HOW TO FIND YOUR - beboss.ca...Clayton Makepeace, the highest-paid active copywriter today, says his...

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Transcript of HOW TO FIND YOUR - beboss.ca...Clayton Makepeace, the highest-paid active copywriter today, says his...

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HOW TO FIND YOUR BIG MARKETING IDEA

Standout & Grab Attention With Your Marketing Message

In A Crowded Marketplace

By Todd Brown

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Copyright © Todd Brown

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner and publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2018

ISBN 978-0-578-20040-8

www.MarketingFunnelAutomation.com

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Preface

In early 2006 I was given a twenty-five page document that has since been worth several million dollars to me personally. And has been worth tens of millions to my clients and students.

What this document revealed I had never seen before in any of the marketing courses, books, or trainings I had invested in. And, believe me, I invested in a lot!

Thanks to what I found inside this document — and a handful of additional meetings about it — my income catapulted, my reputation soared and swept across the marketing industry, and… more importantly… the profits generated by the new marketing campaigns I set-up went through the roof. The entire game had changed for me.

Prior to 2006, or what I like to refer to as B.D. — Before Document — my story was fairly consistent with most decently successful online entrepreneurs.

I had marketed and sold a variety of products. Put up landing pages and sales pages. Had a few email autoresponder sequences set up. And was generating between ten to twelve thousand dollars a month. Sometimes more. Sometimes less.

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And, of course, I was consistently buying something new every month — a new marketing course or training or something — searching for the one “magic bullet” to help me produce more profitable marketing.

But, I could never seem to breakthrough to what I considered the “big money”.

What I was hunting for at the time was the secret to cracking the $100,000.00 a month sales mark. The sought-after one million dollar a year business.

But no matter what I bought… no matter what I learned… and no matter what I tried… I could never seem to make it happen.

Until I was given that document!

It was the first time I was introduced to Mark Ford. You may know Mark under his pen name, Michael Masterson.

Mark has written over a dozen books on entrepreneurship, personal productivity, and wealth building. Three of which were New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. He’s been the mastermind behind the development of dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including Agora Inc., a direct response publishing company whose annual revenues now surpass

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the billion dollar mark. He’s trained some of the highest paid advertising copywriters in the world. And, on the rare occasion when he takes on a private mentoring or consulting client, he commands a hefty up-front fee in the tens of thousands and a performance royalty of one million dollars.

So, whenever I was lucky enough to get around Mark… and he spoke about marketing or business… I listened. Intently.

We were introduced by my good buddy, and then business partner at Strategic Profits, Rich Schefren.

At the time, our Strategic Profits offices — in Downtown Delray Beach, Florida — were right around the corner from the popular cigar bar and lounge Cigar Connoisseur.

For whatever reason, Cigar Connoisseur was a hotspot for local, established copywriters, marketers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. I have no idea why.

But, it seemed like dozens of meetings, brainstorming sessions, and even multi-million-dollar joint venture deals were brokered and took place there on a weekly basis.

And, at least once a week it’s where you’d find

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Mark… sitting at the bar… smoking a Padron 1926 Serie… sipping on some Patron Silver tequila on the rocks… pecking away on his laptop. Usually, working on either a new book or an essay for one of his newsletters.

On this particular night, Rich and I were sitting a couple of stools over from Mark with a couple of empty seats separating us. Rich and I were discussing what we saw as the commonalities in the most profitable advertising promotions and marketing campaigns, that we didn’t see in the average, typical campaigns.

That’s when Mark — having obviously overheard our conversation — stopped typing, picked up his head, and looked over at us and said:

“Most if not all of the stuff you guys are talking about is only marginally responsible for the really big winners. It’s the stuff entrepreneurs and marketers are taught to focus on. But, it’s not what makes an advertising promotion a grand-slam home run. Do you guys want to know what is chiefly responsible for making the big winners the big winners?”

“Yeah, definitely. Please!”, Rich and I both responded in unison.

And… so… Mark began to explain to us…

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The Real Secret Behind The Biggest, Most Profitable Marketing Campaigns Ever Created!

He said it was the true secret behind how many of the biggest direct response companies and entrepreneurs are able to produce millions of dollars from their marketing promotions.

And… that… it was the one single thing which has created more millionaires and multi-millionaires in direct-response-driven businesses than any other single strategy or tactic.

And… that… if we really, truly wanted to make the “big money”… we needed to learn it, master it, and implement it with every marketing campaign we rolled out.

He even recommended we download (from a private website) a little twenty-five page report written by one of his — now wealthy — proteges, if we wanted to learn more. Which, of course, I downloaded immediately when I got home that night.

And it was downloading and devouring that little report… and, of course, having that first discussion with Mark… that was the genesis of my six-year journey into learning and mastering how to harness…

The Incredible Sales Generating Power Of

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“The Big Marketing Idea”

Over the course of the next six years, I went on a life-changing exploration… investing well over 1500 hours… researching and studying the “Big Marketing Idea”.

I went through and analyzed everything I could get my hands on about it. Even going as far as to scrutinize and dissect over 92 individual million-dollar-plus marketing campaigns and sales promotions. (I won’t even tell you what I had to go through to get those, let alone go over every detail of them with a fine tooth comb.)

I questioned every top advertising copywriter I could get access to… including, Mike Palmer, the guy who wrote the End Of America — the most successful marketing promotion ever to come out of the financial newsletter publishing industry.

And, as I routinely saw Mark over those next six years at Cigar Connoisseur, I picked his brain relentlessly about the “Big Marketing Idea”.

I fired dozens of questions at him like: how is a “Big Marketing Idea” discovered, how do you know when you have a “Big Marketing Idea”, how do you turn ordinary marketing ideas into “Big Marketing Ideas”, how do you communicate the “Big Marketing Idea” throughout a marketing campaign, how do you know when you’ve chosen

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the correct “Big Marketing Idea”, and on and on.

And… frankly… it was…

The Most Profitable And Eye-Opening Journey Of My Life!

Now, look: Before going any further, I need to make sure you understand something. This is critical. So, please pay close attention.

When I say “Big Marketing Idea”… I’m NOT talking about the typical marketing “hook”, “promise”, “premise”, “theme, or “benefit-driven headline”. Nor am I talking about the “idea” behind your product, your Unique Selling Proposition, your positioning statement, or your string of marketing claims.

No. Those are all valuable. Sure. And those are all taught by most marketing experts. Absolutely. As they should be.

But… as you’re about to discover… those are not responsible for why some marketing campaigns produce millions a year while most others don’t even come close. Those, in fact, are the exact things Mark dismissed when he said, “It’s the stuff marketers are taught to focus on. But, it’s not what makes an advertising promotion a grand-

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slam home run”.

And, it was only until I was knee-deep into my six-year journey of mastering the use of the “Big Marketing Idea” that I came to the startling realization - even though the “Big Marketing Idea” was almost never taught or talked about publicly by marketing experts… it was acknowledged by almost all of the best marketers on the planet as…

The Real Secret Weapon Behind Their Marketing Success & Wealth!

They almost all said, it wasn’t their copy… their headlines… products… or offers.

No. It was the “Big Marketing Idea” they credited.

For example: Take legendary copywriter, Gary Halbert.

Most students of marketing think Gary’s monster success as a copywriter came from his sales chops and writing skills. That’s what I thought. But that’s not what Gary said.

In fact, listen to what his son, Bond Halbert, shared (when being interviewed) about the most valuable marketing lesson Gary ever taught him:

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HOST: “You mentioned right before we jumped on the phone how one of the things your dad, he's known for copywriting and whatnot, but what he always thought was the most important thing, the thing that he felt biggest about and you agreed as well is The Big Marketing Idea.”

BOND: “People would come to my dad and try and learn copywriting and he would give them a word-smithing lesson and tell them how to begin their copy and how to close, and stuff like that. Pretty quickly when they felt like, "Okay, I am getting some of that," he would start to teach them what was important. What was important was not that, it was The Big Marketing Idea.”

And, even Gary himself, when writing (on one rare occasion) about how powerful the “Big Marketing Idea” is… and why it needs to be the foundation of every marketing campaign… said…

“It’s so damn valuable!”

And Gary is just the beginning.

Clayton Makepeace, the highest-paid active copywriter today, says his biggest winners in terms of his copywriting and his promotions were all based on “Big Marketing Ideas”.

“It’s from your marketing’s Big Marketing Ideas

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that accelerated growth in your business happens”.

How much growth? Well…

Look at what Mark Ford wrote in one of his newsletters about the money produced thanks to the “Big Marketing Idea”:

“I have learned many valuable lessons from my 15-year partnership with Agora’s legendary CEO, marketing genius Bill Bonner. None is more important than The Big Marketing Idea. Bill is widely recognized as the man who brought The Big Marketing Idea into consumer direct marketing and sold more than a billion dollars’ worth of publications by doing so.”

And how about, John Forde (no relation to Mark), Bill Bonner’s most famous copywriting protege - here’s what he said:

“For all the great tips and tricks that can make an ad look slick, you'll fail if you don't have a "Big Marketing Idea”. I can tell you personally, every winning ad I've ever written has had a Big Marketing Idea at the core.”

Even legendary ad man and copywriting giant, David Ogilvy, championed the necessity of having a “Big Marketing Idea”:

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"You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent Big Marketing Ideas. It takes a Big Marketing Idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a Big Marketing Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

And I could go on and on listing out a string of world-class entrepreneurs, marketers, and copywriters who all attribute their monster success to their understanding of — and ability to find and develop — “Big Marketing Ideas” for their marketing promotions.

Many credit their first “Big Marketing Idea” campaign for the point in their careers when their income and reputation shot into the stratosphere. A true transformational event. Which is why…

One “Big Marketing Idea” For One Marketing Campaign Can Change Your Business (and Life) Forever!

Just one “Big Marketing Idea” for one marketing campaign can bring in more sales for your business than most entrepreneurs will make in their entire lifetime. Seriously.

For example:

With one marketing campaign built on one Big

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Marketing Idea… my good friend and former business partner, Rich Schefren, created one twenty-nine page report… and generated over three million dollars in sales in 7 days! With another seven million dollars in sales coming-in over the next year.

With one marketing campaign built on one Big Marketing Idea… Porter Stansberry launched S&A Investment Research… which today is the largest investment advisory in the world… generating over a hundred million dollars a year.

With one marketing campaign built on one Big Marketing Idea… marketing wizard, Frank Kern, helped his client, Neil Strauss, sell a product in the dating market… and generated over $1.4 million dollars in just four hours!

And, with one marketing campaign built on one Big Marketing Idea… Mark Ford, at the age of just 33, launched his first financial newsletter subscription, The Oxford Club, which generated over 30,000 customers, was later sold to Agora, and allowed Mark to retire… financially-free… before turning 40!

All… from… just… one Big Marketing Idea.

See: A Big Marketing Idea is a way of crafting a marketing message which your prospects see as new, unique, and different. As something fresh and timely. As

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something exciting and beneficial. As something they want to engage with because it promises to open their eyes to something they haven't been exposed to before.

And because of that, when your marketing is built with a Big Marketing Idea, it stands-out, gets attention, and compels prospects to consume your message. Ultimately, leading to greater sales.

And that’s why I've become absolutely convinced it’s more crucial for you to focus your attention on learning how to develop Big Marketing Ideas for your marketing promotions, than on any other single advertising strategy or tactic — regardless of what business you’re in, what you sell, and what marketing campaigns you may currently have in place.

That’s why I decided to publish this book.

Because, when you learn and use the formula I discovered for developing Big Marketing Ideas… you’ll possess the knowledge and ability to crank-out marketing campaigns that bring more leads, more new customers, and more sales than you can imagine.

And when that happens… everything changes for you.

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Introduction

It’s a foundational marketing lesson which changed my whole perspective. And it should for you as well.

I was chatting with Mark Ford. And asked about the secret behind Agora’s growth.

“How has Agora been able to grow so big and so fast?”

I fully expected Mark to say something about Agora’s list size or the amount they invest into advertising or the quality of their copywriters. But that’s not at all what Mark said.

“We recognized early on, when it comes to marketing, we’re really in the idea business. We're in the business of developing interesting, arresting, and captivating ideas.”

It took a bit for me to fully digest what Mark was saying. But, once I did, it made complete sense.

Everything we do as marketers is built on top of some idea.

Whether we're publishing a blog post, creating a

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video for YouTube, doing a Facebook Live, or creating a landing page, a sales page, or a full-blown marketing campaign… behind each of those is an idea.

That idea can be new and novel. Or it can be old and run-of-the-mill.

The idea behind what you’re saying could be a plain vanilla, average idea which rolls off the back of your prospects as something they've seen or heard before. Or, it could be a Big Marketing Idea that strikes your prospects as new, unique, and different. As something they find startling, arresting, and compelling. Something they have to stop and hear more about.

Now, please understand: In this context, I’m not talking about the idea behind your product or service. I’m not talking about you coming-up with the latest and greatest idea for some new app, new technology, or new biotech breakthrough.

No. I’m talking about the idea behind your marketing message. The idea behind what you’re saying in your ad, your headline, and your campaign.

See: the quality of the marketing idea determines the success of the marketing campaign — and ultimately how well it converts prospects into buyers. Because the quality of the idea is what determines whether prospects

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will take notice, stop what they’re doing, and engage with your marketing message.

A Big Marketing Idea will cut through the noise and clutter and make your message stand-out from all of the others. It will grab attention, engage prospects, and compel them to want to hear more about the idea.

Think of it like this: The Big Marketing Idea is really the advertisement for your marketing campaign. It’s the hook for your marketing message.

Again, it's not the hook for your product. And it's not the hook for your offer.

It's the advertisement and hook for your marketing message itself. It’s the idea behind what you’re presenting to prospects.

And that idea goes way beyond just your copy and simple wording of a headline.

See: The idea and the headline are not the same.

A headline is simply an expression of the underlying marketing idea. Every headline, just like every book title, is there to communicate an idea. And every marketing idea can be presented a number of different ways with a number

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of different words.

Simply changing the copy, adding a word, or replacing a word with a more descriptive word in a headline, doesn’t necessarily change the underlying idea.

Changing “How To Grow Big Tomatoes” to “How To Grow Monster-Sized, Juicy, Red Tomatoes” doesn’t make the idea behind the headline better. It may make the copy behind the headline better. But the idea behind the headline is still the same.

What we’re talking about is the underlying idea behind the headline.

For example, take a look at this book:

You can see from the title it’s, obviously, all about how to outsource your business. I don't know who

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published this. I don't know the author behind this. I don't know where this came from, but it’s crystal clear what this book is about.

It's a simple, straight-forward, ordinary idea: how to outsource.

I have no idea if this book sold well or not at all. If I was a betting man, I would bet a stack of chips it did not.

Now I want you to compare it to this book:

The 4-Hour Work Week. It was on the New York Times' Bestseller List for over four years. Translated into 35 languages. Sold over 1.3 million copies. And put the author, Tim Ferriss, on the map.

What’s the difference between the content, the

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material covered in The 4-Hour Work Week and the first book, How to Outsource?

Really, there is no difference. Both are about outsourcing for your business.

The difference is not in the content. The difference is not in the essence of the material. The difference is in the idea behind how the content is being presented.

Tim Ferriss took the ordinary and common idea of outsourcing, and turned it into something new, unique, and different. Into, a Big Marketing Idea — you can work a four-hour week, escape the 9-to-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich.

And that one shift — that one Big Marketing Idea — was enough to propel Tim Ferris on to super-stardom in the publishing world.

That's the power of a Big Marketing Idea.

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Chapter One

Why A Big Marketing Idea Today?

One thing is for sure…

It’s getting harder and harder to get people’s attention.

Today, because people have been exposed to more and more marketing, they’ve become more skeptical and guarded than ever. Many, reluctant and jaded.

Every day people are bombarded with thousands of marketing campaigns, marketing messages, advertisements, benefit statements, claims, and promises. Online, television, radio, billboards, direct mail, email, magazines, flyers, you name it. Many filled to the brim with hype.

So typical marketing messages no longer make an impact. They’re dismissed or ignored. They roll off the back of prospects.

And that’s why trying to “scream a louder promise” in your marketing, or making a bigger, bolder claim or using one of the common hype-style headlines to power your marketing is no longer effective.

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Your prospects have already been exposed to these type of claims over and over again. They’ve heard it. They’ve seen it. It’s nothing new.

So today it takes a Big Marketing Idea to penetrate your prospects’ armor and get them excited about what you have to offer. Ordinary no longer cuts it. It takes something bigger, something bolder.

As well, many of your prospects have responded to advertisements with bogus claims, exaggerated promises, and outright scams. So, many, have become cynical when it comes to marketing. This is especially true online.

Because it's viewed as the Wild West where anybody can put up a website today, the internet is the least trusted of all advertising mediums. It’s not nearly as trusted as newspaper or print or direct mail, because prospects understand these mediums are governed. There are laws regarding what advertisers can and can not say.

But not so — at least not to the same extent — with the internet.

So with this heightened level of consumer skepticism online, it takes even more extraordinary measures to grab attention and engage prospects.

The ordinary marketing approach of extreme

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promises and claims is simply no longer adequate.

Prospects are also bored. They've been exposed to so much of the same, so often, they're now constantly on the lookout for something new, something different.

Your prospects are not interested in what’s old or in more of the same. They’re interested in what’s new. Your prospects don't even want old techniques or methods even if they know those techniques and methods work.

No. Your prospects want the new stuff. The new methods. The new techniques.

And that's why you need to use the power of a Big Marketing Idea to avoid the Proliferation Of The Formulaic.

More and more within the marketing world, we're seeing the use of these so-called plug-and-play, fill-in-the-blank templates and formulas for advertising headlines.

Prospects are seeing marketing built with these “formulas” more and more… especially the claim-based or promised-based formulas behind much of direct marketing. And as they’re seeing this type of marketing message more and more, they’re tuning out even more and more.

Why? Because, again, they've seen it all already.

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They've heard it all.

And when your prospects are exposed to something that they've seen and heard, they tune out. They ignore it. They experience Mental Opt-Out.

Mental Opt-Out is when your prospects see a marketing claim and say, "Oh, that. I've heard that. I've seen that. Oh, there's a book on that. There's a YouTube video on that." And then they immediately bounce from your website to go elsewhere.

Today, you have to avoid seeming and looking and feeling like what your prospects have already been exposed to. So you need to avoid "formulaic" marketing.

With a Big Marketing Idea you not only avoid the Proliferation Of The Formulaic and prevent Mental Opt-Out, you also overcome something called the Categorical Imperative — a term I first learned from Bill Bonner, the founder of Agora.

The Categorical Imperative is a principle which demonstrates that individuals subconsciously look for ways to immediately categorize information. If they see something which looks like, sounds like, or feels like something else they’ve already seen, they place the new information into the same mental category.

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So, for example, if something looks, sounds, and feels like the prior marketing they’ve seen before, it triggers the Categorical Imperative… and it automatically gets placed in the same “sales pitch” category or mental bucket. This is yet another reason why you want to avoid the common marketing approach.

When your prospects come across a marketing campaign or advertisement that has the same feel, the same vibe, the same style of messaging as what they’ve encountered before, they instantly recognize it for what it is — a sales message. They recognize it as a marketing campaign or a marketing piece. So they immediately categorize it as a commercial message and their filter immediately goes up.

A Big Marketing Idea overcomes that Categorical Imperative because it serves as a pattern interrupt. It’s not what prospects expect or anticipate. So it doesn’t get categorized. Which means, it doesn’t trigger the same feelings of skepticism or reluctance. It doesn’t trigger the same sales filter. So it gives your marketing message the opportunity to do its job.

All that being said: We could really sum up why a Big Marketing Idea is so critical today with one word: differentiation.

Bringing something different to the market is critical

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to get attention — a different message, a different angle, a different idea.

Remember, better doesn’t always get attention. Better doesn’t always stand-out. Different does.

You need to differentiate your marketing message from all the others. You need to differentiate the idea, so your prospects say, "Wow, I've never heard that. What's that about? I want to know more."

That’s why a Big Marketing Idea is essential today. And that’s what a Big Marketing Idea does for you.

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Chapter Two

10 Elements Of A Big Marketing Idea

Every Big Marketing Idea meets ten criteria. In this chapter we're going to take a high-level look at each.

Then, in following chapters, we'll get into the nitty-gritty details of the Big Marketing Idea Formula, look at some examples, and walk thru the process for developing your ideas.

Criteria #1: Presents One Promise

At the root of every Big Marketing Idea is a bold, audacious, true and believable promise of transformation. One promise. We call this the Primary Promise -- the one big overarching benefit the prospect stands to gain by engaging with your marketing.

I'm not talking about the little benefits of your product. I'm talking about the big result... the big outcome... the big transformation your prospect stands to gain.

What are you promising them?

That's the main question on the mind of every prospect. They want to know how their life will be improved

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and changed for the better from your message.

If you can't, or don't, answer it... you don't have a marketing message. You just have a message.

Criteria #2: It's Specific

To have a Big Marketing Idea, your Primary Promise must be concrete and specific. It must be tangible. Specific enough for your prospect to envision it in their mind's eye.

Vague generalities do not sell. Specifics do. Vague promises are not believable. They're not compelling. They're not exciting. Specific promises and outcomes are.

So, whatever you’re promising, you must be specific.

Criteria #3: Conveys One Story

Every Big Marketing Idea is based on one storyline. It may be a story of discovery... information discovered in an old book... meeting a mentor... breaking news from some company... a scientific breakthrough... or something else.

Regardless, there must be only one storyline conveyed throughout your marketing campaign. Opened at the Big Marketing Idea… and carried thru til the end of the promotion.

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Introducing multiple storylines in your marketing only serves to confuse your prospect. So keep it to one story. One plot.

Criteria #4: Leads To One Conclusion

Every Big Marketing Idea clearly leads to one conclusion. One thought you want the prospect to have. One belief.

Don't try to get your prospect thinking about two or three different things with your idea. Just one. That's it.

And that one idea is almost always based around how and why they can experience the result they’re looking for.

Criteria #5: Taps One Emotion

Every Big Marketing Idea stimulates one primary emotion. It may be greed. It may be fear. It may be envy. It may be belonging. Or, some other emotion.

Throughout your marketing campaign you'll likely prod and stir a variety of different emotions. But with your Big Marketing Idea you must focus on one primary emotion.

What is the one emotion that your idea is leveraging,

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is prodding, is tapping into? What’s the one feeling you want to stimulate in your prospect when they encounter your Big Marketing Idea?

Criteria #6: Must Be New & Unique

Every Big Marketing Idea is original, unique. It's different from what your prospects have seen before.

It can't be something they've heard from your competitors. Or anywhere else for that matter. And this is crucial.

Your idea must feel new and fresh. Remember, familiarity in marketing breeds disinterest.

So, your idea can't be something your prospects are already familiar with.

Your job, with your Big Marketing Idea, is to bring something new, unique, and different to your market. And, again, in this context I'm not talking about a new, unique, and different product. I'm talking about a new, unique, and different idea behind your marketing campaign.

Criteria #7: Must Feel Timely

Every Big Marketing Idea feels timely. It involves something happening right now... or something about to

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happen. So it's relevant.

It's not about the past.

It can't feel dated, old.

It must be about the here and now.

Criteria #8: Arresting

Every Big Marketing Idea is bold. Captivating. Arresting.

That means it needs to shock prospects out of their complacency. It needs to wake them up from the funk of everyday life.

It can't be a ho-hum, run-of-the-mill idea. That won't get anybody's attention.

Remember, your prospects are inundated with marketing. To get their attention you need to whack them on the side of the head. A tap on the shoulder doesn't cut it.

So your Big Marketing Idea needs to be bold.

Criteria #9: Immediately Understandable

To have a Big Marketing Idea, your idea must be

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immediately understandable. It needs to have instant appeal.

It can't be complicated, deep, or require lots of thought. If prospects have to read or watch your full marketing message to understand your idea, you've missed the mark.

Prospects must get your idea immediately.

So your idea needs to be simple. And it needs to be within their scope of reference.

If you're talking to women, and you're trying to incorporate an idea about an automobile engine, unless you're talking to female mechanics it's not going to be within their scope of reference. So, obviously, they won't get it.

Remember: Immediately Understandable.

For many entrepreneurs and marketers this isn't always easy. Many fall prey to the Curse of Knowledge -- a cognitive bias that occurs when we're predicting in other people what we believe they understand. We typically overestimate what other folks understand based on our own level of knowledge.

And, over time, this overestimation spills over in to

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our marketing. We use words, terms, and phrases which are far too sophisticated and advanced for the average prospect.

When developing your Big Marketing Ideas, you need to remove yourself from the equation. And you need to put yourself in your prospects shoes. See the world through their eyes. Through their understanding and knowledge. Through their level.

You have to recognize, odds are you're an expert in whatever topic you're speaking about in your marketing. Your prospects are not.

You need to communicate in a way that resonates with their level of understanding, not your own level of understanding.

There are concepts and ideas which you may think are elementary, basic, below your grasp of the topic. And they may be.

But that doesn't mean they're below your prospects level of knowledge and understanding.

You need to avoid the Curse of Knowledge. You need to communicate ideas at your prospect's level. Simple ideas.

Simplicity also encourages belief. The human brain is hardwired to trust simple things. The easier something is

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to explain, and the easier it is to understand, the more belief it generates.

On the flip side, complex, intricate ideas cause confusion. And a confused mind doesn't remain engaged. And a prospect who doesn't remain engaged doesn't buy.

So keep your ideas simple. Put yourself in your prospect's shoes. And make sure your ideas are not beyond their level of understanding.

Criteria #10: The Rule Of One

This final criteria could really be in a category of its own. It's something I learned from my friend and mentor, Mark Ford.

Big Marketing Ideas are made up of one single powerful idea. Not a mix of ideas. Not a bunch of ideas. One single idea.

Multiple ideas packed into one marketing message don't strengthen the message. They weaken the message.

Usually, a number of mediocre ideas are packed in to one campaign in an attempt to make up for a weak overall idea. The thought -- if the idea isn't strong enough, let's add more ideas to it.

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But this doesn't serve to strengthen the main idea. It weakens it.

You need to narrow your focus to one idea, one emotion, one promise, one story, and one thing that you want your prospects to think. And the whole thing needs to be powered by one Primary Promise.

That's the Power Of One.

And those are the ten criteria for every Big Marketing Idea.

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Chapter Three

The Big Marketing Idea Formula

Over the course of my six year journey researching and studying the Big Marketing Idea, I analyzed and dissected over 92 million-dollar-plus marketing campaigns.

My aim was to see if there were any commonalities across the board. To my astonishment, there were. Those commonalities later became the foundation of what, today, is known as the Big Marketing Idea Formula™.

Here it is:

E.C. (P.P. + U.M.) + I.I. = Big Marketing Idea

Looks awful, right? Like something out of an advanced algebra class.

Fortunately, it's much, much simpler.

Let’s quickly go through the formula. Then we’ll cover each piece in-depth.

E.C. stands for emotionally compelling.

Your idea is emotionally compelling (E.C.) when it's

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built on a Primary Promise (P.P.), and when that promise is delivered by a Unique Mechanism (U.M.).

I.I. stands for intellectually interesting.

Your idea is intellectually interesting (I.I.) when it piques your prospect's curiosity, gives them a feeling of discovery, and makes them feel as if they’ve just stumbled on something newsworthy. Something… they’d be interested in hearing more about even if there was no Primary Promise (P.P.) or Unique Mechanism (U.M.).

Combined — emotionally compelling and intellectually interesting — and you have an idea which appeals to both the heart and head of your prospect. To both emotion and logic.

The Primary Promise (P.P.)

The Primary Promise is one of the most important elements within any marketing campaign. Because it tells prospects what they stand to gain by engaging with your marketing message. It tells them how their life will be transformed for the better by reading, watching, or listening to your marketing message.

Remember, the main thing your prospects want to know is “How is my life going to be made better by this?”

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Your Primary Promise is what answers that question.

