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5 Dirty Secrets About Online Business Today

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Everything you think you know about making money online is probably wrong.

Most of my students aren’t complete online business newbies. Many of them have tried at least some kind of online business at some point. Some of them are trying to juggle several of them when they come to me, and they are usually very excited to tell me about it.

I admire their enthusiasm, but if they come to me looking to me for validation of what they are already doing, they usually come away disappointed. The idea they breathlessly share with me often times was old news five years ago.

If I try to point that out to them, as gently as possible, they sometimes don’t take it well. They have invested a lot of hope and excitement into their entrepreneurial endeavour. Hearing that they have been spinning their wheels ranges from dispiriting to offensive.

I don’t blame them. There’s a lot of noise out there. Not to contribute to it unnecessarily, but someone needs to cut through the hype and tell some hard truths. The online business environment has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Yes, you can still succeed, but only if you are present and accept the business environment as it is, not what it was.

On that note, here are five dirty secrets about today’s online business environment that must inform every opportunity you consider.    

2. Competition is for chumps

Most entrepreneurs think they need to “beat the competition,” “differentiate themselves from the competition” or “spend more to acquire a customer than the competition.” The dirty secret is: If you even have competition, you’re fighting a losing battle. Most market battles are zero-sum games. One guy wins 99% of the business, and everyone else fights over the remaining 1%. This is why I advise students to niche down. With a specific-enough niche, you don’t have any competition. You’re out there cleaning up and can name your own price.

For example, there are a million agencies saying, “We help businesses get more leads.” But what about, “We help plumbing and heating companies get more leads?” Better.

“I help plumbing and heating companies in Pennsylvania get more leads.” Even better.

“I help plumbing and heating companies in Pennsylvania get more install jobs.” Now you’re talking.

3. Value trumps fame

Americans live in a fame-saturated culture. No wonder entrepreneurs think they have to be famous to sell anything. If you Google-search how to sell a book, start a blog or launch a YouTube channel, most of the listicles you discover will say something like: Step 1, Get Famous.

So you have entrepreneurs trying to get famous — on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok or whatever is the flavour of the month. They figure once they’re famous, the selling will take care of itself.

But the cult of fame is falling apart. The emperor has no clothes and people are starting to see it. Is there a better example than Fyre Fest? The now-incarcerated founder cloaked the event in celebrity but didn’t bother to bring the value.

People get the fame equation backward. Fame is like catching lightning in a bottle; it’s nearly impossible to consciously make it happen. Most people who do make it happen discover that it’s a double-edged sword. Ask anyone who has ever been mobbed by paparazzi at a grocery store.

But you can focus on delivering value. That is very much in your control. Maybe you will go viral, maybe you won’t. But by delivering value, you will at least build a cult following — and a cult following can make you very, very prosperous.

4. Focus trumps diversification

I can’t hate on my students who are trying to juggle 10 businesses when they come to me, because I was the same way. I can’t even fault the strategy — I kept throwing things at the wall until something stuck.

But once I found the business with the most potential, I pulled the plug on everything else I was doing and focused like a laser on scaling it. That’s what made the difference. Finding the idea was maybe 10% of the battle. What really made the difference was quitting everything else I was doing.

“Multiple streams of income” is a cliché that gets misunderstood, and “diversification” is for people who have no idea how to invest their 401k. If you want to create a great product and bring value to the marketplace, you have to pick a thing and focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.

Whatever stage in the journey you are in, that’s the goal — to hone in on the one thing. With focus, the idea is almost an afterthought. With enough focus, you can make almost anything work.

5. Most businesses can’t scale

If you want to succeed in online business, don’t start anything you can’t scale. Anything that depends on unique human contributions — including your own — is hard to scale.

I’m guilty of this too. My agency can’t be fully automated or outsourced. I have to have a team, and I can’t just have one person for each job. I try to have two people for each job, minimum. That way, if someone quits, I’m not screwed.

Of course, this runs up payroll costs. What saves me is the fact that our invoice volume is scalable, even if the client volume isn’t. Assuming we do the job well, we can easily scale invoices from $10,000 to $100,000 and beyond. We can afford that payroll.

Whatever you do, begin with the end in mind. Even if you’re doing the work in person now, make a plan to automate, outsource and take unique human input out of the equation when the time is right. That’s the only way to go big online.

I want all of my students to prosper in online business — to fire their job, discover financial freedom and build the lifestyle they always envisioned.
But the first step for many of them is to wipe the slate clean of misguided and outdated ideas, leaving them tabula rasa. Then they can accept the online business ecosystem as it is. Spilling the beans on this dirty secret will hopefully help you do the same.

By

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Dylan Ogline is an entrepreneur, investor and author. He is known as a pervader of work and lifestyle optimizations. He is founder of digital marketing agency Ogline Digital. A student of Stoicism, he enjoys playing hockey, reading and traveling the world.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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The Four Pillars of Relevancy: How Digital PR Campaigns Can Lead to Gains in Every Sector

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By Rebecca Moss

Relevance continues to be a hot topic in search, especially since John Mueller broke the internet last year by saying that the “number of links doesn’t matter at all”, and that relevant content trumps the quantity of content.

I head up the team at JBH the Digital PR Agency, and whilst growing the team and working with a huge range of brands over the last four years, I’ve realized that we wear many, many different hats.

For some of our clients, we are their link building agency. We achieve specific links that adhere to specific criteria to support SEO objectives. For other clients, we’re there to help build their brand, create thought leaders, and develop beautiful, shareable content. For those clients, SEO is secondary.

And for other brands, we’re somewhere in the middle.

What has become overwhelmingly clear is that the relevance of the links we build sits under each of these hats, and it’s something that I’ve spent a lot of time working on at JBH, in order to improve our delivery all around.

Who cares about relevance anyway?

If you’ve ever had your content outranked by a tiny, hyper-niche site, then you’ll definitely care about relevance. Even Google prioritizes relevance when deciding where to rank pages.

The good news is that we can learn from this, and apply certain processes to our own activity. In this post, you’ll see how the team here at JBH bakes the principles of topical relevance into our content, outreach, and link building strategies.

I ran a (very scientific) poll on Twitter earlier in the year — presenting my network with four different options, and asking them to select which one they cared most about when it comes to linked coverage. And the results were super interesting

Turns out we ALL care about relevance — more than the topic being newsworthy, and interestingly, more than keywords!

It was a trick question, really, as these are the four factors that we benchmark our content and ideas against. Nonetheless, it was quite telling that keywords were (ironically) bottom of the rankings.

What does relevance really mean in the context of digital PR?

Relevance means different things to different people. So, I decided to create a framework through which to run every single idea — with the aim of ensuring said idea sits somewhere on the spectrum of relevance for our clients.

Diagram outlining the four pillars of content relevancy: keywords, customers, newsworthiness, and authority.

Above, you’ll see the graphic we created to check our ideas against what we believe to be the four key pillars of relevance. As long as our ideas fit into one of the quarters, and as close to the middle as possible, we know we’re on the right track.

The key pillars of the JBH Relevance Spectrum

1. Audience — would my client or brand’s audience be interested in this content?

2. Authority — is my client or brand an authority on the subject? Could they be interviewed about it?

3. Keywords — does it contain keywords that we want to rank for, and do we have a page on the site that makes sense to link to?

4. Newsworthiness — will journalists care about what we are saying? What are we adding to the conversation?

Relevant content drives links to key commercial pages

When done right, digital PR work that focuses on relevance can deliver so much more than just links — and brands are catching on to its commercial impact.

In the last 12 months, I’ve been inundated with requests from brands looking for links to their commercial pages, compared to links from larger creative content campaigns. The digital PR industry has come full circle, and we’re going back to the basics of content marketing.

But don’t get me wrong, building links to commercial content is really hard. Now, we dig deep into the business, the sector, and the website itself to understand how to develop our link acquisition strategy to get the best results for the brand. Instead of having a link-first mindset, we challenged ourselves to have a research-first mindset.

