Lauren Jefferson

Lauren Jefferson is the Co-Founder and CEO of FocusCopy – a full-service copywriting agency. She loves everything copy, digital marketing, and coffee!

Automated Email Campaigns

5 Automated Email Campaigns To Streamline Your Follow-Up

Life is hectic with the constant noise, never-ending notifications, and distractions galore. It’s only amplified when you’re an entrepreneur, wearing multiple hats to manage your business(es). And all that busyness doesn’t leave you much time to send out emails to stay in touch with your prospects or customers. 

Enter stage left…Automated email campaigns

These are amazing tools to add to your marketing toolkit and help you to further build your know, like, and trust factors – which you should always be working on even after you’ve signed the client. 

But where do you start? Which campaigns do you need to focus on first? After managing email lists of over 27,000 and testing numerous campaigns for dozens of companies, we’ve identified 6 automated email campaigns every company needs. 

Implement These Automated Email Campaigns

The whole goal of implementing these automated email campaigns is to free up your time while still building brand equity with your audience. 

Indoctrination Campaign

Indoctrination is where you introduce yourself to your audience and give them the lay of the land. My Co-Founder, Stuart Broderick, jokes that this type of campaign sounds like what aliens would use. But if aliens came to Earth, they’d need to tell us how they now want to run the planet.

I digress…Indoctrination campaigns are simply 3-5 email campaigns that introduce you to them, share more about how they can connect with your brand on a deeper level, and set communication expectations. 

You can send subscribers into this campaign after they’ve:

Networking Follow-Up Campaign

Any introverts reading this blog? As a BIG introvert, I tend to avoid networking events like the plague. Because of that, I’ve found that networking one-on-one is a lot more productive for me. But all that time invested into those conversations would be wasted if I neglected to follow back up with them and book another conversation. 

That’s why it’s so important to implement a networking follow-up campaign. 

After every networking meeting, I put them in a campaign to follow up on a given timeframe to schedule another call. 

What’s funny is that the timing is usually perfect because they are now thinking back to their conversations and they think I’m on top of following up. 

Can I tell you a secret? Follow-up is the last thing I want to do at the end of the day. So I’ve automated it. And the results have been amazing. 

Long Term Nurture Campaign

Want to shorten your sales cycle? Frustrated with prospects ghosting you after what seemed hopeful? Feel like your current follow-up strategy isn’t effective? 

Cue the long term nurture campaign. 

This campaign is filled with regular emails that educate, inspire, and make your prospects think. When we first launched this type of campaign in March 2022, we weren’t really sure what to expect. Would prospects get annoyed? What could we even expect? 

The results astounded us. 

We had referrals that had gone cold for 2 years reach back out to us for services. Others needed a quarter or two to come back to the conversation. Prospects also implemented some of the tips we included in our emails and saw a lot of success. 

But what did we write about? We’ve included all the prompts we used inside this free guide

Referral Partner Nurture Campaign

Similar to the long term nurture campaign, you need to follow up with your referral partners – the people who are working with your target audience. Educate them how they can refer you, add value to their client conversations, and even improve their businesses. 

Sales Meeting Follow-Up Campaign

Lastly, sales follow-up is essential. Something as simple as a “thank you for your time today” goes a long way for the relationship. After each sales call, we trigger a response based on the outcome. The emails always include a “thank you”. But we have several outcomes to set expectations: 

  • Requested a quote
  • Wanted a pricing list
  • Ordered a proposal
  • Want to hold off until a future date

Of course, we probably over-customized. So feel free to implement a simple thank you email!

Use These Prompts To Improve Your Automated Campaigns

At the end of the day, it’s one thing to say you need to set up automated campaigns. And in reality, they are fairly easy to set up. But it’s an entirely different task to actually write the copy for each of those emails. That’s why we developed and tested 52 prompts that you can use to steer your writing process

Maintaining meaningful connections with your clients is still possible when using automated technology to do so. Find out for yourself!

Prospects Slipping Through The Cracks Of Your Sales Pipeline?

You may be leaving money on the table if you aren’t following up with them regularly and relationally. 

What's A Pain Point Sandwich?

What’s A Pain Point Sandwich? (And How It Makes A Big Impact On Your Copy)

Does your business’s copy include a pain point sandwich?

What’s a pain point sandwich?

We’re glad you asked! 

Good copywriters know that connecting with an audience means more than talking solely about a business and its offerings (yawn).

We like using pain point sandwiches in our writing because it’s fun, establishes trust, and really does make sense! 

Ready to delegate your writing to the experts? Talk to our team to get going.

Why It’s Beneficial To Talk Less About Your Business & Include A Pain Point Sandwich Instead

If you take a moment to glance at your business’s website copy, does it sound like you might be heading in the me, me, me direction?

It’s time to switch it up, especially if the phone hasn’t been ringing for quite some time.

If you’re a business owner, this might be tough to grasp. But it rings true with every kind of copy we’ve come up with that has performed beyond our client’s expectations. This is because we’re using client-focused copy to… 

  • Build trust by reaching them on a human level
  • Keep the attention on the target audiences and their problem
  • Provide a meaningful solution without being too salesy

Every single one of these items is a key to achieving your ultimate goal – turning readers into paying customers. But it all starts with understanding each element at its core to really get the big picture.

What’s A Pain Point Sandwich?

A pain point sandwich looks something like this…

Pain point → Don’t have the time or capacity to write your own website?

Solution → Hire professional copywriters to do it for you!

Pain point → If your website is failing to give you strong potential leads, it could be because your copy is outdated, unclear, or otherwise unconnected with your customer base. We can help!

See? You don’t need a magic formula or extensive research to simply call out your customers’ pain points, offer a solution, and remind them of other pain points that give your solution real value.

Why Pain Point Sandwiches Work

Humans are forgetful. In fact, it’s been reported that over the last decade or so, our attention spans have been reduced to less than that of a goldfish (Time). And since that report, I can only assume it’s gotten worse with content overload, the boom of short video content, and the isolation that the pandemic brought to many. 

That’s why it’s imperative to use pain point sandwiches in your copy – to remind them of the pain point they just read about. The more they resonate with the pain point, the more likely they are going to be open to buying from you. 

Using You Instead Of We Is Life-Changing

Almost 70% of customers feel as though they must trust a brand before they make a purchase. So when you write and speak to your audience like a real human being, you’re able to build some of that much-needed trust as soon as they reach your website. 

