Grant Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Responsory, a full-service marketing communications agency focused on providing measurable marketing solutions to B2B, B2C, and not-for-profit organizations. Their process combines data, AI, and testing to deliver multi-channel marketing campaigns to make their clients heroes — and ultimately get them ROI.
Grant started Responsory in 1999 but has been in the agency world since 1988. When people ask Grant what he does, he says, “I’m a drug dealer.” That’s because Grant has marketed products in the Pharma, Vitamins, and Nutraceuticals industry. His expertise also cuts across the insurance and B2B products marketing space.
Grant is a sought-after public speaker, direct marketing trainer, copywriter, award-winning author, and the creator of Direct BrandingSM, Responsory’s method for producing sure-fire measurable results. He’s helped companies like Humana, Northwestern Mutual, Microsoft, and many more.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- How Grant Johnson helped EyeMed sell their B2B products using a multi-channel approach
- The power of dimensional direct mail and how to leverage it effectively using landing pages
- How Grant uses imagery for compelling marketing
- Grant’s favorite direct response marketers
- The Kloxxado campaign case study
- How AI can be utilized for marketing strategies
- What is the direct branding process?
In this episode…
What does a “drug dealer” have to do with B2B marketing strategies, and what can you learn from them? Well, we’re talking about “drug dealers” in the sense of Pharma, Vitamins, and Nutraceuticals. And we’re going to take you on a journey of how Grant Johnson, Founder and CEO of Responsory, creates effective marketing campaigns.
He breaks everything down — from research to data gathering, testing, creatives, landing pages, and result tracking. If you’ve ever been intrigued by the magic of direct response marketing, you’ll love every bit of this episode!
On this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Grant Johnson, Founder and CEO of Responsory, you’ll go behind the scenes of dimensional direct mail marketing that works, the role of imagery and landing pages, and why data, testing, and measurability makes all the difference.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Special Mentions:
- Diana Fryc of Retail Voodoo on LinkedIn
- Herschell Gordon Lewis on LinkedIn
- Brian Kurtz on LinkedIn
- Alan Rosenspan on LinkedIn
- Ruth Stevens on LinkedIn
Books Mentioned:
- Overdeliver: Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing by Brian Kurtz
- The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters by Joseph Sugarman
- John J. McCarthy’s Secrets of Super Selling by John Joseph McCarthy
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Successful Direct Marketing Methods by Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs
Related Episode(s):
- “From Maxwell Street to Infomercials with Ron Popeil”
- “Boardroom Inc: Light Bulb Moments after 1.3 Billion pieces of direct mail – with Brian Kurtz [Big Lessons]”
- “[Top Agency Series] How to Create a Smooth Onboarding for Your Company with Gray MacKenzie of ZenPilot”
- “[Top Agency Series] Structuring Your Org Chart Properly And Growing Your Company from $10K with Jon Morris, CEO of Ramsay Innovations LLCrris, CEO of Ramsay Innovations LLC”
- “[Top Agency Series] How to Remove Friction From Your Sales Process with John Doherty, Founder and CEO of Credo”
Sponsor for this episode
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Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:19
Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs leaders. And before I introduce formally today’s guest, Grant Johnson has been in the agency world since 1989. And if anyone knows or listens, I geek out on direct response marketing. So I’ve had some amazing people on so grant I always like to point out other episodes people just check out and so from the direct response world I had Ron Popeil on be able to check out that interview and unfortunately may he rest in peace he he died recently I’ve had Brian Kurtz on I’ve had you name it just like hundreds hundreds of people on and also from the agency side of it people like Gray MacKenzie of Zenpilot is specialize in helping agencies move on to Clickup John Doherty of Credo which connects companies to the right agencies for their needs. Jon Morris his story was amazing. He built his agency up to 200 people then sold it now consults with companies to help them grow. So check out that and many more, and the episode today is brought to you by Rise25 at Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships and partnerships. And we do that by helping you run your podcast, you know, Grant for me, you’ve probably found out by now the number one thing in my life is relationships, I’m always looking at ways to give to my relationships and profile them, their company, what they’re doing the exciting things that they’re working on. And I find no better way over the past decade to do that than to have them on my podcast. So if you’ve thought about it, go to Rise25.com check out more you can email us at [email protected] we’re happy to answer any and all questions that you have. And today’s guest I’m excited Grant Johnson is a CEO and Founder of Responsory And like I mentioned, he started in 1999. But he’s in the agency world since 1988. And when people ask what he does, Grant says, I’m a drug dealer. I was reading on LinkedIn, it says drug dealer. Yeah, true, great direct response marketer because it captures your curiosities, you have to read more. So he’s done stuff in pharma, vitamins, nutraceuticals. He says I’m insurance salesperson, which is not quite as compelling as saying I’m a drug dealer, but you know, health specialty in life insurance, he sells chemicals in a myriad of b2b products, manufacturing services. They work with companies like Humana Northwestern Mutual and Microsoft, Blue Cross Blue Shield and various states and many, many more companies over the years. And their process combines data AI and testing to deliver multi channel marketing campaigns to make their clients a hero and ultimately get them ROI. So Grant, thanks for joining me.
Grant Johnson 3:09
Yeah, glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
Jeremy Weisz 3:11
Um, I want you to start with talking about EyeMed when I look at your website, EyeMed keeps sticking out and there’s I encourage anyone go to Responsory.com and some of the work you’ve done, and there’s just image of this person in a cage with a shark coming up to them. So I love that image and it talks about four essential b2b email marketing tactics in action. You’ve been doing email marketing for years and years and years. So talk about what EyeMed Vision Care and some email marketing.
Grant Johnson 3:47
Yeah, so EyeMed is the insurance arm of Luxottica and a lot of people know Luxottica, but they don’t know they know Luxottica Luxottica is Ray Ban sunglasses, it is just about every optical chain, you can think of target optical, they they own so many brands, it’s it’s crazy. But on the b2b side, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get companies to understand that EyeMed has an insurance product. It’s a good product, they should look at it, they should consider at least getting a quote from EyeMed and we deal with HR decision makers who handle benefits we actually deal with bro agents and brokers as well. And one thing not this one that’s in particular that’s up but the very first campaign they gave us, which was really I think it’s an interesting b2b case study, which is they they said to us, okay, you guys do measurable marketing. Why don’t you here’s a, here’s a list of 900 prospects. We know these prospects are doing business with our competitors. We have never, ever been able to call with them, let alone meet with them. So they said, Get us appointments. And I said, I said to the client contact, they said, Oh, man, I thought I thought she liked me. This is the first assignment you’re giving us. And what we ended up
