That’s what happened to me during my round trip to Cleveland from New York City last year.

And I’m here to tell you that this trip was worth it despite the hassles and delays.

That’s because I got to spend the day with Dan Kennedy.

I just got back from Growth Summit last week (formerly GKIC’s Info Summit) to speak about my new book…and the most glaring thing at the conference was that Dan wasn’t there.

As you may or may not know, the most significant marketing mind in our business over the past 50 years, Dan Kennedy, has been ill and had home hospice come in over the summer.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that he kicked hospice out of his house a few weeks ago and is now slowly rehabbing and we are looking for a miraculous comeback.

At Growth Summit, there were tributes to Dan throughout…and before my presentation, I read from “Ruining the stampede” which talked about why this man is so significant to me (and thousands of others). Please read it if you have not read it and have the time.

Today I want to add additional lessons I learned in Cleveland on that visit over a year ago (when I wasn’t in airline delays).

My day with Dan

I understand that Dan can be an acquired taste for some…which is fine with him.

But no one can argue that if you had to pick one person in direct response marketing who more people trace their initial (and ongoing) education in this wonderful business, it’s Dan Kennedy.

The idea that he is “old school” and not up on what is happening in the marketing world today is a story only told by those who have never spent time with him or followed his work.

It’s true that he does not suffer fools gladly and he expects a lot from his clients.

And it’s also true that he doesn’t have a cell phone, he doesn’t do email and the only way to communicate with him is via fax.

Spoon-feeding is not his specialty but he always plays full out when he’s with you and his expensive consulting fees are only costly if you are not listening to what he is telling you.

He sees so many “offline opportunities in an online world” (which was his theme when he presented to Titans Master Class in April of 2018).

However, that doesn’t mean he dismisses the online marketing world either (i.e. don’t think for a minute he’s not on top of what is working right now, whether it’s online or offline).

He simply sees more flaws than most when it comes to advertising on Facebook, for example, (especially if you are too dependent on it or any single medium for that matter…more on that below).

I loved the time we spent, for example, talking about Amazon as a “search engine” where miraculously, people often buy stuff (imagine that) rather than simply look for free stuff (e.g. Google).

And just because you can only communicate with Dan via fax doesn’t mean he exists in any kind of time warp or that his world view and experience should ever be ignored; in fact, I think he is as sharp as ever.

During our day together, we explored dozens of marketing universals–and I want to share a few of those with you today.

Ignore these at your peril—and even if you have heard them before (and hopefully you have and live by many of them too), I will wager that at least one of them will get you thinking a little differently or more deeply about something you are currently working on.

Marketing by walking around

Those of us who run businesses and manage people have probably heard about the benefits of “management by walking around.”

It’s the opposite of sitting in an office all day, ivory tower or not–and it’s about getting out and being with the people who are working with you and for you—which leads to more synchronicity, team building and cooperation.

You just get more done, more efficiently, by communicating regularly (and in person) with your staff.

And the same principle holds true in marketing.

In this case, it’s not your employees who you need to be interacting with and observing constantly…it’s your customers and potential customers.

In Overdeliver, I have an entire chapter discussing  “customer service and fulfillment as marketing functions”—and in it, I talk about the things  you can only really learn, for example, by assigning “secret shoppers” inside your business, listening in on customer service calls and of course, doing both qualitative and quantitative research.

I shared some of that at Growth Summit as well.

It astounds me how many marketers today talk about how much they know about their audience (their “avatar”) yet they never spend time with them in real life situations.

You will find out more about your customers and potential customers by hanging out where they hang out (which could be online in a chat room or inside Amazon book reviews–or even offline at the local Wal-Mart).

Pro tip: If you can find out (or make intelligent guesses)  what they are reading, go to Amazon and read the one star and five star reviews and you will see how they interact and talk to each other…and you will get more than just hints for the copy you should use when you talk to them.

Look for over representation in your audience by occupation, interests and region

One of the key takeaways from “marketing by walking around” is that you inevitably engage in what I call “Intuitive list segmentation”–without a computer or a statistician.

You will observe things, some obvious and some not so obvious,  by walking around and interacting with your customers,  learning more about what they really want from you and how they want you to communicate with them.

And then you can add on to that knowledge using available outside data, doing overlays of your existing customers, to find out if they over-represent in a particular line of work or reside in particular regions or neighborhoods.

All of this will inevitably lead to future list selections and advertising opportunities no media buyer will ever be able to find for you.

Not to mention ideas for messaging and copy.

Different audience targets demand different promotions

After you spend more time walking around on the outside and also finding out where your audience is showing up in bigger numbers than average, it’s time to cash in on all of this knowledge.

Marketers cannot live by one control alone…and this has never been more apparent today. Online marketing gives you cheaper and more efficient ways to customize your messages than ever before.

Anyone who is practicing “one size fits all creative” to a diverse list universe in any medium is not just lazy…they are also leaving a lot of money on the table.

Not taking advantage of every piece of data you know about the prospects you are talking to—addressing them with as much personalization as possible based on all you know about them—is a marketing crime of the highest order.

I talk about how we did this in direct mail in Overdeliver (“Why paying postage made me a better marketer”)…and multiple controls and multiple copy platforms are a whole lot easier and less expensive to execute with email and other online media.

The power of 5’s and 10’s

Once you have your messaging to specific list segments dialed in, doing as much aggressive price testing is one of the most important things you can do.

Don’t let anyone tell you how overpriced or under priced your product or service is…direct response marketing gives us the ability to never guess and therefore we should always be testing.

And follow the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the thousands of price tests that have come before.

I lived most of my entire marketing life in the world of business-to-consumer marketing where you would never charge $30 when you could charge $29.97.

“Supermarket pricing” almost always trumped “flat pricing.”

In addition, I would always test as many ways as possible to get to that final price, with the biggest breakthroughs coming from using installments.

Probably a “duh” for most of you…but read on.

Different ways to use installment billing

A great example from my past was using 3 installments at $9.99 instead of one payment of $29.97 which almost always increased the response rate and also total revenue.

As part of the brainstorming process, we would always come up with new and creative ways to express the total price in installments.

And now add to this the rule of 5’s and 10’s which Kennedy reminded me of…i.e  $4.99 is a better expression than $5 and $9.99 is way better than $10; or $499 is better than $500 and $999 is better than $1,000. I’m sure you also know this already but I just want to make sure.

(But here’s a side note about installment billing you might not know: Don’t be scared—marketers have been doing this forever with lots of data about how many people still pay in full at the outset; and also that over 90% of the people will pay installments two and three once they pay installment one)

In addition, setting up installments that also follow these rules can lead to a total price that is much higher than what you may currently be charging.

For example, something that costs approximately $1000 (where you are probably charging $995 or $999) could be represented as three installments of $499…if you think the product or service is worth a lot more but you need a way to make it easier for the prospect to afford it over time.

This example is only illustrative of the kinds of tests you can brainstorm using the rule of 5’s and 10’s and also adding installment billing to the mix.

And the tests are different for B to B where “flat pricing” can be more effective…a subject for another day.

The most dangerous number in business is “1”

I’ll end with this classic Kennedy…and it’s never been truer than in today’s world of infinite marketing opportunities, so many of which have a very low cost of entry.

Facebook being less expensive than other online media (and probably most offline media) doesn’t mean you should ever use it exclusively.

Or use any other medium exclusively for that matter.

I’ve quoted Bill Bernbach, the great advertising “mad man” many times in the past:

“Adapt your techniques to an idea, not your idea to your techniques.” 

Just because a particular audience is big…or cheap…or both…is not the reason to use it.

And of course this Kennedy notion of “1” being the most dangerous number in business goes way beyond “one medium”…you don’t want one of anything in your business.

You want backups and Plan B’s everywhere.

My biggest takeaway from my most recent visit with Dan?

Continue to learn from the best no matter how smart you think you are.

Sitting with Kennedy for a day made me realize how much I don’t know…and also how much I have forgotten.

But it also makes me realize how smart I am for sitting with Kennedy for a day as well.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. I will be speaking this weekend at Genius Network and next weekend at LaunchCon on “creative and copy”–I guess I can’t call myself a “wannabe” anymore!

While I know that there are many others who can talk about copywriting much better than I can, I know I am an avid student and I can share my experiences working with the best writers who have ever lived such as Gene Schwartz and Gary Bencivenga.

And Jim Rutz.

If you haven’t picked up your copy of Read This or Die: The Lost Files of Jim Rutz you can buy it here.

If you don’t know who Jim Rutz is, read this to get a full picture of one of the greatest copyywriters of all time. I think you will enjoy reading about him whether you buy the product or not.

The post A day to remember appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

Today is just through lunch on Day One. 

Some of the speakers you have heard of and some you haven’t…but they were all stellar.

Plus we had “Titan Spotlights” with some of our members strutting their stuff (i.e. what makes them so special).

Election 2020: Which way will swing voters swing?

Our first speaker over dinner was Titans Mastermind member Rich Thau of Engagious, a research and dial testing company specializing in public policy, politics…and of course marketing.

Rich outlined an ambitious project he’s working on where he is visiting “swing states” and doing focus groups with voters who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016.

He’s in the midst of a 21 month project which began in March 2019 and it will run through the election in November 2020.

He has traveled to such hot spots as Appleton Wisconsin, Erie Pennsylvania, Warren Michigan and Edina Minnesota—meeting with these “swing voters.”

Some initial findings:

1) These are low information voters: For example, only 3 candidates (Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren) scored above a “5” in recognition on a scale of 1 to 10.

They also don’t know much about the issues (e.g. Medicare for All and The Green New Deal)

And maybe most importantly, swing voters get most of their news from local TV stations, local websites, Facebook and national TV morning shows.

If you are like me and get your news from places like MSNBC or Fox News, you are in a significant minority (although it seems so “loud” while you are watching, doesn’t it?).

2) Most Obama-Trump voters stick with Trump right now.

3) The 2020 outcome hinges on the economy (with personality issues a lesser consideration).

Issues 4 and 5 below are important but there is nothing more critical than the economy…that never seems to change.

4) Swing voter mindset: “America First,” making Trump’s positions on trade and immigration a strength.

5) Populist trends emerging: Anti-corporate, support for student loan debt relief and increased taxes on the wealthy are also taking hold with swing voters on the other side.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Everything.

Knowing who will be in The White House after the 2020 election will change the economics of our marketing and also copy platforms and promotion strategies no matter which way it goes.

That’s why this research is so important.

Being able to predict the result as early as possible will give you an unfair advantage over your competition and possibly not require you to have “2 versions” of the same promotion for example.

