Subscriber VB sent me an e-mail that was just a single sentence.
Referring to a landing page for one of my information products,
it said:

“Your web site needs work.”

A simple message, but it is inappropriate and absurd on so many
levels.

Let me count the ways….

1-It violates my #1 rule of human behavior: Never give
unsolicited advice.

I didn’t ask VB for a web site critique. So why give one?

Advice that is not sought or paid for is seldom valued by the
recipient. It certainly wasn’t in this case.

2-It violates the rules of good criticism, which require that
after you say something is negative, you suggest how it might be
improved.

That’s what we call “constructive criticism,” and VB’s comment
isn’t constructive.

3-It is made in a vacuum.

VB does not know the marketing objective of my web site, nor
does she know the results I am getting.

To imply that it is bad without knowing whether it works is
misguided at best and ridiculous at worst.

4-It is made without demonstration of authority.

When I read VB’s short e-mail, my immediate thought was: “And
you are?”

Who is VB? What are her accomplishments in Internet marketing
that qualify her to make this pronouncement about my site?

Her signature file indicates she has a 9 to 5 job with an
academic institution. If she was making hundreds of thousands of
dollars in online marketing, she wouldn’t have to work a 9 to 5
job.

5-VB is in fact ignorant about the topic she comments on.

I asked her for clarification, and she gave this specific
criticism: “Boasting of personal income indicates you aren’t
targeting an educated demographic.”

Who said my target market is “an educated demographic”?

What VB doesn’t understand and didn’t bother to ask is whether I
am targeting prospects of any particular education level. And I
am not.

My target is people who want to make money writing and selling
simple information online – aspiring Internet entrepreneurs and
newbies. Level of education is not a selection factor.

VB also informs me: “Scroll-down page format is outdated.”

But it is a simple matter to surf the Internet and check out the
landing pages of so many successful online marketers to see that
this is absolutely not the case.

Why do I urge you not to give unsolicited advice like VB gave me?

**It is neither appreciated nor respected by the person you give
it to.

**There is a very good chance the recipient of your advice knows
more than you do, including why your advice as it pertains to
their specific situation is wrong. So you look foolish giving it.

**Surely you have work of your own to do. So do it. Why waste
your valuable time giving people advice they don’t even want?

If you really feel compelled to give advice, become a coach or
consultant so you at least get paid for it and deliver your
suggestions to people who actually want them.

BTW, VB and I had a pleasant back-and-forth exchange of e-mails.
She is a nice, intelligent person – just misguided, for the 5
reasons outlined above.

I was arguing with AB, my gourmet friend, about meat, of all
things.

He said Ruth Chris porterhouse steak is the best meat money can
buy.

I said I preferred the chopped liver at my local deli.

“But steak is better than chopped liver!” AB said as if
proclaiming the gospel truth. Perhaps you agree with him. I
think most people do.

But the fact remains: AB should not have said steak is better
than chopped liver. What he should have said was: “I like steak
better than chopped liver.” Because food preferences are just
that – preferences, not facts.

Unfortunately, too many of us defend matters of opinion as
vehemently as if they were commandments etched in stone. This is
especially true in political arguments between liberals and
conservatives. Just listen to Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage.

How about you?

Do you have a burning urge to prove to others that you are right
all the time?

Perhaps you should not.

Having strongly held opinions is one thing … but being overly
militant in defending them is something else.

Humans have always been contentious by nature.

Now the Internet has become a breeding ground for displaying
unstinting bickering and argument for all to see.

The next time you’re about to foam at the mouth because you
disagree with something someone said online or elsewhere, take a
breath … and ask yourself why it’s so important for you to argue
with the other guy.

A lot of folks I encounter would say that the reason is simple:
they know they are right and feel obliged to correct the other
person’s misinformation.

The problem is that often, when we think we are right, that is
only our opinion … and it is not a fact – like steak vs. chopped
liver.

For what it’s worth to you, I follow a different approach,
especially in business: It is based on the understanding that I
am not always right and in fact am often wrong.

The result is an open-mindedness to other opinions and differing
ideas many people sometimes lack.

This flexibility of thought was developed based on my 3+ decades
in direct mail copywriting.

Being a direct response copywriter is a humbling experience, for
the following reason: there are times when a mailing you think
of as a sure winner bombs, and conversely, when the mailing you
don’t have much confidence in turns out to be a home run.

This goes to show that our opinions are only that – opinions –
and are often rendered inconsequential by the reality of actual
facts.

According to an old maxim, the only two things that are certain
in this world are death and taxes.

I’m not sure the list of what is certain is quite that limited.

But the list of things that are matters of opinion – and not

matters of absolute fact – is probably much larger than most

people think.

At least, that’s my opinion. What do you think?

There is a huge generation gap between young marketers and old
marketers — like me.

