How rest – not hustle culture – made me a better copywriter.

Imagine you’re a canary in a coal mine:

You’re healthy as you enter the mine – full of joie de vivre. Singing to your heart’s content as you enter into the darkness. Fluttering your wings as only birds like you can.

Later, you exit the mine. Except now you’re:

Covered in soot. Frail from disease. Your song is gone.

And you’re no longer able to do what you’re uniquely qualified as a bird to do:

Fly.

Was it you that made yourself sick? Or was it the coal mine?

To most of us, the answer to these questions likely feels fairly obvious:

Of course it was the environment. Why would you possibly make yourself sick?

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Except people like you – freelancers – and me – full-time employees – are exposed to risky work environments every day. And there’s a key proponent that intensifies this in our environment:

Hustle culture.

Many of us – including me, when I was a freelancer – buy into it hook, line and sinker. Even if it seems to be abundantly obvious that it can create a risky work environment.

If you’re running a freelance copywriting business, chances are good that hustle culture probably already has its gnarly little hands around your business’s delicate neck – ready to strangle it if you’re not careful.

“I’ve got a dream that’s worth more than my sleep.”

I bought into the always-on hustle for most of my adult life – I spent most of my career as a freelancer until a year ago when I joined the Copyhackers team. 

I’m coming to you from the other side – from my 9 to 5 at a company that values rest – to pick a serious fight with the idea. And with hustle culture in general. 

As Aytekin Tank, founder and CEO of JotForm, puts it:

“In the western world, for example, success typically means money, power, and public recognition. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But a single-minded, sleep-deprived race to attain them can come at a price.”

Here’s what hustle culture isn’t:

• Working hard to achieve your dreams.
• Staying disciplined as you work towards your goals.
• And doing the not-so-fun but oh-so-necessary stuff that’ll benefit your biz.

No, the hustle culture I’m picking a fight with is the always on, always available, “go big and don’t go home” mentality that has seeped into so much of our daily lives. Especially in North America.

Stay motivated? Sure.

Find the discipline to do the work? Sure.

But go big and don’t go home? Rise and grind 24/7?

No thanks. I’m calling bullsh*t on that one. ‘Cos it’s not good for you. And it’s not good for your business.

And there’s one big, dark reason why:

That type of hustle and grind can be a slippery slope towards burnout.

Dr. Christina Maslach first defined occupational burnout in 1976 as “a level of continuous emotional stress caused by the working environment.”

Since then, our understanding of burnout has evolved, and with it, our definitions.

Maslach and her coauthor, Dr. Michael Leiter, propose that:

“Burnout is a psychological syndrome of chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy, and is experienced as a prolonged response to chronic stressors in the workplace.”

And in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), here’s how WHO defines burn-out:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job;
• and reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

So we know what it is. And what it looks like. But what really causes burnout?

Here are the 5 key factors most highly correlated with burnout:

Gallup’s burnout study concluded that: 

1. Unfair treatment at work
2. Unmanageable workload
3. Lack of role clarity
4. Lack of communication and support from manager
5. And unreasonable time pressure

Were the factors most likely to contribute to burnout.

As a freelancer, you are solely responsible for managing your workload, deadlines, client communication, client boundaries and project scopes. All of which, if handled poorly, create a work environment that exposes you to the 5 key factors listed above. 

Now, compare Gallup’s 5 key factors list (above) with Maslach and Leiter’s 6 areas of work life that can reduce the risk of burnout:

1. A manageable workload
2. Job control
3. Rewards
4. Community 
5. Fairness
6. Values

See the overlap between the two lists?

That’s actually great news for you and I because the overlap demonstrates that preventing burnout is a totally realistic and achievable goal if you give it the focus it deserves.

So, who does burnout affect?

In short, burnout affects anyone that’s in the workforce. 

For example, a 2018 Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that:

• 23% of participants reported feeling burned out at work very often or always.
• 44% reported feeling burned out sometimes.

Tally those numbers up and you’ll arrive at the startling realization that approximately 2 in every 3 full-time employees feel burnout on at least a semi-regular basis.

Right now I can almost hear you saying to yourself:

“Ha! But Carolyn… I’m a freelancer, not a full-time employee. These stats don’t apply to me.”

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Here’s the thing:

Freelancers are self-employed. Even though you might not call yourself an entrepreneur, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re both the employee and employer.

The bad news?

Entrepreneurs seem to be at an even higher risk of burnout.

This study sums up the heightened entrepreneurial risk in a few words:

“The role of the entrepreneur is subject, more than others, to psychological and nerve pressure, loneliness, lack of time and total involvement, especially during the first years of the entrepreneurial process.”

Sound familiar? It did to me. This describes a good chunk of my years as a freelancer.

Authors Amina Omrane, Amal Kammoun and Claire Seaman go on to explain that:

“Nascent entrepreneurs are frequently subject to a great number of professional stressors caused by their work activities and thus making them potential candidates for burnout. This phenomenon may threaten their health as well as their new ventures. Indeed, it has some detrimental effects due to the fact that those new business owners have few resources, energy and skills, enabling them to deal with the psychosocial risks derived from the entrepreneurial burnout.”

In other words, typical constraints – like limited resources, energy and skills – make new entrepreneurs particularly susceptible to burnout. 

Likewise, an HBR study found a direct correlation for entrepreneurs between burnout and:

• Job fit. Defined as the degree to which the entrepreneur thinks their current job matches their ideal job.
• Job passion. Defined as how strongly the entrepreneur is inclined to agree that the work they do is what they like and find important.
• Job mindset. Which measured how the surveyed entrepreneurs thought their career would evolve over time.

And, similar to the findings of studies done on burnout in full-time employees, studies (like this one and this one) demonstrate that factors like the manageability of workload and responsibilities are directly correlated with an entrepreneur’s likelihood of experiencing burnout.

Then layer on the glorification of hustle culture. Where you see your fav biz gurus (and colleagues!) post on social media about their always on, go go go mentality. And you feel the pressure to keep up. And immense guilt when you take a measly 10 minutes to sip your coffee in peace, device-free.

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The “go big and don’t go home” side of hustle culture only increases your risk of burnout. 

As a freelancer, you are your business’s single most valuable asset. 

This is especially true if you’re just starting out:

You’re the rainmaker, the sales person, the operations manager, the communications manager, the event manager and the talent. If you’re unable to work, then your business is unable to work. Which means your business probably isn’t earning any money. And all of this means:

Burnout could kill your business.

For example, a Gallup study on burnout revealed that:

• Burned-out workers are 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.
• And burnout typically lowers confidence in your performance by 13%.

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Whether it’s your mind or body, burnout has some pretty nasty effects. 

Yikes. So… what now?

In this HBR article, workplace expert Jennifer Moss recommended the following solution:

“We need to stop offering better protective gear and actually do the work to make [the workplace] healthy and free of the toxic conditions that are contributing to their burnout.”

I’m arguing that one of those toxic conditions is hustle culture.

Here’s the kicker for you, my freelancing friend:

As a self-employed person, it is your sole responsibility to ensure healthy working conditions.

The good news?

As the great Maya Angelou said: “When you know better, do better.”

Hustle culture doesn’t have to be your thing.

“Rise and grind” doesn’t have to be your modus operandi.

Burnout doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of your future either.

You know better, so now you can do better.

It’s absolutely possible to work hard, achieve your goals AND live a fulfilling life outside of work.

How do I know? I’m livin’ proof. Here are the two things that changed:

1. Focus.
2. Intentional rest.

Are focus and rest the antidotes to hustle culture? I think so.

Consider this:

If we look at the opposite of unfair treatment at work, we find fair treatment at work. When you’re a freelancer, “fair treatment” is often a result of creating and enforcing boundaries with clients. And sometimes it looks like letting poor-fit clients go. But you need focus to determine what your own boundaries are. And you need time away to reflect on how you will enforce said boundaries. 

