Yesterday we talked about research and immersing ourselves in the market, product and audience.

There’s another powerful advantage to doing your research well…

It gives you an idea for how engaged and satisfied your customers are.

It’s crazy how a lot of businesses are scared to gauge their audience for feedback. Maybe it comes from a lack of confidence in the actual value they provide?

In a lot of cases that’s it.

And you realize that when value is lacking, the audience is not responsive. Which is a good indicator that, before you work on your copy, you should look at something else…

Brian Kurtz has a rule (from his book “Overdeliver”):

“A direct marketing rule of thumb is the formula 40/40/20. This says that 40 percent of the success of any direct response campaign is based on the targeting, segmentation, and quality of the list; 40 percent of the success is based on how relevant and irresistible the offer is; and 20 percent of the success is based on the quality of the creative material and the messaging.

But the list is the most important part. Over time, as I’ve worked with clients, this has become so apparent that I’ve changed the formula to 41/39/20, with the list taking the lead with 41 percent, followed by 39 percent for the offer and 20 percent for the creative.”

In other words, as Joanna Weibe says: List > Offer > Copy.

It’s a helpful lens you can use to look at your entire business to diagnose problems.

I wish all the clients reaching out were familiar with it. But often they go look for “revamped copy” with no way of gathering feedback from their audience… because their list has either forgot about them, or have been disappointed by what they bought.

I would argue that this is a great rule for life, too…

Your relationships > Your value > How you present yourself

If you don’t curate your relationships or if you don’t have any relationship, there’s no point in improving yourself. What/Who would you be doing it for?

And unless you improve your mindset, your skills, and your health, it’s foolish to sell a version of yourself that’s fake.

Think, list, offer, copy – always.

At the very least, it will get you to think more selflessly.

Quote and reflection of the day:

“the majority of people operate with a mindset that says to the fireplace, ‘First give me some heat, then I’ll throw on some logs.’ Or that says to the bank, ‘Give me interest on my money, then I’ll make a deposit.’ And of course, it just doesn’t work that way.”

• Bob Burg, The Go-Giver

Whenever you’re not getting what you expect out of life, look at what you’re putting in. Your input is what you can control, even when it doesn’t feel like it.