The Library
Browse over 250 articles on nearly three dozen marketing-related topics.
Its likely you’ll find the information you’re looking for right here.
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Articles, Filed by Category
- Ad Critique / Classic Examples
Great ads from the past, plus real world examples of advertising, before and after they’ve been modified for greater effect.
- A Few Good Ads
No description found for this item.
- Advertising and Air Conditioner Sales
Are incentive programs a good investment? What happens when you've incentivised the wrong behavior?
- How Many Pancake Restaurants?
On nearly any list, most people can remember the top three with little effort. What if you're not close to the top?
- Ozzy's "Crazy Train" Car Ad
No description found for this item.
- Your Favorite TV Ad
People will claim this as their favorite ad. The RPA agency will win awards. And sales of Ozzy's catalog will spike before Christmas.But it won't sell cars.
- A Few Good Ads
- Ad Testing
- Are You Testing Advertising, or Simply Your Offer?
No description found for this item.
- Are Your Ads Working? Can You Prove It?
Thankfully, we don't see it often, but it is possible to have a negative Conversion Factor, in which your ads COST you sales.
- Conduct Only One Advertising Test at a Time.
No description found for this item.
- Evidence Based Advertising
Direct response principles have been tested and perfected.Larry Mullins wonders, can they focus your image advertising?
- Higher Profits Through Testing of Every Variable
An improvement of three-tenths of one percent in response rate can double your profit.
- How Can We Test Advertising?
No description found for this item.
- Testing Advertising Response in the Store
No description found for this item.
- Are You Testing Advertising, or Simply Your Offer?
- Ad Writing / Copywriting
- A Good Ad
No description found for this item.
- A Priest, A Rabbi, And A Minister Walk Into A Bar
Before he starts this story the joke teller looks to the left, and then to the right to make sure he’s not about to be overheard
- Advertising Observations From My Hotel Room
Estimates are that Americans ignore nearly 3,500 advertising impressions a day. Shouldn’t we be working to make our ads less like everyone elses?
- Five Advertising Rules For Your Business From The Personals
Some of the best, and the worst, techniques in advertising.
- One Easily Remembered Point
With all of its additional impact, the second ad takes only about 60% of the space that it's competitor does. When one makes a much bigger impact with a substantially smaller ad, how many more…
- The Long And Short Of Persuasion
Fans of short copy are almost never successful copywriters.
- The Worth of a Dali
Perhaps you’d be kind enough to show me a picture that clearly and unequivocally says something as simple as “no.” Every two-year-old knows how to convey "no." He says it.
- Trends and Cycles and Advertising In Them
Give compelling reasons that people who need your services should choose you. Start now, because it takes time to influence the way people think.
- You Can't Bore People Into Paying Attention
If your attention is drawn to the cleverness of the ad, rather than to the product, it's a bad ad.
- A Good Ad
- Advertising / Marketing Strategy
- A Good Ad
No description found for this item.
- Adjust Your Staffing - Surviving The Recession - Part 4 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Advertising and Air Conditioner Sales
Are incentive programs a good investment? What happens when you've incentivised the wrong behavior?
- Bad News For Business Owners
No description found for this item.
- Bar Bands and Chicken Sandwiches: Protecting Your Brand in an Age of Social Conscience
When taking a socially responsible side reinforces the company’s brand, responsible companies take sides.
- Bottled Water, Fresh Fruit, and the Price of Gasoline
No description found for this item.
- Coffee, The Moon Landing, And A Game Of Poker
In share of mind, share of market, and poker, third position is a loser.
- Danger in the Discount
The biggest single reason small businesses fail? Its poor pricing. It takes down the competitors of those businesses, too.
- Focus on Revenue and Customer Service - Surviving The Recession - Part 1 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Grocery Shopping, Rising Tides, and Maintaining Market Share
No description found for this item.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 3, Advertising the First Stage of Pain
The advantage in building a brand is that people ask by name for what you sell
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 4, When People Realize They're Hurting
Whatever you choose to call this awareness, people don't buy anything until they recognize the feeling caused by a lack of it in their lives.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 5, Testimonials and Comparisons
Your communications will become powerful when your prospect recognizes that you're talking to her.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 6, Make It Stop!
The first company seems to think their name is the most important information the customer needs. The second focuses on the customer's emergent need.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 7, Tie It All Together.
Although you now have your prospect's attention, you still have no credibility with her. This is where acknowledgment of her pain mindset comes in.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 8, Message Frequency, Media Choices, and Tracking
Marketing P.A.I.N. is a step-by-step guide to more effective advertising.
