Joe Sugarman’s Marketing Secret
January 19th, 2011 by Bob Bly
I recently listened to the CD of a talk given by Joseph Sugarman, founder of JS&A and widely recognized as one of the greatest mail order marketers of all time.
JS&A is the company that sells those Blue Blocker sunglasses you see advertised on TV and in magazines.
The glasses really work, by the way. Put a pair on, and everything blue is converted to a shade of gray.
Anyway, during the talk, Mr. Sugarman mentioned that he often tested three or four different ads for the same product ? and in some cases as many as 10 different versions!
?Typically, nine of the ads would fail but one would work spectacularly well,? said Mr. Sugarman, ?The profits from that one ad would more than cover the losses from the other nine.?
Do you do that ? create multiple ads and then test them to see which works best?
Or do you — like most businesses — create and test just one ad ? or one postcard ? or one e-mail ? or one sales letter or direct mail package?
If so, you are significantly reducing your odds of getting a winning promotion?.
The reason is that not all promotions work. In fact, most don?t.
Say one out of four promotions is a winner. And that?s being optimistic.
Jerry Huntsinger, a well-known copywriter in fundraising, once told me ?9 out of 10 of the things I do don?t work.?
And in his speech, Joseph Sugarman reported similar results ? sometimes having to write and test 10 ads to get one winner.
But let?s stick with the ?one winner out of every four tests? figure for now.
Based on those odds, if you run just one ad, or mail just one version of a sales letter, your chances of hitting a winner are only one out of four ? and the odds are 75% that your marketing effort will bomb.
What commonly happens is that a business decides to ?try? direct mail ? sends out a poorly written, amateurish letter or postcard ? and when they get no response, they proclaim that ?direct mail doesn?t work.?
Sure it doesn?t ? tell that to Nightingale-Conant ? or Boardroom ? or Publishers Clearinghouse ? or Day Timer.
On the other hand, if you create and test four different ads or letter versions, the odds are in your favor that at least one will work and be profitable for you.
My rule of thumb for improving direct marketing results is: Look at what the big players ? the successful direct marketers ? are doing. And do what they do.
And the one thing every successful direct marketer has in common is ? they test. A lot.
What do they test?
Headlines ? outer envelopes ? direct mail formats ? copy approaches ? sales appeals ? mailing lists ? prices ? offers ? guarantees ? terms ? anything with the potential to generate a big lift in response rates. Or even a small one, for that matter.
Does all this testing make sense?
On one such test, a marketer increased response to an e-mail marketing message by 50% ? just by changing the subject line.
In another test, a software company increased orders from a direct mail package tenfold ? simply by varying the wording of the offer.
And a computer school doubled the response rate to its newspaper advertising when they added the offer of a free career booklet.
Does all this testing make sense?
You bet it does!
Imagine ? just by changing a few words on a piece of paper or a computer screen, you can double your sales ? revenues ? and profits.
If there?s another area of business that gives you that kind of leverage, I?d like to hear about it.
One other point?.
In direct marketing, no one can predict with any degree of certainty which ad or mailing is going to work.
You only learn what works by testing and keeping track of the results.
You may have your subjective opinions about what you like and don?t like in advertising ? we all do ?.
But in direct marketing, you simply can?t argue with results.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 at 11:44 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 16th, 2011 at 11:34 am
Hi, Bob — Just now found your blog!
I used your suggestion in “Secrets of a Freelance Writer” and did a mailing with a simple A/B test to a list of qualified leads: one letter included a self-addressed business reply card, and the other didn’t.
The letter with the card generated a 20% return rate — FOUR times what the letter without a BRC pulled. Out of those responses, I got three new clients.
Thanks!
April 5th, 2011 at 3:28 am
advertising testing is like professional football, you score less points than you’re trying, guaranteed. but without trying, there’s zero guarantee you’ll score at least one.
May 20th, 2011 at 8:08 am
[...] Joe Sugarman™s Marketing Secret. [...]
June 24th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
[...] Joe Sugarman’s Marketing Secret [...]
August 24th, 2011 at 9:09 am
business is about trial and error. you may fail the first time or even the second time, but if you give up easily, success won’t come to you, so keep trying and go for the success you’ve been wanting.
