​No worries, if it isn’t.
I’ve got your back.
So that you have a steady source of inspiration and ideas.

Let’s get started.

​I always recommend that you start by looking at your business and industry each month.
You have a ready set of hyper-timely, relevant content that’s going to attract and engage your audiences.
​
​What’s in store for your business this May?

• Product launches
• Promotions
• Key milestones
• Company news, key people, customers, and culture

Roadmap your editorial calendar with those key elements first.
(If you don’t already have an editorial calendar template, download the template one I’ve created and use myself)
​
​Then decide what social posts, articles, and videos need to be created and when.

But you always need more, right?

What’s happening in May?
​
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic will be the top news story in May as it was in March and April.
​
​But there are so many other opportunities for you to publish content that will be attractive to your audience.

Here are 5 big content marketing ideas for May.
Tailor these themes to your business.

1. Nurses Day – Wednesday May 6, 2020

One of the wonderful experiences that has come out of the COVID-19 crisis is the outpouring of support for nurses and healthcare professionals.

​At 7pm every night, my neighborhood cheers, honks horns, and makes a racket in support of nurses on the front lines. In big cities like New York, it’s spine-tingling.

All nurses, in addition to those treating COVID-19 patients, have been under pressure during this outbreak.
Their sacrifices deserve recognition.
​
May 6 is National Nurses Day and the first day of National Nurses Week.

There’s one problem.
Many will look to exploit our sympathies.

You should not produce Nurse Day content if your real goal is to get likes, increase followers, or – worst of all – pivot to a sales message.

Here’s what you can do.
Truly support nurses.

• Tell a story of how a nurse helped you
• Write about nurses you personally know
• Profile nurses with historic, relevant significance

You can also share something you did to support nurses.
Again be careful. People are keen to negatively call out brands doing “look at me, we’re doing something good” press releases and social posts.

2. Star Wars Day – Monday May 4, 2020

Let’s back up a few days to May the 4th.

Without a doubt, you have a ton of Star Wars fans among your audience.
And May 4th is Star Wars Day.

With such widespread fandom, the consumption and social sharing of Star Wars-themed content will be big enough to overwhelm Palpatine’s Final Order fleet of star destroyers.

Massive.

You can unleash your creativity here.
Consider creating memes, social posts, short videos, articles, or podcasts that connect your business with the Star Wars story.

Here are a few examples:

• Any relevant Dark Side vs. Light Side comparison
• Trivia challenges that test your audience’s knowledge
• Survey or quiz your audience on favorite characters, scenes, worlds, monsters, ships, etc.
• Review fashion, food, or anything that relates to your business
• Share your favorite hidden gem of the many series, fan fiction, or fanart
• ANYTHING with Baby Yoda

The depth of detail in the Star Wars universe takes light years to traverse.

Check out the Wookieepedia at https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page​

And may the force be with you.

3. National Pet Week – May 3, 2020 to May 9, 2020

What’s bigger than the Force?

Our love of pets.

Each May, the American Veterinary Medical Association celebrates National Pet Week.

People have a special bond with their pets.

Animals make us feel good.
After all, we consume hours of cat and dog videos every single day.

You can create animal-related content that’s personal to you, your employees, or your customers.

And you can go beyond cats and dogs.
We have a rabbit and a fish. My daughter would get a snake or any reptile (if we allowed her).

Your audience undoubtedly has some very diverse love of animals that you can tailor your content to.

The range of content ideas for Pet Week is equally diverse.

• Ask your audience to share their pet pics and videos
• Create quick consumption memes
• Short videos of you and your employees pets
• In-depth how-to articles on pet care, food, toys, and even fashion
• Interview local veterinarians for pet care tips

Similar to Star Wars, your audience will definitely respond to any survey or quiz.
You’ll need the full week of May to share all that content.

4. Mother’s Day on Sunday May 10, 2020

Who do we love even more than our pets?

Mom!

According to the 2020 National Retail Federation’s survey, 78% of Americans say that celebrating Mother’s Day is important to them this year given the current state of the coronavirus.

And we’re spending a little more on Mom, approximately $8 more than last year, for an average of $205 on Mother’s Day gifts and celebrations.

For your Mother’s Day content marketing, I recommend two approaches:

1. Publish a thoughtful list of Mother’s Day gift ideas, including an explanation of what makes the item a good gift.
2. Everything isn’t commercial. Share how your Mom inspired you and thank them.

My Mom has always encouraged me to learn.
Though much to her chagrin, I have a tendency to break things as my approach to figuring them out.

How has your Mom inspired you?

5. Holidays and National Days in May

There are many “days” and “weeks” celebrated in May.
Even if not directly related to your business, these national observances are great for social media posts.

You can also develop content related to well known holidays like Memorial Day (May 25) to commemorate those who have died in military service to their country.

Here are 12 world or national celebrations you might consider include:

• May Day (May 1)
• National Fitness Day (May 2)
• Cinco de Mayo (May 5)
• National Twilight Zone Day (May 11)
• National Barbeque Day (May 16)
• National Solitaire Day (May 22)
• National Hamburger Day (May 28)
• National Smile Day (May 31)
• World No Tobacco Day (May 31)
• Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
• ALS Awareness Month
• Skin Cancer Awareness Month
• National Photography Month

Check out this list for U.S. national and international observances.
​https://nationaldaycalendar.com/may-overview/​

I hope this gives you some new inspiration to boost your content plans.

What content are you posting in May?
Feel free to share it on the Bob Angus Facebook Page.

​
​
Photos by James Pond, Tom Barrett, Joe Caione on Unsplash​

Yes. It’s possible.
Creating that much content every day is very achievable.

Let’s find out.

I will create and publish at least 64 pieces of content every day for the entire month of April.

I was inspired by a Gary Vaynerchuk post – How to Create 64 Pieces Of Content In A Day

He mapped out many different ways brands should and can create 64 content posts.
Every. Single. Day.

Sounded crazy.
But if I did it… no question it would have a crazy upside.

The best way to learn is to just do it.

I’m going to run an experiment.

Let’s see what it’s like to create and post at least 64 pieces of content every day for the month of April.

Then I will report back to you on the results.

Before I dive into why, how, and other rules of this experiment, I want to cover two guiding principles of this experiment:

“Content” is not a big article or blog post

Content is a personally created native post to the platform used. This includes all the online channels that brands use to publish valuable content – your blog, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok… all the channels.

Quality is more important than quantity

The 64 number is a big, challenging target. But putting out 64 pieces of content is not the goal itself. It’s got to be quality content that’s meaningful to you my audience. If I put out crap, I’m crap. Anybody can send out 64 or even 240 a day if they schedule the same tweet to go out every 6 minutes, 24 hours a day.

Let’s dive into the experiment.

The Why

What are my goals?

I basically like to try new stuff.
Fearlessly. Learn. Execute. Practice. Repeat.

This experiment is one of those things.

Here’s why I am doing this social media experiment.
What I hope to get out of the next month.

Build new skills

I’m looking forward to learning and executing new skills in the next 30 days. Skills that I will continue to use. Become a power user of some new marketing tools. I’m a classic marketing pro at my desk. A lot of writing and I like to think I have a good eye for design. The new skill that I am really pumped about is video. Short-form video like TikTok and going live with Facebook Live will be so much fun.

Create habits

New habits are bound to result from this experiment. I’m most hopeful that creating 64 pieces of content a day becomes THE habit. Make, Make, Make. Every day. Way past when the calendar flips to May. The discipline to constantly create would be an amazing reward.

Grow awareness

Let’s face it. I’m not even close to a headliner name in digital marketing. My website is the biggest channel I have. And I am starting out fresh on TikTok and YouTube. I really want to connect with more marketers, build a bigger community, and grow my personal brand as a result.

Increase subscribers

Extracting money out of this experiment is not my goal. I don’t have a product or course to sell. I participate in a couple of affiliate programs, but that doesn’t pay the bills and I will let you know when I am using an affiliate link. So the closest measurable goal that I hope to achieve is to grow the number of subscribers to my email list.

With that in mind, let’s talk about metrics.

Success Metrics

Ultimately, success to me is simply putting in the work and publishing a ton of great content.

But we all like metrics.
And an experiment needs a hypothesis.

How will I determine if the experiment was a success?

Here are some the metrics that I will be tracking and reporting and the targets I hope to hit:

• Email subscribers: 500 net new subscribers. Double my current monthly average.
• TikTok: 500 followers, 5,000 video likes. Starting from scratch.
• Facebook Page: 200 followers. 4x the current number of page likes.
• Instagram: 500 followers. Over 3x my current followers.
• Twitter: 30,000 impressions. Triple my current monthly average.
• LinkedIn: 10,000 post views. 10x my current monthly average.
• YouTube: 50 subscribers. Starting at zero, the only direction is up!
• Lasso: 50 followers, 500 video likes. Just starting.
• Snapchat: 200 friends. Over 5x my current friends.