Now consider the unmanageable workload and unreasonable time pressure:

If we look at the opposites – a manageable workload and reasonable time pressure – there are some ways to help manage this in your work environment: 

• proper project planning (i.e. a booking calendar, accurate project scope estimates)
• a good understanding of your own personal workload capacity 

Maintaining reasonable time pressure also relies on an up-to-date booking calendar, scope estimates, an understanding of your own personal capacity and boundaries to say “no” or “not now” or “how does 4 weeks from now sound?”

On the other hand, if you subscribe to hustle culture mindset, you might just book the project, get those coins and convince yourself that you can simply sleep next month.

Sidenote: I fully recognize that financial circumstances do not always afford individuals the luxury to say “no” to projects. That said, you allllllwaaaaayyyyyyys have the agency to negotiate timelines. Even if you don’t feel like you do. Clients will always want things done yesterday. And they can almost always wait a little bit longer than they initially say to get their deliverables. As a freelancer, you are the sole owner of your calendar. If you feel stuck managing your calendar, the 14-Day Freelance Bootcamp can help.

Here’s the thing:

Focus allows you to make the most of the limited time you have available. 

Rest allows you to make the most of the limited time you have available.

Here’s how focus and rest have changed the way I operate:

1. Focus. 

Your time is a finite resource.

Bad news: 

As author and productivity consultant Chris Bailey writes in his book Hyperfocus: “your ability to focus isn’t limitless—while you can improve your attention span, it’s only a matter of time until it begins to waver.”

Good news: 

Managing focus can help you make the most of this finite resource.

So, what’s occupying your focus?

Focus and your business:

As a freelancer, you likely wear many – if not, all – of the hats in your business.

But if you feel like you’re doing all the things and not getting anywhere, it might be time to look at your focus. What’s the overarching goal you’re trying to accomplish?

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend reading The ONE Thing by Gary Keller. Keller proposes one simple question to focus your energy and efforts. It goes like this:

“What’s the ONE Thing I can do / such that by doing it / everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

Notice that it doesn’t ask about ALL the things. Just. One. Thing. Which requires focus to determine what you’re aiming at. And focus to determine which one thing will get you there in the simplest, most direct way possible.

It also requires you to say “no” (or “not now”) to things that are not your one thing.

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If the thought of saying “no” makes you break into a cold sweat, consider what Seth Godin’s approach:

“You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly, and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work. Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities.”

At Copyhackers, we’ve also recently adopted a similar approach. It looks a li’l something like this:

1. Our CEO Jo determines the quarterly goal and supporting success metrics for marketing and product. 
2. In consultation with Jo, our VPs Paul (marketing) and Cristina (operations) determine team focus for our 6-week cycles.
3. Throughout the course of the 6-week cycle – 5 weeks of focused work and 1 week (typically) of rest – each team member works through projects that directly support their team’s focus.

There are an infinite number of things the Copyhackers team could be doing. 

Truth be told, the MKTG backlog alone is already rather long – and we’re just 1.5 cycles into this new work rhythm. But this new working rhythm is really excellent at forcing us to focus. We have to say no (or not now) to great ideas, simply because it’s not our team’s one thing.

And – let’s be clear – it’s really, reeeaaaaaaaally hard to say “not now” to great ideas.

But saying no ensures we accomplish what we’ve set out to accomplish. It also helps ensure we’re not burning out trying to do all the things. And, most importantly, it supports Jo’s vision for Copyhackers.

There are an abundance of great ideas. The great ideas will still be there next cycle. Or the cycle after that. Or the cycle after that 🙂

Here’s how you might apply this type of focus to your freelance business:

1. Set ONE big quarterly goal – could be a revenue goal, could be a visibility goal, could be something else. Then, determine what your supporting success metrics look like. For example, if you’ve set a revenue goal, maybe your success metrics are tied to cold emails or sales calls or proposals sent. 
2. Consider creating a standardized work cycle, like the Basecamp six week cycle we’re using at Copyhackers. Or use theme days, which the 14-day bootcamp touches on. And 10x Freelancer covers this A LOT (plus, heaps of other ways to find the focus to do what matters most for your biz). You could even use a standardized work cycle AND theme days.
3. Be brave. Say no. So you can keep your workload manageable, your deadlines reasonable and give yourself the resources to say yes to your one thing. All of which will help you keep those 5 burnout factors in check.

Real world freelancer example: The team at Content Bistro follow a similar 90-day goal-setting approach to stay focused and integrate it with their revenue roadmapping to create predictable profitability. So saying “no” is easier than ever.

Focus and your process:

Beyond your biz, you’ll also want to find focus in your day-to-day work process.

As Bailey explains:

“Timothy Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, estimates that our brain receives eleven million “bits” of information in the form of sensory experiences each second. But how many of these eleven million bits can our minds consciously process and focus on at once? Just forty of them.”

So, out of the 11 million pieces of sensory info flying at our brain each second, we can only process 40.

Oh, and when it comes to trying to actually remember that info, the number shrinks down to 4.

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In other words, your brain can focus on just a teensy amount (3.6363636363636E-5% to be precise) of the info flying at it at any given moment. 

With such a teensy amount of focus to direct, the really critical question you should ask yourself is:

How are you managing your focus?

Here are two strategies I now use in my process to preserve my focus:

1. Alternating between hyperfocus + scatterfocus.
2. Controlling my distractions.

Let’s dig in:

How I alternate between hyperfocus + scatterfocus:

As a freelancer, I muscled my way through projects on the regular. I would sit at my computer, pulling my hair out, as I tried to solve the latest problem I encountered. I hated working like this – it made me truly miserable – but I felt like I was getting things done. The operative word in that last sentence is felt. 

In truth, I was not getting things done. I was simply trying to feel like I was getting things done.

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Thankfully, a lot has changed since then and I’ve discovered quite possibly my favorite way to work – especially when it comes to finding answers to challenging problems, like writing Solution Designs for a complicated 40+ behavioral-triggered email map for a technical enterprise SaaS. 

Here’s how I do it:

I work in intervals, using Bailey’s hyperfocus and scatterfocus. 

Bailey explains hyperfocus as “intentionally directing your attention toward one thing.” And if you’re familiar with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory, you might be happy to learn that pursuing hyperfocus is an effective way to enter into a state of flow. I find it makes work very enjoyable. As I write this, I’m in fact in a hyperfocused state of flow and lovin’ every minute of it 🥳

On the other hand, Bailey describes scatterfocus as “deliberately letting your mind wander.” I enjoy this type of focus as well, but it can be harder to use if you’re not accustomed to it. This type of focus also happens to be my solution for muscling through problems. 

Here’s what I mean by that:

Hyperfocus is my default work mode in most of the projects I work on. 

But, when I encounter a problem in hyperfocus that I can’t see a path through, I stop what I’m doing, walk away from my desk and use scatterfocus to work my way through the problem.  

Bailey outlines three different types of scatterfocus, but my favorites for efficient problem-solving are  problem-solving scatterfocus and habitual scatterfocus. I like to combine the two by doing the following:

1. First, I use problem-solving scatterfocus. I’ll grab a pen and paper and set a timer for 5(ish) minutes. As the timer runs, I brain dump on the page, noting what I’m trying to achieve, what I perceive as the current blocker, any questions I have, possible solutions I’m currently considering, and any other bits and bobs of info occupying my attentional space. That last step – the bits and bobs – might not feel related to the problem in the moment, but it usually is. I brain dump until the timer buzzes. I read through my notes once, then I set them aside.
2. After that’s done, I use habitual scatterfocus. I walk away from my desk to engage in an activity I can do with minimal effort on autopilot. Typically I’ll make a cup of coffee or tea if it’s a small problem, like organizing the structure of this blog post. Or I’ll go for a quick walk around the block if it’s a bigger problem, like organizing heaps of research into a complex Solution Design. As I complete the habitual activity I let my mind dance around allllllll the notes I just brain dumped.
3. Once the habit is complete and my brain has danced around the problem, I return to my desk. And almost without fail, I’ve solved the problem I’m encountering. 

