Writing your own copy? Here are 3 things to consider.

Writing your own copy? Here are 3 things to consider.

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

In the competition between quantity vs. quality – quality wins every time.

 “In years past, a copywriter was someone who wrote ad copy to sell a product or service. Today, customers want education, inspiration and satisfaction.” – Neil Patel

 In the 1970s, CBS News reported that the average American saw between 500-1,600 advertisements each day.

Thirty-some years later, the Yankelovich marketing research firm estimated the average person then saw 5,000 ads per day.

In 2017, according to Forbes, the average American was exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements every day. And that number is likely only increasing with the evolution of technology and the passage of time.

What that means as a collective, is that we are becoming savvier about what ads we ignore and screen out of our awareness, and what ads we pay attention to. And our children are even more discerning, at even younger ages than we. We are much pickier about what we will give our attention to.

To capture the attention of your audience, your copy shouldn’t sound just like everyone else’s. We’ve seen it all and are easily bored. You must put in the work to get anything out of your copy.

Clarity is your friend.

 “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” – Dr. Suess

 Your audience has other things to do besides reading advertisements and ad copy.  Before they give you their time to consider your offer, you have to provide them with a reason to read in the first place.

You need to know what you want to say. Good copy uses specific language with clear, concrete details. Your content should have purpose and direction and contain all the critical information required.

Remember that unnecessary words can dilute your message, or worse, lead to confusion. The easier your content is to read, the easier it is to be understood and acted upon.

Authenticity and resonance are kings.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” – Ernest Hemingway

Copywriting is the art of persuasion through the written word, compelling an audience to take action.  Persuasion is mostly a matter of education and building trust. When you write like a robot and use dry, uninteresting content, it’s difficult to build trust.

Nobody enjoys boring, stale content they can’t connect with.  “You don’t get me or my life!” Nor do they enjoy reading material that seems to be written by a machine.

Human beings are naturally wired to desire connection with other humans. No reader can be forced to consume content they don’t want to consume.

Take the time to put humanity, feeling, and personality into your copy. Your copy should add something positive to your audience’s experience, evoke emotions, and create a connection.

It takes experienced copywriters years to master their craft, but you can easily improve your copy by keeping these points in mind as you write.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Attending To Marketing

Attending To Marketing

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

“The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.” – Seth Godin 

While they do go hand in hand, marketing is not sales, and sales is not marketing. For your business to be successful at making sales, marketing is crucial.

Too often, small businesses focus on the sales aspect of their business but spend inadequate focus and resources on their marketing. They may consider marketing to be an expendable entity, or an afterthought when revenue seems good. With such anemic marketing efforts, businesses that don’t take their marketing seriously can hardly expect to reap many rewards.

Marketing isn’t just key to your business success–it’s a responsibility. It’s a vital vehicle for developing and maintaining long-lasting relationships with your customers. During your busiest times, during your most uncertain times, schedule and keep a regular chunk of time set aside exclusively for studying your audience, discovering opportunities, and future market planning.

What should go into your marketing budget? 

Here are some of the most common marketing expenses (depending on your industry) that you’ll need to include in your business’ marketing budget:

  • Website (design, security, hosting, and maintenance)
  • Newsletters
  • Email marketing services (Aweber, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, ConstantContact, etc.)
  • Social media management services (i.e., companies that manage your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts, etc.)
  • Online advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media ads, Google Adwords, LinkedIn ads, geotargeting, Yelp ads, etc.)
  • Online directories that you pay for (depending on your industry)
  • Network referral memberships, public relations
  • Referral and Affiliate programs (perks or pay offered to customers or affiliates who refer your business)
  • Business cards (including design)
  • Birthday and holiday cards
  • Promotional materials on the business premises (posters, sales signs, educational material, sound system announcements, pamphlets, etc.)
  • Direct mail (postcards, letters, etc. – including design, printing, and postage)
  • Traditional Advertising (including phone books, TV, radio, billboards, etc.)
  • Appointment reminder services
  • Booths at local events, (home shows, open house, art fairs, city events, etc.)
  • Sponsorships
  • Welcome bags or “goodie bags”
  • Branded promotional “swag” (t-shirts, pens, hats, mugs, etc. with your logo or other marketing on it)
  • Raffles, prizes, or giveaways

How much should a small business budget for marketing?

It’s a mistake to base your marketing budget on just whatever is left over once all other business expenses are covered. Instead, the investment should be a percentage of your company’s gross income set aside every month. What the percentage should be can vary depending on the industry.