Along with that newly established trust is the opportunity to turn a website visitor into a buying customer. And the more you speak their language, the more chance you have at transforming them into a repeat customer. 

The best way to do this is by swapping I, us, and our language for you, yours, and we wording. This way, you are still able to share your business’s message while offering authentic copy your customers can relate to. 

Your Customers’ Pain Point Examples Deserve A Callout

Remember, your business cannot exist solely because of your need to make money. Yes, profit is a big part of what you do. But you also need to reassure your audience that your company’s purpose is to make their lives easier. 

Try to switch up copy you create to call out your customers’ pain points. This is one surefire way to remind them that you know what they’re going through and that you’re committed to solving their issue.

Here are a few examples of our own…

???? You can’t stand writing!

???? There is no room in your schedule to do it yourself – otherwise, you would!

????‍???? You don’t know how or where to start writing for your website.

???? You’re afraid that another person’s writing won’t sound like you at all. 

There’s no need to dance around the issues your customers face. You also don’t need to use this opportunity to talk only about yourself. Your potential customers want to be sure that you understand where they’re coming from before they can even begin to trust you. Only then should you talk about your business while maintaining a voice of empathy and connection. 

Define How Your Business Solves Their Problem

Whether you offer one spectacular service or a slew of various solutions, it’s important for your customers to know your business’s true value.

Remember those previous pain point examples? 

Let’s go right back to them and address the value of our offerings to our ideal customers.

FocusCopy exists to…

✅ Take the writing off of your to-do list.

???? Give you time to focus on your priorities without neglecting your digital marketing.

???? Put your mind at ease by providing a clear strategy and delivery timeline that works for you.

???? Relieve your worries by creating copy that’s consistent with your brand’s tone, voice, and style. 

There’s no catch! 

This type of copy works because we really do know what business owners and entrepreneurs go through when they’re thinking about writing for their businesses. 

Not everyone likes to write or thinks they’re even good at writing – and that’s okay! We understand and we’re here to solve the problem with copywriting services that we stand by 100%.

Contact FocusCopy for concise copy delivered right to your inbox.

Talk To Your Customers Using A Team Of Professional Writers

Creating value-centered copy is our house blend…our special brew…our personal choice all day, every day. 

Creating copy that resonates with our clients and their clients is something that we’re proud to dive into with pure focus and dedication. There’s nothing like looking at a blank page (most people’s worst nightmare) while our mind is churning with ideas to jot down.

Interested in seeing how client-focused copy can change your marketing? Get started with FocusCopy!

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
blogging for your business

Answering Your Top Questions About Blogging For Your Business

What’s the big deal with blogs?

Don’t worry! You’re not the first to ask.

However, you’re the next to learn about the power behind writing blogs for your business! 

Not all blogs are the same. And not all are created with sales in mind. Some people simply utilize blogging platforms to share their thoughts and practice their own writing skills.

But blogging for your business, if done right, just may be the key to growing your brand awareness and increasing revenue. I’m not a betting woman, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that right about now you’re thinking that sounds like a pretty good plan for your business.

If you’ve read this far, you’re at least a little interested in what all the blog is about. So I’m going to break down the top FAQs for writing blogs for your business.

The Top 6 FAQs For Writing Blogs For Your Business

We’ve put together the most common questions we receive about blogging for your business into a neat little package – this blog. 

If you’re ready to see real results from your marketing efforts, we should chat.

Schedule a time to talk so we can take your marketing impact to new heights!

1. How Does One Start Blogging? Is There A Secret Club & Initiation?

There’s no secret society of bloggers. I mean, there might be…But I wasn’t invited to it. Did it stop me from blogging? Nope!

The truth is, the trick to writing a blog, like so many other things in life, is to simply start. Pick up the pen, sit at the computer, and get rid of that blank page before you. Seriously, open up that dirty window. Then, let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find. Okay…Sorry about The Hills reference. 

Back to blogs…Whether or not you need a nostalgic song to kick-start your blog productivity to help grow your business, we’ve got you covered. The key is to truly get rid of the blinking white page on the screen. Simply start writing. Get your thoughts out. Go back and look at it with fresh eyes the next morning. Have a trusted confidant proofread and be receptive to their feedback. 

Even the best of us suffer from writer’s block. But we’ve found that just getting started is the quickest way to make the hesitations and second-guessing disappear.  

2. I’ve Read So Many Blogs With Different Formatting, Isn’t There A How-To Guide To Do It Right?

It’s great that so many people utilize blogging platforms to share their life. Does that mean all of them are doing it right? 

Nope!

But we’re not judging anyone who’s doing their own thing. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere. However, if you want your blogs to make an impact on your business, it’s better to follow proven formatting methods.

For instance, Google (you know, the holy grail) uses an algorithm to rank websites on the search engine results page (SERP). The ranking is a direct result of search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. While yes, the algorithm constantly changes, professional writers like my team at FocusCopy keep up with the trends to help our clients achieve success. 

However, there are some tried and true methods to the madness that will likely be sticking around. If you take a closer look at this blog you’re reading right now, you may notice our use of headers. 

We usually start with a header 2 to re-emphasize the topic and keyword(s). Then the body of the blog is done in sections marked with header 3s. Any further differentiation in sections would happen in the next header down, and so on. It may seem silly, but Google cares about the difference in header sizes.  

Moreover, the word count is also a biggie. So don’t go wild with a 4-thousand word blog. In fact, Google would prefer you keep it under 2-thousand words. The sweet spot is somewhere between 1200-1800 words. This excludes pillar posts.

Equally important is to keep the content between each header under 300 words. Yep, another surprising but factual point that can make a difference in your Google ranking. 

Psst…We’re big fans of Yoast SEO to help keep our formatting, word count, and word usage in check. 

3. Does The Number Of Blogs I Write & How Often I Post Them Matter?

Yup. But here’s the cool part…You don’t have to write more frequently than you want. It’s actually better that you remain consistent than spend your energy trying to reach unattainable goals. In the long run, setting unrealistic blog goals may even hurt your SEO efforts and, as a result, knock you down in the Google ranks.

Instead, you should focus on publishing blogs consistently. One a quarter, month, week – whatever works for you. Here’s another cool thing, you don’t have to wait until 3 days before your self-assigned publish date to start writing your blog for your business. 

