Hold up, what’s the difference between hard and soft sell ads?

A hard sell is classic direct-response advertising. Think:

• Bold claims
• Coupon codes, offers, trackable links
• Sometimes (though not always) a focus on product features (not benefits)
• The goal is an immediate sale or at least get you into a funnel

For example, this static ad from Vessi:

Can’t get more hard sell than that really.

With soft sells, the goal is to connect with the viewer by showing them you understand their lifestyle, values, and pain points. It’s not about an immediate sale but rather forming trust that you can trade for a sale (or referral) later.

A soft sell looks like this:

• No pushing for clicks
• No discount codes
• Highlighting your product’s benefit to the viewer (not the features)
• Solving a problem the viewer is experiencing
• Gently positioning your product in the context of something the viewer already finds valuable
• Tapping into the user’s identity

Let’s look at three examples: a B2B one curated by me and two B2C ads curated by Nice Ads.

This first one is from Thermacell

What I love:

• Feels like an organic post. The creator walks through a solution to a familiar audience problem: mosquitos. This is the type of content most folks follow this creator for.
• The creator highlights the product's benefit (rather than a feature). We don’t care how the Thermacell works. But we care a lot about a fun evening outdoors without mosquitos.
• It’s a soft sell. There’s no link. No discount code. They’re earning trust and playing the long game (and hopefully increasing branded searches).

This second one’s from Jack Links:

What works?

• It’s goofy and entertaining.
• The entire video is raw. You can’t tell it’s an ad until the creator specifically highlights Jack Links halfway through. Even then, it’s about 2% of the video.
• This is the type of content people follow this creator for. Simple, but that’s what makes the ad engaging.
• Again, it’s a soft sell. The mention of Jack Links is concise and positions the product as a solution to this audience’s known problem. Hungry while out adventuring? Jack Links is for you.

Last one, B2B this time, and an ad for Instantly

Check out the full post here, but here's the opening:

Why I like it:

• It's legitimately useful content for people trying to set up a modern cold outreach practice. It gives free value.
• It shows how Instantly fits into a workflow, removing the confusing guesswork for them.
• In no way does it feel like it's promoting Instantly. They aren't mentioned until tool #4, and there are 4 other tools mentioned.

This organic post is now being promoted by Instantly as an ad to drive leads to their product (using the Thought Leadership ad type on LinkedIn).

Often the best ads are great organic social posts.

Just so we're clear, we don’t hate hard sell ads. Far from it.

They’re valuable and have a place in most solid ad strategies.

The ideal playbook is a combination of hard and soft sell ads, for example:

• Hard-sell ads targeting folks who watched or engaged with soft sell ads.
• Soft-sell when using influencers (as they’ll be concerned about enraging their audience, and a more organic plug will likely perform better).
• Or even soft-sell organic content and promote it if it does well.
• Hard sell for retargeting campaigns.

Use both in your ad strategy to grow fast and far 🙂

The Internet used to be extremely ugly:

• Flashing banner ads
• Under construction signs
• Horrible font and color choices.

To compete, stand out, and build trust, people started making websites look prettier, more trustworthy, and higher production value. 

With each new competitor and campaign, we all kept raising the quality bar.

The problem now? 

Everything is incredibly manicured and over-engineered.

YouTube is all $50k camera and lighting setups. Instagram photos are heavily edited and filtered. Some websites look like pieces of art.

How do you stand out now? By reverting back to the ugly days.

“Ugly ads” and low production value content is on the rise. We talked previously about Sam Sulek’s massive success on YouTube despite (because of?) ugly thumbnails, terrible titles, horrible lighting, and zero production value. 

When taken to an extreme, ugly ads stand out, make you double take, and make you share them.

But they can also masquerade as regular, organic content.

Here are some amazing “ugly,” yet effective, ads

Brand: Surreal

• Screenshot of interface on a billboard, lolwut?
• Hilariously bad graphic design
• Purposely lazy, fourth-wall breaking ad copy

Brand: Wandering Bear

• “In the wild” shot of the product in action
• Looks like your dad took a photo of his fridge and posted it

Brand: Nuts.com

• Excessive close-up with odd cropping
• A+ pun work
• Scribbled ad copy on a box and post-it

Brand: birddogs

• X vs. Y comparison making alternative look bad
• Instagram story aesthetic
• Emojis for familiarity and casualness

Brand: Harry’s

You can find the full video in this collection.

• Low budget phone video of their competitor in store
• Looks completely organic
• Makes you immediately curious

Ugly Ads work for a few reasons:

If they’re over-the-top hideous:

1. They look completely different than everything else in our feeds.
2. It's incomprehensible someone would make an ad that simple or ugly, so it's surprising and delightful.
   • Like when Surreal creates an entire billboard of a screenshot of a horrible, fourth-wall-breaking ad made in PowerPoint.

If they’re just low production value:

1. They look and feel like organic posts.
2. We crave authenticity, simplicity, and rawness.

Next steps

Next time you’re creating ads and content, try taking the opposite approach to what you’re used to. Specifically make an ad that looks low production value.

And shout out to the king of ugly ads, Barry Hott for making a lot of these. Follow him for inspiration.

To learn more:

• Check out a repository of Barry Hott’s ugly ads
• Check my carousel with 6 more examples of ugly ads and why they work—my top LinkedIn post of all time.

Oatly asked a kind of dumb question.

“How can we sell oat milk to people who don’t drink it or want to drink it?”

Aren’t we supposed to sell to people who actually want your product?

But by doing so, instead of going after the small market of not-milk drinkers, they went after the gigantic market of cow milk drinkers. And they did that with bold branding, going after baristas, and some insane marketing campaigns.

Last week we talked about how companies in boring categories (like oat milk) need to either keep it super simple (puppies on a toilet paper package) or need to make it interesting by being over the top fun/ridiculous. Oatly has taken the over the top route. 

Let’s highlight 3 of their most clever campaigns:

It’s like milk but for humans + F*CK OATLY

This is one of Oatly’s primary marketing messages—subtly reminding people how odd it is that we drink milk intended for baby cows:

These ads got Oatly banned or sued in countries like Ireland and Spain with influential dairy unions.

In response, they created fckoatly.com, pretending to be anti-Oatly:

They didn’t stop there; they made various satirical sites pretending to hate the anti-Oatly or anti-anti-Oatly sites. Here’s fckfckoatly.com:

They go all the way to fckfckfckfckfckoatly.com until they ask you to call a number.

The Dairy Deal

Next, they went after the dairy industry’s climate impact by buying billboards and print ads like this all over the place:

They’re challenging the dairy industry

And if you go to the URL in the corner (oatly.com/DairyDeal), it takes you to a full site pitching the deal to dairy reps (actual deal with up to 140k GBP value):

Note: I think it would have benefitted them if they published the number somewhere in the marketing since otherwise people wouldn’t really know these stats:

Paris cleverness

Paris has some funny laws. 

A mural advertisement can’t contain both text and an image of the product. So they painted a bunch of bold, text-only murals, and then cleverly positioned objects in front of the walls to complete the picture:

To dive more into some of Oatly’s top ads, I’ve compiled them into a carousel.

We want to be the Patagonia of dishwasher tablets.
We want to be the Apple of accounting software.
We want to be the Lululemon of toilet paper.
We want to be the Tesla of bathroom grout.

Being the something of something is attractive because it’s shorthand for a lot of hard to describe elements that make up a brand.

But obviously these above statements are all a bit ridiculous. 

What makes them ridiculous is the total mismatch between the brand's sexiness and the product category's utter lack of sexiness.

In short, as Alex puts it, “the inherent interest level of a category determines how nuanced and complicated the strategy can be.”

• Interesting = nuanced, sophisticated and rich brand strategy
• Boring = simple and to the point strategy

Here’s Alex’s complex graph to illustrate the concept:

Let’s dive into examples to illustrate this.

Examples of inherently interesting categories:

• Cars
• Health
• Beauty
• Fashion
• Investing
• Furniture
• Travelling
• Technology

With all of the above you can think of various examples of interesting brands that spend countless dollars building a rich brand identity. Tesla, Nike, Athletic Greens, Apple, Airbnb, Lululemon, Patagonia, IKEA, LVMH, L’Oréal.

