Dilbert Cube Escape Plan: Rainmaker
It was terrifying to leave the “safety” of the Dilbert Cube. I couldn’t help but remember all the times before, when I was attempting to sell and recruit. Back then I would *always* miss my monthly goals.
Yes, my new post-Dilbert Cube life was much more promising. Still I had to overcome my old Fear Of Failure. It was sooooo easy to imagine my post-Dilbert Cube life being the same as before.
Plus this was right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and nobody was spending money on anything then. <GULP>
So I make a list of literally a dozen things I can do, all of them for other companies.
My first opportunity is at this company in Arkansas. They have a new product they want to start selling. I spend half a day with this CEO and I pummel him with questions.
Suddenly in the middle of the afternoon it all snaps together in my mind. I ask him:
“If you combine your advertising, plane trips, trade shows, booth babes, software demos and everything else, how much $ do you spend to get 1 new customer?”
He thinks for awhile.
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
I say, “If I could reduce that number to $15,000 would that be good?”
“That would be great.”
“Then that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll put together an action plan.”
I send him my plan. I’m going to write him a white paper, a lead generation page for his website, and place 2 magazine articles for him. It’s going to take 2 months and I’m gonna charge him $7500 per month.
He accepts it. 19 days into my post-Dilbert Cube life, I have my first client.
That’s how I replaced my income in 19 days. No regrets, never looked back.
[Did you notice??? I just gave you a HUGELY powerful technique, right here. Somebody who read this story will have made $10,000 from this by the middle of next week, if not sooner.]
When you consult, you really sell MONEY AT A DISCOUNT. If you know what their numbers are [and by the way *they* usually don't, you have to help them] and what the new numbers need to be, you can find a piece of the pie that makes sense for you.
Personally I believe that you should offer assurance of tangible results. Not just a huge list of things that your client should do that hopefully might someday make some customers have good feelings about them.
Don Crowther has been making a living as a marketing consultant for something like 10 years now and he “sells results not procedures” to his clients. He’s assembled a module in his course on “How to be a social media consultant.”
(Which in Don’s world is, uh, not the same as somebody who goes to parties and blabs about Twitter.)
Today is the last day that Don’s course is available. You can get the full story here:
Plus One! Google Adds Another Match Type
Google's latest targeting feature is the release of the new modified broad match. This new match type gives targeting results that are in between phrase match and the original broad match, but is more closely related to phrase match.
As many advertisers know, broad match can be quite risky, and sometimes not produce the most desirable ROI's. Modified broad match can help advertisers get more impressions and show for more variations than phrase match; however, reduce the number of unwanted irrelevant impressions associated with standard broad match.
The new match type is annotated with a + sign in front of the word that is to be modified. It's important to note that if you are currently using mostly broad match keywords, switching to modified broad match will most likely significantly reduce impressions.
Here is an example of how this match type works:
Regular Broad Match: Buy Makeup
Matching Examples: Buy Cosmetics, Cheap Makeup,
Modified Broad Match: +Buy +Makeup,
Matching Examples: Buy Maekpu, Buy loreal makeup
As you can see above, modified broad match will match you to misspellings, spelling variations, singular/plural variations, and stemmings (e.g., "floor/flooring", "Italy/Italian"); however, not to synonyms as regular broad match does.
If you are going to modify more than one word in the phrase, make sure you put a space in front of the plus symbol.
Correct Annotation:
+Buy +Makeup
Incorrect Annotation:
+Buy+Makeup
If you do not put a space, Google will ignore the plus symbol and treat the keyword as standard broad match!
Here is Google's official announcement of this new match type.
Here at ROI we look at modified broad match as another tool to have more control over your keywords, and squeeze more value out of your advertising dollar. Also, if you are currently only running your keywords in phrase & exact match, then using modified broad match is a great way to increase traffic without having to worry about the increased risk of irrelevant traffic incurred by many broad match searches. This feature is currently available to all advertisers in the US & Canada.
My SES San Francisco Agenda: Where I’ll be speaking and the sessions I’m most looking forward to seeing
After speaking for years at SES San Jose, I still have problems remembering SES is going to be in San Francisco this year.
After attending, I’m sure I’ll remember the difference as this show promises to be different than other SESs as there are several new items planned, such as Incisive partnering with other conferences, such as OMS, IAB, and the conversion conference.
I’ve been taking a look through the agenda, and here’s where I plan to be during the week:
Monday
I’ll be getting to San Fran in the afternoon. If you want to chat, I’ll be around and just contact me and we’ll see if we can work something out.
In the evening, I’ll stop by the Connected Marketing Week event.
Tuesday
3pm Book Signing
I’m doing a book signing for Advanced Google AdWords at Wiley’s booth in the exhibit hall at 3pm. If you don’t have a copy, you can buy one at the booth. If you want to stop by and say, “Hi”, I’ll be there for an hour.
4:15 Introduction to Remarketing
I’ve been experimenting with remarketing (you can see how we set up our remarketing campaigns) a lot recently, and want to hear what others are saying about remarketing these days.
Late Webmaster Radio Party – SearchBash
You have to attend – this is the event to be at during the week. I have no idea what Brandy and Daron have planned; but you won’t want to miss it.
