If you follow Perry Marshall, one of the greatest marketing minds in the world, you might think the subject line refers to a piece of advice Perry gives out freely and often:
Everyone needs to read something that was written before Gutenberg every day
Since Gutenberg invented the printing press, it makes sense.
Anyone who could write something of significance before having it printed (and distributed widely…remember there was no Internet back then) …and it stands the test of time (i.e. it is still read and studied today) …deserves our attention.
Alas, that is not what the subject line refers to because Gutenberg toiled in the 15th Century, not the 12th.
Didn’t you know that? 🙂
I need to go back even further for today’s marketing lesson.
Watching the events from Paris over the past week (i.e. the “re-opening” of the Notre Dame Cathedral) made me think fondly about my trips to this wonderful city.
Unfortunately, my thoughts first went back to 2019 when the cathedral almost burned to the ground.
I was heartbroken at the time.
But I am now exhilarated.
Notre Dame—one of the most astounding man-made wonders of the world–is now restored.
And it inspired today’s post.
The news of the rebirth of this amazing edifice brought me back to a place of wonder…a little nostalgia…romance…gluten-free crepes (do they exist?) …and of course, direct response marketing.
My first trip to Paris was over 10 years ago…and I fell in love with the place.
I’ve been back to Paris twice more since 2014—both times to speak—and I did three interviews for my friends in France (with my host and French brother-from- another-mother, Sebastien Night, aptly known as “The French Marketer”).
In those interviews I talk about some of my epic failures, my favorite books and continuous improvement…and you can access all three of them here on this page (in English).
I also wanted to continue the theme around the resurgence of that “new medium” called direct mail…actually, offline media in general…and how it applies to everything state-of-the-art in online media and marketing today…with Notre Dame as the backdrop.
I’ve often compared direct mail to “making sushi at home”…that is, you can do it yourself but I don’t recommend it.
Even though you shouldn’t practice direct mail without a ton of support, you also shouldn’t ignore what is clearly “the least crowded Inbox” for consumers and businesspeople alike…that’s the Inbox at the end of your driveway.
Back to Paris…
…to illustrate this point further…
…and to talk about best practices in email marketing as well.
One of my favorite stops on my first visit was the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris…in all its original glory, 5 years before the fire.
I worked off some “croissant calories” by walking the stairs to the tower…and when I got to the top, I hung out with a famous gargoyle …see picture at the end of this email.
Note: The gargoyle is NOT my daughter, who made the trek with me to the top.
The creature (again, NOT my daughter) reminded me of many sleazy internet marketers who haunt my Inbox every day.
He even resembles a Nigerian Prince I’ve met a few times as well.
The church was built in the 12th century…well they began construction in 1163, but it wasn’t completed until 1345.
The craftsmanship and attention to detail is phenomenal…and seeing it up close and personal got me thinking:
Lots of folks put in a lot of time, planning and effort to figure out how to get that thing built without a crane…or an elevator shaft…or any modern tools.
I know what you’re saying…” go visit the Pyramids, built around 2600 B.C. with even more limitations, Brian, and you won’t be so astounded.”
But there were still no bulldozers during the 12th century either.
Everything had to be perfect, and no move could be taken without it being thought through in a big way.
Sort of like doing direct mail.
OK…it was a lot tougher to build Notre Dame than planning a direct mail campaign…and the relative cost was a lot more, even in 12th century dollars.
And whatever it cost to build, the cathedral is also a lot prettier to look at than any #10 envelope…or even an expertly designed magalog.
However, you would think that considering legacy media that had been creating marketing successes for decades…dare I say a century…would have some relevance to marketers today.
Sadly, that consideration seems to mostly land on deaf ears…
Building Notre Dame may even seem easier to some marketers than venturing into non-digital marketing.
I am here to tell you that is not the case…if you think about offline channels as an “and” and not an “or” …and an “and” that is now, in the words of online marketing sage Ryan Levesque, a zag when everyone else is zigging.
Note that Ryan is one of the most prolific digital marketers of our generation.
(More on him in an upcoming post based on his presentation this past week to my Titans Xcelerator Mastermind)
Offline marketing in an online world…to be different, to be bold and to differentiate from everyone else…where everyone else is all digital…all the time…is worth thinking about…and testing.
Even Ben Franklin thought direct mail had potential over two centuries ago.
So great news…direct mail is cheaper than building Notre Dame AND we don’t have to wait almost 200 years to get results.
But…it still requires patience…something many online marketers lack…which is fair since technology has made instant success possible.
Waiting 6 weeks to accurately read a direct mail campaign might as well be 200 years.
But does instant success also have staying power?
Only you can answer that question through your own results…front end, back end and long term…but it got me thinking about email…
After visiting Notre Dame, I remember going back to my hotel room to check my email for the first time in a week…I have nine different Gmail accounts…and one of those Gmail accounts is where I “sign up for stuff” (i.e. to track what others are doing marketing-wise…a secret shopper of sorts…or a “seed” as we called it in direct mail decades ago).
Some examples are retail stores, memberships, programs, webinars…maybe even the result of some opt-in pages from some of you in my online family reading this right now.
The result was that I had been attacked by gargoyles and non-gargoyles alike since I had been a free man in Paris for a week.
Specifically, “the sign up for stuff email” had hundreds of unread emails in it…most of them were awful…and noisy, not targeted and repetitive.
