by Peter Sandeen | Jan 23, 2021 | Value Propositions
The best branding advertisement of 2020 (that I saw) was made by Lego for the Christmas season. Although I rarely recommend making branding advertisements, there are some situations where they can be effective—when done well. Lego’s ad was a great example of a... 
by Peter Sandeen | Apr 7, 2020 | Marketing Strategy, Smart Business
If you’re having trouble making sales as usual, trying harder is unlikely to help much. Just trying harder is inefficient at the best of times. When it’s hard to make sales in general, you’d need to do even more to see any more sales thanks to it. If your usual target... 
by Peter Sandeen | Jan 17, 2020 | Smart Business
Breaking a plateau is rarely as difficult as it seems. And the ways to do it are generally the same regardless of what skill you’re developing. Although business and marketing are more complex than most typical skills (e.g., playing guitar or climbing, which... 
by Peter Sandeen | Dec 13, 2019 | Conversion Optimization
Effective A/B testing often doubles sales. But most people who try it never see meaningful results. The problem isn’t that they don’t follow all the usual best practices. The problem is exactly that they follow the usual “best practices.” The top conversion rate... 
by Peter Sandeen | Dec 6, 2019 | Marketing Strategy, Short posts
Don’t look at normal email click-through rates. They make decision-making unnecessarily difficult. You might think the usual click rates are fine since all the email marketing programs and nearly all marketing experts talk about them. But there’s a much better... 
by Peter Sandeen | Jun 7, 2019 | Value Propositions
Like many others, I learned as a kid that playing it safe is safe. Taking risks is risky. And if safe is “acceptable” or “good enough,” you shouldn’t take risks. Showing what makes you weird is risky. But it feels much riskier than it really is.... 
by Peter Sandeen | May 24, 2019 | Value Propositions
Defining your target customer is typically the first step when planning marketing. And that’s been the case for decades. The traditional approach to targeting hasn’t changed much. Ask anyone with a traditional marketing or business education, and they can recite the... 
by Peter Sandeen | Apr 19, 2019 | Conversion Optimization
Effective copywriting, almost regardless of what type of marketing text it is, follows the same structure. Read almost any effective sales page, advertisement, or email, and you see the same structure in use. There are other effective copywriting options. But... 
by Peter Sandeen | Mar 1, 2019 | Marketing Strategy, Value Propositions
The best question in marketing is “so what?” You can solve a problem. Cool. So what? You can help people reach a goal. Nice. So what? What more do people need before they’re at the point they really dreamed of when they bought from you? Why should they really care... 
by Peter Sandeen | Sep 7, 2018 | Marketing Strategy, Short posts
A time-limited offer can be incredibly effective. They have a few problems, though. One of those is that people who miss the offer can feel disappointed. There are ways to turn that disappointment into something that drives them toward buying quickly (which is a topic... 