At System Envy, we love a tool and a system.

(Shocking, right? System Envy living up to its name?)

But, we love a little tools and systems recap juuuuust as much as we love a system — and our team is obsessed with seeing what other small businesses are using, too. It’s been a while since we did a roundup of our favorite tools and software, and it’s changed a little since.

So today, we’re sharing a dive into the things that keep our clients happy, our business running, our funnel sending, and our analytics calculating.

But first, here’s why we’re NEVER opposed to switching things up.

The thing is, businesses change, tech changes, and priorities change — and that means that the tools and software we used back in 2005 aren’t going to be the same ones we use now. (Like, come on… none of us are still using AIM to instant message, are we?! Nope.)

However, I know from firsthand experience how hard it can be to try out new tools and software… especially when something’s working. So, here’s my advice: While I don’t recommend changing things JUST to change them, I also don’t recommend refusing to change in the name of sticking with routine. New technological advances and new steps in business are just waiting for you on the side of a little bit of fear, okay? Promise.

Tools and Software We’re Loving: 2024 Edition

From GSuire and Asana to Flodesk, WordPress, and Funnel Gorgeous, here are our go-to tools and software these days. 

GSuite: When it comes to GSuite, we love it all — Docs, Slides, Sheets, Gmail, you name it. Why? Because reporting software, um… just didn’t do it for us. I guess you can call us old school, but it’s way easier, way more effective, and WAY more sensible for our clients to report via GSuite. 

We tried the fancy Google Data Studios, but the plug-in wouldn’t work and the data broke over and over again, which was so frustrating. While it would definitely be really helpful for very straightforwardly data-driven businesses or straight lead gen or e-commerce businesses, it wasn’t helpful for us. Even with the fancy graphs and tables, it just never felt as streamlined or useful as a Google Sheet.

Asana: Guys, we could sing the promise of Asana forever and ever and ever. It’s been our favorite tool for a long time, and we can’t imagine it NOT being a favorite. Basically, it’s our project manager… and it’s grown as we have. We use it to plan, create, and schedule content, manage client projects, define ad campaigns, and SO. MUCH MORE.

10/10 recommend.

Funnel Gorgeous: After several years with another funnel software, we reworked allllll of our email funnels last year into FG Funnels, also known as Funnel Gorgeous Funnels. This is an all-in-one funnel builder that’s A) gorgeous (obviously) and B) really easy to use. Plus, it does everything from template design to automation.

Flodesk: Ah, Flodesk. If you want to send beautiful, on-brand emails, Flodesk is your bestie… just like it is to us. While we don’t do our heavy-lifting funnels through Flodesk, we do utilize it often for landing pages, newsletters, and the like. There are so many easy-to-use features, it’s SO intuitive, and it has a pretty robust ability for segmenting. Plus, it’s SO inexpensive.

WordPress: There are a lot of options for website building, but we just really still love WordPress. There’s really nothing like it in terms of blog capability and function, ease, and resources — and since it’s been around for so long, the kinks are worked out. Plus, the plug-in options are endless.

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Our System Envy tech stack is simple, but she’s effective… and we’re big fans. However, we’re always open to any suggestions. Do you have any favorites we’re not taking advantage of?

When your ad performance is killing it, there’s almost nothing (well, in the digital marketing space) that’s quite as exciting.

However, when your ad performance is lacking…. It can be confusing, frustrating, and really tricky to navigate. 

But, we’re an open book over here — and I’m here to share some really easy ways for you to boost your ad performance without feeling like you need to completely overhaul your campaigns, take a course, and add a bunch of new things to your plate.

First things first, though: here’s a reminder.

Ad performance is very, very rarely linear. If you’re experiencing a dip in performance, there’s definitely a reason… but it’s also not something to panic about. Promise. There are so many things that impact campaigns, and it’s why we continually talk over here about testing, tweaking, and then testing and tweaking some more.

3 Ways to Easily Boost Your Ad Performance

There are an unlimited amount of ways that you can boost your ad performance, so I am by no means sharing an exhaustive list with you here. However, I am sharing 3 of the easiest, most simple tips I have for quickly implementing and improving your ad performance.

You ready?

1. Align your brand in high-quality ways across your ad campaigns.

One of the quickest ways to almost instantly elevate your ads is by making sure that you’re paying attention to cohesive branding across every step of your audience’s ads journey. Ensure that your photos and graphics are high-quality and on par with everything else you share — and make sure that your brand colors, fonts, and styles are the same everywhere. This builds so much trust and also is such a value-add for your campaigns.

