The average goldfish has a nine-second attention span. The average Internet user has an eight-second attention span. That’s what your marketing is up against every time someone hits your landing page or opens your email. Your readers are literally less attentive than a goldfish. That’s not a criticism of how [...]
Growing an audience doesn’t do you much good if you can’t get people to actually do anything. For most of us, the whole point of acquiring leads and building an email list is ultimately to make sales. It’s tempting to think that once someone joins your email list, it’s time [...]
Companies are in a constant battle to focus their resources on the things that produce the biggest results, close sales, and hit goals. Frequently, sales models often put the focus on the highest cost products and ignore the long-term benefits of smaller purchases. They can’t afford to “waste time” on [...]
Optimization is the science of making your work as effective as possible. You strategically tweak and test your landing pages, emails, and ads to maximize a specific metric, such as clicks, conversions, or opens. And therein lies the problem with optimization: it can give you tunnel vision. Focusing too much [...]
Nobody would be surprised if a pastor kept a Bible dictionary open while reading a theological commentary. When you read highly academic texts, you need tools to help you understand complex terms that the author doesn’t take the time to explain. But marketing isn’t academic, and your audience shouldn’t have [...]
Buttons play a key role in digital ads, emails, and landing pages. They prompt people to take the next step: to buy, preorder, sign up, download, subscribe, or get something. When your organization produces hundreds--if not thousands--of digital assets, it’s easy to wind up with “go-to” button text that you [...]
It’s good to know that you’re talking to the right people. But some organizations take lead qualification too far, and they miss out on reaching potential customers. Generally speaking, the more steps you put between your audience and your offer, the fewer leads you’ll wind up with. But as we’ll [...]
It takes time and money to build a list of qualified leads. But without a solid follow-up plan in place, it’s all for nothing. If you ignore your leads after they join, it’s like putting them in the freezer. Not like “I’m just saving this for later.” We’re talking freezer [...]
Imagine you’re at a friend’s house for lunch. After you spend a few minutes catching up, a stranger opens the front door, sits down at the table, and leans into the conversation. That’s what it feels like when your ads look out of place on someone’s website. To the reader, [...]
When nobody opens your email, the subject line is the easiest culprit to blame. Odds are, most people who chose not to open your email still saw your subject line—and ignored it. A/B testing helps you learn what went wrong and what might work better in the future. Most [...]