Top Marketing Gurus

jhmattern - great posts, I like your insight and agree with you 100%

I'm also a big fan of the guerrilla marketing books, I've read most of them. If anyone's interested in marketing, I highly recommend reading them. They've helped me through making my first TV commercials when I was first starting marketing offline.

 

That's because I am very very serious when it comes to my profession and people who claim to be professionals giving the real ones a bad name. It's the same reason us legitimate PR professionals have to fight past the image of "spin doctors" because of a few bad apples. It infuriates me, and rightfully so.

Jenn

 

seems they got alot of cash to flash. You can go anything with a few buck to blow like tens of thousands. so they spend millions to make millions.

 

If I had something to sell that works I'd be very rich and keeping it very quiet and not selling e-books to all and sundry on the subject.

 

Hi All

A friend of mine would not classify himself as a guru. He did not go to university and get a degree in advertising.

He bought products, read books (both real and electronic), went to seminars, bootcamps and training sessions hosted and produced by many of the "gurus" that people are referring to.

He learned the craft, honed his skills, produced helpful products and software which streamlined his business. He created opportunities for others to obtain rights to sell products, created a fantastic affiliate program, mentored many aspiring marketers, and guided a significant number of people to earning life changing sums of money.

I have seen his bank accounts, I have seen the folders full of emails and drawers full of letters of appreciation from customers and clients that he has helped.

He consistently makes over $30,000 per month, yet is still on hand to help his customers and enjoys a great deal of time off.

Is he a "True marketing guru" - he would say no - but I would say yes. Simply because he does NOT get paid huge amounts of money by major corporations. He does it on his own - with his own money.

There are many advertising types (I personally know a few) who work for large firms who simply flitter away client's money - because the reality is- it's not their own cash they are putting up, they can afford to indulge their flights of fancy.

I would rather spend my own money testing and following the principles I know to work (because I have seen them first hand) than ever entrust my success to an advertising company - nor would I take advice off them.

The reality is - the only people who can afford to throw money at advertising firms are only doing so to build "Brand Awareness" - Everyone knows who Coca Cola are - yet they spend millions on advertising every year - and most of it is simply brand awareness advertising and probably does not sell a single can of the stuff.

Only my humble opinion.

Regards

Baz

 

Hi All,

What an interesting thread this is. I can see that there are many passionate views on what is and what isn't a guru.

I'm a fairly modest person and no matter how good I am at something, I would never call myself a guru. To me being a guru or anything for that matter is other peoples perception of me, other peoples opinion not my own. It's a lot like respect...respect is given and earned not taken, and to me those that call themselves guru's have taken that title not earned it.

At the end of the day though, it really does come down to a persons own opinion of others.

Just my thoughts.

BTW, Jenn I look forward to seeing your marketing plan outline.

 

I have been researching marketing since opening my business. I swear I've done so much research on google, it doesn't even wait for me to type in the phrase anymore.

I've found most of the "gurus" are taking a hint from here and a hint from there and putting them in a book....and then giving away every private label software available for free as special $2000 bonuses.

Have I bought all the books? No.... when they're $67 a pop, I'd be poor. There's one that I'm toying with buying, but I haven't really heard anything from his teleseminars that is pushing me over the edge to buy.

That's the other thing....they love to hold teleseminars...and all they talk about is how great each other are. They give no information. Michael Port gives OUTSTANDING teleseminars that actually teach you something. I ran out and bought his book that day. One I was on had 5 copywriters, and they all talked about how much money Dan Kennedy made them. And Dan Kennedy ate it up. 75 minutes, not ONE thing you could use.

 

For teleseminars read give your money to some dude for a chat on the phone in return.

 

Don't listen to everything you hear on this forum. There are many USEFUL ebooks that can make you a lot of money if you actually take action.

Most people think they can buy a book, and somehow they will be rich automatically. You have to believe in yourself and take action. There are many gurus out there which are not scammers or rip offs despite what some think.

 

But they're also not "gurus". Like I've said time and time again, real professionals will do one of two things: give you the information for free on their own site or blog because their real goal is trying to educate people, not make a quick buck... or they charge you huge consulting fees to even talk to them, because their time is simply that valuable.

Like I've also said, if you found one useful, more power to you. That doesn't make them gurus, when you could have learned the same thing for free by doing a quick search or asking a professional in the industry. They just regurgitate the most basic of marketing concepts and toss in some fancy words to make it sound original. They're not.

Jenn

 

Hi Jenn, I get what you're saying however...perhaps these guru's sell these ebooks to make "extra" money. Surely not everyone can go to their seminars so it's probably just a way to reach people they could'nt normally reach, I don't see why that makes them less of a guru.

All I know is that there are many Internet marketers making loads of cash and are willing to give out valuable information in their mailing lists for free and I have bought a few ebooks which I though were great and really motivated me.

To me (and many others) they deserve to be called guru's, but yeah no disrespect to you, I'm sure you know more about marketing than me, I'm just trying show you that just because you know a lot about marketing theres many of us who don't and we love reading the odd ebook and learning something we never knew, about some of the info would be hard maybe even imposible IMO to find using a search engine or forum.

 

Because they're not real marketing professionals. They're not teaching you anything unique or special that only they could teach you. They're just spitting out the same old stuff you'd learn in an introductory class. Real marketing gurus are too busy working with real clients, not just going around giving seminars and selling ebooks. That's all they know how to do. That's all they can teach you... how to use marketing copy to manipulate people into being suckered into paying for something they could get for free. That does NOT make someone a guru in any field.

A "guru" in a field would be able to teach other professionals something... they're the cream of the crop, and the top in their field. These guys, for the most part, couldn't get hired by a firm or major corporation if their life depended on it, because they're not good... they just know how to use flashy words and hype. So whether you learn something from them or not, they're NOT gurus. I don't know how I can say that in any other way. Anyone in the field could do what they do and probably earn even more money than them. But most professionals have respect for their work, and would rather use their knowledge to expand their careers, help clients, and continue learning, than to keep throwing the most basic of concepts out there hoping to make a quick buck from a seminar or ebook.