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A/B split testing is a marketing technique that provides feedback on two or more versions of a product, service, advertisement, headline, email subject line, web page etc. The target market is shown the versions and their subsequent behaviour is tracked and measured. If you are going to spend time or money on marketing, it is a good idea to understand what is going to work, in the real world. Split testing enables you to gain insights that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Mailchimp offers A/B split testing, although they recommend that there are 5,000 subscribers per cohort....

Here is an AI based website where ‘characters’ can provide answers to your questions: https://beta.character.ai You can ‘talk’ to Elon Musk, Einstein or Ed Sheeran. When I used to teach creative thinking, this would have been a useful resource. 🙂 A Google search said: “Character.AI is a chatbot web application powered by a language model that generates human-like responses to texts and engages in contextual conversation. Users can develop ;characters’ with distinct characteristics and submit them to the community for other users to interact with....

ChatGPT was launched on November 30th 2022. https://chat.openai.com 100 million users quickly signed up to use it. It is based on a large language model (LLM) and the system was trained on trillions of words, prior to launch. It can answer questions in a natural, human-like way. Marketing applications include idea generation, writing draft headlines and writing draft copy for blogs, articles, press releases etc. NB you have to read through and edit the content carefully. Bear in mind that the answers are based on someone else's content, so think of it as a helpful research tool....

OTTER.AI Otter.ai https://otter.ai/home provides speech to text transcription and translation using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Its software, called Otter, shows captions for live speakers and generates written transcriptions of the speeches. FIREFLIES Fireflies is an AI assistant for meetings. Record, transcribe and search across your voice conversations. https://fireflies.ai...

https://www.read.ai makes meetings, emails and messages more efficient with AI-generated summaries, transcripts, playback and highlights. A free trial is available. An alternative is https://fireflies.ai "Fireflies.ai helps your team transcribe, summarize, search and analyze voice conversations." Fireflies vs. Read.ai: Which Is Better? https://fireflies.ai/blog/fireflies-vs-read-ai...

The AIDCA copywriting model will help you to get better response: 1. Headline or opening line gets Attention 2. Product or service description generates Interest 3. The offer / proposition produces Desire 4. Guarantee / reassurance gives Conviction 5. Call to action Action generates sales AIDCA can be used throughout the promotional mix. You can use AIDCA in direct mail letters, email marketing and web pages. It is a helpful, easy to remember copywriting model. Pay particular attention to the headline, as this is the gateway to the rest of the piece. Write a few headline variants and choose the best one. Describe your product or service using benefits, not just features. Include a clear offer or proposition. Provide a guarantee and / or proof that your product or service does what you say it will do. Finally, remember to include a CTA (Call To Action)....

Blog is a contraction of ‘web log’. A blog is an online journal. It is chronological, so the most recent entry appears first. There are many reasons why you should have a blog for your enterprise. Here are seven of them: 1. Google likes to find blog within a website. If the search engines notices that something has changed within your website (i.e. that you have uploaded a new blog entry), it makes them happy. Imagine being a crawler and visiting a website that never changes. You would probably think: how boring. You can keep their interest by blogging frequently. 2. Writing makes you think. Talking about your area of expertise is fine. Writing about it is another thing entirely. In order to write something which is worth reading, you really have to think about it, don't you? 3. Your blog can feed your newsletter. I have lost count of the number of business people who have said to me: “What can I...

Body copy is a copywriting term. It denotes the main body of text within a marketing piece. For example, an advertisement has (1) a headline, (2) body copy and (3) a call to action. During my copywriting training workshops, I ask the attendees whether short or long body copy is best? Invariably, 90% of people are in favour of short text. "No one has time to read all that stuff," they tell me. However, someone at the back of the room says: "Write as much as you can." I proceed to have a debate with them. It transpires that they have tried short and long copy in various forms of promotion. They have found that long body copy gets better results. More engagement, more website visits, more enquiries, more sales. The reason is that when someone is in the market to buy something or has an interest in a topic, they want information. They are happy to 'read all about it'. If you have bought a property: did you read the surveyor's report? If you...

Building a brand is a central part of your marketing strategy and it should be included within your marketing plan. ► If your business is 'just you', then you are the brand. ► All enterprises should 'think brand'. ► All of your marketing activities affect your brand. ► Your brand is built on your values. Strong values create strong brands. “The art of marketing is largely the art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is what counts. When price is the only thing that counts, the only winner is the low-cost producer.” ~ Dr Philip Kotler Values Values are the basis of branding. Here is a list of some of them: Authority, Change, Communication, Cooperation, Creativity, Excellence, Happiness, Health, Helpfulness, Imagination, Integrity, Knowledge, Leadership, Learning, Love, Positive thinking, Privacy, Professionalism, Security, Service, Teamwork, Trust, Value List your values and ensure that staff, suppliers and customers can find them. Brand qualities Successful brands display certain qualities. For example: * They are...

Broken links within your website are bad news from an SEO and visitor's perspective. Here is a free broken link checker that we have used for many years: https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com...

