4 big-idea-book

Prévia do material em texto

HOW TO FIND YOUR 
BIG MARKETING IDEA
Standout & Grab Attention 
With Your Marketing Message
In A Crowded Marketplace
By Todd Brown
Copyright © Todd Brown
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced 
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express 
written permission of the copyright owner and publisher 
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2018
ISBN 978-0-578-20040-8
www.MarketingFunnelAutomation.com
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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Preface
In early 2006 I was given a twenty-five page 
document that has since been worth several million dollars 
to me personally. And has been worth tens of millions to my 
clients and students. 
What this document revealed I had never seen 
before in any of the marketing courses, books, or trainings I 
had invested in. And, believe me, I invested in a lot! 
Thanks to what I found inside this document — and 
a handful of additional meetings about it — my income 
catapulted, my reputation soared and swept across the 
marketing industry, and… more importantly… the profits 
generated by the new marketing campaigns I set-up went 
through the roof. The entire game had changed for me. 
Prior to 2006, or what I like to refer to as B.D. — 
Before Document — my story was fairly consistent with 
most decently successful online entrepreneurs. 
I had marketed and sold a variety of products. Put 
up landing pages and sales pages. Had a few email 
autoresponder sequences set up. And was generating 
between ten to twelve thousand dollars a month. Sometimes 
more. Sometimes less. 
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And, of course, I was consistently buying something 
new every month — a new marketing course or training or 
something — searching for the one “magic bullet” to help 
me produce more profitable marketing. 
But, I could never seem to breakthrough to what I 
considered the “big money”. 
What I was hunting for at the time was the secret to 
cracking the $100,000.00 a month sales mark. The sought-
after one million dollar a year business. 
But no matter what I bought… no matter what I 
learned… and no matter what I tried… I could never seem to 
make it happen. 
Until I was given that document! 
It was the first time I was introduced to Mark Ford. 
You may know Mark under his pen name, Michael 
Masterson. 
Mark has written over a dozen books on 
entrepreneurship, personal productivity, and wealth 
building. Three of which were New York Times and Wall 
Street Journal bestsellers. He’s been the mastermind 
behind the development of dozens of multimillion-dollar 
businesses, including Agora Inc., a direct response 
publishing company whose annual revenues now surpass 
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the billion dollar mark. He’s trained some of the highest 
paid advertising copywriters in the world. And, on the rare 
occasion when he takes on a private mentoring or 
consulting client, he commands a hefty up-front fee in the 
tens of thousands and a performance royalty of one million 
dollars. 
So, whenever I was lucky enough to get around 
Mark… and he spoke about marketing or business… I 
listened. Intently. 
We were introduced by my good buddy, and then 
business partner at Strategic Profits, Rich Schefren. 
At the time, our Strategic Profits offices — in 
Downtown Delray Beach, Florida — were right around the 
corner from the popular cigar bar and lounge Cigar 
Connoisseur.
For whatever reason, Cigar Connoisseur was a 
hotspot for local, established copywriters, marketers, 
entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. I have no idea why. 
But, it seemed like dozens of meetings, 
brainstorming sessions, and even multi-million-dollar joint 
venture deals were brokered and took place there on a 
weekly basis. 
And, at least once a week it’s where you’d find 
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Mark… sitting at the bar… smoking a Padron 1926 Serie… 
sipping on some Patron Silver tequila on the rocks… 
pecking away on his laptop. Usually, working on either a 
new book or an essay for one of his newsletters. 
On this particular night, Rich and I were sitting a 
couple of stools over from Mark with a couple of empty 
seats separating us. Rich and I were discussing what we saw 
as the commonalities in the most profitable advertising 
promotions and marketing campaigns, that we didn’t see in 
the average, typical campaigns. 
That’s when Mark — having obviously overheard our 
conversation — stopped typing, picked up his head, and 
looked over at us and said: 
“Most if not all of the stuff you guys are talking 
about is only marginally responsible for the really big 
winners. It’s the stuff entrepreneurs and marketers are 
taught to focus on. But, it’s not what makes an advertising 
promotion a grand-slam home run. Do you guys want to 
know what is chiefly responsible for making the big 
winners the big winners?” 
“Yeah, definitely. Please!”, Rich and I both 
responded in unison. 
And… so… Mark began to explain to us… 
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The Real Secret Behind The Biggest, Most 
Profitable Marketing Campaigns Ever Created! 
He said it was the true secret behind how many of 
the biggest direct response companies and entrepreneurs 
are able to produce millions of dollars from their marketing 
promotions. 
And… that… it was the one single thing which has 
created more millionaires and multi-millionaires in direct-
response-driven businesses than any other single strategy 
or tactic. 
And… that… if we really, truly wanted to make the 
“big money”… we needed to learn it, master it, and 
implement it with every marketing campaign we rolled out. 
He even recommended we download (from a private 
website) a little twenty-five page report written by one of his 
— now wealthy — proteges, if we wanted to learn more. 
Which, of course, I downloaded immediately when I got 
home that night. 
And it was downloading and devouring that little 
report… and, of course, having that first discussion with 
Mark… that was the genesis of my six-year journey into 
learning and mastering how to harness… 
The Incredible Sales Generating Power Of 
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“The Big Marketing Idea” 
Over the course of the next six years, I went on a 
life-changing exploration… investing well over 1500 hours… 
researching and studying the “Big Marketing Idea”. 
I went through and analyzed everything I could get 
my hands on about it. Even going as far as to scrutinize and 
dissect over 92 individual million-dollar-plus marketing 
campaigns and sales promotions. (I won’t even tell you 
what I had to go through to get those, let alone go over 
every detail of them with a fine tooth comb.) 
I questioned every top advertising copywriter I could 
get access to… including, Mike Palmer, the guy who wrote 
the End Of America — the most successful marketing 
promotion ever to come out of the financial newsletter 
publishing industry. 
And, as I routinely saw Mark over those next six 
years at Cigar Connoisseur, I picked his brain relentlessly 
about the “Big Marketing Idea”. 
I fired dozens of questions at him like: how is a “Big 
Marketing Idea” discovered, how do you know when you 
have a “Big Marketing Idea”, how do you turn ordinary 
marketing ideas into “Big Marketing Ideas”, how do you 
communicate the “Big Marketing Idea” throughout a 
marketing campaign, how do you know when you’ve chosen 
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the correct “Big Marketing Idea”, and on and on. 
And… frankly… it was… 
The Most Profitable And Eye-Opening 
Journey Of My Life! 
Now, look: Before going any further, I need to make 
sure you understand something. This is critical. So, please 
pay close attention. 
When I say “Big Marketing Idea”… I’m NOT talking 
about the typical marketing “hook”, “promise”, “premise”, 
“theme, or “benefit-driven headline”. Nor am I talking 
about the “idea” behind yourproduct, your Unique Selling 
Proposition, your positioning statement, or your string of 
marketing claims. 
No. Those are all valuable. Sure. And those are all 
taught by most marketing experts. Absolutely. As they 
should be. 
But… as you’re about to discover… those are not 
responsible for why some marketing campaigns produce 
millions a year while most others don’t even come close. 
Those, in fact, are the exact things Mark dismissed when he 
said, “It’s the stuff marketers are taught to focus on. But, 
it’s not what makes an advertising promotion a grand-
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slam home run”. 
And, it was only until I was knee-deep into my six-
year journey of mastering the use of the “Big Marketing 
Idea” that I came to the startling realization - even though 
the “Big Marketing Idea” was almost never taught or talked 
about publicly by marketing experts… it was acknowledged 
by almost all of the best marketers on the planet as… 
The Real Secret Weapon Behind Their 
Marketing Success & Wealth! 
They almost all said, it wasn’t their copy… their 
headlines… products… or offers. 
No. It was the “Big Marketing Idea” they credited. 
For example: Take legendary copywriter, Gary 
Halbert. 
Most students of marketing think Gary’s monster 
success as a copywriter came from his sales chops and 
writing skills. That’s what I thought. But that’s not what 
Gary said. 
In fact, listen to what his son, Bond Halbert, shared 
(when being interviewed) about the most valuable 
marketing lesson Gary ever taught him: 
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HOST: “You mentioned right before we jumped on 
the phone how one of the things your dad, he's known for 
copywriting and whatnot, but what he always thought 
was the most important thing, the thing that he felt biggest 
about and you agreed as well is The Big Marketing Idea.” 
BOND: “People would come to my dad and try and 
learn copywriting and he would give them a word-
smithing lesson and tell them how to begin their copy and 
how to close, and stuff like that. Pretty quickly when they 
felt like, "Okay, I am getting some of that," he would start 
to teach them what was important. What was important 
was not that, it was The Big Marketing Idea.” 
And, even Gary himself, when writing (on one rare 
occasion) about how powerful the “Big Marketing Idea” is… 
and why it needs to be the foundation of every marketing 
campaign… said… 
“It’s so damn valuable!”
And Gary is just the beginning. 
Clayton Makepeace, the highest-paid active 
copywriter today, says his biggest winners in terms of his 
copywriting and his promotions were all based on “Big 
Marketing Ideas”. 
“It’s from your marketing’s Big Marketing Ideas 
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that accelerated growth in your business happens”. 
How much growth? Well… 
Look at what Mark Ford wrote in one of his 
newsletters about the money produced thanks to the “Big 
Marketing Idea”: 
“I have learned many valuable lessons from my 15-
year partnership with Agora’s legendary CEO, marketing 
genius Bill Bonner. None is more important than The Big 
Marketing Idea. Bill is widely recognized as the man who 
brought The Big Marketing Idea into consumer direct 
marketing and sold more than a billion dollars’ worth of 
publications by doing so.” 
And how about, John Forde (no relation to Mark), 
Bill Bonner’s most famous copywriting protege - here’s 
what he said: 
“For all the great tips and tricks that can make an 
ad look slick, you'll fail if you don't have a "Big Marketing 
Idea”. I can tell you personally, every winning ad I've ever 
written has had a Big Marketing Idea at the core.” 
Even legendary ad man and copywriting giant, 
David Ogilvy, championed the necessity of having a “Big 
Marketing Idea”: 
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"You will never win fame and fortune unless you 
invent Big Marketing Ideas. It takes a Big Marketing Idea 
to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy 
your product. Unless your advertising contains a Big 
Marketing Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.” 
And I could go on and on listing out a string of 
world-class entrepreneurs, marketers, and copywriters who 
all attribute their monster success to their understanding of 
— and ability to find and develop — “Big Marketing Ideas” 
for their marketing promotions. 
