Book Reviews

Review: Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out

Josh Noel’s new book, Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business, is more than a history of Goose Island Beer Co. Rather, this goes far beyond the sales itself and presents one of the best, most interesting marketing case studies I’ve read. Noel, the Chicago Tribune’s beer… Continue reading Review: Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out

Content Strategy

Smart Ads: Lexical Diversity, Active Words, Punctuation!

WordStream conducted a very interesting analysis of the top-performing AdWords ads. The study looked at nine months of US-based, English, non-branded ads. They ran textual analysis on the ads that performed best (based on impressions, clicks, and CTR) to suss out which words truly work best. A few findings: 1) Make it about audience —… Continue reading Smart Ads: Lexical Diversity, Active Words, Punctuation!

Content Strategy

No Questions: Writing Headlines that Deserve a Click

Headlines and subject lines are tricky. And asking a question in a headline poses extra special challenges.  Namely, if your question can be answered by a simple, “No,” they have no reason to click through or open. “Is your refrigerator running?” “Nope!” This little edict actually has a name. Betteridge’s Law of Headlines states: “Any… Continue reading No Questions: Writing Headlines that Deserve a Click