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Archive for category: Marketing

Three Reasons Why You Should Join a MOOC

0 Comments/ in Marketing / by Adam Bockler
August 8, 2017

The act of continuing one’s education is a topic that comes up quite frequently at my Toastmasters club.

All of us are in it because we want to keep learning and growing.

In this post, I wanted to share my experience about continuing my education and hopefully give you another option for pursuing a new professional skill set or continuing on in your academic career.

This option is credentialed, convenient, and useful.

I’m talking, of course, about a MOOC.

What Is A MOOC?

In case you’re aren’t familiar with it, MOOC is an acronym that stands for massive open online course.

As its name implies, anyone can attend a MOOC for free online. The learning content is similar to that which you’d get in a normal classroom, but it’s scaled for potentially unlimited participation.  

That’s good because the popularity of MOOCs is growing.

The MOOC aggregator Class Central says that as of the end of 2016, more than 58 million people had signed up for at least one MOOC, with the most popular subjects being Business and Management, Computer Science and Programming, and Science. Further, the MOOC industry is expected by at least one market research firm to grow to $8.5 billion by 2020.

Who’s driving this growth, anyway?

It turns out that MOOCs are largely fueled by people who want to advance their education or their career. Sixty-one percent of respondents to a 2015 Harvard Business Review study reported educational benefits, such as completing prerequisites for an academic program or getting credit toward an academic degree. Further, 72% of respondents reported career benefits, such as finding a new job or enhancing their current skills.

This is the camp I fell into.

I work in marketing, so I was interested in the Digital Marketing specialization developed by the University of Illinois. It was the most coveted certificate in 2015 on the MOOC platform Coursera.

Many MOOCs, just like the one I took, offer three main benefits.

MOOCs Possess Credentials

First, MOOCs are generally credentialed.

In fact, Digital Marketing is just one of 7 specializations that form what the University of Illinois calls its iMBA program, which they tout as first MBA made available entirely online.

The U of I is just one of hundreds of universities to partner with a MOOC service: 550 universities have released 4,200 courses across all MOOC platforms.

MOOCs Are Convenient

Now that I’ve explained how MOOCs are credentialed, I want to talk about how they’re convenient in terms of cost and timing.

One of the first questions you might have about a MOOC is the cost.

Think of the structure like Lego blocks. Each block represents a course, and each course is available for free. You could pay for Coursera to certify you in each course. Or, go the route that I did, and link each of the courses together for the specialization and pay for it that way. That earned me a 10% discount and even helped persuade my employer to pay for it. Another step you could take is to pay for applying to the University of Illinois for academic credit.

In other words, you get what you pay for with this MOOC, whether it’s just being able to access information or getting academic credit.

On top of the cost structure, the timing of the course was great.

Since it was online, I could pick it up and leave it at will as long as long as I turned in the weekly assignments by a certain day and time. This was great for me as a full-time employee and part-time fitness instructor.  

MOOCs Are Useful

MOOCs are credentialed and convenient, but perhaps the most important benefit of a MOOC is its usefulness.

In my experience, the entire specialization was worth it because of the real-world application of the skills we learned leading up to and that we applied during the capstone, as well as the frameworks and big-picture ideas that I learned from the course.

The first example of why the capstone was useful was because I thought it was the most challenging and the most realistic part of the class.

The capstone was based around solving a real problem: a leading industrial supplier looked to increase sales of one of its brands on its website by using display advertising and email marketing. For this, we had to develop a strategy for the supplier’s display ads and email by compiling market research on both brands, learn more about their target audiences, and get smarter about display ads and email marketing.

The second example of usefulness was the framework and big-picture ideas that we kept coming back to throughout the course, like Google’s Zero Moment of Truth and and McKinsey’s Consumer Decision Journey.

The entire specialization pushed us to think broadly – for example, why email marketing and display advertising would be valid methods of reaching people.

They stayed away from details like which phrases work best in email subject lines and what keywords to use for search engine optimization. There are many resources for that type of research already online, so I was glad to take a step back, so to speak.

Finally, the ultimate sign of usefulness for this MOOC is that I implemented strategies I learned from this specialization in my career. I developed a marketing plan using what I learned in this MOOC in an effort to raise brand awareness for a mobile. 

As you can see, MOOCs useful, convenient, and credentialed. These are the three qualities that make MOOCs so appealing for me.

If you are at all considering gaining new professional skills or continuing your academic career, I would urge you to check out to see whether a MOOC is the right fit for you.

