003. The Connection between New Thought and Direct Response Marketing

If anyone ever calls you weird or strange for mixing intuition and the power of the subconscious mind with your copywriting or your marketing, tell them this...

I've mentioned this before, but there's a solid connection between New Thought principles and Direct Response Marketing, the kind of marketing I was trained in through AWAI, Todd Brown's E5 Method, Kevin Rogers' Copy Chief, John Carlton's Simple Writing System, and other training programs. I won't go into the full details here, as I am still compiling them for my book, but it doesn't take a lot of digging to find the threads.

Take Gary Halbert. In his "30 Days to Become a Direct Response Copywriter" letter, he mentions Robert Collier's "Collier Letters" as a must-read. I read it early on in my career and have an outlined copy in my library along with many of the other books recommended in this list.

But Robert Collier published more than this book and his advertisements, and I would be remiss if I didn't consider that at least one direct response marketer didn't pick up Collier's other books... New Thought works such as "The Secret of the Ages" and "The God in You"... and apply this stuff to their lives.

And if you're in direct response, how many of you have heard of Maxwell Maltz' "Psycho-Cybernetics", either the original version or Dan Kennedy's edition? I own a copy, and one copywriter I follow once stated that he reread it every year. Maltz' work was strongly influenced by earlier New Thought thinkers, although which I can't say at this time because I am not that deep into my research.

Or how about Napoleon Hill? No doubt many of you have read "Think and Grow Rich," or at least know enough about it to despise it.

Even Dan Kennedy, founder of GKIC, once held a whole presentation (available on YouTube) on Abraham Hicks and adopting a Wealth mindset so that you, as a marketer, can feel comfortable charging for your offers.

And let's not forget Gary Bencivenga, who worked for Ogilvy, once held a much-touted seminar where the greatest secret he shared wasn't persuasion, it was leveraging the power of your Subconscious Mind and the "inner genie."

I promise I will go into this more deeply in the future, but I will end this brief article with this thought:

I'm always surprised when Direct Response Marketers keep this stuff to themselves, when they share so much else. Given that they're so reluctant to talk about it, to me, means that this is the real "difference which makes the difference."

And with Intuitive Marketer, I'm determined to share it all with you, so that you can leverage these secrets for yourself too.

In the meantime... if you have evidence of the "big names" mentioning mindset books like this, I'd LOVE to hear from you. Or if you're one of "those guys"... reach out to me. Let's chat.

And don't ever feel bad for applying intuition, intention, and attention to your marketing. In a time of ever-increasing automation, the ones who engage thoughtfully, deliberately, and authentically will win.

—LMS