Don’t Stray From The Direct Marketing Path
Direct response marketing is the way and the path.
Amen.
But I’ve been straying from the path, and let me tell you, when you stray from the path, you lose sight of what’s important and you end up in a place called ComplicatedVille.
It’s not a good place.
Let’s say you run a business and you see all the wizardry available to you. Twitter, FB ads, YouTube Live, whatever…
And it’s very easy to get complicated.
Then you throw in all the cool stuff that nobody is doing yet… the stuff that’s lower probability of success but if it works, it works. Think direct mail: Nobody sends physical packages anymore. So you take the risk and if it works for your market, suddenly you have a recurring revenue subscription model and you’re the only game in town.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed and wonder what you should concentrate on.
And the answer is to recall the direct response stuff.
Let’s talk about that in today’s blog post.
I Strayed From The Path…
I saw this tweet the other day from James Holt:
And it expressed where I’ve been going wrong.
I’ve been trying to make everything too complicated. Trying to be too clever for my own good. Think of a great project that I know will make money… and then think, “No, we can think bigger!”
There’s a time and place for thinking big, but it’s never between you and getting that first thing done.
Add to this the fact I’ve been studying Ben Settle over the past week.
And really, Ben Settle has a perfect system that’s the opposite of what I’m talking about.
His funnels are simple.
His lead capture is simple.
The daily emails are simple.
And the products range from monthly recurring through low ticket up to high ticket and it’s all there.
But it’s basically what direct response guys call a Kitchen Table Business, or what the youngsters call a side hustle.
It’s simple enough that a one-man band can do it.
Opt-in>Daily emails>Sell a product in each>Upsell/cross sell or get on the continuity/rebill schedule.
That’s simple and carefree.
And it’s the opposite of what I’ve been planning for.
But how can it be so simple? – because I’m 99% sure that Ben Settle’s business is far more profitable than mine.
Direct Response
The key thing with direct response is that it’s as simple as possible. It’s as few as steps as possible.
If you can sell someone on a single interaction, great.
If it takes two or three, so ad > Optin > sales page, then that’s fine too but you expect drop off.
That’s ok if you’re talking about a mailing list because as long as they stay subscribed, the cost is minimal and you have the chance to get them later.
Even if they unsubscribe, you’ve lost nothing and it’s no effort because you send the same email out whether you’ve got 1000 or your list or 10 or 1 million.
But the further you stray from direct response, the more noise to signal you get, the higher your drop off and the more time it’s easy to waste doing stuff that simply doesn’t help your business out.
And the take away… don’t get discouraged, disheartened or stressed out.
(I’m talking to myself here, but feel free to take this advice if it applies for you.)
Just go back to the basics.
What are you selling, who are you selling it to and how do you get them to buy that?
Final Thoughts
This isn’t a particularly in depth article, but it’s a course-righting article.
Hopefully.
I guess we’ll see in the near future whether this makes any difference to what I do.
Hopefully though, you guys are smarter than I am and will listen to this advice, heed it and commence with direct response awesomeness on your way to mega-riches.
See you in the next one.