How important are big ideas, truly?

by

Once upon a time the great, late David Ogilvy wrote:

“It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers… Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

And so it goes for a whole lot more than just your advertising. In fact, chances are, unless your product contains a big idea, it’ll be a pain in the proverbial to sell, let alone sell to a cold audience who’s never heard of you before.

Sure, some products can sell without a big idea. But those usually die off extremely quickly. You also won’t find many such products in many markets. You might have a shot in some unsaturated markets here or there, but for the most part you’re out of luck.

Not having a big idea in your product, service, marketing, advertising, or anything else means you’re either competing on mechanism, brand recognition, or, worst of all, price.

This whole lesson is something I’ve only begon to truly understand in the past couple of months.

I’ve heard about big ideas before then. People had told me how important they are. I acted as if I knew what they were talking about—I even acted as if I made all of my products with big ideas in mind…

But truth be told, I didn’t know jack shit.

It’s a giant concept that takes a whole lot of personal experience and skin in the game to truly comprehend just how important it is.

For one, what makes a big idea “BIG”? And where do they come from? Do you just come up with them or do you have to find them somewhere? Can you turn a regular idea into a “big idea”? How can you truly test, with real life feedback from your target audience, whether your big idea is actually good? And what do you do once you’ve finally found a big idea?

There are so many once you take the time to dig deeper and truly look into it. But luckily for you, I’ve already done most of the heavy lifting in getting to the bottom of it.

More.

I’ve dedicated the entire first issue of my new monthly newsletter, Alex’s Marketing Adventures to the topic of Big Ideas.

I give you all of the information you need to know. All that’s left to do for you is to make sure you’re subscribed to my Marketing Adventures before the deadline, which is tomorrow the 31st at midnight CET, then read the issue I’ll send straight to your inbox the next day.

Go here for more information about my Marketing Adventures: https://alexvandromme.com/adventures/


My fantastic marketing adventures and where to find them

by

Yesterday I teased about a new offer I brought to life…

A unique way to write truly in-depth about different topics I find extremely interesting—a way that’s incredibly valuable and highly entertaining. Something I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while now already, but never really started with.

In a way this goes back to my roots. To the time when I still wrote weekly emails (for those who’ve been around long enough to remember).

What a wildly different time that was…

In a way, this new offer is also a completely different beast than those weekly emails. Sure, I did some research for those weekly emails. But never really that much. Those were mostly stuff I thought about on the spot, something I felt like writing about regardless of what I was currently doing. And something that, more often than not, I could write in just one go.

Not so much for this current offer.

It’s wildly more in-depth and easily 10–15 times longer while being better writing with less fluff because I 1) take my time writing, revising, and improving this new offer and 2) because I’ve become a better writer overall in the last 2 years.

The offer in question?

Something I like to call Alex’s Marketing Adventures because that’s main theme. Thoroughly sharing what I learn on all of my adventures (and believe me, they’re real adventures), which mostly have to do with marketing in some way or another.

More precisely, Alex’s Marketing Adventures is an entirely digital monthly newsletter, delivered directly to your inbox every 1st of the month, but with a slightly different structure and premise to it.

The crux?

At the end of every month, I’ll look back at what I spend most of my time doing, researching, and learning about and that’ll be the topic of the Marketing Adventure of the month.

And the very first issue—which I’ll send out in just three days and for which the deadline to join is March 31st at midnight CET, that’s in 2 days—is all about “Fantastic Big Ideas and Where to Find Them”.

But more about that and what you can expect from that first issue in tomorrow’s email.

For now, if you’d like to learn more about Alex’s Marketing Adventures and decide whether it’s something you might be interested in (before the deadline in 2 days to get the first issue), then I’d highly suggest you check it out now.

Here’s the link to learn more: https://alexvandromme.com/adventures/


It’s about damn time

by

For quite a while now, I’ve been looking into different possibilities of how to write truly long, detailed, and extremely in-depth about all kinds of topics I’m extremely interested and excited about in a way that’s both incredibly valuable and highly entertaining.

I thought about starting to write long-form articles and posting them on my website. That could work. It might even improve my SEO a bit and get me some tractions from Google, helping me passively grow my list that way.

But it just didn’t feel right… I might still do this, but not yet.

And sure, I could make new courses about everything, but a course doesn’t always scratch the same itch. A course isn’t as timely or personal as I’d like some of my writing to be.

So I thought of something else.

Something I’m incredibly excited for. Something I should’ve started a long time ago, in fact. And something I’ll share a lot more details about in the following days.