Relevance sits at the heart of this effort, and the impact of this work drives true commercial value — but how do we make this work for brands in different industries and sectors?

Step 1: We ask the right questions

From the second we sign a contract with a new brand, we’re on a journey of discovery. We need to know about the business, their goals, and what success looks like for them through the medium of digital PR. We stop being link builders and become intrinsically involved with the business we’re representing.

Step 2: We give ourselves clear boundaries before tackling ideation

Ideation can sometimes be a free-for-all, but setting boundaries around what topics and themes we can ideate around can be so helpful in guiding the way to a truly relevant idea that can be angled towards a prioritized landing page.

Step 3: We forget formats and let the idea guide us to a creative solution

Our creative solutions are always backed by data, but we let the idea guide us as to how the data will be presented. We never have a “type” of campaign in mind when we approach ideation.

Step 4: We use the relevance spectrum to stress test our ideas

Before sharing ideas with the client or brand, we’ll stress-test our ideas against the relevance spectrum to ensure we’re content that our ideas truly match the client and how they want to be presented.

Case study: How this process drove traffic and increased visibility for a private medical centre in the UK

By following the framework outlined above, we were able to increase visibility for a healthcare brand in a very competitive market by over 300%. Here’s how we hit all of the key elements of the relevance spectrum, plus the impact and outcomes of following this approach:

Authority — is my client or brand an authority on the subject? Could they be interviewed about it?

We met with the founders of the facility to discuss their key campaign objectives. Much like our Twitter poll, relevance was top priority — along with showcasing the expertise of the team and their innovative approach to recovery.

We left the meeting understanding what they were willing to talk about, in addition to the topics they were not so comfortable with — helping us to keep our ideas within their boundaries.

Audience — would my client or brand’s audience be interested in this content?

We also spoke with their admissions team, who were able to tell us more about the most common or frequent questions they are asked by service users. We then used this insight to help us develop campaigns or pitch ideas that answered said queries.

In addition to this, we looked more broadly at the publications the service users and their families were likely to read, and analysed topics that might fit those outlets.

Keywords — does it contain keywords that we want to rank for, and do we have a page on the site that makes sense to link to?

We then met with their SEO team, who were able to give us an onsite content roadmap, target keywords, and a prioritized list of landing pages mapped to those keywords, as well as a timeline for those pages to be published, so we could plan our digital PR stories in advance.

They also gave us information on the competition, including how aggressive they were being with link acquisition across the board. This helped us with benchmarking, providing us with a really solid base for our activity.

Newsworthiness — will journalists care about what we are saying? What are we adding to the conversation?

With all of this information at our disposal, we were in a great place to start thinking about campaign ideas, but we needed to absorb plenty of information about the sector first so we understood what we were dealing with.

We set up media alerts for key phrases, and brand alerts for the competition, so we could see exactly what was being published. Looking closely at the competition, we learned what was working well for them — and crucially, what wasn’t working quite so well.

We set up RSS feeds to deliver news relating to the priority keywords and read it each day, helping us become attuned to the newsworthy topics relating to addiction recovery.

From this, we watched out for which journalists were covering topically relevant stories, and added them to our prospecting list. We then set to work coming up with ideas that aligned with all of the above information.

The impact — high authority links to commercial pages

By following this approach, we found that we were able to secure highly relevant links and coverage — all while remaining in sync with the SEO team working on the site.

As the content we produced was so relevant to the brand, it made sense for the journalists to link to key service pages. This is how we achieved the following commercial gains as a result of pitching topically relevant content for the brand:

  • Traffic was up more than 200% year-on-year
  • Over half (56%) of the links built pointed to a key service page
  • Organic traffic to their commercial pages increased by 500%
  • 167% more keywords were on the first page of Google

This five-step checklist ensures relevance is prioritized in every digital PR campaign

In order to make this work cross-industry, we’ve developed a five-point checklist to ensure that relevance is prioritized at every stage. Depending on the brand and the sector, we’ll follow some or all of the points below to ensure that we’re considering the relevance of our digital PR campaign ideas above all else.

1. Research the industry in which your brand operates

  • How well-established is the industry?
  • Who are the key players you’ll be competing against?
  • How competitive are the keywords that you need to rank for the brand?
  • What PR and SEO activity are the key players doing? And how much?

2. Understand the business you’ve been tasked to build links to

  • How well-established is the brand in relation to the competition?
  • What products or services do they want to push?
  • What is working well, and what isn’t working quite so well?
  • Where are their overall marketing efforts being concentrated?
  • What markets and/or territories are important to them?

3. Understand the website you’ve been tasked to build links to

  • How well-established is the website?
  • How many links or referring domains do your commercial pages have right now?
  • How does that compare to the key players outlined above?
  • Are there any content gaps that need to be filled?

4. Analyse the competition

  • Identify competing pages and analyse how they are working well
  • What links do the competition have that you don’t?
  • How aggressive is their link acquisition?
  • What content topics are your competitors covering?

5. Keywords and landing pages

  • What are they? Do they have a corresponding landing page?
  • Does your client agree with your priorities?
  • What is the intent of the keywords?
  • How competitive are those keywords?

This framework can be followed to achieve results for brands in most sectors — but the setup is key

It is so easy to get relevance wrong in the context of digital PR. Branded campaigns aren’t needed in order to be relevant. We now need to look more closely at target audiences and produce content that appeals both to them AND the publications that they read.

By stepping away from the link-first mindset and applying some research-led common sense we can produce more relevant campaigns that achieve measurable results against SEO metrics.

By Rebecca Moss

I head up the Digital PR team at JBH the Digital PR Agency, delivering creative campaigns for household brands such as Uswitch, tails.com and Gousto. Rebecca has worked in SEO for more than 10 years, specializing in content marketing and link building.

Sourced from MOZ

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Content Consistency Is The Key To a Successful SEO Strategy

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By George Philip

Starting a website is a positive endeavour, but most marketers forget to keep the blog section running. A blog section is imperative for your SEO. Having an updated blog means you are taking efforts to regularly update the content, which would further increase the credibility and draw more traffic towards your website.

The catch here is – your content is as important as any other element of your digital marketing strategy. This brings us all to one real question – Can we maintain consistency in the website blog? The answer is a simple yes. Consistency in posting informative content is the key to success.

Regular blogging improves Google ranking.
As per the Google algorithm rule, consistency in posting regular content will get you a push on the chain in the SEO world. SEO requirements keep changing and today, the content should be not only new and fresh but also has to be informative and appealing for the users. However, there is no hard and fast rule such as you must only post your content according to your offerings.

For instance, if you are a brand dealing with kitchen appliances, your blog posts can have ‘how-to’ articles or new recipes to keep your audience glued to your website.
Not only should you keep your blog updated, but you must also update the links. The more updated the content is, the more response it will get. Let us sum up the importance of blogging in the following points.

A blog makes it easy to get internal linking and backlinks

With your blog, you can easily create internal links and backlinks.

Check the content posted in your industry, write on the topics that others have written, and create a link to the topic to reach out to your audience. Plenty of authentic backlink tools are available for SEO experts to ease the creation of internal linking. The entire process helps the website to go higher in ranks and improve its search hierarchy.

Creating brand awareness
How does an individual know your brand? It is only through the content you post on the website. With more and more products, you need to post more information. It is this updated information, which will help you glue your audience to your products.
We know blogging daily is difficult, but you can keep a schedule of posting at least 2 blogs a week. Be sure to fill in your blog with information like product guides, new launches, the latest industry information, and so on. You can write about several things to keep your audience informed. It just needs a few minutes of brainstorming in the right direction.

Start blogging for better SEO in Kelowna with us.

Developing rapport and relationships with readers
Fostering a relationship with readers is vital not only for your SEO success but also for the success of your digital marketing efforts. You never know when a good reader will turn into a valuable customer.