The Unofficial #INBOUND15 Backchannel: All The Links You’ll Ever Need

  • INBOUND 2015 curated backchannel, links, and resources
4 Comments/ in Marketing / by Adam Bockler
September 5, 2015

This past week, I made final arrangements in preparation for INBOUND. I am now in the final tweaking stages of a presentation I’m giving in the middle of the month, I’ve met with each of my coworkers about the status of what we’re working on, and I even had a new batch of business cards printed.

Then, my mom texted me the news: My cousin’s husband, Steve, who’d battled cancer for the past two years, had died.

When I found out his funeral service would conflict with INBOUND, I didn’t have much time to make a choice: either I attend the service in Chicago, or I miss it to attend INBOUND. It became obvious that I couldn’t miss the opportunity to be with my family and celebrate someone who brought so much joy to so many people (he was a comedian, after all). Ultimately, I’ve decided to skip INBOUND – and my VIP pass to meet Chelsea Clinton – to be with my family.

(You can read more about Steve’s story here, as told by his wife and my cousin, Andrea. Believe it or not, Steve’s diagnosis came about only after their daughter, Lila Blue, was born nearly 3 months premature. Lila spent more than 500 days in the ICU and was able to come home earlier this year.)

Even though I missed the event, I still wanted to be engaged with it. That’s why I am taking a page from David Kelly to create the biggest list of resources I can.

This is the unofficial backchannel containing curated resources and links for INBOUND 2015, which took place in Boston from Sept. 8-11, 2015.

Over the next week or so, I’ll be adding to this list. Please let me know about any and all links related to INBOUND, and I’ll post them here – whether it’s a session you attended, spoke at, or you see something cool from somebody else. Just tweet me @adambockler with the link!

(All times Eastern)

Official INBOUND Resources

  1. INBOUND Website
  2. INBOUND Agenda, Session Types, Session Levels, and More
  3. INBOUND Speakers
  4. INBOUND Sponsors
  5. INBOUND Blog
  6. INBOUND Reading Prep
  7. Insider’s Guide to Boston
  8. INBOUND15 Mobile App

Pre-Conference Links

  1. Everything You Need to Know About Inbound.org at INBOUND 2015
  2. [INFOGRAPHIC] The (Very Unofficial) INBOUND Marketing Conference Guide
  3. [QUIZ] Which @INBOUND Attendee Are You? (I got The Historian)

Seth Godin Keynote

  1. INBOUND15 KEYNOTE SPEAKER: SETH GODIN by Sabrina Son
  2. #INBOUND15: Seth Godin keynote by Andrea Brown
  3. Seth Godin notes by Andrea Brown
  4. Seth Godin at Inbound15 by Shayne
  5. Top 4 takeaways from Seth Godin’s #INBOUND15 keynote by Kelvin Claveria
  6. Key points from Seth by Cassaundra Melgar-c’de Baca
  7. The INBOUND15 Keynote by Seth Godin by Suma EP
  8. Seth Godin’s Best Quotes from Inbound 2015 by Ellen Coule

Brené Brown Keynote

  1. Breve [sic] brown notes by Ramona Sukhraj
  2. Notes from Brené Brown’s talk by Alan George
  3. Why Marketers Need to Become More Vulnerable by Bill Connolly
  4. [TED TALK] The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
  5. Brené Brown: Keynote at #INBOUND15 by Ed Fry
  6. The INBOUND 2015 Keynote by Brene Brown by Nilanjana Dey

Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah Keynote

  1. The INBOUND 2015 Keynote by Dharmesh and Brian by Nilanjana Dey
  2. [VIDEO] INBOUND 2015: HubSpot Keynote by HubSpot

Aziz Ansari Keynote

  1. #Inbound15 – Sketchnotes from Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg’s keynote robcottingham.ca by Rob Cottingham
  2. Five lessons startup founders can learn from Aziz Ansari’s dating struggles by Sara Castellanos

Chelsea Clinton Keynote

  • [VIDEO] INBOUND 2015 Keynote: Chelsea Clinton by HubSpot

Daniel Pink Keynote

Dan Pink spoke Friday, Sept. 11, from approximately 9-10 a.m. Send me your recaps or live blogs so this section doesn’t look so bare!

INBOUND Meetups

Follow #INBOUND15solo if you’re the only delegate from your company attending.

