The Growth Vault

How most companies do keyword research: Build a giant list of top-of-funnel keywords. Then move down the funnel toward conversion.

How most B2B companies should do keyword research: Target prospects who are already close to converting.

This is “pain-point SEO”: Identify your prospects' main questions and pain points, then find relevant keyword opportunities that address those topics.

If you focus on high-intent keywords around customer pain points, your content will have a much better chance of converting people immediately, even if the search volume is low.

How to uncover pain points:

• Study forums and communities where people discuss topics related to your product, like Reddit and Quora. Then enter their URLs into your keyword tool to find out what keywords they rank highly for. Example: A Reddit post at r/Entrepreneur ranks #4 on Google for the keyword phrase “starting a business with 50k.”
• Interact with your customers via interviews, phone calls, and surveys. Ask them what problem they were looking to solve before stumbling across your business. And how they would describe your product/service to a friend who knows nothing about it.
• Talk to your sales/CX team. You’ll get great insights into the problems customers are trying to solve, and any objections they might have.

Take notes and look for patterns. Turn the most common use cases, questions, and problems into content ideas. Then use Ahrefs to size up the opportunity of keywords that tie into those pain points and intents.

Once you have a handful of keywords, pop them into Clearscope. Run a report on each to gain AI-backed insights into how to rank for it.*

* Clearscope is our sponsor, but our content team was using their reports for SEO well before we partnered with them. Demand Curve readers can get up to three complimentary Clearscope reports. Head over here to get your free reports.

When it comes to email, some marketers invest loads of time in writing, designing, and building flows. But they under-invest in making sure those emails actually land in inboxes.

This is called email deliverability.

To reach your subscribers, you need to indicate to internet service providers (ISPs) like Gmail that you’re a legitimate sender.

One way to improve your sender reputation and email deliverability: IP warming. Instead of blasting all your contacts at once, “warm up” your list by gradually scaling up the volume of sent emails. Do this over a period of at least ~4-6 weeks.

At first, send emails just to the people who are most likely to open, click, reply, and forward. Don’t get too creative at this stage. Send emails that you think have a high probability of generating interest, like a promotion similar to past successful ones.

This will send positive signals to ISPs and help you reach more inboxes as you scale up.

IP warming is also important for brands that are switching email platforms. If that’s the case:

• Export your most valuable leads—new subscribers and people who have clicked on your emails in recent months—to your new email service provider.
• Run your next campaign to just this audience.
• Increasingly add more contacts for each new campaign.

More than a third of SaaS websites don’t show enough of their product’s user interface (UI), according to research from Baymard.

Why this matters: Without a visual representation of your UI, people don’t feel like they know enough about your product. So even if your site has text describing how your software works, they won’t necessarily feel confident about moving forward.

That’s because, according to research, users most value UI representations in the form of images, GIFs, videos, and demos. Take note—we listed those in descending order of importance. Images come first.

Why not videos?

Videos take longer to load and require more user effort. (Users first need to decide to watch a video, then click “play” and adjust their audio volume.) In other words, a video is a lot more demanding than a screenshot. The same goes for demos, which feel like extra commitment compared to images and GIFs.

This is actually good news for optimizing your SaaS site, since creating images requires less effort. Here are five tips for better representing your product:

1. Prioritize showing images of your product’s UI. Take screenshots of key screens, like your main dashboard and most important product features. Example: Clearscope displays a screenshot of its text optimizer on its homepage.
2. Show more concrete images of your product than abstract ones. Abstract graphics show only an interpretation of your product. The online counseling platform BetterHelp could do better here. Instead of using abstract illustrations, it could show its app’s scheduling and messaging functions, plus other features.
3. If you do use videos, make them short and loop them. The idea is to make your videos mimic GIFs, which often sacrifice image quality. Take a look at the looping six-second video on HelpDesk’s homepage for some inspiration.
4. Make sure non-looped videos load quickly and have scrubbing previews. This is best for longer video walkthroughs with audio. Scrubbing previews show what’ll happen in a video when you move your cursor across a video’s timeline—they give users an idea of what to expect.
5. If your demos are self-guided, make that clear. A CTA button that says “Try a demo” feels much more inviting and low-effort than one that says “Book a demo.”

Marketers know PDF content upgrades are a potential game changer for the conversion rate of a blog. PDF keywords, on the other hand, are a surprisingly overlooked content opportunity.

No matter what niche you’re in, there's a good chance people are looking for PDFs related to the product or service you sell. Consider the following keyword examples:

Search volumes may be low, but so is the competition. What's more, search intent is crystal clear. Searchers have problems and they're looking for solutions—PDF resources about their specific dilemma.

To find relevant PDF keyword opportunities in your space:

1. Search for the keyword "PDF" in Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer.
2. Exclude modifiers suggesting the searcher is looking for a software solution, not information (e.g., convert, merge, compress, save, turn, combine).
3. Include keyword modifiers related to your niche (e.g., keto, trading, social media marketing).
4. Scan the results for relevant PDF keywords you can create content for.

Once you have your keyword(s), create a landing page or blog post on the topic and offer a PDF bonus in exchange for an email address. The bonus can be a unique asset (e.g., checklist, cheat sheet, guide) or a nice-looking PDF version of the original content. Experiment and see what works.

Content upgrades have the potential to lift conversions as much as 500%—possibly more.

And if you can rank for those assets, you’ll have yourself a self-perpetuating traffic and conversion machine.

As you create a product, service, or piece of content that you want to go viral, carefully consider why someone would share it.

Jonah Berger, a professor at Wharton, conducted rigorous research to figure out why people share. Here are the six reasons he found (with examples of each):

1. Social currency: “We share things that make us look good.”

• We all seek social approval. It’s human nature. So we share things that we think will boost others’ perception of us.
• Example: When the founder of SmartBargains.com launched a new site, Rue La La, he made it invitation-only. It sold the same products as Smart Bargains. But because consumers now felt like insiders—a badge of social currency—they bought a lot more.‍

2. Triggers: “Top of mind, tip of tongue.”

• We share and talk about things we come across. Which is why people discuss things they see regularly (like Cheerios) more than things that are less visible in their everyday lives (like Disney World).
• Example: The most inescapable song of 2011, Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” peaked in daily searches every Friday after it came out.

3. Emotion: “When we care, we share.”

• We share things that make us emotional. Things that elicit high-arousal positive emotions (awe, excitement, and amusement) and negative emotions (anger and anxiety).
• Examples: Basically, everything on Upworthy.

4. Public visibility: “Built to show, built to grow.”

• We imitate things we see. We’ll go to the food truck with the long line and sign up for the email service we see others using (AOL, then Hotmail, then Gmail).
• Example: The Apple logo is upside down on a closed MacBook. But it’s right side up when the MacBook is open—say, at a coffee shop where others are working nearby. That’s solid public branding.‍

5. Practical value: “News you can use.”

• We share useful information. Passing along helpful tips, tutorials, guidance, etc., strengthens social bonds.
• Examples: #lifehacks viral videos on TikTok, Brené Brown TED Talks‍

6. Stories: “Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.”

• Berger explains that “people don’t think in terms of information. They think in terms of narratives.” Which is why Aesop didn’t just say the words, “Don’t give up.” Instead, he told a story about a slow-yet-persevering tortoise who ended up winning a race.
• Example: Unboxing videos are a type of story. As psychologist Pamela Rutledge puts it, each is “a mini-three act play with an exposition (presenting the box), rising action and conflict (what is it? can I get the box open? will I like it?) and resolution or denouement (showing what’s in the box).”

