Exploit your Enemies: Marketing Lesson from Frank Zappa
Guest Blog Entry from John Fancher, who’s riding shotgun with me in our Autoresponder Boot Camp. One of my favorite musicians, drummer Mike Portnoy, names Frank Zappa as one of his all-time heroes. Mike and Dream Theater did a concert with Frank’s son Dweezil Zappa here in Chicago in ’09. It was stellar. John, let ‘er rip!
Frank Zappa dedicated quite a bit of his prodigious vinyl output to making making fun of lazy, sappy pop music. You know, the kind that he saw making tons of money all around him in the early 60s?
He also took plenty of shots at lazy, sappy television. You know, the media that helped sky rocket the careers of Elvis and the Beatles right in front of young Frank’s very eyes?
Yet at the same time that he was belittling these forms, he was exploiting them as well. Inside Zappa’s music, amidst all the avant garde noise and knowing jazz and classical references, there are quite a few “accessible” blues and pop riffs.
And a clean cut Frank Zappa even appeared on the Steve Allen show to play…ummm…bicycle, because he knew he needed the exposure that television could give his young career.
Then in the mid 80s, Frank had his biggest hit with “Valley Girl”, a simple, silly pop tune making fun of vapid teen fashion victims of the San Fernando Valley.
A CONTRADICTION IS A GOOD THING TO BE SOMETIMES. Frank was an odd mix of opportunistic hustler and principled artist. A guy who hung out with hippies and freaks but counted every cent. A rock and roll joker with a thorough understanding of the most complex and arcane music. A guy who’s first album, “Freak Out”, would make the perfect sound track to an LSD trip, who openly scorned drug abuse.
There will never be another Frank Zappa.
And while he never experienced the massive fame of a Britney Spears or the Partridge Family, he did manage to make a very comfortable living as a full-time musician, traveling the world and releasing over 50 albums. AND, he died with his artistic integrity and influence in impeccable reputation.
Oh, and he made us laugh while doing it. Not a bad epitaph.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH EMAIL MARKETING? Britney Spears is Walmart. The Partridge Family was McDonald’s. But Frank Zappa was…Frank Zappa. And he was very successful being just that, thank you very much. Are you Walmart? Are you McDonalds? Or are you…YOU? Do you have dreams of massive world wide domination? Or do you want to make a very comfortable living, take a few good shots at your enemies, make the world a better place, keep your principles in tact…and have some fun doing it?
There are forms and structures used by the “Goliaths” that you can exploit. Weapons of the enemy that you can turn against them. Examine the enemy. What tools can you steal and make your own? The key phrase being MAKE YOUR OWN (a true artist does not borrow, he steals – Picasso).
But you must always be yourself. You must never JOIN the enemy army. You must never mindlessly ape them. If you do, if you buy the lie of the enemy completely…then you’re just another voice in the chorus of the damned. Indistinguishable. Lost in mediocrity.
Oh, sure, you MIGHT be the one in a billion who becomes a Britney Spears or a Walmart. But I don’t like those odds.
And I don’t much like their products either.
I’d rather listen to Frank wail on “Watermelon in Easter Hay” than have to suffer through “Oops! I Did it Again” any day.
Rock On,
John Fancher
708.790.2679
PS: Just watched a good documentary on Frank’s early career called “Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: In the 1960s” It’s available on DVD or instant streaming on Netflix.
Why buy clicks when you can get ‘em for free?
Last week I spoke at Entrepreneur Magazine’s Growth Conference in Atlanta. Many sessions were packed and afterward a group huddled around me and peppered me with questions.
#1 Question: “Why should I spend money buying clicks when I can get traffic from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc? And for that matter, why shouldn’t we just try to get free search engine traffic?”
I said, “Let’s say someone has a website with a #1 listing on Google. You’re selling a million dollars of product a year with FREE traffic. No advertising. The site makes a quarter million dollars a year of pure profit. They’re willing to sell the whole business to you for 1 year of profit. Would you buy it?”
