Lauren Jefferson - FocusCopy®

How Strategic Copywriting Brews Success For Service-Based Businesses

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / April 15, 2025 April 22, 2025

As business owners, we want to see our businesses grow and thrive.

It’s what keeps us up at night, worrying about whether we’ll make payroll next month, meet our sales goals, and build a legacy for ourselves and our families.

And those stresses are time-consuming.

They convince you that you need to spend all hours working on your business.

But do you have something in your business that is working for you?

As a service-based business, you owe it to yourself, your offer, and your business to position it in the best light possible. And that starts with the words. Have doubts? You may not call yourself the best copywriter in the world, but you know when words resonate and when whatever you’re reading looks like a mess.

So how exactly does strategic copywriting transform a service-based business? And what type of copywriting should you invest in first? Let’s explore that together in this blog.

Different Types Of Copywriting

You may hear “copywriting” and think it’s all the same. But in reality, you most likely underestimate the diverse arsenal of copywriting styles at your disposal, depending on your goal.

Growth copywriting focuses on expanding your audience through compelling SEO content and lead magnets that address pain points and build awareness. This is what attracts leads to get to know you and your business. A content study revealed that long content receives an average of 77.2% more backlinks than short articles. (Backlinko)

Conversion copywriting, on the other hand, is laser-focused on turning prospects into clients through persuasive sales pages and email sequences that overcome objections. Remember, you cannot convert any leads if you don’t have any to start with. So it’s important to consider how many prospects you have the potential to actually convert. Personalized calls to action (CTAs) are 202% more effective and increase conversion. (Hubspot)

Brand copywriting crafts your unique voice and story, helping you stand out in a crowded marketplace while building trust and recognition. While branding doesn’t have an exact conversion rate, it is not something to sleep on. 86% of B2B marketers increased brand awareness through content marketing initiatives. (Content Marketing Institute Study)

Creative copywriting brings freshness and personality to your communications, making your services memorable through clever hooks and emotional resonance. Understanding these distinct approaches allows you to deploy the right copywriting strategy at each stage of your client’s journey, creating a cohesive experience that guides prospects seamlessly from discovery to loyal customer. Storytelling can boost conversions up to 30%. (BusinessDasher)

At the end of the day, you need all of this. But where do you start?

5 Ways Investing In Copywriting Grows Your Service-Based Business

Depending on the stage of your business, you may need to prioritize one type of copywriting over another. The right words at the right time can transform your business trajectory—from struggling to find clients to having a waitlist of eager prospects ready to work with you.

1. Attract Your Ideal Customer To Your Business

Wish you could have qualified leads lining up at your door? Don’t we all! Fortunately, strategic growth copywriting can make this a reality by producing the right words to generate the exact leads you want.

For example, a business coach who previously used generic messaging like “I help businesses grow” transformed their homepage headline to “I help service-based entrepreneurs escape the 60-hour workweek while doubling their revenue in 90 days.” This specific promise attracted precisely the overwhelmed but ambitious entrepreneurs they excelled at helping, resulting in a 40% increase in qualified consultation bookings.

Remember, people love seeing numbers to communicate a transformation. Give it a try!

Copy Tip: Identify your ideal client’s top 3 pain points and incorporate their exact language into your website headlines, social media bios, and ad copy.

Need help to brew up the right copy to bring the leads you want into your “shop”? Let’s chat over a hot cuppa.

2. Engage Your Prospects Until They Are Ready To Buy

Just because you attract prospects doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy immediately. With conversion-focused copywriting, you can convince them that waiting is no longer an option. Effective copy communicates the opportunity costs associated with delay and creates a sense of urgency without being pushy.

For example, a financial consultant created a “Cost of Waiting Calculator” landing page that showed prospects exactly how much money they were losing each month by postponing their investment decisions. This tangible demonstration of opportunity cost increased their service adoption rate by 35% among prospects who had been “thinking about it” for over 3 months. This type of messaging communicates a sense of urgency.

Copy Tip: Create a sequence of 3 educational emails that address common objections while highlighting the hidden costs of inaction in your industry.

3. Build Long-Lasting Relationships

The best client relationships aren’t one-and-done transactions. It takes time to build trust and rapport, so how do you do that? Through relationship-focused brand copywriting that makes multiple emotional deposits into the account. This means telling stories, pulling emotional strings, and reconnecting on a regular basis with content that provides value.

If you find yourself constantly hunting down new customers instead of finding opportunities to do repeat business with your existing client base, then you may want to investigate how you’re building relationships through your communications.

For example, a web designer implemented a “Client Success Story” email series that showcased the journey and results of past clients every month. By highlighting these stories and including personal notes about their work together, they maintained warm connections with past clients, resulting in a 65% referral rate and 42% returning customer rate for website refreshes and additional services.

Copy Tip: Launch a variety of targeted email campaigns – from monthly newsletters with industry insights, personalized networking follow-ups, and strategic nurture campaigns that gradually reveal your expertise and methodology. Even a simple quarterly “checking in” email can keep you top-of-mind.

4. Convert Your Ideal Customer On Autopilot

Sales shouldn’t be so hard. Yet it often feels that way if you don’t have the right words to communicate your value. Craft conversion-focused copywriting that clearly articulates your:

Value proposition
The transformation you offer
How you handle common objections
Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)

All questions and answers should emphasize the severity of the pain points you address to prime your target customer for conversion.

For example, a corporate wellness consultant who struggled with long sales cycles created a detailed case study page showcasing exactly how their program reduced employee sick days by 32% and increased productivity metrics by 27% for 3 different company sizes. This concrete demonstration of ROI allowed prospects to self-qualify and shortened their sales cycle from 5 weeks to just 12 days on average.

Copy Tip: Create a comprehensive sales page or proposal template that follows the PASTOR formula (Problem, Amplify, Story, Testimony, Offer, Response) to systematically walk prospects through the decision-making process. Explore other copywriting formulas here.

5. Retain Your Customers For Additional Or Repeat Services

You’ve converted them once, but can you convert them again? Investing in retention-focused copywriting reduces your customer acquisition costs and increases the lifetime value that each client brings to your business.

For example, a marketing agency implemented an “Achievement Report” email template sent to clients quarterly, highlighting key metrics, wins, and opportunities they’d identified through their work together. These personalized reports concluded with a “Next Steps Recommendation” section that naturally suggested logical service extensions. This approach resulted in a 78% service upgrade rate among existing clients.

Copy Tip: Create a “What’s Next” guide customized for each of your service offerings, outline the natural progression of work clients might need after working with you once. Send this at the 75% completion mark of your current project, paired with a case study of a client who successfully followed this path. Don’t worry about getting too technical. Focus on telling success stories naturally for more organic connections.

Ready To Say The Right Things At The Right Time?

By strategically investing in different types of copywriting throughout your client journey, you create a seamless experience that not only attracts the right clients but also nurtures them into loyal advocates for your business.

Remember that effective copy isn’t just about sounding good – it’s about saying the right things to the right people at exactly the right time in their decision-making process. Explore what to say to your target customers and start to transform your business.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

The 3 Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs To Write Effective & On-Brand Copy

Systems / By Lauren Jefferson / April 8, 2025 April 8, 2025

Over the last 5+ years, we’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, and there’s one consensus that we all agree with…Copywriting is the most time-consuming task in the marketing suite. And most people really don’t enjoy it.

With the need for more time, it highlights the critical importance of systems.

When I first started my career as a digital marketer (and eventually copywriter), I learned a lot from Ryan Deiss. And this quote sums up how I view systems and processes – especially when it pertains to copywriting.

