Suddenly, profit on each piece was 20 to 25 times what it had been. It turned out that gut instinct and experience were less effective at predicting what readers and viewers wanted — and worse for the company — than a formula. [Wired]
This idea is one of the hardest nuggets in marketing/copywriting for a rookie to come to peace with. When creating an ad, an email, or any marketing piece, it is far easier–and much less risky–to model a previously successful piece than to reinvent the wheel on your own.
In fact, this is recommended by the advertising masters most of us aspire to become. It takes a combination of acute intuition, depth of prospect knowledge, and finely-tuned skill to create a blockbuster ad or campaign. Most of us are lucky to cover 1 of these areas; few (if any) of us cover them all.
So to get around this, we look back on proven ads and let them guide us. Re-purpose the ad for your market, modeling the persuasive steps it took. More often than not, a blockbuster in 1 market will go blockbuster in another.
If I could accurately model data and use an algorithm to predict human behavior, I would let the computer tell me what to do. I can’t do that when I create an ad, so instead I look to those who’ve gone before me for advice.
Very few of us have the gumption to create magic by ourselves. And with the plethora of research and proven formulas available to us, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be a last resort.
