Interview With Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller From Gravitational Marketing

I recently started subscribing to The Jim & Travis Blog, a marketing blog from Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller. Jimmy and Travis are the authors of ‘Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers‘, a successful marketing book which you can buy from Amazon for $16.17.

One of the reasons I started subscribing to their blog was their fantastic video clips. I don’t remember seeing anyone being as funny, confident or lively in front of the camera as Jimmy (5FtHighMktgGuy) and Travis (BigIdeaGuy). It’s a refreshing change from reading long boring articles on marketing.

Check out their recent video on ‘How To Use A Twitter Hash Tag‘ to see what I mean

I contacted Jimmy through Twitter last week and he quickly replied saying that they were more than happy to take part in an interview for you guys. Enjoy

As is usual in BloggingTips interviews, I like to ask interviewees to first introduce themselves and let readers who don’t know you find out a little about you guys

We’re Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller, creators or Gravitational Marketing and authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers (Wiley 2008). We met in college at marching band camp in 1995 (seriously). Since that moment we’ve been obsessing about choices (like why did we chose to sweat our butts off on this damn marching band field). What makes one person choose one thing and another person choose another? What effect can we (as individuals or companies) have on those choices? And how can that influence or persuasion be made to feel natural rather than forced?

Born as an ideal, the concept ultimately transformed into reality as Gravitational Marketing…a powerful, natural force that can’t be defied, which causes people to gravitate in mass quantity to your idea, your business, your cause.

Today our emphasis is on speaking to, writing for, coaching and consulting entrepreneurs toward greatness by creating reliable and intentional systems for attracting and converting the perfect customers.

Your book ‘Gravitational Marketing – The Science Of Attracting Customers’, was a huge success and has received a huge amount of praise from reviewers. There are thousands of books on Marketing available today which makes choosing the right book very difficult for would be entrepreneurs. What sets Gravitational Marketing apart from the crowd?

We don’t focus on theory and fluff. We get right down to business and we’re not afraid to talk about making people buy. We talk about things that make people come to you and make the cash register ring. We focus on lead generation, which is so frequently overlooked. Most other marketing advice assumes you already have a flow of leads. What good is a sales strategy if you don’t have anyone to sell to? This is about creating prospects out of thin air, positioning yourself in a way that’s engaging and unique, providing value first and becoming a trusted advisor instead of a product pusher.

How did you guys first get involved in Marketing and Advertising?

We got into advertising after we flunked out of calculus class in college. We were both math and science majors… pre-med (Jim) and engineering (Travis). After calculus we knew we needed to find different career choices. We both chose communication and advertising. It’s what we were really good at. We figured it would be easy and it was. The problem was we didn’t learn anything about really making advertising work.

I graduated first with a degree in advertising and public relations and got a job as the assistant to the vice president at a direct response agency using my now legendary 7-page resume. Later I recruited Travis to the agency after his stint in radio sales.

Being the new kids on the block Travis and I were given the worst clients the agency had. The clients nobody wanted to deal with. We had the task of selling the worst car in America. Locked in a room for a week we created a formula that worked like crazy. From this winning atom bomb strategy we discovered the foundational principles that later would inspire us to create Gravitational Marketing.

Since then we’ve spent over $96 million dollars testing, proving and honing our marketing chops. Oh, and that $96 million we spent wasn’t wasted. We turned it into over $12 BILLION is sales for ourselves and our clients.

You are known for being Anti-Marketing. What exactly do you mean by this?

We believe that SAME IS LAME. If you do what everyone else does, you’re gonna get the same results. Those results are mediocre at best. We’re Anti-Marketing the way most people traditionally do it. We don’t believe an entrepreneur or small business owner should PAY MONEY to “get their name out there” or build a corporate brand. It’s just a waste. You need to spend your money to attract customers in a natural way. Done right your marketing should gravitate people to you and cause them to directly respond to your messages and offers so you can build a lasting relationship with them.

It’s important to note that non-traditional marketing and advertising doesn’t mean you don’t use traditional media. It’s the approach that differs. Non-traditional advertising and marketing is about leaving behind the traditional and boring conventional marketing wisdom and being sensational in everything you do…including your advertising.

How important do you believe marketing is for the average blogger?

If you are trying to get a message out, then marketing is essential. The first thing you need to define is why you’re blogging. Is it to just have the microphone and be heard, to make money, to influence, to affect change, all the above?

After that you can choose who you’re writing for and why they should choose to read your blog vs the thousands of other blogs out there. Then you need to stand out. Give value and position yourself as an authority on your topic. This is where marketing begins.

* A huge thank you to Jimmy (5FtHighMktgGuy) and Travis (BigIdeaGuy) for taking part in this interview. If you are looking for a good book on marketing then I encourage you to check out their book ‘Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers‘, as all the reviews have been incredibly positive. At the very least you should subscribe to The Jim & Travis Blog, I know you won’t be disappointed.

If you would like to ask Jimmy or Travis anything about their blog, their book, their videos or marketing in general, please post them in the comment area and I’m sure they will reply when they can

Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club
Posted on May 21st, 2009 and filed under Interviews
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