When you work on lots of email marketing projects, you have a special relationship with your inbox. By that, I mean I read pretty much every marketing email I get—even the bad ones. (Sometimes you can learn a thing or two from them!) But it’s always a little disconcerting when you get a not-so-great email […]
February 1, 2017 by 3 Comments
The Graph of Business Agony and Ecstasy (or How to Optimize Things That Matter)
September 8, 2016 by 8 Comments
Stop Letting Marketing Tactics Poison Your Brand
If businesses were being honest, most of them would have to admit they have no idea what their brand is. They fail what Seth Godin calls the brand formula, which I think is a clever model for thinking about what makes a company unique, and how powerful their relationship with consumers is: [Prediction of what to […]
March 17, 2016 by 25 Comments
The Overlooked Truth About Writing Great Headlines
“Hey, what do you think of this headline?” I hear that question from fellow copywriters and marketers almost every day. And it’s enough to make me scream. Why? Because, without context, “headline” could mean any of the following: Blog post title Email subject line Facebook ad headline Sales page headline Opt-in page headline Home page headline […]
November 5, 2015 by 7 Comments
Stop Paying Attention to Split Test Results
Click the arrow to see the transcript for this video: I’d love to know what you think about this Slack split test. What are some things you see that I missed? What do you think they’re after with this test? Leave a comment below and let me know.
October 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Copywriting Faceoff: Cards Against Humanity Vs. Exploding Kittens
I often find that one of the best ways to find copywriting inspiration is to check out what successful companies with raving fans are doing. What can make things even more interesting is to compare one such company’s copy to a competing company’s. There’s often a lot that can be learned from the differences in how […]
August 13, 2015 by 18 Comments
How to Sell Like Elon Musk
A mass-market electric car that goes 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds. A tube that can transport people and cars from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes. Reusable rockets superior to anything NASA can build. Life on Mars. A reasonable person pitching any of these concepts as something that a) is actually possible to pull […]