Lauren Jefferson - FocusCopy®

What Every Entrepreneur Needs To Be Successful In 2025

Entrepreneurship / By Lauren Jefferson / November 6, 2024 November 6, 2024

2024 is the year we’re coining the Year of Life. So many life events have happened to us, our clients, and our partners. From family deaths, illnesses, hurricanes, burnout, and priority shifts, life doesn’t wait for the perfect moment in your business to slow down.

No ma’am. It continues whether you want it to or not. And while that’s frustrating, it’s taught me a couple of crucial things you must have in place if you desire continuity in your business and life.

6 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs To Be Successful In 2025

While success can be defined in a million different ways, we define it as making progress towards your specific goals. Ideally, success is even reaching those goals. They can be financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, or any other -al variation. The key is it’s a big win for you and your business.

Solid Strategies To Filter Through The Noise & Find Your Focus

When applied, focus truly amplifies your impact. And while it’s probably the most underrated skill, it’s also one of the hardest things to do with all the distractions thrown at us. It takes time to build in focus. But 2 things have really helped me focus on the right things.

First, I’ve created systems in ClickUp – our project management software – that help me focus my energies on one area of the business at a time. For example, if I’m in our Clients space, I am all about each of our clients – focused on delivering the best results, customer service, and communication. But if I’m in our Marketing Schedule space, you better believe I’m throwing all sorts of ideas at the wall to see what sticks. And it wouldn’t be focused if it wasn’t color-coded either. So because of the division of tasks, color association, and knowing what mindset I need to be in, my focus is that much more amplified.

Secondly, I’ve created a place to dump all my amazing (and not-so-amazing) ideas. As entrepreneurs, we are constantly thinking of new ideas, strategies, and ways to accomplish our goals. And while there is a time and place for that…It can stifle our productivity. But what if it’s a million-dollar idea? Write it down in one place so you can pick it back up whenever you’re ready.

A Strong Business Referral Network

It is simply impossible to have your ear in every conversation so that you can identify and talk to every single person who’s interested in what you have to offer. But what you can build is a strong business referral network to help you mimic that. This network is either a formal or informal group of individuals who know what to listen for to make an introduction or pass a referral to you. They are usually interacting with the people you want to connect with – so start building, reviewing, or reshaping your list of contacts.

Lauren, how do you build a strong business referral network?

There are 2 ways we’ve seen this done:

Join a referral networking organization like BNI (Business Network International) or Network In Action to build a formalized network.
Do it yourself and find people who understand your value. The key here is to document and regularly maintain those relationships.

Want to start building your network? Let’s grab a virtual coffee to see if there’s something to explore.

A Curated Collective Of Business Besties

Having a business bestie (or a few) takes your referral network to the next level. Whereas the previously mentioned option is based on referrals, a collective of business besties is based on seeing you succeed.

You could have 1-2 or 5-10 business besties. As long as your business besties are other entrepreneurs who…

Want to find and send referrals to you
Are vulnerable enough to confess their business challenges
Are confident to cheer you on when you feel weak
Will help you strategically overcome challenges in your business

The only rule? There should be an equal balance of giving and receiving, expressing challenges and celebrating wins, and support for one another.

You cannot force this type of relationship. But as soon as you find it, you’ll know it and grab tight onto those people.

Documentation For ALL Your Processes

Ever dream of…?

Selling your business
Getting acquired
Adding an investor to your team
Growing your team beyond yourself
Leaving a legacy you’re proud of

Well…you need documentation. Consider every single thing that needs to happen inside your business to make it operate. Then start by tackling each “department” and get it written down. The best way that we’ve found to do this is…

See one. Host a team training to teach them how to do a single process.
Do one. Have your team do the process with you so that you can adjust or correct their steps.
Teach one. Once they are proficient, have them teach that same process to other team members.

P.S. Copy Systems is your way to document, implement, and experiment with all your copy- and marketing-related tasks for your business. Explore a membership here.

A Better Recipe To Write High-Converting Copy

No matter where you stand on copywriting (you love it, hate it, loathe it, AI it, outsource it, do it yourself, etc.), you need good copy to connect, engage, and convert prospects into clients. But there are a lot of barriers to creating effective copy…

…Starting with you. You may not like it or even have the time to do it. So you have 3 options:

Do it yourself and (probably) hate yourself for it every single step
Use AI and settle for subpar, inauthentic, and robotic-sounding copy
Outsource it to a copywriter (hopefully not to a freelancer who is not fluent in your specific language)

While there are obvious issues with options 1 and 2, let’s dive into option 3. Even if you hire an outsourced copywriter, you still need to communicate your brand, messaging, voice, target customer, and marketing objectives.

What happens when you don’t have any of that? The copywriter will fail to achieve your goals…every single time. Then, you’re stuck with editing until it’s perfect (another pain point for most entrepreneurs) or rewriting it yourself anyway. Yeesh!

That’s why we’ve developed Copy Systems to help you build out the core tenants required for effective copywriting – whether you write it yourself or outsource it. Explore your membership here.

More Time To Pour Into Your Business

You may be laughing at this point, but hear me out…When you have more time, you have:

More space to think and dream
Increased capacity to actually get everything you need to get done
Freedom to spend your time as you please (whether that’s with family, traveling, or at a coffee shop alone)

And who doesn’t want that?!

Here is how to build more time into your schedule.

Create a theme for the year and break that up by each quarter.
Assign one SMART goal that fulfills your theme.
Choose no more than 3 sub-goals that fulfill that 1 big goal.
And do nothing else besides that.

Sure you’ll think of plenty of ideas. Create a place for you to dump those brilliant ideas for you to pick up when you’re ready to focus on other areas of your business. But the idea here is when you are laser-focused, you create more time because you aren’t chasing the shiny objects or squirrels. Your distraction and tenacity to dream may be the one thing limiting your schedule.

For Q4 2024, here is how we structured our time:

Theme: Building better rhythms
Primary Goal: Build a more sustainable business (starting with the financial side of the business)
Sub-Goals:
1. Launch our brand new Copy Systems membership program.
2. Continue to be profitable.
3. Grow our recurring revenue.

Filling each of these out for yourself does not need to be complicated. In fact, the simpler you make it, the easier it’ll be to follow.

Implement Better Systems To Set Your 2025 Up For Success

…Starting with your copy.

We’ve developed Copy Systems to be an easy-to-implement membership that dives into specific topics that will make your marketing and messaging so much more effective. And when you have the right words, you connect with the right clients and convince them that you’re worth investing in.

We believe that people want to work with other people and, ultimately, businesses they know and trust. This is another reason why we’re giving you the same tools we use to define your brand, target your audience, and write marketing materials that speak to the core of your successes.

Start towards your path to success today with Copy Systems!

When Your Company Does Have SOPs (Get Your Free SOP Framework)

Systems / By Lauren Jefferson / November 6, 2024 November 6, 2024

Implementing a free SOP framework into your business gives you the tools to improve your entire operation. In case you missed it, one of the very first blogs we ever wrote was What Happens When Your Company Doesn’t Have SOPs. Surprisingly, it has remained one of our most popular blogs ever.

Why?

Well, we have our suspicions, but we believe it’s because entrepreneurs don’t want to be managed. And System Operating Procedures (SOPs) simply manage us. It feels like the antithesis of why we left working for someone.

But in reality, SOPs create consistent and continuous results…For your business, your clients, and your professional network. Implementing well-documented SOPs in your business model has potential benefits to…

Boost business productivity by up to 25%
Reduce errors by as much as 60%
Reduce employee training time by 40%

…To name a few.

Ready to transform your marketing to be more efficient, productive, and effective? It starts with building our Scalable Marketing SOPs. Download our free SOP framework to get started.

How SOPs Transform Business Operations To Enhance Customer Experiences & Support A Collaborative Culture

Explore what happens to your company when you implement SOPs into your marketing (and more importantly, into your business).

1. Companies Perk Up & Become Efficient

Systems make businesses more efficient (duh, Lauren). And your team members in management, HR, and accounting know this. However, it isn’t enough to simply produce SOPs. You must also ensure that you implement and use them. Especially for emerging entrepreneurs, small businesses with SOPs are 75% more likely to survive their first 5 years.