But polls aren’t always correct (see 2016)…and maybe Rich’s research will yield the results we need.

And here’s another key reason why a presidential election is important to marketers (from my post Driven to Distraction) written after the 2016 election when so many marketers were wondering why “results were down in the 4^th quarter of 2016”:

Simply put, the world doesn’t stop when you launch a product or send out your next promotion…no matter how much you are changing the world. 

And I am not making light here. 

Many of you game changing entrepreneurs and inventors reading this right now don’t deserve to have your best ideas and launches ignored because of world events and things that are out of your control.

But not every distraction is out of your control. 

One such distraction could be a doozy of a presidential election. 

Not sure when that will ever happen again in our country but you never know, right? 

That last line is said with a bit of sarcasm…I have a feeling that 2020 will be even more distracting than 2016…so please make your promotion plans accordingly.

I will repeat that full post closer to the 2020 election for those of you who still need a reminder to avoid this period if you want to mail, launch or promote around it.

Outrageous Marketing

Our first speaker on Day One was marketing legend Bill Glazer…the “G” in GKIC and Dan Kennedy’s partner in that iconic company.

Bill spoke about The 8 Steps to Apply OUTRAGEOUS Multi-STEP Marketing Campaigns to Your Own OUTRAGEOUS Business…and it was…well…outrageous. And all based on his new book.

There are 49 successful campaigns in the book Outrageous and 42 more coming in Volume 2…and Bill got at least another half dozen ideas from the things that were shared at Titans Mastermind.

The 8-Steps to applying outrageous marketing:

1) Understand that everything you do to advertise and market your business can be outrageous

2) Understand that you are NOT your customer

3) Train your brain to look for ideas in “obvious” places

4) Train your brain to look for ideas in “unobvious” places

5) Study what’s working outside your industry and “swipe and deploy”

6) Everything is outrageous…including YOU

7) Outrageous advertising is fun and it lets you make your business fun too

8) Every outrageous campaign should create an emotional reaction in order to deliver an “experience”

Bill covered all of these in detail and it was a very rich presentation.

Other important things he reminded us in the context of the above:

• People need a minimum of SEVEN (7) contact points with you before they are ready to buy.
• Most businesses try to find one or two mediums they are happy with and stick to it—but outrageous campaigns are all multi-step and multi-media.
• All outrageous marketing use online and offline media.

You can see why Bill is one of my heroes. 

The 8 biggest mistakes that prevent your offer from converting on cold traffic

Titans Mastermind members Justin Goff and Stefan Georgi, both A+ copywriters and marketers, have seen the inside of 170+ different funnels in a wide variety of niches.

Rather than tell you the 8 mistakes with examples, I am going to go one better and offer you an opportunity to opt in to Justin’s highly cultivated list by clicking here.

Justin writes a daily email similar to mine (but not as long! ) and offers so much…and it’s my pleasure to enable you to subscribe.

There is no charge but you have to qualify…but knowing my online family as I do, I think he’ll let you in.

OK…I’ll give you a “tease” of one of the 8 biggest mistakes Justin and Stefan talked about:

#2 (but this could have been #1): You’re not going deep enough with your research 

This is a mistake Justin and Stefan see all too often—that copywriters assume they know their market…but when they can actually do deep research to find out what customers are really looking for, it’s almost always completely different than what they assumed.

Pro tip: Go on Amazon (5 star and 1 star reviews only), online forums and Google news articles for products or services like the ones you are selling and see what people are saying.

You will pick up their language and talk to them in that “language”;  you will understand their real pain points (not the ones you assumed); you will understand in their own words exactly what they love and hate about existing solutions; you’ll come up with amazing horror stories you can use in your copy and even come up with a “conspiracy angle”;  you can uncover “hushed up” or censored solutions and make what’s old new again; and you will find interesting, testable proof supporting the arguments you make in your sales letter.

This is the (pro) tip of the iceberg how Justin and Stefan think about copy.

I urge you to get on Justin’s list…he’s a genius (as is Stefan)…and I get nothing from him to say that except that you will improve your marketing by subscribing.

Here’s the link again.

The recovering attorney

Peter Hoppenfeld then spoke before lunch on Day One and gave us a rundown of legal and compliance issues we need to be aware of as marketers.

Peter is a “marketing friendly lawyer”–he knows we have to sell but he will also make sure you don’t get in trouble while doing all that selling.

I use him for so much in my business and he is the official “Titans Recovering Attorney”– and I am happy to say I have done no jail time and I always feel good about my marketing.

He spoke about a lot of things with the most urgent being the new California Privacy Law (“CCPA”)—and he sent an alert about it to all of his clients (and all of the Titans).

If you would like a copy of this alert, send an email with “CCPA” in the subject line to:

phoppenfeld@gmail.com

That’s it for today…but I still have so much to share with you from this amazing Titans Mastermind meeting.

In the coming weeks I’ll report on:

• The juxtaposition of the best technology with the human touch
• How a Titan achieved a 94% retention rate to his mastermind
• “The Copy Cube”—where promise and believability meet
• How to sell The Brooklyn Bridge
• The “unfair advantage” to skyrocket your brand
• How to turn around failing companies (and multiply your profits)

I’m exhausted just thinking about the last meeting…my brain is full…and it will be good to unload as much of it as possible on you in the coming weeks.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. I can’t resist…here is another of Justin and Stefan’s “8 mistakes when marketing to cold traffic”:

You haven’t tested enough headline complexes 

I never heard that expression before…but the “complex” is defined as the headline with the copy that follows immediately.

I knew what it was and now I have a name for it!

The best headline complexes will include as many of these as possible– and use these as a checklist when you create your own:

• Curiosity
• Call out pain point
• Promise-Solution
• Specificity
• Simplicity
• Credibility: Address the prospect’s skepticism
• Time frame to achieve results of the promise

Keep these on your desk to make sure your headlines (and supporting copy) are as powerful as they can be.

Justin and Stefan also gave many examples of headline complexes in their presentation–and Justin uses lots of case histories from the 170 (and counting) funnels he has studied (and will study).

Getting on his list will be a good idea for you.

Sign up here.

The post Outrageous marketing, the 2020 vote and the recovering attorney appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

One of my subscribers, Ryan Saplan, sent me a video of Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds talking about hitting in baseball—then and now—and he thought as a baseball fan, I would like it…and even be able to relate it to marketing.

I’ll try to do that for baseball fans and non-baseball fans alike

If you don’t want to watch all the “geekiness” about hitting a baseball (it’s about 20 minutes long), skip to the 12 minute mark where Bonds and Rodriguez share some insightful universals.

And whether you watch any of the video or not, I’ll share two insights I got from it:

1) How you become a “complete hitter” (or a “complete marketer”).

2) “The Double White Belt.”

Being a complete hitter…or “It’s the total package, not just a headline or subject line”

If you don’t know what’s happening in baseball today I will simplify it for you:

The players coming into the league today are being taught “launch angle” (i.e. “swinging up” a certain way in order to hit more home runs).

Bonds has a different angle (pun intended)…it’s detailed in the video…and he’s got the street cred for you to pay attention (if you are into this sort of thing).

Steroids or not, Barry Bonds was the most feared hitter in baseball when he played…I vaguely recall that a manager of the opposing team once intentionally walking him with the bases loaded (forcing in a run—unheard of)–but that was better than him driving in multiple runs with a hit (or a home run).

He finished his career with 762 home runs (and don’t tell me how many were steroids induced because we can still agree that he was as good a home run hitter as anybody)—but the difference with Bonds is that he also batted close to .300 (actually .298) which is a particular measuring stick for a great hitter…but not as revered as it once was.

(It is interesting that Bonds says in the interview that if he was playing today with all the “shifts” being employed–e.g. for Bonds the opposing team would probably put three infielders on one side of the infield and leave one on the right side, all playing deep. To that, Bonds said, “I would bunt [hit a ball softly on the infield] until I hit .400”)

Today it’s all about hitting home runs—even if you bat .250 or less—and “the killer package” of a complete hitter no longer includes batting average, or more importantly, runs scored and runs batted in.

But Rodriguez and Bonds make the case for the real “killer package” of a hitter—it’s when you combine home runs with runsscored and runs batted in (RBI’s).

Note: For those of you who know nothing about baseball, when you score more runs than the other team you win. It’s pretty straightforward.

Rodriguez and Bonds also agree that the best hitters should have a 4 to 1 ratio of homers to RBI’s, not 2 to 1, which is happening a lot today.

How does this relate to marketing?

It’s about writing the “home run sales letter” that has staying power (“a .300 average” to go with it plus runs scored and RBI’s).

That is, it’s got to have great leads, headlines, subject line—but the magic comes with the offer, premiums and all the other great content that makes a winning promotion.

The techniques available today (technology plus new, inexpensive media for example) has made us a bit lazy on the creative side—and as you know if you have been reading my posts, great copy and promotion is not written by amateurs.

The pain (and then the pleasure) for how a copywriter develops a promotion, through intense research and asking all of the questions no one else asks to achieve the best result, is not a commodity…it’s really hard work.

And the best writers haven’t been doing it for a year or two—they’ve put in the sweat to get to a point in their careers where they’ve seen it all—like Barry Bonds who has taken tens of thousands of swings to get to where he is.

The beginning of Chapter 2 of Overdeliver speaks to this last point:  

Chapter 2 

Original Source 

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.

This chapter’s opening quote is often attributed to Pablo Picasso . . . and the Dalai Lama. . . and Life’s Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Brown Jr. It’s ironic, when we’re talking about the importance of original source, that we can’t attribute the quote to its original source (i.e., the person who said it). 

Every lesson I learned throughout my career at Boardroom, and everything I’ve done since (including running high-end mastermind groups and consulting with companies to help them implement direct response principles in their marketing), has been based on original source material from the greatest marketers who ever lived. My first book, The Advertising Solution, profiled six of those greatest marketers, and their fingerprints are all over this book too. Believe it or not, all the marketing you’ve ever done is probably based on something they pioneered, even if you’ve never heard of them before. 

When you recognize and understand the fundamentals of any field, you’re better equipped to innovate and break the rules of the particular game you’re playing. 

Marketing is no different. If you don’t know the fundamentals, you might accidentally break the rules and get lucky, but you can’t rely on getting lucky. 

Building a business that will keep its customers for a lifetime requires much more than the occasional successful fluke.And when you have a deep, intrinsic appreciation of the principles and strategies that were developed over the years by the titans of direct marketing, you get to stand on their shoulders. Taking what they learned (and proved over and over again), you build on foundations they laid, and what you create will be much more solid because these principles are timeless. They are still 100 percent relevant to today’s marketplace. 

