Always under your thumb: email marketing (Flying Solo)

What came first? The fax machine or the telephone? It isn’t a trick question or anything. I’ll let you stew on it a little. What was your answer?

If you answered telephone, you won’t be hearing a little (Alexander Graham) Bell. The fax machine, or the “Electric Printing Telegraph” was invented in 1846 by Scottish inventor Alexander Bain, with the first commercial fax service commencing in 1865. This was all 11 years before the debut of the telephone.

Funnily enough, we are living in an age closer to the telephone than the fax machine. Though fax machines were the must-have business machine of the 80s and 90s, it took over 150 years for it to be adopted as a de facto standard. It was rendered obsolete in record time by another invention that also took decades to catch on: email.

Email was invented in about 1971, with the first electronic mail message sent over the precursor to the public internet, ARPAnet. It wasn’t until the end of the century that everyone had at least one email address, perhaps something angsty, edgy, and laden with pop culture references at Hotmail dot com.

Though the pace of innovations seems to be accelerating, nothing yet has swept email into the dustbin of history. This isn’t through lack of trying, of course. Microsoft Teams, Slack, Hubspot, CRMs, etc. – they all seem to compliment email rather than getting rid of it entirely.

To be fair, why would you?

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

What Is The State of Marketing in 2025?

Marketing is digital and digital changes a lot over 12 months. This time last year marketers were bracing for a collapse in ad spend. Analysis from AdWeek predicts that ad spends will increase around 3.8% to 6.5% which is a good sign for people in marketing and communication - though growth in the industry will languish around the 2-3% mark.

So what is the state of marketing in 2025? What should we be focusing on for this year instead of succumbing to shiny-object syndrome? Here’s my analysis:

FTA Television is Boomer Wasteland

Back in ‘68 when Julie was Johnny’s date and strolling down Desolation Boulevard, both of them were likely eighteen. Julie and Johnny, now retired empty nesters with three investment properties are watching old school, free-to-air television. The kids are alright with over-the-top streaming and the internet, and we’ve known this since 2017. In the U.S., 49% of the 54-65 and over demographic still have a cable subscription and most watch over 10 hours per week, constrasted with only 34% of the 18 to 29 demo. The highest rated programs are still live sports, seconded by news and … repeats of Antiques Roadshow.

This has contributed to a global decline in TV advertising by 8%. If you’re trying to get hip and down with the kids, avoid FTA TV and leave it to the oldies.

Social Media Fragmentation

Ahh, the halcyon days of the mid 2010s - where you could set your watch to a healthy return on ad spend coming from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Now, that’s all been turned on its ear. Since the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk and its rebrand to X, many left-leaning netizens have flocked to alternatives such as Mastodon and Blue Sky citing safety and misinformation concerns.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has drawn ire from the political left for doing away with fact checking units and opting for community based notes, much like on X. TikTok’s status in the United States is also under a cloud of uncertainty with a ban likely coming after the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its ruling on the 19th of January.

Couple that with a decrease in ads capturing attention - 31% of people globally claim they pay attention to ads, a 12% slump over last year - and social media seems a less of a “sure thing” for marketers than any time in its short history.

Video and User Generated Content Pushes Buying Decisions

Hands up those of you who have watched a YouTube video of a product unboxing or review to reaffirm your decision to buy? You aren’t alone. According to Hubspot research, approximately 62% of consumers watch videos to learn more about brands, discover how their products or services work, and glean insights into hidden benefits in real-world use cases. (Like how I was sold on buying the Sony Xperia 1 VI due to its superb macro function. Oh, and the headphone jack.) During 2024, 89% of consumers said they want to see more videos from brands - especially if it justifies their purchase decisions.

Newsletters: CERTAINTY IN AN UNCERTAIN TIME

When you put out a newsletter, you not only enjoy a 42:1 average ROI, but you also own the channel and the all the benefits. There aren’t any algorithms to deal with or external advertiser guidelines to adhere to. With politicisation and cybersecurity threats still rampant on social media (e.g., a brand could lose its entire social media platform access overnight) cultivating a contact list and sending newsletters on one’s own terms lends brands and companies greater control over their marketing and communication efforts. It’s also wholly opt-in - first or zero party data collection when third-party data harvesting is starting to get on the nose (see below.)

Hubspot believes there will be a race for subscribers, with larger independents perhaps being acquired by media companies much like tech startups. However, it’s incumbent on us marketers to earn ongoing loyalty by providing value in each newsletter - value that entices non-subscribers to subscribe, too.

AI Driven Campaigns - Perhaps Not Content

AI slop is everywhere and people absolutely hate it. Though the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is run using a computer several magnitudes more intelligent than what we have today, it still has a full crew complement driving them into the Final Frontier. AI will be crucial in programmatic, on-the-fly advertising placement, even when regulation phases out third-party data and new innovative privacy-preserving ad platforms such as Anonym ensure security, transparency, and privacy for end-users.

Personalisation can generate $20 for each $1 spent. Overdo it, and you’re venturing into the creepy, “is this thing stalking me” territory for many - and people are growing even more uncomfortable with the phenomenon. This was highlighted after Apple was forced to pay US$95 million in a class action after their digital assistant Siri was caught eavesdropping on users.

With all that said, I can’t say Generative AI is completely useless - I generated the image at the top of the page using Midjourney - but after a re-evaluation by the marketplace, Generative AI may settle into a place of productivity co-pilot rather than taking over operations wholesale. This may lead to marketers deploying and scaling more simultaneous, continuous campaigns and not just gaining but implementing changes based on real-time data, as Large Language Models replace the need for coding or query language skills.

Digital PR: Continuous vs Discrete Reputation Management

Having a brand mentioned in a magazine simply doesn’t cut through anymore and thus a true innovation was required to supplant it. Instead of assuming influence like before, we can now quantify it and improve upon it. Digital PR isn’t just a simple add-on of the same old SEO mixed with traditional PR methods. It's all about rethinking how we tell stories for brands or people, tapping into the natural flow of information inherent in digital channels.

