Actionable growth tactics.
Every week in <5 minutes.
Join 250+ marketers learning growth marketing with practical tactics and proven tools.
✔ For free. ✔ 1 tactic every week.
Actionable tactics to boost your marketing
- Growth Hacking
Understand the biggest drivers of ad profitability
What makes ads profitable?
There’s always been a certain mystery about this million-dollar question.
So, I decided to seek the answer.
Back in 2014, Paul Dyson, founder of the econometric consultancy Data2Decisions, conducted an analysis that revealed the drivers of ad profitability.
This analysis identified and ranked the ROI multiplier effects of various different advertising considerations.
However, the media landscape has changed dramatically since these past analyses were carried out in 2014.
Fortunately, Thinkbox commissioned Paul Dyson (now co-founder of Accelero) in 2023 to revisit his analysis, taking into consideration the massive shift towards online search advertising and digital advertising in general.
Searching through hundreds of studies, Accelero collated around 28,000 global campaigns, of which about 7,000 were UK campaigns. This very robust sample was used to identify the variables that most influence ROI.
What are the biggest, predictable drivers of ad profitability?
I was very surprised by the findings of Accelero’s 2023 study.
N°1: 👀 BRAND SIZE: UP TO 20x ROI MULTIPLIER
I know, I know. That is not what any of us wanted to hear.
Unfortunately, the study showed that brand size is massively important.
In fact, it’s the most powerful driver of ad profitability.
That’s a pretty solid argument to use in front of « brand awareness » skeptics.
Bigger brands get much better absolute returns on their advertising.
The bigger you are, the more effective your ads, thanks to existing awareness and affinity. Often, you’re just reminding people to buy.
Your existing customer base is also much more likely to buy new products or services – because customers already know and trust you.
Brand size is inextricably linked to brand health, or “power”.
Kantar research has consistently shown that stronger, meaningfully different brands are more likely to grow. In particular, Kantar showed that brands with strong differences are especially likely to see higher advertising returns.
N°2 – 📝 GREAT CREATIVES – UP TO 12x ROI MULTIPLIER
Second only to the size and strength of a brand is the quality of the advertising itself. There can be dramatic differences between the efficacy of the best and worst ads. Many award-winning ads are not easily linked to the brand, and others have a shock factor but fail to trigger the right emotional response. The best ads manage to combine being both creative AND effective.
The magic doesn’t come from button pressing and knob twisting in an ads dashboard.
It comes from great ads that are noticeable and memorable and cause an emotional response that drives action.
N°3 – 💵 BUDGET SETTING (ACROSS GEOGRAPHIES): UP TO 5x ROI MULTIPLIER
Optimizing budgets can be a highly effective means of delivering a higher ROI multiplier.
Some countries are simply more profitable than others, and media prices vary by geography, as do distribution channels, profit margins, and product consideration.
Brand size can also vary significantly. Allocating budgets across geographies in an optimum way can increase media profitability by up to a factor of 5.
4 – 💰 BUDGET SETTING (ACROSS PORTFOLIOS): UP TO 3x ROI MULTIPLIER
Different brands within a given portfolio will have different ROI potential.
Bigger brands will deliver a higher ROI simply because they have wider distribution (physical availability) or awareness (mental availability).
Therefore, prioritizing the bigger brands in a portfolio will lead to a higher ROI for your budget. This can provide a x3 multiplier on ROI.
N°5 – 📺 MEDIA MIX: UP TO 2.5x ROI MULTIPLIER
It’s well documented that campaigns using more than one media channel benefit from media multiplier effects – the evidence Accelero found is no different, suggesting that simply by using a multimedia strategy, there’s a potential ROI multiplier of 2.5.
Optimizing the media mix can pay major dividends, both in terms of how much brands invest in individual media channels (e.g., TV vs. OOH vs. online) and how much is invested in specific formats and placements (e.g., online display vs. online video, Facebook vs. YouTube, etc.).
However, the relative opportunity to improve profitability through mix optimization is smaller than ensuring you have invested money in brands with high potential returns and ads that work.
6-10 🙌 AND THE REST… (<2x ROI MULTIPLIER)
As you can see in the table below, marketers generally tend to overestimate the relative importance of media mix allocation, balancing brand vs. performance marketing and targeting, while they tend to underestimate the importance of brand size, creative quality, and budget setting across geographies and portfolios.
