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 🧵

The best marketing affects a human's behavior.

It leverages psychology to impact people's perceptions and decisions.

Understand it and you'll influence consumer's buying decisions.

Use these 12 psychology tips to influence your audience 🧵

1. Theory of reciprocity

As humans, we’re more likely to do something for someone after they’ve done something for us.

When you consistently provide value to your audience -- they’re more likely to reciprocate by supporting you.

This builds brand advocates.

2. Too many choices

Too many choices means too much confusion.

This affects a consumer's ability to make a decision and demotivates them from doing so.

Reduce your options.

Increase your conversion rate.

3. Decoy Effect

Perspective influences decisions.

With the decoy effect, you alter the consumer’s perspective by making the highest ticket item look like a deal.

Ex:

Small Popcorn: $3
Medium Popcorn: $6.50
Large Popcorn: $7

The large feels like a great deal.

4. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

This phenomenon is when you see something for the first time then feel like you start seeing it everywhere.

Once you become aware of something you start to look for it unconsciously.

This then convinces you that it really is everywhere.

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.

Good copywriting is a superpower.

Amazon, the second most valuable brand in the world, puts an emphasis on teaching its employees how to write.

They know good copy equates to more customers.

These are the 8 tips to write like an Amazonian 🧵

1. Keep Your Sentences Under 30 Words.

I'd keep them under 15 words.

They should be Kevin Hart short.

And only focus on one idea.

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

This makes the communication smoother.

Digestible info = Retained info

2. Replace Adjectives With Data

In 1880, Mark Twain said, “When you catch an adjective, kill it."

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

Why?

Because numbers are eye candy.

It organizes info into a logical order.

3. Eliminate Weasel Words

Weasel words kill sentences.

They're vague. Boring.

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

NOT interpretive adjectives.

Ex:

Interpretive - We went on a long boat ride.

Descriptive - We went on a 5-hour boat ride.

4. The “So What” Test

Re-read your writing and ask, “so what?”

Can the reader understand the sentence, paragraph, or page?

Does it make sense?

Does it provide value?

Are they learning?

This helps give you an understanding from the consumer's perspective.

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?

Physical things that influence your personal brand.

-Thread.

This is going to be a very different thread from the ones I’ve done before on personal branding. People are looking for people who they can proudly advocate for and recommend, hence in today’s economy

you’re the most important touch point of your product / service and this is why personal branding is important. In previous threads I’ve spoken on the fundamentals to building a personal brand, here I want to share a few things that influence your personal brand.

1. EARS: The things and people you listen to influence your actions, behavior and character.

2. MOUTH: How you say what you think says a lot about how you feel about yourself and how you treat others. Do you leave room to be teachable? Listen as well as you speak? Your destiny is dependent on what you say.

I built communities that created 83m new customers in 2020 with this marketing framework

I'm curious your thoughts

A startup marketing manifesto:

Connect the disconnected

1. Find people who want to pursue a goal (ex: new immigrants in the US, learn tennis etc)
2. Accelerate them

This will do more for your business than you can imagine

Customers need to feel lucky. Like the chosen ones

Lucky to be a part of the community. Lucky to buy the product. Lucky to be a part of your story

If you nail the “luckiness” feeling, you can drive your marketing costs to zero

How to jumpstart & structure community:

- Masterclass for X
- Clubhouse for X
- Q&A platforms
- Small virtual events
- Gaming events
- Text your community’s leader
- etc.

Have a design aesthetic. Own it

Make sure your niche is in love with it

Daring design aesthetics pay dividends

Over the last 5 years, I’ve helped build courses taken by 40,000 students w/ $30M+ in revenue.

Today we’re launching a *free* cohort-based course on How to Build a CBC!

At the end of this, you’ll have a full course ready to launch.

Apply here: https://t.co/kp2vyBWE9K

Read on

A CBC on CBCs is a bit meta. But it's the best way to teach a complex topic that benefits from hands-on projects, peers, feedback.

@patel0phone and I have been working 1:1 w/all-star instructors (like @APompliano @lennysan). Now we're ready to apply these lessons to your course

Our system is proven yet flexible.

It's not one-size-fits-all. We teach underlying skills & create an accountability system so you build a course that's uniquely yours.

It’s the same process I’ve used for @alt_MBA @david_perell @fortelabs

Structure and accountability:

The course creation process is complex. There are lots of interconnected
decisions & second order effects.

We help you make sense of it with:

+ Step by step process
+ Clear deliverables
+ Feedback from us & peers
+ Gut checks
+ Weekly homework

On a weekly basis, you'll know what to work on and why--so you can efficiently & effectively create a high quality course you're proud of.

It's an iterative process to get ideas out of your head, share feedback, discuss, build, refine, lock it in. Piece by piece, brick by brick

1 Cold Email, 10 closed deals

This email is based on “actions’ your prospect took. These actions might be a product launch, a new offer, a new blog, a press release…any action that might represent an opportunity for you to help.

Having action gives you a reason to email and

makes the email itself feel less cold and unsolicited.

You have to do some leg work in order to find relevant actions you can email them about.

Here is one way to find “actions” that you can use as a reason for your email:

Use LinkedIn or a Google Search to find businesses

you’re interested in working with. Compile a list of the names of the businesses, web address, and contact information of decision makers.

Identify potential needs of these businesses and how you can fill those needs. Can you write blog posts? Articles? Facebook Ads? Video

Scripts? Emails or Sales Copy?

Use a Google Search to determine “new” things that have shown up on their website lately. You can also use social media or LinkedIn to see what these businesses have been up to recently.

To do this, type “site:URL” into a Google search, using

the URL of the business you are looking to work with.

Next, select tools, and pick a recent time frame (1 month usually works well) to see what new things they’ve been working on or releasing.

Skim the search results for recent happenings, events, launches, or publications