Two Must-Read Blog Posts

I’ve read a couple of great blogs today and wanted to share them with you.  First up was Karen Skidmore’s blog about the “long sales page” (http://www.candocanbe.com/blog/).  This is such a rich subject that I could go on for pages about it.  (Don’t worry, I don’t have time today to do that!)  But take a run over and join the conversation.  It seems like most people really don’t like (or even hate) the long sales page – so why do so many online marketers use it?  This is a debate I’ve been having for the last month or so as I struggle to find the right sales page approach for my own online products.  I’m definitely more comfortable with “short and t0-the-point”, but am I missing something?   More on that later.

The second great blog of the day was from Chris Brogan at http://www.chrisbrogan.com where he talks about Being Naked.  Yes, if you’ve read some of my past blogs, you know that this is favorite topic of mine.  I loved reading Chris’ thoughts on this and his pearls of wisdom.  When I started blogging last year, I debated and agonized over just how “naked” I should go.  Should I tell people that I had faced a brain tumor?  Would they think I was in some way damaged or not as good as I once was?  Clearly, I decided “the hell with that” and trotted myself out there in all my naked glory.  And, do you know – people actually liked that I shared something that personal.  Some people even went so far as to say I was “brave” (I’m not.)  What’s really been cool, though, is how many great relationships I’ve developed by just being myself.

Yep, big fan of the SHORT sales page and of going naked.

My Love Affair With Guerrilla Marketing

I just love Guerrilla Marketing, I fell in love when the first book came out in the mid-1980’s (oh, am I dating myself?)  At the time, I worked for a fairly large company as a marketer and Guerrilla Marketing created quite a stir.  We all rushed to find ways to “guerrillatize” our marketing.  Mixed results ensued, along with some great stories!

 

Fast forward 25 years and I find that Guerrilla Marketing is even more relevant now than ever before.  With much of the world in a recession, is there a better time to laser-focus our marketing and whittle down our budgets?   Has it ever been easier to “go viral?”  Have we ever had more tools at our fingertips?

 

I am going to tell some Guerrilla stories over the next weeks and possibly months.  Some will be tried-and-true basics and some may be a bit more extreme, but they’ve all worked.  I encourage you to share your own best guerrilla tips, too.  Good Guerrillas know that collaboration is a big part of success!

 

Just to set the tone, what’s different about Guerrilla Marketing versus “traditional” marketing?  Simply put, Guerrilla Marketing relies on Time, Energy, and Imagination, rather than big budgets.  A good Guerrilla knows exactly who her/his ideal (target) customer/client is and where they hang out.  They don’t spend time trying to talk to “everybody”, but rather spend their time and resources talking directly to their ideal customer (yes, the one that’s part of the 10% or 20% that produces the 80% or 90% of the results!)

 

Stay tuned for more marketing discussion from the jungle …