What An Advertising Legend Has To Say About The Direct-Response Vs. General Advertising Debate

Today I have a real treat for you. A video from a true advertising legend. But before we go there…let’s cover some background information…

The term “Direct-Response Marketing” or “Direct Marketing” may only be 46 or so years old (when Lester Wunderman gave birth to it) but the actual application of Direct-Response methods have been in practice for hundreds of years.

In fact, according to Direct Marketing professionals Denny Hatch and Don Jackson, direct marketing dates back to 1600 when garden catalogs were sold direct to the consumer.

During my years of consulting on marketing and advertising projects and writing copy for companies around the world I’ve had the direct-response vs. general marketing/advertising debate countless times.

What’s the debate all about? Well, in summary it goes like this…

General advertising is what you see most of the time on the TV, in newspapers and magazines. They consist of amazingly creative advertisements that people often feel are “cool.” They get your attention and are widely accepted as being what advertising is all about. I should also mention that most awards are for these kind of ads. The goal here it seems is to do something different and be more creative. Unfortunately, with general advertising you often have no idea how effective each ad or promotion is. You may know that a campaign helped to increase sales, but potential success will never reach a maximum because strict tracking and testing lacks.

On the other side of the coin is Direct-Response. This approach is to communicate directly with your prospect and get them to take action…whether that means having them read a report, contacting you for more information, coming to a seminar or buying your product. Direct-Response is measured to the penny. Variations of headlines, images, offers, guarantees and more are tested…calculating results is common practice and allows you to know which ad or promotion directly benefits your bottom line.

Many in general advertising stay away from direct-response. They know very little about it and don’t want to. It’s not creative enough or seems to ‘foreign’.

It really is a whole other world.

You see with direct-response success isn’t a matter of creativity, or design appeal or even how well you write and your grammar for that matter. Direct-Response success is measured in sales and profit. And your ad or promotions are tested and tracked…leading to the ad with the highest ROI becoming your control which you test other ads against.

This ensures you have the most profitable ad running…and reduces the amount of money you spend on advertising that may or may not be working at its best.

If you know anything about me, you’ll know I’m a huge advocate of Direct-Response marketing. I love that fact that you can scientifically test and know what is working and what isn’t.

Many companies have good intentions…but it’s too bad so many still spend their hard earned cash on a guessing game…hoping their ads will pay off.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer knowing what will work and then making adjustments to ensure it does.

Here’s another reason I love direct-response. Because for a few hundred dollars you can know whether or not a product or service will work. You don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars just to find out.

That’s smart investing don’t you think?

What I’m writing here definitely isn’t new. Click the link below and watch what David Ogilvy, one of the fathers of Advertising, has to say about this debate.

David Ogilvy Video

To your success,

Michael Zipursky