Tom Ruwitch
For those of you who would like to produce good, business-building contentā¦ …with less time-consuming, costly effort… …hereās a story for you. On Wednesday, I was one of the speakers at an online networking event. The guy who organized the event, called me a few weeks in advance, and asked for a presentation topic. Earlier…
When he was a young college student, my wifeās great-great-grandfather joined the revolution. He and his pals tried to overthrow the German government. The year was 1833, and young Adolph Wislizenus āstormed the castleā with a band of student revolutionaries in Frankfurt. Their plan: Sneak-attack a few arsenals. Capture the soldiers. Take the guns. Arm…
I miss movie theater popcorn. A large bucket. Plenty of salt. None of that fake butter. On a good day — especially if my wife grabs a few handfuls from the first bucket — I go for the free refill. Ahhhā¦such fond pre-pandemic memories. When the movie theaters reopen, Iāll rush backā¦ …not because I…
I recently heard this interesting tidbit about Eugene Schwartz, a genius copywriter who penned ads that generated massive sales: He had a secret way to get the scoop on his target market… He would go to the theater to see all the hit moviesā¦ …and he would see the blockbusters TWICE. Why? Because if youāre…
I recently heard this wild story about Native American warriors. Two tribes face off on the battlefield — maybe the Sioux on one side, the Crow on the other. They shout taunts at each other. Then a brave young warrior from one side gallops forward on his pinto, charging at the enemy… …not to kill…
My pal Harry forwarded to me a how-not-to-do-it sales email he received the other day. He called it āfertile materialā for the emails I send. He got that right. The email Harry forwarded was from a design firm in Arizona that was fishing for business. The email came from Dave, the firmās principal. āHi Harry,ā Dave wrote.…
In 1925, John Caples was a rookie copywriter working on an ad for home-study piano courses. He drafted several headlines that he shared with his boss. Here are a few: āCan you play the piano? Neither could I three months ago?ā āThey laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to…
A desperate marketer posted a sad-sack story last week on a public forum. He was trying to reach prospects in a niche marketā¦ …and he was getting ZERO response. Facebook Ads? No-go. LinkedIn messages? Zip? Search advertising? Nada. So he asked the internet for helpā¦ …and the internet responded with a bunch ofĀ INSANITY. First, Iāll…
I read something cool this morning. It comes from a book calledĀ Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene Schwartz. He was one of the great direct response copywriters of the twentieth century. Breakthrough AdvertisingĀ is a Bible for those who want to write copy that works. At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Schwartz writesā¦ ā…Advertising is the literature of…
One of the great business stories of all time is also one of the shortest. Just nine words. Here it is: You can pay me nowā¦ …or pay me later. If you watched television in the 70s, you couldnāt miss those ads for Fram oil filters. The broken car. The expensive repair. The mechanic saying…