People spend countless hours researching these categories. They’re hobbies. They’re down-right obsessions for some people.

Examples of inherently boring categories:

• Cleaning supplies
• Office supplies
• Toilet paper
• Accounting
• Appliances
• Insurance
• Oat milk
• Taxes
• Paint
• Law

Most people want to spend as little time thinking about these categories as possible—get in, buy something, and get out. Please never mention it again.

If you sell toilet paper, a legitimate strategy is to slap some puppies or kittens on the package to indicate it’s soft. People already know why soft is good. Try to sell people on your brand values and people will roll their eyes.

Here are some examples of brands who have managed to make their boring product more interesting by keeping their strategy simple:

Oatly

Non-dairy milk alternatives is a boring category. So Oatly differentiated with absurd branding, advertisements, and marketing schemes:

Liquid Death

Is there anything more boring than water? 

Liquid Death opted to be the opposite of all other boring water brands by leaning into absurd death metal vibes and wacky advertisements like this:

Who Gives A Crap and Dude Wipes

Toilet paper is one of the most boring and uninteresting categories.

Both Who Gives A Crap and Dude Wipes didn’t try to win you over with complicated brand values, instead they went for “let’s be a fun toilet paper brand” 

Who Gives A Crap relies on its funny name and fun packaging:

Dude Wipes leans in harder with puns (and a more specific audience):

How to determine if your category is interesting

A great test to measure a category's inherent interest level is to look up how many big YouTubers exist in the category and its subcategories.

There are countless YouTubers who just talk about cars. There are even a ton who just talk about Teslas. Therefore, cars are clearly interesting, so you must have an interesting and nuanced strategy to compete.

None exclusively talk about toilet paper. 

Therefore, it’s clearly not interesting, so you must keep it simple.

Check out Alex’s full article for more, or read his book. And otherwise, check out our Growth Vault for more lessons on strategy.

“What you see is all there is.”

– Psychological bias coined by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

Brains are lazy. We tend to only evaluate the information that’s currently presented rather than tapping into all our knowledge about the world.

Smart marketers use X vs. Y content to leverage this psychological bias.

For example, this ad for Loop earplugs:

Now, you’re only comparing Loop earplugs to the old foam ones—not the much better custom-molded earplugs.

This comparison causes you to tunnel vision on how they present the options, allowing them to control how you perceive them.

Take note of all the clever things the ad does to make the alternative look unappealing in comparison.

This is called the X vs. Y content type, where you compare two things, situations, or states of being, usually one “good” and one “bad,” with an interesting takeaway.

Usually, the “good” represents the thing you sell, either directly or indirectly.

This is easiest to understand with more examples:

X vs. Y examples

You can use X vs. Y in ads or in organic posts.

And you can either directly compare your product to competitors or indirectly compare two things related to your product.

Let’s dive into what this looks like:

Direct product comparisons:

This healthycell product is a bit odd. People expect to take a pill to help sleep, not use a tube of gel. This ad quickly demonstrates what it’s for and shows the entire pharmacy you’d have to swallow to replace it.

And this Huel ad positions the product and controls the narrative effectively by comparing a Huel meal to just instant noodles (not a home-cooked meal) on metrics it can easily crush it on:

Here I launched our ads agency for startups by comparing how most ads agencies work versus how ours works:

Indirect comparisons:

These examples don’t compare two products. Instead, they compare more complex things, but the goal is still to build intention for their product.

The most famous of course, is Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign, where instead of comparing a Mac directly with a PC, it compares the type of people who use them:

This optometry company shows how the world view you with and without glasses:

Nikolas Konstantin is a CEO Coach with a focus on mindfulness. He uses this graphic to illustrate people’s errors in how they approach health. His mindfulness coaching services are more attractive when you share that world view:

Rob’s carousel doesn’t directly compare his SEO agency to others. Instead, it sneakily highlights his values and expertise in SEO:

Ways to frame X vs Y ads/posts

• Using your product vs Not using it
• Competitor vs You
• When you do X vs Y (or don’t do X)
• Before vs. After
• Past vs. Present or Present vs. Future
• What people want vs. What they get
• What people think vs. Reality
• Group A vs. Group B
• Perspective X vs Y

There are endless ways to do this. Use the above examples to get started.

Dive into my carousel for 17 examples and their timeless marketing lessons.

Read this ad (forwards and backwards):

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, amused, or curious.”

These emotions drive action.

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

But it taps into different emotions depending on the order you read it.

• Reading from the top down, they cause anger and anxiety: 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. Read it again to notice how this affects you.

(tbh I also love the hook of "we're all screwed.")

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

The takeaway? Appeal to your readers’ emotions.

We justify with logic, but emotions drive our actions. Emotions are why we:

• Share things that go viral
• Donate to causes
• Buy what we buy (or don’t buy what we don’t need, in the case of Patagonia).

Let's dive into the data of the viral power of emotions:

The viral power of emotion

Jonah Berger's (author of Contagious and Wharton professor) research shows that activating emotions like anger, excitement, amusement, and awe drive action more than happiness, sadness, and contentment.

Here are the stats from analyzing thousands of New York Times articles:

• Awe inspiring = 30% more likely to share
• Anger = 34% more
• Anxiety = 21% more
• Amusement = 29% more
• Sadness = 16% less

And positive emotions are 13% more likely to lead to being shared. So much for the classic adage, "If it bleeds, it reads."

Consider how your copywriting instills awe, fear, amusement, anxiety, 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—rewrite.

Thanks for reading.

Dive into 50+ copywriting tactics in our Growth Vault.

Copywriting is one of the most important skills.

Particularly for founders and marketers.

Here are 6 simple and effective tips to improve your copywriting. 

Use them to rewrite your ads, landing pages, and that email in your drafts asking your boss (or cofounder) for a raise.

1. Make it about them—not you (your product)

People don’t care about your product. They care what your product can do for them.

What problem are you solving for them? And how does their life improve as a result? 

Here are some company examples:

2. Make it relatable

Selling something novel or complex? 

People don’t buy things they don’t understand.

Relate your product to something they already understand perfectly. They’ll get it immediately.

Metaphor example:

• Bad: Portable MP3 player with 8GB of storage
• Good: 1,000 songs in your pocket

Analogy example:

Note: The “no fees” is an example of “objection handling”—preemptlively addressing the most likely objection.

Ask current customers how they explain your product to a friend. Find the analogies and metaphors they use.

3. Cut the fluff

Do free flow writing. Then ruthlessly cut words that don’t add value:

• Adverbs
• Adjectives 
• Filler

Fluff weighs down copy and makes it harder to read. 

4. Use simple words

Even someone with an IQ of 160 enjoys reading at a 5th grade level:

• Avoid industry jargon. 
• Pretend you’re explaining it to your grandma or nephew.

It doesn’t matter how educated your audience is:

Harder to read → less engagement → less growth

Tip: Use the Hemingway Editor to check the readability.

5. Be specific

Don’t make people think—be specific and concise. 

Specificity helps people quickly understand your value.

Numbers and descriptive details work great. But only if they show the value customers get from you.

Remember: Only you think your value is obvious.

x6. Use active voice (not passive)

Active voice results in shorter, sharper sentences that are easier to follow.

But what does that mean exactly? Here’s an example:

The active voice makes your customer the hero of the story, and your product is the supporting character—not the other way around. This makes it far more compelling and easier to imagine.

Copywriting cheatsheet

Which is your favorite? Hit reply and let me know.

The Bullseye Exercise Framework helps you narrow in on the most effective marketing channels for your startup—rather than spreading yourself thin over all 19 growth channels.

It’s not perfect as presented and leaves some things to interpretation

But I’ll help fill in some blanks with other frameworks/data.