This might be obvious to you, but just in case it’s not, having a deep understanding of the fundamentals of direct response marketing from the pioneers who first implemented them will enable you to achieve better results with any and all marketing programs you work on today and into the future. You will be able to serve your customers in powerful, profitable ways without having to repeat the painful learning curves and costly errors that these entrepreneurs and marketers suffered before you. 

In that chapter, I go on to outline the “5 Core Principles of Direct Response Marketing” and why Original Source matters (and not just for nostalgia).

If you have the book already, write to me and tell me if you can relate to them in the context of what Rodriguez and Bonds are talking about.

And if you haven’t gotten the book yet, buy it here so you can get all of the amazing bonus material at www.OverdeliverBook.com. (You’ll also want the video I talk about in the P.S. which is there too.) 

The Double White Belt 

I might be taking a little poetic license here—excuse me if I do (and feel free to correct me)—but I have surveyed quite a few black belts in various martial arts and they tell me it’s true.

And it works for what I want to relate here so that’s good enough for me.

Most of the martial arts have belts to mark achievement—from white to black—and lots of colors in-between.

(I’m a geek about baseball, not the martial arts—obviously).

But after you achieve your black belt (or 10^th degree black belt), you get a white belt again (what I am calling the “double white belt” and it might be called that by some in the martial arts too).

In fact, a particular black belt told me that the symbolism is that “black fades to white”—I liked that.

I interpret the double white belt like this:

Now that you can kill someone with the touch of your hand, you have a moral responsibility to keep a “beginners mentality” and to never forget the basics and where you came from; and that you understand that you are now trusted that you won’t use those lethal techniques unless necessary.

Also: Now that you did it, you have an obligation to teach it.

What Barry Bonds is doing in the video is teaching from his double white belt.

Richard Viguerie does the same thing.

Who is Richard Viguerie? He is a direct marketer who virtually invented political direct marketing and fundraising and now that he in his mid-80’s he not only comes in to the office every day practicing and improving his craft, he is also teaching it to anyone who asks.

He’s got a “triple white belt” in my opinion in direct response marketing–and thank goodness for all of us he took on this noble obligation.

I had him speak multiple times at my Titans Mastermind and Titans Master Class and you can read what he shared most recently in The what and the who before the how—“The Four Horseman of Marketing.”

To take it one step further, I’m sure Richard could take many of his secrets and teach them to folks who could use them for evil…but of course he doesn’t (intentionally at least).

That’s the subtle piece regarding the responsibility of owning a double (or triple) white belt.

In short, I encourage all of you to become complete hitters and double white belts…it’s a path worth pursuing.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. My good friend Bo Eason—who was featured on video in my opening presentation at The Titans Of Direct Response —just came out with a new book, There’s No Plan B For Your A Game. 

If you’ve ever seen Bo speak—or attended one of his events where he teaches how to present powerfully—you know that this former football player is not just another pretty face (or body :)).

You can watch his tribute to the greatest football player ever, Jerry Rice, on the Overdeliver bonus page (It’s the first video in Bonus #1)…or you can just grab Bo’s portion here. (Wait for it to load…it’s a big file.) 

His book is available here…it’s fantastic. And I’m not getting anything for this…I just think it’s a great book.

P.P.S. Bo will be a featured speaker at my Titans Mastermind next January in Austin, Texas—along with Ryan Levesque and Yanik Silver (so far).

If you are interested in applying for Titans Mastermind (or Titans Master Class, which meets in Arizona in November with Jay Abraham and many other amazing speakers), fill out the short application at www.titansmasterclass.com and we can arrange an interview.

P.P.P.S. And regardless pick up Bo’s book here. 

The post Just be a good hitter appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

I have many memories of Dan Kennedy, none more embarrassing than when I “ruined the stampede” at the Titans of Direct Response event in 2014—and he never let me forget it.

As you know, I have been dubbed by some as the “Director of Sales Prevention.”

In fact, I was the only speaker at GKIC’s Info Summit who got a standing ovation because I didn’t sell anything after my presentation.

When Dan finished his keynote presentation at the Titans event, while he was instructing folks to run to the back of the room and grab his carefully constructed offer (with a time limit and scarcity that he would only give out X copies), I was on stage letting everyone know about lunch and the afternoon agenda —a very bad move.

The “stampede” was curtailed and Dan shot me a look that could kill…and I didn’t even know what I’d done (clearly I was not an experienced stage seller).

Afterwards, Dan explained to me what a terrible thing I did and I learned a valuable lesson.

But he continued to joke about it years later…and thank goodness many of the people who “stampeded” (i.e. walked quickly with determination?)  before I blew the whole thing up ended up being “whales”(a Kennedy-ism for really big clients) in the years that followed.

I dodged a bullet but that lesson will stay with me:

An offer from the stage cannot be rushed and every step of that offer is important.

To shut up while it’s taking place.

And that it is even more important than lunch.

However, don’t think Dan is just about making fast money in the short term…Robert Skrob, a student of Dan’s since 1996, reminded me of this story, also from Titans in 2014:

Titans of Direct Response included a special tour of Boardroom’s headquarters for VIPs. 

At the conclusion of the tour, after visiting the customer service team who handles renewals, there was a spirited discussion (in the hallway by the elevators) among marketers about “auto charge renewal on credit cards” vs. standard renewal billing and collection. 

One marketer, seeking to garner the praise of Dan Kennedy, got an emphatic rebuke instead when he said: 

“And with auto-renewal you generate a lot of money from customers who don’t realize they are being charged.”  

Dan shut him down immediately saying, “That kind of thinking is exactly what’s wrong with the easy money for nothing hucksters out there. If you are running a business counting on a bunch of zombie customers paying you monthly, you’ve got a castle built upon sand.”  

The hallway fell quiet and everyone boarded the elevators.  

Dan is a marketer and no one loves making money and generating sales as much as he does. 

However, he never makes a sale at the expense of building relationships with his customers. And he often shares that the result of selling this way is that the more they buy from him, the more they wanted to buy. He always delivers the goods. 

I share these particular stories for a number of reasons.

First, I understand that Dan can be an acquired taste for some…but no one can argue that if you had to pick one person in direct response marketing who more people trace their initial (and ongoing) education in this wonderful business, it’s Dan Kennedy.

The idea that he is “old school” and not up on what is happening in the marketing world today is a story only told by those who have never spent time with him or followed his work. I’m proud to say that I have done both.

It’s true that he does not suffer fools gladly and he expects a lot from his clients.

And also from his “partners on events” when he orchestrates a perfect pitch and that partner doesn’t cooperate.

Another reason I share this story (and a few more remembrances to come) is that as of this writing, Dan is in hospice and he has sent out this message:

“I find myself in the unusual position of regretfully announcing my death. Usually people are having to do the opposite; deny rumors of their passage… I am now on the final journey of no more than a few days before exit. Consequently I won’t be interacting here anymore.” 

I feel the need to interact from here. And I will still hold out hope for a miracle.

The outpouring on social media to this news has been incredible in its praise for him–which is both not surprising but also ironic because Dan never used a cell phone, he doesn’t do email and the only way to communicate with him is via fax.

He is the reason to own a fax machine.

Spoon-feeding is not his specialty and you have to work to get to him.

But he always plays full out when he’s with you and his expensive consulting fees are only an expense if you are not listening to what he is telling you.

A “Dan story” that illustrates his expectation for the “client” (me) happened fairly recently when I asked him to endorse my new bookOverdeliver with a blurb.

I federal expressed him the manuscript (in lieu of faxing 300 pages) and kept my fax machine on 24 hours a day for the next couple of weeks waiting for his blurb.

Finally it came…it was 2 pages…and page one began:

Brian Kurtz-URGENT 

Brian: 

1.  Blurb for your book follows on page two. It CAN’T be used unless the correction noted next, in #2, is made. 

2.  Your page 41 has the [informercial] story all wrong… 

He then explained how I mangled “informercial history” while relating Boardroom’s greatest success story, by giving the wrong credit to the wrong people.

It was an honest mistake…but of course he was right.

Given this intro to the blurb, I assumed page 2 would now be less than what I expected.

Wrong!

The blurb was amazing—he called Overdeliver  “…a definitive presentation of direct marketing, as apart from all other marketing.” And he ended with a reference to David Ogilvy and said, “…were Ogilvy alive, he would applaud Brian’s work here.”

I don’t share that with you to brag—rather, to give you a very precise insight to the essence of Dan Kennedy:

He will tell you what he thinks, both bad and good, and his demand for accuracy and integrity supersedes everything.

And he was crystal clear that I could not use his blurb until I corrected the story—his principles could not be violated.

Obviously I corrected the story, faxed it to him, and his return fax had a “Kennedy stamp” on it with a simple “OK/Dan.”

His blurb is the first one on the back cover of my book. Naturally.

Two other stories from the Titans of Direct Response event…an event that Dan said afterwards was the “event of the decade” (and I know that wasn’t fluff since Dan never did fluff).

The first was the VIP Dinner at the event—it mirrored the intentional dinners I participated in for years (at Boardroom and since Boardroom)—and I wanted to “teach” everyone how to do these kinds of dinners.

The only issue was that the dinners usually had a maximum of 25 people around a rectangle table and I had 68 guests (!)  at this dinner at Titans. 

To replicate the dinner as well as I could, I had a (very) long rectangular table—33 people strategically placed  with assigned seating on both sides (the entire procedure is outlined in Chapter 10 of Overdeliver)—with me at the tail and Dan at the head.

Obviously I couldn’t get around to everyone (one of the techniques we use at the dinner) but I talked through the entire process while watching Dan at the other end enjoying the ride.

I have to admit that I needed binoculars to see him.

Here’s how it looked as I toasted Marty Edelston, the founder of Boardroom (with a wave to Dan):

The other story from the event, an event where Dan was my first speaker and planned the entire agenda and picked the other speakers with me, relates to Dan’s demand for his privacy and why he lives his life through a fax machine rather than a smart phone.

On the way to that VIP Dinner at Titans I drove to the restaurant with three marketing and copywriting icons: Dan, Gary Bencivenga (the world’s most prolific living copywriter) and Joe Polish (the world’s most connected man).

I could say that Dan is the most connected man “without wiring” but I won’t—however he certainly brought more people into “marketing” than anyone.

Anyway, on this short trip—one which I was tempted to take a 2 hour detour just to be in the car for as long as possible with these three heroes—Joe’s cell phone rang.