Sure, it’s awesome to see your brand in a newspaper, but let’s be real—it doesn’t really do much for your attention and reach in the long run. A link on your web page can boost your trust and authority for the long haul. Back in the day, PR was all about adding one bit of good news on top of another bit and hoping for the best. In the Digital PR era, it’s non-stop and endlessly measurable – and that’s what makes this new approach so appealing to marketers and brands.

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The worst business jargon and phrases of 2024

Business – especially the university-corporate sausage factory pipeline – loves to sound smarter than they actually are, by using esoteric jargon. Repeated over and over, it grates the ears like nails over chalkboard.

In 2024, there was no shortage of innovative and disruptive game-changing jargon – with almost none of it being useful or helpful. Here’s some of the worst that I’ve encountered and most likely, some of you have too.

Read the list at Flying Solo.

Are you leaving behind revenue by not writing newsletters?

Everything old is new again, it would seem. The big deal in the content economy isn’t Spotify or TikTok, it’s a new twist on one of the Internet’s founding aspects: the email newsletter.

Spurred on by creator-centric newsletter publishing app Substack, the email newsletter has become big business again. Started in 2017, it has grown to 20 million monthly active subscribers, with its top 10 creators earning $25 million collectively as of 2023.

If you are a business, you have a contact list. Every business needs one if they don’t have one already. If you aren’t monetising that contact list by sending out regular newsletters or email communications, you are leaving money on the table.

Why Email Newsletters?

Over 376 billion emails will be sent and received daily worldwide in 2025, a 23% increase over 2020. 99% of email users check their inboxes at least once per day.

According to a report by Whop about ConvertKit, newsletters garner a 45% open rate compared with 10% for social media. The report also showed that newsletters were the most popular form of content at 58%, followed by blog posts at 51% and educational courses at 30%.

Email newsletter engagement sat at 27%, followed far behind by Instagram (15%) and Facebook (12%).

According to a Beehiiv report, newsletters enjoy open rates of 38.7%, with the welcome or onboarding email showing healthy open rates of 45%. Venture capital newsletters had the highest engagement rates at 50.4%, followed by sports newsletters at 47.5% and food & drink newsletters at 45.3%. Topics of the most interest to newsletter subscribers are films, psychology, and gaming.

If that doesn’t convince you that email marketing is a good idea, think about the $42 of average return on every dollar spent via email advertising.

That’s not to mention you can also charge subscriptions for your newsletters or gain sponsorships from other brands, opening up another revenue stream for your business.

So why are newsletters so popular and gaining popularity despite the advancement in other forms of social media?

The Power of the Opt-In

Unlike every other type of advertising online, newsletters are entirely opt-in. You must agree to sign up for a mailing list; and users have the ability to tune out by unsubscribing. That way, people can curate their content to their liking. If the email newsletter is not fit for their purpose, they can get rid of it just as easily.

No matter whether the email format is news, special offers, link curation, or digests, newsletter subscribers were 16x more likely to be receptive to and engage with newsletter ads. Since people are opted in, they find ads and other calls to action far more relevant than those seen on social media or other forms of internet advertising. In fact, 86% of U.S. adults want to get promotional emails - not informational or educational emails - promotional emails at least once per month according to Marketing Sherpa. 54% of brands send emails at least 2-4 times a month, with 32% sending at least once per month.

Emails can also be personalised to individual subscribers using segmentation, driven by automation. If a user hasn’t visited your site (or logged in) in a while, you can send them a personalised discount offer. You can wish them Happy Birthday. You can send them cat videos, if you have them down as a cat owner. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Also, other forms of marketing can’t really do that.

37% of marketers say that email is the most effective channel for customer loyalty and retention, and it’s spurred on by an email reader giving your brand full attention and laser focus; at least for a minute or two. Can’t say that for the perpetual doom scroller…

Monetising Your Database

If your business already has a database of customers - even a small business of 50 or 100 contacts - it’s well worth setting up a newsletter and inviting them to opt-in (don’t assume they want to, just because you talked to them once: it’s bad etiquette and against the law.)

Using an email marketing platform like Mailchimp (which has a dominant 65% market share), Klayvio, or ConstantContact is simple to set up and may even offer a limited-time free trial, so you can evaluate whether it’s the right fit for you.

Setting your email newsletters up for transactional emails based on triggers can also drive engagement and sales - even the humble “welcome” email gets you an average of 45% open rates, which is far more enticing than PPC or even long-term SEO engagement.

Are you leaving money on the table by not sending out regular newsletters? The verdict seems to be in.

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Adventures in AI: Is it smart until it’s dumb? (Flying Solo)

Last week, a client and I embarked on putting artificial intelligence (AI), notably OpenAI’s ChatGPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), through its paces.

Let’s preface all this by saying I’m not a computer programmer by any stretch. I dabbled in Turbo Pascal and Visual Basic in high school, which was over twenty years ago. I’m sure we’ve moved on since then.

The task was simple: write a series of 500-word articles about a given topic. Some had to have five FAQs (answers to frequently asked questions), and others had to have three. Sometimes they had to be two long FAQs (100 words or more) or three short (50 words or fewer.) Or four of equal length. They also needed to have links inserted at 100-word intervals, the keywords in the URL substantially or closely matching words on the page.

Seems like a piece of cake for a million CUDA core behemoth, right?

Well, sort of.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

Doing it yourself: Is the hard way the way through? (Flying Solo)

As soloists or small business owners, we often take on more than we can bite off, let alone chew. For one soloist, it gave them a deeper appreciation of what other soloists can do for their business – and with savings in time and money, I wrote for Flying Solo.

Could you pass your HSC exam again? How to learn from your past to forge your future (Flying Solo)

If there’s one recurring nightmare we might have, it’s being back at school and under pressure to perform for exams again. We may or may not be wearing our clothes, and our teeth might be falling out as we fall off a cliff. But I digress.

