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mystech-master · 5 years ago

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Annon-Guy: What are you personal thoughts on Nu-13 and Lambda-11 In terms of gameplay and personality? You can talk about their character designs too id you want too.

Okay, I need to first summarize what I know of Nu and Lambda at the moment before I give my personal thoughts. A lot of shorthanding and maybe some errors may be involved so plz forgive me.

long post bellow, beware.

Nu-13 and Lambda-11 are both Prime Field Devices, artificial humans made for the purpose of exploring the boundary. Specifically, they are Murakumo Units: PFD’s outfitted with the Nox Nyctores Lux Sanctus: Murakumo as full-on weapons.

When Ragna’s siblings were captured, because of Saya’s innate gift with seithr, she was used as the basis for creating all of these Units. There are usually referred to as “clones” which means everyone treats them as either the same as Saya or also sisters, leading to a lot of incest jokes and rants in the fandom. More on this later but I feel like it has to be brought up.

we first meet Nu-13 as the final boss of the first game Calamity Trigger, where we learn that this is technically the 3rd time she and Ragna have met, since before this Ragna was blowing up NOL branches and cauldrons to stop more Murakumo Units from being made, as they are all just fake copies of his sister who was tortured for their creation.

Nu-13 has a full-on yandere crush on Ragna due to 2 factors I believe, 1. she is constantly viewing him through the lens of the fragment of Saya’s soul saying “Ragna is the big brother who loves me”, and 2. Ragna killing her again and again. This causes her to see Ragna killing her as loving her. Not helping is her being made in the Boundary which completely fucks up your mental state when near it.

At the end of almost every ending in CT, Nu defeats Ragna, skewering them both on her sword, they fall into the Cauldron and travel back in time 100 years to become the Black Beast that ravaged the world in the Dark War, creating a time loop. As when a Murakumo does an imperfect fusion with an Azure Grimoire (or at least a piece of the Azure) it becomes a Black Beast, with a perfect fusion resulting in a Kusanagi: the God Slayer (which is what Noel becomes and what the villains were trying to do to take down Amaterasu (the god of Blazblue world). Fitting as a Murakumo, with the Kusanagi being a super version of it, has a Nox capable of resisting Phenomenon Intervention, which is the Mater Unit’s main Power. So when they say God Slayer they do not mean gods in general they mean a SPECIFIC god. Just need to say that).

Anyways, Nu kills Ragna every now and again for like 725 loops before Noel steps in during the true ending and manages to grab Ragna before he and Nu fall into the Cauldron.

In Continuum Shift, the second game taking place right/ a week after the first game, Nu’s body is recovered from the bottom of the Cauldron (yes those things apparently have a bottom they aren’t just portals) by Sector Seven and Kokonoe proceeds to ake Nu’s soul and put it in the body of another Murakumo Unit, Lambda-11 to use as a puppet and fight for her. Her weapons are made of titanium alloy instead of Hihi'irokane (the mythical Japanese metal which is also in the Susano’o Unit and is also the name of a Soul cutting sword in Blazblue), and she is outfitted with an IDEA Engine, an improved version of the Artificial Causality Phenomenon Weapons: a scientific counterpart to the Nox Nyctores using Atomic Power rather than souls.

Lambda’s memories are still in there and she recalls the torture she had to endure by all the scientists creating her, which I assume all Murakumos underwent including Nu, so Kokonoe has to erase her memories to make her an effective tool, even if she regrets it.

They don't really explain where the soul starts and the mind/memories begin and vice versa though, this is another thing I will tackle later.

She sends out Lambda in the second game to do things, she like Tager for the most part just acts as Kokonoe’s proxy, until the climax of the true ending where Ragna is fighting Terumi at the top of the NOL branch. Just as Terumi is about to kill Ragna, Lambda takes a lethal blow for Ragna, and in her final moments, Nu’s soul comes to the surface and is glad she got to see Ragna again, him having recently gone through the character development of not seeing Murakumos as things but as people after interacting with Noel. As she dies and fades into sparkles, weird for a science thing, she grants Ragna her Idea Engine, giving him the power boost he needs to defeat Terumi and later save Noel who was smelted into the Kusanagi.

Now in the third game, because Ragna and Nu have a Life Link, which means one cannot die permanently without the other being killed in a short time frame, Nu is now able to come back as she couldn’t before with Kokonoe shoving her soul into Lambda. She mostly just acts as the villains' combat android until she copies Noel’s power to summon the Master Unit (as both are Saya fragments and also fragments of The Origin, the first PFD who made contact with the Master Unit and sort of.....became it?). Then in the climax, the villains summon Take-Mikazuchi, a giant titan satellite laser thing, and make Nu the core of it. Once the body is destroyed Ragna goes inside to deal with Nu. She proceeds with her usual shtick of telling Ragna they will “become one” and to kill her and all that, saying the backstory of pretty much every Murakumo about how she was made to be a weapon and how she was tortured and shit, this is also her saying Noel’s backstory since Noel ‘Observed” Nu as her which is SORT of true since they are both Saya but not really, it’s confusing as hell. But, basically, she is saying the shared Murakumo Backstory and Ragna sees this as her cries to be saved, while Nu, who only sees her and Ragna’s relationship as a mutually sadomasochistic one, goes bonkers and tries to kill Ragna, not out of yandere lust, but actual anger and hatred. Ragna wins and brings her out of Take-Mikazuchi, where Izanami takes control of her and makes her stab Ragna and he goes berserk and loses control of the Azure Grimoire.