For more on virality, check out our complete guide to organic viral marketing.

Good video testimonials work wonders in landing more sales. In fact, for 89% of enterprise companies, they can drive anywhere from 25% to 50% lifts in conversions.

But many companies struggle to produce video testimonials quickly and cost-effectively. They spend as long as six months on video production, often recording customers at live events or sending videographers to film their subjects directly. They don’t realize that you can get informercial-level video testimonials without traveling anywhere or investing in expensive equipment.

Here’s how:

• Identify your top customers. Depending on your product or service, these might be your repeat buyers, customers with high engagement, or those who’ve consistently referred your business to others or given high NPS scores.
• Create an enticing offer in exchange for a short video interview about your product. A few examples: an exclusive discount, credit toward customers’ next purchase, or a free month of service.
• Sign up for a free Calendly account if you don’t already have one. This will make coordinating interviews with your customers easier.
• Email your top customers with your special offer and Calendly link.
• Keep your interviews short, no more than 20-30 minutes, and record them on Zoom. Ask questions to guide customers toward a cohesive narrative. Try these ones:
• Why did you want [product]?
• What problem were you trying to solve?
• What do you like about [product] vs. [competitor]?
• What surprised you about [product]?
• Would you recommend [product] to others? If so, who and why?
• Use a video editing software like iMovie to cut out any pauses, umms, or other unwanted sounds. Add music from AudioJungle to give each testimonial more life—we recommend using tracks from the Cinematic category.
• Publish the testimonials on YouTube. Then add them to your sales pages and use them in your ads, emails, and other marketing collateral.

Once you’ve nailed down the process, consider automating your offer as an email sequence so you can collect testimonials on the regular. The more footage you collect, the more assets you have to leverage as social proof for your product.

DTC and ecommerce shops, here’s a creative way to delight and retain customers after a purchase:

1. Buy raffle tickets. These are cheap—a roll of 500 costs less than $9 on Amazon.
2. For each order you ship out, include some raffle tickets. Instead of broadcasting your raffle on your site, keep it on the down-low. Only tell customers in their confirmation email or a note in their order what these tickets are for and why they should hold on to them—this makes the whole experience feel special.
3. Announce the winner via email or SMS. Then ship the prize to them. For raffle prizes, think small goodies that relate to your product.

Why this strategy works:

A raffle is old-fashioned fun, and in this case, it’s unexpected. By delivering unexpected value, it creates delight—and studies show that delight improves customer loyalty.

This strategy might work especially well for subscriptions like FabFitFun and Birchbox since they have recurring orders. You can easily include raffle tickets with each scheduled shipment.

Community-led growth and product-led growth (PLG) are often talked about separately.

But an effective go-to-market strategy can be to blur the lines between them.

Embedding community in your PLG strategy could mean built-in virality.

Examples:

• Strava: Use it to work out. Stay because your friends and colleagues are on the app too, giving you kudos.
• SparkToro: Use it for audience research. Love it because of the SparkToro team’s community participation, like bi-monthly office hours.
• Hacker News: Use it for news and commentary. Go to Y Combinator, which runs Hacker News, when you want to apply for a startup accelerator (example courtesy of Nir Eyal).

“Build community as a competitive advantage” is one of OpenView’s 11 principles for PLG. Compared to the old (and even fairly recent) days of establishing brand reputation through ads and trade shows, now “users are the brands. People respond to people, and look to folks they trust for advice. … Community isn’t just about creating another Slack channel. It’s about convening and connecting your target audience to help members achieve their own goals.”

Five ways to foster community as part of PLG, from OpenView:

1. Highlight power users’ creations to amplify community creators. Example: Figma’s community plug-ins
2. Build relationships by connecting users with their peers. Example: Optimizely’s Developer Community
3. Participate in existing communities where your users are active.
4. Build a content community. Create informative content that will help your users out. Any good content marketing program does this.
5. Acquire an established community, like how Zapier acquired Makerpad (probably a later-stage method).

Don’t have a product yet? It’s not too early to start building a community to get people invested in your concept—and get invaluable early insights into what your users will want.

The bar for engaging content on YouTube is rising. And YouTube’s algo continues to improve to surface the best, most relevant videos for its users.

If you’re creating content for YouTube, here’s a list of counter-intuitive insights (and how you can use each) adapted from VidCon 2022:

Insight: YouTube is beginning to value quality viewer experience over straight watch time. YouTube is running more surveys, and increasingly weighting responses to those surveys, to figure out how happy/inspired your videos make people feel.

What to do: Map out the emotional experience you want your viewer to have. The goal should be to help your viewers through a transformation, not just burn their time.

Insight: YouTube's discovery algorithm is driven by two major factors, performance and personalization. Performance can be summed up by the question, “did people enjoy this video?” and personalization by, “who is the right person for this video at this exact time that they open up their device for a YT session?” Most people forget about personalization, which is driven by video watch history, channel watch history, and factors like time of day and device type.

What to do: Clearly define your audience and value propositions. Simple, but most brands and creators miss the mark here. If YouTube can’t interpret who your video should be for, it's because your script and delivery aren't clear, and YT will not find the best viewers for you.

Insight: Most people know how important intros are, but the last 30 seconds of your video are critical as well. Recency bias (as well as the peak-end rule) point to the fact that viewers will put a lot of weight on the conclusion of your video—so much that they often judge the quality of the entire video based on their feeling at the very end.

What to do: End your videos with a laugh, some kind of joke, or a valuable takeaway.

Insight: The optimal rhythm for retention is not “the fastest paced video possible”—it’s more like a rollercoaster with a dynamic pace.

What to do: Find opportunities to slow down the pace after a high speed segment and inject an emotional story if possible.

When you're down to the last 48 hours of an email campaign, chances are good that all you have left are the "tire kickers." And if they still don't buy, it's usually for one of two reasons:

• They aren't interested, or
• They don't feel confident in their decision to buy your product

For the second type of prospect, marketers often resort to scarcity/urgency tactics to drive a final burst of sales. This can work. But if buying your product feels like a giant leap to on-the-fence prospects, "pushing" them with countdown timers and FOMO may not instill the confidence they need to take action.

To make your product feel like a natural step forward, try "coaching" prospects through their objections with a minimum viable commitment (MVC).

Here’s how Copy Hackers used this tactic in their closing course launch email:

Notice how instead of provoking anxiety with ultimatums, the copy relieves it with a stress-free offer—the MVC. When you empathize with your prospects’ current emotional struggle, you set the bar just high enough so they feel good about their ability to clear it.