But for now, while there’s still a surprise factor to it, check out what I’m talking about right here: https://alexvandromme.com/adventures/


On book-cleaning duty

by

Just the other day I was cleaning my wishlist for future books to buy and read.

And with ‘cleaning’ I mean deleting all of the overrated junk books I added to that list over 2 years ago when I didn’t know what actual good quality books—both fiction and non-fiction—looked like and I purely followed whatever was hot at the time or whatever the “top 10 books to read” listicle of the month was being shared on Twitter.

That’s how I ended up with books such as Think and Grow Rich, Atomic Habits, The 48 Laws of Power, How to Win Friends & Influence People, The Four Agreements, The Daily Stoic, and many, many others like it on my bookshelf.

Some of them I read, some of them I only read a few pages before dumping them and moving on to the next.

But all in all, I’m glad to be able to remove all of these books from my wishlist and to recognize the quality of the books I once read, and sometimes even adored, in the past. It shows me how much I’ve grown. How much I’ve learned and come to realize what matters and what doesn’t. And most importantly, how much I’ve trained my bullshit, or in kinder words, my flawed-argument-aimed-at-a-mass-market-audience detector.

Now, I have no idea how many books I removed or how many were on my list when I started—I didn’t check.

But I do know how many I’ve got on my wishlist right now… over 500 books!

Just to give some perspective: I only really started reading, collecting, and wishlisting books in the past 2 years or so and my current collection of books in my bookshelf is just shy of a 100.

I might have said this before, but if you would’ve told me about this just 3–4 years ago I would’ve called you crazy. Me? Reading books daily? And having a ginormous list of books I want to read??

Truly absurd.

Anyway. I don’t really know where I’m going with this except for sharing a fun and perhaps insightful anecdote about your ability to predict to future.

As for another future prediction I feel a lot more confident in than the knowledge of what I’ll enjoy doing in 5 years time: despite people saying email has been dead for years and years now, email doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. In fact, even with Google’s latest announcement of making it easier for people to check their current email subscriptions all in one place, and allowing them to easily unsubscribe, this will only make it so much more lucrative for people who know what they’re doing, who write engaging emails people want to read, and who aren’t seen as yet another newsletter filling their inbox with spam.

As time goes on, the competition will only get smaller.

So now might just be a great time to improve your email writing ability and prepare for what’s to come in a way that’s all but guaranteed to grow your skillset, your business, and your wallet.

To do so, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Let this email be an important reminder for you about the power of effort

by

I’ve written about consistency a lot in the (not-so-recent) past.

And when looking back, I have to admit: I’ve been losing mine. The reasons for this are plentiful, but if I had to pick just one or two, it’d have to be because of the many new projects I’ve been juggling at the same time while simultaneously not being as motivated, or for a better word, excited, about many of them.

It’s not that I don’t care about these projects—on the contrary.

Instead, it’s because I stopped putting in as much effort as I once did. I tried to do more while doing less, instead of accepting the reality that trying to do more at once means I’ll have to put in even more effort into everything I do.

There’s no “this thing can wait because I’m working on something else right now”.

No.

That diversion of focus snowballs into the next day, and the next, and the next, and before you know it you’ve been half-assing your work, finding shortcuts wherever you can, losing momentum, and getting a whole lot less done than you were if you simply stuck to just doing one thing—but doing it well.

As seasoned readers of mine know, I’m equally speaking to you, my reader, as I am having a conversation with myself. One that’s true, honest, transparent, and highly necessary—a practice I may or may not have neglected for too long.

With that said.

From now on, you can expect a lot more effort from me in my writing once again. You might even speak of a resurgence or revival of my writing where I’m going back to creating with the same rigor, passion, and effort that I did before.

You may also expect a new release of offers soon—something I haven’t done for many months now. I won’t reveal what those new creations are just yet. But know, if all goes as planned, they’ll be crafted with even more passion and effort than before.

I hope this message is a welcome reminder in your inbox of something vitally important.

In the meantime, my opinion about the power of email as a medium still remains unchanged. If anything, it has only gotten stronger. So I can only recommend you to check out Email Valhalla if you’d like to learn how to write highly engaging emails people love to read and buy from.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Social media is an untapped goldmine of information

by

I’m not a big fan of social media.

But, rather counterintuitively, I do spend a lot of time on social media. Focused and targeted time that is.

