The Golden Key by Drayton Bird

1. “Aim for the top. It is less crowded there” – General De Gaulle. You can probably do better than you think. “The great problem with the mass of men is the poverty of their desires” said someone.

2. Study – and especially study people, because that’s all you’re going to have to deal with for the most part. Ignorance is the greatest enemy of progress.

3. Don’t give up. Success may not be round the corner, but you’ll never know unless you keep going.”

“Hi Drayton,

I respect your work, and admire you – you’re a big mentor for me.

I’ve got 2 questions I haven’t really got my head around, that I also think could be of value for your readers. If you could answer them in one of your future emails.

What is the 2 biggest marketing problems today for small and medium sized businesses?

And what does this problems mean economically?

What is changing in marketing at a high social, economic, or technological level? (that are non-obvious)

I am sure you could provide an insightful view of how the world of marketing has changed, and why this change is happening, since the times of Ogilvy, Caples and Hopkins etc.

Even though of course there is unchanging undercurrents of the human psyche, there is still some external forces at play such as clutter (much harder to get attention of consumers.)

Thanks.

With respect,

Scott”

“The problems for smes are the same as for any business.

Finding prospects and turning them into customers.

Improving what they offer in terms of product and service.

The advantage of being small is that you can be quicker than big fat bloated firms.

I do not think anything is changing that is not obvious.

The problem is that although things may be obvious – e.g. the need to keep up with the pace of change online – dealing with them and how to do so are neither easy nor obvious.

D”

I am not sure if I should have made some comments about grammar. But I bet a lot of people have the same questions in mind.

If my replies struck a chord with you, then I firmly suspect you’ll get a lot more out of this site than it’ll cost you.

What’s more, I’ll archive all the questions, too.

Of course, I’m biased, but with an hour’s new content every month (broken down in to short, sharp, videos), your questions answered personally by me, and an Aladdin’s cave of marketing gold (the vault), all for $29, I think it’s an absolute steal.

But it gets better – do you know how much it’ll cost you to kick the tyres and go for a road test? $1.

That’s right, you get all of month 1, for just $1. No strings attached. Cancel anytime. Cancel the same day you join if you like.

Or if you want to cancel on day 29 after downloading everything, that’s fine too.

In this month, with brand spanking new, bite sized content, I cover:

• What to spend your marketing money on. When everyone is zigging, it’s sometimes smart to zag.
• How a little bit of planning can go a long way. I’ve always surprised myself , and my financial director, when I take the time to plan.
• Money squandered by the lazy. I see this time and time again and it drives me insane.
• How to avoid vampires that suck away your writing substance. These ghouls still keep me awake at night.
• Two roads to copy disaster. And they are not what you think.
• Why people really respond. It’s all about them…
• A great formula for sales letters and landing pages. As I said, I’m biased, but this is worth the subscription price on its own.
• Time is money. Especially so with copy.
• The 5 elements of success. Only four are needed, but the fifth helps.
• What we can all learn from Leonardo da Vinci. A genius tells you how all marketers should think.
• The market stages. Critically important – but often overlooked. Don’t make this mistake and make things unnecessarily hard for yourself.

But never mind that. One demonstration is worth more than a mountain of promises. So here’s a snippet from the first month:

Still not convinced?

If you rummage round in the vault you’ll find stuff that’s available nowhere else:

Month 1

• Your Profit Centre
• Get on with it
• Interview – Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines and co-founder of three Virgin firms.
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 1
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 2
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 3
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 4

Month 2

• Long copy versus Short copy
• Try an editorial style…
• The Element of Surprise
• Do what a salesman would do
• Don’t ever give up…
• Treat customers as people
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 5 – Testing your Judgement
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 6 – How much is a customer worth to you?
• The customer as an individual
• The value of incentives
• Emotion in business

Month 3

• Month 3 Short Video 1
• Month 3 Short Video 2
• Month 3 Short Video 3
• Interview – Srikumar Rao – best-selling author – and the only business school professor with his own Alumni Association

And it doesn’t stop there. I do confess, it’s information overload, unless you are obsessive with learning (as I was when I was a younger man) Here’s what I mean:

Month 4

• Introduction to Marketing – Part 7 – The Magic Crossroads
• Introduction to Marketing – Part 8 – Your Priorities
• The most powerful word in marketing
• The obvious is always overlooked
• Audio Interview – Clayton Makepeace
• Audio Interview – Ken McCarthy

Month 5

• Introduction to Marketing – Part 9 – Your Priorities
• From who?
• Who What Why Where When
• Typefaces
• How long should your copy be?
• Ask for a reply
• Do not use jargon
• How to get action

Month 6

• The most powerful word in marketing
• Three Simple Steps
• People are your business
• Headlines
• Book ideas

Month 7

• Learn from your mistakes and my flops
• Persistence
• Failure to measure

Month 8

• Edit and charm – two important lessons
• People’s nature never changes

Month 9

• What is great selling? – New podcast
• Rory Sutherland on Branding
• Troy White Audio Interview
• Brian Thomas Interview
• Peter Hobday Interview

Month 10

• Michael Leander Webinar
• B2B Webinar
• Hargreaves Lansdown Letter Analysis
• Rory Sutherland Video

If you’re serious about studying marketing – I’ll bet the shirt on my back you won’t find a better resource than ‘the vault’.

But remember, the vault isn’t the main event.

Every month you’ll also get one hour’s worth of brand new content, just like the video above.

And it’ll be on a subject I know will have an impact on your business. Because these principles work any business – large or small, in any country, no matter what you sell, or what it costs, whether it’s a product or a service.

It’s the stuff I wish I was spoon fed when I was running around like a mad man in my first business – which went broke, by the way – a nightmare it took me seven years to recover from

So, you get all this:

Sounds good? Then sign up now for the launch price: $1 for the the first month, then $29 a month for every following month.

Sit on the fence too long and you’ll miss this offer!

But let’s not waste time – sign up now and bag the locked-in price of $29.97 a month after your $1 trial.

Does it sound too good to be true? Will you really get everything I mentioned?

Well, you get my usual 60 day money back guarantee.

If you don’t think it’s worth every penny, for any reason, or no reason at all, tell me and I’ll refund you in full, no questions asked.

I really look forward to answering your questions, and making sure you don’t make some of the ghastly mistakes I have in the last 50 odd years of marketing at the sharp end.

I guarantee that if you’re a busy business owner or marketing exec you’ll find my short chunks of brain fodder a Godsend.

And if you want to get lost in the vault, that’s up to you. I can promise you that in there you’ll find priceless lessons that will pay off – in more profit, less loss – and wisdom from some of the business world’s cleverest people.

But if you’re still not sure, I’ll trot out my favourite testimonial, from marketing legend, David Ogilvy:

“Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone else in the world”

I guess I’ve said all I can.

Sign up now – don’t miss the launch price. You really have nothing to lose. Click the button below right now.

Best

Drayton.