Remember the classic Saturday Night Live sketch?
Is it a dessert topping? Is it a floor wax? It’s both!
This week, we’ll look at two seemingly very different sides of the marketing and persuasion coin.
One side features traditional sales and marketing techniques; the other shows a more educational, audience-building angle — sometimes called a “soft” marketing approach.
They seem like opposites, but in fact, each side benefits and supports the other. Smart marketers will use both … hopefully with a little more grace than a combination dessert topping/floor wax.
Asking for what you want
One of the cornerstones of traditional sales and marketing is making the “ask” — sometimes known as the call to action.
On Monday, Pamela Wilson shared an excerpt with us from her new book, all about the nuts and bolts of crafting effective calls to action. This is a technique you can pick up fairly quickly, and it will make a major difference in how your audience responds to your offers.
(Also, I was lucky enough to get an advance review copy of Pamela’s new book, and it’s insanely useful. You can pre-order now at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and independent bookstores.)
On the audio side of the house, Sean Jackson and Jessica Frick of Members Only talk with Chris Voss, best-selling author of Never Split the Difference, about a more advanced way to ask for what you need — the art of negotiation.
Voss was an FBI hostage negotiator … and has some counterintuitive (and surprisingly entertaining) insights about how advanced persuasion works.
Showing what you can do
The other side of that persuasion coin is to show your audience what you have to offer — which is what content marketing is all about.
Jeff Goins has a lovely post this week about “practicing in public” — getting out there in front of your audience and doing the work, even when you don’t feel ready. It takes courage, but it’s a remarkable way to not only polish your skills, but to create an unshakeable bond with your audience.
The post shows Jeff’s signature mix of inspiration and straight-talking pragmatism, and I think it will fire you up to get something in front of your audience now, not “when it’s ready.”
Enjoy the week’s content, and I’ll catch you next Thursday!
Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital
Catch up on this week’s content
![How to get attention and action]()
Powerful Calls to Action: How to Get Your Reader to Take the Next Step
by Pamela Wilson
![Build interest when you share your work]()
A More Tasteful Alternative to Self-promotion: Practice in Public
by Jeff Goins
![Forget these lessons to become a better writer]()
7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School
by Jonathan Morrow
How to Master the Art of Negotiation
by Sean Jackson
When Is the Right Time to Start Another Podcast?
by Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor
The Importance of Entrepreneurial Mental Health
by Brian Gardner & Lauren Mancke
Are One-on-One Connections the Key to Jumpstarting Your Online Business?
by Brian Clark & Jerod Morris
Behind the Scenes at Copyblogger: Our New Email Approach
by Sonia Simone
How Bestselling Author Jennifer Weiner Writes: Part One
by Kelton Reid
Tips for Crowdfunding a New Product (Or Your Entire Business), with Khierstyn Ross
by Brian Clark
Authority Business Coaching Call with Giuseppe Fratoni
with Sonia Simone, Pamela Wilson, and Giuseppe Fratoni
Session Available Now
Are you working on differentiating your business from your competitors’ businesses? Watch this week’s Authority Business Coaching session, where we focus on one member’s business. This month, Sonia Simone and Pamela Wilson chat with Rome-based digital marketing strategist Giuseppe Fratoni — they help him identify the unique positioning he can use to stand out from the crowd.
Reader Comments (6)
A little frustrated now. Because I have never seen that classic Saturday Night Live sketch on wax and toppings. And video players everywhere say I can’t, where I live. So now I am clueless about the ad metaphor 🙂 Looking forward to reading the book though!
Pretty much the entire joke is “It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor wax! No … It’s a dessert topping and a floor wax.”
Other than its absurdity there’s not a lot going on. 🙂
Ask then show :|]
Wow! a nice weekly post.
I liked it a lot and read the whole content.
Keep sharing Sonia.
Thanks,
SM
Hi Simone,
This is good article to show the different between different side of marketing. i have little confuse this word in your article. Can you explain me what is persuasion coin ?
Thanks,
Min Yon
Hi Min Yon — it’s a metaphor/expression, meaning that there are two sides that seem opposite but are actually aspects of the same thing, just like a coin that has two sides.
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