The
concepts
playbook

Showing two versions of a page, ad, email or offer to randomly split audiences at the same time, then letting the results decide which one wins.

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action: a model of how persuasive communication moves a reader, credited to E. St. Elmo Lewis in the late 1890s and still used to structure ads, pages and emails.

The first number or reference point a buyer sees sets the scale they judge everything after it against, even when that first number is arbitrary.

Igor Ansoff's 1957 grid of four growth paths based on new or existing customers and new or existing products: market penetration, market development, product development and diversification. Risk rises as you move away from what you already know.

People defer to credible experts and institutions. Signals of real expertise, credentials or endorsement lower the perceived risk of a decision.

The consistent personality a brand uses in words across every touchpoint: its vocabulary, tone, rhythm and point of view. Tone can flex by situation; the voice stays recognizably the same.

Les Binet and Peter Field's IPA research found long-term brand building and short-term activation work best together, with a rough average of 60% brand and 40% activation. The right ratio varies by category.

The sales volume or revenue at which total costs equal total revenue, so there is no profit or loss. Break-even units equal fixed costs divided by (price minus variable cost per unit).

The stages a customer moves through from first noticing a problem to buying and staying: Awareness, Consideration, Decision and Delight. Each stage needs different content, channels and measures.

How many months of gross margin it takes to earn back what you spent to acquire a customer. It measures how fast acquisition spend turns back into cash.

Defining and naming a new problem and market category, then positioning your company as its leader, rather than competing as one more option in an existing category.

The situations, needs and cues that put a buyer into a category in the first place. A term from Jenni Romaniuk's work at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute; brands grow by linking themselves to more of them.

Too many options can stall a decision. When buyers face a long list of similar choices, many put off deciding or choose nothing at all. Also called the paradox of choice.

Once people take a small, voluntary step, they tend to act consistently with it. A small yes makes the next, larger yes easier.

The total sales and marketing cost of winning one new customer: spend divided by new customers in the same period. Also written CoCA. Compared against LTV, it tells you whether growth is profitable.

The total profit a customer is expected to generate over the full relationship, not just the first sale. It sets the ceiling on what you can afford to pay to acquire them.

A research-based profile of an individual buyer: their role, goals, problems, objections, language and how they decide. Popularized by Alan Cooper in software design. Where an ICP defines which accounts fit, a persona defines the person you are talking to.

Adding a third option that is clearly worse than one of the others makes that better option look like the obvious choice. Also called asymmetric dominance.

The non-name cues that identify a brand on sight or sound: colors, shapes, characters, sounds, taglines and packaging. Used consistently over time, they make every exposure work harder.

People value something more once they feel they own it. Letting buyers hold, try, customize or build something before paying raises what it is worth to them.

The anxiety that others are enjoying rewarding experiences one is absent from; in marketing, content and offers are framed so the audience feels they'll miss a valuable or social opportunity if they don't act.

The same fact presented two different ways leads to different decisions. Whether a number is shown as a gain or a loss, a percent or a count, changes how it lands.

A self-reinforcing loop where each part of the business feeds the next, so momentum builds over time. Popularized by Jim Collins and famously sketched by Amazon.

An unconventional, low-budget approach that relies on creativity, surprise, and high-impact placement to earn outsized attention and word-of-mouth instead of paid media weight.

A written definition of the type of customer who gets the most value from what you sell and brings the most value back: firmographics or demographics, needs, triggers and disqualifiers.

Measuring how many sales a channel or campaign actually caused, by comparing a group that saw it against a similar group that did not. It separates credit from cause.

A framework, popularized by Clayton Christensen, that says customers 'hire' a product to make progress in a specific situation. Understand the job and you understand the real competition.

A seven-rung scale for how much ownership a team member, agency or client contact takes on a decision, from waiting for instructions to acting and reporting on an ongoing basis. Similar to David Marquet's Ladder of Leadership from Turn the Ship Around! Level 1: 'Tell me what to do.' Level 2: 'I think...' Level 3: 'I recommend...' Level 4: 'Request permission to...' Level 5: 'I intend to...' Level 6: 'I just did...' Level 7: 'I've been doing...'

