Advertising

Why does everyone focus on the wrong part of creating ads?

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I finished writing another module of my paid ads course today.

This particular module might very well be the one many people on my list might be the most excited about. Especially because it’s the one topic so many people seem to dread where they have no idea how to even go about it.

In fact, almost anyone I’ve ever spoken with about this seems to spend most of their time worrying about this very topic… even though, it barely matters!

You might be shocked to hear that I’m talking about… writing the body copy for your ad!!

That’s right, I said it.

The body copy of your ad barely matters. It only affects about 20%, if even that much, of the total effectiveness of your ad. Much more important than the copy is the image (or video) and the big idea behind what you’re selling.

Yet so many people seem to flip this on it’s head…

They only care a tiny bit about the big idea. They barely think about the creative at all—for most who enter the advertising game, creatives are only an afterthought, and spend all their time writing and coming up with clever ways to write their copy, trying to sell the customer, who, let me remind you, is mindlessly scrolling on Facebook before they see your ad, not even thinking about anything else but the copy!

That’s the complete opposite of how you want to approach creating your ads.

Anyway, enough judging about what other people spend their time on. I trust you know better.

Speaking of spending your time on what really matters… While you’re waiting to buy my paid ads course which I’ll be releasing soon, why don’t you check out Email Valhalla?

You can do so here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Am I adding too much information to my courses?

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I finished writing all of the more “technical” modules of the paid ads course I’m working on.

Modules such as how to set up your facebook ad account, how to install your pixel, how to get it to track the right events, and other boring technicalities most people don’t want anything to with.

I won’t say these modules were hell to write, but they sure weren’t paradise either.

And, to be fair, I could just as easily have said “look it up on Google, there are tons of articles out there showing you how it step by step”. Chances are that these articles would have better instructions as well.

But still I found it worthwhile to write and include these types of modules.

For one, if my experience selling info-products taught me one thing, it’s that almost nobody cares about “too much information”. Worse case scenario, people just skip a particular module, never even bothering to check it out.

However, the vast majority of people decide NOT to buy if they think there’s “too little” information. Especially if they feel that they, themselves, might not be “good” enough at a certain aspect, something they fear the product they’re thinking about buying might take for granted and not even bother explaining…

Such as the technical setup of an ad account or a Facebook pixel.

It wouldn’t be the first paid ad course that assumes everything is perfectly set up already.

So, while most people might not need it, it doesn’t hurt for me to add it and it can only make the course a much better product.

Anyway, do with this information what you want. I’m certain you’ll find a way to get something useful out of it.

I would love to promote my ad course right now, and I’ll definitely set one of my signature pre-purchase promotions sometime soon… but not yet.

For now, I’d highly recommend you to check out my course, Product Creation Made Easy, if you enjoyed reading the above anecdote about how I increase the quality of the products I make. Because you’ll learn a lot more similar (and highly valuable) lessons about how to make a high quality course in Product Creation Made Easy.

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


David Ogilvy’s 13 predictions about the future of advertising

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The final chapter of Ogilvy on Advertising is titled “I predict 13 changes”. As the name might suggest, in it David Ogilvy listed 13 changes related to advertising he thought would occur in the future.

Ogilvy wrote the book in 1983, which means we’re already 42 years into the future, so let’s take a look at some of those predictions, shall we?

Some of them aged like fine wine. Others not so much.

One of the best predictions reads, “There will be a vast increase in the use of advertising by governments for purposes of education, particularly health education.”

I’m not sure how much I agree on the health education aspect, but there’s definitely a big increase in government advertising—an overall good thing to see.

One of my personal favorite prediction reads, “There will be a renaissance in print advertising”. While, as far as I’m aware, this is far from the case—many businesses still overlook print advertising, at least in the form of direct-response advertising (the only exception is B2B advertising, for which direct mail is still being used a ton)—I do feel a movement popping up of people going back to print advertising, particularly direct mail, even direct-response newspaper ads such as the infamous advertorial.

