Copywriter tools can help make writing easier, more fun and more dynamic. When you’re writing professionally for your job, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Websites, social media, brochures, press releases, oh my! But with the plethora of online tools available, you can always make sure that you’ve got someone (the interwebz) looking over your shoulder to help you make it better. Just like your high school English teacher.
Here Are 5 Copywriter Tools You Can Use in Your Daily Work
Thesaurus.com
Make your writing a little more exciting thrilling with some more pizzazz-y words using Thesaurus.com. Type in a simple word and get a fresh supply of better words to spice up your writing. Use this tool to help you with naming assignments, headlines, and more.
ChatGPT
There are many uses for a language modeler (none of which involve high school essays, kids), which is what ChatGPT is. It’s AI trained to write. It doesn’t think, though, so answers can come back sounding very plausible but be completely fabricated because it’s only a language modeler. Try it for small, specific social media posts in which you give it all the details, searching for specific jobs online using specific job titles, or giving you something to start with when you’re writing a blog post by giving it topics.
Emojipedia
Do you write a lot of subject lines? 🤔 Adding an emoji to a subject line as texture is current best practice. To easily look up and copy/paste any emoji visit Emojipedia. You can type in a prompt and it will give you all the relevant emojis that fit.
Grammarly
Clean up your writing. Make it proper and concise using the platform Grammarly. It even has a new AI-powered desktop app you can install and use on practically everything. Make your high school English teacher proud.
Content Row
Are headlines the hardest for you? Try on-line tool Content Row. Type in your topic, and Content Row will generate headlines for you. And, they’re all scored for effectiveness so you know they’ll generate clicks.
As you can see, it’s easier than ever to make your writing better! Try a few of these copywriter tools and let us know what you like.
Seasoned Business Leaders: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
As a seasoned business leader, the old adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” has been replaying as a reminder in my mind over and over again for the last year. Sometimes when you’ve been doing a certain thing for a long time, you might become insulated from innovation by doing things the way you first learned them. You might even forget the best practices you learned at the beginning in favor of doing what works at the moment in your business. At this point, reminders for seasoned business leaders can be helpful to continue to grow.
So this week I’m sharing here some reminders for business leaders who may need a refresher on the must-dos and must-haves when things are rockin’. And even before they’re rockin’. These apply whether you are a start-up or veteran. I was reminded this week of what I don’t know when I launched a new business of sorts, and finally brought it to life.
Seasoned Business Leader Turned Start-Up (again)
As most of those who know me know, my son is in college in Central Florida. After his freshman year and countless visits to Florida, more for my sake than his, I had an idea. Buy a place in Florida. I’m there all the time to see my son, and when I’m not there I could rent it out to others who would enjoy the beach as much as my family does.
So, I did countless hours of research. Ran numbers backwards and forwards. Consulted my business advisor. Then, did more research. Then, I contacted several owners of rental properties and local small business owners in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Next, I refinanced the house. In addition, I had to take out another significant loan to get this idea off the ground.
As I last blogged, this is not my first rodeo. But, I am here to tell you old dogs do forget the new tricks. As a seasoned business owner, I was reminded in the course of this new project, just how much these business basics matter.
Business Leader Basics to Remember
1. Finances
Make sure you have extra in the budget for unexpected expenses during start-up. Money isn’t made in the first and sometimes second year of business. Remember that. Another thing going through my head these last few months is that real estate is a long term investment, as most businesses are. Seasoned business leaders know to endure the short term pains for the long-term gain.
2. Time
Remember that time is your inventory. Don’t go down rabbit holes. Overthinking and questioning yourself aren’t necessary. Stay focused on what matters. Make decisions and then move on. Most of all, be efficient in all you do.
3. Support Network
Partner with the experts. I don’t know construction. Or anything about the short-term rental space. Nor do know much about HOAs, (but I do now) so I found and made friends with the BEST in these categories. I am so grateful for them and their expertise. Also, my family and friends were there when I needed to vent, cry, scream or say queue #5.
4. Front Porch Marketing Team
If you have two businesses, make sure each of the business teams are in support of the other. The Front Porch team kept the Porch rockin’ while I was bobbing and weaving in and out so I could get Calming Corner (our new beach space) up and running. Seasoned business leaders build teams they can count on in crunch times.
5. Saying Uncle
Yes, you can have too much on your plate. So ask for grace. Be nice to yourself. Realize you do have physical and mental limitations.
