We all have an incident that we can recall as kids, where we were warned not to touch something, but yet as soon as we had the chance, we went and touched exactly what mom and dad said not to!
You only have to read Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Direct Marketing For Non-Direct Marketing Businesses one time to know that ad agencies don’t really understand direct-response marketing nor do they want to. The warning is clear.
I remember bringing up the option of bringing in a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or hiring an advertising agency at one of my Platinum Mastermind hot seat sessions, and Dan summed it up by saying, “Don’t bite the hand that has fed you.” That’s not the only time he has told us that we should never stop developing and overseeing the direct-response marketing strategies, since that is the basis for our success in the first place.
Yet for some reason, Forrest and I still felt led to begin pursuing and interviewing advertising agencies, with aspirations for relief from our marketing duties so that we could focus heavily on all of the “more important stuff” that’s required to actually go out and franchise your brand. There’s a lot of operational work, like following the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) requirements for all new franchisor brands, such as creating our Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) and operations manual tools, let alone stepping up all of our systems and opening up more corporately owned gyms in the Birmingham market.
Those things are vital, especially during the creation phase. But I am here to tell you that none of it matters if you lose control of your marketing, and essentially your brand. Which is exactly what we did when we tested out working with an ad agency early on.
First, we set out on a six-month tour of multiple agencies who pitched our up-and-coming brand on how they could be the marketing solution for our expansion in Birmingham and beyond. It was quite interesting listening to the diverse feedback we were getting on what we had done to that point and how these potential ad agency partners felt like they could take it and not only improve it, but also scale it to multiple markets. It is flattering to be told good things about your brand, but also intimidating and troubling to hear a lot of criticism about how you are presenting that brand.
We heard it all. From questions about the “nonexistent graphic design and layout” that they thought we desperately needed to improve, to concerns about “the amount of excessive copy that we had in our print ads and email templates.”
There were even pitches that were self-eliminating, as several agencies felt like they didn’t want to step in and “mess up” what we had already established, even though they didn’t really understand why it worked.
Either way, the search took six months because it was highly underwhelming. It felt wrong, but we still chose to give it the ole’ college try and test it out by choosing an agency that we assumed could actually learn our direct-response style and then help us continue to scale it.
As we ran our test, we realized that Dan was exactly right; we couldn’t ever expect a marketing agency to understand our style of marketing enough to be able to improve upon it in an innovative way that could grow our brand into new markets. WE HAD TO DO IT OURSELVES.
They didn’t embrace us, nor did they even read the Dan Kennedy tools that we put in their hands with hopes they’d become junkies just like us. However, like all tests, we learned a great deal from it, and honestly, it further emphasized the fact that we could indeed begin to combine the direct-response and branding strategies into a powerful hybrid far more valuable than either extreme could ever service on its own.
DAN KENNEDY’S COMMENT: There are three vital points made here by Jim that I want to be absolutely certain aren’t missed. First, I resolutely teach there are two things never, never, never to give up control over in your business: the checkbook and the marketing. It is infinitely easier to replace yourself in technical and operational roles than in the driver’s seat of your advertising and marketing. Whether you keep that a do-it-yourself effort, with a few in-house staffers or a few outside freelancers, or you manage to pull off the feat they didn’t and find an outside agency that understands or is willing to understand the unusual hybrid of direct response and brand taught in this book, you must never abdicate authority. I was taught early in my business life a simple truth: Two people cannot ride side by side on the same horse. There can only be one person with the reins. That has to be you. That does not mean you want obsequious yes-men and yes-women merely doing your bidding. It does mean when you do consider ideas and input and arrive at your vision, your leadership decisions, and your tactical plan for your marketing, your team makes it their business to understand it, embrace it, and implement it.
Second, when you turn to outsiders for assistance with advertising and marketing, make evidence of their understanding of, respect for, and preferably successful experience with direct-response marketing a requirement. The advertising and marketing world’s population of idea-rich theorists and outright nincompoops has expanded wildly in recent years as online media has brought forward an array of technicians (web designers, social media managers, blog writers, etc.) who grab the reins of marketing yet have no successful marketing or selling experience. Beware them. A bricklayer is not an architect.
Third, last, do not underestimate yourself or undervalue your own knowledge of your business. Just because someone has a trophy case of ad industry awards (from peers—not based on clients’ profits), or two Ph.D.s from big-name universities, or big-name corporations as clients does not mean his judgment is superior to yours about your brand, your customers, and your marketing. You don’t want to be arrogant or close-minded, but you can’t let yourself be intimidated or unduly influenced either. I have two key questions I like to use, that you might appropriate, when there is an expert or a critic confronting me: 1) why do you believe I should think differently about this? and 2) what facts do you have to support your position? Facts are important, and much harder to come by than opinions or criticism. I am willing to be persuaded by facts. In a toss-up on competing, conflicting opinions about my business, I’ll take mine.
Go to www.IronTribeFranchise.com/NoBS to watch Jim Cavale and Forrest Walden provide commentary on this chapter and see real Iron Tribe marketing samples from our test with an ad agency!