Maxims of Marketing

The Definitive Guide To Highly-Profitable Marketing
*Understanding The “Why’s” Of Marketing*

I am pleased to share these Maxims of Marketing with you. Here we’ll explore what I consider the core of marketing: understanding the many relationships prospects have with your company, what turns suspects into prospects, and prospects into buyers, and how to use these concepts to tailor your online and offline marketing campaigns to have greater results.

These Maxims were developed from personal marketing experiences over 30 years, although they were first published in 1997. Some may be familiar, others were literally stumbled upon as I worked in marketing management, sales and sales management. They began as a way to identify the concepts, the “feel,” that makes a successful direct marketing piece or campaign. After having verbally taught and conveyed these over the years, my staff and other marketers began referring to them as “Brantley’s Maxims.”

A maxim is more than a saying, it is a fundamental principle or rule, especially one intended to advise or recommend a course of conduct. In legal matters it is defined as a proposition of law that because of its universal approval needs no proof or argument; the mere statement of which gives it authority. In sociology a maxim is an inner attitude toward the meaning or content of a continuing social relationship. And in philosophy, it is a statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.

One definition I particularly like is that a maxim is a proverb; a truth pithily stated. In any event, the name seemed to fit, so “Maxims” they became.

In the hundreds of marketing books, courses and other resources I have studied over the years, I have found few that approach the subject in this way. Most are full of techniques, but the truly creative, innovative marketing campaigns come from understanding and using the feel, the concepts, described here.

Marketing, Like Art, Is Less About Technique Than It Is Concept

Most of these Maxims were originally written from a direct mail standpoint, however the concepts have proven themselves true for everything from radio and television infomercials I have produced to online marketing. The media you choose to market through is less important, and the product or service you choose to market is less important, than understanding what makes your marketing work.

For those of you who have a marketing or sales background, there will be an immediate recognition of some these Maxims, even though you’ve probably never seen them all written down before in this way. That’s because professional marketers develop a sixth sense, and intuitive ability to see beyond the copy and the graphics, beyond the numbers and the metrics, into the heart of a campaign; to join all the various pieces of the puzzle into one successful whole. This is the goal of the Maxims, to convey this intuitive nature of marketing, more so than the techniques. And yes, some of the Maxims can also considered technique… but the key intent is to identify the intuitive, and do so in a way that makes a clear and memorable analogy you can use every day.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list! New Maxims are being added on a regular basis… in fact, they appear all the time, often in the midst of actual marketing consultations. If you have a Maxim you feel should be added, please send it to Maxims@web3direct.com.

If you find these helpful, you have my enthusiastic permission, and strong encouragement to e-mail these posts to a business associate or a friend. I only ask that you not alter it in any way.

If you wish to reproduce these in any other form, please 1) Email Maxims@web3direct.com for permission (in most cases we will send you approval within 48 hours) and 2) include the credit and link: Courtesy of W. Emerson Brantley III, Results-Driven Marketing Solutions & Business Funding For Quantum Growth.

If you have any specific questions or areas you feel we could be of assistance in, please visit our site or use the contact information at the end. Now, let’s begin the Maxims of Marketing.

Carpe Diem!