The awful ones did not include anything from you, however. 🙂
Note that ChatGPT won’t exist until nearly 8 years later.
So, it’s only gotten worse. 🙁
I hadn’t noticed how bad these emails were until I hadn’t checked for a week…and saw a ton of them in aggregate… and how often I get the same bad emails.
I started thinking about how much thought (or lack of thought) goes into sending 5 emails in 5 days to someone…with virtually the same offer…maybe worded a little differently each time.
But not enough difference to have it qualify as being “creative.”
Or effective.
Or useful.
It is all so annoying.
Then I thought about the construction of Notre Dame…and the building of a direct mail campaign…and how neither could afford the sloppiness I was witnessing in that one Gmail account.
A friend of mine (and world class marketer) Dean Graziosi gave me a quote to live by…and I encourage you to spread the word on this one:
“Customers refund transactions, not relationships.”
There was nothing about “relationship building” in most of the emails in my Inbox.
It is so frustrating to see all that waste.
I often lament that in all my years in direct mail, we really couldn’t do true relationship building by itself…direct mail was way too expensive.
Gordon Grossman, architect of the Readers Digest, used to tell me:
“Everything in direct mail must sell something.”
That’s not necessarily bad advice even when you replace direct mail in that sentence with email…but direct mail has no choice because it involves printing and postage.
The idea of “content marketing,” (i.e. giving away our best stuff for free or at least some of our best stuff for free), which we all take for granted today as something we all should be doing online, was not affordable offline for the most part.
And while I agree with Gordon on the need to always “sell” with all our direct mail due to the high cost, I remember making a commitment to developing breakthrough direct mail creative that did give away “real content” even when it was dangerous to do so—and it made for relationship building while selling.
That was not the norm at the time I was cutting my teeth in direct mail, but we were trendsetters…and there were many like us that marketed similarly…and those are the mailers who have survived to this day in a very tough and expensive medium.
Today, the best direct mail has this component built in wherever possible.
I think Gordon would agree on this the new rule for online marketers based on what we have learned over the years offline:
“Everything in email must achieve something”
And those of you who are big emailers, I dare you not to sell all the time…and if I could recommend just one thing to you, be selective when and how you sell.
Many of you practice this already…hopefully you are OK if I am preaching to you as the converted…and I am also telling those of you who sell all the time to keep doing it if that works for you…and you are pleased with the results.
But I implore you, if you sell all the time, to track your sales and profit over time–lifetime value–and not only based on the quick hits.
Email being cheap (and having responsive email lists to mail to, yours and others), is not a license to kill your list…or your relationships.
As you know I tend to refrain from calling my “list” anything but an “online family” …which is much more than lip service.
Words matter.
I believe this is more meaningful and may inspire you to do your best work when selling your extended family online…assuming you like your family as much as I do (less that one obnoxious uncle from Florida). 🙂
Doing these weekly emails has taught me a lot…and even though I sometimes sell you something…everything on this page and more… I am careful to keep the selling relevant and congruent.
With no affiliates that I collect commissions from either.
Some people call it something closer to “sales prevention” than selling.
And that’s fair.
Different (selling) strokes for different folks.
The key, I think, is that I only want to offer you something of true value after I spend considerable time and effort developing this relationship with you.
Especially if you are still reading this…almost 2,000 words in.
You deserve a special thank you…maybe even a medal. 🙂
Everything I sell has been–-and will continue to be–-consistent with my overall mission of providing you with the best direct marketing content I can find.
And while I’ve made some money selling stuff, do you know what has been the most satisfying thing over these last 10+ years of writing this weekly blog?
It’s that I receive very few unsubscribes over time, higher open, click and engagement rates even as the list becomes larger…and virtually zero complaints.
And I address every complaint one-on-one.
And…I look to engage with every response, good or bad, one-on-one too.
Try me. Respond to this email. I dare you. 🙂
Without a Bot…or a safety net.
Hey…the builders of Notre Dame were flying, lifting and dying without safety nets either.
Unsubscribes, customer complaints, bounces are key metrics these days with email (in addition to clicks and engagement…and yes, sales and profit) …as open rates are becoming less and less important.
Those are the facts in 2024 and as we head into 2025.
And if there was email in 1345, I think that would be the case too.
Thank you for your trust…and thank you for continuing to read and interact with me.
I know that I never could have figured out how to build the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris…in the 12th Century or the 21st.
But if you read “How paying postage made me a better marketer,” (which is the title of Chapter 3 of my book Overdeliver), you will note my confidence that I can build a list and “use email for good rather than evil” because of how I learned to build direct mail campaigns.
Maybe not for maximum profit…but profit comes in various forms.
And as we have all learned, the fact that email is inexpensive is not an excuse to exploit our respective online families…it’s about the opportunity to build those families the right way, by treating them with respect and integrity.
Now is the time to build our lists the right way, just as Notre Dame was built and rebuilt.
Please think about the craftsmanship of the Notre Dame Cathedral the next time you write an email…and before you hit send.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. Here’s a picture of me with that internet marketer…er…gargoyle…atop Notre Dame:
I’m scared all over again…
And here’s a picture from the top of Notre Dame, replacing the gargoyle with my daughter, which calmed my nerves then…and forever. 🙂
