MarkThackeray.com

Email is alive and well and can produce some very powerful results. (Like $130K in one month for our dental client)

But…It’s not enough to simply send any old email.

You need to hook the reader into your message if you want to propel them to action.

Want to know the best way to do that?

Through stories.

We humans are wired for stories.

We’ve been using them for thousands of years to pass along valuable information, life lessons, and pure entertainment.

Here’s an example…

Just the other week, I was in a group meeting with dozens of business owners where a speaker was sharing a talk he had prepared.

As usual, a good percentage of the audience had their heads down...thinking about impending tasks, daydreaming, or simply checking their phones.

But when the speaker launched into a story…

…all the heads in the room looked up. Everyone started paying attention.

That is the power of story. It acts as a hook that pulls people right into the narrative.

In fact, many stories are so compelling that we can’t pull away from them until we know the outcome. It eats at you until you know the ending.

And some stories are so good that you don’t want them to end…you wish there was more. That’s how potent they can be.

Not only are they exceptional attention-getters, but stories also are very memorable, often getting retold again and again.

(Imagine if your emails were shared and recounted by your audience??)

That's why stories have become our ‘secret sauce.’

And they can easily become your secret sauce, too. All you have to do is stay alert for stories that you can adapt and apply to your message.

Or…for a faster solution…

You can join our Done-For-You Email Club and we’ll take care of everything for you.

Message me for more details.

P.S. Some of the most influential leaders of all time have used storytelling to get their point across: Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Marcus Aurelius, Martin Luther King Jr., Confucius

P.P.S. Look at Instagram, Facebook, & Snapchat- all of them recognize the magic of stories and have a STORIES feature to them.

Discover email secrets that will enable you to...
Unlock hidden sales...
Multiply referrals...
Skyrocket your profitability..WITHOUT posting on social media, blogging constantly, podcasting, making sales calls, or creating a YouTube channel.
Join us for a fun, free webinar: Thursday, Sept 9th at 1pm MT.
Is Email Marketing Dead?
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/is-email-marketing-dead-tickets-168296895545
This is one of my favorite topics because of how impactful it can be.
(Plus, it's not overly complicated or layered with constantly changing rules and algorithms.)
I promise you will walk away with at least one new insight.
Hop on webinar and say hello in the chat. ✌️
Registration only takes a few clicks. Here's the link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/is-email-marketing-dead-tickets-168296895545

Is Email Marketing Dead? Come learn with Mark Thackeray about how to make your email marketing count!

A quick story about true value...

father said to his daughter, “You have graduated with honors, here is a car I bought many years ago. It is pretty old now. But before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it.”

The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father and said, “They offered me $1,000 because they said it looks pretty worn out.”

“Okay,” the father said. “Now take it to the pawn shop.”

The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said, ”The pawn shop offered only $100 because it is an old car.”

“I see,” the father said. “Now go to the car club and show them the car. Come back and tell me what they say.”

The daughter then took the car to the club, returned and told her father, “Some people in the club offered me $100,000 for it because it’s a Nissan Skyline R34. They said it’s an iconic car and sought by many collectors.”

The father listened for a moment and then spoke.

“The right place values you the right way,” he said. “If you are not valued, do not be angry, it only means you are in the wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you. Never stay in a place where no one sees your value.”

***

I share this story because a lot of business owners feel like they aren’t truly valued by their clients. They feel unappreciated, like their clients just don't get how helpful their services are.

One of the biggest lightbulb moments that came to me was that you can actually attract the right kind of clients (those that value and appreciate you) through proper marketing.

When I first started my photography business right out of college, I felt like I had to accept any and all types of clients. “How can I afford to be picky?” was the thought I kept hearing inside my head.

The problem was that many of those clients were simply not a good fit for me. They either wanted work outside of my sweet spot or they were not open to any sort of direction from me.

And working with these types of people burned me out.

But once I realized that by clearly defining who I will work with and what specific projects I’d work on, I gained control over the types of clients I was attracting to my business.

No more price hagglers or dictator clients. Just great people that admired and respected my services. Total game changer. It went from having clients micromanage me on every possible shot...to clients who gave me the carte blanche and said "do what you think will be best. I totally trust you."

I wasn’t dreading the day ahead of me anymore but was energized and excited about working with awesome people.

This is the transformation that can occur with your business through clear and effective marketing. It attracts the right people…and repels all the rest.

If you would like some help making this transition, give me a call or shoot me a text: 801-633-1853.

I want to tell you a story that proves how context can mislead people to make the wrong decisions. (true in life as it is in marketing your business)

This story is important because I hear from too many people who mistakenly conclude that their Facebook ads aren’t working.

Here's what happened…

The nurse was working in the neonatal intensive-care unit, where newborns with serious health problems are treated and monitored. She’d been watching one baby in particular for several hours, and she didn’t like what she was seeing. His color, a key indicator of potential problems, had been fluctuating - wavering between a healthy shade of pink and a duller, more troublesome hue.

Suddenly, within a matter of seconds, the baby turned a deep blue-black. The nurse’s stomach fell. Others in the ICU yelled for an X-ray technician and a doctor.

The gathering medical team immediately assumed that the baby’s lung had collapsed, a common problem for babies on ventilators. The team prepared for the typical response to a collapsed lung, which involves piercing the chest and inserting a tube to suck the air from around the collapsed lung, allowing it to reinflate.

