If you’re anything like me, you find yourself “framing” quite a few of the statements you make in day to day conversation. This can be constructive or detrimental, depending on how you do it. Framing is simply saying something to prepare your hearer or reader for what you’re about to say. For example, “Listen up! What … Read more
I’m working on the December edition of my newsletter. I feel the need to warn you. If you aren’t subscribed to the newsletter, you’re really going to miss out on a powerful lesson this month. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but let me say this: the information I’ll be expounding on would not … Read more
People keep telling me that the internet is making people dumber. To be honest, I don’t know whether or not that’s true. But did you know that Twitter can make you better writer? If you are purposeful in your how you approach your use of any microblogging platform, there are 5 ways that you can they can … Read more
A discussion in one of the groups I’m a member of on LinkedIn brought an interesting tool to my attention. It’s the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer. This tool will take a look at the emotional value of the words in your headline and give you a score. From the site: This score indicates that … Read more
Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like you can find marketing lessons everywhere. I’m not talking about learning from the hundreds of sales messages that harass our eyes and ears daily. You can gain marketing insight in what seems like most unlikely places… Last night, my lovely wife and I had a great time playing Scrabble. After having the crap beaten out of me … Read more
A thought for your consideration (which happens to be a comment that I made on John Carlton’s blog last summer) Selling is just like a marriage proposal. You can’t just walk up a stranger and ask her to marry you. You have to take the process one step at a time, starting with small, easy-to-make choices … Read more
From the Marketing Beyond Advertising blog: Do your ads sound like ads? Do your ads boast about your superior service, your wide selection, or name the number of years you’ve been in business? If so, you may be guilty of Ad-Speak. Introducing the Carlin Ad Speak Calculator! This cool tool will analyze your advertising copy and … Read more
Jim Punkre is a legend. He’s widely considered to be among the top ten copywriters in history, generating over $1 billion in sales over his 35 year career. I can’t even describe this treasure trove of copywriting and direct mail wisdom from an interview Daniel Levis did with Jim for his Masters of Copywriting compilation. You can take … Read more
Anyone in sales, marketing or real estate can benefit from this interesting article by hypnotherapist-turned salesman Ken Ellsworth. Take a look at the “Could You Sell The Eiffel Tower…Twice?” here. He tells the true story of scam artist Victor Lustig, who actually “sold” the Eiffel Tower to unwitting marks in the 1920’s. He then relates some lessons … Read more
1) Use surgical precision. Know who your prospective customers are so that you can concentrate on stopping them in their tracks with your headline. Determine which words and themes appeal to your target right now; what is he thinking about? Wondering about? Worried about? Headlines really serve a single purpose: they use words to get … Read more