But this is not to supersede the role of media planning.
The majority of the elements on the chart all belong to the world of planning and strategy and collectively deliver the potential for huge ROI multipliers.
If you’re not optimizing budgets, brand/performance ratios, or buying the most cost-effective audience, then you’re missing out on low-hanging profit multipliers.
The analysis showed that in today’s media landscape, expertise and talent are crucial.
A strong creative strategy combined with an optimized media plan is the most effective path to profitable growth.
Instead of focusing solely on cost, we should prioritize value.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
Join 250+ marketers learning growth marketing with practical tactics and proven tools.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 growth tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Copywriting
Copywriting tips to increase conversion
We know that people don’t read online; they scan.
You only have a few seconds to capture their attention.
This means that your copy matters even more.
Today, I’m sharing 8 copywriting tips to help you increase conversion.
👋 Make it about them
Too many websites brag about their products and services.
Features. Awards. New features. New awards.
Good, but what’s in for me? What’s in for potential customers?
Instead, you should talk about how you solve problems for clients.
How do you address their pain points?
What’s the « before » situation? What’s the « after » situation?
That’s how you write a hero section.
✂️ Cut the fluff
People are busy.
They don’t have the patience to read long paragraphs.
Cut them short. Remove words that don’t add value.
Hook them as quickly as possible.
Take a sentence. Remove adjectives. Remove adverbs.
Make it punchier.
🔎 Break long paragraphs into digestible chunks
Readability is key. Especially on mobile devices where space is restrained.
Instead of writing long, descriptive paragraphs, aim for punchier, shorter bits of text that convey value efficiently.
🙏 Deliver maximum value
What’s in for your clients?
Your website should address your clients’ pain points.
Focus your copy on solving problems.
✋ Handle objections
What are the top 5 objections that your customers will most likely raise?
Use them in your copy. Anticipate objections.
And watch your conversion rate increase.
🙌 Make it very relatable
Relate your product to something your customers can relate to.
This can be done using analogies, metaphors, and comparisons.
You can also refer to everyday situations that your users experience.
🥊 Make it (super) punchy
Steal concepts from poetry. Add rhythm. Give your copy a voice.
Make it fun and easy to understand.
🎯 Don’t be vague; be specific
Some businesses require more hard proof than others.
If you have great numbers to share, use them.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
Join 250+ marketers learning growth marketing with practical tactics and proven tools.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 growth tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Search Engine Marketing
Protect and grow your SEO in the AI era
OK let’s face it: SEO is at serious risk.
Not only do you have to compete with floods of AI-generated content, but Google itself (and other search engines will follow) now uses AI in search results, further removing the need to visit any website.
According to Adweek, Google’s AI Overviews alone could result in declines ranging from 20-60% of total organic traffic for publishers.
People also use ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to search for information online, which oftentimes means that they don’t visit a single website in the process.
So, what do you do?
My first advice is to create content that’s deeper than what AI can do.
🧠 Part 1: The « deep content » strategy
Not all content or queries are at risk of being stolen by AI.
We need to differentiate between two types of topics:
- « Shallow » topics are easily answered by AI
- « Deep » topics aren’t easily answered by AI
« Shallow » topics are questions and queries that any LLM-based chatbot can answer. A good example of that is « How do I reset my iPhone? ».
Such topics make it hard for marketers to deliver any value that ChatGPT wouldn’t be able to communicate instantaneously.
That’s the kind of topic and traffic that AI will easily steal away.
« Deep » topics, on the other hand, cannot quickly be answered by AI chatbots.
They require more profound expertise and first-hand experience.
They call for detailed, nuanced answers.
They can’t be summarized in 10 lines.
Here are some examples of « deep topics »:
- Proven customer service strategies in the banking sector
- How to run a video content audit
- Create a self-sufficient garden
These are examples of topics where marketers can really add value.
Such topics can benefit from real-life experience and expert advice.
They don’t have a single, 5-line, pre-determined answer to them.
These are the kinds of topics you should prioritize in your content and SEO roadmap.
Because such topics require higher-quality answers and content, your company is more likely to rank for these keywords and be quoted by AI chatbots and voice assistants, further increasing traffic.
