EP85: Skills Part 2

Welcome back, my friends.

Let me ask you a question.

What goes well with advertising and is not too difficult to conquer?

Logically, as soon as someone clicks on an ad, they will be funneled somewhere.

What is the next logical step?

Unless the ad was a FB Leads Ad, there must be a way to capture interest.

Clicking on “Learn More”, clearly means, “tell me more”, right?

So, there needs to be a way to keep the conversation flowing.

This is where my thinking [and many others as well] differs drastically from many other online marketers.

For those other marketers, the next step is to get someone to give their name and email address, so they can add it to a list.

For them, anyone on their list is fair game, and they will send them marketing emails forever until they buy something, unsubscribe, or die.

I don't believe that is how people want to be treated.

How about you?

Is that how you like being rewarded for sharing your contact details?

With over 300 emails a day flooding my inbox, I can tell you that I do not appreciate the way many marketers conduct their business.

And…

I’ve mentioned that quite a lot.

Sorry!

There are a lot of ways to be a business owner.

For just the briefest moment, let me tell you how you should run yours, or at least try to emulate those that strive for greatness.

My mentors Shawn & Andre, recently we to San Diego, California for the Traffic & Conversion convention, which was, (as they had said), … interesting…

If you're not familiar with T&C, it's three days jam-packed full of speakers discussing all aspects of digital marketing, with a few general-interest keynote presentations too.

One of my mentors, “Shawn”, said that the final speaker this year was Molly Bloom.

Molly created and ran the highest-stakes poker game in the world. Movie stars, athletes, politicians, the rich and famous — and a few criminals — sat at Molly's tables where hundreds of millions of dollars changed hands.

Until the FBI arrested her and confiscated nearly $10 million.

Ouch.

Shawn mentioned that she said something so insightful, so powerful, and so important he wanted all of his students to hear it too.

Which is why I am sharing it as well.

Molly spent thousands of hours watching people play ultra-high-stakes poker, and she observed that the best players at the table all had something in common.

Each had become a student of the game.

Take a moment and think about what that means.

Really think about it.

They took the game seriously.

They studied it — how they played, how their opponents played, what worked, and what didn't.

All while putting millions of dollars on the line.

During the long flights home, Shawn said that he kept thinking about that one “simple” idea.

When he looked back on his career in digital marketing, he said he could see the same pattern.

The people he had seen succeed, time and time again, have been students of the marketing game.

They grew to understand the importance of learning, practicing, and internalizing marketing fundamentals.

Distilled to their essence: those fundamentals are connecting an interested audience with an irresistible offer by way of an engaging experience.

It's as simple as that.

That's where they focus their energy — over and over (and over) again.

Shawn said the rest are just details. Tactics that change like the wind.

Want to know what they don't do?

They don't use AI to generate garbage copy…

…or rely on fill-in-the-blank email templates…

You know, the templates gurus use to lure you into giving them your details.

…nor do they think the latest marketing 'hack' will make the difference between success and failure.

Spoiler “It Won’t”…

During the twenty-one years Shawn had run his agency, he said he had worked with more than 240 clients in some of the most demanding markets in the world.

He said he could count among his friends many of the best marketers in the world.

Wanna guess how many of those clients and friends use AI-generated copy, templates, and marketing hacks?

Rounded up to a whole number: zero.

Not one.

Just like Molly said — the best in the world become students of the game they're playing.

So what am I saying here?

Simply this – Study what works!

Connect an interested audience with an irresistible offer by way of an engaging experience.

In layman's terms…

Find a niche of “People” that need what you have, because of a problem they have, or a desire they want to achieve. Deliver to them an experience that feels like you are reading their mind, or you have been there before and overcame it. Then offer them your solution.

They are “HERE” [point “A”], and they want to be in [point “B”]. Your solution is the “Bridge” that takes them from point A to Point B.

Hope to see you again...

Next week.

James "skillfully done" Brown

P.S. - In the event, you DO find that once an episode has been produced and posted, that YOU really would like more information, just let me know. Use the Podcast Questions link, click on the link here. Or you can just leave a voice message here.