Directly Responsible - Steve Pratley

#276: The best day at work, ever

My best ever day at work started off as a moment of sheer terror. I opened the front door of our office building and the hallway was almost blocked with mail bags. This usually meant one thing. We ran direct mail campaigns, and every few years there would be a monumental cock up with the […]

#275: The value of values

Most company values are worse than worthless. We had a revamp of the set that we have at one of my agencies because we realised they were actively damaging the business. There’s a weird thing that happens in agencies when your staff get used to the paycheck and forget who they’re working for. Values like […]

#274: GenZ aren’t entitled, they’re just realists

Someone shared this Simon Sinek video and it really hit home, but to me as a GenX, never mind the next two generations. The TL;DR is that GenZ have watched the last wisps of corporate loyalty evaporate, and almost definitely watch a parent get laid off. They know that “we’re a family” is a sick […]

#273: How I escaped the corporate salt mines

I quit my day job when I was 35, and never looked back. I often regret not doing it earlier, but what I’ve discovered since is that that decade-and-a-bit gave me a lot of experience that trips up younger entrepreneurs as they scale. I thought I’d recap my days in the corporate mines just as […]

#272: Every successful business has these 3 things nailed

A while back I write about ProofreadAnywhere, a “boring” course business that was acquired for a 7 figure sum. Well 10 months in, the new owner dropped this case study. There’s a ton of tips in there, but here’s the one I want to make sure you read: It’s that simple. Build your list, send […]

#271: Polished diamonds are under your feet

Right now, the rest of my rowing crew are on a training camp in Portugal. I have to admit, while I was helping load the boats up on Thursday night, I was kind of down in the dumps about staying here while they all disappeared off to warmer climates. But it didn’t turn out like […]

#270: 7 Figure List Building with Affiliate Offers

If you’re interested in building big lists, this should be gold if you know how to do the right research. Last week I got round to watching a very rare interview with a guy called Mike Geary. Mike works about 2 hours per day, skis almost every day of the season in Utah, and says […]

#269: The difference between doing and teaching

This week Tom Brady entered the newsletter game. There’s a few things I could pick holes in in his execution, but I’ll leave that for another day, because there’s a little part of the 1st edition that’s really useful for any type of instructor. Tom talks about the difference between playing the game, and talking […]

#268: LinkedIn Theme Pages

Every time I’ve been in a marketing community there’s one question that comes up again and again as soon as getting social traffic is mentioned. “Do I need to show my face?” The answer to this varies a lot by platform. That’s until I saw this page earlier today: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedincreator It got my attention because […]

#267: Sources matter

This morning I built a campaign asset manager for my Chinese agency. I got sick of all our assets being embedded in Powerpoint decks I couldn’t find, that I couldn’t get to the original content, and that had no context about the campaign. Putting something in a Powerpoint is like sending a fax. You go […]

#266: Conversion, Consumption and China

This week I’ve been attacking two ends of the same problem – getting people to learn news skills. Most people know me frm my marketing efforts, but there’s a princuple I’ve written about before that blows all the funnel tactics out of the water. Rate of testimonials. Testimonials make marketing easier. Lots of testimonials make […]

#265: Marketing you can bet on

A little change to the newsletter this week, I’ve had a few people checking in on projects and I’m thinking that a small progress group might be a useful next step. So, I’ve changed the theme of the weekly email to “What. did you get done this week?” Here’s my own recap (just on my […]

#264: Marketing from the end of the world

Today I visited Tataouine. Star Wars fans know it as the inspiration for Tatooine, the dust bowl planet that Luke Skywalker can’t wait to escape. It’s earth based original is much the same. Tatooine sits at the foot of the Saharan Atlas Mountains, separating Tunisia from the vast desert. The French used to have a […]

#263: In the driver’s seat.

I ended up the stroke seat today. (Check this handy guide for non-rowers. The stroke seat is 8.) Our stroke man strained his back end retired to the sharp end where he could take it easy. I think I’m happiest back at 6, stealing watts off the stroke man, so he can focus on the […]

#262: Do it now

I realised there was nothing to be gained by carrying on the bad habit that was holding me back, so I just quit, on a random weekday in May. 2. Tomorrow morning, I’ll have my last rowing workout of 2024. 2025 isn’t a new year in that sport; it’s just the same season that started […]

#261: Flipping your advantage

I finished up reading Going Inifinite a week ago and there’s an idea in it I still can’t get out of my head. The back-story goes like this. Sam Friedman-Banks had an interview at a high-frequency trading firm, and his approach to one interview game won him the job, then made him one of their […]

#260: Sometimes it’s rude to say thank-you

I just heard Matt Giovanisci admit total failure on his podcast. His new sales funnel got zero sales. Not a few sales. Zero. And looking at what he changed, I spotted a mistake I keep seeing everywhere – especially from people getting ready to run paid ads. Here’s the thing about paid ads: They’re nothing […]

#259: Does Ryan Levesque still have the answers almost 10 years on?

Last night I finally got to say thanks to Ryan Levesque, a marketer who I’ve admired for a long time. I got to thank him for two things. Ryan’s the guy who authored ASK, and brought quiz funnels into the mainstream, almost a decade ago. Honestly, I was a bit cynical going into the event […]

#258: The most obvious place to sell, but you aren’t using it.

I said in my last email there was a place you should be selling, that you’re not. So, let’s have an uncomfortable conversation about your lead magnet. Here’s the thing: After years of watching info product businesses either print money or drag their arse along like a dog with worms, I’ve noticed something about gathering […]

#257: What your list and my houseplants have in common

There’s a majority view in email marketing that you need to "nurture" customers until they’re ready to buy. The logic goes something like: Only 5% of the market are ready to buy. It makes logical sense to talk to 95% of the market than 5% You should “provide value” until they’re ready. But Like Mark […]

#256: Where did your best customer come from?

I spent a lot of time this month looking at old sales data and analytics. It wasn’t on my plan, but every once in a while I remember the things I should be doing to grow the business, that aren’t content and product. I’ve been getting a funnel ready to move out of just social […]

#255: The success indicator I’ve seen in every startup that lived.

If you run agencies, rather than just freelance work, you get to see a lot of people who come to you at the ideas stage. They might want a basic landing page to try out an idea, or they might want a full blown website, CRM, traffic and everything that goes with it. While the […]

#254: Finding prospects with momentum

In last weekend’s newsletter I wrote: Their ideal customer is one with money and momentum. Since then I can’t get it out of my head, and it cropped up in a talk with an agency I work with this week as well. Momentum is such a good filter for good clients. People who already started, […]

#253: Why you can’t reach your ideal customer

Today’s lesson is about why so many businesses fail with their first list-building efforts, why it happends, and how to avoid this trap. There’s a right way to do this in 5 steps, but bear with me, because there’s a piece missing that a lot of people miss. Here’s the standard advice: Choose your ideal […]

#252: Side Quests

Follow one path long enough and you’ll become an expert, but you’ll also become incredibly boring. That’s the counter intuitive conclusion I came to this week while I was digging into my email swipe file. All the people I’ve followed for years have more than just “The One Thing” that they talk about, and they […]

#251: Personal or Product

I did it again. Each time I have a content idea, I go round the same loop. I’m trying to work out why I keep doing this and I’ve spotted some opposing forces going on here. On the one hand, for information products at least, it’s incredibly hard to separate the product from the founder. […]

#250: Planning your platforms

The story so far is that we’ve identified our broad niche, and I have a ton of content ideas spinning already. There’s really two things I can do from here: 1 – Start posting like a maniac on social channels This is never really a bad idea. Just testing what content works is an essential […]

#249: Building a content business – a tag-along series

This is going to get very meta, so pay attention. For a while I’ve wanted to have a product outside of the marketing niche, and I’ve had a few false starts already. Before I give any more detail, this is going to be my “build in public” series behind the scenes. I want to talk […]

#248: It ain’t what you do…

“What do you do?” is the most boring question you can ask someone. I’ve reached a point where it’s a kind of game. How long can I keep a conversation going before someone asks the dullard question The moment either of you asks the question, you’ve both lost. You’ve failed to ask any interesting questions […]

#247: Kicking off a newsletter with free tools

I think it’s time I unveiled some of the nerd side of my marketing activities, because modern marketing involves an awful lot of shunting data between systems. The core of any info product marketing system has three parts: You’ve got a decision to make when you start out. Try to find them all under one […]

