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Gary Vee and I got in a fight…

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Several years ago we were running an event at ClickFunnels.

It was exciting because we were just about to pass 50,000 active members, we’d just hired the Harmon Brothers to help us create a viral video (this one), and business was booming!

Now I’d built ClickFunnels $0 to $100 million using “direct response marketing.”

And we thought it’d be fun to invite Gary Vee to speak on stage about “branding” — which is the opposite.

Branding is all about creating an image and a logo that permeates the market to a degree that people purchase largely just because it’s familiar.

Direct response marketing is all about putting something out into the market place and getting an immediate response (like their email address or a purchase).

Gary Vee and I had approached things very differently.

I went on stage and talked about how I had used direct response marketing…

And he went on stage and talked about branding…

It was clear to anyone watching that he thought his way was better… and that I thought my way was better.

Here’s the problem I see with a branding-first approach for 99% of entrepreneurs…

Problem A — It’s extremely expensive. If you want to get your brand in front of millions of people to become a “household” name… you’re competing with big brands that spend millions of dollars every month on ads.

Problem B — It’s unpredictable. You might master your SEO or your Facebook following… but a single algorithm change can wipe out your audience reach and your business overnight. This happens all the time.

Direct response marketing, on the other hand, is all about getting a response right away — branding comes later.

In fact, in Dan Kennedy’s book, No B.S. Direct Marketing, he gives 10 commandments for direct response marketing. Here’s the 5th one…

“Whatever brand building occurs will be a happy by-product. It will not be bought.”

At ClickFunnels, we don’t run ads to just drive people to ClickFunnels.

We drive people to offers, they buy… and only then do we educate them about ClickFunnels and our brand.

See how this works?

Direct response marketing comes first… branding comes after they’ve already bought.

In fact, our brand logo isn’t even on most of our sales pages we drive ad traffic to… because it doesn't help conversion.

It’s all about the offer.

Once they’re in our world, we can introduce them to me and to ClickFunnels. We use direct response marketing to make the first sale, and we use branding to make the second sale.

Make sense?

You can learn how I do it in my Secrets Trilogy!

- Russell Brunson

P.S. Gary Vee and I made up backstage at an event a few months ago. We’re cool now 🙂

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