How to Get Everything You Can Out of What You've Got
Five key takeaways from Jay Abraham's work
Sticking to the topic of ‘living legends’ (see last week’s feature on Dan Kennedy), I have a real treat for you this week. He’s been called the “$21.7 billion man” because of the unparalleled success of his marketing and business growth techniques. His name is Jay Abraham, and today’s headline is a reference to his bestselling book, Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got.
DR Dynamite!💥
Welcome again to the feature where I write about high-impact advertising wisdom from the ‘Masters of Marketing,’ specifically tried-and-true (T&T) techniques that apply to my area of expertise: direct-response advertising.
As always, we begin with a GPT biography of today’s Master.
Jay Abraham, born on January 8, 1949, in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a titan in the world of direct response marketing and a celebrated author and speaker. As the founder and CEO of the Abraham Group, Abraham has shaped strategies and business models for a diverse range of organizations, from emerging startups to international corporations.
Known for his role in developing the direct response marketing industry in the 1970s, Abraham has continued to influence the marketing sphere through his insightful books and thought leadership. His pivotal works include “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition” and “The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth in Tough Economic Times.” His writings have proven invaluable to businesses, particularly during challenging economic periods such as the recessions of the early 1990s and 2008. His life and work have been so influential that they inspired a 2019 documentary.
You can watch the documentary here.
Abraham currently resides in Los Angeles County, California, with his family. For those looking to tap into his expertise, his insights can be found on his website, www.abraham.com. His work continues to inspire and guide marketing and business professionals around the world.
OK, so how do you get everything you can out of what you’ve got? Here are my top five takeaways from Abraham’s book.
The Power of the USP (Unique Selling Proposition). We’ve covered this concept before. (Master Rosser Reeves coined the term in his 1960 classic, Reality in Advertising.) Abraham defines a USP as “a superior benefit or advantage that no other competitor offers,” and he views it as much more than just an advertising concept. A USP should be integrated into everything a company does, he argues — all aspects of marketing and customer service.
The Effectiveness of Risk Reversal. This concept involves the seller taking on the larger share of the risk in making a purchase, which is the opposite of what customers expect. This can be done through the usual mechanisms: generous guarantees, warranties and return policies. The point is to “aggressively let your clients know that if they are dissatisfied, you will give them their money back, re-do the job at no charge, or whatever else it takes to demonstrate your total, passionate commitment to their satisfaction,” Abraham writes. He then adds this very important truth: “Clients will take advantage of this risk reversal strategy and very seldom ask for reimbursement. But the offer will serve you 100% of the time.”
The Strategy of Preeminence: In keeping with the concept above, Abraham defines preeminence as “the ability to always put your clients’ needs ahead of your own.” He strongly believes that mastering this mindset is the key to success, and that the failure to do so is the reason “so many businesses are unremarkable, unmemorable and, ultimately, unsuccessful.” In practice, this can involve something as subtle as how you think about the people who buy from you. “If you use the word ‘customers,’ that’s fine,” he writes. “But always think of them as ‘clients.’ And when you start to ‘serve’ clients rather than ‘sell’ clients, the limits on your business success will disappear.”
The Importance of Lifetime Value. If the results of a test “show that you only broke even, or actually lost a little money, that may not be a cause for tears,” Abraham writes. “A break-even figure would look pretty good to me if I knew from experience that my average new client would make numerous
purchases from me over a transactional lifetime.” Thinking about LTV won’t be new to direct marketers. However, it’s worth remembering that Abraham’s maxim says that increasing “the number of transactions per client” is one of only three ways to grow a business.
The Necessity of Constant Testing. The mantra of direct marketers is “test, test, test before rollout.” Abraham, too, encourages continuous testing as a means of optimizing performance. But he goes further, offering important advice on how to get new ideas to test in the first place. “It’s so much easier than you think,” he writes. “Just start being extremely observant of everything around you … Whenever you observe a powerful marketing technique that captivates you – makes you want to respond to a product or service – jot down the concept, approach, language, sales presentation, etc. that worked and incorporate similar or related techniques into your marketing tests.”