the fourth game Central Fiction is a mess so I know the least here but from what I recall:

Nu is now growing to be her own person, she is less robotic but that means Yandere Ragna mode is on all the time. She is going around absorbing Nox Nyctores to get power so she can kill Ragna and do the merge. Near the climax, she is fighting Jubei and when she almost kills Tsubaki, Hakumen steps in and wrecks her shit. (In a previous time loop Tsubaki was killed by Nu b/c Noel didn’t exist and wasn’t Jin’s secretary instead of Tsubaki, so she went after Jin in the first game who was going after Ragna, she got caught in the crossfire, with Nu’s yandere mind hating any female in the same room as Ragna, and dies. Jin then falls into the cauldron after Ragna and Nu to become Hakumen during the Dark War. More time loop BS).

Meanwhile due to the Embryo, BS plot device, Lambda just.....comes back to life. Even though her soul was technically never a part of the story as it was NU’S soul in the body during CS. Anyways she is basically “good Nu” she is fighting the villains through sheer Power of Love and just wants to see Rgana again, she is pretty unimportant in the overall scheme of things.

After the world is remade Noel and Lambda move into the rebuilt church where Ragna and the siblings grew up and became nuns, looking after the comatose Nu who is kind of a vegetable with her sole reason for existing, Ragna, now no longer existing and all memory of him being erased.

Okay so after that lengthy summary, here are my thoughts.

1. the sister thing.

In spite of them being “clones” of Ragna’s little sister Saya, that hasn't stopped a shit load of ship teasing with the Murakumos by both the writers and the fandom.

Part of me thinks it’s because they go too far in the “They are their own unique people, they aren’t just fake copies of Saya” to which the fans mostly agree, but that just means while they aren’t Saya they are still related/connected to her. It isn't like Ragna can only have ONE sister.

Also, the reveal of Izanami being Saya at the end of CS also factors into this.

My only way to do mental gymnastics around this is saying that by “clone” they just mean copy/looks like her and has the same abilities, but genetically they are different.

I mean, we have no idea how Murakumos....work. They can't have any mechanical bits because we see them get zapped in-game and they have no metal, Noel CERTAINLY would've known she wasn't human if she didn't grow like a normal human or eat, sleep, produce waste, etc.

To me, Murakumos seem to be like software/computer programs given physical form via seithr. More like the Valentines in Guilty Gear, “robots” made up of information.

Plus, the story only ever points out the sibling connection with Ragna and Noel, and that’s in the LAST game and until then she’s just a stranger to him, with Lambda and Nu NEVER being treated the same.

And before anyone goes “BUT THE SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION OF CONE MEANS ‘HUR DE DUR, SAME DNA’ AND THEY USE THE WORD CLONE TO DESCRIBE THEM IN CANON! MEH!”, that could just be an over-simplification as to what they are, and I feel like a lot of series just rely on an oversimplification of terms. Like how Black Holes mostly work in fiction is NOT how they work IRL.

Now, does this mean I would’ve wanted Ragna to get with Noel or Lambda or Nu? Fuck no. I can appreciate cute little one-shots that have nothing to do with canon, but in terms of looking this train wreck of a story and trying to fix it they have other issues that make me not want to ship them.

I might go into why I wouldn't want Ragna x Noel in another post later, but I’ll stay on topic with Nu and Lambda.

Both are kind of boring

Lambda is basically Nu with less personality and is just a plot device for the most part.

As for Nu, even if you redeem her and keep her loving Ragna qualities without the yandere murder, it is still boring. because all her interests are Ragna she has nothing else going for her. Outside of the most generic romance shit what can you see Nu doing with him? it’s a bit upsetting because Nu seems like the type of person who’d have Ragna’s back and punch Jin in the dick if he insults or threatens Ragna, which is something I would LOVE in an S.O. for Ragna. But without her own interests and character, she is just......boring. And yeah you could theorize that she gains an interest outside of Ragna post-redemption but that is too broad of a statement that I can’t really do anything with it.

So frankly, even IF we ignore the sister thing or do weird mental gymnastics about it, Ragna/Nu and Lambda would just be BORING as they are in canon outside of the most generic BS.

2. The connection between Nu and Lambda

Really Lambda was just made to keep Nu’s gameplay in while killing her in canon, that is a dumb excuse.