Many credit their first “Big Marketing Idea” 
campaign for the point in their careers when their income 
and reputation shot into the stratosphere. A true 
transformational event. Which is why… 
One “Big Marketing Idea” For One Marketing 
Campaign Can Change Your Business (and Life) 
Forever! 
Just one “Big Marketing Idea” for one marketing 
campaign can bring in more sales for your business than 
most entrepreneurs will make in their entire lifetime. 
Seriously. 
For example: 
With one marketing campaign built on one Big 
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Marketing Idea… my good friend and former business 
partner, Rich Schefren, created one twenty-nine page 
report… and generated over three million dollars in sales in 
7 days! With another seven million dollars in sales coming-
in over the next year.
With one marketing campaign built on one Big 
Marketing Idea… Porter Stansberry launched S&A 
Investment Research… which today is the largest 
investment advisory in the world… generating over a 
hundred million dollars a year.
With one marketing campaign built on one Big 
Marketing Idea… marketing wizard, Frank Kern, helped his 
client, Neil Strauss, sell a product in the dating market… 
and generated over $1.4 million dollars in just four hours! 
And, with one marketing campaign built on one Big 
Marketing Idea… Mark Ford, at the age of just 33, launched 
his first financial newsletter subscription, The Oxford Club, 
which generated over 30,000 customers, was later sold to 
Agora, and allowed Mark to retire… financially-free… before 
turning 40! 
All… from… just… one Big Marketing Idea. 
See: A Big Marketing Idea is a way of crafting a 
marketing message which your prospects see as new, 
unique, and different. As something fresh and timely. As 
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something exciting and beneficial. As something they want 
to engage with because it promises to open their eyes to 
something they haven't been exposed to before.
And because of that, when your marketing is built 
with a Big Marketing Idea, it stands-out, gets attention, and 
compels prospects to consume your message. Ultimately, 
leading to greater sales.
And that’s why I've become absolutely convinced it’s 
more crucial for you to focus your attention on learning how 
to develop Big Marketing Ideas for your marketing 
promotions, than on any other single advertising strategy or 
tactic — regardless of what business you’re in, what you sell, 
and what marketing campaigns you may currently have in 
place. 
That’s why I decided to publish this book.
Because, when you learn and use the formula I 
discovered for developing Big Marketing Ideas… you’ll 
possess the knowledge and ability to crank-out marketing 
campaigns that bring more leads, more new customers, and 
more sales than you can imagine. 
And when that happens… everything changes for 
you. 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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Introduction
It’s a foundational marketing lesson which changed 
my whole perspective. And it should for you as well. 
I was chatting with Mark Ford. And asked about the 
secret behind Agora’s growth.
“How has Agora been able to grow so big and so 
fast?”
I fully expected Mark to say something about 
Agora’s list size or the amount they invest into advertising 
or the quality of their copywriters. But that’s not at all what 
Mark said. 
“We recognized early on, when it comes to 
marketing, we’re really in the idea business. We're 
in the business of developing interesting, 
arresting, and captivating ideas.”
It took a bit for me to fully digest what Mark was 
saying. But, onceI did, it made complete sense. 
Everything we do as marketers is built on top of 
some idea. 
Whether we're publishing a blog post, creating a 
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video for YouTube, doing a Facebook Live, or creating a 
landing page, a sales page, or a full-blown marketing 
campaign… behind each of those is an idea. 
That idea can be new and novel. Or it can be old and 
run-of-the-mill. 
The idea behind what you’re saying could be a plain 
vanilla, average idea which rolls off the back of your 
prospects as something they've seen or heard before. Or, it 
could be a Big Marketing Idea that strikes your prospects as 
new, unique, and different. As something they find 
startling, arresting, and compelling. Something they have to 
stop and hear more about. 
Now, please understand: In this context, I’m not 
talking about the idea behind your product or service. I’m 
not talking about you coming-up with the latest and 
greatest idea for some new app, new technology, or new 
biotech breakthrough. 
No. I’m talking about the idea behind your 
marketing message. The idea behind what you’re saying in 
your ad, your headline, and your campaign. 
See: the quality of the marketing idea determines 
the success of the marketing campaign — and ultimately 
how well it converts prospects into buyers. Because the 
quality of the idea is what determines whether prospects 
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will take notice, stop what they’re doing, and engage with 
your marketing message. 
A Big Marketing Idea will cut through the noise and 
clutter and make your message stand-out from all of the 
others. It will grab attention, engage prospects, and compel 
them to want to hear more about the idea. 
Think of it like this: The Big Marketing Idea is really 
the advertisement for your marketing campaign. It’s the 
hook for your marketing message. 
Again, it's not the hook for your product. And it's not 
the hook for your offer. 
It's the advertisement and hook for your marketing 
message itself. It’s the idea behind what you’re presenting 
to prospects.
And that idea goes way beyond just your copy and 
simple wording of a headline. 
See: The idea and the headline are not the 
same. 
A headline is simply an expression of the underlying 
marketing idea. Every headline, just like every book title, is 
there to communicate an idea. And every marketing idea 
can be presented a number of different ways with a number 
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of different words.
Simply changing the copy, adding a word, or 
replacing a word with a more descriptive word in a 
headline, doesn’t necessarily change the underlying idea. 
Changing “How To Grow Big Tomatoes” to “How 
To Grow Monster-Sized, Juicy, Red Tomatoes” doesn’t 
make the idea behind the headline better. It may make the 
copy behind the headline better. But the idea behind the 
headline is still the same.
What we’re talking about is the underlying idea 
behind the headline. 
For example, take a look at this book:
 You can see from the title it’s, obviously, all about 
how to outsource your business. I don't know who 
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published this. I don't know the author behind this. I don't 
know where this came from, but it’s crystal clear what this 
book is about.
It's a simple, straight-forward, ordinary idea: how to 
outsource. 
I have no idea if this book sold well or not at all. If I 
was a betting man, I would bet a stack of chips it did not.
Now I want you to compare it to this book:
The 4-Hour Work Week. It was on the New York 
Times' Bestseller List for over four years. Translated into 35 
languages. Sold over 1.3 million copies. And put the author, 
Tim Ferriss, on the map. 
What’s the difference between the content, the 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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material covered in The 4-Hour Work Week and the first 
book, How to Outsource? 
Really, there is no difference. Both are about 
outsourcing for your business. 
The difference is not in the content. The difference is 
not in the essence of the material. The difference is in the 
idea behind how the content is being presented. 
Tim Ferriss took the ordinary and common idea of 
outsourcing, and turned it into something new, unique, and 
different. Into, a Big Marketing Idea — you can work a four-
hour week, escape the 9-to-5, live anywhere, and join the 
new rich. 
And that one shift — that one Big Marketing Idea — 
was enough to propel Tim Ferris on to super-stardom in the 
publishing world. 
That's the power of a Big Marketing Idea. 
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Chapter One
Why A Big Marketing Idea Today?
One thing is for sure…
It’s getting harder and harder to get people’s 
attention. 
Today, because people have been exposed to more 
and more marketing, they’ve become more skeptical and 
guarded than ever. Many, reluctant and jaded. 
Every day people are bombarded with thousands of 
marketing campaigns, marketing messages, advertisements, 
benefit statements, claims, and promises. Online, television, 
radio, billboards, direct mail, email, magazines, flyers, you 
name it. Many filled to the brim with hype.
So typical marketing messages no longer make an 
impact. They’re dismissed or ignored. They roll off the back 
of prospects. 
And that’s why trying to “scream a louder promise” 
in your marketing, or making a bigger, bolder claim or 
using one of the common hype-style headlines to power 
your marketing is no longer effective. 
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Your prospects have already been exposed to these 
type of claims over and over again. They’ve heard it. They’ve 
seen it. It’s nothing new. 
So today it takes a Big Marketing Idea to penetrate 
your prospects’ armor and get them excited about what you 
have to offer. Ordinary no longer cuts it. It takes something 
bigger, something bolder. 
As well, many of your prospects have responded to 
advertisements with bogus claims, exaggerated promises, 
and outright scams. So, many, have become cynical when it 
comes to marketing. This is especially true online. 
Because it's viewed as the Wild West where anybody 
can put up a website today, the internet is the least trusted 
of all advertising mediums. It’s not nearly as trusted as 
newspaper or print or direct mail, because prospects 
understand these mediums are governed. There are laws 
regarding what advertisers can and can not say. 
But not so — at least not to the same extent — with 
the internet. 
So with this heightened level of consumer 
skepticism online, it takes even more extraordinary 
measures to grab attention and engage prospects. 
The ordinary marketing approach of extreme 
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promises and claims is simply no longer adequate. 
Prospects are also bored. They've been exposed to so 
much of the same, so often, they're now constantly on the 
lookout for something new, something different. 
Your prospects are not interested in what’s old or in 
more of the same. They’re interested in what’s new. Your 
prospects don't even want old techniques or methods even 
if they know those techniques and methods work. 
No. Your prospects want the new stuff. The new 
methods. The new techniques. 
And that's why you need to use the power of a Big 
Marketing Idea to avoid the Proliferation Of The 
Formulaic. 
More and more within the marketing world, we're 
seeing the use of these so-called plug-and-play, fill-in-the-
blank templates and formulas for advertising headlines.
Prospects are seeing marketing built with these 
“formulas” more and more… especially the claim-based or 
promised-based formulas behind much of direct marketing. 
And as they’re seeing this type of marketing message more 
and more, they’re tuning out even more and more. 
Why? Because, again, they've seen it all already. 
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They've heard it all.
And when your prospects are exposed to somethingthat they've seen and heard, they tune out. They ignore it. 
They experience Mental Opt-Out. 
Mental Opt-Out is when your prospects see a 
marketing claim and say, "Oh, that. I've heard that. I've 
seen that. Oh, there's a book on that. There's a YouTube 
video on that." And then they immediately bounce from 
your website to go elsewhere. 
Today, you have to avoid seeming and looking and 
feeling like what your prospects have already been exposed 
to. So you need to avoid "formulaic" marketing. 
With a Big Marketing Idea you not only avoid the 
Proliferation Of The Formulaic and prevent Mental Opt-
Out, you also overcome something called the Categorical 
Imperative — a term I first learned from Bill Bonner, the 
founder of Agora. 
The Categorical Imperative is a principle which 
demonstrates that individuals subconsciously look for ways 
to immediately categorize information. If they see 
something which looks like, sounds like, or feels like 
something else they’ve already seen, they place the new 
information into the same mental category. 