Here is a website that will generate business names for you: https://namelix.com At the time of writing, it is free to use. Various filters can be applied, in order to generate different types of names. PS If you use namelix, you would have to check to see if anyone else is using the name, i.e. via a Google search, domain search and by looking at the Companies House website....

Here is free to use website button generator: https://www.clickminded.com/button-generator You can specify the background colour, which, incidentally, should be green as research has shown that this is the most effective colour for a call to action button. :)...

A marketing case study is a form of social proof. It shows prospective customers that you can deliver. Here is a case study structure: * What did they have before? * Why did they decide to change? * How did they find you? * Why did they decide to buy from you? * What did they think of the product / service? * What benefits are they receiving? * What have they got to say about you? (Testimonial) * What are their plans for the future? A case study is a story, told in the sequence that it happened. Add some images to your case studies. * Produce a PDF version of the case study to send to prospective customers * Create a blog using the cleared copy (as it contains lots of keyword phrases) * Add a Testimonials page to your website and include case study testimonials there * Consider sending out a press release to your media list * Scatter testimonials throughout your website * Include case studies with proposals...

Audience segmentation: ChatGPT can analyse your customer data and segment your audience based on demographics, behaviours and preferences; this can help you to tailor your marketing messages to specific groups of people with shared needs. (If you don’t have customer data, then you can use ChatGPT to help you to ‘think through’ this important topic). Content creation: ChatGPT can generate content such as blog posts, social media updates and email newsletters for your marketing campaigns. (NB you will need to read through the content and edit it; think of it as ‘draft copy’ that requires your knowledge and input). Personalisation: ChatGPT can use natural language processing (NLP) to analyse customer data and generate personalised marketing messages. Search Engine Optimisation: ChatGPT can help you to optimise your content for search engines. Social media ideas: Use ChatGPT to come up with new ideas for social media campaigns. Sentiment analysis: ChatGPT can analyse customer feedback and reviews to identify sentiment and help you...

ChatGPT Splitter allows you to upload multiple files and have them split into multiple chunks, which you can load to ChatGPT. Upload docx, code, PDF or image and click process. Then follow the generated sections, copy each chunk and feed it to ChatGPT. After you're done, ChatGPT will know the context of your documents and you can use it in your follow-up prompts: https://chatgptsplitter.com...

Your entire website may revolve around e-commerce or you may have a section of your website devoted to selling products or packaged services. Writing about products within websites can be harder than it looks, can't it? Here are some tips and ideas for you. Always see it from the busy customer's perspective. Who are they? What are they looking for? Why should they buy your product? Think of each product description as an advertisement in its own right. On this basis, you need a headline, some bodycopy, the price and a call to action. Headline The headline is the single most important item of copy. If the website visitor does not understand the headline, they will not read further. Product description headlines should clearly convey what the product is and what it does. If there is room, include a benefit as well. Many e-commerce product headlines only provide the product name. The problem being that this may not tell the busy website visitor what the product does or why they should...

Use the word ‘You’ as much as possible; don’t use the words ‘I’, 'Our' or ‘We’ so often. A good test is to go through your copy and count the number of times that you have used these words. Use ‘You’ four times as often as you use ‘I’, 'Our' or ‘We’ When people read your copy, it will come across as more personal and engaging....

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.  It encompasses the entire customer journey including all of the interactions with the customer. These include brand awareness, enquiries, first purchase, ongoing purchases, handling any problems that may arise, contact management, customer loyalty and advocacy. There are many CRM software platforms that can help with these processes. The best CRM software solution is the one that you actually use. CRM benefits What are the benefits of having a CRM system? After all, what is wrong with having all of your contacts in Outlook, Excel etc? Here are the benefits of having your own CRM software: 1. It keeps all of your customers and contacts in one place. This means that you can find customers and their contact information. You can divide your contacts in ways that makes sense to your enterprise . You can then communicate with people with shared needs. 2. Your own CRM is the best phone directory you will ever have (on the assumption that you enjoy talking to...

A customer segment = a group of people with shared needs. This is a core marketing principle. Notice that no mention is made of demographic information (B2C) or job titles (B2B). If you have a clear understanding of the customer segments that you are communicating with, your marketing will be more effective. There will be higher levels of message repetition. Customers will get a better feeling about you, as your messages will be relevant to them....

Customers can solve their problems by buying your products or services or those of your competitors. If you do not have direct competitors, there will be generic competition. It is important to differentiate your enterprise. Most enterprises do not spend sufficient time thinking through this key issue. Consider it from the customer's perspective: Why is your business, brand, charity, product or service different from other providers? As a human being, you are unique. You are one of a kind amongst billions of human beings. Think of your enterprise in this way. What is special about it? What makes it different from your competitors? The business guru and author, Michael Porter, says that there are only two fundamental business strategies: Low Cost and Differentiation. For example, there are many retailers who promote low prices. However, many retailers focus on low prices and go out of business. The other strategy is differentiation. Another way of saying this is: ‘Standing out from the crowd’. List the ways in which you are different from everyone else. Write it down like this:...