Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Fuel for your marketing

I was watching Modern Family the other day.

Jay (Ed O’Neill) scored a stay for him (and the whole family) at a posh hotel.  In his mind everything was perfect because he had an Excelsior level room.  This was the “top floor” and the best experience that the hotel offered.

So he thought…

He tried taking an elevator to the “top floor” and security shut him down.  He learned his Excelsior privileges were second best.  Excelsior+ was the top floor and the best plan available.

He was pissed.

He even went outside to count the floors of the hotel. 

It was funny.  It seemed stupid even.  But guess what?  Most of us do it everyday.  

I had a college professor that bought nothing but leather bound books.  He paid about $100 for each book when he could’ve purchased the paperback for around 20 bucks.

And even if you don’t do it, your audience does.

Why buy a Gucci mini bag for $1600 when you can get a purse at Walmart for less than $20.  

A Ford Explorer will get you to work just as easily as a Range Rover.  You’ll save about 50k too.  So why do people do it?

Status baby!

Status is a great source of pride for most people.  It makes us who we are.

It works in reverse too.  

I know a guy who buys all his clothes at Walmart and would never consider shopping at Macy’s or Saks Fifth Avenue.

The bottom line is KNOW who you are talking to when you write emails and copy.

Seth Godin said, “It’s possible to use the status hierarchy as a sort of fuel”.

That’s right.

Use status as fuel to make what you say bigger, better, and last longer.

For free daily email tips like this, go to https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

I’d rather deliver pizza than sell like this

I did an experiment last week.

I saw a product that boasted having the perfect framework to write a kick-ass sales letter.  

It was new.

Cutting-edge. 

All the stuff you’d expect from ‘hypey’ sales copy.  I assumed it was just the AIDA formula.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  It’s what nearly everyone on the planet should be using if you’re selling a product or service.

The AIDA model is old school.  It’s been around a long time and it works harder than a border collie!

Ok, back to my experiment…

I paid nearly $100 to sign up.  Only to learn I was right.   The magic formula they were selling was just the AIDA formula rebranded as their “proprietary” thing. 

What’s the lesson here?  

Brilliant copy or a great sales letter will get you the sale.  But you won’t keep most your customers (I know I’m never buying from these guys again).  Instead of nurturing an audience you’ll have to get more and more and more new customers.

If that floats your boat, great.  I’d honestly rather deliver pizza for a living.  

Be true to your vision and yourself.  And more importantly be true to those you wish to serve.

To get more emails like this everyday, go here:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam “ain’t delivering pizza anytime soon” Street  

When fishing is good and the catching is bad

Some people treat studying like some wussy soft skill.  

Not quite sure why studying gets such a bad rap so I googled it.   

Here’s the definition I found:

“Devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge on (an academic subject), especially by means of books.”

Ah, I see where this ‘pop culture’ definition is different than my version.  

Knowledge is not power, the application of knowledge is power.  You can read about how to fish all you want.  Until you bait your hook and plant your fishing pole into some water you’re not really going to KNOW fishing.

Knowing is about conscious contact not theories.

That’s our goal.  

It’s how we will understand who we serve and to KNOW them better and better.   That way when you write copy for your website or ads or whatever you can lead with what resonates with your audience the most.  

As Gary Halbert would say, you don’t want to sell the best hamburgers, you want to find “a STARVING CROWD”.  

If you don’t, you’re pushing the rope instead of pulling it.

You’re gonna work WAY too hard for lackluster results.

Eugene Schwartz put it like this:

“This mass desire must already be there.  It must already exist.  You cannot create it, and you cannot fight it.  But you can—and must—direct it, channel it, focus it onto your particular product.”

Yes, you want a fancy USP and all that jazz but make sure you are tapping into a desire that is already there with your products and services.

To learn more on how to find and market to a hungry crowd, subscribe to my free daily emails at https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

The positives of being negative and my crazy ex

In my freshman year of college I dated a girl named Candy.    

As Martin Lawrence would say, she was “crazy and deranged”.

She’d make Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction look like a mild-mannered Sunday school teacher.  

I learned a lot from that experience.  Mostly notably was how to spot a CRAZY bee-yotch in the wild.  It’s like watching Animal Planet but with a twist.  

I’d complain but that’s life.  There’s positive and there’s negative.  Just like in dating and everything else in the world.

When it comes to writing copy, adding the negative can take your writing to the next level.  Especially on your sales pages and emails.

I’ll do a biz-op example.  Most Promises look like this:

  • You’ll earn more.
  • Have more free time.
  • You can build your biz with little experience.

Etc…

That’s all well and good but NEGATIVE Promises help balance out your message.  You could say something like…

Are you tired of:

Companies that prey on your “Hopes and dreams”.

Marketing materials that are just long boring sales pitches.

Without the negatives you can risk sounding like a really annoying overly positive person.  Like Pollyanna or Kenneth from 30 Rock.

For more “negative” daily email and marketing tips subscribe at https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

The meat and potatoes of writing emails

Writing emails can be tough.

And if you take my advice and email every day, sometimes it can feel like pushing a baby elephant…

Uphill.

I admit, I have different approaches in creating emails but one method I use is to start with a theme or premise.

And by ‘theme’ I just mean, what your email is about or the meat of your message.  

Here’s the theme of the movie i, Robot:

“A technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.”

So how does this work for emails?

Let’s say my theme is based on something I heard Darren Hardy say last week.  I don’t remember it verbatim but he said, environment is stronger than willpower.  

I had to think on that one for a second. 

That was powerful!  

It reminded me about a book I read called Influencer and all sorts of memories and ideas that backed up what Hardy said. 

So if Darren Hardy’s quote was the “meat” of email, the next thing to do is add a vegetable, a grain, and maybe even a roll or two to support your theme.

That’s why the concept of writer’s block is more fictitious than Spongebob and Patrick barbecuing underwater.

If you need help cooking up content all you need to do is open a book or an Internet browser.

Wanna never miss a good “marketing meal” again?  Join my daily email list:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam