Hey it’s Brian and I know you don’t usually hear from me during the week… …but a few days ago I asked about your biggest challenge when it comes to marketing your product or service. Well, so many of you responded and it’s making me wish I’d asked this a lot sooner. Reading the ...

Since you are living in the same dynamic marketing world I am living in, I’m sure you are regularly in conversations about “10X”–whether someone is telling you how to increase your business ten times or if you are coaching someone to grow their business ten times. I like the concept of “10X”…but there are ...

“Copy is not written. Copy is assembled. You do not write copy, you assemble it” -Gene Schwartz One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from the greatest copywriters who have ever lived is to never be satisfied with a product “as is.” And to always ask the question, “What’s not here that could be ...

“The number one rule of success in anything—marketing, football, chess, etc.—is work” -Gene Schwartz Remember the kid you sat next to in school who always got a better grade than you? Or the person in the cubicle or bullpen that you worked in who was selling the same product or service you were selling ...

I want to talk about an important topic today that might not seem directly related to direct marketing success; but like everything else, all roads lead to marketing in our crazy little world, right? I believe that you can only do your best work (in marketing or anything else for that matter) if you ...

This subject line is not an attempt at hyperbole. I respectfully submit, “Marketing isn’t everything…it’s the only thing” as a credo to live by. I’m pretty confident that I am preaching to the converted (i.e. you) when I say that nothing significant happens with our ideas or missions without marketing. In addition, marketing practiced ...

Jim Rutz was one of the greatest copywriters of all time. And he was one of the most colorful characters this business has ever seen as well. If you are a working or aspiring copywriter, you owe a debt of gratitude to Jim whether you have ever heard of him or not…he was a ...

Just so you know…this subject line is not a justification for all of the bad grammar I’ve used in my weekly blogs; rather, it is an important consideration when you write or oversee any promotional copy…more on that in a moment… First, I want to make sure that most of you have purchased your ...

I may not have captivated everyone with that subject line…I am well aware that many members of my online family aren’t aware of too much that happened before the Internet…and this reference goes back even further to the 1970’s. But please stick with me. Annie Hall is the movie that won the Academy Award ...

I recently asked a doctor who is not a true believer in taking nutritional supplements this question: Is there ONE vitamin or supplement that you could recommend to your patients that you feel has no downside but also has clear upside for most people? He replied, like many others have (including skeptics), that the ...

I’ve been thinking about “original source” a lot this week with the release of the “Titans Marketing edition” of Breakthrough Advertising by Gene Schwartz. Gene was one of many “originals” who paved the way for everything we do today in marketing, copywriting and the study of human behavior. And as mentioned above, Gene is ...

I will make the assumption that if you are part of my online family you are “one of us”…a serial direct marketer…and marketing terms like “branding,” “public relations,” and “publicity” give us the creeps, right? Our favorite question: “How are you going to measure THAT?” I recall a case of those “creeps” turning into ...

I hate the word “networking.” But I love connecting with people I can learn from any chance I get…and I think the notion of “contributing to connect” is a much better way to think about “networking.” Those of you who are new to my online family might have missed my post where I talked ...

You probably know by now that I never get “political” in these weekly posts…and I won’t start now…but since the lead story on the news every day seems to be about what is happening in our nation’s capital, I am reminded of a dinner I attended in the early 1990’s in Washington which on ...

After telling you a few weeks ago that “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” and attributing that quote to our old friend “Direct Mail” and not Mark Twain, I wanted to follow that up with some video to make you laugh (and hopefully not make you cry!) this Sunday morning. I am ...

Last week I had the honor of spending three days with 40 of the most heart-centered and highly skilled entrepreneurs, marketers and copywriters on the planet who were all attending Titans Master Class (a one-of-a-kind mastermind). And there was one word that seemed to describe everyone’s overall philosophy about their business (and their life): ...

My first trip to Paris was three years ago…and I fell in love with the place. And as you might imagine, my thoughts turned to romance…gluten-free crepes (do they exist?)…and of course email marketing. I’ve been back to Paris twice since then—both times to speak—and I actually did three interviews/videos for my friends in ...