But the nurse thought it was a heart problem. As soon as she saw the baby’s color - that awful blue-black- she suspected a pneumopericardium, a condition in which air fills the sac surrounding the heart pressing inward and preventing the heart from beating. The nurse was terrified because the last time she witnessed a pneumopericardium the baby died before the problem could even be diagnosed.

The nurse tried to stop the frantic preparations to treat the lung. “It’s the heart!” she said.

But in response the other medical personnel pointed to the heart monitor, which showed that the baby’s heart was fine; his heart was bouncing along steadily, at the normal newborn rate of 130 beats per minute.

The nurse, still insistent, pushed their hands away and screamed for quiet as she lowered a stethoscope to check for a heartbeat.

There was no sound - the heart was not beating.

She started doing compressions on the baby’s chest. The chief neonatologist burst into the room and the nurse slapped a syringe in his hand. “It’s a pneumopericardium,” she said. “Stick the heart.”

The X-ray technician, who was finally receiving results from his scan, confirmed the nurse’s diagnosis. The neonatologist guided the syringe into the heart and slowly released the air that had been strangling the baby’s heart. The baby’s life was saved. His color slowly returned to normal.

Later, the group realized why the heart monitor misled them. It is designed to measure electrical activity, not actual heartbeats. The baby’s heart nerves were firing- telling the heart to beat at the appropriate rate - but the air in the sac around the heart prevented the heart from actually beating. Only when the nurse used the stethoscope- so she could hear whether the heart was pumping correctly- did it become clear that his heart had stopped.

⭐️Not only is this a powerful story about the importance of sticking to your guns, but it also warns us about relying too much on machines, past experiences, or industry metrics.

Lots of people make this same mistake with their Facebook ads. They run a campaign for a few months, don’t see many sales from the campaign, and then determine that the campaign didn’t work. Or worse, that Facebook ads don’t work at all.

But closer examination often reveals that many pieces of the campaign were, in fact, quite successful.

This is precisely what happened recently with a new client. He didn’t see as many new clients as he was hoping for. But drilling down into the data, I was able to point to all of the signs that we were on the right track.

In his case, the click-through-rate was more than twice as high as normal, the cost-per-click was nearly 60% less than industry average, and the social engagement was well above average. All signs that the campaign actually was working to reach and engage potential clients in a very cost-effective way.

The issue, we uncovered, was not the Facebook ad campaign...but the landing page that people were directed to after they clicked on the ad.

Just like the medical team in the story above, when you rely exclusively on specific data points, without looking comprehensively at the entire situation, you are liable to make a fatal mistake.

Remember that as you run your next Facebook ad campaign.

And if you want to accelerate your success...and avoid a lot of stress, headaches, and money down the drain...then give me a ring. I’d love to help.

👉👉P.S. Receive a $150 ad credit with your first ad campaign with us! Good from today until July 31st, 2021

Army food is pretty much what you’d expect: bland, overcooked…and as much as you can eat. The dishes are not garnished with Tuscan balsamic vinegar or alba white Italian truffles. It’s all about providing enough calories to fuel the troops in their work. That’s it.

But the Pegasus Chow Hall, just outside of the Baghdad airport, has created a completely different experience.

At Pegasus, the prime rib is pink, juicy, and expertly prepared. The fruit platter is a stunning selection of watermelon, kiwi, and grapes. In fact, there are stories of soldiers driving along one of the most treacherous roads in Iraq just to dine at Pegasus.

Floyd Lee, the main man in charge of Pegasus and former Army cook, came out of retirement to take the job. “The good Lord gave me a second chance to feed soldiers. I’ve waited for this job all my life, and here I am in Baghdad.”

Floyd Lee and other members of his team at the Pegasus Chow Hall
Lee’s vision for Pegasus boils down to this: provide a refuge from all the chaos, danger, and turmoil of military life.

“As I see it, I am not just in charge of food service; I am in charge of morale.”

This vision inspires everything they do at Pegasus, small actions such as:

-Sports banners on the walls instead of typical white sterile paint
-Gold treatments on the windows
-Green tablecloths with tassels
-No fluorescent lights; ceiling fans with soft bulbs
-White chef hats for all the servers

But what’s so impressive about Pegasus’s reputation for great food is that Pegasus works with exactly the same raw materials that everyone else does. They serve the exact same 21-day Army menu that all the other dining halls do.

However, it’s the attitude that makes the difference.

I share this story because the same principle applies to email marketing. We all have the same raw materials to work with.

And yet, there are some people that are generating thousands of dollars each month through their email campaigns…while others don’t see anything and wrongly surmise that email is “dead.”

Like Floyd Lee, it starts with having a clear vision of what you are really providing.

Once you really understand the value that you provide (not just features and benefits but actual, transformational value), then it makes your path forward much easier. You’re not just pitching your products all day every day. You are the catalyst for major positive change in your clients’ lives. It’s critical to understand that.

If you are struggling to identify the value that you provide, start by asking yourself the following questions:

-What does my product/service do for my clients?
-How will this make your clients feel better about themselves/ their life/ their family/ their business and their future?
-Why is this better than what they are currently doing? (including doing nothing at all)
-How can this positively change their life?

And if you’d like some help or guidance, then shoot me an email: [email protected]