Goldmine Marketing

Category: Opinion

  • What works… when words won’t?

    3:37pm
    Saint Paul

    Our ancient Kenmore clothes drier is no longer moaning in agony.

    Now it’s got a full-on death squeal.

    (more…)

  • Here’s 150k… how do you invest it?

    Monday 1:06pm
    Saint Paul, Minn

    Hey *|FNAME|* if you had an additional $150k to spend on your business…

    How would you invest it?

    Develop new products? Go after a new market segment? Completely shift your offering? Invest in AI and become a software vendor? Train the staff? Buy out a competitor?

    That’s the hypothetical question my client’s board of directors is asking themselves right now.

    I gave my client a number of ideas for them to bounce around, not all of which are good or feasible.

    That’s OK. BAD ideas are often the seeds for GOOD ideas.

    And of course—some businesses don’t want to grow.

    Those smaller businesses are often chugging along, putting in the work and creating happy clients.

    (Even if it means they’re working looong days to do it!)

    From my point of view, business growth comes from three levers:

    • Great products that solve real problems for real people
    • Great customer service to make doing business a pleasure, and
    • Great marketing to bring in new money (from new and existing customers)

    Of course, to a hammer everything is a nail…

    Anyways.

    Reply and tell me please: how would YOU invest $150,000 to upgrade your business?

  • A day without deadlines… is a wasted day.

    3:17pm Friday
    Saint Paul

    I’ve spent the better part of today on LinkedIn… and watching business videos from Ben Settle… and generally ignoring the work I had planned for today.

    Basically: not writing.

    Eew it doesn’t feel good.

    (more…)

  • Two essentials to high-ticket sales

    11:51am
    Saint Paul

    Don’t you hate unproductive meetings?

    I’m at my table sipping coffee after a morning run, looking over my notes from a meeting yesterday.

    A rather unproductive one.

    The guest speaker couldn’t give concrete examples of his ideas. He kept trailing off… changing topics mid-sentence… and never completing a thought.

    In short: he couldn’t communicate well. And without examples of his work or ideas… he wasn’t earning my trust.

    It was frustrating and even the host didn’t seem to know where to take the directionless conversation.

    But not all is lost!

    (more…)

  • Make happier customers: use their language!

    “An iced americano with two shots of espresso and one shot of decaf espresso.”

    My friend ordered his birthday coffee this morning.

    He and I both worked in a coffee shop back in college. Some 20-odd years ago. His beverage sounded reasonable to me.

    Then I ordered.

    “Another one of those. And also, four shots of espresso.”

    The owner of the cafe looked at us.

    “You’re f***ing with me right?”

    (more…)

  • What’s that homosapien up to?

    2:29pm
    Saint Paul

    There were no tigers today.

    Habitat closed.

    I assume that means the animals themselves went into cold storage, like art stashed in a dark basement.

    Either way, the all-school field trip to the Minnesota Zoo today was a lot of fun.

    I herded the cats that my son calls friends.

    Watched the adults act like children, climbing on fences and dropping trash on the ground.

    And worked on my small talk with fellow parents:

    (more…)

  • Three Ways to Compete with SEO

    12:17pm
    Saint Paul

    The way I see it, there are only three ways to compete with SEO.

    1. Be huge. I mean it. Some companies—I’m looking at HubSpot—were built on SEO. And they now dominate that space. The only way to compete for a single page ranking is to create longer content, add more keywords, get more inbound links. It’s an arms race, and one that the big guys won’t give up on easily.

    So, for most companies, this is probably a losing proposal.

    Especially in the time of AI. Everyone can use ChatGPT to crank out content. But the companies that focus on creating a connection with their audience, providing a real solution to solve real pains, is going to win.

    Not more content. Better content. Somehow, better than what’s already crushing.

    But luckily, you have more SEO options.

    (more…)

  • Dig a hole first. Figure it out later.

    1:49pm
    Saint Paul

    Ever heard of the Blackstone Grill?

    It’s a flat-top griddle, like you would find in a cafe staffed by a short-order cook and an overworked server or two.

    When you cook a burger on the Blackstone?

    (more…)

  • sorry… could you be more specific?

    1:33pm
    Saint Paul

    “Take what you have… and expand it. Make it more. More specific. More examples.

    “Use it to position yourself as an expert.”

    I was chatting with a fellow marketer, Joshua Lisec, a week or two back. I asked him what I could do with my book, Inside Marketing Secrets.

    “Take out the stuff about C-19,” he said. “That’s past. Make your book timeless. And then send it as a lead magnet.”

    That’s great advice for you, too. Take anything you’ve written, polish it up for a specific industry, and use it as a lead magnet.

    (more…)

  • How to SOLVE your lack of sales (it’s not ALWAYS with better copy!)

    9:22am
    Saint Paul

    Ever have a promotion that went well…

    But not quite as well as you expected?

    Maybe it was the audience… didn’t like the offer.

    Maybe it was the offer… not valuable enough.

    Maybe it was the copy… not compelling action.

    There’s an idea in direct response marketing that:

    (more…)