Consider testing this formula in the CTA of your closing promotional email:

1. Maybe you’re [time or value objection]
2. Maybe you’re [unsure of being a fit objection]
3. Either way, you totally appreciate having [guarantee length] to put [Product] to the test to see if you can [achieve most desired outcome or overcome most crippling pain]

One of the biggest paradoxes in marketing?

Popups.

People hate them, yet many companies still use them since they often lead to more conversions.

So marketers who want to capture the conversion benefits of popups need to figure out a way to do so without irritating potential customers.

One tactic to try: trigger popups only for warm users.

According to one study, 92% of first-time visitors to a website don’t make a purchase. But 75% plan to return and buy something on their next visit.

So instead of enabling popups for all users by default, consider showing them only to returning visitors with a demonstrated interest in your business.

For example, trigger a free shipping exit popup only for returning visitors with a minimum basket value (say, $50). The key here is minimum basket value. If you show a popup for free shipping for orders over $75 but a visitor only has $10 in their cart, your popup probably won’t be very effective.

And by only triggering the popup for returning visitors, you don’t bombard first-time, low-intent visitors with intrusive popups.

Prioritization is a critical step in the experimentation process.

You can’t test everything. Testing takes time and resources, which are always in short supply.

One piece of criteria we always recommend factoring into prioritization: impact. How much could test findings move the needle on your north star metric—the metric you care most about?

When making that call, it’ll help to think about a test’s funnel stage.

Bottom of funnel

Bottom-of-funnel events—those nearer to the point of purchase, like the checkout process—are almost certainly closer to your north star, so they have a high likelihood of driving impact.

An extreme example: A test that removes the “buy” button from your checkout page will have a drastic effect on revenue (just not the kind you want!).

Prospects at that stage have high buying intent. They’re ready, or nearly ready, to buy.

However, some changes to bottom-of-funnel events might not be as effective because prospects have already made their decisions.

Top of funnel

Top-of-funnel events, like those in the awareness and consideration stages (e.g., landing pages and ads), can sway decision making. And prospects’ emotional investment may be higher at earlier funnel stages, when they’re discovering how your product will help them.

Plus, top-of-funnel experiments are often easier to test and alter, both because sample sizes are bigger (top of funnel gets more traffic) and because the changes themselves are frequently lower effort.

But they’re farther from conversion, they have lower intent, and they run a greater risk of being vanity tests: tests that move the needle on some metrics but not your north star.

Our recommendation: When your experimentation program is new and you’re gaining an understanding of which tests will have the most impact, all else being equal, go lower in your funnel to remove the distance from your north star.

An effective way to improve B2C ad performance?

Show people using your product.

When we see others using a product, we can’t help but experience it vicariously. This effect improves how we value the product.

A recent marketing study found that you can enhance that effect by showing a hand touching a product. Here’s an example from Yeti:

Based on the research, this increases how much people:

• Like the product
• Are likely to buy it
• Are willing to pay for it

For example, the study found that people who saw a gif of a hand touching a sweater:

• Liked it 9.4% more
• Were 16% more likely to buy it
• And were willing to pay 14% more for it

Brands like Starbucks and Samsung reported more likes on social posts when a hand was touching their products.

In order for the effect to work, the hand:

• Must be seen from a first-person point of view, as if it’s the person’s own hand
• Must touch the product in a relevant way (e.g., feeling a shirt’s fabric, mixing or pouring a drink)
• Doesn’t need to match the viewer’s hand—it can be any skin tone or gender, or even a digital recreation (like an alien’s “hand” in a game)

Steps to implement:

• Include a first-person-POV hand in your image and video creatives. Make sure it’s touching your product in a meaningful way (such as using or feeling it).
• Use those creatives in your ads, on product pages, and in social media posts—in any of your marketing assets.
• Implement this tactic if you’re in the VR or metaverse space.

Content marketing used to be pretty simple.

Finding an article that answered your specific question in a Google search was rare. Articles that got it right earned most of the traffic.

Then SEO shifted to aggregation: articles that consolidated information into one place ranked higher than fragments. This led to the “skyscraper model”—massive, exhaustive guides on subjects.

Now, search results pages are dominated by established brands with loads of authority and backlinks. Most search results contain the same information: copycat content. The problem is, once a reader has read one article, they’ve effectively read them all.

To address this problem, in April 2020, Google filed a patent that, in short, should reward articles that bring new information to the table.

They call this idea information gain. It’s a measurement of the new information provided by a given article, above and beyond the info provided in other articles on the same topic.

So instead of studying search engine results pages to outline articles, content marketers should be asking themselves, “What new information can I bring to the discussion?”

Three ways to factor this question into your content:

1. Create content that builds on other results

Instead of trying to outrank a top-ranking, comprehensive article, assume that the reader has already read it. How can you add value beyond what they’ve already read?

• Share a practical “next step”—a continuation of a competing article.
• Elaborate on a key idea contained within the competing article.
• Write the 102 version of their 101, going into more depth, detail, and nuance.

2. Experiment with risky framings and angles

You’ll likely be rewarded for bringing new and unique information to the table. Consider:

• Addressing unserved intent (“My specific use case isn’t represented here.”)
• Filling in missing information (“It’s weird that no one has mentioned X here.”)
• Challenging a differing or erroneous opinion (“That’s an outdated belief.”)
• Correcting mistakes in Google’s comprehension (“That’s not what I meant by this keyword.”)

3. Build an information moat with original research

Create content that can’t be found elsewhere.

• Include personal perspectives and company experiences.
• Survey your customers, users, or network for interesting data.
• Add quotes from subject matter experts.

Your content still needs to be better. But with the direction Google seems to be heading in, it’s smart to make it different as well.

Most content on ecommerce email marketing focuses on DTC: retention, maximizing lifetime value, and bringing customers back to purchase again and again.

But what should you do if you’re a store selling $1,000+ products that are typically once-in-a-lifetime purchases for customers?

These businesses tend to get fewer repeat purchases, so they can’t afford to give away a huge discount upfront in hopes of profiting off future orders.

Instead of the standard percentage off first purchase promo that most DTC companies use to acquire emails, here are a few alternatives for high-priced items:

• Dollar amount off: If you sell a $2,000 product, try “$200 off” instead of “10% off.” Dollar amounts feel more substantial (and tangible) than percentages and look more attractive when you’re selling a pricey item.
• Free gift with purchase: Free gifts are a popular option with luxury brands. Skip discounting altogether but still offer something that gets customers excited. For example, if you're selling an expensive couch, throw in a low-cost item like an end table as a free gift.
• A chance to win a discount: Everybody who signs up is entered and you announce a winner periodically.
• Custom content with educational value, rather than dollar value: A product recommendation or downloadable PDF. This is a great option if discounting doesn’t fit your brand, but your product is more difficult to understand.

Consider testing two of these at a time until you find a winner that works best for your long-term acquisition strategy.

Frameworks are so acronym-riddled—think BAB, PAS, and AIDA—that they can be more confusing than helpful. Plus, they’re often discussed without any context, adding to the sense that they’re just a bunch of letters.