Those of you who know Joe Polish know that he always picks up his phone because it might be an opportunity to help someone…Joe is incredible that way.

As Joe was talking to someone (not all that important to anyone but Joe), Dan turned to me (he was sitting in the front) and said:

“What makes someone think it’s appropriate that they can call you on your cell phone out of the blue—and that you’ll actually pick up?” 

The first part of that I don’t have a problem with…you can always let it go to voicemail; and you have to understand Joe Polish to understand the second part.

But it hit me that Dan’s protection for his privacy and making it difficult to reach him was part of an overall plan and not a façade.

He is uncompromising when it comes to issues like this and he is unbelievably consistent.

He makes it tough to get to him because it increases his value…and it also shows you are serious about working with him (or at least talking to him).

I think it also makes him much more productive…how would your day be if everyone had to contact you via fax and through an assistant?

It sounds extreme but if his ability to read, study, write and speak at Herculean levels, always being prepared to give his opinion, is a result of his “system,”  it works for him and he is dedicated to it.

And I think we can all take a lesson from him (maybe not as extreme) and make ourselves a little less accessible.

I know I think about that a lot and I submit that for your consideration.

Here’s my favorite photo from the Titans of Direct Response that has a prominent place on the wall  in my office, the passengers in my car that night:

The last time I saw Dan was this past April when he came as a guest speaker to my Titans Master Class…and I wrote about that event in “The what and the who before the how.”

As usual he came with fantastic information in the morning and we spent the afternoon doing hot seats with members.

He talked about his new book, Almost Alchemy, which I reviewed and I hope it will be released soon.

From my blurb:

“This instant classic begins like a parable, continues as an instruction manual for success through case histories, and ends as a marketing (and business) encyclopedia…Every book Dan Kennedy has ever written is a form of alchemy—he turns paper into gold.” 

And the share from Kennedy in “The what and the who before how” about jewelry sellers and horse auctions is worth a read if you missed it.

I also had him at my Titans Master Class event in 2018 and he talked about “Offline in an Online World”…and while that video is only available to my Titans members, I have included the video of Dan’s presentation at “the big Titans event” in 2014–free and with no opt in as a tribute to this once-in-a-lifetime marketer. 

There’s so much to talk about when you’re talking about Kennedy—I’ll stop here and save “Part 2” of this tribute to Dan for a future Sunday (and I will share with you some insights I learned from him when I spent a day at his home last year).

For now, I just want to thank Dan for a lifetime of stampedes (for him and others), an unrelenting commitment to his beliefs and integrity, a desire to serve fully while protecting his privacy (with lessons for us all)—and being a kick ass marketer and copywriter.

A life well lived by a man who lives it the way he wants.  And he has left us so much to still digest should there be no more.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. As stated above, Dan Kennedy was a keynote speaker at the Titans of Direct Response in 2014…and the presentation he gave is as relevant today as it was then.

As a gift to you, I would like to share it here to mark the (almost) five year anniversary of what Dan called “the event of the decade.” And to mark this day as we celebrate his wonderful career.

He titled it:

“The 7 Things I Include in Every Pitch I Craft”

Dan created this presentation specifically for this event and it is part of the 12 DVD set that I have since sold many copies of for as much as $2,000. Let me know what you think.

No charge and no opt in.

And at www.OverdeliverBook.com, the 270 page swipe file he put together exclusively for the event is available as a PDF as well–in addition to 6 more videos from the Titans of Direct Response. 

P.P.S. It really doesn’t matter whether Dan has passed by the time this post goes live. I have spoken about him like he’s still alive because in essence he is–and always will be.

Dan’s body of work is massive and I did many tributes to him in the past—actually not tributes but detailed recounting of his work. And the work speaks for itself.

As he said in his good-bye email:

First, it has been a great privilege to have worked for you, and with you, and to have had your interest and patronage. You have made it possible for me to do work that interests me, that I chose and that I felt meaningful and worthwhile. Second, I never thought of this as just a transactional business but also as a genuine relationship, a community, and a Movement.

From me to Dan (and I will fax this to him now):

Meaningful and worthwhile is an understatement; and while customers transact, you are spot on that it is a community that interacts. 

Thank you Dan for all that do for thousands of people and interacting with us live and through your writing and yes, by fax.

And because you’ve left a mountain of material, thank you for all you’ll do for thousands more yet to come.

The post Ruining the stampede appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

Talking about the negatives of email is a dangerous thing to do given that I’m convinced that email is still the killer app…that is, it’s still the most effective communication tool we have in marketing today.

It’s cheap…it can be short or long (and I know mine are sometimes too long)…and it’s very effective when done well.

But what about all the other forms of communication, online and offline?

You know I write about many of them every Sunday but I have never explored one that was such a big part of my career.

And I have noticed more and more people asking me about it too.

It is—wait for it—print newsletters. 

Considering I marketed one of the most successful print newsletters ever with my staff at Boardroom—Bottom Line/Personal—and I consult with many folks today who want to add a print newsletter to their offerings—I went back to an interview I did with Mike Capuzzi about 5 years ago called The Power of Newsletters. 

Re-listening to this interview, it still holds up and it may be more relevant today than ever before.

I invite you to listen to it now or later.  There are so many aspects to this rich topic.

I’ll share some of the observations here on the many dimensions (and the evolution) of this format– in case you prefer email to audio.

But the audio covers a lot more.

When Marty Edelston started Boardroom Reports in 1972 (I was in junior high school for those of you who think I am older than I am), he decided to publish a “newsletter” rather than a magazine because he would have needed around $500,000 to launch a glossy magazine with advertising at the time–but he was able to launch a newsletter on a (relative) shoestring

Shoestring (with no investors or anyone who believed in his idea) was equal to approximately $25,000, his life savings at the time.

He launched that newsletter successfully and the company was born.

For those of you who don’t know what a newsletter is, it’s a publication with no advertising, vertical or specialized content…and it must survive for the most part on revenue from subscriptions and renewals (and I emphasize renewals—like I did numerous times in Overdeliver when discussing lifetime value).

It was a struggle at first for us–but with the development of a book business (which I talked about recently in If you can’t make it, buy it) and a switch to broad based consumer and health publications (which I outline in detail in Branding without getting hives) the company flourished.

List rental income also helped (read Guilty until proven innocent if you want that story)…as did building on our expertise in direct mail list selection…and last but not least, reliance on only the best copywriters to create the promotions for our newsletters (and books).

With that formula, we re-defined the traditional newsletter business.

That is, the newsletter business that was the most profitable at the time was what I have often dubbed “500 or 1,000 subscribers at $500 to $1000 each”; Boardroom/Bottom Line was more like 500,000 subscribers at $39 each…a much tougher nut to crack and one that I believe you would struggle to launch today.

Many of the most successful newsletters were (and are) business-to-business, on a narrow topic or in a specialized niche, and very pricey…we were breaking new ground with our business-to-consumer approach at $39, with a “bill me later” offer rather than cash or credit card with order.

We were a newsletter marketing like a magazine.

Kind of like “Razzles”  for publishing.

In my interview with Mike Capuzzi, I go deep on all of this and I think it’s pretty good–but you can decide for yourself—it’s about 40 minutes long.

But with that history of Boardroom in mind, what lessons can we learn and apply them today?

Simply put, a print newsletter in the online marketing world today is differentiation.

Having digital (online) courses and training is a fantastic business model…but I would suggest that possibly putting a print newsletter on the back end of that online business is additive, not redundant.

If you have some things you want your tribe reading slowly on their back deck (or in the bathroom) when they take a break from their computer screens, giving it to them in print is worth looking into, whether free as an add-on…or if it’s really specialized (additional) content, for an added charge.

It is also a way to accentuate your expertise.

Marie Forleo, a world class marketer, says (and I am paraphrasing):

“What would you do if you were the best in the world at something?” 

AND

“Where are you beyond making a profit?” 

I think doing a print newsletter on the back of an online business supports her awesome premise:

Giving more of your genius in a tangible (and higher perceived value) format can only enhance what you are doing being the best in the world; and it’s also a way to over deliver to your best customers which will lead to more profit whether you want it or not.

A print newsletter (or dare I suggest physical product on the back end of your digital business) is a way to create something bigger than you ever imagined.

I recall attending an online marketing conference some years ago and there was a speaker on the last day who said he had the “secret to marketing on the internet”–and it was the phenomena called “physical product.”

I might not go that far but newsletters and physical products are certain to set you apart.

“Online marketers” such as Ben Settle and Doberman Dan (and I hate calling them that because it does a disservice to them), use their print newsletters as the key component of their business (billed monthly and worth every penny)–in addition to having robust and regular email correspondence with their online families.

And they have both created books of all kinds…see the P.S. for Dan’s latest and I will tell you about Ben’s in a subsequent post (and no affiliate commissions for me on any of this of course).

I simply want you to see these examples to understand the power of print content (in this case books) as an addition to digital content.

With Dan and Ben, online subscribers read their emails when they can; but they devourthe print newsletters when they arrive in their (fairly empty) mailboxes.

Well that’s how I consume their content. And I have all of their books too.

I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it here:

“The least crowded In Box is the one at the end of your driveway or in the lobby of your building.” 

But it’s not just because you have the mailboxes to yourself…you are also where so few of your competitors are (I would imagine).

And if you are 100% online you may be asking how you can compile postal addresses of your customers.

If you sell via a credit card, I believe you have a mailing address of every buyer…and remember, direct mail is an “opt out” medium (i.e. you can mail them without having them opt in as with email).

That might be a topic for another day…but it’s in my book Overdeliver in chapter 3, “How Paying Postage Made Me a Better Marketer.”

There’s a lot more about newsletters in the interview I did with Mike:

I encourage you to listen to it…but even if you don’t, consider sharing your content (and genius) in “In Boxes” and “Mail Boxes” alike.

I’m glad I made it into your In Box today.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. My good friend Doberman Dan, one of my heroes, uses email and a print newsletter strategically and masterfully.

He just authored a book titled, Just Sell The Damn Thing: Successful serial entrepreneur reveals his contrarian formula for growing your business FASTER than ever!” 

It’s a penny plus shipping and handling (obviously a bargain) –and he’s offering three (3) bonuses with it as well (a Sales Copy Template, a Sales Copy Formula and an Online Seminar).

I get no money for this—and in fact I went to Dan and asked if I could offer it to my online family when I published my piece today mentioning him—and he said yes (of course he did)!

I know with his book, you will be able to learn from an expert relationship builder who understands the power of “O to O to O” (online to offline to online) and meeting your customers where they want to be met.