“Instead of thinking about our business as a series of disconnected checklists, we now saw it as an orchestrated flow where one activity moved seamlessly to the next like a beautifully choreographed dance.”
Ryan Deiss, Get Scalable: The Operating System Your Business Needs To Run and Scale Without You

Now, I want you to replace “business” with “marketing”.

You need effective and on-brand copy to attract the right leads into your pipeline. But how do you accomplish that without spinning your wheels and spending a ridiculous amount of time and money doing it?

Simple.

Systems.

But we’re less here to talk about our systems because we want to focus on yours.

Why Entrepreneurs Need Systems

When you have systems, you are more consistent. When you are more consistent, you’re able to scale – whether that be adding new processes to the mix or simply doing more of the same. And when you can scale, you have more flexibility with your time, money, and resources.

You didn’t become an entrepreneur to be a slave to the business.

That’s why having systems should be a priority as a service-based entrepreneur.

Dream of taking a month off for that vacation? Balancing raising your children and your business simultaneously? Focusing more of your time on the business rather than in it? Selling or getting acquired?

It all starts with creating systems based on your proven practices.

Already wondering whether our team can do this for your business instead? Let’s put it into action.

What Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs So They Can Write Better Marketing Copy

Let’s go back to your marketing for a minute. You need to start at the core of it – your message. Yes, colors, logos, fonts, and design are important for your brand. But it all starts with the words. Especially if your work hasn’t gotten the spotlight it deserves – yet.

Here are the 3 systems every entrepreneur must have if they want to write, produce, and/or publish better marketing copy.

1. Brand Messaging

The foundation of your marketing systems – your Copy Systems – is your brand messaging. This should consist of your:

Core message
Company bio
Unique selling proposition
Value proposition
Tagline
Values
Brand adjectives

This information is critical to give you and your marketing team (whether it be in house or outsourced) direction of how to describe your brand. Even the best wordsmiths will struggle to write clear messaging for brands without an identity.

2. Brand Voice Guide

Now, they know what they are saying, they need to know how to say it. And that comes with your brand voice. An entrepreneur simply does not have enough time to write it all – nor do they have the brain space. Trust me, I’ve tried. But a brand voice guide is an effective way to tell a marketing team exactly how you speak and/or write.

Consider describing your brand’s voice, tone, varying situations where the voice may shift, and examples you want to use as reference.

Feeling stuck on this one? Revisit your best and worst-case client stories while considering what was said, how you responded, and the results of those communications.

3. Customer Avatars

Finally, you have the most important system – your customer avatars. This isn’t your age-old avatar that is solely based on demographics. We want you to dive deep into the psychographics – their values, challenges, pain points, objections, questions, viewpoints, etc. All to uncover who your customers truly are.

From there, you can start to evaluate whether your content pillars are something they’d be interested in, what benefits they respond to, and how to best convince them to buy into what you’re selling. Because you’ve done this work and understand who you speak to regularly, it makes it easier to produce content they would engage with or respond to most.

Put all 3 of these detailed sections together, and you get a solid snapshot of who you are, what you do, and how to best convey your messaging.

Ready To Create A Memorable & Energizing Brand?

It starts with the right messaging. Are you looking for…?

More continuity, consistency, and scalability in your marketing?
A better way to communicate your value?
Strategies on how to create better and stronger relationships with your audience?
On-brand AI-generated and human-generated copy?

Explore how our Fundamentals Package can establish the foundation for you to grow leaps and bounds.

Finding Your True Differentiator: A Guide for Service-Based Entrepreneurs

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / April 3, 2025 April 8, 2025

What would you say differentiates you from other competitors in your space?

Crickets.

This happens almost every single time we ask our clients this question in our Kick-Off Call.

And it’s because we struggle to identify and acknowledge that we are unique. We’re told that we’re just like everyone else, there’s nothing that separates us from the competition, and we’re simply a [insert role].

And hopefully, you don’t actually believe that to be true.

But when it comes to building out your marketing and communications, it can be challenging to figure out what that specialness is.

So what is it that makes you unique? It’s a combination of both tangible and intangible factors.

The Myth Of Complete Uniqueness

When you look at your uniqueness, you may be approaching it entirely wrong. You don’t need to be completely different from everyone else. Simply a little. Instead, consider approaching this concept this way:

Choose 1 area where you are unique from everyone else
Identify why your clients come back to you over and over again
Consider how you are distinctive in the marketplace

For example, FocusCopy is a copywriting firm. And there are thousands of copywriters around the world. Plus AI is apparently your artificial copywriter. So how do we differentiate ourselves?

There are several angles we could take:

We are systems-oriented – especially starting with our brand messaging process
We equip our clients with the tools they need to scale their copy
We’re entrepreneurs wanting to see other entrepreneurs be successful

We’re also human. So emotional writing, storytelling, and authenticity come naturally. But if you’re wondering how to find your true differentiator, let’s look at a couple of angles.

Find Your True Differentiator As A Service-Based Entrepreneur

You’ve probably been hearing a lot of talk about “being authentic”. But what does that even mean?

Authenticity means more than adding a tagline to your brand with “trust” or “honesty” built in. Discovering your authenticity is also more than sprinkling in power words throughout your marketing to stand out.

Ask yourself 3 questions to cut through the noise and refocus on your true differentiator…

Why did you get into your business in the first place?

What problem do you actually solve?

Think of a client story where you felt genuinely connected. Why was that?

Whether you understood your client on a deeper level, learned something new, shared a laugh, or were able to ease their concerns, every part of this process is your true differentiator.

Let Your Expertise Tell A Story

Maybe you’re a rockstar, a legend in your field. You have the education, experience, and authority in your space. Well, you may want to lean in on your expertise.

There are several ways you can display this throughout your marketing, including:

Showcasing your specialized training and/or certifications
Boasting credentials of your entire team
Highlighting your unique blend of professional experiences, even the ones that may not have been your favorite

Highlight Your Unique Methodology & Approach

You may not have the credentials, but you sure do have a unique process that has proven results that your target audience could only dream of. If this is you, it’s time to go heavy-handed in your marketing regarding your process.

So do you have a…?

Personal framework
Proven process
Unique service delivery style
Original philosophy

Infuse your brand personality while showing how your methodology can drastically improve an outcome.

Because here’s our thing…it’s possible to use AI writing in your marketing by:

Setting up your copy documents for optimal workflow
Organizing your thoughts, words, headlines, and content messaging
Completing a strong first draft aligned with your brand package (you’ve got that handy, right?)
Making adjustments with edits, revisions, suggestions, etc.
Ensuring a second pair of eyes have reviewed and approved of your writing

But most people won’t because it’s a process that still takes time and effort to produce what you want, when you need it.

The main takeaway here is to develop, refine, and repeat your process to continue delivering results you’re proud of.

Feature Client Experiences

Instead of investing so much of your time on marketing, let your customers do the talking through written or recorded testimonials. Decision makers want to see that you’ve done this (whatever this is) successfully for another customer. They won’t see it as a marketing ploy, but rather a testament to your process, delivery, and overall service.

As you’re looking through testimonials, look for common themes. Do they comment on your…?

Communications
Relationships
Problem solving
Ability to go above and beyond
Delivery

When you narrow in on what they say your true differentiator is, make that the focus of your marketing message.

Discover Your Personal Edge

Especially as a service provider, your personal edge is not something to sleep on. Ask yourself, when was the last time you conducted a self-audit? Ask yourself questions to identify your strengths, how you were able to achieve success previously, and how your origin story shaped your work. Infuse a little you (or a lot) into your marketing with your audience in mind.

