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- The Weekly Sharpener #85
The Weekly Sharpener #85
Forget data, sometimes you just need to trust your gut...
Chase Mohseni
August 16th, 2022
👋 Hey fam!
I'm really excited to share this massive Tuesday roundup with you!
I hope you're reading this from a balcony in Positano, if not, go outside and get some rays, you'll thank me later!
April Wachtel and I discuss pivoting into a new business and how the learnings honed her ability to trust her gut on this week's episode of Add Creative.
She shares some practical thinking about entrepreneurship and how you can build a scrappy way to read data and pull massive insights from your customers. I would recommend you spend some time with April on this one!
We also get an amazing framework on how to create amazing ads from a special guest.
And learn a few tried and true landing page models that you can test to find what drives the highest conversion with you prospects.
We are grateful for the space in your inbox and for you sharing some of your valuable time with us. 🙏
Cheers,
Chase
Pencil - Creative AI
Pencil allows you to scale your creative testing on paid ads by automating the creative production process. All you need are your assets, branding, and performance data then in minutes you'll have your new ads ready to test and find new customers. 🚀
🎙Add Creative
A sneak peek from Episode 15 👀
That's actually one of my key points for that panel, which is like, never get high on your own supply, because it is so easy as a founder. You are, you spend all of your time trying to convince yourself and others there's, this is a billion dollar company and like we're gonna grow huge, whatever, whatever.
And so I think your question, whether you intended it this way, or not specifically to this question was there is a distinction between what you infer and you, the insights you have and how you process them versus what is actually being given to you by the customer.
If you enjoy the episode, please rate us 5⭐️'s & share!
Special Content 🐐
Check out this excerpt from the most recent edition of Alex Greifeld's amazing newsletter No Best Practices.
A 4-Part Framework For Developing Great Ads
Given what we know about the state of Facebook after iOS14, here is a four-part framework you can use to develop ad creative that reaches out and shakes your target customer by the shoulders:
Person -> Problem -> Product -> Hook
(Note: Alex mentions 2 Ads during this framework, here they are 👇)
Person: The customer segment you’re speaking to with your advertising. This is going to vary based on the nature of your brand. It could be demographic or psychographic. Some examples from most broad to least broad:
Women over 45 (“Person” from ad #2 above)
Men with sensitive skin
Hobbyist beekeepers
Problem: A list of the key concerns or pain points experienced by your segment. The only way to generate a really good list is to go directly to your customers (or your competitors’ customers).
If you’ve already launched your brand and proven product-channel fit, you can and should reach out to real customers for interviews. This is a great guide for getting the most out of customer interviews; I’ve used it myself, and that is not an affiliate link.
If you’re looking to launch a new brand, you can read competitor’s reviews and (sometimes) forums like Reddit to see what people are complaining about.
The problem addressed in Ad #2 above is premature aging. Many women over 50 notice that their skin starts to lose its volume and glow as they enter menopause. So this is a real concern for the audience.
Product: This is how one of your products specifically solves the Person’s Problem. In Ad #2 above, the focus is on the entire range instead of one specific product. But the ad speaks to a few attributes that address the concern and it features customer testimonials that reinforce the idea that the products address premature aging.
You can also call out specific features of the product that address the concern. For example:
Person: Hobbyist beekeepers
Problem: bears break into my backyard hive and steal my honey
Product: our carbon fiber frames were designed and tested to withstand the power of bear claws
Obviously, this example is completely made up. I don’t know anything about bees.
Something to note: you don’t necessarily have to jump right into the product. Speaking to specific product features is a mid-funnel approach. You are assuming that your audience already has intent to purchase in the category.
As you scale, you may need to take a higher funnel approach where you’re capturing the viewer’s attention and educating them about the root causes of your problem and why your solution is the right one. Ad #2 above does that well: dehydration causes premature aging.
Hook: This is the most creative part of the process. The Hook is the thing that gets your viewer to stop scrolling and click through to learn more about whatever it is you’re saying.
Potentially controversial statement: the best hooks borrow their “first principles” from clickbait. That doesn’t mean that the end product has to feel cheesy or brand-dilutive, but it’s going to be the most effective if it evokes curiosity, gets a rise out of people, or makes them laugh.
Hooks can be visual or narrative, and you can combine both in a single ad.
A narrative hook for the Beekeeping example: Find out why black bears HATE this beekeeper.
(I know, this is bad. But I’m trying to get this newsletter out on time. I don’t have time to workshop amazing hypothetical ads for fake products.)
A visual hook for the Beekeeping example: high-quality Ring cam footage of a bear trying to break into the hive, failing, getting frustrated, and walking away.
Why this matters: The focus being forced to think about your customer first is imperative to creating great ad experiences. Yes, I said experiences.
You are asking your customer to take time moving from ad -> landing page -> check out experience -> lifecycle.
If the experience isn't pleasurable from start to finish, unless there is high intent pre-ad or an insanely compelling offer most prospects will churn before purchase.
That's why this framework matters SO much -> your hook should trickle downhill from your customers problems not the other way around.
That's what I see more often than not, people trying to hack their way to a win. Your customers are giving you all the answers already.
I urge you to read the rest of the post on Alex's site! It's 🔥.
Thread of the Week 🧵
I’ve tested 250+ landing pages.
And earned millions in the process.
5 psychology-based landing page tactics to 3x sales:
— Kenny Smithnanic 🙌 (@kennysmithnanic)
Aug 6, 2022
Why it matters: We all need to be testing landing pages + new experiences for our prospects to see what is most compelling to them. And I know you're doing that, right?
This thread is gold to understand 5 key styles you can adopt when creating LP's to test. b My 2 favorites are:
Fresh start framing
Solve a compelling problem
Each feels like there are multiple ways to iterate into compellingly creative experiences. I am pushing on this because we talk about testing your creative ALL THE TIME. But what the customer experiences post-click will dictate a lot about how you feel about your ads performance.
I think it's time for us to be honest. Landing Pages need Ads and Ads need landing pages.
Expert Strategy + Learnings
Some amazing learnings from thought leaders in DTC.
Carl's CRO Tips 🙌
Stop showing sold-out products + adding bages Right now people are seeing a lot of sold-out products. This can lead them away from your store. Therefore we're showing products in stock highest on the page.
For more 🔥 follow Carl Weische from Accelerated.
Rahul's Paid Media Learnings 🤘
In order to keep your customers engaged, you need to provide some type of value to them in your ad. For us, our hook is the most important part. These are the hooks we've found the most success in both organic and paid content recently:
(Customer / Niche) you won't believe this.
How I got (ideal solution or outcome) in (time frame).
(number) easy to remember tips for (problem).
I tested (number) (niche) techniques on (tool/idea) and this 1 is the best.
So I have this theory on why (ideal niche outcome) is going to be (positive adjective) (timeframe) and I'm gonna show you why.
Have you ever noticed how (business / niche) get more (ideal outcome) even though yours might be better? Here's why that's happening…
Follow Rahul here for more 🧠
Creative Cuts ⚔️ - ICYMI
Want to learn about WHY the creative you love works and how you can leverage it 👇
Worth Your Time 💡
No explanation, just content we love and think is ultra-valuable!
Products you should try 👍
You want to use Pencil, I get it. But you don't have enough assets to make it work well for you. That's why we're sharing soona with you, where you can get shots like this ON DEMAND! 👇
They help brands get cart-worthy product photos and videos from anywhere. We've seen so many customers grow their asset library with their help.
My favorite part of the process, you get to join the photoshoot live from anywhere and review your content in real-time. Remember, you only have to buy what you love. Going into fall and eventually BFCM - you need to spend some time getting ready with soona.
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