I was on a conference call where marketing was being discussed.

The discussion turned to “back end promotions”. Which means, “what you sell people after they bought your entry-level product”.

And the topic was the copy used to sell “back-end promotions”. One of the well-known, high-profile marketers on the call said something like, “Heck, you don't need a great copywriter to write that stuff. Those people are already your customers. A monkey could write that stuff.”

BUZZER.

That player is out of the game.

If you think any piece of your copy can be written by “a monkey”, you're in trouble.

Because if that's what you think, you're saying your customers are monkeys, too. See how that works?

And if you still think there's nothing wrong with all that, try this exercise: imagine your mother or your grandmother is the customer in question. Now imagine telling Mom or Grandma you hired a monkey to handle this part of their transaction, because that's all the respect you needed to give them.

How's that working for you?