  1. The Big List of INBOUND 2015 Meetups, Drinks and Dinner Venues
  2. Sept. 8, 3-5:30 p.m. – #INBOUND15SOLO Meetup
  3. Sept. 8, 8-10 p.m. – Canadians at #Inbound15 Evening
  4. Sept. 8, 7:15 p.m. – Inbound 15 Solo Craft Beer Crawl
  5. Sept. 10, 5:30-6:30 p.m. – Inbound 2015 Texas HUGs Meetup (fun note: the Texas HUG rocks because they let our motley crew of solo attendees join their meetup)

INBOUND Session-Specific Links, Videos, and Live Blogs

  1. #INBOUND15 Conference: FAQs About Chemistry, Client Retention and Growth by Bob Sanders
  2. INBOUND15 Notes: 5 Steps to a Successful Video Strategy on YouTube by Sabrina Son
  3. INBOUND15 Notes: Retention Marketing: The Next Ecommerce Battleground by Sabrina Son
  4. INBOUND15 Notes: The Anatomy of Tomorrow’s Content Promotion Strategy Today by Sabrina Son
  5. 5 WAYS TO GET YOUR SALES TEAM JAZZED ABOUT YOUR INBOUND MARKETING by Christina Milanowski
  6. Amanda Sibley: 50 Actionable Tips and Tricks for Launching a Lead Generation Campaign at #INBOUND15 by Amanda Sibley
  7. Luke Summerfield: Growth-Driven Design at #INBOUND15 by Luke Summerfield
  8. Ginny Soskey: How the HubSpot Blog Used Data to Settle the Quantity vs. Quality Debate at #INBOUND15 by Ginny Soskey
  9. Notes from MULTIPLE Sessions at INBOUND 2015 by Krista Wiltbank
  10. Jami Oetting: How to Get the Attention of Editors Without Making Them Want to Die at #INBOUND15 by Jami Oetting
  11. Jeffrey Vocell: How to Grow Your Website with HubSpot (Why You Should Put Your Website on HubSpot) at #INBOUND15 by Jeffrey Vocell
  12. The Intersection of Content & Social Media Notes by Sonia Simone
  13. [SLIDES] The Marketers Guide to Growth Spurts at #INBOUND15 by Kieran Flanagan
  14. Rachel Happe: How a Community Approach Scales Your Impact at #Inbound15 by Rachel Happe
  15. Debbie Farese: Power the Bottom of the Funnel With Sales Enablement at #INBOUND15 by Deborah Farese
  16. Bill King & Tyler Richer: The Changing Face of SEO in 2015 at #INBOUND15 by Bill King
  17. Will Critchlow: The Future of Search at #INBOUND15 by Will Critchlow
  18. Notes From: SEVEN REASONS EVEN YOUR MOM WOULD IGNORE YOUR EMAIL by Lee Drever
  19. Steve Woods: The Science of Trust: Gain Insight into the Most Crucial Measure of the Buyer Relationship at #INBOUND15 by Ed Fry
  20. Karl Sakas: Scale to Win: How to Grow Your Agency Without Breaking at #INBOUND15 by Karl Sakas
  21. Ellie Mirman: Creating an Agile, Data-Driven Marketing Culture at #INBOUND15 by Ellie Mirman
  22. Tom Monaghan: Seven Reasons Even Your Mom Would Ignore Your Email at #INBOUND15 by Ed Fry
  23. Tom Schwab: How I transformed my #eCommerce Business with HubSpot at #INBOUND15 by Tom Schwab
  24. Notes from the Future of Search (Will Critchlow by Natalie DeCario
  25. Notes from #INBOUND15 Session: “THE CHANGING FACE OF SEO IN 2015” by Frank Isca
  26. Notes From The Future of Search: And what you should be doing about it – Will Critchlow Session by Shana Pilewski
  27. The Intersection of Content & Social Media Notes by iOffice, Inc.
  28. Steve Deckert’s Retention Marketing: The Next eCommerce Battleground by Diane Kulseth
  29. Notes from Inbound Session – How two HubSpot Customers Transformed Their Businesses with Inbound by Alan George
  30. Clodagh Higgins: How to build chemistry with your clients by Adam
  31. Notes from “How does Google Drive the Culture of Innovation” by Joseph Rinaldi
  32. Larry Kim’s Top 10 Social Media Advertising Hacks of All Time by Diane Kulseth
  33. Session Notes: How does Google drive culture of innovation by Anadi Raj Tiwari
  34. Notes from The Top 10 Social Media Advertising Hacks of All Time (Larry Kim) by Lisa Bonacci
  35. Oli Gardner’s Four Corners of Conversion by Diane Kulseth
  36. [PDF] Oli Gardner’s Four Corners of Conversion
  37. Notes from @TraceWall ‘s Content Controls the Brand #INBOUND15 by Stephan Hovnanian
  38. Notes from @dneely40 ‘s Find Your Opportunity Audience #INBOUND15 by Stephan Hovnanian
  39. [Notes] Sales is a Love Affair Session Notes #INBOUND15 by Chelsea Pruett
  40. #INBOUND2015: No Fail Redesigns: How to Successfully Redesign Your INbound Website for Massive Lead Conversions with Gabe Wahhab by Vin Gaeta
  41. Session notes: The Neuroscience of Memorable Content Neuroscience session notes by tampyd
  42. 7 Habits of Lucky Entrepreneurs evernote.com by Morgan Albaum
  43. Session Notes: Serendipitous Success: 7 Habits of the Lucky Entrepreneur by LovelyPixels
  44. Evergreen – Nurturing Your Customers From First Contact to Happily Every After [INBOUND Session Notes] by Blane McMichen
  45. Michael King: Technical Marketing is Just the Price of Admission at #INBOUND15 by Ed Fry
  46. The Case for Why Marketing Should Have Its Own Engineers – First Round Review by Nicholas Chimonas
