Profile of Success: Dick Benson

Dick Benson was one of the great direct marketing pioneers, starting in 1947 at Time-Life. In 1954, he encouraged and consulted with a group of publishers and celebrated authors in creating American Heritage Magazine, which, just 6 years later, had an eye-popping 365,000 paid subscribers. As a result, the magazine’s editor, Bruce Catton was able to sell over 250,000 copies of his book on the Civil War entirely by direct-mail. (Which is one of the reasons I teach postcard techniques in OnlineProspectingSecrets.com – it’s THAT powerful!)
In 1969, Benson took a tiny kitchen table publication, The Contest Newsletter (about entering and winning contests and sweepstakes) and built it to 750,000 subscribers. And, at his death in 1996, he was doing it again with a health newsletter, quickly built to 800,000 subscribers. His strategies of selling newsletter subscriptions by mail have broad application to selling anything by mail, and can be found in his book ‘Secrets Of Successful Direct-Mail’, published by Boardroom Books (BottomLineSecrets.com).

Some quick Benson tips: A 2-time buyer is twice as likely to buy again as is a 1-time buyer. (So let your customers know what else they can be buying from you and your company!) Memberships sell and renew better than subscriptions, by 10% or more. Long copy is better than short copy. Two premiums/bonus gifts are usually better than one….so what bonuses are you including when people join you? How do you stand out?