Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition

Chapter 9

How to Employ Marketing

To go places and do things that have never been done before—that's what living is all about.

—Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut

When you can hold back the marketing messages from your content, it will take your business to unimaginable places. But the idea of restraining marketing messages is a difficult pill for most people to swallow. It's the opposite of what many marketers believe to be right and true.

One of my favorite movies of all times is Braveheart, in which Mel Gibson plays the Scottish warrior William Wallace. There's a scene in the movie where Wallace's men are standing ready for battle. Galloping toward his company is a massive opposing force, armed with lances. Wallace screams out, repeatedly, “Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold.” Every bone in his men's bodies wants to leap forward into battle. But Wallace restrains them.

Then, just as the opposing army gets within a few yards of his men, Wallace yells, “Now!” His men quickly arch long spikes—a horse's height above the ground—effectively erecting a wall of death that annihilates their opposition. They win the battle by exercising restraint.

In a similar way, you can achieve your marketing objectives if you know how to exercise marketing restraint.

In this, the final chapter of Launch, I will show you the best ways to employ marketing messages when content is the fuel of your business. It will also reveal a proven method for selling your products and services without offending your readers. ...