This is a staggering statistic, but survival isn’t the only benefit of implementing SOPs. Making your business more efficient with SOPs also has the potential to improve your…

Process automation
Communication
Data management
Scalability
Customer experience

Most importantly, SOPs give you a tool to use whether you need training materials or a comprehensive process refresher.

Looking for a free SOP framework? Access our Scalable Marketing SOP Framework.

2. Your Processes Improve With Every Customer Engagement

When you know what you’re doing, it’s easier to improve your processes. One thing we changed two years ago came from some client feedback. He asked us to wrap a “red bow” on the project, wanting to meet. Never before had we thought of having a Close-Out Meeting for a project. But it made sense!

Immediately after that meeting with our client, we revised our SOPs and implemented Close-Out Meetings into our overall process. It was just the type of detailed feedback that we needed to improve our systems right away.

The results? We’re able to gather feedback from our clients and immediately apply it. Our processes are 100 times better than when we first created them. And our end product is also better for it – benefiting both the client and our team.

This proactive approach not only enhances our workflow but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement. By regularly integrating client insights and refining our methods, we create a feedback loop that drives innovation. Each project becomes an opportunity to learn and adapt, ensuring that we’re not just meeting but exceeding expectations. This commitment to improvement strengthens our relationships with clients and positions us as a leader in our industry.

3. You’re Not Being Held Hostage By Employees

As a business owner, it’s easy to feel like you’re at the mercy of your team. But let’s flip that narrative: you’re not being held hostage by your employees. Instead, think of your workforce as a dynamic group of partners who can help propel your vision forward.

When you build a team grounded in trust and authentic connections, everything changes. Say goodbye to the “sacred cows” or those seemingly untouchable employees who seem to hold invaluable company information that they keep close to their chests. Instead, you foster an environment where every voice matters and every idea counts.

This mindset encourages open communication and transparency. You can tackle challenges head-on without fear of resistance. Working with people you genuinely vibe with transforms the workplace into a collaborative space where creativity thrives.

Embracing this approach not only eases the weight on your shoulders as a leader but also enhances job satisfaction for everyone involved. When you cultivate a culture of collaboration, your team evolves from a collection of employees into a community united by shared goals.

4. Your Company Operates As A Team

In today’s fast-paced business world, collaboration isn’t just a buzzword – it’s essential. When your company operates as one unit, you unlock the potential for creativity, efficiency, and a positive work environment. So, how do you nurture team spirit among your employees?

Take the time to understand what drives each team member, their strengths, and their preferred collaboration styles. Listening and learning more about your team members’ preferred workstyles gives you untapped tools to create a culture where everyone feels empowered to share ideas and take bold steps.

Teamwork goes beyond occasional team-building activities. It’s woven into the fabric of your daily operations through:

Regular check-ins
Brainstorming sessions
Internal communications

When employees know their input is valued, they become more engaged and invested in their work and its quality. Celebrating team achievements is equally vital. Whether it’s a small win or a major milestone, recognizing collective efforts reinforces the message that everyone plays a crucial role in the company’s success.

Use a free SOP framework to ensure your company is set up for a collaborative experience from your team member’s first day on the job to every major milestone afterward.

5. Operations Continue Regardless Of Who Is Working

I’ve had copywriters take over a week of vacation. I’ve personally taken a week-long vacation as CEO. And I was even able to take a maternity leave for 8 weeks in 2023. And guess what? Our operations continued seamlessly with little to no hiccups because we had documented and anticipated just about every scenario – including weather-related emergencies.

This level of preparedness creates immense freedom – not just for me as the business owner but for the entire team. Employees don’t feel the pressure of being irreplaceable or that they can’t take a well-deserved break. That’s a lot of pressure to put on their shoulders! Instead, they know that the systems and processes we’ve put in place will keep things running smoothly, no matter who’s in the office.

When your operations are well-documented and your team is trained to handle various situations, it fosters a culture of trust and empowerment. Team members can step away, recharge, and return with fresh perspectives, knowing that their responsibilities are covered. This not only boosts morale but also enhances productivity, as employees are less likely to experience burnout.

Moreover, this approach encourages a sense of ownership among team members. They understand that they play a vital role in the company’s success, even when they’re not physically present. This mindset cultivates a proactive attitude, where everyone is more engaged and invested in the overall mission.

Effective SOPs Start With A Solid, Free SOP Framework

When you work with us, you aren’t getting the same deliverables we wrote 4 years ago. We’re constantly evolving, improving, and creating to make a better product for you. If you want a future-focused strategic partner, we’re ready to link arms with you – entrepreneur to entrepreneur.

Searching for your free SOP framework? Access our Scalable Marketing SOP Framework to start the documentation process with ease and structure.

Implement Our Scalable Marketing SOP Framework & Scale Your Marketing Processes With Ease

become more process-oriented, productive, & focus on what moves the needle the furthest with this framework

Automate Your Networking: How To Build Automation To Keep You On Track With Your Networking Goals

Systems / By Lauren Jefferson / September 10, 2024 October 1, 2024

As an entrepreneur, you have a duty to keep your business afloat. If you’re not out there hitting the pavements selling, your pipeline will dry up and your business will essentially be non-existent.

But what happens if you’re an introvert and you loathe networking?

Trust me…You won’t find me willingly attending a networking event – especially if I don’t have a networking buddy with me. Or if I don’t know a couple of people that will be in attendance, and if I haven’t pumped myself up. I set minimal expectations for my networking outcomes. And it usually is something along the lines of: get 5 business cards.

To my extroverts, that’s small potatoes. But to my introverts, meeting 5 new people is HUGE!

So if you don’t like to attend networking events but still rely on word-of-mouth marketing, referrals, or networking in general, I’ve found the key to making it all happen.

And that’s conducting one-to-ones with prospective clients and referral partners. It all starts when you automate your networking!

Let’s talk shop over a virtual coffee and discover how you could benefit from business automation.

Why Automate Your Networking?

Networking requires a lot of time…

Finding the networking event.

Getting ready for the event.

Driving to or logging onto the event.

Qualifying people quickly.

Establishing several connections.

Following up on those connections.

Maintaining relationships.

And that’s the simplest form of networking!

If you don’t have any of those processes automated, you aren’t going to be able to build the depth of relationships you need to move your business forward.

When you automate your networking, you can better maintain relationships, keep people at top of mind to refer clients to, and become a resource for other entrepreneurs. You want to be the person who knows someone. This is an extremely valuable position to be in and not one to sleep on.

Why Networking Wastes Time & What To Do About It

Now, I’ve opted for automated networking over physical networking because I calculated the costs of in-person engagements.

Drive time to the event
Parking fees or valet tips (depending on the parking situation)
Your hourly rate for 1-2 hours
Drive time back home

Then you need to consider how many legitimate connections you actually met. Do you have a follow-up meeting? Or did you simply shake hands with no next steps identified?

It’s costly. And something that I refuse to waste my time on (unless it meets a whole myriad of qualifications for me to attend).

So here is how I save time and start automating when you’ve been hitting the physical pavements:

Schedule a 121 as your initial follow-up meeting.
Complete their profile in your CRM (we love to use Keap).
Set up an automated “thank you” email after your meeting.
Follow up with introductions to prospective clients, referral partners, or people you think they should meet with.
Put them in an automation that sends an email to schedule another meeting in 6 months (or whatever time you want to meet).
Repeat the cycle.

This is how you build relationships where you are the first person they think of when they think of your profession, service, or product.

6 Steps To Build Automation To Keep You on Track With Your Networking Goals

Now you know the general basics of what an automated networking campaign looks like, here’s how to be extremely targeted in your strategy.

1. Identify Who You Want To Connect With

It’s all about the who. You need to know before you step into a networking event or meeting who you want to be introduced to. This doesn’t have to be a client. But it does need to be super specific.

Consider researching them on LinkedIn to see who they are connected with that you want to be introduced to.

If you’re meeting strangers, identify what types of people you want to connect with (and be specific). For example, I’ll say I want to be introduced to marketing agency owners who do not have a copywriter on their team.

When you’re specific, you become exponentially more effective in your networking time.

2. Know Where You’re Going To Meet Them

Depending on your preferences, you may want to meet them in person or virtually. Determine what works best for you. Personally, I love meeting virtually because I meet with people all around the world – from the US, Canada, Argentina, England, Mexico, and Australia. But there are other times when I want to meet up with local contacts in person. I usually do this over lunch, coffee, or on a walk (where I bring my son and dog). It’s killing 2 birds with 1 stone. I need to do all those activities anyway, so why not make them productive activities?

When you’re networking in person, it’s helpful to book that follow-up meeting while you’re there. Do not let time go by before you secure the next step. And please do not set it up as a sales call! Nobody likes to feel like they are being swindled into a gross sales call.

3. Have A Process For Your Stack Of Business Cards

Ever found yourself collecting stacks and stacks of business cards? I was recently cleaning out my home office and found a gallon baggie of business cards. Slightly ashamed of that! But what I realized before throwing out those probably decade-old business cards is the opportunities lost with those contacts.

I didn’t have a clear process for following up. And that’s ultimately leaving money on the table!

So what do I do now? I immediately upload a business card into my Keap CRM. I want to fill out as much information as possible so that if I have someone in my network who is searching for someone like them, their name will pull up. This process usually includes me connecting with them on LinkedIn and researching them. I want to know as much as possible before reaching out to them.

Part of my reasoning for this is to know before I meet with them exactly how I can support them. But I also want to see if they can support me. Networking is a mutual activity.

4. Set Up One-On-One Conversation With Contacts

After I upload networking connections into my Keap CRM, I push them through a specific networking automation that gets them to book a networking meeting with me. This is a simple 30-minute introduction call where we get to know each other and see if there’s any opportunity for us to continue the conversation.

Some of the questions I ask in that initial conversation include:

Tell me about your business.
Who do you want to work with?
Who are clients you do NOT want to work with?
Who are your ideal referral partners?
What are your goals for the year?
How can I support you? Or connect you with?

5. Follow Up On Conversation Promptly

Finally, you actually need to follow up with your conversation. Create a task for you to connect them with your network, and complete that task in a timely manner. If it can’t be done within a couple of days, set expectations or even update your new friend of when they can expect that introduction. This will build loads of credibility with them. And they will be more likely to refer to you.

Remember, just because they aren’t introducing you to someone in their network, doesn’t mean you need to sleep on it. The goodwill will come back tenfold, I promise. I don’t know how it works, but trust me on that.

6. Schedule A Repeat One-On-One

Finally, you need to make sure that you schedule a repeat one-on-one meeting. Now, you do not have enough time to keep track of everyone that you’ve met with. In one year, I conducted over 1,000 networking meetings with various people (including repeat meetings). There’s no way I can keep all of that in my head.

That’s why you implement an automated email campaign that will send those follow-up emails in 3 or 6 months (whatever your preference is) to schedule another meeting.

Ready To Automate Your Networking?

Your networking efficiency is on the brink of bursting into profitability. And it starts with investing in a quality system to get you there. We LOVE Keap and have been using it for years. Before you explore if it’s the right business automation tool for you, let’s schedule a conversation to get to know your company better.

Here’s to better networking!

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words

FocusCopy Turns 5 Years Old (PLUS 6 Lessons We Learned In Our Fifth Year In Business)

Entrepreneurship / By Lauren Jefferson / August 15, 2024 August 15, 2024

It never fails that when I start writing this blog each year, that all the emotions from the year compile together. And this year is no different.

But today, we hit a milestone that I’ve been anxiously waiting for since the day I founded FocusCopy back in 2019. Why? Because statistically, the odds were stacked against us with over 50% of businesses failing within the first 5 years (Luisa Zhou). Moreover, wiser founders (i.e. in their fifties) are nearly 2x more likely to succeed than a 30-year-old founder (Luisa Zhou).

I started this business as a 24-year-old without a dog, house, or baby. This was my first business venture. And I can officially say that we made it!

Now, it’s time to turn up the heat and create more impact for service-based entrepreneurs and marketing agencies around the country!

So here is our annual letter, giving you a deeper understanding of what we’ve learned and what we’re doing differently going forward.

Want to see the other lessons we’ve learned over the years?

Read Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4

The Year 5 Mindset

Reaching year 5 is an accomplishment of its own. And it’s a goal that I’ve been working towards for…5 years. This past year with all the changes of becoming a mother, dealing with family health issues, walking through the passing of my mother-in-law, and surviving a hurricane alone (another story for another day)…my mindset was simply to get through and survive.

We missed goals. We didn’t do as much as we wanted to. But what we did do was build a more sustainable and profitable business so that when the inevitable life events happen, we aren’t crippled by them.

And you’ll see a lot more of what we’ve been working on this past year coming out in the next couple of months. To be in the know, you’ll want to be on the Copy Roast.

6 Lessons We Learned In Our Fifth Year In Business

Reflection is a crucial part of growth. That’s one of the primary reasons that we reflect on the previous year so that we can climb even higher for the next. Here are the 6 lessons we learned in our fifth year in business.

1. There Is Power In Human Relationships

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to take over our businesses and lives more and more each day. But the people and businesses that prioritize humans over AI, efficiency, and productivity will always win. Why? Because people want authentic connection. They want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. That’s why there is a big push in marketing for brands to step away from the brand and show more faces. That means showing up at events, posting pictures and videos of yourself, and sharing vulnerability in your marketing. Here are a few places you can find us:

2. Partnerships & Community For Entrepreneurs Is Critical

I’ve always said this…You need partners and you need community. Entrepreneurship is one of the loneliest professions out there. And the amount of mental health diagnoses among entrepreneurs is sometimes unbelievable. But when you’re living it, you understand. That’s why it’s so important to find your proverbial village.

How do you go about finding these people for yourself?

Ask the people you’re networking with to meet up
Connect on a deeper level with your strategic or referral partners
Don’t be afraid to build your own group and meet regularly
Talk about everything with your business bestie

I would not be here after this past year without these 2: Savannah Becerril of Go Savvy and Houston Marketing Alliance.

Savannah Becerril of Go Savvy was actually our very first client. Since then, she’s become my best friend, a confidant, my son’s Aunt Sav, and the person who we bounce ideas off of (regardless of how outlandish). She is my sounding board for doing business. And we know each other’s businesses so intimately, we could go into any sales pitch successfully for the other person.

Then, Houston Marketing Alliance (HMA) was born out of a group of marketing specialists who wanted to refer to top-quality experts in their area. Since then, it’s become a place where we regularly check in, hold each other accountable, collaborate, and rely on each other. We are constantly building each other up.

3. Life Happens…It’s Okay To Re-Prioritize

When life happens, it’s okay to re-prioritize. Last month (July), Hurricane Beryl hit Houston unexpectedly as there were only 2 spaghetti models directing it at us.

My husband had left a few days prior for a work trip 9,500 miles away when the hurricane wasn’t directed towards us – leaving me with my 85-pound boxer mix and my almost one-year-old son. I had everything. But then Beryl hit, knocking our power out at 5:50am on Monday morning. I had no cell signal – severely limiting my ability to access information or even run my business. I wasn’t even able to notify our clients of the situation until the next day. My priorities had shifted entirely that week to taking care of my boys.

It took 7 days for us to get back power and 8 days to regain Internet.

This is simply one example of how life gave us a curveball and we had to readjust. July definitely didn’t turn out how we intended it to go. But we were able to connect with other Houstonians and linemen from around the country. And I was able to spend a bunch of quality time with my boys.

Give yourself grace when life happens. It’ll turn out okay.

4. Find People Who Refuse To Let You Fail

Over the years, I’ve found the people you surround yourself with are ultimately more indicative of your success than your actual work. This year was tough balancing it all – motherhood, homemaking, entrepreneurship, wifehood, church, community, etc. And, at one point, I told my husband – “Should I just step away from entrepreneurship for this season and focus on other areas of our life?” He immediately reassured me that I was so close and not to give up.

The very next day, we signed a massive contract with a dream client. And we had our best month revenue-wise. The next month followed suit and became our newest and largest revenue month.

Keep your circle close and intimate so that they are more equipped to hold you up when you’re feeling weak so that you can fulfill your company’s mission.

5. It Isn’t About Work-Life Balance Anymore…The Focus Should Be On Creating Balance

This notion of creating work-life balance has been one of my big soap boxes this year. You see, there’s been a big push to find work-life balance over the last couple of years. But I concluded that we only have one life. And we fit family, work, friends, exercise, hobbies, etc. into that one life.

When we focus on creating balance, we find that there’s more flexibility. We become more productive because we push in certain areas when we need to, and we ultimately design days that are more conducive to our vision.

So how are you creating balance in your life?

6. Roll With The Punches

Years ago, the late Bill Sherrill spoke to the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at our retreat. He took a step back and actually rolled down the hill at 90 years old. You can imagine 70 students running after him. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured. But what he responded with was profound.

“Sometimes, you just have to roll with it and not fight it.”

I keep that sentiment close to my heart. It’d be easy for me to fight my son’s naptime and stress myself out…Stress about the business when putting my mother-in-law on hospice and planning her funeral the next week…Figure out how to keep the business operating when the hurricane knocked out power for over a week and the Internet for even longer.

Instead, I knew that I had fantastic relationships with my clients. I knew they would understand that some things were simply out of our control. And I knew that there would either be coverage – through my team and strategic partners, or things would be delayed by a couple of days. It was all going to be okay.

Year 6, Here We Come!

Year 5 was a doozy, left us with a couple of black eyes, and exhausted. But we are so looking forward to what the future holds for us…

More value
Increased sustainability
Greater impact
Better offers
Opportunities to be our creative selves

Join us along for the ride when you subscribe to Copy Roast.

The Email Marketing Metrics That Will Dictate Your Copy

Marketing / By Lauren Jefferson / May 7, 2024 May 7, 2024

Does the idea of reviewing your email marketing metrics make you yawn?

Stay with us because you should know that if you can’t devote enough time or establish a process to continue connecting with your customers through email, it’s not enough to keep it growing. And your click-to-open rates (CTOR) probably reflect this.

If you’re picturing a dark room with just you and your laptop hunched over crunching numbers, stop stressing. This may be what it looked like years ago to track the progress of your email marketing. But modern solutions like Keap give business owners the automation and data necessary to track, measure, and implement future changes to their email marketing strategy – mainly, the copy.

Want to automate your email marketing? Let’s chat.

The Secret To Building Your Email List Is In Your Email Marketing Metrics

Why use email metrics to come up with fresh copy? First, it lets your audience know that you’re listening. Furthermore, it shows an intentional effort to keep what’s most important to your customers at the top of your list. And more importantly, it can help you to strategize what will drive prospects to join your email list.

Whip Your Email List Into Shape With A Spring Cleaning

Before using any outside email marketing tools, look into your specific email service provider for existing tools and rules about using third-party resources like Klean13 or SpamKill.

Depending on how long you’ve used email marketing, your subscriber lists may go from hugely profitable and engaging to downright confusing. A few things we’ve heard from clients interested in email marketing include…

My lists are unorganized and it makes me feel overwhelmed.
How can I spot “spam traps” or fake email addresses in my email lists?
How do I know which email addresses are simply bots?
Is it okay to delete everything and skip email marketing altogether?

Hold up on that last one!

The average ROI for email marketing is $44 for every $1 spent.
— Insights For Professionals

It’s easy to give in to your intrusive thoughts and scrap everything you’ve ever done without looking back. But the last thing you want to do is lose any valuable data and traction you already have by abandoning your email marketing. You also don’t want to interrupt any campaigns that are still in progress.

Another way to be productive AND start fresh is by cleaning up your email lists. You want clearly defined email lists you can easily categorize and label. Doing so not only helps you clear out the old and obsolete. It also makes it simple to filter further and tag contacts with automated follow-up actions to keep them engaged – even when you’re sleeping.

Know How To Handle Improving Your Bounce Rate

One of the most fundamental email marketing metrics out there is your bounce rate. This percentage reflects the number of emails returned to the sender (you) because they could not be delivered to your customer’s inbox.

If you struggle with your email bounce rate (and it isn’t due to your message being too large) it’s likely because the email or inbox you wish to send to is…

Invalid or non-existent
Blocked from receiving communications
Full
Experiencing server issues

Look again at your bounce rate metrics to find out where the holes in your contacts exist. Then, eliminate those emails from your lists and watch your bounce rate decline.

Take Action Against High Unsubscribe Rates

Email is a proven marketing tool that regularly yields results for business owners. But if you’re running into high unsubscribe rates, it’s time to make a change.

The average unsubscribe rate is below 1% for most industries.
— Constant Contact

However, figuring out why people unsubscribe to email marketing isn’t a mystery by any means. In fact, it doesn’t take too much of your time to identify what you’re doing wrong by looking at the emails you’ve already sent.

If your business emails…

Are too frequent
Contains irrelevant or repetitive content
Look like spam
Offer unsolicited promotional information
Are no longer relevant to your audience
Provide too much or too little information

You’re in for an email copy overhaul. Make more of an impact with Keap for your email marketing.

Count Those Open Email Clicks

Everyone wants to know…What is a good email open rate?

The average email open rate across all industries is 26.80%.
— GetResponse

That’s just the starting point. Depending on the list maintenance and existing list, we typically produce emails with open rates of 40% on the low end and upwards of 65% on the high end.

If you don’t know how to measure the success of your copy with the goals you have in mind, then you will continue to struggle to convert leads into loyal customers. This is why you must pay close attention to your click-to-open rates (CTOR) and ask yourself…

Is my subject line sexy enough?

Changing how you write your subject lines, preview text, and body copy directly impacts your sales. Effective copy that makes people jump to open your email should…

Speak to your customers in your brand voice
Make your audience think
Relate to your audience personally
Be authentic

If you’re looking at your email’s subject line or preview text thinking you wouldn’t click on it yourself, take a few minutes to write something else. You don’t need to get too technical to get your point across and entice your audience to click.

BONUS TIP: Ask a question in your subject line and let us know how it goes.

Know What Your Average Engagement Looks Like

Did you know…?

The average email clickthrough rate (CTR) is 2.6-3%.
— Hubspot

Your CTR offers data on who and how many people actually engage with your email marketing content.

Notice a dip in your CTR? Again, it’s important to review your email’s messaging. Your overall message should be concise and equipped with a clear call to action.

Craft Your Success With The Right Marketing Recipe

Adding email marketing and automation to your business model may sound like a ton of extra work. However, it’s much easier to implement when it’s done for you.

Catch up over a cuppa with us to get started.

The Pros And Cons Of AI For Content Writing

Systems / By Lauren Jefferson / May 1, 2024 May 1, 2024

Want the pros and cons of AI for content writing without any bias? Many people expect us as copywriters to tear AI writing to shreds (we won’t) out of fear of it replacing our expertise.

P.S. It won’t, but we’ll get into that later.

We will fully admit that we’ve had (and still have) questions about AI for content writing and its future impact on businesses across the world. We’re not doing this to poke holes in its possibilities…We believe in the power of technology!

What we want to do is approach AI writing with an open mind while remaining diligent about answering a few pressing questions like…Can I use AI copy for my business without dealing with copyright infringement?

Is AI writing plagiarism?

Can I trust AI to routinely write optimized copy for my business?

Will AI be able to fully replace my copywriting team?

Let’s dive into all the pros and cons of AI for content writing!

Join the Copy Roast to be the first to know about events, resources, and blogs all geared towards your business growth.

The Cons of AI For Content Writing

Without sugarcoating, let’s get directly into the cons of AI writing.

1. AI Lacks Creativity & Authenticity

AI writing is an excellent tool for certain parts of the writing process. But using it to completely mimic your brand’s voice, tone, and personality is nearly impossible. And this is why…

Creativity requires a human touch. AI is not able to convey genuine human experiences because it cannot feel or express emotions as we understand them. This makes asking AI to write about certain experiences a headache-inducing task.

When AI is prompted to write about an experience in first person, it may use several general descriptors without being able to connect with the reader further. Even with all of the right information in front of it, AI will never be able to describe what you felt as an entrepreneur opening your doors or launching your website for the first time. Because it’s an experience unlike any other – it’s human.

P.S. We are working on how to prompt AI writing tools to better understand your voice and brand so that it can provide more authentic results. Be sure to subscribe to our Copy Roast to be the first to know when they are out!

2. AI May Provide Inaccurate Information

In a dream world, AI researches AND writes everything perfectly the first time around – artfully capturing your brand in every way. It’s an incredible idea but current AI capabilities are much further away from this reality than you may realize. This is why AI writing continues to confuse business owners. Because AI writing should be able to take over all copywriting, right? Not at all.

The thing about AI for content writing is that because it pulls together all information online, it isn’t capable of deciphering which data is reliable or current. This means that while you can prompt AI to write almost anything, you must also have the time, know-how, and resources to spend dedicated to fact-checking and correcting information.

Also, AI responds best to extremely detailed, specific writing prompts. If you have trouble expressing your thoughts and ideas, getting your prompt just right can be a time-sucker itself.

You can avoid both of these issues entirely by having a professional copywriter write your website for you with unique, optimized content. It’s a good idea to have a copy audit of your business copy if you need help finding where you stand.

3. AI Does Not Protect You Against Plagiarism Or Copyright Infringement

Plagiarism and copyright laws have everyone from creative professionals to academic institutions wondering how AI writing will have an impact. And entrepreneurs want to know…Is it legal to use AI writing for my business including AI-produced taglines, naming ideas, mission and vision statements, etc.?

Brand messaging may be produced by AI. But if it’s still being published by your organization, YOU will likely remain liable. AI writing is such a new tool that it makes zero promises about its long-term use and impact – focusing most on its ability to churn out lengthy copy in seconds.

Simply be aware as you use AI-generated copy and check that it is not already being owned or used by another business. Doing so could get you into some real legal trouble with a copyright infringement attorney.

Beyond plagiarism, many publishing organizations are now requiring disclosures if you use artificial intelligence to produce your content.

The Pros of AI For Content Writing

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into the pros of AI writing. Here’s a hint…automation is everything.

Don’t forget to join Copy Roast for relevant AI content and copywriting tips.

1. AI Produces Ideas Quickly

Many people absolutely hate writing. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and takes brain power. AI helps you break down your writing tasks into smaller segments.

For example, you can use AI to help you brainstorm and sift through topics to be sure they align with your company and brand. As you tweak your prompt, it should be able to refine your results better. Think about using prompts like…

Come up with 10 modernized ways to market my [business industry or product] business.

What email marketing examples can assist in boosting sales for my [company or product]?

What are the latest most-discussed topics related to [your industry]?

Even if you don’t fully agree or understand every suggestion, it’s a good way to get the creative juices flowing. With vague and short prompts like this, we usually get 1-2 sparks that lead to some brilliant ideas.

2. AI Offers A Great Starting Point For High-Level Information Or Ideas

As you transition from generating topics, AI is also good for organizing high-level information and ideas.

Instead of seeing a blog as one huge undertaking, for example, you can use AI to help you strategize and map its flow for your audience. With a solid outline, you can easily fill in each section of your blog with your unique thoughts and suggestions.

AI is also fantastic for note-taking as it can transcribe, add time stamps, provide a table of contents, and much more. This is a BIG win for copywriters as it frees up our resources (especially in meetings) to focus on our client’s creative vision rather than simply recording what’s being said, leading us to touch on the relationship between…

3. Cultivating The Relationship Between AI & Creatives

Creatives and AI are extremely familiar with one another (trust us, we go way back). AI isn’t new to copywriting or marketing. Older office assistant applications like Clippy have been around since the 90s. Ever since then, copywriters and other creatives have implemented as much AI as possible to streamline non-creative workflows.

Again, it’s important to know that using AI for content writing is a tool, not a replacement for writing. Even AI software like Grammarly and Monica seem to agree…

Monica website screenshot with headline that says All-in-One AI Assistant Personal and Fast

Grammarly website screenshot with headline that says AI-Powered Writing Assistant

Using AI as an assistant is helpful to…

Spellcheck
Fix grammar mistakes
Clean up punctuation errors
Make structural suggestions

You get the idea. When it comes to automation for tedious tasks that don’t require a huge amount of creativity, we’re all in.

Creatives & AI Technologies Make One Hot Pair

Over the years, we’ve accomplished so much in the digital space with assistance from AI and will continue to work together in the future. Doing so helps make creative services more accessible and affordable to business owners without compromising the quality of creative work needed. Don’t miss a thing when you join Copy Roast for the latest marketing updates.

The Taylor Swift Content Marketing Strategy: What Businesses Can Learn From Her

Marketing / By Lauren Jefferson / April 11, 2024 April 11, 2024

Are you part of the Swiftie movement?

Whether you’re a fan or not, there seems to be a method to the madness when it comes to Taylor Swift’s marketing strategy. The bottom line? Swift’s strategy is a blueprint that businesses can (and should) use as a framework for growing brand awareness and knowing what to do when success takes over.

Many people believe that Taylor Swift’s (34) rise to stardom began with her first released pop-country 2006 single “Tim McGraw”. However, becoming a star is a dream that Swift and her team have worked tirelessly to build since signing with Big Machine Records in 2005.

The ultimate dream for businesses mimicking Swift’s marketing style? Worldwide success and the ability to break free from trends and set them yourself.

Strategizing your business’s long-term success? Join us at AMPLIFY to plan a Swift-worthy event for your business.

7 Steps Of Building Your Business’s Reputation Using The Taylor Swift Marketing Strategy: Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose, & Remix

Becoming a celebrity takes a ton of work behind the scenes that you never truly see. Unless, of course, you know what you’re looking for. This is why we’re breaking down one of the most famous marketing strategies into easy-to-digest actions.

In the mid-2000s, Swift appears to be a rising country music star. But behind every hit, there’s a plan in place to take her success to the next level.

1. Navigating Industry Dynamics & Finding The Gap

The music industry is a highly competitive space where very few people make a life-long career out of it. Before quick videos like TikTok and Instagram reels, your best bet to becoming famous meant…

Being discovered organically at in-person events
Putting it all out there on TV shows like American Idol
Recording videos for platforms like YouTube
Knowing valuable people already in music and production
Cultivating industry connections

Where do you start when you’re trying to make a name for yourself?

Inspired by country music stars like LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain, Swift felt the need to start her career in Nashville. This made sense at the time as pop was heavily saturated with a mature look and style that didn’t fit her music. There were also far fewer known female entertainers in country music and room for fresh ideas to take off. Leaning toward a less saturated genre of music gave Swift’s lyrics and voice more of a chance to stand out – and stand out she did!

2. Refining Natural Skills With A Mentor

Before reaching any type of success, you need to refine your craft and connect with your audience. Even when you think you know what you’re doing best, having a mentor or someone who can guide you through the process is vital.

Swift started songwriting as young as 9 years old. Although she had a natural talent for writing, she still needed someone with relevant industry experience to propel her forward. This is why she began working with professional songwriter, Liz Rose, through Writers ‘Round in Knoxville, Tennessee. For Swift, working with Rose helped her produce hits like “Teardrops On My Guitar”, “You Belong With Me”, and “White Horse.”

3. Relating Authentically To Customers

Having trouble connecting with your audience? Think about what you’re trying to say and how it relates to those you want to do business with.

In the country music genre, Swift built an audience interested in her music based on her storytelling abilities. As a teenager, boyfriends, break-ups, teen drama, and friendships were what she knew, so she wrote about them!

Being able to transform personal experiences into ones that can be shared is what connects us to many of the melodies that we know and love today. The same can be said for brands that go above and beyond marketing expectations to create a genuine connection with their customers.

4. Creating A Marketable Image

Beyond finding where you fit in, you also need to rely on growing your brand as much as possible to make your name known. One of the best ways to do this is by learning everything about your audience to market your business best.

Swift took this step by embracing herself and her image as the face of a new generation of country music using opportunities to leverage her success with endorsements, partnerships, and appearances. Think bedazzled cowboy boots, a slight Southern drawl, boho chic looks, and appearances in popular magazines like Seventeen, Allure, and Teen Vogue. Everything down to the particular shade of red lipstick she uses is marketable, appearing in headlines without fail.

5. Knowing When To Grow & Expand

Your business may not look the same over time and that’s okay! On top of building brand awareness and maintaining its image, you also need to know when it’s time to move on.

After building a solid following of young female listeners in country music, Swift made a choice. No longer a teenager and with the support of an already successful singing career, Swift was in her 20s when she officially transitioned into pop with her 2014 “1989” album.

As a strategy, she maintained connections with her loyal customer base through public appearances, signings, meet and greets, and similar efforts. With the launch of her pop album, she unlocked an opportunity to build a new type of following through storytelling to attract a much larger audience (and one that felt more relatable to Swift in her 20s). It’s from this transition that she would go on to become a worldwide superstar, adjusting her strategy from building her brand to maintaining its relevance.