But here are three of the most powerful copywriting frameworks in context, using classic Porsche ads to explain how they work.

BAB framework:

First up, BAB: before-after-bridge.

• Before: The pain point your audience is facing. Like driving behind a Porsche in a car that’s not a Porsche.
• After: What life is like when that pain is resolved. Hands grip a sport steering wheel. The road ahead is all yours.
• Bridge: The solution—your product. The bridge that takes you from before to after.

The reason we like BAB and the other two frameworks we’ll discuss: They spotlight experience. They zero in on, and accentuate, what it’s like to have or not have your product. Think of it as another form of highlighting benefits, not features.

Another great BAB example, no copywriting even needed:

PAS framework

“In the beginning I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of. So I decided to build it myself.” –Ferry Porsche

That simple statement encapsulates the next framework, PAS: problem-agitate-solve.

• Problem: The pain point. Ferry couldn’t find his dream car.
• Agitate: Agitate the problem. Heighten the negative emotions it provokes—frustration, anger, fear—or the pain it causes. Add some drama.
• Solve: Your product is the solution. Ferry built his dream car: a Porsche.

This example isn’t an ad; it’s a quote. But you can see how PAS can pack a full story into just a few words.

Admittedly, the quote doesn’t have much agitation. We’re including it anyway because we admire its concision and full arc. If this were an ad, it might linger longer on what life is like without Ferry’s dream car. It takes longer to get places, you’re on a first-name basis with your mechanic, you’re embarrassed to drive around in your old ride. Then it would get to that dream-realizing Porsche 911.

AIDA framework

(The example below is an old ad and the copy is a bit blurry. We call out the lines that matter below.)

The third framework is AIDA: attention-interest-desire-action.

• Attention. Grab attention with an eye-catching headline, image, or both.
• Interest. Nurture interest and intrigue. This ad does that by describing the experience of driving a Turbo: “400 horses. Zero to sixty in just over four heartbeats.”
• Desire. Stimulate desire. Want “some very serious amusement”? To get it…
• Action. Take action. Call 1-800-Porsche.

AIDA is a copywriting classic—it goes all the way back to 1898. The fact that it’s still one of the most widely used and recommended frameworks among copywriters is a testament to how dependably it works.

For more on copywriting, check out our favorite examples here.

Personalization works.

We see it every year with Spotify Wrapped, when personalized content goes massively viral. 80% of consumers are more likely to buy when brands offer personalized experiences. Personalized recs account for 75% of Netflix’s watched content and 70% of YouTube’s.

But when personalizing your marketing or product, avoid the creepiness ditch. That’s the no-man’s-land where personalization starts to feel creepy, resulting in fewer conversions, not more.

Examples of creepy personalization: You feel singled out, your privacy seems invaded, or a mistake annoys you and reminds you that you’re being targeted, like when Pinterest congratulated single women on their weddings.

Ways to avoid the creepiness ditch:

• Don’t retarget too fast or too much. Consider waiting at least 24 hours before retargeting, and keep frequency conservative. Over 30% of people actually get angry at an advertiser if they see the same ad 10 times.
• Make sure messaging is relevant. In a study from Gartner, nearly half of participants said they would unsubscribe if content seemed personalized but irrelevant to them. But don’t get so relevant that people feel ill at ease—e.g., by targeting based on sensitive search history.
• Pay attention to bias and stereotypes. Another study found that people who received an ad for weight loss based on their size felt judged. Also be careful about stereotyping if your product uses personalized avatars.

Books don’t work.

Think back to your favorite book from ~2015. How much of it do you remember?

And that was your favorite.

Humans just aren’t wired to retain information well after a single read. That’s not how we learn. We need activities, feedback loops, and metacognition (thinking about thinking about what we’re reading). We need to spread out learning over time.

Of course, retention isn’t just a memory problem. It’s a startup problem too. User retention is what drives sustainable, scalable growth. During onboarding, here are a few ways to boost business retention through cognitive retention:

• Do > show > explain. The more action-driven your user's education is, the more effective it will be. For instance, instead of starting users off with a bunch of tool tips and videos, Grammarly guides them to fix a dummy page’s grammar.
• Don’t show your user every feature. Over-educating a new user will overwhelm them. Spread out learnings—and new feature introductions—to avoid info overload.
• Connect through personalization. In general, personalization reduces friction and time to activation. Some ways to increase learning during onboarding, and make it more personalized in the process: 1) For B2B, offer a one-on-one webinar or demo. 2) Try a “choose your own adventure” approach to onboarding, with users picking their path.

Image: IBM

Following these steps increases the chance that users will reach their "aha moment"—the moment they realize real value from your product. And they need to do that to stick around.

Some companies purposely make it hard for users to disengage from their products.

For instance, with autoplay turned on, YouTube and Netflix automatically show more content after the user’s video has finished. And publishers like BuzzFeed and Bustle use infinite scroll so that more content automatically populates as users move down their sites.

Companies do this to engage users for longer. But this kind of product experience may actually do more harm than good.

Why? Users feel trapped. Although they voluntarily continue to use your product, they may feel negative about it once they break away. They might even be more likely to perceive it as a mindless or addictive waste of time.

To avoid trapping users, consider building natural exit points into your product. That is, give users clear signals that a product experience has ended. Make it easy for them to leave.

A few examples:

• Instagram shows users a “You’re All Caught Up” message once they’ve seen all the posts in their feed from the last two days.
• The dating app Coffee Meets Bagel closes chatrooms after seven days—an exit point that encourages users to swap contact info with their matches or chat with new ones.
• Many mobile games show a post-game screen with options to return to the home screen or play again.

Exit points create a sense of completion and make it easier for users to leave with satisfaction. Users are less likely to feel bad about using your product for a prolonged amount of time.

Here are a few ideas for how to create exit points:

• Instead of enabling autoplay or infinite scroll, use “Next” or “Load More” buttons.
• Celebrate the end of a product experience by framing it as a big win. For instance, after completing a workout, a fitness app could show a message like “You crushed it—now it’s time to relax!”
• For a more transparent approach, show users how long they’ve been using your product and invite them to take a break. Example: ”You’ve watched 97 videos in the last hour. Want to rest your eyes for a bit?”

Unlike attention-trapping features that take advantage of users, exit points treat your customers more kindly and ethically. And since they help deliver a more satisfying experience, users may stick around for longer over time.

About pages are one of the most-visited, yet under-utilized pages on websites.

People who visit this page are often primed to take action because they're already interested in your business—they’re actively seeking to learn more.

To capitalize on this qualified traffic, consider adding an email signup form on your about page. Make sure the CTA and value you’re offering are consistent with the themes you talk about on the page.

For example:

• James Clear offers a free habit-building email course that nurtures new subscribers to buy his book, Atomic Habits.
• Perfect Keto invites visitors to join their keto newsletter and access subscriber-only discounts and resources.
• Exploding Topics asks their about page readers to subscribe to their newsletter where they share emerging trends every Tuesday.

This tactic might sound obvious, but look around. Most companies don’t take advantage of it.