To emphasize that last point, Abraham shares the following story:
A few years ago I made small fortunes for several clients by reading an ad in of all places, the National Enquirer, that offered expensive gems inexpensively. I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the gems, but I had enormous fascination with the selling approach – both the positioning and actual copy – which the ad used.
I borrowed the concept and selling principles and applied them to software, pest control services and other business – and my clients made over three million dollars in one year for my trouble. But obviously, it was no trouble at all. Instead, it was a pleasure to let other industries create and perfect success practices and then adopt and apply those practices to other businesses.
I want you to start doing the same, and start doing it today.
Those are just five of the high-impact topics covered in Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got. I highly recommend reading it (or re-reading it). Too busy to read? I hear you! Here’s a pro tip: Get the audiobook and listen to it while you’re driving in the car. I love reading physical books, but that’s what I have to do these days to get anything read!
News You Can Use 📰
It turns out slow motion isn’t just an aesthetic, it’s a powerful tool for boosting engagement and brand affinity, according to a recent study from the Journal of Marketing Research. This increased engagement comes from our brain’s preference for easy-to-process content, especially when complex movements are involved.
“Slow motion is especially effective when applied to short-form videos that are inherently pleasant and that involve complex movements that are difficult to perceive at regular speed,” the researchers found. “However, even simple movements benefit from slow motion when content creators zoom in on subtle movements to increase complexity.”
I’ve used slow-motion replays in my commercials before (usually with the line: “watch that again”), but now that I’m aware of this finding, I plan to be more intentional about its use in the future.
Chart Watch👁️
BulbHead’s Pocket Hose Copper Bullet is the #1 DRTV campaign in the nation for the third week in a row, and its main competitor in the hose category, Emson’s Hydro Steel Pro, has climbed to #6, according to the latest DRMetrix report.
Speaking of Emson…
Monster Solar Zapper
Pitch: “Stop slappin’ and start zappin’”
Offer: $29.95 for one, 2nd one (just pay a separate fee)
Marketer: Emson (🏆 2022 True Top Marketer)
Not to be confused with Solar Monster Zapper from 2019 or Monster Zapper from 2018, both of which were different products, this bug zapper looks and acts like a motion-activated landscape light.
First tested last year about this time, the campaign for the product appeared on the charts last week and is now in the Top 25.
Help Wanted💼
This won’t be a regular feature, but I will share these notices when ‘friends of the newsletter’ are hiring.
TRANZACT, a DR marketer in the insurance and Medicare space, is searching for a Senior Director of Video Production. According to the company, this person will be responsible for “all television and video production including creative strategy, execution, negotiations, budgeting, and identifying and partnering with vendors.” They’re looking for someone with “a proven track record of innovating and producing successful creatives” with minimum experience of eight years. If you or someone you know would be interested, check out the complete job posting.
Only Premium Subscribers past this point.
Sorry, but if you’re a free subscriber, you’re about to hit a paywall. The good news? Getting past that paywall is inexpensive and so worth it! Here’s what’s in the rest of today’s newsletter, which only premium subscribers can see:
Recent Tests. Updates on the latest commercials the major DR players are testing, weeks before anyone else knows about them. Plus, complimentary access to The Library of DRTV, a private blog where I’ve archived every major TV test since 2007. Before you invest any more in your next project, don’t you want to know what’s been tried before? Maybe it’s your exact item!
Promising Products. Information and links to any new products that have come across my desk in the last week that I think have potential for direct marketers.
Old Gold. This one is a new feature I just thought up based on an exercise I did back in November (“There Isn’t Much Happening, So Let’s Go Back in Time”). The idea is to ‘time travel’ to this same week years ago, and see what was topping the charts. It’s a great way to discover product ideas that may be ready for a comeback (aka “old gold”).
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