Good Examples
I was walking my dog, Moose, around the block the other day and came upon a neighbor who was manicuring his lawn. This wasn’t your standard roll-the-mower-over-the-grass job. This was high-intensity fuss-over-the-fescue. He was on his knees with a hand clipper, working the edges, getting everything right. Not just good enough. But perfect. After he…
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Long before Apple and Android turned phones into pocket-sized computers, Palm dominated the mobile device market. The simple, compact PalmPilot handled four functions: calendars, contacts, memos, and tasks. Jeff Hawkins, the product team leader, carried in his pocket a PalmPilot-sized block of wood. When other team members suggested new functions beyond the core four, Hawkins…
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Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway won a bar bet by writing a story that contained just six words. Here’s the story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” That tiny story reveals a giant truth for marketers: Great stories don’t have to be long stories. In fact, one of the greatest marketing stories I know…
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When I was a kid, I remember my relatives talking about some Great Aunt I’d never met. They called her an “Old Maid.” I had no idea what they were talking about, but I could tell they considered it an insult. Years later, I learned the meaning: A woman who has — gasp! — never…
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For those of you who would like to produce good, business-building content… …with less time-consuming, costly effort… …here’s 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…
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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: “Can you play the piano? Neither could I three months ago?” “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to…
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I read something cool this morning. It comes from a book called Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene Schwartz. He was one of the great direct response copywriters of the twentieth century. Breakthrough Advertising is a Bible for those who want to write copy that works. At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Schwartz writes… “…Advertising is the literature of…
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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 now… …or pay me later. If you watched television in the 70s, you couldn’t miss those ads for Fram oil filters. The broken car. The expensive repair. The mechanic saying…
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Here’s a TV recommendation: Watch “Grant,” the new three-part documentary on the History Channel (here’s the trailer). Ulysses S. Grant was a complicated man. Some historians have painted him as a drunk, a villain, a reckless general who got lucky, a corrupt politician. This documentary rewrites that history. It exposes some of the warts. But generally,…
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I recently heard this story about the great copywriter Gary Halbert… Near the end of his career he was quizzing a protege and said, “The best way to get a prospect’s attention is to appeal to their sense of ___________.” The protege replied, “Their sense of self-interest?” Halbert said, “No…their sense of curiosity.” That’s great…
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