What you are about to read may upset you. In fact, as an internet marketer and business owner this may downright offend you. So as you read on, please keep in mind I would not be sharing this if I did not strongly believe it is something every marketer needs to hear (including you AND me).

By the end of this short article you will understand two irrefutable direct marketing truths and you will either have your eyes opened or at the very least your focus realigned to what is the lifeline of your company and will ultimately determine if you are still in a business a year from now.

You see, all by itself, the title of Robert Hacker’s powerful book on direct response marketing says it all: Direct Marketing Doesn’t have to Make Sense; It Just Has to Make Money.

And if you have read anything we share here at ConversionFly, you know how our most treasured value here is empowering entrepreneurs with the metrics they need to become mathematical marketers. No guessing. No subjectivity. Just cold hard facts and scientific decisions to scale your business to new heights.

What Robert Hacker is saying here when he says “it just has to make money” is not an ethical commentary about how the quality of your product or service doesn’t matter. He is referring to the fact that what you do in marketing. Your marketing doesn’t have to make sense, it doesn’t have to feel good or match your favorite colors, it just has to make money.

And this is where things can get a bit uncomfortable. Because the reality is when it comes to direct response marketing YOU don’t matter!

That’s right, Mr. or Mrs business owner or solo-preneur. Your opinion. Your preferences. They mean nada. Zero. Zilch. . In fact, if you think your opinion and personal tastes matter (because after all this business is your baby and it would not exist if it were not for you), well my friend, you are probably pose the greatest risk to sinking your ship!

I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a meeting where someone because of their title, their pay grade or whatever crazy reason, insists that marketing must done a certain way. Someone likes a certain word phrase or image or color pallet best.

I’ve seen it as part of a team. And I have even seen it when clients have hired us and paid tens of thousands of dollars to consult with us on their businesses.

They insist they know what’s best. They get highly offended at the idea that the way they are messaging or marketing may be the exact opposite of what will actually work best. It’s all about EGO.

(Self-Examination Check: What are some times you have let your ego guide how you think or take action on your marketing efforts?)

When it comes to direct response marketing, there is no room for ego. Only numbers.

Inside his book, Robert C. Hacker refers to two simple truths in direct marketing (and I agree with Robert 100%). Here they are:

Growing up and eventually into my college years at business school, I had an image of what marketing is…

Companies have all different expenses to run the business and marketing “just happens” to one of them. Kinda like a business has to shell out money to pay for the customer service employees, the utility bills, the computer equipment and such… they also have to shell out money for marketing.

And when a company has a good year, they can “spend” more on marketing. And when they have a bad year they can “spend” less on marketing. Sounds simplistic. Sounds foolish. And it’s pretty accurate nonetheless…

You see the form of marketing as I understood it, is what most people think of when they hear the word marketing or advertising. This is called brand or institutional marketing. And it is an entirely different animal than direct marketing.

Brand or institutional marketing looks something like this… we spend a whole bunch of money doing “marketing stuff”. We pay big bucks to get Justin Bieber to endorse our toothpaste. We pay more money to have a John Mayer sing a jingle about our product. We pay a ton of cash to have our name appear on the Super Bowl blimp. Then we close our eyes and cross our fingers. At the end of the year look at the dollars and cents and hope something worked. We never know what worked and what didn’t work. Or why it worked in the first place.

It’s the exact absurd, money-sinking conundrum my poor dad was put in decades ago. Dad wanted to grow his local dental practice so he went to a well known practice building agency. They charged him $30,000. And far as I could tell as a young man all Dad walked away with was a slogan and some colorful posters to hang up in his waiting room. Not only a ridiculous under-delivery of value, but leaving Dad clueless as to whether or not anything even worked.

(And no, it didn’t produce results. His business didn’t grow).

Direct Response Marketing lives on the polar end of the spectrum to brand marketing. Where brand is all touchy, feely. Full of subjectivity. And frankly unless you are a behemoth already, for any company around $10M and under, in my opinion, devoting anything more than a tiny percentage of your time and dollars to brand marketing is a dangerous and serious mistake.

Direct Response Marketing is about a dollar in, dollar out.

Plain and simply, how much did you spend. How much did you make. If you made money, great. You do it again. You go bigger, better. If you didn’t, but you came close… you tweak, test and try again.

If you completely bombed, you take totally different swing of the bat. Or if you know you already took a great swing, you cut bait and move on. That’s it.

And all these decisions, the planning, engineering and measuring of success are purely based on numbers. That’s it. No lets survey a hundred people and see if they have more positive feelings about our new toothpaste now that Justin Beeber is brushing his pearly whites with it. Just the numbers. Period.

The second truth Robert C Hacker shares is where we have to do some even deeper soul searching. I will fully confess here this…

In recent times, Todd and I are taking on so many new and thrilling ventures. Things are moving faster than I could imagine. And it really is fantastic adventure. And I have at times gotten lazy. I have started to operate from my gut (which is to say operate in the dark) without having and using the numbers I should to make every decision in our business, especially when it comes to marketing.

Lets get down to the root of the issue. And remember I am preaching to the choir here…

As marketers, we know we need to manage by the numbers. We know that mathematical marketing is the only solution to sustainable scaling and growth. So why don’t we do it?

As I see it, you really can only have two explanations.

First, you don’t have the numbers you need. Your tracking is a mess. Your pages are set up all crazy. And other than the fact that you know you aren’t broke yet you have no clue what’s going on. If this is the case, you need to fix it. Period. ConversionFly and our team can help you. No more excuses.

The second case is you have the the numbers and as Robert C Hacker sites you are not using them. In my experience this boils down to one of two things. Either you have the numbers but your ego is so big you think you know best. So you call shots in the dark. You run and gun without doing your due diligence. I have been guilty of this…

Or… you just get plain lazy. (Yes, been guilty of this as well). You have access to the numbers you need. And you know you should be using them. But you just get so overwhelmed with the busyness of the business that you neglect what is most important. Making sound mathematical decisions.

(Of course, it is worth mentioning there is a chance you are fall into one final group, which is you have the numbers, you know you need them, you want to use them, but you have no clue what to do. Make sure to read all our posts and publications and we will guide you there. You can start with this free report or even just ask our team for help).

You and I (to one extent or another) are guilty of departing front he lifeline of our business. The one thing that can remove all the fear, frustration and anxiety from running the whole gig.

What now?

One: Recommit yourself today. Look over the decisions you have taken in the past 30 days and the actions you have taken. Were you using the numbers? Were you making mathematical decisions?

Take this quote and place it on your desktop or tape it on your white board:
If you are not measuring, you are not marketing.

(Then what exactly are you doing… guessing… wasting time… risking people’s jobs and your own livelihood… burning money? You fill in the blank __________ )

Two: Do something about it today. If you don’t have the numbers you need, get them. If you have the numbers, make a plan to use them. If you still need convincing, go grab a copy of Robert’s book and read it today.

Remember if nothing changes, nothing changes. Here’s to scaling our businesses together the smart way today 🙂