You don’t have to be a basketball fan to recognize this man: That’s LaVar Ball, the guy who, over the past year, said he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one, demanded a $3 billion shoe deal from Nike and Adidas for his son Lonzo (a rookie just drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers), and a variety of […]
June 21, 2017 by 16 Comments
Sales Page Breakdown: How the Founder of Android Is Marketing His “Anti-iPhone”
A few weeks ago, a huge announcement hit the tech world—Andy Rubin, the guy who created the Android operating system, was launching an all-new company that aims to be “the first great gadget maker since Apple,” as Wired described it. The company is called Essential Products, and its first product immediately grabbed headlines: a $699 smartphone called […]
February 28, 2017 by 7 Comments
Brand Repositioning: How MailChimp Is Evolving to Dominate a Larger Market
On paper, MailChimp shouldn’t be a sexy company. They’ve never raised venture capital. They’re based in Atlanta, a world away from Silicon Valley. Oh yeah, and their company helps businesses use everyone’s favorite marketing channel to hate—email. But with 14 million customers, $400 million in revenue in 2016, and an intoxicating brand that gives even […]
February 1, 2017 by 3 Comments
The Graph of Business Agony and Ecstasy (or How to Optimize Things That Matter)
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 […]
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 […]
July 15, 2016 by 7 Comments
Amazon Is Killing List Prices. Should You?
Last week, the New York Times reported that Amazon is “quietly eliminating list prices.” You know, these things: One analysis showed they’ve been removed from around 70% of Amazon products, up from 29% in May. Why is this important? Well, those higher list prices are usually listed and crossed out to let you know you’re […]
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 […]
December 17, 2015 by 4 Comments
How to Create a Cult-Like Customer Following by Writing Copy That Delights
NOTE: I’m trying something new with this post. I’ve created an invite-only swipe file full of the examples of delightful copy I share in this post. I’m going to continue updating it with every example I find beyond this post, and I’m inviting you to do the same. Just click here to get your instant invite […]
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 […]