Ready to relaunch or refresh how your brand shows up through events? Join us at AMPLIFY and we’ll show you how.

6. Old Content Isn’t Old

By using older (but not old) material and refreshing its messaging to give it new life, you keep the focus on your brand with less effort moving forward. This is HUGE for entrepreneurs as continuously creating, producing, and delivering can be an excruciating process.

Swift’s re-recorded studio albums and remixed tracks offer proof of using an old-to-new strategy as you should. As a business owner, you can repurpose content by:

Placing the spotlight back on your best-selling product or service
Expanding your best-performing blogs with compelling copy
Resharing social media posts to recapture your audience
Keeping customers engaged with a snazzy launch or re-launch of a product or service

If you’ve hit a point of what feels like no return in your business, try repurposing your most valuable content to maximize its effectiveness and save yourself from having to innovate – all the time.

7. Dealing With Public Scrutiny

Even when getting a viral amount of attention, you need to know what to do with it to keep the momentum going. As with any other high level of fame comes intense public scrutiny, which can be damaging to your brand – unless you know how to harness its power.

When everyone’s watching and judging every move you make, it can feel stressful. But, we’re human so mistakes are bound to happen! Even big brands like Kate Spade and Adidas have fallen victim to making marketing mistakes that left a bitter aftertaste for their most loyal customers.

P.S. Both multi-million dollar mistakes could have been avoided with careful proofreading!

Even when in the public eye negatively, Swift has bounced back through…

Media training
Carefully crafted public apologies
Reclaiming her artistic rights
Embracing “bad press”
Being able to laugh at herself

When addressing a mini or major marketing mistake, it’s best to acknowledge, apologize, and move on. Be authentic, avoid rambling, stick to the facts, and don’t forget to have someone read it well before you publish.

Craft Your Success With The Right Marketing Recipe

Effective marketing strategies are essential for the success of any business. It’s also crucial to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape and offer your value upfront to your customers. And we believe it all starts with tailored copy to establish your core values and set the foundation for your growing success.

For a limited time, you can sign up for AMPLIFY to learn more about building a business and brand that you’re passionate about.

Looking For A New Way To Boost Sales In 2024?

Hosting A Virtual, Hybrid, Or In Person Event Offers A High Return…If You Follow Our Process.

How To Use ChatGPT For Market Research

Systems / By Lauren Jefferson / March 13, 2024 March 13, 2024

Newly launched tools to make creative strategies more efficient always give us an aha moment that we can’t wait to implement and share. This is why we’re revealing what we found useful in our strategy sessions and how to use ChatGPT for market research.

When ChatGPT and similar AI writing tools started becoming available, we immediately clicked around to see what the hype was all about. And we were glad to have found something (a few things actually) that we could plug into our internal systems to revolutionize the way we brainstorm, strategize, and write – starting with market research!

21 Prompts To Ask ChatGPT To Conduct Market Research For Your Business

Try using these ChatGPT marketing prompts to conduct your own brand’s market research, broken down into 3 sections:

Audience
Offer
Industry

Targeting An Audience For Your Business

It’s impossible to write copy that’s geared toward everyone, but you can potentially narrow your messaging with these questions.

1. What Are The Top Questions My Target Audience Asks About My Business?

Find out exactly what your audience wants to know about your business so you can hang up the phone. You read that right! Understanding what your audience wants to know about your business allows you to get to know THEM better in return. Find out what they’re looking for, why, and why it matters. You can then answer your FAQs on your website and spend less time on the phone repeating your answers.

2. What Are The Top Objections My Target Audience Has When Investing In My Offer?

Another way to find audience objections is by thinking about what it is that bugs them about your industry. Dig deeper into your audience’s FAQs and find the sore spots that need to be addressed to put uninformed minds at ease.

3. How Would You Describe What My Target Audience Is Struggling With?

You probably already have a good grasp of what your audience struggles with. However, it’s a good idea to get a fresh perspective using online tools to do the heavy lifting for you.

4. How Does My Offer Solve My Target Audience’s Problem?

Pay close attention to how you built your messaging and poke holes if necessary. If the response given doesn’t touch on solving every problem your customer has, you may need to adjust the way you ask this question. You might also need to go back to your customers’ struggles to find which issues are going unresolved.

5. Can You Write A Summary Of My Target Audience?

Asking this question should give you a general idea of what ChatGPT thinks your customers look like based on what it can find. This information allows you to uncover who you typically work with and what opportunities you may be missing out on because of the clarity of your marketing message.

6. What Does My Audience Want Me To Know?

Use this question as another unique way to find out what your customers want you to know (but maybe don’t have the heart to say out loud) about your business.

7. Where Does My Ideal Customer Spend Their Time Online?

Finding out where your customers are shopping around can offer big benefits to your marketing strategy. For example, you may find out that your customers are on Instagram or LinkedIn more than Facebook. If you’ve been allocating your budget to Facebook ads, it might be a good idea to cut back and reallocate those funds to the social platforms your customers are already using.

Up next? 7 more service-based questions to ask ChatGPT for market research.

Service & Offer-Focused

Your marketing works as well as you can tell a story. Learning how to use ChatGPT for market research can help you find a better way to connect your purpose to your audience with the right copy.

8. How Would You Describe The Founding & Growth Of My Business In A Short Story?

Whenever you don’t know where to start, ChatGPT is a solid tool to use when outlining your big ideas. By using what ChatGPT can pull together, you can find areas of your story to improve and connect with your main offer. Underline or circle information you like, don’t like, or find inaccurate to fix it up as you go along.

9. Can You Describe My Business’s Offering In 1 Sentence?

When all else fails, simplify, simplify, simplify!

Explore different ways of wording your offer so that it fits into one sentence with clarity. Your offer shouldn’t sound too detailed or complicated and should sound like your brand’s voice and tone. Our offering, for example, is…

FocusCopy^® caffeinates your brand messaging so it energizes your target audience to take action.

See? Simple, clear, and on brand (for us that is).

10. How Would You Describe The Features Of My Offer?

Your features should include everything your services or products do for your customers like…

Open 24/7
Valet Parking
Video Calls Available

You should then be able to turn these features into benefits.

11. How Would You Summarize The Benefits Of My Offer?

As you identify your features, you can further develop the benefits that your customers get to experience like…

All-Day Appointment Times
5-Star Valet Service Handles Parking For You
Get Started Right At Home With Video Calling

Find what you believe will speak to your audience best and use them consistently throughout your marketing campaigns.

12. Can You Write 20 Different Ways To Describe My Service Or Offer In A Short Paragraph?

From social media posts and newsletters to email campaigns and beyond, it’s challenging to make an offer sound exciting time and time again. Asking this question in ChatGPT allows you to uncover various ways to word your offer so your copy doesn’t go stale. You can save these ideas to tweak and use later.

13. What Are The Top 5 FAQs About My Business’s Offering?

Did you know that verified businesses average 1,803 monthly views from Google searches? Finding out what questions online users have gives you the power to offer detailed answers across your other digital platforms like your website and Google Business profile.

14. What New Service Would Encourage Or Attract New Customers To My Business?

Use all ideas as a jumping-off point to get your creative juices flowing. Tack these ideas to your next meeting agenda and bounce them off of your team members to open up advanced strategy conversations. Also, don’t forget to include reliable industry research to back up your claims!

Give your business the jolt it needs to convert clicks into customers. Book Discovery call.

Asking The Right Questions About Your Industry

Get industry-specific by asking these questions…

15. How Satisfied Are Customers With The Existing Service Offerings In The Market?

Add to what you know is out there on the market in your industry by digging into what people have to say about those experiences. Take notes of what you could improve or pull back on to make your marketing strategy more effective.

15. Who Are The Top 3 Competitors For My Business’s Industry?

Learn more about exactly who your audience turns to when they aren’t buying from your business. You can even ask some of the same questions above to figure out your competitors’ go-to brand voice, messaging, and benefits.

16. What Are 5 Common Misconceptions About My Industry?

Ever wish you could debunk common industry-related misconceptions impacting your business? Plug this question into ChatGPT to learn more about how you can address these concerns while adding value to your messaging.