As I mentioned, I’m pretty much starting out in most of these channels.
Normally, I would focus on engagement metrics, more than followers to measure performance.

I’ll definitely report on engagement metrics and other results.

Right now, growing those channels in any way is a win.

How to Create 64 Pieces of Content Every Day

Gary’s post listed different ways to get to 64 new content posts.
Some creators are focused on video.
Some are better writers.

That’s me. Bob Angus is a content writer.
But I recognize that I need to up-level my video skills.

And I feel video content will continue to be the most widespread form of content.

Here is the target list of how I plan to create and publish 64 pieces of content a day:

64 daily content posts published, every day, for 30 days:

• Facebook Live (1 video)
• Facebook Page (3 posts)
• TikTok (3 videos)
• Lasso (3 videos) – Don’t know Lasso? It’s Facebook’s answer to TikTok
• Instagram (3 posts)
• LinkedIn (5 posts or article)
• Twitter (15 tweets)
• Pinterest (5 pins)
• Instagram Story (8 stories)
• Facebook Story (8 stories)
• Snapchat (5 posts)
• Tumblr (5 posts)

That’s 64 fresh content posts every day!

Weekly content publishing

I will also publish articles and other longer form content weekly:

• Blog post (1 post)
• Medium (1 article)
• Email (2 broadcasts to subscribers, no automations)
• YouTube (1 video)
• IGTV (1 video)
• Slideshare (1 post)

Additionally, I will continue to share and comment in various groups.
Plus, I will naturally start following many more interesting people.

I don’t count this activity in the 64.
But I also know those actions impact the results.

I think that’s okay.
Following and commenting are a natural part of these platforms that I would be (should be) doing anyway.

The Rules

This is not a purist, scientific research study.

Anyone can and likely will poke holes in this experiment and the results findings.
That’s okay with me.

But I do want to set some clear rules.

In my mind, things would obvious cheats, have undue influence on results, and generally not in the spirit of this experiment.

Here are the rules:
1. No paid ads
An ad is content. I love advertising. But for this experiment, no ads.

2. Solo
No team or outsourced contractor will be creating and publishing the content. I will be having my daughter occasionally take videos of me and snap pictures. Everything else is 100% my effort.

3. 100% has to be newly created each day
This is the big challenge. Only fresh content will count toward the 64.

4. Batching and scheduling posts is okay
Actually creating each piece of content and then pressing “post” in one shot 64 times over the course of a day is insane. Like many digital marketers, I use Hootsuite to batch the building of the posts and then schedule when they will be published. As long as the 100% new criteria is met, how I build it and how I publish is fair game. That said, most of these channels are social… so I will be very, very actively participating 10-12 hours a day.

5. Resposting is okay, but not part of the 64
That said, I may post more than 64 times a day. Some content is really effective. I want to reposted that multiple times. Or some content may not have gotten the results I think it deserved because the time or day it was posted. So I will repost at a different time to see if I can unlock better results. Again, I see this as natural behavior I or any creator would do. It will influence the target metrics. But reposting will not count toward the 64.

6. Repurposing content counts, but must be native
I count taking a single piece of content has to be native to the platform. A crucial part of Gary vees strategy is to take one post and repurpose it or splinter it easily to other platforms. For example, I may post in Facebook, then use only slightly modified copy and resize the image to then post on LinkedIn and Twitter. That does count.

7. Comments, DMs, retweets, and one-click shares do not count
Again, I will be very active in participating in and using the community features of these platforms. I will be adding value, being personal, and sharing other people’s content. Each comment or DM or simple one-click share or retweet will not count.

8. Start/Finish
Wednesday April 1st at 12:00am to Thursday April 30th at 11:59pm

Enough rules.
Time to get it done.

Let’s Go!

I would love it if you join me through this experiment.
Let me know what you think.

The hashtag you can follow and post is #64everyday

Please join me on all the various channels.

• Website: https://bobangus.com
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/bobangus
• TikTok: @bobangusdotcom
• Lasso: @bobangus
• Instagram: @bobangusdotcom
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobangus
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bobangus
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bobangus/
• Snapchat: @bobangusdotcom
• Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bobangusdotcom

This experiment is going to be epic!

Time to start creating!

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

You want all those good things from your social media and content, right?
Of course you do!

Good news.
There’s a simple way you can both stand out and ride trending topics so you get more followers and more engagement.

Better yet, you have a massive supply of content ideas available to you.

How?

Look ahead to key events and trends happening soon.
Create useful or entertaining content featuring those timely topics.

Best of all, you can create much of this content in advance.
Then schedule your social media, email, and articles so your content hits at exactly the right time.

But you always need more creative inspiration, right?

Let’s look ahead to April for 3 big content ideas you can use.

Actually there’s many more than three ideas listed below.
April is packed with holidays, national days, weeks, and months.

Not to mention key activities for your business, like:

• Product launches
• Promotions
• Key milestones
• Company news, key people, customers, and culture

Roadmap your editorial calendar with those key business elements first. (If you don’t already have an editorial calendar template, download the template one I’ve created and use myself)

Let’s dive into those content ideas for April.
Tailor these themes to your business.

1. April Fool’s Day

We all need some fun right now.
April 1st is the day for a harmless prank or a practical joke.

Many of you may be working at home right now.
Just think of the jokes you can have with your fellow remote workers.

• Video conferences: Sign in as the president of your company, but don’t show your video
• Children home from school: Have them do your job
• Influencer marketing: Send a prank gift to your influencers and have them do an unboxing video

Or it’s always good to do a “best of” compilation post of other April Fool’s jokes.

But I am sure you can think of some epic gags.
If fact, send me a tweet (@bobangus) or post to the Bob Angus Facebook page.
I’d love to share your shenanigans.

Your goal is to come up with something fun and entertaining (but not offensive) that shows your audience that you are energetic and creative.

And who knows, you may even go viral.

2. Holidays and National Days in April

There are many “days” and “weeks” celebrated in April.
If not directly related to your business, these national observances are great for social media posts.

You can also develop content related to well known holidays like Easter on Sunday April 12th.
Easter is not only highly important to the Christian faith, but it is a holiday that marks renewal and opportunity. Celebrate that hope!

Or join the shared bond of hard-working taxpayers the U.S. tax filing deadline on April 15.

Some are a good opportunity to have some fun and creativity.

Here are 12 world or national celebrations you might consider include:

• National Parkinson’s Awareness Month (shout out to my Dad!)
• National Poetry Month
• International Guitar Month
• National Burrito Day (April 2)
• National Beer Day (April 7)
• National Pet Day (April 11)
• National Haiku Poetry Day (April 17)
• National Library Week (April 19-25)
• Earth Day (April 22)
• Arbor Day (April 24)
• World Tai Chi and Qigong Day (April 25)
• National Bugs Bunny Day (April 30)

Check out this list for U.S. national and international observances.
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/april-overview/

3. Spring How-to Content

We can now say goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring.
April’s warmer weather will have many of your audience energize to get stuff done.

It’s a great time to learn new ways to tackle new tasks.

How-to articles and videos are some of the best forms of content for engaging your audience.. You’re not only helping them learn a skill, you’re helping them check off another item on their to-do list.

You are helping your audience succeed.

Identify the tasks your customers might be trying to tackle this spring.
Then create content that will help them get it done.

Checklists, templates, and step-by-step guides are not only great content, they are perfect lead magnets to help grow your email subscriber list.

I hope this gives you some new inspiration to boost your content plans.

Again if you have any April-specific content that you’re posting?
Feel free to share it on my Facebook Page.

Photos by Jon Tyson & Reiseuhu on Unsplash

It’s scary. And the world feels upside down right now.
I’m with you.

​And somehow we marketers are supposed to keep our businesses growing.
Making money to pay the bills.

​But there’s opportunity on the other side of this.
… even if sales are slow right now.

​Learning.
Experimenting.
Executing. Practicing. Doing the work.​

3 Actions You Can Take Now

Want to come out the other end of this chaos in a better place?
Set yourself up for success.

Here are three actions you can take right now.

Choose one.
And go for it!

I’m joining you too.​

1. Practice something new

Learn a new skill. More importantly, practice that skill.
Read that how-to article or ebook. Watch the YouTube video. Listen to the podcast.

Quickly move to putting what you have learned into practice.
Again and again.
Just do it.

I’ve been creating TikTok videos (@bobangusdotcom).
I am all-in on TikTok and its advertising platform.