Let’s walk through it step-by-step:

Steps to Implement the Bullseye Exercise Framework

1. Brainstorm: Generate ideas for each of the 19 traction channels (see below).
2. Rank: Prioritize the channels based on their potential impact.
3. Test: Conduct cheap tests to validate the highest potential channels.
4. Focus: Double down on the most effective channels.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Brainstorm

Identify all potential traction channels that could be used to attract customers. The 19 traction channels are:

1. Viral Marketing (going viral organically on social platforms)
2. Public Relations (PR) (pinging journalists)
3. Unconventional PR (going viral with publications)
4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
5. Social and Display Ads
6. Offline Ads (billboards, radio, etc)
7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
8. Content Marketing
9. Email Marketing
10. Engineering as Marketing (product-led)
11. Influencers
12. Business Development (BD)
13. Sales
14. Affiliate Programs
15. Existing Platforms
16. Trade Shows
17. Offline Events
18. Speaking Engagements
19. Community Building

Write down at least one idea for each channel, even if it seems impractical.

Step 2: Rank

Rank the channels based on three criteria:

1. Potential: How big is the channel’s audience, and how well does it align with your target market?
   1. Writing the hilariously large size of the channel’s audience is silly and feels like something you'd do in a business plan. I would focus on how well it aligns with your target audience.
2. Cost: How expensive is reaching and converting customers through this channel based on the channel and your resources? For example:
   1. Ads = $$$
   2. Outreach = effort
   3. If you're a skilled writer, you can create content yourself.
3. Feasibility: How realistic is it to successfully execute a test in this channel with your current resources and capabilities?

Ex: If you have zero budget, a lot of ads is off the top.

Prioritize the top three to five channels that score highest across these criteria.

I feel like this part is missing a lot of guidance.

Not all of these things work for all kinds of businesses. I recommend using this chart from Right Percent as a guide (I wrote about it previously here):

Step 3: Test

Startups have limited resources. Always best to test first.

Red Bull can commit to the Stratos jump because they can afford to. But you should start small scale.

Design inexpensive tests to validate the potential of your top-ranked channels.

The tests should provide enough data to understand if the channel can be a significant source of growth.

Let’s use Lenny’s Racecar Growth Framework (covered here) to give better guidance on how that might look. Check out the Kickstarts and Turbo boosts:

Other testing methods include:

• Running a small ad campaign. It likely won’t be profitable at first, but as long as it’s generating conversions roughly in the right ballpark.
• Reaching out to a handful of journalists for PR.
• Creating content on LinkedIn for a couple of months.
• Setting up a basic affiliate program and contacting your list.

Measure the results in terms of cost per acquisition (CPA), conversion rates, and overall engagement to determine which channels are worth further investment.

Look for clear winners.

If there are no clear winners, keep testing.

Step 4: Focus

Once you find a winner, go hard.

In the Racecar Growth Framework, that’s the Growth engine. The self-perpetuating engine where growth begets growth (ex: profitable ads → more budget to run ads). Another name for these is Growth Loops.

Allocate more resources to these channels and scale your efforts. Continue to monitor their performance and make adjustments as necessary.

Practical example

Let's say you're launching a new productivity app.

After brainstorming, you decide to rank and test the following channels:

1. Sales: Cold outreach campaigns.
2. Community Building: Create a community.
3. Social and Display Ads: Run Facebook and Google Ads.
4. Influencers: You convince or pay influencers to talk about you.

You run small tests for each:

• Sales: Create very targeted lead lists using LinkedIn. Write very personalized messages and offer free value. 
• Community: You become active in existing productivity communities—easier than making your own.
• Ads: You run a small-scale ad campaign pushing towards the product/lead magnet.
• Influencers: You recruit a few micro influencers to post about you.

Then based on the results, you’ll decide to lean into one of these and make it more scalable.

The goal is to find a scalable growth engine that’s right for your startup where it is now. Use this framework to help you find it.

Jenny has 1.6B views on 124 YouTube Shorts, averaging ~13M views per video.

Previously, we covered the overall structure she uses for her videos, but she recently shared a teardown line-by-line, second-by-second for one of her videos with 21M+ views, How Many Ice Cream Flavors Can You Get with $1?

Let's dive in!

Note: These tips apply to any short-form video content, including B2B video ads.

The Hook

Here’s the opening Hook:

Hook Takeaways:

• Get right into it. No pre-ample. Just start doing it and explain as you go.
• Don’t waste time saying anything explained visually. She didn’t need to say “of frozen yogurt” because you know that already.
• Use visuals to aid comprehension. The $1 bill on the cup visually reinforces the concept of “she only has $1, and it’s going to be spent on froyo.”

Note: Hook and explain quickly. Check out the 1,3,5+ framework for more.

Foreshadow/Context

Next, she sets the stage with conflict and stakes with the line: “That’s going to be like $20 and it’s only vanilla:”

Takeaways:

• Quickly give context on what they need to watch the video. If a cup with a single flavor costs $20, then it will be hard to get a lot of flavors for $1.
• Her over-the-top facial expressions are to show you how to feel.

Transition

Then, she Transitions into the main action of the video seamlessly: “So I brought a tiny cup to get every flavor without spending more than a dollar.”

Takeaways:

• Transition into the action quickly and seamlessly. Don’t waste time standing in front of the camera intro’ing. Just explain as you’re doing it.
• Recap the concept again. You’re hitting people with a lot of info at once, and you randomly came up in their feed. Keep reminding them and re-hook them.

Body

Then she fills the tiny cup with froyo and does a lot to keep you engaged:

She adds drama to make it interesting:

• The machine spits, and her mom says: “They’re going to kick you out.”
• She introduces the main struggle (with intense music), “I was more concerned that the more flavors I added, the less space I had in my cup.”
• She purposely makes a “mistake” by adding the same flavor twice.
• She eats a bit of the double flavor and asks, “Is this cheating?” and her mom says they’re going to call the cops on her.

She inserts her CTA halfway through the video with a subtle comment from her mom: “All this for one subscriber,” which gets people in the mindset to subscribe.

• Add CTAs in the middle of the video at peak action rather than at the very end. A big virality signal is someone re-watching your video—a boring CTA at the end prevents that.
• But it’s also smart, as many people will bounce right after they get the payoff from watching the video (seeing how many flavors she can fit and if it’ll cost less than a dollar). If you do the CTA first, almost everyone will see it.

She adds a visual reminder of the concept and the progress:

Conclusion

• As she finishes and walks towards the scale, she says: “14 ice cream flavors, is it going to be less than a dollar? This reminds people of the premise, so they’re more invested in the answer.
• Her mom says: “No, I don’t think so,” to add drama.
• She stands there holding $1 and looking stressed to add drama and continue to reinforce the concept.
• She uses intense, crescendoing music and a series of fast cuts between her face and the cup, like a drum roll, to add drama and intensity again.
• She subtly encourages people to watch her other related video by ending the video with her mom saying, " No ice cream for you again!”
• It ends abruptly, as her mom says that, so the video's retention rates are high throughout (if you linger after the high note, people won’t re-watch).
• Again, don’t put the primary CTA here. Put it earlier in the video when everyone is hooked on watching it, or do it subtly as she did.

Want to learn more? Watch Jenny’s full video, her analysis, our previous breakdown of her Short structure, and her interview on Creator Science.

It doesn't matter if you make organic content or ads; this is key info.

Ever heard of this adage?

New problem, new solution.

Old problem, old solution.

Say you’re setting up a Shopify store or trying to grow on LinkedIn. You should probably go to YouTube and blogs for the most up-to-date resources, not consult classic literature.

But if you’re trying to figure out how to eat healthfully? This is an old problem. Humans have been shoving food in their faces for hundreds of thousands of years. Old solutions have stood the test of time. The latest diet trend has likely been tried dozens of times throughout history.

This also applies to marketing. Capturing attention and convincing others to do something are some of the oldest problems. 

Today, we’ll show you three old newspaper print ads, and how you can use the principles in your copywriting today to grow.

Let’s dive in.

Sandtex show don’t tell

These ads from 1984 are smart:

What they do well:

• They’re visually interesting and grab attention. Extreme close-ups of two objects. One smooth; the other cracked. The words are huge.
• They succinctly show the benefits. In 8 words and 2 objects, they tell you what it is and why it’s better than competitors.

Cheetos daring below the fold

This one is surprising. Usually, in copy, you want to captivate your reader in the first three seconds. But here, the first 90% of the words have absolutely nothing to do with the product.

