Direct Response Copywriter on the Power of Persistence

Several years ago, I was extremely fortunate to work with Jim McLean, the extremely successful golf teacher. And well before that, McLean was fortunate to work with a golfer named Jackie Burke who won The Masters in 1956 and is enjoying a long and fruitful career in golf and business. I still work with Jim McLean on various projects.

Burke told McLean “I never saw a persistent man fail.”

These words stuck with McLean and they have stuck with me. I think about the word “persistence” almost every day.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that direct marketing and direct response copywriting success comes down to persistence.

Last week, a company I know very well asked me to write a presentation to help them improve one part of their business that’s not going very well. It should be going well. It's a great offer to the perfect audience.

In looking at how they market this particular product, I noticed something pretty obvious. There’s only one touchpoint to market this product. Once someone says “no” then that’s it. So I simply said, in my presentation, “that first 'no' must not be the end of the conversation, it should be the beginning.”

I’m a direct response copywriter, so I’m going to tell you the copy and the message are important. Vital, even. But with 7-10 touchpoints instead of 1, guess what’s going to happen?

Someone I know once referred to this consistency as “polite persistence” and that’s a phrase I like very much.

There’s a lot of failure in direct marketing. We fail a ton. But the top direct marketers keep going and keep pounding away. They also keep testing. It’s all about persistence. It’s not a concept that branding people understand because they can’t measure anything. A campaign lasts for a defined period and that's that.

Dan Kennedy said that most people give up when there’s the first sign of a headwind. And he’s right. Many people fail because they’re not persistent. I’m a direct response copywriter which ultimately means I’m in sales. The great salespeople and the great marketers know that 99% of sales begin with the word “no.”

But they also understand that’s just the beginning of the journey that ultimately leads to a “yes.” If you have the right market, the right offer, and the right direct response copywriter, then persistence will pay off.

Direct Response Copywriter on What It's All About Part 2

In the last blog, I introduced a series of blogs about what direct response copywriting is all about.

And I promised a story. Here you go ...

A few weeks ago, I visited a famous ski resort. I have visited this resort every year for 12 years in a row. I’m in the database. I have always taken at least one ski lesson per trip. It’s in the database.

At one part of the resort, several ski instructors optimistically wait every morning for skiers to show up and take lessons. The instructors are among the world’s best. They are independent contractors and work is never guaranteed. No skiers. No money.

You’ll find anywhere from 4-8 instructors at the meet-up but I’ve only ever seen 2 … at most … get work for the day.

The resort knows a couple of things about me:

• I visit at least once a year so I like the resort.
• I have always taken lessons.

I'm a prime target ... a REPEAT BUYER ... so ...

You might have thought I would have received an email (or 5) encouraging me to take lessons just after I booked my trip. You would have thought the telephone booking agent would have upsold me to some discount lessons.

No emails. No upsell.

However, I always get a survey AFTER my visit asking me about my lesson.

Too late, team.

Two years ago, to generate more revenue, the marketing people doubled the price of the lesson and re-branded the name of the lessons. But it's exactly the same instruction.

That’s Post Office pricing strategy.

If the marketing people decide to put this direct response copywriter – or any competent direct marketer – in charge of getting those ski instructors a ton of business, I would follow these steps.

1. Look at inventory and demand over the last several years to determine pricing.
2. Create a segmented database of people who have taken lessons.
3. Marry that list to the list of people who have booked trips.
4. Send emails to the new list … with a special and aggressive offer.
5. Measure the results.

Even with the most basic email platform, like MailChimp, I could organize this.

Admittedly, I have simplified the steps. But I should have received several emails giving me the opportunity to take lessons at well below the “rack” rate. There was plenty of inventory and it was the end of the season. I'm sure the instructors and the resort would rather have some business than none.

The fact I didn’t get any emails selling lessons? Rookie mistake and epic marketing fail.

Why bother with the steps above?

I’ll answer the question in the next blog.

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One problem … from my view as a guest/customer, the resort is more focused on branding, image, and the “trendy” marketing tactics (like Twitter) than direct marketing. The result? World-class ski instructors not getting any work.

More soon …

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

I'm also a Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

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Disclaimer for the above.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting. This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution. It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy. The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.

Direct Response Copywriter on What It's All About. Part 1.

Marketing – especially direct marketing – is hard. It’s not for the weak and it’s not for people who want to win prizes and look good.

Every serious direct marketer – and direct response copywriter – has looked really really bad; they have suffered epic failures. And because we direct marketers and direct marketing writers are accountable down to the last penny, we always know what’s working and what’s not. Those who live in the branding and “image” world are never accountable … or at least not like us.

Perhaps this leads to the somewhat obvious question. Why bother with direct response marketing if failure is part of the equation? The answer depends on how you look at direct response.

I’ve had sales pages convert at 5% … which is really, really high. But that also means a 95% failure rate.

So with such a high failure rate – if you look at direct marketing that way – you might ask the obvious question, “why bother?”

In this series of blogs, I’m going to write about the power of direct response marketing and the real reasons it’s so vitally important.

You lot in the branding world won’t enjoy this series of blogs … especially if you like the lack of accountability in your world and view direct response marketing as somewhat crass.

However, after reading this series, you’ll understand direct response marketing with much more clarity.

Something that happened recently motivated me to write this series. And in the next blog, I’ll detail exactly what transpired and why it pushed me to write.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

I'm also a Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

*

Disclaimer for the above.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting. This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution. It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy. The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.