Remember when Instagram was just for kids? Don’t hold off. TikTok is even better for brands.
And so much fun creating.​

2. Get a certification

Take a skill you already have to the next level.
Complete a certification that qualifies you to increase your pay. Or win more business as a certified expert.

For me, I’ve run Google Ads campaigns for nearly a decade… but (confession) I’ve actually never completed the certification.

Check out all of Google’s certifications from Google Ads, YouTube, Google My Business, and more. (not an affiliate link)​

3. Document your new world

Identify something new that you are having to adapt to now.
Document the journey.
The ups, downs, surprises, and outcomes.

You’ve just created amazing new how-to knowledge that you can share with others.

I’m fortunate that my daughter is home from school now, before she goes off to college in the fall.
She’s teaching me new social media hacks and I’m helping her build product for her Etsy business.

Today the world around us is uncertain.
But you are a certainty.
Practice self-care. Whatever that is for you.

What are you going to put into practice?
Feel free to share it on the Bob Angus Facebook Page or send me an email at bob@bobangus.com

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

You just need an editorial calendar template to help make your job easy.

Use this free editorial calendar template as a starting point for your content marketing plan.

Download the updated Microsoft Excel version here.Updated: September 5, 2017

I use this template for my integrated campaigns. It’s a tremendous help. I can quickly plan and track what I need to create well before my deadlines.

Please customize this free editorial calendar template for your marketing activities. You can easily modify it to schedule content programs like blogs, social media, email campaigns, newsletters, ad campaigns, PR, and product launches.

Soon you’ll be expertly publishing the right type of content at the right time.

This is The Ultimate Editorial Calendar Template. So this post also shares:

• The elements of an editorial calendar template
• Why use an editorial calendar
• How to create an editorial calendar

Let’s take a look at the key elements of a good editorial calendar.

Editorial Calendar Template – 2017 Update

Check out the brand new 2017 edition. The template now includes several additional ways that I’ve successfully been using Excel to manage my content marketing programs at work and here on my blog.

The editorial calendar template now includes four key sections:

1. Editorial Roadmap

The Editorial Roadmap section provides an at-a-glance list of key activities, events, promotions that are important to you and your audience.

This monthly view gives you a roadmap to base your content scheduling. Use this section to map out the most important happenings and opportunities you want to plan for in your marketing schedule.

The editorial roadmap I track includes:

• Product launches
• Events/Trade Shows
• Marketing Campaigns
• Promotions
• Holidays
• Key Milestones

2. Editorial Calendar

This section is the meat of the template. It provides a master list of deliverables and key status and creative information for each piece of content.

This template is particularly designed for integrated marketing content including press releases, blog posts, white papers/guides, case studies, emails/notifications, newsletters, videos, advertisements, images/infographics, or anything you regularly create.

The information that I track includes:

• Name/Title
• Content Type
• Owner/Author
• Priority
• Assets Complete Due Date
• Publish Live Date
• NEW! Status: Red/Yellow/Green at-a-glance
• Theme/Categories
• Audience
• NEW! Social Media Channels: Use for social media editorial calendar needs
• Call to Action
• NEW! Destination Link
• Keywords
• Images/Assets
• References/Sources
• NEW! Meta Description: Use specifically for SEO and blog editorial calendar

3. Idea Tracker

I like to have a “parking lot” for content that I would like to create, but that is not on the schedule.

The Idea Tracker tab is perfect for jotting down ideas quickly, capturing new requests, or mind-mapping on a topic.

If you are ever in need of a new deliverable or have writer’s block, just pull from your idea list.

4. NEW! Completed Content

The completed content tab provides you with quick access to a history of your best work.

I now track completed projects, campaigns, content, and creative assets as a part of my editorial calendar template.

This section comes in very handy for two big time-saving uses:

Reuse your best work

Your completed content can easily be reused again or re-published in different formats. This template can store it all for you in one spot. Your own work is the best stuff for your swipe file!

Proof of your work

Someone is always wanting to know a recap of what you’ve produced and examples. It’s important that you constantly keep your managers, stakeholders and your peers updated on what you’ve accomplished. But it’s a time-consuming chore to do so, unless you keep this tab updated with your finished work. Perfect for your year-end annual performance review!

Feel free to download the MS Excel or Google Sheets version of this editorial calendar template.

What Makes This The Best Editorial Calendar Template

The holiday season is a blitz of promotional marketing and big budget campaigns.

As marketers, not only are we consumers of the non-stop deals targeted at us. We are also observers and strategic thinkers.

We just can’t help but look at the onslaught of promotions through the lens of a marketer.

We see the genius in the truly innovative campaigns.

I bet at some point recently you’ve excitedly explained to your family and friends (often to blank stares) the brilliance of a brilliant promotion that’s skyrocketing sales.

We also cringe when see a well-intentioned campaign received with customer backlash. Or groan at even the littlest mistake.

And we are always learning.

We can add these creative promotion trends to our list of do’s and don’ts as we plan our 2016 calendar. Saving examples for our swipe file of brilliant ideas.

We love all these campaigns. I know I do.

That’s why I’ve reached out to fellow marketers, ecommerce and retail stores, and agency friends to compile the best promotion trends.

Here are six promotions were successful this past year and will be the driving force in 2016.

These promotions are fine-tuned to acquire more new customer, bring back repeat customers, and increase average order size.

Use them to spice up your 2016 campaigns.

First let’s discuss one big problem that all these trends help to solve.

The Biggest Promotion Mistake

Here’s the biggest problem in this holiday’s promotional marketing.

“20% off storewide.”

“Get 40% off.”

“Save 50% all Black Friday week”

Hmmmm. Discounting is about as proven a promotional strategy as it gets.

There is a lot riding on holiday promotions. It’s make or break time for many businesses.

If you’re not discounting, you’re not making sales.

True.

What’s the problem?

The biggest mistake is doing just plain discounting.

You can’t simply give up margin to get a sale. You won’t be successful if you’re just racing your competition to the bottom.

You need to be more creative to win the sale. You need to motivate bigger purchases. You need to get return shoppers.

That’s where these 6 promotion trends really help you out.

1. Days of Deals

What’s better than running the same old promotion for multiple days?

A new exceptional deal each day, every day, for a series of days.

Right now we are seeing a wave of the “12 Days of Deals” this holiday season.

The Days of Deals campaign highlights that you’re doing something special. This is a big deal for you and you want to share your excitement with your customers.

That’s what makes the Days of Deals campaign is perfect for holiday promotions, big milestones, and special celebrations throughout the entire year.

That said, I feel we are seeing a little too much mimickry right now. It’s obvious that the standard brilliant pitch this year for many agencies was the “12 Days of Deals.” Unfortunately too much of the exact same execution can make you “me too” pretty fast.

But the results have been incredible.

Why?

The Days of Deals offer creates a sense of urgency.

Get this deal today or it’s gone.

It’s the ultimate series of limited time offers. Stacked on top of each other.

But this promotional stacking approach also peaks your customer’s curiosity. They feel they can’t miss the surprise of tomorrow’s deal, even if today’s deal wasn’t just right for them. They think tomorrow might unveil exactly what they want at an irresistible price.

So customers check back every day. Every single day. And invariably they will buy something.

Just imagine how boring and mediocre running a simple 25% off discount for 12 days feels now.

2. Mystery Deal

At Intuit, we hit the jackpot when we tested our mystery deal promotion.

The mystery sale campaign was by far our best open rates and clickthroughs on our email and social media channels.

But best of all, that increased traffic translated into the most total sales thanks to excellent conversion rates.

Those results crushed the standard 50% off creative… even though the actual discount revealed was exactly the same.

The mystery deal works so well purely because of curiosity.

You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get. But you imagine the offer will be something unique and extra special.

You can’t help but click. You have to find out.

Couple that curiosity with a truly great offer, and you’ll get more sales.

Even cooler, new creative technology is going to allow you to execute this winning promotion technique in more creative ways in 2016.

Simulate a scratch and win ticket. Animate the peel-back. Or unwrap a package right in your promotional email or social post.

3. Share with a Friend

Reciprocity is a powerful emotion. People feel good about sharing. And they feel their good deed will be rewarded. So they do more sharing.

That’s the magic that makes the “Share with a Friend” offer so special for your customers.

But it also a genius tactic for you.

1. You’re reinforcing the loyalty of your best customers.
2. Your customers are doing your prospecting work for you. They’ll only share your offer with their friends who they think would see value in buying your product or service.
3. Those new shoppers are more likely to buy because of their friend’s recommendation.

The “Share with a Friend” promotion works extremely well for subscription businesses too.

How can you further monetize your premium paying customers even more? Or those that are happy with their service and not buying your upsells?