When you retain consistency in your style of writing and the way you add information to the blog, it creates a feeling of familiarity; bringing more readers to your website. There is another prominent reason to blogpost regularly. It helps to gain REO (Referral Engine Optimization), which means gaining word-of-mouth referrals through regularly updating the posts. The more you write, the more opportunities will be opened to you.
Keep you at par in competition

One of the inevitable reasons to post regular content is to stay at the edge of the competition. Generating regular content will keep a sweet spot for you among the competition. Your competitors are investing in blog and SEO services in Kelowna, you cannot take a back seat here.

Studies have suggested that around 80% of the marketers around the world are leveraging powerful content to improve their SEO efforts.

Besides, 96% of the marketers depend upon customized content to strike a conversation with their customers; blogging being the best medium.
Not to mention that more and more customers are taking out time to read about the products or services they are going to spend online. So, keep updating your blog and achieve success.

Generate Leads
When your blog is being updated with fresh content regularly, the clients will be allured by new product and service offerings from your brand. With these blogs, you are building relationships. Strategically placed call-to-action words will bring leads to your marketing team. A well-linked blog encourages the users to click on the link and complete the purchase.

Final Word
An ample amount of data suggests the importance of regular blog posts and their positive impact on SEO efforts. With each piece of content created, you interact with your brand to boost brand awareness and improve leads.

A professional agency offering SEO services in Kelowna is your go-to place to schedule your blog content and boost your overall online marketing efforts. If you are looking for a reliable partner for SEO in Kelowna, we are here to help.

Jamie Barton is the author of this article. To Know more information about SEO Kelowna please visit the website.

By George Philip

George Philiphttps://www.betechwise.com

George is a technology content writer with years of experience. Specialized in mobile devices, personal computers and consumer technology, as well as software and applications. He explains all technological concepts so that users with less knowledge can understand them. If not writing, you may find him engrossed playing action games on his smartphone. Just so you know, he loves Xiaomi products a lot. You may contact him via his email – [email protected]

Sourced from Betechwise

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Your email is being tracked – learn the secret advertisers don’t want you to know

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By Kim Komando  

It’s impossible not to be tracked online. Still, you can take steps that make a difference.

If you don’t like the idea of advertisers knowing everything about you, shut them out. Tap or click here for simple, actionable steps you can take now.

Unlike your browser history, you probably don’t give much thought to handing out your phone number. It’s time to change that. Tap or click for methods to protect your number and stop inviting spam.

When it comes to your email, you may not realize there’s an easy way advertisers, marketers, companies, and even scammers track you – with just one tiny pixel.

What is pixel tracking?

You can’t see them, but pixel trackers are hidden in many of the emails you receive. Technically, this microscopic pixel is computer code embedded within the body of an email, generally hidden within an image.

Typically, pixel-tracking allows marketers, advertisers, and companies to collect data about you, such as:

• The number of times you open an email

• The operating system you use

• The time you opened the email

• Your IP address can give an idea of your location

• What type of device you use to open the email

Detailed data is sent back to the sender automatically, without you having to click on any links or even respond. That may feel like an invasion of privacy, but it is legal and different from when hackers and scammers employ this tactic.

In that case, it becomes all about monitoring your activity.

Speaking of monitoring, spyware is dangerous software that tracks everything from the sites you visit to the passwords you type in. Tap or click here for six signs your phone has been infected with so-called stalkerware.

How to spot an email scam

Pesky marketing emails are one thing, and we will get into how to stop that. But first, let’s review the red flags you should send an email straight to the trash:

• There’s a request for personal information.

• The “From” address and the display name don’t match.

• The “From” address is very similar to a known business or contact, with one or two characters changed.

• It requires immediate attention.

• It is full of poor spelling or grammar. (Often, this feels like something is “off.”)

• There’s a request to click on a link or download a document or file you did not request.

Most of these clues are easy to spot, but you won’t see a microscopic pixel hidden in an email.

Spot the fake: How to tell if an image you saw on social media is fake

Good news if you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Apple automatically stops senders from retrieving your IP address starting with iOS 15, macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15.

Additionally, email content is downloaded privately when you receive the email, not when you view it. That means only generic data is sent back to marketers, companies, and anyone else tracking you via email.

The Mail Privacy Protection features are not enabled by default. Here’s how to turn them on:

• On an iPhone or iPad: Go to Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection. Turn on Protect Mail Activity.

• On a Mac: In the Mail app, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Privacy. Select Protect Mail Activity.

Apple security 101: 7 important iPhone security settings to change right now

What about Gmail, Windows, and Android users?

The simplest way to prevent pixel-tracking is to block images from displaying in your emails. If the pixel isn’t displayed, the code probably won’t work.

• In Gmail on a computer: Click on the gear icon and select See All Settings. Under General, scroll down and click on Ask before displaying external images under the Images option. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

• In the Gmail app: Tap the three-line menu in the upper corner > Settings > Choose your account. Scroll down to Images under Data usage. Click it, then choose Ask before displaying external images.

• In Yahoo Mail: Click Settings > More Settings > Viewing Email. Scroll to the bottom. Under Show images in messages, choose Ask before showing external images. The page will refresh and automatically save.

• In Outlook, click on File > Options > Trusted Center. Choose Trust Center Settings > Automatic Download from the left-hand pane. Select Don’t download pictures automatically in HTML e-mail messages or RSS items. Click OK to save.

Want smart tech tips like this straight to your inbox? Try my free Tech Tips and How-tos newsletter. I’ll help you get the most out of all your gadgets, save money and protect your privacy.

The IRS has new changes, including the $600 rule, working from home deductions, child tax credits and more. In this episode, tax accountant Rachel Cheek and I dive into the many ways deductions, forms, social media, and rules will impact your 2021 tax return.

Check out my podcast “Kim Komando Explains” on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for my last name, “Komando.”

Learn about all the latest technology on the Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com

By Kim Komando

Sourced from USA Today

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

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How to Use Jasper to Create Your LinkedIn Personal Bio

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By Rebecca Noori

Want to write a professional bio for your LinkedIn profile? Here’s how Jasper can help you with this.

Whether you’re looking for a job, hoping to attract head-hunters, or want to network professionally, then LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform of choice for your career.

Some of your profile bio fields are simple to fill in—you already know the date you graduated from college or started at your new job. But creating a compelling and persuasive bio that makes other professionals want to connect with you is more challenging.

If you’re stumped, Jasper is an AI copywriting tool that could help you craft a winning personal statement.

What Should Be Included in Your LinkedIn Personal Bio?

Need some motivation to get started on LinkedIn? Well, if you’re looking for a job, know that 87% of recruiters regularly check out LinkedIn during the hiring process. But even better, how about the fact that 44% of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year. This is above the US national median.

If you’re ready to jump in, it might be tempting to publish some basic details about yourself quickly. But your LinkedIn personal summary shouldn’t be copied and pasted from your résumé—it needs to be unique and have plenty of personality.

This is your chance to break free from job titles or industry qualifications and write from the heart. Why do you love your career? Why are you the best at what you do? What project did you get great results with?

With a generous 2,000-character limit, your LinkedIn profile should give someone a great idea of your experience and what it would be like to work or collaborate with you. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a few non-work-related details, too, so recruiters know you’re human!

If building a LinkedIn profile sounds challenging, then it is! There’s plenty of pressure in knowing when someone googles your name, and your personal bio will usually show up within the first three search results.

But that’s precisely why you should put some effort into crafting these words and keeping your bio updated regularly.

What Is Jasper AI?

Jasper, (formerly known as Jarvis) is a GPT-3 copywriting tool built using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It writes high-converting copy for websites, blog posts, email funnels, ads, and social media posts.

Essentially, you give the software a description of what you want to create, a title idea, and any keywords you want to include. The software will quickly create text for you to use or edit as you wish. Using one of the inbuilt templates, Jasper can help you craft an eye-catching LinkedIn bio to win new clients and attract those recruiters who might be browsing your profile.