But it’s important you understand: The Primary Promise is not the same as your list of product or service benefits. We’re not talking about all of the little benefits prospects can expect to experience with your product.

No. We’re talking about the one, big overarching promise of change… of transformation… of result… of outcome… your prospect can expect to experience by responding to your marketing message.

What’s the main thing which will be different in your prospect’s life?

To be effective, your Primary Promise needs to be big, bold, and audacious. It needs to be exciting. Exciting enough for your prospects to want to dive deeper and learn more. And compelling enough for prospects to see the value in swapping their time to hear more about it.

At the same time, your Primary Promise needs to be completely true and believable. And, remember, not everything that is believable is true… and not everything that's true is believable.

To make your Primary Promise believable, first, it needs to be specific and concrete. Meaning: It can’t be

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vague and general.

“You’ll feel better” is an example of a vague and general promise. Same with “You’ll make more money”, “You’ll be happier”, “You’ll lose weight”, and so on. These are all weak promises. Because they’re so vague and general it’s nearly impossible to envision them in your mind’s eye.

“You’ll wake up every morning without an alarm clock, never groggy” is an example of a much more specific promise. Same with “You’ll make an extra $5,500 a month”, and “You’ll lose a minimum of 3 pounds every four days”. The specificity makes these promises much stronger. They’re promises your prospect can picture themselves experiencing.

Second, to make your Primary Promise believable it needs to be backed-up by proof. You can’t simply expect your prospects to believe you can deliver on the promise simply because you say so. You can't present a promise that has no proof because that’s not a promise at all. It’s simply an unsubstantiated claim.

You need to have evidence and proof to make your Primary Promise believable. If you say they will experience X, you need to have proof they can experience X.

And your Primary Promise should never be bigger than the biggest proof point you have. The bigger, better the

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proof, the bigger the promise can be.

So your objective is to determine the biggest, boldest, most audacious thing you can promise to prospects which is true and believable because it’s specific and backed by proof.

And it needs to promise a payoff your prospects lust after. A promise of transformation so big, so exciting, they have to hear more.

It can't be little. It can't be weak. It can't be fragile. It's got to be big, bold, audacious, true and believable.

In an ideal scenario, your promise would address an urgent problem your prospect has (that your product or service solves). The more urgent and severe and significant the problem, the more powerful and valuable your promise becomes.

When prospects see your Primary Promise, you want them to think to themselves, "This is exactly what I've been waiting for. This changes everything."

To begin thinking about your Primary Promise, start by answering this question:

As it relates to the problem your product or service addresses, what’s the most exciting, most compelling thing

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your prospects are craving… lusting after… that they would love to experience?

To help in answering this question you can use the Magic Wand Technique.

If you could wave a magic wand and grant your prospects anything: any transformation… any outcome… any result… any difference in their life, what would they ask for? What would that magic result be?

And, here, in this context, don’t place any restrictions on your thinking. During this exercise it’s not about what’s true or believable. It’s just about what your prospects would ask for if you could wave a magic wand and grant them anything related to their current situation and problem.

Once you’ve got the ideal outcome your prospects would ask for, then you can back it down until you have a promise that’s true and believable. But start with the outcome they would request. No matter how outrageous.

Another great exercise to do is the Ideal Client Exercise.

This is where you imagine your greatest client or customer success story. I don't mean the greatest success story you already have. I’m talking about a future success

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story.

If you had a future client who became your greatest success story, what result did they experience? What was the outcome? What was the transformation? What changed for them? What happened for them? What painful or frustrating thing aren't they experiencing anymore that they were experiencing before? What positive things are they now experiencing that they're grateful for?

And drill deep here. What other ancillary transformations happened in their life because of the core result? What additional benefits are they experiencing now?

This is important and valuable. Because if what you just described would be your greatest client or customer success story, then it should play a role in the Primary Promise you develop.

Again, you just want to make sure you start with the ideal, perfect result prospects want… then back it down to where it's true and believable.

Once you’ve identified your Primary Promise (P.P.) you have the first part of the Emotionally Compelling element of a Big Marketing Idea.

But there’s another critical piece — the Unique

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Mechanism (U.M.).

The Unique Mechanism is the unique piece, part, component, aspect, process, or system behind your product or service which delivers the Primary Promise for prospects. It’s the thing within your product or service that gives your prospect the result. It's the reason why your product or service works.

For example:

It could be the unique algorithm behind your SEO software that gets users top Google rankings. The unique combination of nutrients in your vitamin supplement that lowers cholesterol by 30 points. The unique bodywork method you use in your massage practice which eliminates your client’s pain within 20 minutes. The unique recipe you use when baking your birthday cakes that makes them so delicious.

Again, the Unique Mechanism is the unique part of your product or service which is responsible for fulfilling your Primary Promise. And having a Unique Mechanism is incredibly powerful because it gives your prospects hope in your product or service.

It gives them hope that maybe this time… with your product or service… they will experience the result — the result which has eluded them, the result which they didn't

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experience from the other products and services they've bought.

It gives them hope because they view the Unique Mechanism as the thing they've been missing. The one thing they haven't tried. The one thing that's been missing from all the other products and services they've bought.

It gives them hope that maybe this time things will be different because of the Unique Mechanism. Because they've never tried another product or service with this mechanism. So… maybe… this will be the difference maker for them.

It's also worth noting -- having a Unique Mechanism™ also prevents your product or service from being viewed as a commodity, as a generic solution. And in the process prevents something I refer to as the Google Marketing Slap.

When you're marketing a commodity or a generic solution, like: a magnesium supplement, a book on five ways to grow bigger tomatoes, or a one-hour massage... what you're presenting is a commodity. It's generic. It's common.

And, when presented with a commodity, prospects are propelled to pause your video, go over to Google, and do a quick search for a cheaper, more convenient way of

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getting the same commodity.

Let's suppose, for example, you're marketing and selling a fat burning supplement. And in your marketing you tell prospects the reason why your fat burner works is because it contains the amino acid L-Carnitine. Well, you've now just presented a commodity - L-Carnitine. It's something they can find anywhere. At a health food store, VitaminShoppe, or right on Amazon.

Now… because you’re presented a commodity… there's nothing special about your supplement. Nothing unique. Nothing different.

So, all they have to do is press pause on your video, go over to Google, and type in L-Carnitine. And they'll be given dozens of different options for where to get it cheaper, faster, etc.

See: That's an example of a marketing message and a marketing idea that triggers the Google Marketing Slap. Where someone can simply go get all the information you’re presenting them with right on Google. And possibly buy your commodity from one of your competitors or an alternate vendor.

That's why you never, ever should market a commodity or generic solution.

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You want to market and sell a proprietary solution. And that's what having a Unique Mechanism™ gives you.

With a Unique Mechanism behind your Primary Promise (PP), you're presenting a proprietary solution, because you're the only one offering it. Prospects can't get it anywhere else. They can't find it anywhere else even if they do a search on Google. You're the only product, the only software, the only program, the only vendor of the Unique Mechanism™ you're presenting. That's why it's proprietary. And that's why you’re product is not viewed as some commodity or generic solution.

Let's look at a few real-world examples to really make this clear.

The FrogTape® brand, marketed by ShurTech Brands, LLC (a subsidiary of Shurtape Technologies, LLC) markets and sells painters tape. Their Primary Promise: Use our tape and you never have to worry about paint bleeding over to areas where it shouldn't.

On the surface this seems like a commodity. Do a quick Google search and you'll find hundreds of different brands and options for painters tape.

But there's one thing which sets FrogTape® apart — their Unique Mechanism.

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FrogTape® is able to fulfill on their promise of "no bleeding" because their tape is built with Paint Block Technology®.

While other tape manufactures claim wonderful things about what their painters tape does and how it works, none offer Paint Block Technology®. That can only be found with FrogTape®.

So, while other companies are stuck fighting it out in the red ocean of commoditized painters tape, Shurtape Technologies is marketing something different -- premium-quality, innovative painting tapes that feature PaintBlock® Technology, "which keeps paint out and keeps lines sharp".

Today, Shurtape Technologies generates over $480 million dollars in sales. Not too shabby for painters tape.

Sleeping Well, LLC is a company which markets and sells a mouthpiece to help eliminate snoring. It's called ZQuiet®. Their Primary Promise: A comfortable mouth guard that eliminates snoring in just days.

Again, on the surface, seems like a commodity. A quick Google search for the term "snoring mouth guard" reveals over 400,000 websites listed. With one site reviewing over 29 different anti-snoring mouth guard brands and models.

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But, like FrogTape®, there's one thing which sets ZQuiet® apart from all other mouth guards. They call it Living Hinge Technology. It’s their Unique Mechanism.

The reason why ZQuiet® is so effective, yet so comfortable, is -- as they claim -- because of the Living Hinge Technology behind their mouth guard. According to their site, "it enables you to sleep comfortably throughout the night no matter how you are positioned and whether your mouth is open or closed."

See, they're not just making a promise and trying to sell an average, run-of-the-mill mouth guard. That would be a commodity. That would allow prospects to do a search for a cheaper mouth guard.

No. They're marketing something different; their Unique Mechanism -- a mouth guard with Living Hinge Technology. It's not a generic mouth guard. It's not a commodity. And they're the only company that offers it.

And it's allowed them to do extraordinarily well.

The anti-snoring market -- yes, there's an entire market around snoring -- is a billion-dollar-plus market. And according to a recent report from MarketResearchFuture.com, Sleeping Well, LLC, is listed as the top player in this space. No doubt, the owners of this

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company are sleeping well at night. (Had to slip that in.)