Here’s what’s really cool about scatterfocus:

I used to (and still occasionally do) need to sleep on problems (or drafts) to come up with stronger solutions. And this makes sense – studies (like this, this and this) have linked creativity and problem-solving to sleep, specifically dreaming.

And studies (like this one) have used neuroimaging to study the similarities between daydreaming and actual dreaming. It turns out many of the same parts of our brain that fire during actual dreaming also fire when we’re daydreaming. 

With scatterfocus being a slightly more focused version of daydreaming, this allows me to intentionally engage those incredible creative problem-solving parts of my brain. 

As Bailey suggests:

“The mode helps you connect old ideas and create new ones; floats incubating thoughts to the surface of your attentional space; and lets you piece together solutions to problems.”

This type of dual focus method – switching between hyperfocus and scatterfocus – allows me to efficiently connect old ideas to new ones while relieving the time pressure I might be feeling on the project. Scatterfocus also fills me with energy – as new ideas often do.

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These methods of focus help me fight off focus fatigue, makes my workload feel more manageable and relieves any time pressure I might be feeling. All of which help me fight burnout.

Control distractions

You are the master of your distractions. It may not always feel that way, but in most cases it’s true. 

In order to control distractions, you’ll need to consider which distractions are truly worth being interrupted for. Especially when studies (like this one) have shown that any given task could take up to 40% longer if you’re multitasking.

For me, most distractions aren’t worth interrupting my focus (and, hint, Bailey agrees).

This looks like no email on my phone. No Slack on my phone. Silent Slack on my computer – I check in regularly throughout the work day, but only at designated times. I have designated time-blocks to check emails. And, as a team, we have a daily meeting window where meetings can be scheduled to help us protect our focus from unnecessary context switching. 

As Bailey puts it:

“Setting a specific time to focus on distractions like email, meetings, your smartphone, and social media transforms them from distractions into merely other purposeful elements of your work and life.”

Lemme tell you. These sorts of boundaries have done wonders for my ability to do deep, thoughtful work. And maintain my energy throughout the day.

Focus also helps me disconnect efficiently, for better rest periods. Which brings me to:

2. Rest. 

Truth be told, I find rest a bigger challenge than focus. Bailey writes:

“Taking a break feels less productive than getting real work done, so you feel at fault when you even consider stepping back.”

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And hustle culture only amplifies the pressure to always be on.

For me, I was unable to rest successfully until I learned how to focus. 

And here’s what else I learned about rest from listening to my colleagues:

Everyone’s version of rest is different.

For example:

Our paid acquisition lead Erin feels totally energized and rested when she’s out and about on adventures, like hiking and horseback riding. 

Whereas I feel really well rested when I get ridiculous amounts of sleep, enjoy little daily luxuries (like a slow-paced morning on the balcony with a latte and a book) and knock out habitual tasks on my to-do list (think: cleaning windows and large appliances).

Considering how varied rest looks from one person to another, this section is much shorter than the Focus section of this post. Because you’ll need to determine what rest should look like for you, so you feel rested and energetic.

Still, here’s something you might want to consider:

A survey, conducted by the American Psychological Association’s Center for Organizational Excellence found that:

• 53% of employed adults check work messages at least once a day over the weekend ( ← typically considered days of rest)
• 52% check work messages before or after work during the week ( ← typically considered periods of rest)
• 54% even check work messages when they’re home sick ( ← definitely a time when you should be resting, so you feel better)
• And 44% check work messages when they’re on vacation ( ← also definitely a period of rest)

Granted, these stats are pulled from 2013. But I would be surprised if those figures have decreased, especially given the rise in tech use over the last decade as well as the sudden increase in blended work-life spaces caused by covid. If anything, the numbers have probably increased.

As a freelancer, my smart phone made it very, very hard to disconnect. Which made it hard to actually rest. Hi, hustle culture. Hello, burnout.

Here’s what I found when I turned my attention to focus:

The boundaries I use to control my distractions not only allow me to focus. They also help me rest.

For example, I can’t check Slack while I’m relaxing on the balcony, even if I have my phone on me, because my boundaries – no Slack on my phone – don’t allow it.

I like how Keller explains it: 

“When you intend to be successful, you start by protecting time to recharge and reward yourself.”

I now feel confident and unapologetic in saying:

Focus is an essential part of my process. So is rest.

I so, soooooooo wish I had known this as a freelancer. If I had allowed myself the opportunity to actually experiment with focus and rest, I would’ve seen what a profound impact it could have on my work. And on my life.

I would’ve also seen that I don’t need to buy into hustle culture to get great sh*t done.

As Keller puts it:

“A new answer usually requires new behavior, so don’t be surprised if along the way to sizable success you change in the process. But don’t let that stop you.”

Which begs the question:

What behaviors do you need to change in the way you plan, execute and run your day or your projects or your business to rebel against hustle culture?

How can you create an environment conducive to more intentional focus? 

How can you recover more of your time for rest?

I’ve outlined some strategies that helped me. I wish I knew them when I was freelancing – it woulda saved me a whole lot o’ frustration, heartache and, yup, burnout. But only you can truly determine what’ll work for you. 

The post How rest – not hustle culture – made me a better copywriter. appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

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https://copyhackers.com/2021/06/how-rest-not-hustle-culture-made-me-a-better-copywriter/

Going for the cold with Facebook Ads

Here are all the things we thought about and did
to 4X+ our spend on cold Facebook traffic.

A “hard no” was what we were up against. 

But I’d helped less beloved companies profitably reach new audiences on Facebook, so our lobby team of two kept pushing.

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It was nearly Black Friday, and my partner in this endeavour Angela Stojanov, another acquisition lead here at Copyhackers, was determined to convince our colleagues – our very skeptical colleagues – to advertise on Facebook.

Ange floated a casual: “hey, we should run Facebook ads for Black Friday” during our daily zoom standup.

To which I replied with a resounding “f*ck YES we should!” 

To which Jo and most of the Copyhackers team replied with a very lukewarm, very beige, very plain wonderbread “meh.”

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So as you can see, we had our work cut out. 

But coming from a company that specialized in growing emerging eCommerce brands on cold Facebook traffic, I knew we could do it. 

So we gathered up our stats and passion and hope and threw ‘em all into a pitch deck.

And it worked. We got approved to “test” Black Friday ads for our premier offer Copy School.

We even got our own Slack channel called “big-facebook-experiment.” (And spoiler alert: that channel’s now called “paid-ad-updates.”)

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Here’s what we didn’t do.

We didn’t dip our toes into lead ads like they’ll sell you on here, here and here. We didn’t run traffic campaigns that optimize for video views or impressions like they’ll tell you here.

Nope. We went for The Big Kahuna of Facebook Advertising – the paid conversion. And we made back well, well over 4X what we spent. And we contributed to the biggest Copy School launch ever. A launch that closed with my doorbell ringing to a fine scotch delivery.

It triggered a new optimism around Facebook ads in Copyhackers Land. So we decided to do the same thing for our big launch of the new Copy School in April. 

While many gurus tell you to do more lead gen, traffic campaigns and top-of-funnel nurtures play it safe, I’m here to tell you the opposite.