This might just be because that’s what I personally want to see and I’m living in my own bubble. But still, let me have it for now.

Here are a few fun ones that didn’t pan out as expected:

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“Advertising will play a part in bringing the population explosion under control”

“Candidates for political office will stop using dishonest advertising”

“Direct-response advertising will cease to be a separate specialty, and will be folded into the ‘general’ agencies”

“Advertising will contain more information and less hot air”

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The first one, ironically, did happen… only to cause worlwide major underpopulation issue requring government bodies to spend tons of money encouraging people to have more children.

But I’ll let you be the judge of those other three.

As for the last one, that might just be a good sign for you. Most advertisements you see today are nothing more than hot air. Just some branding, a vague slogan, a few nice pictures, quite often some random celebrity to associate with the product (which has been proven to be less effective for over 50 years already), and sometimes the price, or more precisely, a discount…

Yet no or very little information about the product to be found (note: I’m not speaking bad about brand awareness campaigns major multinationals like you see Coca-Cola or Redbull doing—they’replaying a different game)

So what’s, the good news?

Well, that just means there’s less competition for you to create high-converting direct-response style ads that sell.

And one, maybe less intuitive, way I found helpful to teach me how to write better information-rich ads that convert is by writing daily emails. Writing these emails forces me to, well… write. But do it in an engaging, fun, and informational way that keeps people reading day after day. Even if people live busy lives and I have to compete for their attention with all the other unread emails in their emails, forcing me even more to grab their attention straight away without letting go.

So while I can’t promise you’ll be writing killer ads starting tomorrow, you might just find learning to write engaging daily emails a worthwhile skill to get better at.

If so, consider checking out my flagship course which teaches you all about it.

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


How important are big ideas, truly?

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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/


The obvious thing to do would be to read this email

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A few days ago I found myself receiving, reading, and finishing a small pamphlet-sized book titled “Obvious Adams” in under an hour.

The book tells the story of a young man, who wasn’t particularly creative or quick-witted, yet, but still entered the advertising world, quickly made a name for himself, rose up to become vice-president of the biggest advertising agency, and surprised everyone with his incredibly successful, very profitable, yet all the while extremely simple and ‘obvious’ solutions, resulting in some of the biggest and best advertising campaigns of all time.

It’s not so much a “teaching you what to do” book, but much more a how to do it and, more importantly, how NOT to do it.

The message of the book itself is quite boring, somewhat logical, and completely “obvious” when said out loud. Yet still so very often forgotten, especially in the sales, marketing, and advertising industries.

I.e. analyze the situation, think about it, and do the obvious thing—don’t make it any more difficult than it has to be.

Speaking of.

The obvious thing to do for me would be to tell you to check out Email Valhalla.

After all, it’s only obvious that learning how to write better and more entertaining emails that get you paid is the best thing almost anyone in business can do.

So check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


To sponsor or not to sponsor

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Once in a while, I’ll write an email, plugging someone else’s offer, doing a sponsor deal, or even including a classified (or PPC) ad—like you saw me do two days ago.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that last year.

Not because I didn’t think I could do so (everyone can) but simply because, at least back then, I told myself I’d do any ads because why would I advertise for someone else’s stuff if I could just sell my own and earn more?

I still believe that, at least to a certain extent, but, as with anything, there are exceptions.

First, sometimes you just don’t care, don’t want to offer, or simply can’t offer (either because of a lack of expertise, time, or other resources) a certain solution that would help your readers out.

Would it then be fair to withhold such an opportunity from your readers?

No, of course not.

My main goal, first and foremost, will always be to keep the customer and the market in mind, think about what they want (read: need—the customer doesn’t even know what they want, let alone what they truly need), and how I can offer it to them.

So in that case, I’ll gladly refer people to someone else to buy from or do business with—and if I can get paid for it in the meantime, then even better.

Another one.