There are a few “rules” to running experiments. Scientists should follow them, but marketers can break them sometimes.

Rule 1: Your hypothesis should test one discrete variable.

It should have one cause and one effect.

• Example of a one-variable hypothesis: If we build tailored landing pages for our audience segments, our unsubscribe rate will decrease.
• Example of a multi-variable hypothesis: If we build tailored landing pages for our audience segments and add personalization tags to our emails, our unsubscribe rate will decrease.

When to break it: Testing one variable, then another, then another isn’t always feasible in a fast-paced startup environment. You might need to break this rule to have fast impact instead of exact insights.

Do you want precise learnings? Follow the rule. Is it more important for you to move quickly and gauge cumulative impact? Break it.

Rule 2: Don’t peek at A/B test results early.

Early in an experiment, the likelihood of a false positive is high. If you peek early and see the result you want, you might be tempted to call the experiment too soon.

When to break it: Looking at your test results early gives you a chance to catch anything that’s critically broken. If you don’t, you could end up running a test for weeks, only to discover a bug that not only invalidated the test but even hurt company performance.

Plus, it’s extremely difficult to guess what your goal for a test’s outcome should be. For example, if your goal is a 5% conversion change but your test ends up producing a 15% effect, you’ll waste time if you let it run without looking at it.

So, although it’s not good science, we recommend breaking this rule.

First, do a spot-check one or two days after launching a test. Look for any critical issues, bugs, etc.

Then, if you’re running a longer test, look at it again at the halfway mark. But with one important rule in mind: If you’ve set a confidence level of 90%, then when you do your midway peek, only call the test if there’s a statistically significant result with a 98% confidence level or higher.

There’s still a chance that the effect you’ll see at the halfway peek is a false positive. But we’ve found that this method is more practical than the “don’t look at a test at all until it’s reached its target sample size” method that no one actually follows, and it provides some added protection against false positives.

When you’re deciding which TikTok creators to work with, we suggest narrowing your search to those who make quality content in a similar industry to yours—instead of basing your decision on the size of their following.

Why focus on lesser-known influencers? They give brands the most bang for their buck.

Influencers with large followings generally charge more—and engagement rates are often lower than those of smaller creators. But more crucially, TikTok users see nano- and micro-influencers as “people like me,” making viewers more likely to trust them and take action based on their recommendations.

With smaller influencers, you aren't riding on anyone's celebrity, only the quality of their performance.

Another benefit of lesser-known influencers: You can commission a higher volume of creatives to test in your campaigns. Since many of them are either early in their careers or striving to work as creators full time, they’ll work harder to deliver a result you’re happy with.

While other brands try to land deals with TikTok celebrities, focus on finding expert craftspeople who know how to engage an audience.

For more on TikTok, we’ve got a fresh, definitive playbook for you: How to Acquire Customers with TikTok Ads. In it, we cover how to make A+ ad creatives, source content creators, structure your ad account, and launch your first campaign.

We spent months interviewing top TikTok ads experts to make sure it’s the most credible, in-depth resource on TikTok acquisition. Dive in here.

“Buy X, get Y free” promotions reliably increase sales conversions.

However, you’ll drive even more conversions by framing a customer’s target product as the free gift, instead of the other way around.

For example, if a customer searches for “fitness tracker” on your website, show them the offer “Buy a weighing scale and get a fitness tracker free,” rather than “Buy a fitness tracker and get a weighing scale free.”

Why it works:

• People don’t expect to see a product they actually want as the free gift.
• This makes them feel lucky—the promotion seems more attractive.
• And the novelty of the offer makes them more likely to buy.

Steps to implement:

1. Choose a target product (the free gift). This can be something your customers commonly search for or a known best-seller.
2. Choose a secondary item (the main product) of equal or similar value. If one product is significantly more expensive than the other (e.g., buy a printer, get a free laptop), people will either question the quality or think it’s a scam and refuse the offer.
3. Enhance the effect with messaging that makes customers feel lucky (e.g., “It’s your lucky day!”)

Should you offer a freemium plan or free trial?

It’s a tough call for many SaaS businesses. Here are the pros and cons.

Pros of freemium/free trials:

• They’re product-led growth tactics for customer acquisition. They can reduce signup friction and get users to experience your product’s job-to-be-done faster.
• They provide an opportunity to hook prospects by delivering value before any money changes hands. When done right, by the time the user starts paying, they 1) understand how the product solves their problem, and 2) have developed a habit around product use.
• By analyzing data from thousands of SaaS and subscription companies, the ProfitWell team found that freemium cuts customer acquisition cost (CAC) by nearly half, and free trials had 15% lower CAC.
• The ProfitWell team also found an almost 20% improvement in net retention and a twice-as-good Net Promoter Score (NPS) for freemium vs. non-free.

Cons:

• Freemium and free trials are tough to get right. Unless you understand exactly what to charge for and how customers value your product, you run the risk of giving away either too much or not enough value in your product’s free version. It takes a lot of data to know how to strike the right balance.
• Those promising stats from ProfitWell notwithstanding, there is the potential for freemium/free trials to result in an increase in CAC and a drop in retention. If you decide to offer freemium or a free trial, make sure it works with your CAC and average revenue per user (ARPU) and provides a clear conversion path.

There are a few indicators that freemium/free trial could be a fit for your business. As you implement or refine your pricing strategy, consider:

• Low product friction: Your product is easy to get started in and experience value from.
• Product stickiness: The value of your product increases the longer someone uses it, making them less likely to leave for a competitor—and giving you more time to convert them to paid.
• Network effects: Your product’s value increases as more people use it. Both stickiness and network effects help maximize user retention. And the longer someone is retained, the more likely they are to upgrade eventually.
• Product virality: Your product has pull virality and word-of-mouth potential.
• Self-service: You don’t need to put many resources toward supporting self-service users. They can experience product value without extensive training or support.
• Market competition: You’re offering an alternative to a well-entrenched competitor or introducing a totally new concept. Both might benefit from a freebie nudge.
• Market size: Your product would be able to convert enough people to make the economics work. Which means either a bigger market or a higher conversion rate.

91% of B2B buyers rank webinars as their favorite content format.

But webinars have grown stale over the last several years. The problem isn't the format—it's that marketers have allowed the medium to become boring.

Try these tactics before, during, and after your webinar to get more out of the event:

Before: If partnering with guest speakers, create a joint promotion plan that leverages their network to increase attendance.

• Don't make it a one-off event. For greater impact and longevity, cover the topic from different angles over the course of a series. People who show up to multiple events become prime SQLs.
• Ask your audience to help define the agenda. Instead of assuming you know what your audience wants, survey them to find out what topics they're most interested in. Curate your webinar sessions accordingly.

During: Choose a personable moderator. Someone who can comfortably manage the ebb and flow of the conversation and get the audience involved.

• Turn your speech into a discussion. Use live giveaways, Q&A, and breakout groups to turn passive listening into active participation.
• Take advantage of the chat feature. Webinar chats panels either feel like ghost towns or they’re filled with sales pitches. Task a colleague with acting as the host—have them engage in discussions, ask and answer questions, and get feedback in real-time.

