COMING AT YOU WEEK OF 6.1.21
3 resources that pack a punch
This Hubspot article challenges aspects of personas, such as including a name and photo. They also warn against focusing on fleeting characteristics. Instead, they recommend focusing on how your product serves the job-to-be-done for your persona.
Not this: Lizzie lives in Arkansas, cycles, and has two kids.
But this: Lizzie prefers our deodorant because she’s used it for years, and its smell is comforting.
A combination of those two works, but can you see how the job-to-be-done approach is more relevant and actionable?
This TikTok for Business deck is a thorough guide for beginners and prospects. Some pieces that stood out to us:
- 67% of TikTokers are older than 25.
- 83% of surveyed users say that TikTok played a role in their purchase decisions.
- TikTok users are 15% more likely to buy from small businesses than other social media channels.
- They’ve partnered with Shopify and say you can create TikTok ads, track results, and manage orders from the Shopify dashboard.
This article explains the highlights from Google’s Marketing Livestream event which took place last Thursday. Our top 3:
- Customer Match may be a better fit for SMBs than before and can now help in remarketing efforts.
- tROAS bidding is becoming available for Discovery Ads and Video Action campaigns.
- Performance Max campaigns, which are automated campaigns, are now available to many more beta testers and will officially launch this fall.
One simple technique to write higher-converting content
For content to convert, the audience needs to understand your message after a quick skim. Passive voice can dilute the message you’re trying to get to your audience, but many of us aren’t confident identifying and fixing passive voice.
Well, that’s fair because grammar is freaking confusing. This four-step tip can solve most (but not all) instances of passive voice.
Do a Command + F search for is, was, or were.
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Yes, that is the Constitution. No, we aren’t working on a rewrite.
Check if they are followed by past participles.
(Past participles often end in -ed or -en.)
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Examples of past participles:
- Elected
- Proposed
- Written
- Approved
- Tested
- Given
- Eaten
Identify the subject.
Once you’ve found a sentence in passive voice, identify the subject. Often the subject is introduced by a phrase beginning with by.
- When this Article was proposed by the Congress.
- A playground was constructed last Friday by our employees.
- Our asset growth was tracked by our app.
Rewrite the sentence.
Now that you know the subject, move it toward the beginning of the sentence.
Passive: A playground was constructed last Friday by our employees.
Active: Our employees constructed a playground last Friday.
Passive: Our asset growth was tracked by our app.
Active: Our app tracked our asset growth.
Active voice helps readers to trust you more and to understand your message when they skim. We just scratched the surface of this topic. If you want the nitty gritty details on active vs. passive voice, check out this article or this one.
Pull out the step stool
