Since it’s “election week” in the United States, I used a subject line today that I used right before the 2016 election (do you remember that one?) …to talk about anything but politics. 🙂
After all, there are thousands of news outlets for that…but where else other than this blog can you read about a marketing fundamental where 41% is, in fact, a majority.
This fundamental was true in 2016…again in 2020…and today.
And not only every four years.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
And dare I say, it is an eternal truth.
Politicians and elections come and go…marketing fundamentals are constant…and timeless.
I encourage you to watch this 5-minute video, if for no other reason than to not watch the news. 🙂
But the main reason to watch it is to give you a formula to assess all your marketing efforts…well beyond this (or any) news cycle.
After watching, head to the P.S. for some cautionary tales about handling distractions in a noisy marketing environment…including the upcoming election.
Protecting your profits takes priority over politics…but distractions are distractions…and we have a big one on the horizon.
But first, before heading to the P.S., click on the play button on my face below to find out about the most important 41%…and why it is a majority.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. After the 2016 presidential election, I wrote a post about distractions and how they can have a negative effect on response rates…excerpted from my book Overdeliver…and I sent it again in May of 2023…and also this past July…in anticipation of the upcoming election…and potential post-election activities…because it is an important concept that should never be ignored.
In case you missed those posts, with the election bearing down on us, I am copying and pasting some key components of those emails below…as I it pertains to the upcoming election (and aftermath)…so you can’t say I didn’t warn you. 🙂
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 (seemingly) out of your control.
But not every distraction is out of your control.
One such distraction could be a doozy of a presidential election.
I’m reminded of this right now as the United States is gearing up (already in?) another distraction for the ages.
I recall a conversation I had with a top marketer in 2017 who said that their business had been so much better in 2017 than in 2016—because their business tanked during the fourth quarter of 2016.
Specifically, they seemed surprised that response was so low to what they thought were some of their best promotions in October and November of 2016.
Hmmmm…was there anything capturing their audience’s attention in October and November that year?
Hint: Trump vs. Clinton.
Not to mention the same period (and beyond October and November) in 2020, into early 2021.
And 2024 has lots in store on that front once again…
I always thought that “planning around distractions” was obvious to most marketers…but I have a feeling it might not be…so hopefully something here will be helpful to you as you map out the rest of your 2024 marketing plans…into 2025…and beyond.
Major distractions in the marketplace can negatively affect your results for the products and services you are promoting.
Regarding negative distractions:
- Some are predictable and can be avoided.
- Some are less predictable but even when you are surprised, there may be ways to make lemonade from lemons.
- And some are just plain bummers all the way around (unpredictable and unavoidable leading to terrible results beyond your control). I can’t tell you how to avoid these, but they can be less tragic if you plan and react quickly to numbers 1 and 2 above.
What follows is excerpted from pages 179-186 of my book, Overdeliver.
I’ve only copied and pasted the notion of “predictable distractions” (#1 above) to cover the upcoming election…but for the “Full Monty” including examples relating to #2 and #3 above, click here to read July’s post.
This topic is always timely because history repeats itself…and we need reminders regularly.
Remember: No one is waiting for your next amazing sales letter, webinar, launch, product, video sales letter…and if they are distracted by outside forces when you approach them, there is even less of a chance they will be eager to hear from you.
Serving your customers always beats selling them.
I encourage you to read this when you have some quiet time over the next few days…if you have my book you can read pages 179-186 anytime.
Predictable and avoidable distractions
Marketing results (i.e. response, revenue and profit) preceding (and just after) the 2016 presidential election were lower than expected for so many folks in our world.
However, I don’t believe it was just about THAT past election (although 2016 had many more “drives to distraction” than most elections of the past).
[2020 was even worse…and 2024 is an unknown]
I know it’s easy to be an armchair quarterback…but EVERY presidential election is worth avoiding as a “launch date/mail date/promotion period” (as it has been throughout my career).
In my days doing large direct mail programs, the time immediately before and after presidential elections was a time frame that was worth avoiding…and this does not only apply to direct mail.
Knowing the dates well in advance enables you to plan a year (decades?) ahead since Election Day is always the first Tuesday after the first Monday in the U.S.
I assume many foreign countries have dates set far in advance for national elections as well (and all national holidays and the like where people are doing other things than reading or watching your hot new promotion).
Extrapolate this to anything when people are not only distracted but not at home (e.g. some European countries virtually “close” during full months in the summer).
And pre-Internet (yes there was a time when there was no Internet), when direct mail was king, it was a lot harder to predict when the mail would land (which we called the “in home date”) than most media you are involved with today.
You couldn’t always rely on the mailman to deliver at the same rate or pace…although we were pretty good at predicting “in home dates.”
But I hope you see how much easier it is today to predict the equivalent of “in home dates” with most forms of online media being done with less lag time, often immediate…which makes planning even easier.
Regardless, we never mailed or advertised into any presidential election due to the “distraction factor.”
We always wanted to reduce risk whenever we could.
A presidential election is one you can work around…unlike war, horrific world events and weather disasters…or just unexpected news.
I’ll talk about those in a minute and will show you how you can sometimes even deal with unpredictable occurrences if you have at least a little warning.
[You can read about those examples here]
But when talking about “predictable and avoidable,” I would recommend that you make this kind of planning part of your standard operating procedure.
For example, during my 30+ years planning promotions in all media (direct mail, print, inserts, TV, radio, email), we mapped out our mailing schedule at the beginning of each year and took as many “planned” major world events into account as we could (Olympics, Presidential Elections were two biggies) …and we always worked around them.
Even how we mailed around big holidays was strategic…for example, mid-December was always a terrible “mail date” since mail landing in a household right around Christmas Day would always have a lower response rate.
However, a mail date between Christmas and the New Year was considered one of our best with mail hitting the households just after the New Year when folks were no longer distracted with holidays and parties, and they were looking forward to new year’s resolutions they wanted to act on…or at least try to act on.
It’s no coincidence you are bombarded with diet and fitness-related offers in January.
With direct mail, as I mentioned previously, it is very difficult to predict when the consumer will receive the piece.
You don’t have that excuse when sending email or advertising online.
We had mailings going out every week in some years…and we never had fewer than 40+ mailings a year, all of which were over a million pieces (for the most part) and some were multi-million name mailings.
I remember one year when we had over 50 mailings and had to “double up” a couple of weeks (while deduping the names we mailed) to avoid some other weeks.
Unfortunately, even in a leap year, you only get 52 weeks to choose from…
But if I can leave you with one tip/lesson here:
Map out your promotion schedule at the beginning of the year and work around any events that are what I call “planned distractions.”
Also, think about your specific, core audience in this context…since some audiences will be more distracted than others around certain holidays or events than other audiences.
Your marketing calendar needs to be merged with a real life calendar.
[For the full excerpt which includes “Less predictable distractions” and “Bummer distractions” you can go here]
I’ll close today by quoting venture capitalist Frederick Adler:
“Paranoia is not a psychosis…it’s survival”