6. Good Enough
Our first renters were to arrive at 4 p.m. on the 1st of April. There was cleaning to be done. Some pictures were not hung, etc. But the place was beautiful. It was time to finish the cleaning and save the rest for the next time she was vacant. Good enough is sometimes perfection.
“The Calming Corner” is Up and Running
I am proud to say that as we are building this rental business, we are also supporting other local businesses. The new couch is manufactured in Florida by a Florida-based company. The patio furniture is manufactured in Volusia County and the business is owned and operated by a local husband and wife duo. And our boutique vacation rental company, Florida Vacay Rentals, is owned by a local female rock star who is also my “Florida Anchor.” And I am honored to call her my friend.
So here is my shameless plug for Calming Corner, our new Front Porch view! Please note, NEW photography coming soon, because there are all new floors, paint and furniture. And there is a fabulous remodeled master bath. Shorehom by the Sea, Unit 54, also has a new bedroom pocket door, a new pantry, a new washer dryer closet and more.
Oh, and, as of April 6, it has a brand new air-conditioner, that was not in the budget … sigh.
Spring Has Officially Sprung — So Let’s Organize Your Workspace?
This year, I’ve added “organizing your workspace” to my spring-cleaning to-do list! If you’re anything like me, you associate spring with spring cleaning. It’s time to dust off the cobwebs of those ceiling fan blades you rarely touch, clean out the closets and tackle the flowerbeds. I love strolling the aisles at my local greenhouse to pick out the flowers I’m inevitably going to see wither away in the triple-degree Texas heat. And, it’s time to get my workspace into tip-top shape.
Clean Your Workspace, Clear Your Mind.
Whether you’re working remotely or in an office, it’s the perfect time to sort through the piles of papers that have accumulated on your desk, clean out those old emails and establish that new online folder organization system you have been daydreaming about.
Now, I realize that not everyone receives the same amount of joy that I do from filling a large trash bag full of unnecessary papers or an inbox with only a handful of emails. Some of you may argue that there isn’t enough time in the day. While others might cite there is evidence that a messy desk is a sign of genius. Say hello to my husband’s top excuse. Ha!
Organizing Your Workspace Has Multiple Benefits
No matter what camp you fall into, it’s hard to argue that there aren’t benefits of a well-organized space.
Increased Productivity. How many times a day do you find yourself searching for a piece of paper, email or document? We’ve all been there, but when you have a clean and organized space, you’ll inevitably spend less time searching and more time doing.
Reduced Stress Levels. Meeting in five minutes. Can’t locate the document you’ve been tirelessly working on. Enough said!
Boost Creativity. When you’re organized, you’re typically not working under the gun of a million deadlines. When you’re calm and in control, your creativity will flourish.
You might now be asking the question: How Do I Tackle My Unorganized Workspace?
Start small. First you need to remember,your mess wasn’t made in a day. It might take a little time to organize your workspace into the space you want. Pick the time of day you’re most productive and set a timer for 15 minutes. Grab the stack of papers and go.
Tools and Resources. Hit the office supply store or your supply cabinet at the office. Grab the file folders and organizers and start labeling and sorting. You should now be able to see the top of your desk.
Online Organization. Your inbox really only needs to house emails that require your response. Everything else should have a home. Create folders in your inbox by client or project and file them accordingly. The same goes for documents. Take it a step further and establish a naming convention for your documents to make things even easier.
How to Maintain Your Organized Workspace
Once you’re done organizing your workspace, it’s just as important to maintain it. You don’t want to turn around a month later and be back at square one. Set aside 15 minutes at the end of each workday to tidy up your space. Throw away the papers and go through your emails and documents.
Soon, you’ll find a tidy workspace is second nature and the habits you created will be easy to maintain. Happy spring cleaning!
Front Porch Marketing is now 12 years old, thanks to you. What are our marketing take-aways from the past 12 years? We value your support and confidence in us over the years! You and your brands are our jam.
Marketing Take-Aways to Help Your Business Grow
Reflecting back on client trends and opportunities, on our pearl anniversary, we share common pearls of wisdom we saw at the beginning and continue to see today. We hope these marketing take-aways spur some thinking for you!
1. DIY Marketing
It only gets a brand so far. And, once your brand is established and has credibility, DIY marketing is no longer good enough. Time to take your garage band to the main stage. Hire a professional or firm.
2. Hiring One Marketing Person to Do All the Marketing Things
There are only a handful of unicorns on the planet that can do all the things marketing. If you go this route, know they need support. A marketing generalist isn’t your graphic designer, copywriter, webmaster, etc. Give them the resources they need to do their jobs.