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So, for example, if something looks, sounds, and 
feels like the prior marketing they’ve seen before, it triggers 
the Categorical Imperative… and it automatically gets 
placed in the same “sales pitch” category or mental bucket. 
This is yet another reason why you want to avoid the 
common marketing approach. 
When your prospects come across a marketing 
campaign or advertisement that has the same feel, the same 
vibe, the same style of messaging as what they’ve 
encountered before, they instantly recognize it for what it is 
— a sales message. They recognize it as a marketing 
campaign or a marketing piece. So they immediately 
categorize it as a commercial message and their filter 
immediately goes up. 
A Big Marketing Idea overcomes that Categorical 
Imperative because it serves as a pattern interrupt. It’s not 
what prospects expect or anticipate. So it doesn’t get 
categorized. Which means, it doesn’t trigger the same 
feelings of skepticism or reluctance. It doesn’t trigger the 
same sales filter. So it gives your marketing message the 
opportunity to do its job. 
All that being said: We could really sum up why a 
Big Marketing Idea is so critical today with one word: 
differentiation. 
Bringing something different to the market is critical 
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to get attention — a different message, a different angle, a 
different idea. 
Remember, better doesn’t always get attention. 
Better doesn’t always stand-out. Different does. 
You need to differentiate your marketing 
message from all the others. You need to differentiate 
the idea, so your prospects say, "Wow, I've never heard 
that. What's that about? I want to know more." 
That’s why a Big Marketing Idea is essential today. 
And that’s what a Big Marketing Idea does for you.
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Chapter Two
10 Elements Of A Big Marketing Idea
Every Big Marketing Idea meets ten criteria. In this 
chapter we're going to take a high-level look at each. 
Then, in following chapters, we'll get into the nitty-
gritty details of the Big Marketing Idea Formula, look at 
some examples, and walk thru the process for developing 
your ideas. 
Criteria #1: Presents One Promise
At the root of every Big Marketing Idea is a bold, 
audacious, true and believable promise of transformation. 
One promise. We call this the Primary Promise -- the one 
big overarching benefit the prospect stands to gain by 
engaging with your marketing.
I'm not talking about the little benefits of your 
product. I'm talking about the big result... the big outcome... 
the big transformation your prospect stands to gain. 
What are you promising them? 
That's the main question on the mind of every 
prospect. They want to know how their life will be improved 
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and changed for the better from your message. 
If you can't, or don't, answer it... you don't have a 
marketing message. You just have a message. 
Criteria #2: It's Specific
To have a Big Marketing Idea, your Primary Promise 
must be concrete and specific. It must be tangible. Specific 
enough for your prospect to envision it in their mind's eye. 
Vague generalities do not sell. Specifics do. Vague 
promises are not believable. They're not compelling. They're 
not exciting. Specific promises and outcomes are. 
So, whatever you’re promising, you must be specific. 
Criteria #3: Conveys One Story
Every Big Marketing Idea is based on one storyline. 
It may be a story of discovery... information discovered in 
an old book... meeting a mentor... breaking news from some 
company... a scientific breakthrough... or something else. 
Regardless, there must be only one storyline 
conveyed throughout your marketing campaign. Opened at 
the Big Marketing Idea… and carried thru til the end of the 
promotion. 
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Introducing multiple storylines in your marketing 
only serves to confuse your prospect. So keep it to one story. 
One plot. 
Criteria #4: Leads To One Conclusion
Every Big Marketing Idea clearly leads to one 
conclusion. One thought you want the prospect to have. One 
belief. 
Don't try to get your prospect thinking about two or 
three different things with your idea. Just one. That's it. 
And that one idea is almost always based around 
how and why they can experience the result they’re looking 
for. 
Criteria #5: Taps One Emotion
Every Big Marketing Idea stimulates one primary 
emotion. It may be greed. It may be fear. It may be envy. It 
may be belonging. Or, some other emotion.
Throughout your marketing campaign you'll likely 
prod and stir a variety of different emotions. But with your 
Big Marketing Idea you must focus on one primary 
emotion.
What is the one emotion that your idea is leveraging, 
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is prodding, is tapping into? What’s the one feeling you 
want to stimulate in your prospect when they encounter 
your Big Marketing Idea?
Criteria #6: Must Be New & Unique
Every Big Marketing Idea is original, unique. It's 
different from what your prospects have seen before. 
It can't be something they've heard from your 
competitors. Or anywhere else for that matter. And this is 
crucial.
Your idea must feel new and fresh. Remember, 
familiarity in marketing breeds disinterest. 
So, your idea can't be something your prospects are 
already familiar with.
Your job, with your Big Marketing Idea, is to bring 
something new, unique, and different to your market. And, 
again, in this context I'm not talking about a new, unique, 
and different product. I'm talking about a new, unique, and 
different idea behind your marketing campaign. 
Criteria #7: Must Feel Timely
 Every Big Marketing Idea feels timely. It involves 
something happening right now... or something about to 
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happen. So it's relevant. 
It's not about the past. 
It can't feel dated, old. 
It must be about the here and now. 
Criteria #8: Arresting
Every Big Marketing Idea is bold. Captivating. 
Arresting.
That means it needs to shock prospects out of their 
complacency. It needs to wake them up from the funk of 
everyday life. 
It can't be a ho-hum, run-of-the-mill idea. That 
won't get anybody's attention. 
Remember, your prospects are inundated with 
marketing. To get their attention you need to whack them 
on the side of the head. A tap on the shoulder doesn't cut it. 
So your Big Marketing Idea needs to be bold.
Criteria #9: Immediately Understandable
To have a Big Marketing Idea, your idea must be 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
34
immediately understandable. It needs to have instant 
appeal. 
It can't be complicated, deep, or require lots of 
thought. If prospects have to read or watch your full 
marketing message to understand your idea, you've missed 
the mark. 
Prospects must get your ideaimmediately. 
So your idea needs to be simple. And it needs to be 
within their scope of reference.
If you're talking to women, and you're trying to 
incorporate an idea about an automobile engine, unless 
you're talking to female mechanics it's not going to be 
within their scope of reference. So, obviously, they won't get 
it. 
 Remember: Immediately Understandable.
For many entrepreneurs and marketers this isn't 
always easy. Many fall prey to the Curse of Knowledge -- a 
cognitive bias that occurs when we're predicting in other 
people what we believe they understand. We typically 
overestimate what other folks understand based on our own 
level of knowledge. 
And, over time, this overestimation spills over in to 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
35
our marketing. We use words, terms, and phrases which are 
far too sophisticated and advanced for the average prospect. 
When developing your Big Marketing Ideas, you 
need to remove yourself from the equation. And you need to 
put yourself in your prospects shoes. See the world through 
their eyes. Through their understanding and knowledge. 
Through their level.
You have to recognize, odds are you're an expert in 
whatever topic you're speaking about in your marketing. 
Your prospects are not. 
You need to communicate in a way that resonates 
with their level of understanding, not your own level of 
understanding. 
There are concepts and ideas which you may think 
are elementary, basic, below your grasp of the topic. And 
they may be. 
But that doesn't mean they're below your prospects 
level of knowledge and understanding. 
You need to avoid the Curse of Knowledge. You need 
to communicate ideas at your prospect's level. Simple ideas. 
Simplicity also encourages belief. The human brain 
is hardwired to trust simple things. The easier something is 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
36
to explain, and the easier it is to understand, the more belief 
it generates. 
On the flip side, complex, intricate ideas cause 
confusion. And a confused mind doesn't remain engaged. 
And a prospect who doesn't remain engaged doesn't buy. 
So keep your ideas simple. Put yourself in your 
prospect's shoes. And make sure your ideas are not beyond 
their level of understanding.
Criteria #10: The Rule Of One
This final criteria could really be in a category of its 
own. It's something I learned from my friend and mentor, 
Mark Ford. 
Big Marketing Ideas are made up of one single 
powerful idea. Not a mix of ideas. Not a bunch of ideas. One 
single idea. 
Multiple ideas packed into one marketing message 
don't strengthen the message. They weaken the message. 
Usually, a number of mediocre ideas are packed in 
to one campaign in an attempt to make up for a weak 
overall idea. The thought -- if the idea isn't strong enough, 
let's add more ideas to it. 
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37
But this doesn't serve to strengthen the main idea. It 
weakens it. 
You need to narrow your focus to one idea, one 
emotion, one promise, one story, and one thing that you 
want your prospects to think. And the whole thing needs to 
be powered by one Primary Promise. 
That's the Power Of One.
And those are the ten criteria for every Big 
Marketing Idea.
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38
Chapter Three
The Big Marketing Idea Formula
Over the course of my six year journey researching 
and studying the Big Marketing Idea, I analyzed and 
dissected over 92 million-dollar-plus marketing campaigns. 
My aim was to see if there were any commonalities 
across the board. To my astonishment, there were. Those 
commonalities later became the foundation of what, today, 
is known as the Big Marketing Idea Formula™.
Here it is:
E.C. (P.P. + U.M.) + I.I. = Big Marketing Idea 
Looks awful, right? Like something out of an 
advanced algebra class. 
Fortunately, it's much, much simpler. 
Let’s quickly go through the formula. Then we’ll 
cover each piece in-depth.
E.C. stands for emotionally compelling. 
Your idea is emotionally compelling (E.C.) when it's 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
39
built on a Primary Promise (P.P.), and when that promise is 
delivered by a Unique Mechanism (U.M.). 
I.I. stands for intellectually interesting. 
Your idea is intellectually interesting (I.I.) when it 
piques your prospect's curiosity, gives them a feeling of 
discovery, and makes them feel as if they’ve just stumbled 
on something newsworthy. Something… they’d be 
interested in hearing more about even if there was no 
Primary Promise (P.P.) or Unique Mechanism (U.M.). 
Combined — emotionally compelling and 
intellectually interesting — and you have an idea which 
appeals to both the heart and head of your prospect. To 
both emotion and logic. 
The Primary Promise (P.P.)
The Primary Promise is one of the most important 
elements within any marketing campaign. Because it tells 
prospects what they stand to gain by engaging with your 
marketing message. It tells them how their life will be 
transformed for the better by reading, watching, or listening 
to your marketing message. 
Remember, the main thing your prospects want to 
know is “How is my life going to be made better by this?” 
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Your Primary Promise is what answers that question. 
But it’s important you understand: The Primary 
Promise is not the same as your list of product or service 
benefits. We’re not talking about all of the little benefits 
prospects can expect to experience with your product. 
No. We’re talking about the one, big overarching 
promise of change… of transformation… of result… of 
outcome… your prospect can expect to experience by 
responding to your marketing message. 
