Dennis Yu

The weird reason why your marketing absolutely sucks

If your marketing team is awesome, you’ll never actually produce a brochure.  Rather, you make stuff so informative that people don’t realize it’s selling them.

The folks at Optimizely published a book on A/B testing– with example after example of landing page tweaks that helped Obama get elected, more donations for Hillary Clinton, and whatnot. The techniques are solid. And all examples of success are using their software.

The second half of the book is why you need to use their software and how to sell it within the organization. I didn’t pay $27.95 for it– they gave it to me for free at a conference, along with a sweet mini-helicopter.

The reason their sales materials don’t stink of sales is that they start with real business problems and show how to solve them. They just happen to use their tools to do it. And they first explain the fundamental concepts of landing page optimization BEFORE ever going into the features of their tools.

If you can frame the problem in the right way, then your solution becomes the obvious fit.

A “brochure” is designed to educate and sell a client– explaining what you do, how you do it, and the associated benefits/features. If you’re in sales, you have these glossy documents that clients instantly disregard. And prospects can likely download them from your website, so why do they need you to read it to them?

Look at Marketo, a company providing marketing automation software. They produce a series of “definitive guides”– legitimate resources on how to supercharge your email marketing, drive new leads, excel at social media marketing, and so forth.

Their former head of social, Jason Miller, spoke frequently on content marketing– and they measured the leads, opportunities and revenue that came from these efforts.

And so Marketo never needs to talk to anyone who doesn’t already know who they are. Their educational efforts warm up leads and qualify them. This is inbound marketing– where the customers come to you, as opposed to you cold calling them.

If you run a hospital emergency room, do you need salespeople circulating the parking lot, trying to sell discount heart surgeries or the fact that you have a sale on chemotherapy treatments going on today?

No, people wheel themselves in, already complaining of pain.  They just want you to diagnose the problem and offer the right solution. If you’re in marketing or sales, take the grease out of your hair and put your lab coat on.

 
But your marketing materials suck.

Are they framed from the standpoint of the client or from your company’s viewpoint?

Here’s how to tell:

  • Are you talking about features before benefits? Don’t be a feature creature– spewing all manner of technical specs.
  • Do you talk about the competition?  You instantly put the lead in vendor comparison mode (on guard) vs in learning mode (open and listening).
  • Are you focusing on their results or on your company?
When we customize a brochure to a client’s particular needs, that’s typically called a proposal. Only big guys get proposals since they take effort and multiple meetings to customize, qualify, and educate prior to a sale.

A “statement of work” is a precise description of what we are going to do with a client.
Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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