It takes a whole 33 words to get to the punch line. Which is literally below the fold—you have to open the folded newspaper just to see what this is all about.

It shouldn’t work. But it does. Here’s why.

• It’s daring. It does the opposite of what we expect: to be sold something right away. It zigs where others would zag.
• It’s sensory. When we finally do get to the punch line, it’s in a high-contrast bright orange—just like the person’s fingertips. And those fingers tap into three senses: sight, taste, and touch.
• It makes you think and chuckle. You have to put two and two together to get it. That gives you a nice hit of dopamine and a chuckle.
• It’s curiosity piquing. Your brain is a categorization machine. It demands to know what connects seemingly unlike things. 

To write memorable copy, make it different, make it vivid, and make it curious.

Porsche’s “before vs after”

Here’s a classic car copywriting tactic in action.

BAB: before-after-bridge.

• Before: The problem/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 problem/pain point is resolved. Hands grip a sport steering wheel.
• Bridge: The solution—your product—bridges you from before to after.

I like BAB because it spotlights experience. Try to zero in on and accentuate what it’s like to have or not have your product.

The Sandtex and Porches ads broadly fall under X vs. Y, a very common and powerful format in ads and organic content.

Wrapping up

These ads? Old but gold. In short:

• Lean into striking images, be succinct, and show the benefits.
• Be bold, different, and peek curiosity.
• Use the before-after-bridge copywriting framework to sell the dream.

Want to be inspired by old print ads? Find more here and here.

1. Ads get attention and pique interest.
2. Landing pages convert interest into intention.
3. Emails convert people over time when they're ready.

Remember: It’s rare to see something for the first time and buy it immediately.

Use these steps to write email sequences that sell for you and make your acquisition efforts more profitable.

We need folks to open, engage, read, and take action. Let’s dive in:

1. Get people to open

Only three things dictate whether someone opens an email in their inbox:

1. Your reputation (the “from”)
2. The subject line
3. The pre-header (shown in most email tools)

Here’s what those look like:

A reputation is earned slowly. The subject line and pre-header are more immediately controllable. They need to hook people to get them to open.

Three triggers that cause people to click:

1. Self-interest: Offer email subscribers something that's going to help them.
   1. Example from Spotify: “Playlists made just for you”—save them time and effort.
2. Emotional interest: Spark positive emotion.
   1. Example from Typeform: “You're invited to the premiere”—make them feel special.
3. Relational interest: Get them to like you, trust you, and want to hear what you have to say.
   1. Example from Allbirds: “Leave a lighter footprint”—build connections to the brand and mission.

Write subjects and pre-headers that spark one of these three interests, and they’re more likely to open.

There are many more ways to hook. Subscribe to our free email course on Unignorable Hooks.

2. Get people to read it

Email copy needs to check these boxes:

• Aggressively concise. Don’t waste time with fluff.
• Not clickbait. Fulfill the expectations you set in your subject line.
• Keeps hooking them. Your subject line gets them to open, your opener gets them to keep reading. Continue to build interest and keep them engaged.
• Make the email valuable itself, but promise even more value that’s only delivered when subscribers click your CTA.

Help your readers. And do it succinctly. ‍Frameworks like PAS and AIDA can help:

3. Design it for engagement

Words aren’t everything. Once people open your email, they reflexively decide if they’re going to read it, skim it, or bounce based on their first impression.

Here are a few tips for designing attractive, engaging emails:

1. Make it easy to read and skim. Use a standard, large-ish font (12px to 16px).
2. Design for mobile, then adapt that design to desktop. Most people will read your email on mobile.
3. Hi-fi or lo-fi. If you’re going hi-fi, make it look great and on brand. If lo-fi, make it look like a regular old email sent by a person. Either can work well.

A job well done from Starbucks:

It’s simple, attractive, and easy to read on mobile.

4‍. Get people to take action

Why are you sending this email? 

Optimize the email to achieve that goal. If your goal is:

• To increase webinar signups, a possible CTA would be “book your spot” (which we think is a bit more motivating than the standard “register now”).
• To get feedback, your CTA might be “take the 1-minute survey and get 20% off.” Adding a time frame clarifies the commitment level.
• To drive sales, your CTA might be “Get 20% off today only.”

These examples are specific and directly relevant to the page at the other end of the click. We call these calls to value. Instead of generic prompts, they provide clear value to the reader.

Here’s an example of steps 2, 3, and 4 done right:

Why Cameo’s email works: 

• It’s personal—timed just before the recipient’s birthday. 
• The paragraphs are short and conversational. They use vivid language that paints a picture: You can have socks, or you can celebrate with a celebrity. That’s an appealing either/or. 
• The CTA “Celebrate…” is a clear, specific next step to getting value that leaves you curiously wondering: “which celebs?”

5. Measure, then improve

Don’t just create once and call it done. Monitor performance, figure out what needs improvement, and keep experimenting.

Pay close attention to click-through rate (what percentage of folks are clicking your CTAs) and, if your goal is a sale, revenue per email/subscriber.

We cover the most important email KPIs and how to use them in an article here.

There you have it!

Email funnels are the perfect supplement to a strong ad and organic strategy. 

Use this process to write good emails and place them in your sequences to convert more of your traffic.

A meh post with a strong hook will significantly outperform a strong post with a meh hook.

It’s just a fact of human nature.

We ignore everything that does not appear to satisfy our needs.

We’re constantly assessing each new stimulus (of which there are a near infinite amount these days) to quickly determine if it will fulfill our needs or not.

In developed societies, our needs have become primarily psychological (feel good) rather than physiological (get food).

We want to feel:

• Inspired and in awe
• Superior (the feeling around being outraged at some bonehead’s behavior)
• Like we’ve “learned” something
• Useful
• Entertained while we procrastinate doing work

We make snap judgments. Once that judgment is set, it becomes the anchor.

If you start weak, you have to work hard to get yourself out of the hole.

If you start strong, you have more leeway.

Success and failure compound

Every time someone fails to make it past your content's hook, they're less likely to get past it in the future.

Your reputation will precede you.

Some creators (like Huberman) write huge walls of text. He gets away with it because he’s built a reputation that what he posts is worth reading. To develop that, you must create things that people want to read consistently.

Here are the 10 hook types that get someone to consume your content:

Just remember, this applies to more than just social posts. It applies to ads, posts, sales emails, articles, podcasts, newsletters, and pitch decks

They all need to hook someone in or risk losing them.

Let’s dive into each of the hook types now.

#1. Establish credibility.

Tell them WHY they should trust you.

1. Your own accomplishments: “I sold my last company for $600M.”
2. Your own efforts: “I spent 100+ hours analyzing the top hooks on LinkedIn.” – Naim Ahmed
3. Someone else’s: “The 12 smartest things ever said by Simon Sinek.” – Eric Partaker

#2. Pique curiosity.

Open a loop they want to close with a question:

Or the start of a story:

#3. Celebrate wins.

People like to celebrate, and it gives them an obvious thing to comment.

1. “Today is my 35th birthday.”
2. “I just hit 250,000 newsletter subscribers.” ← combo of credibility
3. “I just sold my company for $10B.” ← combo of credibility

#4. Embody the counter-narrative:

Challenge a commonly held belief.

1. “People do not have short attention spans.” – Julian Shapiro
2. “Everyone is wrong about the metaverse.” – Shaan Puri

5. Surprise them.

Surprising facts often go viral as they grab your attention, make you feel something, and make you want to share it.

1. “75M baby boomers will retire by 2030.” – Codie Sanchez
2. “The average age of a successful entrepreneur is 46.”

#6. Promise value

Tell them what they’re going to gain from reading and why that’s important.

It can be as simple as these:

#7. Speak to their identity:

Call out exactly who it’s for and why they should care.