Let's look at one more example.

You've likely heard of P90X. It's one of those intense in-home exercise programs. The company behind P90X is BeachBody.

The early versions of their marketing didn’t demonstrate a unique mechanism. So, as they shared in a New York Times article, “The early P90X informercials bombed.”

In fact, the company wasted tons of cash trying 14 different versions of the infomercial before they really started to make money in 2006.

Once they introduced the right unique mechanism, their sales took off.

The unique mechanism they came up with: Muscle Confusion.

It's simply the name they gave to the exercise method behind P90X which produces the weight-loss and muscle-building results for users.

In that same New York Times article, BeachBody even said, “P90X is not that special.” And later in an

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interview, Tony Horton, the spokesperson for P90X said, "Muscle confusion was just a term we came up with… and we sold millions.”

By 2015, their unique mechanism — muscle confusion — helped BeachBody crack $1 billion in sales, now with over 23 million customers.

That’s the impact of having the right Unique Mechanism™.

Now, there are three different types of Unique Mechanisms any product or service can have. As long as you’re not selling a pure commodity, like a gallon of gasoline, you can use one of these three types.

The first type of Unique Mechanism is The Actual Mechanism.

You would use this type of Unique Mechanism when you actually have a unique piece, part, component, process, aspect, system behind your product or service. When you actually have a unique algorithm in your software. When you actually have a unique ingredient in your pizza sauce.

If you have something truly unique in your product or service that produces the results for folks, you have an Actual Mechanism.

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More often than not, your product or service may not have an actual mechanism. That's when you're going to use one of the other two types of mechanisms.

The second type of Unique Mechanism is The Unspoken Mechanism.

The Unspoken Mechanism is used when the mechanism that powers your product or service is not necessarily unique amongst your competitors, but it’s unique to prospects because none of your competitors are talking about it.

In other words, it's not necessarily just your product or service that has the mechanism. It may be just you that's featuring the mechanism in your marketing.

This type of Unique Mechanism stems from legendary ad man, Claude Hopkins.

Story has it, Claude was brought in by Schlitz Beer to work on their marketing in hopes of capturing greater market share.

So they took Claude on a tour of one of their facilities. While there he saw something being done to the beer bottles before they were filled with beer.

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"What's going on over there?" Claude asked.

"Oh, that's where we sterilize all of our bottles. All of our bottles go through that sterilization process before we put any beer in there. It helps maintain the purity of our beer.“

Realizing what he just heard, Claude asked, "Well, why aren't you telling anybody about this? Why aren't you sharing that as the reason behind the quality of Schlitz beer?"

“Because every beer manufacturer uses the same sterilization process,” the tour guide responded.

"But,” Claude retorted, “nobody's talking about it. Nobody's presenting it to the market. Nobody's sharing it with folks.”

So, Claude created an entire marketing campaign around Schlitz’s sterilization process — their Unspoken Mechanism. Even though other competitors had the same mechanism, Schlitz’s new campaign was able to recapture a tremendous amount of market share. Because they were the first and only one to talk about the sterilization process at the time. So it became their Unspoken Mechanism. And in the process, gave prospects a reason to be hopeful that Schlitz beer would be more fresh, more pure, and more

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delicious.

So, is there a part of your product or service that’s responsible for delivering the Primary Promise, not necessarily unique amongst your competitors, but none of them are talking about it?

If so, it can your Unspoken Mechanism.

Now, it may be a temporary Unique Mechanism until competitors see that it's working for you and knock it off. But before they do, it can be an effective Unique Mechanism for your marketing.

The third type of Unique Mechanism is The Transubstantiated Mechanism.

Despite the strange name, this is the most commonly used type of U.M.

I first learned about the idea of transubstantiation — within a marketing context — from Bill Bonner, founder of Agora.

The idea of transubstantiation comes from Roman Catholicism. It’s the principle behind communion when the wine is turned into the blood of Christ.

In a marketing context, the secret of

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transubstantiation is the idea of turning something ordinary into something extraordinary. Taking the common and making it uncommon and new.

Let's say for example you were selling a vitamin D supplement. Well, of course as you now know, simply presenting vitamin D would be marketing and selling a commodity. It would trigger the Google Marketing Slap.

Well, a little factoid for ya: Did you know vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients taken by astronauts in space? Well, it is.

So, couldn't we refer to vitamin D in our marketing as… maybe... "The Astronaut's Nutrient".

Sure we could. And by doing so it’s a simple example of a transubstantiated mechanism.

We turned the ordinary -- vitamin D -- into the extraordinary -- "The Astronaut's Nutrient".

Now, this doesn't mean the product name needs to be "The Astronaut's Nutrient". In this example, that would just be the name we've given to the mechanism behind how and why the supplement works. And we could then use "The Astronaut's Nutrient" as the Unique Mechanism in our Big Marketing Idea.

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This is just what financial copywriter, Mike Palmer, did with his legendary Secret Currency marketing promotion. It was all about investing in gold. But Mike knew he couldn't simply talk about gold investing. That would be the common. The ordinary. The market was already being slammed with promotions about gold.

During Mike's research he found that thru the centuries gold was quietly used by the richest people as a medium of exchange. So, for his promotion, Mike transubstantiated gold into the "Secret Currency". His entire campaign, from headline to offer, was all about how today the Secret Currency could be used by everyday folks to hedge against inflation, deflation, market crashes, etc. And the campaign was a home run.

A Transubstantiated Mechanism was also used to introduce the marketing world to the "tripwire" by Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher of Digital Marketer. Two fantastic entrepreneurs.

As they presented it a handful of years ago, a tripwire is the first step in their funnel-building approach. It's a low-cost, low-barrier-of-entry offer presented to prospects with the aim of turning them into customers.

Here, Ryan and Perry took a piece of their marketing methodology — the low priced offer — and gave it a

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proprietary name. Tripwire.

While today, the tripwire is associated with Digital Marketer, the idea of a low-cost, low-price offer is nothing new. It's been around for decades. It's been a longtime staple in the world of direct response marketing.

That's not a knock against Ryan and Perry. Not at all. If anything it's a tip of my hat to them. They executed the Transubstantiated Mechanism beautifully.

See: If Ryan and Perry had simply presented "a low-cost offer" to the market, as the basis of their marketing methodology, they would have been presenting a commodity. They would have been marketing and selling the generic. The common. And they wouldn't have gotten nearly the traction they got.

Instead, they transubstantiated the common into something different. And when they presented the idea of a tripwire to the market, it triggered the feeling of something new for prospects. It made prospects think, “Ah. A tripwire is what I've been missing. That's the reason why I've been struggling. That's what I need."

And because it was viewed as something new and different, it gave prospects hope. Hope… that learning and using a tripwire would give them the marketing pay-off they

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were after. And, for many, it did.

See, Ryan and Perry took the ordinary low-cost, low-barrier-of-entry offer and transubstantiated it into something extraordinary.

Make sense?

Good.

By this point, we've talked about how a Big Marketing Idea is emotionally compelling because it’s built on the back of a Primary Promise which is fulfilled by a Unique Mechanism.

Now we need to talk about what it means to be Intellectually Interesting (I.I.).

Intellectually Interesting, in this context, means the idea is something your prospect would want to hear more about even if there was no explicit promise of benefit. Something which piques your prospect’s curiosity.

Intellectually Interesting means it gives your prospect a feeling of discovery. An AHA! Moment. As if they just stumbled on something newsworthy.

Intellectually Interesting makes your prospect think, "Hmm. I've never thought of that. I've never seen it that

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way. I've never heard of that. This is big.”

Remember, to have a Big Marketing Idea you must appeal to both emotion and logic. Your idea must speak to both the heart and the head of your prospect. Stir their feelings and captivate their intellect.

Now you know how to do it using the Big Marketing Idea Formula:

Emotionally Compelling (Primary Promise + Unique Mechanism) + Intellectually Interesting = Big Marketing Idea

Let’s look at some real-world examples to see this formula in action…

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Chapter Four

Big Marketing Idea Examples

In this chapter we’ll take a look at ten examples of real-world Big Marketing Ideas.

For each, you’ll see I’ve listed the Primary Promise and Unique Mechanism, so you understand what makes it Emotionally Compelling, along with the Intellectually Interesting component.

It’s important you don’t pre-judge any of the ideas. While many, or all, may be from different markets than the one you’re operating within, it’s important you look at the overall application and not the specific idea.

As well, despite some of the ideas seeming “outlandish” or “hyperbolic”, they’re all truthful and based on research. While we may push the envelope with how an idea is stated, we never, ever lie.

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Example #1: Marijuana Blueprint

• Primary Promise: Turn fifty-dollars into a massive fortune

• Unique Mechanism: The $50 Marijuana Blueprint

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What is happening within the equity markets regarding cannibas on November 8th that presents this unique opportunity?

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Example #2: Fountain Of Youth

• Primary Promise: Slice twenty years off your age.

• Unique Mechanism: Medical science’s new “magic bullet” discovery.

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Has the “fountain of youth” really been discovered by medical science?

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Example #3: Dark Trades

• Primary Promise: Collect $80K in a matter of days.

• Unique Mechanism: The anonymous trades behind every major stock move.

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Are there really “dark trades” happening before every skyrocketing stock price… and is it really possible for the little guy to get in on it?

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Example #4: Spanish Heart Secret

• Primary Promise: Gain robust heart health.

• Unique Mechanism: Spain’s military “secret weapon” for superhuman health and wellness.