There’s always unused capacity in everything you do—daily emails are no exception.

Yeah, I can write daily emails selling my own stuff all the time (and I mostly do), but I can’t be running promotions 24/7, and even when I’m not running promotions, there’s always a diminishing return from sending more emails (most people don’t send enough emails to notice it though, me including). So withholding one email here and there to write an affiliate email or do a sponsored post is making use of the unused capacity and filling the gap or “less optimized” email you would otherwise have sent.

Last but not least.

It’s simple and doesn’t require much (if any) investment on your part (not every reason has to be profound, right?).

Anyway.

This has been an important lesson for me (and one I found valuable enough to share with you) and marks another clear sign of personal growth in my entrepreneurial journey of email marketing.

That said.

If you’d like to pick up pace in your own journey and learn more about email marketing and building, growing, and selling to your list then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


The numbers, Mason! What do they mean?

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I’m currently in the midst of creating a course about paid advertising.

More specifically, a course about paid advertising aimed towards creatives (including self-published fiction authors).

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times before in previous emails. And everytime I do so I always get some questions from readers eager to get their hands on it.

Sometimes those questions are to ask when the course is coming, what they can expect from it, and whether it’s going to help them in particular.

Other times it’s questions from people wanting some help with their ads at the moment.

One of those “help me” questions I got recently was about how to navigate the enormous dashboard of data, statistics, acronyms, and confusing numbers every major ad platform throws at you.

What’s important, what does it all mean, and how should you decide what to do depending on what those numbers are telling you?

A good (and popular) question indeed.

More.

Watch any video about paid advertising, open any book, go to any course, and chances are you’ll get overwhelmed with all kinds of numbers, acronyms, and terminology to the point of utter and complete confusion where you don’t know what to do.

More often than not people will immediately stop right then and there, thinking this is way too complicated (they’re right) and it’s not for them (they’re wrong).

The truth is, most courses are making it way more difficult than it needs to be (almost as if they’re doing it on purpose, hoping you’ll ask the author of the course if they have a “done-for-you” service—which they almost always have).

But all of that is completely unnecessary.

In fact, there are only really three (3!) numbers/acronyms you need to know to run a successful business powered by paid advertising.

These three numbers alone can help you decide whether your ads are working, if you should let them keep running as is, switch it up, try other variations, add upsells or downsells to your funnel, try another marketing angle, switch up the targeting, adjust your phrasing, limit the daily budget, and so much more.

Even more.

Those course creators I talked about before?

Most of them pretty much only rely on these three numbers as well. They don’t always mention they do, but at the end of the day. Those are the only ones that matter.

Which three numbers I’m referring to and exactly how to approach them for you and your business can be found in my upcoming and soon-to-be-released paid ads course.

For now, you’ll just have to hang tight and keep your eyes open.

If, however, you have ad-related questions or topics you’d like me to address, feel free to reply to this email and let me know.

I won’t promise I’ll have the answer, but chances are pretty high I do.


They Laughed When I Made An Email List – But When The Sales Started Coming In!

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There are two types of people in life:

Those who recognized the subject line and those who didn’t.

Let me explain:

See, one of the most famous ads ever written was the historic masterpiece written by John Caples and its headline was “They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano – But When I Started to Play!”

Caples then goes on to tell a (made up—which is dubious in its own right and quite possibly illegal nowadays) story about a man who sat down to play piano at a gathering with his friends.

The good friends they are all started laughing because this man had (as far as they were aware) never played a single note in his life.

But then, suddenly the man started playing the most magnificent music anyone had ever heard.

He earned admiration and respect from every single person in the room.

He then tells the story of how he learned to play piano from some music institutes across the country which would send him these lesson bundles to practice on your own (the product the ad is about).

The ad made a shit ton of money and with it easily became one of the most swiped and copied ads ever.

Which is laughably stupid.

Not the money-making part, it’s a good ad. But the swiping part.

