Why is it that some books become bestsellers and others can hardly sell a 100 copies? Why do you read some books with passion and interest but can’t get past the first 10 pages of others? What’s the difference? It’s simple: word choice. The words you use—and the order in which you use them—make all the difference when it comes to crafting sales copy that wins sales. It doesn’t matter if it’s books or websites, but words do matter in sales copy, so pick yours carefully. As Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a ..read more

Total digital ad spending worldwide exceeds $450 billion. By 2024, that figure will rise to $645 billion. This kind of spending means crowded ad platforms, which makes it more difficult to stand out.  If your business has a five- or six-figure digital advertising budget, you can put more money behind campaigns. But this is exactly what has caused online ad prices to increase by an average of 45% on Google and Facebook (and up to 1000% in some sectors).  If you don’t have those kinds of resources or would rather not continually increase spending, you need to think outside the box. In ..read more

If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you may well have heard the phrase, “the money is in the list.” It’s a proverb as old as the internet, probably older. It’s also true. And more relevant than ever. If you want to build a successful business, a strong email marketing strategy is one of the best ways to do it. However, it’s not without challenges. Over a third of email marketers struggle with acquisition and close to a half say increasing engagement is their number one challenge. Email generates as much as $42 for every dollar spent, and is a top-three marketing channel for 87 ..read more

A solid messaging strategy ensures you grab your target audience’s attention and build interest in what you’re selling.  But there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It should be informed by your market, competitor, and user research, and optimized through feedback and testing. This will help you gauge who your audience is and how to speak to them at every customer touchpoint. Throughout this article, we’re going to explore how you can set yourself apart from the competition and deploy a messaging strategy that resonates. Why you need a messaging strategy Strategies are meant to help simpli ..read more

Why should customers buy from you? How do you stand out and solve their problems better than anybody else? Every marketer knows these are important questions, but finding the answers can be a challenge. In this guide, you’ll learn how to differentiate your business and attract your ideal customers by creating a unique selling proposition. We’ll cover why a unique selling proposition is important, how to uncover what your customers are hungry for and share a framework for developing and testing a proposition that makes an impact on your business. How a unique selling proposition (USP) attracts ..read more

I recently faced a familiar scenario: My team wanted to buy a new SaaS tool, so my boss asked me how much budget to request. I had no idea about pricing, so I Googled around and asked for pricing tiers from several vendors in the space.  Unfortunately, I received a handful of all too common, unhelpful responses. “Let’s jump on a call for a demo and maybe we can talk about pricing at the end.” “Please fill out this form to download our white paper so that you understand the value of solving this problem.” “Have you checked out this blog post, this video, and this infographic? I can send y ..read more

For the sake of argument, let’s say you know the basics of copywriting. Blah blah, write a compelling headline, know your audience, be persuasive, find your unique selling proposition, keep copy clean, blah blah blah. At one point, this advice was great. But from where you’re sitting, “write compelling headlines” isn’t helpful anymore, is it? You’ve evolved past pre-formatted headline templates & copied blogger advice. You need more. You’ve worked too hard and too long to be wandering through no-mans land, without any idea of how to improve. At this point a basic question  “How d ..read more

Most articles will tell you that poor grammar can kill sales. While not as important in blog posts as in sales copy, grammatical errors can dissolve credibility, possibly resulting in fewer sales. But what does the actual data say? On a high level, it seems to make sense. And while spelling mistakes haven’t been heavily researched in relation to revenue, optimization, or growth, there is a small amount of research that suggests spelling mistakes impact credibility in negative ways. Then there are some business experts that directly relate spelling mistakes to lost revenue. Why is it impor ..read more

It takes one wrong word to put your foot in your mouth. We’ve all done it and, in the process, squandered an opportunity to impress someone (or some crowd). With copy, you have a chance to slip up on every homepage, product page, or ad. Copy is a bridge between your product and your customers. Design matters, too, but it’s context for the message—not the message itself. It’s why copy is twice as important: (Image Source) But how do you improve it? How do you know which word or phrase might tank a sale? Or what missing detail preserves just enough uncertainty to keep someone from clicking “Add ..read more

Every marketing team needs fresh content ideas.  Maybe you’ve been producing content on the same subject for so long that your idea well has run dry.  Or maybe it’s your keyword well that’s reaching its limits, leaving you with plenty of ideas, but no clear path forward about how to prioritize them or the distribution channels for which they’re best suited. Whatever the case may be, the process covered in this article will help you identify new ideas. It will also ensure you align your content creation efforts with your marketing and business goals. Content planning for sales and mar ..read more