I helped writer and influencer Ed Latimore completely overhaul his brand and online presence. The new messaging and strategy-informed design generated an explosive and sustained increase in product sales and newsletter opt-ins.

Services

• Brand Strategy
• Messaging
• Content Strategy
• Visual Identity
• Website Design

Outcomes:

email opt-in rate

4.9x

monthly sales increase

404%

ROI

441%

Finally defining a strategy

Ed has maintained an online presence through his writing and social media since 2015. Until recently, his growth was fueled mainly by three things:

1. Personal charisma
2. A compelling and unique life story
3. Prolificness

But he lacked a coherent strategy to really accelerate his success. His attention was scattered across many different projects, most of which were not really on-brand.

Worse: most people, including Ed himself, when asked why someone should follow him, struggled to come up with a succinct answer that wasn’t super generic.

His messaging lacked focus, because his strategy was unclear.

In a series of workshops, I helped Ed stake out a clear brand strategy that would differentiate him from other writers and influencers in the space.

Jon not only helped me realize what my unique advantages were compared to my competitors. He also put them into both words and a visual identity.

Ed Latimore, client

Compelling messaging across touchpoints

Once we had a sound strategy in place, we could work on clarifying and consolidating Ed’s brand messaging. Prior to this project, Ed lacked a convincing value proposition.

This was not only a problem because it made it difficult for Ed to explain his particular angle to book publishers and other potential partners. It also put a damper on word-of-mouth growth, as fans struggled to explain Ed’s content to their friends and family.

I developed messaging devices, social media profile descriptions, author bylines, and a value proposition for Ed. I also came up with the term “Stoic Street-Smarts” to encapsulate Ed’s unique perspective in a memorable tagline.

During this phase of the project, I also worked with Ed to define “content buckets”—categorizing his written content (and products) into five different buckets, meant to guide his content production and make his writing easier for readers to contextualize and discover.

The messaging kit is something I keep revisiting all the time. Jon took what I write about and made it relatable and adjusted the way we pitch it to the audience I’m speaking to. It’s been a lifesaver.

Ed Latimore, client

Visual identity

I designed a striking visual identity—including logo, colour palette, typographic treatment, and print applications.

The identity reflects Ed’s persona and the ethos of “stoic street-smarts”. It is bold and raw, yet refined and when appropriate even elegant.

Instagram strategy

Most of Ed’s audience comes from Twitter. That’s to be expected, seeing as Ed is mainly a writer. In the brand strategy phase, we identified Instagram as an important growth channel in the future.

I developed a conversion-driven Instagram strategy for Ed. The goal, going forward, would be to share Ed’s insights through typographic image carousels and drive traffic to Ed’s real money maker: his website. We also spoke a lot about the importance of maintaining a consistent aesthetic for the sake of keeping the “profile view” of his feed attractive to potential followers.

The Instagram design blew me away. It’s clear, it’s distinct. It’s exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. Also, when I switched over to the new IG strategy, my posts started generating more follows.

Ed Latimore, client

Website

A critical piece of the puzzle in this project was Ed’s website. The previous website was very popular, but failed in some important ways:

• It was severely under-monetized
• It was difficult for users to discover Ed’s older content
• It wasn’t properly aligned with a broader business strategy

We kicked off the website design phase by discussing and ruthlessly prioritising business objectives and user objectives. After careful deliberation, we settled on the following list of business objectives:

1. Grow newsletter
2. Sell books & courses
3. Book speaking engagements and podcast appearances

During the design of the website, we balanced these objectives with what we had identified as the main user objectives:

1. Discover top relevant content
2. Judge Ed’s credibility (for newcomers)
3. Take action

Before, when you came to the website, it wasn’t clear why you should be there or what the next steps were. This addresses all of that, and is something that instantly makes a great impression on anyone that comes across it.

Ed Latimore, client

Under the hood, I implemented major improvements to the website’s on-page SEO. I also optimised the hell out of the website, so much so that it now ranks among one of the fastest websites on earth according to Google. Since website performance is a ranking factor, this should further boost Ed in the search rankings.

So far, product sales are way up, the bounce rate is plummeting, time on site is up, and email signups have increased. Not only that, articles I haven’t seen get any views naturally are really lighting up. A lot of new eyes on old articles.

Ed Latimore, client

The outcomes

The work Ed and I did together has led to a direct (and passive) monthly sales lift of 404%, generating a 440% return on his investment in the first year. That is not counting the value of the increased press exposure, new brand deals and speaking engagements, or the long-term value of the 4.9x email signup conversion rate boost.

Wish this were you?

If you like the work I did with Ed, and want me to help you take your brand to the next level (whether you run a consulting firm, an ecommerce website, or a personal brand like Ed), don’t be afraid to reach out to me.

I can help you craft a compelling strategy and help you execute on it. Book a call with me through the Calendly form at the bottom of this page.