Simple, let them share what they already love about their subscription. That’s what Spotify did to spice up their standard free trial offer.

4. Lucky Buyer

“I could be the winner.” That’s the thinking behind every sweepstakes or lottery.

The “Lucky Buyer” promotion is even better than a classic random draw sweepstakes.

Yes. The core emotion is the same. There’s a chance to win big.

Use the “Lucky Buyer” to highlight a special event.

• Celebrate your 1 millionth customer, or your 1,000^th.
• Every 100^th purchase is FREE! (See the Pro Tip below)
• Choose 20 winners on your 20^th anniversary.

The “Lucky Buyer” also highlights the customer satisfaction with your business. It reinforces the social proof.

There are other buyers. People must really like this. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a 1 millionth customer.

Pro Tip: Remove the randomness. That’s what Rudy Project did this holiday. Every 100th buyer got their order for free.

5. Extend your offer

Okay. This promotional tactic isn’t new… but it works and will keep on working in 2016.

Promote a 1 day extension to your sale or offer.

Tack it on the day after your original promo period or limited time offer expires.

Now you’ve simply added one more final opportunity for those customers who procrastinated. You’ll make more customers happy. And capture the extra sales.

Simply send a special email first thing in the morning and another “this is really the last chance” in the afternoon. Create a one-day only ad campaign. Give one more big social media shout out.

You can even make the message about the customer and add social proof. “By popular demand, we’ve extended the deadline one more day” or “Sales are so hot. Thanks to you we don’t want this deal to end.”

Extending your deal one special extra day is a proven winner.

6. Better discounts

At the beginning of this post, I said that plain discounting offers are ho-hum, especially when everyone else is doing them.

The previous 5 promotion trends can help you make the most out of any discount, even a straight 20% off deal.

But there are more creative ways to discount. There are some classics like:

• Multi-tier discounts – The more you buy, the bigger your discount
• Diminishing discounts – The ultimate sense of urgency. Buy now, because the discount drops tomorrow.
• Threshold discounts – Get the discount only when purchasing over a certain amount
• Mix % off and $ off discounts – Optimize your margins by product category

But my new favorite is a growing discount. That’s what the Oakland Running Festival just did for their upcoming Oakland marathon and other running events.

They offered a discount that was tied to the neighboring Golden State Warriors historic winning streak in the National Basketball Association. With each win, the discount grew 1%. And that discount would be applied on a special 1-day sale once the Warriors lost their first game.

Everybody wins. The local community loved it. Runners were rooting even harder to keep the win streak alive. And the Oakland Running Festival got unprecedented local coverage and spectacular social media engagement.

Alas, the Golden State Warriors did finally lose just this last weekend. Their streak hit 24.

And a stampede of runners sprinted for the 24% discount on their race entries.

Promotion Trends Driving More Sales

Now is the time of year that you should be planning your 2016 promotions calendar.

You’re figuring out how you’re going to crush your growing sales goals. You’re pinpointing the big sale opportunities.

And you absolutely need to deliver new and effective promotions.

Tap into these six promotional marketing trends. Do so and you’ll surely see a sales breakthrough in the new year.

“The test was amazing. But don’t use it again.”

My boss was telling me to stop.

That’s exactly when I knew. This email was a winner.

Probably the best ever.

We had done an A/B test on the subject line and header for a new lead gen email campaign.

This one subject line crushed the other test. And it handily beat our norms for similar campaigns.

35% higher open rate, 26% higher click-through rate, and 39% higher conversion rate than our average rates.

What was the email subject line?

Are you still paying too much?

Yep. That was it.

We were sending merchants to download our guide on how to reduce credit card processing fees.

Despite the success, we were not moving forward with the winner.

This email subject line “did not conform to our brand style.” Forget about the results.

I imagine that you don’t have those same constraints.

So please steal this exact same subject line as a template for your emails.

Are you still       recurring problem     ?

For that matter, you can use this formula for a article headline or subhead. Or for your social media posts.

It’s that effective.

In fact, it leverages the same psychological triggers used in my set of 55 fill-in-the-blank headline templates.

But why does this one formula work?

And what’s the best time to use it?

Let’s quickly explore why it is so powerful and when to unleash for maximum impact.

Why “Are you still…?” drives more opens, clicks, and purchases

This email subject line style is not original. In fact, I stole it from The Invisible Selling Machine by Ryan Deiss.

Ryan tells the story of a friend who had signed up for a guide to help him stop biting his nails. Every week after, an email was received titled “Still biting your nails?” These exact same emails kept coming week after week… until one day the email came at a peak point of frustration over nail biting. And Ryan’s friend bought the product.

This example is a brute force use of the “Are you still…?” subject line. I don’t recommend that you execute an email campaign by using the same subject line over and over again.

But why does this subject line work so well?

Here’s why. Certain tasks, issues or problems seemingly never ever go away.

We keep seeking solutions. We may even know exactly what needs to be done.

But these problems keep coming and coming relentlessly.

We feel stuck.

It’s really disheartening. We just want the issue finished and gone forever. No more nagging at us.

This subject line tells us we are stuck.

It pokes the nerve.

Ouch!

It brings out that powerful instinct to seek comfort and soothing from the pain.

So yes, you will be generating a potentially strong negative emotion. But that emotion is not directed at you.

In fact, the “Are you still…?” subject line also reminds your audience that you have the solution.

They just have to click to feel better.

Then you can offer a way to eliminate the problem… permanently.

Now let’s get the playbook for when to use this technique.

When should you use this formula?

The “Are you still…?” subject line is incredibly powerful. But you can’t use it all the time.

You have to pick the right problem, the right audience, and the right time to get the maximum results.

1. The Right Problem – This headline style can work for any issue. But addressing a recurring problem where you can really make an impact. Identify a particularly aggravating problem that seemingly never gets solved. This will work better than a generic concern.
2. The Right Audience – An email with this subject line should only be sent to people who have already engaged with you in some way. For example, an existing prospect list or people who have already opted in through a previous lead generation campaign. I do not recommend sending it “cold leads” or purchased lists. You’ll poke the nerve, but you likely do not have the trust that you have a real solution.
3. The Right Time – The best time to use this email is at the end of an engagement or follow-up series. If someone still hasn’t purchased after 3 or 4 email reminders, then you can unleash “Are You Still…?”. The problem very likely still hasn’t been solved. The prospect just hasn’t acted. Give the problem some time to continue to fester. Then deliver this email.

The great thing is that you can use this subject line style for any subject.

Here are some examples:

• Are you still waiting for the right guy?
• Are you still buying Facebook ads the old way?
• Have you lost 10 pounds yet?
• Have you got your raise yet?

Again, this email subject line is simple, yet very powerful.

You are poking your reader’s nerve. They have an aggravating problem. You’re telling them they are stuck.

And you are reminding them you have the solution.

Use that approach and you get much higher open rates, many more clicks, and a big boost in your sales.

Grab Your 55 Headline Templates for Free

Write irresistible headlines and subject lines like the copywriting masters. This fun, fast series gives you:

• 55 Fill-in-the-blank headline templates
• Over 200 headline and subject line examples
• Downloadable worksheet so you can easily write your own

Get the first article “Top 10 How-to Headlines” now.

Image Credits:

• Aaahhh!!! by EvilErin
• Scream by Greg Westfall

There it was.

Sitting on the kitchen table.

Cosmopolitan magazine.

“Secrets Even a Good Boyfriend Keeps from You”

It got me thinking. Hmmm.

THAT is an irresistible headline.

It stokes your fear. “Is my husband cheating on me?”

It stokes your curiosity. “What do I not know about my boyfriend? And he’s not even good!”

You’re compelled to read on. You have to find out the secrets and see if any apply to your relationship.

Then it hit me.

Wait. My wife never buys Cosmo.

Yikes!

Instantly I was thumbing through the pages trying to find the article.

This headline hits hard for men too.

Guys who aren’t hiding something are terrified their significant other will think they are.

Or for those who are cheating, they might want to better cover their tracks in case their spouse (or girlfriends) is reading this.

This headline is emotionally charged… for a huge audience.

Everyone in a relationship is compelled to read this article.

Now, look at the wording used.

“Secrets” – That one powerful word triggers curiosity and fear.

“Even Good Boyfriends” – That begs the reader to wonder about both good relationships and, the opposite, bad or so-so partners.

“You” – The reader instantly thinks this is about them.

Wow! It has all the elements of a must-read headline.

Not to mention that issue had a ton of other titillating topics blasted on the cover – 78 Crazy Hot Sex Facts, 12 Love Moves that Turn Him to Mush, Feeling Happier in 9 Seconds, and Zooey Deschanel-The Trait that Men Can’t Resist About Her.

