 Great photo by Meta AI. Here at Copel Communications, we discount our services for our clients quite often. We’ll explain why in a minute; the important thing for you to take away from this article, is how you can, and should, structure things like discounts for maximum effect and client retention.
And isn’t a “100% Discount” the exact same thing as “No Charge”? Short answer: No. Just the other day, we were tasked with writing a B2B video script for a client. The video was to be produced and posted on YouTube for our client’s target audience. So far, so straightforward. But here’s the wrinkle: As we started to organize our input for this project, we discovered that we had already written an internal, never-to-be-seen-by-the-public, private video which our client had shown to their client’s Executive Leadership Team as a proof-of-concept demo. We’d done this over a year ago, so it wasn’t top-of-mind when the new request crossed our desk. So now the assignment has effectively changed. It’s not “Write a script from scratch.” It’s more like “Adapt a private client script to an anonymized public-facing one, intended for a broader audience.” You don’t need to be a script writer to know that that’s less work than creating a script from scratch. Now to the crux of this article: How do you invoice for a project like the one we just described? Let’s say, just for argument’s sake, that the effort was really simple, as in search-and-replace “ABC Client” with “Our Anonymized Client.” If that’s the case, we would be stupid to actually charge our client for typing Command-Shift-H in Word. Still, the new script is a valuable product. It’s worth X dollars. And that’s the way to invoice it. You need to list it as a line item, with all its attributes; in our case, it was something like:
And then list it, as a line item, at full price. Call it what you will: MSRP. Rack rate. Whatever. Then, on the next line of the invoice, simply list “Discount,” and explain why. In this case, it would be something like:
And then, in the “Price” column, subtract the amount you deem appropriate. If it’s the search-and-replace example we’d described above, the “X dollars” for the price of the script would be followed by “Minus X dollars” for the amount of the discount, effectively zeroing it out. There’s a phrase from the advertising world which applies here. It’s “perceived value.” That script—even the search-and-replace version—is worth something. If you don’t clearly show your client, at invoice time, what that value is, then why would they ever be motivated to pay your discounted rate, let alone full price? There are some times when “N/C” (“No Charge”) does apply. We’ll use that for little “favor” items we’ll do in the course of a month, which are too small to actually bill for: in our case, it’s typically anything worth less than $100. Those will be “N/C,” and just tacked onto the invoice as a reminder, as in “Hey… remember that little thing we did for you two weeks back? Consider it a favor.” Counterintuitively, we love giving our clients discounts here at Copel Communications. We do it whenever it’s appropriate. It builds goodwill. It aids retention. But heck, it just feels good. Want to join our client roster and experience the flip-side of all we just discussed? Contact us for a say-hello call today.
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 Great photo by Grok. That’s a teaser headline for you. Our esteemed client, here at Copel Communications, did not explicitly tell us:
“Hey, Copel Communications. Go invent the wheel for us.” But what did they ask us? What’s it got to do with wheels? And as ever, most importantly, how can this help you be more productive and make more money? Here’s what actually happened: A client of ours wanted us to get them booked for speaking engagements. They weren’t a big A-List celebrity who could simply choose from a passel of drooling speakers-bureau agencies. No, they needed to post their services on a speakers’ exchange platform: effectively a two-door website, with one door for “Speakers Who Want To Get Bookings,” and another for “Event Planners Who Need Speakers.” Get it? We’ve done a lot of different things here at Copel Communications over the years, but creating the proper package for a speaker