Direct Marketing is Dead…
At Titans of Direct Response — the direct marketing “event of the decade” — Perry Marshall came out swinging…
I’ll paraphrase…
“If your advantage in business was that you knew direct marketing — testing, copywriting, and all the related skills — you no longer have an advantage.”
The old way was that if you were a direct marketer and you were able to introduce these concepts to an uninitiated business, it was like bringing them manna from Heaven.
Multiplying response rates by 10X? You were a god.
With this, the best direct marketers commanded exorbitant fees for the fundamental equivalent of taking lessons out of Claude Hopkins’s Scientific Advertising, and applying them in a business.
Even copywriters used to be able to get away with being pretty dang lazy…
They’d open up a John Caples book, look at the list of headlines, and adapt one to fit their ad. That was considered a highly-valuable skill.
The entire direct marketing world has been disrupted…
Direct marketers who’d been brought into the inner sanctum of this knowledge used to be rare, hard to find. They were the guru in the cave at the top of the mountain.
Today, Scientific Advertising is available as a free ebook. You can probably find all the other ad classics for download for free, too.
Not only that, you can find countless students who’ve learned from these greats, and teach themselves.
Blog posts and emails, like this one, that teach it all for free.
We are turning direct marketing tactics and basic skills into a commodity.
Testing, once a unique selling proposition, has become an intern-level skill in marketing.
Google AdWords specifically, and the economics of the internet in general, have changed everything.
Here’s one stunning example of the commoditization of direct marketing…
Google famously advertises that you can get started on AdWords for just $5.
And that’s true.
For your first $5, you can be sending qualified traffic to your website.
But let’s look what else you can get for your second $5.
Head on over to fiverr.com, and search for AdWords.
You’ll find, among the search results, someone who promises “I will build your Google AdWords PPC search campaign for $5.”
What does this service include?
This guy will find 5-20 basic keywords for one ad group — on whatever topic or subject you ask for.
He’ll ALSO write two text ads for you to test against each other, to help you maximize traffic from the keywords.
AND he’ll give you his “Google AdWords Best Practices Guide” to show you what settings to use to setup a successful search campaign.
Spend another $20, and he’ll actually set up the campaign for you. And a second one, much like the first, on another topic.
He’ll do additional ad groups — two for $10.
There’s a whole host of other services he provides, too.
While this doesn’t cover the ongoing maintenance, $50 can get you a TON of applied direct marketing skills in terms of setting up your AdWords campaign.
“But wait, Roy,” I hear the cries, “He can’t be doing GOOD work for that amount…”
Wanna bet? 551 reviews. An average rating of 4.9 out of 5. That’s GREAT work for what it is.
“On Time Delivery, Took Time To Explain Methodologies And Was Prepared To Engage Should Delivery Not Match Expectations.”
“Great Work!”
“Outstanding Experience!”
“Outstanding Adwords Knowledge At A Level That Is Way More Advanced Than Is Even Necessary For This Gig. Highly Recommended.”
FIVE testimonials posted TODAY…
And YOU want to get paid WHAT for being a mere professional-level direct marketer?
The entire industry has shifted.
The knowledge — once sacred, secret, and proprietary — has propagated to every corner of the globe.
And you’re now competing against folks who grew up in families making $1, $2 every DAY. Who are the richest folks in their families — their communities — if they make $5 an hour. Or even folks who grew up in first world nations, maybe doing this on the side, who have built their skills but think the only way to compete is on price.
The price of direct marketing tactics and craftsman-level skills is going down…
So — are there high-paying opportunities left in direct marketing?
Absolutely.
But we’re not talking “rest on your laurels” gigs that require you to just get the basics down, then you’re set for life.
The folks who can still CHARGE and JUSTIFY exorbitant fees are those who can function as “captain of the ship.”
Who are able to establish strategic direction for the company — and who do so accurately, guiding the company toward ever-increasing revenue and profit opportunities.
The high-B-list and A-list copywriters are still safe — for now — but who knows how long that will last.
It takes more, today. And it will take even more tomorrow.
This is a trend that’s not reversing — rather, it’s accelerating.
Tactics will come and go in value with every change of the wind.
But folks who are able to understand a market and find a unique angle to serve it — and package that up in marketing that moves buyers to action — those are the folks who will continue to thrive.
Perry spoke a lot more about this at Titans…
Including the one skill taught in direct marketing that you still can’t outsource on fiverr — and that you probably will never be able to.
While some folks may have poo-pooed on The Titans of Direct Response as being an old boys club of the champions of yesteryear, that’s far from the case.
The Titans on stage were hand-selected by Brian Kurtz because they’ve all reached a level where they transcend commoditization. Their thinking can not be bought for $5.
And at Titans, they shared that thinking.
The enduring strategies and principles of direct marketing — applicable in any media, old and new — that continue to represent extreme advantages you can apply today. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re selling your services as a copywriter or consultant — or using the principles and strategies to build your business.
There’s an old story from the engineering world…
And this has been told as “true” with so many variations, that I’m just going to tell the generic version…
A high-value assembly line was shut down. The company was in a panic. They were losing $10,000 per minute, as long as it was down.
An expert was brought in. The expert looked around. She opened up her toolbox, and grabbed a hammer. She walked over to one part of the assembly line, and tapped it once. The assembly line roared to life again.
The company rained praise on their savior.
She graciously said, “You’re welcome. I’ll send the bill tomorrow.”
The next day, the expert gets a call from the company’s CEO. “$50,000 for tapping the assembly line with a hammer?! That’s outrageous! I could have tapped it with a hammer!”
“You’re right,” the expert replied. “$50,000 for tapping anything with a hammer would be outrageous. That’s why that only cost you $5. The other $49,995 was for knowing where to tap.”
If you want the $49,995 skills instead of the $5, you should get the Titans DVDs…
You may know I wrote the sales letter for Titans. Also, the DVDs.
Even so, I’d recommend them. These are my marketing heroes. Brian brought them together for one time only, to reveal their $49,995 “where to tap” wisdom that represents the part of direct marketing that can’t be commoditized, can’t be replaced by $5 laborers.
The following link is an affiliate link. If you buy through my affiliate link by Midnight, April 30th, I have a special deal for you.
All you have to do is forward me the receipt email. I’ll confirm your purchase, and then send you a link to download the audio recordings from my Advanced Direct Response Copywriting workshop last year. It was a brain dump of all the most important lessons I’ve learned shooting to the top of this industry over the last decade.
Bear with me because I’ll be doing this manually, but I’ll get you a copy of those recordings ASAP.
Here’s the link to get the Titans DVDs.
Remember, to get the recordings from my workshop FREE along with them, you have to place your order by April 30th, 2015 — AND forward me the receipt.
Oh, and Brian has also offered to give you another free gift, when you order through my link.
I promise, this is some of the most breakthrough, unable-to-be-commoditized content on direct marketing that you’ll ever get.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