Some people like to see Lambda s Nu but redeemed temporarily but then come to CP and it’s like none of the Lambda stuff mattered. You’d think that at least Ragna would use Lambda’s death as an ace for his argument on using the Azure Grimoire as when he wasn't able to use it he got his shit kicked in and someone had to DIE for him because of that. But NOPE.

Then she is revived for bullshit fanservice reasons in CP Extend and is barely a thing in Story Mode

A while ago I made a post showing 3 ways they could've gotten rid of Nu that would’ve made good character moments. I will be focusing on number 3 here: Have Nu and Lambda be the same person.

Instead of Lambda being brought back via Embryo Bullshit, have Nu and Lambda be a split personality deal. Like Nu is the CS Mu to Lambda’s Noel. Say during Ragna’s Arcade mode or Nu’s Arcade mode Nu slightly hesitates when about to kill Ragna, reality flickers a bit revealing Lambda’s color scheme on Nu, showing that Lambda is within her. Nu’s soul spending time in Lambda has given her an alternate identity.

This doesn't just have to affect just Ragna, maybe Lambda remembers that Kokonoe mind-wiped her and tried to make her into a puppet thus making her no better than the villains.

During the climax, instead of Nu’s yandere rage, we have that mixed in with Lambda’s hysterical cries begging for death due to the torture of Nu’s memories. Both side tr and kill Ragna out of rage or trying to force him to kill them in self-defense. Ragna, of course, doesn’t and saves them, thus allowing Nu-Lambda to be brought back to Kokonoe and redeemed.

Maybe her hair is a mix of Nu and Lambda’s making it a Platinum Blonde (making it a mixture of Nu’s white hair and Lambda’s blonde hair), and the tanner skin complexion and red eyes further separate her from Noel.

3. Story roles

The first two games are fine for the most part but I have some ideas for the last two.

For the 3rd game, an idea I had was instead of Nu being the one to summon the Master Unit via stealing Noel’s power, have Amane do something important in this game instead of having him chase Carl.

he is said the be the “Uzume” like the god who stripped and made Amaterasu come out of the cave after her sibling fallout with Susano’o. Simply have Amane be the “herald of Amaterasu”, possibly being a being similar to Terumi, a spirit of a god unit. maybe not AS powerful as the Sankishin, but just under. This means that Nine’s Hino Kagutsuchi would fall under this category as well. Or maybe he simply has a story connection with Noel in accepting the part of her connection to the Origin and the Azure or something.

To go off of the shipping thing above, maybe to at least use the Saya soul thing, she is struggling with her feelings towards Ragna because how much of these feelings are her own, and how many are born from an isolated sibling’s misplaced love? This is probably something a villain taunts her about

I kind of theorize that Saya’s fear of other people instilled in her during the siblings’ days as lab rats and Ragna protecting her made her develop an unhealthy sister crush on him, this, of course, isn't helped by the Origin (who she is based on) wanting Ragan to be her knight in shining armor.

Again, more on this later possibly.

Anyways, so Lambda can get her own feelings in order and prove that she isn’t just a copy of Saya or Noel, she tries to make her own identity. maybe cutting off that large Murakumo ponytail in the process, b.c that’s an Asian culture thing about cutting hair to symbolize the beginning of a new stage in her life. Maybe after forgiving Kokonoe, she joins Sector Seven not as a field agent like Tager, but as Kokonoe’s new assistant and friend, showing that she isn't going to be used as a tool or a weapon.

I still need to get on with drawing Lambda in a lab coat styled after her Murakumo cloak.

As for at least Nu’s connection with Ragna. It is weird because I generally either hate or have enormous contempt for almost everyone Ragna has interacted with for the pettiest reasons. For Nu, while she is crazy towards Ragna and tries to kill him, it's due to her own psychosis and insanity, which is partially Ragna’s fault. Everyone else who gives Ragna shit is either a villain (in which case it’s fine because it is a VILLAIN, which Nu sort of counts as), or an arrogant asshole who KNOWS what they are doing for the lols. So I SORT OF give Nu a semi-pass. But like I stated above I can’t see what she would be if she were redeemed, so I do feel like if she wasn't going to be used as a way to bring Lambda back, she should've been killed.

The point is, the Murakumos have a lot of potential for smaller things but they are incredibly mishandled in a lot of ways too, including showing up where they really shouldn't a lot of times. Shipping is okay so long as you are capable of doing mental gymnastics to ignore the sister shit, and don’t look at a whole lot of other issues.

These are just my thoughts and maybe I didn’t explain things enough, or I did it weirdly, or I have some different opinions, IDK. This series gives me a lot of feelings

#blazblue #nu-13 #lambda-11 #my thoughts #long post

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samiam03x · 8 years ago

Text

No More Hacks: Why Tired, Old, Boring Processes Can Make You a Better Marketer

Israeli researchers studied 200 of the best ads in 1999.

These were the top finalists and award winners, like the infamous “This is Your Brain on Drugs” campaign from years ago.

The most surprising thing? They weren’t ‘creative’.

89% of them could be classified into six ‘templates’, which were classified in the excellent Made to Stick.

The point?