on an exchange platform was new to us. Undaunted, we plunged in. But how? You could certainly Google this. And you can ChatGPT it, too. But those would effectively give you summaries and to-do lists, which are fine, but not what we wanted. So we reverse-engineered the process. We pretended to be an Event Planner, seeking a speaker just like our client. Ta-dah! What we got was a manageable number—a few dozen—hits on this exchange platform. And then we were free to see the promotional packages that those speakers had uploaded to the site. That is, “the wheel.” Here’s the thing. Don’t assume—we sure didn’t—that those other speakers’ materials would be stellar. Most weren’t. Many, in fact, sucked. Which was actually great for us, for two reasons: 1) If they suck, they’ll be weak competitors, and make our client look even better. 2) We could easily see the weaknesses in their materials—as well as the less-egregious weaknesses of their stronger competitors—and effectively outdo them at every turn. Which is exactly what we did. In fairly short order, we were able to create a package for our client (including bio, sizzle reel, programs catalog, on-stage headshot, technical presentation rider, etc.) that blew away every one of those few-dozen competitors. Just like that. Best-practice. Best-in-class. Zero Googling. The lesson here is that this “wheel” had already been invented. Lucky for us—and our client—that competitors’ “wheels” were burdened with flat tires, to play out the analogy. At its heart, this is a lesson in creative reverse-engineering. There are others. For example, if you’ve got a client you’d like to clone, look at their LinkedIn profile. See what groups they belong to, and join them. You’ll quickly find peers who are worth engaging. Need help with a creative marketing challenge? Contact us. We’d be delighted to help.  Great photo by Grok. There are a surprising number of businesses today that could benefit from a “two-door” website, yet they have only one “door.”
Is your business one of them? And, more pointedly, what on earth are we talking about? In this article, we’ll explain what we mean by a “two-door website,” and you’ll quickly see if your business could, and should, use one. A simple analogy A door is an entrance. A way in. Right now, the typical website has a big front door: The home page. That’s fine, if your prospects are homogenous. But often, they’re not. Your one business may well serve two target audiences, at the same time, without conflict. But you want each side to have their own personalized experience. Thus the two-door website. Basically, it’s a very simple home page. Imagine, above the fold, your logo, and beneath the above-the-fold headline that says what you’re great at, there are two big clickable tiles: one for Audience A, and the other for Audience B. Ta-dah. A two-door website. Once you start thinking about these, you’ll come up with lots of examples. Here are some we created for clients of ours:
And there are also lots of other sites that operate the same way:
Play by the rules When you create a two-door site, bear in mind that anyone can visit either side, or “peek over the wall” between them. So you must be respectful. You can’t appeal to hiring managers that you’re low-cost on one side, and then boast to job seekers that you can get them massive bonuses on the other. Be discreet. Be careful. Review each side, prior to publishing, through the “lens” of the opposite side. You’ll quickly see any glaring errors to omit. And help the viewer along. Simplest technique: Color-coding. Give one door’s side a blue theme, and the other door’s side a red theme, for example. If a visitor accidentally clicks the wrong link, they’ll know (and they won’t be offended by anything they see on the “wrong” page, thanks to your prior diligence). Two-door sites can be super effective. And they’re nice and clean, since you’re not trying to be all things to all people. You get a very un-cluttered home page. Each visitor gets a super-tailored experience. And yes, you can have a three-door site, too. It all depends on your situation. Need help with a two-door site, or any other marketing challenge? Reach out to us. We’d be delighted to help.  Great photo by Meta AI. Pay attention. This is a good one.
