So what, Coda's clever headline, teasers for next time
(This originally appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now to get content like this every Monday.)
Take a look at this newsletter's list growth over the last three years:
A small, highly engaged list is great, but I'd like it to grow a little bit faster than that.
So I posted in a copywriter Slack group asking if anyone had any tips on how to do this. And I got a really good piece of feedback I hadn't considered: to grow your newsletter, it really needs to have a clear value proposition.
Right now, I don't really have that. It's essentially a random musing every week. There's no theme or value to wrap around it.
This means that people who sign up are people who want to hear from me already - people who know, like and trust me (at least, I hope you do). Which is great! But it's a pretty hard sell to get someone who doesn't already know, like and trust me on board. Who wants to pollute their inbox with weekly disconnected thoughts from some random guy?
So I'm trialling a new structure. Each newsletter will have three sections:
A tip you can use in your own copywriting.
An example of a landing page - with notes around why it works (or doesn't)
A random grab bag section for thoughts on business, positioning, copywriting, bragging about work - anything that doesn't slot into the first two sections.
Let me know what you think.
Tip: ask "so what?"
A good way to test your benefit statements (like "easy to use") is to ask yourself "so what?"
That helps you figure out if you're talking about a specific outcome you drive in peoples' lives. And if you're not, it helps you get there - which makes your copywriting much more persuasive.
Here's what this might look like for a software company that makes easy-to-use software:
Of course, the statement you end up with on the right is going to be dictated by the things that matter to your customers.
There's no sense in asking "so what?" then interrogating your keyboard. Rather, you need to answer the question by connecting your generic benefit to a real problem you solve for your customers.
That means that this is also a great way to test your customer knowledge. If you can't confidently answer the "so what" in a way that matters to your customers, you're going to need to get some on the blower and figure out why they work with you.
Takes longer and more effort than just writing "easy" and calling it a day - but the outcome is far more persuasive copy.
Example of the week: How Coda makes a clever headline work
Lots of copywriters on social media have been ooing and aahhing about Coda's very clever home page headline. Take a look:
The headline definitely is clever and attention grabbing! But I think the unsung hero here is actually the subhead.
The major tradeoff of a clever headline like Coda's is that it gets attention but doesn't actually tell the reader anything meaningful. This is not in and of itself a bad thing - but a copywriter writing a headline like this needs to be aware of it, and make sure they convey the meaningful information elsewhere, quickly.
That's what Coda's done. If you look at the subhead, you'll see that it's really not clever at all. All the cleverness is in the headline. The subhead gets down to business, and tells readers the details:
Who Coda is for: teams
What problem it solves: your best work is scattered
How it solves it: brings it all together
The thing to take from this: if you're going to write a clever headline, make sure you back it up with some less-clever, nuts-and-bolts copy. Otherwise, you'll get peoples' attention but fail to do anything useful with it.
Grab bag: nothing to see here
Feel like I used up a lot of your time with that lengthy preamble, so I'll spare you the grab big bit (plus, I can't really be bothered writing anymore).
But here's a few topics I'm going to cover in here over the next few weeks:
What I learned from losing a contract I was 100% sure I was going to get
What comes first: copy or design?
My thoughts on written briefs (hate 'em)
My ongoing efforts to standardise processes (a work in progress)
Why I don't really care about typos in this newsletter
Let me know what you think of the new format. Have a great week.
Sam
PS: Like I said at the top - I'm trying to grow this list. So if you know anyone who would find this type of content interesting, just bash the forward button and remind them to subscribe. There's a link down the bottom for them, or you can send them this one: https://www.samgrover.co.nz/newsletter
PPS: The only thing I'm taking on for the foreseeable future is landing page copy reviews. Actionable tips to make your page convert more traffic into leads. Book one here for $799.
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