  47. [Notes] Jason Falls, “There Is No Fresh Broccoli” #INBOUND15 (Six-point blueprint to digital marketing success.) by John Schwartz
  48. 7 Advices in How to build strong relationship w/ customers (my personal notes from different conferences) seven advices to build strong relationship with customers by Carlos Francín
  49. Youtube Strategy – Amy Schmittauer by Amy Schmittauer
  50. [session notes] Taking it Personal! Using the Hidden Power of Story to Transform Life and Business – at INBOUND15 customers.genie-connect.com by Fred Spring
  51. HubSpot Releases New Features & Product Updates by John Middlebrook
  52. [Notes | PPT Slides] Kieran Flanagan: “Marketer’s Guide to Growth Spurts” #INBOUND15 by Kieran Flanagan
  53. Peg Fitzpatrick’s DIY Design Hacks at INBOUND 15 by Daizy Jain
  54. Get Your Agency’s S**T Together by Marisa Smith at INBOUND15 by Abhinav Sahai
  55. PR Analytics & Measurement by Christine Perkett at INBOUND15 by Priyanka Tuteja
  56. Composing Your World at INBOUND15 by Kai Kight by Akhil Saxena
  57. Building a B2C2B Content Strategy by Anum Hussain
  58. Notes from Oli Gardner’s 4 Corners of Conversion by Ashley Irving
  59. [SESSION NOTES] The Marketer’s Guide to Growth Spurts – Kieran Flanagan, Marketing Director (EMEA), Hubspot by Courtney Goes
  60. Session Notes: Mark Sneider: How we’ve built our agency through pro-active prospecting + hubspot by Adam Gordon
  61. [Notes] Corey Eridon, “18 Hard-Earned Lessons from the Trenches of the Hubspot Blog” #INBOUND15 by John Schwartz
  62. How to grow the hell out of your agency: 11.5 upgrades to do today to grow tomorrow by Mike Lieberman
  63. Anese Cavanaugh’s “Showing Up for Your Agency” by Diane Kulseth
  64. Session notes: LUKE SUMMERFIELD: GROWTH DRIVEN DESIGN: A WEBSITE RETAINER MODEL THAT WILL TRANSFORM YOUR AGENCY by Adam Gordon
  65. [Session Notes] – How to get the most out of Slideshare for Business #INBOUND15 by Rob Bois
  66. #Inbound15 Live Blog: Slack CMO Answers SaaS Inbound Questions by Leah Faul
  67. #Inbound15 Live blog: Dr. Carmen Simon’s ‘The Neuroscience of Memorable Content’ by Katy Katz
  68. THE 30-MINUTE MARKETING PLAN: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  69. 18 HARD-EARNED LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE TRENCHES OF THE HUBSPOT BLOG: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  70. HOW TO READ A PERSON LIKE A BOOK: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  71. GROW YOUR BUSINESS BY MOVING TO AN INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  72. BUILDING A BETTER FEMALE LEADER: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  73. THE CHANGING FACE OF SEO IN 2015: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  74. STATE OF INFLUENCE MARKETING: HOW NEW ADVANCES ARE DRIVING SIGNIFICANT RESULTS: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  75. THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MEMORABLE CONTENT: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  76. THE FUTURE OF SEARCH: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  77. #INBOUND15: All my notes from Hubspot’s 2015 INBOUND conference by Kevin Claveria
  78. [Session Notes] Eric Keiles: The 30-Minute Marketing Plan: Eliminate The Five Most Common Challenges With Executing Inbound Marketing by David G. Johnson
  79. Session Notes: How HubSpot Delights Its Customers: Scaling a Team Fueled by Inbound by Ben Martin
  80. Amy Schumer gives the Boston tech community a big dose of girl power by Sara Castellanos
  81. #INBOUND15 – Facebook Marketing Resources from Mari Smith
  82. The Top 10 Facebook and Twitter Advertising Hacks of All Time – Larry Kim’s Presentation at Hubspot’s INBOUND 2015 Marketing Conference
  83. [VIDEO] INBOUND 15 recap with John and Lindsay from The Funnel Podcast
  84. DESIGN FOR ACTION – A BLUEPRINT FOR CONTENT MARKETING: LIVE BLOGGING FROM #INBOUND15 by Nicki Hicks
  85. [SLIDES] Evergreen: Nurturing Your Customers From First Contact to Happily Every After by Noah Fleming
  86. [SLIDES] The Marketing Growth Hackathon: 25+ Tips, Tools and Resources to Accelerate Performance (#INBOUND15) by Paul Roetzer
  87. [SLIDES] Fusing your personal and professional brands by Matt Lauzon
  88. [SLIDES] How To Be A Disaster On Twitter by Danny Sullivan
  89. [SLIDES] Calm Technology | Inbound 2015 Bold Talk by Amber Case
  90. [SLIDES] Brand Positioning: How To Tell Your Story by Michael Troiano
  91. [SLIDES] How To Be The Coolest Person At Your Funeral by Kenny Nguyen
  92. SUMMARIZING SETH GODIN AT #INBOUND15 IN 16 TWEETS by Christopher S. Penn
  93. INBOUNDers Taught Me That I Ooze Content by Natalie S. Burke
  94. [VIDEO] INBOUND 2015 Spotlight: Jon Ronson by HubSpot
  95. [SLIDES] Inbound2015 carole mahoney-the rules of inbound engagement by Carole Mahoney