17. How Would You Compare My Business To My Competitors?

If this question is tough to swallow, that’s okay! It’s hard to take feedback about the business you’ve worked so hard to build. But this can also be a huge chance to learn what others in your industry are doing for their marketing efforts. Not to “steal” anything, but to analyze and see if those strategies can also work for your business. It never hurts to try something new when you’re feeling stuck.

18. How Would You Describe Current Market Trends In My Industry?

Gauging marketing trends in your industry is an ideal time to get the team together and brainstorm what’s possible for the future of your business. You don’t need to follow every single trend. But this is a cool way to discover what your marketing plan might be missing to boost your business’s ROI.

19. How Does Technology Impact The Industry And How Can I Use It To My Advantage?

If there’s a faster, simpler, smarter way to do something, you better believe people are talking about it online. From emerging AI and automation to CRM applications and more, you never know what you could be missing out on. In fact, we have our own Tech Stack collection that you can check out here.

20. What Are Pricing Trends For My Industry In 2023?

Asking this question can help you answer some of your own questions like…

Am I pricing my services correctly?
What do my competitors charge?
What offers are typically included or free?

Again, using this information (while fact-checking your sources) gives you a good idea of where your business stands compared to the rest of the market you’re in.

21. What Are The Buying Practices Of Gen Z, Millennials, & Gen X?

We highly recommend looking into what the future of your business could look like. Ask questions about what future generations will come to expect from businesses like yours.

Knowing How To Use ChatGPT For Market Research Isn’t Simply For Marketing Professionals

When was the last time you looked into your market research?

If the data you have doesn’t align with your business today, it’s time for a research (and copy) refresh.

Need copywriting for your business to put all of this information together in one easy-to-use packet? Your copy baristas are in!

Let’s talk shop.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words

Breaking Through The Noise: How To Make Your Brand Stand Out

Marketing / By Lauren Jefferson / February 16, 2024 March 13, 2024

Your online content is constantly up against that of your competition. You know you must remain driven and strategic about your digital marketing to push your business in the right direction.

On top of optimizing your copy, you’re interested in how to make your brand stand out. But you’re not quite sure how to make it happen.

It’s the question most business owners in a competitive industry ask at some point…How to make your brand stand out?

What Is A Brand?

First, what is a brand? Everybody has their own definition. We’ve even gathered a few of our favorite definitions (see below). But being the Texan company we are, let’s look at cows. To identify that a cow is yours, you brand them with your specific mark. Everyone around you knows your branding. Likewise in marketing, you are leaving your mark so that everyone around you knows who you are.

“A brand is the identity and story of a company that makes it stand out from competitors that sell similar products or services. The goal of branding is to earn space in the minds of the target audience and become their preferred option for doing business.”
Hubspot

“Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business in the minds of your target audience and the general population. At its core, branding consists of a company’s name and logo, visual identity design, mission, values, and tone of voice. Your brand is also determined by the quality and uniqueness of your products, the customer service experience you provide, and even your pricing strategy.”
Shopify

“A brand is any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services.”
American Marketing Association

But what does a brand consist of? It includes visual marks (i.e. logos, imagery, photos), messaging, voice, and even experience. It breathes who you are to the world.

What Noise Are Brands Experiencing?

But there’s something that’s impacting brands, in our opinion, negatively. Let’s dive into what to look out for so that you can protect yourself.

The Invasion Of AI

AI has made a widespread invasion in the digital world – particularly impacting marketing. While there are plenty of places to use AI efficiently and effectively, it’s when we aren’t careful that our brands will see a negative impact. How so? Here’s what we’ve seen:

Increase of vagueness and formulaic copy that you can spot from a mile away
Decrease of authentic messaging (and therefore, no deep emotional connections)
Increase of lower-value content on social media or email
Increase of questioning whether an offer is valuable and high quality

Political Turmoil

As our brand, we stay faaaaaaarrr away from politics. So far, the last time I really watched any news was the first week of the pandemic in 2020…4 years ago. But regardless of where you stand, you can agree that we are in a politically turbulent time. And it’s even more volatile with it being an election year. So how does that relate to marketing and branding?

Brands that need to address politics do so.

But likewise, brands that do not need to be in politics, stay out of them.

There may be certain things in the political sphere that impact your business directly. Go ahead and address those. There may be conversations that your target audience really cares about. Join the conversation.

Not quite sure where to draw the line? If you don’t know what to say on a given topic, the best option is to stay out of it until you know.

Cultural Polarizations

Politics, meet culture. This age isn’t the first decade to experience massive cultural polarizations. But with our access to information and platforms, it’s becoming a potentially dangerous environment – even for the most innocent.

Some brands need to step on the line and speak out. Be prepared to respond to opposing critics.

Other brands don’t have to have an opinion, and it impacts what they do.

The biggest thing that we’ve noticed is there is very little forgiveness in the digital realm. Simply be prepared to respond with grace and patience.

How To Make Your Brand Stand Out

Now that we’ve addressed all the difficult topics that may negatively impact your brand (phew!), let’s get into how to make your brand stand out to result in amazing results.

Be Authentic

First things first…Authenticity will always win. That’s why Google has indirectly woven “authenticity” in their SEO framework – E-E-A-T.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.

So how do you be authentic as a brand? You make sure that every single asset of your brand is aligned with one another. It’s what’s on your website, social media, and email. It’s the experience your clients have with your offer. And it’s your team and their ability to connect.

“Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet – thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing – consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.”
Lance Secretan

For example, FocusCopy has a lot of coffee influences in our brand. This started because I could spend all day, talking with entrepreneurs about their businesses over a cup of coffee. I believe that’s one simple way to connect and make the world move forward. Beyond our marketing where coffee is apparent, you’ll experience our “sales calls” where we’ll brainstorm how to improve your business (even if it has nothing to do with copywriting).

We get into the tough conversations of burnout and purpose and balance. We acknowledge that life happens, babies need you, dogs bark at inopportune times, and business still happens. While we’re by no means perfect, we do believe that we exude authenticity in our brand.

Be Vulnerable

In tandem with authenticity, vulnerability will also help make your brand stand out. One of my friends and branding expert, Mac Ryan Creative Studio got vulnerable recently and we loved it. Not because it was about a lesson learned. But because they were brave enough to share what they learned.

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.”
Brené Brown

In short, Haley Ryan did things that she believed she should do in 2023. But that’s not what she felt was honest to her brand and who she wanted to be. This is a powerful post that resulted in more conversation with her brand.

Communicate Value

You also need to communicate value. You aren’t selling your offer. You’re selling the transformation your offer provides. The easiest way to find the value is to ask the question so what?

Take your features, and find the benefits of them. Then ask so what? 2-3 times. Then measure whatever you land on against what your audience cares about. Do they align? Does your audience actually care about the value you’re communicating? Or do they value something entirely different?

Understand Your Audience

Your customer is the most important person in your brand. Therefore, you need to understand them deeply. What drives them? What challenges are they facing? How are they overcoming their pain points? How do they measure success? When you know your audience well, you create deeper relationships – ultimately making your brand stand out.

Stay In Your Lane

Last but not least…Stay in your lane. It’s so easy to jump on soap boxes because you’re passionate about them. But that may not be aligned with your brand. That’s why the creation of content pillars is so important. They provide the “bumpers” for you to stay inside of.

What are content pillars? They are overarching categories that you speak on in your marketing. Our pillars, our example, are copywriting, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Anything outside of that holds no place in our marketing.

When you step outside of your lane, you cause major confusion and break up the continuity of your relationship with your target audience.

Branding FAQs

Have questions about branding and how to make your brand stand out? Look no further.

If you have additional questions, contact us here.

What Branding Statements Should Every Company Have?

We always encourage your company to have the following branding statements:

One-liner company description
Company bio/description
Tagline
Mission statement
Vision statement
Unique selling proposition
Value proposition

What Should You Include In A Brand Guide?

You should include the following in a brand guide:

Visual identity (logos, icons, imagery, etc.)
Brand voice guidelines (tone, phrases, rules, etc.)
Core messaging (descriptions, value propositions, unique selling propositions, etc.)
Customer profiles

Want to build a brand voice guide? Let’s chat about how our framework makes it easier for you to build your marketing messages.

How Do You Make A Brand Memorable?

As we’ve discussed in this blog, 5 things make a brand memorable. That includes being authentic, being vulnerable, communicating value, understanding your audience, and staying in your lane.