What’s the main thing which will be different in your 
prospect’s life?
To be effective, your Primary Promise needs to be 
big, bold, and audacious. It needs to be exciting. Exciting 
enough for your prospects to want to dive deeper and learn 
more. And compelling enough for prospects to see the value 
in swapping their time to hear more about it. 
At the same time, your Primary Promise needs to be 
completely true and believable. And, remember, not 
everything that is believable is true… and not everything 
that's true is believable. 
To make your Primary Promise believable, first, it 
needs to be specific and concrete. Meaning: It can’t be 
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vague and general. 
“You’ll feel better” is an example of a vague and 
general promise. Same with “You’ll make more money”, 
“You’ll be happier”, “You’ll lose weight”, and so on. These 
are all weak promises. Because they’re so vague and general 
it’s nearly impossible to envision them in your mind’s eye. 
“You’ll wake up every morning without an alarm 
clock, never groggy” is an example of a much more specific 
promise. Same with “You’ll make an extra $5,500 a month”, 
and “You’ll lose a minimum of 3 pounds every four days”. 
The specificity makes these promises much stronger. 
They’re promises your prospect can picture themselves 
experiencing. 
Second, to make your Primary Promise believable it 
needs to be backed-up by proof. You can’t simply expect 
your prospects to believe you can deliver on the promise 
simply because you say so. You can't present a promise that 
has no proof because that’s not a promise at all. It’s simply 
an unsubstantiated claim. 
You need to have evidence and proof to make your 
Primary Promise believable. If you say they will experience 
X, you need to have proof they can experience X.
And your Primary Promise should never be bigger 
than the biggest proof point you have. The bigger, better the 
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proof, the bigger the promise can be.
So your objective is to determine the biggest, 
boldest, most audacious thing you can promise to prospects 
which is true and believable because it’s specific and backed 
by proof. 
And it needs to promise a payoff your prospects lust 
after. A promise oftransformation so big, so exciting, they 
have to hear more. 
It can't be little. It can't be weak. It can't be fragile. 
It's got to be big, bold, audacious, true and believable. 
In an ideal scenario, your promise would address an 
urgent problem your prospect has (that your product or 
service solves). The more urgent and severe and significant 
the problem, the more powerful and valuable your promise 
becomes. 
When prospects see your Primary Promise, you 
want them to think to themselves, "This is exactly what I've 
been waiting for. This changes everything." 
To begin thinking about your Primary Promise, start 
by answering this question:
As it relates to the problem your product or service 
addresses, what’s the most exciting, most compelling thing 
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43
your prospects are craving… lusting after… that they would 
love to experience?
To help in answering this question you can use the 
Magic Wand Technique. 
If you could wave a magic wand and grant your 
prospects anything: any transformation… any outcome… 
any result… any difference in their life, what would they ask 
for? What would that magic result be? 
And, here, in this context, don’t place any 
restrictions on your thinking. During this exercise it’s not 
about what’s true or believable. It’s just about what your 
prospects would ask for if you could wave a magic wand and 
grant them anything related to their current situation and 
problem.
Once you’ve got the ideal outcome your prospects 
would ask for, then you can back it down until you have a 
promise that’s true and believable. But start with the 
outcome they would request. No matter how outrageous. 
Another great exercise to do is the Ideal Client 
Exercise. 
This is where you imagine your greatest client or 
customer success story. I don't mean the greatest success 
story you already have. I’m talking about a future success 
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44
story.
If you had a future client who became your greatest 
success story, what result did they experience? What was 
the outcome? What was the transformation? What changed 
for them? What happened for them? What painful or 
frustrating thing aren't they experiencing anymore that they 
were experiencing before? What positive things are they 
now experiencing that they're grateful for?
And drill deep here. What other ancillary 
transformations happened in their life because of the core 
result? What additional benefits are they experiencing now?
This is important and valuable. Because if what you 
just described would be your greatest client or customer 
success story, then it should play a role in the Primary 
Promise you develop.
Again, you just want to make sure you start with the 
ideal, perfect result prospects want… then back it down to 
where it's true and believable.
Once you’ve identified your Primary Promise (P.P.) 
you have the first part of the Emotionally Compelling 
element of a Big Marketing Idea. 
But there’s another critical piece — the Unique 
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45
Mechanism (U.M.).
The Unique Mechanism is the unique piece, part, 
component, aspect, process, or system behind your product 
or service which delivers the Primary Promise for prospects. 
It’s the thing within your product or service that gives your 
prospect the result. It's the reason why your product or 
service works. 
For example:
It could be the unique algorithm behind your SEO 
software that gets users top Google rankings. The unique 
combination of nutrients in your vitamin supplement that 
lowers cholesterol by 30 points. The unique bodywork 
method you use in your massage practice which eliminates 
your client’s pain within 20 minutes. The unique recipe you 
use when baking your birthday cakes that makes them so 
delicious. 
Again, the Unique Mechanism is the unique part of 
your product or service which is responsible for fulfilling 
your Primary Promise. And having a Unique Mechanism is 
incredibly powerful because it gives your prospects hope in 
your product or service. 
 It gives them hope that maybe this time… with your 
product or service… they will experience the result — the 
result which has eluded them, the result which they didn't 
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46
experience from the other products and services they've 
bought. 
It gives them hope because they view the Unique 
Mechanism as the thing they've been missing. The one thing 
they haven't tried. The one thing that's been missing from 
all the other products and services they've bought.
It gives them hope that maybe this time things will 
be different because of the Unique Mechanism. Because 
they've never tried another product or service with this 
mechanism. So… maybe… this will be the difference maker 
for them.
It's also worth noting -- having a Unique 
Mechanism™ also prevents your product or service from 
being viewed as a commodity, as a generic solution. And in 
the process prevents something I refer to as the Google 
Marketing Slap. 
When you're marketing a commodity or a generic 
solution, like: a magnesium supplement, a book on five 
ways to grow bigger tomatoes, or a one-hour massage... 
what you're presenting is a commodity. It's generic. It's 
common.
And, when presented with a commodity, prospects 
are propelled to pause your video, go over to Google, and do 
a quick search for a cheaper, more convenient way of 
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getting the same commodity. 
Let's suppose, for example, you're marketing and 
selling a fat burning supplement. And in your marketing 
you tell prospects the reason why your fat burner works is 
because it contains the amino acid L-Carnitine. Well, you've 
now just presented a commodity - L-Carnitine. It's 
something they can find anywhere. At a health food store, 
VitaminShoppe, or right on Amazon. 
Now… because you’re presented a commodity… 
there's nothing special about your supplement. Nothing 
unique. Nothing different. 
So, all they have to do is press pause on your video, 
go over to Google, and type in L-Carnitine. And they'll be 
given dozens of different options for where to get it cheaper, 
faster, etc.
See: That's an example of a marketing message and 
a marketing idea that triggers the Google Marketing Slap. 
Where someone can simply go get all the information you’re 
presenting them with right on Google. And possibly buy 
your commodity from one of your competitors or an 
alternate vendor. 
That's why you never, ever should market a 
commodity or generic solution. 
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48
You want to market and sell a proprietary solution. 
And that's what having a Unique Mechanism™ gives you. 
With a Unique Mechanism behind your Primary 
Promise (PP), you're presenting a proprietary solution, 
because you're the only one offering it. Prospects can't get it 
anywhere else. They can't find it anywhere else even if they 
do a search on Google. You're the only product, the only 
software, the only program, the only vendor of the Unique 
Mechanism™ you're presenting. That's why it's proprietary. 
And that's why you’re product is not viewed as some 
commodity or generic solution. 
Let's look at a few real-world examples to really 
make this clear. 
The FrogTape® brand, marketed by ShurTech 
Brands, LLC (a subsidiary of Shurtape Technologies, LLC) 
markets and sells painters tape. Their Primary Promise: Use 
our tape and you never have to worry about paint bleeding 
over to areas where it shouldn't.
On the surface this seems like a commodity. Do a 
quick Google search and you'll find hundreds of different 
brands and options for painters tape. 
But there's one thing which sets FrogTape® apart — 
their Unique Mechanism.
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FrogTape® is able to fulfill on their promise of "no 
bleeding" because their tape is built with Paint Block 
Technology®. 
While other tape manufactures claim wonderful 
things about what theirpainters tape does and how it 
works, none offer Paint Block Technology®. That can only 
be found with FrogTape®. 
So, while other companies are stuck fighting it out in 
the red ocean of commoditized painters tape, Shurtape 
Technologies is marketing something different -- premium-
quality, innovative painting tapes that feature PaintBlock® 
Technology, "which keeps paint out and keeps lines sharp".
Today, Shurtape Technologies generates over $480 
million dollars in sales. Not too shabby for painters tape.
Sleeping Well, LLC is a company which markets and 
sells a mouthpiece to help eliminate snoring. It's called 
ZQuiet®. Their Primary Promise: A comfortable mouth 
guard that eliminates snoring in just days. 
Again, on the surface, seems like a commodity. A 
quick Google search for the term "snoring mouth guard" 
reveals over 400,000 websites listed. With one site 
reviewing over 29 different anti-snoring mouth guard 
brands and models. 
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But, like FrogTape®, there's one thing which sets 
ZQuiet® apart from all other mouth guards. They call it 
Living Hinge Technology. It’s their Unique Mechanism. 
The reason why ZQuiet® is so effective, yet so 
comfortable, is -- as they claim -- because of the Living 
Hinge Technology behind their mouth guard. According to 
their site, "it enables you to sleep comfortably throughout 
the night no matter how you are positioned and whether 
your mouth is open or closed."
See, they're not just making a promise and trying to 
sell an average, run-of-the-mill mouth guard. That would be 
a commodity. That would allow prospects to do a search for 
a cheaper mouth guard. 
No. They're marketing something different; their 
Unique Mechanism -- a mouth guard with Living Hinge 
Technology. It's not a generic mouth guard. It's not a 
commodity. And they're the only company that offers it. 
And it's allowed them to do extraordinarily well. 
The anti-snoring market -- yes, there's an entire 
market around snoring -- is a billion-dollar-plus market. 
And according to a recent report from 
MarketResearchFuture.com, Sleeping Well, LLC, is listed as 
the top player in this space. No doubt, the owners of this 
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51
company are sleeping well at night. (Had to slip that in.)
Let's look at one more example.
You've likely heard of P90X. It's one of those intense 
in-home exercise programs. The company behind P90X is 
BeachBody.
The early versions of their marketing didn’t 
demonstrate a unique mechanism. So, as they shared in a 
New York Times article, “The early P90X informercials 
bombed.” 