Both the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Entrepreneur.com agree that companies that have been in business for five years or less need to invest more funds into their marketing budget than established companies that have been in business longer. 10 to 20 percent of your gross (or projected) revenue if you are ramping up a new business and 6 to 12 percent for more established companies. For slim operations, no less than 3 percent is recommended.1

A healthy marketing budget is one that balances short-term and long-term needs. Focus on creating a calculated, focused marketing strategy for your brand that invests your money wisely.

1 U.S. Small Business Administration, 2013. (https://www.sba.gov/taxonomy/term/15051?page=37)

Entrepreneur.com, 2015 (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243790)

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Create Magnetic Calls To Action Using A Personalized Touch

Create Magnetic Calls To Action Using A Personalized Touch

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

A “Call To Action,” a.k.a. a CTA, is a specific image, element, or phrase on a webpage that guides a visitor to take a specific action.

The purpose of a good CTA is to catch the attention of potential leads and existing customers and guide them towards taking a specific action. Hence the term “call to action.”

If you think of a visitor who is visiting your website as someone who is taking a road trip, the calls to action on your website act as traffic signs along a highway. These signs are there to guide the user to the right onramps and exits that help them to reach their final destination.

Calls to action help the user find their way and navigate through your website, sales funnels, ordering process, etc. by telling them what to do. Most simply, good CTAs provide direction and drive conversions.

Typical calls to action are often recognized as webpage buttons with short quips stating something like “Buy Now,” “Join Now,” “Click Here!” and the like.

However, a good call to action should highlight the benefit that the user will gain by taking action.

A case study cited by Unbounce demonstrated that swapping out a single action verb, “Get information” vs. “Order information,” resulted in a conversion rate increase of an impressive 38.26%. The verb “get” helped users to see how they would benefit, whereas the verb “order” simply gave them a task to complete.

Words mean things, and being selective with your language and vocabulary can make or break the final desired outcome. Strong action verbs are essential to the overall picture.

While short, two-word CTAs can be useful, even sometimes important, they can also be rather nebulous and boring. A website full of only this kind of call to action will get old fast.

The most effective call to action phrases will be more interesting, personalized, and will speak directly to the user. Good CTAs use strong action verbs and give your visitors a reason to take the desired action.

Which would you find more attractive and likely to drive conversion? “Join here,” or something more creative and personal like, “Discover the tribe that has been waiting for you!” A “click here” button, or “Get my playbook if you want to be better at copywriting.” Which one is better at telling the user where they are going and why?

Hopefully, these examples will inspire you to evaluate your current CTAs and start optimizing.

Focus on:

  • Writing compelling, engaging copy
  • Prioritize the action verbs you use
  • And place your CTAs on your website strategically

Following these tips will help motivate your audience to take action.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
It’s Not About You…

It’s Not About You…

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

“Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.” – Stanley Marcus

What are you focused on? Your benefit, or your customer’s?

Whether business-to-business or business-to-consumer, it’s essential to interact with the real world of your customer. Get to know their challenges. Get to know their prospects. The moment your focus is self-centered is the moment you begin to lose your capacity to serve your customer.

According to a McKinsey survey, 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.

Marketing is not just about advertising—It’s about listening to your customer, tuning in to their responses, and developing more profound insights into your client’s behaviors, needs, and aspirations. It’s about finding better ways to help your customer and deliver results.

Keep your friends.

Instead of preparing for what you will sell and what you will say next, pay attention to what your client is saying and be a steward for their ideas. Be conscious of your next encounter. Don’t assume you know best – let your customer tell you.

When you partner with clients to design and deliver the solutions they want, you can nurture a growing relationship with a loyal audience who welcomes your increasing success.

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, loyal customers are worth, on average, up to 10x as much as their first purchase. Paying attention to your customers’ needs is more than just a feel-good methodology. It has the power to increase customer loyalty and reduce your marketing costs while driving engagement and profits.

Active listening improves strategy and magnifies results.

When you’ve taken the time to get to know your clients better and understand their point of view, you clarify efforts and reap more focused results.

Your marketing efforts must be relevant and up to date. Your audience won’t trust you if you don’t speak their language. Develop a strategic marketing plan, so you don’t waste money advertising the wrong message in the wrong place to the wrong audience.

To improve insights, smart marketers glean from consumer feedback, interactions, and experiences. Excellent listening and observational skills contribute to better quality marketing— and better marketing leads to improved relationships with customers. ­­ 

Serve your people. Solve their problems. 