The behavioral-economics finding (Kahneman & Tversky) that people feel a loss about twice as strongly as an equivalent gain — so framing offers around what's forfeited by not acting can outperform gain-framed messaging.

The rules used to assign credit for a conversion across the touchpoints that came before it: first touch, last touch, linear, position-based or data-driven models.

Theodore Levitt's 1960 Harvard Business Review idea that companies fail when they define themselves by the product they make rather than the customer need they serve.

The events and pain points that cause your target customers to start looking for a product or service like yours. Mapping triggers tells you when to show up and what to say.

How easily a brand comes to mind when a buyer is in a buying situation. Ehrenberg-Bass research, popularized in Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow, ties growth mainly to building it across many category buyers.

People tend to like things more simply because they have seen them before. Repeated, consistent exposure builds familiarity, and familiarity builds preference.

Kenichi Ohmae's strategic triangle from The Mind of the Strategist (1982): a strategy only works when it accounts for the Customer, the Competitors and the Corporation (your own strengths) at the same time.

People judge an experience mostly by how it felt at its most intense moment and at its end, not by the average of every moment.

Seth Godin's 1999 idea that marketing works better when people have agreed to receive it. Earn the right to message someone with value, then keep that permission by staying relevant.

The attributes or benefits customers strongly associate with a brand, value, and believe they could not get to the same degree from a competitor. The counterpart to points of parity in Keller's positioning framework.

The features or benefits a brand must match to be considered a credible option in its category at all. From Kevin Lane Keller's brand positioning work: they don't win the sale, but missing one loses it.

Deciding the specific place your brand holds in the buyer's mind relative to the alternatives: who it is for, what it does for them and why it beats the other options.

Marketing that runs ahead of a rollout or release to warm up the market, so demand is already waiting on launch day. 'Coming soon' teasers, waitlists, previews and early access build awareness and anticipation before the product is available.

A copywriting formula that names the reader's problem, sharpens what it is costing them, then presents the solution. It works because people act to stop pain faster than to chase gain.

A go-to-market model where the product itself drives acquisition, conversion and expansion, usually through a free tier or trial, self-serve signup and built-in sharing.

Copy that gives the buyer concrete reasons to believe and buy, not just claims. Championed by John E. Kennedy and Claude Hopkins at Lord & Thomas in the early 1900s.

People feel a strong pull to return a favor. Giving something genuinely useful first makes the audience more open to giving something back: attention, an email, a meeting, a purchase.

Revenue attributed to advertising divided by ad spend. A 4x ROAS means $4 in revenue for every $1 spent. It measures ad efficiency, not profit.

The profit an investment returns relative to its cost: (gain minus cost) divided by cost. In marketing, it should use margin or profit, not revenue, and include all costs, not just media.

Tactics that raise perceived value and prompt action by signaling limited supply (scarcity) or limited time (urgency), drawing on loss aversion and the fear of missing the window.

Eugene Schwartz's model from Breakthrough Advertising (1966): prospects are Unaware, Problem Aware, Solution Aware, Product Aware or Most Aware, and the headline and copy must start where the reader already is.

Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. The acronym traces to George T. Doran's 1981 Management Review article.

The tendency to look to others' actions and opinions to guide our own — so showing that others trust, buy, or endorse something makes new audiences more likely to follow (Cialdini's principle of social proof).

A planning grid that lists internal Strengths and Weaknesses alongside external Opportunities and Threats, used to take stock before choosing a direction.

A single, specific benefit a competitor cannot or does not claim, stated so plainly it can carry an entire campaign. Formalized by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company in the 1950s.

A sequence of offers that rise in price and commitment, from a free or low-cost entry point up to a premium service, so customers can start small and climb as trust grows.