In fact, the company wasted tons of cash trying 14 
different versions of the infomercial before they really 
started to make money in 2006.
Once they introduced the right unique mechanism, 
their sales took off. 
The unique mechanism they came up with: Muscle 
Confusion. 
It's simply the name they gave to the exercise 
method behind P90X which produces the weight-loss and 
muscle-building results for users. 
In that same New York Times article, BeachBody 
even said, “P90X is not that special.” And later in an 
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52
interview, Tony Horton, the spokesperson for P90X said, 
"Muscle confusion was just a term we came up with… and 
we sold millions.” 
By 2015, their unique mechanism — muscle 
confusion — helped BeachBody crack $1 billion in sales, 
now with over 23 million customers.
That’s the impact of having the right Unique 
Mechanism™.
Now, there are three different types of Unique 
Mechanisms any product or service can have. As long as 
you’re not selling a pure commodity, like a gallon of 
gasoline, you can use one of these three types. 
The first type of Unique Mechanism is The Actual 
Mechanism. 
You would use this type of Unique Mechanism when 
you actually have a unique piece, part, component, process, 
aspect, system behind your product or service. When you 
actually have a unique algorithm in your software. When 
you actually have a unique ingredient in your pizza sauce. 
If you have something truly unique in your product 
or service that produces the results for folks, you have an 
Actual Mechanism.
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53
More often than not, your product or service may 
not have an actual mechanism. That's when you're going to 
use one of the other two types of mechanisms. 
The second type of Unique Mechanism is The 
Unspoken Mechanism. 
The Unspoken Mechanism is used when the 
mechanism that powers your product or service is not 
necessarily unique amongst your competitors, but it’s 
unique to prospects because none of your competitors are 
talking about it. 
In other words, it's not necessarily just your product 
or service that has the mechanism. It may be just you that's 
featuring the mechanism in your marketing.
This type of Unique Mechanism stems from 
legendary ad man, Claude Hopkins. 
Story has it, Claude was brought in by Schlitz Beer to 
work on their marketing in hopes of capturing greater 
market share. 
So they took Claude on a tour of one of their 
facilities. While there he saw something being done to the 
beer bottles before they were filled with beer. 
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54
"What's going on over there?" Claude asked. 
"Oh, that's where we sterilize all of our bottles. All 
of our bottles go through that sterilization process before 
we put any beer in there. It helps maintain the purity of 
our beer.“ 
Realizing what he just heard, Claude asked, "Well, 
why aren't you telling anybody about this? Why aren't you 
sharing that as the reason behind the quality of Schlitz 
beer?" 
“Because every beer manufacturer uses the same 
sterilization process,” the tour guide responded.
"But,” Claude retorted, “nobody's talking about it. 
Nobody's presenting it to the market. Nobody's sharing it 
with folks.”
So, Claude created an entire marketing campaign 
around Schlitz’s sterilization process — their Unspoken 
Mechanism. Even though other competitors had the same 
mechanism, Schlitz’s new campaign was able to recapture a 
tremendous amount of market share. Because they were the 
first and only one to talk about the sterilization process at 
the time. So it became their Unspoken Mechanism. And in 
the process, gave prospects a reason to be hopeful that 
Schlitz beer would be more fresh, more pure, and more 
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55
delicious. 
So, is there a part of your product or service that’s 
responsible for delivering the Primary Promise, not 
necessarily unique amongst your competitors, but none of 
them are talking about it? 
If so, it can your Unspoken Mechanism. 
Now, it may be a temporary Unique Mechanism 
until competitors see that it's working for you and knock it 
off. But before they do, it can be an effective Unique 
Mechanism for your marketing. 
The third type of Unique Mechanism is The 
Transubstantiated Mechanism. 
Despite the strange name, this is the most 
commonly used type of U.M.
I first learned about the idea of transubstantiation — 
within a marketing context — from Bill Bonner, founder of 
Agora.
The idea of transubstantiation comes from Roman 
Catholicism. It’s the principle behind communion when the 
wine is turned into the blood of Christ. 
In a marketing context, the secret of 
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56
transubstantiation is the idea of turning something ordinary 
into something extraordinary. Taking the common and 
making it uncommon and new. 
Let's say for example you were selling a vitamin D 
supplement. Well, of course as you now know, simply 
presenting vitamin D would be marketing and selling a 
commodity. It would trigger the Google Marketing Slap. 
Well, a little factoid for ya: Did you know vitamin D 
is one of the most important nutrients taken by astronauts 
in space? Well, it is. 
So, couldn't we refer to vitamin D in our marketing 
as… maybe... "The Astronaut's Nutrient". 
Sure we could. Andby doing so it’s a simple example 
of a transubstantiated mechanism. 
We turned the ordinary -- vitamin D -- into the 
extraordinary -- "The Astronaut's Nutrient". 
Now, this doesn't mean the product name needs to 
be "The Astronaut's Nutrient". In this example, that would 
just be the name we've given to the mechanism behind how 
and why the supplement works. And we could then use "The 
Astronaut's Nutrient" as the Unique Mechanism in our Big 
Marketing Idea. 
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57
This is just what financial copywriter, Mike Palmer, 
did with his legendary Secret Currency marketing 
promotion. It was all about investing in gold. But Mike 
knew he couldn't simply talk about gold investing. That 
would be the common. The ordinary. The market was 
already being slammed with promotions about gold. 
During Mike's research he found that thru the 
centuries gold was quietly used by the richest people as a 
medium of exchange. So, for his promotion, Mike 
transubstantiated gold into the "Secret Currency". His 
entire campaign, from headline to offer, was all about how 
today the Secret Currency could be used by everyday folks 
to hedge against inflation, deflation, market crashes, etc. 
And the campaign was a home run.
A Transubstantiated Mechanism was also used to 
introduce the marketing world to the "tripwire" by Ryan 
Deiss and Perry Belcher of Digital Marketer. Two fantastic 
entrepreneurs. 
As they presented it a handful of years ago, a 
tripwire is the first step in their funnel-building approach. 
It's a low-cost, low-barrier-of-entry offer presented to 
prospects with the aim of turning them into customers. 
Here, Ryan and Perry took a piece of their marketing 
methodology — the low priced offer — and gave it a 
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58
proprietary name. Tripwire. 
While today, the tripwire is associated with Digital 
Marketer, the idea of a low-cost, low-price offer is nothing 
new. It's been around for decades. It's been a longtime 
staple in the world of direct response marketing. 
That's not a knock against Ryan and Perry. Not at 
all. If anything it's a tip of my hat to them. They executed 
the Transubstantiated Mechanism beautifully. 
See: If Ryan and Perry had simply presented "a low-
cost offer" to the market, as the basis of their marketing 
methodology, they would have been presenting a 
commodity. They would have been marketing and selling 
the generic. The common. And they wouldn't have gotten 
nearly the traction they got.
Instead, they transubstantiated the common into 
something different. And when they presented the idea of a 
tripwire to the market, it triggered the feeling of something 
new for prospects. It made prospects think, “Ah. A tripwire 
is what I've been missing. That's the reason why I've been 
struggling. That's what I need." 
And because it was viewed as something new and 
different, it gave prospects hope. Hope… that learning and 
using a tripwire would give them the marketing pay-off they 
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59
were after. And, for many, it did. 
See, Ryan and Perry took the ordinary low-cost, low-
barrier-of-entry offer and transubstantiated it into 
something extraordinary.
Make sense?
Good.
By this point, we've talked about how a Big 
Marketing Idea is emotionally compelling because it’s built 
on the back of a Primary Promise which is fulfilled by a 
Unique Mechanism. 
Now we need to talk about what it means to be 
Intellectually Interesting (I.I.). 
Intellectually Interesting, in this context, means the 
idea is something your prospect would want to hear more 
about even if there was no explicit promise of benefit. 
Something which piques your prospect’s curiosity. 
Intellectually Interesting means it gives your 
prospect a feeling of discovery. An AHA! Moment. As if they 
just stumbled on something newsworthy. 
Intellectually Interesting makes your prospect think, 
"Hmm. I've never thought of that. I've never seen it that 
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60
way. I've never heard of that. This is big.”
Remember, to have a Big Marketing Idea you must 
appeal to both emotion and logic. Your idea must speak to 
both the heart and the head of your prospect. Stir their 
feelings and captivate their intellect. 
Now you know how to do it using the Big Marketing 
Idea Formula:
Emotionally Compelling (Primary Promise + 
Unique Mechanism) + Intellectually Interesting = 
Big Marketing Idea
Let’s look at some real-world examples to see this 
formula in action…
Chapter Four
Big Marketing Idea Examples
In this chapter we’ll take a look at ten examples of 
real-world Big Marketing Ideas. 
For each, you’ll see I’ve listed the Primary Promise 
and Unique Mechanism, so you understand what makes it 
Emotionally Compelling, along with the Intellectually 
Interesting component. 
It’s important you don’t pre-judge any of the ideas. 
While many, or all, may be from different markets than the 
one you’re operating within, it’s important you look at the 
overall application and not the specific idea. 
As well, despite some of the ideas seeming 
“outlandish” or “hyperbolic”, they’re all truthful and based 
on research. While we may push the envelope with how an 
idea is stated, we never, ever lie. 
Example #1: Marijuana Blueprint
• Primary Promise: Turn fifty-dollars into a 
massive fortune
• Unique Mechanism: The $50 Marijuana 
Blueprint
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What is 
happening within the equity markets regarding 
cannibas on November 8th that presents this unique 
opportunity?
Example #2: Fountain Of Youth
• Primary Promise: Slice twenty years off your age.
• Unique Mechanism: Medical science’s new 
“magic bullet” discovery.
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Has the 
“fountain of youth” really been discovered by 
medical science?
Example #3: Dark Trades
• Primary Promise: Collect $80K in a matter of 
days.
• Unique Mechanism: The anonymous trades 
behind every major stock move.
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Are there 
really “dark trades” happening before every 
skyrocketing stock price… and is it really possible for 
the little guy to get in on it?
Example #4: Spanish Heart Secret
• Primary Promise: Gain robust heart health.
• Unique Mechanism: Spain’s military “secret 
weapon” for superhuman health and wellness.
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What did 
Napoleon’s spies discover about how Spain’s 
military was able to create such vibrant and 
powerful soldiers?
Example #5: “Wiretapping”
• Primary Promise: Turn $2,000 into $10 million
• Unique Mechanism: Wiretapping America’s 
Richest Investors
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What do you 
mean “wiretapping”? How can it be done legally?
