Patience is a virtue - Why even Dan Kennedy doesn't have a magic bullet

It's the Easter holidays, and with the best will in the world, it's just not possible to keep up a full work schedule and entertain visiting mothers in law, brothers and sisters in law and daughters and grandchildren.

Still, I did find a quiet-ish few minutes this morning to read Dan Kennedy's latest newsletter, and something struck me.

Not the advice in the body of the newsletter, which was as sound as ever, nor even the sales pitch at the end, which you can always rely on getting from Dan. Not as such, anyway. What struck me was the repetition of that sales message.

Now, I think he changes the wording a little every time, but as I usually don't read that part I can't be sure. I do know it's always there, though.

Dan, like all direct response advertisers, will be a great advocate of testing. Tweaking the copy a little each time to see what works best, if only by a percentage point or two. (You'll have seen how important tiny improvements can be in a previous post of mine.)

But there's another aspect that's probably just as important, and maybe more so: the repetition. Simply, if we keep getting bombarded with the same message, even if we hardly ever read it, our curiosity is likely to get the better of us eventually.

Even Spam, which we studiously ignore and delete a hundred times and more, eventually begins to look tempting. Why not just take a look at this diet aid or that investment company? Well, because it's likely to be fake and harmful to your computer. But why not look at Dan's latest product - even if we've resisted that a hundred times too? It won't be virus-laden or a con. It's probably a great product and good value if we apply it properly.

The point is, I probably still won't read Dan's tweaked and perfected bit of sales copy. If I finally succumb, it will be curiosity not copy that gets me, and I'll just click on the link. Proof, really, that even direct marketing is best thought of as a campaign and not a single strike. A series of sales letters will gather far more buyers than the best, most persuasive single letter which, when all is said and done, probably won't be read by 98 percent of its recipients.

If you're planning a direct mail campaign, prepare to be patient if you want the best possible results, and budget accordingly. It's still the best method of marketing by far, but it's still not a magic bullet.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results