Go for the cold conversion. There’s no reason to believe it won’t work. If your offer is solid. If you have a deep conversion copy-esque understanding of your prospects. And if you’re willing to put in the work to do it right.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not here telling you to use cringe-worthy tactics to convince people who aren’t ready to buy, to buy something they don’t need.

I’m here to show you that Facebook is a powerful tool to connect what you’re selling with those ready to take you up on it today. (Or tomorrow, or in three days, but we’ll get into that later.)

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And I’m not standing on my soapbox alone. Here Social Media Examiner interviews ads expert Amanda Bond who says: “think of targeting cold audiences on Facebook as an accelerant for your ads buy.”

Meaning, if you can lock down new customers in one fell swoop, why would you spend time slowly nudging folks towards a sale in a complicated lead-gen funnel that depends on them choosing to open your email in their long, long, long list of unopened emails? (Although, if that’s your strategy, we’ve talked plenty about it.)

But, wait. This doesn’t mean you should grab your CC and slap something – anything – onto Facebook right now. 

Being successful on Facebook requires:

• Thoughtful strategy
• A 101 understanding of how the platform works
• A deep understanding of your ideal customers

But wrap your head around this: there are 7.64 billion people in the world. There are 2.80 billion monthly active users on Facebook.

Your audience is on Facebook. This is how we found ours. And how you can find yours, too.

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Prior to settling into my place at Copyhackers, I worked for a performance marketing agency, spending my days writing ads, landing pages and optimizing funnels. 

Quite literally, the success of our company hinged on our ability to win on Facebook. And we spent much of our time focussed on cold audiences.

We obviously weren’t alone.

Threadheads owner Ace Reunis who generated $1.8M in revenue from $200K in ad spend on cold audiences says: “go for it.”

“Facebook you need to set up a prospecting campaign, and that means a campaign where you’re going to try and get cold traffic. These are people who don’t know about your brand, who don’t know about your product. You’re trying to get them to your website, you’re trying to build brand awareness. Ultimately, you still want that cold traffic to convert and that is dependent on having a good website with all the stuff that it needs to convert.”

Bang on, buddy. Facebook is a growth tool. And when done right, it’s a damn profitable growth tool.

But read this, and read it again: when you meet new audiences on Facebook, you must be ready for them. It’s not good enough to have a killer Facebook funnel and mediocre everything else. 

Facebook introduces new customers to your ecosystem, which includes – at minimum – your landing page, checkout page and homepage. And only healthy ecosystems can support new business.

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At my previous job, we measured everything.

And we tested everything.

The media buyers and the copywriters and the growth strategists all rode that ‘coaster together, hands gripped tight, collectively cheers-ing from the craft beer tap in the kitchen when things looked like fire. And then quieted right down when they didn’t.

But that’s when we always looked at why. 

• Why (oh why 🙄) did a landing page beheaded of its problem-agitation section lose to the variation that “got to the product quicker?” (Ahh, feel the redemption of a 1,000 copywriters who’ve been told their page is “too long.”)
  
• Why do video testimonials taken by sincere people with cell phones in messy basements consistently outperform slick, branded everything, always? (Because user-generated content works.)
  
• Why did that rando thumbnail of bbq’d sausages convert like gangbusters? (Long story that doesn’t really have an answer other than “because Facebook.”)

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And in the process of asking why (and then testing hypotheses), I learned. A lot. 

About what can work and what might not on cold audiences. And I soften that sentence because there are no absolutes on what works and what doesn’t on Facebook. 

You can follow best practices. You can develop hypotheses. But until you put your offer in front of those you want to buy it, it’s impossible to say what will work. You must test. 

“Testing lets advertisers uncover what works best for their ads so they can iterate on that to generate more business or increase their leads—getting better results for less money,” Michael Stelzner notes in this Social Media Examiner article on Facebook testing in which an online marketer watches her cost-per-acquisition drop from $100 to $25 – as a direct result of testing.

So when Ange was like “sooooo…. Facebook ads?” my ears perked like a dog at dinnertime. 

Now, I’m not the first (nor the second, third, fourth, or 196th…) to say: digital marketing evolves fast AF and the moment you’re sure of something is the moment it will change. 

Which – before I get into what happened after Ange and I linked elbows and marched right past that cool reception – brings us to the elephant in the room.

Soooo, ‘bout that elephant...

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When I first heard marketers doom-predicting around iOS14, I kind of shrugged my shoulders. Since being in the industry, there have been countless foreboding “big Facebook shakeups.” Like the post-Cambridge Analytica algorithm changes. Or the removal of the 28-day attribution window. And they all just sort of fizzle like a wet sparkler on New Years Eve. (Ahem, Y2K.)

Or, to be more precise – they’re what savvy marketers just, you know, adapt to.

But iOS14 feels different. 

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Now if you’ve been vacationing on Mars, or like, just not paying attention to digital marketing news at all, iOS14, in a nutshell, is an Apple update that forces users to say “Yep, I’m willing to be tracked across the far-reaches of the internet.” Or, “nope.”

Currently, these permissions are just assumed, though anybody can go into their settings and turn them off. The concern is that ain’t nobody’s going to agree to that. And Facebook will lose a swath of its tracking and attribution capabilities. Which will make ad performance suffer and advertisers question why they’re even using the dog-garned platform anyway.

As Ange and I ramped up our “big Facebook experiment,” iOS14 was a whisper. But that whisper just kept getting louder until it reverberated all around the world then straight outta our boss’s mouth: “So what are you two doing about iOS14?” 

We did all the things Facebook tells advertisers to do to minimize impact. (And you should too, if you haven’t already.) 

All that said, at the time of writing, we’re currently advertising to cookied audiences. And things are fine.

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But like, actually fine. Good, even. Like let’s-keep-it-running good.

But now marketers are crystal balling about scary things like the death of the cookie. And that might be an inevitability.

And although targeting cold, new audiences is safer than retargeting website visitors (“If you have previously shown retargeting ads to people who visited your website, iOS 14 users who opted out will no longer see these retargeting ads,” states this Periphery Digital blog), the whole situation remains a giant question mark. (Though you can still retarget video viewers, page engagers and email lists – with minimal iOS14 impact.)

So the future of Facebook advertising may look like crazy-optimized cold offers that incentivises people to “act immediately.”

Or the future may look like lead-gen where you meet ‘em and close ‘em in the same meeting.

But – take a moment. Breathe in. Breathe out.

However the dust settles, Luke Marr in this WooCommerce blog points out something we’d all be wise to remember: 

“The key for marketers is an open mind toward adapting practices to the new world…

The digital landscape is in a constant state of change and this is no different. Though many platforms have expressed concern, new solutions will arise.”

In fact, our Facebook ad rep Colin tells us that, in the wake of iOS14, Facebook now recommends large, broad, cold audiences.

So there.

Phew. Now that’s out of the way, we can get to the fun stuff, like…

7 things to do to set up your cold campaign for success.

With a gigantic caveat that every offer is different, there are certainly what I’ll call green flags when it comes to assessing whether an offer may work on Facebook.

#1) Nail the ol’ direct-response trifecta of success: list, offer, copy.

Waaaay back in the heyday of direct response marketing – to which we should bow down to and learn lots from – a marketer named Ed Mayer put forth the idea that people will buy what you’re selling when you optimize these three things: your list, your offer and your copy.

In fact, he said, it’s actually a 40-40-20 rule, where…

“40 percent of the success of a marketing campaign is based on reaching the right audience, another 40 percent is based on the offer you are making, and the remaining 20 percent is [the copy and creative].”

Like many, many things from that era (like market sophistication and the stages of awareness), the internet has only made them more true.

Through Facebook you can create instant lists millions of people long: Copywriters. Chimpanzee lovers. Women in the South. 

You can optimize your offer and instantly split test your good ideas. 

