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Do You Speak Your Customer’s Language?

By Rick Braddy   |   May 18, 2010

Product language is what we have traditionally used to describe our products to the market. It includes broad claims, comprehensive features and benefits and detailed product and technical specifications. In the marketing departments of larger corporations, this information is often organized into what’s termed a “marketing source document”.  The language used is, more often than not, vendor-centric – not buyer-centric.

Unfortunately, too much corporate product language today is also often full of marketing “gobbledygook”, techno-speak and other undecipherable terminology that only the company creating it can make any sense of. Read More »


Twitter Research Formula

By Rick Braddy   |   May 4, 2010

Spent quite a bit of time ramping up on Twitter tools and techniques recently.  My goal was to learn how to use Twitter to research a market and connect with potential buyers, influencers and market participants.

Using the system outlined below, in the span of one week, I was able to more than triple my followers, drastically improve the quality of information flowing both into my Twitter account and (hopefully) flowing to my followers. Read More »


The Truth About How to Use Twitter in a Product Launch

By Rick Braddy   |   April 18, 2010

The truth is, today Twitter only enables us to reach a tiny fraction of a typical market (unless it’s the Twitter market itself).  The reality is that Twitter is just one of many “canvassing tools” that should be used for launching a product, website, or company, as shown in the diagram below. Read More »


10 Steps to Take Before Your Product Launch

By Rick Braddy   |   April 4, 2010

The effectiveness of a product launch is determined by the steps taken before launch day arrives.  The more time invested in planning and preparation, the smoother the launch will go and the more impressive the results will be.

Here are 10 important product launch checklist items to consider in preparation for your launch. Read More »


Channel 1: Storytelling In Your Small Business Marketing

By Rick Braddy   |   March 18, 2010

In 2008, I began incorporating stories in communications with my subscribers and customers.  As it turns out, stories are an incredibly powerful way to communicate – especially in today’s age of marketing communications saturation, where everyone is so fatigued by the constant bombardment of ads.

So, I decided to try a few story-based campaigns back then – tests designed to Read More »


Broadcast Marketing Is Out – “Personal Channel Marketing” Is In

By Rick Braddy   |   March 4, 2010

In the past, marketers were able to appeal to the masses and reach millions of people and effectively market to them with “broadcast media” – radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards, the Yellow Pages, telemarketing and even cold calling.

Many of these “outbound marketing” techniques that worked so well in the 20th century are in danger of extinction today.  Why?  Because people spend their time differently today, have thousands of information sources to choose from, and now have ways to filter unwanted advertising out of their lives. Read More »