#246: Putting Engagement First

I ran the first live event I’ve done since lockdown last week, and it was such a buzz to get people back in the room and talking again. It went great, but as ever I was scrawling notes on how we can make the next event better, and the best lesson came from the first […]

#245: Sequence

For any campaign there’s 5 questions I ask, in a particular order. Why are we doing this? Answers might be “to grow our list” , “to convert our list to customers”, to grow revenues”, to maximise profits”, “to reduce costs”. Whatever the reason, you just need to know it, and write it down so that […]

#244: Preparation

I’ve been running a few tests on some client emails this week, and I saw a bunch of tests that a previous copywriter had done with them. They were all well and good at a basic level. They had records of different tests, and the impact they’d made on email opens. But the problem was, […]

#243: Bookmarks

I started collecting bookmarks on my own site to consolidate stuff from a whole bunch of different “favourites” sources. They’re all marketing related in one way or another, but pretty eclectic. If you find something good in there, let me know and I might include a roundup one a week or something. Here’s the Bookmarks […]

#242: Resolutions

I’ve written before about how I think New Year resolutions are a dumb idea. Setting goals is good. Setting the same goals as everyone else, because Big Ben chimes or your balls drop isn’t so good. So I do mine at different times of year for business, health and family goals. It all sounds nicely […]

#241: “Rest”

When I worked in big marketing agencies early in my career, I never understood why they were so obsessed with presenteeism in a business that thrives on creative ideas. We understand the creative process. It’s no secret, and being nailed to your desk for 10 hours each day isn’t it. Here’s how it works… Get […]

#240: The consistency button

I got a harsh lesson in consistency early on in life when I was building affiliate sites. You might have seen the eye-sore that was my PS3 prizedraw website, the first big affiliate list I built for myself. It netted me thousands of email names and around £3 per name in their first month on the […]

#239: What do 7 figure course sellers do differently?

Samcart has released some spectacularly detailed data about where Sales really come from in information product businesses. They’ve gone the extra mile by breaking down the differences between small sellers who are doing a few hundred pounds each month and the biggest sellers who are doing over $50,000 each month. The differences between the two […]

#238: Million Dollar Vehicles

This is taken directly from GT3’s sales latter for FunnelFeds mastermind group” You can think of a “vehicle” as a business – but inclusive of its “economics.” For instance: Ask yourself: Does your current business check those boxes? If not, do you think it’s possible you could “reinvent” it so that it does? And would […]

#237: Marketing Alignment

How to stop your campaign going down the wrong track

#236: “TRO” and why it matters to grow your brand

I’m going to ask you a question that could redefine the way you do business? “What would you do differently if you only got paid when your customer gets a result? Now, as someone who has done affiliate marketing for a few years, I can tell you that that’s actually a fun way to work. […]

#235: How 3% of 3 becomes 5

Jordan’s mother struck a deal with Nike that gave Michael a percentage of all sales of products with his name on. Nike resisted because it was breaking industry norms, but eventually gave in to get the deal done. The end of the film sees Phil Knight – Nike’s CEO and founder – coming to terms […]

#234: How to make better decisions

A few times over the last year I’ve helped out some agency owners with their websites. The trouble with websites is that they’re simple enough to build, but they drag you into every corner of the business if you’re going to do a decent job of it. Starting with that troublesome bit at the top […]

#233: Respectable Funnels

I’ve built two big lead generation projects in the last couple of months, one at another agency I help with, and one with a University. Here’s the interesting thing. They’re both using skills I learned building campaigns that these clients would consider “sleazy”. And yet both campaigns are they type that you could show your […]

#232: How the world values your skills

I’ve heard a bunch of people talking about going all in, burning bridges and other macho BS chest-thumping about the process of starting your own business. I want to put a different side to the story. It’s the slow-burn version of how I ditched my day job, that played out over a decade. Step 1 […]

#231: The Two Conversions You Need To Master For Online Growth

I have a pet hate amongst online agencies and it’s the words “Landing Page Design” I hate it because talking about “landing pages” is about as useful as calling yourself a Digital Agency” in 2023. It’s way too vague. It needs more specificity to be useful. A landing page can be literally any page on […]

#230: Ignoring email “bombardment”

Marketing is a battleground of opinions. Despite all the data we have available, email marketing strategies are more opinion-led rather than data-led. We guard our inboxes like our homes and when we feel our homes are threatened we lash out. On one side are a bunch of email marketers, mostly copywriters, pushing the mantra of […]

#229: 3 Marketing Myths Holding You Back From Making Sales

Today, I want to dispel some myths about generating sales and show you how you can make sales with minimal effort over the next few days. Myth #1: You Must Build a Funnel For years, marketers have touted the idea of building a funnel to generate sales. While it is true that funnels can be […]

#228: Speeding up production of our agency newsletters

I spent this week’s F*ck Around Friday trying to solve a problem that I’m guessing must face a bunch of newsletter publishers. Here’s how it goes: This is dumb, boring, and takes the fun out of creation Breaking the problem down we have a few pieces of the jigsaw: Add our content into an email-friendly […]

#227: Message in a bottle

Victorian fizz is back in style

#226: How to Get Started On Your Next Blog Post

Like many things in life, blogging is easier said than done. You might have a great concept for a post, but when it comes time to write it, it just doesn’t come out the way you want it. Or even worse, you get a nasty case of writer’s block and spend hours staring at a […]

#225: Memories fade. Data doesn’t.

Can you remember where your best buyers came from?

#224: The money’s in the list, so where’s your list?

Your email list is as valuable an asset as your bank account. Here's how to take care of it.

#223: The Ads & Email Difference

If you’re impressed by social media accounts saying they got where they are “without ads”, you’re either broke, or Highlander. If you’re Highlander, you have infinite time to post on social media and find out what works, but I’d suggest you could do something more constructive with your gift of immortality. If your excuse is […]

#222: Help! People love my email.

The feedback you should be looking for from your email marketing.

#221: Maximising The Placebo Effect in Marketing

A few years ago, the Australian federal court stopped Reckitt Benckiser from selling Nurofen varieties for back pain, period pain, migraine pain and tension headaches. Reckitt Benckiser admitted the products were all the same, apart from the packaging. The only difference was that the painkiller was sold in different coloured packets, and at almost twice […]

#220: The hidden success department in every direct mail business that ecommerce never built.

I’ve been working on a swipe file at The Conversion Co. this month and of course, I’ve ended up stumbling across a lot of classic ads. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with ads in comic books and started to notice a pattern that I remember using in my direct mail days. […]

#219: How to make ethical money from fear

How to find inspiration in places where others won't even look.

#218: Why competition never matters

There's one part of your business that your competition can't copy. Find out how to take a close look at it.

#217: 5 unobvious places to find copy inspiration

A lot of course sales pages look like they’re just filling in the blanks on a template. That’s because they are. Your typical course platform will, with good intentions, give you a template to fill in. Unfortunately it’ll make you look like 10,000 other sales letters. (There’s on particular part of these templates that’s actively […]

#216: Cold traffic party tricks

A friend was talking to me about “cold traffic” campaigns yesterday and I almost spat out my drink as he said the words. Because he works for a FTSE 100 telecoms company. In fact it’s probably top 10. If you live in the UK you’ve definitely heard of it. When he talks about cold traffic, […]

#215: How to choose what list to build

I run a handful of different lists in wildly different markets, so I was interested in how other email marketers pick the markets they operate in. I banged out a tweet to see which list people would choose to get access to: A couple of the responses that preferred the high net worth list made […]

#214: The 30 Day Bank Robber Funnel

This is a follow-up to Wednesday’s email where I was talking about giving your readers some options in your welcome email to find out what they’re interested in. When I work with 1:1 clients who have got a decent number of sales through social media, their next goal is to start making money by selling their product […]

#213: How to find out what your customers really want

Today I’m at that stage between Christmas and New Year where my brain is recovered enough to start firing with new ideas. It can be pretty dangerous. Lots of shiny objects. Exciting, but untested plans sprout up from nowhere. So here’s my safety rail against doing something stupid… The end of each year is great […]

#212: Graduating from Gumroad

What tools do you really need to grow your business past the hobby stage?

#211: How AI will kill your business, without replacing you

AI won't replace you. It's much sneakier than that.

#210: 7 Email Sequences That Will Work For Years To Come

Stop scratching your head about what to email each week and make sure you have these automated campaigns in place first.