However, it’s not just about visuals either — stick to the same voice and tone in your ad copy as on your website (and make sure that messaging is clear in the first place). It’s paramount that anything you’re linking off to, whether that’s a landing page or a sales page or a checkout page, stays with this same pattern as well.

And trust me here: take the time to make these updates and you *will* see improvement. 

2. Don’t spread your budget too thin.

Often, an easy way to accidentally dilute your ads performance is by spreading your budget too thin across too many ad sets. Instead, try just a few — over here, we prefer spreading between Warm + Lookalike audiences (stacked) with cold audiences. Anything much beyond that is likely not going to get you big results — and you could be utilizing your ad spend so much better than that. 

Plus, remember: when you *don’t* spread your budget too thin, you give yourself actual space to test and try out new things where there’s space. When you *do* spread your budget too thin, you can’t make the impact you’re craving.

3. Shake up your CTAs.

How often (really) do you find yourself writing — and even clicking on — the EXACT same CTAs? It’s probably a lot, and they’re probably all in the vein of “click here” or “visit now.” If you want to quickly break audience boredom and shake up your ads, simply switch up your CTAs. It’s that simple. Here are a few ideas — just mix and match:

• Save/snag/reserve/grab your seat now!
• Just tap to get your hands on XXX!
• Become a <subject matter> expert today by clicking!
• Come say hi!
• I can’t wait to meet you — hit the link to come join the party
• Let’s make it happen, yeah? 

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Alright, pals — there you have it: 3 easy-peasy ways to elevate your ads *now.* Start implementing these today, and then scroll here for tons more ideas. I’ve got you, always!

As an ads agency for leading creatives and 7-figure entrepreneurs, we get asked a LOT about what offers are best for running ads to. It’s the great ads question, really: is it better to run ads to low-priced offers or high-priced offers?

And, as we love to do, we have an answer for you: it doesn’t matter the price of your offer — running social media ads can be a HUGE help. However, your strategy does matter. 

See, we’ve had clients make huge returns on ads for their $15 templates, and we’ve also had clients make huge returns on ads for their $3,500 courses. We recommend that you run ads to any offer that you want to scale, and we’re big believers that ads to a $15 offer are just as important and valuable in creating passive income as a $3,500 offer.

You just have to approach it all in the right way. Let’s break it down.

The truth about running any ads

As you probably know, no offer is going to sell well if it’s not strategized well — but if it is strategized well, ANY good offer can sell. This is why you need to define a strategy for your offers pre-launch, regardless of their ticket price… and those strategies are going to look different based on the details of your specific offer.

To do this, you need to make sure that it’s a GOOD offer for selling online. Just think: Is it an instantly downloadable guide? Is it a digital course? Is it a product with fast, free shipping? Those are examples of a product that typically sells well online through ads, regardless of the price point — while something like a 5-day Hawaiian retreat may require a more in-depth warm-up and nurture strategy to create buy-in. While ads can definitely help you, they might not be a super core part of your sales strategy *yet.* 

Once you determine that ads are great for your specific offer, jump right in!

Our tips for successfully launching low and high-priced offers with ads

To kill it with your ad campaign, you need to be really, really clear on your customer journey. What does your audience need to buy into your offer, regardless of the cost? If it’s a quick download that costs the same as a few Starbucks coffees, you can likely get away with a shorter ads runway and a strategy that doesn’t require as much warming up. 

If this is you, make sure you do these things in your ads journey:

• Ensure that your landing pages are clear, concise, and connected to your ad creative
• Test short and long-form copy — and tweak your ad creative as you go
• Consider running ads to an upsell option for people who do buy your low-priced offer
• Think about scalability: what next step should your purchasers take? How can you run ads to that next?

However, if you’re selling a big-ticket retreat or course, your audience needs to know and trust you. They need to be fully aware of your value, they need to be regularly learning from you, and they need to see your offer as something worthy of a bigger price point. That requires more thought and intention from the jump, and does require a longer period of testing and nurturing to be successful.