Jasper costs $29 per month for their starter package, which gives you access to 20,000 words per month and the use of 50 free templates. This increases to 50,000 words if you subscribe to their Boss mode plan for $59 per month.

To try Jasper out before investing in their software, there’s also a 10,000-word free trial available.

How to Use Jasper to Create Your Personal Bio on LinkedIn

To get started using Jasper to revamp your LinkedIn bio, head over to your profile and click to edit your About section. This is where you’ll place your finished bio.

Next, you’ll go to Jasper, open the dashboard and choose Templates > Personal Bio.

Jasper AI personal bio template

Note, there’s also an option to choose Company Bio if you want to try both.

There are three main sections within the Personal Bio template, to fill in.

Personal Information

400 characters are available here to provide basic details about yourself and your professional background. You might choose to add your current job detail, how you got into the industry, and what you love most about your profession.

Are you proud to have won an industry award or been promoted to CFO by the age of 25? Note down as much as you can in this box to give Jasper plenty to work with. Don’t forget to add those human details too.

Tone of Voice

The Jasper software completed base training at the end of 2019 and read 10% of the Internet. This means that Jasper doesn’t know about important events like Covid-19, but the software does have an excellent grasp of natural language.

Using the tone of voice feature, you can prompt Jasper on what to say and how to say it. Try experimenting with some of the following adjectives to get the tone you’re looking for:

  • Professional
  • Bold
  • Humble
  • Friendly
  • Casual

You can even go one step further by asking Jasper to imitate a specific person or character to write your LinkedIn bio. How about sounding like Oprah or Tony Robbins?

Point of View

The final information you need to feed Jasper is whether to create your LinkedIn bio in the third person or the first person.

Third-person example: “Michael Smith is a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years experience in the industry.”

First-person example: “Hi, I’m Michael Smith, a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years of experience in the industry.”

As this is a LinkedIn profile and recruiters will know you’ve created your own bio, it’s usually best to choose the first person point of view to be more personable.

Generating Your LinkedIn Bio

Once you’ve entered your details, head to the bottom of the screen and choose the number of outputs you want to generate. The default is set to 3. You’ll then hit Generate and watch Jasper get to work creating your bio.

Jarvis personal bio output

On the right-hand side of your screen, you’ll read and choose the output you like best and select Copy to Clipboard. From here, you can paste the copy straight into your LinkedIn profile as the base of your bio. Alternatively, you might wish to open the Jasper editor to continue working on the text.

Making the Most of Jasper

The best way to use Jasper to create your LinkedIn personal bio is to think of the software as a creative tool. You’ll find that Jasper isn’t flawless and may even make up random details about you. But if you’re suffering from writer’s block, it’s a useful way to develop new ideas on how to present yourself to hiring managers.

By Rebecca Noori

Rebecca has 7 years of experience as a freelance writer covering topics related to work, careers, HR, and productivity. She specializes in creating long form blog content with a human touch. You’ll also find her offering tips and support to new freelance writers who are just starting out.

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How to Bring Authenticity to Your Startup’s Marketing Strategy

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People are tired of being pushed into something they don’t want.

According to a study by Stackla, 90% of customers place a premium on authenticity when selecting which companies they like and support. But what exactly is authenticity? How can we show our customers that we’re human and relatable and not just a brand with an agenda?

Here are six practical tips on how to bring authenticity into your startup’s marketing strategy.

What is authenticity in marketing?

Authenticity is having a genuine connection with your target audience. If you’re not authentic, it’s difficult for customers to connect with what you do. People want brands that they can relate to — companies who are just like them, only better at their job or service because of experience and expertise. Authenticity is also about transparency and showing the world who you are and what you believe in. So, think of authenticity as your company’s personality; it should be unique to every brand out there.

How can startups bring authenticity to their marketing

Did you know that nearly 90% of all startups fail? Startup marketing is difficult because you are often underfunded, have a limited customer base or are just getting started. As a co-founder and owner of a business, I understand the challenges that you are facing. I’ve failed many times. That’s why I’d like to share some of the marketing strategies that have worked well for me and have helped people connect with us on an emotional level every day.

1. Know your target audience

You need to know who your target audience is and what their needs and interests are before you can create a message for them or speak about them on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The more you know, the better your marketing will be.

It’s your job to create an emotional connection between your brands and customers, and authenticity is key here too. Once you understand your target audience and their needs, you can speak to them more effectively on the proper social media channels.

2. Be genuine in your marketing messages

Knowing your target audience does not mean you should be overly promotional. You can still show people who you are as a brand and what makes your company unique while also being more realistic about your company’s benefits. Establishing authenticity in marketing means not trying to be something you’re not. People will see right through anything that seems fake or disingenuous. If you decide to be honest with people, then put all your cards on the table. Don’t try to market your startup as something it’s not.

3. Be consistent with messaging across social media channels

It’s no secret that social media has changed the way that brands communicate with customers. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are potent tools that can help you build relationships with people interested in your startup’s product or services. Your brand messaging must be consistent across all these channels. You need to be consistent with your words, images and tone of voice if you want your target audience to trust what you’re saying. Why should, for example, potential consumers believe you if you send conflicting messages on social media?

Don’t forget to keep in mind that social media is a two-way street. Startups need to be engaging and respond quickly when people ask questions or have concerns about their product or service — this also helps build trust. It’s best to create one voice for your brand across all your social media channels. It will help you communicate with people more personally, and this is what authenticity is about: being real.

4. Give people something to talk about

Don’t just sell people your product or service. You need to give them a reason why they should buy from you. If someone isn’t interested in what you have to offer, there’s no point in pursuing the relationship. Give potential customers something that will make them want to work with you instead of against you.

5. Create an authentic voice for your brand

If you’re looking to create a brand that people will love, your voice must be authentic. Without an authentic voice, your customers may not get the experience they expect and could have negative feelings about your company. Don’t expect to win customer loyalty or get people excited about your product if you don’t sound like yourself. It’s not just what you say that matters. It’s also how you say it. Having an authentic voice for your brand means letting go of the idea that marketing is all science and no artistry. You need to put creativity into everything that comes out of your business, from product development to marketing and sales.

6. Use metrics and data analysis to improve your marketing

Just because you’re authentic doesn’t mean that your marketing will be successful every time. Even if you put a lot of effort into it, everything can still fall flat on its face. Remember that marketing is half art and half science. You need to put creativity into everything you do and keep in mind that metrics and data analysis are essential for adding substance to those creative decisions. What works today might not work next month or even tomorrow, so don’t get too attached to a single marketing strategy.

Take advantage of cutting-edge marketing tools such as social media advertising, influencer marketing and even email campaigns to get your startup’s name out into the world. Keep track of everything you do to improve it over time.

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The Best Ways to Leverage Growth Marketing

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By Kristopher B. Jones

By implementing these growth hacking techniques, you can stay on top of the ever-changing interests of your customers and use them to your advantage.

The term “growth marketing” is often thrown around in the digital world, and many marketers advertise themselves as “growth hackers.” However, there is no actual “hacking” when it comes to growth marketing. Instead, the focus is on data-driven strategies and tests that drive demand generation.

Growth marketing works to attract, engage and retain customers through continuous tests to determine a user’s preferred method of interacting and converting with your product or service. Customer motives, desires and preferences change daily — even hourly. By creating and delivering a highly tailored and individualized message that aligns with your target customer’s needs, you can optimize their experience and reap the benefits.

When developing and conducting these growth hacking experiments, marketers utilize the scientific method. That same technique you learned back in science class is now an essential component of your growth marketing strategy. Using this process, you will be able to:

• Determine what areas need to be improved

• Develop experiments to optimize the identified areas

• Conduct experiments to test your hypothesized improvements

• Analyse results and determine if further experimentation is necessary

Traditional marketing relies on the same fool-proof strategies and techniques to reach customers. Though conventional marketing will yield you some results, if you notice your returns diminishing as time goes on, it’s time to make a change.

By implementing the following growth hacking techniques, you can stay on top of the ever-changing interests of your customers and leverage them to your advantage.

