Today, a biz owner whose emails I read sent out an email that opened with: "This email is for you if you want quality help on [achieving business outcome] but don't want to commit the [lotsa shekels] that top-shelf collaborators charge." I winced at this. The fact is, this guy is a legitimate expert, who deserves to get paid based on the business value of his services, and yet here he is, leading off the pitch for his new offer by saying, "It's cheap relative to what you might expect." I think there's a lot of value in raising your prices. I think it can even make sense to be the most expensive in your field. Sometimes, on occasion, it can still make sense to offer something at an "attractive" price. But in that case: 1. I don't think it makes sense to lead off with that. Instead, it makes sense to first and foremost fully sell the "quality help" that this biz owner only got to later, and to emphasize that before appealing to cheapness. 2. It makes sense to give a legit public reason for the "attractive" price, and that reason can never be "I am doing it because I'm afraid you won't pay the going rate for this," even if that is part of your private motivation. I wonder if we can come up with a list of such reasons. I'd like to invite you to think for a moment, and comment below with one or more reasons you could use to justify a particularly "attractive" price, which is lower than the going rate for whatever it is that you sell. I'm inviting you to do this for two reasons: 1. Because if you do it now, there's an excellent chance you will remember this important lesson, and you won't make the same mistake this biz owner made in his email today. 2. Because I'm running a little experimental contest. The last person to comment on this post wins $100, which I will PayPal to you in case you are the winner. How do we determine the last person? I will come back to this post periodically and check the comments. If when I come back, there have been no new comments with a reason to be cheap FOR A WHILE... then then last commenter will win and I will announce the fact.

I'm curious what comes to mind for you when I say "most overused marketing case study of all time"? Have you heard some instructive story about a business or a brand a million times from a million different people? If so, what is it? I'm fishing for an answer here. Let me know what yours is, and I will tell you what mine is.

We need a thread for gratuitous fun: Stuff that has nothing to do with marketing, business, copy, daily emails... but that is fun for fun's sake. (Even a little bit of fun is better than none.) I'd like to kick things off with the attached (and real, not AI) photo of a beaver, which I put in an email a long time ago, apropos of nothing. If you have jokes, funny pictures, memes, ideas for "disconnected infotainment," put 'em in here. On Fridays... or really on any other days.

Crazy talk. Have you ever considered it? Not just during a promo, either. I mean regularly.

UPDATE: This riddle has been solved. You can find the answer in the comments below. But for your own benefit, I advise you to read the riddle and mull it over yourself. It will be worthwhile, because the real answer will stick in your mind better, and might actually be at your fingertips when you need it. ORIGINAL POST: Let's play a riddle. This riddle is based on a true case study, but the names, nationalities, and animal species have been changed to protect the interestingness of the riddle. Here goes: Wang Wei is Chinese. China is the world's largest producer of pork. In the interests of capitalizing on some of their massive pork production, the Chinese Communist Party has tasked Wang Wei with increasing the export of Chinese pork. Wang Wei goes and researches the topic. He decides to zoom in his efforts on France. He finds three interesting things: FIRST, the French already consume large quantities of pork, particularly in the forms of various hams and charcuterie. SECOND, the French consume something known as "steak tartare," which is basically raw cow meat minced up and seasoned. THIRD, the price the French are willing to pay for cow meat they will consume raw in the form of "steak tartare" is FIVE TIMES as high as the price they will pay for cow meat that is to be cooked or roasted. Wang Wei sees an opportunity: ====>>> "Pork tartare" <<<==== ... basically, raw pork, minced up and seasoned, and served up to the French at a price five times higher than that of equivalent hams, pork chops, or salami. PROBLEM: The French, though they are fine with eating raw cow meat, and though they will eat their fill of pork cooked, smoked, or otherwise thermally processed, think that eating raw pork is 1) disgusting and 2) unsanitary because it can cause salmonella. Wang Wei happens to have proof that the Chinese pork, unlike pork from other countries, is perfectly safe to eat raw and will never cause salmonella. He also has tried "pork tartare" himself, as prepared by some of China's top pork chefs, and he has found it to be delicious.