And as a conversion copywriter, you can use your persuasive prowess to connect ideal buyers with that ideal offer. For example, by using excellent storytelling in the FB ad copy she wrote for Strategyzer, Sarah Sal was able to boost their ticket sales to an impressive ROI of 1,866%.  

I don’t want to sound blase, but really, truly: voila.  

#2) Be independently verifiably awesome. 

Consumers do their research. According to this Martech article, they research for up to 45 days – depending on what they’re buying. 

You will get Googled. Many of our customers travel through our Facebook ads funnels, but ultimately convert through our homepage.

When they throw Copyhackers into the ol’ search bar, they find a company trusted by Google, Entrepreneur and a bunch of other household names that prop Copyhackers up on the credibility pedestal.

Be like Copyhackers.

#3) Don’t optimize for clicks – optimize for qualified clicks.

Here’s what Flint McGlaughlin, one of my (and everyone at Copyhackers) favorite marketers on the planet‘ll tell ya: the sole job of a Facebook ad is to get the qualified click.

And this is actually good news if delving into Facebook ads feels a bit like entering the Bermuda Triangle. 

Take it from this AdEspresso article that states: “If you want to grab the attention of an audience on Facebook, “Here’s my product, buy now!” isn’t going to cut it.”

A big mistake beginner marketers make is thinking they have to sell the whole shebang on first glance. Absolutely not true. 

Your ad should be the link between what your prospect desires or needs… and what you can actually offer them.

Clicks for the sake of clicks is a waste of money.

#4) Have a thriving ecosystem. 

The job of your ad is to push prospects to your landing page which is to push prospects to your checkout page which is to push your prospects to take out their credit cards and buy. 

Or a million other variations of that.

According to that same AdEspresso article mentioned above: 

“Converting cold audiences on Facebook commonly requires a sales funnel made of multiple stages and touchpoints, with different ad creatives, emphasizing unique value propositions.”

Yup. 

So if your Facebook funnel is slick but your .com presence looks shoddy and black-hat, your prospects will fly the way of the dodo bird. 

Nothing exists in silos in digital marketing.

#5) Fit into the social space like a cool guy at a party. 

Your prospects are on Facebook to argue with their uncle about politics and post baby pictures and finish the sentence: Last night I with predictive text. 

They’re not at the mall. They’re not perusing shelves. They’re not looking to buy.

So meet them where they’re at.

Yes, you need to stand out. Yes, you need to grasp attention.

But you must do that within the parameters of the space. 

Like this awesome ad shared in a Sprout Social article:

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It works because it feels organic (and it’s a really, really cool offer).

But here’s the thing – even perusing “best Facebook ads” lists, you’ll find lots of slick, branded, product-forward information.

I’d argue – at least on cold traffic – to de-emphasize your product. And emphasize the “job to be done” that drives your prospect to use your product.

The author of this AdsFunnels article agrees, stating that your ads should look less like this…

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…and more like this:

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Value is the name of the game.

#6) Couple your messaging and targeting. 

If you’ve ever felt the urge to pull out a bic and light your money on fire Alexander Supertramp-style, write an ad for women and target men. Write an ad for copywriters and target chefs.

It seems obvious, but oftentimes the person who writes the ads and the person who places them are different. Wires get crossed.

And when you’ve written copy for single mothers, but your media buyer is targeting early 20s college students, those ads will not perform. 

So prioritize communicating with the person who actually places the ads. Include non-negotiable targeting parameters as part of your deliverable.

Here ads expert Sarah Sal takes this concept home in a case study where she sliced cost per action in half by ensuring messaging and targeting aligned.

Facebook agrees too, just not in so many words. 

#7) Get obsessed with finding out LTV. 

Settle in, and don’t you dare take your eyes off these words because this is where I talk about Lifetime Value for a loooong time to hammer home just how important it is.

Forbes calls it the most important metric. So do these guys and these guys and hey! So does our very own Joanna Wiebe in this Tutorial Tuesday.

The reason being: knowing lifetime value means you can figure out how much you can spend to acquire a customer – and still be profitable. 

For example, if you have a subscription product that renews for $19.99 every month, you really need to know that your average customer sticks around for a whopping 14 months. 

Suddenly spending $24 to acquire a customer worth $279.86 doesn’t look so bad. 

Had you focussed solely on the day-of-purchase cost, you’d have long abandoned your campaign. 

If you don’t know LTV, or are working with a client who doesn’t know theirs, prioritize finding out. Software like Baremetrics and Segmetrics can show you LTV within seconds of integrating your payment platforms with them. We now use both Baremetrics and Segmetrics at Copyhackers. 

Understanding LTV is the non-negotiable of a successful ad campaign.

Okay! Is that sufficiently tattooed on the inside of your eyelids? Good. Here’s a tidbit: 

When we started advertising on Facebook, we had no idea what our LTV was.

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We didn’t know our LTV because Copy School changed its pricing model. Prior to Black Friday ‘20, it was a one-time purchase (that lucky grandfathered cohort). 

And because of a commitment to adding new roadmaps every month, and to making ourselves available live weekly, we moved to a subscription model.

But that meant, at the time of our Black Friday launch, there was no real LTV to identify. So we veered way, way, way on the side of caution, assuming our LTV was $97 – the sale price of just 1 month of Copy School.

Now we know y’all love Copy School and stick around for much longer. But still – just 6 months later, our LTV is an evolving story.

So we went into our big April launch still on the safe side – just with a bit more rope.

Interlude: LTV, CVR, CTR what? A glossary of Facebook buying terms.

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Okay – it’s time to get into how we launched Copy School 2021. But if you want to properly nerd out with me, be sure you understand these terms…

• CBO – Campaign Budget Optimization. Selecting this lets the Facebook algorithm dedicate spend to the best performing adset. Just be aware that audience size can affect distribution, so group similarly sized audiences together.
  
• ROAS – Return on Ad Spend. This shows you, based on purchase conversion value, how much money you’re making back. If your product costs $97/month, and you spent $97 to acquire one customer, your ROAS is 1.
  
• CPA – Cost-per-action. This is how much it costs to do what you’re trying to do. In a purchase conversion campaign, it refers to cost of purchase.
  
• Checkouts initiated and add-to-carts. This metric, represented as a number, shows how many people initiated checkouts or added your product to cart. Compare it to the number of purchases to understand your checkouts-initiated-to-purchase ratio.
  
• Lookalike audiences. These are audiences Facebook builds for you. You input a list of purchasers, for example, and Facebook will find those who share attributes with them – broadening those you can reach. These are often the best-performing cold audiences. (But beware – iOS14 could impact the size of the lists you use to create those lookalike audiences. Standby on that one.)
  
• Dynamic creatives. This means something a little different on various ad platforms. On Facebook this means you can input up to 10 videos and/or images and up to 5 headlines, text options, link descriptions and call-to-action buttons. Then let Facebook find the best combination.
  
• Attribution. This refers to what Facebook Ads Manager considers a sale. The default as of May 2021 is 7-day click – meaning if somebody clicks on your ad, but doesn’t convert until day 4 (or up to day 7), Facebook attributes that sale to your ad, on the day they first saw it.

The Case Study: How we planned, executed on and monitored our Copy School 2021 launch on Facebook at Copyhackers.

Now before I get into What We Did at Copyhackers, lets hand the mic back to the Ace Reunis at Threadbare (who got that 9X return on ad spend from cold audiences):

“The first thing you do whenever you’re targeting someone with an ad campaign, whether it’s on Google or Facebook, is you’re thinking about what your target audience is. Then, within that audience, you want to think about which respective segments are going to respond to a given message or product.”

And that’s pretty much what we did in this one-step-at-a-time process. 

First we planned the structure.

Once we lowballed our LTV right down to a mere $97, it was time to strategize.