Also, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of sessions posted at Inbound.org. I won’t link any more here since they’re already there. Instead, I’ll focus on ones that I found through Twitter.

INBOUND Reflections and Recaps

  1. Our #INBOUND15 Live Blog by Carsten Rossi
  2. My Top 5 Takeaways from Inbound Methodology at #INBOUND15 by Gabbi Hall
  3. #Inbound15 – Live From Boston – Day 1 by Pat Armitage
  4. HubSpot #INBOUND15 Day 1 Recap by Brian Onorio
  5. From online to offline: Making new connections before INBOUND by Karl Sakas
  6. HubSpot’s Inbound 2015 Conference – Day 1 by Vanessa Green
  7. #INBOUND15 Recap: Day 1 by Kristin Masters
  8. HubSpot’s #INBOUND15 Day 1 Recap by Heather Hurczyn
  9. What you Forgot to Pack for #INBOUND2015 (and how to get it!) by Diane Kulseth
  10. 2015 Hubspot #INBOUND15 Conference by Chris Eldridge
  11. Inbound Takeaways, 2015 Edition – Day 1 by Zach McDonald
  12. HubSpot’s #INBOUND15 Train Keeps Rolling by Dom Nicastro
  13. Three Tuesday Takeaways from #INBOUND15 by HubSpot by Jennifer Hoverstad
  14. #Inbound15 – Day 2 – Our Top 5 Highlights by Pat Armitage
  15. Insights on INBOUND15 (so far) by Jim MacLeod
  16. Hubspot’s Inbound 2015: My 1.5 Day Review and Recap by Ray Green
  17. Day 1 of #Inbound15 by Carissa Faxlanger
  18. HUBSPOT JUST LAUNCHED A GAME CHANGING ADVERTISING PLATFORM by Jesse Mawhinney
  19. Day #1 Recap: The Sustain Team at INBOUND by Juhee Jain
  20. [VIDEO] Talking #INBOUND15 LIVE from the Hallways by Jed Record
  21. #INBOUND15 Recap: Day 2 by Kristin Masters
  22. Day 2 of INBOUND 2015 by Orlando Werffeli
  23. Thursday Takeaways and Recap at #INBOUND15 by HubSpot by Brian Onorio
  24. #Inbound15 – Day 3 – The Best Of by Pat Armitage
  25. Inbound takeaways, 2015 edition – Day 2 by Zach McDonald
  26. Day 3 recap #inbound15 #O3Live by Jen Hoverstad
  27. Day #2 Recap: The Sustain Team at INBOUND by Juhee Jain
  28. Days 2 and 3 of #Inbound15
  29. 7 Honest Observations of HubSpot’s Inbound 2015 Conference #Inbound15 by Marcus Sheridan
  30. HubSpot’s #INBOUND15 Day 3&4 Recap by Heather Hurczyn
  31. New Ideas and Time Tested Strategies at HubSpot’s INBOUND 2015 by Rebecca Benison
  32. 7 Honest Observations of HubSpot’s Inbound 2015 Conference #Inbound15 by Marcus Sheridan
  33. Inbound 2015 – Content Marketing Tips by Lucy Jones
  34. The 4 keys to inbound marketing success by Susanna James