I got puzzled looks. Most said, “Yeah, that would probably be a good deal.”
I said, “Let’s say Google changes their algorithm and your site completely disappears from page 1. Sales drop to nearly zero. What would happens then?”
“If all your traffic is free and you don’t know how to BUY traffic, you’re done.
“Or what if it’s all from social media? What happens when you stop pushing content out there?”
Let’s say that same site makes $125,000 a year profit after paying $125,000 for advertising. How much is that worth?
It’s worth a whole lot more than the free traffic site, I’ll tell you that much.
The ONLY thing you can depend on, ultimately, is the ability to BUY a customer at market price and turn a profit.
Once you know how to do that, you’ll never go hungry.
Your mission is not to put $0 in and get $1 out. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to put $1 in and get $2 out. That’s a business.
Anything else is a bankruptcy waiting to happen.
http://www.perrymarshall.com/personalcoaching
The Al Capone “Affordable Education”
On a plane the other night a guy told me his wife worked for the Cicero Illinois public schools. Her school was severely overcrowded. She taught first grade and had 40 six year olds in her class.
40 kids. One teacher. Scary.
Cicero has been well known for government corruption since the days of Al Capone, the Mob Boss whose built his headquarters there. Today the folks who award government contracts in Cicero still have summer villas in Italy, while Latino families who have any aspirations for their kids move to a different school district before their children hit high school.
QUESTION: Who’s more guilty of squandering money:
1. The guy who buys a $40,000 Lexus when a $12,000 Hyundai would do
2. The guy who saves $4000 by sending his kids to the Cicero public school instead of private school
Guy #2 is the Worst Fool by far. If he even has a prayer of paying the $5,000, he’s stupid not to invest it. STUPID. Geez dude, do you love your kids???
Hardly anything is more easy to rationalize than saving money on education. Laura and I home school 3 of our kids. We send our 4th to a costly private school. Plus we pay taxes, so we’re also paying the administration and the overhead of our local school district that we don’t use.
It would be s-o-o-o-o-o easy to cut expenses. It sure was tempting when we were totally broke. We WERE totally broke when we started teaching them 10 years ago, by the way. We did it anyway.
This week I spoke at a conference in Atlanta. Afterward, a woman who’d just lost her job approached me. She was deliberating over whether to join Renaissance Club. She’s holding on to her money t-i-g-h-t. That 40 bucks is precious to her.
“My father has a construction business and I’m thinking this would help him. But his business is really slow right now too. I think I just need to wait until later when I have more money.”
“How much is a small contracting job if he sells it?”
“A really small one might be 400 bucks. A big one could be way bigger, of course.”
“How long does it take from first phone call to awarding a bid?”
“Could take a couple of months, but he could do a small job the next day.”
“So if you could make his phone ring, you could get your forty bucks back this week, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s right.”
“Ma’am, I guarantee you this – if you give Google your money with no help from me, and you don’t get no customers, they ain’t giving your money back. But if you do this the way I teach you, your dad will get new business he wouldn’t have gotten. Spend the forty bucks, get serious about educating yourself, and by the end of 30 days you’ll KNOW whether you’re getting value from me or not.
“Not only that . . . if you learn this craft WELL – if you know how to buy traffic for $1 and sell it for $2 – I wouldn’t trade that skill for a Wharton MBA. This is your Street MBA.”
She reached into her purse, got out her credit card, and signed up.
A lot of other people at the seminar opted for the Public School education instead. Now they’re going to go home, they’re going to get on LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter (cuz that stuff’s free). They’re going to start Linking and Liking and Tweeting.
Six months from now most of them will have n-o-t-h-i-n-g to show for it but a bunch of so-called “friends.”
Others are going to buy clicks from Google. They’ll pay all kinds of stupidity tax and never know why. They’ll just think Pay Per Click doesn’t work and they’ll go away disappointed.
In the end, 5% of the people who went to that conference will achieve what they actually went there for. The rest – well, I hope they enjoyed the free luncheon and the Entrepreneur of the Year awards banquet.
