Jay Levinson

Up next is the secret that alerts you to the problems that can arise when some people create your website, others do your PR, others write your email copy, others design your graphics, and still others create your brochure.
This is not a healthy situation. Marketing is like a tug of war, and you can’t win one of those with different people all pulling in different directions. You can only win with people all pulling in the same direction

You’re in charge of practicing the fourth secret—making sure all your marketing is congruent, helping to make all the marketing more powerful. Tug-of-war battles and Super Bowls are won not by individuals but by teams. Winning teams

That’s why that fifth secret is content. It used to be taught that the intelligence level of the public is on par with that of a 12-year-old. Now it’s known that the intelligence level is akin to that of your mother. She has grown too wise to buy style over substance. The same is true for your prospects. They want the substance of your offering and not just the style

Don’t think for a second that they don’t know the difference

Your mother knows the fifth secret. She doesn’t spend money buying razzle-dazzle and special effects. She knows the difference between the sizzle and the steak. She almost always opts for the steak, for the real thing

The sixth secret reminds you that advertising doesn’t work as well as it used to. Same for PR. And millions of people have learned that a website can be a path to financial oblivion. So what does work?
A combination of marketing weapons is what works for guerrillas. Their ads make their PR stronger, and both make their website more effective. No wonder the sixth secret is assortment, for the days of single-weapon marketing have passed, and marketing needs a 360-degree effort to thrive

An ambitious study, reported in Advertising Age, revealed that of all the factors motivating a purchase, price came in number five. That means 86 percent of them felt there were more important factors than price

One of those factors was selection, which came in at number four. People want to feel that they are in control—not you—which is why they appreciate the choice they get with your selection

Service came in third. These days, remember, the only definition of service is “anything the customer wants it to be.” Service is not what you learned in school or were taught by your boss or your father. It’s so important that it ranks third

the list of why people buy what they