As professional copywriters, we prewrite many blogs for ourselves and our clients to have on hand to publish according to the schedule that works best for the respective company. 

To get started, take a list of topics that:

Then, schedule some time to sit down and write as much about each topic that you can. But don’t do your best and stash it away for 6 months. Schedule more time in the near future (like within the same week) to review your writing with fresh eyes. And finish it up! We recommend sending it to a friend, colleague, or family member to proofread. Trust me, you’d much rather your nearest and dearest point out your mistakes than hundreds of critics in the Reddit gallery. 

Want a professional writer and editor to take a gander at your blog before you hit the big, shiny publish button? Well, you’re in luck because FocusCopy offers copyediting services for our entrepreneurs who enjoy writing for themselves. Schedule a discovery call with me today to learn how we can support your business’ marketing efforts. 

4. With So Many Bloggers Out There, How Can I Make Mine Standout & Get Noticed?

SEO is the key to ranking high and getting noticed on the world wide web. With an estimated 7.5 million blogs posted every day, it may feel impossible to ever see your company at the very top of the SERP

Don’t sell yourself short before you give it a try. We’ve proudly seen so many of our own clients rise through the ranks to the top spots with our blogging service. 

The trick is to research, study, implement, and practice SEO. This means including keywords that your target audience is searching for online. And of course, sticking to the right formatting and word count. But it also goes so much further. 

Google is smart enough to recognize AI-generated and poorly written content. Don’t expect to see those at the top. Instead, use power words and write like a human. Yes, the same writing style to engage your audience and convert them into paying customers also pays off in the SEO world. But with good SEO, that target market is more likely to actually see your brand messaging.  

5. After Spending So Much Time Writing A Blog, Can I Make Further Use Of The Content?

Repurposing content is truly one of the tricks of the trade. We’ve also taught so many of our clients how to do this, too!

Say you have a blog. Does it focus on or mention any specific seasons or years? Are you referring to something that’s in the news right now? If so, that is a timely piece. Go ahead and publish it. Take out snippets to create social media posts to promote your blog. Then, re-work the same blog into an email newsletter to keep your best fan base in the know.

But if you’re not including time specific aspects…Congratulations – you have written an evergreen blog! This is a great asset to your marketing toolkit. You’ll be able to reshare, repurpose, and refer to this blog for years to come. Literally, evergreen content is such a blessing. 

6. What If I Absolutely Despise Writing & The Thought Of Doing It Makes Me Cringe?

Then don’t ????????‍♀️ Work with a copywriter with a proven ability to enhance your business’ marketing for real growth. 

At FocusCopy, we’ve created original content for over 100 businesses (let’s see where this number gets when we repurpose this blog in 7 years). This includes everything such as blogs, newsletters, grant proposals, social media posts, social media ads, LinkedIn articles, podcast scripts, promotional brochures, and so much more. 

And we don’t blame you for hating writing. Because we love it. I mean, I created an entire business around it. Then, I hired copywriters who also love writing. Together we make up a team that supports our clients by taking on the task they either don’t want to do or don’t have time to do. 

Leave Blogging To The Pros & Get Back To What Matters Most

If after reading this, you’re still not sold on writing your own blogs – that’s okay. But hopefully you’ve learned a few things about SERP, SEO, Google ranking, and are making plans to bolster your marketing plan.

We’re here to support you as a business partner by writing converting copy in your brand voice. Seriously, not even your sister will know someone else wrote it. 

Schedule a discovery call with me and let’s get going on your blogging journey!

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
why blogging is important for business

7 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Business

Are you a business owner with a blog you haven’t updated in a while? 

Perhaps you’ve thought about launching a blog but aren’t completely sure why blogging is important for businesses.

As copywriters, one of the questions we receive most often includes whether businesses really need a blog or not. But, it’s a loaded question with a (somewhat) complicated answer.

You should first know that about 77% of people read blogs online regularly. That alone might not be enough to convince you to get going on your blogging journey, but you should also know that 61% of online users make a purchase after reading a blog. 

See? You have much more of an influence than you might think.

Try to think of your business’s blog this way…

You don’t need to have an extra voice within your industry to be seen, heard, and understood. But wouldn’t it help if you did?

Interested in starting a blog for your business? Let’s talk about how a blog can help your profitability, brand awareness, and so much more.

1. Build Brand Awareness

Building brand awareness through your business’s blog makes customer interactions feel more like a friendly conversation instead of an outright sales pitch. If used the right way, your blog can be seen as a tool for your audience.  

In fact, more than 40,000 Google searches occur every single second. Of these searches, many people turn directly to How To, DIY, and other blogs that teach them how to do something. 

Whether it’s exactly what they were looking for or not, they increase engagement and web traffic for that business with every click. It’s like being able to walk down the street and pop into stores they’re interested in without feeling the immense pressure to purchase something.

If your audience likes what they see, they’re more likely to share it with friends, family, co-workers, and beyond. The more your message is spread, the more opportunities you have to make an impact with your business at the forefront.

2. Include Long-Tail Search Keywords

Long-tail keywords are essential for blog writing. This is because when most people perform an internet search for something, they usually type in a thought, phrase, or string of keywords that will give them the results they need.

For example, let’s say you’re a local bakery looking to drum up more business. Your audience could just search “sugar cookie” and end up with a few million results. But they’re much more likely to find exactly what they’re looking for by typing in more specific, long-tail keywords like “best classic sugar cookie recipe with butter” or something similar.

As your bakery’s blog creator, using the entire long-tail keyword within your heading, subheadings, and overall unique content pushes your blog to the top of a user’s search results. This means you’re more likely to be seen by your target audience. 

Meanwhile, your target audience is more likely to click on your blog to find what they need and potentially explore other offerings like your products and services. They might even feel inclined to sign up for something – which leads us right into our next big benefit.

3. Construct A Larger Following

Use your blogs to attach powerful call-to-actions (CTAs) like:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Follow us on social media
  • Join our course
  • Download your free guide

And these are just to name a few!

Your CTA options are unlimited and serve as a great way to keep your audience engaged with your brand long after they’ve hit the little x button. Use your blog and a solid CTA to gain more followers interested in your brand.