After more than three decades as a serial “bootstrap” entrepreneur… almost a quarter of a century as a direct response marketer and “A list” copywriter… and having started his first online business all the way back in the wild, wild, west days of the Internet in 1996…Dan has shocked the marketing world with his new book revealing an entirely new selling model. 

It’s all revealed in Just Sell The Damn Thing

I’ve known Dan for years and his track record speaks for itself.

His contrarian strategy debunks so much of what’s out there and supports the premise in my post above…and so much more.

I thought you would like the opportunity to buy his book for a penny plus shipping and handling.

Click here to order and to claim your bonuses.

I already have.

P.P.S. And if you missed my email last week about the legacy of Jim Rutz and the offer for his swipe file Read This or Die: The Lost Files of Jim Rutz, click here to read it.

And if you simply want to order the product, click here.

It’s over 200 promotions from Jim’s archives plus letters, an interview, a webinar and lots more—all on one USB thumb drive.

The post When you get tired of email… appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

And he was one of the most colorful characters this business has ever seen as well.

If you are a working or aspiring copywriter, you owe a debt of gratitude to Jim whether you have ever heard of him or not…he was a pioneer in creating win-win royalty arrangements for creative talent that many of you use today in your businesses.

More on that shorty.

And if you are a marketer of any product or service, studying the work of this one-of-a-kind talent will be equivalent to a graduate course in direct response.

If you have read what I have written about Jim before—and you are just salivating for the new product, Read This or Die: The Lost Files of Jim Rutz—you can purchase it here.

For those of you who need a little more convincing, I will share with you a version of the piece I wrote shortly after Jim died which I called The Copywriter Closest to God. 

Background:

When Jim Rutz passed away a few years ago, his sister Ginger sent me two enormous boxes of his work (and all of the work he admired most).

Plus letters, folders, little slips of paper with cryptic notes—it was everything that Jim compiled over his career—and what a career it was.

She entrusted me to know what to do with such treasures…and my plan was to create an educational product for the ages with the working title:

“The Lost Files of Jim Rutz” 

(And I added Read This or Die shortly after that as a tribute to one of his most famous packages.)

Well life got in the way.

And when I last shared this piece about Jim over 2 years ago, I lamented about not doing anything with Jim’s “stuff”—and I was feeling more than a little guilty. 

But three young and eager copywriters had watched my video, Your Mentors Choose You, and came out of the woodwork (i.e. responded to the video and remembered my tribute to Jim) and volunteered to get the project moving. 

The premise in Your Mentors Choose Youis that finding a mentor is not so simple…you need to contribute to the prospective mentor first with no expectation of a return (which I go into extensively in my bookOverdeliver). 

Paul Martinez, Zac Romero and Neil Sutton read between the lines of the mentors video and they did a splendid job of putting this product together—I couldn’t have gotten it done without them or Ginger– and they know that they’ve got me as a mentor for life if they want me.

These three copywriters emerged from my online family—readers of this weekly blog just like you—volunteering to work on this product since they had learned so much from studying Jim Rutz their entire careers.

This was also another example of what goes around, comes around since Jim Rutz chose me and became a friend and mentor—and I thank my lucky stars that Ginger knew that and sent me his archives.

Today I want you to understand why I am committed to having his work shared broadly with a new generation of copywriters and marketers—and with those of us who are still around who knew him and know of his genius.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it…I miss Jim terribly…but he left an awesome legacy and body of work. Details on Read This or Die is in the P.S.

Here is the story of The Copywriter Closest to God—let me know what you think after reading it: 

I don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say that organized religion owes its success, at least partially, to great copy. 

No matter how many times I brag about my previous company Boardroom selling 3 million copies of The Book of Inside Information in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it will never be the all-time bestseller on the planet. 

We can’t even come close to Atlas Shrugged much less The Bible. 

I bring this up because Jim Rutz understood the power of religion–he actually organized his own church–one that was true to the very early origins of Christianity, when people met in each other’s homes in small groups. 

He was very serious about it and had quite a following. 

He used his incredible talent as a copywriter to build his “Open Church” with story and messaging that was as persuasive as the best magalogs he wrote for the largest marketers in the world. 

For me, reading his copy and then watching it perform in the marketplace was truly a religious experience. 

Jim liked it when I said that. 

I believe his incredible faith is what made him unique among all the great copywriters. 

He had faith in God. 

He had faith that the products he was selling could help people. 

And he had faith in the intelligence of the reader. 

I used to kid him about the fact that I thought he had a two person copywriting “agency” in his house…himself and God…and it just wasn’t fair to have a partner with that much power. 

The fact that he knew how to invent a religion and move people at that level, I have to assume that writing copy to sell books and newsletter subscriptions probably came easy to him. 

Although as far as I know he never admitted that. 

Well…why would he? 

Throughout his career, he was able to charge the highest fees of any copywriter this side of Gary Bencivenga and Gary Halbert. 

And he was worth every penny. 

As I said earlier, every copywriter today who collects a royalty on pieces mailed or a percentage of sales based on performance, owes a debt of gratitude to Jim. 

==================== 
Jim could beat anyone. 
==================== 

In his early days as an “A list copywriter” he wouldn’t even charge an upfront fee but rather collect royalties based on the number of pieces the client was able to mail. 

He was confident he could write the package for “free” because he knew he would get the winner and collect more than any upfront fee he could charge. 

And we are talking about a royalty of a nickel or more per piece mailed. 

That may not seem like much, but when you’re client is mailing in the millions, it adds up. 

I want to make sure you understand the magnitude of those numbers: 

Jim wrote winning packages that became controls for some of the biggest mailers in the country…many of his winners mailing millions of pieces…and basically, he got a nickel for each one the Jolly Postman delivered. 

I’m guessing that for Boardroom alone, we mailed Jim Rutz controls to the tune of 20 million pieces (probably more but I don’t want to exaggerate…could have easily been 30 million). 

And we were (by far) NOT his only client (see the P.S.). 

Folks waited a year or more to get on his writing calendar. 

And as I mentioned above, he usually won the control and collected royalties whenever he competed. 

Now do the math…just for Boardroom, 20 million pieces at $50 per thousand is a cool million (dollars). 

Then figure he had dozens of clients, many of whom mailed as many (or more) of his control packages than we did. 

Pretty nice way to make a living if you’ve got the talent. And it proves, on the field of play, that copywriting is not a commodity. 

Over time, he started charging an upfront fee since the waiting list for his services was so long…he had to go to the highest bidder…gotta love America and he did. It was all about supply and demand. 

So later, he routinely charged $50,000 as an upfront fee for those who wanted to hire him. 

He even charged as much as $60,000 or $75,000 on occasion. 

In fact, my mentor, Marty Edelston (and I), on behalf of Boardroom, once paid him $100,000 as an upfront fee for a new package because he needed additional money to fund a school for his church in Nebraska for homeless boys. 

Keep in mind that if the package bombed, that’s a non-refundable $100,000 sunk cost. 

Marty and I had a good feeling he’d earn out the $100K with a killer control (winner) but in that particular case I remember Marty and I discussing that we didn’t even care. 

Marty said to me, “Brian…given how much money Jim has made for us with his breakthroughs, I would GIVE him the $100,000 just to help him out. And we’re getting another package for it? Advantage Boardroom.” 

Well that was Marty…understanding that if Jim (or Gary Bencivenga or any of our top copywriters) made more money than anyone in the company including himself, it was good news. 

Marty would often say things to me like: 

“These guys are super human with a talent few people have…and if they are making more money on royalties alone than any of our salaried employees, think about how much money their packages are contributing to the bottom line of the company, making sure we have a company. Our employees will get over it when they continue to get their paychecks…raises…and bonuses…because of Rutz and others.” 

Did I have the best mentor or what? 

The big lesson for all of us: 

Never be a cheapskate with copy and creative…it’s just not the place to cut costs…it’s the place to invest in world-class resources. 

Put another way: Don’t leave this make-or-break area of your business to amateurs. 

And as I’ve said in a previous post, you gotta pay to play. 

Thanks to copywriters like Jim Rutz, mailers like Boardroom learned the lesson of true partnership with creative talent. 

You can also see why I’m not joking when I often say I wish I could be a copywriter. 

And I’ve always wanted to be a great copywriter beyond the jokes about how lucrative it can be financially. 

It’s a position of supreme power and contribution. 

Think about the millions of people that a copywriter of Jim’s caliber can move to action…and in my company’s case, the action was buying products that improve the health or finances of buyers and subscribers in significant ways. 

He saved lives while being paid as much as anyone in the world to do what he did–as his livelihood. 

Now that’s a good way to go through life. 

About his love life:  

Jim was often eccentric and even off color…Ginger told me he needed a “politically correct editor” (her) to regulate him sometimes. 

Even with dating he was a bit daring. 

Before there was online dating, he searched for years for a “mail order bride.” 

He ran a great ad–the headline was: 

“Knight in Shining Armor Seeks Damsel…Distress Optional” 

The ad was accompanied by a picture of Jim as Sir Lancelot. 

(That picture is on the cover of Read This or Die and the ad is in the swipes) 

He once sent me a picture of a potential bride he chose but “the deal fell through” for some reason. 

I didn’t ask questions. 

About decorating his home in Colorado Springs (where I visited a few times): 

He had no furniture in his living room…just neat piles of successful direct mail from every significant direct marketer at that time. 

Very organized too. He would give me a “tour” when I visited: 

“Here’s the Boardroom pile…the Phillips pile…the Agora pile…the Rodale pile.” 

He wrote for all the biggest and most successful direct marketers. 

He knew and studied deeply every package in all of the categories he competed in. Know your competition is a requirement for all copywriters. 

This is a something all of the greats do and it is what can turn a “B copywriter” into an “A.” 

Put a different way: He was a swipe file junkie…which most of the great copywriters are (as we learned at the epic event “Titans of Direct Response” in 2014, an event I wanted so badly to have Jim as an honored guest but his health was not great at the time). 

Back to his living room:  I always wondered why he didn’t have a file cabinet. 

I joked with him that he saved a lot of time shopping for a couch and a coffee table by having his swipe file as furniture…more time to write, I guess. 

Or maybe there was something divine in what he was doing with his swipes: Jim being such a spiritual man, having those mailing pieces in the open might have allowed their true essence to emit brilliance into the air (and then into his head) without a steel cabinet blocking that part of the creative process. 

I repeat…the guy had direct mail as furniture! 

How’s that for dedication? 

As I mentioned above, Jim was in touch with me in the months leading up to the “Titans of Direct Response” event…we even started planning to have him show up as a surprise guest…but it was not to be. 