Ideas aren’t in short supply today. Execution is.

The reason results aren’t kicking in like you expect is NOT because you’re missing some mythical growth hack. It’s because you’re not executing on the basics right in front of your face.

Here’s why, along with a few examples to get started.

The Escalating Content Marketing Arms Race

A 500-word blog post used take an hour or two to complete.

Problem? Nobody writes 500 words anymore. At least, not if they want results.

You know what it takes to get on the first page of Google today? 1,890 words. Thanks, Skyscrapers.

That’s backed up by excellent research from Orbit Media, whose survey results show that the average blog post is 1054 words long (19% longer than in 2015).

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Which means, they take longer to write, too. Today’s average blog post takes 3 hours 16 minutes to write (26% increase over 2015).

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Buffer has been spending a minimum of three hours on each post for years now. And some savvy marketers admit that they spend half-to-a-full day on one blog post.

The bar is high.

And it keeps getting higher.

We haven’t even touched on the quantity: two million blog posts published each day. (And that was already a few years ago in 2015!)

Not seeing results from blogging?

How much time are you spending on each post?

Most likely, it’s not enough. Because you’re too busy responding to client calls, boss’s emails, memes on Slack, or scouring Inbound.org and Growth Hackers for the latest silver bullet hack that will deliver instant success.

When the brutal truth is that the only way out, is the one path in front of you.

It’s the most obvious, yet least exciting option.

Don’t look at what those Inbound & Growth Hackers posts say. Look at what they’re doing.

The depth. The insight (based on real-world experience). The multimedia. And then replicate it.

In today’s world, average doesn’t cut it. Only exceptional gets rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.

Trouble is, there ain’t anymore hours in the day.

How are you supposed to do it?

The AdWords Quality Score

Back in the old days, AdWords was more of a straight-forward auction.

That meant anyone could bid as much as they wanted on whichever keyphrases they chose in order to generate more results.

But that came at the expense of relevance for us consumers.

Now, the Google’s ain’t dumb. So they introduced a few tweaks to the system, including the Quality Score.

Today it’s an approximation for how your results should perform in aggregate. And one of the things it looks for, is message match.

That is, an alignment between:

What someone’s searching for

The ads they see (that you create)

And the landing page they visit upon clicking

Long story short, this little guy plays a role in determining what you pay. The higher that number goes, based on a better ‘alignment’ between those three variables above (and a few more), the less you pay to drive traffic, net leads, and close sales.

Facebook’s got a similar metric, the Relevance Score, that says even a little boost in engagement (of 1%) is enough to deliver a 5% cost reduction!

Here’s the best news.

Quality Scores aren’t secret. Unlike Google’s organic algorithm, they tell you pretty much how it’s determined. Which means it should be a straightforward path to fixing.

You simply identify a few popular campaigns that are underperforming…

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Spin those out into their own campaigns to improve the keywords you’re targeting, the ads you’re showing, and the landing pages visitors are finding, in order to increase their overall experience.

Sure. There’s a little more involved. But that’s the basics. And just making those basic improvements can increase AdWords lead conversion rates 900% while also dropping Cost Per Conversions 99%.

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No tricks or hacks. Just execution.

Look.

It’s easy. All the information is out there in the open.

Take ad copy specifically.

Increase Ad Performance & Slash Your Time in Half by Systemizing Ad Copy Writing

These are a B– to write.

Only a few short characters. You’d think it’d be easy.

But you sit there and stare at a blank screen for twenty minutes before ever writing down a single headline variation or two.

Here’s the secret though.

Even if you’ve worked in this space for years, you have no idea how it’s going to work. You kinda do, but no guarantees in this game.

So relax. Use a system.

Digital Marketer’s Ad Grid is one of the best ‘frameworks’ to base your ad writing.

At the top of a grid, list out your customer personas. On the left, just simply copy-and-paste what they’re already spoon-feeding you: different proven ‘hooks’ that each tug at your prospect’s emotional, lizard brain telling them WHY they should care (to click, sign up, or change their ways).

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We’re not going into tactics here. But we don’t have to. It’s all there in that article. One of the keepers to follow and rip off (or emulate).

Now, ad writing should be easy. The hooks and messaging are in place for each segment or persona. Obviously adapted depending on the industry you’re working in.

Let’s use an example from my friends, The Yes Girls.

You can try the ‘zen’ approach, simplifying the life of consumers so they don’t have to worry ‘bout a thing.

Or you can go the complete opposite route, focusing instead on helping people protect themselves from mistakes they’re making.

This gets even easier in some highly formulaic industries.

Take local businesses. People look for these companies by searching for: [Location] + [Service]. So guess what keyphrases to choose, what to write in your ads, and what to put smack-dab on the middle of your landing page headline?

In these cases you don’t even have to reinvent the wheel. Click-through rate busting ads aren’t far away. It’s just a matter of writing a few variations (based on a solid framework or process) and then letting the winner surface to the top after a few days-to-a-week.

