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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Three Guiding Principles for Marketing
Every Evil Empire needs some sort of manifesto to guide its rule. The Sith Lords had their Rule of Two. The Hutts had their own ruthless philosophy. Why not Marketing? I’ve been involved in a lot of different marketing Empires … Continue reading
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A long time ago…
Three years ago I started this blog, because I had stuff I needed to say. A few months ago, I realized I still had more to say. Join me as I revisit this Star Wars metaphor, and together we’ll rule the galaxy, father and son — er, I mean, explore more ways to close the gap between the Light Side of engineering, the Dark Side of marketing… and the Bounty Hunters of sales. Continue reading
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Humanizing copywriting
I’m on a constant quest to stop people from talking like they think marketers are supposed to talk. Many others have done more than I to highlight the perils of biz-blab, gobbledygook, and buzzwords. But it’s easy to tell people what they’re doing wrong. Can you catch people doing what’s right? In my mind, it’s not enough to write copy that’s clear. It needs more than clarity… it needs excitement. Pull. Something to hook your audience emotionally and bring them into your pitch. Here are a few simple examples. Continue reading
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From the Customer’s Perspective
Encountered a classic mistake this morning. I read about buywithme.com, a new startup competing with Groupon and other buyer-aggregating deal sites. The first time you hit their site, you see a nice simple starting web page that has a place for your email address, a drop-down for your location, and a huge button that says SEE TODAY’S DEAL. Clicking on that button led to a sobering example of how to fail to design for the user’s perspective. Continue reading
The Dark Side 