EXAMPLE: Oodoo shows us how to use video on a home page
THOUGHT: Why I'm dropping the "tip" section and shifting this newsletter from weekly to fortnightly.
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Content marketing and email automation.
TIP: Delete the words “utilise” and “leverage”. They are terrible.
EXAMPLE: Serena WIlliams is an interesting choice for Toggl’s testimonial quote
THOUGHT: Man, I love pen and paper.
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TIP: Make your hero image mean something
EXAMPLE: CONQA have a killer hero image
THOUGHT: Read Built to Sell today
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TIP: Frame your sentences around the word “you”
EXAMPLE: This smartwatch home page is information overload
THOUGHT: Never been a huge fan of copy briefs
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TIP: Focus your copy on one idea.
EXAMPLE: A vintage ad built around one idea
THOUGHT: The traditional top-down content approach can be turned on its head.
TIP: Easy way to write headlines: think about how you let people have their cake and eat it too
EXAMPLE: Proshop ERP have a great headline - and it's not really to do with their copywriting.
THOUGHT: On the short-term costs of switching to a new service offer.
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TIP: Benefit statements are great - but don't forget to tell people how you deliver on them.
EXAMPLE: Optoro does a great job of explaining the gritty details on their demo page.
THOUGHT: Why panicking over my empty pipeline led me to lose even more money.
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Improve your calls to action by making them obvious. Keap has done a great job with their calls to action. Investigating my lower-than-expected yearly income.
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Improving your landing page is a matter of finding gaps between reality and what you’ve written. Dooly’s got a great feature section (esp. the social proof). Design first, copy first - why this debate is dumb.
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Find out how people got to your copy to make assumptions about their stage of awareness, an example of positioning in this silly little bucket, and my thoughts on evolving from a vendor to a consultant.
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Replace your adjectives with facts, check out this iconic example from the 1950s, and my grumpy old man thoughts on asynchronous communication.
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Delete the word “will”, I’m baffled by SalesRabbit’s niche positioning and vague messaging, check out this great article about personas.
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How to ask better questions to get better testimonial quotes, an example of a great testimonial quote, and a thought that’s actually just me promoting myself.
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A tip: improving your page's performance by shrinking the size of the commitment you're asking for.
An example: Sales calls are too much for some people, so Bamboo HR gives these people an option to learn about their product without having to have a call.
A thought: Some guru irritated me by bragging about his copy, when it was really his offer that made the difference.
A new newsletter format, asking “so what?” and why Coda’s clever headline works.
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Driving 30 minutes, borrowing money to buy a car and tools that help you switch software - what do these all have in common?
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If you don’t have strong positioning, there’s probably not much point in paying a fair whack for website copywriting. Just quickly get something out there then move on to something more impactful.
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In which I justify a slightly longer headline because the additional words draw a stronger connection between the customer pain point and the benefit the product provides.
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Get more customers by positioning yourself not against your competitors, but against the other ways people could be solving the problem you solve.
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People asking you to do things for free can be infuriating. But if you put your (justified) anger to one side, you may be able to carve out some opportunities.
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