After: Follow up. Include a link to the webinar recording, thank them for their attendance, and encourage sharing (a one-click tweet works well).

• Repurpose and distribute: Repurpose the webinar into assets for your marketing channels to drive traffic back to the original (i.e., blog post, Twitter thread, podcast, YouTube clips, LinkedIn post, etc.).
• Consider avoiding the word "webinar" in your promotion. It's boring. Masterclass, Seminar, or Expert Talk are better alternatives.

Webinars should feel more like live courses than product demos. Keep tabs on how top internet creators are building live courses. They usually nail “edutainment”—the sweet spot between entertainment and education that leads to high engagement and high perceived value.

Shoppers don’t perceive prices or buy rationally.

Because of this, seemingly minor pricing tactics can have an outsized impact on conversion.

Take a look at this example:

The product on the right should convert better than the one on the left.

Why? Simple pricing tactics proven through behavioral psychology studies:

1. Use a smaller font for the reduced price. It makes the item feel less expensive compared to the original price.
2. Place the prices horizontally, not one on top of the other. And show the higher price on the left and the lower price on the right. Since we read left to right, this helps shoppers understand the price reduction.
3. Choose prices so that the sales price's right-most digit is lower than regular price's right-most digit. For example, £295 should be reduced to £250, not £249. Because shoppers read numbers to themselves, the lower right-most number makes the whole reduced price seem lower.
4. Separate the two prices physically by a distance—don’t include them right next to each other. This separation helps shoppers internalize the difference between the two prices.

While creating pricing pages and ads, consider testing these tactics to see if they increase conversion.

Keyword optimization helps people discover your app in the App Store. Screenshot optimization entices them to download it.

Last December, Apple launched a new A/B testing feature for mobile apps. If you sell an app that’s already getting decent traffic from search, consider A/B testing your screenshots' messaging, sequence, and design to increase download conversion rate.

1. First, log in to your App Store Connect account. Navigate to My Apps > Product Page Optimizations and click the "+" in the header.
2. Give your test a name and choose the number of variants to test (Apple calls them "treatments").
3. Select how much traffic each treatment will get. For a true A/B test, we recommend splitting traffic 50/50.
4. Click Create Test and upload your screenshots. Click Start Test to launch.

Let your test run for one to four weeks; until it reaches 90% Confidence (statistical significance).

• Once you have data back, compare conversion rates from impression to download.
• When you can determine a clear winner, end the test and choose the top-performing treatment.

Some successful Amazon advertisers get about 60-70% of their sales from organic traffic, with the rest coming from pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Even if you have a great Amazon ad profile, it pays to spend time improving your products’ organic rankings in Amazon’s search results.

Amazon SEO ranking uses the same two factors as Amazon PPC ad ranking: performance and relevance.

Performance:

• Amazon wants to know that your product is buyable. If your conversion rate is solid, your organic rankings will prosper. Besides an optimized PPC program, other elements that improve conversion include strong product imagery and good reviews.
• Pricing and inventory factor into performance too. You’ll lose out to competitors if your product is priced too high or your stock runs out.

Relevance:

• You’ll rank more highly for a search term if your product page proves you’re relevant to it. If you’re running PPC ads, use the keyword insights you get out of them to optimize your product pages.
• Tactically place high-converting keywords from your campaigns on your product page. Add them to your product title (including your brand name), product description, and image metadata. Another element that will help with relevance is the search term field (Seller Central > Inventory > Edit Product > Keywords). Use up all 250 characters with a string of keywords that differ from those in your title.

Most brands source their influencer content like this:

1. Reach out to a bunch of different types of influencers.
2. Send them some products.
3. See what comes back.

But that quantity-over-quality approach rarely works out—the resulting videos don't capture what the brand needs.

The best TikTok creators know how to make engaging video content, but they need direction to promote your products well. That's where a creative brief comes in.

A creative brief is a set of instructions that helps you maintain quality control and minimize costly reshoots. Here’s what we recommend including in a TikTok brief:

1. Specify deliverables: Define your advertising goal, and specify the number of videos you want. We suggest asking for 5-10 different openers per video so you’ll have plenty of hooks to test.

2. List talking points (value props): Tell creators how to talk about your product. The best way to do this is by listing your value props.

3. Storyboard: A storyboard is a graphic representation of how you want your ad to go, shot-by-shot. Answer these questions to map out a linear, product-focused storyboard:

• Situation: When and where is your product used? Who is it supposed to help?
• Problem: What problem(s) does your product solve?
• Process: How does your product work? What does it do?
• Solution: What results can the customer expect? How does the product improve their life?

4. Set content guidelines: List any do's and don'ts you have around language, phrasing, competitor mentions, or buzzwords related to your brand.

• Make sure the creator knows how to use your product correctly so they look comfortable with it on camera.
• If the creator is responsible for editing, provide direction on text overlays, video effects, and other post-production details.

5. Share examples: Browse TikTok's Ad Library (open link in new tab) and include links to a few of your favorite ad examples. Note specific shots, visual effects, or content types you want to recreate (e.g., unboxing, TikTok made me buy it, X reasons why).

You’re hiring quality creators because they’re great at engaging their audiences. Your brief sets the guardrails so that creators understand and pitch your product in the best way possible.

Most business experiments—around 90%—result in so-called failure.

Example: an A/B test in which the status quo ends up being the winner.

But those results are just as important as “successes.” They support startup growth by providing insights into:

• Why the experiment variant “failed”
• What you can learn for your next experiments
• How risky your experiments are. Too many small wins may mean you're not focusing on the most high-leverage opportunities.

Instead of defining “failure” and “success” based on test results, here are the definitions we recommend.

Failure: the act of creating 1. an undisciplined test, like one with an untestable hypothesis 2. a test with low impact on your business, or 3. a test your team won't learn from

Success: the act of developing, launching, and learning from a rigorous test with the potential for high business impact

Basically, a sloppy test is a fail. An inconsequential test is a fail. A well-designed test is a win. And any test that gives you useful new information is a win.

So go ahead and “fail.” Encourage your team to do the same. Disproven hypotheses are part of a healthy growth culture.

Here's an underrated SEO technique that can improve click-through rate: schema markup.

Schema markups (also known as structured data) are snippets of code that, when added to your pages, help Google represent your content in search results.

Image: Hubspot

For certain search types, adding schema can get you more clicks. By giving visitors more insight into your content, it can encourage them to click on your site vs. other search results.

For example, someone shopping for a specific product might click on the result that’s labeled “in stock” based on product schema.

Besides product schema, here are three other types worth adding to your pages:

• FAQ: Consider adding this markup to your actual FAQ page, plus your product and service pages. You’ll be able to address objections right on the results page.
• Ratings and reviews: Use this schema as social proof. A search result with strong ratings and reviews is more enticing than one without.
• Video: Since this schema enables a video thumbnail in SERPs, your content gets a visual element that text-only search results lack.

You can find more details about each type of schema on schema.org.

To create your schema markup, use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or another free online generator like TechnicalSEO.com. These tools walk you through the markup process and then provide a code to be added to a specific page’s HTML code.