Mob bosses in Cicero Illinois are stealing the future from thousands of kids and that’s wrong.
But what’s even more wrong is the parents who ‘get’ what’s going on and let it happen anyway.
If someone can teach you what you need to know and you’re not paying them to teach you, then shame on you. Pick up the phone and end the stupidity right now. Stop stealing from YOUR future. Stop shaving pennies with your education.
I can hear the cynics now: “Yeah, but Perry’s biased. of course he’s saying that. He sells books and stuff. He’s just trying to get your money.”
Yes, I AM trying to get your money. That’s my job. Why would you want a teacher who’s afraid to do his job? Anyone who gets a marketing education from somebody who doesn’t want their money is in for an inferior ‘public school’ education.
They’ll get the Little Rabbit Fu Fu version of marketing. The one where “friends” play patty-cake with “friends” all day long, and “build relationships” and burble about how relieved they are to have finally had their Starbucks this morning.
Who’s more greedy?
1. GOOGLE
2. PERRY
Who cares more about whether your business succeeds or fails?
Who offers a ballsier guarantee?
To the cynic I say, if you spend more than $1000 a month on Google traffic and you haven’t been through the Bobsled run yet, you’re just stupid.
To the cynic I say, if your business sells over $1 million per year and you haven’t at least applied to Roundtable, you’re stupid too.
Many, many peoples’ kids will get a shabby education from the public schools.
But it doesn’t have to be your kids.
Many, many people will pay business stupidity tax.
But it doesn’t have to be you.
Decide what you want. Find out the price. And pay the price.
Perry Marshall
What I *loved* about shaving pennies with Honda, Ford & Chrysler
My first job out of college was designing speakers for the major car makers. I designed the speakers in the ’94 Ford Probe, the ’95 Acura Vigor, the ’95 Jeep Cherokee and the ’96 Civic. Our factory in NC churned out 70,000 low-cost car speakers every day.
One of my friends, who knew how much I loved $10,000 stereo systems, asked how I felt about designing a speaker that had to cost $3.78 and the price of every part was calculated to 1/100th of a penny.
“I love it. Anybody can make a $10,000 system sound awesome when they have megabucks and state-of-the-art components. It takes a genius to make a factory-installed car stereo sound great when the total budget for 4 speakers is 15 bucks.”
I really did love it. What I loved most was ‘re-defining the question.’ My design for the ’96 Honda Civic used 3 speakers instead of four: 2 4 inchers in the front + a beefy 2-channel 6×9 in the back instead of two smaller, thinner sounding speakers. It came in at $14.00, a full dollar of cost savings. It sounded excellent.
The guy at Honda rejected it because he thought 3 speakers was inferior to 4. I told him to market it as a superior system with a subwoofer. (And that’s exactly what it was.) He didn’t listen to me because I was an “engineer” not a “marketer.”
Even though it never saw the light of day, I’m still proud of that design. It had rich bass and great clarity because of the smaller front speakers. My fellow engineers at the office thought it sounded great. It had a USP.
The #1 thing that separates the men from the boys in anything is being able to make something BIG happen with limited resources. In online marketing it’s “Make ONE dollar.”
I have the same belief about spending your Google clicks as Chrysler has about Jeep Cherokee components. SHAVE PENNIES and INNOVATE.
If you love the challenge and creativity of innovating for less, then you’ll love our Bobsled Run. We take those initial pennies and clicks and turn them into traffic that pays. Once you “make ONE dollar”, you’re amazed at how fast it all scales up:
Google AdWords Quality Score Clinic with Brad Geddes
Got Quality Score Problems? Google Slaps? Bans?
Bid prices going up and traffic going down? How do you get your QS=3 up to a 7 or a 9?
Brad Geddes, author of “Advanced Google AdWords” is undoubtedly one of the world’s best on Google Quality Score. He’s my live guest Wednesday January 19. He’ll deliver a flourish of specific insights.
