Today I was alerted to a discussion in a popular copywriting Facebook group about how my Market Detective course stacks up against Stefan Georgi’s RMBC.
This was the original question:
(I would have thought the fact that I “NAILED his pain points with eerie accuracy” would have been proof enough that I know what I’m doing when it comes to research … but I guess not!)
Sadly, the answers were less than helpful.
Of course, when you ask a bunch of Stefan Georgi fanboys this question, you are only bound to get answers like this…
lol.
Thank you, random copywriter who has literally zero idea of what is in my course.
You are the hero copywriting deserves … but not the one it needs right now.
Anyway.
Let me be clear:
I have not taken RMBC.
I do not know what Stefan teaches.
From what I’ve heard, it’s a solid course. And I think Stefan is a fantastic copywriter. So there’s probably some truth to what fangirl above says. I’m not here to trash RMBC. And honestly, I feel like RMBC is probably a good course to buy if you have the cash. (One day, I might buy it myself just to review it for you.)
That said:
Stefan’s sales page for RMBC says the course includes Stefan’s “22 research questions” …
And teaches you to find the answers in “forums and Amazon”.
There is nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it’s probably very helpful to know Stefan Georgi’s research questions and see how he finds the answers.
But …
That is highly one-dimensional compared to what I show you in Market Detective.
Again, I’m not dissing RMBC, and there is nothing wrong with Stefan’s approach (CHILL, FANBOYS, CHILL).
I’m simply saying that RMBC is just one example of a phenomenon I found with EVERY kind of copywriting course out there:
“Market research” is treated as a single, unchangeable list of questions you have to answer.
You always have to answer EVERY question on the list. No matter how big or small the project.
And … you are told to find the answers in the same way that the person selling you the course prescribes.
For Stefan, it’s forums and Amazon.
For Ben Settle, it’s physically TALKING to someone in the market.
For John Carlton, it’s tons of interviews with everyone in the company.
You see what I’m saying?
How can all these ways be the “one true way”?
Answer: they’re not.
In which case … who’s right?
Well, they all are.
But … certain methods are necessary for certain jobs, and not for others.
What’s so revolutionary about what I did in Market Detective … is I gathered ALL these approaches, and put them into an ordered system.
And I showed you EXACTLY when to do each and every one of them (and when NOT to — because you should NOT be doing market research phonecalls on your first $30 Upwork gig to rewrite a homepage!).
And what Stefan seems to be describing in his course is actually just Stage 2 (out of FIVE stages) I show you in Market Detective.
Also:
I do not have a fixed “list of questions”.
Human beings are complex. You cannot sum them up in a checklist.
So instead, I show you the principles you need to know … and point out how the questions can CHANGE depending on what you’re doing.
(For example, the old chestnut “what keeps your prospect up at night staring at the ceiling with worry” … well, what if your client sells Etsy jewellery? You think their customers are staying up at night worrying about their freaking jewellery? Give me a break!)
Finally, there’s the obvious difference of …
Depth.
Everyone says market research is the single most important thing … yet it’s only ever ONE MODULE in their copywriting course.
RMBC is no exception … research is just the “R” in RMBC.
On the other hand, I made the deliberate decision to NOT include anything on “writing” in Market Detective. If it were a 4-letter acronym, it would be “RRRR”.
I wanted to give you EVERYTHING I knew about research …
And it would have been wayyyyy too bloated if I tried to cover writing, too.
But by sticking to research, I was able to go deeper on it than any other course I have ever seen.
(For example, my teaching on surveys is insanely advanced. It’s how I wrote that sales page so well.)
Point is …
If you’re looking to truly master the research part of things, Market Detective is the ONLY specialist course I’ve ever seen for doing that.
So, those are the main ways in which (I assume) Market Detective differs from RMBC.
So which should you buy?
That’s a dumb question.
They’re different courses with different goals. It’s not either-or.
RMBC is probably a good investment if you don’t know anything about writing copy.
And Market Detective is a good investment if you struggle with knowing how much market research is “enough” when you’re writing copy.
But, I will let you decide that.
Read the Market Detective sales page for yourself …
… and see if, like the questioner above, it “NAILS your pain points with eerie accuracy”.
Daniel Throssell