When he knew he couldn’t make the trip, he said: 

“Announce at ‘Titans’ that Jim Rutz is open for business…and I’m ready for an assignment!” 

He hadn’t done much for years but in those phone calls, he was getting excited to jump back in. 

He loved this business and his craft so much. 

I remember feeling re-inspired on those phone calls, not knowing he would be gone a short time later. 

I made an announcement from the stage about Jim being ready to reignite… I’m sad now thinking that he never got to fulfill on his comeback. 

But Jim’s work lives on and if you’re serious about becoming a better marketer/copywriter, you want to learn from the best. See the P.S. 

Here’s a tease from Read This or Die…some packages that were memorable to me: 

“What will you do with your $12,000 Tax Cut This Year?” was for Boardroom’s newsletter Tax Hotline (and on this package, we discovered future Titan copywriter David Deutsch who worked on this promotion with Jim) 

“Limo Larry and Champagne Cherie” was a big winner for the largest circulation consumer newsletter in America at the time, Bottom Line/Personal 

About trying to emulate him: 

My good friend and one of the best copywriters in the world today, Parris Lampropoulos, the man with more file cabinets of mailing packages than anyone I know, said of Jim (and I am paraphrasing from a phone conversation): 

“Most of the great copywriters are easy to read, study and pick up things that you can incorporate into your own style…but not Rutz. You read his stuff, don’t understand how he came up with the concept or the execution of the concept, and all you can do is sit back and marvel at it.” 

But as we spoke further, we realized that there were so many things in Jim’s copy and the way he weaved a story that could be applied despite the fact that we knew no one could ever write like him.

Frankly, if I tried to mail a billion promotion pieces (like I have in my lifetime) without world class copy from the greats like Jim Rutz, I would have been out of business before I mailed a million. 

He also trained many of the greats. 

John Carlton, one of my heroes, posted this about Jim after he passed away: 

“Jim was a brutal taskmaster, an over-the-top great teacher, and one of the most skilled ‘pure’ writers I ever met. Also one of the most eccentric. And while he and I existed in completely different worlds, his advice for me to let my freak flag fly (not his words, of course) helped me create my own global reputation.” 

Jim left us with some of the greatest promotion copy ever written…a compensation model that every copywriter today should thank Jim it exists…direct mail formats that he innovated…and dozens of “A list” copywriters who couldn’t easily copy him but were his prized students. 

I am not a religious man but I know Jim is even closer to God now…and they were already pretty tight down here on earth too. 

Warmly, 

Brian 

P.S. Read This or Die: The Lost Files of Jim Rutz, is available right now, all on one USB thumb drive, in a protective plastic case.

It includes over 200 swipe files, most written by Jim, but some we could not confirm—and those are in their own section called “Jim Rutz’s Furniture.”

These are promotions from the largest direct mail companies in the world…and also pieces of “Rutz selling Rutz” (e.g ads selling Jim’s services, by Jim, to prospective new clients in the early days)…and assorted other pieces for the “Open Church” and some smaller mailers he took on pro bono.

There are selected letters to Jim from some people you will recognize—our “Dear Jim” section.

There is also a “Jim Rutz live” section—an interview he did with the great Clayton Makepeace and an exclusive webinar that I did with John Carlton and David Deutsch (i.e. Jim “almost live”).

The three copywriters who were my partners on the product wrote intros to each of the sections (financial, health, general consumer, business etc) plus an appendix with “The Lost Files Headlines” for easy reference when you are struggling for a subject line, headline or copy platform.

This is a reference tool for a lifetime and I am proud to bring it to you today.

You can order here.

P.P.S. Send me your thoughts on Rutz—whether you just heard of him by reading this today or if you have any memories of him I can share with my online family in the future.

The post God’s copywriter…(almost) live appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

(Excerpt from Overdeliver, Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing. Check out the P.S. for a special offer to get the e-book for $1.99)

During my first decade at Boardroom, creating offers and products—mainly for books and newsletters—was relatively easy.

We were publishing some of the most useful newsletters in the world at the time, including Boardroom Reports, Bottom Line/Personal, Tax Hotline, and Health Confidential. We created best-selling books by taking the “greatest hits” of our newsletters and putting them into huge volumes, indexed and categorized, and sold millions of copies of those “new” books.

I never lost sleep over not being on the New York Times bestseller list  . . . we were much happier selling millions of books and helping millions of consumers without needing to get involved with bookstores or anything that resembled trade publishing.

We had a wonderful formula for creating these books and then had the best copywriters at the time (including Gene Schwartz, Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz, Mel Martin, Clayton Makepeace, and others) work their magic on each one.

We priced our books higher than anything similar you would find in a bookstore; we also created higher value than anything we could have done in a traditional bookselling environment.

It worked like crazy for years.

But then we were faced with a moment of truth in the late 1980s: we started running out of content doing these greatest-hits volumes.

Our bestsellers were often over 500 pages. They were encyclopedic, and we joked that we sold books by the pound. These kind of books sold much better than our niche titles (although we had a lot of success with some large niches, such as our diabetes book).

Simply put, books by the pound was what our core customers wanted . . . but it was getting tougher and tougher to deliver those kinds of books without duplicating content.

The Book of Inside Information, or what I called Bottom Line’s Greatest Hits, sold vast numbers of hardcover copies over many years, at $30 a book. We had offshoots of that book, including The Big Black Book and The Book of Secrets, and they all sold well.

There was also our book Healing Unlimited, which sold over two million copies; our big tax books; and even a title on estate planning, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Even “vertical” books, including the estate planning book and the diabetes book, became a little more “horizontal” when direct mail targeting was involved.

But how were we going to expand this formula?

We had a hungry database waiting for more big books and nothing to sell them.

Enter Gordon Grossman, the man who was the architect of Reader’s Digest in the 1960s and 1970s, and who I hired as a consultant in the 1990s.

He looked at what we were doing and said, “Brian, what makes you think that all the content for your books has to be your own stuff?”

That simple question changed everything for us.

I realized at that moment that I could buy our new books instead of having to make them all.

Gordon had been involved in the practice of buying trade books and converting them to direct mail books at Reader’s Digest and also for his other big consulting client, Rodale Press.

I put this lightbulb idea, invented by others, into action—and added my own twist.

It started with a trip to Barnes and Noble when I asked to borrow a hand truck. Thus armed, I trundled around the store to every category that fit with the interests of the millions of names in our database.

I got a good workout running all over the store, piling the hand truck higher and higher with books. I visited every category that made sense, including health, fitness, finance, investing, taxes, personal development, food and nutrition, retirement, and so on. There were so many amazing books in those categories, most of which had an inch of dust on them because no one was picking them up. I knew many of them just needed a marketing makeover.

I also realized that if any of those dusty volumes had sold 10,000 copies in their lifetime, they would have been considered bestsellers by the trade at that time. Although most of them had not hit anywhere near that level, I was confident we could change that with our direct mail formula.

Thinking ahead, I knew I could propose a windfall opportunity to some old-school trade publishers, who knew we were better equipped to take their books from the store to the mail. My master plan was to approach those trade publishers and secure the direct marketing rights, then blow their minds with how many books we could sell with direct mail when the title was selling virtually nothing in bookstores.

Five or six trips to my car later, after purchasing 40 or 50 books and weighing down my 1985 Toyota Camry until my tailpipe was almost dragging on the ground, I had the candidates to rival our current direct mail bestsellers.

The next step was to go through the books to see which ones had the most useful information from the most credible sources.

Many books got nixed by the editors: “We can’t put our name on that!”

Others got nixed by the copywriters:“There’s not enough juicy information for compelling copy.”

But the books that got through this gauntlet were put into the new product pipeline.

We also had to come up with an amazing pitch to the trade publishers for the direct marketing rights (which took some doing), and we had to create a system to reposition any appropriate trade books to direct mail. Now, this was before we had started doing surveys to previous buyers so fortunately our approach worked well.

The books we added to our direct mail lineup were often in paperback in the bookstore already, selling for less than $20. But our direct mail version of the book would always be hardcover (which has a higher perceived value), and we would add bonuses and premiums to make the new version drastically more appealing than the one in the bookstore.

This repositioning made the offer for direct mail unrecognizable to what it was before. It was this “apples to oranges” comparison of offers that also got all the trade publishers to give us the rights to sell the books, and justifiably so.

They saw the book as a single title on the shelf at a bookstore; we saw the book as part of a treasury of information (in hard cover, branded to us).

Our price points, which started at $30, eventually rose to $40 plus shipping and handling. All the while the same book was still sitting on bookstore shelves at half the price and with none of the attention.

That’s how we created a whole book division with content we didn’t have to produce.

I didn’t invent the idea of buying the rights to books to sell in other channels. But without these direct mail offers, these books would have died on the vine (or shelf) without helping an enormous number of people who needed that information.

The way we did it enabled us to both bring fantastic content to the world and have multiple outside titles that sold in the hundreds of thousands. A few even sold more than a million copies.

There are a few lessons here for any marketer, offline or online:

1. Look everywhere and anywhere for undersold or underutilized assets or products right under your nose that could be of interest to your audience. I’m not talking about doing another affiliate mailing—I’m talking about buying the rights to those products and making them your own. This same principle applies to digital products as well, not just books and physical products.
2. Know the power of your name and your brand to your audience and look for products that you would be proud to put your name on.
3. Nothing gets sold without a great sales message, regardless of your medium, but the offer has to have legs of its own. Think about whether it has real credibility before you fall in love with your new product idea. Have seasoned copywriters look at everything you are considering so you can get an objective view on it before you try to get them to write anything.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S.  My publisher extended the offer for the e-book of Overdeliver at $1.99 …get your copy today at any one of these vendors:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble 

       Apple

The post If you can’t make it, buy it appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

I shared their story at the time of their death–and I feel it is worth repeating. I don’t want them to be forgotten and the lessons they taught us were significant. 

I met Audri and Jim in January of 2000 when they hosted (with Jay Abraham), the “Billion Dollar Internet Strategy Setting Summit and Custom Marketing Makeover Process”.

How’s that for an outrageous promise? And check out the promotion for it–it’s a classic–click on it above.

It was one of those events like “The Bencivenga 100” or “The Titans of Direct Response”  that everyone remembers…not just because the content was amazing and that the speakers were best-in-class–but also that it was held in January of 2000, only weeks after many had predicted the end of the world on January 1, 2000.

Well the world didn’t end at the start of the new millennium, this Internet thing did catch on (have you noticed?)…and Audri and Jim solidified their position in the marketing community as thought leaders, innovators and champions for a new era in direct marketing.

