How I Made it in Marketing

The How I Made It In Marketing podcast is underwritten by MECLABS Institute, the parent organization of MarketingSherpa. To learn how MECLABS Services can help you get better business results from deeper customer understanding, visit MECLABS.com/results . In a recent LiveClass of the MECLABS SuperFunnel Research Cohort (https://meclabs.com/MEC200-RSVP/), I was asked, “should you look to your compe...

The How I Made It In Marketing podcast is underwritten by MECLABS Institute, the parent organization of MarketingSherpa. To learn how MECLABS Services can help you get better business results from deeper customer understanding, visit MECLABS.com/results (https://meclabs.com/results). I think this one of the biggest challenges for when you grow in your career… When you get into a certain role, you...

The How I Made It In Marketing podcast is underwritten by MECLABS Institute, the parent organization of MarketingSherpa. To learn how MECLABS Services can help you get better business results from deeper customer understanding, visit MECLABS.com/results (https://meclabs.com/results). Change does not want to happen. The status quo is tenacious. To quote Isaac Newton, “An object at rest stays at res...

We’ve been thinking long and hard about community lately, working with the MECLABS SuperFunnel Cohorts (https://meclabs.com/MEC200-RSVP). I’m sure many of you are as well. It is certainly a popular topic right now for marketers. And here’s one way I could know our community was working – when we could step back and not solve a community member’s problem. When members were helping each other, colla...

We’ve been exploring AI in the MECLABS SuperFunnel Research Cohort LiveClasses (https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/website-and-landing-page-design/marketer/). But I’ve mostly been thinking of artificial intelligence in a very practical sense. So when our latest guest shared the lesson, “use artificial intelligence and your marketing budget to make your customers’ lives more fun and interesting...

We had a recent SuperFunnel LiveClass (https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/website-and-landing-page-design/lpo/), and I was giving conversion optimization advice to a participant – it’s live optimization, we see the landing page for a few moments, and then give advice. And the page seemed off to me, so I had specific thoughts on the design and wording and such. And then Flint McGlaughlin went n...

“Position the customer’s ‘gain’ as the direct object of the sentence,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Headline Examples: 3 ways to load your predicate with value (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-examples/). I thought of this lesson when I heard a lesson from this episode’s guest – “charge what it is worth, not what it costs.” You can only charge what it is worth if the customer perceives...

Differentiation is key in marketing. And now with the rise of AI, I can’t help but think – how can I differentiate from generative artificial intelligence? One way – our unique backgrounds. An example. Our CEO’s book – The Marketer as Philosopher: 40 Brief Reflections on the Power of Your Value Proposition (https://meclabs.com/course/the-marketer-as-philosopher/). This book is wildly different tha...

“Refine your value prop until it becomes a reason…the summation of a rational/emotional argument,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Value Proposition Power: 3 ways to intensify the force of your value proposition (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/value-proposition-power/) (McGlaughlin is CEO of MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute). I thought of this lesson while reading through the podcast guest...

“Remember that the customer is the subject and your offer is the object,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Effective Headlines: How to write the first 4 words for maximum conversion (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/effective-headlines/) (McGlaughlin is the CEO of MECLABS and MarketingSherpa). I thought of this quote when our latest guest talked about essentialism. One place I see scope creep and bl...

“The Marketer needs meaningful work and meaningful relationships,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Above-the-Fold Energy: How to engage the prospect’s mind with a carefully crafted opening (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/above-the-fold-energy/) (McGlaughlin is the CEO of MECLABS and MarketingSherpa). I thought of that lesson when our latest podcast guest shared a lesson of her own, “Teams that a...

“Encapsulate the essence of the offer in the top four inches of the page,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Above-the-Fold Strategy: 4 ways to write powerful sub-headlines (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/above-the-fold-strategy/). And this essence should inform your entire funnel, from initial ad to final conversion. I was reminded of this quote when our guest shared the lesson “PR and storytelli...