You can apply growth marketing techniques to various areas within your business, such as those included in the acronym AAARRR. Now, since we’re not galivanting across the seven seas, AAARRR, to growth marketers, stands for awareness, acquisition, activation, revenue, retention and referral.

1. Awareness is the bread and butter of your branding efforts.

This aspect seeks to educate potential customers about your brand and what it can do for them. Commonly, marketers utilize social media strategies to determine what is most effective for driving relevant traffic and engagement to your company.

2. Acquisition focuses on generating leads and acquiring new customers for your products or services.

This can be done through chatbots, email collection forms or other means of obtaining customer information. In growth marketing, a professional may look at anything from button colours to messaging to increase interaction.

3. Activation involves getting customers to actually use the product or service that they purchase from you as quickly as possible.

Let’s say you just signed up for the latest social media craze and added a bunch of friends. Statistics on the platform then show that users who add at least 10 friends in their first week are more likely to return and continue engaging. Using that knowledge, a growth marketer may then look into how users find and add friends to increase the longevity of user engagement.

4. Revenue involves anything that makes your company money, such as a product purchase, contract or service upgrade.

One way to experiment with revenue improvement is to play around with how the prices are displayed. Perhaps you have a year-round 10 percent off coupon, but the code is hard to find. Making that information clearer on the page can increase the conversion rate because who doesn’t want a discount?

5. Retention – keeping customers happy – is one of the most important aspects of your business.

To boost retention, a growth marketer may look into how you can personalize the support for your products or services. This can be done by evaluating how a user interacts with your product and what you can do to further streamline that process.

6. When people are happy with what they purchased, they will often refer your business to their friends and family.

One way to capitalize on this is by offering referral programs to incentivize their word of mouth. Tesla, for example, offers free supercharger miles to those who refer customers to buy their cars. A growth marketer will often experiment with types of referral programs that benefit both the customer and business.

The bulk of a growth marketing campaign is identifying and running tests on how to improve your AAARRR metrics. It’s essential to consider the impact the test may have on your business, such as how many people it will affect and if they’ll even reach the step you want them to. From there, it will be trial and error until you get the desired results for your campaign.

Let’s say you have a chatbot installed on your website. The welcome message is getting plenty of views and engagements, but once users reach your third message, they’re out. To improve interaction, you want to ensure your most conversion driving message is within the first two messages for optimal engagement.

One thing to keep in mind is the sample size and time frame of your experiment. You want to ensure you have a large enough group to pull conclusive data from and enough time to capture that data.

A growth marketing strategy can be anything from overhauling your onboarding process to changing the color on a form submission button. If you’re ready to start scaling your business and need to tweak your marketing for higher growth, implementing these “growth hacking” strategies can help take your business to the next level.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Kristopher B. Jones

Serial entrepreneur and investor. Kris is the Founder of 2020 SEO Agency of the Year Finalist LSEO.com.

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Storyselling 101: Build a Business Around Your Blog

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By Stefanie Flaxman

Storyselling helps you strategically deliver stories that get people to take action. It supercharges your content marketing and copywriting to increase sales.

If you’re wondering how to make a living online as a writer who works in marketing, advertising, or another creative field, then you’re going to be thrilled to learn all about storyselling.

Writers who provide services to businesses benefit from storyselling because your ability to craft stories that drive action make you a writer businesses would love to hire.

And if you sell products, your ability to craft words in your business blogging that drive action help prospects make the choice to buy the products you offer.

What is storyselling?

Starting a blog to promote the products or services you sell online is a great first step, but you can’t just write articles about anything that comes to mind (or play just what you feel, for that matter).

Your blog post ideas have to tell compelling marketing stories that help you stand out from your competition.

That’s where storyselling comes in. It ensures that all of the time and energy you put into writing great content doesn’t go to waste, so you actually reach your goals. Blogging can be a hobby, but storyselling turns your blog into a business.

7 steps to killer storyselling

The step-by-step guide below will get you up and running with the basics of great storyselling to help your online business ideas come to life.

You’ll be well-positioned to build a blog that builds your business.

Of course, we’ll start with copywriting.

Step #1: Copywriting fundamentals

Unfortunately, nothing sells itself.

Smart content entrepreneurs know that people find great businesses through marketing and advertising.

So, the first step to storyselling is identifying the ideal person who is the perfect fit for what you sell. With copywriting, you speak directly to one person.

In order to do that, you need to intimately get to know that prospect.

  • What problems do they need solved?
  • What desires do they need fulfilled?
  • How can you make their lives easier?
  • What type of language do they use?
  • What makes them laugh?
  • What makes them feel inspired?
  • Who do they turn to when they need to talk with someone?
  • When are they ready to make a purchase?
  • Why haven’t other solutions worked?
  • How can you help them in ways other businesses don’t?

If you have an outstanding, ethical product or service, your target audience should be thrilled to hear about it.

Don’t be shy about using proven techniques — such as copywriting — to make sure the right people hear about how you can help them.

Word choice is critical here, as you empathize and build a bond with your prospect.

In order to guide him to the products or services that are right for his needs or desires, you have to use the right words.

“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.” – David Ogilvy

Whether you’re selling a product, a service, a message, or an idea, your copywriting has a goal.

Every word, every sentence, every paragraph is intentional — it’s not about fulfilling a certain word count or writing a certain number of pages.

However, as a rule of thumb, long copy typically works better than short copy.

It’s simply because the more opportunities you have in your storyselling to make compelling arguments in favor of your offer, the more opportunities you have to persuade someone to take you up on it.

You have to understand why someone might be hesitant to buy and overcome those fears as you guide them to make a decision (more on that in Storyselling Step #6 below.)

Step #2: Storyselling combines content marketing and copywriting

If you have a great offer, weak marketing actually does everyone a disservice.

But what exactly is copy? And how does it fit in with content marketing?

In short, copy is creative text that intentionally guides someone to do business with you.

Picture Don Draper from Mad Men staring out a window, Canadian Club whisky in hand, quietly contemplating the perfect way to position a product to make his client (and himself) a lot of money.

It’s not quite that glamorous in practice, but it does require a large dose of creativity and discipline.

You create content to attract and engage an audience. Then, your copywriting skills help close the deal so that those people become customers.

Content marketing is marketing that is too valuable to throw away. Blogs, podcasts, and videos are common platforms used for storyselling.

Copywriting is the art and science of persuasive writing. It’s the words that guide someone to take the action you want them to take (i.e., Subscribe, Join, Buy) after you’ve hooked them with your remarkable storyselling in your content.

The two practices use empathy to build an audience and convert prospects into buyers.

Picture this:

Content marketing is a vase.  

Copywriting is a flower.

The vase is the valuable container that holds a persuasive flower (your offer).

Content marketing and copywriting work together for your business.

Ask yourself:

“What does someone need to know to do business with you?”

You’re always thinking of what the prospect is going through — and how you can meet them where they are to guide them on their journey.

Empathize with your prospect on their journey from where they are to where they want to be.

  • What does that person think?
  • What does that person feel?
  • What does that person see?
  • What does that person do?

Researching those factors gives you a pool of information to pull from that helps you choose the right words for your final copy.

Once you’ve learned about your prospect, you take your reader on a storyselling journey that persuades.

Step #3: The art of persuasion

Now that we’re clear on how content marketing and copywriting work together, we can drill down into your main job as a copywriter who uses storyselling: persuasion.

In order to persuade, you have to intimately know who you’re talking to and avoid vague language, so make sure you’ve reviewed Storyselling Steps #1 and #2 above.

Have a clear, specific picture of your ideal customer?

Good.

Here’s a 5-part template to help persuade them to do business with you:

  1. Where your prospect is on their buying journey
  2. What you’ve got for them
  3. What it’s going to do for them
  4. Who you are
  5. What the prospect needs to do next

Whether you want to get an opt-in for your email list, gain a new blog subscriber, make a sale, or just inspire readers to support your favorite cause, start with this storyselling method.