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What did Napoleon’s spies discover about how Spain’s military was able to create such vibrant and powerful soldiers?

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Example #5: “Wiretapping”

• Primary Promise: Turn $2,000 into $10 million

• Unique Mechanism: Wiretapping America’s Richest Investors

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What do you mean “wiretapping”? How can it be done legally?

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Example #6: “Fingerprints of God”

• Primary Promise: Prevent disease

• Unique Mechanism: “Fingerprints of God”

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What’s this discovery that claims to prove God’s existence? And can it really be used to prevent disease?

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Example #7: Gold Skimming

• Primary Promise: Get paid from every ounce of gold pulled from the ground

• Unique Mechanism: “Gold Skimming”

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What is gold skimming? Is it a new way to invest in gold? And how do I get paid on every ounce?

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Example #8: Gene Hacking IPO

• Primary Promise: Get-in on a ground-breaking IPO investment

• Unique Mechanism: “The biggest Biotech Discovery” IPO

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What’s this “gene hacking technology” claiming to end all disease? Can I really get-in on this kind of IPO?

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Example #9: The God Key

• Primary Promise: Get in on a stock that could go up by 35,000%

• Unique Mechanism: FDA Anomaly

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What's the "God Key"? And what's this FDA Anomaly occuring on January 12th?

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Example #10: Smart Funnel

• Primary Promise: Experience double-digit sales conversions

• Unique Mechanism: Smart Funnel

• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Does it really function like a real sales person? How? Is there some new technology I don’t know about?

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Chapter Five

Identifying Your Prospects’ Maturity

How "mature" are your prospects?

It's a question we need to answer before you can begin to look for your Big Marketing Idea.

In this context, maturity is determined by the types of marketing claims and ideas your prospects have already seen from competitors. Remember, a Big Marketing Idea is unique and different from what your prospects have already heard and seen.

To identify maturity, we use a simple tool called The Promise Exposure Spectrum™, or PES, for short. It’s based on the idea of Marketplace Sophistication first presented by Eugene Schwartz in his perennial book Breakthrough Advertising.

Schwartz demonstrated how prospects evolve over time as they’re exposed to various marketing promises and claims. Over time, as prospects become more “sophisticated”, they no longer respond to the same types of promises and claims they once did. In order to keep them responding, your marketing needs to evolve as they do.

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The Promise Exposure Spectrum™ allows you to identify what stage of sophistication your prospects are at, so you can ensure your Big Marketing Idea matches.

An idea at the wrong stage — too low for where prospects are and what they’ve already seen — will fall flat. In fact, an “immature marketing message” is one of the biggest reasons for marketing campaign failure.

That’s why it’s so important you use the Promise Exposure Spectrum™ to identify where your prospects fall.

There are five stages of the PES:

Stage #1: Promise

When your Primary Promise is something your prospects haven’t heard before, they’re at Stage #1.

When you’re presenting your market with a promise nobody else has ever made them, all you need to do is present your Primary Promise. And the promise itself serves as the pattern interrupt and all that’s needed to get

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attention.

For example: When the first fat burning supplement was released to the market, all that needed to be said was “Take this pill and you’ll lose weight”. Since nobody else had ever made that promise, prospects saw it as something new and different.

But, over time, as more and more competitors came into the market and began knocking-off that promise, prospects began to respond less and less. That’s when weight-loss prospects evolved to the next stage. As did the messages from savvy marketers.

Stage #2: Promise Expanded

At this stage, expanding the promise is needed to get attention. Here, we see marketers promising more and greater results.

In the case of the fat burning supplement, at this stage we started seeing promises such as “Take this pill and lose 20 pounds”… “Take this pill and lose 15 inches”… “Take this pill and lose 30 pounds and 30 inches”.

It’s at this stage where lots of marketers remain… trying to compete by enlarging their claims more and more. They attempt to stand-out by simply screaming a louder

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promise than their competitors.

But, over time, prospects no longer respond to simply enlarged claims and promises. Because at a certain point enlarged claims are no longer credible or believable (or true).

If today, for example, we had a fat burning supplement and our promise was “Take this pill and lose 100 pounds”, it would fall on deaf ears. Why? Because the promise has been enlarged past the point of credibility or believability. Not too mention, beyond the point of being truthful.

This is where savvier marketers evolve their marketing message to the next stage of the PES.

State #3: Promise & Unique Mechanism

Here, at this stage, the mechanism behind the promise is introduced. How does the product work to deliver the promised results?

In the case of the fat burning supplement, this is where you see messages like “Take this pill and lose up to 3 pounds every week… as the Garcinia Cambogia prevents your body from absorbing fat.”

In this example, the Garcinia Cambogia is the

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mechanism that delivers the weight loss.

As long as your mechanism remains unique to your product, operating at this stage can be extremely effective.

But, just like we saw with Stage #1, over time, as competitors see your success and knock-off your mechanism for their own product, staying with this message will make it harder and harder for you to get prospects to respond to your message.

The key is not simply having a mechanism behind your Primary Promise. The key is having a Unique Mechanism.

If you have a Unique Mechanism, you can remain at this stage with your message long-term. Once your Unique Mechanism becomes just a mechanism — common amongst competitor’s products — it’s time to move on to the next stage on the PES.

Stage #4: Promise + Expanded Mechanism

Similar to Stage #2, here we’re also expanding. At this stage, we’re expanding the mechanism, not the promise.

In the case of the fat burning supplement, here is where we see the introduction of something like

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“pharmaceutical-grade Garcinia Cambogia”… “Garcinia Cambogia from the rain forest”… “Garcinia Cambogia blended with a digestive enzyme”… etc.

We’re taking the mechanism and enlarging it, expanding it.

As long as your “expanded mechanism” remains unique to your product or service, you can operate successfully at this stage. But, if and when competitors knock it off, you will need to move on to the final stage of the PES.

Stage #5: Prospect Experience

Here, the marketing message no longer focuses on the mechanism. Instead, you focus on the prospect’s experience.

In the case of the fat burning supplement, your message would become something along the lines of “Are you sick and tired of dieting, exercising, popping pills… and not losing weight?”

Now, imagine for one second, what would happen if we rolled-out a fantastic new fat burning supplement today, and our idea and message was simply “Take this pill and lose weight”.

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What kind of response and results do you think we’d see?

Yeah, barely any!

Why? Because that idea and message has already been seen. It’s old. It’s too low on the Promise Exposure Spectrum™ based on where prospects are right now. So it’s too immature.

Like this book…

If you look at the PES, you can see the idea and message behind this book is based on Stage #1.

Why?

Because it’s simply presenting a promise — How to lose weight the natural way.

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It’s not a Stage #2 message because it’s not expanding on the promise (e.g. how to lose 20 pounds a week). And it’s not a Stage #3 message because there’s no mechanism behind the promise.

But, it’s way too immature for where weight-loss prospects are today. Because the market has heard this type of claim. Hundreds of times. For years.

So this type of immature message simply triggers mental opt-out.

What this book is offering is information which is immediately recognizable as stuff that can be found anywhere.

It’s offering information which has been available and offered many, many, many times before.

So the market is well beyond this in terms of their sophistication.

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Here’s another example:

Another Stage #1 idea and message.

Nothing enlarged. And no mechanism.

Also, way too immature.

The market heard this type of idea a decade ago.

It’s old.

Boring.

Blah.

Garbage.

How about this one?

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Again: old, dated, run-of-the-mill, and way too immature for what this market has already been presented with.

All three examples are exactly what not to do.

And with all three examples you should also now see how there’s no specificity, no Unique Mechanism, nothing Intellectually Interesting, and not even a big, bold promise.

At the root of all three is simply a weak idea.

And, no matter what we do with the copy — the words used — the underlying idea will remain the same, weak.

Changing “Get Rich On The Internet” to “Get Wealthy In Just Weeks With Your Own Website” may improve the copy. But the idea is still the idea. Weak,

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ordinary, and immature.

Remember, the copy stems from the idea. The idea always comes first. It’s the foundation.

You don’t want to try to spruce-up copy for a garbage idea. As the saying goes, “You can put lipstick and a dress on a pig, but you’ll still have a pig.”

Start, instead, by developing a Big Marketing Idea.

Then, and only then, dial-in the copy to express it clearly.

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Chapter Six

Developing Big Marketing Ideas

So, how do you develop your own Big Marketing Ideas?

It all begins by first recognizing… Big Marketing Ideas don’t come to you in a flash of inspiration. They’re not based on your creativity… pulled from your psyche. They're not simply going to pop into your head.

No. Big Marketing Ideas are discovered and developed.

They come from digging into the market and product. From research (i.e. The Examination Stage of the E5 Customer Acquisition Marketing Protocol.)

Eugene Schwartz said it best:

“You don't get an idea or a headline. You dig it out of the market research. You wring it out of your product. You read. You listen. You experiment. The creativity is not in you. It's in your market. It's in your prospects. It's in your product. All you're doing is joining the two together.”

This is why, when it comes to research, legendary

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advertising copywriter, John Caples, said:

“You should collect 7 times the amount of information you think you’re going to need…”

And all-star copywriter, Gary Bencivenga, said:

“Research with a hand-truck. You can never have too much information…”

And my friend, Brian Kurtz, former VP of Boardroom Inc., said:

“Be a bloodhound…”

Finding Big Marketing Ideas begins with deep digging.

And, when digging and doing your research, you need to consume lots of information. You need lots of ideas.

And to get lots of ideas, you need lots of input.