As I see it, many young marketers are overly fond of whatever is
hip and trendy at the moment – e.g., Instagram, Google +,
infographics, Foursquare, memes.

Many older marketers prefer the tried, true, and tested methods:
e-mail marketing, white papers, landing pages, direct mail, ads.

Why do young marketers have such a strong preference for the
latest flavor of the month?

I can think of a few reasons:

1-They want to appear “in the know” to their friends,
colleagues, and clients.

2-People are always attracted to things that are new.

3-For old-school marketing methods such as direct mail, there is
a huge body of tested experience which young marketers do not
know about … so they are at a disadvantage.

4-Some clients are mesmerized by the latest fads, and look for
consultants who are proficient in those methods.

5-Many marketers find refuge in marketing for which sales ROI
cannot be measured, because it masks the fact that they don’t
know how to sell.

6-It’s easier and takes less skill to create a blog post or a
Tweet than it does to write a long-copy landing page whose sales
can be measured to the dollar.

I often say I was born at the wrong time, for the following
reason….

When I was young and worked in marketing for large corporations,
the senior marketers were revered while it was assumed that us
“kids” knew nothing and would take many years to train.

Now that I am older, I live in a youth-oriented society where
young people are valued for their superior grasp of technology,
while folks in my 50+ age group can’t get a job because their
skills are thought to be obsolete and their thinking out of step
with the times.

The fact is that today’s youth does not respect the wisdom of
their elders – either in business or in life – and does not seek
to learn from them.

A case in point is EM, one of my early mentors, who was
considered one of the great copywriters of the 20th century.

EM and I both wrote direct mail copy for Publisher X. At the
time, I had about 7 years experience, and EM had more than 40.

The marketing managers at Publisher X – who were all in their
20s and 30s – loved what I wrote. And I think they viewed me as
a contemporary. But they tore EM’s copy to shreds.

Here they were, able to access decades of tested direct mail
knowledge from a guy who wrote some of the most famous classic
DM packages of all time …

… and they had no interest in what he thought or had to say. He
lamented to me that X routinely ignored his advice and
suggestions.

I close with this bit of wisdom from my favorite comedienne,
Louis CK:

“Life is an education, and if you’re older, you’re smarter. If
you are in an argument with somebody and they are older than
you, you should listen to them.

“It doesn’t mean they’re right. It means that even if they’re
wrong, their wrongness is rooted in more information than you
have.”

LW writes: “Would appreciate your thoughts about the ethics of working for your clients’ competitors simultaneously — and if not, your thoughts about the allowable recommended space of time between competitor-clients?”

He adds: “As a copywriter develops more expertise in a particular field, he wants to build on this. And it’s quite natural to use that expertise in the service of others in his clients’ same type of business. But at what cost?”

Here are some guidelines for when it’s OK for you as a copywriter to work for multiple clients in the same field. Note: these are guidelines only, not the final word:

1—Clients in some large copywriting niche markets – e.g., financial publishing, alternative health, business opportunity, information marketing – expect you to have multiple clients in these niches and in fact hope that you do, so that your expertise in selling those kinds of products is that much greater.

2—Small local businesses want exclusivity: If you write copy for one of the two chiropractors in your town, he expects that you are not working for his competitor down the block.

3—Business-to-business marketers, especially those selling technology products, may ask whether you are working for any of their direct competitors. If you are not, and they hire you, they may insist that you not work for their competitors while you are working for them.

It’s a Catch-22, isn’t it? Clients want you to have experience in their product or service. But they don’t want you to be working for any of their competitors as long as you are working for them.

4—A company with one product is very likely not going to want you to work with other companies marketing the same product – especially if it is also that competitor’s only product. A company with many product offerings is much less likely to be bothered by you working with another company that sells one or another of those products.

5–If a client does not raise the issue of whether you are working for any other clients in their niche, then you don’t have to raise it, either. But if they do ask, you must tell.

6—Another factor is whether client A’s success in selling his product diminishes client B’s sales of the same product.

In the investment newsletter area, for instance, I handle multiple clients because a consumer who buys client A’s newsletter may still buy client B’s newsletter; many readers in this field take multiple newsletters.

On the other hand, if my copy helps Auto Dealer A sell Consumer X a Toyota, the consumer has made his car purchase and is highly unlikely to buy another Toyota from Auto Dealer B next week.

Some clients may ask you to sign a noncompete agreement that forbids you from working for any of their competitors while you are working for them now and for a specified period of time thereafter.

Whether you sign such an agreement is up to you. Obviously it makes more sense to agree to a noncompete clause when (a) you really want to write for that client, (b) the project is lucrative, or (c) the client offers the potential for multiple, ongoing assignments.

