Timeless Business Gems From A Genuine Genius
Here’s an interview I did with Drayton Bird way back in 2009. February 17, 2009, to be precise.
There are a few gems in this one if you pay attention.
Enjoy.
1. In your experience, what proportion of the people who enter DM succeed in this business?
A. Depends on what you mean. I have no idea. I suspect no more than one in ten, as it seems so simple — if you don’t understand it!
But businesses owners who are spending their money and risking the roof over their heads may do better — probably because they only care about results; they have to succeed.
2. What do you think are the biggest mistakes people make which prevent them being successful?
• Over-optimism.
• Lack of persistence.
• Lack of study
• Falling in love with their own products.
• Trying to be clever and “creative”
• Having a background in a firm, or with firms that don’t understand and appreciate direct marketing — especially a large one. They’ll always dilute your efforts and lean towards puffery.
3. In a nutshell, what are the basic steps to success in direct marketing?
• Find something you like — that interests you.
• Steep yourself in it
• Study your market deeply — possible customers, prospects, competition.
• Talk to those customers and prospects
• Become a customer of your competition.
• Try to meet people succeeding in similar areas and pick their brains
• Arrive at a proposition that beats what is available in some significant way
• Determine who it will appeal to and how you will reach them
• Consider what may go wrong. Hope for the best; plan for the worst.
• Measure everything.
• Establish how you can constantly improve.
• Pay remorseless attention to detail.
• Find good people
• Motivate and keep them
• Get rid of the ones that are no good — quickly but kindly
4. How important is copywriting to this business and, more importantly, how important is it for us as direct marketers to know at least something about copywriting?
Copywriting is no use if you want to manage a business. But without understanding it you can’t succeed. It is in a way the glue that sticks good DM together.
5. In principle, what type of products are good for the beginning direct marketer to aim to sell?
Ones with a big margin requiring little investment (ie anything on paper or online).
Don’t be a pioneer. Till you know better, copy and improve.
Find something that appeals to a clearly definable group you can reach easily. If you can reach them very cheaply (e. g. through piggy-backing someone else’s list) even better.
If you know you have a product in a category that already does well and a good list, you can accept the results, good or bad.
But wondering whether it was the best mailing in the world, but just to the wrong list is a horrible feeling. If a beginner is going to throw the towel in, it would probably be here.
6. What is the best type of customer to aim for in terms of finding a list?
One that loves what you sell, buys often and spends a lot, or failing that is likely to find what you sell interesting. E.g. to launch the Vale do Lobo property in the Algarve my letter went to Wealthy Antique Collectors. Rich golfers would maybe have done even better.
7. How do you measure success?
Profit over time — not response or immediate profit.
And — am I having fun?
8. What is the current spate of marketers, both online and off, doing wrong?
Most are clueless and would still look at you blankly at you if you suggested long copy.
They over-claim. They use HTML instead of text. They all sound the same. They have not studied.
9. What should they be doing to get it right?
Studying, practising and copying. Watching what is doing well and asking: “Why?”
10. How would you recommend finding a good market to get into online and off?
Keep your eyes and ears open and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone/fire off a mail if you think there’s an opportunity for you.
Especially study what’s happening in the US.
A Few Bonus Questions
1. When selling well-known products online is it better to use short copy rather than long?
Long copy. Emails tend to be short — but link to long landing pages. You must give every reason why people should buy and overcome all objections. And repeat them all — perhaps in a slightly different way.
2. When selling products that a lot of other people are also selling, is it better to sell the benefits of the product or the benefits of buying from the shop selling the products or both?
Both. But when products have parity — just make a better offer.
3. Are there any simple tips for creating a USP?
Compare and study. Ask existing customers. They’ll tell you what it is — not what you’d like it to be.
4. Have you worked on any other websites that we could perhaps have a look at for a few ideas?
Smartspace. Everest. Not 100% happy with either — the client is in control; not happy with drayton.bird.com — too busy to perfect it; not happy with EADIM, same reason.
5. What are your thoughts on the most effective way to present product reviews so that they convince readers it’s the best choice for them?”
Run split tests through Google optimiser. Make the affiliate links more obvious. The site’s helpful, not a hard sell at all, so carry on being helpful — spoonfeed them the affiliate link.
A Few More Bonus Questions
1. Are you doing anything different regarding positioning yourself as the saviour for business owners now the economy is in a serious recession? Or are you doing the same as you’ve always done?
Doing what I’ve always done. No silver bullets. Just commonsense advice anyone can profit from if they have the intelligence to apply it. Reading it isn’t enough. I am actually busier than ever before
2. What is the best way to find mail order companies? I have the UK List & Data Source Directory. This gives me the mailing lists available. But I need to find who are the companies renting the lists so I can approach them directly to sell my CW services? Any ideas?
Build your own list. Get on mailing lists and see who’s active — who is sending you stuff.
3. If you were a copywriter starting out today what are the top 3 things you’d do first to immediately generate paying clients?
Write to business owners and explain how I can help with examples of what I’ve done. Explain why it worked, so they know I think properly. Offer a no sell, no pay deal.
4. How did you become so damn good at direct marketing? Studying the greats from decades ago?
I studied — and have never stopped. I study everything, not just direct marketing. This weekend I shall be at Yanik Silver’s seminar in Washington
5. Normally, I write long sales copy. However, for multi-page websites, I treat each page as a lead generating sales letter type page. Headline. Benefits. Call for action. Etc. How do you go about writing multi-page websites?
Same as you. Each page must stand up on its own.
6. How do you write online sales copy for expensive products versus inexpensive products and does it differ if the products are physical versus digital.
The more expensive the product the more you can (and must) write. I once wrote to a property developer: “You’re asking customers to spend no less than £85k. They’d buy a book on your properties if you wrote one.”
I wrote copy three times longer than his. Site visits increased by a factor of ten.
I just had a meeting with a client for whom we wrote a 6-page letter last September to get inquiries. It has helped pull in over £1 million in sales. One prospect spent over £100,000 on the phone after reading it.
7. What is your formula for writing online copy? Is it the AIDA formula like most others preach?
Pretty much. The customers don’t change. Why should the principles?
• News of a benefit plus incentive. (Attention)
• Immediately expand on this and be specific (Interest).
• Get excited, paint word pictures. (Desire)
• Proofs and testimonials. (Convince)
• Remind of the benefit — and what they miss if they don’t act.
• At least three calls for action.
Only one thing to beware of: email subject lines are often very quirky as benefits may be stopped by spam.
So, as you can see, not much changes in business.
Best,
Adam
