Marketing

Every product has flaws.

So does every service, every piece of content, every work of art, every person, every institution, and everything you see all around you has flaws. There’s nothing exempt from this rule.

But that doesn’t mean everything is bad.

It’s the contrary.

Flaws give meaning and value to everything you use and consume. Perfection is another word for meaningless.

The things in life that don’t have flaws, don’t upset some group of people, or don’t work or function exactly as some group of people would hope, those are all meaningless and have nothing to offer.

People differ by nature.

Everyone has different needs and requirements, different interests and passions, different tastes as well as dislikes. Something that’s perfect for everyone, by definition, has to be so bland, so generic, so stripped of everything that gives it meaning, that it becomes all but useless, obsolete, and devoid of meaning.

Give me one valuable product, one great work of art, one anything really that does everything perfectly for everyone all around the world.

But let’s get back to why I’m yapping on about this.

What I wanted to make clear is that whatever it is you’re creating, it has to have a flaw.

And wherever there’s a flaw, there’s an opportunity.

More precisely, there’s an opportunity to highlight, not belittle, but highlight, maybe even exaggerate, your flaw. Talk about all of the flaws you can find about your product, then talk about why your creation has that flaw, what that flaw allows it to do or why it needs to have that certain flaw for it to work as you intended to do.

Every flaw gives meaning to a creation.

Highlighting the flaw turns it into a strength for the right group of people your creation is made for while automatically disqualifying and repelling everyone it doesn’t benefit (which would’ve been awful customers to deal with anyway).

A high-powered industrial vacuum cleaner will make a lot of noise—that’s considered a flaw. So highlight how much noise it makes by clarifying the noise is exactly because of the extremely high suction capability the vacuum cleaner has (something your ideal customer wants).

On the other hand.

A compact vacuum cleaner made for at-home use will obviously be a lot less powerful because it has to be a lot smaller, and more compact, maybe even with a pretty design, to fit in with the interior or be easy to hide away in a closet or a shelf. Highlighting the flaw of it being less powerful than an industrial one by explaining how a less powerful one allows it to be as small as possible while also being completely silent during its use.

Now, you might find this to be a stupid example, but either way you get the point.

Highlighting your flaws and turning them into sales angles is an extremely powerful copywriting tool that could singlehandedly ‘disarm’ your, oftentimes wary, customer from most (if not all) his objections—or at the least it won’t cause your customer to dismiss your product if he has to learn about your product’s flaws on his own without your explanation as to why that’s the case.

Anyway.

If you’d like to learn more about how to talk about, promote, and sell a great product (or even how to create one) then you might want to check out my Product Creation Made Easy framework.

It definitely ain’t cheap, but that gives you an indication of how high of a quality you can expect from it.

The product wouldn’t have been nearly as good, nor would I have been able to create a high-quality one, if it hadn’t supplied me with the resources I needed to support myself while I kept working on it to make it as good as it could humanly be.

Not to mention the amount of praise and kind words I get from people who bought the product at the current price.

Anyway.

Enough time talking.

Check out Product Creation Made Easy here: https://alexvandromme.com/product

 

Those are: opening the sale and closing it.

There’s nothing more to it. It really is that simple. And yet most people stay stuck on the closing part, while completely disregarding the opening.

There are, as with anything, many ways to open a sale, or more specifically in our case, an email. Anyone who claims there’s only one way to do something is full of shyte and undoubtedly trying to sell you something (often something subpar, if not straight trash).

But that doesn’t mean some ways aren’t better than others.

You could learn a few evergreen ways of opening an email (which I do teach in Email Valhalla) and solely rely on those. But that does keep your options limited and runs the danger of boring you out when writing emails (and if you don’t enjoy writing them, your readers won’t enjoy reading them).

So where does that leave you?

Well, in my case, there’s a simple litmus test I use every single time I write an email to determine whether an email opener is worth using.

Now, remember, I’m a simple man.