How Does Branding Impact Marketing?

Marketing is the coffee machine. It’s an engine that drives lead generation and nurtures relationships with your target audience. Branding is the exact coffee beans you put into the machine to brew your perfect cup of coffee. It’s the additives (or exclusions) of half and half, sugar, or flavors. Your branding influences how your audience receives your overall marketing.

Effective Branding Starts With The Right Messaging

Before you apply design to capture your brand, you need to know who your brand is. And that starts with developing the core messaging around who you are and what value you provide to your audience. Start the conversation to build your branding foundation today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words

What We Expect To Trend In Copywriting In 2024

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / January 30, 2024 January 30, 2024

Here to find out what we expect to trend in copywriting in 2024?

It’s no secret that AI is becoming a hot topic for companies, digital marketing professionals, and business owners. But with an influx of AI-related headlines, other copywriting trends are being buried under the hype.

Your digital marketing strategy must have various creative approaches to ensure a well-rounded plan. This is why it’s important to be aware of other copywriting trends at the start of the new year.

Discover growing copywriting trends to best strategize your digital marketing plans in 2024.

Interested in growing your business in 2024? Join our Insider’s List to be the first to know about events, resources, and blogs all geared towards your business growth.

What Copywriting Trends We Saw In 2023

Copywriting trends in 2023 reveal far more than you would initially expect. We saw certain trends take off, supporting copy that uses the following:

ChatGPT
E-E-A-T
Niching down
Voice Search
Emotional intelligence

ChatGPT Entered Every Conversation

2023 brought up a few questions about copywriting from friends, family, and even other professionals including…

Will AI take over writing jobs?

We’ve discussed ChatGPT and similar software before. But we need to touch on it again as we introduce you to upcoming copywriting trends in 2024.

AI writing tools like ChatGPT are just that…a tool, not a replacement. Those tools can be helpful to use for certain tasks like summarizing meeting notes or creating rough outlines. AI writing tools streamline steps in the writing process that don’t require a ton of creativity. This allows copywriters additional time to dedicate to creativity and tailoring their words for their clients’ needs.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) have risen to the top of copywriting trends. And we believe we know why.

After years of generic and dry business copy, consumers are focusing more than ever on businesses using copy as a way to make a connection and understand their problems. This means not only pointing out what they’re missing in their lives but also explaining how you directly solve their problems with your product or service.

At one point, E-E-A-T writing may have appeared to be fluff or unnecessary content. However, according to Psychology Today, over 70% of consumers spend more on brands they find authentic. This means somewhere along the way, consumers began craving copy that felt more like a conversation than a straight sales pitch.

Niche Down

Standing out from the competition online requires copy that clearly focuses on your ideal target customer. For businesses relying on website copy that is 3-5 years old, they may not be targeting the right audience at all. Following the announcement of several Google search engine updates, refining your target audience will continue to be more crucial than ever to separate your business from other companies.

Voice Search

As the use of various smart home devices, like Alexa and Google Home, continues to rise, so do voice searches. In fact, voice search and voice commerce spending grew over 300% in just the last 2 years. This is likely because voice search results are known for being convenient, fast, and mostly accurate.

Emotional Intelligence

Aligned with E-E-A-T, emotional copywriting is also on the rise with one key goal in mind: emotional copy should trigger an emotional reaction. The reaction doesn’t need to be overly dramatic or viral to make an impression. As long as you’re connecting on a deeper level with your audience, you’re on the right track.

Emotional copy should trigger an emotional reaction.
Lauren Jefferson

6 Copywriting Trends To Look Out For In 2024

All of the copywriting trends we’ve covered so far will continue to be useful in 2024. Now, it’s time to think about supporting copy that also infuses the following 6 growing copywriting trends.

Get the latest copywriting trends in your inbox when you sign up for our Insider’s List.

1. Personalizing Customer Experiences

Personalizing your messaging means more than adding someone’s first name in an email introduction. On top of using a direct voice and tone, your copy should speak to their specific buyer journey. It’s a good idea to create messaging for groups within your audience including:

New and existing customers
Repeat customers
Prospective buyers

Instead of sending everyone the same message, your copy should intentionally engage your audience by speaking to the next step in their customer journey. How can you accomplish this?

Create separate landing pages for each buyer type (even if it’s regarding the same offer)
Segment your email list based on demographics and/or behavior
Offer a quiz that results in hyper-personalized messages based on their answers

2. Humanizing Overall Messaging

Having the ability to use E-E-A-T in your writing will be a major difference between original, creative copy that connects with human emotions and AI-produced text. Copy that is humanizing allows you to better connect with your audience because they feel they can relate to you and your business. It’s one way to put a face and feeling to your company’s name without having to incorporate copy that is either too gimmicky or too buttoned up.

3. Tell Captivating Stories

Speaking of humanizing copy, storytelling is becoming vital to user search results. Aside from developing unique copy for SEO purposes, storytelling in copywriting draws your audience in by using metaphors, personal anecdotes, and similar styles to create a connection between your business, its purpose, and your customers. A few examples of creative storytelling for businesses include companies like:

Beauty Bakerie is a cosmetic brand founded and led by Cashmere Nicole – breast cancer survivor, mom, and wife guided by faith, resilience, and inspiration to bring cruelty-free, vegan-friendly, and gluten-free cosmetics to the market.

Away Travel hoped to change the way luggage looked, functioned, and felt for good. After launching their line of hard-sided suitcases and carry-ons in 2016, Away Travel took off. It is now the recipient of multiple awards for its innovative luggage designs.

Psst! They’re also great at adding a ton of personality to their branding.

Spanx is a shapewear company founded by Sara Blakely. Relying on her intuition, she moved ahead with her initial invention made of pantyhose and $5,000 from her own savings. Over time, she was able to turn her innovation into a full-blown business now worth $1.2 billion.

Have you read our story from FocusCopy’s CEO Lauren Jefferson? Check it out here.

4. Keeping Search Intent In Mind

Search engines continue to interpret the intent behind search queries used. This means that providing relevant results for users is crucial to remaining at the top of most search results.

Whether online consumers are asking a question or looking for a certain topic, they expect to find reliable answers right away. With search intent in mind, fact-checking should be an essential part of your own copywriting process to ensure that you’re providing the most accurate information that people are searching for.

If you’re still struggling to understand search intent, we’ve struggled with this in our marketing. For example, we like to shorten copywriting to “copy”. But when you search “copy”, you will usually find copy shops where you can get printouts or copy machine distributors. Even though that’s our term, we realize that someone searching for that term is looking for something else other than copywriting services, tools, or resources.

5. Gamification For Businesses

Ever heard of gamification? It’s a strategy companies can use to infuse gameplay or similar methods to keep a user engaged and active. The art of gamification can be broken down into 5 main elements…

Progressive Milestones
Real-Time Leaderboards
Immersive Experiences
Digital Badges & Certificates
Social Community Engagement

You’ve likely already used something like this to remain on task, track your progress, or check off items on your to-do list. For example, companies like Dominoes use gamification to keep you on their app as you track your pizza delivery order.

You can even manage your entire home’s cleaning schedule and add family members to tasks with applications like Sweepy. The app also offers fun challenges, tips, and resources for its users with a low monthly subscription.

There are also businesses offering interactive courses for mundane assignments that most of us will end up needing at one point or another. Defensive Driving is a good example of this type of gamification.

6. Providing Transparent Messaging

Overly corporate, generic copy is officially out. Copywriters and businesses alike are turning to copy that’s authentic, relatable, and honest. This is why transparent messaging is increasingly expected in communication from all companies and brands. People also prefer messaging that is straightforward and easy-to-digest so they can spend less time researching…and more time buying your offer.

Human vs AI Copywriting: Who Wins In 2024?

As much as AI can hit a set word count with precision, it isn’t able to genuinely create messaging that sounds…well, human!

The point is that even with an extensive vocabulary, humanized copy stands out among a neverending bank of AI-generated content.

Caffeinate Your Copy With A Team That’s On Top Of All The Copywriting Trends

Copywriting can easily get overwhelming – we get it! Especially if you’re unfamiliar with digital marketing strategies, writing copy can feel like an absolute mountain. We’re here to help make that mountain feel much much smaller.

Are there any other copywriting trends or topics you’d like us to touch on? Connect with us on social media and leave a comment!