Cosmo’s copywriters are masters at their craft.

And so can you.

That’s why I wrote an email series that delivers 55 irresistible fill-in-the-blank headline templates.

There are no reasons why you can’t be a headline master.

Just steal from this set of templates. Because when it comes to writing impactful headlines:

• No secret formulas – The truth is that great headlines come in repeatable formats. Great copywriters have been reusing proven winners for many, many years.
• It’s easy – You can literally fill in the blanks into these repeatable templates. No matter who your audience is. No need to burn a lot of valuable time racking your brain for the perfect headline.
• Use it anywhere – These templates get results for email subject lines, article titles, blog post headlines, taglines, your next presentation, and any posts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

You can easily apply the same things great copywriters have done for many years… and get the same great results.

Now let’s look at what makes a headline irresistible first.

The Psychology behind Great Headlines

The headline is the ‘ticket on the meat.’ Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.

– David Ogilvy

The goal of a headline or subject line is to get the reader to take action.

That’s it.

Deliver a promise so irresistible that the reader is compelled to read further.

But you probably won’t get a second chance.

All of us are being constantly bombarded with information.

We’ve learned to quickly shut out the noise.

Our cell phones and computers assault us with emails, text messages, alerts, search results, ads, Facebook posts, Tweets, blog posts, and more.

Then we are constantly exposed to 24/7 TV news, syndicated radio shows, billboards, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, and more ads.

We’ve learned how to filter all that information flying at us.

Our audiences have become even more incredibly efficient at filtering out any blatant marketing messages.

You get a first impression… at best.

Your headline must be brilliant. Or you’re marketing will be lumped in with the blah, blah, blah.

So what’s the secret sauce to crafting a must-read headline?

Our “old” brain.

Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion provides scientific explanations for the tactics that advertisers and marketing professionals have been using for many, many years.

Deep emotions, our unconscious behaviors, are super powerful.

That’s your “old” brain at work.

It really drives our decisions… and fast.

That’s why you instinctually flinch or jump when something is thrown at you.

Or why you can fall in love at first sight.

Think about what you’ve read today. What headlines or key phrase got you to act?

And why?

Cialdini digs into seven powerful emotions that trigger our unconscious desire to take action:

• Fear – Fight or flight
• Curiosity – We can’t help but find out
• Social – We do what others do
• Attraction – Sex sells
• Reciprocity – The power of “free”
• Self-centered – The power of “you”
• Scarcity – Don’t miss out

My post 9 Better Ways to Influence People to Take Action gives you even more detail behind these emotional triggers.

But that’s what makes a headline irresistible.

Our “old” brain makes us act.

Those emotional triggers are at the core of each of the headline templates I’m sharing with you.

So what exactly are these fill-in-the-blank templates that are going to work so well?

7 Types of Headlines

When I’m in an airport, I usually stop by the newsstand to check out the latest business magazines or the local newspaper.

Inevitably the headlines that seem most interesting to me have some common style characteristics.

I thought I would try something out.

I picked up other magazines where the subject isn’t necessarily that interesting to me.

Guess what? The headline styles were the same even though the topic is different.

There is a reason for why headlines follow similar styles.

They work well.

It doesn’t matter what the subject is.

And copywriters know it.

They can attract readers by recycling the same headline formats again and again.

I’ve distilled these formats into the seven types of headlines that the great copywriters use most all the time.

1. How-to Headlines

How-to headlines are proven winners.

Why?

Your audience wants a step-by-step guide that tells them what to do.

There is no deep, psychological wordplay involved. These headlines tell your readers upfront that your article is delivering value.

Here’s a How-to headline template I like to use:

How to Use     Tool      to     Action/Goal     

You just fill in the “tool” that your readers will use and the key “action or goal” they want to get done.

That template can be used to generate headlines like:

• How to Use Social Media to Generate More Leads
• How to Use Compost to Fertilize Your Garden
• How to Use Rules to Unclutter Your Email Inbox
• How to Use Solar Panels to Cut Your Energy Bill by 90%

2. List Headlines

Everyone loves a list. No matter how many lists you create, your audience will consume them.

A list gives your readers order in a world of chaos.

It offers everything your readers need in one spot.

And most importantly, lists are easy to digest and actionable.

You can even easily combine them with how-to subjects.

      #      Steps to     Action/Goal     

This template can be used for headlines like:

• 5 Steps to Change a Flat Tire Safely
• 3 Steps to Dress for a First Date
• 1 Simple Step Proven to Boost Sales
• 3 Quick Steps to Prepare For Your Next Business Trip

3. Fear Headlines

We fear an attack or something bad happening to us.

We hate the unexpected.

We know someone or something is lurking to steal from us or take advantage of us.

Loss aversion is a powerful motivator. As I mentioned earlier, fear triggers our fight or flight reaction.

Unconsciously fear is probably more influential than something positive or rewarding.

We don’t want to lose anything we value. So we act on our insatiable in our desire to protect ourselves.

Your job is to trigger the loss aversion emotion with fear headlines like:

     #      Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your     Something Valuable     

For example:

• 10 Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your Job Offer
• 7 Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your Cell Phone Reception
• 12 Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your Grocery Bill
• 9 Little-Known Factors That Could Affect Your Next Trip to Europe

4. Mistake Headlines

Nobody likes to be wrong.

Making a mistake can be painful. No matter how small or in what context, mistakes can be aggravating and potentially damaging.

Headlines that promise to help us eliminate mistakes often produce amazing results.

Psychologically, we don’t like to be wrong. We internalize an error or mistake as a failure. We’re under enough pressure these days that we can’t afford to fail.

Mistake headline templates poke that nerve.

Simultaneously this headline style stokes a negative emotion, peaks our curiosity and promises a solution.

So headlines like this really attract readers:

     #           Goal/Skill      Mistakes That Make You Look     Negative Personal Image     

For example:

• 10 Common Spelling Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb
• 13 Fashion Mistakes That Make You Look Foolish
• 9 Avoidable Presentation Mistakes That Make You Look Incompetent
• 25 Dating Mistakes That Make You Look Insane

4. Brand Association Headlines

Popular celebrities or high profile brands are a very effective way to enhance your headlines.

Your audience likes to associate with famous people, groups, events or products.

They aspire to have the same abilities and values.

They are instantly attracted to these brand association headlines.

No wonder this headline technique is used every day in the media.

Celebrities, pop culture, and big brands have a huge influence on what we like and do. Your readers probably have a strong opinion about them too – good or bad.

Use that to your advantage.

Insert a brand association into your headline to add punch to otherwise me-too headlines.

This approach is especially effective in perking up how-to and list headlines, like:

     Action      Like     Famous Person     :     #      Ways to     Action/Goal     

For example:

• Write like JK Rowling: 7 Ways to Develop Characters Your Readers Love
• Get Biceps Like The Rock: 5 Ways to Dominate Your Next Arm Workout
• Build Wealth like Donald Trump: 10 Ways to Manipulate the System in Your Favor
• Look like Kim Kardashian: 5 Shortcuts to Perfect Makeup Every Time

6. Peace of Mind Headlines

Many people feel overwhelmed these days.

We all do at some time.

We are busier than ever, just trying to stay afloat. It can be really stressful.

We need to take a deep breath and find some solutions that make life simpler.

That’s why self-help books and courses are so popular.

Your readers are looking for the step-by-step guide that magically makes life better. Simpler. Less stressful.

These headline templates offer the useful self-help tips your readers are craving.

Can’t Keep up?     #      Ways to Simplify Your     Problem     

For example:

• Can’t Keep up? 11 Ways to Simplify Your Incomplete Projects
• Can’t Keep up? 7 Ways to Simplify Your Job Search
• Can’t Keep up? 5 Ways to Simplify Your Holiday Travel Plans
• Get Ahead! 15 Ways to Simplify Your Morning Routine

7. Announcement Headlines

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Your readers are highly attracted to announcements.

This announcement headline style offers three vital characteristics:

1. We’re #1: The reason this announcement headlines work so well is that we all want to be the first to know something. As social beings, we feel a big benefit by being first. We get an advantage. We can improve our status.
2. Authority: This headline style gives you an additional level of authority. You’re the TV news anchor of the story. You demonstrate that they’ve got the inside scoop on the timely and trending topic.
3. Urgency: Announcements have a shelf-life. Some news can be top of mind one day and easily skipped the next day. Your audience is conditioned to act fast when they see an announcement.

Here is a simple template that is perfect for email subject lines as well as any announcement title:

Alert:     Announcement     

For example:

• Alert: New Jumbo Jet Takes Off on Maiden Voyage
• Alert: High Fructose Corn Syrup Found in More Foods You Eat
• Notification: New Car Loans Available at Lower Rates
• Notification: Your Newsletter Subscription Has Been Upgraded

So those are the seven headline styles that you can use to drive your readers to act.