4. Increase Crosslinking Opportunities

One of the best ways to create an authentic experience through your blogs is by crosslinking within them. Crosslinks in blogging are one of the best SEO tools you can use to improve your online presence. It boosts your SEO and gives you a chance to optimize the use of your owned domains to the best of your ability.

What Is Crosslinking?

Adding crosslinks to your blogs allows you to guide readers to other pages on your website that you want them to see. They also provide an opportunity to attach shared categories or tags to them. This way, you continue showing up higher in search results.

Crosslinking allows businesses like yours to increase exposure with minimal effort. So, even if you’re a marketing business discussing blogging for businesses, you can also pique the interest of your readers who might simultaneously be searching for copywriting for businesses (see what we did there?).  

5. Widen Content Splintering Opportunities

Alright – you have long-tail search keywords to help you with blog topics, a few ideas for CTAs, and an understanding of how crosslinking can help.

It sounds exhausting! But you don’t need to create everything only to use it once. 

Take the information you’ve given in your blog and splinter it into other marketing avenues for your business. Doing so means that you can avoid: 

  • Retyping your thoughts
  • Spending more time on content creation
  • Skipping out on posting to your socials

Break everything down section by section, point by point, or however else you see fit.

Want to create a wealth of content starting with a blog for your business? Let’s get going!

6. Become An Authority Leader With Each Topic

This is a good one.

Blogging establishes your voice within your industry and community. By offering valuable information that readers can truly rely on, you become much more trustworthy and memorable moving forward.

And you know what we love to say about people who do business with others? 

People do business with businesses they know and trust.

Offering your voice as an authority leader within your industry allows current and potential customers to feel as though they know you, can trust you, and can look to you for future insight – which brings us to our final reason for having a blog for your business.

7. Offer Valuable Answers & Advice

You are able to offer answers to many frequently asked questions that your customers continuously have. Answering them in a blog (or several blogs) gives your audience direct access to you and your expertise without wasting time on the phone or in your inbox going back and forth about the answer.

The truth is that there are certain things you know about your business that others might not know. This makes blogging about it the perfect way to bust any popular myths while providing tangible solutions through your products or services.

We Know Why Blogging Is Important For Businesses Of All Types

Our team knows how important it is for businesses to have a blog. We also know that entrepreneurs are usually strapped for time with no idea where to start (it’s part of our why).

FocusCopy is here to help.Need help launching your business’s blog? Chat with us to get started.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
improve your writing skills

15 Ways To Improve Your Writing Skills As An Entrepreneur

Have you ever thought about finding quick ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur?

Business owners tend to feel an immense amount of pressure to be able to do it all and do it all well. Writing for your business is one skill you must nail to feel successful.

However, we also understand that even the most high-achieving entrepreneurs can feel burnt out, against a wall, and just plain ol’ uninspired when writing for their business.

For some, it’s been a while since you’ve sat in a classroom fine-tuning your creative writing brain. And for others, writing anything is your worst nightmare – even with all of the coffee in the world to keep you going (we’ve been there, too).

But we’re not here to gatekeep the best ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur, which is why we’ve created the list below.

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Improve Their Writing Skills

As an entrepreneur, you have many many many hats on your head. Writing is one of those hats that will continue to serve you over and over again. 

Similar to accounting, you need to know how to do it. Whether you should do it – that’s an entirely different question. 

But when it comes to your words, you need to have the skill sharpened. When you know how to communicate effectively through the written word, you are able to: 

  • Close sales on the deals you actually want
  • Attract the right types of clients
  • Secure financing through traditional loans or investment
  • Motivate your team, vendors, and clients
  • Limit the back and forth in email because you got your point across clearly

The limits are endless when you know how to write well.

How To Improve Your Writing Skills

Yes, writing is a skill. This means you need to practice every now and then to avoid making mistakes while getting your message across clearly. Here are 15 ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur.

1. Create A Daily Practice To Write

Again, writing is a skill much like swimming or cooking. You can excel at it, but it takes time and practice.

To clarify, you don’t need to sign up for another college course or set aside hours of your day. You can polish your general writing skills in as little as 15 minutes a day using quick writing quizzes from free sources like the Academic English Cafe

If you’re looking for less structure, pick a fun prompt you can use to write a short story for yourself. Set the clock and write as much as possible in 15 minutes, then stop. Plug your story into software like Grammarly to check for spelling and grammar and see how to improve your style.

No extra time on your hands? We’re here to help. Let’s talk about what you want out of copywriting for your business.

2. Diversify Writing Styles

Go back to choosing a fun prompt. This time, take only a few minutes to write using 3 different styles. You can alter anything you want to make it sound…

  • Extra professional
  • Positive and lighthearted
  • Extremely emotional
  • Sales focused
  • Exciting
  • Straight forward

When you’re done, take a look at all 3 and read them aloud to yourself to get a better idea of which styles you excel at and which could use a bit more work. Believe us when we say there’s a big difference between writing styles depending on your voice and tone.

3. Time Yourself

There are 2 solid ways you can practice timing your writing in 15 minutes or less:

  1. Answer an industry-based FAQ you definitely know everything about
  2. Discuss an industry-related hot topic you wish you knew more about

The first will allow you to see how much and how well you can get your point across in those 15 minutes. The second will give you a short chance to research and write what you know with the same previous goal in mind. 

Reread both finished prompts and try to pinpoint places where you could improve.

4. Select Your Favorite Passage Or Page To Copy

Have you ever read something that you truly admired? 

Whether you were looking at another company’s website or e-blast, you can emulate a similar style in your own writing without being a complete copycat. Here’s how to do just that using a landing page like this one:

  1. Find a landing page you admire
  2. Break down the page line by line into clear sections like…
    1. Headlines
    2. Subheadings
    3. Body copy
    4. Call-to-actions (CTA buttons)
    5. Final statement or header
  3. Write about your own business following a similar style

Once you feel like you’re going in a good direction, take a step back, and admire your hard work.

Thinking about adding engaging landing pages for your business but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered!

5. Record Yourself, Then Transcribe

Let’s say you’ve been chosen to give a speech on a popular topic in your industry. Keep the speech under 5 minutes and simply speak on the topic while recording yourself. 

As soon as you’re done, start transcribing what you’ve said. Chances are, you’ll notice right away the number of times you say things you would NEVER write. This includes words like…um, err, uh, like, and anything else that isn’t truly a full thought (Hint: Don’t include those). From there, you can write down everything else you’ve said and edit it to make it more concise and digestible to read.

