Podboxer - 🎧 Busy work for nerds

Research isn't just for nerds

• Even if you think you know your customer, you don't. They change over time, you have biases. It's important to get into their shoes to understand them and break some of the assumptions.
• Reviews and testimonials mining is a great place for research. Even if you don't have your own, look at competitors and other products solving same solution.
• You're looking for frequently mentioned pain points, benefits of that solution, hesitations / anxieties, outcomes.
• Pull out recurring themes. Use a text analyzer to check for frequent words.
• Look for sticky copy - phrases that punch you in the gut 🥊. New ways of looking at the product that grab attention and create visuals in the mind.
• On competitors, look for the negatives, the frustrations. If you can solve those frustrations it’s an opportunity to ensure your messaging highlights it.
• If you can get on the phone with real people then it's even better. You'll get richer insights in a shorter period of time vs survey or mining reviews.
• Interview them about the Before, During and After:
  • Before: How they solved solution before, what led them to the solution like yours, what frustrations were they experiencing. 
  • During: What criteria did they use to evaluate. What surprises about working with you, what frustrates about working with you.
  • After: What results have they been able to achieve.
• All the research goes into building out the right page structure and using the right messaging to grab attention.
• Every part of your copy has just one job:
  • Headline: hook and grab attention
  • Sub headline: expand and provide context for the headline
  • Headings: context for people who scan. If you could only read them, could you walk away with the gist of what’s on offer
• Write the copy like your reader needs to pee. You’ve got to keep them there. Keep their attention.
• Every line needs to have a good reason to be there. Going through copy and ask “Does this need to be here?”
• Add specificity. Ask “could I be more specific? Is there a better example, better way of bringing this in”
• Copywriting process - something that universally holds true... You should always come back to it and review later.
• Think of pulling the page together as building lego. Write blocks of copy and assemble them later. Blank page can feel daunting.

The right way to use affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing and Humanizing Relationships with Miles Beckler

Enjoyed this interview with Miles Beckler (veteran digital / affiliate marketer). Love his enthusiasm for what he does.

For me personally, this episode puts affiliate marketing in a new light. A far more value add way to diversify income. Especially for service based businesses.

The interview is not only focused on affiliate marketing and has some good discussion on content and building an audience for it.

Lessons learned

• Affiliate marketing is a way to monetize a segment that many business owners neglect - the ones that don't want / can't afford the service, but want to learn to do it themselves. It goes like this:
  • I use this tool
  • I get great results
  • Let me show you how I use it
  • Click here if you want it too
  • Fully disclosed affiliate link. No BS and nothing sneaky.
• Affiliate marketing done wrong is thinking and acting like you're just a middleman.
• If you're using social networks for distribution, plan for them to pull back on organic reach. It always happens:
  • In the early days they need content creators to help them grow.
  • When they hit network effect there's enough content being shared so don't need to help boost the creators.
• Always be building your email audience. It's the only one you really own.
• BUT... the money isn't in the list. It's in the relationship.
• For getting started creating content and building audience:
  • Choose a medium - audio, video or written.
  • Force yourself out of your comfort zone. Do a challenge for 90 days and stay consistent.
  • Don't focus on too many learning curves at once. Focus on one.
  • The process of doing something everyday will make it better and better (everyone's first podcasts, videos or blog posts aren't great. Yours will be terrible too. Own it and keep going anyway).
• Simple frameworks and constraints mean one less thing to think about (Miles talking about his short, sharp YouTube intros)