Copywriting

3 Steps to Pitch an Idea like Malcolm Gladwell

Me and Malcolm Gladwell in studio in NYC (July 2019)

The Tipping Point is a business book that sold 2.5 million copies. In it, author Malcolm Gladwell pitches a theory on epidemics called the Tipping Point. This blog post attempts to reverse engineer the process Gladwell took to explain his idea.

Explaining an idea is hard. My favorite articles on the Engel Journal blog are ideas, and readers often ignore them. Reflecting on my work, I asked, “What can Gladwell teach me about selling my ideas?” I found the answer in the opening pages of the Tipping Point.

Here are three steps Gladwell took to lead readers through his theory on epidemics:

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My two favorite written portfolio pieces from Review Concierge

My tenure at Review Concierge (2012 – 2015) was a highly educational and (net) rewarding experience. Some of my happiest moments were spent chatting with our nation’s top doctors at all hours of the day and night figuring out how to respond to their online reviews.

While my stories about individual clients are off the record, I did produce quite a few educational stories for the larger community. Many of these portfolio pieces are referenced in the projects section of my LinkedIn profile.

If I were to point to my two favorite written portfolio pieces from my time at Review Concierge, they would be:

  1. Online Review Survival Course
  2. Online Reviews: Leveraging 3 Trends That Brought them Center Stage

These pieces took a great deal of time to distill into written form because they tackle abstract concepts. After spending five hours per night for two weeks (after working full days), I finished the Online Review Survival Course and headed straight to acupuncturist to fix the carpal tunnel that I acquired from writing it. Fortunately, it was fixed in one session.

As I get ready to turn 30, I am upping my commitment to share more of the specialized  knowledge that I regularly invest time acquiring. My hope is that I can share valuable tips that enhance the profitability of  your sales and marketing campaigns.

An efficient writing process for Facebook Pages

Odyz Cards was an experiment run between August and November 2015 to answer the question: What is the most efficient way to author original content for Facebook? 

The concept was to divide the task of writing into three parts:

odyz post example
An example dividing the labor in the writing process.

STEP 1. Odyz Cards asks customers a daily question. The question can be delivered via SMS, email or a sponsored Facebook post (pictured above).

STEP 2. Customers answers the question casually, in their own voices.

STEP 3. Odyz Cards turns customers’ answers into complete Facebook posts.

Customers would get their first experience with the concept via #TellOdyz #Freebies, which were sponsored Facebook posts questions (pictured above). Once they signed up for the $99/mo program, daily questions were sent via text message. The final posts were published on customers’ Facebook pages.
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1 trick to increase B2B email response rates

Here is one trick that will immediately increase your response rates: make your emails look like they’re coming from a detail-oriented person.

These three elements will help you pull it off:

  1. Make the email come from the same IP of the email domain (this will eliminate “sent on behalf of” disclosure that many email programs make)
  2. Suggest a specific call to action, like an appointment
  3. Embed your compliance statements in the signature and footer.

When you incorporate these three elements into your emails, people will be much more likely to respond. Here is an example of an email that got an 8% company level response rate off a list of over 1,200 people at pharmaceutical companies:

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