#209: How to stop bored customers from destroying your business

Back when I was a nerdy teenager, one of the first computer games I ever got my hands on was Choplifter. The game was to fly a helicopter around picking up refugees while an enemy took pot shots at at you, idiot birds tried to fly into your rotor blades and random storms appeared from […]

#208: The Emailers that survived the Black Friday purge

Did you notice a few more emails than usual over the last few days? Yes, “Unsubscribe Friday” and “Spam Monday” were out in full force again this year. I’m still mopping up a few emails along the lines of “It was so successful our servers crashed so we’ve added another day.” Spare me. Please. Normally […]

#207: How to create an irresistible urge for your prospects to talk about their weaknesses

Last week I launched a personality test for personal brands. I’ve been playing with these tests for a while. It’s no secret that I got a bit obsessed with personality testing a couple of years back. Going from being “the wizard behind the curtain”, to posting publicly can trigger a lot of questions about yourself. […]

#206: How to create content without feeling like a fraud

I must have a dozen or more courses each with templates for emails, blog posts, social posts and sales letters, even before I start on the video formats. And yet I’d still dread hitting “publish” on any of them. Even after several months of regular online posting and emailing I’d get the same feeling, and […]

#205: How to get in front of your prospect at the perfect time

“The day you open a ’61 Cheval Blanc, that’s the special occasion.” I watched “Sideways” again at the weekend. It’s about a wine buff in Napa coming to terms with his life going to hell in a harndcart. He has an incredibly expensive bottle of wine that he’s waiting for the right moment to open, […]

#204: Turning conflict into sales

What Disney films and Advertising have in common

#203: 10 ways to find what’s working for your competition

10 ways to find what's working for your competition

#202: Spotting logical losers

How we're losing sales by putting together purely logical arguments, and how being more emotional helps buyers make faster decisions.

#201: Snail sex and dominant lobsters

Stabbing a lady in the head with a dart isn’t a typical chat up line, but it certainly gets her attention. Before you try this pick up line though, be warned (if you really needed it) that this won’t work for everyone. In fact, it probably won’t work at all. Unless you’re a snail. The […]

#200: Performance Targeting

How to pick your ideal prospects before the wrong ones pick you.

#199: Start with the end in sight

How to fix your offer with one new thought

#198: The Bonus Issue

This issue isn’t a bonus. It’s all about bonuses. Bonuses are a misunderstood part of any offer in the world of information products. I see people throwing in old courses at random as bonuses to try to push up the value of their offer, but in most cases, they’ve actually reduced the value of their offer. People […]

#197: Still the best way to find the real players in your email list

I updated a set of checklists for webinar campaigns for some of my agency clients and I thought I’d let you have it too. Webinars are my “super power” and although I wouldn’t use them for acquisition (cold ads to a webinar registration got waaay too expensive), they’re an excellent way to find the really […]

#196: Fish ate my feet

Last night I paid 10 Euro to have fish eat away at my feet. I think I’ve maybe had one other pedicure in my entire life, so why would I choose to shove my feet in a Greek fish-tank and have the most ticklish way possible of tidying up my toes? Pure novelty. No other explanation.People […]

#195: How to blend art & science for profit

One thing I’m very grateful for is that my parents did very different jobs, so I grew up with a good balance of left & right brain exercise. My dad was an electrical engineer and worked for a big US computer company. My mum was an english teacher, then a college principal. One thing I was […]

#194: How to get attention

I’ve been working on some new training content to help you make more sales for your online business. Whether it’s training, workshops, courses, a software tool or services, the process starts with one trigger. I wrote a short guide about how to hack it and speed up results… Get it here…

#193: How to be rich and lazy

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” Bill Gates This quote always impressed me, not just because it validates the way I think about working smarter, not harder, but because it comes from the guy responsible for hiring the “lazy […]

#192: Duvet money

I missed prize-giving. The whole point of starting out with my own business years ago was that I never wanted to have to miss those occasions with my daughter. But I missed it this year. My only consolation is that I was ordered to stay away because I had covid, and not because some boss […]

#191: My Million Dollar Link Purchase

Every once in a while I get a reminder about a little piece of internet history that I played a tiny part in. A very tiny part. 60×30 pixels to be exact. The Million Dollar Homepage was a short-lived sensation in 2005 when student Alex Tew had the idea of selling pixels on a site […]

#190: How to track your Carrd.co conversion rate with GA4

Get clearer data on how your landing page is performing.

#189: Personal Brand or Company Brand?

If you’ve decided to go down the path of a solopreneur, to not weigh yourself down with offices and permanent staff, and to give yourself a bit more freedom to operate when and where you want to, one question I’m sure you’ve asked yourself is what “name” you should operate under. Should you be operating […]

#188: The Beginners Guide To The Perfect Webinar Campaign Plan

Follow our campaign plan for the perfect webinar to boost your sales.

#187: How to be helpful & profitable

If you’re going to escape the time constraints of 1:1 services, one thing you’re going to have to accept, and actually encourage, is that your customers need to do some of the work themselves. They do the work, you provide the teaching and tools. A quick example. Another agency I’m working with wants help with […]

#186: Client delivery vs Client delivered

Last week I promised I’d start sharing a few “zero-delivery” business models that you can add to your business, to earn money without your time. Too many people are stuck in a paradigm of “I have to be the one who delivers this.” and they end up just building themselves a job rather than a […]

#185: Zero delivery business models

This email is coming out midweek as an experiment, but also as it’s going to be a public holiday in the UK over the next couple of days. Here’s a sobering statistic: 86% of US small businesses earn less than $100k It’s absolutely not surprising when you look at how the average small business is […]

#184: Hollywood is coming to teach us a lesson

All the market crashing news this week has been drowned out by the buzz of Hollywood coming to town. George Clooney is going to be filming some scenes for “Boys in the Boat” not far from where I live, on the stretch of water I row on. It’s a perfect film for our times. Set in the 30’s […]

#183: Unblocking your funnel

First up this week I thought you’d appreciate this: Credit to @cjaythecreator on Twitter for spotting it. I think we’ve all felt tike this at some point. On to something more practical… Last week I showed you my 4 phase funnel model, and on the face of it you’d think that what’s stopping you from […]

#182: To the brink of “too good to be true”

One of the brands I worked with became the biggest skincare brand on QVC UK while I was there. We did over £250,000 of sales in a single day. I got to see behind the scenes of the money making machine of that business and learn just how much effort it takes to get someone […]

#181: High priced surprises

Our last day of skiiing we had a shock, but a pleasant one. My wife picked up her ski boots both soles had cracked away, leaving just a bunch of screws poking out where the hard plastic plates used to be. We dragged ourselves up to the ski rental place, right by the lift expecting […]

#180: How to create a side-hustle without crashing your day-job

A second income doesn't have to be in conflict with your day-job, in fact it can be your way forward in your career.

#179: How Your Online Course Offer Has The Wrong Idea About Value, And What You Should Be Doing Instead

How to get faster results and more sales with your first online course

#178: The “First Dollar” Funnel

What do you really need to build to get your first sales?

#177: My Tech Stack For Building a $1m Business

A few of the tools I used at different stages of my first $1m online.

#176: The 21st century paintbrush

This week I finally got past the shame at my lack of DIY skills I’ve been fixing up a website that I acquired after someone abandoned it. The site had been hacked and used to send traffic to a mixture of casino affiliates and online pharmacies. It’s owner couldn’t cope with undoing the damage and decided […]

#175: What a toy monkey taught me about side-hustles and startups

Watching a Stanford professor waving a toy moneky around, changed my entire view of how to start businesses. Thankfully, that moment is on Youtube so you can share in the moment. I’ll explain the impact it had, but I really recommend you watch this, particularly if you ever lack motivation for big challenges, or if […]

#174: One skill is never enough

Back when I had my first agency I picked up a bunch of really good designers & developers who decided that the freelance life wasn’t for them. They were great employees because they understood and valued the people that weren’t involved in delivering billable work. As employees we only see one part of the jigsaw. […]

#173: Your website is de-railing your sales without these 3 things:

Your website should be taking your prospects far closer to the sale than it is. You're missing 3 vital steps.

#172: How to price your course using 5 counter-intuitive insights

Pricing isn't just a confidence trick. Learn what buyers think about when they judge if your course is "worth it".

#171: 7 steps to take before selling your online course with ads.

Find out the foundations your course business needs to make the leap from organic content to paid ads.

#170: The Origin Sentence

How to start a compelling story around why your company exists.

#169: The hardest part of a journey is the first step, and why you might want to skip it for now.

Why your prospects don't want to start where they need to, and what to do about it.

#168: I lost my list. Here’s how I started again.

I had to start again with no email list in 2013. Find out how I re-started and make more sales than ever before...

#167: From Services to Scale:

Starting a software business isn't the only way to achieve profits at scale. There's 5 steps that can build your reputation as an expert in any market.

#166: Why Service Businesses Struggle To Sell Information Products

The myths about why people buy digital products, and who you should be selling to.

#165: Rewriting MailerLite’s Hero Heading

Digging out the USP of an email marketing platform.

#164: How to make a high-converting landing page design in 5 steps

…including 2 steps you don't need, but you'll do anyway.

#163: When does sales copy become a priority?

Is it only copywriters who think copywriting is important?

#162: How a jet-setting client helped me drop my ego and multiply my day-rates.

I had a client called Rory who spent a large chunk of his time on planes, flying around the world, presenting his workshops to large audiences. Even now, with live events gone down the toilet, he has the same challenge of meeting 1:1. This problem turned into a huge opportunity for me. Rory has another […]

#161: It’s time to stop talking about “landing pages”

Because clicks aren't all the same.

#160: Using Scorecard Marketing For Lead Generation

I’m guessing you’ve seen one of the hundreds of pseudo-personality-tests out there on Facebook? But did you ever consider using one for your own business? What Sex in the City character are you? What superhero would you be? What emotional intelligence score do you have? These are the most basic forms of scorecard marketing. We […]

#159: Solving the problem of what to write in your emails.

3 email prompts to get your writing moving.

#158: Ikigai. Where motivation and product validation collide.

In my Dropbox account, there’s a whole folder full of online courses I’ve created, that either failed, or never saw the light of day. They all fell foul of one of four reasons. The first reason was that I was doing it for the wrong reasons. Usually just for money. After 25 years in business, […]

#157: A better workflow for writing email campaigns.

I like writing emails, but I hate email editors. They suck. All of them. In fact the better the email platform is at managing your automated campaigns, the more they suck as a place to write. On the other hand, WordPress is getting better at being a half-decent tool to write in. The new editor […]

#156: Using Udemy as part of your online course strategy.

How to to use the "Amazon of courses" alongside a premium course strategy.

#155: Trading Places – A tale of 2 Ad Campaigns

How fortunes change for two ad campaigns as we follow the leads on their journey to becoming customers

#154: When the one-stop-shop needs breaking up

Over the last few months I’ve seen a lot of people getting burned by tools that claim to “do it all”, but in reality do nothing very well. This was brought into sharp relief by Clickfunnels and Kartra in particular, hiking their prices recently, and suddenly becoming less attractive compared to piecing together a system […]

#153: How to get more Twitter Followers

I write this on the brink of getting Twitter 1,000 followers – putting me in the top 2% of twitter accounts by size. This comes after a couple of months of consistent posting, following the strategies I’ve outlined below. My aim is to update this as I hit bigger markers, the next big one being […]

#152: Using quiz funnels for qualified lead generation

I’ve done a few of these and here are a few things we’ve found through testing… On a more tactical level, here are some other things that have consistently boosted response, particularly with colder traffic. 1) Put the form at the end. The curiosity about the results will carry them through. 2) Try putting the […]

#151: Market and Niche Selection For Information Products

A couple of years back, a course teacher approached me with a major problem. He had a best-selling product on the biggest course marketplace that he’d been making a solid $10k a month from, but the marketplace – Udemy – had just changed their pricing policies and screwed things up for him, big time. The […]

#150: Positioning Your Product

Let’s start this assuming you’re read my other posts and that we know our market, and the niche within it we’re trying to serve. We also know the pain we’re trying to solve for them and, I’m assuming, we have the expertise to help them, and a tried and tested formula to get them to […]

#149: How it all started.

If anyone under the age of 50 says they can’t figure out how to run an email campaign, they’re just being idle. Here’s why. My first email campaign went out sometime in 1995. To put that in perspective, the JPEG image format that we use for nearly all photos on the web, that was a […]

#148: My 12 Best Conversion Tips in 2019

There are a million and one things you can tweak and test in any funnel, but from over 2 decades of testing across everything from press ads, direct mail, emails, online ads, landing pages and even phone scripts, here are some universal truths that any business should be able to rely on… Headlines are the […]

#147: Where I got to last year

A while back, I started working on a new project – Win The Day Back – which was meant to show, from the ground up, how a successful online course business can be grown. Truth be told it’s a little slow. That shouldn’t really be a surprise. It’s a side project, not my main sphere […]

#146: The quickest route to higher conversions I’ve ever seen.

Let’s leave aside all the tricks and tactics, the maze of funnel patterns and all the other grunt-level stuff the gurus will try to sell you. I want to share a pattern I’ve been working on for a few months that’s working really well for me. The path to making a sale is in your […]

#145: Nine things that productivity experts write about.

In 2015, Prof Ron Friedman assembled dozens of productivity experts and quizzed them on their best tips for a Harvard Business Review article. This is a quick summary of the article to see how many of these 9 habits you practice already. 1. View busyness as a lack of focus. There’s a satisfying rush we […]

#144: Say no like a pro

Warren Buffet has an excellent saying that explains his success at picking winners. “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” Now, I can almost feel the anxiety coming back at me. You’re thinking about saying no to the next request from your boss, […]

#143: My Morning Routine

Setting a morning routine is one of the biggest productivity boosters for the least effort that I know. Starting with a familiar pattern, one that is controlled by me and gets my head in the space where the day lead by my goals, not the whims of others, is immensely powerful. Even if the day […]

#142: The Sunday Sort-Out

For years when I was working for other businesses, and for most of my first agency business, Sundays were a living hell. I’d be stresssed out at the thought of all the jobs I had to do on Monday, but wouldn’t get started on them or I’d have been up all night and exhausted before […]

#141: To Do List Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Have you ever seen or completed a “to do,” that ran on forever? Writing a very long list can be compared to taking every thought in your brain and letting it flow onto paper. There is so much stuff that it looks impossible to ever complete and sadly that is what usually happens. This type […]

#140: How To Avoid Disruption And Get Things Done

Disruption is a chronic problem. Endless construction on roads, subways, and buses that breakdown and bad drivers that make you swerve to avoid being hit. Working in an office or at home is very similar. You are always looking to find peace and quiet, but it is a tough search. Over 50% of workers state […]

#139: How To Add More Hours To Your Day

You are stuck. Yes, you are…because you have 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. Talking about adding more hours to your day, means freeing up wasted time and adding that gained time into your workday. It’s not easy, however you are covered by reading the top ten tips right here. 1. Spending […]

#138: How The Most Successful People Manage Their Time

The ancient wisdom of those who came before us, states in many different ways, that in order to be successful-you must wake up early. This is why almost 90% of the top performers and executives of companies, start their days before 6:00 a.m. Not all them start the day with a vigorous workout however. Each […]

#137: 10 Ways To Work Smarter Not Harder

Who wants to do drive themselves into the ground? It’s doubtful that you will get anyone to raise their hand for that idea. We all want to relax and chill, but the truth is, we need to work. To be happy and productive, work smart not harder. Here are 10 tips for mastering that idea. […]

#136: 7 Ways You Are Wasting Time During The Day And How To Stop.

