- The Weekly Sharpener
- Posts
- The Weekly Sharpener #122
The Weekly Sharpener #122
You're losing money by not doing this...🙈
👋 Hey fam!
I'm really excited to share this 👊 Tuesday roundup with you!
How great was that hook? You're here because you want to stop losing money and I want to help. There is some data that essentially says for every 5% of every dollar you spent on advertising in 2022 was lost.
Sounds small but add that up over 12 months and it's the reverse 8th wonder of the world. Ben Franklin would not be happy.
We are going to equip you with 6 ways you can make sure that the traffic that is real becomes valuable now and later.
We also dive into how copy changes your ability to attract customers and what the most effective ways are.
Finally, we dig into a few quick tips about CRO & paid ads from our team of experts.
I hope you're thriving, your ads are scaling, and your LTV is going up and to the right!
Cheers,
Chase
Check out Pencil if you're ready to Create winning ads 10x faster with AI.
Special Tip:
Don’t market your product.
Don’t market your USP.
Don’t even market your features or benefits.
Before you think about marketing your brand…think about what your prospective customer understands about your industry as a whole, then amplify what they believe to be true.
Courtesy of Sarah Levinger
Partner with us 🤝
Marketing agencies, freelance creatives, e-comm experts…want access to our generous revenue share and co-marketing opportunities? Become a Pencil Partner today! You can learn more here.
Content That Matters 🐐
Why it matters: That headline is a 😩. I like to look at the positives but first what's a top level view on the date...
$35.7 billion of ad spend was wasted on fake traffic in 2022
$142.8 billion in revenue was lost
11.3% of all traffic was fake
5.9% of paid traffic was fake
Doom and gloom, right?
What I would say is go into your conversion flow knowing that there will be a percentage of the traffic you are driving to your site that isn't going to EVER have purchase intent.
Knowing that is a little freeing because you know that the pressure is on you to have:
Incredible ads - with enough volume to find your core customers + your adjacent customers.
Optimize your website to best practices so organic traffic has an amazing - high converting experience. (Check out Carl 👇 to learn about that)
Create landing pages that bundle high AOV products and can help get customers to close more quickly
Build email/SMS flows/organic content to help nurture the good customers who don't close on the first touch to purchase (note: it usually takes 7 interactions for your customer to convert)
Have a compelling offer that makes people who are in market HAVE TO TAKE ACTION.
Make sure you are optimizing your channel stack to deliver a more diversified - higher value customer set. (Think affiliate marketing, optimizing your SEO, and trying less saturated paid ad channels - think Reddit or Pinterest)
This isn't actually that scary once you understand that the power is in your hands. Here are some brands that are killing it.
What have you been doing to combat the losses you might be seeing on traffic and making up with on value creation?
The ✌️ lowest hanging fruit for you:
Study the market, have a compelling offer that will drive repeat purchase.
Get your homepage/product pages optimized so that return or direct/organic visitors have a great experience.
Thread of the Week 🤌
The best way to learn copywriting?
Studying the best people in the game.
Here are 12 copywriting lessons from the best copywriters & marketers of all time:
— Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧 (@ecomchasedimond)
Mar 27, 2023
Why it matters: Knowing how to write copy is an immediate cheat code for your career and business. Even if you're not the 🐐 there are things that can help you in your work correspondence, personal comms, personal brand building, and of course - building your business.
Here is my favorite call out from Chase's thread:
"The best headlines are those that connect with the reader's self-interest." - John Caples.
This is the same idea as hook rate. Your headline or first line of copy needs to cut through the noise and drive action or at least consideration.
What cuts through more (and drives action) than someone seeing their life in your line or creative?
How often are you leaning into self-interest when you are creating copy? Here's an example. If you've been thinking about smelling better and being "hotter" this will easily cut through.
This taps into the power of self-interest!
Make sure to answer for your prospects' needs, desires, fears, and pain points.
CREATIVE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Creative Partner Spotlight 🔦
Kiwi Sizing- Reduce returns & increase sales with size recommenders. (Pretty useful if you're seeing an increased return rate or tickets filed)
ADG - The ultimate, all-in-one discounts app for Shopify stores.
Expert Strategy + Learnings
Some amazing learnings from thought leaders in DTC.
Carl's CRO Tips 🙌
Show the benefits your store offers with badges
This adds another layer of trust and sets you apart from your competition
For more 🔥 follow Carl Weische from Accelerated.
Rahul's Paid Media Learnings 🤘
Utilize negative competitor reviews
Research your competitors' negative reviews on platforms like G2, Capterra, Amazon, and other sites.
These reviews can provide valuable insights into customers' pain points, which you can leverage in your own creatives.
Follow Rahul and reach out to Reach Digital to work with him 🧠
From our Library 📚
Join the ✏️ community
Sign up to learn and meet 200+ other great founders & operators across DTC.
Curious about what we're building? 🧱
Check out our roadmap and upvote what you think is important! If we have missed anything, you can add your suggestions as well.
YouTube Channel 📺
Check out our library of amazing video content on creative, ads, and ecomm operating.
Our Preferred Tech Partners 👏
Foreplay - spy on your competitors ads + save what you like
soona - studio level assets in days and without the heavy cost. Yes, please. (Use Pencil39 for a free first photo)
Motion - you want insights on your ads - make it fast/easy/actionable.
Otis - ad buying/management automation(there's a present inside waiting for you)
Triple Whale - attribution - need I say more
Air - keeping all of your assets organized is a pain. Air makes it delightful.
Fav Newsie's
Enjoy this issue? 🤌
Share The Weekly Sharpener with another marketer on your team. 2