Psst! If you do this, you can create a blog or social media post for yourself. 

6. Edit Someone Else’s Writing

One of the best ways to hone your writing skills is to edit other people’s writing. This allows you to get used to various styles and personalities to see what fits where best. Don’t know where to look? Start with editing friends’ or family members’ social media posts or emails they’ve sent (just don’t be so quick to point out their errors ????). 

If you’re comfortable, ask someone to write something for you to edit it for them. You never know, it might spark up some pretty interesting conversations about writing choices and preferences. 

7. Let Someone Else Edit Your Writing

Whether you pick a friend, colleague, spouse, or whomever, this practice will require you to be open to criticism. Choose something you’ve written before or something you haven’t yet published. Pass it on and be patient. Allow your editor time to read, edit, and offer other feedback if necessary.

It’s important to be open here because making mistakes doesn’t need to feel like the end of the world. Try to see it as a learning experience so you don’t make the same mistakes moving forward.

8. Don’t Be Afraid To Travel Back To The Basics

Let’s talk about timing yourself to gauge your typing speed. Most people consider this the number of words you type per minute (WPM). You can use a free tool online like this one from LiveChat to see where you stand on the writing race track. This is a good tool to use every now and again to get a quick measure of your WPM and the number of errors made. Continue practicing until you reach a new higher WPM with zero errors.

9. Try Benefits > Features

Every business owner knows which cool, innovative, or unique features they offer. But knowing the difference between a feature and a benefit is even more important. 

For example, if you run a dental clinic, described features usually look like:

  • Customer Parking Lot
  • Open Late On Tuesdays
  • Fast Service
  • Kids Dental

But here’s what they could look like when turned into true benefits to really entice your customers or potential customers:

  • No-Stress, Free Parking In Nearby Lot
  • No PTO Needed With Late Tuesday Appointments Available
  • Wait Time Is Always 10 Minutes Or Less
  • Quality Dental Services For Kids Ages 4+

So, what about your business? Write down your offered features and turn them into big benefits your audience can’t wait to learn more about.

10. Be Your Own Headline Hero

Take 10 minutes to jot down as many headline options you can think of for your business. Good, bad, and ugly – write them all down! Don’t overthink it or focus too hard on perfecting each one. This is a fantastic exercise to do when you feel uninspired, unfocused, or everything in between. Have fun with it! Use puns, wordplay (personal favorites), bold statements, and questions to spark your creativity.

11. Practice Punctuation.

We like to have fun here…But honestly, practice using the correct punctuation throughout your writing. You can use a simple spell-check tool to see if you got it right or to explore other options. For example, if you’ve never truly been strict about using the Oxford comma, give it a shot and see how it fits with your writing style. In addition to improving accuracy, practicing punctuation is also a good way to explore different writing styles.

12. Dear Diary Journal

You’re a working professional and entrepreneur, so we can go ahead and call it journaling now ????. 

Make journaling a short practice that you do every day or even once a week using an actual notebook (just smell those fresh pages) or your laptop, phone, or tablet. You don’t need a prompt to journal. You don’t even have to think about anything in particular to start writing! Simply write what you feel for a few minutes before you start work.

Do you have night owl energy? 

Journal late at night before going to bed and reread your thoughts in the morning!

13. Access A Writing Course

There are so many professional-quality writing courses for businesses available online. You just need to find the one that aligns with your goals. Courses like these don’t need to take up too much of your time and should be easy to follow. Courses like these also offer the most benefits as they allow you to chip away at their entirety on your own time. When you’re finished, you have a wealth of new knowledge you can use throughout all of your writing assets moving forward.

Join ours here: Launch Your Website Copy Academy

14. Explore Other Words

If you’ve done any of the above before, you can probably pick out words you might be overusing or repeating often. Put those words in a list and expand each one with 2 to 5 new words you can use in their place. Some commonly used words you should consider switching up include: 

  • Great
  • Amazing
  • Different
  • Utilize
  • New
  • Hard
  • Change
  • Important

Do you use these words too often in your writing? Add some flair when necessary to spice it up for your readers.

15. Sleep On It

Seriously! 

Once you’ve written something, taking a little break from it before hitting publish is okay. Give yourself the time to walk away from your writing and return to it with fresh eyes. You might find that you have a better way of saying what you’re trying to say when looking at it a second time.

No Time To Practice? Leave The Pen To The Pros!

Writing can feel overwhelming, and not everyone is comfortable writing for their business. But we are. 

Contact FocusCopy for a hearty cup of copy for your business goals.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
networking events to convert leads

How To Use Networking Events To Convert Leads & Improve Your Business Writing

Networking…We know it’s the key to a successful career. Small business owners know this more than anyone…And it’s a lot of pressure. You’re trying to grow an entire business, all while navigating crowded happy hours. The connections you make can lead to potential customers or profitable partnerships, but how do you take advantage of these opportunities? 

While you might thrive in normal social situations, networking is a different sort of beast. How are you supposed to build a genuine connection with someone while you’re looking for the right opportunity to share your elevator pitch? Don’t worry! It’s not uncommon for confident speakers or even lively extroverts to struggle at networking events. 

Building connections in your business life doesn’t have to feel like you’re a door-to-door salesman, endlessly reciting your memorized sales pitch. There are easy strategies you can implement that will allow you to make the most of your networking events, improve your business writing, and create potential leads.

In order to get the most out of your networking events to convert leads, you have to:

  1. Take control of the conversation
  2. Offer valuable advice
  3. Get vulnerable
  4. Identify new pain points

4 Steps To Making The Most Of Your Networking Events

Your networking events can help you grow your business – if you have the right conversations and follow up with those conversations after the fact. 

Do you have strong, converting copy to send to your networking contacts? Schedule a call with the FocusCopy team to learn how we can help. 

Take Control of the Conversation

Taking control of the conversation means asking questions and directing the conversation. In our experience, the more you get the person you’re chatting with talking, the better the outcome. After they talk enough, they’ll naturally flip the script and ask you questions – usually what do you do?

