Scott Bywater is a copywriter

He sends me a daily newsletter.
Yes, that’s right. Daily.
Any you know what?
Most days I read it.
This was what Scott had to say today on the subject of Market Research and Advertising.
I thought it worth passing on to you.
I am reading a book by Steven Scott at the moment.
For the record, this guy has probably written more infomercials than anyone on the planet.
Anyway, I was laughing my head off yesterday when he was talking about how conventional ad agencies make their decisions about advertising.
They rely on market research, focus groups and surveys.
Now listen to what Steven Scott has to say about this:
“Those results are about as accurate and projectable as trying to hit a three-foot target from twenty thousand feet with a paper airplane.”
He continues:
“No wonder they are wrong more often than they are right. In my opinion, most of the time that they are right, it’s because of the broken clock theory. (You know: even a broken clock is right twice a day)”
Now I found Steven’s candidness very entertaining.
By the way the books name is a Millionaire’s notebook.
And while I am by no means an expert in market research and I am
sure it has its place (I have a relative who does it for a living who
will probably disagree with me) I will say this:
Nothing can ever beat testing.
And whenever anyone argues with me about anything when it comes to advertising, my answer is always:
TEST IT.
But what about this?
TEST IT.
But that won’t work.
TEST IT.
But I think you are full of S**T
TEST IT.
Because at the end of the day you can do all the market research you want… all the surveys you want… and have all the opinions you want.
But the only thing which matters is…
When you have written and run that ad, does it make the phone ring?
Because that’s when the customer votes with their wallet.
Don’t get me wrong.
I am a massive fan of research.
In fact, I always do a significant amount of research before writing an advertisement.
And wherever there is market research available, I would pay attention to it.
But what a lot of companies do is spend so much time and money on creating this whiz bang campaign.
And they think they know it all. So they think they don’t have to test.
But remember this:
Testing is the GOD of direct mail.
Not market research, surveys or anything else.
Because the bottom line of advertising is: when you run it, will it make you money?
Here’s what I recommend you do instead of spending thousands of dollars on market research…
Learn how to write advertising by getting your hands on my step-by-step guide at
http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow
Ask your target market a few research questions to get inside their heads.
Write 6 ads.
Test those ads spending the least amount possible.
Run with the one which works best.
This isn’t brain science, guys.
And it isn’t reserved for those super smart marketing guys in big corporations.
It’s just a simple, logical process which has been proven to work over and over and over again.
All for now,
Scott Bywater