For me, 2024 marks twenty years since I did my VCE (HSC) exams and graduated from high school. Looking back, perhaps apart from some fundamentals, so much has changed.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

The Google Document Leak: SEO's Secrets Revealed? (Probably Not)

On May 27th, Rand Fiskin at SparkToro broke the news that he’d been forwarded 2,500 pages worth of API (Application Programming Interface) documentation from Google’s search division. After gaining background from anonymous sources, as well as the leaker identifying himself as Erfan Aizmi, the documents were deemed authentic.

The documents pointed to 2,596 modules with 14,014 attributes (API features) that appear to come from Google’s internal “Content API Warehouse.” As mouthwatering as this sounds to SEOs who want to know the eleven herbs and spices that make up the precise signals and weights of Google’s PageRank algorithm, it falls far short of unveiling the secret formula to Coca-Cola.

Being code documentation, the information contained within the leak is highly technical in nature - and perhaps even above my paygrade.

A deep-dive by Mike King of IPullRank says:

“The leaked documentation outlines each module of the API and breaks them down into summaries, types, functions, and attributes. Most of what we’re looking at are the property definitions for various protocol buffers (or protobufs) that get accessed across the ranking systems to generate SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages – what Google shows searchers after they perform a query).”

If I’m correct, it shows people how the computers at Google access certain repositories of information or code to execute the SERP - not really how the SERP is defined itself. However, it did reveal a couple of aspects of Google’s algorithm that are worth re-evaluating.

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Clicks May Be More Important Than We Think

Google has long squashed the idea that clicks are not a ranking factor in search. According to other leaks and testimony from the US Department of Justice Anti-Trust trial, Google does employ a “implicit user experience” ranking algorithm called NavBoost, which ranks content higher based on actual clicks versus expected clicks. These signals are separated into badClicks, goodClicks, lastLongestClicks and unsquashedClicks.

Let’s say a well-edited and researched document ticks all the EEAT boxes. At the end of the day if human users prefer another piece of content, it makes sense to rank that content higher as user experience matters most. NavBoost is mentioned 84 times in the documents as a heading, which implies the algorithms contained within are important. How these work, are weighted, or tracked, etc. we cannot say.

Domain Authority - Possibly A Thing?

Google themselves have asserted they don’t use “website authority” scores, a metric designed by Moz.com, in their search rankings. The documents reveal a Compressed Quality Signal called siteAuthority() - how this is computed, measured, or implemented is anyone’s guess.

Chrome Is Used For Ranking

As mentioned before, NavBoost helps rank content based on click and user behaviour. Some user behaviour - though we aren’t privy to what extent - is harvested using cookie history, logged-in Chrome data, and pattern detection algorithms. This is known as the ChromeInTotal module.

This has been known as far back as 2016, as real-time Chrome data would be used in their RealTime Boost Signal. If you are queasy at the idea of Google tracking this much information about your browsing habits, then I encourage you to switch to Firefox.

Other Modules in the Leak

Other modules in the leak that hint at the presence of certain ranking factors are timeliness, by looking at dates in the byline (bylineDate), URL (syntacticDate) and on-page content (semanticDate); titlematchScore which suggests that site titles are a major ranking factor; determines the focus topic of a page using a comparison of page embeddings (siteRadius) to the site embeddings (siteFocusScore); and also stores domain registration information (RegistrationInfo.)

What Does This Tell Us About SEO?

On the surface - not a hell of a lot. This leak may be akin to finding out that KFC uses salt shakers, flour stations, and deep fryers in the making of their fried chicken, but not the specific ingredients nor the requisite quantities to replicate their secret recipe. It also tells us things we already knew but Google were coy over, such as Domain Authority and using Google Chrome data to reinforce their SERPs. I’ve used a gang of weasel words to report on this topic, and with good reason: we may have a few of the puzzle pieces but we have no idea if they fit together, let alone what the entire picture is supposed to look like.

It may have given some, but not total credence to long-held suspicions about how Google Search works, but nothing definitive. Though we may not be able to reproduce Coke exactly at home, it doesn’t stop people from trying.

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We may not have cracked the code of SEO, but I Sell Words has boosted the SERPs of hundreds of businesses around Australia with quality content. Get your own today!

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Chilling out as a business activity (Flying Solo)

In one of my favourite boyhood adventure graphic novels, The Adventures of Tintin, the bumbling pair of detectives Thomson and Thompson are driving in circles around a fictional African desert. At one point, a faster car zooms past and Thomson steps out of the vehicle. Bewildered, Thompson backs up their rickety jeep and asks, “I say, why would you step out while we were moving?”

“Moving?” he says, bewildered, “that car went so fast I thought we were standing still!”

Talk to anyone born in Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and standing still is as foreign to them as it is to a shark – if they stop swimming, they literally die.

Literally literally, not figuratively literally, like post-Millennials would say.

Being still in an ever-moving world though, feels like a luxury. For a soloist like us, it’s almost unimaginable.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

What's In A Name? (ABC Radio Melbourne)

Many brand names are instantly recognisable, like Coca-Cola, Apple, Nintendo, Mercedes and more. But what's in a name? And how do companies actually go about naming things?

I talked to Lisa Leong on ABC Radio Melbourne about car names, branding, and the attachment we have to our cars - bombs and all!

Listen here.

What is the State of Marketing in 2024?

For many marketers and creatives, 2023 was a bit of a “lost year” in terms of growth and productivity.

Speaking anecdotally, many friends and colleagues lamented that the year was leaner than expected, thanks to inflation and the cost of living crisis contributing to lower advertising budgets.

Like Marshall McLuhan says, we speed into the future looking at the rearview mirror. After reviewing Hubspot and Salesforce State of Marketing 2024 reports, here is an overview of what marketing firms are doing in the face of new opportunities - and threats - from artificial intelligence and regulatory sharks circling around third-party data collection and social media such as TikTok.

What is the state of marketing in 2024?

PERSONALISATION IS KING

Sure, content is king - but personalisation is even better. According to Hubspot, “87% of marketers plan to continue or increase their investment in mobile messaging through channels like SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.” That means constant engagement with customers using these channels, powered by Generative AI chatbots. 96% of marketers say personalization leads to repeat business, and 94% say it increases sales.

Their research also shows that it has an over 120x return on investment, on average. Hubspot also found that 55% of businesses predict that by 2024, most people will turn to chatbots over search engines for answers.

