Cautionary Tales
Oh no! I swallowed some Ryan Deiss click-bait⌠âŚonly to discover Iâd been fooled again. The subject line said, âRe: Refund Request.â Maybe Iâm still in a post-vacation haze. Maybe the morning coffee hadnât kicked in. Whatever my excuse, my lizard brain told me to open the email so I could see the status of…
Read More
Greetings from my temporary home in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France, where Iâm staying in a 600-year-old house, along a back alley that reminds me of Diagon Alley. I got lots of great feedback regarding my email last week about rotten marketing tricksters who âswim in the shallow end of the tactical gene pool.â Like this reply from subscriber Gill who…
Read More
Yesterday, I heard Troy Broussard dish some dirt on marketing jackasses who resort to stupid tricks⌠âŚsuch as ending mass emails with âSent from my iPhone.â Those cunning tricksters want you to think theyâve sent a personal email, composed one thumb-tap at a time, just for you. Troy said, as I often say: You donât…
Read More
On Thursday, Dean Isaacs and I will host a 5in25 training: Metrics that Matter – 5 Things to Measure in Your Marketing and Sales⌠âŚand (spoiler alert): Email open rate is not a metric that matters. A story to clarify: A few years back, I attended a conference where an âemail marketing expertâ spoke. He described a…
Read More
I crossed paths with a desperate marketer yesterday who craves more followers for his companyâs LinkedIn page. A competing company recently gained 1,600 followers in 30 days, and Desperate didnât want his company to fall behind. So he posted his story to a marketing forum and asked for help. Then the rotten advice began to…
Read More
Hereâs a cautionary tale about LinkedIn⌠âŚand why you must power-up your profile⌠âŚeven if you rarely spend time on the platform. Yesterday, I met a guy named Bill whoâs trying to ramp up his tutoring business. He struggles to generate leads and land clients. And he described those struggles while sitting on the âhot…
Read More
It began as a shoulder ache. Now I have a headache. And itâs all because of process automation gone wrong. I woke Monday morning â after a restless, painful night â with a sore shoulder. The pain had spread down my forearm, to my hand. I knew these symptoms. Iâd had them before â 15…
Read More
A VIP member of my Content Transformation Academy asked me last week: Whatâs the ideal length for a subject line? âProvocative question,â I replied. My answer: âSize doesnât matter.â The VIP shot back: âI read âshorter is better.ââ âYeah,â I replied, âSome say short. Some say long.â I Googled âwhat’s the proper length for a…
Read More
I spoke yesterday to a business owner who doesnât like getting emails⌠âŚso she doesnât want to send them. âI’ll be honest about email lists or subscriptions,â she said. âI don’t really like being on them. because I always feel like I’m being bombarded by emailsâŚSo I’m only intending to send (email) out once a…
Read More
Last week, I re-watched Romeo + Juliet — the 1996 version starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. I love the scene where the star-crossed lovers meet. Love at first sight around a tropical fish tank. Here’s the video clip… Audiences enjoy love at first sight stories. (This clip — which is one of many on YouTube showing this scene…
Read More