Don’t Sell… Teach

In the beginning, people spoke with one another directly in the local marketplace, and the merchants taught those people about the value of their wares.

And as things began to be sold one to many, and the brand was born to assure buyers of quality and consistency, publicizing that brand to lots of people was all that was necessary.

But it was soon not good enough.

And Claude Hopkins said, “Let us sell with scientific advertising,” and there was systematic testing for determining which words worked best when selling a product.

And Hopkins saw that testing was good, as it increased advertising response and efficiency.

And David Ogilvy said, “Let us sell image, not product,” and behold, there were television commercials that focused on brand image, not features or benefits.

And Ogilvy saw that selling brand image was good, because it told people stories bigger than the product itself.

And Raymond Rubicam said, “Let us hire this Gallup fellow, and sell based on demographic profiles,” and the separate worlds of scientific advertising and brand image would eventually become melded together into one powerful force.

And years later, many, many advertising agencies saw that it was good, and so did Nike.

And Seth Godin said, “Let us not interrupt, but instead sell by permission,” as smart marketers began to realize that the Internet was somehow very different from other media.

And Godin saw that permission marketing was good, because consensual relationship selling, mixed with tested copy and demographically-targeted stories, boosts response significantly.

But then something happened.

People began to efficiently speak with one another directly in a virtual marketplace.

And they refused to be marketed at, as they were as media savvy as the marketers themselves (and often more so).

And permission and trust were harder to find online, as they had been abused.

And so some random guy, who doesn’t even belong on the same page as those above, said “Let us not sell, but instead teach,” based on his experience using educational copywriting to begin relationships that lead to sales.

And so he wrote a tutorial series called Tutorial Marketing, about a strategy that places a blog at the very center of your online marketing efforts, since good tutorials not only sell, but also attract vital links and traffic as well.

And you’ll be the one who determines if it’s good, right?

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