They want you to be the one, marketing is still sexist & copy resource of the week

Hello, my friend. Welcome to Issue #3 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

Here’s what’s on deck in today’s edition:

· They want you to be the one: a helpful marketing mindset shift

· Yes, Marketing is Still Sexist

· Copy Resource of the Week: Headline Analyzer

They Want You to Be the One

This blog post shares a lesson I learned a very long time ago and have never forgotten, and that is, “they want you to be the one.”

If you ever feel afraid of marketing yourself online or actively trying to sell your products or services because you’re worried about seeming pushy, intrusive or “salesy,” this mindset shift will help.

They want you to be the one (so stop being afraid to market yourself)

(I wrote this post TEN years ago, ten!! But I think it still holds up.)

Yes, Marketing Is Still Sexist

This August 2021 New York Times article shares some infuriating statistics, among them:

“Between 1980 and 2010, women in commercials were shown in workplace settings only 4 percent of the time; frequently they were shown in kitchens, waxing poetic about the products they were selling.”

And if you’re thinking, “Surely things have improved since 2010,” well, not so much.

In their book, Brandsplaining: Why Marketing is (Still) Sexist And How To Fix It, Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts write that, “The majority of brands still speak to women from a male perspective, explaining to them what they are and telling them what they can be.”

YIKES.

Read the interview with authors Cunningham and Roberts here:

Yes, Marketing Is Still Sexist

Despite women’s progress in many parts of society, advertisements still consistently cast women as secondary.

Copy Resource of the Week

If you do any kind of writing online – and if you’re reading this, I suspect you do – then you know how critically important compelling headlines are to everything you write.

But only if you want folks to read your articles/blog posts/landing pages/sales pages, and so on. 😊

I’ve played around with many a headline analyzer over the years, but this one is a new favorite:

The Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

You simply enter a headline, then you’re given an overall Headline Quality Score, an Engagement Score, and an Impression Score.

You’ll also receive feedback on your headline’s strengths, along with a few suggestions for improving it.

For example, when I entered the headline:

How to write an email that sells

I was given a Headline Quality Score of 71, Above Average, an Engagement Score of 73, Above Average, and an Impression Score of 41, Below Average.

Ouch!

Now, when I changed the headline to:

The Taylor Swift Guide to writing emails that sell

My scores improved to:

Headline Quality Score: 93, Above Average

Engagement Score: 99, Above Average

Impression Score: 74, Above Average

Much better!

It’s a handy tool. And fun – in fact, I was having so much fun with it, I had to tear myself away so I could move on to other things.

But that could just be because I’m a language and copywriting nerd.

And that’s all for this week, folks.

Be well. Stay curious. See you again on November 19.

Warmly,

Kimberly