I spent the last few weeks thinking about how brands differentiate themselves

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🔥 Marketing tools are damaging your SEO. And how to fix it.

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1/ It's no secret that a site's “performance” is a ranking factor for search.

But how does Google actually measure it?

Well, open up Chrome DevTools, click the ”Audits” tab, then ”Run Audits” and you'll see that “Performance” is made up from 6 metrics.

2/ Most casuals assume that performance is all about how fast a site displays on the screen — “First Meaningful Paint”.

But if you look at Google's weights you'll see that “Time to Interactive” — how long it takes for a site to become interactive — is far more important.

3/ Essentially, Google prioritises “interactivity” over “visibility”.

Even if your page appears fast, 3rd party scripts loading in the background (delaying user interaction) will see you penalised.

4/ One example of this is @ToDesktop.

Their site content loads in < 1s, but run it through a Google Audit and its “Time to Interactive” is 8.8s.

🔥 How to build a website which converts email subscribers

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Over the last 2 months, Marketing Examples welcomed 31,000 first time visitors. 4,000 of these visitors subscribed to the email list.

That’s an email opt-in of 12.9%.

The industry average is 2%. The top 10 percentile average is 5%.

So, screw it, I’ll go there:

“Marketing Examples is one of the best websites in the world at converting passers-by into email subscribers.“

What follows is a series of things I've observed whilst trying to build a website which maximises email subscribers.

1 - Being obvious works

I imagine a few of you have read The Alchemist. Pretty good book right? How many of you signed up to Paulo Coelho's email list?

No matter how good your work no one is going to go out of their way to sign up to your email list. You have to make it obvious

There are four ways to sign up to the Marketing Examples email list:

1) From the fixed position navbar
2) At the end of any article
3) Through the exit intent popup
4) Directly from the subscribe page

From any given point you're only one click away from subscribing.

🔥 I got 2000 new subscribers from my Product Hunt launch

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Last week I launched Marketing Examples to Product Hunt.

✔️ 1,500+ upvotes
✔️ Product of the Week
✔️ Email list grew from 1,300 to 3,300

This is the step by step account of how I did it

Step 1 - Don't launch straight away

23rd May 2019 Marketing Examples v1.0 went live. The site had a few case studies, several bugs, and an email box which didn’t convert well.

The old version of me would have thrown it on Product Hunt straight away. But I decided to wait.

Why?

1) I didn’t want to waste my “turn” with the very first iteration of my site.

2) I didn’t want to launch in a vacuum. Product Hunt multiplies current momentum. Having a small following of “fans” on launch day goes a long way.

So I set myself a target.

✔️ 1000 email subscribers
✔️ 1000 twitter followers

And then I would launch. 70 days later I hit my target.

It was showtime.

🔥 7 practical ways to write copy that converts:

1/ Get specific

Landing page copy is full of unfalsifiable, blanket claims: “more, easier, faster ...”

If you want to stand out get specific. You can’t bullshit specifics:

2/ Call out the type of customer you serve

People pay attention when they know something is specifically for them:

“What? Loads of authors are using this. I’m an author. Maybe I should be too ...”

3/ Use value-based messaging

Talk less about your product and more about the value your product brings.

People don’t want a better toothbrush. They want a brighter smile:

4/ Write for one reader

You're not talking to 1000 people. You're talking to the single person reading your page. So write like it.

An informal tone and addressing your users personally (“you”) makes a big difference:

THREAD: My step-by-step guide to writing landing pages

There’s two parts of a landing page:

a) what’s immediately visible (above the fold)
b) what the user scrolls to (below the fold)

Let's start above the fold.

“A caveman should be able to glance at it and immediately grunt back what you offer” — Donald Miller

Here’s my formula:

1/ Explain the value you provide (title)
2/ Explain how you'll create it (subtitle)
3/ Let the user visualise it (visual)
4/ Make it believable (social proof)
5/ Make taking the next step easy (CTA)

1/ Let's start with titles.

When your product is unique all you have to do is explain what you do as simply as possible.

Most products aren't unique. So a hook adds *oomph*.

The easiest way to write hooks is to address your customer's biggest objection.

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.

Marketing isn’t a scam

Marketing makes change happen. Marketing makes your creations known

I'll share some tactics & frameworks I use

How to get lucky in marketing in 2021:

How marketing has evolved:

Marketing used to be a contest for attention

But now, marketing is a contest for CONNECTION

Whoever owns the connection, wins

Turn your product into a social statement

Products that make you feel good or defend you from being cancelled, spread fast

Ex: Make clothes out of recycled plastic

Point: People want a chance to show they stand for something

Are you working with creators?

Some of the world’s biggest brands were catapulted in the 1960s via TV

Brands bought TV ads. Captured attention

Working with creators is like buying TV ads in the 1960s

Point: Co-building with the right creators is like fishing with dynamite

Avoid ads. Build media companies

Prediction: every public company will own a media arm

It’s a magical shortcut to building true fans

Ads just don’t hit the same way

1. “Why Would This Ad Appear On The Front Page Of The Irish Times On January 23rd 2020” ? 🧵1/18 🕵️🔎

Just looks like a regular ad, doesn’t it. Well it isn’t 👇

2. If I was looking at this ad for the first time I wouldn’t pay much attention to it unless I wanted to test drive a Ford. Something then jumped out at me. 201 Event. Swap it round and you get Event 201. A test drive for Event 201 🤔

3. Just in case you don’t know what Event 201 is and when it took place. Event 201 took place on October 18th 2019 in New York. It was attended by the WHO, WEF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & John Hopkins Center for Health

4. The John Hopkins Center for Health Security who ran the event receives funding from WHO, BMGF, FDA, Homeland Security and The Rockefeller Foundation to name but a few.

5. Please read this (Part 1) to understand what happened at Event 201

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

SaaS Marketing: Getting your first 10 and 1000 paying customers

So you've identified a problem and built a SaaS product. What's next?

Finding customers of course!

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👉 What is SaaS marketing?

Marketing is the set of activities you perform or strategies you execute that help build awareness of the problem you solve and the solution you provide in the minds of your target audience.

Lol, that's a boring definition.

Marketing is when you tweet, when you post on LinkedIn, when you wear your company's branded t-shirt before going on a podcast or video, when you run Google or Facebook ads, or if you write an article answering the specific pain points and questions faced by your target audience.

In the context of SaaS marketing, what you need to understand deeply are

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Lifetime value (LTV)

If you are selling a $50/mo SaaS product, should you spend time or money equivalent to $300 to acquire 1 customer?

It depends on LTV:CAC ratio.

If your average customer stays with you for 1 year, then $300 is a perfectly fine CAC.

Marketing experts have figured out that having a 3:1 ratio of your LTV:CAC is perfect, but in the early days you just need to know whether you are spending less than you are earning.