“That ad you ran looks like a Mattress ad”
“Our ads look like Kohls’s ads”
“That looks like cheap MLM crap”
“That’s looks like a letter and the last letter we sent didn’t work so this won’t either”
“That looks like a cheesy Dan Kennedy ad.”
“These ads have to look as good as the best looking ads in the newspaper.”
“That’s waaaaay two long for an email and your not even selling the magazine”
What a two weeks! Direct response has been on the defensive – despite these facts…
The ad that looked like a Mattress ad produced the single biggest month in sales in the companies history.
The ad that looked like a “Cheesy Dan Kennedy ad” not only doubled the response of any ad this company had ever run in a particular online newsletter but also accounted for 55% of the total click throughs (all ads, all links) – even though it was at the very bottom of the newsletter!
The email that was too long sold a blistering 1500 magazine subscriptions to a cold list and broke all records for opens and click throughs the list owner ever produced.
The post card that “looks like MLM crap” is a lead generation machine.
What can I say? The principles of good copy: riveting headlines, compelling copy and a call to action win again. But sadly, even in the face of these great wins, the companies are still considering not doing it – cause it doesn’t look like a professional ad.
It actually makes me sad to see business owners succumb to the comments of others about the look of their advertising – and the siren call of image over results. For a while, after the advent of the internet and the simon-simple testing it makes possible, I thought that Direct Response would rise in stature. But, no, I’m afraid it is not to be.
Good looks will continue to win over great performance in the foreseeable future – with rare exception. And the battle for getting solid DR out the door will have to be fought every time a new client is taken and every time an old client brings in a new sales or marketing manager that once again has to be educated from the ground up (fighting and screaming the whole way).