Wednesday
1pm Stretching Your Marketing Dollars
Fred Valaeys (Google’s AdWords Evangelist) wrote the forward for my book; and I always like to see him speak. Eli from comScore always gives good stats. Should be interesting to see their creative thoughts on stretching your dollars.
2:30 Offsite Video Interview
Wiley (the publisher of for Dummies, Hour a Day, etc books) is creating a video interview for my book; so of course, I have to be there to give the interview. I’ll be back at the conference after an hour or so.
2:30 Speaking Geek
If I wasn’t going to be offsite; I’d sit in this session. I have a lot of experience in conversing with developers (it helps I know my way around a few code bases); but I’m still not a programmer. If you have issues communicating with developers (and most marketers do even if they don’t know it) this could be a very interesting session.
Just admit it – you want to know what’s next at Google too.
Late: IM Charity Party
I’m a big supporter of charity events; and this is both a good networking event that supports a good cause. Nice combination.
Thursday
I just launched my own PPC Tool, Training, and Community project, so I need to take a peak at the other tools. I don’t really compete with these companies, and I know several of the panelists – so it’s just good to see their positioning and the reactions to those positions.
2 Speaking: Ads in a Quality Score World
I have to attend this session as I’m speaking on Ads in a Quality Score World. It’s myself, David Szetela, Andrew Goodman, and Nick Fox from Google. Each of these speakers is great. Combined – it’s a must see.
4:45 Advanced Paid Search Tactics
If you read this blog, how could you not want to attend this session? I’ve not met David Rodnitzky before, but he’s on my list of people I want to see speak to see what I really think of him. Thomas Bindl, founder of Refined Labs (and a friend I like to support) will also be talking. As Thomas is based in Germany, its interesting to see a non-US perspective.
Other Events
I’ve not had a chance to look at all the partner events that are happening; so if you see some can’t miss items from the other conferences that are happening – please let me know.
| Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords | |
 |
Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. |
| Certified Knowledge: Online AdWords Training, Tools, and Community | |
 |
Certified Knowledge is an online tools, training, and community site brought to you by Brad Geddes & bg Theory. We are currently accepting beta applications. In interested, please see more at CertifiedKnowledge.org. |
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Thursday: Euro Economic Turnaround Teleseminar
Just got off the phone with one of my Roundtable members in the UK, discussing economic uncertainty. She says, “A client who had committed to a £200,000 project suddenly chopped it down to a fraction of the size because of budget cuts.”
“They asked if they could rush the remaining scraps of the project through right away so they could squeeze it in before the end of their fiscal quarter.”
A lot of folks are struggling to orient themselves. Clarity, focus and courage have never been more prized than they are at this moment.
Welcome to the tunnel of chaos.
For this reason I’ve arranged to have corporate turnaround expert John Paul Mendocha join me on a teleseminar Thursday July 29 at 3:00pm London UK Time. This is our Economic Turnaround Teleseminar, focused on a narrow range of actions you can take right now to generate cash this week and move to higher ground.
John has stared down many a freight train. John is THE guy CEO’s call when the ship is sinking and even the rats are jumping over the side and fleeing to safety. He has transformed dozens of failing companies to high profitability and market dominance in 3-18 months. His toolbelt is full of fast-action tactics. On this call we will deliver one hour of sharply honed, focused advice on how to make your sales go UP while everyone else panics.
Time: Thursday July 29 at 3:00pm London UK Time. (14:00 GMT, 10:00am US Eastern Time, 9:00am US Central Time, 7:00am Pacific time, 12:00am July 30 Sydney Australia time).
Phone: (+1) 212-990-8000
Pin: 7733#
Perry Marshall
P.S.: Everyone who registers for my September UK seminar (www.perrymarshall.com/uk) can join me for a 2nd hour on a private conference line immediately following this call. I will personally answer ANY question you have about any aspect of your business or turnaround strategy. There will only be a small number of people on this 2nd call so you will get personal attention.
Advanced Google AdWords is Now Available in Kindle Format
Advanced Google AdWords (my book on AdWords advertising) has been selling quite well. After a few months in the top 10 advertising books on Amazon, it’s now available in a Kindle format.
If you’ve been holding out to buy the book until it’s in the Kindle format, you can get it from Amazon here.
If you’d like to read more about the book, or customer testimonials, please visit the Advanced Google AdWords Book site.
What I don’t know yet (and if you buy the book in the Kindle version please let me know) is if the coupons are in the Kindle version.
The coupons for Certified Knowledge and the AdWords Seminars will be honored even if they are not published in the book. You can login on the bonuses page to claim those coupons.
However, Google is providing a $25 coupon for new accounts in the print version. We’re working with Google to find out what happens in the Kindle version but there’s no word yet. I’ll post an update when I learn something on that front.
| Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords | |
|
Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. |
| Certified Knowledge: Online AdWords Training, Tools, and Community | |
|
Certified Knowledge is an online tools, training, and community site brought to you by Brad Geddes & bg Theory. We are currently accepting beta applications. In interested, please see more at CertifiedKnowledge.org. |
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