How to Create Nimble Marketing Processes that Can Adapt & Change On-the-Fly

Processes are mechanical. They’re routine. And they kinda suck to write.

But they’re the only way out.

If you (a) can’t work anymore hours in a day without dropping dead or getting divorced, and (b) need to UP your execution game so that results come quicker for clients and bosses, there’s only one solution my friend.

Rising PPC star, Jonathan Dane, admitted to almost quitting three times in the first year after starting Klientboost.

Then they systematically improved parts of the business (heavily influenced by The E-Myth) and are now doing over $3 million a year (in only about three years).

Ok. So where to start.

Step #1. Reverse-Engineer a Step-by-Step Process You Intuitively Already Do on a Daily Basis

It’s tempting to org-chart the hell out of your biz, but it’ll only stress you out more. It’s too much. Too big of a chunk.

Take something small. Like PPC ad writing. Or blog content.

And from A to Z, list out the steps you already take. OR, the steps you’d like to take based on the excellent example you see somewhere online already. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

Here, I’ll even give you an internal example.

Step 7 of our “How to Create a Blog Post” process is about creating headlines. And I just straight stole the answers from Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks – because it’s amazing, simple and straightforward. Someone with little-to-no blogging skillz can follow one of these and churn out a not-terrible headline on their first try.

Step #2. Visually Map the ‘Transitions’ that Need to Take Place After Completing One Action Before Starting Another

Zooming into a specific step or activity helps you see how tired, boring-old processes can deliver the goods.

But the real benefit in comes when you see the transitions; how you go from completing one thing to starting the next.

Mind mapping can help you visualize how all of these pieces fit together. XMind is one, but certainly not the only, option.

Here’s another personal example of the customer journey, along with How and What and Who from our side will align with each step.

So peeps complete Steps 1, 2, and 3. Great. Then what?

Processes create systems. And the best systems are a collection of subsystems. I think I just plagiarized that from Work the System.

The point, though, is not to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Step #3. Make Processes Actionable & Accountable with Intuitive Tools that Reinforce the Actions You Want

Next step is to make this idea come to life. A Word doc is great… for getting lost on your hard drive somewhere.

But the next step is to use some tool – again, doesn’t matter which – to capture and manage and assign and enforce the system you just created.

My favorite is Pipefy. It’s amazing. Time-consuming to get right. But powerful once you get workflows up-and-running which allow other team members or contractors to step into various parts and do the job 80% as well as you.

Because that’s the goal at first. 80%. Transferring your years of experience and pattern matching and hard lessons isn’t easy. But over time you’ll learn how to create a process that enforces good habits and helps people bypass that learning curve.

Pipefy even has a few templates you can import to get started. Including, an SEM management one. How apropos.

The individual step (in the image above) can’t be completed until someone fills out each text box with an answer.

Once that’s done, you move onto the next step which will then bring up a new list of instructions, video tutorials, image examples, and more for the next person to know exactly what’s expected of them.

Which brings us to people.

Step #4. Processes Can Make Good People Better; Empowering Novices to Perform like Experts

Marketers live in a results-driven business. The pressure’s on.

One study says working in media is almost as stressful as flying a plane or cutting into people!

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Which means we usually have a short leash (and shorter temper) when it comes to those around us. If they can’t keep up, they’re not around long. #realtalk

Good people are hard to find. The ones who can read your thoughts and are already a step ahead.

These people should also be incredibly cheap in the grand scheme of things. Like, you can’t afford not too, cheap. That’s meant in a rational businessperson, not insensitive, way. They’re an asset, not an expense.

But they can’t be thrown into the deep end. Even contractors, who’re subject-level experts, need help understanding what you’re thinking and what you’re looking for. They won’t get it on the first try.

So whether you’re hiring new marketers or working with outside people (I’ve had great experiences so far with Worldwide101 ← and I don’t receive anything for saying that), the best thing you can do is plug them into a process.

People shouldn’t cause you to take more time out of your already busy schedule. They should add back chunks of time, while multiplying and leveraging your ability to execute.

But that’s only possible if they know exactly, step-by-step, what to do and why.

Conclusion

I hope this doesn’t come off as preachy. That wasn’t the intent.

I’ve personally wasted (and continue to waste) countless hours reading, instead of doing.

Chances are, you’re similar. You already know what it takes, or where to find it.

And there’s only so many hours in the day. You can’t possibly put in anymore.

So piling on another ‘hack’ to your already overflowing to-do list isn’t going to help.

Bookmark it. Save it in Evernote. Someday/Maybe it. And revisit it later.

For now, focus on improving your processes to get vastly more done in less time.

Execution dictates results. Not hacks.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.

http://ift.tt/2mcdHwq from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2mOlh3s via Youtube

#MarketingRSS

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marie85marketing · 8 years ago

Text

No More Hacks: Why Tired, Old, Boring Processes Can Make You a Better Marketer

Israeli researchers studied 200 of the best ads in 1999.

These were the top finalists and award winners, like the infamous “This is Your Brain on Drugs” campaign from years ago.

