Goldmine Marketing

Category: Opinion

  • Positive vs Negative Headlines–Which is BEST?

    1:26pm
    Saint Paul

    *|FNAME|*, let me ask you:

    Which works better as a headline: highlighting a problem, or highlighting a solution?

    I ask because I’m reading John Caples’ “Tested Advertising Methods” right now–4th edition, thank you for asking.

    (Which, by the way, a few years back I could only find the 4th edition in Canada, and the seller would only ship to Canada. Knowing that the 5th Edition sucks (from my own personal experience), I found myself a Canadian mule…)

    Anyway.

    In it, Caples says that headlines that highlight the positive tend to out-pull the negative.

    Because, he reasons… who wants to read an ad about problems?

    And while he has a point…

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  • YouTube’s unskippable 60 min ads

    12:19pm
    Saint Paul

    I write ads.

    Some of my copywriting peers love seeing ads “in the wild” because it helps them know what others are doing.

    But I’ve blocked ads for a long time, even before I became a copywriter, because they’re often just so bad.

    Now, YouTube’s been fighting ad-blockers for a while…

    And apparently, YouTube is winning that fight.

    So they’ve made some ads unskippable, even when the ad is an hour long!

    These are VSLs–video sales letters–and the advertiser has to pay for them after X amount of viewing time.

    Make them unskippable, and suddenly…

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  • Advice: stop saying “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill…”

    2:21pm
    Saint Paul

    *|FNAME|* I recently again was reminded by a well-meaning marketer:

    “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

    Stupid. And here’s why.

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  • You were made for Greatness

    3:23pm
    Saint Paul


    “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”
    —Pope Benedict XVI


    Cold showers are especially tough when the water pipes know it’s -15° outside.

    So after years of cold showers–both for the possible health benefits and for making myself do things I might not want to do–they’re no longer part of my routine.

    But there are other ways I find comfort in discomfort:

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  • Want happiness? Build more relationships

    1:24pm
    Saint Paul

    “Ah yes! My Dale Carnegie feedback!” I said, picking up the notecards from the floor.

    As I read them, each made me smile.

    Maybe you know this, but years ago, I took the Dale Carnegie communications course.

    Carnegie wrote the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

    And the Carnegie course helped my relationships, my confidence, and my public speaking (like my recent gig at B2B Forum in Boston).

    But none of that had the impact that these cards have.

    Let me explain.

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  • What’s the benefit here?

    2:28pm
    Saint Paul

    I assembled a web ad today, from the client’s provided copy.

    It starts out, “Want to do more in 2025?”

    Not exactly, I whispered.

    What’s the benefit? The big idea? The hook?

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  • What’s your expert opinion on this x-ray?

    3:52pm
    Saint Paul

    I learned today that the swelling from a broken bone can take a week before it subsides.

    That’s because i broke my wrist on the ice rink last wednesday.

    The doc had put it in a splint, which ended up being too tight.

    So i rewrapped the splint over the weekend before returning for x-rays today.

    At today’s appointment, the first assistant looked at me in horror that i would do such a thing…

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  • Does Cold Outreach Work? (Not this X method)

    1:03pm
    Saint Paul

    Twitter DMs are filled with poor cold outreach.

    I don’t know who is teaching this method–I kinda want to ask the bros in my DM box–but recently I’ve got a bunch of seemingly-innocent questions designed to start a conversation:

    You here?

    Have a second?

    Can I ask you something?

    And a good number of the accounts follow the format: @somenamex_1

    Screenshot

    This is an indirect approach, which in theory works for:

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  • “I’ve stepped in better stuff”

    9:37am
    Saint Paul

    Is it the smell?

    Most certainly–especially when it’s steaming hot.

    As my grandpa used to say:

    “I’ve stepped in better stuff.”

    And all my life, I’ve tried to avoid being around it. Which is sorta impossible, because somehow… in some undefinable, unfathomable way… it excites everyone.

    I’m talking, of course, about…

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  • Halbert’s Advice on Client Getting

    10:21am
    Saint Paul

    Not sure if you’ve watched my recent interview with Kevin Halbert.

    There’s one point that really stood out for me:

    Kevin shares advice from his dad on how to land clients–and it’s NOT the well-known “starving market” idea.

    At the 71 minute mark of our conversation, Kevin says that the best way to land a client isn’t to convince someone, unaware of your solution, to give you a try.

    It’s also not to convince a someone who IS buying your type of solution that you’re the right man for the job.

    Instead, suggests Kevin, your best clients are like an old Lucille Ball television episode…

    Let me explain.

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