- Military Positioning as Marketing Strategy
How is marketing dominance achieved? The easiest way is to actually be first. The second way to claim a winning position is to create a whole new mental battlefield and be first to occupy it.
- One Easily Remembered Point
With all of its additional impact, the second ad takes only about 60% of the space that it's competitor does. When one makes a much bigger impact with a substantially smaller ad, how many more…
- Reach vs Frequency – Systemic Marketing™ Part II
Are sales more likely to increase if you reach more people with your message (offer), or if you deliver that message with greater frequency to the same people?
- Speed up cash flow - Surviving The Recession - Part 6 of 7
No description found for this item.
- The Customer's Buying Process – Systemic Marketing™ Part III
A strong appeal to an early stage shopper will be equally attractive to a different early stage shopper next month.
- Trends and Cycles and Advertising In Them
Give compelling reasons that people who need your services should choose you. Start now, because it takes time to influence the way people think.
- Where Are The Goal Posts? Where Is Your Team?
You're gambling the future of your team without any idea of where you are or where you're going.
- Will Advertising Sell What People Don't Want?
Its a common desire in retail to advertise the things which aren't selling. This is frequently bad strategy. Very bad.
- You Can't Bore People Into Paying Attention
If your attention is drawn to the cleverness of the ad, rather than to the product, it's a bad ad.
- A Good Ad
- Advertising Schedules / Scheduling
- Somebody Tell Lord Leverhulme
There is an optimum number of exposures to an advertising message for each listening audience.
- Will Advertising Sell What People Don't Want?
Its a common desire in retail to advertise the things which aren't selling. This is frequently bad strategy. Very bad.
- Somebody Tell Lord Leverhulme
- Budgeting, Pricing, and Return on Advertising Investment (ROAI)
- Accelerate Your Advertising and PR – Surviving the Recession – Part 3 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Bottled Water, Fresh Fruit, and the Price of Gasoline
No description found for this item.
- Danger in the Discount
The biggest single reason small businesses fail? Its poor pricing. It takes down the competitors of those businesses, too.
- Do You Have To Drop Price To Increase Sales?
Spending too little to do the job is the most expensive advertising that any of us will ever do.
- Guaranteed Advertising ROI in a Tough Economy
No description found for this item.
- Higher Profits Through Testing of Every Variable
An improvement of three-tenths of one percent in response rate can double your profit.
- Hope is Not a Strategy for Greater Return on Advertising Investment.
No description found for this item.
- Is a Radio Remote Broadcast a Good Investment?
There's no sin in passing up an inexpensive opportunity which won't benefit your company.
- Lower Your Profit Margins - Surviving The Recession - Part 5 of 7
No description found for this item.
- More SEO and PPC. We must save the General!
Doing more of what isn't working is the definition of Nutz, isn't it?
- One Easily Remembered Point
With all of its additional impact, the second ad takes only about 60% of the space that it's competitor does. When one makes a much bigger impact with a substantially smaller ad, how many more…
- Presumed Prospects, Identified Prospects, and Core Customers
The more you know about specific prospective customers, the more it costs to present them with an offer. But, they also become more likely to buy.
- Should I give stuff away?
Question: Am I just training customers to wait for something on sale, or even free?
- The Psychology of Pricing
The old saying "You get what you pay for" is the lens through which the buyer views the world. Consciously or unconsciously, the vendor conveys the value of his product through its price.
- Accelerate Your Advertising and PR – Surviving the Recession – Part 3 of 7
- Buying Stages / Sales Conversion
- How Does One Educate a Customer? Part 1 of 3
Bob has two problems. He offers a solution to skeptical people who don't recognize their problem. Second, if he chooses to educate potential customers they may well buy from some other company.
- How to Steal Your Competitor's Customers. Part 2 of 3
No description found for this item.
- Is There Money in Accommodating Early-Stage Shoppers?
Don't show signs of buying, salespeople will move on to better prospects. They call this process "qualifying the lead."
- The Customer's Buying Process – Systemic Marketing™ Part III
A strong appeal to an early stage shopper will be equally attractive to a different early stage shopper next month.
- The Flaw In The Advertising Plan
They're never just looking. They're looking for something specific. They leave when they don't find it.
- Zen and the Art of Persuasion. Part 3 of 3
The manufacturer invests roughly 57₵ to acquire a new customer of their consumable product. Its likely that she’ll spend roughly per year re-purchasing it.
- How Does One Educate a Customer? Part 1 of 3
- Credibility and Critical Non-Essentials
- Could I Offer You a Free 0 Bill?