Example #6: “Fingerprints of God”
• Primary Promise: Prevent disease
• Unique Mechanism: “Fingerprints of God”
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What’s this 
discovery that claims to prove God’s existence? And 
can it really be used to prevent disease?
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Example #7: Gold Skimming
• Primary Promise: Get paid from every ounce of 
gold pulled from the ground
• Unique Mechanism: “Gold Skimming”
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What is gold 
skimming? Is it a new way to invest in gold? And 
how do I get paid on every ounce?
Example #8: Gene Hacking IPO
• Primary Promise: Get-in on a ground-breaking 
IPO investment
• Unique Mechanism: “The biggest Biotech 
Discovery” IPO
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What’s this 
“gene hacking technology” claiming to end all 
disease? Can I really get-in on this kind of IPO?
Example #9: The God Key
• Primary Promise: Get in on a stock that could go 
up by 35,000%
• Unique Mechanism: FDA Anomaly
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: What's the 
"God Key"? And what's this FDA Anomaly occuring 
on January 12th? 
Example #10: Smart Funnel
• Primary Promise: Experience double-digit sales 
conversions
• Unique Mechanism: SmartFunnel
• Intellectually Interesting Appeal: Does it really 
function like a real sales person? How? Is there 
some new technology I don’t know about?
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Chapter Five
Identifying Your Prospects’ Maturity
How "mature" are your prospects?
It's a question we need to answer before you can 
begin to look for your Big Marketing Idea.
In this context, maturity is determined by the types 
of marketing claims and ideas your prospects have already 
seen from competitors. Remember, a Big Marketing Idea is 
unique and different from what your prospects have already 
heard and seen. 
To identify maturity, we use a simple tool called The 
Promise Exposure Spectrum™, or PES, for short. It’s based 
on the idea of Marketplace Sophistication first presented by 
Eugene Schwartz in his perennial book Breakthrough 
Advertising.
Schwartz demonstrated how prospects evolve over 
time as they’re exposed to various marketing promises and 
claims. Over time, as prospects become more 
“sophisticated”, they no longer respond to the same types of 
promises and claims they once did. In order to keep them 
responding, your marketing needs to evolve as they do. 
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The Promise Exposure Spectrum™ allows you to 
identify what stage of sophistication your prospects are at, 
so you can ensure your Big Marketing Idea matches. 
An idea at the wrong stage — too low for where 
prospects are and what they’ve already seen — will fall flat. 
In fact, an “immature marketing message” is one of the 
biggest reasons for marketing campaign failure. 
That’s why it’s so important you use the Promise 
Exposure Spectrum™ to identify where your prospects fall.
There are five stages of the PES:
Stage #1: Promise
When your Primary Promise is something your 
prospects haven’t heard before, they’re at Stage #1. 
When you’re presenting your market with a promise 
nobody else has ever made them, all you need to do is 
present your Primary Promise. And the promise itself serves 
as the pattern interrupt and all that’s needed to get 
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attention.
For example: When the first fat burning supplement 
was released to the market, all that needed to be said was 
“Take this pill and you’ll lose weight”. Since nobody else had 
ever made that promise, prospects saw it as something new 
and different. 
But, over time, as more and more competitors came 
into the market and began knocking-off that promise, 
prospects began to respond less and less. That’s when 
weight-loss prospects evolved to the next stage. As did the 
messages from savvy marketers. 
Stage #2: Promise Expanded
At this stage, expanding the promise is needed to get 
attention. Here, we see marketers promising more and 
greater results. 
In the case of the fat burning supplement, at this 
stage we started seeing promises such as “Take this pill and 
lose 20 pounds”… “Take this pill and lose 15 inches”… “Take 
this pill and lose 30 pounds and 30 inches”.
It’s at this stage where lots of marketers remain… 
trying to compete by enlarging their claims more and more. 
They attempt to stand-out by simply screaming a louder 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
75
promise than their competitors.
But, over time, prospects no longer respond to 
simply enlarged claims and promises. Because at a certain 
point enlarged claims are no longer credible or believable 
(or true).
If today, for example, we had a fat burning 
supplement and our promise was “Take this pill and lose 
100 pounds”, it would fall on deaf ears. Why? Because the 
promise has been enlarged past the point of credibility or 
believability. Not too mention, beyond the point of being 
truthful. 
This is where savvier marketers evolve their 
marketing message to the next stage of the PES.
State #3: Promise & Unique Mechanism
Here, at this stage, the mechanism behind the 
promise is introduced. How does the product work to 
deliver the promised results?
In the case of the fat burning supplement, this is 
where you see messages like “Take this pill and lose up to 3 
pounds every week… as the Garcinia Cambogia prevents 
your body from absorbing fat.” 
In this example, the Garcinia Cambogia is the 
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76
mechanism that delivers the weight loss. 
As long as your mechanism remains unique to your 
product, operating at this stage can be extremely effective.
But, just like we saw with Stage #1, over time, as 
competitors see your success and knock-off your 
mechanism for their own product, staying with this message 
will make it harder and harder for you to get prospects to 
respond to your message. 
The key is not simply having a mechanism behind 
your Primary Promise. The key is having a Unique 
Mechanism. 
If you have a Unique Mechanism, you can remain at 
this stage with your message long-term. Once your Unique 
Mechanism becomes just a mechanism — common amongst 
competitor’s products — it’s time to move on to the next 
stage on the PES.
Stage #4: Promise + Expanded Mechanism
Similar to Stage #2, here we’re also expanding. At 
this stage, we’re expanding the mechanism, not the 
promise. 
In the case of the fat burning supplement, here is 
where we see the introduction of something like 
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77
“pharmaceutical-grade Garcinia Cambogia”… “Garcinia 
Cambogia from the rain forest”… “Garcinia Cambogia 
blended with a digestive enzyme”… etc.
We’re taking the mechanism and enlarging it, 
expanding it. 
As long as your “expanded mechanism” remains 
unique to your product or service, you can operate 
successfully at this stage. But, if and when competitors 
knock it off, you will need to move on to the final stage of 
the PES.
Stage #5: Prospect Experience
Here, the marketing message no longer focuses on 
the mechanism. Instead, you focus on the prospect’s 
experience.
In the case of the fat burning supplement, your 
message would become something along the lines of “Are 
you sick and tired of dieting, exercising, popping pills… and 
not losing weight?”
Now, imagine for one second, what would happen if 
we rolled-out a fantastic new fat burning supplement today, 
and our idea and message was simply “Take this pill and 
lose weight”.
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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What kind of response and results do you think we’d 
see?
Yeah, barely any! 
Why? Because that idea and message has already 
been seen. It’s old. It’s too low on the Promise Exposure 
Spectrum™ based on where prospects are right now. So it’s 
too immature. 
Like this book…
If you look at the PES, you can see the idea and 
message behind this book is based on Stage #1. 
Why? 
Because it’s simply presenting a promise — How to 
lose weight the natural way. 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
79
It’s not a Stage #2 message because it’s not 
expanding on the promise (e.g. how to lose 20 pounds a 
week). And it’s not a Stage #3 message because there’s no 
mechanism behind the promise. 
But, it’s way too immature for where weight-loss 
prospects are today. Because the market has heard this type 
of claim. Hundreds of times. For years. 
So this type of immature message simply triggers 
mental opt-out.
What this book is offering is information which is 
immediately recognizable as stuff that can be found 
anywhere. 
It’s offering information which has been available 
and offered many, many, many times before. 
So the market is well beyond this in terms of their 
sophistication. 
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Here’s another example:
Another Stage #1 idea and message. 
Nothing enlarged. And no mechanism. 
Also, way too immature. 
The market heard this type of idea a decade ago. 
It’s old. 
Boring. 
Blah. 
Garbage.
How about this one?
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Again: old, dated, run-of-the-mill, and way too 
immature for what this market has already been presented 
with.
All three examples are exactly whatnot to do.
And with all three examples you should also now see 
how there’s no specificity, no Unique Mechanism, nothing 
Intellectually Interesting, and not even a big, bold promise.
At the root of all three is simply a weak idea. 
And, no matter what we do with the copy — the 
words used — the underlying idea will remain the same, 
weak. 
Changing “Get Rich On The Internet” to “Get 
Wealthy In Just Weeks With Your Own Website” may 
improve the copy. But the idea is still the idea. Weak, 
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ordinary, and immature.
Remember, the copy stems from the idea. The idea 
always comes first. It’s the foundation. 
You don’t want to try to spruce-up copy for a 
garbage idea. As the saying goes, “You can put lipstick and a 
dress on a pig, but you’ll still have a pig.”
Start, instead, by developing a Big Marketing Idea. 
Then, and only then, dial-in the copy to express it 
clearly. 
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Chapter Six
Developing Big Marketing Ideas
So, how do you develop your own Big Marketing 
Ideas?
It all begins by first recognizing… Big Marketing 
Ideas don’t come to you in a flash of inspiration. They’re not 
based on your creativity… pulled from your psyche. They're 
not simply going to pop into your head. 
No. Big Marketing Ideas are discovered and 
developed. 
They come from digging into the market and 
product. From research (i.e. The Examination Stage of the 
E5 Customer Acquisition Marketing Protocol.) 
Eugene Schwartz said it best: 
“You don't get an idea or a headline. You dig it out 
of the market research. You wring it out of your product. 
You read. You listen. You experiment. The creativity is not 
in you. It's in your market. It's in your prospects. It's in 
your product. All you're doing is joining the two together.”
This is why, when it comes to research, legendary 
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advertising copywriter, John Caples, said:
“You should collect 7 times the amount of 
information you think you’re going to need…”
And all-star copywriter, Gary Bencivenga, said:
“Research with a hand-truck. You can never have 
too much information…”
And my friend, Brian Kurtz, former VP of 
Boardroom Inc., said:
“Be a bloodhound…”
Finding Big Marketing Ideas begins with deep 
digging. 
And, when digging and doing your research, you 
need to consume lots of information. You need lots of ideas. 
And to get lots of ideas, you need lots of input.
This is why the idea of a marketer not reading a 
variety of diverse books and magazines… not watching the 
news… not watching popular movies or television shows… 
not reading general information as well as market-specific 
information… is absurd. 
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Marketers that foolishly limit their sources of 
information are limiting their input. And, by limiting their 
input, they're limiting their potential output of ideas. 
In order to come up with lots of ideas, you must 
have a lot of input. And you must have a lot of input and a 
lot of ideas in order to find and develop a Big Marketing 
Idea.
Remember: The whole process for finding and 
developing a Big Marketing Idea is all about discovery and 
assembly. Both come from your volume of input. 