Now let’s make it even easier for you.

10 Quick Tips to Help You Write Irresistible Headlines Faster

The fill-in-the-blank templates are very powerful and make life much, much easier.

So make sure to Grab the whole headline series.

But there are ten additional quick tips to help you write amazing headlines… faster.

And help you get the most out of the templates.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice – Write 5-10 headlines per article or piece of content. This practice develops your writing muscles. You’ll find that you can develop many different ways to effectively introduce the same subject.
2. Let them sit – Using the templates alone you’ll probably craft those 10 really good headlines really fast. Set them aside and re-read them later. Better yet, review them the next day. You’re likely find the big A-Ha winner headline that really stands out versus the other good ones.
3. Create a headline swipe file – Use your templates as a starting point, but also look for other amazing headlines as you consume your daily dose of information. Copy the headlines that you really like into a swipe file. Then add those to create your own set of templates.
4. Think about your audience first – Know your audience best. Who they are and what do they want (goals, aspirations, challenges, etc.). Each set of templates gives you a quick exercise to uncover the key issues and needs of your audience. This helps you write more meaningful headlines and fill in those blanks faster.
5. Use strong action words – A choice action word can really impact whether a reader takes action or not. Don’t blend in with lots of blah words. Check out this recently published list of 277 Action Words that Supercharge Your Writing
6. Don’t keyword stuff – You won’t get the results you need if you’re writing an online headline for Google and not your audience. Obviously stuffing keywords into your headline just won’t make sense to your readers. Be actionable and relevant to your readers.
7. Create urgency – I mentioned that creating scarcity or people’s desire to not miss out is a powerful emotional trigger. You can easily create a sense of urgency by adding in a specific timeframe to your headline. Or any short phrase that accelerates the need.
8. Keep it punchy – Action words are fantastic. But another technique to drive action is to keep your headlines short. Long headlines with lots of extra well-meaning adjectives and adverbs may make you look smart, but your email or article won’t get read. Get to the point.
9. Mix it up – Maybe your audience responds well to “how-to” headlines. Eventually that high response rate will dwindle if you just write the same style of headline over and over again. Mix in a “fear” or “mistake” headline to stoke their interest. You can always deliver the how-to goodness in your content.
10. Deliver on your promise – Most importantly, don’t mislead your readers. This mistake happens a lot with “fear” headlines. Your “shocking truths” may be a bit of an exaggeration. Don’t over use this headline style. It is much more important that you keep your reader’s trust in you.

Grab the 55 Fill-in-the-Blank Headline Templates Your Readers Will Find Irresistible

Irresistible headlines come in repeatable formats.

Great copywriters have been reusing proven winners for many, many years.

So can you.

Get quick series with 55 proven templates.

You just need to fill in the blanks into these repeatable templates.

No matter who your audience is.

No matter if your writing email subject lines, article titles, blog post headlines, taglines, your next presentation, and any posts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

These templates work.

And I’m happy to share them with you!

Image Credits:

• Just Too Much by Be.Futureproof
• Where I Teach by Todd Ehlers
• Nuclear Fear (Explored) by Pascal
• SW by Andres Rodriguez
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson 2009 NYC by David Shankbone
• Sunset & the Thinker by Esparta Palma
• Sabs SHOCKED at Katie’s latest antics by EM

Want to reward yourself for an awesome year?

Plan to spend some holiday downtime to learn how to take your game to the next level?

Or maybe you are looking for something inspiring for your team or a co-worker to help get a jump on 2016?

Now is the perfect time to grab the biggest discounts.

I’ve compiled my picks for the 15 Best Marketing Books published in 2015 to help you with your wishlist.

These books are fresh. They’re full of instantly actionable tips.

And all are great reads.

Two big themes jumped out at me in this year’s batch.

1. Social Media and Content Marketing remain red hot

The last 5 or so years have seen an onslaught of books sharing winning social media strategies and content marketing playbooks. 2015 has been no exception.

The marketing results haven’t faded from these strategies, but the tactics continue to evolve… quickly.

You have to constantly adapt to optimize your acquisition funnels and to improve your customer retention marketing.

To keep your edge several of the books on this 2015 list definitely deserve a spot on your shelves with their fresh advice on these proven strategies.

2. Startup tactics apply to big businesses too

Everybody loves the entrepreneurial marketing tales of going from a zero to a hero with no safety net and risking everything by going out on your own.

The reality is that most of us have great marketing careers in big or medium sized businesses.

The entrepreneurial startup book can make the grass look greener on the other side of the fence. But sometimes it’s best to just use the same fertilizer that fueled their startup success and just apply it to the powerful resources you have at your disposal.

Let’s check out who made the list this year.

15 Best Marketing Books of 2015

Time to start turning the pages and taking notes. Or fire up your Kindle Paperwhite. Or plug in your earphones to listen via Audible.

Here is my list of the best marketing books of 2015.

And I’m sure you’ve read some great books this year too. Please share what you’ve been reading in the comments below.

The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results

I was introduced to a fantastic book The Challenger Sale 3 years ago when I was at PayPal. That book pushed our lead gen marketing approach to produce truly disruptive content.

The results for our sales team were dramatic – more leads, bigger opportunities, and higher conversion rates.

Now the same authors have uncovered a big mistake that sales and marketing teams are making every single day.

We are going after the wrong customer.

Your most common picture of the ideal customer is – friendly, eager to meet, and champions your products. Perfect, right?

It turns out that’s the last person you need.

The Challenger Customer is who you want. And this book gives you the playbook to find them, to engage them with disruptive content, and to win the sale.

Invisible Selling Machine

Ryan Diess is a highly successful online entrepreneur who founded Digital Marketer. In the Invisible Selling Machine, he unveils his step-by-step approach to moving traffic through online sales funnels.

But this book is not just for online products or services. Any business, no matter what they sell, can take advantage of the detailed tactics offered and can automate the whole system.

He walks you through the 5 action phases of the customer lifestyle – indoctrinate, engage, ascend, segment, and re-engage/win back.

But this book delivers more than a high-level walkthrough. It provide copy-and-paste email content, like the “gain, fear, logic” email series that can boost your direct marketing conversions big time.

If you do email marketing, this is a must have addition to your library.

DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online

I admit that I was a little skeptical about Russell Brunson’s DotCom Secrets before I bought it. I wondered if it was another self-proclaimed online marketing guru.

Thankfully I was wrong.

DotCom Secrets is a great tactical how-to guide to growing online sales. In fact, Richard breaks down what are often seen as the problems with poor results for your website.

You don’t have a traffic problem. And you don’t have a conversion problem.

It’s more likely that you have an offer problem and a “right” customer problem.

That’s where the book is incredibly helpful. It delivers a blueprint for researching other successful funnels, uncovering the right offer for your business, and qualifying ready-to-buy customers upfront.

With both the Invisible Selling Machine and DotCom Secrets, you’ve pretty much got your online sales systems laid out and optimized for you.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Now for the only biography that I read this year.

Here in Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs is legendary and is bigger than life in the movies. But there’s another audacious entrepreneur that dreams even bigger dreams – Elon Musk.

Elon Musk wants to change the world.

He does so with a rare mixture of inventor and industrialist. And the results are undeniable.

• Tesla Motors is recreating the auto industry.
• Privately funded space flight started by SpaceX is now the norm for sending rockets and the experiments they carry into orbit.
• Solar City is bringing solar energy to the masses.
• PayPal changed the way we pay online and ushered in ecommerce.

This is a fun read.

The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million

Big data continues to be all the rage. Why?

Big data is more than terabytes of information into everything our customers and prospects do.

Big data provides us with the insights needed to generate predictable sales revenue. That’s powerful.

No more hope and pray marketing. No more sales teams pointing the finger at marketing when results miss the target.

The Sales Acceleration Formula provides a predictable and scalable approach to growing revenue and building a winning sales team.

This book delivers an action plan that you can copy to improve the harmony between sales and marketing teams so that you can crush your sales goals together. It covers everything from sales hiring and training to accountability to demand generation to accelerating your sales cycle.

And it’s all a step-by-step formula thanks to the amazing data we now have at our fingertips.

Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses

The next two books are ideal for those of you interested in improving your content marketing.

First up is Content Inc., Joe Pulizzi’s follow up to Epic Content Marketing. In the 2 years since Epic Content Marketing was published, the landscape for content marketing has changed.

Competition is much fiercer. Customers are more fickle. And the same approach to content marketing is just the status quo.