You can add other copywriting techniques to make it work even better, but with the following elements in place, you’ll have the most important bases covered.

Let’s look at each of the five elements.

1. Where the prospect is on their buying journey

You’ll start by telling a story that the prospect can see themselves in. They’re the hero in this story and you’re going to be their guide.

Your goal is to show them that you understand:

  • Where they’re at
  • What they’re going through
  • Their struggles
  • Their frustrations
  • What brings them joy
  • Where they’d like to be in the next few weeks … the next few months … the next few years
  • Etc.

This is your biggest opportunity to be creative and form a bond with your readers.

What do your competitors miss or get wrong? Take advantage of storyselling to fill in those gaps.

2. What you’ve got for them

After you’ve demonstrated that you understand where the prospect is on their buying journey, you next have to describe what you have for them.

What’s your product? What does it do? Who’s it for?

Start with a simple overview of what you’ve got to offer, and before you elaborate on that too much, fulfil the next requirement …

3. What it’s going to do for them

Here’s where we talk about the great benefits of taking the action you want your reader to take.

What’s better about life with your product or service?

Describe the end result, the “after” picture once your customer has bought your product and used it as you recommend.

Let the reader know how your product helps her reach the goals that matter most to her.

Now it’s time to unpack the rest of what the product or service is all about.

These are “features.” They’re important, although they’re not as important as “benefits.”

But if you gloss over the details of what your product or service actually contains, people will be hesitant about putting their money down. And as we all know, hesitant people don’t buy.

Typically, the best way to list features is with a series of fascinating bullet points. Include enough specifics to make the product feel valuable.

Bullet points are a “secret weapon” for copywriters because they pull the eye in and let you make your point in a powerful, skimmable way.

4. Who you are

Most of the time, you need to establish that you’re a trustworthy person and that you know what you’re talking about.

That’s why good sales letters often include a photo near the top of the page.

The photo can include some element personalized to your business that helps the reader like and trust you.

Remember that this is not just who you are, but how you’re like your customer, and what you offer that will benefit her.

So, it’s not actually about you after all — it’s about how you help her.

5. What the prospect needs to do next

This is your call to action (more on this below in Storyselling Step #7).

The reader needs to know specifically what to do next.

To move forward with the sale, tell the reader what to do right this minute. Be specific and painstakingly clear.

Storyselling isn’t just about exchanging dollars. It’s about motivating a specific, well-defined behaviour.

The next time you see a really masterful sales pitch, try to identify these five elements. Look for it in infomercials, catalogue copy, sales letters, and good product reviews.

When you start spotting these persuasion elements “in the wild,” you’ll be on your way to becoming a more effective copywriter — a copywriter who sells.

Step #4: Magnetic headlines

When you start studying ads you encounter every day, you’ll notice that they don’t get read if one critical element isn’t in place: the headline.

Headlines grab attention so that the rest of your writing gets read. They’re the most important part of your storyselling.

Why?

Because without a magnetic headline, it doesn’t matter how many brilliant details you go on to tell your reader about.

They’ll leave your page (web or otherwise) if your headline doesn’t give them a reason to stick around.

So, your headline either:

  1. Convinces a prospect to read the rest of your copy (potential sale)
  2. Doesn’t hook a prospect — and they don’t read the rest of your copy (no potential sale)

First impressions matter, and when it comes to attracting attention from interested prospects, you (once again) must know your customer.

When you empathize with your ideal prospect, you’ll know how to use the right language to keep them reading your copy because you’ll know how to express information that is relevant to their needs and wants.

Your headline needs to communicate:

  • Who should care about your story
  • How you’re going to help them, in ways competitors don’t
  • Why they should care right now

You want to get someone to read your story immediately, because content or copy “saved for later” is content and copy that’s forgotten.

How do you do that?

  1. Write your headline drafts first.
  2. Draft a ton of options, including slight variations.

The main thing to keep in mind is that a headline is a promise.

It promises some kind of benefit or reward in exchange for attention.

That reward could range from entertainment to a fulfilled dream to the solution to a pressing problem.

A good way to make sure your headlines always offer a compelling reward is to refer back to the 4-U approach taught by our friends at AWAI (American Writers & Artists Institute).

Your headlines must:

  • Be USEFUL to the reader
  • Provide her with a sense of URGENCY
  • Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE
  • Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.

Ultimately, a benefit-driven headline effortlessly leads a reader into your copy.

Many new copywriters struggle with headlines that are UNIQUE and ULTRA-SPECIFIC because it’s often challenging to keep your message clear while satisfying those two requirements.

When you study the headlines that pique your interest, identify the parts that make them UNIQUE and ULTRA-SPECIFIC — the exact reasons why they got your attention and persuaded you to take a closer look at the body copy.

Learning how to write great headlines is an absolutely vital part of your success with storyselling.

When you start your next writing assignment — whether it’s a blog post, ebook, video script, or sales page — make sure you leave plenty of time for drafting and experimenting with headlines.

Step #5: Benefits and features of a product or service

Once you convince a prospect to read your copy, they have to know what’s in it for them if they take you up on your offer.

Benefits and features are the core of copywriting.

The specific skill of being able to clearly describe benefits and features in a persuasive way is what differentiates copywriters from other types of writers.

What are features? What are benefits?

And how do they support each other to make a sale?

  • Features explain your offer.
  • Benefits persuade someone to care about the offer.

You guide a prospect to discover:

  1. What they’re going to get
  2. How it’s going to help them get the results they want

These details emerge from your storyselling research about your target audience, in addition to basic facts about your product or service.

As an exercise, dissect the different sections of your copy and label them as benefits or features.

Is it balanced?

If your copy doesn’t have enough benefits, you’ve likely not dug deep enough into the frustrations and obstacles that your ideal customer or client faces.

Uncover those struggles, so that you can perfectly position your product or service as a way for them to conquer the issue at hand.

Keep reading to find out the best ways to convince those prospects who are still on the fence about your offer.

Step #6: Overcome objections

A business needs to be aware of possible reasons why someone may not choose their product — and then address those concerns head-on.

Effective copy addresses the conversation already going on in a prospect’s mind, and the better your storyselling can soothe any doubts a person may have about purchasing your product or service, the better your chances of gaining a customer or client.

The next time you’re listening to your favorite podcast or watching your favorite YouTube channel, you might want to think twice before you skip over any ads or promotional content.

Listening to or watching ads is a great way to spot all of the ways you can overcome objections with your copy.

Skilled copywriters carefully select each word they choose to:

  1. Differentiate further. What does your prospect struggle with the most? How do you help them with this in ways competitors don’t?
  2. Overcome objections that the prospect may have to both your benefits and features.

That combination forms a deeper bond with the prospect and supports their purchase decision.

Through this process, you have the opportunity to highlight the true benefits you provide that make you stand out as the best choice for their wants or needs.

True benefits in your copy don’t address what you think they need. True benefits in your copy address what the prospect actually wants or needs.

With great storyselling, it’s not the problem you think they have. It’s the problem they actually have.

When you overcome objections, you speak to true benefits in order to persuade.

If someone isn’t convinced by your offer so far, what do you need to tell them to close the deal?

Think about showing versus telling here, with winning details within:

  • Case studies
  • Testimonials
  • Exercises/worksheets
  • Demonstrations
  • Tutorials

Your customer or client wants to see how someone just like them has truly benefited from your product or service.

Step #7: Calls to action (CTAs)

Once you’ve built a desire for a product or service, it’s time to bring all of your storyselling work together.

Every persuasion sequence — whether it’s an email opt-in page for a freebie or a sales letter for a product or service — needs a clear and specific call to action.

If your copy guides someone to an action that doesn’t cost anything (i.e., subscribe to your blog), you still need to sell it.

You’re competing for attention and time rather than money — and those are in very short supply.

Select only one goal per piece of copy.

At the end of your text, you’ll explicitly state the action you’d like your reader, listener, or viewer to take (based on the goal of the copy).

