You learn a lot from your one-star reviews…but only if you take them in as “fact” initially (even if you disagree with them) …because if someone took the time to write a one-star review, they had a reason.
Those reasons may include:
- They had time on their hands
- They are jealous
- They are professional trolls
- Everything is a one star to them because they live a “one star life”
- They are not joyous
- They are unforgiving
Or…they are correct.
Since I believe that I have the rest of my life to reject any negativity that comes my way, for the purpose of this post (and many others I write), I promise not to get defensive…but I will talk about some legitimate justifications…since I learn a lesson from every piece of constructive criticism.
I’m referring to one of my one-star reviews from someone I will call “MM” (for my book Overdeliver) which reads as follows (and the subject line of this post was the subject line of the review so I don’t need to beat myself up further by repeating it):
“Kurtz has…overdelivered in this book [which is] full of redundancy and braggadocio.
He repeats his point so many times that I want to throw this book against the wall.
For example, the chapter titled “Original Source” encourages us to learn from those who came before us.
Why reinvent the wheel?
But how many times does he make this point?”
Thankfully this reviewer told me exactly how many times I made this point:
The magic number is 14 (and he lists all 14 in the review).
One good dose of repetition deserves another, I guess.
I only hope there was no one in between him and the wall when he threw my book because one of the guarantees I made was that “no readers or their friends or families were harmed in the publishing or distribution of this book.” 🙂
Regardless, I agree with him 100% on his assessment of Chapter 2 (“Original Source”) …and I only wish my editors had noticed the more-than-necessary repetition.
But it’s my book (and chapter) …and it’s my bad.
“MM” goes on to admit that he only made it to page 87…which allows me to take his review a little less seriously…because officially it’s one star on a third of the book.
Maybe it’s really a 3-star review?
I doubt that. Given his tone, he’s clearly a one-star or nothing kind of guy.
But it’s always a sin to lose a reader for any reason at any point—too much repetition being one (and throwing the book at the wall is another)—and I am thankful that he brought this out in his review.
Very instructive.
To me and my readers/students.
One of my core beliefs is that no copy can be too long or too short…just too boring.
And I guess being too repetitive is a kissing cousin of too boring.
Now that I have accepted this review as “fact,” I will give my reasons for the intense repetition in Chapter Two…because there was a method to my madness…and after all, only one reviewer out of 342 made this observation.
Not statistically significant—but still true.
However, I had my reasons for expressing “Original Source” this way.
I received an email recently from a member of my Titans Xcelerator Mastermind which I’ll use to begin my rebuttal to “MM”:
Just a note to thank you and the team for making my renewal such a smooth experience.
I’m very glad to listen to the Mount Rushmore legends [a deluxe USB of interviews with direct marketing legends] included in the renewal box.
The fundamentals are really what underpin our success.
I must admit that I’ve been caught up and distracted by various shiny objects (i.e. courses!) that haven’t helped nearly as much as they promised in the last few years.
Funnily enough, they wouldn’t be here either if it wasn’t for these pioneers, and of course, sticking to the fundamentals.
They just don’t give any credit to anyone but themselves it seems!
My take:
Giving credit to those whom we stand on the shoulders of is critically important.
But equally consequential is making sure everyone has the tools (and rules) as a foundation…so they can innovate freely and create careers on solid ground rather than on sand.
And repetition is part of the formula.
Here’s a quote to back that up…
“Learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that reading a single text twice is more profitable than reading two different things once.
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Lebanese American essayist and scholar
Ben Settle, one of the world’s experts on email marketing, related an experience interacting with one of his subscribers on this topic of old news being new news.
The subscriber wrote to him with this “outrageous” complaint regarding Ben’s bonus for renewing (and with a bit less gratitude than my renewing subscriber):
“I sign up and the first newsletter you send me is from 2011? Seriously?”
Ben’s response was brilliant, using five pithy quotes:
“I immigrate to America to become a citizen and you hand me a 250 year old document to read?”
“I convert to Christianity and you tell me to read a 400 year old book written in Old English?”
“I want to learn direct marketing and you send me a link to a bunch of plain text no image Halbert newsletters written in the 80s and 90’s?”