People tend to value items more when they own them.

That’s the endowment effect—the psychological phenomenon behind why someone is more likely to buy a car after taking it for a test drive. When we feel like something is already ours, we place a higher value on it.

Here are a few ways you can use the endowment effect to convert warm prospects into paying customers.

Reframe promos. Instead of standard promos (and free giveaways), frame them as if they already belong to users.

• Example: “Get a 20% discount on camping gear” → “Claim your 20% off new camping gear”
• Livongo, a health management company, replaced the generic copy “Join the program” in its email marketing with “Claim your welcome kit” and drove a 120% increase in registration.

Adjust cart abandonment copy. Consider using the endowment effect in cart abandonment emails. Use language like “your [product] can’t wait to come home” to help shoppers feel as though they already own the items in their carts.

Create interactive content. Help users visualize products as theirs by adding an interactive component to your site, app, or socials.

• For example, IKEA’s Place app lets people see how furniture fits in their home, endowing them as owners.
• You can do something similar by creating custom Snapchat or Instagram filters with your products, like filters for trying on sunglasses or makeup.

Try this copywriting framework to create more compelling product descriptions:

1. List all of the product’s features.
2. For each feature, explain its benefit(s).
3. For each benefit, explain its value. In other words, translate each benefit into its real-life implications—state why customers should care about it. For extra punch, inject emotionally appealing language at this step.

Here’s an example of this framework applied to a reusable water bottle.

Feature → Benefit → Value

• Wide bottle mouth → Faster refills → You can spend less time standing at a water dispenser—and more time running, hiking, etc.
• Straw lid → Easy sipping → Since you don’t have to twist off a bottle lid, you can drink with just one hand—perfect when you’re on the road.
• Double-wall vacuum insulation → Protects liquid's temperature for hours → You can be refreshed for any adventure with your drink either as cold or hot as you’d like.

Some companies make customers jump through hoops to cancel their subscriptions.

Instead of offering easy, online cancellation, they force customers to cancel by phone during business hours. Or if they do offer an online cancellation option, they make it difficult to find.

But these tactics are unethical and, in some cases, can even lead to legal action from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

You should make it easy and straightforward for customers to cancel your service. Remove the friction.

Customers aren’t necessarily lost forever when they cancel. Some might return at a later time. Others might reconsider and decide to stay. Whatever the case, a smooth offboarding flow should accomplish two things:

• Allow customers to leave, easily, on a positive note.
• Without adding friction to the cancellation process, entice users to stick around.

Here are five tips for creating a smoother offboarding experience:

• Make cancellation as easy as the method used to buy or sign up. If customers can sign up easily online, they should also be able to cancel easily online. Simple as that.
• Remind users of your product’s key benefits. Consider how Canva (left) reiterates the features users will miss out on by canceling—it even shows an example image comparing its free and pro plans. This is more likely to persuade users to stay than Otter.ai’s approach (right).

• Give users an option to pause their subscription or skip a month. Sometimes the reason customers want to leave is a matter of timing, or something else outside of your control. By offering the ability to pause or temporarily deactivate their accounts, you can stop customers from leaving altogether. And if you note that you’ll save their data, there’s a better chance they’ll return later on.

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• Include a “salvage” offer to retain customers. If you sell a subscription, offer a discount to renew customers’ contracts. Or, depending on your product, offer users an extension of their trial (e.g., for another 60 days) or the ability to swap out a product for another one. Just be sure to present your salvage offer alongside your cancellation option—you don’t want customers to feel cornered.
• Make it easy to identify the cause of cancellation. Set up a quick, one-question survey with options like “Too expensive,” “Technical issues,” or “Switching to another product.” Include an optional field where users can add any comments. Don’t ask for a phone call to collect feedback—it can feel like a burden and further sour unhappy customer experiences.

Referrals are like adding fuel to your existing word of mouth (WOM) fire. They encourage WOM by offering an incentive for recommending your business to others.

While you’re investing in building a referral program, do some research to see if people who are already referring you organically want to do so formally.

Two ways to find organic referrals: 1) Check your site analytics, and 2) dig into your social media.

1. Site analytics

Check which sites are referring significant traffic to yours. In Google Analytics, navigate to the Acquisition tab > All Traffic > Source/Medium.

If a source in your list is reputable and speaks fondly of your product, reach out to them. See if you can form a relationship and test a formal referral program.

Set up goal tracking in Google Analytics to measure the number of new users who visit your site from a referral source. Use that as a source of truth when negotiating compensation or other forms of incentives with partner websites.

2. Social media

To find out how customers are talking about your business organically, do some social listening.

• On Twitter: In the advanced search window, type your product and business’s name in brackets in the “any of these words” section. This will show you all the public tweets that mention your business or product name. You can also use Tweetdeck to track mentions. Engage with high-quality posters. See if they’re willing to join your formal referral program.
• On LinkedIn: In the search bar, type the name of your business. Then click Posts > Date Posted. Set the time frame to “past month.” Click Show Results > Sort By > Latest > Show Results. You now have a filtered list of all the posts from the last month that mentioned your business. Search the results for any that speak highly of your brand. Reach out to see if they’d be willing to join your program.

For more on referrals, check out our process for launching a program here.

When users start struggling with a service or an app, they often get discouraged and stop using it entirely.

People don’t tend to continue using things they feel bad at.

For example, a user might stop playing a game if they’re stuck on a single level for many days.

But this struggle is a great opportunity to use personalization to retain users.

By providing personalized support—helpful tips, links to resources, or, in some cases, discounts on helpful upgrades—you can retain users who otherwise churn out of frustration.

You can automate this tactic based on event triggers specific to your service or app. A few examples:

• Mobile games: number of games / levels failed
• Dating apps: number of matches per user
• Educational apps / services: number of failed quizzes

Here’s how this personalization might play out:

The dating app Tinder could calculate the number of matches each user receives and then compare it against the average number of matches across all users. Then it could identify users receiving a relatively low number of matches and deliver personalized content like tips on how to improve their profile. Alternatively, it could offer a discount on an upgrade or special feature that could solve the frustration.

Providing support to struggling users ultimately motivates them to stay.

Most list posts (listicles) are utilitarian, boring, and easily copied by rivals.

They have titles like:

• The Top 10 DSLR Cameras
• The 5 Best CRM Products
• The Complete List of SEO Tools
• And so on

These types of posts may generate a ton of pageviews—but they rarely generate revenue (a common goal of listicles).

You can transform your listicles from generic, copycat content into unique, defensible, revenue-generating assets in five steps. Here's how.

1. Choose novel selection criteria. Most listicles are “Google research papers.” The writer searches a target keyword, skims the search engine results page (SERP), and grabs an assortment of popular things to include in their article. This isn’t effective since you’re recycling the same information as everyone else.

To differentiate your listicle and pique the reader's interest, you need a strong hook.