The most surprising thing? They weren’t ‘creative’.

89% of them could be classified into six ‘templates’, which were classified in the excellent Made to Stick.

The point?

Ideas aren’t in short supply today. Execution is.

The reason results aren’t kicking in like you expect is NOT because you’re missing some mythical growth hack. It’s because you’re not executing on the basics right in front of your face.

Here’s why, along with a few examples to get started.

The Escalating Content Marketing Arms Race

A 500-word blog post used take an hour or two to complete.

Problem? Nobody writes 500 words anymore. At least, not if they want results.

You know what it takes to get on the first page of Google today? 1,890 words. Thanks, Skyscrapers.

That’s backed up by excellent research from Orbit Media, whose survey results show that the average blog post is 1054 words long (19% longer than in 2015).

Image Source

Which means, they take longer to write, too. Today’s average blog post takes 3 hours 16 minutes to write (26% increase over 2015).

Image Source

Buffer has been spending a minimum of three hours on each post for years now. And some savvy marketers admit that they spend half-to-a-full day on one blog post.

The bar is high.

And it keeps getting higher.

We haven’t even touched on the quantity: two million blog posts published each day. (And that was already a few years ago in 2015!)

Not seeing results from blogging?

How much time are you spending on each post?

When the brutal truth is that the only way out, is the one path in front of you.

It’s the most obvious, yet least exciting option.

Don’t look at what those Inbound & Growth Hackers posts say. Look at what they’re doing.

The depth. The insight (based on real-world experience). The multimedia. And then replicate it.

In today’s world, average doesn’t cut it. Only exceptional gets rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.

Trouble is, there ain’t anymore hours in the day.

How are you supposed to do it?

The AdWords Quality Score

Back in the old days, AdWords was more of a straight-forward auction.

That meant anyone could bid as much as they wanted on whichever keyphrases they chose in order to generate more results.

But that came at the expense of relevance for us consumers.

Now, the Google’s ain’t dumb. So they introduced a few tweaks to the system, including the Quality Score.

Today it’s an approximation for how your results should perform in aggregate. And one of the things it looks for, is message match.

That is, an alignment between:

What someone’s searching for

The ads they see (that you create)

And the landing page they visit upon clicking

Facebook’s got a similar metric, the Relevance Score, that says even a little boost in engagement (of 1%) is enough to deliver a 5% cost reduction!

Here’s the best news.

Quality Scores aren’t secret. Unlike Google’s organic algorithm, they tell you pretty much how it’s determined. Which means it should be a straightforward path to fixing.

You simply identify a few popular campaigns that are underperforming…

Image Source

Sure. There’s a little more involved. But that’s the basics. And just making those basic improvements can increase AdWords lead conversion rates 900% while also dropping Cost Per Conversions 99%.

Image Source

No tricks or hacks. Just execution.

Look.

It’s easy. All the information is out there in the open.

Take ad copy specifically.

Increase Ad Performance & Slash Your Time in Half by Systemizing Ad Copy Writing

These are a B– to write.

Only a few short characters. You’d think it’d be easy.

But you sit there and stare at a blank screen for twenty minutes before ever writing down a single headline variation or two.

Here’s the secret though.

Even if you’ve worked in this space for years, you have no idea how it’s going to work. You kinda do, but no guarantees in this game.

So relax. Use a system.

Digital Marketer’s Ad Grid is one of the best ‘frameworks’ to base your ad writing.

Image Source

We’re not going into tactics here. But we don’t have to. It’s all there in that article. One of the keepers to follow and rip off (or emulate).

Now, ad writing should be easy. The hooks and messaging are in place for each segment or persona. Obviously adapted depending on the industry you’re working in.

Let’s use an example from my friends, The Yes Girls.

You can try the ‘zen’ approach, simplifying the life of consumers so they don’t have to worry ‘bout a thing.

Or you can go the complete opposite route, focusing instead on helping people protect themselves from mistakes they’re making.

This gets even easier in some highly formulaic industries.

How to Create Nimble Marketing Processes that Can Adapt & Change On-the-Fly

Processes are mechanical. They’re routine. And they kinda suck to write.

But they’re the only way out.

Rising PPC star, Jonathan Dane, admitted to almost quitting three times in the first year after starting Klientboost.

Then they systematically improved parts of the business (heavily influenced by The E-Myth) and are now doing over $3 million a year (in only about three years).

Ok. So where to start.

Step #1. Reverse-Engineer a Step-by-Step Process You Intuitively Already Do on a Daily Basis

It’s tempting to org-chart the hell out of your biz, but it’ll only stress you out more. It’s too much. Too big of a chunk.

Take something small. Like PPC ad writing. Or blog content.

And from A to Z, list out the steps you already take. OR, the steps you’d like to take based on the excellent example you see somewhere online already. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

Here, I’ll even give you an internal example.

Step #2. Visually Map the ‘Transitions’ that Need to Take Place After Completing One Action Before Starting Another

Zooming into a specific step or activity helps you see how tired, boring-old processes can deliver the goods.