View #inbound15 for live updates.

[Update] Laura Fitton has posted a huge roundup on the INBOUND.com blog. Unless I receive specific requests, I will no longer be updating this post. Thank you all for your kind words and feedback about this project.

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Guy Kawasaki At #INBOUND14: Don’t Let The Bozos Drag You Down

0 Comments/ in Marketing / by Adam Bockler
September 16, 2014

In his opening keynote speech, former Apple and current Canva evangelist Guy Kawasaki urged the crowd to fight against the “bozos,” as he called them often throughout his presentation of 10 lessons he learned from Steve Jobs.

1. Experts Are Clueless

“You need to learn to ignore bozos,” Kawasaki said.

The bozos, he said, can tell you about existing products, but fall short when trying to predict the future. They’re people like the IBM chairman who predicted the world only needed five computers, or the Western Union executive who wrote off telephony in 1876, or the person who said nobody would want a computer in their home.

2. Customers Are Clueless, Too

You can ask customers how to help evolve your product, he said, but they cannot tell you how to leap.

3. Innovate By Jumping To The Next Curve

Kawasaki used the example of ice harvesting, when people would saw blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds and have them taken to their destination by horseback.

The next curve was ice factories, he said, in which ice could be manufactured any place, any time.

Finally, he pointed to refrigerators – “your own PC – a personal chiller.”

Apple's ad to IBM4. Challenge Big From Employees

“Steve dropped some big challenges on us,” Kawasaki said.

He pointed to the “Welcome, IBM” ad, as well as the famous 1984 spot – which, as Kawasaki said, wasn’t as much about buying a computer as it was about preventing totalitarianism in the computer marketplace.

5. Design Counts

Insert the obligatory jabs at non-Apple machines here.

6. Use Big Graphics and Big Fonts

In using a slide deck as an example, Kawasaki said to give people just enough anchor points.

7. Change Your Mind

In 2007, Apple unveiled the iPhone. Upon doing that, Steve Jobs created a closed environment not allowing third-party apps.

However, by 2008, Jobs changed course and welcomed third-party apps during an announcement at the 2008 WWDC.

“It is okay to change your mind,” Kawasaki said.

8. Value Does Not Equal Price

“Price is what you pay on day one,” he said. “Value has to do with support, training, viruses” and more.

9. A Players Hire A+ Players

According to Kawasaki, B players hire C players, C players hire D players, and the process continues until you get to Z players.

“Hire people better than you. That’s how you make a great company,” he said.

10. Marketing Should Create Value

Think of a chart with two axes – value and uniqueness.

A valuable product that isn’t unique competes on price.

A unique product that has no value is worthless – “You are just plain stupid,” he said.

A generic product that has no value is the worst place to be.

Finally, Apple, he said, was in the top-right corner for being unique and valuable.

11 – A Bonus! Some Things Need To Be Believed To Be Seen

“When it comes to innovation,” Kawasaki said, “you need to believe in something to see it.”

#emailmarketingfail: Unqualified

0 Comments/ in Marketing / by Adam Bockler
March 1, 2014

After the infomercial #emailmarketingfail, I have a short one for you today.

February 14, 2014 9:27:15 AM CST

Good morning,

This message is being sent out to those individuals who may have been determined as unqualified for the (master’s) program in the past.

