Never Be Content With Content

#ufx2016

Joanna wiebe

@copyhackers #ufx2016

Never be content with

Joanna WiebeCopy Hackers and Airstory

CONTENT


1. Publish less

2. Write to convert

Our ContentStrategy


• Conversion copywriting blog• Copy experiments with

businesses like Wistia, Buffer and MadMimi

• Normally talking about copy tests up here


But I live on “content”

• 143 blog posts

• 5100 comments


But I live on “content”

• 30,000+ ebooks sold

• 2500+ course students


Isn’t copy the same as content?


They both use words


Writers do both of them


They both start with “co”


Copy moves a person to “yes.”


108% increase in revenue

Way moreyesses


We measure that. We expect that of copy.


If copy doesn’t get the YES, we rewrite it ’til it does.


CONTROL REWRITE

3.5x the paid conversions


Does content get the yes?


i brings u a yes

EVENSHULI


Content is the long game. The really, really, really long game.


Jan 2012 Jan 2016

100+ posts published in this period


Content is supposed to get the yes.


(It just doesn’t know it.)


(And that’s the problem.)


We need visitors to say YES to signing up.


We’re above all that.


What are the consequences of giving away without the reward

that is acquiring customers?


1. “Publish more, make it better, spend the same”

“Pay writers less”

“Our writers are burned out”

“Squeeze them till they blog about hating us”

“Stop publishing”

“What’s next?”


(Burn out isn’t always a bad thing.)


Fatigued, we made a decision.


i goze fasta then u

SUCKA


Jan 2012 Jan 2016

An average of 1.8 posts per month


We stopped writing content.


“Content”


A stuff strategy created by a stuff strategist


A filler strategy created by a filler strategist


Never be content with content.


We stopped writing content as we knew it.


Our “content” is now content that follows the

principles of copy.


Content.


1. The calendar isn’t the point

2. Growing the business is

Our ContentStrategy


1. Publish less

2. Write to convert

Our ContentStrategy


PUBLISH LESS


Strategic standalone posts and theme weeks.


Strategic standalone

post


180+ hours of research, writing

and editing

TO CREATE IT


• Sent an anticipation-building email

Sent email on publishResent to unopensTop of inbound.orgScheduled / Buffered

tweets

TO PROMOTE IT


Way more yesses


2000+Earned 2000+ subscribers.Converted by email at 5%.

(Products from $19 to $1997.)


2xDoubled the number of freelance copywriters on our list…


$180,000+…and sold out 2 copywriter masterminds.


Publishing less in no way hurt the business.


WRITE TO CONVERT


1. Write for an audienceUse formulasDifferentiateMake it easy to say yes


Write for an audience

Dedicated content for segments


Dedicating Oct to posts about freelancing

Write for an audience


Use proven formulas

P

A

S


Differentiate

• Tech startups

• Experimental

• Wins and losses

• The whole story

• (And no listicles)


Make YES easy

Relevant opt-in offers


Split-test opt-in creative

Make YES easy


Multiple “yes” opportunities

Make YES easy


1. Write for an audienceUse formulasDifferentiateMake it easy to say yes


Thinking like a copywriter (i.e., writing to convert) in no way

hurt the business.


1. Publish less

2. Write to convert

Our ContentStrategy


I’m not discounting the

softer stuff.


Our blog needs to make moneyor the quality will plummet.


So does yours.


JOANNA WIEBE@copyhackers

Creator of CopyHackers.comwhere startups learn to

convert like mofos

Co-founder of Airstory.comagical content software

Never Be Content With Content

Business

Transcript of Never Be Content With Content