Some actions you might want someone to take include:

  • Sign up for your free email course
  • Comment on your blog post
  • Share your in-depth guide on social media
  • Like and Subscribe to your YouTube channel
  • Join your paid membership community

This is strategic. When you have one of these action-goals in mind before you write, your copy will support your goal.

It should feel natural at this point, after everything you’ve already shared, to ask the prospect to take your desired action.

The work you’ve done to create persuasive copy naturally leads to asking your prospect to take the action you want them to take.

If you’ve followed the Storyselling Steps above, your prospect should be happy to take you up on your offer.

Copywriting in your content marketing helps you build and maintain relationships on the prospect’s journey to becoming a customer or client.

Are you new to storyselling? What to do next

The written word drives the web. It always has, and it always will.

Even if you’re working with audio or video, the right words are still what make the difference.

  • Words drive engagement.
  • Words drive customer experience.
  • Words drive sales, growth, and profit.

And if you want to master the art of using words to drive business results, you’ve come to the perfect place — Copyblogger has been helping accelerate the careers of writers just like you since 2006.

“If you are both killer and poet, you get rich.”

In the classic book Ogilvy on Advertising, legendary copywriter David Ogilvy recounts a conversation with his colleague William Maynard, creative director at Ted Bates & Company.

Maynard shared this observation about the writers he had worked with during his career:

“Most good copywriters fall into two categories. Poets. And killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end.”

And then Ogilvy famously added:

“If you are both killer and poet, you get rich.”

He would know. Ogilvy was responsible for some of the most creative and innovative advertisements of the “golden age” of advertising.

So when we talk about being a poet and a killer inside Copyblogger Academy, what does that mean?

It’s simple. We’re talking about a person who is both creative and strategic.

Too much content produced in the name of digital marketing is viewed as simply a means to an end, and that’s why it fails.

And yet, no one is interested in paying you to express yourself unless it also meets business objectives.

The best copywriters and content marketing professionals understand how to combine poetry with purpose — and that’s a large part of our ongoing training with Copyblogger Academy members.

When creative writing is employed strategically, with the aid of illuminating data and powerful technology, your capacity for meaningful impact and personal success skyrocket.

By Stefanie Flaxman

Stefanie Flaxman is Copyblogger’s Editor-in-Chief. Check out her masterpiece blogging series on YouTube.

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The truth behind NFTs – and what marketers really need to know about the craze

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By Samuel Scott

Columnist Samuel Scott wanted to understand the true value of NFTs for marketers. So how better to get to the bottom of the craze than to go out and buy one of his own? Here’s what dabbling in Boris Johnson caricatures and Ethereum trading taught him about marketing’s latest trend.

To riff off a famous Rory Sutherland quote, NFTs are just JPGs and GIFs with advertising budgets.

This month, actress Reese Witherspoon formed a partnership with the World of Women ‘non-fungible token’ collective. Universal Music said it will create ‘collectible NFTs’ with the Curio platform. GameStop announced a future NFT marketplace.

In their coverage of such NFT news, the major media often describe them as ‘a unique token on the blockchain’ or ‘a digital asset that represents real-world objects.’ But those vague terms are meaningless.

NFTs are actually just ways to get more people to use cryptocurrency and thereby increase the artificial money’s value. But people can still learn how certain marketing trends have helped to hype this newest business bandwagon. Hopefully they will then use the ideas for something that actually has value and is not destroying the planet.

In this column, I will go through my attempted step-by-step process of buying an NFT – one that features everyone’s favourite prime minister – to show first what they are and then what we can take from one of the biggest crazes since tulips in 1630s Holland.

But beforehand, I have two requests. First, ignore the NFT propaganda, and focus on what you see. Second, disregard the shills who jump on every bandwagon as ‘The future!’ and consider only the facts. (After all, is anyone still using Segways or Clubhouse?) Now, let’s begin.

How to buy an NFT

There are already many places online to sell one’s digital artwork and graphic designs. Creative Market. Etsy. Big Cartel. And more. What makes, say, Mintable’s NFTs (on the left) different from Art Web’s items (on the right)?

Last week, I browsed Mintable – another NFT e-commerce website – to see. And I saw this.

Mintable had my curiosity, but now they had my attention. To place a bid, I had to create an account. No big deal. But then I also had to connect an Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency wallet through a company called MetaMask.

Not wanting to spend too much, I bought $20 of funds – or 0.00662957 ETH. After the fees, I paid almost $32 to have $20 worth of ETH. My first concern? That was a 60% markup. (Mintable lets people pay with credit cards in USD, but the amount is still converted to ETH – with assumed additional currency exchange fees.)

So, I placed a bid of 0.006 ETH. Long story short, I lost the auction. Within just a few hours, the price had skyrocketed to 2 ETH ($5,600). My second concern: who would pay that much – the UK Labour Party?

But I still wanted to see a purchase all the way through. So I bid my $20 again on this random ‘UndeadSkelly’ graphic. And I won – no one else had bided against me.

What exactly did I win? Take a look at this other information on the NFT’s listing page.

What did I purchase? A legally enforceable copyright to the image? The sole commercial right to use the media? No.

My third concern: look at the code on the right above. That is the NFT’s metadata, which contains information such as a link that shows where the image is stored on some server somewhere. The metadata is basically a certificate of ownership. Essentially, I had just bought a piece of paper.

Here is what Mintable’s own website states: “When you buy an NFT, what you are really buying is a smart contract (your certificate of ownership) that points to a set of metadata which among other things, includes a link to your NFT file.”

“The only thing secured by the blockchain is the smart contract – your certificate of ownership,” Mintable continues. “This is why there is so much insecurity hindering the widespread adoption of NFTs – without the actual asset being stored on the blockchain, there is no guarantee that the NFT you buy today won’t just end up becoming a broken link to a non-existent file in 5 years if/when the server(s) it is hosted on shits itself.”

Buying an NFT is not buying some type of digital media itself at all. It is purchasing a receipt that shows a link to where something is stored online. And nothing prevents anyone from right-clicking ‘Save As’ and keeping copies of the media for themselves. My fourth concern: the NFTs listed for sale do not even have watermarks.

Remember two things. Real value usually comes from scarcity, and anyone who controls a server where a file is stored can control what file is stored there.

But wait – there’s more. What happened when I went to finalize the UndeadSkelly NFT purchase? For the right to purchase the metadata, I had to pay not only the $32 for $20 worth of ETH cryptocurrency but also $23 in ‘gas fees’ (a carbon offset fee for the energy consumed in blockchain transactions). My fifth concern.

The bottom line? I would have had to buy more ETH cryptocurrency and pay at least $55 to purchase a $20 graphic that countless other people probably already had. That would be a 175% total markup. I thought to hell with this and never confirmed the transaction. (I also deleted my browser history, removed the MetaMask Chrome add-on, poured garlic powder on my computer and threw clumps of salt over my shoulders.)

Of course, most online retailers have added transaction or shipping fees of one sort or another. But I just did not see the added value of this entire process and paying with a sketchy ‘currency’ for an image that I may or may not ‘own’.

For review for a column last month on B2B advertising and content marketing, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute in Australia gave me the e-book update to How Brands Grow Part 2. Do I now “own” it? Yes.

It sits on my hard drive and in my private Apple iCloud account. I have full agency over that specific digital media item and can do whatever I want with it. No one else has any control over it. Here is a helpful piece of advice: you do not ‘own’ anything digital that is not downloaded and stored on a computer, mobile device, or server that you own or otherwise control.

Buying a copy of an e-book that many others also have is one thing. The story or information itself is valuable. A copy of a random Boris Johnson or UndeadSkelly image is not. Besides, the artistry of most NFTs looks like something I would see in the 1990s video game series Doom. My sixth concern.

So, my original question:wWhat makes Mintable’s ‘NFTs’ different from Art Web’s graphics? That answers lie in the two major marketing trends that people should take away from this whole insanity.