When I first started FocusCopy, I had some experience and was just starting to build the process that you know today. So I had to lean into my personal edge big time. It started with me discovering how important copywriting was when I was a full-service digital marketer.

If you’re just starting out, this may be where you need to focus your messaging.

Your Guide To Marketing Your Differentiators

Once you find your true differentiator, now is the time to actually put it into your marketing. But where do you start?

Build your unique selling proposition
Test different messages and angles
Develop case studies that combine client experiences and your unique process
Reiterate your uniqueness in every single piece of communication
Collect testimonials to use in your marketing

Don’t have a differentiator? Look introspectively first, then ask people around you (like your customers, strategic partners, and business best friends) for help on identifying it.

Turn Authenticity Into Action

As you continue in this digital and AI-driven world, it’s even more critical to learn how you differ from your competitors. Not sure where to start? Let’s grab a virtual coffee to dive in deeper so you can embrace your authentic brand.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

AI-Assisted, Human-Approved: The Right Way To Use AI In Copywriting

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / March 25, 2025 March 25, 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t new, but the computation size is. Now, you’re able to do more, get better results, and see more efficiency in your daily life. Whether you’re strategizing your next marketing move or ticking off inventory task reminders, AI makes owning a business just a little bit easier.

But when it comes to AI writing, there are still questions about its accuracy, its humanness, and how you should use it to produce quality marketing content.

Over the last few years, we have been experimenting with a lot of different AI writing platforms. And that’s because we were driven by the question…Will AI replace human copywriters?

Fortunately, AI isn’t at the point yet to replace human thought, authenticity, and storytelling. But we do recommend that all entrepreneurs use AI in some sort of capacity. Especially if you don’t want to fall behind your competitors, AI tools are a must moving forward.

So what can you use AI for without diminishing the overall quality of your copy?

Organize & Manage Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Oof. This one thing is the item that most of our clients loathe. They know they have frequently asked questions. They field them every single day. But then there are those questions that aren’t being asked directly to them, but are still being questioned. Prompt your preferred AI platform:

Based on what you know about my company, brand, and target customers, what are the FAQs?

From there, you can answer the questions yourself, hire someone like FocusCopy to write them for you, or even have AI start answering those questions.

Enhance Market Research Systems

You can use AI to supplement your market research. Try to explore what pain points your target market has, what statistics would make an impact, and even what the current state of their situation is. There are so many different ways to slice market research, depending on what angle you’re coming from. You may even spark a few new ideas for your marketing campaigns while you’re at it!

Inspire New Topic Ideas

Brain farts? Not anymore. Once you’ve keyed your GPT on your brand, ask the AI for topic ideas for just about any type of copy.

Blog
Email
Headlines
Sales
Social media
Speeches
Website

From experience, you may only use 20% of the ideas that AI gives you (and that’s being generous). But the point here is that it gets your brain spinning in a way that wasn’t happening before. Don’t be afraid to not use some of the ideas. Remember, this is your brand. And AI is still known for producing repetitive ideas that may not align with your brand or overall goals.

Generate Headline Ideas

Even professional copywriters need a little jumpstart. Even if you don’t have a whole host of formulas, templates, and frameworks for your copy, you must have a good headline. Prompt your GPT to provide a couple of headline ideas for the copy you’re working on.

We’ll often find a word or phrase that we’ll attach ourselves to or even combine a couple of the options provided into one cohesive headline. Remember, what AI provides you requires a human touch.

Conduct Preliminary Keyword Research

For search engine optimization (SEO), use AI to give you a list of keywords to focus on or even start your keyword research venture. Explore some of the new AI SEO keyword research tools.

When you have the right keywords for your target audience, you have a lot more focus on your SEO activities and what to do with that data.

Keep in mind that Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is pulling a lot of the weight that SEO used to pull in the digital marketing sphere. So this requires you to cling to Google’s E-E-A-T framework. E-E-A-T says that you need to create content that showcases your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Cultivate Marketing Ideas

Ever wonder what the heck you should do with your marketing when the market shifts or you’re facing a creative block? I’ve been there many times. Instead of trying to rack my brain around a solid marketing strategy, I start by prompting AI for ideas to get me moving in the right direction. Here are some of the questions I’ve asked:

What industry experts should I collaborate with?
What should be my marketing strategy to build my email list?
With my content pillars in mind, what content should I publish in Q1?

Assist With Editing

This is a big one! AI editing is extremely effective but not 100% foolproof. You still have to use your brain as you accept or decline editing suggestions. But one thing that you can prompt beyond simple grammar editing is:

What are the weaknesses and strengths of this blog?
How should I improve this blog?
How can I simplify this copy?
Are there more opportunities to add call to actions?

Launch Copy Leagues Ahead Of AI Copy

88% of marketers already use AI in their day-to-day roles to spark ideas and make copy creation faster. And with some practice, using AI as a tool will soon feel necessary to help achieve your marketing goals while keeping your brand intact.As you integrate more AI into your marketing efforts, you need to ask yourself…have you defined your brand enough for AI to be more efficient and effective with its results? If your answer is no or I’m not sure, it’s time to go back to the fundamentals.

Our Simple Framework To Create A Month’s Worth Of Social Media Content From 1 Blog

Marketing / By Lauren Jefferson / January 28, 2025 January 28, 2025

Social media is a content generation engine. And it’s fed daily by 5.22 billion social media users around the world. That’s overwhelming when you come to think of it.

Additionally…

500 million messages are tweeted daily on X (formerly Twitter)
More than 67 million daily posts are published on Instagram
Over 720,000 hours of videos are hosted daily on YouTube

So how do you create content that not only stands out but doesn’t take forever and a day to produce? We’ve created a simple framework to create a month’s worth of social media content from 1 blog.

Why You Should Splinter & Repurpose Your Blog Content

If you’re creating and using content once, you’re doing content marketing wrong. It takes on average 8 touches for a prospect to engage with a company. So your prospects need to see the same message multiple times for it to click in their mind that you’re worthy of even engaging with.

Moreover, we’re also seeing brands finally get that they should own their audience through their website traffic and even better…their email list. With the upheaval of whether TikTok is banned or not (depending on when you’re reading this, the results may vary), you cannot rely on social media alone for your content marketing engine.

That being said, we highly recommend creating your long-form content on a platform you own.

But you may still have a good-sized audience on your social media accounts that you want to convert to your email list. Hitting this goal is why you need to consider splintering and repurposing your content for social media.

What’s The Difference Between Splintering Repurposing?

Splintering is when you take a piece of long-form content and literally chop it up into shorter pieces of content. You can do this with long-form videos, podcasts, blogs, books, etc. The goal of splintering is to give your audience bite-size pieces of content that are authentically produced AND part of a much bigger process.

Repurposing, on the other hand, is where you take a piece of content and transform it into something else. For example, you can record yourself reading the blog for a video. You could also take that same blog and discuss it over a podcast. Same content, different medium. Combine the two of them to create a powerful content marketing engine for your brand.

How You Need To Write Your Blogs To Create 1 Month’s Worth Of Content

To splinter and repurpose, you need to write or produce a piece of content good enough to splinter and repurpose. So how do you create a blog post that is spinnable into a month’s worth of content?

Consider both the length and structure of your writing.

Consider Blog Length

When it comes to the ideal blog post length, remember that the priority should always be quality, specificity, and depth. We like to aim for a starting word count of around 1,500 words. This allows you plenty of space to communicate each point and share a story that allows the reader to relate to you.

