copywriting tips

I learnt this at school and never forgot it. When you assume you make an ass out of u and me. It's just as true in business and marketing. So many times a piece of marketing and the assumptions are obvious. And very often wrong. Have a look at this shopping centre ad....

Most marketing misses the mark. Often because the marketer doesn't know what the mark even is. It's because you fail to say something interesting, to someone who is potentially interested. The worst offenders are. Billboard ads. In shopping centre ads. Retail point of...

Dan Kennedy is one of my marketing hero's. I've tried to summarise some of my favourite ideas he has shared. Let’s be blunt. If your marketing isn’t working, it’s probably not the algorithm’s fault. Or the market’s. Or Mercury in retrograde. It’s probably one of these...

You can go broke selling a nice to have product, many have. Instead you want to sell pain relief. People act on a problem faster. And they often pay more. We will do anything to avoid pain. The greater the pain, the greater the motivation to find a solution. This...

Here's a question every business asks. How do we increase sales? But there's something fundamentally wrong with that question. It's focused on you. But it's customers who give you money. So, it must be focused on them. A better question to ask is. What else would our...

Have you heard of the slow idea movement? Probably not. As far as I know I invented it today. Possibly not though it's a big world and people often have the same ideas. I digress. But first I want you to join this movement. I'll explain why in second, first Homer. Now...

AI is amazing. Particularly if you don't look too hard at the output. Because it's often flawed. Because it's often badly reasoned. Because it's often wrong. We must remember AI is an algorithm. So, like any algorithm it has assumptions and biases built-in. Its...

Our brains are powerful. Their primary job is to keep us safe. So anything that feels unsafe we stay away from. That includes your marketing. If the promise is too big, too unbelievable we ignore it. Even when we are interested in something we may still not buy...

Familiar is ignored. New lights up our brains. That's why you can't just say the obvious thing and expect your marketing to work. You have to find a non-obvious idea. But how? Well you can't go to AI and just say give me non-obvious marketing ideas for XYZ. AI is like...