There are few things more valuable than trust. It’s not enough to just get your product out there: focus on making real connections and developing deeper relationships. Trust takes time to build.  Understanding the needs of your clients will go far to help you create win-win relationships that lead to mutual success.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Marketing During Times of Uncertainty

Marketing During Times of Uncertainty

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

 “When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you MUST advertise.”
– Association of Business Information Companies 1

Unless you sell facemasks, hand sanitizer, or toilet paper, you may be concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on your small business. During uncertain times, many small companies become discouraged by a sudden drop in revenue and start eyeing their marketing budget to reduce expenses. However, this is precisely what businesses should not do.

If you stop marketing now, you risk becoming invisible.

Businesses need to maintain an image of stability and connection with their customers to survive uncertain times.

McGraw Hill Research’s Laboratory of Advertising Performance (LAP) conducted a study on marketing during recessionary periods. They discovered that firms that maintained or increased their advertising budgets during a recession “could boast an average sales growth of 275 percent over the preceding five years.” 2

It may seem counterintuitive to spend resources on marketing when the world feels in chaos. Still, it has been studied and proven time and again through many national and international events: businesses that continue to market and advertise through tough times, and times of uncertainty, will be stronger than those that don’t.

In fact, businesses that continue to market outpace those that don’t.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, The Clark Company published this bit of historical advice:

“In the 1920’s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. After World War II, Buchen Advertising, Inc. decided to plot the sales of a large number of advertisers through successive recessions. In 1947, it began measuring the annual advertising expenditures of each company. When they correlated the figures with sales and profit trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising. Their studies also revealed that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to lag behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets.” 3

 Your customers need to hear from you.

Marketing is a crucial investment that should be a continuous part of every business strategy. It may need to pivot and refocus, based on circumstances, but it should never be cut down or worse, cut out.

By not advertising, businesses lose momentum, which is hard to pick up once the downturn passes. Just as wise investing in the stock marketing never involves buying high and selling low, abandoning your marketing efforts when you need them most doesn’t make good business sense.

Be the oak in the storm.

While other businesses will play it safe and hide, strong businesses are bold. Reliable companies display confidence; they know how to be flexible for their customers, and they know how important it is to be seen. As a result, their return on marketing expenditure will be amplified after making their voice heard when many went silent.

“All great enterprises move forward in a recession, and the weaklings move backward.
The dumbbells cut back on advertising. Smart people don’t.” – Ed McCabe, founding partner of Scali, McCabe, Stoves Advertising Agency

 1 American Business Media 2008– “The Importance & Value of B2B Advertising During Times of Economic Uncertainty.”

2 McGraw Hill Research Laboratory of Advertising Performance (LAP), 1985

3 The Clark Company, 2001 (http://www.clarkadspr.com/jobarticles/111501.html)


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
The Key to Dwayne Johnson’s Success

The Key to Dwayne Johnson’s Success

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

How can you get noticed…by a lot of people?

Ask Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

He currently has about 176 million followers on Instagram alone. That’s more than the combined populations of France, Spain and Italy! If The Rock were a nation, it would be populous indeed!

How has this man become a megastar? How did the troubled son of a family struggling at near poverty become one of the world’s most recognizable and beloved people?

What does Dwayne Johnson do better than anyone else in his league?

There are better actors; bigger, stronger action heroes. Dwayne’s movies and his agents are certainly intrinsic to his success, but what made him surge—in the words of author, Jim Collins—from good to great?

Quite possibly, the number one key to Dwayne’s meteoric rise is not that he says, “Look at me!” but because he says, “Look at me looking at you!” He knows that the love of his fans is the key to his career, and he’s a master at being loveable, approachable, a gentle giant. And he means it—he’s a genuinely caring human being from humble roots, and this inspires him to constantly put his fans into the limelight. He knows where he came from.

It is not hard for people to feel like he’s someone they’d love to hang out with. He’s likable; he’s genuine; he’s us, but with more muscles and “the smolder.”

He has not forgotten his roots, or the people on whose shoulders he rides. In sharing their stories, and relating them to his own, he adds to his own ever-growing popularity as a bigger-than-life symbol of us.

As Roy H. Williams, the “Wizard of Ads” says, “Bad advertising is about you and your product. Good advertising is about your customer and their life.” The same goes for publicity, brand building and everything else about your business.

When you’re planning your brand messaging, avoid the temptation to say, “Look at ME!” Instead, focus the attention on your audience—tell their stories speak to them in terms they can relate to. To GET attention, GIVE attention!

Take it from the Rock himself: “If you check your ego at the door…you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.”


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales