Sage Advice from Seth Godin

Yet again Seth Godin inspires me. His latest blog post extols you to just get on with it, if you've never done anything before using this internet thingy, then start now and catch up quickly!

All the tools are out there you just need to use them, most are even free, they just need you to put some work and energy in. I've used most of these in my previous jobs. Just started at Global Lingo as Director of Marketing, and they're dying to grow as much as they can, so I'll be using some of Seth's points to get things moving quickly.

You should too.

Be better not bigger

The reason lots of the larger household names have gone under recently (in my view) is that they lost their way completely. If you asked anyone what Woolworths was for they couldn't tell you and neither could Woolworths. They just had loads of stores and no idea what they were doing with them.

They concentrated all their effort on being bigger and forgotten to be special. What Woolies ended up doing was selling a bit of everything and ended up selling nothing at all.

If you running a company and you're worried about the future, then concentrate on the customers you have any giving them amazing service and products. Don't go trying to be the biggest in the market, it'll rarely work.

Here's Seth Godin's sage advice on being better not bigger.

Seth Godin inspires me

Just getting ready to go back to work. No one knows what 2009 will through at them but one thing is for sure if you sit back and let stuff happen to you you can't complain if its not what you want.

Why not take hold of the opportunity the uncertainty is bringing to everyone else and make 2009 a great start. Seth's post has just inspired me to do just that I hope it does the same for you too.

Happy New Year

Don't be good in 2009 - be great!

Being good isn't enough. When someone asks you how you are what do you say? Stock answer is "alright" or "ok". How does that make the other person feel? Are they energised? Probably not, but then neither are you. If you say you're great and have a big smile, then they'll feel surprised at first and then feel really good, its a natural reaction to an answer like that and the smile tops it off. Only an android could fail to smile back.

Being great is much better all round than being ok. How do you feel after an ok sleep? Still tired. An ok meal? Still hungry. So why not be great?

I'm not sating that just thinking that will make you a genius but genius starts somewhere. Their minds are clear of all the crap that pulls them down so they can work on being great. Their failures spur them on to get stuff right. Over on Seth's Blog he sums this up better than I ever could.

So for 2009 don't be good - be great!

Stand for something

I read Seth's Blog each day. There's always a great insight into his mind.

Today's is relevant not just for Business or Marketers but for the population as a whole. Stand for something! You can't be everything to everyone, no matter how much you'd love to. You have to make tough decisions and stand by them that's what make you - you!

Have a good read and think over how you can stand for something, something important to you. Be yourself - no one else is going to do it for you!

Have you ever recommended a book you've never read?

Seth Godin is pre-launching his new book The Tribe on his only on his blog.

Seth's books are must reads for anyone in marketing because they are a guide to how business should be done and how thinking differently about the world of business helps everyone.

Seth's concept for pushing this book is pure genius and should become the subject of a entire book on it's own, written by a better man than me I'm sure.

Seth's promise is that for all pre-orderers of his book he'll offer untold benefits. Seth has such a loyal following that the offer is already oversubscribed, it was only added today (29th July). Even without this the book is due to be massive, the really clever part is that he's got all the pre-orderers, me included, all ready spreading the word about it. I've no idea what the book is actually about yet but I'm already so sold that I've bought it and I've recommended it to my work colleagues.

Have you ever recommended a book you've never read? I haven't - 'til today.

Order your book now. If you're quick enough you can join the tribe too! Look he's even got me to give a free plug. The man is a legend

Really good advice for writing copy

Seth Godin points to this really good article on writing copy. There are some really good points in here which I'll be trying to put into my own ranting, writing whatever you want to call it.

I've no idea if anyone is reading this but hopefully you are and will be kind or cruel enough to tell me whether I'm interesting or crap. Knowing either will be useful because how can I develop otherwise.

Anyway here's the link: How to say nothing with 500 words.

Enjoy

Seth Godin on the Placebo effect

Seth's come up with the goods again. This is a great blog about marketing and a definate read.

It got me thinking about something my mate asked me the other day.

"How do you become and artist?"

My answer is that it's down to perception. As soon as one person, who apprears to have authority, says you are something and give you the title then everyone else will accept it as well. The next objective is to find someone else who agrees with the first person. Then you begin to get a chain and it all builds from there.

Doesn't matter what you want to be as soon as one other person says that what you are, job done. Most people are nervous to give themselves the title though.

So if you want to be an Actor, Rock Star, Model, Marketer (god help you), jockey, keep listing for ever. Then tell someone that's what you are not long after guess what you'll have managed it.

Good Luck in your new Careers!

What marketing equals

Seth Godin hits the spot again on what marketing is about. I really don't know where he get's his inspiration from, just wish he sold it! Here's his blog on what Marketing equals.

To get a bit of the Seth Magic, give his books a go. My favourite is the Purple Cow. For me this is one of the greatest marketing books of the last few years.

Google Book results

I'm using my friend's PC at the moment so I don't have my bookmarks. So to get to pages normally on there I'm searching Google for the pages.

I just searched for Seth Godin so I could read today's blog. I got very weired book search results I've never seen before. When I followed them the results got stranger. After a couple of results which showed shots of chapters from Seth's books it showed other related books and then finally a map of all the places mentioned in the book, with links. All great in theory but surely not for Seth's books, they're not travel guides.

Maybe Google have just set my aspirations too high now, but it's disappointing when things aren't perfect on the results.

Disagreeing with Seth

It's a first. This morning I read Seth Godin's blog as I do every morning.

Today however I was surprised to see that for the first time I disagree with him.

In his post Letters, Brochures and Email he says that you should never write an email like a Direct Marketing letter. I think he should have added a caveat that you should never write like that if it's a one to one email with a colleague or customer you are interacting with. But when you are trying for a sale of any kind, long direct marketing writing is what wins.

The theory has been tested to death over the years before the Internet was even thought of. I'm sure it's horses for courses but sorry Seth don't agree.