Don’t be afraid to go longer or shorter, depending on the topic and your audience. Before you start adding content to reach the upper end of your word count, it’s best to wrap up your final thoughts and review your blog from the beginning.

Map Out Blog Structure

Now, how do you structure a blog post for splintering and repurposing? There are a couple of standard things that you may want to include:

Any key definitions (especially if you’re going to use industry jargon)
Why the topic is important or needs your attention
What happens if you neglect or disregard the topic at hand
Your main point with subtopics built underneath that
Top FAQS
Your final call to action or what you want them to do right now

Now you don’t have to include everything we just listed. But that will give you plenty of content to work with and usually help you on the search engine optimization (SEO) front.

How To Splinter Your Blog Into Social Media Posts

To get to the good stuff, how can you splinter 1 blog into a month’s worth of social media content? Let’s dive in!

Include Reflective Quotes

Find 2-3 pull quotes from your blog post. These are bold statements that make a promise, challenge the reader, make a claim, and or provoke the reader to think differently about that topic differently.

For social media, this could look like a quote post or even a tweet post.

Create A Month’s Worth Of Social Media Content

Need inspiration for questions to ask when deciding on what quotes to use? Consider these:

What sentence will shock my audience either by grabbing their attention or changing their existing viewpoints?
What does my target audience need to know about this topic in one sentence?
Is this quote bold enough to stand alone?

Add Infographics

Infographics make engaging social media posts, bringing both visual elements and words together for your audience. Even if there isn’t a whole lot of data inside your blog, use an infographic template to display the entire blog as a summary.

If you want to take it one step further, then add a little more research to back up your points.

Want to take it another step further? Put the infographic inside of your blog and make it easier for your audience to visualize the information you’re presenting.

Enhance Social With Summaries

Your audience may avoid engaging with your brand if they feel ignored, unheard, or (even worse) bored when reading your content. Including a blog summary is a simple yet effective way for you to give the highlights of your blog to your audience.

Visually, this could look like plain text, a bullet-point list, or even a more in-depth summary. Below is how we took 1 blog and transformed it into a summary-based Instagram Reel.

Create More Carousels

Carousels are an amazing way to display your blog content as a summary or even as a deeper dive into your content. This type of post was originally coined on Instagram. However, we’ve been seeing a ton more carousels telling a story on LinkedIn.

Publish Video & Reels

To add to the type of content you can splinter your blog into, consider a video or Reel. In 2025, we’re seeing that longer-form video content is performing well.

Don’t believe us? Take a look at these stats (source):

86% say that video content drives more website traffic to their sites
82% report that their videos increase the time they spend on a given web page
3x more backlinks are associated with blog posts with video content embedded

Consider filming yourself reviewing the entire blog inside a video published on YouTube. Then splinter it into smaller, bite-sized Reel-type content to post throughout social media.

Break Down Key Definitions

Remember those definitions you included in your blog post? Turn them into definition posts to help your social followers understand the term better. Position yourself as an expert in that specific topic by providing your own definition or real-life examples.

Big Takeaway

We know that people want information in the quickest way possible…That’s why we see people consuming social media content at an average of 2 hours and 19 minutes per day. Capture your big takeaway in your social media posts in 3 steps:

1. Identify the biggest takeaway from reading the blog.

2. Pinpoint the topic you want to focus on.

3. Emphasize the action you’d like your audience to take and put it in your social post.

Question & Answer

Lastly, take your FAQ list and divide it into Q&A posts. This type of post allows you to not only position yourself as an expert but also allows you an opportunity to convince your target audience to take the next step in the custom journey.

Your Complete List Of Social Media Posts Pulled From 1 Blog

Steal this complete list of social media posts you can pull from 1 1,500-word blog:

3 Quotes
3 Questions Your Audience Is Asking
1 Introduction To Link
1 Blog Summary To Link
1 Blog Summary To Carousel
1 Blog Summary To Video
1 Blog Summary To Reel
1 Blog Summary To Infographic
1 Point #1 To Link
1 Point #1 To Carousel
1 Point #1 To Video
1 Point #1 To Reel
1 Point #2 To Link
1 Point #2 To Carousel
1 Point #2 To Video
1 Point #2 To Reel
1 Point #3 To Link
1 Point #3 To Carousel
1 Point #3 To Video
1 Point #3 To Reel
1 Conclusion To Link
1 Big Takeaway To Image
1 Big Takeaway To Graphic
1 Key Definition

How To Schedule Your Month’s Worth Of Social Media Content

Now, you don’t want to post about the same blog post every single day of the month. Your audience will get tired of that topic and see that you’re out there to just post on social media. Remember, being active on social is more about engagement than publishing. You want to generate interest, conversation, and engagement. It isn’t a platform with the explicit purpose of converting your followers into customers.

That’s inauthentic and a very transactional mindset.

So to answer this question…How do you schedule your month’s worth of social media content?

There are many ways to do this, but here is what we do:

Schedule 3-5 posts that are more time-sensitive over the first 1-2 weeks of publishing the blog
Take the remaining 23-25 posts over the next 12 months

If you do this regularly (and even set up some automation to help you schedule it out), then you’ll have a complete social calendar for the year without having to put in that much extra effort.

P.S. We love using ClickUp for this reason. We set up a whole series of automation sets whenever a blog gets scheduled or published so that we don’t have to think about how to splinter the content.

Publish Blogs Your Target Audience Actually Wants To Read

While AI is amazing at giving you quick ideas, effective outlines, and generally good content…What it doesn’t give you is that special sauce. The humanness you require to build a lasting relationship with your target audience. That’s where FocusCopy comes in. We help you ask the right questions so that you can share stories, make personal connections, and start to build a relationship with your readers in your blog. To discover just how we do this, schedule a virtual coffee with us today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

5 Golden Thread Examples To Inspire Your Copy

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / January 20, 2025 January 28, 2025

Have you ever seen a movie, advertisement, story, or any other entertainment medium where they start with an idea at the beginning only to tie it in a pretty bow at the end? Think about “The Lord of the Rings” series where the ring is the focus. Well, that’s a golden thread.

It gives you the warm and fuzzies, the giggles, and the ah-has.

Writing a golden thread in your copy is easier said than done. But not everyone knows how to use a golden thread strategy in marketing. This is why we’ve created a simple framework for you to tie it through your copy so that you keep your target audience’s attention even when your copy is focused on generating sales.

What Is The Golden Thread?

A golden thread is an idea or concept that holds an entire piece of copy together. It’s what maintains attention and convinces the reader to continue reading. It’s a brilliant writing technique that every entrepreneur should try to identify for their offer or business.

What is that idea that keeps your audience engaged?

Is there some concept that your audience understands and relates to that you can tie into your offer?

What is that story that you frequently tell in your sales process that clicks with your buyer?

In short, the golden thread is the core message that needs to be tied throughout a piece of collateral.

Why Use The Golden Thread Model In Your Marketing

You know those movies you love where they foreshadow the conclusion of the movie? Or those Super Bowl commercials that are hilarious and talked about for long after the game ends?

The primary reason why you’d even want to use the golden thread model is because it simply works.

Today, a 30-second ad spot in the 2025 Super Bowl cost around $7 million. That’s nearly double the cost of a 30-second spot 10 years ago of $4.25 million. With the increased price to get eyeballs on their ads, these companies are becoming more crafty with their messaging – including threading that all-to-important golden thread throughout the entirety of their allotted time.

Golden Thread Examples To Gather Inspiration

Want to gather some inspiration? Take a look at these smaller brands to observe how they weave their core message into their website copy and other brand messaging.

