Compelling copy combined with good storytelling is an unfair advantage.

An unfair advantage that the Wall Street Journal used to drive $2 Billion in revenue over 28 years using the same sales letter.

Here are 7 copywriting tips to help you write sticky stories 🧵

At 38, David Ogilvy was unemployed and hadn't written a word of copy.

Three years later, he was the most famous copywriter in the advertising industry.

And became known as the Father of Advertising.

Here are 7 tips from the legendary copywriter 🧵

1/ Learn Who You're Writing For

“The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife."

Your copy should touch on:

-Who you’re writing for
-How that person thinks
-What that person needs

Let research shape your copy

Let your voice fuel it.

2/ Know The Product

“Big ideas come from the unconscious...But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant.”

Learn every detail about the product/industry/audience before you write.

Then unleash your unconscious mind and fuel the big ideas.

3/ Nail The Headline

“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

Deadlines determine if the consumer’s interest is piqued enough to read the copy.

4/ Get Specific

"The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be."

Most people won't make decisions without being informed…

The informed, act.

The specifics will give consumers the confidence that acting is the right choice.

Dave McClure, the founder of 500 Startups, created a 6-step framework to help hundreds of startups to go from idea to successful business.

Here's the 6-step framework for startups🧵

1. Awareness

Generating brand awareness is the act of winning someone's attention.

Whether content marketing, paid marketing, or influencer marketing, attention is the deciding factor in having a potential customer or someone ignoring you.

Once you have it -- don't waste it.

2. Acquisition

What channel do your customers spend the most time on?

NOT, which channel is everyone using.

Specifically, your target audience.

Using the right platform can drastically reduce your CAC.

You’ve picked the right platform, now what?

Use some form of a lead magnet to get them into your funnel or growth loop.

A lead magnet is some form of value that you provide in exchange for customer info.

Make the process as frictionless as possible and they’ll start moving down your funnel.

3. Activation

Just because they signed up doesn’t mean the process is over.

Customers want to be delighted.

From the first customer touch point and ongoing.

If not, the chances of getting the consumer to act drops significantly.

Don’t want to f*ck this up?

Curious about how a company with a $1.6+ trillion market-cap writes persuasive copy?

Use these 7 tips to write like an Amazonian 🧵

1. 30 Words Or Less Per Sentence

Keep your sentences Muggsy Bogues short.

Your sentences should focus on one idea.

This makes the communication smoother.

Short sentences help break down the info into bite-size pieces.

Digestible info = Retained info

2. Replace Adjectives With Data

In 1880, Mark Twain wrote, “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable.”

In Amazon's case, don’t kill them -- replace them with data.

For ex:

A ton of Amazon Prime Members - > 98% of Amazon Prime Members

Common adjectives are vague. They don’t help consumers visualize the context.

Data does.

3. Eliminate Weasel Words

Weasel words take away from the story.

They're vague. Boring.

If you’re going to use adjectives -- use descriptive adjectives.

NOT interpretive adjectives.

7 lessons from people that taught me more than any business/marketing class I've ever taken 🧵

1. @naval

To be a good creator, you have to be creative. To be creative, you have to be constantly creating.

Try a ton of stuff.

Geed feedback from the world.

Some will work. Some won't.

Stick with what works.

Innovation comes from pushing through failure.

2. @shl

Find a problem that you and people similar to you face, and build the solution.

Sahil wanted to sell a pencil icon he created in 2011, and it was a pain.

So, in a single weekend, he launched the first version of Gumroad.

Problem -> Solution -> Business Opp

3. @theSamParr

Sam used a technique called “Copy Work” to become a great copywriter.

He took the best 100 sales letters and wrote them all out by hand dissecting them one by one.

Do this with everything.

You’ll learn the patterns to help you mimic the success.

4. @ShaanVP

Shaan has a template for everything he writes.

At the top of the template, it says “what reaction is this meant to get”

Ex:
- WTF
- AWW
- Woah

The content focuses entirely on the emotion he’s trying to get out of someone

This is his recipe for going viral

I don’t want to put anyone on blast, but I’ve seen a few people saying, erroneously, that superhero comics sell more by the numbers, that they have the biggest sales overall and (most wrong of all) that they are the best selling comics globally. And, uh...Shounen Jump called. 📞

I’m not saying this to detract the historical and global importance of B2 comics... they were once huge. They are also old, so as far as historically, yeah they have decently big numbers. They are not doing those numbers now, or anytime in the past decade.