And you better be prepared to respond with an elevator pitch. No, we don’t want to hear a canned response. We want to hear a custom and succinct pitch that responds to everything you just heard from your networking partner. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Get Vulnerable

Even as you take control of the conversation, it’s essential to dig deeper. Surface-level conversations are not going to do anyone any good. That’s why you need to express a little bit of vulnerability. Sharing some of your “scars” increases the likelihood of the other person becoming vulnerable. 

And when there’s vulnerability, there’s a developing relationship. 

Here are a couple of questions to dig deeper:

  • What is the biggest problem you’re facing in your business right now? 
  • What are your biggest goals?
  • How does [insert what they are doing] drive you? 

Make Yourself The Expert

As you’re listening to the other person, it’s important to find opportunities to insert lessons learned, resources, and/or contacts that would help that person find success quicker. Obviously, you don’t want to be a know-it-all, but it could look like this:

  • It’s amazing that you’re launching digital courses! How are you marketing those courses? 
  • You have a great company name. If you haven’t already, I’d get that trademarked. Let me know if you need an introduction to a great trademark attorney. 

When you offer help or support, you establish yourself as the expert. More often than not, you become known as the person who knows people. This is a very special place to be!

So what are the benefits of this strategy? 

  • You have a boosted brand image as being a helper
  • The people you help will want to return the favor and help you
  • You feel good about serving without expecting anything in return

Need help positioning yourself as an authority in your industry? Contact FocusCopy to learn how to build credibility in your copy.

Identify Pain Points To Use In Your Business Writing

Of course, this wouldn’t be a FocusCopy blog if we didn’t touch on writing!

As you listen to people in your networking events, take note of the following:

  • Their pain points
  • The way they are phrasing their problems
  • What they actually want or need to solve that problem
  • The help they’ll actually accept

All of those points can be used and crafted into really effective copy! 

And when you apply it to either written copy or another elevator pitch, you’ll be shocked at how people respond to it. 

Transform Your Conversations Into Effective Copy

Networking events were actually how we discovered the core problems we solve. People weren’t that interested in improving conversions on their copy (shocking, I know). But what they were really interested in was how we could take the one marketing task they despised or took way too much time off their plate. If you’re ready to take what you’ve learned from your networking events, let’s have a conversation about how we can apply it to your messaging. Schedule a call with the FocusCopy team today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
Places You Should Share Your B2B Content

11 Places You Should Share Your B2B Content

In an age of influencers and content creation, businesses are forced to participate in content marketing

But what happens when you actually produce that content? 

It’s a waste of time to create content and never repurpose, splinter, or repurpose what you’ve created. That’s why we created a list of different places you should share your B2B content. 

So let’s stretch your content’s value as far as possible!

What Is B2B Content? 

B2B content is content developed expressly to add value or develop authority with other businesses. While you may have consumers that read your content for whatever reason, the primary target audience is other businesses. 

What Are The Places You Should Share Your B2B Content? 

Here are 11 places you should share your B2B content. 

Your Blog

First things first…Make sure that your content is optimized for search engines and is posted on your website. Do not neglect the power of SEO and organic traffic! For one brand that we posted weekly blogs for 2 years, we grew their organic traffic from a million hits a year to 7.5 million hits. 

Need help writing SEO’d blogs? Let’s chat about your content marketing and traffic goals. 

Medium

Medium is another great platform, similar to your blog, to post original content. Keep in mind that they do have pretty strict publishing guidelines here. 

LinkedIn 

We love LinkedIn! It’s not only a great networking tool, but it’s also fantastic for building one’s brand. When you post your content, be sure to post it both on your personal page and business page. You can do this in the form of posts, articles, or newsletters. 

Email

Email marketing is by far one of the most effective but underrated places to share your content. Not only does it have the highest marketing ROI out of any strategies, but it allows you to have a little more of an intimate conversation with your audience. And when you develop the relationship, you are more likely to convert that prospect into a paying client. 

Facebook 

Like LinkedIn, Facebook should not be underrated. While it may be a struggle for some to master the ever-changing algorithms, post on your personal page, business page, and any groups you’re part of. With Facebook Groups, make sure that you’re abiding by the rules or guidelines the admins have set for that community.

Twitter

If you have an audience on Twitter, it’s a great platform to splinter your content into bite-sized pieces of content. This is also a great platform for speakers or authors to create quoted content. 

Quora 

This forum platform is a fantastic way to not only answer questions you know your audience is asking, but also answer questions directly. And while you’re posting, you may as well get a few ideas of what you should create next. 

Alignable

Alignable, meant to be a small business networking site similar to LinkedIn, is a great opportunity for you to either post your new content or slip your content into conversations with those in your network. 

Instagram 

From Reels to posts to stories, there are so many opportunities for you to share your content on Instagram. With almost 2 billion monthly active users (Hootsuite), there is so much potential for your target audience to get their eyes on your content. Give it a try!

Google Business Profile 

Previously called Google My Business, your Google Business Profile is a fantastic way to prove your company’s legitimacy, boost SEO, garner testimonials, and update prospects with your information. But did you know that a weekly post on your Google Business Profile can help support your visibility in Google? Give it a try for a couple of weeks and let us know how it works out. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is probably one of the most underutilized SEO platforms out there. It isn’t just a pretty virtual board. No ma’am, it’s a search and eCommerce beast. While we’re personally working on our Pinterest and finding out what drives traffic to FocusCopy, personalities like Jenna Kutcher have seen tremendous growth.

Start Boosting Your Content Marketing Impact

If you’re ready to boost your content marketing impact, it’s time to take a deeper look at your actual content. Is it supporting you well? Is it communicating what you need it to? Does your target audience actually care about the topic or want to read about it? Schedule a discovery call with us today to deep dive into your content marketing.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

How To Create Content Pillars To Boost Your Authority

Ever wonder what you’re going to write about when it comes to your blogs, emails, and social media? It feels a little more like pulling out teeth. And if you’ve been thinking too long about it, you’re probably falling into writer’s block – the death sentence for writing. 

That’s why we create content pillars – to make the content creation process so much easier. 

Writing is difficult enough. Make the process simpler when you learn how to create content pillars.

What Are Content Pillars?

So what are content pillars? Content pillars are general topics of which you are an expert on, and they support your overall brand. 

For example, I may be an expert in stand-up-paddleboarding or SUP (I’m not, by the way). But does SUP align with FocusCopy? No! In fact, you’d probably be really confused as to why I’m talking about SUP. 