According to a Kibo survey, personalising the entire customer experience led to 3x ROI than forgoing personalisation. Salesforce says that 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Of course, this will need an end-to-end strategy at the top and bottom of funnels to implement with any measure of success.

Imperator Email INVICTUS

If personalised messaging through various channels is the king, then email is the Imperator Romanum, the God-Emperor to rule over them all. Salesforce says that 84% of marketers send commercial or engagement messages over email, and Hubspot says that it’s tied for second place in terms of greatest ROI overall ($36 for each $1 spent). It accounts for 80% of all outbound marketing messaging, Salesforce says.

One in three marketers reports using email and 87% plan to maintain or increase their investment in 2024 though email marketers will need to adapt to emerging technologies and trends such as including targeted personalisation, personalised images, directions to the nearest retail outlet, social feeds, and social media links.

Scrollable Video - the seo killer?

We live in the age of the short-form video - Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. According to Hubspot, “marketers are doubling down on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to address younger audiences going right to social video platforms to search and engage with brands, even more so than search engines.” 50% say they will be using TikTok this year - and hopefully the US Government doesn’t set a dangerous precedent by banning it outright.

Aja Frost, Director of Global Growth at HubSpot says, “use social listening tools to understand which low, medium-, and high-intent questions prospects and customers are asking, then work with the Social Media team to create content answering those questions — or, even more powerfully, enabling brand advocates to answer it for them.”

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C is Not for Cookie - Third-Party Data

As Google seeks to phase-out third-party cookies and data collection, marketers need to walk the privacy versus personalisation tightrope ever more carefully. First-party data collected via opt-in (such as an email list) is the most powerful kind of data - as it directly captures and fuels the personalisation mentioned earlier. That’s not to say a complete view of a customer is a given either: 2021 Gartner® Cross-Functional Customer Data Survey, 14% of organisations achieve a 360-degree view of their customer, and of those 14%, 44% said it’s in a customer data platform.

75% of marketers are still investing in third-party data, 68% say they have managed to fully define their strategy to shift away from gathering this information.

AI is a co-pilot, not autopilot

AI hasn’t led to marketing being automated completely - but it has shown its usefulness in reducing administrative tasks through automation for marketers. Hubspot says marketers are saving three hours per piece of content and two and a half hours per day overall. Interestingly, only 6% say they use Generative AI to write their content for them; 45% says it helps with idea generation and inspiration, and 31% they use it to create outlines. 81% of marketers say that leveraging generative AI enhances their roles.

Salesforce says 68%% of marketers have a fully defined AI strategy, up from 60% in 2021 and 57% in 2020. The top three ways marketing organisations use AI is to automate customer interactions (90%), automate data integration (89%), and personalise the customer journey across channels (88%).

Most marketers say it’s the number one tool for research, with apps like Albus assisting with in-depth and tangential research into various topics. Of course, as AI isn’t perfect, we must always trust but verify.

What’s Next?

With AI speeding up the cycle between marketing and sales, it’s likely that further automation will further blur the distinctions between the two, especially with targeted and opt-in personalisation. Can you argue with an AI generated image of you wearing a dashing pair of sunglasses and is 40% off for your birthday? Only time will tell.

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Being bilingual – developing a soft skill for a growth mindset (Flying Solo)

Imagine you’re at the top of your craft (of course you are, you wouldn’t be a soloist if you weren’t!) You’ve poured thousands of hours into honing your expertise and making a name for yourself as one of the best practitioners of that skill in the country – perhaps the world.

Then, you decide to start from scratch, like a five-year-old entering school for the first time. You fall from the very top of the tree to somewhere among the roots.

That’s what it’s like learning a new language.

Yet it opens – quite literally – a whole entire world of opportunity.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

Creatives: The obstacle is the way… (Flying Solo)

If you’re a graphic designer, copywriter, or creative type (as non-creatives like to call us) I’ll bet good money you had a conversation this year that went like this: “Have you seen ChatGPT/Midjourney/Generative AI platform? It does what you do in like, five seconds!”

Gritting our teeth and smiling politely, we nod and reply, “I have! That’s so interesting.” The curses reserved for them; you hide beneath your tongue.

Couple that with inflation running rampant and businesses boarding up the house to weather economic storms, we creatives are often left out in the cold.

Read the article at Flying Solo.

What is AI Hallucination in Copywriting?

Though Generative AI or Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Google’s Bard or OpenAI’s ChatGPT have become commonplace in business and in copywriting, not is all as it seems. 

If you spend enough time using these tools such as ChatBots or online content generation tools, the AI may produce results that are bizarre, make no sense, or are completely made up.

This phenomenon is known as “AI Hallucination” and can prove damaging for professionals in creative industries such as content writing and copywriting. Here’s what copywriters and other creatives can do about it.

How Generative AI works

Generative AI doesn’t “think” like we do – in a nutshell, the AI manipulates numbers to reach a desired outcome.

Though the language it generates is human readable and appears fluent, it is predicated on a series of tokens broken down into probabilistic models. If one provides a prompt “Write the next word in this sentence: The cat sat on the ___?” 

The Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) will parse that phrase like a game of Family Feud – the survey – or information it is fed, will produce the response of the highest probability according to the data it can access. To do this, it lends certain words and phrases different probabilistic weights – The cat sat on the mat. “Mat” may be weighted with near 100% probability while “laptop” may be weighted with 10-15% probability.

It “learns” this through analysing millions, if not billions of words and sentences pulled from various online repositories.

The AI does not and cannot “know” the implied meaning of the words it generates in isolation, or even in sequence. It is manipulating numbers and algorithms to produce the “answer.”

What is an AI Hallucination?

Hallucination, a term from human psychology, refers to an individual seeing or hearing things that in reality, do not exist.

Likewise, AI hallucinations present incorrect, inaccurate, or logically inconsistent information as factually correct and complete information – and being confident that the returned result is indeed truthful. 

The term “AI Hallucination” has been around since at least 2018, when Google authored a paper on Neural Machine Translation, where they said “NMT systems are susceptible to producing highly pathological translations that are completely untethered from the source material.”