There are many different ways that people waste time. Some are quite evident, while others are hidden and unthought of. We will look at 7 time wasters and how to bring them to a halt. 1. Let’s get one of the more bizarre time wasters out of the way. This might gross some people out, […]

#135: Weapons Against Distraction – My 5 App Computer

This week I pulled the wifi card out of this Chromebook to help me stay focussed on writing tasks. It trashed the Bluetooth connection as well so away form home the only way to get content on or off it is with a USB memory stick. Since then I’ve averaged over 2000 words per day, […]

#134: Using Scorecard Marketing for Lead Generation

What is scorecard marketing? I’m guessing you’ve seen one of the hundreds of pseudo-personality-tests out there on Facebook? What Sex in the City character are you? What superhero would you be? What emotional intelligence score do you have? These are the most basic forms of scorecard marketing. We give a prospect a set of questions […]

#133: Games to become a flexible thinker

Are you flexible? If you can do the splits that is great. However, in strategic thinking, we are talking about having a flexible mindset. An assumption about strategic thinkers, is that they are rigid and unbending when it comes to their thought process. That is not the case in being a successful strategic thinker, especially […]

#132: How To Create Self Esteem to Reach Your Goals

You are probably by now, realize that you require a great overall mindset in order to set and achieve goals. You could create goals with poor self-esteem, however they would be very weak and without any substance. How you think and feel about yourself is extremely important. Let’s take a moment and look at a […]

#131: Decide, Execute and Measure

What is the difference between making a decision and making a plan? Well for starters, plans always seem to change. You plan to get ten new sales this month and your plan, likely fails. However, when you make a decision to get ten new sales this month, you get ten new sales. Your focus is […]

#130: How To Achieve Clarity in Your Goals

Achieving clarity in all areas of your life is important. Some people assume that just sitting and starting on a list of goals will give them clarity on what they want. It ís not that simple. You have to first realize that you alone, are responsible for clarity in your life and your significant other, […]

#129: Learn How to Stop Procrastinating and Achieve Your 90-Day Goals

Most people procrastinate from time to time. Some people excel at procrastinating and could win an Olympic medal for their abilities. If you fall into the category of an excellent procrastinator, then it is time to reverse it. Unless you learn not to put off tasks, you may even read tons of material on 90-day […]

#128: How to Eliminate Self-Sabotage to Achieve Your Goals

You’re probably excited to get started writing and achieving your 90-days goals. Time to do a self check. Are you a go getter or does self-sabotage sometimes play a role in your life? It important that if you ever self-sabotage, you need to understand exactly what it is and get rid of that negative in […]

#127: How to start journaling

The idea of keeping a journal may be totally new to you. Perhaps you even have an unhealthy mindset about it. Journaling is different than keeping a diary and yes there is absolutely no reason why anyone couldn’t do a diary. Top military men, CEO’s, actors and yes if those dreaded politicians keep journals. When […]

#126: 5 Mental Tools For Getting Hyper-Productive Without Working More

Have you ever felt like you could have accomplished more in a day than you actually did? Or have you piled up your work for the next day unnecessarily just because you were too caught up with social media? Maybe you’re just too overwhelmed with the amount of work, and the increased stress is not […]

#125: Productivity Hacks That Will Double Your Output Every Day

With the workload increasing, and the world running at a crazy pace, we are all looking for ways to achieve the optimal level of productivity. As the popular Daft Punk song says, “We want to work harder, better, faster and stronger.” But the question is: How? “It is not enough to be busy, so are […]

#124: 7 Common Habits That Secretly Kill Your Productivity

We are the generation of the “multiple windows open”, or as they call it: multi-taskers. With technology taking over our mind and focus, both our work and our distractions are clicks away from each other. And guess which one wins if we don’t take care? The distractions. “Multi-tasking is a lie” — Gary Keller, founder […]

#123: 7 Ways To Improve Your Productivity, Before You Get Out Of Bed.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail” Too many people start their day by checking their emails or social media feeds, sometimes before they’ve even got out of bed. The result is that they’re starting their day in re-active mode instead of active mode. Their entire day is taken up by responding to the requests […]

#122: A copy-editing process for solo writers.

They laughed when I sat down at Hemingway App, but when they saw the edit...

#121: MRR Mistakes of Membership Sites

If you think your membership site runs by the same rules as a SaaS business, you’re in for a shock. Here’s why….

#120: 5 things you need to know about growing a business, that you can learn from riding up the Stelvio Pass.

Just for fun, on Sunday I rode up a 9,000ft tall mountain. Now, I’m not built for this sort of cycling, but you’d be amazed what you can do when you put your mind to it, and what you learn along the way. The mechanics of moving a bike are really pretty simple. And they’re […]

#119: It’s not me, it’s EU.

I’m not even going to mention the “G” word today. It’s my least favourite 4-letter word at the moment. This isn’t one of those Euro-begging letters that have flooded your inbox this week, clawing for your attention like some horny drunk at 3am in a nightclub. Because, here’s a surprise. It’s all been […]

#118: 4 big things that $million-dollar funnels have in place, that you don’t

Have you ever had a funnel fail? Have you ever spent days, weeks, even months getting together the moving parts? You’ve got your landing pages, videos, copy and email follow-ups. You’ve spent weeks getting the whole process on point. You’ve followed one of your guru blueprints to the absolute letter, and then the […]

#117: Are your tests practiced drills, or wild swings?

So you didn’t “hit it out of the park” on your first attempt? Well surprise surprise. I’ve just seen a highly influential leader in another group telling their followers “press doesn’t work” . They tried 1 ad, one paper, one placement, on one day. Now they’re writing off an entire medium AND telling everyone else […]

#116: What Grant Cardone has misunderstood about his relationship with Facebook.

So Grant Cardone has spent “millions” on growing an audience on Facebook, and he’s threatening to throw it all away and go to YouTube. He’s upset that Facebook is “throttling” how many people see his posts, they longer get the results they once did. Now, watching this 60 year old rant like some sort of […]

#115: Online Course Software for Startup Training Businesses in 2018

I seem to be answering questions about this on at least a weekly basis at the moment, so this is my current stack of software for running a successful course business. Who this is for It’s aimed at people wanting to reach a level where their course provides a reasonable full-time income so the focus […]

#114: When should you start testing?

Ask a question in any digital marketing group and somewhere in the list of somewhat unhelpful answers you’ll get this one: “Test it” Now, for a long time I considered testing in marketing to be a fairly high level skill, and one that wasn’t worth troubling yourself with until you had some significant levels of […]

#113: Offer, List, Creative. Which One Wins?

Offer List Creative Those three words, in that order, used to be drummed into every direct response marketer form the day they were allowed to even look at a campaign. This was in the days when DM was expensive. You needed stamps, printers, huge machines to process the data that cam in on tape reels […]

#112: Why people buy online courses

A while back I used to run a marketing course for a well known training organisation in the UK. Eager to make as much use of the content they’d paid for as they could, they created an online course on Email Marketing, but abandoned marketing it within a few months. When I spoke to the […]

#111: When to make a 1% change

Yesterday I talked about things that go wrong as you scale. Million to one shots that happen every month, for better or worse. Today I want to talk about things that are already wrong, and when to fix them. I just brought in an intern on a job after he pitched me with a big […]

#110: When the one in a million shot happens every month.

One day a few days after I started a new job a rather irate man turned up at our office carrying the door off a large oven, demanding that he speak to a lady called Linda Carter who he swore had promised we would repair it. Which was a bit odd as we were a […]

#109: Royalty, or the girl next door?

A couple of days back I had one of those “can’t believe I’ve never seen this” moments when a friend introduced me to a concept in branding that was completely new to me. Now by and large I’m not a branding guy. My one job that involved any brand fluffery was running Hasbro’s Action Man […]

#108: Would a fireman give you an ebook?

A lot of copywriters talk about “burning house problems”. The gist of it is that you want to be targeting people who have a problem that is as serious as a burning house, something they absolutely have to act on right now or they’re going to be in a world of pain. The reality is […]

#107: The 4 point empathy map of a billion dollar newsletter business

One of my favourite podcasts is Kevin Roger’s The Truth about Marketing, and this has to be my favourite episode of all. In it, Mark Ford, founder of Agora Publishing drops an absolute gold-crusted pearl of wisdom about the knowledge you should have about your market before staring on even creating a product, let alone […]

#106: An orangutan’s lesson in pitching

My mother was a teacher, and then a college principal. Her college was in the same small town where I went to school and most days I would walk up the road to meet her and get a lift home. Invariably, she’d get collared by someone as she was trying to leave and I’d be […]

#105: Discover the tools I used to create a lead campaign with curated content

No time for content? Daft sense of humour? You can still get leads with ease.

#104: Building a successful Facebook Campaign

Are you actually ready to find someone to run your ads yet?

#103: The greatest story ever…

The greatest marketing stories don't have your brand as the star.