At FocusCopy, our content pillars are:

  • Copywriting and content writing
  • Marketing
  • Entrepreneurship

All of these support what we do as a brand and we can splinter them into many different subtopics. 

When & How To Use Content Pillars

You’ll want to use your content pillars for just about anything product, marketing, sales, and content related. Content pillars are a great test to see that whatever you release into the marketplace aligns with your brand. 

You won’t see FocusCopy releasing any SUP courses, but you may find various copywriting courses. You may also find future workshops that help you grow your revenue. 

See below for an example of what your content pillars could look like. You see how there are multiple topics underneath each pillar that we can tap into. 

How To Create Content Pillars

Steps On How To Create Content Pillars

It’s one thing to show what content pillars are and how to use them, but it’s an entirely different thing to create them for your brand’s success.

Identify Your Target Audience

First, you need to know who your target audience is. 

What are their pain points? What problems do they wish would disappear or resolve themselves? And what do they care about or need to know about? 

Figure out what really drives your target audience to move forward. 

Remind Yourself Of Your Expertise

Then you need to reconnect with yourself. What are you an expert in? What inspires you or interests you? Why do you care about what you’re interested in?

The best content pillars are those that you’re familiar with. You don’t need to do a whole lot of research when writing about those topics. You simply know. 

Reflect Whether Your Expertise Matches Your Branding Statements

Take your newly (re)identified expertise and determine whether those topics align with your branding statements. Your branding statements may include your mission statement, vision statement, unique selling proposition, value proposition, and company description. Does your expertise align with your brand? 

Summarize Your Expertise Into Big Topics

Take the topics that you claim to have expertise in and start to categorize them. For example, my expertise may lie in the following:

  • Email marketing
  • Marketing automation
  • Customer journey
  • Funnel building
  • Conversion copy
  • Website copy
  • Content marketing 
  • Blogging
  • Content creation
  • Female entrepreneurs
  • Personal development
  • Perfectionism

All of that is great, but how can we group them together? It may look like the following:

  • Copywriting
  • Marketing
    • Email marketing
    • Marketing automation
    • Customer journey
    • Funnel building
    • Conversion copy
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Female entrepreneurs
    • Personal development
    • Perfectionism

Test Your Content Pillars

Lastly, test your content pillars. Does your target audience care about them? Can you quickly create content around them? Do these pillars support and enhance your brand?

If the answer is no, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. 

Ready To Create The Content For Your Content Marketing?

Creating the content pillars is the first big step to creating a strong content marketing strategy. But the execution of the strategy is where most fail to deliver. If you want to release valuable content that resonates with your target audience, let’s start the conversation. Schedule a discovery call with our team today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

How To Increase Your KLT Factors In Your Business Without Investing Too Much

Ever wonder how some start ups gain traction so quickly, seemingly without much effort? Or see a competitor who offers a slightly lesser quality offer than you and is more successful?

It can be frustrating, but when you look at the root of their success…

…Their success doesn’t stem from having the best product, most innovative delivery method, or even the most affordable price. 

It’s because they show up with clear communications that are authentic, genuine, and human

They’ve effectively built out their KLT factors better than you – for now – and you’re seeing that impact. 

So what are KLT factors and why do you need them to grow your business? 

What Are KLT Factors?

The KLT in KLT factors stands for Know, Like, Trust.

Have you ever heard the phrase, people only do business with people they know, like, and trust? That rings so true, even in today’s digital landscape. If you’re able to persuade a stranger on the Internet that they know you deeply, you are much more likely to get them to like and trust you. 

Where companies go wrong in their marketing is when they take all their personality out of it. There’s nothing human about how they are showing up in the world. Instead, their audience is seeing a blob of technical terms and general communications. They aren’t able to make the connecting point between the solution and why they should invest in that company. 

Why Do You Need To Consider Adding KLT Factors Into Your Marketing

As you look at or build your strategic plans, it’s important to view your marketing from the perspective of your target customer. Do they truly know you from what you’re putting out into the world? Is it easy to like you? Is there even something to like? What about you can they trust in? 

When you don’t strategically add in any KLT factors into your marketing, you’re leaving big money on the table. You’re also not creating a reason for your existing customers to stick around. They are more likely to move to a different brand that resonates with them a lot more. 

If you need a couple of examples of brands we love that display their KLT factors clearly, check these out: 

7 Ways To Increase Your KLT Factors

Want to increase your KLT factors? Try to use at least one of these 7 methods. 

Using Your Customer’s Words

Speak your target audience’s language. A lot of the business owners we come across struggle with their copy. Our question is usually, when was the last time you had a conversation with your audience and actually listened to their pain points? 

Schedule a coffee with your favorite client and/or a prospect, and simply ask questions. Get them to talk about their business, their struggles, and what they wish they could fix in their business. Then use their exact words in your marketing copy. 

We had a much different headline on our hero banner when we first launched our website. Surprise, surprise…The energy we put into it wasn’t working because we hadn’t listened to our target audience. 

Very quickly, we came to the conclusion that almost every client either didn’t have time to write copy or struggled to write it (usually because they don’t like to write). 

So what did we do? 

Use their words in our marketing. 

Hosting An Educational Type Event or Workshop

When you offer up yourself and provide content that your audience wants in an interactive environment, you are able to move much more quickly through the customer journey. That journey is taking a complete stranger and transforming them into an advocate for your business (the very last stage of the journey). 

We’ve been educating on a one-on-one basis since the foundation of FocusCopy. But in 2023, we decided that it was time to break out boldly and teach. 

That’s why we developed the How To Develop Your Workshop Content class in partnership with Go Savvy (February 2023) and are planning on several more workshop events throughout 2023. 

Expressing Some Vulnerability 

Vulnerability appears in many forms. But in its purest form, it’s expressing something that may put you in a weak position. And what can that do for you? Connect with your target audience on a human level. 

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn’t feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive.”

– Brené Brown

Sharing Your Story

And speaking of vulnerability, one of the best ways to do that is by sharing your story. We all have a story. And the world needs to hear it. 

No, it doesn’t need to be some dramatic story. So avoid comparing your story to others. It’s not a competition. 

But what you do need to be is honest with your story. 

How did you get here? 

What changed that led you down this path?

What were some big or hard lessons you learned? 