Now, Facebook – according to our ad rep Colin – will tell you to set up your campaigns like so: 

• Budget and objective is set at the campaign level
• Audiences are set on the adset level
• Copy and creatives are set on the ad level

This time, we were targeting three similar but distinct segments: 

• the small business owner
• the freelance copywriter
• the in-house copywriter or digital marketer who writes copy

Each had a unique funnel. Which made our strategizing feel a little like this…

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And look a little like this…

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Now, because we wanted to control the budgets – and because we didn’t want to put our 10,000 person audience in with our 2M person audience (because CBO would hungrily gobble up the little guy), we ended up with a lot of campaigns. 

Keeping our lookalike and interest audiences in separate pools let us assess performance and duplicate winning campaigns during launch. 

And it’s worth mentioning that, within each campaign, we had to exclude similar audiences to avoid overlap and competition against… ourselves.

(If you’re just getting started with Facebook ads, you can get a good 101 understanding of campaign setup here or here.)

Next we planned the copy and creatives.

Because of our research process, we had a pretty good idea about what messages would resonate. 

But read that again: a pretty good idea.

If you want to set yourself up for success with Facebook advertising, test, test test. 

Here’s a big ol’ guide to testing on Facebook from our friends at AdEspresso. 

I tend to lean on the algorithm to find the best combination. Which means I create headlines, text and headline variation packages that work together.

And I lean on our research, hard. That’s where you find common themes. And that’s where you find sticky messages. Without research, creative strategy is but a boardroom sitcom.

I’ve seen consistently good results planning creatives in this way:

1. Using text overlay on images to convey your most impactful message. 
2. Using the ad text (above the image) to provide context.
3. Using the headline to drive action.

So that’s what we did. Then created two types of ads:

1. Ads that led with a problem
2. Ads that led with an aspiration

Both did well, but the problem-focussed ads generally performed better. And a disclaimer: when I say problem, we always approach the problem in a genuine, empathetic way.

Because we know freelancers who follow Copyhackers are driven to be really, really, really good, our aspirational-focussed ads looked like:

And we know there’s usually an event that leads the small businesses owner to realize they need marketing help.

So that’s where we met ‘em in our problem-focussed ads.

You’ll notice that for this one, we actually didn’t use the headline to drive action. Because our research showed them to be earlier in the buyer journey than the other segments: they suspect they have a marketing problem – but they’re not necessarily aware that li’l ol’ copy could help solve it.

For video creatives, we followed a problem-agitation-solution framework. (PS – have you bookmarked this beautiful beast of a blog?)

That ended up looking like this:

And AIDA for the aspirational-focussed ones, like this one here:

Both were among our best performers. 

It also helped that our prospects love Jo, and that Jo is so willing and skilled with the camera stuff.

Finally, we created a buying plan.

Ange and I are like a teeter totter. 

She leans a bit closer to caution. I lean a bit closer to risk. Together, we made the perfect buying team.

We had a strategy before launch: a nice, clear, “if-then” document that, in a perfect world, would serve as an easy blueprint.

But Facebook is a bit less like Pleasantville and a bit more like, well, Pleasantville with all the color. 

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Buying is an ever-evolving analytical situation that balances risk with potential gain, trust with skepticism. There’s an art to it. And a science. Kind of like conversion copywriting itself.

We basically have to be willing to lose everything on Day 1. Day 1 is the day we touch nothing. Day 1 is the day we let the algorithm do its thing. And no matter how great or horrible things look, we don’t touch it.

On Day 2, we look at ROAS as our #1 guiding metric. And we look at Unique CTR and Checkouts Initiated as our secondary guiding metrics. 

The Copy School launch started strong out the gate. High ROAS that had Ange and I wishing we could physically high-five each other through Zoom. And then the weekend hit, and things slowed right down.

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ROAS kept ticking down, and we had to share far-less-enthusiastic ad updates with the team. 

On Sunday, we even turned a bunch of campaigns off.

But we kept keen eyes on CTRs and Checkouts Initiated. Those stats were fire. So we watched and waited. By Monday, sales were rolling in, nearly all our campaigns were back on, and ROAS was on an upward trajectory that wouldn’t falter through the end of launch.

And that’s how it went.

We got results that changed minds and hearts ’round here.

As mentioned, our ROAS was 4. That means we quadrupled what we spent in revenue. 

But, here’s the most fun caveat in the world:

Remember how I mentioned we didn’t have an accurate LTV figure yet, so we imagined LTV at the ultra-conservative $97? (The sale price of one month of Copy School?) 

In fact, this is monthly recurring revenue. And the vast majority of our new students stay. For a long time. So what we’re really looking at on return is more like 20X+. 

But we’ll keep that little tidbit buried deep in this blog – until we can state it as fact.

Needless to say, eyes light up a bit more around here when we talk Facebook. Optimism abounds.

And if you’d like to see how to write Facebook ads that do what ours did, join 10x Facebook Ads or get all our training inside Copy School.

The post Going for the cold with Facebook Ads appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

from
https://copyhackers.com/2021/06/going-for-the-cold-with-facebook-ads/

Why I’m quitting traditional buyer personas.

“Once I figure out what to do with my dining room table, I’ll be free to move.”

But what sort of impact does a table have on a major life decision like buying a condo?

As innovation consultant Bob Moesta found out, quite a lot.

The table helped shape the winning offer – which included more than just the condo.

And the table provided critical insight into the condo buyers’ mindset.

And yet, a detail like a dining room table isn’t something you’d typically find on most marketers’ beloved buyer persona and ideal client persona (ICP) docs. You’re more likely to see a document that looks something like this:

(Source)

Yet, understanding the role the dining room table played in the buyers’ minds helped the Detroit developer raise their prices. And, despite a 49% drop in sales across the market, the developer’s business grew by 25%.

But to understand how Moesta connected the dots between a dining room table and 25% business growth, you’ve gotta understand the all-too-common growth-blockers hiding in your ICP and buyer persona docs.

Let’s talk about ICPs, let’s talk about you and me (and, really, marketers everywhere).

According to HubSpot, ICPs (“ideal client personas”) outline a fictitious company that has all the characteristics of a good fit for your solution. ICPs usually include characteristics like:

• Budget
• Annual revenue
• Company size
• Industry
• Geographic location
• Legal restrictions (like age or government restrictions)

Similarly, buyer personas offer a general representation of your customer. Sometimes – hopefully – an aggregate of customer interviews builds buyer personas. Similar to ICPs, they’ll provide you with key characteristics, including:

• Age
• Role
• Goals in their role
• Responsibilities in their role
• Challenges in their role
• Reasons they might look for a solution like yours

As HubSpot points out, a company could have anywhere between two to five personas. But a common mistake – one we’ve seen in-house repeatedly – is creating a new persona for each role your team comes into contact with.

I’m all for personalized messaging… but roles don’t buy products. People do.

And it’s this all-too-common mistake that has me climbing up on my soapbox, crying out to marketers near and far:

“Please, please, pleaaaaaaaaassseeeeee. Abandon traditional ICPs and buyer personas.”

(Source)

‘Cos traditional ICPs and buyer personas leave out some key details you really need to know to write high-converting copy. So you can capture more market share. 

But, I mean, maybe there’s a silver lining here:

While 77% of marketers surveyed by Audiense say they’ve created buyer personas… 

• 85% don’t refer to their personas before a product launch. 
• And 77% don’t refer to their personas before creating campaigns.

Ah. So it’s not that marketers love buyer personas. It’s that marketers love creating useless docs… ?

(Wait. What? That can’t be right 🙃 )

But with buyer personas, useless and dusty persona docs definitely seem to be the name of the game. In that same survey:

• 11% of surveyed marketers claim they never update their buyer personas.
• 25% only do so before launching a campaign.
• 34% try to update their personas once a year.