It’s based on a true story which we’ll naturally anonymize, but let the lessons-learned shine through bright and clear. Because you can apply them, easily. And make more money, doing so. A persistent business-development problem is the search for new leads. An equally persistent biz-dev truth is that ice-cold leads are the hardest to reach. Whereas upsells, cross-sells, and especially referrals represent the lowest-hanging fruit. Ignore that low-hanging fruit at your peril. But you knew that. Right? Not so fast. Imagine “the tree of invisible fruit.” It’s growing right in your backyard. Allow us to explain. Not too long ago, we needed to find a new vendor—let’s say it’s a graphic artist—for one of our clients. There are many ways to do this. You can search on gig platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. Heck, you can check reviews on Yelp. But there’s an interesting parallel here to the biz-dev challenge we’d just described. Doing an ice-cold search on, say, Fiverr can certainly yield good results. But it takes a lot of work and time, and you need to trust the reviews posted by the graphic artists themselves. Finding ice-cold vendors is just like finding ice-cold biz-dev leads. See where this is going? If you do, then think two steps ahead. Again, let us explain: While you can certainly scour the gig-economy platforms for that new vendor, wouldn’t it be easier to simply get a referral from someone you know, trust, and respect? Of course it is. So it’s the obvious path to follow. Obviously, you can—and we did—reach out to your network. Sure, you can ask vendors in your network to recommend other vendors: That video editor may well know a good graphic artist. Totally fine. But what if you also reach out to your network of clients? Or better yet, recent/cool/lukewarm clients? Past clients? Heck, ancient clients! We did exactly this, when we’d needed to find that new graphic artist. And we can’t recommend the process enough. Sure, it was a fun trip down memory lane, re-connecting with old clients from years gone by. Know what else it was? It was Step Two that we’d just hinted at, above. Let’s be very clear about this: We were on a mission. We absolutely needed to find a new graphic artist for our current client. So we weren’t pitching our services, at all, when we reached out to all of these former clients. But still. As soon as they heard from us, they connected us to the work we’d done for them in the past which, we’re happy to report, was all good. And so it should come as zero surprise to you that more than a few of those conversations went something like this: “Hey! Nice to hear from you again. No, I don’t have a graphic artist to recommend right now, but I’ll keep my eyes open for you in case I find one. Still, I’m glad you called. Think you could help with this challenge my team is currently facing…?” It’s the no-sell sell. Granted, you can’t do this every day, but when the opportunity genuinely arises, it beats the heck out of Fiverr. Need help with a biz-dev challenge? Contact us. We’d be delighted to help!  Great photo by Grok. We had a client who recently showed us a whole new program they were going to present to their clients and new prospects alike.
It was well thought-out. It was super detailed. It had lots of impressive features. It promised to deliver a ton of value and ROI. And it was terrifying. Who sees what—and when This may seem contradictory, if not counterintuitive. Here it is, we’d just lauded this new program which our client had created and unveiled to us. And then we undercut that review with the dreaded T-word. What gives? We can give you a little more detail now, and you’ll certainly say “Ohhhh…!” Our client—like many business owners—lives and breathes in spreadsheets. So that’s what they’d shared with us. Indeed, they screen-shared it with us. And this spreadsheet (was it Excel? was it Google? who cares?) was about 40 rows deep by about 25 columns across. All at once. Yep. Terrifying. The good news: We were the first, and only, ones to see it in this state. Our client was justifiably and understandably excited by the cool new program they’d worked so hard to develop. But boy was it ever un-exciting when presented as a swimming sea of spreadsheet cells. This is hardly a tragic story. And you likely can see exactly where it’s going, even if our client wasn’t able at the time. We patiently listened to the whole presentation, which took about a half hour. We took notes. And then we asked some pointed questions:
The idea was to turn down the spigot on this fire hose so it would better resemble a soda straw. The client—they’re very smart—immediately saw where we were going. Easier than you think Once our client realized that they needed to carve their presentation of this new program into bite-sized chunks, all that was left was the execution. And here we can describe a kind of MVP or minimum-viable-product version of that effort: Sure, the client could have gone on and created a snazzy new PowerPoint deck, with discrete slides for the different phases of this proposed program. But that would take time, effort, and resources—and at this point, the client really just wanted to test out this idea: socialize it with existing clients and see how receptive they’d be. So why even make a PowerPoint? The solution was even simpler: Tabs. Yep. That’s all they needed. If this program has five phases, then carve the spreadsheet into five clickable tabs. Simply screen-share a single tab when you present it. And if the conversation leads to a discussion of Phase Two, then click the Phase Two tab. Done. Steve Jobs famously said that simple is hard. But sometimes it’s hard to see what’s simple, and staring right at you. Do you really need to spend a fortune on a shiny new CRM (customer relationship management) platform when your Excel is still working fine? Of course not. Wait for the expense to be more than justified. Ditto for things like learning management systems or LMSs, or even slick PowerPoints as we’d described in this story. Have a marketing challenge that you suspect is simpler than it appears? Contact us and let us put a fresh set of eyes on it for you.  Great photo by Grok. Wait. What? SEO for YouTube? Is that even a thing?