Showing Your Face Consistently

Another experiment that’s been conducted – especially on social media – is that when you show your face, you increase your engagement rates significantly. So post or share videos, images, photos, etc. of yourself on your marketing mediums. 

And no, stock photos will not help you increase your KLT factors. 

Knowing Your Values

Know your values and stick with them. A friend recently posted on LinkedIn that he was to announce his support for a few things that conflicted with his values in order to take part in a big event. He made the ultimate decision to pass on that event because he didn’t want to neglect his values. I already knew his value and trusted him as a referral source, but his stepping out like that increased his KLT factors dramatically. 

Know your values and don’t compromise them for any reason. There is always enough business to go around. 

Sharing Your Knowledge

Lastly, share your knowledge. That could be information, insights, strategies, resources, etc. Whatever it is, find how you can educate and inform your audience. 

Ready To Increase Your KLT Factors?   

To be in the know for our next workshop event, click here to join our email list.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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

Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid In 2023

Email marketing is one of those marketing topics that seems to be coming back into conversation, and there’s a reason for it. 

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for nurturing and converting prospects into clients. And when done well, it can boost your reputation, revenue, and retention of clients. 

But there are a few email marketing mistakes that you want to avoid as you invest more time and money into it. 

What Is Email Marketing? 

First, what is email marketing actually? 

It’s a form of direct marketing that helps you promote your offer. Now, it doesn’t have to be a hard sell. It could be more of a brand awareness tool, follow-up tool, or engagement tool for the in-between purchase phase. 

Regardless of how you utilize your email marketing, it’s a powerful tool to add to your marketing toolkit. 

Why Should Your Business Use Email Marketing?

In our professional opinion, there is a place for email marketing in every business’s marketing strategy. There is so much diversity in what you can use this strategy for. Here are a couple of examples:

  • Consulting → follow-up with referral partners
  • Health and wellness → educational newsletters
  • Marketing → long term nurture
  • Consumer products → awareness of new products and/or offers

8 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Here are 8 email marketing mistakes to avoid so that each marketing dollar is spent well. 

1. Using Your Personal Email Over A Trusted Email Service Provider

When you can, use a trusted mass mailing service, like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Keap, Hubspot, or whatever email marketing software you prefer. This is your best bet because it establishes your professional reputation. 

A trusted email service provider will make it easier for your subscribers to:

  • Opt-in and/or adjust their email marketing preferences
  • Unsubscribe
  • Receive your emails in their inbox
  • Provide email statistics to base your decisions on

And those are just a few of the technical reasons to use an email service provider over your personal email!

2. Not Spending Enough Time On Subject Lines & Preview Text

Your subject lines and preview text are the 2 things that convince your audience to click on your email (apart from your stellar reputation). 

If you need help coming up with subject lines, take a look at the emails that you open. What about them attracts you? Why do you want to open those emails? 

If you’re really not sure what type of subject lines your target audience likes, then it’s time to test. Here are a couple of the subject line A/B tests we’ve run recently for clients:

  • Dad joke vs. non-joke
  • Question vs. statement
  • Question that includes software name vs. question that avoids software name

3. Sending Bulk Emails To A Cold Audience

This is a biggie, and one that I made in my early email marketing experience. I sent an email to 27,000 people once but a good chunk of those individuals were a cold audience – those that hadn’t actively engaged with our previous efforts. 

And I got blacklisted…

Email service provider locked me down. Domain was flagged. And all my big marketing tools for that company were restricted. 

Let me tell you…It took hours to fix. 

So if you’re going to send an email to a wide audience – especially a cold audience – break that audience down into smaller groups. It will save you a lot of time, stress, and heartache. 

4. Falling Out Of Consistent Emailing

When you’re inconsistent with your emailing, your audience’s inbox isn’t going to treat your emails the same way as if you are consistent. While this may not be an exact science, we have learned from experience that consistency helps with the technical part of email marketing and with the customer engagement. 

When you start to do email marketing, it’s important to find a frequency in which you can consistently email your audience. Whether that’s quarterly, monthly, bimonthly, or weekly…Whatever it is, find a frequency and stick with it.

Need help with consistency? We’ve created a guide that includes 52 email marketing prompts to get you through the rest of the year. Download that guide here.

5. Not Measuring Email Statistics 

When you don’t use an email service provider or neglect to look at the email statistics, you are wasting a big opportunity to improve. We all know that marketing is a big experiment. Anyone that tells you one thing is certain in marketing isn’t someone you want to trust. So take the statistics (i.e. open rate, click through rate, opt-out rate, etc.) into consideration when determining which methods to focus your attention and others that may need to pivot.

6. Keeping Emails Impersonal & Vague

Your emails are a great opportunity to show some personality and build a relationship. Afterall, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. When you’re impersonal and vague in your email messaging, you lose the opportunity for people to know, like, and trust you.

Personalizations

Personalizations, such as their name, company name, and location, are great opportunities to break through the noise and personalize your messages. When people feel seen or heard, they are much more likely to engage. 

Storytelling

Share the horror stories, lessons learned, big wins, and embarrassing moments. Share stories that will grab their attention and engage them. And since this isn’t a public platform like blogging, social media, podcasting, etc., it’s a more intimate environment to get vulnerable. 

7. Sending Emails Without Testing Links

Another one of my email marketing mistakes include sending 25,000 emails with the wrong link. Facepalm. That’s why I’ve made it a professional rule, and even a standard, to always test links in emails. Depending on the software, send yourself a test email and click on every single link. You can also preview the email and do the same thing. 

If you realize a link is bad after sending the mass email, send a quick follow-up email stating that you included a wrong link. This provides you an opportunity to remarket yourself. You don’t want to do this often because then it speaks to your lack of quality control (and you don’t want that).

8. Including Unclear Call To Actions

Lastly, be obvious with your call to actions. Be specific and focused. Avoid including a dozen different call to actions in your emails. Instead, choose one and focus on that one action. 

It’s Time To Focus On The Right Things For Your Email Marketing

The first step to email marketing is demystifying that it’s some complicated marketing strategy. When in reality, it’s simply about having the right conversation at the right time. If you need inspiration about what to write in your email marketing, download these 52 prompts to get started.

Prospects Slipping Through The Cracks Of Your Sales Pipeline?

You may be leaving money on the table if you aren’t following up with them regularly and relationally.