If this is you, make sure you do these things in your ads journey:

• Focus on audience-building and nurturing with free value, educational content, and lots of visibility
• Get clear on your ideal audience and continue to test, test, test
• Link every ad to a clear, well-written landing page or sales page that answers questions and tackles objections (bonus points if you offer Q&A sessions!)
• Utilize social proof and testimonials within your ads to build trust

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So, my friends, the answer to the great ads question is this: you can absolutely ROCK any priced offer, as long as you have the right strategy.

Once you’ve nailed that in, you’re good to freakin’ go — and we’re always here to help you.

Something about business that most people don’t talk about is how, well, UNfun it is to sell the product, offer, or service you have. If you’re like most business owners (and me!) you got into the work you do because you love it. You feel passion about that specific thing you do, and the idea of making a business out of it is, well, pretty much the best thing ever.

The selling part, though? Ugh. It can feel overwhelming, it can feel icky, and it can feel really inauthentic. 

I get it. Trust me.

However, here’s some tough love: to run a successful business, you simply HAVE to be able to sell your product, service, or offer. There’s no way around that, regardless of how much you wish there was.

(Psst… It’s why I love Facebook ads *so* much: because you can sell to an audience that’s really aligned with what you’re doing, and you can do it in a way that feels authentic and easy.)

So, if you’re feeling like selling is hard, I’ve got you. Here are 3 easy ways to sell, even when you really don’t want to.

1. Get really, really clear on your messaging.

Often, the reason that selling feels so difficult and icky is because you haven’t gotten true clarity on the reason that you/your service/your product/your offer is so, so incredible. While you’re likely aware of why it’s so incredible (duh! It’s what you do), you also probably haven’t tried to map it out and write it down…. And that means that it’s hard for you to put it in exact, customer-focused wording. 

So, to solve this, I want you to get a pen and paper and figure it out. Ask yourself:

• What exactly does this offer of mine promise?
• How do I get there?
• Who is this offer for?
• What makes this the top choice?

Once you figure this out, you can start to weave these promises and this journey into everything from your sales calls to your landing pages to your content to your ads… and your offer will sell ITSELF.

2. Test, test, test!

Often, the hardest part of selling is feeling like you’re not instantly successful — and I get that. That’s why testing comes into play in a myriad of ways, especially when you’re trying to get used to the act of selling itself. Keep playing with and tweaking everything from your marketing strategies to your audiences to that messaging you figured out in step 1 — and don’t stop testing until you’ve landed on something that you feel really, really confident in. 

3. Find support for the pieces you don’t feel so confident in.

I’m a big, big believer in outsourcing and leaning on support as much as I can — and I encourage you to do the same. Just because you have an offer you’re selling doesn’t mean you’re the one who needs to do absolutely everything in your business. In fact, that’s a recipe for burnout. So, hire! 

Hire the right team and contractors to support you, celebrate finding people that fit into the places you don’t feel as confident in, and lean on additional sources of marketing (hello, Facebook ads!) to take things out of your hands.

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More than anything, I want you to remind yourself of a few things: one, you’re WORTHY of selling your offer — and, two, you’re NOT alone in feeling like it’s hard to do just that. Instead of harping on that, get clear on your messaging, tweak your processes, and find support.

It works.

Promise.

I’m sure you know the term “you need to spend money to make money,” right?

(Right.)

And, here’s the thing: you know this term because it’s (mostly) true. However, I’d like to reframe it to this: you need to spend money to make money, but you can spend less money to make more money AND you can spend your money to make money well.

Say that 10 times fast, yeah?!

See, as a Facebook ads strategist, I KNOW that spending money can make you tenfold on your investment… and quickly. However, at the same time, I think you can (and should) maximize every dollar you’re spending. I never, ever believe that you should just throw money at a problem — instead, I believe that you should be strategic and thoughtful with each investment you’re making… and that goes for Facebook ads, too.

Enter: your cost-per-lead (CPL)

One of the best ways to do this is by optimizing your cost-per-lead — also known as your CPL. This figure points to the amount of money you’re spending in order to get a lead for your business. Ideally, you want that number as low as possible.

Let’s take a $100/day ads budget. In 1 example, let’s say you have a CPL of $3. That means that, each day, you’re getting around 33 leads.

But, let’s say that on another campaign, you’re averaging 14 leads a day — around $7 per lead.

Or, let’s say you’re averaging $10 a day… or 10 per lead. 

I’m sure you can immediately pick up on the CPL you’d prefer, right? Right.