Who Gives A Crap

Yes, that is the actual name of a company. Who Gives A Crap combines eco-friendly products with witty messaging – creating a memorable and mission-driven customer experience. They combined their potty joke humor with their knowledge that there’s a huge deficit in toilet paper availability around the world. And they’ve been able to brilliantly combine the two into a strong core message.

Imperfect Foods

Find a way to fix the broken food system and deliver a sustainable future? Imperfect Foods addresses both by delivering food that would otherwise be rejected from grocery stores for a fraction of the price. Imperfect Foods addresses the problem and infuses a sustainability focus through its entire brand.

Hello Seven

Driven with a passion to create 10,000 female millionaires by 2030, this sassy brand – Hello Seven – acknowledges that not everyone wants to have seven figures. And that’s the beautiful thing about this golden thread…They are paving a pathway for those women who do want to ascend to that financial status. And you see that core message riddled throughout their copy.

Keap

Keap has transformed its brand from being marketing automation to business automation. And I’m here for it! As you read through their brand messaging, their golden thread is all about optimizing your entire business through automation. No longer is it a simple CRM that anyone can claim to be.

P.S. Want to learn how you can implement Keap into your business automation? Let’s get a virtual coffee on the calendar to explore if Keap fits your business needs.

How To Use A Golden Thread Strategy

Access our simple framework to build a golden thread into your sales copy:

Define your core message in 1 sentence.
Make sure that it aligns with your brand messaging.
Start with a bold statement or question in your hero banner.
Answer the question or embellish the bold statement in your final call to action.
Fill in the gaps with small tie-ins to your core message.

Golden Thread FAQs

Have more questions about using golden threads in copywriting? Here are your answers.

Where Does The Golden Thread Come From?

Originally from the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, the golden thread was used to create a path that Theseus could use to retrace his steps through the labyrinth and find his way out. What a beautiful story!

Now utilized in multiple capacities beyond marketing and copywriting, it’s a great way to define how to simplify a potentially complex story and bring the reader back home.

What’s The Significance Of The Golden Thread?

We all love a good story that ends with a pretty red bow tied around it. It feels good to have a solid conclusion. When we apply that same desire for completeness in our copy, the golden thread becomes one of the most effective ways to reconnect your reader to your copywriting (and ultimately, get them to convert).

Why Should You Include The Golden Thread In Your Copywriting?

A golden thread in your copywriting carries multiple benefits, including:

Providing a framework for the sales page (fill in the top and bottom, then the middle fills itself)
Creating an emotional connection with your audience
Increasing your conversion rates

First Thing’s First…Start With Your Brand’s Core Message

Your core message is the foundation of an effective golden thread. But there’s so much more to it than you realize as an entrepreneur. We support you in taking your business and transforming it into the brand you’ve always dreamed it to be – starting with the words. Explore how we do it here.

7 Red Flags Of AI Writing To Be Aware Of In 2025

Copywriting / By Lauren Jefferson / January 16, 2025 January 16, 2025

You thought AI dominated in 2024…

Look again. 2025 demands that every person and company must use some form of artificial intelligence (AI) if they don’t want to be left behind to fossilize.

Especially as it pertains to the content creation landscape, entrepreneurs must become increasingly savvy at identifying AI-generated content – both in their competitors’ work and potentially in content delivered by their own teams or contractors. While AI writing tools offer tremendous benefits, knowing the telltale signs of poorly implemented AI content is crucial for maintaining high standards and protecting your brand’s reputation.

Let’s dive into the 8 red flags surrounding AI writing!

1. Unnatural Repetitive Language & Redundancy

One of the most glaring indicators of AI-generated content is unnecessary repetition. AI models often struggle with semantic memory across longer texts, leading them to sound repetitive using slightly different phrasing. This creates a circular, redundant reading experience that human writers naturally avoid.

Writers need to be vigilant about identifying and addressing instances of redundancy in AI-generated content.

For example, you might notice a paragraph about “the importance of customer service” followed shortly by another section essentially saying the same thing with minor variations. Repetition often occurs because AI tries to hit specific word counts or expand on topics without introducing new information, unless you’ve already provided it.

To counteract this red flag, writers can experiment with different variations in their prompts and even the AI writing platform itself. This encourages you to evaluate which AI platform is right for the prompt. But it also challenges you to use various prompts as your AI explores diverse language choices.

Reading through the content and editing it yourself is also a must to eliminate any repetitive elements. This ensures a more engaging and thoughtful piece.

2. Generic, Surface-Level Analysis

AI tends to play it safe, offering broad generalizations rather than nuanced insights. Which kinda feels like drinking that bad cup of lukewarm coffee you get at a networking function or hotel because it’s already there – even if it’s not good. This results in content that reads like a collection of obvious statements without the depth that comes from real-world experience or critical thinking.

You don’t have time to waste to read that surface-level content. And your buyers are the same…They want insights, personality, and more importantly, confidence that you know what you’re talking about.

Watch for passages that state widely known facts without providing unique perspectives or practical applications. If the content feels like it could have been written about any business in any industry, it’s likely AI-generated without proper human refinement.

So if you’re a service-based entrepreneur, here is our advice:

Talk to your target audience directly
Bring up examples that they will understand and resonate with
Add in facts, stories, and examples that are unique to you
Don’t be afraid to get personal (even if it’s talking about where you failed)

3. Inconsistent Voice & Tone

While AI can be prompted to write in specific styles, it often struggles to maintain a consistent voice throughout longer pieces. You might notice jarring shifts between formal and casual language, or sudden changes in perspective that wouldn’t occur in human-written content.

These tonal inconsistencies are particularly noticeable when the content attempts to incorporate brand voice or industry-specific terminology. For example, the AI might alternate between highly technical language and oversimplified explanations within the same paragraph.

Additionally, it leaves out your uniqueness.

And while we’ve been testing how to prompt AI to generate custom brand voice responses, it’s failed.

That’s why we’ve developed our whole Fundamentals Package – where we document your brand messaging, brand voice, customer avatars, and marketing foundations. And this has been fundamentally changing the game for all of our clients. Suddenly, they have the focus and clarity around their message and how to communicate it with their target audience. And now, we’re excited to share it with you!

Interested in nailing down the Fundamentals? Explore our options here.

4. Factual Inaccuracies Or Outdated Information

AI models have knowledge cutoff dates and can’t access real-time information. This limitation often results in content that references outdated statistics, defunct businesses, or superseded best practices. While human writers naturally incorporate current events and recent developments, AI-generated content may feel strangely disconnected from present reality.

Pay special attention to any specific dates, statistics, or industry trends mentioned in the content. You’re likely dealing with unedited AI if none of what you see looks accurate or up to date.

Review and fact-check all content produced by AI to ensure that it aligns with your current knowledge and industry standards. Providing clear instructions to the AI about the context and desired tone can help improve the accuracy of the generated content.

5. Lack Of Original Examples Or Case Studies

Human writers naturally draw from their experience to provide specific, relevant examples. AI-generated content often relies on hypothetical scenarios or extremely generic examples without adding real value to the discussion.

When reading content, look for concrete case studies, specific industry examples, or detailed scenarios that demonstrate practical application. Their absence – or the presence of only vague, theoretical examples – often indicates AI authorship.

It’s time to show your experience and expertise to the world!

You’ve earned it.

6. Awkward Transitions & Flow

AI can struggle with creating smooth, logical transitions between ideas. You might notice abrupt topic changes or connections that feel forced or artificial. Human writers naturally build bridges between concepts – ensuring each paragraph flows naturally into the next.

Watch for transition sentences that feel mechanical or sections that seem to jump from one topic to another without proper context or connection.

