Your copy is only as good as the headline that gets the reader down the page.
That’s why David Ogilvy said 80% of your time should be spent on the headline.
It carries 80% of the weight. If they don’t read the headline, they’re not gonna read the body copy.
Here are a few ideas for your next Headline.
Continue reading “10 Ways You Can Strengthen Your Headlines (Starting Now!)”Do you ever feel unfocused and a bit antsy… when you should be working?
You have a To-Do List as long as your, er, arm. And even though part of you wants to get to work, other parts of you are doing everything they can to steal your attention.
And when you live in a distracting world, it’s easy to find something else to focus on.
If you look back at old books — even really old books, like Seneca’s “Letters From a Stoic” in which he writes,
Continue reading “How to Improve Your Focus and Get More Done in Less Time (aka “Deep Work” book summary)”Could you make better decisions?
I think we all could.
Do you have a hard time deciding what to order at a restaurant?
Do you ever make the “wrong” decision and, looking back, feel that you “knew” it would turn out bad?
Continue reading “Better Decisions with Annie Duke (Persuasion Play Podcast 010)”2021-03-31
Saint Paul
Over the last decade or two, cartoon violence has shifted dramatically, along with cartoons in general.
No longer are cartoons the mindless zaniness that you and I grew up with.
The shows my own kids watch now have complex characters and plots.
Continue reading “That Time When Tom Hit Jerry With A Baseball Bat”9:46am Tuesday
This morning I read a Sweepstakes Letter from the Publishers Clearing House.
With a no-obligation entry I have a chance at winning $7,000 per week for life.
That’s a lot of money!
The letter spent no time trying to be clever or discussing something that couldn’t tie into the benefits of their promotion.
Do you remember most brands behind your favorite commercials?
Continue reading “Give Me One Reason!”11:35am
Saint Paul
I wrote about this on Twitter this morning but I thought you might like a bit more.
From the outside, “persuasion” is often seen as trying to get someone to do something against his own interests.
That’s not persuasion. That’s manipulation.
In reality, persuasion is highlighting why an idea (or product or service) is in someone’s interests.
And because most people are resistant to new ideas, they’re unlikely to be persuaded by your arguments or data.
Instead, he has his own set of arguments and data.
And he’d much prefer if you joined his “side” — because then his worldview isn’t challenged.
So how can you get people to hear your ideas?
Continue reading “The Best Way to ‘Pace and Lead’ (that I’ve found)”8:50am
Saint Paul
Today I wanted to share some tech tips for better email delivery on MailChimp (what I use) or any other way you send an email from your own domain.
If you’re in business and you’re not following these rules, your email delivery will suffer.
As a result, you’ll lose customer communication, and with it… sales.
These are the rules that govern the internet, young one, so pay attention.
Continue reading “5 Tech Tips for Email Rock Solid Delivery”9:12
Saint Paul
I post on WordPress for my sites (RockPaperShootLLC.com and here on PersuasionReadingList.com) and use I MailChimp to email to my list.
And on the creator side, both of these services have completely changed their interface.
There’s no better way to frustrate your customers than to change something that works just fine.
Especially if that change causes more work for those customers, like creating new MailChimp templates.
That’s true in marketing, too.
Rosser Reeves wrote about the importance of a consistent and repeated message in his book Reality in Advertising.
10:54
Saint Paul
Did you see the recent study that shows acetaminophen (sold under the brand names Tylenol, Mapap, and Ofirmev) reduces people’s perception of risk?
Continue reading “Tylenol makes you CRAZY”1:37pm Monday
Saint Paul
Last week I wrote about my daughter’s violin lessons and how she doesn’t like having to put forth effort in order to progress.
She’s happy to practice the few things she knows, but the moment there’s a whiff of effort required…
I don’t think she’s alone. My wife’s a teacher and she sees in her students the same avoidance of effort.
“That’s extra!” they’ll complain. About anything.
“Doin’ too much!” is another common refrain.
Today she said, “We don’t ask kids to do hard things any more.”