Many Generative AI models are trained to provide answers at almost “any cost.” Given an AI is plugged into vast reservoirs of already-existing information at all times, it is hard to understand how an AI can “not know” a given answer when asked a straightforward question. Therefore, it simply produces something, rather than nothing.

In fact, OpenAI disclaims hallucinations by warning users that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.”

Other terms for AI hallucination are “confabulation” which can appear in AI-generated video, upscaling, images, or audio as weird artifacts or odd interpretations of prompts.

Common types of AI hallucinations

The most common types of AI hallucinations that can creep into copy are factual errors or inconsistencies in the output.

The most famous example is from February of 2023. Google’s Generative AI Bard stated that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope took the very first pictures of a planet from outside our solar system.

Astronomers quickly pointed out that this was incorrect.

It can also contradict itself and not be “aware” of the contradiction. You may ask the AI to write a 26-word poem with each word starting with a corresponding letter of the alphabet, and it returns 25 words or 27 words. Even when “challenged” it may insist that the output conforms to what the prompt has asked.

Other (more fun) hallucinations are when the AI goes completely off the rails and returns gibberish or nonsensical data. You may ask for an explanation of the water cycle, and it goes off on a tangent about 80s horror films. In French.

This can all happen due to the quality of data being collected, how it generates responses, how well a prompt is engineered, and plain old human error in the form of bugs.

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AI hallucinations and copywriting or content writing

With the right prompts and skill, a LLM or Generative AI can produce massive amounts of content at scale.

However, the downside is, at least for the moment, is that AI generated content lacks the “Experience” ingredient in Google’s page ranking factor model, known as E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.)

If a Generative AI “hallucinates” once or twice per 1,000 words, this can make even the most well-intentioned content run afoul of Google’s E-E-A-T parameters. 

If a human website copywriter cannot determine whether the AI has hallucinated or not (e.g. through a lack of expertise on the topic being covered) it can wreak havoc not only for their SEO efforts but also for productivity. 

Copywriters and editors will need to redline and fact-check each claim a Generative AI has made. For shorter copy and content (under 1000w), there is a reasonable chance that writing the post oneself would take less time than crafting prompts and checking facts.

How to prevent AI hallucinations

Though we can’t totally stop an AI from hallucinating, we can take steps to mitigate the risk of hallucinations occurring. This can come from writing better prompts or feeding it higher quality information. 

Pre-train the AI

The “PT” in GPT means “pre-trained.” We may assume that a GPT is adept in all things but feeding it relevant and contemporary data first can help limit factual errors. These may come into play by asking a GPT to read through several hand-picked sources or databases before generating text.

Give it a role to play

Image generative AI such as DALL-E and Midjourney are called upon to “Imagine” images based on prompts; and GPTs can be given roles to play which can narrow its focus to certain types of data. For example, if you want an expert to determine whether the James Webb Telescope did indeed see an extra-solar planet, you can ask it:

You are an astronomer who works at NASA and concentrates on reading telemetry from the James Webb Telescope. Has the telescope ever seen a planet outside our solar system?

Exclude certain answers

Just like the dark days of the pre-Google internet, search operators were crucial to find relevant information. If you wanted to look up “bicycles” you may have had to Ask Jeeves (literally) “Bicycles NOT motorcycles”, which would exclude motorcycles from your results.

This could take the form of:

Provide a list of islands in the South Pacific which exist in the real world. Exclude all fictional mentions and return what can be seen on a contemporary (2010s onwards) map. 

Forgive its trespasses

If the GPT has racked its neural networks and databases and come up with nothing, let it know that that is also an acceptable answer.

Does nothing unreal exist? If you do not know, say, “I don’t know.”

Copywriters: trust, but verify

As of 2023, hallucination is part and parcel of using Generative AI. As a copywriter or content writer who may look to GPTs for ideas, long-form content generation, or productivity improvements, we need to rely on the old political maxim: trust but verify.

There’s a high probability that the GPT output is factually correct, but we also need to cross-check with third-party reputable sources before publishing; lest you contribute to spreading misinformation unwittingly.

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To get the best human copywriting and copyediting you can find online, contact me! No hallucinations, guaranteed.

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How To Use Social Media To Reach More Customers

Did you know that the 2nd most followed page on Facebook is Samsung, with 159.82 million followers? That’s six times the population of Australia tapped into all the moves the South Korean electronics giant is making - from a consumer perspective. That is, they’ve all opted in to being sold new phones, cameras, TVs, and tablets as part of their daily social media scroll.

Though enterprise businesses may employ social media managers (who may be flustered by the overwhelming demands of the job, as I’ve explored here), small to medium businesses often flounder under the constant demand for content - or mistaken belief that just because one posts it will be seen by all their audience, every time. (That’s the non-linear algorithm at work, baybay!)

Social media is free to use - but with all free things, it means spending time on it to gain any real benefit. Here is a primer on how to use social media to reach more customers.

Find Your Audience and Meet Them There

There’s no such thing as the Field of Dreams on the web. It’s not a case of “build it and they will come” but rather, “build it where they already are.”

That means looking at your business and figuring out where your core demographic customer base already hangs out. B2B businesses will likely want to focus on B2B social media, such as LinkedIn. (It’s where I hang out!) B2C will want to embrace Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, and to a lesser extent, X (formerly Twitter.)

If you have limited time to spend, you may want to focus on one platform. Meta Business Suite helps you post across Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp, which means reaching three sets of audiences at once.

Apps such as Keyhole can help you identify these audiences without waiting too long for analytics to come in - which can help you along tremendously.

Establish a Narrative and Social Proof

Stories are everything. People are drawn in by stories; brands that establish solid narratives about themselves will rise to the top of the pile compared with soulless, bland sales pages. For example, the DIY, grassroots values of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream - a small business started by two hippie college dropouts from Vermont selling fresh ice-cream from their gelatery - (almost) overrides the fact they are now a global brand owned by Unilever, a multi-national corporation with questionable holdings.