Becoming the industry reference on « deep » topics is one way to futureproof your online presence and traffic.
Let’s move on to strategy number two.
🏘️ Part 2: Grow with community-led content
AI chatbots provide answers based on training data and information available online. They usually rephrase or reuse someone else’s content.
Do you know what AI cannot do (at least, yet)?
Interview people. Gather their thoughts. Collect expert points of view.
Make your content community-driven.
Invite experts, customers, locals… Have them empower your content.
Make them the center of your content strategy and you’ll have one excellent reason why people should visit your website.
Community-powered content cannot be easily replicated.
This type of content relies on tangible social proof.
Look at this example from Shopify.
There are many women looking to start a business as a mom.
Did Shopify write a generic article to answer that?
No, they relied heavily on their community.
Here are some examples of community-led content:
- (Gardening company)
15 farmers share how to become self-sufficient in a year
- (Sportswear company)
Pro runners’ advice for running your first marathon
- (Beauty company)
Summer 2024: our customers’ best morning routines for a glowing skin
👀 Part 3: Build authority and a following
Search engines prioritize authority.
It’s central to Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.
Content that integrates expert points of view gets rewarded.
Content produced or written by experts wins search results.
- Health? Doctors.
- Sales? Salesmen.
- Marketing? Marketers.
- Real estate? Agents.
- Entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurs.
It’s not always easy to find « experts » in your field, but you get the idea.
The more credibility and authority your content creators have, the better.
Shopify does this really well with their « founder stories ».
Instead of publishing generic content about how to create a business around toys, Shopify published an actual interview of how this entrepreneur found success in this business.
🎥 Part 4: Don’t play fair, make videos
Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine?
It boasts 2.5 billion logged-in monthly users.
Do you know what ChatGPT and others cannot do?
Answer questions with videos. They can’t. At least for now.
AI chatbots beat you on written content? Create video content.
Video content is hard to imitate. It’s a great way to distinguish yourself from what other companies and AI chatbots do.
Videos also perform well on Google’s search results. They create a deeper connection with your audience.
Video marketing is a solid strategy to fight AI on search results.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
Join 250+ marketers learning growth marketing with practical tactics and proven tools.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 growth tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Growth Hacking
Attract new customers with free tools
Free tools can help expand the reach of your products or services.
They act as additional entry points to your business.
Let’s take the example of a fictional social media management software (or agency).
A more traditional approach would be to create content around the following:
- Social media trends
- Best days to publish
- Trendy hashtags
- etc…
But your audience doesn’t limit itself to that kind of content.
They also have day-to-day tasks they need to perform.
That’s where you start brainstorming ideas for free tools.
Find ideas for free tools
You need to find ideas for tools that relate to your business.
What do your customers’ day-to-day operations look like?
Can you think of any free tools that could make their lives easier?
Start with that.
There are dozens of ideas for free tools that you could generate around a social media business.
Downloading social media videos. Generating captions. All of that is made easy with no-code tools and new AI software. You just have to create it for your audience.
All of that is great – but how do I know which free tools to create?
My advice: run some keyword research.
Finding what your customers want with keyword research can help you tap into infinite pools of organic traffic.
For example, traffic around « Facebook video downloader » alone could bring you hundreds of thousands of visitors.
This means having that much more traffic to convert to your products or services each month.
The Wix example
Wix is a website builder. One of the leading solutions on the market.
But Wix’s customers have other needs than creating a website.
For that reason, Wix created about a dozen marketing and business tools, all for free.
With their « logo maker » alone, Wix generates more than 30K additional visitors a month.
That’s more than 350k visitors a year they wouldn’t get otherwise.
The Semrush example
Semrush knows its users are super likely to use AI tools for content generation.
After all, Semrush is used by all kinds of marketers, including SEOs, content marketers, etc.
They created several free tools, including a free AI text generator.
As of now, this free tool alone brings more than 32K clicks per month to Semrush. Their tool already ranks 2nd on Google for « AI text generator » in the US.
The Publer example
Publer is a social media management platform. Their example inspired this week’s tactic.
With their suite of free social media tools, they’ve built an organic traffic machine that brings them hundreds of thousands of visitors per month.
In fact, their efforts were so successful that organic search from free tools-related keywords is their number 1 source of traffic.
Publer attracts more than 3 million visits per month.
And now, over to you!
Creating and promoting free tools can help uncover gold mines of organic traffic.
Here’s how to apply this strategy:
- Free tools should be related to what you sell
- Run keyword research to prioritize your efforts
- Your customers express a strong need to use them
- It’s even better if they use these tools every week
- These tools are trending (use keyword research)
- Make sure you still promote your products/services
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
Join 250+ marketers learning growth marketing with practical tactics and proven tools.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 growth tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Copywriting
How to write better CTAs to boost conversion
CTAs drive conversions online. They’re everywhere.
Writing good CTAs is important.
Testing them and finding which ones convert better matters even more.
Let’s dive into how to write better CTAs.
1) Handle objections
Any value proposition encounters resistance.
Breaking psychological obstacles is how you increase conversions.
ClickUp knows that their potential customers already pay for other software.
They make it crystal clear that trying out ClickUp is FREE.
Barrier? Removed.
2) Tease the value
CTA stands for call-to-action.
What you really want is a « call-to-value ».
Find out what your customers want at all costs.
Use that in your CTAs.
3) Be specific
Most CTAs are too broad.
You need to anticipate any objections.
Would you choose a « free trial » over a « free trial in < 2 mins« ?
Most likely not.
4) Capture emails
Email is the one information you need to nurture prospects and turn them into clients.
So why not use CTAs to capture emails? After all, that’s one less step to go through.
Capturing emails with CTAs requires handling objections and using as much social proof as possible.
And now, over to you!
Try one of these 4 levers to increase your CTA performance:
- Handle objections
- Tease the value
- Be specific
- Capture emails
No matter how many CTAs you write, testing them is the only way to increase sales for sure.
So make sure you do it.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Design, Social Media
How to create marketing videos 10x faster
Instagram. YouTube. TikTok. LinkedIn. Any media. Your average blog.
Videos are everywhere. It’s just the way audiences consume content.
Marketers just have to show up. B2B. B2C. B2B2C. No excuse.
2 problems arise:
1. It takes too much time
2. It requires specific skills
Today, I’m going to share a method to create videos from screen recordings (great for product demos, client onboarding, customer services, sales, etc.).
For this one, we’re using Screen Studio. It’s only available on MacOS (sorry Windows users :/).
And yes, they’ve got a free plan to try this out.
You can use ScreenStudio to record your screen, face, and voice at the same time.
I love that software because it’s incredibly easy to use, yet it’s packed with features like automatic zoom, transcript generation, a vertical mode for mobile, custom backgrounds, smooth cursor movement, and more…
Fire up the app and start recording your video. You can record your screen, window, or any specific area.
Once you’re done recording, you’ll start editing your video.
Start by choosing your screen recording background.
You can use premade wallpapers or add yours for extra branding.
That’s also when you get to choose the aspect ratio of your video.
You can save multiple versions with different aspect ratios depending on where you want to publish your video.
Then, start editing your video using the scissors and the speed tool. I like to speed up or straight up remove the boring parts.
Once you’re done editing, export your video.
It’s as easy as that.
Recording tutorial videos for LinkedIn takes me less than 10 minutes from recording to publishing. How cool is that?
And now, over to you!
Video is incredibly important. This tool makes it much easier to create eye-catching videos from screen recordings. Here’s how to use it:
Go to https://www.screen.studio/
- Click on “free version”
- Download ScreenStudio
- Setup your camera and mic
- Record your video
- Choose your background
- Trim the video and add zoom in wherever relevant
- Change speed levels accordingly
- Export to your favorite aspect ratio
- Publish anywhere!
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
It’s free – and marketers receive 1 tactic, 1 tool & 1 news recap every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Search Engine Marketing
How to Save Hours on Your Keyword research Projects
If you’re working on SEO or SEA projects, you’re most likely spending hours per week researching and structuring your campaigns’ keywords.
If you’re like me, you typically combine a keyword research tool (I use Mangool’s KWFinder) with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to categorize and rank your keywords by relevance.
It’s usually incredibly manual and tiresome.
