Category: Blogs

  • This is why your funny videos aren’t making you money!

    If you’ve been browsing social media lately (of course you have, you potato), chances are, you’ve seen a handful of businesses trying desperately to be funny. 

    (Just like that potato joke I made)

    From small cafes borrowing punchlines from other cafes, to marketers creating skits they saw from other marketers.

    Now, some of them hit the jackpot.

    It went viral… made sales.

    But did you know almost NONE of that jackpot comes from the joke? It’s true. Most successful businesses don’t even need post 3 funny reels and 58 stories a day.

    What hits the jackpot comes from them putting salt in the market’s wound and telling them how they can cure it. 

    Simple.

    That’s why I don’t know how this make-jokes-all-day krap started.

    Although I can picture the meeting where some well-meaning genius raised their hand and said, 

    “Sir, what if you do this skit with the team? Para maging relatable yung brand.” 

    Or maybe it was the young, eager intern who pitched,

    “Bro, we gotta hop on this trend! Brand awareness yan!”

    Then the biz owner was like…  

    😲👍

    So what’s this got to do with you? 

    Well, I can hear you thinking about doing a trending dance for your biz because the ghost month has hit you hard. So I’m here to save your eass for the sake of your grandkids and dogs.

    You’re welcome.

    Now let’s be clear.

    This relentless pursuit of being “funny” is a trap. 

    If you’re a comedy club, knock yourself out. If you’re a food influencer who gets paid to eat a 6,000-calorie breakfast, by all means, lead the way. Your business model is entertainment.

    But if you’re not? 

    If you sell coaching services, or you own a fitness studio, a hobby shop, or a simple karaoke hub?

    Your job isn’t to rack up claps and dopamine likes. 

    You’re here to solve a problem.

    And this is not me being a tito who hadn’t drank his morning coffee yet.

    I LOVE stupid-funny stuff. I dreamt of having dinner with Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien and even Babalou since I started watching them. (Fun fact: Conan and I have the same birthday)

    Anyway.

    The point of all this is to tell you this cold, unsexy truth…

    If you want sales, sell.

    The real reason a customer gives you their hard-earned money isn’t because you made them chuckle once or twice. 

    They pay you because you make them less hungry, less confused, less stuck. 

    The market has a tangible problem, and you have the specific answer. That is the core transaction.

    “So do we have to get serious all the time?”

    No, god, no. Dayum. That’s a sad world you’re mentioning.

    Just think of entertainment as the sugar, not the medicine. The lemon, not the tequila(?).

    Instead of spending hours trying to go viral on TikTok, what if you spent that time talking to the market and learning their woes? 

    And then that’s what you put on the content you create.

    Because that’s what makes your brand relatable. They have to know that you know them. Like you’re a tita that brings all the goods. 

    This is why these kinds of ad materials are money-makers:

    • Advertorials that made them realize there’s an answer to their pain
    • Video Sales Letters that talk to them like they know them
    • Emails that make you their friend from afar

    They don’t get a million views and a thousand likes.

    They’re not inherently flashy. 

    But it does something far more important: it builds trust and demonstrates competence.

    So, by all means, sprinkle in some personality. Be human. But don’t ever forget what you’re really here to do…

    SELL.

    And for me, I’m here to make you curious about what I do.

    So… Did I do it right, or do you want me to dance? 

    Go here: https://johnrillemanalo.com

  • How I’ll Use Email Marketing to Make a Small Business in a Saturated Market Profitable

    I wanna make a real-life case study of how my email copy chops work on a small business… so I’ll co-found a cookie biz in Manila.

    Here’s the story:

    My girlfriend started a cookie biz during the pandemic (but was also put to a halt after the series of lockdowns). She sold it on Facebook and IG, but we both have no idea how to run social media marketing.

    So as a direct-response marketer, I suggested we focus on Facebook Marketplace. (Right after selling to friends and fam).

    It turned out to be a good decision.

    I was a complete rookie in the copy game that time, but I stuck with a few old-school principles.

    • Know who you’re selling to
    • Emphasize what sets you apart from the crowd
    • Give proof of your claim
    • Give social proof
    • Add a touch of personality

    Surprise, surprise, sales went up. We even managed to add a few pastries to the menu.

    If life didn’t get in our way, who knows what could have happened to that biz…

    Well…

    We’ll find out because we’re a couple of steps away in (re)launching that same biz.

    It’s a highly saturated market, especially with the rise of Tiktok marketplace or whatever that’s trending right now. And yes, we still don’t have the guts to slave away from the social media marketing grind.

    So the plan is:

    1. Start building a list of people who want that sweet little piece of heaven that she bakes (COOKIES). We’re doing this by tapping old customers, letting friends take part in the taste-testing process in exchange for their emails, tapping our pseudo-influencer circle, plugging the biz on my other email lists, and eventually, paid ads.
    2. Make a simple opt-in bribe to entice cold traffic on her list. We’re leaning heavily on a simple discount-on-first-order tactic, but we’re open to more ideas. A few on the list are free shipping coupons, curiosity/FOMO heavy stories, digital goodies, or I don’t know, maybe prayer intentions.
    3. Create a sales page/product page that focuses on word-painting to make the readers drool over the cookies. We’re selling consumer goods, and consumer goods need to have this veil of awesomeness that sets them apart from similar products. (A good example of this is the brand Last Crumb.)
    4. But we won’t just paint the cookies. We’re going to paint a world. And we’ll do it via email. This is where all the fun and selling will happen. Every single email has 2 goals: entertain and sell.
    5. Figure out a back-end offer. Now, this is a must-have. The front-end offer is the cookies. Once people are on the list, we’ll sell premium offers that only they, as a part of the list, can enjoy. But we won’t talk about the specifics here. List members only.

    Pretty simple, right?

    This is pretty much just an upgrade on what we did on our first try. We just have a few new tools to use and a whole lot of marketing experience.

    But basically, the strategy this time is STILL to stick to what we know and what we enjoy doing.

    We just have to do the work and follow the proven principles.

    Have any questions about what I do in the copywriting realm? Go here: https://johnrillemanalo.com/