Brad is world class in every way, having started long ago as a lowly affiliate. Now he speaks at Google’s sponsored events and he’s going to be in Maui. I’m proud to have him on this call.
Date: Wednesday January 19
Time: 11am Eastern / 10am Central / 8am Pacific / 16:00 London
You’re sure to pick up quick tips and workarounds that will put more bucks in your pocket. I’ll also release the MP3 to Renaissance Club members and above.
http://www.perrymarshall.com/maui/traffic-series/
Fast money vs. Building Assets
Robert Kiyosaki says unless something makes you money when you’re NOT doing it, it’s not an asset, it’s a liability.
Have you ever walked away from short-term money because you knew it would cause long-term problems?
When I was slaving away in my Dilbert cube, $ was tight. One of my friends in the business offered me a job in Pennsylvania. Taking that job would mean six figures instead of five and PA is a lot cheaper than Chicago.
I decided to stay where it was at, and simply enjoy the offer as a nice compliment. I drilled my roots deeper.
A couple of years later I did a consulting gig for that company, and saw how things were on the inside. Man am I ever glad I did not take that job! That company was a MESS.
Imagine what it would be like to move 600 miles, then later, realize you’ve made a massive mistake?
All that glitters is not gold. And one thing I’ve never regretted is consistently betting on the long-distance runners over the sprinters. Eventually you get tired of constantly “chasing deals” and you just want to do something that builds the equity in your business.
I can’t think of anything less glamorous than improving your connection with customers via email. But I also can’t think of any asset more lucrative long-term than an open invitation from those on your list to enter their email box any time you have something to say.
Autoresponder Boot Camp kicks off tomorrow: http://www.perrymarshall.com/arbc
*There’s a vital magic ingredient that you need to make AR’s work*
I always admonish people to build AR sequences. But there’s a big “IF” that you have to be aware of.
Last year at our Maui summit, Jonathan Mizel said, “The common advice everyone gives you is to offer a free report, but most people don’t want to read most peoples’ free report. It’s BORING. If you don’t write something that people WANT to read, it’s worthless.”
BINGO. Likewise, a string of 10 boring AR messages just trains your readers to ignore you.
A string of 10 emotionally provocative messages peppered with surprises trains your readers to sit up and pay attention.
AR’s aren’t really all that valuable until they have that magic ingredient that makes people want to sit up and read.
In the last AR Boot Camp, one member had started out as a refugee from Cuba years ago. In fact he almost died on the way to Florida. This story sort of tumbled out in one of the group coaching sessions.
Prior to this he had never perceived this story as a business asset. He’d just been talking to his customers about buying Cuban dress shirts.
Man, what an incredible asset! He increased the equity of his business 10% just by working that story into his funnel.
The first session of AR Boot Camp starts tomorrow, and the most important thing we’ll show you is how to create that magic:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/arbc
Perry
My first 90 days after the Dilbert Cube
It was a month and a day after September 11, 2001. The world was in a tail spin. Everyone was sleepwalking. Phones weren’t ringing. Orders were not coming in.
Still, I left my job and replaced my income in 19 days.
At this point I’d been to exactly one “real” marketing seminar. I was a member of an online discussion board, and had read Dan Kennedy’s newsletters for 4 years. I’d bought a few info products. I had a few friends who were “doing it.” Most were still wannabes.
That was the extent of my marketing education.
Three months later I called my friend Jim Cleary and said, “Jim, you’ll never believe this! I billed my clients $12,100 last month!” It was more money than any of my regular paychecks from before.
I had no words to describe my elation. I’d leaped across the chasm and ‘made it.’ I could now make it on my own.
There’s a long, long list of things I DIDN’T know how to do back then. I didn’t know a thing about Pay Per Click. Or Autoresponders. I’d never split tested a landing page. I hadn’t made any of my discoveries about 80/20 back then.
But I still managed to generate leads for my new clients.
What could you do for yourself, or for a client if you knew the things we know today?
Today, my team and I teach more actionable techniques in just 12 weeks than I possessed in 2001. And if you’re accepted, we guarantee that whether you’re working for yourself or a client, you’ll recoup your tuition in profits and savings or your money back.