About six months ago, I had to prepare a business case that involved keyword research for an agency client. As I exported spreadsheets from Google Keyword Planner and Mangool’s KWFinder, I realized that categorizing the client’s keywords would likely take me hours. That’s when I discovered a very niche Google Sheets add-on called The Keyword Clusterizer.
What it does is close to SEA magic.
- Install the add-on on Google Sheets and upload your keyword spreadsheets.
- Run the add-on, and your spreadsheet will be automatically categorized into topic clusters.
- Sort your keywords by relevance into « Hot, » « Maybe, » and « Cold » categories.
Et voilà! You will have organized, ready-to-use ad groups and a negative keyword list in less than two minutes.
How I use the keyword clusterizer to organize my keywords
- First, download the Google Sheets add-on on the Keyword Clusterizer website.
- The add-on appears in your Google Sheet « Extensions » menu.
- Import your keyword spreadsheets from your favorite keyword research software.
- Run the add-on by clicking on « Run Clusterizer. »
Once you’ve run the Keyword Clusterizer, you will obtain something like the image below.
Using the « Data Master Sheet, » you can label various keyword metrics to your liking and categorize keywords into « Hot, » « Maybe, » and « Cold » tabs.
This works at the category, subcategory, and keyword level, meaning you can opt for broad categorization or a more granular approach, depending on your needs.
And now, over to you!
This workflow is free and doesn’t require any subscription. Here’s a summary of how you can do it yourself and save hours of work each time you do keyword research.
- Go to The Keyword Clusterizer and download their add-on
- Upload your keywords lists on Google Sheets
- Run the add-on and label your metrics
- Remove any irrelevant keywords or categories
- Categorize your keywords into « Hot, » « Maybe » and « Cold » tabs
- Export to set up your SEO/SEA campaign
- Profit!
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Social Media
How to Steal Your Competitors’ Best Performing TikTok Ads in Minutes
If you’re a TikTok user, chances are that the 2-hour-long doom-scrolling sessions that usually occur after opening the app don’t really help fuel your marketing creativity (or maybe it does? Tell me!).
In any case, I’ve got you covered.
Using TikTok’s Creative Center, you can search for the best-performing ads for any sector, current or past.
And it gets way better than that.
Using the Creative Center’s resources, you can filter TikTok ads by:
- Country
- Industry
- Ad language
- Campaign objective (traffic, app installs, conversions, lead gen, views…)
- KPIs (reach, CTR, conversion rate, likes, and view rate)
You can also get a detailed performance report for each TikTok ad 🤯.
Let’s dive into how you can find what ads perform best for your sector and competitors.
Find your competitors’ best-performing TikTok ads
First, head over to this link.
Though you can see results without having an account, I recommend you create a TikTok Business Account to access all ad examples and features shown today. It’s free.
Once you’re logged in, select your market of interest. I chose the US for this example.
Then, select your industry. This is where it gets interesting because there are many industries and sectors to choose from.
Alternatively, you can search for any competitor or company you’re curious about.
In my case, I searched for « Automobiles » to see what carmakers were doing on TikTok.
I filtered these results by likes to get a broad idea of the popularity of these ads.
I discovered that Hyundai, Genesis, Afa Romeo, and Lexus led the charge on TikTok advertising, followed by Kia, Ford, Dodge, and Toyota.
Setting the date range at 180 days, I could see that Hyundai’s Bluelink ad featuring Kevin Bacon was the most popular on the platform—at least according to this data set.
Get in-depth insights into your competitors’ ads
Below each video ad, you will find three buttons. Clicking « See analytics » will load a new page detailing the campaign’s performance.
Using this report, you can get valuable insights about the ad.
This is so useful. In just a click, I was able to collect the following intel:
- Landing page used
- Ad caption
- Campaign’s objectives
- Number of likes
- Number of comments
- Number of shares
- CTR performance
To analyze a campaign further, look at TikTok’s AI-generated analysis.
I’m quite impressed by the insights it delivered. Not only did it run a script analysis, but it also identified the key creative elements behind the video.
I could also examine the click volume and distribution throughout the video’s duration.
Lastly, TikTok’s Creative Assistant can be used as a ChatGPT-like chatbot and provide an even more detailed analysis of the campaign’s performance.
Simply mind-blowing. Meta, X, and Google have yet to reach the same level of service.
And now, over to you!
I’m so glad I could share this with you today. Isn’t it great how TikTok has made progress in pushing its advertising services?
A word of caution, though: not all advertisers agree to share their data with TikTok. This means the ads you see in this library may not fully reflect your market.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Growth Hacking
How to Steal Clients With Aggressive Content Marketing
ClickUp was founded by Zeb Evans and Alex Yurkowski in 2017.
If you don’t know about ClickUp, it’s an all-in-one platform for project and document management, goal tracking, whiteboard, chat, team collaboration, and more.
It’s known in the project management software industry for achieving stellar growth and profitability in record time, with revenues reportedly over $150M ARR as of this year.
Today, I’d like to share the crazy, perhaps controversial, strategy that ClickUp deployed with its comparison pages.
Use comparison pages to steal traffic away from competitors
In the world of SaaS, there generally was a gentlemen’s agreement not to name your competitors directly. At the same time, users often search for software comparison keywords (think « Asana vs ClickUp » or « best project management software »).
Put together; this high-intent search volume quickly adds up!
These keywords were long dominated (and still are in some niches) by third-party review sites like Capterra, G2, Forbes, or other review websites.
ClickUp decided to attack those high-traffic, medium-competition keywords that carried purchase intent.
- They identified their main competitors and listed down their weak points
- They created aggressive comparison pages and made them better than the rest of the competition.
- They wrote in-depth comparison guides targeting keywords like « best project management software. »
Using this strategy, ClickUp ranked above all its competitors and stole the traffic to its website.
Inside ClickUp’s aggressive comparison pages
First of all, their landing pages directly reference their competitors.
They go even further by highlighting their competitors’ weak points.
On Asana’s comparison page, ClickUp clearly states that their competitor uses paywalls.
But it doesn’t stop there. ClickUp also creates comparison tables targeting their competitors’ weak points or lack of features.
They also help their readers understand what free features are missing from a competitor’s software.
How did they convince teams already using Asana, Jira, or Monday to switch?
Well, one of the biggest barriers to adoption was that their competitors’ customers already had all their data and projects running on their platforms.
So, they made it incredibly simple to export their competitors’ tasks to ClickUp.
They specifically built an intuitive task import tool into ClickUp’s onboarding experience to ease new users’ fears and remove any friction in the process.
Results from ClickUp’s strategy
ClickUp’s aggressive strategy paid off well.
They secured the top spot in organic results for almost all comparison-related keywords.
See for yourself.
And now, over to you!
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Project Management
How to Stop Procrastinating and Organize Daily Work
Marketing projects are tricky. Everyone gets overwhelmed at some point.
Slack messages. Endless email loops. Zoom calls all day. Unexpected changes.
There’s only so much our brains can take in a day. And there’s actual work to do on top of that.
Today, I’m sharing a method that helps me accomplish things and move the needle.
It helps me focus on getting things done and achieving projects on time.
Here’s how you can make it yours.
Centralize your projects and tasks.
After being overwhelmed for a while, I started to centralize all action points in a single place so that I didn’t need to run around various software trying to find that one thing someone asked me to do three days ago.
My secret is to record all my tasks as soon as I discover them.
For this, I use a software called Todoist. It’s stupidly simple, and it works like a charm.
Of course, feel free to use another software or even pen and paper.
The method matters more than the actual software.
Step 1: capture all incoming tasks without prioritizing them immediately
The idea here is to have a place to store all incoming tasks. Don’t worry; you’ll review them later.
Step 2: structure your task manager by client or projects
Since I work for an agency, I usually create one space per client. You can also choose to organize this on a per-project basis.
Step 3: break down projects into sub-projects and tasks
The idea here is to group tasks logically. You don’t want to review lists of random items from different projects every morning.
Once you’re done with centralizing your tasks, it’s time to prioritize them and get things done.
Adopt this daily workflow to prioritize your work.
I use a workflow derived from the Eisenhower Matrix, which is similar to the « ABC method. »
Here’s how it works in theory:
- Important + Urgent –> focus on this
- Important + Non-Urgent –> block time
- Non-important + urgent –> delegate or batch work
- Non-important + Non-Urgent –> delegate or delete
Image courtesy of Todoist
In practice, it starts with reviewing your « inbox » to prioritize your tasks. It takes more time the first time you do it, but it becomes much easier once you’re doing it on a rolling basis.
Set priority levels for your tasks.
Mirror the Eisenhower Matrix using tags or priority levels.
On Todoist, I use priority levels as such:
- P1: Important + Urgent
- P2: Important + Non-Urgent
- P3: Non-Important + Non-Urgent
Use dates to make sure you keep track of deadlines
Assigning a specific day and hour to work on a project is tremendously helpful for ensuring that important tasks are completed on time.
Review your tasks each morning.
A lot happens during the day. I dedicate about 10 minutes daily to reviewing and reprioritizing my daily tasks.
- Project’s deadline pushed? Update the task’s due date.
- Task suddenly becoming urgent? Promote the task to P1.
- New ask from a colleague? Create a dedicated task.
Use timeboxing to get things done.
Organizing your tasks is critical. But what if you don’t have time to do the tasks and postpone them? That’s when timeboxing comes in handy.
Using this method, you should block 30-minute or 1-hour slots in your agenda to work on important and urgent tasks.
If you do this sufficiently in advance, you will have no difficulty finding available slots on your agenda to work on those tasks.
If your task management software allows, you can also activate the calendar synchronization so that your tasks will appear in your calendar.
This is what I do with Todoist, and it works great.
And now, over to you!
Task management and work organization can become wildly complicated. I used to work on Notion, but I soon realized that I was almost spending more time organizing work than doing actual work.
That’s why I adopted this simple method for every project.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Career Development
How I Landed My Dream Remote Marketing Job Without Networking
There are two types of remote marketing jobs.
- Short-term freelancing jobs usually involve filling in gaps for a few months or working on a project basis.
- Long-term, « employing » jobs, where you fully embrace the company’s mission for unlimited time.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in both settings, and each offered unique experiences and lessons.
That being said, there are cases of long-term freelancing jobs that tend to blur the lines between the two types. They offer the stability of a long-term position, often with a single client, while retaining the flexibility and project-based nature of freelancing.
Regardless of the type of remote marketing job you’re looking for, here’s my method for landing one that matches your aspirations.
Use remote-friendly job boards for research
Although they tend to become increasingly popular, remote jobs aren’t yet the norm. You could browse the usual job boards – but chances are you’d have difficulty finding remote marketing jobs on them.
Instead, look at these remote-friendly job boards. You’ll be much more likely to find offers that match your preferences.
Depending on your capacity, I suggest selecting 5-15 jobs that match your skills or aspirations. The closer the match, the bigger your chances.
- https://weworkremotely.com/
- https://wellfound.com/
- https://www.flexjobs.com/
- https://www.workingnomads.com/jobs
- https://remotive.com/
- https://remoteok.com/
- https://justremote.co/
Combine with a targeted LinkedIn job search
LinkedIn is a great platform for browsing remote-friendly jobs. I used it to find my current marketing freelance position at VML.
The key is knowing how to use it.
Start by searching for marketing jobs (of course, you can replace « marketing » with « communication » or « copywriting, » depending on your specialty).
Then, choose the correct location. Even though you’re searching for remote jobs, most companies would instead work with someone in the same country.
You can also use additional filters such as experience level or salary range.
Finally, make sure that you select « Remote » to display relevant results.
When writing, I found about 7500 remote marketing jobs listed in the US.
Time to apply: how to stand out from the crowd
You’re now about to apply for several remote marketing jobs.
Should you use AI to ChatGPT your way through cover letters?
No. You should do the opposite and write personalized cover letters for each job you apply for.
Why? Because this, combined with a well-structured resume, will make you stand out from other candidates.
The key to successful cover letters and resumes is matching the job offer and conveying the right mindset.
Your cover letter should deliver a narrative connecting with the job’s mission.
Your resume should highlight the skills and experiences that make you a great candidate.
Both should reflect a hunger for growth, commitment, and generating results.
Lastly, showing that you’ve successfully worked remotely in the past (and achieved results!) can make all the difference between you and other candidates.
I previously published on how to write a killer marketing cover letter. You can check it out here.
Prepare for your remote job interview
Remote interviews differ from in-person interviews because they lack non-verbal cues, requiring more intentional communication.
Practically speaking, they require more effort to deliver a clear presentation and answer your interviewer’s questions.
I recommend preparing interview notes separated into two categories:
- A presentation section (this is your elevator speech)
- A questions section (this is where you take notes)
Your presentation section should contain bullet points highlighting the key facts, stories, and experiences you will use during your introduction – or when answering questions from your interviewer. It should be kept short and focused on the experiences most relevant to this job.
Your questions section should be split in two. The first part should contain 2-3 genuine questions you have about the position. The second part should be blank; this is where you will take notes as you ask your interviewer questions. When taking notes, feel free to explain what you are doing.
For instance, you could say, « If that is okay for you, I will take a few seconds to note that. » This will show your implication and seriousness about the interview process.
And now, over to you!
Landing a cool remote marketing job isn’t easy, especially in lousy job markets.
However, putting in the effort to personalize your applications will dramatically increase your chances of getting hired.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
- Artificial Intelligence
How to Create an AI-Powered Avatar for Your Marketing Videos in 10 Minutes
Creating marketing videos used to take time.
Each video required writing a script and dedicating time to shoot it.
However, AI video software such as HeyGen can now create pretty convincing digital twins of people based on video footage, which companies can use and repurpose at will.
These AI video avatars will mimic your face, body language, and voice. If you want your AI avatar to speak any language, it can. All they require to get started is a 2-minute recording.
An AI-generated product marketing video by MailChimp (with HeyGen)
In fact, marketers at Hubspot, Mailchimp, or Notion are using AI-generated videos for a variety of use cases, including:
- Product marketing videos
- Personalized sales outreach
- Internal or external training videos
- Content marketing
- …you name it
How to create your digital avatar with HeyGen
I found HeyGen the most intuitive, noob-friendly software for generating an AI avatar. Here’s how you can create your own in under 10 minutes.
Step 1: head over to Heygen and register for a free account.
The free plan includes one minute of video generation. To create longer videos with your avatar, you must subscribe to HeyGen’s Creator Plan, which starts at $24/month.
In my case, I paid for a 1-month subscription to play around with the different settings and export a few test videos.
Step 2: choose « Create Avatar » and select « Instant Avatar »
This is where you get to decide how to start your video project. To generate your digital twin, select « Instant Avatar » and follow the steps.
Step 3: prepare your shooting environment and read the instructions
HeyGen will offer you either video or text instructions. In summary, you need to:
- Make sure you’re in a well-lit, quiet environment
- Look directly into the camera
- Pause between each sentence
- Use generic gestures and keep your hands below the chest
- Submit at least a 2-minute high-resolution recording
Alternatively, you can submit a 30-second recording with your webcam if you’re testing the software. The resulting avatar will feel less natural, but you’ll get the idea.
Step 4: now make it speak!
Once your avatar is generated, you can create videos using it.
Click on « video » and select your avatar. You can add any script (or even have ChatGPT draft it), and your avatar will do the voice-over.
Feel free to adjust the speed and pitch of the voice. You can also use other pre-recorded voices.
Once you’re done adding your script, preview your video, then click « Submit. »
HeyGen will process the video, which will take a few minutes, depending on your video length.
Step 5: review and export your video
Now that your video is ready for export, you can choose its quality settings and export it.
And now, over to you!
We’re still in the early days of AI-generated human videos, but I’m impressed by how quickly this technology progresses.
With some finetuning and a well-let recording environment, these AI-generated videos are starting to get very convincing.
I’m also regularly checking on updates from ElevenLabs, one of the leading companies in AI voice generation.
That’s it for today. If you found this interesting, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
It’s free – and I will send you 3 new marketing hacks you can use immediately every week.
Share this story with someone :
Hey there!
I'm Paul, a growth marketer with 8 years of experience in both B2B and B2C marketing. I share weekly tactics and tools to help marketers boost their productivity. In the previous years, I started out as a marketing consultant, co-founded an e-commerce agency, worked at Bain as a global marketing manager and currently am the growth marketing lead at VML France.
My mission is to help marketers learn new skills, deliver more results and thrive in their careers.
Give your marketing a boost
Everybody says how it should be done. Never how it’s actually done.
Join 250+ marketers learning hands-on marketing with actionable tactics and tools.
It’s free and marketers receive a new tactic each week.