1. Use a Barnum-style statement/question:

1. Label them directly: “A rare find for my fellow movie nerds.” – Julian Shapiro

#8. Scare them a little:

1. Fear of Missing Out: “If you’re not mastering AI, it will master you.”  – too many people
2. Fear of Being Outdone: “I run a $400k/yr business with 0 employees” – Katelyn Bourgoin
3. Fear of Doing it Wrong: “Most companies suck at onboarding new team members.” – Wes Kao
4. Fear Itself: “LinkedIn can ban your account. YouTube can delete your account…” – Jake Ward

#9. Speak eloquently:

Label a feeling they’ve had but haven’t know how to articulate. You want them to say either:

1. “Finally, someone said it!”

1. “That’s so damn true.” **

1. “I never thought about it that way.”
   1. “Your number one job as a parent is to provide unconditional love to your kids, because it’s the one thing that they can’t get anywhere else.” – Naval

#10. Show your face

We’re hard-wired to look at and respond to someone’s face. We look where they’re looking and assign more value to it. We mirror the emotion displayed on the face.

This can be done tastefully (just showing your face), or it can be done less tastefully like you might see on YouTube:

Combine them for max benefit

Treat these as the fundamental building blocks. They hit the core emotions, but you will often hit one or more of these with an opener.

For example:

And that's all folks. If you wanna dive deeper, I go deeper in my article.

Otherwise, here are a few resources I’ve created to help:

• The 10 types of posts and how to use them. Use these to systematize your content creation process.
• 10 Copywriting Tips. 80/20 tips to improve copywriting.
• 7 Copywriting Frameworks (with cheatsheet). So you don’t have to start from scratch; these frameworks make “fill in the blanks.”
• Breakdown of the top 30 hooks on LinkedIn. Each hook is color-coded to show the smart thing each creator did to hook you.
• Breakdown of the top 26 hooks on Twitter.
• An analysis of the top 20 female creator's hook. Due to the total lack of gender diversity of the top 100 creators, I created one for the top 20 women.
• 12 ways to hook with Thumbnails. A hook can be an image, too.

There's one week left to enroll in our last and best cohort of UNIGNORABLE, where we dive deep into how to grow an audience—of which hooks are a small but crucial part of it. Enroll now.

There are only so many fundamental ways to grow a company. And not all ways work for all businesses. 

Place your product on this chart to get a general idea of what will likely work:

Large bubbles = more money spent. But it generally also means that it works at scale for many companies. Smaller bubbles mean it either has a smaller impact, works less often, or people don’t give it enough credit.

Here's the data used for this chart.

If you haven’t seen the Racecar Growth Framework, it breaks down the “growth engines” and the “boosts/accelerants” that drive true growth,  and recommends the order of operations.

Let’s dive into the 4 quadrants (and edge cases):

• Top-left – Random people would want it + they’re looking for it:
  • Very broadly appealing stuff people actively search out when needed, like kitchen scissors, a plunger, a marketing agency, or a software tool. Usually, that’s done by searching on Amazon or Google.
  • You can’t control who searches for what on Google, so the broader the user, the better.
• Top-right – Specific people + looking for it
  • You can control which trade shows you go to. And people typically go to them to find things to use/buy.
  • You can also do your best to get onto review sites by contacting the creator or incentivizing past customers to post reviews.
• Bottom-left – Random people + not looking for it
  • Very broad things people don’t really need or are likely already using, like kids' toys, Tide, Dove, Colgate, etc.
  • And dumb new products people didn’t know existed in infomercials like the Slap-Chop, Shamwow, and dumb fitness doo-dad.
• Bottom-right – Specific people + not looking for it
  • If they’re not looking for it, you must go to them. You create lists of people that might be interested and contact them via email or mail.
  • Or you use LinkedIn’s great but expensive targeting.
  • To be honest, you can use social ads to do pretty specific targeting by uploading your lists of prospects to the ad channels.
  • One acquisition channel missing here is communities. Whether they’re on Facebook, Circle, Skool, Slack, Mighty, Meetup, or Twitter/X.

Things that fall in the middle generally mean that “it depends.” 

For example:

• Reddit: Sure, it has a very broad user base, but the people in subreddits often have niche interests so it could be a viable way to find your audience.
• Facebook: Posting organically is broad. Groups are similar to subreddits, you can find or create niche ones. And for ads, you can get pretty niche if you do clever things like uploading custom audiences of people you’ve prospected.
• Social Channels: All the social channels are broader if you post organically and can be a lot more niche if you run ads.
• Affiliate: This depends because affiliates can have very niche audiences.
• Magazines: Some are industry-specific, but newspapers, not so much.

Find where your product/audience fits on this chart, and focus your efforts on the proven channels. Check out:

• Our Growth Vault for tactics for each of these,
• Our guides on making/running ads and content marketing.
• And the Racecar Growth Framework for more granular recommendations:

Even if someone uses your product a lot, they'll start to take it for granted. They'll forget what life was like without it.

Reminding them of that value helps make them value you.

Instacart, the grocery delivery app, does this for time and money.

They continuously remind you of the amount you’re saving due to being a premium user (free delivery and reduction in fees), as well as the time you’ve saved so far.

And to celebrate submitting an order, they show you how many hours you’ve saved and how many orders you’ve completed since you’ve started using Instacart:

This is clever because it makes me:

1. Feel like my $100 per year Premium subscription is justified
2. Appreciate how useful Instacart has been
3. Realize just how many times I’ve used it. They use your past behavior as proof.

A few more rapid-fire examples

Opal tells you how much you’ve reduced screen time

Imperfect Foods tells you the impact you’re making

“Groceries that help you fight food waste.”

So it makes sense to highlight the impact:

Toothpaste and mouthwash famously does this

Does mint make your mouth cleaner? No.

Does mint make your mouth feel cleaner? It sure does.

Just like manufacturers add palm oil to shampoo to make it foamier. Because foam is a cue that shampoo and soap is working, even if it doesn’t do anything.

Lastly, Wealthsimple reminds you how much interest you’re earning on your money:

Some quick tips

• Remind people of your value as they use it and asynchronously with emails, push notifications, and texts. Keep doing it for as long as they're a customer.
• Only focus on what they likely care about most:
  • Time
  • Money
  • Impact
  • Efficacy
• Remind people of the:
  • Immediate value: what you’re getting now
  • Historical value: what you’ve gotten so far
  • Future value: what you’ll get if you keep doing it for life
• Make the impact seem larger by increasing the time scale.
  • You’ve saved 300 hours since downloading the app.
  • You’ll look at your phone 11 years less in your lifetime.
• If your product does things in the background (like Wealthfront’s tax loss harvesting), send push notifications indicating it’s working hard for them.
• Look for ways to make your product feel like it’s working. That could be both from clever psychological tricks (mint in toothpaste) or by leveraging the labor illusion (showing the effort you’re putting in).

Remind them how you’re helping them, and your customers will value you more and for longer.

Buyer journeys aren’t nearly as clean as we like to imagine. Most people won’t see your ad → visit your landing page → buy immediately.

It’s more likely to go like this:

1. They see your ad while doom-scrolling Instagram. They click.
2. Something distracts them away from their phone.
3. They remember later in the evening (or 3 weeks later) thanks to a Trigger Event.
4. They google your company name.
5. They visit your homepage—not the conversion-focused landing page you intended them to hit.

(At least, that’s how I tend to buy things online.)

Is your homepage optimized for conversion? If not, you may be leaving growth on the table. 

Yes, your homepage has many jobs (too many). One is to orient people to your brand and everything you do. But don’t forget that high-intent visitors often visit your homepage late in the funnel.

Design it with conversion in mind.

Here are some quick ways to make sure your homepage converts:

1. Start by nailing the above-the-fold

Your above-the-fold (ATF) is the portion of your website that’s immediately visible to visitors—your hero header, subheaders, imagery, and calls to action.

Header and subheaders: Keep your copy short. Concisely convey what your product is and why they should care. Visitors shouldn’t have to scroll to understand what you offer and how they’ll get value from you.

Imagery: Static images, slides, video—whatever you choose, keep your products at the forefront. Photos with people are optional, but they have a proven track record of increasing conversion.

Call to action (CTA): Your ATF is the most important part of your most important page, and your CTA here might be the most important part of your entire site. This is what drives action. CTAs for ecommerce tend to be “shop now.” For services, “get started” and “try now” work well. Make sure your CTA is high-contrast and unignorable.

