Tuesday 10: October Roundup
Outreach, copywriting, and a lot more
Some quick housekeeping. First, Copyblogger Academy is offering lifetime subscriptions for the last time. I’ll be sending messages about that inside the community in about 3 week. If you’ve never joined, get a $1 trial month so you’re in there. If you have, then wait for that message to come later this month.
Second, I’ve made this newsletter me a monthly roundup instead of a weekly one. That may change in the future, but I think that’s where it’ll stay. Pretty much everything I do is now inside the Academy. So if you want to hear from me more, get in there.
Now, your 10 tips and mindsets…
Never send a generic pitch to people when doing cold outreach. Outreach is not copywriting. Always make it conversational and try to lead with something free and legitimately valuable. That’s the only way to win. Nothing else works.
I want to remind you again that people don’t buy benefits. They buy proof and uniqueness. Don’t just say what your offer does. Prove that it does that thing, and find a way to communicate why it’s a bit different from your competition.
Don’t get mad, and don’t burn bridges. A person acting in a way that you think isn’t right is not reason to tell them off. It’s unprofessional and makes you miserable. Either be nice or ignore. Never allow yourself to get ugly.
When there’s only one path, more people take it. This is an essential conversion idea. In most cases, you want your traffic to only go one place (like a landing page that has them book a call). Multi-outcome is more later in the game. Stay simple.
The 10-second copywriting test says that within 10 seconds, a reader should know what you’re offering, who you’re offering it to, how you’re unique, and that you’re good. Apply this to landing pages and social profiles. Get all that info near the top.
You probably shoulnd’t have a full website or a newsletter. Which is very counter to a lot of advice you might hear, but I’ve found it to be true. Especially if you sell a service to businesses. A landing page and social selling is all you need.
In that same vein, you probably shouldn’t have a deck to sell your offer. Those are best when selling expensive stuff to committees, like B2B SaaS. For a cheaper service sold to one person, a simple conversation tends to work better.
Use big-name people in your posts to attract attention. About once a month, I post a screenshot of Elon Musk making fun of LinkedIn (on my LinkedIn). Then I explain why I think it’s the best platform. The impressions are always crazy high.
Comparisons are powerful. I’m not talking about the classic "Tool A vs Tool B” blog post, though those do work. I mean all kinds of comparisons. Recently I did a “mediocre marketers vs great marketers” post. Contrasts gets attention.
There’s probably something you’re putting off right now. Outreach to send, content to create, a website to build. You’re feeling resistance to doing it. Stop everything and do that thing right now. No delay. Just get on it.
Watch out for that lifetime offer inside the community.
I’ll talk to you next month ✌️