This book shares an advanced approach to building content that gets results. To me the secret sauce recipe that Joe divulges is finding your content sweet spot and then “tilting” it to create disruptively better content that nobody else can offer.

Even though this book is geared toward entrepreneurs, I think there are huge lessons learned for those of you producing content and doing product marketing in larger marketing organizations.

In fact, Content Inc. and The Challenger Customer make for a good 1-2 punch for creating the truly high impact content marketing that your management is probably craving.

The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

There were two reasons that I downloaded The Content Code.

First, I’ve always enjoyed Mark Schaefer’s advice and style. He’s got a great blog and his previous marketing books are very helpful deep dives into social media marketing.

Second, The Content Code is FREE for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. You can’t go wrong.

You can definitely improve your content marketing using Mark’s six essential strategies. They are tried and true content and social media marketing winners.

But for me the A-HA moment is the need to develop a “Heroic Brand.”

The previous book Content Inc. gives you the elements to tilt your content into remarkable content that nobody else can deliver. But even that is likely not enough without developing a trusted, heroic brand to help it go massive.

The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry

John Warrillow dives into the emerging subscription economy. He shares insights into the huge opportunities to companies that know how to turn customers into subscribers.

Most of us are used to buying products as we need them. One at a time.

Only media has been successful at delivering to customers via subscriptions. Netflix, cable TV, newspapers, and magazines.

Not anymore. Dollar Shave Club has revolutionized buying razor blades via subscription. Same thing for Birchbox and buying cosmetics.

Even classic box software is now primarily available via monthly subscriptions. For example, I’m a big user of QuickBooks Online and Adobe Creative Cloud.

The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. Subscription customers are those repeat customers that can dramatically increase your cash flow, reduce your delivery costs, and ignite your growth.

The Automatic Customer does a fantastic job at giving you the blueprint to 9 of the most popular ways to offer any product or service as a subscription. My personal favorites are the Surprise Box Model and The Simplifier Model.

Brilliant!

The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue

The Membership Economy also digs deep into how you can set up a sustainable subscription business. You get many great examples of how both online and offline businesses have successfully used the membership model to propel their business.

There are two elements of this book that are uniquely powerful and instantly actionable to us marketers.

First, this book guides you how to transform freemium customers into “superusers.” These superusers are the key to the profits of any freemium business.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to find them, get more customers like them, and accelerate their purchase conversion to super status.

Second, I find retaining a paying subscriber for longer is the most critical (yet most overlooked) success factor for any subscription business. I always look at average lifetime metrics as the key indicator for this model.

Working to increase the subscription length of your customers is not easy. The Membership Economy gives you some secret tactics that other businesses use that you can easily apply.

Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

One of the first product marketing books that I read was Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm. Whenever I see the word “traction” that’s exactly what I think back to.

It’s still a problem today for most startups. It’s a big challenge to get the traction needed to launch a product into exponential success.

And traction is not just a startup issue.

It’s even more critical to new products or initiatives within larger companies.

I’ve seen it dozens of times. The sexy, new project gets top priority and all resources are focused on making a big splash.

But if you don’t quickly show results, your project can be discarded.

It’s all about traction. Traction is hard evidence that shows a startup or a startup project can deliver results.

But how do you get traction?

According to the authors there are 19 traction channels. Yikes!

That’s where their “Bullseye” framework comes into play. The book details how to find which channel will help you launch.

And more importantly, what channel you need to shift to in order to make things truly take off.

Linked to Influence: 7 Powerful Rules for Becoming a Top Influencer in Your Market and Attracting Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn

I had thought I had already learned most of what I needed to know in order to max out my exposure on LinkedIn. In fact, I’ve read a lot of great actionable blog posts on Social Media Examiner on LinkedIn… by the same author, Stephanie Sammons.

Again, I couldn’t resist downloading this book because it was free on Kindle Unlimited. And if you want to pay, it’s just $0.99!

Here’s the deal. Yes, there is a lot of LinkedIn 101 basic information covered.

But I learned a ton that I didn’t know. In particular, Stephanie really drives home what it takes to be a trusted influencer.

And better yet, she provided several hacks to making a big impact on LinkedIn without spending hours of my time. That’s what I really need.

For the price, you cannot get a better guide on LinkedIn. You’ll get way more LinkedIn power tips and for a fraction of the price of other similar books.

Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World

The Elon Musk biography is fascinating and inspirational. Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World is the how to guide for that type of moonshot thinking that can impact billions of lives.

Bold features three parts.

• Exponential technologies that are accelerating business growth to incredible scale and global impact. Synthetic biology was particularly cool to me.
• The psychology of being bold. What’s the mindset of billionaires who take a revolutionary approach? Tons of examples here, including Elon Musk.
• The power of the crowd. This section dives in to best practices for tapping into hyper-powerful, highly connected communities to make your mark. Crowdfunding is at the core of many successes… and not just because it helps to fund your venture.

Bold offers a good blend of inspirational insights and tactical how-to that make it an excellent read.

Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life

I am always looking to improve how I speak. And not just getting on stage, big public speaking gigs either.

We have to speak effectively every day. For most of us marketing pros, that’s simply making an impact in meetings or getting what we need from our boss.

But it’s not that simple, is it?

Steal the Show is a fantastic primer to boost your communication skills. Michael emphasizes three key takeaways that give you the confidence to deliver no matter the occasion:

1. Develop a clear focus for every “performance.” I love this… and I need to do it more frequently.

2. Make sure you engage with your “audience.” A classic tip, but you can’t start every conversation with a joke can you? Nope.

3. Find the best role for you to have the biggest impact. We always think we are the center of everyone’s focus, even when you’ve got a mic and are standing in front of 2,000 people. That’s not always the best role.

Maybe you may not get a standing ovation from your boss or colleagues after your next big meeting. But they will remember when it comes time for performance reviews and bonuses.

Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World

The last two book recommendations fall more under productivity and motivation. Both are personal improvement topics that any marketer can add to their career toolkit.

Complexity in our lives most often causes one thing… gridlock.

At some point, your inner being overrides our hyperdrive and makes us stop.

We know this in marketing design too. Too much information, readers stop reading and move on. Too many fields to fill out in a form, the perfect prospect doesn’t convert to a lead.

Simplicity saves us.

Simple Rules offers fascinating and entertaining insights into how we can move forward faster by creating simplicity through rules.

The results of these simple rules are improved decision making (we often create our own complexity if unchecked) and flat out getting things done.

The book provides a set of six types of rules that you can apply:

• Boundary rules – deciding between two mutually exclusive alternatives
• Prioritization rules – ranking alternatives and assigning priority
• Stopping rules – stopping and taking a different course
• How to rules – guiding how get stuff done
• Coordination rules – getting things done when multiple people are involved
• Timing rules – triggering when to take action

Personally, my first simplifying rule was to just make one rule. That way, I can turn the positive behavior in that rule into a habit. Then I can go onto a second rule later… and so on and so on.

My first rule turned into an inner mantra that I repeat to myself when I sit down at the computer the first thing in the morning, “500 words before email.” Now I’m dramatically improving my writing creativity and productivity… and not getting derailed by email.

Very powerful stuff.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

I picked up Big Magic because of the author, Elizabeth Gilbert. She’s hugely famous for Eat Pray Love.

Big Magic definitely opens up your mindfulness and awareness that fear should not hold you back. But Gilbert focus is unique from general self-help books on the same subject. She really is speaking to creative talents, especially writers.

So this is perfect for us marketing pros.

I won’t give you much of the specifics, only that her approach was impactful to me.

You have to go on that journey yourself to make this book meaningful for you.

I highly recommend that you grab at least one of these top marketing books. Some holiday reading can help propel you into a new and improved way of getting results.

And you can get a jump on 2016.

What great marketing books do you recommend?

I’d love to know what books have helped you get results. Please share by adding a comment below.

Disclaimer: The links to Amazon are affiliate links. However, my recommendation of these books is not based on my financial gain. These are the best, most relevant books I’ve read that were published this year. And I felt they are worth sharing.

We’ve got to go, go, go. Execute now.

We need to save time whenever possible.

Skipping the creative brief is one of the most common shortcuts that marketers take.

Oops!

We think we are saving time up front by diving right into execution. But we are likely paying for it later with more time spent during production.

Or much worse, we are hurting quality or results.

I’ve made that mistake myself.

I said, “It’s just a quick lead gen article. Let’s just set a meeting with the agency to get to work. Besides the agency already knows what we’ll want.”

Guess what? The results were horrible. We got hundreds of views, a couple leads, and ZERO sales.

We still spent $5,000 with the agency.

To make matters worse, one lousy result caused a change our strategy. The verdict came down. Don’t waste any more time and money on content marketing this quarter. Go back to hammering our email list with discount promotions which has a diminishing, but clear ROI.

