When you hear about something new, make sure it is actually new by relating it to what is already known, done, accepted in your field.
It happens quite often, in marketing for example, that a new concept is a mere rebranding of old tactics. This is done, more or less unconsciously, in part to ensure tactics stay relevant, in part to appeal to a new wave of workers, in part to protect the work of marketers (who are by definition creative and innovative).
The basics of marketing have not changed much in the past decades. The best way for you to be in marketing these days is to start from them and build your way to what is new, not the other way around.
Some products manage to make the internet buzz at launch, and that has certainly been the case with Hey.com, the new (subscription based) e-mail service by Basecamp.
I am probably not the right audience for it, and still there are three things they have done wonderfully. Three things marketers (and entrepreneurs) can learn from.
They have started with a manifesto. Hey is not a mere product, it is a way of life. A philosophy, as they put it. And that is just what you need when you are trying to refresh something everybody else is giving up for dead. They have plenty of bold statements in their manifesto (“they let email down”, “you don’t use Hey to check your Gmail account, you use Hey to check your Hey account”, “it’s time to push back”), and by being bold they are carving their own audience.
They present features in a way that is pleasant to watch, read and navigate. The animated pictures leave little to interpretation and get straight to the point. The language they use is easy to understand and relate to (“fix bad subjects withouth busting threads”). They address possible common questions instead of wasting space describing their technology. And you can use arrows to surf through the different features.
And finally, they have made the decision to let you try their product with no barriers (no credit card needed and no automatic charge after trial period). When you trust what you offer, you do not need to resort to tricks to inflate success.
Of course, the most important thing is that all of this (and much more) is consistent with a narrative Hey is building around its product. Other email services are old, clunky, shady, untrustworthy; we are new, simple, honest, empowering. Pick us.
We all love great content and great copy when we find it. It just does resonate, immediately, genuinely, naturally. But then we either forget about it or we feel we ourselves are incapable of delivering similar work. And that’s where bad content and bad copy (and bad marketing) proliferates: in the gap between what needs to be done and what we (and everybody) feel comfortable doing.
This thread features 17 good reminders and examples for when things get difficult. Keep it close the next time you have to write a message.
17 tips for great copywriting:
— Harry's Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) May 6, 2020
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