Month: April 2010

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Are You Wasting Your Vitamins?

Are You Wasting Your Vitamins?The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition declared that these two nutrients in particular, along with certain fruits and vegetables could help maintain bone density in the elderly…and that’s just the beginning. I’m referring to magnesium and potassium. Make sure you get enough.

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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

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Right now you can make four simple changes to decrease your health adjusted age by 12 years.

They are diet, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity.
A 20 year British survey of 4886 persons over 18 started in 1984. The researchers computed a health behaviour score, allocating 1 point for poor behaviour in each of the categories diet, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity. So the higher the score, the higher the perceived risk or the worse the rating.
The people who scored 4 had a death rate equivalent to being 12 years older in comparison to those who scored zero.
The great thing is that the bar was set extremely low which makes it very easy to improve above it. Only three portions of fruit and vegetables and two hours a week of exercise (17 minutes a day) gets you zero in those categories. Even the alcohol allowance was generous, 14 units of alcohol a week for women and 21 for men.