Customer Reviews

Method Marketing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Denny Hatch is one of the top direct marketing copywriters working, although these days he's probably more focused on "Target Marketing," the magazine where is a contributing editor.

I first discovered Denny in 2006, when I came across his blog and got hooked on his insights into events and how they relate to marketing.

In "Method Marketing," Denny reveals his methods for creating effective, response-getting copy for direct marrketing pieces. It's based on the same premise as Method Acting, meaning the idea is to get into the head of the character, or in this case, the prospect, and figure out what drives them emotionally.

Then, you write copy designed to trigger those emotions and the desired result.

But Denny's explanation of his method isn't the best part of the book.

Other copywriters will tell you they use a similar process to write, they just haven't come up with a name for the process, as Denny has.

No, the reason to buy the book is for the samples of direct mail pieces found in each chapter of the book. The chapters, for the most part, focus on a particular company and it's direct marketing efforts. Most chapters feature the original letters, giving copywriters a chance to obtain some great pieces for their swipe files.

But, unlike most other books that show samples of direct mail pieces, Denny doesn't just publish successful pieces, he also makes us privy to some that didn't work, and explains where they failed.

He even includes a story about a series of letters that turned out to be a scam, explaining how the author pulled off the seemingly amazing predictions he was making in each letter.

And he closes with a funny tale of a legal battle that he suddenly found himself in the middle of in England, all while attending a trade show.

Is this must reading for marketers and copywriters? I'd say yes, if for no other reason than for the opportunity to add to your swipe file.

Personally, I'm using some of the Covenant House letters as inspiration for a piece I'm working on for a non-profit.

Buy it. It's worth the price of admission.

Although you may not be familiar with Dension "Denny" Hatch, he has probably forgotten more about Direct Marketing than many of today's experts have ever learned.

Method Marketing is a series of "Case Studies" of Direct Marketers and Direct Marketing campaigns. You will learn what has worked, what may have failed, and what drives many of the largest direct marketers around.

You will learn the secrets of...

A)Boardroom: How Martin Edelston created one of the most efficient direct marketers around.

B) Mel Martin and the secret of writing "Fascinations"

C) Agora Publishing: How Bill Bonner has used "exclusivity" to make Agora publishing a powerhouse in direct marketing.

Plus: J. Peterman, David Oreck and How Denny Hatch found himself facing imprisonment, exile and perhaps even ...., but that would be telling.

Highly Recommended!

Cheers!

Mr. Hatch, also editor for years of 'Who's Mailing What' sees more direct mail in a year than most of us do in a lifetime, and has studied the inside story of a staggering number direct marketing efforts. While 'book-learned' marketers play it safe (and naive) with facts-only, feature-centric direct mail creative, Denny's acknowledgement of the 'emotional sell' shows his deep understanding of what really opens a customer's wallet. Too bad more of today's marketers haven't read this book or subscribed to his pubs! -- P.S. The prior review that notes the Peterman financial failure shows the reviewer's lack of understanding of the REAL story: Peterman's success was sidetracked by the outsider he hired in, who obviously didn't have the market understanding that Peterman had. I heard the guy speak at a conference and he clearly was out of touch. Their push into retail and cinematic themes finished them off, not any flaw in Peterman's premise and execution of the printed catalog. Peterman's fatal flaw was in his hiring practices, not his own marketing expertise.

Method Marketing might not be the most practical book on marketing. For practical tips, you should read Drayton Bird. But it does offer something even more valuable and long-term to your direct marketing education. It's a book about how to get inside the heads of your customers, to motivate them to action using the most powerful human motivators known to the best direct mail writers on the planet. Hatch, who draws on the work of Bob Hacker and Axel Andersson, calls these motivators "copy drivers." There are seven key ones:

fear 'greed 'anger 'guilt 'exclusivity 'flattery 'salvation

Each chapter looks at some of the most successful direct mail businesses (and some abysmal failures) in the last century from Agora to Mel Martin and Boardroom to the J. Peterman Catalogue to Father Bruce Ritter of Covenant House. Along the way, Hatch identifies the copy drivers each sales approach uses. After reading a few chapters, you will go back through your swipe file of direct mail, and find that the pieces that had the most impact, the biggest sales, and longest life, most likely activate one of these seven primal emotions.

The lesson, though, isn't to make your copy overflow with emotion. Flowery pleas for donations aren't going to make the fundraising letter a big winner. Because these emotions are, to get a little Freudian, buried deep in the unconscious and carefully guarded, which means you have to be sensitive about how you go about calling them up. Hatch's method for doing so requires a complex understanding of your audience, and detailed study. The big concept of the book is that you, as a marketer, have to get inside the head of the person are writing to. Nothing new there. But Hatch stresses that this is more than marketing 101, more than a few focus groups, a few surveys to spit back the lingo of the target audience. It has to be authentic. You have to become the person you are writing to. You can't just get inside their head, grab what you want, and leave. You have to live their for a while.

The conceptual inspiration for all of this comes, as the theatre students and fans of the pompous James Lipton might recognize, from Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg, and the whole school of thought of the Actor's Studio in New York, which took the theatrical out of modern acting and brought it back to ordinary reality. Marketing, Hatch says, has to take seriously its role of understanding its customers. "You cannot write copy or make a live sales pitch without getting inside the head of the person to whom you are communicating and becoming that person." Hatch shows the techniques, drivers, and cultural currents that make a successful connection between a writer, a receptive audience, and a product. Tons of examples, great sales letters, as well as some big mistakes by companies who didn't bother to get inside the heads of their consumers.

Simply put, it sits on my bookshelf beside Sugerman's Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising, and Drayton Bird's two equally great books, Commonsense Direct Marketing and How to Write a Sales Letter that Sells'the best direct marketing books that I have found, bought, and continue to read and re-read.

Two other things that should motivate you to read the book...

For the rest of the review, I am building a list of the best books on direct marketing on my blog. Amazon won't let me put a link but you can find it at:

wordpress and best books on direct marketing and james mulvey

I just finished reading this book and I am dissapointed because there is no how to, just detailed brief case studies and direct mail letter examples. I was hoping for techniques and hands on approach on how to get inside customer's head...

The premise of trying to think like customer does and then to see what makes him/her tick is hard to accomplish if the writer is far away in his social environment from the target customer group. Copywriter than needs to study the targeted group like an actor studies the role and do roleplaying to understand which emotions customer experiences being exposed to differente motivators (fear, greed, etc.).

Danny Hatch gives good opening but then fails to explore it further...

Denny Hatch's METHOD MARKETING opened my eyes to the power of copywriting and systematic marketing, not just for business but also for non-profit purposes.

The examples of winning controls are worth their weight in gold. While some of them can be swiped and used for other situations right now, the real power comes from the analysis of what makes them so successful - and how to copy and apply the same principles in your own copy and marketing.

Easily one of the highest value books on writing effective copy and applying strategic marketing to boost sales and response that I have ever come across. A strongly recommended addition to any marketer or copywriter's collection - and one that's sure to be referred to frequently.

I must say, I'm quite suprised at the level at which this author writes.He has obviously been inside OUR heads! (the people who bought this book)The book speaks plainly and directly to the problems all sellers and marketeers have. Not only does this book offer practical advice, but it takes it one notch higher with step by step methods to first, understand our prospect,target said prospect,think like our prospect and then ...re-invent our service or products to his/her liking! If you like TRUTH in advertising, then the title of this book will surely please you. I generally like "Pattonesque" sales & marketing books...the ones that hit you over the head...but this is just right below that genre.