• Ditch the "best" qualifier and try something less common (e.g., Overlooked / Foundational / Overrated…)
• Target a specific reader or use case (e.g., X for Content Marketers / CMOs / Ad Specialists…)
• Pick a specific product trait (e.g., X Overlooked Browser-Based / Freemium / No Code…)

2. Surface your thought process. Even though you’re curating objective information, your writing still needs to persuade. You are the expert and your job is to persuade the reader that your list is worth trusting. To do that, share your thought process and selection criteria (why you chose what you chose).

• Why did you include it? "It's the most recommended…" or "It's the lowest-priced…"
• Why not other options? "We excluded apps that don't offer a free trial…"
• Is there something novel or unexpected about it? "Though not a conventional SEO tool, this AI content app offers the same keyword research data at a lower price."

3. Share personal experience to demonstrate credibility. Readers can tell when a writer doesn’t have firsthand experience. So even if your articles rank for their target keywords, readers won't trust your advice. If you want your listicles to convert readers, you need to prove to them that you have firsthand experience with the things you're writing about. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Take screenshots of software you're reviewing (any part that can't be accessed without logging in).
• Take your own product photos—even better if you include yourself in the photos.
• Share personal anecdotes about your experience that only a real user could have.

4. Lean on the experiences of others. If you can't experience the product or service firsthand, base your listicle on the experience of people who have. That means surveying and quoting audiences and synthesizing firsthand experiences from users.

• If you have access to a large audience (i.e., email list or social media following), survey them and share your research in the listicle.
• If you don't, interview a subject matter expert and share their insights to lend credibility to your list.

5. Make a single, opinionated recommendation. Listicles are meant to help readers make a decision. Most listicles are good at collecting things but usually go overboard with too many choices. This only makes it harder for the reader. Great listicles go out on a limb and make a strong recommendation. And readers trust it because it was written based on firsthand experience and clear selection criteria.

• For example, the product review site, Wirecutter, reviewed over 250 wine glasses and still managed to come up with a single final recommendation for its readership.

Can you guess which of these two headlines did better than the other?

• 2 reasons why the price of silver will rise steeply
• 2 reasons why the price of silver may rise steeply

You might expect the first to perform better because it’s bolder. It makes a definitive claim: the price of silver will rise.

But according to copywriter Gary Bencivenga, the headline that used “may” outperformed its counterpart by 200%.

Why?

The one-word difference qualifies the rest of the statement—it’s a condition telling readers that the claim being made isn’t 100% certain. So it feels more realistic. Even credible.

Here are some examples of how companies use conditional claims to build more trust:

• "A/B testing can transform your business—if you do it right” (headline on VentureBeat)
• “Zoom is probably the most well-received collaboration tool that we’ve seen...in 20 years.” (the first testimonial shown on Zoom’s homepage)
• “When it’s time to get granular regarding competitor traffic stats, the Top Pages report in Traffic Analytics is hard to beat.” (an announcement from Semrush)

Note the italicized phrases that create a condition—they ground the claims and make them feel more believable—they’re not absolute statements.

To build more trust with readers, try using* conditional claims in your own copywriting.

One easy way to do it: use an “if... then” statement. Define a clear requirement (if), and then write your promise (then).

*See what we did there? In most of our tactics and recommendations, we use conditional language—we can’t say with 100% certainty that growth will follow.

Repeat customers spend ~67% more than first-time buyers. And it costs 6-7x more to turn a new visitor into a customer than it does to retain an existing customer.

Improving retention can fix a leaky-bucket business, yet only 18% of companies focus on it.

To increase profitability and lower marketing costs, consider implementing the following four retention strategies.

1. Start a loyalty program. Loyalty programs incentivize customers to return to your site to buy, reengage with your product, and promote your product on your behalf.

Tools like Loyalty Lion or Smile.io can get you started.

Here are a few loyalty models to explore:

• Free newsletters: Encourage sharing in exchange for premium content or shoutouts.
• Paid newsletters: Reward your top advocates with comped subscriptions.
• B2B: Offer training, tools, and invitations to members-only events.
• Ecommerce: Create a tiered membership program that rewards customers with points, perks, or discounts. For example, Sephora's Beauty Insider has over 25 million members, and those members account for ~80% of Sephora's annual sales.

2. Collect feedback throughout the sales process. When implemented, customer feedback can help lower CAC, improve your marketing's effectiveness, and improve retention.

How to implement:

• Collect feedback from on-site forms, social media, email and post-purchase surveys, and heatmaps.
• Look for repeat questions and complaints about your product or website, as well as requests for new features and products. Apply the most common feedback.

3. Follow an omnichannel engagement strategy. Compared to single-channel marketing, an omnichannel approach can improve retention rates and engagement by 90%.

Quality engagement always starts with quality content. Here are a few ways to encourage omnichannel engagement via content and community:

• Reply to social media and blog comments.
• Host special events (webinars, workshops, AMAs, interviews).
• Start and maintain a well-organized Slack or Discord channel.
• Personalize email as much as possible.
• Involve your audience in content creation (crowdsourcing).

4. Provide exceptional customer support. Anticipate all the different ways someone might need support (see point #2), and implement as many as make sense for your business.

• Add a prominent live chat to your website that shows when your team is available and ready for questions.
• Create a well-organized knowledge database that lets customers search for answers themselves.
• Create and moderate a community forum that allows users to help each other.
• Write comprehensive blog posts addressing common issues and questions.
• Create video tutorials or educational courses about your product or service.

Keep track of what you learn, and make gradual changes that address your target audience's goals, pain points, and interests. Accomplish that, and you'll have no problem boosting your retention rate.

Check out this Patagonia ad:

(Image source: @dailyadcoffee)

Copywriter Jon Morrow defines power words as “persuasive, descriptive words that trigger a positive or negative emotional response. They can make us feel scared, encouraged, aroused, angry, greedy, safe, or curious.”

If you “sprinkle in a few, … you can transform dull, lifeless words into persuasive words that compel readers to take action.”

What’s remarkable about this ad from Patagonia isn’t that it uses power words. All great copywriting does.

The remarkable thing about it is that those power words tap into different emotions depending on the order you read them in.

Reading from top down, they cause anger and fear: screwed, it’s too late, we don’t trust anyone, we don’t have a choice.

From the bottom up, the emphasis changes entirely, to hope and encouragement: choice, livable, imagine, healthy future.

Brilliant.

The poem is followed by that kicker of a tagline: “Buy Less, Demand More.” That’s shocking from a retailer—and extremely affecting.

The takeaway? Appeal to your readers’ emotions. We tend to think of decision making as being connected to the rational part of our brain, but the opposite is true. Decision making is emotional.

Feelings dictate decisions. Emotional responses are why we share things that go viral, why we donate to causes, and why we buy what we buy (or don’t buy what we don’t need, in the case of Patagonia).

Refer back to Morrow’s list as you write your copy. Consider how your writing instills fear, encouragement, arousal, anger, greed, safety, or curiosity. If, instead of triggering a high-arousal emotion, it makes you feel merely content, a little bit sad, or just kind of bored, it’s time for a rewrite.

That Patagonia ad is one in a collection of the strongest copywriting examples we’ve come across. You can check out the full article here.