Social proof is the act of using other’s opinions of your brand to sell your products and services. This may come in the form of using content from your customers (i.e., re-blogging or re-posting their Instagram reels or TikToks) to “prove” that people like, use, and trust your product.

Using Influencers and Brand Advocates

Believe it or not, 40% of Twitter (as it was called in 2016) users said they bought something because an influencer tweeted about it. There was a 5.2x increase in the likelihood of a purchase when users saw both brand and influencer tweets about the product.

According to Mention.com, URL shortener Bitly saw 11x greater return on investment than traditional forms of digital marketing. People who have a large social media following are instant social proof - even if the audience knows that the brand is sponsoring their posts. Influencers need not just be on Instagram; they could be bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, TikTokers, and other high-follower count individuals or groups.

Reposting content from satisfied customers who become “cheerleaders” for your product is another way to reach even greater audiences. People love being seen - and according to an Olapic study, 70% of U.S.-based respondents are more likely to buy products after being exposed to a relatable or positive image created by other consumers.

Provide Value For THEIR FOLLOW

Yes, some people will follow certain brands or companies just to get the jump on sales. But the top performers provide real value to their customers in the form of informational or instructional content that they can use.

A food brand may want to showcase recipes; a fashion brand may want to emphasise which fragrances to pair with their outfit. Even if you’re an excavator company, you can still provide value by showing which kind of plant you use to tackle certain jobs, which may be useful for apprentices. The more content that you can provide that’s useful, the better.

Use a Strategic Approach

One of the most common mistakes brands make is using a scattershot approach to social media posting and content. A hospitality venue might make one post about an upcoming event…only for it to get buried under the algorithm and have it appear in people’s feeds three days after it’s finished.

Every business should have a social media strategy which should be planned out ahead of time with content (or at least ideas about content), its purpose (brand recognition, promotion, reach), and the goals it is attempting to reach.

This keeps your social media running smoothly as part of your overall sales or marketing processes. Instead of panicking about what to post, where, and when, your strategy will guide you in the right direction whether you want to make a post yourself or leave it up to the professionals.

With a bit of persistence and effort you can use social media to reach more customers - and greater sales!

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For expert guidance and quality cut-through content that’s both strategic and impossible to ignore, trust I Sell Words for all aspects of social media management. Read about my social media success stories here!

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Can you have your Google cake and EEAT it too? (Flying Solo)

Content is king, right? I mean, I am a loyal subject to it as a copywriter, supplicating before its wordy throne, feeding it fine morsels of verbiage and sentences crafted to perfection to satisfy its ever-growing hunger, I write at Flying Solo.

How To Use Email Marketing To Increase Black Friday Sales

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail sales in November 2022 increased 7.7% year on year, with a total retail trade turnover of $35.9 billion. Whether a sale was at a till or on a checkout page, email marketing is still a strong force to pushing people to buying gifts for themselves - and perhaps for others!

If you have a healthy email marketing list, how can you leverage it to increase your Black Friday or Christmas sales?

Create a Content Calendar

The first step toward a successful holiday sales campaign is creating a content calendar. This doesn’t just have to encompass your potential email marketing offers or newsletters, but tie into your social media and content marketing as a whole.

If you’re focusing on a certain product for a week, your strategy should be to push it through all your channels. Make sure you leave some flexibility for flash sales, opportunities that come your way (discounted lines, for example), and of course, crisis communications if things go wrong.

It’s never too early to push holiday sales - commercial media platform Criteo says that first time buyers will check out an online store 41 days before making a potential purchase on Black Friday.

Segment, Personalise, Repeat

Segmentation and personalisation is the “secret ingredient” to encourage open rate and sales. CampaignMonitor says that personalising subject lines can lead to an 8x improvement in click-throughs and 6x improvement in transaction rates.

Segmenting your email list into active users, lapsed users, etc. can also mean targeting campaigns at these demographics. You can lure lapsed users who have signed up and never purchased with a special discount offer; your most enthusiastic shoppers could be incentivised with buy one, get one free offers.

As I’ve mentioned previously, email marketing should feel as if that email is written just for them and no one else.

Add Value With Every Email

You don’t have to offer a discount with every email you send out. There are plenty of ways to add value to someone’s inbox without sacrificing your bottom line. One great way to add value is offering a “holiday gift guide” - based on the segmentation and personalisation discussed earlier - and hit points that you know will resonate with that audience.

Earn $50 For Every Referral!

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Earn $50 For Every Referral! 〰️

• Gifts for him/her (directed at the opposite)

• Gifts on a budget - using language like “Gifts under $50”

• Gifts for people with certain hobbies or interests

• Gifts for kids or gifts for mum and dad

• Gifts for those looking to splurge

You can also build your email list by offering instant discounts, access to early sales coupons or free shipping just for signing up.

Don’t simply bombard your audience with calls to buy something - planting seeds can prove just as valuable!

Get In The Festive Spirit

As I was writing this blog post, I got an email from MOO, an online business stationery and card shop, that was advertising “Fresh Festive Ideas.” I don’t even own a Christmas tree (much to the chagrin of any woman I know) but I do know many people love Christmas and the holiday season. Using Christmas emojis (in fact, using emojis can dramatically increase open rates) Incorporating that into your messaging can increase engagement and rapport with your brand. You may cringe at a Christmas pun as a subject line, but some people find it charming! (I don’t know who. Don’t ask.)

Use Automation and SMS

If you have a robust email marketing system, you should set up emails for different user scenarios such as abandoned carts, missed emails, and flash sales. Many people (myself included) will sign up for an email list, purposely abandon a cart and see if the store sends me a discount to entice me back! You should have email and copy ready to go for every eventuality, including flash sales, buy one, get one free offers, limited time offers, and so on. Since most of us will be reading these offers on our smartphones, using SMS marketing can also help drive engagement and traffic to your site.

Make Sales Seamless

If you have a special sale targeting a segment of your email list, the sales page should be as seamless as possible. That means links should open to the gifts below $50; or have their subscriber discount already applied in a cart; whatever it takes to make the sale as easy as possible for the buyer.

There’s nothing worse than coming across a vague landing page that’s trying to appeal to everyone yet functions for almost no one.

By following some simple steps, you too can rake in a sales bonanza this Black Friday and Christmas!

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Want help with crafting great copy that’ll cut through all the robotic cookie cutter nonsense? Get your Black Friday sales pumping with I Sell Words!

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How To Create a Winning SEO Keyword Strategy For Your Business

Google and search engines are always on the look out to optimise their results for the end user. It’s why they so frequently change their algorithms. In 2018 they “improved” their PageRank and ranking signals algorithm over 3,000 times; in the age where AI is taking over more and more, it could be refining itself in ways we don’t even see.

If your business site has been reigning supreme over Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for years, you could find yourself in the unenviable position of being on the wrong side of an algorithm update, losing hard-won rankings and positions.

Having a strong keyword strategy that keeps up with Google and new trends can help your business navigate the wild world of SEO without having to start from square one.

WHAT IS A SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY?

Though it can be confused with keyword research, a keyword strategy goes a step further than mere keyword research. Intuitively, we know what keywords we want to target in searches. If we own a plumbing business, we would type in “plumbers near me” or “gas plumber Melbourne” to Google and grab the first few autocomplete results, incorporating this into our on-page SEO copy.

A keyword strategy goes deeper. Instead of a scattergun approach, an SEO Keyword Strategist would identify the cost/benefit ratio for chasing certain keywords or keyphrases, see what keywords could drive relevant traffic to your site, identify new opportunities, and help structure your content into topic clusters. A strategic approach can also temper expectations around rankings and growth. Highly competitive keywords may be out of reach for many small businesses.

However a laser-focused strategy that also includes less competitive or high-intent keywords could drive more qualified leads to your site. This often means a higher return on investment than looking for raw volume. Many users who end up at your site may be “tyre kicking” and bouncing off without any conversion or interaction. The strategy also needs to consider this aspect of user behaviour.

Benchmarking Performance

At the very least, you should have some kind of analytics set up to gauge what incoming search terms your site is ranking for at any given moment. You should be using Google Analytics or Google Search Console at the minimum.

Signing up for free versions of Ahrefs or SEMRush can give you general overviews of how your site is ranking in terms of keyword authority and positioning among competitors. At the very least, you need to set a baseline from which to work with.

Set SMART Goals

With any strategy, be it crossing the Ardennes or carving out 10% greater market share, it needs an identifiable goal. These should be SMART:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Relevant

• Timely

The specific goal a business could set are improving rankings for a certain topic or keyword cluster to the first page within six months. To use our plumber, this may be “blocked sinks/drains/grease traps” to the first page in that time period. These could be refined into key performance indicators for Top 3 rankings or Top 4-10 rankings, for example. For a list of SEO KPIs every business should track, SEMRush has a great guide here.

Topics - The New SEO Keyword?

As you may be aware, Google uses the E-E-A-T ranking signal to sort relevant pages and display them in Search Engine results. This stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This rings especially true for businesses that trade in “money or your life” sectors such as financial advice or medical treatment. Instead of focusing on individual keywords or phrases, a good SEO keyword strategy will incorporate content and backlinking efforts on becoming trusted expert authorities on topics.

Our plumber may want to target keywords around plumbing, but what other topics are relevant to would-be searchers? How to unclog drains can also relate to general home maintenance; the latter of which could be a topic cluster. The high-level topic then informs what other secondary keywords you could be targeting underneath to support your strategy.

Creating topic pages also feeds into any good SEO content strategy, which also comprises how you lay out your pages and sitemap. Certain pillar pages may contain basic information on a given topic (plumbing maintenance) and supporting pages with their own topics (how to stop drains from running slowly) which you can then link to.

Remember: this topical content need not be written: it could be video content, podcasts, interactives, and social media content.

Keyword Difficulty vs. Payoff

Every keyword has metrics that you need to look at such as search volume and keyword difficulty. Search volume shows how often a search is run (usually a rough estimate) and keyword difficulty is the probability of entering the “race” for ranking high and actually pulling it off.

Sites or pages with high domain authority, referring domains, and page authority are harder to knock off the perch than lower-hanging fruit. The higher the difficulty, the better or more relevant your content has to become, which can take a lot of time and effort (and even then, it may not pay off.)

You will have to evaluate how much effort you wish to funnel into certain keywords or perhaps look for “easy target” keywords that you can target for quick and easy wins. (which Backlinko goes into detail with here.) How you prioritise high difficulty vs. low difficulty keywords or topics is a matter for your business - but the strategy itself should give you insights into what will work best to achieve your ultimate goal.

earn $50 for a referral!

~ click here! ~

earn $50 for a referral! ~ click here! ~

SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY IS ALSO Content Strategy

Your topics and keywords will be centered around content - but your keywords for content shouldn’t be placed “just anywhere.” They too should be laid out in a strategic way.

A strategic approach must include direction for topics, blog or page posting frequency, and where a potential customer could potentially enter your sales funnel when searching for that keyword or phrase.

The top-of-the-funnel often sends larger traffic levels with a lower intent to purchase or convert, whereas the bottom-of-the-funnel typically sends lower traffic volumes with a higher intent. Though you may have less traffic coming through at the bottom-of-the-funnel, the payoff is much higher than if you simply ignored that keyword completely.

Tracking and Refinement

It’s vital that you conduct regular tracking and reporting on progress towards your goals.

Plans can change and the methods you employ to can and might shift halfway through. That's normal, and it's frequently what distinguishes a good plan from a great strategy. 

Checking in on your KPIs at least monthly ensures that you are constantly aware of how near you are to meeting your objectives, that you can communicate updates with other stakeholders and that you have confidence that things are heading in the right direction and that your SEO Keyword Strategy is set up for success.

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Want a killer SEO Keyword Strategy that can supercharge your business, along with persuasive content that sells and converts more often? Talk to me!

Freelancers, do you feel guilty asking for overdue payments? (Flying Solo)

One of the bestselling self-help books of all time is When I Say No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith. It helps soothe anxieties around “people pleasing” and encourages healthy boundary setting.