Because their death was so sudden…and totally random and unpredictable (it involved a gas leak which destroyed their house while they were home), I want to share the most important lesson of life being so capricious…and that none of us knows if today will be our last.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift… that’s why they call it the present” 

Despite being heartbroken by their loss, there are some additional lessons I would like to share from Audri and Jim since I have a feeling that most of you have never heard of them; but if you currently do any marketing online, you owe a debt of gratitude to them for paving the way for so many things you probably take for granted today.

My friend Jeff Walker—also a good friend to Audri and Jim—shared a video tribute to them at the time of their death and talked about their “commitment to testing.”

It has always been a way of life for all marketers (yes, even before the Internet) and I never met anyone more “scientific” about how they thought about testing than Audri and Jim.

And not just testing lists…we’re talking concepts, new business ideas…everything.

I don’t know if they were into science and math at the deepest level but I always thought that if M.I.T. had a school of direct marketing, Audri and Jim would be the most decorated graduates.

(Jeff reminded me that Audri earned a PhD from Stanford…not surprising)

They had a “professorial” way about them…but with more tenacity than any marketers I have ever met…a devastating combination of smarts and savvy.

They combined their voracious appetite for unrelenting testing to find the winner with a hunger to use only the best marketing resources and techniques they could find, and adding in a deep passion for everything they did—and the result was success after success from two of the most innovative human beings you will ever meet.

I love this marketing formula which I have written about in the past:

Curiosity (dream) + Optimism + Measurement = Direct Marketing Success 

Audri and Jim expanded that formula and made it about so much more…and this is how they might have calculated things:

Relentless Testing + Best-in-class resources + Passion = Exponential Innovation 

The two formulas are kissing cousins for sure…but when I think of Audri and Jim, I think way beyond “Direct Marketing Success” as the result of all they accomplished…they were pioneers who never stopped learning, never stopped teaching and therefore never stopped innovating.

It was no accident that they held a “Billion Dollar Internet Summit” only weeks after many predicted there would be no one alive on the planet let alone that we would be on the verge of the most exciting time in history to be a marketer.

One other big thing I learned from Audri and Jim–and why I want to honor them today—is that they gave me, and everyone they touched, the lesson of taking inventory of our “non-negotiables.”

It is imperative that no matter what stage we might be in our life at any point in time, figuring out your non negotiables (i.e. those things you will not do or engage in under any circumstances) is a critical exercise.

I know a lot of people who beat to their own drum, who are rugged individualists, and who love to go right when everyone else is going left.

Audri and Jim were certainly rebellious in that way; but I believe for them it was much more than just daring to be different…it was about living life boldly and never compromising.

I think in the dictionary next to the word “congruent,” you could see a picture of Audri and Jim.

Audri and Jim were always at the cutting edge in all they did and could have gone into hundreds of different businesses…but they were always about making the right choices for them; and they were all about never violating their non-negotiables when it came to life and business.

They always did what they wanted to do and what felt right in terms of their values, skills and passions; and they lived where they wanted and interacted and surrounded themselves with people who were aligned with those values.

Like so many intellectually gifted people we all know, Audri and Jim were somewhat private…but they spoke with their actions and their lives are a lesson in congruence for all of us who knew them…and now you know about them too. How they designed their life together is worth emulating.

The big lesson for today is that tomorrow is promised to no one…and as Jeff said in his video and I will repeat here (however clichéd it might sound), hug your family, reach out to some friends to tell them you love them…and then just innovate in every aspect of your life…today. 

Also, I encourage you to live life boldly and never compromise on your non-negotiables even in the face of mounting pressure to “settle” and do things that you know are inconsistent with your core beliefs.

I know that’s easy to say and not to do when life’s mounting pressures (like paying the mortgage or doing things out of necessity rather than within your passion) allow you to “negotiate” that it’s OK to settle.

But at least be self-aware when you are not living your life the way you really want to live it so when the time comes where you have more freedom, you can dictate the terms.

When your house is paid off (micro example) or when you have the freedom to no longer compromise on your non-negotiables and not engage in things you swore you would not engage in (macro example), you can, in the spirit of today’s tribute, “be like Audri and Jim.”

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. To honor Audri and Jim today, I want to share something very special from their mentor and mine, Jay Abraham—a link to the documentary film about him.

I remember being at that seminar in January 2000 and thinking that Audri, Jim and Jay were ahead of the curve…and this documentary about Jay’s life will give you some insight into how he thinks and how he manages to stay ahead of the curve all the time.

Go to:

thejayabrahamstory.com

The post What are your non negotiables? appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

(And tonight is one of the last chances to grab the e-book for $1.99—links at the end of this post.)

I hope you enjoy this if you haven’t heard it before—and if you have, I hope it’s a good reminder:

Some of my best friends are attorneys. I also know many recovering attorneys who I like a lot too. However, even though we all need legal advice from time to time, I will submit to you that there are better ways to do business than living lawsuit to lawsuit and always thinking “adversarial” rather than “peaceful coexistence.”

The story that follows proves that it’s a lot harder to build relationship capital when you immediately think “problem first” rather than “potential opportunity first.”

And it’s also a lot harder if you are one of those people who will die on a sword over “the principle of the thing.”

If you tend to hold on to things at all costs to prove a point, I encourage you to read on; and if you don’t, read on anyway since I think this story will reinforce how we should always try to turn lemons into lemonade as our first course of action. 

When I hosted the Titans of Direct Response event in 2014, one of the first things I needed to do was to create a logo—so I went to an online design site and held a contest.

I ended up with something I loved, with colors and a font that fit the magnitude of the event, and a titan’s shield that was powerful yet subtle.

Using the event as a springboard, I branded everything I have done since under Titans: Titans Mastermind, Titans Master Class, Titans DVDs, and Titans Marketing (which I was even able to trademark).

After launching Titans Marketing about a year after the 2014 event, a friend e-mailed me to say that there was an up-and-coming online marketing company calling themselves Titans of Marketing.

Despite having a trademark, I don’t own the word “titan,” and the term gets around: it’s been used by NFL teams past and present, by various gurus in other industries, and even by a company that places advertising at bus stops in New York City.

But Titans of Marketing? That sounded too close for comfort.

So I went to their website, and while they were not competing directly with me, what was shocking was their logo—the colors and font were identical to mine, but instead of the shield, there was a Spartan helmet.

What was also strange was that the helmet logo was from a design given to me during my own design contest, which I rejected in favor of the shield.

What to do?

My attorney suggested we send a cease and desist letter, which I considered . . . but not for very long.

Others suggested I sue them outright (and not all those folks were lawyers, mind you).

Still others told me to forget about them, saying that anyone who would show such little imagination and ingenuity would not stand the test of time and they would be out of business before we knew it.

I decided not to take any legal action, which was easy, based on all the lessons I had learned up until that point regarding the waste of time and money a lawsuit entails.

After 30-plus years of watching people rip off promotions, copy, and titles (and more) from right under our noses and the noses of friends and colleagues alike, I knew that chasing every little infraction by taking some kind of legal action was only a distraction and would not be a good use of my energy or time.

And of course, pursuing stuff like this is a great a way to add to the billable hours of your friendly attorney, often with little or no return on that money.

When legal situations arose throughout my career, I did a simple calculation in my mind of not only the money going out to an attorney but the opportunity cost and money lost by not staying focused on marketing.

I remember a comment from Marty Edelston, founder of Boardroom, when we were dealing with a legal situation that involved a rip-off: 

“I don’t want lawyers running our business. I just want reasonable and intelligent lawyers helping us do the right thing. And suing will never be our first option.” 

For a while I decided to just forget about those “other Titans,” until one day I discovered that one of the partners in that business had sent me a friend request on Facebook (which I hadn’t gotten around to accepting yet)—and he had even liked a post of mine.

I decided to reach out to him directly. No lawyer required.

I privately messaged him on Facebook, asking him why he would be so lazy with the naming of his company, and especially with the development of his typeface and logo.

I wrote the note assuming he had heard of my epic event, and that he wanted to cash in on the tsunami that was the Titans brand in direct marketing.

Well, he clearly was not aware of my press clippings . . . he didn’t even know who I was or what I was talking about. I got a good lesson in getting over myself.

But that’s not the biggest lesson from this story.

Once we connected and I showed him what I was talking about—my logo and branding next to his—he was shocked. Together we figured out what happened, and both of us learned two very valuable lessons.

Lesson #1 (Micro) 

When you go to a public site to get work from designers who are not getting paid top dollar, don’t assume they are being 100 percent original.

It became clear to us that that someone took a good design that failed to win a previous contest (mine) and figured they could recycle it for another contest without changing very much.

Of course, “stealing is a felony; stealing smart is an art.” I guess this example was neither a felony nor art. It was just opportunistic on the designer’s part . . . and the Titans of Marketing were simply caught in the crossfire. I didn’t need to accuse anyone of anything.

Lesson #2 (Macro) 

Jumping to conclusions—and jumping to legal action without all the facts—is a waste of time and money.

When I discovered the truth, I felt there was now lemonade to be made from lemons. I scheduled a call to learn more about these competitive Titans, their business, their overall mission, and their future plans as coexisting Titans.

What I found were two young, ambitious entrepreneurs—full of enthusiasm for marketing and the direct response business we all love—actually, the kind of marketers I regularly seek to attract to my tribe.

On the call, they volunteered to change their name before I even asked, saying they would be going in a completely new direction with their branding and their logo.

They seemed inspired to raise the bar higher for their business after the call, and I was inspired to help them.

I offered my consulting services at no charge to create their new brand, and I began asking more about what they offered to their clients and how we might even work together.

(They even attended a live event I was planning at the time. the first “Titans Master Class”)

It turned out that their skillset had tremendous value to various clients and mastermind members I was serving at the time.

And while I didn’t ask them for anything specific in return, they offered to sell, as an affiliate partner, the $2,000 product from the Titans of Direct Response event I had created (a package of DVD’s, interviews, and swipe files which were sold to those who were unable to attend).

And of course I offered them an affiliate commission for every one they sold.

These guys went from being the jerks ripping me off to my newest affiliate partner. This felt much better than paying legal fees, and I’m sure they would agree that the last thing they would have wanted was the stress and cost of legal action from me.

And the story goes on . . . I spoke at a large online marketing conference some years later, and one of the partners from the former “Titans of Marketing” was sitting in the front row while I was on stage.

After the event, he was one of the first people to post on Facebook saying nice things about me (and no, it had nothing to do with the affiliate commissions I had paid him in the past).

He went from potential adversary to friend for life.

This is not an isolated incident.

