"Something Is Desperately Wrong In America..."

By: Perry Marshall 2007

"Something Is Desperately Wrong In America..."

What's the first thing you think when you read that?

Does it trigger any impulses?

It's just pregnant with possibilities, isn't it? You could
go a thousand directions with it. With an intro like that,
at the very minimum you're guaranteed to start with a
hearty nod of agreement from a whole bunch of people.

Whether you fly high with your next sentence or fall
flat on your face depends entirely on how well you
read your audience. If you know what itch they're
dying to scratch, then you've got the opening shot
of a great fundraising letter... a scintillating email
subject line... a launch pad for your newest manifesto.

This wouldn't have to be about 'obvious' political
items, either. It could be a mailing list broker
ranting about incompetence and waste in the U.S.
Post Office. It could be about the latest security flaw
in Microsoft Windows. It could be about some bankruptcy
judge that just got elected in Rhame, North Dakota -
the one that's about to trigger an avalanche of
financial woes onto our unsuspecting populace.

You can have all kinds of fun with this. If the
person you're talking to agrees, you've formed
an instant bond.

The road to revolution is paved with feelings of
brokenness, rage, lost hope and spoiled ambitions,
and the politicos shamelessly exploit this. When
our very foundations of peace, freedom and prosperity
teeter on the edge of the abyss.... When the enemy
strains every rippling muscle to pull civilization over
the edge, you can't help yourself. You boil with rage,
hang on every word.

On a recent Mastermind call, we discussed the fact
that in spite of what we'd all prefer, most people do
what they do not for stated reasons but because of
anger, fear, insecurity, jealousy, boredom.... he
wants to win the golf game, not to be a
superlative sportsman but to humiliate Bill who's a
constant jerk in staff meetings.

"I can't wait to see that ball neatly fall into the hole
and wipe that smirk off Bill's face... he's gonna pay..."

Whether you sell online or off, it's this level of
understanding that separates the men from the boys.
You're not selling vacation packages or golf clubs or
quality management software, you're selling endorphin
rushes. You're selling antidotes to anger, fear, insecurity,
jealousy, boredom. Antidotes to that Bill guy who frosted
your cookie in a staff meeting.

In personal AdWords coaching we install the moving
parts for an ultra-successful online business, but there's
something much more important, more fundamental than
even that. Because in the Team Action Groups and 1-on-1
calls we explore this gritty, organic, inner psychology.
The stuff that really sets your success on fire.

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Brought To You By:
Perry Marshall Coaching

First Gear - Second Gear - Third Gear - Fourth

*Add $25,000 minimum to your bottom line in '07, turbo progress in 12 short weeks. Backed by a robust, gutsy guarantee. www.PerryMarshall.com/Adwords/PersonalCoaching.htm

Hello My Internet Friend,

The person who taught me how to drive a stick shift was none other than my wife, Laura.

But she wasn't my wife then. Wasn't quite even my girlfriend yet. (I was falling madly in love with her though.... still am :^> ... but I digress) It was the summer before our senior year, we were both 17 and Laura had this little brown Datsun she drove around in. She took me out to the deserted country roads in rural Nebraska where I hopefully wouldn't do too much damage popping that clutch.

I tell you, letting that clutch out just right, getting smooth acceleration from 0 to 60, tricky tricky tricky. I stalled that engine over and over again.

Those of us who have grown to like manual transmissions - mastered them - know that a skilled driver is smoother than the best automatic transmission. You got snow and ice? Give me a stick shift, baby, and I'm in control.

A savvy guerilla marketer, like the gal who's mastered that stick shift, starts from rest with a barely perceptible nudge from zero - wouldn't wake a sleeping baby - then you feel the seat pressing firmly against your back, excitement rushes through your body as the fence posts speed by faster and faster, and before you know it you're going 90 or 100. She's run through every gear and you didn't even feel the transitions.

Somebody sees that Google ad and it's so close to the conversation inside his head that it's only natural he'd click on that one instead of the others. He doesn't get bruised in the slightest on the squeeze page... it's only natural (there's that phrase again) that he'd exchange his information for yours, and then one step at a time he wises up to your way of doing things, your way of solving problems... pretty soon he's not even searching the web anymore because he's so happily
involved in *your* world.

It doesn't stop. After the first sale is a second and a third and a fourth, because you have a plan for moving those customers up your ladder, from casual drives in rural Nebraska to first date to
engagement to marriage to a beautiful baby girl being born, then....

Oops, I'm digressing again. Can you hit 200 miles an hour? It's possible, on the open road. There's no speed limit on the information super highway.

*Marketing Equivalents of Popping The Clutch & Stalling The Engine

-The #1 disconnect is between the keyword itself and your basic message. You'd be astonished how big the differences are between seemingly similar keywords, how different the visitors can be between, say "guinea pig" and "guinea pigs."

-Overstatement: Amateur copywriters think writing copy is all about bombast and drama. Exaggeration and yellow highlighter.

They say stupid things like "Why you should crawl buck nekked on broken glass to get your hands on these hot new secrets" and the first thing the visitor thinks is "Oh no, not another one
of those yo-yos" and quickly punches the BACK button. Throws it into revers and he's outta there. I think one of the most powerful copywriting tools is....

*Understatement.*

Here's an example: When I was in Nairobi Kenya I met a 7 year old boy who was dying of AIDS for lack of a $1 bus ticket to get a free shot. (No joke.)

A rookie copywriter might have gotten in-your-face about this unfortunate boy. I said: ....

I met another boy named Peter Githiri, 7 years old, who is also HIV positive. Peter is not doing so well. A sponsor has not been found for him yet, and lacking medical attention, he is obviously very sick.

"Not doing so well" got the point across. It left Peter's appearance to the readers' imagination. Hey, you're not dumb. You can fill in the blanks. Right?

-Treating all markets the same, or that all techniques work the same way with everyone. No siree Bob. I was talking to Tellman Knudson the other day, who sells products both to online marketers and to parents of ADHD children. He said, "What entrepreneurs respond to and what parents of children respond to are TOTALLY, ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT."

My motto is: Talk to people the way they talk to each other and themselves.

-Know what you're going to sell them next. You know what's suicide for a Google AdWords campaign? Trying to sell one product in one shot, having no follow up before the sale and nothing to sell after the sale. You could get away with this 2-3 years ago, but you can't now.

In personal AdWords coaching we make you the master of that silky-smooth clutch, and we make the transitions between the gears seamless. And as you develop the skill to run through those gears, your girlfriend or boyfriend or husband or wife - or maybe your mom who's put up with you and believed in you for three or four decades now.... well, you do 'em mighty proud.

Show 'em tail lights.

www.PerryMarshall.com/Adwords/PersonalCoaching.htm

Perry Marshall