Worst of all, 90% of respondents said that buyer personas are only written to support marketing.

As Clayton Christensen, Scott Cook and Taddy Hall explain in this rather timeless HBR article:

“Having sliced business clients into small, medium, and large enterprises—or having shoehorned consumers into age, gender, or lifestyle brackets—marketers busy themselves with trying to understand the needs of representative customers in those segments and then create products that address those needs. The problem is that customers don’t conform their desires to match those of the average consumer in their demographic segment.“

Slicing and dicing by demographics creates practically useless busy work for the marketing team. And this busy work is unlikely to drive further value to the customer. 

It’s a lose-lose scenario. 

And it might explain why ICPs and buyer persona docs are destined to collect pixel dust in your Google drive.

Is there a way to develop useful personas? So you can build your next campaign strategy (and the copy that comes after) on value-based insights.

As Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt frequently told his students, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” And while it’s likely that your marketing team agrees with Levitt’s insight, the same marketers are also likely to:

• Segment markets by type of drill and price point.
• Measure market share of drills.
• And benchmark the features and functions of their drill.

Marketers will happily look at the product instead of looking at the hole the product creates. 

But when we turn our attention to the hole, we start asking customer-centric questions, like:

• Why is our customer trying to drill a hole in the first place?
• How does our customer define a successfully drilled hole? 
• What other products – beyond drills – might our customer use to create this hole?
• How has our customer drilled a hole before?

If we don’t ask questions like these, we miss the opportunity to understand the value customers derive from the product. We miss an even bigger opportunity to put our future customers first. And, with us now over 14 months deep in a global pandemic that’s fundamentally changed consumer behavior, putting your customers first has never been more important to your bottom line.

As Yamini Rangan, CCO at HubSpot, points out:

“In 2020, 40% of businesses did not meet revenue targets. As you plan your 2021 and beyond, sharpen your focus on your customer. Place them at the center of every decision, across marketing, sales, and customer success.”

If marketing isn’t putting your customer first, now’s an excellent time to start.

Enter stage right: jobs-to-be-done personas. Or JTBD for short. 

There are several JTBD models you can look at – ODI by Tony Ulwick, JTBD Theory by Clayton Christensen, or Demand-Side Innovation from Bob Moesta, to name a few. You’ll certainly find variations in their JTBD models and definitions. And yet at the core of each of these different models is the “job”:

A job is what a person seeks to accomplish in a specific situation.

Simple, right?

What JTBD proposes is that the customer doesn’t buy your product for its features, or even its benefits. Instead, the customer hires your product to accomplish a specific job in a specific situation.

Let’s take Intercom as an example:

In an interview with Harvard Business School’s Forum for Growth & Innovation, Intercom cofounder Des Traynor says that when Intercom first came to jobs:

“We were using a personas-based approach to segmentation, but it wasn’t working. We had too many “typical users” who had little in common, going by traits like demographics or job titles. Because we didn’t really understand why people were coming to the platform—what they were using it for—we charged a single price for access to the entire platform. As soon as I grasped the distinction between “customers” and “problems people need help with,” a lightbulb went off.”

To shift from thinking about “typical users” – segmented by demographics or job titles – to a jobs-oriented approach, Intercom hired Moesta and his team to run a series of 1-on-1 interviews with two different customer types:

1. New customers.
2. Customers that recently churned OR showed significant usage changes.

According to Traynor, two things stood out in the customer interviews:

“One, prospective clients who sampled our services were usually flailing. Their growth had flattened, and they were ready to try something new. And two, the words they described our product with were really different from the words we used. People using it to sign up new customers kept using the word “engage,” for example. We used the term “outbound messaging,” which has a very different feel.”

What Traynor describes are shared circumstances – businesses with stagnant growth – and shared VoC in the language their customers used to describe what they’re trying to accomplish – “engage.” 

As Moesta and Traynor discovered, Intercom’s users hired Intercom for four distinct jobs:

1. To observe – show me who uses my product and what they do with it.
2. To engage – convert prospects into active users.
3. To learn – give me feedback from our right-fit users.
4. To support – fix my customers’ problems.

Intercom used this intel to revamp its services – switching from what Traynor called a “one-size-fits-none service” to distinct services tailored for each job. Then they messaged the Helsinki out of it.

The result?

Back in 2016 (at the time of the interview), Intercom increased conversion rates because customers could buy the specific product they need to complete their job. Today, they now have over 30,000 paying customers and valuation to the tune of at least $1.275 billion. 

And to this day, Intercom continues to leverage job-centric services:

(Source: Screenshot taken May 17, 2021)

Would Intercom have achieved those staggering stats without JTBD? Maybe. Maybe not.

So why is JTBD better?

If you’re still on the fence about giving up your traditional buyer personas, consider this:

When we put the customer first in our messaging, we’re able to tap into the reader’s tendency to think of themselves first.

Known as the self-prioritization effect, self-related processing, self-referential processing or the ‘Narcissus Effect,’ what we’re really talking about is the natural tendency for our brain to prioritize processing information that directly relates to the ‘self.’ 

The self-prioritization effect is widely studied in academia (like here, here and here). For example, consider this study conducted at the University of Aberdeen and University of Plymouth:Using a backward masking procedure, the researchers showed participants objects like these:

(Source: Unsplash)

The researchers assigned each object ownership, either to the participant or the participant’s best friend. After they assigned several objects, they required the participants to report on the objects they saw. Researchers found:

• Participants classified self-owned items more rapidly.
• Participants classified self-owned items more accurately.
• Participants classified self-owned items more efficiently.

Where do jobs come in?

Writing with jobs forces you to put your customer’s needs, desires, motivations, struggles and circumstances first… before the product.

When you combine customer prioritization with copywriting techniques like The You Rule, your copy is more powerful because it puts the reader in the spotlight – so you can intentionally leverage the self-prioritization effect. Which allows your reader to connect the dots rapidly, accurately and efficiently between their needs and your product. 

Your product becomes the obvious “hire” to get the reader towards their desired outcome, which is great for your bottom line.

How can you go from siloed traditional buyer personas to an incredibly useful set of JTBD personas?

At Copyhackers, we call it the Ultimate Message Map, or UMM for short.

The UMM lives inside Airstory and it’s shared across our entire team. 

The UMM is a living document that ensures the team is never starting from scratch. It holds VoC, product documentation and, yes, our JTBD personas.

What we’ve found, after close to a year working through iterations of the UMM, is that it makes it easier to reuse work we’ve already done. Which helps us create strategic assets quicker, because we’re not starting from scratch every time we write. 

And, yes, we use a variation of the UMM for our agency clients too. Which makes it much easier to transfer knowledge from writer to writer.

Here’s what you need to know before writing with JTBD personas. Plus, how we applied JTBD personas to develop our Copy School sales pages.

There are a couple of key concepts you need to map out if you’re going to write with JTBD personas:

1. A primary job, as well as related jobs.
2. Circumstances. 
3. Desired job outcome(s). 
4. Success metrics. 
5. The switch. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these concepts, using the Copy School sales pages as examples:

Primary jobs and related jobs:

The primary job is the #1 thing your customer is trying to accomplish. 

There are a 3 types of jobs to consider:

• Functional jobs. These relate to the core task at hand for your customer. As Ulwick states, functional jobs should be stable over time and solution agnostic. For Copy School, the functional job for most of our JTBD-defined personas is learning copywriting.
• Emotional jobs. These relate to the customer’s feelings and attitudes, like feeling more confident about their copy.
• Social jobs. These relate to the perceptions held by those around the customer, like being recognized by your peers as an authority. 

To build out your primary job statement you’ll consider functional jobs, emotional jobs and social jobs. In most cases, you’ll start with the functional job, as they’re more often than not the foundation of the job. Still, you shouldn’t discount emotional and social jobs – they’re powerful motivators too.