Our next training session begins Tuesday February 1. I invite you to join in. By the end of March everything in your business – your traffic, your conversions, your sales and your profits – will speed up. Dramatically.
It’s so exciting, so gratifying:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/personalcoaching/
How AdWords managers simplify their life
In our Mastermind Club members forum, someone asked about tools for managing unwieldy Google campaigns. A couple of people mentioned “Orange Juice” for its ability to focus their attention on just the things that need to be improved:
“For management, I use orange juice for ads, so it gets to do most of the data crunching for me. Great example of a useful tool that I happily pay for and I thought I knew what I was getting when I signed up. It turns out in this case its more useful to me than I thought it would be and I have more ways to use it as time goes on.
“Not sure on the answer to what is manageable…that will be part of the experiment. With OJ for ads the number is probably orders of magnitude higher than without. I wouldn’t try this without that tool. I resolved in my head that you get what you pay for.”
-Jeff Martyka, NeckTies, Inc., Libertyville Illinois
If you spend more than $250 per month on AdWords, Orange Juice will free your time and pay for itself by making it super-easy to optimize. Try OJ for Ads here.
Illinois will crush affiliate marketing if you don’t act now.
A few days ago I posted a warning that the state of Illinois is about to pass a law that adds sales tax to online commerce if an affiliate in the transaction lives in Illinois.
The resolution has passed both the House and the Senate in the Illinois legislature.
An insider has told me that emailing the governor will do no good. If you did so, nobody’s listening.
Here’s what I want you to do instead: Please write the governor as a public comment on this blog page below. My contact will hand deliver a hard copy of all the responses to a state employee who works for Governor Quinn. You’re welcome to include your business street address. Please write to Governor Quinn in the comment section below.
Explanation of the Bill:
If a person in Kansas buys a teddy bear made in Vermont, and an affiliate in Illinois is involved in the transaction, the state of Illinois will force the Vermont company to pay Illinois sales tax. That means the teddy bear company in Vermont now has to muck around with the byzantine layers of state and local sales tax. Potentially different rate for every city and county.
Of course no company in Vermont would ever be willing to slog through all that red tape, so they’re just going to terminate all their affiliates in Illinois. Which is exactly what Amazon has promised to do. That will kill Illinois’ tax revenue instead of increasing it.
My assistant called Springfield and confirmed the following information about HB3659:
- The Senate voted “Yes” on 1/5/2011
- The House voted “Yes” on 1/6/2011
- The bill is now on it’s way to the Governor and once it reaches his desk he has 60 days to decide whether or not to pass it
The actual verbiage of the bill, Amendment 3 of HB 3659, is here. Please write to Governor Quinn in the comment section below. My contact will hand deliver this to the appropriate influencers.
Who’s on *your* Board of Directors?
What if your company’s board of directors consisted of:
- The principal of one of Australia’s leading marketing agencies
- The founder of a significant online auto parts distributor
- The UK’s #1 Corporate Objectives consultancy
- The US’s #1 online distributor of lock & security hardware
- The #1 Time Management training company in the Netherlands
- The president of an alternative health supplier who sells offline, primarily via catalog
- A serial entrepreneur who operates profitably in 3 completely different markets, simultaneously
Do you think this diverse group of innovators and drivers might possess the insights you need to drive your business forward and pry you out of whatever mold you wish to break out of?
If you were a member of Renaissance Club Roundtable, this *would* be your Board of Directors. Because that’s just a sampling of my members.
When you’re a Roundtable member, that’s the crew you report to every four months. That’s the level of people who returns your phone calls.
When you’re a Roundtable member, you convene with this distinguished array of rebels in warm sunny Orlando in late January.
When you join Roundtable, you commence with a 2-day 4-man intensive where three others join you for a high-compression consultation. We fix whatever’s ailing your business in short order.
I reject a goodly percentage of the apps, but if you can get in, you’re in high cotton:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/roundtable/
