“I can’t judge good direct marketing; it judges me.”

So sayeth Denny Hatch of Business Commensense. If he says his mentor forgot more than he'll ever know, what hope have I?

One of my pet peeves is the number of people doing DM with little knowledge of what makes for good DM creative. Unfortunately it's not always the pretty stuff. Hatch's column today talks about awards and how they are rarely a real indicator of the best (as in results), which are usually long copy format letters not very pretty. If you like a little wisdom with your marketing news, I highly recommend subscribing.

What's interesting is how that format has been adapted by folks selling internet marketin services, numerology, online courses, booklets, etc. Those long copy web pages that go on and on forever. I would love to test that format on a more, uh, standard product. Just for fun. Hmm.