3. B2B Websites
We hear from business owners their websites aren’t a priority and aren’t a sales and marketing tool. Not true. What we see most often is that you aren’t closing the sale or getting to the next round of meetings because you are getting the veto vote when potential clients go to your website to validate your credibility. Important marketing take-away: your website is your virtual office. Optimize it!
4. Marketing Take-Away for CEOs, C-Suite Executives or Managing Partners
Your role is strategy, operations, finances, and managing people. We have experienced too many times when you want to get too far in the weeds managing marketing. At that point, bottlenecks happen and marketing doesn’t happen at its best or consistently.
5. Brand Architecture
Without brand architecture, your branding is inconsistent. Define your brand mission, personality, positioning and affiliation. Let all things marketing flow from there. This becomes the filter and guidepost for branding and marketing strategy as well as execution.
6. Shiny Objects
You have Salesforce, but your team isn’t utilizing it. Then you get Hootsuite and ZoomInfo and, and, and. Stop right there. Marketing operations take-away: Make sure whatever technology you currently have is being utilized to its fullest. Then, if needed, build upon that with other tools.
Marketing Take-Aways to Take You Through the Next 12 Years
Cheers to you! Thank you for trusting in us, believing in us and getting us to our 12th anniversary. Without your support, we wouldn’t be rockin’ on the Porch today and lovin’ every minute of it. We hope these 6 marketing take-aways will be helpful for your business as we grow together over the next dozen years!
Whatever your industry, you can no longer afford to ignore the importance of optimizing your website for mobile experience. Google recently revealed that more searches take place on mobile devises than on desktop computers in 10 different countries, including the United States and Japan. That means failure to optimize your website for mobile could leave you with as much as 30% fewer conversions!
How to Increase Your Mobile Conversion Rate
So, where do you start? You’ll need to decide whether your website will be responsive. This means it will automatically adjust based on whether the visitor is on desktop or mobile. Or if you’ll have a separate, mobile-friendly site you direct customers to. Regardless of how you get them to your site, designing your web pages with mobile users in mind is key to avoiding abandoned carts and a high bounce rate.
Optimize Your Website’s Bounce Rate with UX
A ”bounce rate” refers to the “percentage of people who visit [your] landing page and then ‘bounce’ without converting on a form or making a purchase.” Here you want a low number. Design is key to keeping potential leads and customers on your page for as long as possible. HubSpot completed an experiment by re-designing one of their content landing pages, placing an emphasis on UX design, and saw their bounce rate decrease by an average of 27%!
User-focused pages designed with mobile in mind tend to focus on simplicity. Good UX (User Experience design) can help. If a form is too long, there’s too much text to read, or the physical navigation of a page is overly difficult, visitors are likely to become frustrated and leave the website altogether. Poorly formatted pages are also more than aesthetically displeasing, as they tend to feel less reputable than their well-designed counterparts.
Safety Optimization Keeps Visitors On Your Site
It’s important that visitors feel safe while exploring your site. “Mobile users are more likely to have their passwords, app login info, and financial details sorted on their phones,” making them extra vigilant about the websites they visit. Optimize safety on your website. Make your website secure with HTTPS and displaying trust badges. This will put users’ minds at ease. Further, payment method mistrust results in 19% of customers abandoning their carts. If you don’t already make use of e-wallet payment methods like Android Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal, consider adding them to your payment offerings.
With mobile traffic contributing to the highest percentage of global web traffic, businesses need to optimize their online presence for mobile use. The information here will get you started on the right track.
Front Porch has currently four clients, both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C), with paid digital media campaigns ads and paid social media running. These clients are across different industries from financial and non-profits to insurance and ecommerce. These clients’ marketing strategies include paid digital media advertising because it works for them. We recommended integrating your digital marketing with your brand strategy as part of your overall marketing plan.
Maximizing A Digital Media Budget
Our digital ad philosophy is to consider what formats deliver the maximum opportunities possible for the budget available, to an audience most likely to be interested. This approach maximizes the resources of our clients.
Here is a sampling of paid digital media advertising tools that we are using currently to serve our clients in this space:
Social – Ads served on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to build awareness, build relationships with the audience, and drive traffic to a website
Digital Banner Ads – Ads served through browsers and in-app to build frequency and drive traffic to a website
Streaming Audio – Ads served within music and/or podcast content cross-device, including smart speakers
How We Determine A Plan’s Effectiveness
So, what is the predicted ROI of a paid digital media advertising campaign? When the campaign is for business to business, not an “exit now for cheeseburgers”, it is trickier to predict. But this is how we view the situation, and read our analytics.