The best selling series, ever, by a Big 2 is Spider-man, selling 650 million since 1963. You can tally up all their series together but that’s a bit unfair so let’s stick to individuals. 650 is VERY respectable.

One Piece, Japans top selling collected manga, has sold 470 million....since 1997.

But that’s collected volumes...manga magazines are really a more equitable competitor to floppies, although not exact because, in fairness, they contain several series. That said, shounen jump has sold 7.6 billion. There are several other shounen magazines in that range.

We've used "seller financing" on two self storage deals in the past year.

And it raised our cash on cash return by 20%+.

And lowered the amount of capital we needed by $500k.

Here's a THREAD about a deal of mine and how this magical debt structure can work.

👇👇

My method is simple. In the late stages of negotiation I submit two offers:

One at a lower price.

And one at the exact price the seller wants but with him holding back 10-20% of the purchase price in the form of a 2nd mortgage (with a second position to your bank loan).

Contrary to popular belief seller financing rarely includes the seller holding back 70-80% and acting as your bank.

Two reasons:

#1 most have some debt on the property.

#2 most want most of their money now.

Have you heard the saying:

"you name the price and i'll name the terms?"

This is a case of that situation exactly.

Lets paint a picture here:

Last week I was negotiating with a seller on a property in a small western PA town.

Not many interested buyers so I knew I had some leverage.

His asking price was $4.5MM. I wanted to pay $4.2M.

After a week or two and a lot of back and forth I found his lowest number.

Storytelling is a superpower.

A key to unlocking growth in your writing, startups, marketing, business, or career.

THREAD: 10+ principles of effective storytelling (that you can start using today):

Clarity of Purpose

The best storytellers always define a clear purpose prior to crafting their story.

What is the story trying to achieve? What does success look like with this story?

Commit to answering these key questions before doing anything else.

Define the Audience

Every great story begins with a well-defined audience.

Who is the audience? What do they consciously (or subconsciously) want from the story?

Be deliberate with this exercise.

Be honest with yourself. The audience may look different than you expect.

Establish Structure

“People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don’t have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.” – Steven Spielberg

Stories need structure.

Clear narrative arcs (like Pixar’s “hero’s journey”) work well.

The Story Spine

Playwright Kenn Adams created a neat framework - “the story spine” - for establishing structure:

Once upon a time there was [blank]. Every day, [blank]. One day [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Until finally [bank].

Fill it in and watch your story take shape.

Here are 6 things you need to know before applying for a remote marketing job...🧵

In 2015 I was offered a remote contract from a guy I’d met in an airport bar. 🍻

No joke. If my best friend wasn’t sitting beside me during that layover, I’m 100% convinced that everyone would think this was completely made up.

He’d overheard me talking about an SEO portfolio site that I’d recently made & that I was going to start looking for new side projects.

After a quick conversation and a week to think things over at the beach,🏖️ I flew home and took the offer. 😬

Working remotely in marketing has helped me grow personally and professionally in ways I never could at an office.

I’m grateful for everything I’ve learned and everyone who has helped me along the way.

I hope sharing a few tips I’ve picked up will help you on your journey. ✨

1) Make it real by making an action plan. Start by taking baby steps.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

When you first sit down to frame out what you’re looking for, it’s important to set clear goals and make a solid plan.

THREAD:

Machiavellianism in Different Professions

SALES:

It has been said that a con-man is just a salesmen without a product, but this is a lie; a salesman is just a con-man with a product.

Your job is to persuade people to buy product, regardless of whether or not it is in their best interest to do so.

Charm and Persuasion are your tools.

Keep in mind that Charm fuels Persuasion, in the sense that many people will buy from you simply because they like you, not necessarily because they are in love with the product itself.

Zero sum negotiation (an intrinsically machiavellian domain of performance) is a key job function within sales; you will have to negotiate price and deal terms.

Notably, zero sum negotiation is also common within Law and Finance.

How complex the manipulations you must engage in for the sake of persuading a target to buy product will vary from one industry to another.

As a door to door magazine salesmen, simply being good looking and hyping up the product by being extroverted may be enough.