This is why the idea of a marketer not reading a variety of diverse books and magazines… not watching the news… not watching popular movies or television shows… not reading general information as well as market-specific information… is absurd.

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Marketers that foolishly limit their sources of information are limiting their input. And, by limiting their input, they're limiting their potential output of ideas.

In order to come up with lots of ideas, you must have a lot of input. And you must have a lot of input and a lot of ideas in order to find and develop a Big Marketing Idea.

Remember: The whole process for finding and developing a Big Marketing Idea is all about discovery and assembly. Both come from your volume of input.

So what are ideas?

Well, an idea is nothing more than a new combination of old, common, seemingly disconnected elements.

Finding seeds of great ideas is about looking for new or unusual combinations and/or connections between two or three different things that are seemingly disconnected. It's you seeing a new or unusual connection between two or more seemingly disconnected items.

And, as James Webb Young shares in his fantastic little book A Technique For Producing Ideas:

“The capacity to bring old elements into new

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combination depends on your ability to see relationships.”

Now, you might not be a natural at this. But, the beautiful thing is… the ability to see relationships where others don’t, is a skillset which can be developed like any other skillset.

In his book, Young references the idea of being either a rentier or a speculator — a concept first presented by Wilfredo Pareto, the Italian sociologist behind the 80/20 principle.

Rentiers are people who view different elements as separate, disconnected bits of information. They go about life not looking for, or seeing, connections.

Then you've got speculators. These people are preoccupied with the possibility of connections. They view elements not as totally separate, but as another link in the same chain. They’re constantly on the lookout for possible combinations and connections. How is A like or connected to B?

You need to begin to function as a speculator. Proactively, intentionally looking for relationships between things that rentiers ignore as being disconnected.

That's how you’ll begin to strengthen your idea muscle. And how you’ll develop the skillset of seeing

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combinations where others do not.

This is exactly what entrepreneur and copywriter, Porter Stansberry, did when creating the first marketing campaign for his investment newsletter, Stansberry Advisory.

The body of Porter’s marketing campaign detailed how the spread of voiceover IP was about to radically change the telecommunications industry. At the time of the campaign, fiber optic cable was being laid all throughout the country. And it was about to present savvy investors with a monumental opportunity.

But Porter knew, if he simply announced another new investment opportunity, the market would see it as more of the same. It would be viewed as old-hat. Typical.

Instead, Porter chose to develop a Big Marketing Idea.

He saw a relationship between the spread of fiber optic cable and the spread of the early American railroad.

The spread of the railroad created tremendous fortunes and created many titans of industry. Porter felt the same opportunity was at hand with the spread of fiber optic cable. And that became the foundation of his Big Marketing

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Idea.

The campaign went on to be a wild success. In fact, it helped launch, what is today, a $170+ million-dollar a year business.

See how Porter found a relationship between two seemingly disconnected things — the spread of the railroad and the spread of fiber optic cable — and brought them together for what became a Big Marketing Idea?

That’s the power of proactively looking for connections.

Now, to have the correct input to find these connections there are two different types of information you should be consuming.

There's specific information which is related to your product… related to your prospect… and related to your

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market in general.

And there’s general information related to what’s on the forefront of people’s minds (i.e. current events).

Ideas come from a new combination of specific knowledge about your product and prospect, along with general knowledge about the mainstream issues on the markets mind.

This is why it’s important for you to consume a variety of general information along with specific information related to your product and marketplace.

Some various sources, just to get your wheels spinning: books, magazines, newspapers, news programs, forums, Amazon comments, blog articles, blog comments, professional trade journals, Facebook groups, podcasts, radio programs, YouTube, history, other experts' content, past marketing promotions, etc.

While consuming, digging, and researching, you’re looking for seeds of ideas you haven’t heard before. Things shared with a different perspective. An interesting, curious nugget. A twist on an old idea. A weird fact.

You want to find things that get your juices flowing. Something which piques your own curiosity. Something

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which gets you excited… and excited to tell others about.

And when you’re researching, don't pre-judge any idea or nugget. Don’t start making decisions about whether it’s good or not while researching. Just note it. Document every idea that strikes your fancy.

When possible, also note proof points along the way. Remember, promises and claims are cheap. They're brushed-off without proof. There's no value in an idea if there's no proof to back it up. So, when researching, note proof points.

Also, when you're developing your ideas, don’t be afraid to explore ideas that are outrageous, controversial, or polarizing. You can’t be afraid to ruffle feathers. You can't be afraid to say something that’s going to polarize you in the eyes of your market. And you can't be afraid to say something that’s slightly embarrassing. You've got to be willing to go big.

Remember, you’re not looking for an idea that’ll tap your prospect on the shoulder. You’re looking for an idea that’ll whack them on the side of the head.

And don’t rush things. You need to be patient when researching and looking for seeds of a Big Marketing Idea. Give yourself the time and room to find interesting stuff and flesh it out. Don’t rush ahead with an idea unless you feel

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you have something you’re excited about.

Remember, the idea you go with can make or break your entire marketing campaign. So be patient.

Another approach you can use when looking for seeds of Big Marketing Ideas is to use the "Action Figure" Technique. This is based on an interaction Mark Ford had years ago while flying home from a family vacation.

Seated next to him on the plane just so happened to be one of the original creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Being the curious fellow he is, Mark leaned over and asked the gentleman how they came up with such a popular idea.

“At the time,” the gentleman responded, “mutants, ninjas, and turtles were really popular. And since we were targeting teenagers, we figured, let’s combine all of that into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s it.”

Pretty funny, right? And interesting, though.

The idea here is to look for the different topics and ideas getting a lot of attention in your marketplace right now, and see if you can combine them into a new and

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different story nobody else is telling.

Just, be aware: During this stage of “idea development” you’re not writing any copy. You’re not trying to craft a headline or any opening copy. You’re simply developing the idea.

Think of it like developing the idea for a movie script. You only begin writing when you’ve first determined you have a great story to tell.

So, your aim is to get clarity on the idea itself, first.

To make sure you have clarity, you should be able to sum up your Big Marketing Idea in a concise statement that’s simple and powerful.

You must be able to articulate your idea in under 30 seconds.

Imagine you’re at a social gathering and you want to run your idea by a friend to see if they would find it interesting and compelling. You wouldn't take a half hour. You wouldn't take 20 minutes. And you wouldn't rattle off some headline.

You'd share the idea as quickly and clearly as possible and wait for their response. And what you’d be

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hoping for is, “Wow, tell me more about that.”

If you can’t sum-up your idea in under 30 seconds, odds are you don’t have clarity yet. And you need to spend more time thinking about it and developing it.

One final and important note about Big Marketing Ideas: They exist within a context, within a point in time.

What was a Big Marketing Idea three months ago may not be a Big Marketing Idea today. Likely, what was a Big Marketing Idea a year ago is certainly not a Big Marketing Idea today.

Sometimes ideas have a very limited window. Some, weeks. Others, months. Rarely, years.

Why? Because things change. Your prospects evolve. What was once new is now old. What was once unique is now run-of-the-mill.

So, you never want to copy or steal an old idea. You shouldn't be stealing anybody's idea to begin with, but it's to your detriment if you do because they all exist within a context. And likely, that context has changed.

Your aim is to develop something new and fresh. Something timely. Something unique. Something your

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prospects have never heard before. Something arresting.

And it needs to be Emotionally Compelling and Intellectually Interesting. Something that prods your prospect’s heart and head. Their feelings and their logic.

When you’re patient… and you develop that type of idea — a Big Marketing Idea — you’ll then possess the foundation of what can be turned into a very powerful and very profitable marketing campaign.

It’s not easy. And won’t happen quickly.

But the payoff can be incredible!

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Epilogue

If you're reading this section, my hope is you've read the entire book. Kudos. Not many marketers will make it this far. Not many people are committed enough to actually read entire books.

Sad. I know. But you have. And that's cause for celebration.

You too now understand the single most valuable marketing lesson I've learned in the fifteen-plus years I've been in the direct marketing trenches.

When I first learned the secret of the Big Marketing Idea twelve years ago, it completely changed my entire approach to engineering marketing campaigns. And, in the process, helped me build several multi-million-dollar businesses. And equipped me to help hundreds of other entrepreneurs do the same.

Make no mistake, developing Big Marketing Ideas is not easy. Or quick. But, then again, nothing great is. It will take time. Commitment. Tenacity. And patience. But like all great things, the payoff is so worth it.

Effective marketing is the life-blood of all business.

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It's the foundation. The bedrock.

When done correctly, it can transform a fledgling venture into a marketplace leader. A cash-strapped entrepreneur into a cash-flush business owner.

And at the root of the most effective marketing... is a Big Marketing Idea.

My deepest hope is you now recognize that. And embrace it. That you go on from here and search for your first Big Marketing Idea. Then your second. Then third. And continue as an entrepreneur who engineers marketing campaigns which stand-out and get attention. Captivating prospects. Moving them emotionally and intellectually. Creating a thriving source of new customers in the process. And growing the business or businesses of your dreams.

That's what the secret of the Big Marketing Idea can do for you. And now you know it too.

I’m certainly here to help. In fact, I'd love to help. It would my honor and privilege to teach you my full E5 Customer Acquisition Marketing Protocol (C.A.M.P.) -- my entire process for helping you find your Big Marketing Idea and turning it into a full marketing campaign which brings you new customer sales, every day. If you're interested, go to: www.E5Camp.com.