I like to do business in a simple way. I despise everything complex—complexity is often a smokescreen for incapableness—and never want anything to do with it. So beware that when I tell you my litmus test you’ll almost undoubtedly reply by saying that it’s super obvious, that everyone knows this, and that this couldn’t possibly be helpful or worth teaching people.

But to that I’ll have to ask you to remind yourself that knowing and doing are 2 very different things.

Many people will know this, yes. Almost nobody will think this is something new or revolutionary, really, it’s the most old and obvious thing there is. But then again, almost nobody actively reminds themselves of this litmus test, this simple question, when writing emails.

And it shows, because so many people fail at writing actual good, engaging, valuable emails that can sell.

Anyway.

If you’d like to learn my simple litmus test (and how to actually implement it instead of merely “knowing” it), get your hands on the 7 evergreen ways to open an email or anything else related to building an absolute beast of an email (business) empire.

Then check out Email Valhalla today: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

A few days ago I found myself receiving, reading, and finishing a small pamphlet-sized book titled “Obvious Adams” in under an hour.

The book tells the story of a young man, who wasn’t particularly creative or quick-witted, yet, but still entered the advertising world, quickly made a name for himself, rose up to become vice-president of the biggest advertising agency, and surprised everyone with his incredibly successful, very profitable, yet all the while extremely simple and ‘obvious’ solutions, resulting in some of the biggest and best advertising campaigns of all time.

It’s not so much a “teaching you what to do” book, but much more a how to do it and, more importantly, how NOT to do it.

The message of the book itself is quite boring, somewhat logical, and completely “obvious” when said out loud. Yet still so very often forgotten, especially in the sales, marketing, and advertising industries.

I.e. analyze the situation, think about it, and do the obvious thing—don’t make it any more difficult than it has to be.

Speaking of.

The obvious thing to do for me would be to tell you to check out Email Valhalla.

After all, it’s only obvious that learning how to write better and more entertaining emails that get you paid is the best thing almost anyone in business can do.

So check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Once upon a time, I received this testimonial from long-time reader, Aaron, who wrote:

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Alex delivers gold nuggets of information and inspiration every day. I enjoy his authentic, direct perspective. He is really passionate about what he does. Walks the walk and puts in the work to grow.

When I first started on Twitter, I signed up to many copywriter email lists because who better to learn from than them. Over time, I vetted out creators like Glenn, Tatsuya Thomas, and Virgil Brewster. While keeping Kieran Drew and Alex around. Can't wait to see where he goes.

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I want you to read that last paragraph again.

Too often I hear people struggling and moaning, thinking they have no chance of breaking through in a “saturated market” with many (and I mean MANY) big creators, experts, leading figures, and authorities in the field.

But here’s the thing.

People aren’t drawn to knowledge, results, or previous war stories.

They’re drawn to personality, reliability, commitment to the craft, and engaging stories—all of which you can give people right now, right here. No matter your prior experience, no matter how long you’ve been in the industry already, no matter how many followers you might have on a certain social media or which business you’ve previously worked with.

More.

It’s never been easier to “breakthrough” than it is now.

Modern technology allows you to reach everyone, everywhere, and at any time you desire.

The only things required are the will to create, the commitment to show up day after day, and knowledge of the simple foundations that transcend products, media, markets, ideas, philosophies, and everything else we’ve come up with as a species.

Even more.

You don’t need to be on social media to make this happen (god forbid if this is the only place people can hear from you).

The best place to make all of this happen is straight in their inbox, where there’s no competition, no algorithm to obey, and no fear of your message not getting delivered.

Which leads me to Email Valhalla.

It’s my flagship course that teaches you all of these simple fundamentals you require to make it work. To build your business with a focus on freedom, simplicity, and enjoyment—your email empire.

Check it out today: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

What do The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the 2022 Halo series, and the last season of Game of Thrones have in common?

Yes, they all have abysmal ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. Clearly, the audience didn’t like them. But why?

There’s something they all share. A common reason why the audience hates them—sometimes even without knowing why.

It’s not that they necessarily had bad writing. Or that they had lots of plot holes. It’s not even that they often felt rushed and unpolished.

No, it’s something much more fundamental.

Here’s a tip. They all had previously built fanbases.

The Rings of Power has the fanbase of every Lord of The Rings lover, films and books alike. The Halo series was a highly anticipated movie by every gamer out there who, in their youth, spent hundreds of sleepless nights grinding behind their screen. And, well, the last season of Game of Thrones had millions of fans who watched all the previous seasons of course.

But then. Every single one of these managed to completely fuck up by pissing off their audience and not thinking—not even caring about what their audience wanted.

The Halo series barely has any resemblance to the original story, characters, and world that fans knew and loved from the games.

Game of Thrones managed to disregard some of the prior arcs and character-building that were built previously and made characters do things they never would’ve done with their personality, beliefs, and personal history just because it seemed useful to do so for the story.

And don’t get me started about The Rings of Power where the new show writers casually decided to do away with the decades of work Tolkien put into building the world and create his lore just because “they wanted to give add their own twist to it”—and publicly admitted to do so.

This is a common case of not thinking—not caring about your audience.

And it happens way too often.

Hollywood—and especially Marvel as of late—does it all the time. Think about how many films and shows with (badly written) heroical female leads you’ve seen pop up as of late. And how almost all of them completely flopped.

But this isn’t just limited to the movie businesses. No, no.

This is applicable to business as well.

Especially nowadays when it’s clear just how rampant the wave of newbie self-proclaimed masters, experts, gurus, and other nonsensical titles filled with people who don’t care about helping their audience.

In fact, most people who want to start a business come here with an idea of something they want to create, and only after it’s built do they ever think and wonder “Who can I sell this to?”.

When, in case it’s not obvious, it should be the other way around.

First ask yourself “Who do I want to help and what do they need?” And only when you’ve answered those two questions should you start creating something.

Always remember: market first, product second.

Which begs the question, how do you figure out what people want?

Well, for starters, if you happen to have an email list, it’s as simple as being in constant communication with your readers, writing entertaining and engaging emails, seeing which topics resonate, and if all else fails, simply asking them questions (which doesn’t mean you should always trust what people say—especially not if it’s about money or buying stuff, most people lie even though they don’t even realize it).

To get started writing these types of emails to stay in constant connection with your audience, check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

So says musical genius Jacob Collier.

“Every note can be played with every chord, as long as you find the right ideas and consequences to support it with.” (paraphrased)

He’s not just spouting BS either.

He proves the statement to be true time and time again.

Which goes against almost everything most people have ever been taught about music (if they’ve even been taught anything to begin with).

But this isn’t just for music. This goes for almost everything you do, every product you build, every service you launch, every art piece you create, every story you write, and even personal flaws you might have as a person or a business.

Nothing is ever “wrong”.

You just haven’t found the right ideas or scenarios to apply them to.

List all of your so-called “flaws” and find a way to turn them into a strength. Take away all of the ammunition your opposition might have, remove potential buyer’s objections, and better specify your target market (which includes repelling non-suitable buyers).

As for an example.

My flagship course, Email Valhalla, is an all-text, no video, no audio, no nothing other than plain-text course.

Some might call this a flaw.

I don’t agree.

I made the deliberate choice to keep it all text.

First, I simply don’t enjoy creating video or audio content. Writing is my bread and butter. And if I enjoy writing more, then you’ll enjoy reading it more as well (not to mention the fact that the content will simply be more valuable, more thought-true, better put together, and of a much higher quality than it would be if it were in any other format).

Secondly, I find it hard and difficult to learn from video courses. They take too long to go through, it’s hard to stay focused since you’re easily deceived into believing you’re listening and studying while you’re mind is drifting off and not really focusing on the true meaning of what is being said.

Whereas text requires you to actively read (and think about) what is written.

This leads to me getting better results out of books and written courses than out of video courses or webinars.

And, assuming I do a good job of attracting like-minded and similar people, I’m guessing that’s the case for most of my readers, including you, as well (not to mention that my main form of communication, email, is a written medium).

So that’s that.

The flaw of it being only a written course isn’t so much of a flaw anymore, now is it?

