tation to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketi

The ultimate political odd couple—far more so than Lemmon and Matthau—worked together to create this monumental piece of educational legislation(“Child” not “Business”). No, not Rick Santorum and Barney Frank, but George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy. With many pundits both for and against this legislation, I wanted to point to one aspect that’s far less controversial than the legislation as a whole, testing. It’s tough to argue that the children of America should not be tested, but opinions vary as to “what” and “how often” the kids should be tested. How does this relate to marketing?

The relationship is this: testing is the SINGLE most important marketing activity you will undertake. Write that down, highlight, circle whatever it takes to indelibly imprint on your mind. The premise in academic testing is that all academic achievement is measurable. The same holds true for a company’s marketing efforts.

For any business to be successful, those making the decisions must view advertising as an investment not an expense, in the same vein as capital expenditures. Business owners view capital expenditures(cap ex) as a necessity, but advertising expense as a necessary evil. Why is this the case? Because cap ex’s contribution to the top and bottom lines are measurable while advertising expense is as invisible as the electromagnetic waves that carry them from television or radio station to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketin

controversial than the legislation as a whole, testing. It’s tough to argue that the children of America should not be tested, but opinions vary as to “what” and “how often” the kids should be tested. How does this relate to marketing?

The relationship is this: testing is the SINGLE most important marketing activity you will undertake. Write that down, highlight, circle whatever it takes to indelibly imprint on your mind. The premise in academic testing is that all academic achievement is measurable. The same holds true for a company’s marketing efforts.

For any business to be successful, those making the decisions must view advertising as an investment not an expense, in the same vein as capital expenditures. Business owners view capital expenditures(cap ex) as a necessity, but advertising expense as a necessary evil. Why is this the case? Because cap ex’s contribution to the top and bottom lines are measurable while advertising expense is as invisible as the electromagnetic waves that carry them from television or radio station to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketi

that down, highlight, circle whatever it takes to indelibly imprint on your mind. The premise in academic testing is that all academic achievement is measurable. The same holds true for a company’s marketing efforts.

For any business to be successful, those making the decisions must view advertising as an investment not an expense, in the same vein as capital expenditures. Business owners view capital expenditures(cap ex) as a necessity, but advertising expense as a necessary evil. Why is this the case? Because cap ex’s contribution to the top and bottom lines are measurable while advertising expense is as invisible as the electromagnetic waves that carry them from television or radio station to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketi

vein as capital expenditures. Business owners view capital expenditures(cap ex) as a necessity, but advertising expense as a necessary evil. Why is this the case? Because cap ex’s contribution to the top and bottom lines are measurable while advertising expense is as invisible as the electromagnetic waves that carry them from television or radio station to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketi

tation to the consumer’s homes. It is important to approach advertising using the same metrics as cap ex. Those with a rudimentary understanding of finance know that cap ex’s is measured by their rate of return. It’s important to test advertising in the same way: based upon its direct contribution to your bottom line.

Direct response marketing allows you to create marketing campaigns whose effect on the bottom line is directly measurable down to the penny. Direct response marketing is just marketing whose results are measurable. The main advantage that direct marketing provides is the ability to uncannily forecast the expense and the revenue of a given campaign through testing.

Direct marketing allows for testing mini, but statistically significant, samples for their effectiveness. If the sample fails, you can make minor changes to headlines, pricing, copy, USPs, guarantees, the offer or even scrap it. Even if your marketing campaign has managed to become more successful than imaginable, you can still try to work on making it better by tweaking any of the components mentioned earlier.

I’ve learned through my own experiences and those of clients, that testing not only affects your marketing directly, but manages to infect your business and create a culture I refer to as the, “The Culture of Amelioration”, making every business process better. Once clients have bought into testing every marketing campaign, the epiphany strikes them that every organizational process for their business must continually be improved upon. To paraphrase a Bill Bradley quote, if you are not doing it, there is someone out there who is, and when you meet he will win. It’s your job as a business owner to continue to win, because there