TOC #184: PSA - I officially do not exist
(July 2, 2024) 4 tips from some of the best marketing professionals I know
It's officially July, and you know what that meanssss:
I 👏🏻 DON'T 👏🏻 EXIST!
I work all year to be able to take 6 weeks “off” in the summer — and, starting on the 4th, I officially do not exist to anyone but my child, my boyfriend, my friends, and my fellow Cape Cod beachgoers.
(And my Success Story students, because I love them and working with them doesn't feel like work at all.)
Half of me wanted to make today's newsletter all strategic and smart and blah blah blah about how I can afford to take summers off, and my website works for me while I'm offline, and how important organic marketing strategies are for the health of your business, but, like… I can't.
Just read this if you care about that stuff today.
I promise I have some good stories coming your way on all the other Summer Tuesdays, thanks to my creative energy flowing back to my brain during the only restorative time I get throughout the year.
Today, though? I'm off the clock.
& luckily for both of us — my friends have clocked in.
4 Marketing Tips From The Best In The Biz
I had high hopes of writing a blog post in January about 24 pieces of advice for 2024, incorporating tips from 24 of my marketing friends & colleagues, but by the time everyone got around to sharing their tips with me, it was like March.
So, I've had these tips just chilling in my inbox for a minute, and while I reserve the right to hit you with a “25 Marketing Tips For 2025” next Jan, I also don't want to let these golden nuggets go to waste.
First name / Bestie, say thank you to Mariah, Fran, Kaitlyn, and Ashley for being so god damn smart (and for doing the hard work of newslettering for me).
#1 🤓 "Do your keyword research BEFORE you create your website." — Mariah, SEO Expert
"I know I'm a bit biased, but I would tell people just starting out to do SEO keyword research BEFORE you create your website. SEO keyword research can be useful for SO much more than just "how to get on Google", although that's obv important, but SEO in general can actually be strategic market research, content planning & business development all wrapped into one.
SEO allows you to see data that backs up what people are ACTUALLY typing into Google, so then you can take that info & align your website, content, products, and services with phrases/topics that match.
A lot of my clients use keyword research to help them flush out their business ideas when they need to make a decision too!
This happened with a client of mine, who was in copywriting. It wasn’t until we did SEO keyword research that she was REALLY clear that she wanted to be an SEO copywriter, and not just a regular copywriter, because the gaps in the market were there and she felt lit up by it.
And then just last month I was doing keyword research with a company that makes candles and we found that there's a HUGE gap in the market for "mini candles".
The owner was like "okay, I never would have thought about that, but I'll test it..." -- she just came back to me today and said she's sold over 600+ mini candles since our conversation because she started pushing them on social media and in-store. Now we're going to try to tackle that keyword on Google with SEO.
SEO is one of the only digital marketing strategies that provides data like this, and I wish more beginner (and seasoned) business owners took advantage of it. Even if you don't want to get super SEO-focused, just the keyword research alone could change the trajectory of your business."
>> Click here to learn more about keywords from Mariah!
>> Click here for the SEO x Copy workshop I taught with her!
#2 🤓 "Your inquiry process is the most important part of your client experience, even though ‘they’re not your client yet'." — Fran, Client Experience Architect
"Your inquiry process is one of the most important parts of your client experience, and one that is the most often overlooked because "they're not your client yet" - but you should think of your inquiry process as a free trial for your business.
If you're taking more than a couple of days to respond to an inquiry, you're making them go back & forth via email just to schedule a call and aren't sending an interactive proposal that makes the booking process easy.they're going to assume that working with you is going to be the same.
And why would they want to pay thousands of dollars to work with someone who hasn't prioritized the experience that they're going to be having while working with that person?
First impressions are everything and can legitimately be the difference between someone signing and paying immediately or choosing to run in the other direction (toward your competitors)."
>> Click here for Fran's free Dubsado inquiry workflow
>> Click here for Dubsado form templates
#3 🤓 "Prioritize being of real service and your business will grow." — Kaitlyn, Business and Energetics Coach
“Prioritize being of real service and your business will grow. It’s easy to get caught up in vanity metrics and big numbers and this tactic and that strategy, but at the end of the day if you are serving your audience, your customers, and your clients well — business will grow.”
>> Click here to listen to Kaitlyn's podcast
>> Click here for an Aligned Business Audit
#4 🤓 "Never stop exercising your creativity muscle." — Ashley, Stuff About Advertising
"Creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised! When you're in the midst of a creative project, that muscle is putting in the work. You're getting creatively SWOLE.
But when business is slow, you don't want to lose all that power you've worked so hard to build. So, use down time to get some more creative reps in, whether that's by creating art, doing some journaling, or working on personal projects."
Concepting Drills are mock creative briefs that take you step-by-step through the process of brainstorming a ton of brilliant marketing ideas. It's like having a personal trainer for that creative muscle.
>> Click here for a free sample to get those reps in!
→ Want more tips like this? I have zillions 👇
TIPS FROM THE BTL BLOG // TIPS FROM THE TOC ARCHIVE
Or, if you'd rather keep learning from my friends…
Duo Collective's blog — SEO
Sarah Burk's blog — Pinterest
Sarah Kleist's blog — Design
Showit's blog — Design (and I wrote lots of them! Start with this one; it's the first in a series of 10 I wrote!)