Here’s an example of an above-the-fold done well.

• Concise, punchy header and subheader explaining what Mosaic is and why you should care.
• Attractive visuals of the product
• Clear, high-contrast call to action (although they should depart from their monochrome design and make the CTA a contrasting color to make it pop).

We wrote an entire playbook on ATF alone. When you’re ready to create your ATF, you can follow our step-by-step process.

2. Handle objections in your below-the-fold.

Below the fold, you briefly address any objections visitors might have.

Some elements you might include here:

Social proof: Share reviews, press, user-generated content, testimonials, and endorsements, ratings, customer logos, and customer stats.

• Include social proof near your CTAs to handle their objections at the key moment where they’re deciding to click or not. Trust leads to action.
• There’s basically no such thing as too much social proof. 

Product features: Highlight unique product features that address common concerns.

• Worried about quality? Here’s why we’re the best you can get.
• Worried it’ll take too long? We’ll have you onboarded in 5 minutes or less.
• Worried about not liking the product? If you don’t like it we’ll give you a full refund.

FAQ: Take it a step further and add an FAQ section.

• Start with the most common or highest-friction questions.
• Assume they didn’t read the whole page and repeat all the key points.

Bestsellers: If you have several products, highlight your flagship and most popular items. Or highlight a “starter pack” or samples.

Footer: Include pages in the footer that you want to give visitors access to but aren’t critical to the conversion journey, like your exchanges and returns policy.

I like how MUD\WTR uses their FAQ section to address common questions (objections):

Include CTAs throughout your homepage so visitors don’t have to scroll back to the ATF to take the next step in their buyer journey: the product, pricing, or sign-up pages. CTAs in a sticky nav work well, too.

3. Run an A/B test. 

But wait, it’s easy to make changes and assume they’re better. Time to test that:

Filter for people who have already visited your ad landing pages—these are the warm visitors we’re experimenting with. Send half to your current homepage and the other half to your new, conversion-focused homepage. See which performs better.

Put a little love into your homepage, you might see a big bump in conversion.

Dive into our Above the Fold playbook and Landing Page guide.

The highest ROI campaigns will always be to warm audiences. Whether they’ve:

• Visited your homepage
• Visited key parts of your site (FAQ, return policy, pricing, checkout)
• Purchased previously
• Filled out a lead magnet
• Jumped on a sales call

Cold audiences need a ton of convincing.

Warm audiences sometimes just need to be reminded that you exist. Or you need to overcome whatever unresolved objection they may have.

Here are some lesser-known remarketing strategies to boost sales & reduce churn.

1. Retarget high-performing audiences on cheaper channels

Use top-tier channels and targeting to find quality people, then use cheaper/lower-quality channels to remarket to them. For example:

1. Ensure all your ad sets and ads have unique UTM tags.
2. Find your top Google Ads keywords or Facebook/LinkedIn audiences.
   1. LinkedIn is very expensive but has great targeting.
3. Create custom audiences on Twitter or Display Ads targeting people who visited with those unique UTM tags where people’s attention is cheaper.

Find them where it’s expensive, focus where it’s cheaper.

2. Cross-sell, up-sell, and re-engage inactive customers

After a sale most companies just rely on email to do all the engagement and closing. But, the average open rate on emails is 30~40%.

And a lot of people just open and archive without reading. Instead, use remarketing:

1. Identify cohorts of people who are:
   1. Not reading or engaging with your emails.
   2. Less likely to repurchase or more likely to churn (haven’t been actively using the product)
2. Run retargeting ads to these segments on social platforms (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) to re-engage them.

Here’s how Amazon does it:

3. Remarket for months to come

A lot of folks focus on remarketing within the first few days. Abandoned cart emails or ads after the first day or two. After a couple of week or so, they kinda give up.

Remember: Someone will rarely hit your site and be ready to buy at that moment.

Usually, it’s not “no”. It’s “not yet.” For example:

• For shoes, maybe they don’t need a new pair right now, but they might next spring/summer.
• For B2B services or tools, maybe it’ll take the company months to figure out if they actually need you or if the time is right.

It’s still a decent idea to use a higher budget the sooner the interaction because they are hotter. But try remarketing to people months later.

As a rule of thumb, you should get more salesy the longer it’s been. Don’t overwhelm someone while they’re deciding; it might turn them off. But if you wait 6 months and they’ve forgotten details, hit them with a more direct pitch.

4. Don’t just optimize for purchases

Ad platforms can tell when someone is close to purchasing and charge more for their eyeballs or clicks if your ad campaigns are optimized for sales. Instead:

1. Identify or create pieces of content that lead to leads/sales.
2. Make sure there’s a strong CTA embedded into the content.
3. Send people to that content and optimize your ads for “engagement”:
   1. 50% scroll depth
   2. 20+ seconds on the page (or longer)

This may lead to more conversions at a lower price. Example:

5. Get creative for sniffing for intent

Focus on more than just the obvious pricing pages, product pages, checkouts, and free trial events. Here are other ideas:

• Return policy page
• Clicked on 3+ FAQ items
• Clicked on numerous product photos
• Spent X time on the pricing page & scrolled through the different comparisons
• Used search or filtered
• Clicked to numerous pages on the site

Get creative with sniffing for intent and combine it with:

6. Be specific

Specific will always outperform general. Customize ads and emails to match users' confirmed interests and interactions. For example:

• If they visited a specific product page, hit them with an ad or email featuring that specific product.
• If they talked to a specific sales rep, include them in an ad for familiarity.
• If they spent a bunch of time on the pricing page, they might need help figuring out which plan is right for them.
• If they visited the return policy, maybe they're worried they won't like it

Example: Chaiirish used a product the user visited and added some urgency:

Remember:

• Warm > cold
• Specific > general
• Creative > same-old

If you want some ad inspiration, check out our Ad Vault. And if you want to dive deeper into ad tactics, check out the 461 tactics in our Growth Vault.

Here’s an example of my hatred:

As I said, it’s super common on ecommerce product pages, but I also see them on SaaS/service landing pages like this:

The thinking behind horizontal tabs is reasonable:

• We don’t want to overwhelm people.
• It’s vertically compact, so it doesn’t require loads of scrolling.
• For product pages, this allows all the info to be above the fold.
• Only people who care to see the info will click it.

But there are a few problems.

Let’s dive into each:

1. 1 in 4 users never find the info hidden in them

27% of users in a study of Sephora’s old product page never even discovered the content in the unopened horizontal tabs. 

For REI’s old site, it was a staggering 43% never noticed the horizontal tabs:

Look at what’s contained in those tabs; Specs, Reviews, Shipping & Returns info, and Ingredients—all key pieces of info people use to make purchasing decisions.

18% of Sephora's users and 21% of Crutchfield's users never saw the tabs despite trying to find the information they contained.

That’s 1 in 5 users desperately trying to make an informed buying decision that will likely turn to a competitor.

2. They have an unclear ROI

When you see something listed in a horizontal tab, you don’t know what it contains or whether it’s worth it to click to see it.

Numerous users in the study were disappointed when they clicked the Reviews tab to find that it was completely empty. Or a Specs tab with three dinky bullet points.

Once they fail you once, you’re less likely to keep exploring.

3. They limit your ability to stumble upon info

As Baymard says it:

When content is hidden in “Horizontal Tabs” layouts it’s very difficult for users to “stumble” onto content that could end up being extremely valuable to their purchasing decision — for example, a fuller description of the materials used, or a discussion of production ethics (both of which were observed to be happy “accidental discoveries” some users had when exploring product pages).

Users have to actively choose to see the title of a tab and click it. So it better be clear and enticing

4. They can be confusing to navigate

Tabs like Reviews, Shipping, Specs, and Materials are really clear what they care.

Tabs like the ones below, however, are not immediately obvious what’s contained within them:

For example, where do you go if you want product dimensions? Maybe Details?

Well, they’re actually just in Overview.

5. The title is everything

As you can see, the title of the tab is really doing a ton of the work.

And due to design considerations, you often need to summarize it with a single word, which may not be enough to accurately convey what’s inside.

For example, “Details.” Details about what exactly?

6. It pigeon holes you to the horizontal tabs

Okay, you realize that maybe the horizontal tabs aren’t great for a lot of things.

So you decide to put some some info in the tabs, but other, more important information in separate sections below the fold.

Well this actually performs very poorly. This causes confusion because:

1. Some people won’t find the horizontal tab info.
2. Those that do might assume that all info is in there.
3. Many will be confused due to the complexity of info being in different places.

These little confusions end up mattering a lot when you’re talking about thousands to millions of people navigating a page.

Alternate formats

There are two major formats to use instead:

#1. Vertically collapsed sections

This has become increasingly common on modern sites.

For example, this is what Sephora does today:

Here’s why it’s better:

• It’s far easier to find everything.
• They can auto-expand the critical sections and auto-collapse the rest.
• This decreases the importance of enticing titles.
• Each section can be designed to present the information best.
• There are no limitations on the number of words used in the titles.

#2. Long page, sticky TOC

Present all the info in separate vertical sections, with no collapsing.

Have a sticky nav that lets people bounce between them.

This has nearly the same benefits as above. The primary consideration is whether you want anything to be auto-collapsed or not.

Takeaway

Designers often create something because it:

• Looks good
• Feels efficient

In reality, it confuses and obfuscates essential information.

Confused people don’t convert.

So, the next time you design a page on your site or an app, prioritize usability and clarity above all else.

It's incredibly easy to waste money on ads (either by losing it or not getting the most out of it).

Sending your ads to a generic landing page is a surefire way to do just that.

The same concept applies to all marketing channels and campaigns, but it's particularly painful when you're paying for the clicks.

Top startups use custom funnels and landing pages for their ads to drive higher conversion rates.

This tactic is saying two things:

• Don’t reuse existing ads with new landing pages. Create custom ad creatives for each funnel type to match the user journey.
• Don't reuse the same landing page for all your ads. Match the landing page to the ad copy and creative.

Example: An ad creative comparing your product to a competitor should send them to a page that compares them to that competitor—not your homepage or a product page.

​@oliviercroguy​ had a great thread about this a few years ago that shared 7 proven landing page types.

I've used it as inspiration and tweaked the list below.

Let's dive in.

#1. Interactive Calculators

Landing pages don't need to just do a hard sell. They can also be useful:

Offer a tool (e.g., ROI calculator, savings estimator) where users input data, see tailored outcomes, and are prompted to buy or sign up while using or after.

This is great for any company where the user has a complex question they're trying to answer that can be solved algorithmically. For example:

• Health/Fitness: Macros, BMI, protein needs, etc.
• Marketing: ad budget calculator, LTV calculator, growth calculator, etc.
• Finance: Rent or buy, mortgage, car loan, compound interest, etc

2. Competitor Comparison

If your ad directly calls out a competitor, send them to a page that directly compares and contrasts.

Webflow directly compares itself to Squarespace on a variety of metrics.

Note: If you're going to do that, make sure that you're honest and make your competitor win where it actually wins. If you win every single category, it becomes less believable.

Shopify does a great job showing all the reasons why people choose them over Woocommerce with this thorough landing page:

Takeaway: Don't just compare in the ad, go deep and compare yourself to your competitor side-by-side. Highlight your product’s superior features, pricing, or benefits, with a CTA to purchase or sign up.

#3. Pre-Sales Landing Page

Normally marketing advice is focused on reducing the number of steps. Here you're doing the opposite and purposefully putting a page in-between the ad and the product page (or the App/Play Store).

For example, Ritual had a page that tells a story about personalize nutrition, and then links to their product page for vitamins:

Takeaway: warm up cold traffic with storytelling and persuasive copy to build trust before redirecting to a product page (or App/Play Stores).

Use a narrative-driven approach (pains, product benefits, “why now”), visuals, and a clear CTA to transition to the product page.

#4. Free Trial/Welcome Offer

There's a reason why brands are constantly running promos—they work.

This landing page type's focus is getting them an exclusive welcome offer. For example, here's AG1:

And here an example of an ad they used to get there:

Takeaway: Test an exclusive welcome offer and make a landing page completely dedicated to it.

#5. Quiz Funnel

People hate risk.

A quiz is a great way to reduce the perceived risk in a purchase decision.

This is why bra brands like Third Love have quiz funnels to help you feel more comfortable committing to a purchase:

​And here's an ad that links to this quiz​.

Takeaway: A quiz funnel works best for products where personalization, education, or tailored recommendations increase conversions. ​Here's a comprehensive list of examples​.

#6. Advertorial (a.k.a. Blog Post)

Another way to soft sell is to link to a piece of content that educates your audience and introduces your product naturally.

Here's an example from PetLabCo

We actually used to do this using my cofounder's old "​Growth Guide​" (which he's now turned into a ​Startup Guide​ on his site).

This guide was a primary driver of both ​agency leads​ and ​Growth Program students​ for 2+ years.

Because it had proven itself to generate leads, we sent both cold and retargeting traffic to it—which worked quite well.

Takeaway: Optimize the content for SEO and it can work both organically and for ads.

#7. Listicle

A listicle is one of the ​10 primary types of content​ that is quite similar to an advertorial but it's more directly product focused.

Generally best used for retargeting since it is more of a hard sell.

A listicle, as the name implies, is a list of things (reasons, tools, ways).

Here's an example from baby food brand Yumi:

A classic listicle style is to compare the "best X tools" and then you include your own tool and present it as the best. Here the listicle that Kit/ConvertKit made about the ​13 best newsletter tools​ that conveniently ranks Kit first.

A few other rapidfire ideas:

• Match the copy/imagery to the ad: A super simple hack is to simply tweak the copy and images on the landing page to match the ad copy and creative. Matching landing page copy to the keywords used on Google Ads is a classic tactic.
• Influencer: If you have a famous customer, affiliate, or super fan (and you have their permission), you can highlight them on the page.
• Demo video: Make the page's focus an in-depth demo of your product or service.
• Flash sale/limited promo pages: Make custom landing pages highlighting short-term promos.
• Super minimal: Try a hilariously short and to-the-point page.
• Super long: Try one of those insanely long ClickFunnels-esque landing pages that take 20 minutes to read.
• Social proof: A page where social proof is the star of the show with walls of testimonials, reviews, case studies, and stats.
• Case studies: An advertorial of sorts where it's entirely focused on the results your product/service has achieved for your customers
• No landing page: Lead-gen ads where you collect their contact info directly in the platform can also work wonders.

Start small, expand from there

Don't go out and create all of these right away. Here's how to start:

1. Pick one funnel type and create custom ads and landing pages for it.
2. Look at your existing top-performing ads and create ads that build off the copy and creative.

Once you see wins, iterate and expand to other funnel types.

Calm makes $7.7M per month and has 150M+ downloads for their meditation app.

~50% of Calm’s social traffic comes on autopilot from handfuls of YouTube videos, getting thousands of views per hour on videos that are upwards of 7 years old.

You might suspect they’re all related to meditation, but they’re not. They’re almost all related to sleep:

Calm realized that their biggest usage time was between 9PM and 11PM.

Clearly, people used their app to help calm their minds and go to sleep. So targeting people who are pulling up videos to help them sleep is a high-intent audience that would be interested in their product.

It turns out related keywords have a ton of search volume on Google and YouTube:

So they created videos related to sleep: bedtime stories, rain noises, white noise, ocean sounds, and deep sleep meditations.

And then they subtly funnel viewers to their app:

There’s no other pitch besides the Calm logo as a watermark during the videos.

The beauty of this is that someone will likely pull up the same video every night and see Calm’s logo and CTA every time.

This is not only a great example of using data to find the next growth opportunity, but it’s also a great example of the law of conservation of attractive profits.

Law of conservation of attractive profits

“In the face of technological disruption, profit opportunities shift from the main product to specialized, hard-to-replicate components or services.”

This law was created by Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen.

Chris Dixon (a16z) summarizes it with an analogy in his book Read Write Own:

“Commoditizing a layer in a tech stack is like squeezing a balloon. The volume of air stays constant but shifts to other areas. The same is true for profits in a tech stack (roughly). The overall profits are conserved but shift from layer to layer.”