#102: Monday morning and the blank page awaits

I have a little routine on Mondays that helps me ease my way into the week. Sunday night I do a little brain dump of the things I’d like to get done by the end of the week. It’s usually way to long, so I sleep on it, then first thing Monday I plot the […]

#101: The worst headline in the world

The great David Ogilvy once wrote: “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” i.e. 80% of your effort in a sales letter should go into the headline. It’s like the subject line in an email. If you don’t capture your prospect’s interest there, you have no hope […]

#100: How I survived the attack of the marketing zombies

Last week I witnessed the marketing equivalent of a zombie attack. A well-meaning chiropracter appeared in a free Facebook group asking about what text he should have on the button on his email signup form. Cue a couple of dozen undead marketing ghouls, woken from their slumber by the chance to show off their no-ledge, […]

#99: I’m going to take away your favourite toys.

If your’re a parent, or you’ve ever had a parent (I guess that’s most bases covered?) you’ll recognise this threat. Well I’m making it now. Frankly you’ve got obsessed with marketing tech over the last couple of years and it’s time to get your face out of that screen and learn to pick up a […]

#98: Buyers are your hottest prospects. How to keep them that way.

If there are two big opportunities to sell that most businesses miss, one of them is after you’ve just got a result for them. We know that. Most businesses forget to close the loop and move customers back into the sales loop. Maybe they don’t have a follow-on product to solve whatever the next problem […]

#97: Discover competition, demand and revenues for your online course, before you create it.

The biggest reason for failure I see with people launching online courses is that they hit the wrong point on what economists call “supply & demand”. The ideal place to be is lots of demand, but little supply – making you the only viable option for your prospects. It’s a hard place to find, but […]

#96: How an 18 year old barman discovered split testing before the internet was even invented.

Way back in 1989 – a full year before the invention of the World Wide Web, a lanky 18 year-old walked into a bar and landed himself a job for the summer holidays. The bar was the busiest tourist pub in Oxford. A three storey, three bar building by the River Isis, within walking distance […]

#95: How to get your customers to empty their pockets without blinking

See that receipt? That’s a £3.39 coffee. Trapped at a motorway service station with no option other than the bitter, scalding cups of tar served in McDonalds, these guys had jacked up the price by a whole £1 over what they usually charge. My reaction? A tut, a shake of the head, and hand over […]

#94: Why your SEO is leaving you in a sticky mess, and how to fix it.

If website traffic was cake, SEO would be like the cherry on the cake. Not the cake itself. The “cake” is traffic that you can control, that you can turn on and off at will, that you can get started quickly, and that you can keep testing until you have a process that at least […]

#93: What selling rubber willies taught me about conversion

The day I learned to ignore brands, and look for offers.

#92: Get off the fence and start buying customers.

Another question from one of my Foundation Funnel customers. “My funnel is in place, thanks to your help, and I have a product that is making a bit more than breakeven on my Facebook ads. What do I do now? Start testing and optimising, or scale up the traffic?” Now I know this guy really […]

#91: On Pricing…

How much should you charge for services, and when?

#90: How to become a Grand Master, or throw it all away

After the high of Wednesday night’s event I needed a bit of downtime last night, so I treated myself to a binge-watch of Billions. There’s a great scene in the first series where Chuck Rhoades, the District Attorney, has screwed up a case against Bobby Axelrod – a billionaire hedge fund manager accused of insider […]

#89: All MAPPED out

Last night I gave a talk to about 40 up and coming digital marketers in London, all about increasing conversion rates when you’re selling online. I shared some foundation work I do with private clients before I even start mucking about with their ads, landing pages or emails. From the stage I could see a lot of wrinkled […]

#88: What’s the best…?

As well as the dark arts of persuasive communication, I’m known for being on top of the tech that runs online businesses 24/7. Something about having an English teacher for a mother, and a computer industry exec for a dad. That, and being the world’s laziest workaholic, so I’ll do anything to avoid repetitive tasks, […]

#87: Back to the scene of the crime…

I crashed the ASOS website. I hope they'll give me a second chance tonight...

#86: The Traffic Myth

This is the unfinished 1st draft of a book I started writing on the Key Person of Influence course. Like most things that you leap into without a real reason for (other than fame and cash) it whithered before it was done, but there’s some useful ideas that I might expand on in other posts. […]

#85: Draw one line through it

On being proud of your mistakes...

#84: Why the window is about to close on Facebook as the direct response darling of the decade.

Why the window is about to close on Facebook as the direct response darling of the decade. Way back in the bad old days of media buying and selling (actually in pretty much all buying and selling) “you get what you pay for” was trotted out by salesmen as if it was an unescapable truism. […]

#83: Raising the bar on Facebook video

This John Cleese video shows some real mastery of video on Facebook

#82: Optimising for feedback

Before and after your product launch there's one thing you should be focussing on. And it's not money...

#81: Chris Batcheller webinar sign-up critique

Watch my live critique of this webinar sign-up landing page.

#80: ActiveCampaign’s Ecommerce Integration with Shopify & Woocommerce – A first Look

ActiveCampaign lifted the lid on it's long-promised ecommerce integrations this week, and as a reseller of both Shopify and ActiveCampaign services I was invited on the the Beta trial. Here's a few things we can look forward to.

#79: The Foundation Funnel – Course testers needed

Good morning my caffeinated friends, I’m close to putting up a new online course about building a simple, but scalable first funnel using WordPress, ActiveCampaign and a few basic tools. I’m looking for 5 testers to go through it and make sure it’s a proper 5 star job before I push it on an unsuspecting world. What […]

#78: End-To-End funnel tracking using Amplitude.com

Track from first contact with your funnel, through to lifetime value.

#77: Using a fight between a duck and a horse to get better Youtube rankings

An entertaining tactic to increase video engagement...

#76: Websites vs Funnels

Transcript: Hi, this is Stephen Pratley, and today I’m going to help you understand the difference between a website and a funnel. This was brought home to me just at the end of a recent project. We’ve just finished up building a new website for an agency that I do a lot of work for. […]

#75: 4 Steps To Grow An Automated Business

Four steps from an under-performing website to high-performing sales funnel.

#74: What can our Olympians teach us about marketing automation?

The world of sport is plundered for analogies to help us in creating an automatic business

#73: New Course Preview: Marketing Automation with Mautic

Mautic is a new, open source, marketing automation platform that offers both self-hosted and cloud hosted versions. We're pretty excited to be trying it out, and creating a new course as we put it through its paces.

#72: How to choose a small business email marketing system

I’ve heard, and tried to answer the same question more times than I’ve had haircuts: “What’s the best email marketing system for my business?” and in typical consultant’s fashion I answer: “It depends” Before I get the chance to explain what it depends on I get drowned out by a thousand helpful souls giving the […]

#71: Testing your best headlines with Google Analytics Experiments

Testing your best headlines with Google Analytics Experiments

#70: BJ Fogg’s Process for Habit Design

Alongside Dr Cialdini, BJ Fogg is probably the greatest thinker on persuasion of our era. And by greatest, I mean the one whose theories have most impact, because they are so simple. In fact they’re almost too simple. The biggest objection to them is that they aren’t “ambitious” enough. To find out how wrong they […]

#69: Authority building for geniuses and why you should get your first clients from Moe’s Tavern

There seems to be a common narrative in a lot of online marketing at the moment. The “rags to riches, you can do it too” type story, but with a Dumb & Dumber plot twist. The gist of it is a lot of failure stories. Copywriters who failed English, people selling software who claim to […]

#68: Bond Halbert’s 5 Step Launch Campaign Formula

Most of what I wrote is emails giving tips, and usually showing the way to a product, workshop or service that will help solve the same problem in more depth. Every once in a while I need to add a new product into the mix and my emails take on a slightly different feel – […]

#67: Email Marketing 101 Workshop with Kingston Chamber of Commerce

Book On Eventbrite. On 23rd February I’ll be leading a workshop with Kingston Chamber of Commerce on Email Marketing. Are you tired of wracking your brains every month for ideas for your company email newsletter? Are your prospects getting less and less responsive to emails under a tide of messages from competitors? Do you struggle to keep up with […]

#66: Email Marketing Primer

Presented to Kingston University BA in Digital Marketing students, January 28th 2016

#65: How I Produce Daily Email Campaigns in Under 20 Minutes

The creative process to produce daily emails that keep customers engaged, entertained and informed.

#64: Three Questions You Must Answer About Your Product

How even the best marketers can et wrapped up inside their own product.

#63: Why the worst place to sell a book is in a bookshop

Tim Ferris was talking to me today about a major catastrophe that almost scuppered his second book – The Four Hour Body. Tim’s first book – The Four Hour Work Week – had been such a success that Amazon offered him the opportunity to be the first author in their new publishing business, going head […]

#62: Questions to ask in your first emails

Buck the trend of how to get feedback from your prospects in your email autoresponders

#61: What two “adult” websites taught me about traffic that converts, and sites that don’t.

What I learned about websites that convert, from a naughty SEO experiment

#60: 5 places to spread your videos for more reach

Video is a real must-have part of any information business’ arsenal these days. I know it can take some getting to grips with especially with a “face for radio” like mine, but it’s worth persevering with as a way of getting your message across and building your personal brand at the same time. I kicked off […]

#59: Todd Brown’s Funnel Training for Russell Brunson

An incredibly tightly packed presentation on an affiliate marketing funnel. Most of the theory of Todd’s MarketingFunnelAutomation.com courses are in here somewhere! (If the video fails, view it direct on Vimeo using this link: https://player.vimeo.com/video/135495503)

#58: Traffic Hacking – Using SimilarWeb.com to uncover new niches and potential traffic sources

Watch me as I find the traffic sources for a big internet marketing website, uncover potential new niches, and show you how to identify potential traffic partners for your own website.

#57: 5 priceless minutes with Russell Brunson

I’ve spent the morning at the Success Summit at Earl’s Court. Up on stage and one of the most popular speakers was funnel hacker extraordinaire Russell Brunson, the man behind Dotcom Secrets and Clickfunnels. So when I caught Russell hanging about in the lobby I grabbed the chance to as a couple of questions. The […]

#56: Technology for Inbound Marketing Funnels

A walk-through of the different options to build your inbound marketing funnel from all-in-one packages to combining best-of-breed components.

#55: What’s going on in your prospect’s head?

A powerful, 5 word sentence that can unlock what your prospect is looking for and get them to talk without thinking first.

#54: How many leads do your campaigns leave behind?

Stephen Pratley goes through the strategies that brought the cost per lead on a recent campaign from over £20 to under £5

#53: WorldVision A/B test shows the power of a story in landing page design.

Using powerful narrative techniques to drive persuasion

#52: 21 Ways to grow your email list (infographic)

A nice visual checklist by the folks at Eliv8

#51: Google leaks new “custom audiences” for better targetting

Google follows Facebook's lead in allowing targeting based on existing customer data, and creation of lookalike audiences.

#50: A surprising split test on mobile page design

For anyone who doubts the worth of testing new designs on their website or emails, take a look at this test from “Which Test Won” I’m probably givingthe game away when I admit that: A) I got it wrong B) So did the majority of other people – most of whom are marketing “pro’s” like […]

#49: Spare some change sir?

A sad, and unfortunately common question in most major cities, but one that misses a principle that you as a marketer are probably making as well. If you’re trying to get leads from your website, what you ask for, how you ask for it and when you ask for it can all make a big […]

#48: How to use the Net Promoter Review Scores to drive more business.

How a pro-active reviews strategy can help grow sales

#47: The Art of Cold Email

Don’t confuse cold email approaches with spam. A well-researched contact with a good reason that the recipient should respond is a great door opener. More cost-effective than mail, less intrusive than a cold phone call, more impactful than a social media connection. If you are dealing with smaller numbers of high-value contracts, this should certainly […]

#46: The Psychology Of Cold Email Prospecting

Cold emails are an absolute no-no in bulk email marketing, but in B2B sales they can be as much of a necessity as cold-calling, and when used correctly, are usually way more effective in opening doors. Yesware, a tool that shows when your personal emails are opened and responded to in the same way as […]

#45: How Office 365’s Clutter Tab will affect B2B email marketing

Microsoft have followed in Gmail’s footsteps by moving their users promotional emails into a separate folder, away from their day-to-day personal emails. Office 365 is mostly used for work purposes at businesses from one-man-bands to large corporates, so the impact is likely to be felt most by B2B marketers. This great post by Email on […]

#44: Zapier on Automating Lead Generation

This is a great post form Zapier on automating your lead generation processes: https://zapier.com/blog/automate-lead-generation-sales/ Zapier is a great service which we use throughout our own campaigns to link up forms, CRM tools, email marketing systems, payment solutions and more. What used to cost thousands in development time can now be accomplished in a few clicks. […]

#43: Reactivation email campaigns – Bringing customers back legally & profitably

This morning I got a rather naughty email campaign from Cordings – a respectable country clothing outfitter based in Picadilly. The campaign was sent to people who had previously unsubscribed from their emails – a legal and best practice no-no. Why companies get this wrong Now, I can see how this happens to companies, they […]

#42: ActiveCampaign announce campaign sharing

ActiveCampaign have just announced that you can now share automations between accounts, so what does that mean for your business ? The idea is not a new one. Both InfusionSoft and ClickFunnels offer similar functionality but bringing it into a tool which has such a low entry point as ActiveCampaign makes a big difference to the […]

#41: Great “Under The Hood” Email Campaign by Vertical Leap

Search agencies have something of a reputation problem. It’s an industry that is frankly overrun with cowboys. People promising the earth, then making off with your money and leaving your site in a worse position than it was before. I worked in the sector for a while I used to get really frustrated at how […]

#40: How to squeeze more leads from your advertising campaigns

Wasn’t this easier a few years back? Not so long ago you could easily throw up a landing page, do some rough and ready SEO, or point some cheap Adwords traffic at the page and you’d have as many leads as you could handle. If you’ve seen your advertising slide, if you’ve seen costs go up […]

#39: VB Index report: Top 10 Marketing Automation companies

This huge survey of over 1,000 marketing automation software users brings back some surprising insights into how marketing automation is really deployed in a variety of businesses. A must-read for anyone involved in selecting or implementing these systems. http://insight.venturebeat.com/report/venturebeat-marketing-automation-index

#38: Daddy Blogging

Well that went well didn’t it!3 years since the last post on this blog and I decided to have another crack. In that time I managed to sell Shine Marketing to K3 Business Technology Group, and start up a new business – Visibly Better Marketing Limited as a vehicle to develop a number of marketing […]

#37: Using Personas In Ecommerce Website Design

(Originally published on the Shine Marketing website) Personas are a simple but powerful tool to aid better ecommerce website design. In this article we explain what a persona is, how it is used and how to create a useful set of personas for your ecommerce website project. What are personas? Successful ecommerce website design requires […]

#36: New Year, New Angle

Over the Christmas break I finally decided to trash he rather stagnant blog over at stephenpratley.com instead turning it into a ‘personal portal’ of sorts that reflects the wider range of activities I get up to at work and beyond. Since introducing an ecommerce blog on my agency’s site at ShineMarketing.com, my own blog had stagnated a bit […]

#35: Using standard ad blocks in website designs

Having just splashed out on a ‘professional’ site design for a new reviews blog, I’ve just spent the best part of half a day re-jigging it to allow me to easily pick up ads from a variety of ad and affiliate networks. I’m suffering a little from the Catch 22 of niche sites. Niches are […]

#34: What to do if someone nicks your blog content

Blogs and their ability to syndicate out content are a double-edged sword. On the one hand it means your blog can be shown on other sites and get to a bigger audience. For example, excerpts from this blog and many others are also shown on Affiliates4U and some other sites, and I get plenty of […]

#33: How to use Video with an email campaign

Using video online is an excellent way to capture the imagination of your readers and get your message across. I first used it on a Britsh Heart Foundation Fndraising campaign in 2002 and got some excellent results. However, including any sort of gizmos in emails is fraught with problems, and many email clients and coprporate […]

#32: Building your email marketing list

It might seem like we’re approaching the process of email marketing somewhat arse-about-face, but there is a method in it. Last week we identified the sectors we want to market to, and thought about how many offers there are available in that market, and we picked the system we are going to use to send […]

#31: Don’t like writing? Try hands-free blogging

Lots of times at events I meet people who are obviously very knowledgeable about their subject and can speak well and enthusiastically. When I talk to them about blogging as a way for them to reach more people and show off their expertise, they say that what holds them up is that they don’t like […]

#30: Get Camtasia 3 for free and make your own video demos

First off, thanks to Jason Dale for pointing this neat little tool out to me. Camtasia records video of what’s happening on your computer screen, and allows you to record voice-overs with it. Where it beats other screen capture tools is in its ability to zoom in on areas of the screen, making tiny Youtube […]

