The Merchant and the Wise Man
Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a Merchant. This Merchant
had many loyal patrons whom he loved dearly.
The Merchant had been successful in his trading
and had much gold and treasure. He wanted to share some samples of this treasure
with his loyal patrons. As well as being generous, the Merchant was shrewd and
knew that his patrons, on tasting of the treasures he had, would desire more.
His trading could not but increase. So the Merchant commissioned four-score
beautiful stage coaches, equipped them with fine horses and filled them with
treasure to send to the North, South, East and West to delight his beloved patrons.
This was no easy task and consumed a lot of Merchant's personal time and
attention, but once complete, the Merchant was satisfied with his labours, even
though he had had to settle on sending the same thing to everyone. So with great
ceremony the stage coaches, full-to-overflowing, departed on their diverse journeys.
The Merchant waited for the messages of gratitude and requests for rare finds
to come pouring in. He waited and waited. No good news came, but slowly the
tales of woe trickled in:
Some had never found the address and were now surprisingly parked aimlessly
in an obscure stable he had never heard of in the far corner of his estate.
There were a number of tales of highwaymen and robbers - some has stripped
the stagecoaches of their treasure and sent them through empty, other had destroyed
the stage coaches, the most sinister, a group called "the Custodians of the
Black List" had burned the coaches and broadcast a message defaming the Merchant!
Sadder still were the yarns of the brave and fearless drivers who, through
skill and dexterity, had made it unscathed to the gates of loyal patrons' manors
only to be turned away by the gatekeeper or sent to a far paddock never to be
found.
Someone even told of a stage coach which had arrived right outside one of
the northern patrons doors. The subject eagerly ran to the coach, glanced through
the window, noticed the vast quantity of treasure and decided to look through
it the next day - He even put his flag fluttering gallantly on the coach. That
was a month ago and now the coach stands forgotten with an amazing 734 other
coaches having pushed it on.
The Merchant was distraught - his great magnanimous endeavour had come to
naught. Should he try again? What should he do differently? He needed to sell
something or else his creditors would come knocking - what was he to do? To
think of all the effort he had gone to, could he summon up the energy to do
it? How should he handle the messages of rage from ungrateful patrons deeply
offended by the arrival or his coach saying it was simply cluttering up their
driveways!
The Merchant was pondering these troubles when his head servant announced
that a very well appointed stage coach had just arrived in the outer court.
The Merchant, pleased to have distraction to draw him away from his pontification,
eagerly went out to meet the coach.
The coach had been sent to him by a Trader he had known for many years. What
he saw amazed and inspired him. The coach was simple, yet attractive, but it
was what was inside that caught his attention. Inside were half a dozen fascinating
packages of treasure. He was so curious that he climbed into the coach.
As he picked up the first parcel, he was instantly transported to the Trader's
storehouse which was filled with a vast array of beautiful Persian carpets.
He put the first parcel down and picked up the second and was whisked off to
another storehouse filled with the finest Arabian swords he had ever seen. The
Merchant was astounded. Then, believe it or not, the Trader himself appeared!
The Merchant asked the Trader how he had achieved such an amazing feat.
The Trader told the Merchant of a Wise Man who had done everything to make
the coach do what it did. Once back in his manor, (and, by the way, he ordered
three new rugs and two cutlasses before leaving the Trader), the Merchant charged
an emissary to leave at once to fetch the Wise Man and bring him back.
Once the Wise Man arrived, the Merchant wasted no time in telling him of
the grievous account of his recent endeavour to enchant his loyal patrons. The
Wise Man listened with interest. After a sumptuous banquet, the Wise Man began
to show the Merchant a better way.
He told the Merchant how he too could use the amazing tricks and bring his
patrons instantly into his own storehouses. How he need only send snippets of
his rarities rather than overloading the coaches and attracting the attentions
of the highwaymen; How he could easily involve many more of his palace servants
and even his traders in preparing the treasure packs, saving a vast amount of
his own precious time. How he could easily send different parcels to different
patrons and how the patrons themselves could even choose which parcels they
wanted. And how, without a stitch of effort, he could be told exactly how many
patrons had looked at the parcels, how many had visited each storehouse and
how many friends they had invited!
That very night, the Merchant enlisted the services of the Wise Man and lived
happily ever after.
This is not quite the end of the story; there is a twist in the tale. Another
entrepreneur (you) heard of this Merchant's happy life and was faced with a
choice: to live happily ever after too? Or just stick with their
troubles? Click below to choose the ending you want:
The Meaning:
In case you were wondering what this story is all
about, here is the translation...
Modern advertising is simply letting people know what it is you have to offer.
The Merchant's original stage coaches loaded with treasure represent emails - beautiful content-rich emails with a large file size.
Compiling a good quality HTML email can take a lot of time and effort - most
of it spent on the small things - trying to get it to look just right.
Traditional email marketing yields a surprisingly low return.
These are the bounce-backs, now in his "Junk" folder.
Large, graphic-filled emails attract the attention of SPAM filters which
at best block the email and at worst "Black-List" you, which can have serious
consequences.
If you get past the SPAM filters, fire-walls and email rules can still prevent
your message getting through.
If your recipient can't assimilate and decide what to do with your message,
in a few seconds it tends to get forgotten even if 'flagged'.
Email marketing can very disheartening especially when you spend more time placating
rude recipients than selling to clients!!
The Wise Man's stage coach is an email sent by a
BriefYourMarket.com user. The email
is compact, simple and draws people's attention.
The parcels represent the "Article Teasers" - this is a short sentence written
to catch the recipient's interest enough that they click-through and are "instantly
transported" to your website with the full article.
The Wise Man is of course
BriefYourMarket.com - we have done all the hard work to make you job really easy.
When clients click on the links on your newsletter they go directly to the article
(or other link) on your own news site attached to your website.
The short e-mails go cleanly through to client Inboxes, drawing them to the
rich content on the web.
BriefYourMarket.com provides magazine-like
editing functionality, allowing you to involve as many people as you want in
creating content at Author, Sub-Editor and Editor levels.
Customisable newsletter categories allow you and your subscribers to select
content relevant to them.
Real-time comprehensive reporting on opens, article viewing and forwards give
you meaningful information to continuously improve your e-marketing.
If you can identify with the Merchant's tale, Simply click here to start
using
BriefYourMarket.com yourself