For example, Google started as a Search engine and now makes over $50B per year. To maintain their profits from Search, they’ve tried to own more of the stack required to access it: browser (Chrome), device (Google Pixel), operating system (Android and Chromebook), and telecommunication network (Google Fi).

Even still, they pay Apple $12B per year to be the default search engine on Apple devices to maintain their dominance—that price would be much higher if Android didn’t emerge as a massive contender to Apple’s smartphone dominance.

Takeaway: You can steal away land from your competitor by offering what they sell for free. As Bezos said: "Your margin is my opportunity."

Similarly, IBM invests in open-source operating systems (Linux) not to “give back.”

They just don't want to share profits with corporations like Microsoft. Meta is investing in open-source large language models (LLMs), so it doesn’t need to pay to use OpenAIs.

Now, Google’s strategy is to create free and just as powerful versions of ChatGPT. So far, they are not winning that battle.

Calm has done something similar to a smaller degree.

Most people post videos on YouTube to generate ad revenue.

Calm has created a mobile app that generates $8M per month. They don’t need to monetize YouTube videos for sleep, meditation, and relaxation sounds.

Instead, they want it to have as much reach as possible and build as much affinity as possible so they can convert more people to their app.

So, Calm can have the best sleep sound video with zero ads. That matters to people. This is the most popular ad from Calm’s most popular video:

HubSpot can pump out insane amounts of free marketing content because they don’t need to make money from selling education. They make all of their money from their CRM.

Alex Hormozi doesn’t need to charge you for his book or courses because he’ll make way more money by being able to buy into your business for a low valuation because of the affinity he’s built. This gives him a big edge against other creators who have to charge or add sponsors.

Takeaway question: What are people paying competitors for that you can offer to them for free?

For deeper dives into Calm’s YouTube strategy, check out Strategy Breakdowns and Foundation.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo & Juliet is wrong.

First, our perception is very sensitive. The color and shape of a spoon can make something taste sweeter. The sound of a deep fryer can make food taste crunchier.

So, if a rose were named “trash,” it might not smell quite as nice.

This is called the labeling effect.

Second, the popularity of roses might not have taken off if the word didn’t sound as lovely as it does. Products named with softer sounds are often seen as more luxurious (think Chanel or Moet) compared to products with harsher names, which might come across as lower quality or even unpleasant.

Think how many people are named Rose versus the harsher words Geranium or Orchid. Could that not have something to do with the popularity of roses?

All that is to say, the name of your startup or product is very important.

Metrics to optimize when choosing a name:

1. People’s perceptions. As discussed above, the name should evoke the appropriate emotion or set a certain expectation. This is why grocery store names imply lower cost (Costco) or high quality (Whole Foods).
2. Memorability. You want a name that is not easily forgotten, or they’ll remember your competitor.
3. “Googlability.” They need to be able to find you online.
   1. For example, the name Demand Curve is not particularly SEO-friendly.
4. “Spellability.” They need to know how to spell it when they hear it.
   1. This is a major sin of many startups trying to be clever.
5. “Sayability.” They need to know how to say it when they see it. And it should be nice and easy to say.
   1. People don’t like to feel or look dumb. If it’s hard to say, they won’t.
6. Understandability. When people hear it, can they guess what it is? If not, does it make sense when they know what it is?
   1. The “bnb” in Airbnb implies accommodation. VRBO is meaningless.
7. Distinct. You want something that’s not easily confused with something else.
8. .com preferred. Try to find something you can get a good domain for without spending insane amounts of money.

And yes, ChatGPT is an atrocious name on a few metrics:

1. It’s quite a mouthful to say.
2. GPT is a meaningless acronym to everybody but AI nerds, so it’s taken months for my girlfriend not to say ChatGTP (not memorable, and people don’t like things that make them feel dumb)

At least chat hints at what it is, but GPT means nothing (low understandability).

But it is googleable and distinct. However, it’s a rare product that was so good and revolutionary that the name didn’t matter. 99.9% of products aren’t that lucky.

So, let’s use the 8 naming strategies from Ali’s The First 1000 to name our startup/product. His article gives way more examples, so check it out, as I’ll just be doing a higher-level overview.

8 startup/product naming strategies

Here’s the great image created by Ali as a summary:

Creative names

1. Mashups

Two words become one. There are two main types:

1.1 Compound Names (fusion of 2 complete words):

Slam together two complete words.

• Ticketmaster: Ticket + Master
• YouTube: You + Tube (slang for TV)
• Paypal: Pay + Pal
• Coinbase: Coin + Base

1.2 Portmanteaus (Blending sounds and meanings of 2 words):

Blend parts of words together to create a new one:

• SpaceX: Space + Exploration
• Netflix: Internet + Flicks (movies)
• Duolingo: Duo (meaning two) + Lingo, from "Linguistics" (which comes from “tongues”)
  • This can mean “you and your language learning partner”, or
  • “Two tongued” which is exactly what “bi-lingual” means.
• Binance: Bitcoin + Finance

2. Play on words

Words that describe the product, service, or value

Here, Ali says they need to be creatively spelled. I’ll break this category into two.

Creatively-spelled words:

• TikTok: Sound of a clock ticking away as you waste hours of your life
• Reddit: “read it”
• Google: googol (the number one followed by 100 zeroes)
• Nvidia: from the Latin word “invidia,” meaning “envy”—as in, you’ll make people envious. And the “vid” implies it’s for video (which GPUs were for).

Real words, creative meaning:

• Stripe: The black strip on the back of a credit card
• Twitter: Birds making tweet, tweet noises.
• Kindle: Suggests warmth and inspiration. Curling up beside a fire reading.

3. Paying tribute

This category includes companies named after someone (or something) significant to the founder.

3.1 Tribute to the past [mythical or historical figure]

• Starbucks: Tribute to Starbuck, a character in "Moby Dick."
• Apple: Sir Isaac Newton’s apple
• Tesla: Nikola Tesla (inventor of DC current)

3.2 Personal tribute

• Walmart: named after founder Sam Walton (combined with Mart)
• X: named after Elon’s old payments company.
• Roku: means 'six' in Japanese. Roku was the founder's sixth startup.

4. Aspiration

Names that reflect the company’s mission or goals.

4.1 Expression

• Uber: from the German word über, meaning "over, above.”
• Target: symbolizing becoming the go-to shopping destination.
• AgelessRx (our client): implies their goal of increasing longevity.

4.2 Personification

• Nike: The Greek goddess of victory.
• Amazon: The South American rainforest, reflecting size and diversity

Practical names

5. Easy to remember, write and pronounce nonsense

Meaningless words that are short and memorable (ideally, they rhyme or have a .com available)

• Temu
• Hulu
• Tubi
• Brex

6. Value/service descriptor.

Words that simply describe the product/service.

• Threads
• Telegram
• Shop
• Messenger
• Bible
• Weather

Apple loves doing this.

7. Domain name

• The company/product name is just the domain:
• Character(dot)ai
• Booking(dot)com
• Customer(dot)io

This is my second least favorite.

It can get annoying to say. And it’s annoying it Slack/messages when the URL always unfurls. People often start writing things likes booking(dot)com or crypto(dot)com—like I did above to prevent your email tool from autolinking.

8. Abbreviation

When all else fails, use an abbreviation.

• VRBO
• CVS
• ADP

Choose an acronym that’s distinct and easy to say and remember. GPT is terrible. CVS is not bad. At least when evaluated for "is this nice to say?"

But tbh, this is one of my least favorite since acronyms don’t have any soul.

So what’s next

Honestly, I’d recommend shoving this article (both what to optimize for and the naming strategies) into ChatGPT (or fave AI). Then, describe your product/startup and ask it to generate a bunch of ideas.

Then, evaluate each one yourself. Base it on the 8 metrics above and how you feel about it. Remember, the perception and feeling is important.

Then, ask some friends and some people in your target audience what they think. What it makes them feel. How they would say it or spell it.

Keep doing this until you find an obvious winner.

Ideally, it should stand out like meeting your long-term partner. It just clicks and makes sense.

Check out Ali’s article, and the rest of his great newsletter!