So, here’s how to start optimizing your ad spend to get more leads for a lower cost. 

3 ways to boost your cost-per-lead (CPL)

1. Do a LOT of testing: If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know I love testing… and there are a lot of reasons for this. Testing different creative (copy and image/video), CTAs, and targeting can make all the difference in the world in figuring out what’s aligning with your audience and what isn’t. By testing your ads in a variety of forms, you can quickly see what’s resonating… and then optimize it.
2. Refine your targeting (and, surprise… test it!): Making sure you’re targeting the right audience is arguably the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to optimizing your CPL. After all, if you’re not targeting the right people, you’re diluting potential solid leads. If you’re running your ad campaigns solo, get detailed with optimizing your demographics, interests, behaviors, and custom audience opportunities. You can test different segments to see which are giving you a lower CPL (and a higher quality lead).

Psst… want bonus points? Utilize Lookalike Audiences. These reach Facebook users who are similar to your existing leads, and it can be a great way to improve your lead pool and your CPL.

3. Optimize your landing pages: Likely, your ads are pointing to some sort of landing page; but this is really often the place that your audience — AKA those potential leads — gets lost in the sauce. Make sure that your landing page is well-written, well-designed, and built to perform well on both mobile and web. Then, make sure that you’re accurately representing what’s on your ads on your landing pages, and vice versa. Confusing your audience never builds trust, and it will likely cause you to lose leads. 

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When it comes to improving your CPL, those are some quick, easy-to-implement tips that will get you started on the right track. However, here are a few things to remember: ad optimization is a holistic strategy, and there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach or an immediate fix. Things do take a while, but with the right approach they will pay off! 

And, as always, keep a close eye on your data. Adjust your scheduling and targeting as the data tells you to, and be fluid with your approach when you can. 

You’ve got this, my friend.

I have complicated feelings about Instagram. 🤪

On one hand, I love it. I love scrolling through it, I love Stories, and I think it’s such a fun platform.

On the other hand, and as far as work goes, Instagram (can) *stress* me… and I know it stresses my clients, too. There seems to always be something new to try or something additional to keep up with, and it can be challenging to not get caught up on the hamster wheel.

So, if you’re wondering if the professionals feel the same way that you do: YES! However, I’ve worked in this space long enough to know that you can cultivate community, and you can create a lot of growth online.

One of my very favorite ways to do this with my clients AND with myself is by capturing attention through video content… specifically during a launch. So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite tips (and ideas!) for capturing attention on IG like your business and launch deserve!

How to Capture Attention on IG: Video Edition

1. Do it quickly: You only have around 3 seconds to capture attention on video before people start scrolling. It makes sense, huh? In a world of powerful short form content — and really engaging long form content — people choose quickly what’s worth their time. The best way to capture attention is by focusing on your hooks. Ask yourself what your audience is going to be attracted to, and then use that to your advantage. 

Want some video hook ideas? Here are a few of my favorites:

• Utilize a problem/solution hook. What problems do your ideal clients face, and how can you instantly show that you’ll fix them? (For example: “After YEARS of low engagement on Pinterest, my client reached out to me. Within a month, we 15X her reach!”)
• Engage in visual storytelling: Immediately capture eyes with vibrant colors and beautiful graphics. For instance, are you a graphic designer? Start your next Reel with a quickfire edit of your latest brand identity. Are you an email marketing expert? Show bold numbers of open rates and click through rates on a recent send!
• Show off a killer statistic: Numbers add instant proof to any point you’re trying to make, which is where an excellent stat can come into play. For instance, if you’re a Pinterest marketer, open your video with a question like “Did you know? Businesses see a 30% increase in traffic with an effective Pinterest strategy.” You’ll immediately create buy-in this way.

2. Play with some non-typical CTAs: A really fun way to spur engagement is by utilizing calls to action that are a little less, well… boring than your typical CTA. Here are a few ideas to tie into your next IG video caption that spur engagement and/or action:

• Tap for a surprise!
• Hit “save” to come back to this later (it’s that good).
• Tag a friend you know would love this, too!
• Stalk our highlights for more just like this.
• Explore more by tapping the link in my bio!
• Turn up the volume!
• Say hi in our DMs!

3. Outsource it, baby: I know firsthand that it feels like a LOT to post consistently, so why not let someone else do it? This can definitely mean outsourcing to a social media agency, but it can also mean utilizing UGC (user-generated content). This allows you to build a deeper connection with your audience, get buy-in from real people, and encourage your people to participate. 