Two things to look for in a noncompete agreement before you sign it:

First, as the vendor, prefer a short-term to a long-term noncompete period following termination of services; i.e., 6 months is better than 2 years.

Second, narrow the definition of what a competitor is. For example, I won’t sign any noncompete agreement in the “software” field, because so many companies have software products.

But I may sign a noncompete agreement specifying “enterprise single sign-on (ESSO) software,” because it only minimally restricts what new clients I can take on.

Besides, if I have an ESSO client (as I have in the past), I am not looking to simultaneously work with the handful of other ESSO companies out there. I would see that as a conflict of interest.

“What’s hot in B2B marketing?” I recently asked my colleague JD.

“Video,” JD replied without hesitation.

I smiled, because I have been writing video scripts for over 30
years – ever since I worked in marketing communications for a
large defense contractor in the late 70s.

Back then, people had more time and greater attention spans than
they do today, so many of our videos ran 10 to 12 minutes.

A few were longer. We had an introductory video to educate new
employees and others about the company that was 23 minutes long.

TS, my boss, told me he had wanted Burgess Meredith to narrate
it.

But Meredith was anti-war and would not work with a defense
company.

Back in the day, production standards for marketing videos were
higher than they are today.

All our videos were shot by professional crews using
professional equipment.

Because of this, TS had a rule: the videos we did had to be of a
production quality that matched or came close to what the
prospect saw on TV.

Today anyone with a cell phone thinks he can shoot an acceptable
video.

Because of that and YouTube, today’s prospects are much more
forgiving of middling quality in marketing videos posted on the
web. Some marketers even say videos that look home-made actually
pull better than those that are “slick.”

Many of my corporate clients tell me, as if it were an
indisputable fact, that no one on Earth will watch a video
longer than 3 minutes today.

Yet many of my direct marketing clients in financial and health
care routinely ask me to write video sales letters that are 20
to 25 minutes … and these videos generate higher conversion
rates than static landing pages. So much for “indisputable”
facts.

You see, when someone tells you a “fact” about marketing like
“no one reads copy anymore,” they are almost always basing it on
their subjective opinion and personal preferences – yet they
proclaim it as the gospel truth. Their mistake.

Copywriter PB once told me: “Never let personal preference get
in the way.”

For example: I strongly dislike sweepstakes direct mail
packages. And I throw them away the instant I get them.

But does my throwing them away have any bearing on whether they
work? Of course not.

If you are a direct marketer – someone whose marketing generates
a measurable response – as so many online marketers are these
days, it’s easy enough to test and know for a fact what works.
You don’t have to leave it to opinion.

One client, the marketing director of a software company, had a
rule for the direct mail packages we produced. She said, “Always
have a picture of a bearded programmer on page one of the
letter.”

This, however, was not her subjective opinion. They tested this
multiple times, and adding the photo always lifted response.
Why? Well, their target market was programmers, so perhaps this
helped them relate to the letter writer.

This brings up a broader principle: People buy from people they
like, and they like people who are like them. Therefore, it
makes sense to have the copy written in the voice of and signed
by someone who is a member of your target audience. For
instance, if you are sending an e-mail to nurses, have the
e-mail coming from a nurse.

A lot of my subscribers ask me how I get motivated to do my work
… but the truth is: I think the whole idea of motivation is
overrated.

My subscriber RM writes: “Bob, thanks for balancing out the
often severely unrealistic optimism that often comes with
motivational literature … you’re keeping it real.”

A whole mini-industry, motivational speaking and publishing, has
evolved to help people worldwide find their motivation.

But I believe you can do what you must do to succeed whether you
feel motivated or not.

In an attempt at humorous marketing, an actor reading the script
on a radio commercial pauses and asks his producer, “What’s my
motivation here?”

The producer’s deadpan answer: “We’re paying you.”

JH, a successful novelist, says that the secret to his success
is that he writes every day whether he feels motivated to or not.

“Writing is my job,” says JH. “If I work in the chicken plant,
do I not go to the chicken plant today just because I don’t feel
like it?”

I also don’t place overly much importance on positive thinking
or optimism.

The book “The Secret” says that if you keep thinking positive
thoughts, you will get or become what you think about.

Note: I well understand the Law of Attraction. Please do not
write to me suggesting I do not and offering your explanation. I
was listening to Earl Nightingale when many of my readers were
in diapers.

The Law of Attraction notwithstanding, my experience is that
ideas, visualization, affirmations, and positive thoughts alone
are next to nothing. It is action that gets you the results.

I am by nature a pessimist. Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist
and author of the book “Learned Optimism,” says that an
advantage of pessimists is that they see things realistically.

As a negative sort of person, I do at times wonder whether, in
my large body of how-to writing, I may have failed to
sufficiently motivate my readers. My writing tends to be long on
actionable ideas and short on rah-rah talk.