#29: The alternative to throwing out your affiliates

There have been plenty of instances this year of ill-advised merchants clearing out inactive affiliates from their programme, so I was pleased this morning to get the following email: Dear Affiliate, I hope you are well and not too busy planning your all your Christmas activity! The M&S team here at LBi have recently done a […]

#28: Useful WordPress plugins for discount code and competition sites

An ongoing problem for owners of discount code websites and competition sites, is merchants who don’t set end dates properly, then decide to end them at short notice. Two plugins I found over the weekend at wonder-ful could help out with these. The first is Posts Expire. Does what it says on the tin. You […]

#27: How to attract affiliates in retail

This isn’t just a pretty picture to get my blog readership up, this is part of the fashion show that Tights Please organised for last weekend’s Affiliate Future Performance Booster. It was by far the most professional, and effective way of showing off a merchant’s wares I’ve seen at an affiliate event so far, and […]

#26: Getting the best out of cashback sites

The growth of the cashback sector in UK affiliate marketing has caused a few ripples, and a lot of false assumptions about this method of marketing, so I thought I’d post a few notes to merchants from someone who has seen both sides of the fence and seen what works and what doesn’t – me! […]

#25: Thank You’s for the Webgains Golf Day

A big thanks to Webgains for organising the affiliate golf day that went on yesterday. I’ve never done a ‘corporate’ golf day before and have always considered them to be a bit of a jolly. However, I picked up some good tips about new niches from Derek, one of the Webgains account managers, and traded […]

#24: TradeTracker launches affiliate network into UK

In the last few weeks Shine Marketing has begun working with Shoestring.co.uk – a long haul adventure holidays operator – on the launch of their UK Affiliate programme. The Programme has been extremely successful in the Netherlands with TradeTracker and will be the first UK programme in the new European version of the network. The […]

#23: Million Dollar ideas

This is quite old, but so worth sharing… I just found this blog post about a guy who bought some pixels on the Million Dollar Homepage. Nothing special there, some would say that’s the opposite of genius. The clever bit is, that rather than putting up an ad, he put up a picture of Waldo, […]

#22: Malcolm Cowley talks about Buy.at’s move into the US

Mal has given an interview to Webmaster Radio which you can listen to online. The interview talks about Buy.at’s expansion in to the US market, and talks about some of his impressions of the US market following the Affiliate Summit. As usual, Mal is enormously enthusiastic, pulls no punches on what it takes for a […]

#21: Blog tagged! 8 Things you didn’t know about me

…and probably don’t care Kieron tagged me in an ongoing game that seems to be expanding, last time I saw it it was just 5 things, so I’ll have to put my thinking hat on. “Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the […]

#20: Affiliate Marketing or Merchant Marketing?

At last week’s Affiliate Summit in Miami, David Hall – Communications Director of Affiliate Window – stood up in front of a room full of top performing affiliates and admitted that the UK affiliate market was “merchant centric” in comparison to the US, and that he’d be taking a lot back from the US experience. […]

#19: Back from Affiliate Summit Miami 2007

Now I’ve had a chance to get over the jetlag, read through my notes and make some sense of it all I thought I’d jot down a few points that might help anyone planning on attending one of these events in the future. My Summit Objectives My main objectives, scribbled down on the plane on […]

#18: Affiliate Summit Miami – Day 1, part 1

Ok, this will be pretty short as it’s a pretty crammed day, and going to a be a crammed night also, it’s 6pm and there are 2 networking events and a domain auction to go still. I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of what I’ve seen today. After comments from […]

#17: Get more money out of Directtrack networks.

I’ve just read through another post about network payment problems, this time by John Lammerton. It seems to be a particular problem with Directtrack driven networks, of which a large handful have cropped up in the UK in the last couple of years. For those affiliates who haven’t seen the network side of Directtrack, you […]

#16: Creating affiliate sites using Joomla

I’ve just a really great article by Kieron Donoghue about the evolution of PPC landing pages from single page gateways into fully fledged content sites to comply with Google’s Quality Score I thought I’d pull together some Of the components of the open source Content management system Joomla, that will help you build a site […]

#15: Redesigning your blog? 5 things to consider.

I just saw a post on Kieron Donoghue’s affiliate marketing blog that he’s going through a redesign at the same time as moving from Blogger to WordPress. Kieron’s old design was the classic Blogger template, you can see it here at archive.org. I actually kind of liked it, nice and uncluttered and it let the […]

#14: I found the key to $400 CPM from AdSense Revenues

I’ve been looking at some new ways of building very niche, often local, sites that convert well in less competitive areas of SEO and PPC. The original research stared when I began work with a local commercial mortgage broker who turned white when I showed him what the top guys were paying for terms in […]

#13: London 2012, I won’t be buying the T-shirt

This is the monstrosity that has just been unveiled as the London 2012 logo, a fragmented bit of chaos with no discernible meaning to it. The BBC announcement of the new design has already been flooded with over 300 comments, none of them positive, and the downing street petition site has been hammered all morning […]

#12: Google to buy Feedburner

Google is reportedly looking at buying Feedburner for a reputed $100m dollar as an route to get in on the growing RSS feed advertising business. RSS is a way of pushing out the content from blogs and other news-driven websites onto other sites, or RSS readers, a little like email readers. This is a great […]

#11: A newly revamped PR blog

I’ve just launched a new online PR blog for immediate future, my first totally custom WordPress template. The template is loosely based on the functionality of the standard Kubrick template and matches their soon-to-launch new website design. Working with Katy Howell on the project has been fascinating as she really knows her stuff about getting […]

#10: Google Optimiser – Rubbish

This has to be the most useless service Google have come up with yet. Google offers an ‘Optimized’ option for its PPC campaigns which claims to get the most clicks for your budget. There are no promises that the clicks will make yyou a profit, but I had a leads campaign running that was for […]

#9: WP text ads on trial

Thought I’d have a bit of a play with this plugin for selling ads off my blog. It’s just an experiment and if anyone signs up between now and end of june, all cash will go to the British Heart Foundation. I just realised I forgot all about the the London Brighton Ride, so this […]

#8: New Google Analytics Interface is Launched

Google Analytics has had an overhaul and it’s looking pretty smooth. First off, the trend of visits is a lot easier to read. I was a bit miffed that the calendar had disappeared from th left column, but Once I saw the power of the new date selections, and the ability to compare ranges I […]

#7: 7 Email marketing tips.

Email marketing seems to be a much overlooked tool for affiliates in the UK compared to the US where affiliate marketers seem to have it somehow embedded in their DNA at birth. I always thought it was pretty simple, but after a few conversations recently I’ve come to realise that might be because I’ve been […]

#6: WordPress Magazine Themes – Hot for 2008

2007 saw the art of blogging really hit the mainstream, to the extent that traditional and ‘respectable’ journalists started to sit up, take notice, whinge, and then head back to their boozy lunches to make up a few more half truths about Paris Hilton. The medium really started to evolve, and the widget-heavy personal blogs […]

#5: Buying Domain Names

Over the last few weeks I’ve been picking up a few domain names. Some to buy for my own projects, and a couple that I just chanced upon that I’m hoping to resell next year. For a project of my own I’ve just completed the purchase of casinos365.co.uk which I’m building a casinos review/strategy site […]

#4: Google Alerts for Bedroom Bloggers

For a while now I’ve been using Google alerts to keep tabs on the PR generated about clients and competitors. Whilst there were a few flaky results, in general it’s been pretty good as a web-clipping service, especially considering its price. It’s free. Recently Google expanded the reach of the service to cover any mention […]

#3: Micro-Payments for articles – a viable proposition

I was extremely sceptical a few weeks back when told about an articles site selling articles on an individual basis. I think that opinion has just been overturned. Whilst browsing the istockphoto site for some images for a new client site I came across a free article, “What’s the right typeface for text?“. Duly impressed […]

#2: Using article marketing to promote your site

Article Marketing is becoming hot activity for promoting your site. Led as always by the affiliate community, this tactic can help you to: Get articles about your site published on many other sites Get inbound links from pages related to your site subject – helping your search rankings Provide content for your own site if […]

#1: The art of developing advocates

Last night I heard a great talk at an ecademy networking event. It was by Richard White a sales trainer who has developed some great techniques for people who really don’t like selling. He talked about five rules for getting more people to refer you, even if they haven’t done business with you before. After […]