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There you have it, friends — just a few ways to capture attention on IG and drive some (actual) results from the hard work you’re putting in. And, psst… if you combine it with paid ads, you can really make some magic and scale. We can help with that here.

It’s a new year, but that doesn’t always mean new strategies! While we love a new ad strategy (I mean, of course), we’re also proud to stick with what’s been working — and with what’s been proven to convert, to earn, and to create bigtime revenue with ads. 

This year, this means that we’re focusing on a lot of the same with our clients — because that SAME has been proven to work, time and time again. So, in case you’ve constantly felt the need to pivot, update, and change with the seasons, let me ask you: why mess with what’s broken?

And, hey, don’t get me wrong: we are consistently, consistently trying new things with our clients (and I encourage you to, too). Whether it’s testing new forms of media, playing around with short and long form copy, or switching up the targeting, we rely a lot on newness. However, I’m not a fan of doing new things JUST to do new things — and if we are doing new things JUST to do new things, you can bet your bottom dollar that we’re *still* doing the proven things, too.

Something to think about. 🙂 

So, as we lean into the new year, here are the strategies we’re really leaning into to rock ad campaigns for our clients.

3 Strategies Our Clients Are Using in 2024

1. Utilizing engagement videos!

Usually, when you think of ads, you probably think of conversions — AKA, courses registered for, landing pages clicked on, and emails submitted. However, I never want you to forget how important it is to build an ENGAGED audience first. Why, you ask? Well, engaged audiences are the audiences who trust you wholly, buy from you regularly, and create consistent streams of income for your business. 

This is why my clients — and, hopefully, you! — are focusing on engagement videos this year: short, to-the-point videos that encourage new and existing audience members to watch, connect, learn from you, and, well, engage. (Psst… wanna make it as easy as possible? Save IG Stories you’ve filmed and use them as engagement video ads! Easy, peasy). 

2. Evergreen webinars, baby!

I am a huge fan of webinars, as they continue — time and time again — to be easy, proven ways to convert audience members into customers. And, while you may have heard that webinars are out, I can assure you that they’re not. In fact, they’re a huge secret weapon to use, especially if you’re launching something like a course or membership that requires a higher investment. 

If you’re wondering how to create an evergreen webinar, trust me: there are so many resources that can help you create an incredible one. However, to start, I want you to simply make it TIMELY. What’s a hot topic in your area of expertise that people want to know about? What’s a topic that aligns with your launch? Do some brainstorming here, and then engineer your webinar to have a strong CTA at the end that pushes into your launch. This could be buying your product at an early-bird discount, funneling your audience into an email sequence, or even offering an upsell at the end. Then, once you’ve created your webinar, run ads to it and keep them both on evergreen! Boom, you’ve unlocked a consistent revenue stream.

3. Retarget your evergreen webinar watchers with sales ads!

Now, I’m (obviously) a big proponent of recommending my clients to create and promote their evergreen webinars — but I’m ALSO a big proponent of utilizing follow-up sales ads. Here’s what I mean by that: essentially create a version of “cart close” ads that follow your webinar watchers for a certain amount of time (say, 2 weeks to a month) after they watch the webinar.

When you do this, you can create timeliness and urgency, even though your offer technically is evergreen. This can encourage clicks and purchases just like a live offer, without the need to actually make it live. You can follow a typical live launch ad strategy for this, but then keep it turned on to regularly target webinar watchers.

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While these are a few of the ad strategies my clients are utilizing this year, I really want to encourage you to dig into your goals before you build your strategies. Then, you can use that (hello, personalization!) to figure out what strategies are going to work best for your business, your needs, and you. Hopefully some of the above strategies are helpful for you — and I think they will be! — but remember: focus on what’s been proven to work for *you.* That will make all the difference!

Unfortunately, if you’re a service provider launching a digital offer — courses, memberships, you name it — you’re very likely going to have at least one launch that, well, kind of fails.

(Note: I don’t love saying that a launch all-the-way fails, because we LEARN from these… and that’s a win in itself.)

I’ve experienced a kind-of fail, and so have my clients — even the ones who make 7 figures and have made millions in revenue from launches before or since. 