- Jack Leak
September 6th, 2011 at 7:09 am
Oh man, I’ve seen Joseph Sugarman talk at a convention. He’s really inspirational.
December 28th, 2011 at 1:15 am
Best weight supplement…
[...]Joe Sugarman’s Marketing Secret – bly.com blog – bly.com direct marketing blog[...]…
November 21st, 2012 at 9:26 am
[...] and his company used to sell those “Blue Blocker Sunglasses.” The second copywriter, Bob Bly, calls this formula, “The 4 U’s.” If you want to learn more about copy writing, I suggest [...]
March 22nd, 2013 at 3:54 pm
likes is really effortless, never avoid above steps and save your Facebook Web page Likes. Also check out Here you can check how to divert your Facebook Web page traffic to you Site Connect with TricksWindow on
March 25th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
“Say, you got a nice blog post.Thanks Again. Really Cool.”
March 26th, 2013 at 10:13 am
I have been surfing the internet more than three hours this morning, but still I never have found any interesting post like yours. It’s pretty much good enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made great posts as you did, the net will be a lot more useful than ever.
March 31st, 2013 at 1:58 am
Your personal message to 500,000 UNIQUE Contact-Emails.
All interested in your service or product.
These are not regular emails. The list members chose
to join it by double-optin. Most people find the list is high
response. What more could you ask for? Order now and we Will Boost The Contact-Email to 1,500,
000. Plus, A Global-Marketing Membership And Silver Submitter Access.
Today Only Get It All For Just $9.95!
April 2nd, 2013 at 8:09 pm
I am not used to blogging. How can i add a subscribe function to my website so new post goes to their email?
April 4th, 2013 at 2:40 am
Hi everyone, it’s my first pay a quick visit at this website, and article is actually fruitful in support of me, keep up posting these articles or reviews.
April 4th, 2013 at 11:22 am
Good day I am so happy I found your website, I really found you by accident, while I was looking on Google for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say many thanks for a fantastic post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the great job.
April 8th, 2013 at 8:35 am
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!
April 8th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
[...]we like to honor many other world-wide-web websites on the net, even if they aren?t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages really worth checking out[...]
April 9th, 2013 at 12:00 am
“Hey, thanks for the article. Great.”
April 9th, 2013 at 1:58 am
Great web site you’ve got here.. It’s hard to find good quality writing like yours nowadays. I really appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!|
April 9th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Very interesting post. I think your site really needs a re-design though! lol
April 10th, 2013 at 4:10 am
I truly enjoy looking through on this site, it has superb posts .
April 21st, 2013 at 10:46 am
What a lovely blog. I’ll surely be back again. Please keep on writing!
April 27th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
At this time it appears like Drupal is the preferred blogging platform accessible right now. (from what I’ve read) Is the fact that what you are employing on your weblog?
April 28th, 2013 at 1:07 pm
in case you want an awesome wedding decoration, just fill them up with lots of flowers and laces-
April 29th, 2013 at 2:20 am
reading tech blogs to maintain me updated on technology is what i do everyday. i am a tech addict.,
April 29th, 2013 at 7:08 am
I simply couldn’t leave your web site prior to suggesting that I really loved the standard info a person supply to your guests? Is gonna be back regularly in order to investigate cross-check new posts.
April 30th, 2013 at 5:22 am
just before you buy some incredibly expensive Seo Tools, always look for any review very first before you invest on them;
April 30th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Hi there, I discovered your website by the use of Google at precisely the same time as searching to get a comparable subject, your net website got here up, it appears fantastic. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
May 1st, 2013 at 6:30 am
Loads of thanks for all of your difficult work on this web site. My niece seriously likes acquiring into investigation and it is effortless to understand why. My companion and i discover all concerning the compelling tactic you present invaluable issues through the website and as a result attract participation from others about this article so my simple princess is often beginning to understand an incredible deal. Make the most of the remaining portion in the new year. Your conducting a genuinely fantastic job.
May 17th, 2013 at 12:21 pm
I gotta bookmark this web website it appears extremely handy extremely helpful
May 20th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Your blog is amazing dude. i enjoy to go to it everyday. very nice layout and content material “