So what are ideas?
Well, an idea is nothing more than a new 
combination of old, common, seemingly disconnected 
elements.
Finding seeds of great ideas is about looking for new 
or unusual combinations and/or connections between two 
or three different things that are seemingly disconnected. 
It's you seeing a new or unusual connection between two or 
more seemingly disconnected items. 
And, as James Webb Young shares in his fantastic 
little book A Technique For Producing Ideas:
“The capacity to bring old elements into new 
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combination depends on your ability to see relationships.”
Now, you might not be a natural at this. But, the 
beautiful thing is… the ability to see relationships where 
others don’t, is a skillset which can be developed like any 
other skillset. 
In his book, Young references the idea of being 
either a rentier or a speculator — a concept first presented 
by Wilfredo Pareto, the Italian sociologist behind the 80/20 
principle. 
Rentiers are people who view different elements as 
separate, disconnected bits of information. They go about 
life not looking for, or seeing, connections. 
Then you've got speculators. These people are 
preoccupied with the possibility of connections. They view 
elements not as totally separate, but as another link in the 
same chain. They’re constantly on the lookout for possible 
combinations and connections. How is A like or connected 
to B? 
You need to begin to function as a speculator. 
Proactively, intentionally looking for relationships between 
things that rentiers ignore as being disconnected. 
That's how you’ll begin to strengthen your idea 
muscle. And how you’ll develop the skillset of seeing 
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combinations where others do not. 
This is exactly what entrepreneur and copywriter, 
Porter Stansberry, did when creating the first marketing 
campaign for his investment newsletter, Stansberry 
Advisory. 
The body of Porter’s marketing campaign detailed 
how the spread of voiceover IP was about to radically 
change the telecommunications industry. At the time of the 
campaign, fiber optic cable was being laid all throughout 
the country. And it was about to present savvy investors 
with a monumental opportunity. 
But Porter knew, if he simply announced another 
new investment opportunity, the market would see it as 
more of the same. It would be viewed as old-hat. Typical. 
 Instead, Porter chose to develop a Big Marketing 
Idea. 
He saw a relationship between the spread of fiber 
optic cable and the spread of the early American railroad. 
The spread of the railroad created tremendous 
fortunes and created many titans of industry. Porter felt the 
same opportunity was at hand with the spread of fiber optic 
cable. And that became the foundation of his Big Marketing 
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Idea.
The campaign went on to be a wild success. In fact, 
it helped launch, what is today, a $170+ million-dollar a 
year business.
See how Porter found a relationship between two 
seemingly disconnected things — the spread of the railroad 
and the spread of fiber optic cable — and brought them 
together for what became a Big Marketing Idea?
That’s the power of proactively looking for 
connections. 
Now, to have the correct input to find these 
connections there are two different types of information you 
should be consuming.
There's specific information which is related to your 
product… related to your prospect… and related to your 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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market in general. 
And there’s general information related to what’s on 
the forefront of people’s minds (i.e. current events). 
Ideas come from a new combination of specific 
knowledge about your product and prospect, along with 
general knowledge about the mainstream issues on the 
markets mind.
This is why it’s important for you to consume a 
variety of general information along with specific 
information related to your product and marketplace.
Some various sources, just to get your wheels 
spinning: books, magazines, newspapers, news programs, 
forums, Amazon comments, blog articles, blog comments, 
professional trade journals, Facebook groups, podcasts, 
radio programs, YouTube, history, other experts' content, 
past marketing promotions, etc.
While consuming, digging, and researching, you’re 
looking for seeds of ideas you haven’t heard before. Things 
shared with a different perspective. An interesting, curious 
nugget. A twist on an old idea. A weird fact. 
You want to find things that get your juices flowing. 
Something which piques your own curiosity. Something 
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which gets you excited…and excited to tell others about. 
And when you’re researching, don't pre-judge any 
idea or nugget. Don’t start making decisions about whether 
it’s good or not while researching. Just note it. Document 
every idea that strikes your fancy.
When possible, also note proof points along the way. 
Remember, promises and claims are cheap. They're 
brushed-off without proof. There's no value in an idea if 
there's no proof to back it up. So, when researching, note 
proof points. 
Also, when you're developing your ideas, don’t be 
afraid to explore ideas that are outrageous, controversial, or 
polarizing. You can’t be afraid to ruffle feathers. You can't 
be afraid to say something that’s going to polarize you in the 
eyes of your market. And you can't be afraid to say 
something that’s slightly embarrassing. You've got to be 
willing to go big.
Remember, you’re not looking for an idea that’ll tap 
your prospect on the shoulder. You’re looking for an idea 
that’ll whack them on the side of the head. 
And don’t rush things. You need to be patient when 
researching and looking for seeds of a Big Marketing Idea. 
Give yourself the time and room to find interesting stuff and 
flesh it out. Don’t rush ahead with an idea unless you feel 
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you have something you’re excited about. 
Remember, the idea you go with can make or break 
your entire marketing campaign. So be patient.
Another approach you can use when looking for 
seeds of Big Marketing Ideas is to use the "Action Figure" 
Technique. This is based on an interaction Mark Ford had 
years ago while flying home from a family vacation.
Seated next to him on the plane just so happened to 
be one of the original creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles. 
Being the curious fellow he is, Mark leaned over and 
asked the gentleman how they came up with such a popular 
idea. 
“At the time,” the gentleman responded, “mutants, 
ninjas, and turtles were really popular. And since we were 
targeting teenagers, we figured, let’s combine all of that 
into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s it.”
Pretty funny, right? And interesting, though. 
The idea here is to look for the different topics and 
ideas getting a lot of attention in your marketplace right 
now, and see if you can combine them into a new and 
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different story nobody else is telling. 
Just, be aware: During this stage of “idea 
development” you’re not writing any copy. You’re not trying 
to craft a headline or any opening copy. You’re simply 
developing the idea. 
Think of it like developing the idea for a movie 
script. You only begin writing when you’ve first determined 
you have a great story to tell. 
So, your aim is to get clarity on the idea itself, first. 
To make sure you have clarity, you should be able to 
sum up your Big Marketing Idea in a concise statement 
that’s simple and powerful. 
You must be able to articulate your idea in under 30 
seconds. 
Imagine you’re at a social gathering and you want to 
run your idea by a friend to see if they would find it 
interesting and compelling. You wouldn't take a half hour. 
You wouldn't take 20 minutes. And you wouldn't rattle off 
some headline. 
You'd share the idea as quickly and clearly as 
possible and wait for their response. And what you’d be 
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hoping for is, “Wow, tell me more about that.”
If you can’t sum-up your idea in under 30 seconds, 
odds are you don’t have clarity yet. And you need to spend 
more time thinking about it and developing it. 
One final and important note about Big Marketing 
Ideas: They exist within a context, within a point in time.
What was a Big Marketing Idea three months ago 
may not be a Big Marketing Idea today. Likely, what was a 
Big Marketing Idea a year ago is certainly not a Big 
Marketing Idea today. 
Sometimes ideas have a very limited window. Some, 
weeks. Others, months. Rarely, years. 
Why? Because things change. Your prospects evolve. 
What was once new is now old. What was once unique is 
now run-of-the-mill. 
So, you never want to copy or steal an old idea. You 
shouldn't be stealing anybody's idea to begin with, but it's to 
your detriment if you do because they all exist within a 
context. And likely, that context has changed. 
Your aim is to develop something new and fresh. 
Something timely. Something unique. Something your 
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prospects have never heard before. Something arresting. 
And it needs to be Emotionally Compelling and 
Intellectually Interesting. Something that prods your 
prospect’s heart and head. Their feelings and their logic. 
When you’re patient… and you develop that type of 
idea — a Big Marketing Idea — you’ll then possess the 
foundation of what can be turned into a very powerful and 
very profitable marketing campaign. 
It’s not easy. And won’t happen quickly.
But the payoff can be incredible!
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Epilogue
If you're reading this section, my hope is you've read 
the entire book. Kudos. Not many marketers will make it 
this far. Not many people are committed enough to actually 
read entire books. 
Sad. I know. But you have. And that's cause for 
celebration.
You too now understand the single most valuable 
marketing lesson I've learned in the fifteen-plus years I've 
been in the direct marketing trenches. 
When I first learned the secret of the Big Marketing 
Idea twelve years ago, it completely changed my entire 
approach to engineering marketing campaigns. And, in the 
process, helped me build several multi-million-dollar 
businesses. And equipped me to help hundreds of other 
entrepreneurs do the same. 
Make no mistake, developing Big Marketing Ideas is 
not easy. Or quick. But, then again, nothing great is. It will 
take time. Commitment. Tenacity. And patience. But like all 
great things, the payoff is so worth it. 
Effective marketing is the life-blood of all business. 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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It's the foundation. The bedrock. 
When done correctly, it can transform a fledgling 
venture into a marketplace leader. A cash-strapped 
entrepreneur into a cash-flush business owner. 
And at the root of the most effective marketing... is a 
Big Marketing Idea. 
My deepest hope is you now recognize that. And 
embrace it. That you go on from here and search for your 
first Big Marketing Idea. Then your second. Then third. And 
continue as an entrepreneur who engineers marketing 
campaigns which stand-out and get attention. Captivating 
prospects. Moving them emotionally and intellectually. 
Creating a thriving source of new customers in the process. 
And growing the business or businesses of your dreams.
That's what the secret of the Big Marketing Idea can 
do for you. And now you know it too.
I’m certainly here to help. In fact, I'd love to help. It 
would my honor and privilege to teach you my full E5 
Customer Acquisition Marketing Protocol (C.A.M.P.) -- my 
entire process for helping you find your Big Marketing Idea 
and turning it into a full marketing campaign which brings 
you new customer sales, every day. If you're interested, go 
to: www.E5Camp.com. 
http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
97
Next Steps For You…
Now that you understand the power behind 
developing Big Marketing Ideas, I want to invite you to turn 
your Big Marketing Idea into a fully-launched marketing 
campaign which brings you new customer sales, every day.
And I want to invite you to do it with a seat in the E5 
C.A.M.P. Masterclass. 
If you’re looking to learn a powerful, customer-
generating method that will finally make your marketing 
work, the E5 C.A.M.P. Masterclass will give you the path to 
succeed right away.
• Right off the bat you'll learn the difference between 
setting-up a customer-generating campaign and an 
ordinary marketing funnel.
• You'll learn how to make sure you’venailed your Big 
Marketing Idea to ensure your campaign gets lots of 
attention in your marketplace. 
• You'll learn how to position your product so your 
prospects see it as something new, unique, and 
different.
• You'll learn exactly what you need to say in the first 
http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
98
350 to 800 words of your marketing campaign so 
your prospects remain engaged.
• You'll learn how to develop the perfect marketing 
message for your specific product or service that gets 
prospects ready to buy.
• You'll learn how to construct a S.I.N. Offer which 
makes it a no-brainer for prospects to purchase your 
product.
• You'll learn how to prove the profitability of your 
new marketing campaign in just days... without 
wasting any time or money.
• You'll learn how to grow the daily volume of new 
customers you're getting by using my simple traffic 
formula: B.A.C.O.
• ...and much, MUCH MORE!
And, in just 45 days you'll have your new and 
profitable campaign published and bringing you new 
customers. 
PLUS: There's zero risk to put it to the test. 
Because you're protected by a full 100% Money-Back 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
99
Guarantee.
You're either thrilled with the quantity of sales and 
new customers the E5 CAMP Masterclass is bringing you, or 
you can send one email and get all of your money back. 
This is your opportunity to finally have marketing 
which really does bring you new customer sales, every day.
You just need to take action and enroll in the E5 
CAMP Masterclass.
Look: 
I have no idea what your financial situation or 
lifestyle looks like. 
But I believe you're a motivated entrepreneur. 
Maybe you want a successful business to finally get 
free of a 9-5 job.
Maybe you want to elevate your family's financial 
status. 
Maybe you want to experience the best life has to 
offer. 
Or maybe you just want extra cash every month you 
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http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
100
can splurge on a vacation, a new car, the newest electronic 
gadget, or a second home. 
Whatever you're after, this is your chance to finally 
have a business which gives you the cash flow and profits 
you want.
It all begins when you enroll in the E5 CAMP 
Masterclass and learn how to use it to bring you new 
customer sales, every day. 
Do it. This will be best decision you make for your 
business.
Hope to see you inside!
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
101
Appendix
There are three additional benefits which come from 
building your marketing around a Big Marketing Idea. All 
three can have a significant impact on the volume of new 
customer sales your marketing generates. 
First, with a campaign built around a Big Marketing 
Idea, you can tap into a monster source of new sales from 
the largest, ignored segment of your marketplace.
Most entrepreneurs are completely clueless about 
this. 
To understand how this works, you need to first 
understand the Prospect Awareness Pyramid™. It’s a 
simple tool taught and used as part of the E5 Customer 
Acquisition Marketing Protocol (www.E5Camp.com). 
And it’s an expansion on the principle of prospect 
awareness first introduced by Eugene Schwartz in 1966. 
http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
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You’ll notice there are five levels of prospect 
awareness. 
Starting at the bottom, we have the Unaware Level. 
Prospects which have no awareness of any existing problem 
or of anything about you, your product, or your product 
category, fall within this level. 
One level up, we have the Problem Aware Level. 
Prospects which are aware of their existing problem, but not 
aware of any of the possible solutions available, fall within 
this level.
Another level up, we have the Solution Aware Level. 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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Prospects which are aware of their existing problem and of 
the various solution types available, fall within this level.
Up another level, we have the Product Aware Level. 
Prospects which are aware of their existing problem and of 
your product, but aren’t sure if it’s right for them, fall within 
this level.
And at the top of the pyramid we have the Most 
Aware Level. Prospects which know all about you and your 
product, and simply want to know the “deal”, fall within this 
level.
Why is this valuable? Well, as Eugene Schwartz said, 
“Knowing what your prospects know in advance of a sales 
pitch is just as important as knowing who he is or what he 
wants.”
Knowing who you’re targeting and where they fall on 
the Prospect Awareness Pyramid™ is critical because it tells 
you how “direct” or “indirect” your Big Marketing Idea 
should be.
Meaning: How early in your marketing should you 
be talking about the product or offer.
The more aware your prospect is — higher on the 
pyramid — the more direct your Big Marketing Idea can be. 
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The less aware your prospect is — lower on the 
pyramid — the less direct your Big Marketing Idea should 
be. 
Most entrepreneurs and marketers have been taught 
to target prospects higher on the pyramid. Folks at least 
with an awareness of an existing problem. Why? Because 
they’re easier to sell. 
But there’s an important element I want you to 
grasp. 
As you target higher awareness prospects, the 
smaller your universe of prospects becomes. 
Obviously, Most Aware — prospects who know you 
and your product — is the smallest universe of prospects. 
Whereas, Unaware — prospects who aren’t even 
aware of a problem, you, your product, or any solutions — is 
the biggest universe of prospects. A universe… almost all of 
your competitors are likely ignoring.
While typical promise-driven ideas can work with 
higher awareness level prospects, they will not work with 
lower awareness level prospects. 
Meaning: To tap into the lowest level of awareness 
prospects… and hence, the biggest universe of prospects… 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
105
you can’t use the typical promise-driven idea. You need a 
Big Marketing Idea.
Now, with what you’ve learned in this book, you 
have the ability to tap into a tremendous source of potential 
new customers being ignored by almost all other advertising 
in your market.
Pretty cool, right? 
Next additional benefit…
When you build your campaigns around a Big 
Marketing Idea, you have everything you need to create 
paid ads which get higher clicks and engagement than pure 
pitch advertisements. So, you have the opportunity to 
quickly turn your Big Marketing Idea into faster profits 
from cold traffic.
As you now know, Big Marketing Ideas standout and 
get more attention then simple, ordinary ideas conveyed in 
paid advertising. This greater attention tends to lead to a 
higher CTR (click-thru rate). And a higher CTR and greater 
ad engagement leads to lower advertising costs. Because 
platforms like Facebook reward advertisers for content 
which demonstrates higher levels of interest from users. 
So, with a Big Marketing Idea, you not only have the 
ability to get more traffic from your advertising, you also 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
106
have the ability to generate that traffic at a lower cost. And 
more traffic at a cheaper price is a fast path to greater 
profits. 
And, finally, the third additional benefit…
Now that you understand how to find and develop 
Big Marketing Ideas, you can market and sell the same 
product every day for years... without your marketing ever 
getting stale or dated.
See: Outside of the offer, the two most important 
components of every marketing campaign are the idea and 
the lead (the first 350-800 words).
Think of it within the context of the 80/20 principle. 
The idea and lead are the 20% of any marketing campaign 
responsible for 80% of the results. 
What this means is youcan regularly develop new 
Big Marketing Ideas for your marketing, leave 80% of the 
campaign the same, and sell the same product over and 
over. 
When the time comes where a Big Marketing Idea is 
no longer generating adequate response from the market, 
you can simply develop a new idea and lead, while leaving 
the rest of the marketing campaign almost identical. It’ll be 
perceived by the market as a new campaign. And will allow 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
107
you to continue marketing and selling your product over 
and over without your message every getting stale.
So, in summary:
Now that you know how to find and develop Big 
Marketing Ideas, you have a way of ensuring your 
marketing stands-out and gets attention even in a crowded 
marketplace. You have a way to tap into the biggest 
untapped source of potential new customers. You have a 
way to quickly generate profits from cold traffic at a lower 
price point. And you have the ability to market and sell the 
same product over and over for years without your 
marketing ever feeling dated.
Not too shabby from a single marketing book.
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
108
About Todd Brown
Considered the #1 authority on engineering 
profitable customer acquisition campaigns, Todd Brown is 
the marketing expert other experts come to when they need 
help with their own marketing.
With clients in over 33 different countries, operating 
in over 65 different mass and niche markets, it's been said 
that Todd has helped his students engineer more six and 
seven-figure marketing campaigns than any other expert 
online today.
His list of coaching students, consulting clients, and 
subscribers reads like a Who's Who of A-List Marketers. His 
agency has created the marketing campaigns behind some 
of the biggest direct response marketers and companies 
online today. And, entrepreneurs happily fly-in from all 
around the globe for a single day with Todd to learn his 
renowned E5 Method.
http://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book%0AWith%20clients%20in%20over%2033%20different%20countries,%20operating%20in%20over%2065%20different%20mass%20and%20niche%20markets,%20it's%20been%20said%20that%20Todd%20has%20helped%20his%20students%20engineer%20more%20six%20and%20seven-figure%20marketing%20campaigns%20than%20any%20other%20expert%20online%20today.%0A%0AHis%20list%20of%20coaching%20students,%20consulting%20clients,%20and%20subscribers%20reads%20like%20a%20Who's%20Who%20of%20A-List%20Marketers.%20His%20Agency%20creates%20the%20marketing%20campaigns%20behind%20some%20of%20the%20biggest%20direct%20response%20marketers%20and%20companies%20online%20today.%0A%0Ahttp://e5camp.com?utm_source=big-idea-book
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have come about without the 
ideas, insights, and impact of a handful of people. 
Mark Morgan Ford: Thank you for introducing me 
to the incredible power of the Big Marketing Idea. It has 
changed the course of my entrepreneurial journey forever. 
I’m eternally grateful.
Rich Schefren: Your mentorship has played a bigger 
role in my understanding of marketing and business 
development than possibly anything else. I would not be the 
marketer or entrepreneur I am today if it was not for your 
unrelenting and generous support over the past decade-
plus. I’ve deeply valued all of our discussions about the Big 
Marketing Idea. And, it goes without saying — your 
friendship is something I cherish. 
Joe Schriefer: You’re one of the most generous guys 
I know. And your constant willingness to share and give 
transparently has helped to clarify my understanding of the 
Big Marketing Idea even more. You have no idea how 
grateful I am that we were seat mates at the Titans dinner. 
John Forde: Your documentation of lead types 
helped to clarify how to best tie the Big Marketing Idea into 
the opening (lead) of a marketing campaign. It opened my 
How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea
110
eyes to the enormous value of understanding when to be 
direct and when to be indirect. And greatly impacted many 
of my most profitable marketing campaigns. 
Mike Palmer: Your perspective on “bringing a new 
story to the market” helped to hone my thinking about the 
Big Marketing Idea even more. And it’s become a part of my 
regular process when developing new ideas. 
Eugene Schwartz: While I never had the great 
opportunity of meeting Gene, his ideas were the launching 
pad for much of what I’ve come to understand today about 
effective marketing. And for that, I owe him a debt of 
gratitude. I only wish I had the chance to repay it. 
Agora Inc.: As a whole, this company has been a 
constant source of inspiration, ideas, growth, and 
excitement for me as an entrepreneur. I love what they do. 
And how they do it. And I’m grateful that as an “outsider” 
I’ve been bestowed such rare and valuable “insider” access. 
Thank you Bill, Myles, Porter, and far too many others to 
mention here.