More specifically…

I spend lots of time on social media—think Reddit, Instagram, and Youtube—doing market research. The amount of information I’ve discovered simply be thoughtfully scrolling through social media, i.e., carefully paying attention to emerging trends, seeing what’s popular (and why), then interacting with (or ignoring) specific content to “train” the algorithm to show me more (or less) of a specific type of content so I can learn more about certain trends and niches as a whole—as well as checking out the comments and interactions people have with that type of content to learn what attracts people, why it attracts them, and what gets people to take action themselves (giving their email, downloading a lead magnet, buying something,…) instead of merely saying “that’s cool/pretty/cute/beautiful!” and scrolling onto the next thing.

Used correctly these mediums are nothing short but a goldmine.

Even if you have nothing to do with that specific niche. Simply seeing how another audience—one that shares just a few similarities (age, location, interests,…)—interacts when left alone is information that’s quite literally invaluable to get your hands on.

A good marketer aims to know their audience better than they know themselves after all.

Another way to get to know your audience better is by staying in daily contact with the people who buy from you. Something you can easily by writing daily entertaining emails they love to read (and reply to).

If you’d like to learn how to do that, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Focus on the fundamentals

by

Just yesterday I started all over with a new project I’m working on.

Everything I did so far, for the last month or so, all of it for nothing. Starting again, from scratch, nothing to latch on to. Nothing to re-use, recycle, or repurpose.

Nothing…

Except for one thing….

The experience I’ve built up from the previous project and the knowledge I’ve gained about the process. This experience allowed (and will allow me) to get to the same place I was previously, which took me over a month to get to, in less than a week.

That’s what happens when you focus on the fundamentals.

When you prioritize learning the process, understanding the why instead of the what.

That’s why step-by-step framework and solutions are a trap most of the time. Sure, the process might get you great results, but they cause many people to lose sight of what’s important—to understand why the process works instead of merely being able to replicate it.

Because there will come a day when you won’t be able to replicate the same result following the same old steps. Something, somewhere will have changed. And you will have to change along with it.

Those who want to survive need to learn (and learn to adapt).

Speaking of learning the fundamentals…

In my course, Email Valhalla, I primarily focus on teaching you the fundamentals of great engaging email writing that keeps people reading day after day. If that’s something you’d like to learn then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Said is dead

by

If you’ve ever dabbled in writing, especially in fiction, you might have heard someone say “Said is dead” before.

Now, in case you haven’t, all you have to know is that it refers to dialogue attribution. Think of something like the following:

===

“What time is the store closing?” said Bob.
“Normally around 8 pm,” said the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 10 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” said Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob said, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” said the bartender.

===

You may (or may not) have noticed all the abundance of “said” used in the above text. Truth is, that’s how writing has almost always been done. And it worked.

In fact, most people don’t even notice the amount of times “said” is being written. So nothing to worry about, right?

Except, because people can’t stand doing the same thing over and over again, especially from a writing perspective where it becomes painstakingly obvious, they have to reinvent the wheel and switch it up all the time.

That might lead to something like this:

===

“What time is the store closing?” Bob cried out.
“Normally around 8 pm,” groaned the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 11 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” bellowed Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob smirked drunkenly, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” groaned the bartender again.

===

Hopefully you realize how terrible this is.

Yet, I can guarantee you, this happens… A LOT. Especially with new self-published authors who think they’re the second coming of Shakespeare.

How many times have you heard someone “smirk drunkenly”?

Now, that’s not to say the first text with all the saids scattered in it couldn’t be improved (it can). But by using attribution such as “he replied”, “he added”, “he asked”, “he explained”.

But anyway, enough about that—you probably didn’t sign up to this list to get lectured about dialogue attribution.

The point I’m trying to make is that people will gladly choose an objectively worse option over a better and long-established one, simply because they crave something new.

And so it goes when people decide to put all their trust in social media and say some absurd lines such as, “email is dead”.

It’s not.

It never was. And it likely never will be.

So until then, I highly suggest you practice and hone your email writing skills for the entire medium is a longstanding and objectively better, safer, and even more forgiving, option.

And on that note, check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


People are naturally anti-cheap, despite what everyone claims

by

I remember when I last went shopping for some new climbing shoes.

As most people do when buying something, especially when it’s your first time and you have no idea what to look for, I did some research on the different types of climbing shoes, what makes each shoe different, what a good shoe should have (and what it shouldn’t), and some other tips and tricks to know whether a shoe fits me and my climbing style.

So, armed with my newfound knowledge, I went to my local sports equipment store to find myself a new pair of shoes.

There were so, so many different shoes, but eventually I narrowed it down to three pairs of shoes that had all the qualities I was looking for (and which I found visually appealing, an importance that can’t be understated, of course)

Out of those three, one had a price way above what I was willing to spend at that time.

So only two remained…

As far as I could tell, the features were the same. They both looked equally nice. They both fit my feet (and my climbing style) equally well. And they were almost identical when it came to the specific attributes that mattered.

The only difference was the price…

One of them was about $50 and the other was $80. (this happened quite a while ago, so the real figures could differ, but the relative difference was more or less the same)

Now, seeing as both shoes were more or less the same, you would think I, or any other rational, thinking human being, would have chosen the $50 pair of shoes and continued with their day, right? Right??

Well, that’s not what happened.

Instead my mind, even though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, went “Huh, why is this one almost half the price of the other one? There must be something wrong with it.”Of course, I had no idea what that something was. And I’m not even sure if there actually was something wrong with it in the first place. But this, seemingly odd, behavior isn’t all that weird when you look at how people make buying decisions.

In fact, that’s how most, if not all, people think—or at least in circumstances where money isn’t a major issue and people actually have a choice to make instead of being forced into one.

This is why merely “competing on price” isn’t a viable strategy.

There are, of course, many reasons for that. One of them is that, as Dan Kennedy said, “There’s no strategic advantage to being the second cheapest…”, and I can guarantee you there are always dozens of others who will compete with you to be the cheapest of all, resulting in an arms race to going out out business.

Another, which neatly ties up my shopping adventure, is that, to the consumer, price is an indicator of quality and people simply won’t trust something that’s cheap… unless there’s a narrative around it as to where the cost savings are made.

That’s why Ikea can afford to be “cheap”, you have to build the damn thing yourself, after all.

Funnily enough, that’s why Ryanair not only has to be cheap, it has to look and sound cheap as well. If they acted like any other normal airline, people wouldn’t trust their prices and decide not to fly with them. Instead, Ryanair does everything it can to uphold its reputation of “cheapness” so there’s a surrounding narrative as to why tickets are so cheap compared to other airlines.

Moral of the story: if you want to compete on price, you better create a narrative as to why that’s the case. Otherwise, just increase your prices, increase the perceived quality, and call it a day.

Speaking of quality.

It might not be cheap, but one of my best-selling courses, Product Creation Made Easy will teach you how to easily ideate, create, and launch profitable digital products in 21 days or less.

There’s even an entire module on pricing strategies!

Seriously, check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/pcme/


“Does this catch your attention?”

by

Here’s an oddly specific, yet potentially priceless, piece of random information you might be glad to learn.

From the book Ogilvy on Advertising:

“When you put your headline in quotes, you increase recall by an average of 28 per cent.”

More.

Even though it’s wisdom—possibly timeless wisdom—being shared by the great late David Ogilvy, I’m not simply reading it in a book, believing it at face value, writing about it in an email, and sharing it with you, hoping you believe it at face value as well and think more highly of me as a result.

Instead, I’ve been actively testing this odd—be honest, it does seem a bit weird, why would a few curly lines change anything about how people recall information?—piece of advice myself in one of my hobby projects. And I haven’t just been testing the headline of the sales page. No, no, I’ve been testing it on every single sub-headline as well.

You see, where bigger brands, are playing an entirely different game than you and I—a game of brand recognition and perception—I’m playing a more simple game. A more relaxing game I find as well. A game with only two possible outcomes:

Making the sale or not making the sale.

So increased recall isn’t that valuable to me—there’s an argument saying it matters for retargeting campaigns, but let’s not go there now. What is valuable to me is skimmability. After all, we know almost nobody actually reads a sales page. People quickly scroll through it, read the headlines, look for a section or two they care about, and immediately know whether they’ll buy the product or not.

If you don’t believe me, do some heatmap studies of your sales pages (or look up some recent studies) and you’ll see this phenomenon time and time again.

Anyway.

For my, not so, scientific experiment, my question was, “Does putting my subheadlines in quotes (presumably) increase skimmability, and increase my conversion rate?”

Turns out, it does.

Or at least, it might. While this small change improved my metrics, I have no scientifically accurate way of knowing whether the quotes were the actual reason, let alone a causal connection instead of merely a correlation (read: I can’t be arsed setting up a proper scientific experiment in a controlled environment so this will do).

So there you have it.

Try it out if you want, don’t try it out if you think it sounds like a bunch of majoring in the minors, which I won’t deny it might be.

That said, if you enjoy reading tips and tricks on creating better-converting sales pages, then you might want to check out my course, Sales Page Sorcery.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/sorcery/