But, as we allll know, it doesn’t really hurt any less, regardless of how many people have been in your shoes. A “failed” launch isn’t fun — and it often makes you feel like the time and money you invested were all for nothing.

Here’s the thing, though: I’m a massive believer that a “failed” launch never has to happen to you again — and an even bigger believer that you can pinpoint what went wrong with 5 simple questions to reflect on (and fix later).

So, if you’re dealing with the repercussions of a “failed” launch, I want you to wipe your tears (after you give yourself a minute… you don’t need to pop up immediately), read this blog post, and ask yourself these questions. Then, I want you to get up and I want you to try again.

Kapeesh?! 

5 questions to ask after a “failed” launch

1. Was your timing off?
   Timing is… everything. Everything. And, guess what? Sometimes we can’t really control it, either. So, coming off a launch “fail,” I want you to dig into this: Was your timing off? Did you feel like you were rushing it (or behind the times)? Did you feel like the offer wasn’t quite right for the season or for events going on in the world?

When you dig into this, you can figure out when to best launch again — and you can also see if you should pivot pieces of the offer in general to make the most of ANY time.

2. Was the pricing too high?

I am a big fan of charging more than you feel comfortable with — however, too high of pricing can often cause a launch to “fail,” especially if your audience isn’t completely bought in to its value. I always recommend surveying your audience (bonus points if you can highly target this; ex: email people who opened all of your sales emails but didn’t purchase) to ask if it was a “not right now” or a “too much.”

3. Was your messaging strong enough?

Messaging MATTERS, especially when you’re asking people to invest in something that’s likely decently expensive. I really encourage you to diagnose your messaging throughout your entire sales funnel and see if there was every a place where it went awry or got weakened — and then you can go back in and fix it before your next launch! 

(Wondering how to do this? Go through your funnel from the eyes of your client. If there are any spots where you feel a little confused or in search of answers, your client likely was, too.)

4. What does the data say?

I LIVE FOR a good analytics deep dive for a myriad of reasons, but especially because of the lessons it creates… especially after a launch (“failed” or successful). So, what is your data saying? Do you see a point where there was a big drop-off? What are your clickthrough rates, cost-per-click, and conversion rates telling you? Odds are, they’re pointing to a specific diagnosis right in front of you.

5. How did it FEEL?
   This might sound a little woo-woo, but trust me here… did your launch FEEL right? Or did it FEEL off? Chances are, you know in your gut whether it felt right or felt off. Really, I can almost guarantee it. Take a look back at your launch process and then ask yourself: did I have a gut feeling at the start? Did something hold me back during? Then, write down those flags and identify what they might have been. I can almost promise that the answer is right in front of you.

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More than anything, my friend, I want you to know that a “failed” launch does NOT mean a failure on your part — it means a lesson. Every. Time. Remember that, okay? Cling to that, ask — and answer questions — and try again.

If there’s one thing we recommend over and over again to anyone dipping their toes into the Facebook ads world, it’s to create a lead magnet (or freebie) to run ads to.

However, if there’s a question I get over and over again (and trust me, a question I’ve asked myself many times, too), it’s this: what the heck kind of lead magnet am I supposed to create?!

I get it. So, to kick off your Facebook ads journey with a bang, I wanted to share some of my very, very favorite ways to make your lead magnet a creative, irresistible, must-click tool for your business!

First off… what’s a lead magnet?
If you’re not super familiar with digital marketing speak, you may not be too sure of what a lead magnet is… often also known as a freebie. Here’s the official definition: A lead magnet is simply a free, valuable resource that you hand over in exchange for someone’s email address. 

And, here’s my favorite way to describe it: a lead magnet is going to be a resource (anything from a quiz to an ebook to a free class to a downloadable) that people have to give you their email to receive. (AKA, a magnet for leads.)

Think of any time you’ve ever dropped your email to snag access to a grocery list, a playlist, anything — that’s a lead magnet! These are mega important to your success online when it comes to building up your contact list (usually your email), and they’re how you start to create an audience of people who are excited to learn from you.

3 tips for making the most out of your lead magnets

When you create a lead magnet that people really and truly want, you can scale your email list quickly. The key: making it legitimately valuable (don’t create a lead magnet that actually provides nothing… if you do this, people won’t care to invest in your actual $ costing products) AND making it easily digestible. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create something YOUR audience wants to see.

The best way to encourage people to sign up for your lead magnet is by making it hyper-customized to the things they want to see from you — so do a little research!

Some ideas: Are you a nutritionist and you know they want to see a Whole Foods grocery list from you? Are you a productivity expert and you know they’d love to see a BTS video of your Google Cal organization process? Are they looking at you to help them name their services and know they’d love an easy template to try themselves?

2. Make it easily digestible.

When you’re creating a lead magnet, remember that it should just be a taste of what you can give someone — not the whole sandwich! If you’re considering making your lead magnet a 45-minute video or a 100-page ebook, I’d encourage you to cut it down into something more digestible and easy to create. This makes it easier for your audience to find value from, and it also makes it a lot more worth *your* time.

Then, once your audience is bought in with the taste you’re giving them — for example, your Whole Foods grocery list — they can actually pay you for a 1-hour nutrition consult. Don’t give away the whole sandwich!

3. Have a nurture and conversion plan in mind. 

A really common mistake that I see is people creating a killer lead magnet… only to send it and then never be seen again (until it’s time to sell something). Don’t fall into this trap! Instead, be really intentional about nurturing those leads of yours — whether it’s through an email funnel attached to your freebie, an email newsletter, or an ads campaign — and make sure that you become a regular, trusted expert for your audience.

Without that, you run the risk of alienating your list when it’s time to launch something — and it’s why a lot of people tend to see such high unsubscribe rates from their lists. Nurturing is important! 

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More than anything, my friend, I want you to remember this: you have something INNATELY special and worth teaching within you. What is it? How can you show it? That’s exactly how you create a lead magnet. Really — it’s that simple.

As an ads agency supporting course creators and service providers, there are about a million things we consider highly, highly important for our clients and campaigns: strategy, targeting, offers, you name it. However, there’s one thing we consider to be at the top of the list: and that’s good copy.

Why, you ask? Well, it’s simple — well-written copy is what speaks for your business, sells your offers, and connects with your ideal clients. It’s the backbone of everything from your email marketing and your social media to your discovery calls and your ads, and when you have good copy you can sell what you need to.

In short, we love and value strategic copy over here — and we’re not alone. The world has seen such a return and focus on words in the last year (hello, Threads!) and it’s consistently used to frame everything from UGC content to videos… and everything in between.

So, what exactly is copywriting?

Copywriting speaks to any of the copy — i.e., words — that support marketing and communications initiatives for a business. This covers a massive variety of assets, but here are just a few of the things copy support can cover:

• Emails (sales emails, newsletters, etc.)
• Ad creative
• Video scripts
• App and push notifications
• Social media carousels and captions
• Blogs
• Websites
• Lead magnets, one-sheeters
• Course content
• Even things like billboards, road signs, and product packaging

Really, you name it… and a copywriter should touch it. Investing in copy is how you can ensure that you’re speaking to the right people (AKA, your ideal clients), how you can strategically make sales and hit goals, and how you can keep your audience engaged, educated, and taken care of. 

Why is copy so important within my ads and marketing strategies?

While we work with a copywriter consistently over here for a ton of things (blogs, emails, ads), we also recommend our clients to do the same — because copy is arguably more important in ads and marketing strategies than anywhere else. 

See, strategic copywriting is designed specifically to speak to a certain audience. When written the right way, everything from your ad captions to your emails can entice a potential customer to make a click, press purchase, or join a waitlist. It’s a really unique blend of psychology and of words, and it works!

3 tips to make your ads and marketing copy better

Wondering how to start leveling up your own copywriting, specifically within your ads and marketing? Here are 3 easy tips:

1. Get really clear on your ideal client: Who, exactly, are they? What are their hobbies? What words do they use? What do they react the best to? What social media platforms do they use the most? What pain points do they have? (Psst… this is great to know for your ad targeting, too.)
2. Keep it succinct: One of the biggest problems with marketing copy in general is that it gets too long. Once you write your caption/ad/etc., cut the words! Figure out what needs to stay and what’s extra, and chop it. It works!
3. Focus on clarity: What’s the true message that you’re trying to get out? What’s the problem you solve, and how do you solve it? Think from your audience’s perspective, and focus on making your copy as clear, direct, and easy-to-follow as possible by answering those questions. Voila!

More than anything, my friends, just remember: the words you use matter, especially when it comes to marketing and selling the incredible things you do. Don’t discount that, and watch your numbers soar.

Our clients — and this business — are all living proof of it.