Can people find your address, phone number, your name, your photograph? The more of these you offer the more trustworthy you appear.
- How to Instantly Make a Poor Customer Impression
If a restaurant's ceiling fans and air ducts are filthy, what can you conclude about the food?Or do these things matter at all?
- Ten Steps To Great Customer Service
The restaurant chain required all of their employees to learn ten steps, and thought their job was done.
- Could I Offer You a Free 0 Bill?
- Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation
- Are You Testing Advertising, or Simply Your Offer?
No description found for this item.
- Basics of Retail Marketing from a Nine-Year-Old
No description found for this item.
- Bottled Water, Fresh Fruit, and the Price of Gasoline
No description found for this item.
- Can You Use Cognitive Dissonance to Create More Successful Advertising
No description found for this item.
- Cherish Your Existing Customers – Surviving the Recession – Part 2 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Expectations Drive Word-of-Mouth
No description found for this item.
- How Does One Educate a Customer? Part 1 of 3
Bob has two problems. He offers a solution to skeptical people who don't recognize their problem. Second, if he chooses to educate potential customers they may well buy from some other company.
- How to Focus on Customer Value and Survive the Coming Shake Out
There's a business shake out coming. Most businesses will survive. A few will thrive. They will deliver exceptional customer value.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 1, Relationships
In real life we avoid people who talk incessantly about themselves. Do you suppose shoppers avoid advertisers who do the same?
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 2, What Do People Want?
What do people want? Most want to stop hurting. They buy what we sell to alleviate their emotional, or physical discomfort.
- Pattern Recognition and the People Meter.
One third of Rush Limbaugh's radio listeners have disappeared since October. Could this affect your advertising
- The Customer's Buying Process – Systemic Marketing™ Part III
A strong appeal to an early stage shopper will be equally attractive to a different early stage shopper next month.
- Violated Expectations. Marketing lessons from the Dallas Cowboys.
No description found for this item.
- Will A Doomsday Cult Buy A New Dishwasher?
Companies keep using “intent to purchase” surveys to determine the course of their business, even though they are among the least reliable method of predicting human behavior.
- Will Advertising Sell What People Don't Want?
Its a common desire in retail to advertise the things which aren't selling. This is frequently bad strategy. Very bad.
- Are You Testing Advertising, or Simply Your Offer?
- Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism
- A Few Good Ads
No description found for this item.
- Accelerate Your Advertising and PR – Surviving the Recession – Part 3 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Are You Testing Advertising, or Simply Your Offer?
No description found for this item.
- Basics of Retail Marketing from a Nine-Year-Old
No description found for this item.
- Bottled Water, Fresh Fruit, and the Price of Gasoline
No description found for this item.
- Cherish Your Existing Customers – Surviving the Recession – Part 2 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Cut Overhead - Surviving The Recession - Part 7 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Dear Doctor - How Do Your Patients Rate YOU?
You keep your productivity high by insuring that mine is low. That, and your total disrespect for me as your customer are the reasons I won't be back.
- Focus on Revenue and Customer Service - Surviving The Recession - Part 1 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Free Coffee and the Incremental Discount Coupon Tactic
No description found for this item.
- How to Focus on Customer Value and Survive the Coming Shake Out
There's a business shake out coming. Most businesses will survive. A few will thrive. They will deliver exceptional customer value.
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 1, Relationships
In real life we avoid people who talk incessantly about themselves. Do you suppose shoppers avoid advertisers who do the same?
- Ten Steps To Great Customer Service
The restaurant chain required all of their employees to learn ten steps, and thought their job was done.
- There Is No Word-of-Mouth "Marketing."
No description found for this item.
- Twice A Year Is Recommended
I've passed that sign well over three hundred times. Three hundred impressions made their way into my brain. At the conscious level? Well, conscious enough that I did start thinking I was past due…
- Violated Expectations. Marketing lessons from the Dallas Cowboys.
No description found for this item.
- What Value Do You Offer?
In this economy shoppers carefully consider every purchase. But they're not looking for cheap, they're looking for value.
- What's the Boss's Most Important Job?
No description found for this item.
- A Few Good Ads
- Customer Service
- Dear Doctor - How Do Your Patients Rate YOU?
You keep your productivity high by insuring that mine is low. That, and your total disrespect for me as your customer are the reasons I won't be back.
- Dear Doctor - How Do Your Patients Rate YOU?
- Image Advertising, Branding, and Positioning
- Branding By The Numbers
Branding, or re-branding your company's image requires you to carry the company name.
- Can Brand Image Change?
Once a brand has a strong position in consumers' minds, bad news won't kill it. But good news won't resurrect it, either.
- Your Favorite TV Ad
People will claim this as their favorite ad. The RPA agency will win awards. And sales of Ozzy's catalog will spike before Christmas.But it won't sell cars.
- Branding By The Numbers
- Lifetime Customer Value (LCV)
- Cherish Your Existing Customers – Surviving the Recession – Part 2 of 7
No description found for this item.
- How to Calculate Lifetime Customer Value, Part 2 of 2
Unless you know how much money your average customer will spend with you, this year, next year, and over her lifetime, how will you know what you can afford to acquire that customer?
- How to Make Money by Losing Money - Part 1 of 2
No description found for this item.
- Cherish Your Existing Customers – Surviving the Recession – Part 2 of 7
- Market Segmentation, Targeted Marketing, Database Marketing
- Are Your Ads Working? Can You Prove It?
Thankfully, we don't see it often, but it is possible to have a negative Conversion Factor, in which your ads COST you sales.
- Coffee, The Moon Landing, And A Game Of Poker
In share of mind, share of market, and poker, third position is a loser.
- Customer Acquisition on Cruise Control – Systemic Marketing™
A cruise control for your company's marketing would necessitate less attention (and less intervention) from the “driver.”
- Data Mining for Better Ad Copy
We know your customers aren't all exactly alike. Both the differences and the similarities make for effective advertising. And the information we need is in your customer data.
- Free Coffee and the Incremental Discount Coupon Tactic
No description found for this item.
- Higher Profits Through Testing of Every Variable
An improvement of three-tenths of one percent in response rate can double your profit.
- How Many Pancake Restaurants?
On nearly any list, most people can remember the top three with little effort. What if you're not close to the top?
- Is There Money in Accommodating Early-Stage Shoppers?
Don't show signs of buying, salespeople will move on to better prospects. They call this process "qualifying the lead."
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 1, Relationships
In real life we avoid people who talk incessantly about themselves. Do you suppose shoppers avoid advertisers who do the same?
- Marketing P.A.I.N. - Part 2, What Do People Want?
What do people want? Most want to stop hurting. They buy what we sell to alleviate their emotional, or physical discomfort.
- Military Positioning as Marketing Strategy
How is marketing dominance achieved? The easiest way is to actually be first. The second way to claim a winning position is to create a whole new mental battlefield and be first to occupy it.
- Physicists, Piano Tuners, and Market Research
When data’s not available, an informed estimate beats an uninformed guess.
- Purchase a Database for Database Marketing
Database marketing makes specific offers to individual prospects. If you don't have a database of prospects, buy one.
- Are Your Ads Working? Can You Prove It?
- Media, Social Media, and Word-of-Mouth (WOM)
- Budgeting For Word Of Mouth
Surprise people, they'll talk about you. Promise, instead of surprising, and you only raise expectations.
- Expectations Drive Word-of-Mouth
No description found for this item.
- Gamblers, E-Mail, Religious Miracles, Word-of-Mouth, and Customer Delight
No description found for this item.
- Is a Radio Remote Broadcast a Good Investment?
There's no sin in passing up an inexpensive opportunity which won't benefit your company.
- Reach vs Frequency – Systemic Marketing™ Part II
Are sales more likely to increase if you reach more people with your message (offer), or if you deliver that message with greater frequency to the same people?
- Six Ideas for Social Media
Don't think about marketing in terms of where to place your message. Think about the message, then decide where it should go.
- There Is No Word-of-Mouth "Marketing."
No description found for this item.
- Your Professional Reputation - Three Distinct Levels of Word-of-Mouth
There are three kinds of word-of-mouth. Only two can be affected by your advertising.
- Budgeting For Word Of Mouth
- Minimizing Risk
- Should an Upwardly Mobile Zebra Shed Its Stripes?
Successful marketing, getting your company noticed, requires behavior that's not only risky, it runs counter to instinct.
- The Long And Short Of Persuasion
Fans of short copy are almost never successful copywriters.
- Zen and the Art of Persuasion. Part 3 of 3
The manufacturer invests roughly 57₵ to acquire a new customer of their consumable product. Its likely that she’ll spend roughly per year re-purchasing it.
- Should an Upwardly Mobile Zebra Shed Its Stripes?
- Persuasion / Power of Words
- A Few Good Ads
No description found for this item.
- Do You Have To Drop Price To Increase Sales?
Spending too little to do the job is the most expensive advertising that any of us will ever do.
- Inclusive Communication By Design
Can’t you just put a talent in front of a camera and let him persuade those late night visitors to buy?
- More Words About Pictures
No description found for this item.
- The Long And Short Of Persuasion
Fans of short copy are almost never successful copywriters.
- The Worth of a Dali
Perhaps you’d be kind enough to show me a picture that clearly and unequivocally says something as simple as “no.” Every two-year-old knows how to convey "no." He says it.
- What? I don't understand.
If you have no idea what business people are saying, maybe you're not the one who should feel stupid.
- Zen and the Art of Persuasion. Part 3 of 3
The manufacturer invests roughly 57₵ to acquire a new customer of their consumable product. Its likely that she’ll spend roughly per year re-purchasing it.
- A Few Good Ads
- Presentation
- How to Communicate Abstract Concepts in Your Presentation
There is nothing worse than watching a presentation you have to read. (Unless the presenter is reading it to you).
- Inclusive Communication By Design
Can’t you just put a talent in front of a camera and let him persuade those late night visitors to buy?
- How to Communicate Abstract Concepts in Your Presentation
- Psychology and Consumer Behavior
- A Marketing Lesson from American Idol
People who know the least often consider themselves knowledgeable. This "Dunning-Kruger Effect" is part of the reason for so many bad advertisements.
- Can You Use Cognitive Dissonance to Create More Successful Advertising
No description found for this item.
- Inclusive Communication By Design
Can’t you just put a talent in front of a camera and let him persuade those late night visitors to buy?
- Pattern Recognition and the People Meter.
One third of Rush Limbaugh's radio listeners have disappeared since October. Could this affect your advertising
- Reticular Activation - How the Human Anatomy Prevents Ads from Reaching "Everyone."
No description found for this item.
- Will A Doomsday Cult Buy A New Dishwasher?
Companies keep using “intent to purchase” surveys to determine the course of their business, even though they are among the least reliable method of predicting human behavior.
- A Marketing Lesson from American Idol
- Publicity and Public Relations (PR)
- 19 Publicity Ideas
Lee Odden doesn't think speakers should rely on promoters to publicize their next speaking events.
- Accelerate Your Advertising and PR – Surviving the Recession – Part 3 of 7
No description found for this item.
- Bar Bands and Chicken Sandwiches: Protecting Your Brand in an Age of Social Conscience
When taking a socially responsible side reinforces the company’s brand, responsible companies take sides.
- 19 Publicity Ideas
- SEO
Search Engine Optimization – configuring the content of a web page to appear more relevant to search engine algorithms.
- More SEO and PPC. We must save the General!
Doing more of what isn't working is the definition of Nutz, isn't it?
- Your Visual Guide to Search Optimization
This is a well-done, compact reminder. Hank Rosen has authored the Hotsocialbuzz SEO guide in pictorial form.
- More SEO and PPC. We must save the General!
- Systemic Marketing (TM)
- Customer Acquisition on Cruise Control – Systemic Marketing™
A cruise control for your company's marketing would necessitate less attention (and less intervention) from the “driver.”
- Higher Profits Through Testing of Every Variable
An improvement of three-tenths of one percent in response rate can double your profit.
- Reach vs Frequency – Systemic Marketing™ Part II
Are sales more likely to increase if you reach more people with your message (offer), or if you deliver that message with greater frequency to the same people?
- The Customer's Buying Process – Systemic Marketing™ Part III
A strong appeal to an early stage shopper will be equally attractive to a different early stage shopper next month.
- Customer Acquisition on Cruise Control – Systemic Marketing™
- Two-Step Marketing / Back End Sales
- How to Calculate Lifetime Customer Value, Part 2 of 2
Unless you know how much money your average customer will spend with you, this year, next year, and over her lifetime, how will you know what you can afford to acquire that customer?
- How to Make Money by Losing Money - Part 1 of 2
No description found for this item.
- Zen and the Art of Persuasion. Part 3 of 3
The manufacturer invests roughly 57₵ to acquire a new customer of their consumable product. Its likely that she’ll spend roughly per year re-purchasing it.
- How to Calculate Lifetime Customer Value, Part 2 of 2
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
- How Many Pancake Restaurants?
On nearly any list, most people can remember the top three with little effort. What if you're not close to the top?
- How to Steal Your Competitor's Customers. Part 2 of 3
No description found for this item.
- Should an Upwardly Mobile Zebra Shed Its Stripes?
Successful marketing, getting your company noticed, requires behavior that's not only risky, it runs counter to instinct.
- How Many Pancake Restaurants?