Doubting whether you’ve edited your AI content enough? Try reading it out loud. This has been a tactic we’ve used long before the wide adoption of AI. And it works because the way we write is different from the way we speak. You want to sound more human, as if you’re sitting across from your reader chatting about the subject over a latte.

7. Over-Optimizing Content For Keywords

Human writers can naturally incorporate keywords into their content. AI, on the other hand, often takes a more mechanical approach to SEO optimization. You may notice this resulting in content with:

Awkward keyword placement
Unusual phrase repetition
Sections that seem written purely for search engines rather than human readers
Unnaturally placed keywords (especially in headings or the first sentences of paragraphs)

P.S. We’re actually seeing a decrease in the prioritization of keyword placement in SEO. Google and other search engines are prioritizing storytelling and quality content.

8. Ownership Of Content

One of the most discussed concerns when using AI for writing is the inadvertent generation of content that closely resembles existing material, potentially leading to plagiarism accusations. AI models, while powerful, may draw inspiration from their training data, resulting in content that mirrors existing articles or publications, leading to questions such as…

Is it possible to legally own AI-generated content?

Is AI-generated content owned by the user, the AI company, or is it public domain?

Can AI-generated content be copyrighted?

Avoid overthinking it with these tips:

Add your brand’s voice, tone, and style to all AI-produced content (tell your story)
Fact-check and provide sources, where needed
Edit, modify, and adjust all content aligned with your brand’s standards

What We’re Using AI For At FocusCopy

At FocusCopy, we’ve embraced AI as a powerful tool while maintaining our commitment to human-crafted, high-quality content. In other words…this special brew isn’t going anywhere! Here’s how we’re strategically implementing AI in our workflow.

Research Assistance

We use AI to quickly gather initial research on topics, helping us identify key themes, relevant statistics, and important considerations. However, our human writers verify all information through primary sources and supplement it with their expertise and industry knowledge.

This approach allows us to work more efficiently while ensuring accuracy and depth in our content. AI helps cast a wide net in the research phase, but our team’s critical thinking skills determine what information is truly valuable for our clients.

Brainstorming & Ideation

AI is an excellent brainstorming partner, helping us generate initial ideas for content angles, headlines, and topic clusters. We use it to explore different perspectives and identify potential gaps in our content strategy. We also use it when we’re looking for a word that’s at the tip of our tongue but we can’t quite figure out what that word is…You know the feeling?

However, we rely on our human team’s expertise to evaluate these suggestions, selecting and refining the ideas that align with our client’s goals and industry realities. The final direction always comes from human strategic thinking and industry knowledge.

Editing & Refinement

While we don’t use AI for primary content creation, we do employ it as one of many tools in our editing process. AI helps us identify potential issues with readability, consistency, and grammar. However, human editors make the final decisions on all changes, ensuring our content maintains its authentic voice and strategic value.

Our editing process combines AI efficiency with human judgment, allowing us to maintain high-quality content while meeting tight deadlines. The technology helps catch technical issues, while our editors focus on ensuring the content delivers real value and an authentic message to our clients’ audiences.

There are some great AI tools out there, such as Grammarly, HemingwayApp, and AISEO.

Moving Forward With AI In Your Business’s Marketing Plan

The key to successful AI implementation isn’t avoiding it entirely. But you should understand its limitations while using it strategically.

Remember, AI is a tool to enhance human creativity and efficiency – not replace it entirely. The most successful content strategies will combine AI’s capabilities with human expertise, ensuring the final output is both efficient to produce and engaging enough to read.

At FocusCopy, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of AI technology while maintaining the human touch that makes our content truly effective – creating copy that’s brewed just for you. Explore how we build the foundation for all your brand messaging here.

The Most Effective Strategy To Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome

Entrepreneurship / By Lauren Jefferson / January 8, 2025 January 8, 2025

Ever get started on a project and find that you’re coming up with a million different (and brilliant) ideas that are simply teasing you for your focus?

No, it’s not your ADHD or ADD kicking it.

It’s shiny object syndrome.

But you may also have heard it referred to as “shiny penny syndrome”, “chasing a squirrel”, or something similar.

And that’s because it’s attractive to chase after, but otherwise really deviates you from your primary goal or objective.

You do not have time to fall into this trap anymore.

With the wide adoption of AI, virtual assistants, and automation, you will certainly fall behind if you do not have an effective strategy to avoid shiny object syndrome.

Don’t be that person this year!

Discover just how we’ve avoided this syndrome from copy baristas who are constantly coming up with different recipes for success.

What Is Shiny Object Syndrome?

It’s all in your head…but really! Shiny object syndrome (SOS) is a psychological concept that illustrates our ability and tendency to get distracted by all the new ideas that we come up with while attempting to focus on something else. This concept is not only detrimental to making progress, but also stops you from seeing results as quickly as you want. All of which often leads to imposter syndrome. You may even start to doubt whether the project you’re working on is really the one you need to focus on. Is that idea good enough for your focus?

SOS is not something bad. But it is something that needs to be managed before it spirals out of control – taking time and resources away from your bottom line.

How Shiny Object Syndrome Distracts Entrepreneurs From Reaching Their Potential

Specifically, entrepreneurs often face SOS. It is the ultimate roadblock from you reaching your fullest potential in the timeframe you envisioned without all of those distractions. This looks like…

Falling behind on your content calendar
Scrambling to prepare for meetings
Trouble managing big ideas and essential next steps

You may also encounter decreased productivity, analysis paralysis, imposter syndrome, and procrastination. If you have any experience as an entrepreneur, you know each SOS means money, money, money.

Don’t you deserve more for all the hard work you put into your business?

From our perspective…Yes, you do!

Our Proven Strategy To Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome

But knowing what to do about your shiny object syndrome can be a distraction in itsself. At FocusCopy, we are big on creating systems because…

We’re constantly coming up with new ideas
We need to be productive and focused on the deliverables we’re writing for clients
We have a whole host of other challenges we need to battle, including writer’s block

However, there’s one strategy that we’ve refined, not only helping us focus on the task at hand but also to generate better, on-brand ideas for the copy we’re writing for our clients.

Want to access our systems? Now, you can inside Copy Systems – our monthly membership where you implement every system we’ve developed over the years so that you can be more efficient and effective in your marketing efforts. Discover what’s inside here.

1. Get Focused On What You Want To Accomplish

First things first, you need to determine what you want to accomplish. This could be something as simple as…

Create your Q1 content marketing plan
Generate 52 email newsletter ideas to write about over the course of the year
Launch that new offer you’ve been dreaming of for 5 years

Once you get clarity on what you want to accomplish, it’s time to focus.

2. Create Milestones To Reach That Goal

The best way to focus is to build out the milestones needed to reach your goal. Depending on your objective, there may be 1 or 50 different milestones. Whatever it is, break it down into manageable, bitesize pieces.

We love to do this inside of ClickUp – our project management tool. We create a space or list – depending on the magnitude of the project. Then we break it down by milestones. Finally, we list every single task that needs to be checked off for us to pass through that milestone victoriously!

Bonus: implement a reward system for how you’re going to celebrate your progress. That could be as simple as your favorite latte from a local coffee shop or awarding your team with a bonus.

3. Designate A Brain Dump Process

Finally…And what really addresses the shiny object syndrome challenge…Designate a brain dump process. You as an entrepreneur have so many ideas – some brilliant, million-dollar ideas and some not-so-hot ideas. But when you let your brain spin when you’re supposed to be focused, you neglect your potential. That’s why we’ve developed a brain dump process.