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Next Steps For You…

Now that you understand the power behind developing Big Marketing Ideas, I want to invite you to turn your Big Marketing Idea into a fully-launched marketing campaign which brings you new customer sales, every day.

And I want to invite you to do it with a seat in the E5 C.A.M.P. Masterclass.

If you’re looking to learn a powerful, customer-generating method that will finally make your marketing work, the E5 C.A.M.P. Masterclass will give you the path to succeed right away.

• Right off the bat you'll learn the difference between setting-up a customer-generating campaign and an ordinary marketing funnel.

• You'll learn how to make sure you’ve nailed your Big Marketing Idea to ensure your campaign gets lots of attention in your marketplace.

• You'll learn how to position your product so your prospects see it as something new, unique, and different.

• You'll learn exactly what you need to say in the first

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350 to 800 words of your marketing campaign so your prospects remain engaged.

• You'll learn how to develop the perfect marketing message for your specific product or service that gets prospects ready to buy.

• You'll learn how to construct a S.I.N. Offer which makes it a no-brainer for prospects to purchase your product.

• You'll learn how to prove the profitability of your new marketing campaign in just days... without wasting any time or money.

• You'll learn how to grow the daily volume of new customers you're getting by using my simple traffic formula: B.A.C.O.

• ...and much, MUCH MORE!

And, in just 45 days you'll have your new and profitable campaign published and bringing you new customers.

PLUS: There's zero risk to put it to the test.

Because you're protected by a full 100% Money-Back

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Guarantee.

You're either thrilled with the quantity of sales and new customers the E5 CAMP Masterclass is bringing you, or you can send one email and get all of your money back.

This is your opportunity to finally have marketing which really does bring you new customer sales, every day.

You just need to take action and enroll in the E5 CAMP Masterclass.

Look:

I have no idea what your financial situation or lifestyle looks like.

But I believe you're a motivated entrepreneur.

Maybe you want a successful business to finally get free of a 9-5 job.

Maybe you want to elevate your family's financial status.

Maybe you want to experience the best life has to offer.

Or maybe you just want extra cash every month you

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can splurge on a vacation, a new car, the newest electronic gadget, or a second home.

Whatever you're after, this is your chance to finally have a business which gives you the cash flow and profits you want.

It all begins when you enroll in the E5 CAMP Masterclass and learn how to use it to bring you new customer sales, every day.

Do it. This will be best decision you make for your business.

Hope to see you inside!

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Appendix

There are three additional benefits which come from building your marketing around a Big Marketing Idea. All three can have a significant impact on the volume of new customer sales your marketing generates.

First, with a campaign built around a Big Marketing Idea, you can tap into a monster source of new sales from the largest, ignored segment of your marketplace.

Most entrepreneurs are completely clueless about this.

To understand how this works, you need to first understand the Prospect Awareness Pyramid™. It’s a simple tool taught and used as part of the E5 Customer Acquisition Marketing Protocol (www.E5Camp.com).

And it’s an expansion on the principle of prospect awareness first introduced by Eugene Schwartz in 1966.

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You’ll notice there are five levels of prospect awareness.

Starting at the bottom, we have the Unaware Level. Prospects which have no awareness of any existing problem or of anything about you, your product, or your product category, fall within this level.

One level up, we have the Problem Aware Level. Prospects which are aware of their existing problem, but not aware of any of the possible solutions available, fall within this level.

Another level up, we have the Solution Aware Level.

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Prospects which are aware of their existing problem and of the various solution types available, fall within this level.

Up another level, we have the Product Aware Level. Prospects which are aware of their existing problem and of your product, but aren’t sure if it’s right for them, fall within this level.

And at the top of the pyramid we have the Most Aware Level. Prospects which know all about you and your product, and simply want to know the “deal”, fall within this level.

Why is this valuable? Well, as Eugene Schwartz said, “Knowing what your prospects know in advance of a sales pitch is just as important as knowing who he is or what he wants.”

Knowing who you’re targeting and where they fall on the Prospect Awareness Pyramid™ is critical because it tells you how “direct” or “indirect” your Big Marketing Idea should be.

Meaning: How early in your marketing should you be talking about the product or offer.

The more aware your prospect is — higher on the pyramid — the more direct your Big Marketing Idea can be.

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The less aware your prospect is — lower on the pyramid — the less direct your Big Marketing Idea should be.

Most entrepreneurs and marketers have been taught to target prospects higher on the pyramid. Folks at least with an awareness of an existing problem. Why? Because they’re easier to sell.

But there’s an important element I want you to grasp.

As you target higher awareness prospects, the smaller your universe of prospects becomes.

Obviously, Most Aware — prospects who know you and your product — is the smallest universe of prospects.

Whereas, Unaware — prospects who aren’t even aware of a problem, you, your product, or any solutions — is the biggest universe of prospects. A universe… almost all of your competitors are likely ignoring.

While typical promise-driven ideas can work with higher awareness level prospects, they will not work with lower awareness level prospects.

Meaning: To tap into the lowest level of awareness prospects… and hence, the biggest universe of prospects…

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you can’t use the typical promise-driven idea. You need a Big Marketing Idea.

Now, with what you’ve learned in this book, you have the ability to tap into a tremendous source of potential new customers being ignored by almost all other advertising in your market.

Pretty cool, right?

Next additional benefit…

When you build your campaigns around a Big Marketing Idea, you have everything you need to create paid ads which get higher clicks and engagement than pure pitch advertisements. So, you have the opportunity to quickly turn your Big Marketing Idea into faster profits from cold traffic.

As you now know, Big Marketing Ideas standout and get more attention then simple, ordinary ideas conveyed in paid advertising. This greater attention tends to lead to a higher CTR (click-thru rate). And a higher CTR and greater ad engagement leads to lower advertising costs. Because platforms like Facebook reward advertisers for content which demonstrates higher levels of interest from users.

So, with a Big Marketing Idea, you not only have the ability to get more traffic from your advertising, you also

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have the ability to generate that traffic at a lower cost. And more traffic at a cheaper price is a fast path to greater profits.

And, finally, the third additional benefit…

Now that you understand how to find and develop Big Marketing Ideas, you can market and sell the same product every day for years... without your marketing ever getting stale or dated.

See: Outside of the offer, the two most important components of every marketing campaign are the idea and the lead (the first 350-800 words).

Think of it within the context of the 80/20 principle. The idea and lead are the 20% of any marketing campaign responsible for 80% of the results.

What this means is you can regularly develop new Big Marketing Ideas for your marketing, leave 80% of the campaign the same, and sell the same product over and over.

When the time comes where a Big Marketing Idea is no longer generating adequate response from the market, you can simply develop a new idea and lead, while leaving the rest of the marketing campaign almost identical. It’ll be perceived by the market as a new campaign. And will allow

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you to continue marketing and selling your product over and over without your message every getting stale.

So, in summary:

Now that you know how to find and develop Big Marketing Ideas, you have a way of ensuring your marketing stands-out and gets attention even in a crowded marketplace. You have a way to tap into the biggest untapped source of potential new customers. You have a way to quickly generate profits from cold traffic at a lower price point. And you have the ability to market and sell the same product over and over for years without your marketing ever feeling dated.

Not too shabby from a single marketing book.

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About Todd Brown

Considered the #1 authority on engineering profitable customer acquisition campaigns, Todd Brown is the marketing expert other experts come to when they need help with their own marketing.

With clients in over 33 different countries, operating in over 65 different mass and niche markets, it's been said that Todd has helped his students engineer more six and seven-figure marketing campaigns than any other expert online today.

His list of coaching students, consulting clients, and subscribers reads like a Who's Who of A-List Marketers. His agency has created the marketing campaigns behind some of the biggest direct response marketers and companies online today. And, entrepreneurs happily fly-in from all around the globe for a single day with Todd to learn his renowned E5 Method.

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Acknowledgements

This book would not have come about without the ideas, insights, and impact of a handful of people.

Mark Morgan Ford: Thank you for introducing me to the incredible power of the Big Marketing Idea. It has changed the course of my entrepreneurial journey forever. I’m eternally grateful.

Rich Schefren: Your mentorship has played a bigger role in my understanding of marketing and business development than possibly anything else. I would not be the marketer or entrepreneur I am today if it was not for your unrelenting and generous support over the past decade-plus. I’ve deeply valued all of our discussions about the Big Marketing Idea. And, it goes without saying — your friendship is something I cherish.

Joe Schriefer: You’re one of the most generous guys I know. And your constant willingness to share and give transparently has helped to clarify my understanding of the Big Marketing Idea even more. You have no idea how grateful I am that we were seat mates at the Titans dinner.

John Forde: Your documentation of lead types helped to clarify how to best tie the Big Marketing Idea into the opening (lead) of a marketing campaign. It opened my

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eyes to the enormous value of understanding when to be direct and when to be indirect. And greatly impacted many of my most profitable marketing campaigns.

Mike Palmer: Your perspective on “bringing a new story to the market” helped to hone my thinking about the Big Marketing Idea even more. And it’s become a part of my regular process when developing new ideas.

Eugene Schwartz: While I never had the great opportunity of meeting Gene, his ideas were the launching pad for much of what I’ve come to understand today about effective marketing. And for that, I owe him a debt of gratitude. I only wish I had the chance to repay it.

Agora Inc.: As a whole, this company has been a constant source of inspiration, ideas, growth, and excitement for me as an entrepreneur. I love what they do. And how they do it. And I’m grateful that as an “outsider” I’ve been bestowed such rare and valuable “insider” access. Thank you Bill, Myles, Porter, and far too many others to mention here.