“I ask for recommendations for good fantasy fiction and you get me a book about wizards and a magic Ring from the mid-1900s?”
“I get into copywriting and you have me read a book titled Breakthrough Advertising written in 1966?”
Couldn’t have said it better myself, except for the last quote (which I would have said as well), which references a book that I have the exclusive rights to.
But you guys know that already.
And if you haven’t been paying attention to these blogs over the years, there’s a reminder in the P.S….just to make sure. 🙂
My favorite addition to Ben’s quotes above comes from marketing savant, Perry Marshall:
“Everyone needs to read something that was written before Gutenberg every day”
For those of you who have not heard of Gutenberg, he is responsible for inventing the printing press…in the 15th Century…which, for you history buffs, is before 2011, 1966, 1776 or any period mentioned above.
Anyone who could write something of significance before having it printed (and distributed widely…remember there was also no Internet back then) …and it stands the test of time (i.e. it is still read and studied today) …deserves our attention.
2011 is not as ancient as this subscriber thought…and the newsletter from that “ancient time” will be as much or more meaningful than anything new and whiz bang that Ben could have sent him.
Because Ben gets the importance of original source…bigly.
He thinks more about being timeless than timely…which is what makes him timely.
And that is true for my Titans Xcelerator member, Perry and most of you reading this.
Finally, to prove my point further—and to make the one-star review from MM irrelevant (while still being accurate) –I will quote from another email marketing guru, copywriter Alin Dragu.
Alin recently wrote a post titled “7 Books That Make My Marketing Degree Irrelevant” …and I was honored that such an avid reader of everything (i.e. marketing, copywriting, fiction, personal development etc.) chose Overdeliver as one of the seven.
I feel honored while “doing my part” to save folks from going to college. 🙂
Alin wrote:
There are two concepts in this book that I just have to rave about, because they changed the way I do business.
Concept #1: RFM — Recency, Frequency, Monetary
This changed the way I sell, upsell, and do business with my customers.
RFM means finding people who:
- Have bought from you most recently
- Buy from you most frequently
- Spend the most money
Using RFM, I’ve been able to curate a hyper-targeted list of buyers in my business so I can be more congruent in the offers I make them. I solve better problems for them. They become more raving fans because of how I serve them — just by looking at the data.
I know who my best customers are, what they want, what they’ve bought. And I serve that small list of very best customers way more heavily than trying to solve problems for everyone.
That changed my life.
Concept #2: LTV — Lifetime Value
The other thing he teaches is measuring and optimizing for lifetime value — building your business to serve your customers over a lifetime, not just a transaction.
Most entrepreneurs and marketers are all about selling stuff the first time. They don’t care if they sell junk. They don’t care if people ever come back.
But this book teaches you how to build a lifetime business — one that lasts decades and decades.
And that’s what I’m interested in. I want to serve people who want to buy everything I ship, because everything I ship is excellent, it solves their problem, and people come back for more.
A quick note on Brian Kurtz: if you don’t know who he is, he managed a 9 million name database and sold well over a billion dollars’ worth of books and newsletters at a publishing company called Boardroom — which was one of the largest and most significant direct marketing publishing companies in the world. He’s worked with the greatest copywriters and direct response advertisers on the planet. If anybody knows how to build a multi-million-dollar company, it’s this guy.
Highly, highly recommend.
Note: I learned (and did not invent) RFM and LTV from original sources (beginning in 1981) …followed by 45 years of having these concepts embedded into my brain through extreme repetition by the best marketing practitioners in the world.
No wonder I repeated the importance of “Original Source” 14 times in Chapter Two of Overdeliver.
Now I’m thinking that I didn’t mention it enough. 🙂
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. A book that has never received a one-star review is the one Ben cited and I own the exclusive rights to:
Breakthrough Advertising by Gene Schwartz.
If you don’t own a copy your marketing library is not complete; and it is a masterpiece that will produce actionable results and profit to any business whether you sell online, offline or both.
And yes, it was written in 1966 and it is 100% relevant.
Being timeless makes it timely.
I love that phrase.
That’s why I repeated it. 🙂
Click here to read all about this once lost masterpiece…now found.