Here at Copel Communications, we are not SEO gurus. But fortunately, some of our clients are. So we learn a lot. And when it’s prudent and discreet to do so, we’ll share some of the love. Hence this article. Short takeaway/spoiler: You can, and should, max out the SEO for your YouTube videos. In this article, we’ll discuss how. But first, the genesis of this story. As we’d noted above, this comes to us from an actual client assignment which, as we write this, is ongoing; they have tons of YouTube videos (most of which, incidentally, we also scripted). The challenge, as our client made clear, was to drive more search-query traffic to this huge repository of videos, spread across multiple playlists on our client’s YouTube channel. But how? There are two parts to this. Both are basic, yet nuanced. They are: 1. The actual title of the video. 2. The YouTube description of the video Let’s review each. 1. The title We’re talking B2B videos here. So you might have an existing video about a product or service that you offer to prospects. And what’s its title? Sure, it’s something like “Our Great Product.” You must understand that there’s the real world, and then there’s the SEO world. In the real world, populated solely by humans, “Our Great Product” is a perfectly good title. It tells people what the video is about. Simple. No clutter. Great. But in SEO World, it’s unfortunately insufficient. You want to “think backward” from what someone who would ultimately want that product or service would be searching on in, say, Google (or in AI; more on that in a minute). So if your Great Product solves Challenge X for, say, logistics executives, you might want to revise and expand the title accordingly: “Challenge-X-Solving Product for Logistics Executives Seeking Productivity Gains.” Not terribly exciting in the real world, but a step forward in SEO Land. But wait. That new title is pretty darned long. Aren’t there limits on this, imposed by, say, YouTube? There sure are. Titles max out at 100 characters, including spaces. The one we just noted above was only 66. So there’s room to play. Often, depending on the viewing device (desktop or laptop browser, tablet, or phone), that title will get truncated and lopped off with just an ellipsis (three dots or “. . .”) after the first few words. Meaning, the first few words are the most important. Because those are the ones that will stick. So factor that into your re-naming. Put the most important stuff first. It's not the real world. Sure, humans will read this stuff, too, but they’re only part of the audience. The rest is web crawlers, spiders, and all the algorithms that the search engines employ to serve up results which hopefully include your video. Now that you know about 1. The Title, let’s proceed to 2. The description Clearly, this is much longer than the title, but some of the same rules apply. Stuff will get cut off before you see the clickable “…more” to reveal the rest of the copy; a quick test on our desktop browser clipped it off at around 60 words. The max is 5,000 characters (not words), which can include links, text, and hashtags. That’s a lot of copy. It’s almost like a blog. About 1,000 words. Again, you want to fill this with info that your human searchers are searching for (what problems will the product or service showcased in your video solve?), as well as what the web crawlers want to find. For our recent project, these videos often offered solutions that helped with numerous arcane technology platforms, so we included bullet lists of those platforms in the description. The search engines like stuff like that. Know what they don’t like? Verbatim copy stolen from your website; they’ll ding you for that. So you want original copy. And you want it written by a human. All the search engines can spot AI-written copy from a mile away (as can we), and they’ll ding you for it. Which gets back to AI-based search vs. classic Google search. The landscape is still shaking out as we write this; even the term AEO (“ask engine optimization”) may not have legs. But what we’re seeing already is a refreshing overlap of what makes for good SEO content vs. AEO content. If you can nail the SEO side, the AEO side will likely catch up. Bottom line: Depending on the number of YouTube videos you already have posted, this could be a quick or long-term retrofitting assignment. And it should definitely shape your efforts for future videos; write the new titles and YouTube descriptions at the same time that you write the scripts. It will save you time and effort. Need help with any of this stuff? Contact us. We’d be delighted to help.  The joy of de-selecting. Do not get us wrong. We are not luddites here at Copel Communications! We love shiny new tech.
