mention otherwise. But hey, we won’t hold that against them.
Copyblogger.com
This site (http://www.copyblogger.com), run by Brian Clark, is an absolute treasure trove of free information on high-integrity marketing. Brian has pioneered a style of marketing he calls “third tribe,” which attempts to combine the best from the two camps—direct-response marketing and social media marketing—yet leave behind the worst aspects of each. Specifically, direct-response marketers are great at selling stuff and making gobs of money but, as we’ve discussed, have in the past had a reputation for being pushy, cheesy, and sleazy. Social media people (bloggers, etc.) have in the past focused on giving away tons of free content, serving their communities, and building great trust for their brand, but in the past they have had a lot of difficulty making money from their efforts. (The image of the “broke blogger” has almost replaced the image of the “starving artist” for the digital era’s preferred cliché of high-minded impoverishment.)
Copyblogger.com attempts to bridge and synthesize these two worlds, teaching you a style of marketing that combines the integrity, trust, honesty, and vulnerability of the social media tribe with the money-earning genius of the direct-response tribe, while leaving behind the sleaze, cheese of the latter, and the vows of poverty of the former.
I’m astonished at the amount of free education available on this site. A month of diving intensively into its archives could have more real-world benefit for you than entire years of higher education.
One of my favorite picks on the site is a series on “How to Write Magnetic Headlines.” You’ll notice the influence of this series on my chapter titles and subheadings.6
MarieForleo.com
Marie is a pioneer in the field of entrepreneurialism and marketing for women. However, I think everyone, men and women, should study her stuff because there’s something very important in her “feminine” touch to marketing (visit http://marieforleo.com). In the past, direct-response was an all-boys club, and there was a lot of dick swinging going on, with very aggressive, testosterone-laden hard-sell pitches and an emphasis on “Sell! Sell! Sell! More! Faster!” without much concern for how those on the receiving end felt about it.
Marie’s great insight was, women don’t want to read this kind of marketing, and most women business owners don’t want to create it. All else equal, Marie contends, women tend to prefer to do business with people and companies with whom they have an ongoing business relationship, not a one-off transaction. They don’t want a bunch of aggressive pressure and don’t respond well to it; they tend to respond more to a gentler approach, based on trust, sharing, community, and connection.
Marie was ahead of the curve on this because the whole trend of marketing now—with the emphasis from social media on openness, transparency, honesty, and community—is heading in that direction.
Beyond all this feel-good stuff, she’s also wickedly funny, which is reason alone to read her. She’s entertaining, and nothing sells like humor.
MattFurey.com
Matt is one of the most respected copywriters and practitioners of marketing through e-mail on the planet. He’s known for kick-ass storytelling in his copywriting. Funny, irreverent, highly conversational. A world-class legendary copywriter and marketer. Get on his e-mail list (visit http://mattfurey.com)—you can learn a ton from him emulating his style.
JonathanFields.com
You can’t find a more soft-spoken, authentic, sweet, genuine marketing expert out there than Jonathan Fields (visit http://www.jonathanfields.com).