What marketing trends increased NFT’s popularity

Tech vendor lock-in. Take Curio and Mintable. If their goal is simply to facilitate the sale of digital media and take a cut, then why do they specifically push the use of cryptocurrency as the primary payment method? (When I started to create a Curio account, it also prompted me to connect to MetaMask.)

Follow the pseudo-money. Curio cofounder Ben Arnon holds positions in several cryptocurrencies and hypes the industry on social media. Mintable cofounder Zach Burks is a Twitter self-described “crypto nerd” and “NFT lover.”

By pushing users into buying and using cryptocurrency, the companies increase the values of those cryptocurrencies – as well as the values of any personal holdings. After all, the global forex market is also a game of supply and demand – the currencies that are most in use generally have the greatest values. (The Russian ruble is not doing well at the moment.)

It goes far beyond mere NFTs. Take Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency. According to Scott Galloway, the top 2% of the holders own 95% of the $800 billion supply. The more that crypto is hyped and used in general, the more that a few rich people will become even richer. (For more, I recommend watching ‘Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs’ by Dan Olson’s Folding Ideas on YouTube.)

Still, there are other examples of vendor lock-in (though the practice is sometimes uncomfortably close to monopolistic behaviour). In the past, music purchased over Apple iTunes could be played only within iTunes or on an iPod. Some printer companies state that if ink cartridges not sold by them are used, then the warranty is void.

On one level, vendor lock-in can increase revenues. But on an entirely different level, vendor lock-in can create the feeling of being part of an exclusive community who are using the ‘widget’. As in crypto.

Generational sentiment. I often criticize the lazy use of demographic groups as market segments. But the fact remains that all people born at the same time do experience the same general political and economic events and upheavals.

And if NFTs and the entire crypto world have done one thing well, it is capturing the zeitgeist of younger people. Every enthusiast I know personally is under the age of 35. Take Julie Fredrickson, a tech company founder turned investor who attended a cryptocurrency convention this month and described it in her blog.

“It’s full jubilee at the end of the world shit,” she wrote. “You are surrounded by millennials and gen-zers who know in their gut that their future has been stolen from them. And instead of being pissed they decided to build. And they decided to gamble. And it’s not clear which one is which sometimes.

“Everyone is soaking in student debt and working shitty interchangeable jobs for corporations owned by private equity. No one can afford a house. No one is stable enough for a marriage and children … but if you are in crypto the future looks pretty rosy. You are discussing real estate for your second home and the tax advantages of different jurisdictions.”

The possible future of NFTs

While I am loathe to make marketing predictions and instead choose to critique them, I will make an exception. The very economics of cryptocurrencies mean that their values must collapse one day.

Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins, and more than 80% have already been created. What does that mean? Soon, the only way for the price to increase will be to rely on the Greater Fool Theory in market bubbles – that there will always be someone who will buy your widget for more than what you paid.

There is always a point where someone is left holding the bag. Rinse and repeat for many, if not all, cryptocurrencies. And that is only one of all the problems. (I’d also read Why the NFT Market Will Collapse at Project Syndicate.)

Recently, more than $200m worth of NFTs have been stolen from the OpenSea marketplace through an email phishing hack. Many NFT sales have been creators buying their own work to increase the prices. Salesforce employees are rebelling after the company said it will launch an NFT cloud.

Cent, another NFT platform, stopped selling them because of counterfeits. (My comment: they are not “counterfeit” – they are likely 100% entirely accurate copies of things that are freely available.) A colleague at The Drum, media editor John McCarthy, posted a Twitter thread of articles on the use of NFTs in money laundering.

And I have one question for Matt Damon: for that Crypto.com advertisement, did you get paid in cash or cryptocurrency? I would love to know.

Yes, I am a little skeptical. Last year, an Israeli PR agency here asked me for a meeting to discuss some potential consulting work. As it turned out, they were pivoting to the cryptocurrency space and were gaining some big clients who wanted publicity.

One question they asked: “So, which cryptocurrencies do you own?” I almost bit off part of my tongue while trying not to laugh. In what was probably not a surprise, they went with another consultant.

And what will I do with the 0.006 ETH that I still have after this experiment? Maybe I will make a sketchy donation to Boris Johnson’s Tories. It seems to be another fashionable thing to do these days.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Samuel Scott

The Promotion Fix is a​n ​exclusive biweekly column for The Drum from Samuel Scott, a global keynote marketing speaker who is a former journalist, newspaper editor, and director of marketing and communications in the high-tech industry. Follow him @samueljscott.

Sourced from The Drum

The Promotion Fix is an exclusive column for The Drum contributed by global keynote and virtual marketing speaker Samuel Scott, a former journalist, newspaper editor and director of marketing in the high-tech industry. He is based out of Tel Aviv, Israel.

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Ownit helps brands sell products, at the point of discovery, with one click

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By Christine Hall

We’ve all seen a product on social media that looks interesting, so you click the “shop now” button and are taken over to a new site. But wait, you weren’t finished on the social media site, and when you go back, everything has refreshed.

Ownit unveiled a checkout experience today, after testing with 10 companies, that gives direct-to-consumer brands a way to sell their products without that interruption. Its technology connects social, commerce and payment options at the point of discovery so consumers can buy in one tap via an “Ownit Connected Checkout link.”

From the link, consumers go to a web page interface on top of the app and can make purchase choices from their favourite commerce site, including Shopify and Amazon, and pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay or PayPal — features not often available because some social media sites don’t often play well with certain payment options, Ownit co-founder and CEO Payman Nejati told TechCrunch.

Nejati started San Francisco-based Ownit less than a year ago with Evan Shiue and Joel Tan, and all three have vast experience in checkout. This is Nejati’s fifth startup, and most of his experience is in grocery checkout, while Shiue has a background in autonomous checkout at Standard Cognition and Walmart, and Tan in conversational checkout with Amazon’s Alexa.

The global pandemic was the driver for many people to start an e-commerce brand, and while many tools enable them to start easily, Nejati says the right tools haven’t been there to help those companies grow as easily. In addition, brands still deal with challenges, like cart abandonment rates of 75%.

Needless to say, they’ve thought a lot about what’s going on at the point of purchase, even going so far as to boast that customers will double sales conversion or pay nothing. They knew they were on to something as they saw checkout companies like Bolt, Checkout.com and Rapyd collectively raising over $3 billion investments in the past 18 months.

Ownit

Image Credits: Ownit

“We knew checkouts at the point of purchase will explode, but we wonder if the user was going to the storefront, and is the company investing in sending them there from another platform, like social media,” Nejati added. “At the same time, the new iOS was making those costs unbearable. So we thought, what if you don’t have to go there, but we could capture someone at the point of discovery — that was the lightbulb moment.”

Proving that checkout continues to be a hot area for investors, Ownit itself announced initial funding Monday, an $8 million seed round from Caffeinated Capital, SciFi VC, GGV Capital, Abstract Ventures and a group of angel investors that include founders and executives of companies including Meta, Pinterest, Honey, Product Hunt, Standard Cognition and Anycart.

Nejati explained Ownit is like the “Plaid of e-commerce;” what it is doing is a “heavy tech lift,” involving connecting people, merchants and payment options seamlessly. The ultimate goal being to become the merchant of record by going after capital to get everything squared away correctly from the beginning versus taking shortcuts that make it difficult to scale.

As such, the new capital will be deployed into what Shiue called “the three Cs”: conversion, which he considers “the North Star for its brands;” customer onboarding; and connections to deepen the three pillars of its tool suite of social, commerce and payment platform relationships.

The company has 11 employees currently and Shiue expects to be at 30 by the end of the year.

Among Ownit’s 10 early beta customers are consumer packaged goods companies, cosmetics and nutrition. Customers were encouraged to test sales through Shopify versus through Ownit, and Shiue said initial results have been positive, showing campaigns saw an average of two times the conversion lift via text marketing and three times conversion via email marketing.

Feature Image Credit: Ownit

By Christine Hall

Sourced from TechCrunch

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