Your billion-dollar ideas don’t show up in the middle of dramatic distraction. They show up when you have the business and personal discipline to make space for your creative mind to flourish.

– Robin S. Sharma

Remember, your ideas aren’t the enemy here. Your distraction is.

What Is A Brain Dump?

A brain dump is simply a place or document where you dump all your ideas for you to revisit later when you’re ready to tackle them.

How Do You Organize Your Brain Dump?

Depending on your role in the company, it may look different. But as an entrepreneur, here is how I organize my ideas: by “department”.

Inside our ClickUp, I’ve broken out each “department” or area in my business into a “Space”. From there, I have a Doc for that area’s brain dump. This is especially useful for departments that require a lot of infrastructure (i.e. product development, operations, sales, etc.).

For marketing purposes, I’ve created “statuses”. Only when I’m filling in our content calendar do I actually evaluate any of my ideas. You would be surprised at the number of marketing concepts that I either delete, edit, or merge to meet our FocusCopy standards.

When Do You Revisit Your Brain Dump?

Only on Fridays or pre-scheduled ideation dates do I actually revisit those ideas. And to vet each idea, I’ve created a process to evaluate each concept.

Does this align with our brand?
Will implementing this idea reach our annual strategic goals or even a quarterly goal?
Do we have the resources to execute this idea?
When is it feasible for us to implement this?
Does it feel right?

At the end of the day, you know your business the best. So trust your instincts when evaluating your brain dump.

Ready To Create A Process To Filter Through All Your Ideas Before Getting Distracted?

Is shiny object syndrome ruling your life? Distracting you from what’s in front of you? Pulling you from your goals?

If you said “yes”, it’s time to implement a process to filter through your ideas before getting distracted.

And, you can find the exact process we use for all our clients and our business inside of Copy Systems. Don’t wait to implement proven strategies to make your copywriting, marketing, and sales that much more efficient. Let’s create something brewtiful!

5 B2B Lead Generation Ideas To Implement In Q1 2025

Marketing / By Lauren Jefferson / January 6, 2025 January 6, 2025

At the beginning of each year and quarter, entrepreneurs scramble to figure out the best strategy to implement to beat out the competition. And we’re not seeing anything different in Q1 2025. But as we look at B2B lead generation ideas, understand that 2025 is all about “Human First” experiences. Build the relationship, connect on a human level, put a face to your company brand, and ultimately…be human.

If you lead with that strategy, you will almost certainly win.

And that’s because even in the age of AI, your buyer is HUMAN. And people buy from people that they know, like, and trust.

So as you’re investigating B2B lead generation ideas, consider these.

5 B2B Lead Generation Ideas That Will Put Your Brand Ahead In 2025

Get ready to pull your brand ahead of the competition with these B2B lead generation ideas.

1. Automate & Personalize Your Email Campaigns

No, this does not mean putting in a “Hi [Name]” and calling it a day! In fact, automation and personalization in 2025 are more human-centric and organic. You may remember the days pre-COVID when the bulk of marketing took time, multiple touchpoints, and a lot of effort to make a conversion. Then in the COVID era, our buying behaviors changed.

Well, in 2025…You’re expected to be more responsive, more organic, and more authentic if you want to be successful. But how does that look?

Implementing responsive follow-up campaigns for every activity (i.e. networking, conversion, nurturing, customer service, etc.)
Expressing personal stories that are both authentic and vulnerable
Considering how to get your subscribers to love you as a person (even if you’re a brand)

What does this mean for your email marketing lead generation?

First, it means creating automations that are behavior-based. If they click on link A, they enter campaign A. But if they don’t open email B, then they are sent into a re-engagement campaign.

You wouldn’t not respond to that hilarious meme your best friend texted, right?

And you wouldn’t not react appropriately to a prospect’s behavior…Why would you do the same in your email campaigns?

2. Create More Authentic Content

Every single piece of content that your marketing team produces needs to be oozing with authenticity. That means sharing faces on social media, getting on video even if you despise hearing your voice, expressing your vulnerabilities through storytelling, and even embracing your mistakes publicly.

For example, we saw the most popular LinkedIn posts being those that shared raw stories. Stories that pulled heartstrings or even connected with others on a human level. That’s why I’ve challenged myself to do the same, more consistently on LinkedIn. Follow along for authentic content post ideas.

3. Publish Case Studies

The other thing that will help generate more leads for your business is to publish case studies. Include metrics, testimonials, and transformational stories of how your offer impacted a person and organization.

Basically, answering the question…How have you made your clients’ lives easier?

This is a great way for you to prove that you can do what you say you do. But it also provides a platform for you to emotionally and logically connect with your target audience – making the need to buy a snap decision.

4. Host In-Person Events

Along the lines of “human first”, hosting in-person events is an amazing lead generation idea for your brand. And from our strategic partner and event planning experts, Go Savvy, here is what they would highly recommend:

Put a twist to the type of event you’re hosting by making it experiential
Immerse an experience into the event by touching the 5 senses (touch, see, taste, smell, and hear)
Do not neglect the follow-up to your event

We covered a lot of this in our AMPLIFY workshop series in 2024, but event follow-up is the #1 most neglected event activity but the one that yields the most ROI…if done right.

Ask yourself…What do you want every single event participant to do after your event is over? When catering has cleaned up and gone and the valet wraps up for the night…What else do your clients need from you to move forward in the journey? And how can you get them from strangers to raving fans of your brand?

5. Consider The Entire Customer Journey

And finally, as you are generating more leads for this quarter, you must evaluate the entire customer journey.

How do they become aware that you exist?
What engagement activities create goodwill in the relationship between your brand and your buyers?
What do they need to do to subscribe to your message (and is your messaging clear)?
How do they convert to a paying customer?
What do you do to get them excited about working with you and reduce buyer’s remorse?
How do you move them throughout your entire offer catalog?
What transforms them from regular buyers to raving fans who continue to push your brand and its offerings for you?

When you ask those questions, you start to uncover small parts of your customer journey that need your attention to either refine or create a completely new strategy to reach your goals.

Pro Tip: Establish metrics for each stage of your customer journey and measure them across a designated period (i.e. a quarter). Where you are falling behind is where you need to put your attention.

B2B Lead Generation Will Look Different In 2025…Don’t Get Left Behind!

Are you an entrepreneur or business planning to thrive in 2025?

Now more than ever, businesses are scrambling to navigate their marketing with the introduction of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the mass adoption of AI, and ever-changing algorithms. This is why we’re giving you the heads up now to keep your ear to the ground of what technically needs to happen before moving your marketing forward. At the end of the day, the key to successful marketing is to prioritize your humanness and your ability to build a relationship with your target audience.

Struggling to understand how to stay ahead of your competition? Let’s pour a cuppa and dive deep into your business.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

Our Foolproof Strategy For Choosing A Theme For Your Year

Entrepreneurship / By Lauren Jefferson / December 30, 2024 December 30, 2024

As service-based entrepreneurs, we’ve all been there…Another year begins, and you’re armed with a list of ambitious resolutions that inevitably fade by February. Between managing clients, scaling our businesses, and navigating personal growth, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or scattered.

But what if there was a more powerful, intentional way to approach your business goals?

Enter the transformative concept of choosing a theme for your year – a strategic compass that goes far beyond traditional resolutions. By the end of this blog, you’ll have the tools to select your own word of the year and set the tone for a successful and fulfilling year ahead.

The Entrepreneurial Dilemma Of Scattered Efforts & Burnout

Let’s be honest…Running a service-based business means wearing countless hats.

You’re the strategist, marketer, salesperson, customer service rep, and chief problem-solver – all rolled into one. It’s exhilarating, but it’s also exhausting. You only have so many hours in the day! Without a clear focus, you may find yourself constantly spinning your wheels – jumping from one task to another and never truly making meaningful progress.

This is where the magic of a carefully chosen theme comes into play. It simplifies decision-making and provides a clear sense of direction – all while still allowing for flexibility and adjustment as the year goes on. Here’s why it matters:

Alignment: A theme ensures your daily tasks and long-term goals are moving in the same direction.
Focus: It helps you prioritize what will make the biggest impact – reducing distractions and overwhelm.
Consistency: By rooting your actions in a guiding principle, you can build habits that drive sustainable growth.

This year, our guiding stars are “Focus” and “Consistency” – 2 powerful principles that can revolutionize how you approach your business. You’ll find throughout this blog how we are weaving these themes into our entire operation.

Decoding Focus Requires More Than Just Concentration

Focus isn’t about working harder; it’s about working smarter. For entrepreneurs, focus means ruthlessly prioritizing what truly moves the needle in your business. It’s about saying “no” to good opportunities so you can say “yes” to great ones.

So as you look to choose a theme for your year, remember that it’s more than just a catchy phrase. Your theme is a compass that directs your actions and decisions. By aligning your efforts with a clear theme, you can:

Increase focus and productivity while prioritizing tasks and eliminating distractions.
Improve decision-making with a reliable framework for evaluating opportunities and making choices.
Enhance creativity and innovation with a theme that can spark new ideas and inspire fresh perspectives.
Gain a greater sense of direction and purpose, keeping up with your clear vision for the year ahead.

Practical Focus Strategies That Actually Work

As a busy entrepreneur, you need practicality. And what’s simpler than 4 focus strategies that you have probably already heard about but not implemented all of them…yet?

Quarterly Priority Setting: Instead of overwhelming yourself with year-long goals, break your focus into quarterly priorities. What are the top 3 objectives that will significantly impact your business this quarter?
The 80/20 Rule: Identify the 20% of your activities that generate 80% of your results. These are your focus areas. Everything else is a potential distraction. Remember, you can always adjust the next quarter if you didn’t get it quite right.
Time Blocking: Dedicate specific hours to your most important tasks. Protect these hours like you would a crucial client meeting. I am a big proponent of color coding the calendar. Before the week starts, I block off my calendar to work on specific tasks. Then each type of activity is color-coded so that I can see from a high level where I’m spending the most time.
Distraction Elimination: Turn off notifications, create a dedicated workspace, and establish boundaries. Your focus is your most valuable asset.

Consistency Is The Unsung Hero Of Business Growth

If focus is your strategic compass, consistency is the engine that drives you forward. It’s not about being perfect – it’s about being persistent.

That’s why “consistency” is our secondary theme for our upcoming year.

Successful entrepreneurs aren’t those who do extraordinary things occasionally, but those who do important things consistently. Think about it…A social media post every day beats a viral moment once a year with a digital lifespan of 15 minutes of fame. A steady stream of quality client work trumps sporadic, inconsistent efforts.

So I think we can all agree that consistency is the unsung hero of business growth.

Building Consistent Systems That Scale

At the base of all consistency is systems.

Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Document your key processes. This ensures quality and allows for potential delegation.
Automate Routine Tasks: Use tools that can handle repetitive work, freeing you to focus on high-value activities.
Establish Tracking Mechanisms: What gets measured gets managed. Create simple dashboards to track your consistency.

Struggling to produce the right message for your business? All effective marketing begins when you have the right systems in place. Explore how Copy Systems establishes the foundation for you to build your entire strategy around.

Our Foolproof Strategy: Choosing Your Theme

Are you ready to finally access our foolproof strategy for choosing a theme for your year? Let’s get into the 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Radical Honesty & Reflection

Take a brutally honest look at the past year. What worked? What didn’t? Where did you lose focus? This isn’t about self-criticism – it’s about understanding your patterns and learning where you need to improve. Ask yourself questions like:

What were my biggest wins last year?
What challenges held me back?
Which habits or behaviors supported my growth?
Where did I feel the most aligned and fulfilled?
What are your goals for the year?
What areas of your life do you want to improve?
What challenges do you anticipate?

For example, our reflections revealed that while we achieved some big wins, distractions and inconsistency often derailed our momentum. That insight led us to choose “Focus” as our theme for the year.

Step 2: Vision Mapping

Translate your reflection into a clear vision. Take a moment to envision your ideal outcomes in both business and personal life. For service-based entrepreneurs, this might include:

Scaling your business by attracting ideal clients
Streamlining your offers to focus on high-impact services
Creating a better balance between all the roles you hold

Your vision should be aspirational but also grounded in reality. For instance, we envisioned a year where we focus on fewer, high-impact goals rather than spreading ourselves too thin.

“Focus” to us means building specific rhythms in our operation that deliver amazing results over and over again, create exceptional client experiences, and generate a predictable marketing strategy.

Step 3: Tactical Implementation

Now comes the fun part: selecting your theme. Your word should:

Resonate emotionally: It should feel exciting and motivating.
Be actionable: It should guide your decisions and behaviors.
Reflect your priorities: It should align with your big-picture vision.

Some examples of themes include:

Simplify: For those looking to streamline their business operations.
Elevate: For entrepreneurs ready to take their brand to the next level.
Balance: For those striving to harmonize work and life.

For us, “Focus” felt like the perfect word to guide our efforts this year.

Then, you’ll want to break down your themes into actionable quarterly goals. If your focus is on creating consistent marketing, this might mean:

Developing a content calendar
Scheduling weekly marketing activities
Setting up automation for social media and email marketing

Bonus Points: Layer in a secondary theme.

A secondary theme complements your primary word and provides additional depth. It’s especially helpful if your primary theme addresses a big challenge and you want a supporting word to balance it out.

For example:

If your primary word is “Grow,” your secondary word might be “Sustain.”
If your primary word is “Create,” your secondary word might be “Share.”

Our secondary theme, “Consistency,” ensures that our efforts to focus are sustained over time – creating habits that lead to long-term success.

Avoiding Common Entrepreneurial Pitfalls

When choosing a theme for your year, there are a couple of common entrepreneurial pitfalls I want to help you avoid:

Overwhelm: Start small. Choose 2-3 key areas to focus on, not 20.
Motivation Dips: Create accountability. Share your themes with a mentor, coach, or business group.
Flexibility vs. Commitment: Your theme is a guide, not a rigid rulebook. Be prepared to adjust while maintaining your core focus.

Your Action Plan

Ready to choose your theme? Here’s your action plan:

Reflection Worksheet: Spend 2 hours this week reviewing last year’s business performance.
Theme Alignment: Write down how your chosen theme specifically applies to your business.
Quarterly Goals: List 3 concrete objectives that embody these themes.

We’d love to hear what you come up with! Share your word of the year in the comments or tag us on social media with your theme.

Final Thoughts: Your Theme, Your Journey

Remember, choosing a theme isn’t about perfection – it’s about progression. Some days you’ll nail your focus, other days you’ll wobble. That’s not just okay; it’s part of the entrepreneurial journey.

Your themes of Focus and Consistency are more than words. They’re a commitment to yourself, your business, and the impact you want to create. Embrace them, but also be kind to yourself as you grow.

Are you ready to make this your most intentional, focused, and consistent year yet?

Start by building Copy Systems into your marketing. This new membership gives you everything you need to build focus, consistency, flexibility, and scalability into your marketing. And who doesn’t want that? Explore how this membership could transform how you approach your marketing.