Ugh.

Here’s what went wrong. I skipped the creative brief.

Please don’t make that mistake on your next campaign or creative project.

Here are four common scenarios where a creative brief is needed, but is often not used.

Watch out for these situations.

Besides, you can still write a great creative brief… and fast. 15 minutes fast.

So I’m also sharing with you my simple 10-4-1 formula for how-to write a creative brief in just 15 minutes.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend that you put at least 1-2 hours into developing a comprehensive creative brief. That is always most helpful for your agency or creative team. You are much more likely to design a campaign that delivers fantastic results.

But if you are in a real time crunch, and you are thinking about skipping the creative brief – take the 15 minutes to get the core elements of the brief done well.

Times You Are Likely to Skip the Creative Brief

It’s important to recognize the common traps marketers can fall into. That way we don’t fall into them again and again.

Here are some exact quotes that I have frequently heard in the office (and admittedly have said myself).

Do you recognize any of these situations?

“It’s just a quick project.”

Big projects usually get a thorough process. Small projects usually get short-changed.

Up-front planning is often sacrificed in the name of “get it done fast.”

Resist the temptation to go straight to design or execution just because a piece of work is not a big campaign. Even to produce a single email, your creative agency needs a brief.

Without a creative brief that small project likely turns into a medium-sized project.

• An extra round of reviews and feedback on the messaging. Add 2 days to the schedule.
• Yucky stock photos = More time searching for the right hero image. Add 1 more day.
• Recoding or reworking the creative that was already in production. Add 2 more days.

You get the idea. An extra day here and there can quickly turn into an extra week or weeks.

Plus, your audiences are real people. They and the key messages you present to them deserve full creative attention. That is if you want that email to be opened and action to be taken.

That’s really the goal after all – not speed.

“We already know what we want.”

Outsourcing creative work is a great way to launch your campaign or project faster. However, that work is more than just production.

Fight the urge to tell your creative team exactly what to do.

Your creative resources are skilled at what they do. They want to produce great work.

Let them do it. Unleash the creative teams to develop exceptional campaigns.

Even if you are a creative genius, telling your agency what to do instead of giving them a good creative brief can limit the opportunity for a breakthrough campaign.

“Just reuse the old design brief.”

Are you designing new campaigns for the same product or service?

Avoid diminishing or mediocre results. Don’t simply reuse the same design brief again and again.

Approach the same problem from a different angle. Invest 15 minutes to refresh the content of your creative brief with each project.

If you do copy-and-paste any sections of your design brief, reuse your boilerplate brand guidelines and legal requirements.

“The agency already knows.”

Over time you will probably work with the same agency or freelancer on more than one project.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the agency already knows everything about your campaign.

Besides there are likely new or outsourced designers working behind the scenes on your latest project. They don’t have a history with your audience and key messages.

Refresh their thinking by presenting a new creative brief with every project. The creative team will stay engaged.

And you will avoid getting back ho-hum creative.

Bottom line: Don’t be surprised by poor campaign results, if you feel the creative brief is not worth the effort to update.

The 10-4-1 Formula: How-to Write a Great Creative Brief in 15 Minutes

Don’t have time for a full blown creative brief? Stop. It just takes 15 minutes.

Here is a simple formula for how to write a creative brief. I call it the “10-4-1 formula.”

You’re going to focus your energy on three things. And before you know it, you’ll have a great creative brief that’s ready to share with your creative team or agency.

1. Audience & Stories (10 minutes)

The target audience description is the most important part of the creative brief.

You’re helping to “put yourself in the audience’s shoes.” That’s critical.

So we’re going to spend a little extra time on this information. But 10 minutes should be plenty.

Here’s how.

1. List buyer type & key demographic detail – This a quick set of 2-3 word descriptions to quickly convey the high-level, relevant audience information. This should take a minute at most.

For example, “Working mom, decision-maker, 25-40 years old, more than $100k income.” Or “Technical buyer, middle-manager, predominately male, 30-50 years old.”

2. Tell a brief problem story – Here you’ll spend a few minutes jotting down a common scenario that your audience faces. What is the biggest problem that you can solve?

If you’re really good, share the key emotions of the situation as a part of the story.

You’re goal with this story is to paint a picture. Remember, you don’t have to write a book. When you meet with your creative team, then you can elaborate on the situation and discuss in more detail.

For example, let’s say we’re promoting a local restaurant to the working mom. The story could be something like,

It’s dinner time again and the children are getting hungry. It’s pretty stressful for the working mom. She has to make a decision now… for the 3^rd time this week. Not a lot in the refrigerator, especially nothing that the children will actually eat. No time to do a full grocery shop, and then cook the meal. And going to a fast food chain isn’t the healthy option she really wants for the family.

Again, nothing too in-depth. A simple story covers the core problems and the emotions of the situation.

3. Bonus: Tell a brief buying story – If you really want to offer a key insight about your customer, share what makes them act. Sometimes the why, what, and when that triggers customers to actually buy is different than the generally stated problem.

What makes them act? What channel do they learn? When do they decide? And what channel do they buy?

By giving your creative team a situation where a prospect converts into a customer, you are opening up the valuable view into key motivations.

Let’s take the local restaurant story a little further. Here are some purchase insights that could really be helpful,

It’s amazing that when we ask first time customers where they heard of us. They usually remember our coupon in the mail, but rarely have it on them (we’ll honor that anyway). And they know we sponsored the local youth sports teams. But they were just driving by and saw our sign about a block away. When they got closer saw that there were other families already inside eating. The restaurant looked clean and well lit. A nice, clean family restaurant nearby would make this one meal so much easier. So they came in and the children got exactly what they wanted to eat.

2. Key Message (4 minutes)

Now you can share your key messaging. Write down the essential messages.

In particular, if there are some key facts or proof points that give the creative extra credibility and punch.

You should already have a good idea of your messaging platform. So this should only take a few minutes to copy and tweak for the particular campaign.

You’ll want to include:

• Your value proposition statement – For example, “For working mothers, Bob’s Bistro is the family restaurant just next door that takes the stress out tonight’s dinner with great food that children love.”
• 2-3 customer benefits and the features or solutions you provide – For example, “Dine in or take out, children 5 years old and under eat free on weekdays, located next to the mega mall.”
• Facts and proof points – For example, “Voted best family restaurant since 2005!”
• Links to reference content – Share links to any relevant testimonials, case study examples, or reference creative

3. Call to Action (1 minute)

Super fast now. Answer these 2 questions to define your desired call to action:

1. What action do you want the audience to take?
2. Where do they go or what they need to do if they take action?

Your answer to those questions provides the basic action step that you need to give your agency. So that they know explicitly what the successful customer action is for you.

Keep it simple. For example, “Dine in at Bob’s Bistro on any weeknight.”

Yep. That simple.

Extra Savings – Eliminate These Time Wasters

Now we’ve identified the core elements of how to write a creative brief in just 15 minutes.

However, you should also watch out for several other time wasting, yet hard-to-break habits.

Eliminating common productivity drains can probably save you 20-30 minutes when writing any creative brief.

Here are three productivity hacks that I recommend you try:

• Don’t spend any time on layout – Use a template that already has the key sections laid out for you. Ordering the sections, setting up the section headers, and moving things around can take valuable time.

Focus on filling in the content. That’s what going to be read and actually used by your agency.

• Don’t spend any time on formatting – Bold, italics, paragraph settings, numbering, and indentation. Fighting with Microsoft Word to make your document look good takes more time than you think.

Making your design brief document easy to scan is just a nice to have.

• Don’t craft perfect sentences – We’re all marketing pros. We love to write. And we’re darn good at it. However, this is no time to be a perfectionist.

Just get your thoughts down on paper to really cut down on the creative brief development time. Or even voice record your stream of consciousness and provide links in the document.

You can’t go wrong if you are using a creative brief template. Your brief won’t look sloppy. Your insights will shine through. And you will have easily eliminated some time wasters.

Don’t worry.

The REAL timesaver

I always keep a creative brief template handy. It’s perfect for when I’m about to fall into the “I don’t need to write a brief” trap.

The template is the real timesaver. Use it. No sacrificing quality or results by skipping the creative brief.

Ideally you would put 1-2 hours into developing a complete, super detailed brief. That is always most helpful to your creative agency. And you are more likely to design a breakthrough, high performing campaign.

But if you are really squeezed for time, writing your creative brief may only take 15 minutes.

We all can find that much time in our busy schedules to focus on adding highest impact content into the briefing document.

Save time on your next project or campaign.

Feel free to download the creative brief template that I use.

Image Credits:

• Creative Hands by JoeysPhotos
• I’m not working by Quinn Dombrowski