The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

Today’s Issue

Choose Your Adventure 🏹

Are custom algos the future?

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The Boron Letters

We just talked about copywriting, so today’s tool is fitting.

If you wanna get better at copywriting, you need to read ‘The Boron Letters’ by Gary Halbert. The letters were written from prison by famous copywriter, Gary Halbert to his son.

Do yourself a favor and print them out. Yes, actually print them out and take notes.

By the way, they’re free.

Instant Feedback

We haven’t had the chance to use this yet, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

Maybe you need some instant feedback or you want to run a poll. Enter VideoAsk by Typeform.

This widget allows you to answer customer questions and feedback on the fly through a quick video recording. Hit that ‘try now’ button for a quick demo.

Mock It

Here’s a sweet lil’ tool for ya.

It’s called ‘Mock,’ and it allows you to instantly create video mockups from screen recordings by wrapping your recording in a device image. We gave it a whirl and it took less than 5 minutes to receive our mocked video.

There’s a free and paid version available. We’re big fans.

The OGs

We’re gonna be honest with you…

Today’s tool is a straight-up distraction, but it’s pretty sweet. It’s Monday folks. Lower your expectations.

First Tweets shows you the first ever Tweets in History. It’s that simple.

Twitter has come a long way since 2006.

Clarify Your Message

We’re mixing it up with a book recommendation today. This book has been around for a minute, but it’s a solid read.

If you’re looking for a straightforward framework on how to clarify your brand message, check out ‘Building a Story Brand.’

Speed it Up

We’re gonna assume you read the above section. Here’s a quick way to see how fast your site really is.

All you have to do is type your domain in. Thanks Google.

What we like: It gives you a quick overview of your site speed and recommends fixes.

What we don’t like: n/a

Can You Sign This?

Need a downloadable e-signature in less than 30 seconds?

Here’s your tool: Docsketch.

What we like: It’s free and exports as a .png.

What we don’t like: A stylus doesn’t pop through the screen.

Is it Readable?

Picture this.

It’s Sunday night, daylight savings kicked in and you’re exhausted, but…

you need to get an email out to your favorite people (ya, we’re talking about you).

Enter Hemingway App. This beneficial web-based application makes your writing bold and clear by checking your grammar and ranking readability.

What we like: Simple and intuitive to use. It helps you communicate better.

What we don’t like: No complaints.

Let’s Get Creepy

Do you know how people are interacting with your website? Where are they clicking? How long are they spending on the site? You get the point.

Sure, you can use Google Analytics for that data, but sometimes it’s better to actually see it.

Enter Hotjar. This amazing tool helps you eliminate guesswork with recordings of visitors on your website. You can see where they click, how they navigate their mouse and where they get held up at.

There are a ton of features including tagging, polls, conversion funnels and more.

What we like: It’s overwhelmingly awesome. The pricing is on point.

What we don’t like: n/a