Tom Ruwitch
A gift for you today… A .pdf copy of Scientific Advertising – the groundbreaking book by advertising pioneer Claude C. Hopkins. Grab it here: tommail.me/sa And then read Chapter 7: Being Specific. Last week, I sent an email about the Great Moon Hoax (Marketing lessons from horny man-bats and two-legged beavers), archived here: tommail.me/moon. Readers fell for the hoax, in…
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A sequel to the email I sent yesterday re: Dan Kennedy and direct response marketing (archived here in case you missed it) I worked in the newspaper industry for most of the 1990s. By 1996, I was working on the online side. Most newspaper display advertising was (and still is) paid brand awareness. No calls-to-action. No tracking. …
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I heard Dan Kennedy say this yesterday… “I believe in brand. I have brands of my own that I relied on my entire career – starting with ‘No BS…’ But I’ve never spent a nickel trying to BUY awareness for that brand…Instead of spending money, figure out ways to get paid to build a valuable…
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Recommended ViewingPerspective is Everything Rory Sutherland is Vice Chairman at the giant ad agency Ogilvy UK. In this 2011 TED talk, he says several profound and powerful things, including: “Things are not what they are; they are what we think they are.” and “The circumstances of our lives may actually matter less to our happiness…
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Earlier this week, I watched Albert Pujols fail – twice. Major League Baseball at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs. First failure: Top of the 4th inning, runner on first base with no one out. Pujols grounds into a double-play. One swing. Two outs. Nothing doing for…
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Imagine pouring your first cup of coffee, grabbing the morning paper, and reading the news: There’s life on the moon. So it went on this day (August 25) in 1835 for readers of the New York Sun. In a series of six articles published over one week, the paper reported that English astronomer John Herschel built…
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Got this question from a client the other day: “Tom, how often should I sell in my emails?” He told me he’d read an article that suggested a 1:4 sales:storytelling ratio – one “sales email” for every four “storytelling emails.” “Is that the right ratio?” he asked. I hear that question often… …and mama always…
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Raise your hand if you feel an emotional connection with Amazon because you’re drawn to founder Jeff Bezos’s origin story. (Me neither) Why do I ask? Because I read yet another article about storytelling in one of those big-time business magazines that dished out rotten advice. The article said… “Online shopping behemoth Amazon is another…
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Recommended ViewingThis Video Will Help You Turn Content From Boring to Brilliant Mary K. Sloane and I had a great conversation last week on her Inspirational Influencer News show. If you want to know how to harness the power of storytelling to captivate prospects and inspire them to hire you… …this is a great crash place to…
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We’ve all heard the expression, “The show must go on.” Here’s a “show must go on” story that blew me away. It was a Thursday afternoon last month in St. Louis, MO, USA. Three days earlier, record-breaking rainfall – 9+ inches in less than 10 hours – flooded the town (I told that story here). Another…
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