Hi guys,

Good to see you again!

(Brought to you by Theme Zoom, Jon Keel, Charles Heflin)

Oh the Irony,

I spend millions of dollars programming a vertical market keyword research application (TZ) that only the top percentile of search marketers understand- when all the market really wanted was – (drumroll) – A SOCIAL MEDIA ZOOM.

http://screencast.com/t/GH2QhdgrLzO  

Social media is going bonkers. But most people are thriving on the “short lived” dopamine high that comes from a short-termed business model. (Churn-and-burn baby, churn-and burn!)

When Charles and I started working together on blue-print technology and website silo architecture two years ago, we found the learning curve to be very high.

But social media seems to be something almost everyone understands (at least at a basic level) and is not hard to teach. Either that, or, everyone is getting caught up in the “social tribal proof” of the social media movement. In the book “Marketing Metaphoria” this is associated with the “connection” metaphor. (Just in case you care).

So I am now available by phone for the rest of the day for folks that are probably wondering: “Where the heck did Russell go today, why is his skype turned off”.

Sincerely.

May You Find What You Are Searching For . . . (no really it is a blessing),

Russell Wright

608-432-1387  

 

Hi folks,

I will be meeting with Bruce Saffron of Traffic Genesis for most of the afternoon and most of tomorrow morning.

I will be fitting in as many interviews as I can between meetings.

I look forward to speaking to paying Theme Zoom members I have not had the opportunity to engage.
- Russell

Hi folks,

I need to take the rest of the day for meetings.

My last interview was with George Crozier.

It has been a delight speaking to all of you the last couple of days.

We have easily over 50 million of net worth between us, and I have only
talked to 20 of you.

http://screencast.com/t/NykpNLBxO

I need to take the rest of the day to meet with Nick Alberico, Mr. Black,
and a special guest (and old friend) who provided the audio bandwidth for
http://www.myspace.com and the owner of http://www.voice2page.com.

I am pulling together a great package for everyone in our team.

- Russell

Hello folks!

I owe you an explanation.

First of all, a special thanks to each and every Theme Zoom member. I want to express my gratitude for the patience that most of you have displayed over the last several months while waiting for us to get our “Story” straight.

The following diagram is associated with this rant:

http://tinyurl.com/6k83sb

Today we are going to talk about the “4 Market Stories” and I am going to tell you as much as I can about what is “going on” with the TZ Blue Print software release.

I have been asked by the Theme Zoom programming team to hold back a couple details until we have complete the company restructuring here in Arizona. These restructuring negotiations will end on June 30th, 2008. I will return to Wisconsin after we have successfully completed the restructuring process.

The Story of Three Market Influences:

Marketers are basically storytellers.

Sometimes they retell their own story. Sometimes they speak to YOUR story. Sometimes they speak to the overall market story. (Sometimes they create facts on-the-fly like an auctioneer giving a Sunday sermon). 

A persuasive marketer or copywriter may build a plot synthesized from various hot-buttons harvested straight from Robert Cialdini’s “The Psychology of Influence and Persuasion”. (Since I am currently in Arizona and Mr. Cialdini is right here at University of Arizona, I have been reviewing his “Ethical Persuasion” certification course.

Today my inbox is full of several different stories being reflected back to the marketplace. Here are the highlights:

Email 1: “Shopping cart systems fail to make money 80 percent of the time”

(The “Avoid Failure” Marketing Story)

Email 2: “Recession-proof your business with Internet Marketing”

(The “Lifestyle Approach” Marketing Story)

Email 3: “Social Media is taking over the world, get in NOW or lose”

 (The “Left Behind” Marketing Story)

Email 4: “Broke Mexican takes Google for Millions revealing all to You”

(The “Underdog” and “Rivalry” Marketing Story)

These master plots and persuasive hot buttons tend to work over and over again.

The reasons why these different approaches work are revealed in dozens of marketing books. But few of these books reveal the LONG TERM repercussions of telling these various stories. In other words, every Master Plot has a different affect on what Art Crowley and I call your LTV, or Lifetime Value of your Customer. We are tracking these approaches . . . but that is a “story” for another time.

The main purpose of occasionally sorting through my spam and my inbox is to listen to the story being told TO the market.