Many info marketers motivate by promising outrageous results in
their promotional copy and their products. A lot do so by hyping
the business opportunity they are selling in their writings.

But unless the buyer follows the instructions given in the
product and keeps at it, he is unlikely to achieve the results
he wants.

I like what my colleague info marketer FG says: “I make no
promises about your results. That’s up to you.”

Nike’s iconic ad campaign encapsulates my advice to you: “Just
do it.”

Nike has it right. What matters most is not what you think or
say; what matters most is what you do.

Thomas Carlyle said it this way: “Produce! Produce! Were it but
the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it
in God’s name! ‘Tis the utmost thou hast in thee: out with it,
then.”

AL, a superstar stock broker on Wall Street, once said: “The
more you tell the client that you are not a guru, not a
rain-maker, the more credible you become.”

I think this kind of humbleness goes a long way toward getting
people to trust you. Yet modesty is a credibility builder that
almost no one uses. What a shame!

For instance, on one of his web sites, my buddy Fred Gleeck, the
superstar information marketer, writes:

“Probably 98% of people who buy my products do nothing. The
testimonials on this site represent those who HAVE done
something.

“I make no promises about your results. That’s up to you. The
information is solid. The testimonials represent a VERY SMALL
portion of the people who buy this product, much to my chagrin!”

This is brilliant because it is both honest and believable. The
reader either knows or suspects that most information products
don’t deliver the results their authors boast about. Fred’s copy
resonates with the belief the reader already has in his head
instead of clashing with it.

Fred also avoids creating unrealistic expectations on the part
of the buyer. If you buy his product and don’t get the results,
you realize that it is at least in part your fault. So this
reduces dissatisfaction and minimizes refund requests.

Sad to say, the majority of people I encounter both in business
and my personal life are braggarts, to one degree or another.

To me, that’s counterproductive, because in my observation, most
people dislike braggarts and admire modesty.

The Bible, Jeremiah 9:23: “Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise
[man] glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty [man] glory in
his might, let not the rich [man] glory in his riches.”

If you wish to be a humble and modest human being, or at least
give the appearance of being one, here are 3 simple rules to
follow:

1-Resist the constant temptation to brag, no matter how frequent
or strong the impulse.

2-Do not tell people about your successes, accomplishments, or
good fortune unless they ask. And even then, downplay it.

3-Is what you are about to say going to make the other person
feel bad about themselves in comparison to you? Are you saying
it unnecessarily to feed your own ego? If so, don’t say it.

Is content marketing – the marketing methodology that entails disseminating free special reports, white papers, e-books, blog posts, and other useful content to potential customers – overrated?

Sales expert Robert Minskoff seems to think so.

“Go ahead and blog, tweet, and post,” says Minskoff. “But be very aware that there is still a large segment of the buying population that places very little importance on that type of content.”

So what does work in getting the order? “Selling is a human interaction,” Robert says. “Be human.”

I am the first to stand up and say content marketing – which in the good old days, we simply called “free information offers” – can work well.

After all, I have been an active practitioner of content marketing since the early 1980s.

But content marketing has its limits.

Offering free content is great for generating inquiries – people love to get free stuff.

It also educates the consumer on how to buy your type of product.

For instance, say you offer a free report “7 Things to Look for When Hiring a Roofer.”

Naturally, your roofing service precisely meets all 7 requirements spelled out in the report.

So after reading the report, homeowners will be more likely to hire you than your competitors who do not precisely match the requirements you listed.

However, if all you do is give away free content, you are not going to close many sales.

Content marketers need to remember that we are in the business of selling, not giving away free stuff.

The prospect is there not merely to be educated. You also have to sell him on why he should buy your product vs. other alternatives – including doing nothing. And that’s not content marketing. That’s copywriting.

To close the sale, at some point the prospect must receive a communication containing copy that (1) highlights your product’s unique advantages over the competition, (2) overcomes his objections, and (3) proves that your product is a superior solution to his problems.

You may also need professional salespeople who know how to establish relationships with prospects, diagnose their needs, and convince them your company is the best equipped to meet those needs.

Not to be mean-spirited, but I think part of the reason so many marketers jumped on the content marketing bandwagon so readily is that writing content is a lot easier – and less  threatening – than either writing copy that sells or selling in person.

It’s a relatively easy and pleasant task to write a short blog post on a thought, idea, tip, or factoid that caught your fancy. Or put that information in your e-zine.

It’s quite another to convince a terrific prospect to retain your firm when he is objecting that your price is too high – or he thinks your competitor is just as good as you are.

That kind of situation causes your average content marketer to run for the hills – but copywriters and salespeople alike relish such selling challenges. It’s what we’re paid for.

The bottom line: content marketing is fine as far as it goes. But nothing really happens until somebody sells something.