Here’s an example for a paid digital advertising campaign for a service business client of ours. Our standard average CTR (click-thru rate), which is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times it is shown, is typically .03-.05% for digital ad campaigns. (Social and Native can trend higher with more mobile impressions than Banner Ads served computers.)
So a digital media plan with about 1MM impressions per month would generate 300-500 clicks. These are the customers that click and come to our client’s website. But, the bounce rate can be high in the 90%. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. Thus with 300-500 clicks, this leaves 30-50 quality prospects per month. Which is a fantastic number for our service client.
If you’d like to know more about how a paid digital media plan might work for your business, just ask!
My youngest kid just started his first job. Having a first job means experiencing some serious adulting, and it comes with many lessons learned. And a lot of these lessons are ones that you can keep with you for your entire career — from intern to CEO.
Remember that book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”? The lessons learned in your first job are kind of like those kindergarten lessons. Be thoughtful and kind to everyone. Do a good job at every task. Be helpful. Be on time. Simple stuff, really, but foundational to having a good work experience in every job you’ll ever have.
Learning the Ropes
My 16-yr-old son is learning a whole new set of adult-life rules of employment. From me, from his new boss, from his co-workers. And from his fluffy charges: he works at a doggy daycare. That boy loves dogs more than people, so I am thankful that he has this particular job as his first job. He is passionate about caring for dogs. He texts me pics of his furry friends during his shifts with their names and some anecdotal cuteness they’ve just accomplished.
My son’s first job reminds me often of MY first job (not that I took care of dogs). But I did something I loved too. I took care of books, my passion. I shelved books in the Kansas City Kansas public library after school and most weekends. For an introvert who was already plowing her way through the entire science fiction section of the library anyway, it was a dream come true to work there. I checked out all the new releases first. I could put books on hold when I saw them come in. So I never missed out on reading the lastest and greatest. And did I mention that I loved putting things in alphabetical and Dewey Decimal System order?
Big Picture Lesson: Do Something You Love
Having a first job is one of the first times that you experience interacting and getting along with people who are not your family or school mates, on a regular basis. You are all working together toward a common goal. That’s something to remember. Whether that’s stacking boxes in a warehouse, flipping a burger, walking a dog or shelving a book, you are now a part of a team. You can take pride in doing a good job not just for yourself, but for the team. The feeling of a shared mission is one you’ll take to every job you will ever have, and use for inspiration.
Best Job Lesson: Know your worth
As a teenager, the best part of your first job is you are getting paid to do this! Earning an hourly wage — large or small — definitely makes you focus more, and work harder on the task at hand. You are considered helpful and sometimes even an expert at SOMETHING! So much so that they want to pay you for your knowledge or your handiwork! The realization of that first paycheck moment is your first glimpse into your ability to build skills to create value. With every job, pat yourself on the back for your next pay raise, or promotion — you’re doing great!
Use your first job to enjoy any job
As you grow in skills and get higher paying jobs, remember to savor your accomplishments, and the fact that someone wants to pay you to do something you already love doing! Remember the work friends that you’ve made and kept even when you’re no longer working together. Think about that new skill you learned, and then fell in love with and became an expert at doing. And how much that made you feel smart and valuable.
Sometimes work can feel like a grind, but when you look at your job through your 16-yr-old eyes, maybe what you’re doing is actually pretty cool. And look how far you’ve come!
There are countless benefits to automating your social media efforts. But who is best served by these services and what are best practices when it comes to using them?
Automating your social media processes reduces the time your team spends on repetitive tasks, decreases response times to customers, optimizes your posting schedule, and boosts engagement. It’s important to note, however, that social media automation is not the same thing as a social media strategy. In fact, automating your social media channels without a robust strategy in place can actually hurt you in the long run.
Be sure your content sounds “human,” even if it’s automated.
First, you’ll also need to be prepared to edit, cancel, or change planned posts. If events or trends warrant a response from your brand, be flexible. Next, make sure your posts are platform specific. In addition to different image display ratios and word count allowances, your audience’s expectations will also vary from platform to platform. Finally, you’ll need to customize your content or work with an automation tool that does it for you.