I don’t even care that you’re offering me a program suited toward my needs. I’m just going to keep listening to the sad trombone.

“You weren’t good enough for the real program, and neither were a lot of other people, so we’re going to try to get your money by offering the dumb-dumbs something.”

I actually love the rest of this email – it’s a call to action to inquire about a new program they’re offering for people who fit a certain profile – but the opening line is just garbage.

Takeaways

  1. Segmenting your list is good.
  2. Telling your contacts which segment they’re in isn’t.
  3. Focus on the positives. Tell us about your new program. Just don’t mention exactly why you’re offering it.

#emailmarketingfail: The Infomercial

1 Comment/ in Marketing / by Adam Bockler
February 22, 2014

The email you are about to read is one I had to look through multiple times to verify that it actually came from the martial arts publisher it purports to.

The thrust of this message is to announce a DVD is going on clearance. That’s it. However, just for laughs, I print-previewed it to see that it would take up five pages of 8.5×11″ paper.

Read this email in the voice of Billy Mays or your favorite TV pitch person. You’ll be glad you did.

February 11, 2014 2:30:27 PM CST

Dear Adam,

Please don’t stop reading until you’ve seen this entire message… it’s important!

More important than all those other emails with the “high priority” exclamation points in them?

Recently, you told us that you wanted one of two things from YMAA, or both.

Or none. I don’t specifically remember taking a survey. Can you give me a reference point? No? Hmm… okay, go ahead.

Well, something happened a few days ago that enables me to help you with both of these.

You could have just said “helps” and gotten rid of the term “enables” entirely. This email isn’t about sales enablement (which is an actual term, to those who’ve never heard it), and so far, it’s not talking about drug addiction.

Please let me explain what happened…

(Some Dude) called me at an odd time of day.

Wait, who?

(Some Dude) often works directly with (Renowned Author) and is the person responsible for producing all of the exceptional videos […] that we publish and share throughout the globe.

Thanks for clarifying.

Then he dropped the hot water on me.  You see, (Some Dude) has been working hard on re-designing the cover image of one of our top ten, most-loved products of all-time. It’s (DVD) it’s on DVD. I have to say, objectively, that it is so energizing you will literally feel an amazing energy buzz just by passively watching the video preview clip. Seriously, watch the less than two-minute clip and you’ll feel it too:

Three more paragraphs like this follow.

Now I have to be totally upfront with you… the difference between last year’s version and the new version that will come out a little over four months from now is that only the cover design will change. The old design on the outside of the DVD box is really good… it’s just not great. So (Some Dude) has been busy improving it. BUT the actual […] experience that (Renowned Author) gives you on (DVD) is incredible… ABSOLUTELY TIMELESS.

Wait. I skipped over this part when I got the email. They just put a version of this DVD out last year, and they’re sending me down this rabbit whole just to announce a new design for this year’s?

Yada yada yada, this DVD has sold for $39.95. Until now.

I am going to allow the first people to claim one of the last 92 copies of ‘slightly old package-designed version’ of (DVD) for HALF-OFF. (You already know price is has been $39.95 this year) [Editor’s Note: This parenthetical is in the actual email] If you’re one of the first 92 people to help me liquidate my last copies–you’ll get your copy for only $19.97.

This next part is where it gets real good.

BUT here is the catch… You’re going to have to act fast to get your copy! Why?

First, I really don’t like to discount our products like this. As I mentioned, the price of the version with the new cover design will still be $39.95, so this will be a good way for you to try (activity), if your new to it, or to re-energize yourself, if you’re not.

Second, I found out recently that we now have almost 30,000 customers who regularly visit our web site and the number is growing each week. I might be totally wrong, but I believe we will sell out of all 92 copies within the next few hours. If not, they will surely be gone in a few days. Once these are gone… they’ll be gone for along time—until the re-packing is complete and the price of the new stock will remain at $39.95.

The sender blathers on some more about how good of a deal this is, etc.

I fully support this publisher, which made it really hard to call out its uncharacteristically awful email. You guys have done better. Don’t let slop like this fall through the cracks again.

Marketing Takeaways

  1. Infomercial scripts don’t lend themselves well to email.
  2. Get to your call to action up front.
  3. Stop wasting so much space and words.
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Adam Bockler is a freelance marketing consultant and a certified personal trainer. He's a DDP Yoga Level 1 instructor and a multi-time USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee.

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