But the real benefit in comes when you see the transitions; how you go from completing one thing to starting the next.

Mind mapping can help you visualize how all of these pieces fit together. XMind is one, but certainly not the only, option.

Here’s another personal example of the customer journey, along with How and What and Who from our side will align with each step.

So peeps complete Steps 1, 2, and 3. Great. Then what?

Processes create systems. And the best systems are a collection of subsystems. I think I just plagiarized that from Work the System.

The point, though, is not to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Step #3. Make Processes Actionable & Accountable with Intuitive Tools that Reinforce the Actions You Want

Next step is to make this idea come to life. A Word doc is great… for getting lost on your hard drive somewhere.

But the next step is to use some tool – again, doesn’t matter which – to capture and manage and assign and enforce the system you just created.

Pipefy even has a few templates you can import to get started. Including, an SEM management one. How apropos.

The individual step (in the image above) can’t be completed until someone fills out each text box with an answer.

Which brings us to people.

Step #4. Processes Can Make Good People Better; Empowering Novices to Perform like Experts

Marketers live in a results-driven business. The pressure’s on.

One study says working in media is almost as stressful as flying a plane or cutting into people!

Image Source

Which means we usually have a short leash (and shorter temper) when it comes to those around us. If they can’t keep up, they’re not around long. #realtalk

Good people are hard to find. The ones who can read your thoughts and are already a step ahead.

People shouldn’t cause you to take more time out of your already busy schedule. They should add back chunks of time, while multiplying and leveraging your ability to execute.

But that’s only possible if they know exactly, step-by-step, what to do and why.

Conclusion

I hope this doesn’t come off as preachy. That wasn’t the intent.

I’ve personally wasted (and continue to waste) countless hours reading, instead of doing.

Chances are, you’re similar. You already know what it takes, or where to find it.

And there’s only so many hours in the day. You can’t possibly put in anymore.

So piling on another ‘hack’ to your already overflowing to-do list isn’t going to help.

Bookmark it. Save it in Evernote. Someday/Maybe it. And revisit it later.

For now, focus on improving your processes to get vastly more done in less time.

Execution dictates results. Not hacks.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.

0 notes

ericsburden-blog · 8 years ago

Text

No More Hacks: Why Tired, Old, Boring Processes Can Make You a Better Marketer

Israeli researchers studied 200 of the best ads in 1999.

These were the top finalists and award winners, like the infamous “This is Your Brain on Drugs” campaign from years ago.

The most surprising thing? They weren’t ‘creative’.

89% of them could be classified into six ‘templates’, which were classified in the excellent Made to Stick.

The point?

Ideas aren’t in short supply today. Execution is.

The reason results aren’t kicking in like you expect is NOT because you’re missing some mythical growth hack. It’s because you’re not executing on the basics right in front of your face.

Here’s why, along with a few examples to get started.

The Escalating Content Marketing Arms Race

A 500-word blog post used take an hour or two to complete.

Problem? Nobody writes 500 words anymore. At least, not if they want results.

You know what it takes to get on the first page of Google today? 1,890 words. Thanks, Skyscrapers.

That’s backed up by excellent research from Orbit Media, whose survey results show that the average blog post is 1054 words long (19% longer than in 2015).

Image Source

Which means, they take longer to write, too. Today’s average blog post takes 3 hours 16 minutes to write (26% increase over 2015).

Image Source

Buffer has been spending a minimum of three hours on each post for years now. And some savvy marketers admit that they spend half-to-a-full day on one blog post.

The bar is high.

And it keeps getting higher.

We haven’t even touched on the quantity: two million blog posts published each day. (And that was already a few years ago in 2015!)

Not seeing results from blogging?

How much time are you spending on each post?

When the brutal truth is that the only way out, is the one path in front of you.

It’s the most obvious, yet least exciting option.

Don’t look at what those Inbound & Growth Hackers posts say. Look at what they’re doing.

The depth. The insight (based on real-world experience). The multimedia. And then replicate it.

In today’s world, average doesn’t cut it. Only exceptional gets rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.

Trouble is, there ain’t anymore hours in the day.

How are you supposed to do it?

The AdWords Quality Score

Back in the old days, AdWords was more of a straight-forward auction.

That meant anyone could bid as much as they wanted on whichever keyphrases they chose in order to generate more results.

But that came at the expense of relevance for us consumers.

Now, the Google’s ain’t dumb. So they introduced a few tweaks to the system, including the Quality Score.

Today it’s an approximation for how your results should perform in aggregate. And one of the things it looks for, is message match.

That is, an alignment between:

What someone’s searching for

The ads they see (that you create)

And the landing page they visit upon clicking

Facebook’s got a similar metric, the Relevance Score, that says even a little boost in engagement (of 1%) is enough to deliver a 5% cost reduction!

Here’s the best news.

Quality Scores aren’t secret. Unlike Google’s organic algorithm, they tell you pretty much how it’s determined. Which means it should be a straightforward path to fixing.

