Reason: Open loops peak a reader's interest by presenting an unsolved mystery to the reader. Our brains are hardwired to find closure. Make your product the final closure. Example: Woody Justice
Tip from Blake: Write short, snappy sentences.
Reason: People have short attention spans. And big blocks of text are super hard to read. Make it
Reason: Words like may, can, hope, could, leave doubt in a reader's mind. You want readers to feel confident in their decisions. Use words like will, can, and do.
Reason: Using an active voice illustrates taking action. And your goal is to make consumers take action. Writing with an active voice delivers a direct, strong, and punchy message.
Example: Nike
Tip from Blake: Talk about them, not you.
Reason: People don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for them. Make that benefit abundantly clear.
Reason: Stories drive attention. Take the consumer into a different world. And create an emotional connection that’s hard to break.
Example: John Caples
Tip from Blake: Don’t be guided by grammar.
Reason: Focus on clear messaging and engaging storytelling more than grammar. This will create more connection with the reader than perfect sentence structure ever will.
Reason: Analogies help connect something complicated with something known.
Example: Dropbox
Tip from Blake: Brain dump before anything else.
Reason: Getting all ideas on paper first helps organize the whole process. Then, build an outline. Next, write the sections. Finally, put it all together.
Reason: Rhyming keeps the reader's eyes moving organically. Naturally, it flows. This makes it more believable.
Example: Animoto
Tip from Blake: Pass the Friend Test.
Reason: It helps you write great copy. 1) Write 10 variants of a headline. 2) Send it to some friends and just ask them to read them. 3) Wait 24 hours and follow up. 4) The variant most remembered by that group is your headline.
Example:
Tip from Alex: Use Alliteration
Reason: Alliteration uses the repeat of initial consonants to put an emphasis on a benefit. Use it to address important points.
Example: Animoto (Imagine it. Create it.)
Tip from Blake: Pass the Voice Test
Reason: You don’t want to sound like a robot. Here’s how: 1) Read your written copy out loud. 2) If it sounds robotic or boring, rewrite it
Helper: Just say it out loud! No secret sauce here.
Tip from Alex: Copy Should Have a Goal
Reason: Every piece of copy should have a goal. If it doesn’t pass Amazon’s so what test -- then cut it. It’s fluff. If you can’t notice the goal -- neither can the consumer.
Example: KFC
Tip from Blake: Focus on feeling over selling.
Reason: Refrain from pushing sales explicitly, and focus instead on helping the reader feel a strong emotion or connection
Reason: You want consumers to trust you. Being honest breaks the barrier between a business and a customer. Let them know it’s still people behind the words.
Example: Hyposwiss Bank
Tip from Blake: Minimize risk.
Reason: Make the requirements to get the solution seem smaller.
Starter Story collects over 2,000 emails a day on autopilot.
But just a few months ago, they were collecting ~200 emails.
So, who did they 10x their email signups in 3 months?
Here are the 8 tactics they use:
It comes down to four main points:
• Deliberate email capture widget placements
• Thoughtful value propositions
• Placements throughout different stages of the funnel
• Tailoring it to different audiences.
Let’s break it down from top to bottom
1. Top Menu bar
Audience: Site visitors
Placement: Top menu bar
Value proposition: Join the starter story community
Pat placed an always-on email collector on the top menu bar. Wherever someone is on the site, they have a way to give Starter Story their email.
Ikea was the first retailer to let customers pay with time.
And the campaign garnished more than $14,000,000 in earned media.
Here’s the campaign:
Most Ikea stores are out of the way. Not in the heart of the city. And usually, a good drive from a customer's home.
And we all know the more friction to do something, the higher the chance we won’t do it.
But what if that friction was converted into a currency?
Because IKEA stores are far away, IKEA created the “Buy With Your Time” campaign to let customers pay with their time based on how far they traveled to the store.
The more you traveled, the more you earned.
For example:
• Drive an hour to Ikea
• That hour is converted into $