Our latest guest told the story of how she learned to find the ‘why’ – why a potential customer should act on her conversion objective. One of the things I really liked about her story – she didn’t only focus on the final ‘why’ the customer should buy the product or work with the company. Much like the sequences of eight Micro-Yes(es) taught in our free marketing course Become a Marketer-Philosoph...

“The aim of a headline is not to impress the prospect,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Headline Writing: 4 principles that could drive down your website bounce rate (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-writing/). I realized that lesson could apply equally well to internal communications, during my latest podcast discussion. Do we spend too much time trying to impress our managers and team i...

“Don’t be afraid of long copy; be afraid of insufficient clarity,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Website Wireframes: 8 psychological elements that impact marketing conversion rates (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/website-wireframes/). I thought of that quote when my latest guest talked about how often being afraid drives marketing and business leaders, and so they resort to focus groups and con...

“We don’t look deep enough; so, we don’t think deep enough,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Website Wireframes: 8 psychological elements that impact marketing conversion rates (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/website-wireframes/). When I brought up this lesson with our latest guest, and the complex thinking that needs to go into our marketing, she said, “I love how you mentioned psychology becau...

“Make the object of your headline the psychological driver of the offer,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Headline Examples: 3 ways to load your predicate with value (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-examples/). I thought of this lesson when my latest guest told me about her marriage, and how her husband was her most important career choice. It struck me that I’ve learned a lot about marke...

This article was published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . “Attention precedes interest. Interest precedes engagement; engagement proceeds relationship,” Flint McGlaughlin teaches in Headline Writing: 4 principles that could drive down your website bounce rate (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-writing/). When I asked my latest guest how she builds those relationships with her...

Attention > Interest > Engagement > Relationship. That’s how Flint McGlaughlin explains the journey you have to take customers on, in Headline Writing: 4 principles that could drive down your website bounce rate (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-writing/). I asked our latest guest how he enabled a salesforce to fulfill it’s part of this journey, when he grew that close rate at...

“Remember the prospect is a person. Do not talk AT them; talk TO them,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Above-the-Fold Psychology: How to optimize the top 4 inches of your webpage (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/above-the-fold-psychology/). I asked our latest guest how she keeps the focus on the prospect as a person, and she shared examples ranging from A/B testing of CTA buttons to picking the b...

“Too often, our campaigns and their messaging are dominated by a social dynamic rather than a science dynamic. Our collateral suffers a ‘designed by committee’ process and thus speaks with the disjointed voice of compromise,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Customer-First Objectives: Discover a 3-part formula for focusing your webpage message (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/customer-first-objecti...

When we created a free digital marketing course, Flint McGlaughlin put the focus on the market er before teaching anything about the market ing , even including The Marketer’s Mindset Checklist (https://meclabs.com/course/the-marketers-mindset-checklist/) to help prepare the marketer.  So, when my latest guest shared this lesson – don’t be the manager you want for yourself; be the manager your peo...

“Nouns form the substance of appeal,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Headline Examples: 3 ways to load your predicate with value (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/headline-examples/). I love this lesson because as marketers, if we’re not careful, we’ll focus too much on the adjectives and the adverbs. The flowery language. The hype. Instead of clear communication. And it goes along with a lesson o...

“Marketing is no longer a creative (-only) job,” our latest guest says. I have lived this lesson as well. I started my career as an advertising copywriter, writing print ads that appeared in newspapers like The Wall Street Journal. Yes, we got overall results, like how many times we made the phone ring. But fast-forward to today. When I watch our free course about creating and optimizing high-conv...

“Form a cohesive picture of value,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Above-the-Fold Psychology: How to optimize the top 4 inches of your webpage (https://meclabs.com/course/sessions/above-the-fold-psychology/). Not only can that approach help you get more “yes” answers to your conversion goals, it can help you judiciously use the word “no” as well, a topic I discuss with the latest guest on the How I M...