Anyway, if you liked what I said, you might want to check out Email Valhalla and get it for yourself here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

The 2024 American elections are over.

Trump got elected—even going as far as winning the popular vote (the last Republican who won the popular vote was George W. Bush back in 2004).

But you’ve probably been bombarded with all of this information already.

So I won’t bother you with it.

What I will mention is how, earlier this week, I was thinking of writing a “my 2024 election prediction” email where I would’ve predicted Trump to be the winner (yes, yes, easily said after the fact I know, but that isn’t the point here).

Ultimately I decided not to write such an email.

I don’t have any specific reasons as to why I didn’t write one, but neither did I have a good reason why I shouldn’t have written one.

Frankly said, I simply couldn’t care less to share my prediction with the world (neither did I actually pay a lot of attention to the election itself, in fact). But this did remind me of an incredibly useful insight (something which could potentially earn you a lot of money—or help you in many different non-monetary ways).

In fact, it’s something I recently got reminded of (again) after reading Lawrence Bernstein’s newsletter about writing copy in financial markets.

The insight in question?

It's better to be wrong than wishy-washy.

Everyone likes predictions, it’s in our human nature. Also in our human nature is the need to want to follow and listen to people who dare to speak their minds (yes, even people who say they don’t like following others, do still have people they enjoy reading or listening to because of this very reason).

So it pays to be bold and make predictions.

At the same time, nobody remembers, much less cares about, you if you get something wrong. People simply move on with their life and act as if your predictions never happened.

The result?

An almost unlimited upside to making bold predictions without almost any downside whatsoever.

Don’t believe me?

Look at the most well-known analysts in their fields, whether it’s finance, politics, or sports, and check out their track records.

On the flip side, if you try to sound educated, explain the pros and cons or probabilities of each option, and ultimately conclude that “it depends” or “it can go either way,” then simply nobody would give you a single sliver of attention.

So to repeat: It's better to be wrong than wishy-washy.

And the best way to make such predictions and share them with your readers, as you should probably know by now if you’ve been following me for any length of time, is by writing simple entertaining emails people love to read (while also getting you paid).

For more information on how to write emails just like that, check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Or so said the great, late Zig Ziglar.

(That’s “underfed and even starving” skinny—for clarification)

See, with today’s cancel culture, inclusion marketing, greenwashing, LGBTQ123+ and other diversity movements, there’s simply no shortage of people, companies, and big-figure enterprises trying to play it safe, pleasing their customers, and acting as if everything is always sunshine and rainbows.

Yet that’s the exact opposite of what you as a marketer, salesman, copywriter, coach, consultant, or other product seller/service provider, should do.

People (and by extension the world) run on problems.

The only reason people take action is to solve a problem. Everyone has problems, all the time—even Buddhists trying to reach a state of a problemless (not sure if this is a word) nirvana still have the problem of having problems.

And that’s a good thing too.

Otherwise nothing would happen, nothing would get done, you and I wouldn’t get paid, and there’d be nothing to life as a whole.

Life is a permanent conquest of solving problem after problem.

With that said.

What are people trying to achieve by pretending everything is ok? By “sharing happiness” everywhere they go and encouraging everyone that they’re perfect just the way they are, they can do whatever they dream of, and they shouldn’t let anything get in their way.

First.

They’re not getting paid that way.

But even more important.

They’re not helping people either.

Most people aren’t perfect the way they are. Acting as if that’s the case is ignoring the potential inside of everyone waiting to be released and become a better person day after day.

In fact.

If you’d really care about people, really want to help your customers, clients, readers, listeners, followers, and everyone else you meet. Then you’d tell them the hard and difficult stuff. You’d show them their imperfections, their flaws, their faults, and even make them feel the pain and shame that comes along with it.

But…

At the same time, you’d also present them with a solution to help them solve their problems.

That’s where your product or service comes into play.

And that’s how you get paid while actually helping your customers improve their quality of life—not by being all happy dandy all the time, acting as if everything’s fine all the time, when people are clearly in need and suffering.