Above all, it teaches people who feel bad saying “no” to people in fear of being disliked.

However, as freelancers, we hear “no” a lot. We pitch clients, call up leads, and all but get ready to pounce on new work until we hear a “thanks but no thanks”, a “not right now”, or the good ol’ “we’ll keep you in mind for future projects.”

How do we feel when we ask for what we’re entitled to, though?

I’m talking of course, about that all-too-persistent dread: overdue invoices.

I know many of us – me included – feel a gut punch of nervousness insisting that delinquent clients make me whole. I am definitely not alone.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

The Power of Professional Copywriting Services for Australian Businesses

Though business comes and goes in cycles, the power of marketing can’t be understated. Digital marketing opens up new avenues for Australian businesses to reach more people and sell their brand not only here, but overseas as well. As part of any digital marketing strategy, a copywriter should be part of your arsenal of persuasion. So why should an Australian business invest in professional copywriting services? What are the advantages of having an Australian copywriter on call or on retainer?

Why Invest in Professional Copywriting Services?

What you say is how you sell. Investing in professional copywriting services is an investment in your overall marketing and communications strategy. Copywriting services can help your business craft a strategy around digital marketing – every piece of content you post will need some kind of copy to help promote your business or sell your product or service.

Greater reach inevitably leads to higher sales volumes or inquiries. These profits can be re-invested into marketing and copywriting to spur on even more growth down the line.

Crafting SEO-Optimised Copy for Better Organic Visibility

Did all those words sound like they meant something? If you aren’t a copywriter or work in digital marketing, they can feel a bit confusing. In simple terms, SEO refers to Search Engine Optimisation. This is the art and science of writing copy or text on websites so search engines (Google for the most part) will rank your page higher than other competing pages with similar or identical information. Google displays pages on their Search Engine Results Page (SERP) in order of relevance. The higher your webpage ranks on the SERP for a chosen keyword, the more likely it will be clicked on.

According to a study of 80 million keywords and billions of searches by Search Engine Journal in 2020, 28.5% of clicks go to the organic (non-paid) result in the 1st position. It’s diminishing returns after that: 2nd gets 15.7%, while 3rd gets 11%. 10th spot gets about 2.5% of the clicks on average.

SEO is an investment in increasing this organic visibility by helping your site and pages climb up SERPs for chosen keywords. This is a long-term strategy for growth, as it decreases reliance on Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and builds your authority as an authoritative and trustworthy source for information on that keyword – and in sales, this is worth its weight in gold.

Leveraging Persuasive Writing Techniques to Drive Conversions

If you’ve ever read SEO copy, it often sounds like text written by robots for other robots. Sometimes keywords will be “stuffed” into places that make even the most grammatically nonchalant wince. From that perspective, it’s done its job: you clicked on the top link, after all. But here’s where it falls apart in terms of conversions. The copy just doesn’t convince anyone to put their faith in your brand. Something drives them away.

SEO leads the horse to water; but persuasive writing on the page gets it to drink.

Copywriting is about balancing on-page SEO as well as using persuasive techniques to get people to perform an action (I write about calls to action in my blog about email marketing here.) It may be to buy a product, sign up for a service, or simply hand over an email address for a mailing list. These techniques may be straight-forward calls to action (Buy Now, While Stocks Last!) or thematic (appeals to reason, appeals to the hip-pocket, etc.)

Australian businesses need copywriters to help them leverage persuasion as part of their communications in order to drive sales and inquiries. This should be the prime motivator in your marketing – the art of the sale. However, without tailoring it to local audiences, it can quickly go awry.

Tailoring Your Copy to Australian Business Needs

If you have ever taken a trip abroad – or perhaps lived abroad – you will quickly notice how culture affects a business’ sales approach. When I lived in Atlanta, Georgia it was not uncommon for salespeople, even in shoe stores, to push products on me when I hadn’t asked for them. Once, when I was at the mall having a browse at one such shoe shop, an enterprising young sales associate noticed I was wearing Converse Chuck Taylors.

A pair of my beloved red Chuck Taylors.

I’d barely crossed the threshold of the entrance and he immediately rushed toward me. He knelt down and started buffing my white toe tips with a special polishing product. Before I could tell him to stop, he was rattling off all these benefits, ending the encounter by telling me his name (presumably so he could get a commission.)

This behaviour would be unthinkable in Australian shops.

Australian business needs are different from overseas needs, which means overseas copywriters that aren’t immersed in our culture will find it difficult to replicate or cater to our approach. The “hard sell” is often seen as sketchy or “suss” (we had purchase over that word before Among Us, thank you!)

Copywriting services in Australia require a flexibility and versatility of prose to tailor certain tones of voice and style to their audiences. Corporate businesses will use highly abstract and academic style language, while small businesses may use more persuasive or colloquial language – good Aussie copywriters can deftly sprinkle in some Aussie vernacular as well.

If your copy reads as if it was written by a foreigner, it will come across as inauthentic – which can lead to high bounce rates and poor conversions, even if your SEO is on point. (I mean, ridgy-didge.)

Choosing the Right Copywriting Service Provider

Not all copywriters are created equal – some are more creative while others are more technical (read my post about the differences between them here.) You should choose a copywriter that can understand your business and effectively sell the idea and the tangible result to as many potential customers as possible. They need to connect you to your audience and help clarify your message. Your business may want to choose a copywriter with a particular niche; though hiring generalists (such as myself) may open the door for new and creative opportunities for marketing that your competitors may not have thought of before, differentiating yourself from the pack.

Ultimately, they need to be a part of your team and need to gel with your overall business methods and processes. Unfortunately, not every copywriter will be a good fit; nor will every copywriter want to work with your company for any number of reasons. Make sure to research different copywriters and get to know them as if they were a potential employee; you could build a fruitful partnership that lasts decades!

A copywriter who knows their SEO stuff, is persuasive to a fault, and works well with your company can unleash a wave of powerful marketing on your potential customers!

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Leverage the power of an award-winning Australian SEO copywriter at I Sell Words! Contact me below and let’s get started!

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