Let’s consider the headlines for each of our Copy School sales pages:

On our in-house marketer page, we lead with an expression of the unresolved emotional job – feel like they’re not guessing at their work.

On our small business owner page, we lead with the functional job – create effective marketing materials.

And finally, on our freelance copywriter page which, like the in-house marketer page, leads with an expression of the unresolved emotional job – feel like they’re not second-guessing at their work.

In terms of copy on the page, eeeeeeeverything (even beyond the headline) ties back to the specific primary JTBD and related jobs for each persona.

Take the freelancers’ resolved emotional job state – feeling confident in their work. We wove this job into the subhead:

It’s in crossheads:

It’s in testimonials:

It’s in body copy:

It’s in the product introduction:

And, yep, it’s definitely in the close:

Side note: You’ll notice our pages are, in fact, also segmented by title. To be crystal clear, this is not because the title itself is a key aspect of the persona. We did this for Copy School in addition to segmenting by JTBD, because these titles provide clearly defined and drastically different circumstances that allow us to dial into our one reader for the copy on the page. This may or may not be the case for the personas you work on.

Which brings me to…

Circumstances:

This is quite simply what’s happening in the customer’s life that’s driving them towards a new solution.

Now, if you’ve been hanging around Copyhackers for a while, you might see how perfectly your thank you page survey results will map into a JTBD framework. A series of JTBD interviews also works wonders in gathering useful circumstantial data – this is exactly what we did for Copy School research. We found it allowed us to dig deeper into each personas’ circumstances. Which is ideal, because, as Christensen et al. point out:

“Circumstances are more important than customer characteristics, product attributes, new technologies, or trends.”

Circumstances are critical in understanding your JTBD personas because they define what the customer is currently experiencing. Circumstances also define the experience they hope to create once they’ve successfully achieved their primary job-to-be-done. 

Once you dig into circumstances, you’ll see how closely intertwined they are with desired outcomes. Which brings me to…

Desired outcome(s):

Your desired outcome(s) are the end state your customer is trying to achieve. So, consider what a “job well done” looks like. You could also think of this as the “after” state, or the result of a transformation.

Like jobs, desired outcomes are stable over time and solution agnostic. They’re also measurable, and often feed into the customer’s success metrics (which you’ll learn about in just a  moment). 

With Copy School, we have buyers that hire the product for essentially the same functional job – i.e., learn copywriting / sales – but the desired outcomes are different. For example:

• The small business owner wants to create a consistent revenue stream – this is a functional outcome.
• Whereas the freelance copywriter wants to gain confidence – this is an emotional outcome. They also have a series of consequential outcomes that they see as by-products of increased confidence – make more money, attract better clients and be the envy of their peers. 

Let’s return to the Copy School sales pages:

On our small business owner page, the headline closes out with a mention of the desired outcome – a steady stream of sales. Stating this immediately signals to the small business owner that this page is relevant to their desired outcome.

And if you look at the full hero on our freelance copywriter page pictured below, you’ll see a couple different ways we highlight desired outcomes:

• The sticky banner opens up the idea that Copy School is the cure for imposter syndrome. This resonates with the freelancer because imposter syndrome is how they describe their current lack of confidence. 
• The eyebrow gently nudges at the idea of the consequential desired outcomes by mentioning the elusive next level.
• The top of the subhead opens up the consequential outcomes available to the freelancer once they reach their primary desired outcome – charge more, attract better clients and be the envy of their peers. 

The freelancer provides a solid example for seeing how outcomes can interrelate or form a consequential series. And how your reader might achieve more than one desirable outcome with your product. 

It’s this understanding of the freelancer persona that allows us to write copy that speaks to the core jobs and outcomes our reader is prioritizing. Which makes the product feel more relevant to their unique circumstances. Which ultimately makes it easier for our reader to rapidly, accurately and efficiently understand and recall how Copy School relates to them. All of which resulted in strong conversions across the freelancer sales funnel.

Here’s why understanding desired outcomes in the context of JTBD is so critical to effective copy:

If you look only at the Copy School product, you’d probably say we’re selling copywriting training. And this is true. But for the freelance copywriter, we’re selling confidence. In contrast, for the small business owner, we’re selling consistent revenue. This is just one example of how JTBD can change the way you write for specific JTBD personas.

Success metrics:

As Christensen et al. explain: 

“When we buy a product, we essentially “hire” it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, we’ll hire it again. If it does a crummy job, we “fire” it and look for something else to solve the problem.”

So… how does your customer define successful job completion?

The answers to that question are the success metrics your customer uses to evaluate your product. When you know these success metrics, you can strategically use proof that demonstrates how your product satisfies those success metrics.

For example, for our freelance copywriter, the desired outcome is emotional – gain confidence. This is also part of how they’ll evaluate whether Copy School is doing the job well. Our freelancers will ask themselves “has Copy School increased my confidence?”

But before the freelancer actually evaluates Copy School, they need to believe Copy School can satisfy this success metric. To increase their belief, we present proof on the sales page that the product can increase confidence. Here’s one small sample of what that looks like on the page:

With the freelancer’s success metric in mind, we’re able to plan and provide a powerful body of proof that builds the reader’s belief that Copy School will help them meet or exceed their definition of a “job well done.”

The switch:

Moesta says: 

“It’s the struggling moment where they can’t do something that causes them to take the leap.”

That’s your customer’s switch in a nutshell – the moment where the push overrides the status quo and anxieties. In order to tap into the power of the struggling moment, you need to look at all the elements – the push of the now versus the pull of the now, as well as habits of the now and anxieties of the new. I like to map the switch like this, which is from a Solution Design template we use here at Copyhackers:

Another advantage to understanding the push and pull – and knowing which force is stronger: 

Knowing the strongest force helps you spot the best-fit frame for your copy. Or, at the very least, an ideal hero. 

For example, our data suggests that the small business owner is particularly motivated by the pull of the new. With that in mind, the sales page hero opens with a forward-looking “what if” hook that focuses on the pulls of the new:

On the other hand, the in-house marketer seems to be more motivated by pushes of the now. With that in mind, the sales page hero opens with a problem-focused headline that embodies the push:

For the in-house marketer, we also found strong anxieties and habits surrounding the boss. So we created a solution for the marketer’s anxiety on the page. And the solution – a boss buy-in pack – overcomes the boss’s own habits:

Bottom line: When you know what propels and repels the customer in the switch, it’s easier to plan copy and messaging that highlights the most relevant aspects of your product. And overcomes your reader’s anxieties.

So… will you swap your dusty buyer personas for JTBD personas?

As The Jobs To Be Done Playbook author, Jim Kalbach, says “JTBD is not a single method: it’s a lens, a way of seeing” and a more “human-centered way of viewing the people you serve.” 

Once you use the JTBD lens, it’s hard to go back. 

But, as Christensen, Cook and Hall put it:

“The rub is that when a company communicates the job a branded product was designed to do perfectly, it is also communicating what jobs the product should not be hired to do.”

Writing copy with jobs in mind requires focus. And it requires bravery to maintain that focus.

Unlike lazier messaging techniques, using JTBD forces you to explicitly define what your product is – and isn’t – for. No fence-sitters allowed. You must choose which job (or jobs) are most important to your market, and then you’ve gotta message the h-e-double-hockey-sticks outta ’em.

Here’s my challenge to you, dear reader:

I challenge you to gaze through the JTBD lens on your next project. Listen closely to what your users are hiring your product for – spanning across functional, emotional and social jobs realm – and then document how you might use that intel to craft totally dialled in, winning copy.

You might just surprise yourself with the results.

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https://copyhackers.com/2021/06/buyer-personas-vs-jtbd/