The only thing you’re doing with swiping, well, anything, is shooting yourself in the foot. You’re not original, your audience will realize, you will look stupid, nobody will buy your stupid stuff, and you lose all credibility you had as a marketer—which probably wasn’t a lot to begin with since if you’re down to copy someone else’s work, you’re probably also doing a lot of other dubious stuff that hurts your credibility.

Am I calling swipe files stupid? No.

I’m calling the act of swiping stupid.

Swipe files are great for idea generation, to learn what makes something “good” and to improve your own ability.

I have a swipe file full of old-school ads (before 1990) which I open every morning when I hand copy an entire ad—a practice Gary Bencivenga, the world’s greatest living copywriter, and many other top players recommend.

But the stuff you write?

No, that needs to be original.

Your thoughts, your ideas, your interests, your style, and your structure.

You’ll never see me talk about swiping inside my courses. I simply don’t teach you how to copy, how to mindlessly follow some checklist that will undoubtedly end up with bad results, nor how to be a fraud and destroy your entire reputation and credibility.

I give you the tools and principles you need to succeed together with the freedom to experiment and grow on your own personal journey.

I created my courses as more of a guiding hand in the right direction than a step-by-step template on how to do something.

Anyway.

If this didn’t scare you off (which I hope it didn’t because you shouldn’t be on my list in that case) then go check out Email Valhalla today.

Why?

Because I said so. (how’s that for persuasive communication, huh?)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


When (not to) run ads

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As with everything, the answer to “Should I run ads?” is “It depends”.

It all comes down to your current situation and what you’re trying to achieve.

For one, if you don’t have anything to sell yet, it wouldn’t make sense to run any ads. Sure, some people argue running ads can be beneficial to grow your list—which it is. But simply having a list filled with people without having anything to sell to them is a recipe for disaster—let alone the fact that you can’t possibly target your ad towards qualified buyers if you don’t even have anything to sell.

See, business has to be done in the right order.

First, you look at the market you want to sell to. Next, you discover the problems that plague that market. After you made a list of problems, it’s time to pick one or more (preferably one) and build a solution for that problem.

Then, and only then, can it be beneficial to run ads.

A specialized ad speaking to people in your market who struggle with your chosen problem AND want to solve said problem.

Notice how I explicitly mentioned people who want to solve that problem. There’s no point selling people something they don’t want. You won’t convince people that they have a problem. You can only make them aware of just how big a problem is if they’ve already experienced minor issues relating to that problem.

In this short amount of time I’ve already covered multiple mistakes many people make when it comes to running ads—major problems as well, the kind that could cost you thousands every single month if you’re not careful.

And this is sadly just the beginning.

I’ll dive deeper into the many, many mistakes people tend to make over and over again in my upcoming paid ads course for independent creatives.

More information about the course and its release coming soon.

In the meantime, reply back to me with any and all advertising-related questions you’d like me to cover in the course and I’ll make sure to include them as best as I can.


The Great Paid Ads Revolution

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These past few days I occasionally mentioned the new paid ads course I’m working on.

While doing so I’ve gotten a good amount of replies from people.

Some were eager to know when they could expect the course to be finished, others wanted to share their experiences running paid ads and ask for my advice about what I would do in their situation.

Either way, it seems quite some people are enthusiastic about running paid ads (now or in the future).

This got me wondering.

What are your thoughts about using paid traffic to consistently and predictably grow your email list, build a stable income stream, and free up more time which you can spend writing, drawing, fishing, raiding along the shores of Madagascar, or doing whatever your heart desires?

Are you currently running paid ads by any chance? Have you experimented with them in the past but couldn’t make it work? Or are simply planning on playing around with paid traffic in the future but haven’t gotten around to it yet?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above questions, then I’d love to hear more about you and your situation.

What you like about it, what you struggle with, what you’re afraid of, and especially what you’re hoping to accomplish with your paid ads endeavors.

Simply hit reply and let me know.