The money is in the details...
On Friday I received an email from a good friend of mine, a well known "celebrity direct marketer." He was traveling to LA to spend three days re-shooting parts of his already successful infomercial.
How many minutes was he re-shooting? Three. Three minutes--that's it. Three days to re-shoot three minutes. Why would any sane man do this?
The answer is simple: the money is in the details. The three minutes he's re-shooting are the "CTA," the Call To Action. This is the part where he asks the customer to buy his product. If it's not done right, the infomercial will tank. If it's done "OK" the infomercial will perform "OK." If they get it right, the infomercial will make him very rich (well, richer) very fast.
Remember, the infomercial will be shown across the country, viewed by millions of people. One word, one phrase in those three minutes can be the difference between thousands responding or not responding, the difference between success and failure.
My friend is willing to do the "detail work." That's why he's as successful as he is. Not because of his talent, but because of his attention to detail. The truth is, there are many marketers out there who are smarter, better copywriters, etc., but they're not nearly as successful because they don't like details. They don't want to make absolutely sure the website is working like it's supposed to, they don't want to make sure the recorded message picks up when someone calls, they don't want to make sure the right list was sent to the mailing house.
Why? Because details can be boring. They can be time consuming.
Writing a sales letter for a website can be a lot of fun. But making sure all the shopping cart links are working correctly, or the call in number is on every page is tedious. It often takes hours of mind numbing work to check all the details and make sure the system is working. It's much more fun to slap up a website, send an email and eagerly wait to see how many orders come in.
However, it's NOT fun when you discover the money's not going into your bank account, and you lost $20,000.00 worth of sales because you didn't thoroughly check your order process. Yet, I see it happen all the time.
There's an old saying that goes, "The world is rife with educated derelicts." The same thing can be said in direct marketing--the world is full of very bright, very talented, very broke marketers because they weren't willing to pay attention to the details.
So, here's my advice to you for today: learn to have fun with "the details." Why? Because that's where the money is made, in the details. If your business is not currently where you want it to be, it's oftentimes because someone is not paying attention to the details. Remember, a "sale" is NOT a "sale" until the money goes into the bank. And the process to get the money in the bank is full of details, all of which must be attended to.
Let's get to it...
Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing
How many minutes was he re-shooting? Three. Three minutes--that's it. Three days to re-shoot three minutes. Why would any sane man do this?
The answer is simple: the money is in the details. The three minutes he's re-shooting are the "CTA," the Call To Action. This is the part where he asks the customer to buy his product. If it's not done right, the infomercial will tank. If it's done "OK" the infomercial will perform "OK." If they get it right, the infomercial will make him very rich (well, richer) very fast.
Remember, the infomercial will be shown across the country, viewed by millions of people. One word, one phrase in those three minutes can be the difference between thousands responding or not responding, the difference between success and failure.
My friend is willing to do the "detail work." That's why he's as successful as he is. Not because of his talent, but because of his attention to detail. The truth is, there are many marketers out there who are smarter, better copywriters, etc., but they're not nearly as successful because they don't like details. They don't want to make absolutely sure the website is working like it's supposed to, they don't want to make sure the recorded message picks up when someone calls, they don't want to make sure the right list was sent to the mailing house.
Why? Because details can be boring. They can be time consuming.
Writing a sales letter for a website can be a lot of fun. But making sure all the shopping cart links are working correctly, or the call in number is on every page is tedious. It often takes hours of mind numbing work to check all the details and make sure the system is working. It's much more fun to slap up a website, send an email and eagerly wait to see how many orders come in.
However, it's NOT fun when you discover the money's not going into your bank account, and you lost $20,000.00 worth of sales because you didn't thoroughly check your order process. Yet, I see it happen all the time.
There's an old saying that goes, "The world is rife with educated derelicts." The same thing can be said in direct marketing--the world is full of very bright, very talented, very broke marketers because they weren't willing to pay attention to the details.
So, here's my advice to you for today: learn to have fun with "the details." Why? Because that's where the money is made, in the details. If your business is not currently where you want it to be, it's oftentimes because someone is not paying attention to the details. Remember, a "sale" is NOT a "sale" until the money goes into the bank. And the process to get the money in the bank is full of details, all of which must be attended to.
Let's get to it...
Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing
