10 Marketing Articles You Absolutely Have To Read

1. Lessons From The Vice Squad

It’s no secret among top marketers that some of the smartest salesmen are con-artists. I do NOT suggest you get involved in any sort of unethical project... and, in fact, I hope you rot in hell if you do.

2. The Most Violated Marketing Rule

I call it the “Pearls On A String” lesson. And it is the single most-violated marketing rule I see among the people who come to me for advice.

3. Mass Delusion and Other Good Marketing Ideas

One of the very critical techniques that I have used in my mail order ads is a process called “linking.” Basically, it is the technique of relating what the consumer already knows and understands with what you are selling, to make the new product easy to understand and relate to.

4. Knowing vs. Doing

We know the Rules: 80-20, 95-5. But how zealously do we apply them? You know that 80% of your problems, aggravation, grief, etc. come from 20% of the people in your world – customers, vendors, associates, employees. But how often do you purge the 20%?

5. How Marketing Success Is Deeply Connected To Farting

Watch closely, now. See, nothing up my sleeves. For my next trick, I shall reveal to you how marketing success is deeply connected to... Farting!

6. The amazing advantages a street-savvy near-illiterate hustler has versus a fancy MBA with years of book-learnin’ under his Gucci

I’ve never held a grudge against anyone with a fancy Master’s degree in business. I’ve never trusted them, and gotten a few fired. But I’ve never held a grudge. I just can’t understand what sort of moron would look around and decide that, yeah, that’s the ticket: Academia must be the place to go learn how to make a fortune in bidniz.

7. What great salesmen know about the mysterious power that secrets hold over people

Savvy street hustlers know something most civilians do not: You can’t con an honest man.

You need two critical ingredients in the mix:

1. Greed (which is easily understandable), and...

2. Secrets (which is less easily understood).

Greed gets the mark hooked -- he’s thinking he’s gonna make a killing, or pull one over on someone.

8. A very critical marketing lesson I learned while trying to bluff a veteran poker player (Hint: I lost.)

I know, I know... I sound like a broken record with the “get a life” rant. But I see the wasting of life as a crime. You know, many subscribers tell me they always wished they’d started a band way back when, or had a few more unseemly adventures before settling down. And I say, yeah, I hear you.

9. Astonishing sales secrets I learned playing rock and roll in sleazy biker bars

I have played music in some of the sleaziest dives on the West Coast. I am not joking. I’ve had a lunatic cowboy launch a full can of Pabst at my head because he thought I was singing about him. (Remember “Third Rate Romance, Low Rent Rendezvous”?)

10. Evil Marketing? What A Buffalo Rancher Taught Me About Selling.

Yesterday I met a rancher who raises buffalo and sells bison products. He clearly loves his job. He gushed facts. For example:

I didn't know buffalo never get cancer. Or that buffalo meat is leaner, healthier and better for you than any other red meat. I also didn't know that buffalo contains less calories than even chicken.