TONIC's blog — Marketing and business (and I also wrote lots of these!)
The Social Bungalow blog — More marketing and business
Natty Writes's blog — Blogging
Sara Noel's New England Summer: Weekend Getaway Itinerary Series
It's finally time for you to share my most favorite Cape Cod town with you: East Dennis, Massachusetts — where I grew up going every single summer, where I first lived on Cape Cod back in 2018, and where I've had some of the absolute happiest times of my life.
East Dennis,
Massachusetts
This place could not possibly mean more to me — I love it with my whole entire soul. And, if you visit, I'm positive you'll love it, too.
🏘️ STAY AT…
Sesuit Harbor House. It's a cheap hotel right in the center of everywhere you'd want to be.
Realistically, though - get a vacation rental. You'll want to stay for a week. It's the perfect central location to visit lots of other great places on Cape Cod (it borders Brewster, Yarmouth, and West Dennis, and it's an easy drive anywhere else).
🌭 EAT AT…
Sesuit Harbor Cafe, for every single meal. I'm not even playing. Bring lots of cash.
Get a blueberry scone (best on the Cape, best in the world) for breakfast and a western omelette.
Get a lobster roll (best on the Cape, cannot confirm if it's best in the world) for lunch.
Get the steak tips (even though it's primarily a seafood joint) for dinner — and BYOB for the long ass wait for your food. Once you order, head over to the Raw Bar (at the back window) for clam chowder, clams casino, oysters Rockefeller, and 6 fresh shrimps. Trust me.
And, if you see my dad driving The Little Viking out to sea from the picnic tables, make sure you wave!
…if you don't want to eat at the same place for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, though, I get that.
Here are a few other recs:
Breakfast at Grumpy's or Village Donuts
Lunch at The Mercantile, Underground Bakery, or Scargo Cafe
Dinner at Encore (Sesuit Harbor Cafe's nicer sister restaurant) or Marshside or Lost Dog Pub
Smugglers — NOT Cape Cod Creamery, or I'll disown you! — for ice cream
👙 BEACH AT…
According to me and most other Cape Codders, Dennis has the BEST beaches on Cape Cod, if you're a sit-and-rot-for-12-hours kind of beachgoer.
Google will tell you to go to Mayflower; that's too crowded. And it'll completely fill up (meaning there will be a “lot full” sign out on the main road, signaling you absolutely cannot park there, don't even think about it, buster!) by 8am.
Google will also tell you to go to Corporation, which is the beach I grew up going to, and while it's touristy in the summer, it's still a great option - bathrooms, lunch shack with good sandwiches and popsicles, and lots of families. Their lot is full by 9am, for sure.
My favorite beaches in East Dennis, though, are Cold Storage (which is sadly resident-only now) and Sea Street.
AND THERE'S YOUR FUN SUMMER WEEKEND IN MY FAVORITE CAPE TOWN: EAST DENNIS! ⛱️
& if you use this itinerary, tag me @btlcopy on Instagram when you post about it! I'd love to see your lil vacations 🤠
SIDE NOTE…
I'm working on so0o0o0o many behind-the-scenes business admin things between now and September, and I'm refining a lot of my courses and programs. I'll be telling my waitlist girlies about all the changes first, so if you've been eyeing anything I sell, get ur booty on there.
IT'S GONNA BE GOOOOOOOD. I'm excited. ILY.
P.S. I'm doing a fun health + wellness challenge this summer, led by my former Email Chapter student and nutrition expert Alexia! I think you'll love it, and I want you to do it with me.
(And, nope, that^ is not an affiliate link — I just wanna be surrounded by cool, fun people during the challenge!)
P.P.S. MARKETING IS HARD — MENTORS CAN HELP.
Sick of relying solely on Google and guesswork to help you figure out what to do when it comes to business decisions, marketing strategy, copywriting, launching, getting clients, email marketing, and, well… everything? Let's fix that. Book a 90-minute mentorship session with me — and I'll replace your ‘trial-and-error’ with tried-and-true answers, advice, and support.
If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:
Subscribe to my newsletter! I send one marketing tip, once a week - and, according to my subscribers, it's "the best marketing newsletter on the Internet" and "the only reason to wake up on Tuesday mornings." So... yeah. You'll love 'er. 😏 Click here to subscribe!
Check out my services. I write website copy, sales pages, email sequences, blog posts, and brand messaging guides for entrepreneurs of all kinds! Maybe you’re my next favorite client.
Read my blog. It’s home to everything from copywriting tips, to marketing education, to freelance advice, to portfolio-worthy projects… if you like this post, you’ll love the blog. Here’s a quick roundup of my most popular posts.
Sign up for my email marketing course. Learn how to grow your email list full of loyal, ready-to-buy readers with this self-paced course teaching you how to write the best lead magnets, opt-in copy, welcome sequences, and newsletters.
Enlist me as your mentor. I have an entire in-depth blog post about my one-on-one consulting process for new and aspiring copywriters, if you’re interested in having a big-sis-style mentor to help you grow your freelance copywriting business & get results.
To get in touch with me directly, send me a DM or email sara@betweenthelinescopy.com. Have a great day!