Goldmine Marketing

Tag: Denny Hatch

  • The 80/20 Rule

    Are you “stealing smart” today?

    11:04am
    East of the Mississippi


    You probably know the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle:

    80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers.

    Or the inverse:

    20% of the population earns ~80% of a nation’s income.

    While it’s not always exactly 80/20 (and they don’t need to add to 100), it’s a remarkably common distribution across many domains:

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  • It’s here: Secrets of Emotional, Hot-Button Copywriting

    Here’s your link for the FREE first chapter!

    Feb 16, 2026
    2:32pm
    Saint Paul

    Years ago when I first started in direct response, I quickly learned the idea, “benefits, not features.”

    For example:

    “Faster web browsing,” not “5 gig internet.”

    “Look great at your school reunion,” not “Lose 5 lbs.”

    Later, that idea was expanded to “features AND benefits.”

    But features and benefits alone don’t sell.

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  • Year End Book List (and your PPP Missing Link)

    10:49am
    Saint Paul

    When I sent you the year-end Persuasion Play Podcast episode with David Newman…

    Well, something didn’t work in the email. There wasn’t a link to the episode nor an embedded YouTube video.

    So unless you followed the link to the playlist of all episodes, you probably didn’t see David and I mix it up.

    Thanks, technology, for trying to be smart.

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  • Lawrence Bernstein: Know Your History (Persuasion Play Podcast #017)

    1:46pm
    Saint Paul

    My high school history teacher used to tell us:

    If you don’t know your history, you don’t know anything!

    This is true in civics: what has worked, and what has repeatedly failed?

    True in cooking.

    And it’s certainly true in marketing.

    Which is why successful marketers study what’s worked in the past, to learn from those successes and apply those lessons to their work today.

    Lawrence Bernstein knows his history.

    As the “world’s most obsessed ad archivist,” Lawrence has been collecting, analyzing, and applying the lessons from great direct response marketing and copywriting for over 25 years.

    In this interview, Lawrence dips into the powers of direct mail, the importance of building your list, where to find secrets of great marketing, and more.

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  • What Won’t THEY Tell You?

    9:33am
    Oct 31
    Saint Paul

    You’re on the operating table, and they’ve opened you up. Guess who calmly walks out of the room?

    This copy comes from the late Mel Martin’s copy for Boardroom’s Bottom Line Yearbook, 1992.

    Talk about opening a loop!

    And to get the resolution to this –– “and lots more that hospitals don’t tell you” –– you had to buy the book and turn to page 262.

    (See this and more of Mel’s incredible bullets in the image below.)

    Today is Halloween.

    And while FEAR may be all around you tonight…

    FEAR is a standard technique used in Direct Response Marketing.

    Not in a jump-scare sort of way…

    But as a spychological technique, tapping into:

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  • If at first you don’t succeed…

    12:01pm
    Saint Paul

    Few weeks back, I emailed a fascinating story about growing grass in my back yard.

    HERE’S AN UPDATE.

    Grass is doing fine.

    But a squirrel keeps digging holes in it.

    I patch ’em.

    And within hours, there are new holes again.

    Some in the same spot as before…

    But the varmint ain’t burying nuts or anything.

    The squirrel is just tormenting me for fun.

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  • Make a Claim, and Frame It

    1:24pm
    Saint Paul

    Yesterday, as I was prepping dinner and the kids were at music and sports, I listened to Episode 277 of “Brain Software with Mike Mandel.”

    It’s a podcast that fellow copywriter John Bejakovic tuned me into.

    Mike and his co-host Chris Thompson talk about hypnosis from their headquarters in the hypnotic world epicenter: Toronto, Canada.

    Two things I took away from the episode that I wanted to share with you today.

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  • Do you have design skills? I might have work for you…

    2:16pm
    Saint Paul

    I have an obsession.

    Well, maybe a few…

    And I have a request for your help.

    This last month, I’ve been obsessing over a new patch of grass.

    See, we built a new garage during this past summer…

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  • Stay Sharp and Fillet Some Fish

    10:54am
    Saint Paul

    (Check out the PS for some fun news coming soon!)

    Heya summer break is over and the kids are back to school!

    We spent Labor Day weekend at my in-laws, fishing, cleaning gutters, and cleaning fish.

    That’s a new skill for me: cleaning fish.

    And after years of removing the fillets on these Wisconsin weekends, I was finally given the chance to do the main work.

    I felt like Karate Kid: do the simple things a million times before the next step.

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  • Digging for Denny Hatch’s Gold

    A few years ago, I wrote to Direct Response Copywriter Denny Hatch.

    He wrote the book “Secrets of Emotional, Hotbutton Copywriting” (summary here) and I was trying to get a copy.

    Denny told me that he’s got a guy working to get it republished.

    I checked in with Denny again last month. I asked if he was open to record a podcast.

    You know, dig for a little gold, here in the Goldmine.

    Denny responded:

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