I have had many experiences over my career that speak to this theme. Many don’t involve legal issues or lawyers, but they all work on the premise that assuming the worst of people as your first reaction is nota winning formula for a peaceful life.

Or for a relationship capital account you can access at any point in your career.

I even had a dose of inspiration from my mentor on this topic on one of the saddest days of my life.

Marty was on his deathbed, and I couldn’t believe it when he asked what I was working on. The man was unstoppable, right to the end.

I told him about a few tricky deals that were going on at the company, and through a difficult breath he just said, “Be fair.”

Obviously Marty had taught me that lesson over the previous 30 years too, and it stays with me every day.

Don’t always think in terms of getting the advantage, whether it’s your partners, employees, consultants, or competitors—they all deserve respect and fair treatment, even on the days when it’s the last thing you feel like giving them.

Keep litigious thinking out of all you do. Of course, sometimes you may actually need a lawyer . . . but above all, be fair.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. Last chance to get the e-book of Overdeliver for $1.99…here are the links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble 

Apple

The post Don’t make your lawyer rich appeared first on Brian Kurtz.

Positionless basketball 

In the past, basketball had five positions:

Point guard (for the short guy who could dribble and distribute)

Shooting guard (for another short guy who could score)

Small forward (bigger guy who could score)

Power forward (even bigger guy who could rebound)

Center (biggest guy who could take up space, block shots and also rebound)

Over time, the lines have been blurred: For example, the seven footer who can shoot from the outside and handle the ball is commonplace as is the six footer who can rebound with the best of the best.

All players on the basketball court can play multiple positions, they can all play offense and defense against anyone else and they all know everything about everyone else’s position so they can play it if necessary.

It’s confusing…but I guess it was necessary. Basketball players have gotten bigger and stronger and size does not diminish their dexterity which it seemed to in the past; and if you have the deficiency of being short, you can make up for it with athleticism and leaping ability.

In today’s game, the biggest guy on the court who can dribble and shoot as well as the smallest doesn’t get shortchanged by being pigeonholed into a position…nor does the smallest guy on the court who can go inside with the big boys.

I bring this up today to talk about “positionless marketing”…that is, knowing everything about your marketing whether you are directly involved in it or not.

In the introduction to my new book, Overdeliver,I lay out “9 things every business owner needs to know about marketing” and I’d like to share that with you today. Consider it a preview if you haven’t bought the book yet and a reminder if you have.

And if you haven’t picked up my book with all the fantastic bonuses, go to www.OverdeliverBook.com.

1. Be Involved in All Your Marketing Efforts, Even If You Outsource Everything 

Most people with a background in direct response probably won’t need more encouragement on this one—we’re all data junkies who love getting our hands dirty on every kind of campaign. But if your role also demands that you focus on other things outside of marketing (product development, finances, hiring, etc.), make sure you never let go of the marketing reins completely. Keep an eye on everything that everyone is doing, both inside and outside your organization.

The best people I ever hired internally were the people in operations, analytics, and finance who understood and recognized the value of direct marketing. Being on the same page meant we could move so much faster than our competitors. When everyone on your team is on the same page, you don’t get slowed down by red tape. It might sound like a big ask to be hands-on with marketing when it’s not your core competency or to only hire people who love marketing, no matter their job title. But remember that every marketing message is a representation of you and your brand. Look after your marketing like you would your own child—it connects you to your customers, and that relationship must be protected at all costs.

2. Marketing Is Not Evil

I totally understand mission-based businesses and the need to be “elegant” or “classy” with all marketing and sales messages. But marketing your product, especially when it is mission based, is about serving your customers, not taking from them.

Always remember this important premise, drilled into me by one of my mentors, Jay Abraham (still one of the world’s biggest thought leaders on business and marketing, and author of the foreword to this book): it is irresponsible to bring your product or service to the marketplace without the same passion with which you created it.

There’s an ethical line each of us won’t cross (which comes down to your personal perspective), and that’s important to define clearly. But there’s nothing to be ashamed of in bringing your life’s work to as many people as possible if you are doing it in a way that’s congruent with your ethics and overall philosophy. To do this may require copy platforms and creative that you consider aggressive; but as long as you are working in the spirit of making a big impact, sell hard. The more people you reach, the better.

3. No One Spends Enough Time on Lists 

You’re going to hear that no one spends enough time on lists a few times throughout this book. Take it to heart. Dick Benson (another mentor and the smartest man I ever met on the science and strategies of direct mail) said this to me the day I met him, circa 1985, when we were comparing lists. I never forgot it, particularly since he later revised the comment to say that the team I led at Boardroom was the only exception.

I can’t emphasize enough that you must pay close attention to your customer list, your prospect list, and how you approach list building at a very detailed level. The real live people who make up those lists are truly the lifeblood of any business driven by direct response (and even many businesses that wouldn’t identify themselves as being in direct response).

Ignoring your lists is like ignoring your family. It’s a prescription for disaster. Making sure you talk to different segments of your list based on their relationship with you is critical to maximize success, and we’ll talk about this at length in the following chapters.

4. Customers Refund Transactions . . . Not Relationships 

E-mail is probably the most prevalent sales and communication medium in the world today, and it is also the most effective and efficient way to market any product or service when used properly. But just because e-mail is cheap doesn’t mean it should be used indiscriminately or without careful thought about every message you send. The care that you take with your e-mail list (what I would call your online family) might be the most important thing you do as a marketer, both now and in the future.

If someone recommends that you mail every day, don’t take it as gospel . . . take it under advisement. But here’s better advice: mail when you have something really worthwhile to say. Blogging every day with purpose is effective; throwing out random thoughts or sending pictures of last night’s dinner might be counterproductive. You wouldn’t want your own family to start ignoring you because you were sending stuff they didn’t care about. Think of your online family the same way. If you are just throwing out whatever you can think of every morning, including unrelated or insignificant content, you run the risk of burning out your list, causing your online family to ignore you when you really want them to pay closer attention.

Always look to build relationships for a lifetime, and deliver huge amounts of valuable content before you ever try to sell something. Because e-mail is cost-efficient, this is so much easier than in the past, when we only had offline techniques. Understanding lifetime value (which has its own chapter later on) gives all marketers real leverage and the maximum chance for success in multiple channels. It’s this focus on the long game that you need to develop in your customer relationships.

5. Credibility & Transparency Trump All 

Respect your customers. If they’re following you, don’t insult them with anything but transparency. Showing proof of your approach through testimonials, case histories, and professional endorsements is about building your case, not bragging. And when you make a mistake or want to show vulnerability, people always appreciate transparency.

Isn’t the cover-up always worse than the crime? There are countless stories in the world of marketing where a business confessed to something they were not proud of or failed at and came back stronger than ever. But once there’s a cover-up, you’re doomed.

6. Always Think Direct Marketing 

Remember—direct marketing is not just direct mail. It’s measurable marketing in any channel. Measurable and accountable advertising is always what you want, and don’t let anyone sell you a brand and image advertising “campaign” without being able to show a clear return on your investment (ROI).

I’ve been saying for years that the Internet is the ultimate direct marketing medium . . . and while that won’t change anytime soon, allmarketing is direct marketing in my world. Expecting an acceptable ROI must always be standard operating procedure. Just because a lot of stuff is cheap to do online doesn’t mean you should allow sloppy campaigns out the door or skimp on requiring tangible results.

7. Use Your Personal Brand in Your Marketing When Applicable

Many marketing superstars understand their personal brand deeply and always keep it totally in sync with their products and services. They’re confident talking about their achievements and know that their information is valuable to their customers. However, many entrepreneurs and business owners are squeamish about putting themselves out there for fear of sounding boastful or disingenuous. In response to that, I will quote baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean (and I think John Wayne and others have used this one too): “It ain’t bragging if you done it.”

8. Advertising Opportunities Are Now Infinite

There are endless ways to market your products and services today. None of us can master them all, because there’s simply too much to know. This is why now the best time ever to be a marketer . . . is but this is also what makes it dangerous.

Having spent my entire career buying à la carte from the best experts across multiple marketing niches, I can assure you this approach will pay for itself. I tell entrepreneurs to run—not walk—away from anyone who claims they can be your one-stop shop for all marketing, creative, and media buying.

Remember that when you have more choice across channels, you also see more specialization and therefore more experts. I don’t think I have to convince you that experts are much better to work with than generalists—and certainly better than generalists posing as experts. In today’s supercharged, multi-channel and technology-rich marketing environment, no one can be an expert on everything. Make sure you’re always searching for the expert who is the leading specialist in the channel you want to use.

9. SingleChannelMarketingIsSoBoring.com 

Feel free to go to this website because it just redirects to my website, www.briankurtz.me. I really do own this URL, just to prove a point.

No business should rely on a single marketing channel, because you never know when the landscape might change. If Facebook shuts down your ad account, or Google changes its search algorithm, or your e-mail provider slaps you for an infringement, you must have other channels dialed in to keep your business solvent.

This is not about one channel being better than another channel. That is, it’s not an “or” but an “and.” Not only is buying your media on a single channel boring, it’s also dangerous. And the danger is easily avoided when you’ve committed to working with the best of the best across the different marketing disciplines, as I mentioned in the last point. You would expect the people who manage your money to diversify your financial risk, and you should expect the people who manage your marketing to do the same.

Remember, you have to meet your customers where they are, and there’s not a single industry where buyers use only one channel. Meet them everywhere they spend time. And you can only serve your customers if your business stays afloat, so diversify your marketing to ensure you can provide for them over the long haul.

* * *

With all the tools, case studies, and information at our disposal, today’s marketers have more opportunity than ever to leave an indelible mark on the world. While I can’t guarantee what the market will do or which platform will take off next, if you approach direct response marketing with a spirit of service and healthy competition, your business and marketing can be a force that changes countless lives for the better—and pays off for you too.

The nine fundamentals listed above were originally written for entrepreneurs and business owners who are not marketers but who I believe must embrace these principles to build their businesses for a lifetime. This book will dive deeply into all these principles, giving you valuable understanding whether or not you are an experienced marketer.

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. I know many of you have bought Breakthrough Advertising for which I am very thankful…I am so glad I have been given the privilege of bringing that classic back to life.

And many of you have shared wonderful experiences you’ve had exploring this book–and please keep writing to me with your thoughts and insights.

Gene Schwartz’s other classic, The Brilliance Breakthrough,  is a book that you may not know as much about but you should.

Read the background here. 

Consider it Gene’s manual for writing (and not just copywriting).

You can get your copy here:

www.TheBrillianceBreakthrough.com

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