As an example:

Many people are working jobs they don’t like, following orders they don’t want to follow, listening to people they can’t stand, all to please people they don’t even know, just so they can live a below-average life.

At the same time, modern technology allows for you to explore, share, and even profit from your hobbies and curiosities (seriously, the hobby market is a total goldmine).

Or in other words, it allows for “Sensible people to get paid doing what they love” as Alan Watts famously preached.

What’s the best medium to use to get started doing so?

You guessed it: Email.

At least, if you know what you’re doing, that is. That’s why I’d like to direct your attention towards my flagship course, Email Valhalla, where I’ll teach you how to write entertaining emails about the stuff you love that get you paid and your readers will love to read day after day.

Sounds interesting?

Then click here to find out more: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Anyone can put something together, slap a price on it, spend some money on advertising, and get people to buy it as long as the price is low enough.

But few can create something their target audience not just wants, but desperately needs, allowing them to sell it effortlessly at almost any price of their choosing.

This holds true regardless of the market you’re in.

The moment price becomes the main differentiator between your product and that of your competitors is the moment you lose.

“Ok”, you ask, “so how do I create a product my audience desperately needs?” you may ask.

Except that’s the wrong question.

Instead, you should ask, “How do I get to know my customers better than they know themselves?”

This is the kind of thinking I once heard Steve Jobs talk about in an interview when asked what kind of technology he and his team had been working on (and contributed to society) for the past decade—this question was asked in a “prove my you’re better than your competitors” kind of way.

Jobs immediately pointed out how this “technology first” kind of thinking was an extremely flawed way of doing business.

Instead of thinking “What technology can I create and how can I sell it?”, every business should ask themselves, “How can I deliver the best customer experience?”.

Once you answered that, only then is it time to ask yourself “What technology do I need to make it happen?”.

Who knows, maybe you already have everything that’s required.

Either way, this will set you up correctly.

Coincidentally, even though this interview is publicly available for everyone to watch, interpret, and learn from on YouTube (and has been for many, many years), still so many people spend weeks, months, even years creating something to sell, never bothering to think how the customer will benefit from it or if they even need it at all, only to have to figure out how they’re going to sell it once they’re done building the product.

Anyway.

While I’m unable to help you discover how to best help your target audience, I do know one of the best ways to do so is by staying in frequent contact with your customers.

One way to do so, which my biased ass highly recommends to you, is by writing simple, efficient, and entertaining emails on a daily basis.

If that sounds like something you’d want to do, then check out Email Valhalla here to learn more: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Not everyone seemed to enjoy Star Wars when it was first released back in 1977.

Even though it was an immediate success and raked in insane amounts of money, the likes of which had almost never been seen before.

More specifically.

Some critics called the movie “as simple as black and white—and not in a good way,” even going as far as writing “The blockbuster, bestselling movie Star Wars is one of the most racist movies ever produced.”

Another criticism read, “The force of evil in Star Wars is dressed in all black and has the voice of a black man… That character reinforces the old stereotype that black is evil.”

Here’s another example (taken word for word from the book George Lucas by Brian Jay Jones):

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Another critic even ‘pointed out’ that the two droids acted, and were treated, like slaves, all the way down to being sold to a young white man they called “Master”.

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Seriously, I wish I was making this stuff up.

This proves to me one thing and one thing only.

People will hate you no matter what. The more successful you are, the more the hatred will become.

There’s just no pleasing everyone.

One of my favorite quotes (and guiding principles) I’ve learned in the past year is from the great Dan Kennedy himself: “If you haven’t offended anyone by noon each day, you’re not marketing hard enough.”

The more I grow and learn, the more I realize how true this is.

Don’t believe me?

Try it out yourself. The next email you write, the next post you share, or the next podcast you’re on, try sharing your opinion about something controversial without holding back. Truly express your opinion. Don’t sugarcoat it one bit.

Yes, you’ll get backlash, yes people will take offense.

But those people weren’t your audience anyway.

What’s more important is how much more trustworthy you’ll be to the people that matter.

And if you’d like more email tips like this, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla