Direct marketing is very counterintuitive

Meaning sometimes the angles you’re 100% convinced will work actually fall flat.

And sometimes the ones you’re least confident about end up pulling the best response rate.

At the end of the day, copywriters are really just making informed guesses about what will compel an audience. Nothing more.

So test your messaging.

Test it whenever possible by releasing two (or more) versions of the creative.

Here’s a great example…

It comes from The Hustle, a tech newsletter with 1.3M subscribers.

I read The Hustle because I like the writing. It’s fun. I also like studying the sponsored direct response ads at the bottom of each issue.

JOIN THOUSANDS OF SUBSCRIBERS

Here’s their “A” version:

And here is their “B” version:

This is great.

In part because nobody outside of The Hustle would normally ever see this.

(I just happen to get their newsletter sent to multiple email addresses, so every now and then I catch their splits.)

And partly because I don’t know which version pulls better. Not a clue. And neither do the talented folks at The Hustle.

And neither do you.

And that’s what makes direct response so thrilling!

Just don’t end up on the wrong side of your guess…

Mitigate your risk and cut your losses!

Split your work and you won’t get burned.

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LEARN TO PERSUADE

WRITE BETTER.
MARKET BETTER.
SELL MORE.

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COMMENT BELOW

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