A History of Direct Response Marketing with Brian Kurtz

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Some people might find it old-school, but you can never go wrong with going back to the basics. Building a successful business requires a solid foundation, and this foundation must be built on solid principles and ideas from those who came before you. 

Today, I speak with businessman, mentor, and author Brian Kurtz. Brian’s interest lies mainly in direct marketing, and this has raised his previous company to its current glory of $150 million. He is a master in direct marketing, having the ability to navigate expertly in various forms and media. In his spare time, he works on another passion of his–serving as an umpire for Little League Baseball.

Brian shares with us his principles when working with digital marketing and how these principles helped him grow his business into what it is today. In this episode, we discuss a wide range of topics from Brian’s book, like how to build your network offline.

These are only the highlights. If you want to know more, tune in and watch out for the value-adding things we have in store for you.

The Greats of Marketing: People that came before us, and understanding why we need the fundamentals (8:22)

• The definition of direct marketing is not different, but it’s the people’s perception that changed.
• A lesson from Pixar movie Coco: You’re not truly dead until nobody remembers you.
• Brian experienced a mild stroke, and he realized what it meant to be remembered for your contributions after death.
• His experience also made him appreciate those who came before him in the field of direct marketing and working with the “original source.”
• Direct mail and paying postage aided him in becoming an expert online marketer.

Fishing without bait: Marketing effectively without urgency (12:23)

• No matter how successful your business is, you should always understand and touch on your marketing, regardless if it is outsourced or not.
• Emails should always come as content with sales. 
• Other people’s business model involves dangling a “bait” to sell and offering their prospects with other things to buy.
• Brian’s model involves putting aside the “fishing pole” to focus on content which touches the audience.
• Let your audience know that you’re present and waiting for them with opportunities. Let them “jump on the boat” on their own, without bait.

Finding the perfect balance: Advice for those who are still building their career (19:17)

• Go for content and work your offers into the material.
• Develop a relationship first and foremost.
• Email remains the superior medium to build a relationship, as compared to Facebook or Instagram.
• For those who are starting, use Facebook and make the offer so attractive that your audience will want to be part of your email list too.
• Affiliate offers: find affiliates with a similar audience as yours but do not forget to develop your own email list.
• Being “in the middle” means being a patient marketer.
• Not everything is a revenue event, but everything is a relationship event.

That’s it for this episode; I hope you learned a lot. This is part one of a two-part interview with Brian Kurtz. Watch out for part two, coming soon in this podcast.

Connect with Brian Kurtz through his website. You can also watch his informative videos on YouTube. We also encourage you to check out his book, Overdeliver to find valuable suggestions on marketing and copywriting!

Thank you for tuning in and see you next episode!