Why you scrollin’ bout this....Ain’t you tired?

💃🏽 dance break 🕺🏽

Well hellooooo there to the 11 of you that joined the newsletter in the last week! We’re sitting at just around 180 peeps. If you got this email and aren’t subscribed, you can do that here.

Okay, so, this week was supposed to be on CDP’s. What they are, why they matter, and how to set them up and what to actually look at.

Because we’re in a 6-week series on marketing foundations, the 6 bits that your marketing HAS to have for your campaigns to not flop.

They are, (roughly) in order:

1. Working Website

2. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

3. CDP/Product Data Platform ⤵️

4. Brand Kit

5. Template Email Series (4 kinds)

6. Customer Feedback Database (can be a spreadsheet)

Turns out, a week is not enough time for me to give you the foundational breakdown for CDP’s that i think would be most useful, so i’m going to punt this one to later in the foundations series.

So, instead, this week we’re going to talk more about websites, in particular, how to approach a website project if you’re an Outsourcer, Drafter, or DIY-er.

Because after i posted about building a website in a week, and a few days later about questions to ask when you’re outsourcing a website project there’s still a lot more to discuss to get that website up and working well!

So who might you be?

• The Outsourcer: If you know you want to outsource your new site but don’t know what you don’t know, this will help you know what to expect in an engagement

• The Drafter: If you need to build a mock to get signoff on getting the full thing built → this process can be used to build a mock instead of a full site

• The DIYer: If you are trying to update your own website and the analysis paralysis is just too much, this will help you just get started.

Okay, with that as the backdrop, here’s your cheatsheet for killing a site…

If you’re The Outsourcer 

here’s 8 questions to have when you’re looking to hire someone to do your site

• What their onboarding process consists of - are they asking you for VOC, your brand kit, etc?

• If they connect analytics - or do they expect you to?

• Do they do customer research to write the copy?

• Do they do copy, design, AND development?

• How many revisions do they allow? What are the revision windows?

• Can you speak to a past client about what it was like working with them, or do their reviews include the process?

• Are their prices fair, transparent, and itemized?

• Do they tend to go over on timelines?

*exhales in “this doesn’t seem so bad”

If you’re The Drafter 

Here’s the 5 people you’re gonna need open lines of communication with (not in particular order)

1. Your product expert - for all product details and data

2. Your customer whisperer - whoever has the raw customer data

3. Your inside eye - someone who can check your work at the QA stage *and has not seen the new website before so they’re not blind to errors

4. Your approvers - whoever needs to give the final approval for this to go live and not sit in purgatory

5. Your outside eye - someone who understands landing pages and will give you constructive, useful feedback. (Does not have to be in your organization.)

Psst I made a spreadsheet to help you track all the approvals you’re gonna need. It’s right ‘ere for free.99.

If you’re The DIY’er 

Here’s a list of tools to help you build your site better, faster, stronger (broken out by your experience level)

if you’re a baby website builder (you’ve copywritten or designed fewer than 3 sites in the last 2 years)

• Harry Dry's guide to help you design landing pages that convert

• Olly’s blog post to avoid the basic mistakes in landing pages

• TLDV (tool) for getting key points from customer interviews (ask questions of multiple interviews using their AI tools, and you can upload Mp4's of existing meetings you’ve recorded other ways). here’s my discount link (30% off first 6 months).

• Airtable, Google Sheets, or Notion Databases for keywords and phrases matching and grouping

• Voiceform (tool) for surveys so you can get real VOC at scale without interviews (it’s pricey, but worth it if you’re gonna do more than 50 interviews in one month!)

if you’re a website teen (If you've written copy/content for 3+ years and have a firm grasp of design and the tools list)

This Copyhacker’s post to get all the copywriting formulas you’ll ever need to craft the best:

• web page copy

• landing page copy

• pricing page copy

• blog posts

or any other piece of content, really!

If you're a professional copywriter, designer, or marketer (playing with the big boys nowwwww 🎶)

• Another Copyhacker post for a deep-dive into user psychology and how to create landing page copy that answers their relevant problem

The Foundations of Copywriting course to:

• understand how to reach your target market

• meet (and exceed) expectations

• and use copywriting formulas for a more efficient writing process

Here’s ALL the resources i talk about in this issue (plus all the links from Website in a Week) 🙂

Next week we should be basic to (marketing) basics and I’m getting a whole roster of fan-freaking-useful collabs for newsletter issues drafted that are oh-so practical.

If you want to collab on an issue or have marketing questions that are making you writhe at work, hug that reply button and let me know. 💜

Cheers!

Powered by good birthday vibes 🎉 and Kendrick on repeat. 🎶

Sophia 💜👩🏽‍💻