You simply identify a few popular campaigns that are underperforming…

Image Source

Sure. There’s a little more involved. But that’s the basics. And just making those basic improvements can increase AdWords lead conversion rates 900% while also dropping Cost Per Conversions 99%.

Image Source

No tricks or hacks. Just execution.

Look.

It’s easy. All the information is out there in the open.

Take ad copy specifically.

Increase Ad Performance & Slash Your Time in Half by Systemizing Ad Copy Writing

These are a B– to write.

Only a few short characters. You’d think it’d be easy.

But you sit there and stare at a blank screen for twenty minutes before ever writing down a single headline variation or two.

Here’s the secret though.

Even if you’ve worked in this space for years, you have no idea how it’s going to work. You kinda do, but no guarantees in this game.

So relax. Use a system.

Digital Marketer’s Ad Grid is one of the best ‘frameworks’ to base your ad writing.

Image Source

We’re not going into tactics here. But we don’t have to. It’s all there in that article. One of the keepers to follow and rip off (or emulate).

Now, ad writing should be easy. The hooks and messaging are in place for each segment or persona. Obviously adapted depending on the industry you’re working in.

Let’s use an example from my friends, The Yes Girls.

You can try the ‘zen’ approach, simplifying the life of consumers so they don’t have to worry ‘bout a thing.

Or you can go the complete opposite route, focusing instead on helping people protect themselves from mistakes they’re making.

This gets even easier in some highly formulaic industries.

How to Create Nimble Marketing Processes that Can Adapt & Change On-the-Fly

Processes are mechanical. They’re routine. And they kinda suck to write.

But they’re the only way out.

Rising PPC star, Jonathan Dane, admitted to almost quitting three times in the first year after starting Klientboost.

Then they systematically improved parts of the business (heavily influenced by The E-Myth) and are now doing over $3 million a year (in only about three years).

Ok. So where to start.

Step #1. Reverse-Engineer a Step-by-Step Process You Intuitively Already Do on a Daily Basis

It’s tempting to org-chart the hell out of your biz, but it’ll only stress you out more. It’s too much. Too big of a chunk.

Take something small. Like PPC ad writing. Or blog content.

And from A to Z, list out the steps you already take. OR, the steps you’d like to take based on the excellent example you see somewhere online already. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

Here, I’ll even give you an internal example.

Step #2. Visually Map the ‘Transitions’ that Need to Take Place After Completing One Action Before Starting Another

Zooming into a specific step or activity helps you see how tired, boring-old processes can deliver the goods.

But the real benefit in comes when you see the transitions; how you go from completing one thing to starting the next.

Mind mapping can help you visualize how all of these pieces fit together. XMind is one, but certainly not the only, option.

Here’s another personal example of the customer journey, along with How and What and Who from our side will align with each step.

So peeps complete Steps 1, 2, and 3. Great. Then what?

Processes create systems. And the best systems are a collection of subsystems. I think I just plagiarized that from Work the System.

The point, though, is not to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Step #3. Make Processes Actionable & Accountable with Intuitive Tools that Reinforce the Actions You Want

Next step is to make this idea come to life. A Word doc is great… for getting lost on your harddrive somewhere.

But the next step is to use some tool – again, doesn’t matter which – to capture and manage and assign and enforce the system you just created.

Pipefy even has a few templates you can import to get started. Including, an SEM management one. How apropos.

The individual step (in the image above) can’t be completed until someone fills out each text box with an answer.

Which brings us to people.

Step #4. Processes Can Make Good People Better; Empowering Novices to Perform like Experts

Marketers live in a results-driven business. The pressure’s on.

One study says working in media is almost as stressful as flying a plane or cutting into people!

Image Source

Which means we usually have a short leash (and shorter temper) when it comes to those around us. If they can’t keep up, they’re not around long. #realtalk

Good people are hard to find. The ones who can read your thoughts and are already a step ahead.

These people should also be incredibly cheap in the grand scheme of things. Like, you can’t afford not too, cheap. That’s meant in a rational business-person, not insensitive, way. They’re an asset, not an expense.

People shouldn’t cause you to take more time out of your already busy schedule. They should add back chunks of time, while multiplying and leveraging your ability to execute.

But that’s only possible if they know exactly, step-by-step, what to do and why.

Conclusion

I hope this doesn’t come off as preachy. That wasn’t the intent.

I’ve personally wasted (and continue to waste) countless hours reading, instead of doing.

Chances are, you’re similar. You already know what it takes, or where to find it.

And there’s only so many hours in the day. You can’t possibly put in anymore.

So piling on another ‘hack’ to your already overflowing to-do list isn’t going to help.

Bookmark it. Save it in Evernote. Someday/Maybe it. And revisit it later.

For now, focus on improving your processes to get vastly more done in less time.

Execution dictates results. Not hacks.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.

No More Hacks: Why Tired, Old, Boring Processes Can Make You a Better Marketer

0 notes