Seven Ways to Hook a Reader in Two Seconds
Most headlines fail before the reader decides to read. Here is what the ones that work have in common.
Read →The Blog
No thought leadership. No content marketing. Just how B2B copy actually works — and why most of it does not.
Ten Things B2B Buyers Won't Tell You (But Your Copy Needs to Know)
B2B buyers are professionally skeptical. Here is how to write for someone who is rewarded for saying no.
Read →When Your GTM Story Stops Working
The message did not fail because it was wrong. It failed because the market moved and the story did not.
Read →What Great CMOs Actually Think About Marketing
Seventeen CMOs. One through line. Here is what separates the ones who build momentum from the ones who run campaigns.
Read →The Assertion Spectrum: Why Your B2B Copy Is Either Boring or Threatening
Most B2B copy lives at two extremes. It is either so safe it disappears, or so aggressive it puts buyers on defense. The sweet spot has a name.
Read →Why Your Buyers Stop Reading After the First Line
The decision to keep reading happens in under two seconds. Here is what is actually happening in that window, and how to win it.
Read →The Uniqueness Trap
Every B2B company thinks it is unique. Most of them are just different. Here is why that distinction is the difference between a story that lands and one that disappears.
Read →How Internal Consensus Kills B2B Messaging
When everyone has to agree on the message, the message becomes a document that offends no one and moves no one. Here is what happens inside that process, and how to break it.
Read →The Primer: What You Say First Is Not What You Think It Is
In B2B marketing, the first job is not to sell. It is to make the sale possible. Most companies skip this step. They pay for it in pipeline.
Read →Writing Copy When You Cannot Afford to Be Wrong
B2B is not like B2C. Your addressable universe is small, test cycles are long, and one bad message can burn a relationship that took years to build. Here is how to write under those conditions.
Read →First Say This: The Order of Your Message Is the Message
Most B2B copy fails not because the content is wrong but because it arrives in the wrong order. What you lead with determines whether anything that follows gets heard at all.
Read →How to Write to Someone Who Has Never Heard of You
Writing to strangers is structurally different from writing to warm leads. The rules change. Most B2B companies use the wrong set.
Read →The Hook: How to Find the One Line That Unlocks Your Whole Message
Every strong message has a hook underneath it. Most companies never find it. Here is the process for digging it out.
Read →Why B2B Ads Are Boring: A Diagnosis in Four Parts
B2B advertising is not boring by accident. It is boring by committee, by habit, and by a set of misunderstandings about what buyers actually respond to. Here is what is actually happening.
Read →Nine Fixes for Nine Webinar Problems You Think Are Unfixable
Low attendance, no questions, dead air, bad recordings. Most webinar problems are not technical. They are copy and structure problems. Here is how to fix them.
Read →Be the One They Want to Watch: What Makes Live Content Worth Attending
Most webinars are tolerated, not attended. The ones people actually show up for share a specific set of qualities. Here is what those are and how to build them in.
Read →Everything You Actually Need to Know Before Hiring a Copywriter
Most companies hire copywriters for the wrong reasons, brief them badly, and then wonder why the output does not work. Here is how to avoid all of that.
Read →Reliable, Dignified Prospecting: How to Reach New Buyers Without Embarrassing Yourself or Them
Most B2B prospecting is neither reliable nor dignified. Here is an approach that earns a response without making you cringe at your own outreach.
Read →Why Prospects Ghost You (And It Has Nothing to Do With Your Follow-Up Timing)
Ghosting is not a follow-up problem. It is a message problem that surfaces late. Here is what is actually happening and how to fix it upstream.
Read →Write Headlines That Hit: The Mechanics Behind Subject Lines That Get Opened
Most B2B subject lines are ignored in under a second. The ones that get opened share a specific structure. Here is what it is.
Read →Not the Also-Ran: How to Position When You Are Not the Category Leader
Being second, third, or newer is not a positioning problem. Trying to out-claim the leader on their own terms is. Here is how to stop doing that.
Read →How to Brief a Copywriter for Outcomes Instead of Output
A bad brief produces a long revision cycle and copy that never quite lands. A good brief cuts both. Here is what separates them.
Read →What Desire Has to Do With B2B Marketing
B2B buyers do not make rational decisions that they then justify emotionally. They make emotional decisions that they justify rationally. The implications for how you write are significant.
Read →The Questions That Change How You Write
The quality of a brief determines the quality of the copy. Most briefs ask the wrong questions. Here are the ones that actually matter.
Read →What Makes a Webinar Worth Completing
Most webinar attendees drop off in the first fifteen minutes. The ones that hold the room share a specific architecture. Here is what it looks like.
Read →Three Levels of Messaging: Why Most B2B Marketing Lives on the Wrong Floor
There are three levels at which you can talk to a buyer. Most B2B companies default to the lowest one. Here is what each level does and which one actually moves people.
Read →The Credibility Problem: Why Buyers Do Not Believe You Even When You Are Right
Your claims may be accurate. Your proof may be real. Buyers still may not believe you. Here is why credibility is not about facts and what it is actually about.
Read →What the Follow-Up Is Actually About
The follow-up email is not a persistence problem. It is a positioning problem. If your first message was wrong, the second one just confirms it.
Read →The Voice Problem: Why B2B Companies All Sound the Same
Read ten B2B homepages in a row. They are interchangeable. This is not a coincidence. Here is the process that produces sameness and how to break out of it.
Read →The Scope of a Message: What Good Copy Actually Has to Carry
Most copy briefs define what to say. The best ones define what the copy has to accomplish. These are not the same instruction, and confusing them produces very different results.
Read →Test Your GTM Message Before It Costs You Anything
Most companies find out their GTM message is wrong after the campaign is live, the sales team is briefed, and the budget is gone. There is a better order of operations.
Read →How to Test GTM Messaging Without Running a Single Campaign
You do not need live campaigns to find out if your message works. You need the buying committee in a room before they are a buying committee — and before you spend anything.
Read →What a Tested Message Is Actually Worth
Pre-validated copy is not about perfection. It is about knowing where your message breaks before buyers find out first — and what that knowledge is worth in pipeline and time.
Read →Ready to Put This to Work?
Reading about copy is one thing. Having it written for your market is another. Let's talk.
Work with me