Paying attention to different stories does not determine or guarantee the authenticity of the Market Story, but it certainly DOES help you determine how to create a BETTER story.

Before you can Synthesize a better, more authentic story, you must Zoom Out to include all 4 stories being told:

http://tinyurl.com/6k83sb

1. The Customer’s Story. This comes through individual surveying and friendly phone calls to customers who use your product or service. (You can also use data about your competitor to formulate a better story). 

2. Your Own Story. This is the story you have been telling the market before today. Sometimes you forget the “reasons why” you are telling this story in the first place. You need to get your story straight regularly. You may need to change your story based on customer feedback.

3.  The Market Story. This is the story that may be limited to your specific niche or industry. It may also include specific reactions to “The Global Market Story” that uniquely impact your industry or market segment. For example, the gas crisis has different implications and creates a unique mythology for each market segment. If you are in the food services business, expensive gas prices may raise the price of avocados, forcing you to remove homemade guacamole from the menu. (This is happening everywhere). But if you own a Fedex Home Delivery Route, a gas shortage may shorten your work-day because you are forced to minimize your area of coverage. The Global Market Story is the same,  but the Market Problem caused by the Market Story are different in each niche or segment. This necessarily alters and changes your “sales metaphors” AS WELL AS your “literal” marketing copy and hot buttons as it applies to each market. Your PPC ads will differ from market to market. (See the book Metaphoria - http://tinyurl.com/6yg2ul). 

4. The Global Market Story. This is a LARGER story above and beyond the one being told by the marketers within your niche. It is also LARGER than niche trends limited to your industry. This includes things like higher gas prices (as mentioned before), economic recessions, global warming, viral fads and other such things. I call these R-Directed factors or “Big Picture” facts. 

Again, when you are able to weave more information from ALL FOUR STORIES into your marketing copy, PPC advertising and product offering- you will have a more authentic and higher converting story. In this way, if you approach the market carefully, you can become THE unique selling position for an entire industry. You can become a significant Market Driver.

I gathered many of the above ideas from David Bullock at SEO RAINMAKER this year. David said something during a conversation with Jerry West that blew my mind. I looked around the room to see if anyone else caught it, but I could not really tell for sure. This drove me to create the Diagram. http://tinyurl.com/6k83sb

What is the point of telling you all of this?

We are in Arizona restructuring, and we have been listening to all 4 Market Stories mentioned above.

In Part 2 of this letter, I will be telling you the NEW TZ “Story”. I will reveal how (and why) our story has changed, and why that is so good for you if you are a current TZ member. I will also be giving you exact instructions to quickly adapt to the New Story. 

In Part 2, I will also give you more information about:

1. What I am doing in Arizona, and what the Theme Zoom restructuring plan is all about.

2. Why we have been forced to close our doors and remove our products from the general market while working personally with YOU to dominate YOUR market in a Master Mind Group format. (Yes, you heard it here first, we are removing Krakken from the market and becoming a by-referral-only interview-only business alliance). This means nobody gets in unless YOU invite them in.

3. Why we are integrating the “mini” Theme Zoom technology into a “no-brainer” shopping cart solution for all of my friends who came over from University 2020 when we closed its doors. I will not stop working for you until you are happy about the time you spent in the University 2020 community. We are building a little surprise for you. (I want you to meet my little friend . . . we call him “SQUID”).

4. Why you should pick up the phone and CALL ME personally if you have been sitting on the fence about joining the Theme Zoom membership. I am looking primarily for Professional SEO’s and will be giving a personal interview in order to determine the best place for you to be. This will take me about 10 minutes per person. There are 300 people. You do the math. This means it will take about 1 week to follow up with all of you. Some of these follow-ups will be automated, but I prefer following up by phone because some of our questions involve confidential client data.

This new Story is not about creating scarcity for the sake of scarcity. It is simply too difficult (and expensive) to educate an entire market about a tool as sophisticated as Theme Zoom-Krakken especially when we are having more fun using it to get rich ourselves. I have a LOT more fun working with just a few people, rather than trying to manage everyone’s learning steep learning curve. 

Oh yeah, and the Krakken Blue Print Application requires almost as much bandwidth as a small country. ; - )

You can expect Part 2 of this letter in your inbox within minutes of receiving this one.

- Russell Wright

Theme Zoom

608-432-1387