“Always enter the conversation already occurring in the customer’s mind.”
~ Dan Kennedy, the Godfather of Direct Response Marketing
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One of the biggest mistakes most marketers and entrepreneurs make:
Talking about stuff no one’s thinking about.
Or caring about.
Especially in their target audience.
Not that it can’t work. But it’s a massive waste of time. Because they won’t tune in. Since they’re thinking about something else. And not just that, but you’ll have to spend lots more wasted time twisting the conversation back to what they’re thinking of.
Now…
Since most people have been thinking of Fathers Day, I thought I’d talk about some “profit-pulling” quotes from the founding fathers of business and marketing.
Like:
[+] Philip Kotler.
The Father of Modern Marketing.
Who said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
If business owners only knew their customers as much as con artists do, they’d have no worries.
For survival, or for sales.
[+] David Ogilvy, the Father of Modern Advertising once said, “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”
‘Tis true.
Most people are just so stuck in their old ways.
And never test new ways of doing things.
Not sure what they’re scared of, but in the words of Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
The best things you can test?
Different offers.
Different bonuses.
Different ways of writing your headlines, emails, and sales copy.
[+] Claude Hopkins.
The Father of Scientific Advertising.
He said, “Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly, and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them, not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort, the buyer of your product.”
Again, people decide too quickly.
Without testing first.
And that’s how they get ‘conned’ into spending years (and thousands) doing stuff that doesn’t work.
[+] Lester Wunderman.
The Father of Direct Marketing.
He saith, “Acquire with the intention to retain, and retain with the intention to grow.”
Most marketers and biz owners today don’t ‘acquire’ customers aiming to ‘retain’ them. Or keep them for the long-term.
They just sell whatever’s cheap.
And trendy.
Even if it doesn’t get long-term results. And the quality isn’t up to par. But they couldn’t care less. They just get new customers to replace the old ones that leave.
A futile attempt.
[+] Jay Conrad Levinson, Father of Guerilla Marketing:
“Guerrilla marketing requires you to comprehend every facet of marketing, experiment with many of them, winnow out the losers, double up on the winners, and then use the marketing tactics that prove themselves to you in the battleground of real life.”
Some great advice for any era.
Most people keep trying new stuff.
But stop doing more of the old stuff that was proven to work. If they just doubled down on their winners, they’d be making millions more.
It’s a careful balance between the new and the old.
[+] Elias St. Elmo Lewis.
The Father of the Sales Funnel.
Who invented the ‘must-know’ equation of AIDA – “Attention, Interest, Desire, Action”.
And said, “The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.”
Anything you do in marketing…
… or biz’nes…
… if anyone tells you you can make more money or sales without any of these 4, and doesn’t even know the AIDA equation, chances are… it’s a total scam.
Get attention at all costs.
Was studying an ad that brought in millions in sales a couple days back.
The advertiser put his personal photo on it.
With the headline, “RAPIST”.
Bet that got a lot of attention.
Then he proceeded to talk about how he ravished Lady Luck, and how you can too with his business newsletter.
Bold, and crazy, but it works.
Get attention, build interest by showing them (not just telling) the benefits, build desire by showing them the proof, and when they’re ready, tell them to take action.
[+] Henry Ford, Father of Mass Production.
Thanks to him, you have a car.
Some wise words:
“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.”
Focus on making your stuff better.
Not just on making yourself look better than everyone else. Like what almost every marketer is doing these days.
[+] Peter Drucker, Father of Modern Management.
He said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
Most people using AI are efficient.
But not effective.
Going extremely fast, but in the totally wrong direction.
[+] Ken McCarthy, Father of Internet Marketing.
“Working with foreign exchange traders taught me an important lesson about the need for speed in business: Windows of opportunity open and close fast.”
Thanks to him, you can actually sell stuff online.
At a profit.
Don’t know if you know this, but the government actually wanted to ban using the internet for commercial purposes when it first came out.
[+] Joe Pulizzi, Godfather of Content Marketing.
Who said:
“We must move from rented land to owned property. You can get kicked off social platforms at any point. The algorithms change every day. Build something you control.”
Yes.
And this is a stark reminder that…
… you should be building your own email list!
[+] W. Edwards Deming, Father of Total Quality Management (TQM)
He said – “Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your product or service, and that bring friends with them.”
True.
Which is why you should focus more on making your products or services, better, faster, and simpler…
… instead wasting of all that time and money on…
… that latest sales or marketing ‘AI tech hack’.
===
Some great lessons there.
A lot of which…
… I cover in more depth…
… specifically on how to ‘scam’ your brain into effortlessly moving faster and easier, sometimes by 10x, sometimes by more…
… with psychological tricks used by the world’s top con artists and scammers…
… so you can take advantage of opportunities fast, create great products, value, and amazing content with much less time and effort…
… and get customers more quickly, while keeping them happy more easily…
… in my new work on how to Scam Yourself Productive.
Which is currently at…
… 87% completion.
And which should drop any day now.
So stay tuned.
Allen Walker
The Mysterious “His Father’s Son” Marketer
Allen Walker, the Mysterious Marketer, is the marketing genius who’s deleted more 6 & 7 figure businesses than anyone else on the planet (*all because he gets bored). He’s also known as the world’s most genius renaissance marketer. Visit his blog to read thousands of his ‘secret’ copywriting tips for getting paid to grow your email list.
This post (https://themysteriousmarketer.com/the-fathers-of-business-and-marketing-speaketh) was originally published by Allen Walker, The Mysterious Marketer. And yes, you can click that link to read his newest secrets for free…