If you have a strategy in place and you’re aware of the potential pitfalls of automation, it’s time to decide what features will best serve you. Do you manage multiple accounts or produce a lot of content? It might be worth investing in a scheduling and publishing platform that will identify the best times for you to post make the publishing process more efficient.
Automating your basic customer service features
If you often interact with your customers and clients over social media, consider automating your basic customer service features. You can provide automated responses to questions. Automate “What are your hours?” Then, standardize your “welcome” message when you gain new followers.
There are an ever-increasing number of automation services and platforms out there. How can you find the right one for your business? Start with three basic questions:
What social platforms do you use most often?
Which automation features are you most interested in?
What is your budget for automation?
Your answers to these questions will help structure your search for the right automation platform. So start by looking at the large platforms, like Hootsuite and Buffer, and then seek out smaller service providers as necessary based on your needs. Got questions? Give us a shout!
Welcome Lauren, our newest “Rock Climber” is a welcome addition!
It’s time to welcome a new team member — Lauren Allen — to the Porch. She’s a graphic designer and photographer. We love adding members (and their fun rock-based titles) to our team, and we’re so excited to introduce you to Lauren Allen. You can read about her on our team page, and today, we’ve asked her a few questions about her perspective on graphic design, so you can get to know her better. And then you can send her a big “howdy!”
What is the biggest misconception about design today?
That anyone can label themselves as a graphic designer because they can make a graphic with canva.
What advice would you give your younger self, Lauren?
Love yourself, and be kind to people. You are beautiful.
What is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far in your career?
Not everyone will like your style of design but as long as you are proud of your work, you will excel.
What does good design look like?
Good design is making something that the client can be happy with and proud to show off.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would it be?
I’d love to go to Japan to experience the culture and have great food!
If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead who would it be?
My grandma on my dad’s side. I never met her but apparently, we are very similar and I’d love to see if that’s true.
Describe Lauren Allen in 3 words:
Kind, Funny, Honest
Tell us about a major milestone in your life?
I finished my cleft lip journey 4 years ago. It took about 20 years from multiple surgeries and a lot of dental work, to complete it.
How would you describe the culture at Front Porch Marketing?
The culture seems very inviting and warm. Seems like a cool group of people!
From your perspective, how does Front Porch Marketing differentiate itself from other marketing companies?
Front Porch differentiates itself by making the working environment super collaborative and easy. Everyone is always open to help or giving an opinion which is hard to find in other marketing companies.
What is a fun fact about you?
I used to do Japanese theatre in middle school called kabuki.
In honor of Valentine’s Day today, we wanted to share some of the things that we absolutely LOVE about marketing. We cover many aspects of marketing in our day-to-day business with clients. We use tried-and-true marketing strategies and tactics that are the bedrock of a solid marketing plan. And there are also trends that we love, so we take advantage of those for our clients as well.
These Marketing Things Are Both Tried-and-True and Also On-Trend
Incorporating these marketing things (strategies, tactics, platforms, approaches) in your business of marketing for a client, is a win-win. First, your clients see results. Then, you look smart. And finally, you’re both successful at growing the business.
Email Marketing
Clients are reaping results from email marketing campaigns. So having the right content and creative are critical. Companies can build a relationship with their customers when email marketing is executed with the reader in mind. Be informative and helpful vs. direct selling, and see an impact on business.
Strategic Paid Traditional and Digital Media Campaigns
Linking these two strategies (traditional and digital) is more effective. First and foremost, invest to meet the target where they are. Approach them in the right mediums. Earn more quality customers by thoughtfully targeting your messaging to impact sales more effectively.
Marketing Leaders Asking the Right Questions
We love this marketing thing: smart leaders. Our clients are smart marketing leaders who are thoughtful in their approach. To start with, we see them asking the right questions. But then we’re asking them the right questions too. This collaboration pays off for both businesses. They want a plan over time, not a one-off initiative. Thus, they are in it to win it for the long haul, and so are we.
Re-evaluate the sales funnel
The sales team might be engaged in selling one-on-one. But it might not be utilizing technology, processes and other tools to continue to engage and grow the engagement. Successful customer engagement and retention includes tactics at every point in the sales funnel. And utilizing powerful tools to scale and automate in conjunction with smart, thoughtful strategies make sense.
Think deeper in 2023. Really focus your attention on your customers. Ultimately, create a marketing ecosystem that keeps them informed. Give them insider information. And make their lives easier. This approach is a sure way to see your business grow this coming year. And we would love that for you!