We use AI a lot, too. So don’t think that this article—about yanking the plug on Apple Intelligence—is about some kind of irrational fear of technology. Nope. It’s far simpler than that. It’s about helping our clients to make money. Wait, what?? Apple Intelligence stands in the way of that? A solution in search of a problem The comedian John Mulaney once compared his aging body to the iPhone: each year it looks the same, but it just gets worse. LOL! We’ve been on Apple tech since the very first generation of Macs, so we have a well-entrenched more-love-than-hate relationship with the folks in Cupertino. But Apple Intelligence crossed a new threshold for us. Sure, you’ve seen all of the “ingenious” new features that Apple will foist on you, every single year, with every new OS update, whether it’s for your Mac, your iPhone, whatever. Each one purports to be the greatest thing ever—which is a tacit admission that the very thing it’s replacing, which had been identically hyped at its outset… wasn’t. Fine. It’s easy for us to throw stones, and we’re well aware of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “Man in the arena” quote (the important part: “It’s not the critic who counts”). And besides, every time Apple rolls out a controversial feature, it typically back-pedals with a new slider whereby you can disable it. Liquid Glass, anyone? You certainly remember--remember? it’s still ongoing—all the hype around Apple’s version of AI. It was so special that it wasn’t just AI, i.e., artificial intelligence. Oh no. The “A” now stood for “Apple.” Apple Intelligence. Capitalized. It would solve everything in your life. Until it didn’t. The last straw As we’ve taken pains to make clear: We’re not afraid of technology. When Apple Intelligence rolled out, and even as it got updates and bug fixes, we stuck with it, waiting (and wondering) for it to help us in our daily lives. Until it tried to answer emails and text messages on our behalf. Woah. Stop the presses. It’s one thing to suggest some verbiage. It’s another to insert it into a reply by default, whereby our accidentally depressing the spacebar would constitute “Send.” A client asked us a question. We were about to give them a well-considered and nuanced answer, with a few factors to consider. And there’s Apple Intelligence, replying to our client with “Sounds great! I agree!” Fortunately, we caught this before any damage was done. Here at Copel Communications, clients pay us for our intelligence. The real kind. Not the over-hyped artificial kind. Hence the illustration for this article. We effectively rocketed our way to System Prefs to disable this hallucinogenic digital sidekick. Should you? Your choice. But now you know where we stand. And should you contact us, you also know that you’ll get a real reply, from a real sentient human.  Great photo by Grok. We have a client who’s an accomplished executive speaker and wanted to book more bookings. We were tapped to help.
If you, too, want to build business by building your live audience outreach, this article is for you. Or if you know someone with the same desire, share it with them. Teaser: we’ve got a killer tip to help you, toward the end of this article. The lay of the land First off, we’re not talking about using some high-priced speakers’ bureau that books A-list celebrities at Fortune 500 corporate events. We’re talking about getting our client booked at things like regional association meetings and conventions of larger national business organizations. The point here, in case it wasn’t glaringly obvious to you, is to place our client in a target-rich environment. This isn’t about ego or garnering some kind of Tony Robbins-like adulation. It’s about presenting to business prospects, and then getting opportunities to close them, afterward. It’s a very narrow use-case of biz-dev. So. No big booking agency. No chanting crowds. But there are tons of these more-realistic gigs, across the country, all the time. And they’re booked, typically, ages in advance: we’re talking anywhere from six to 12 months, easily. How do you find them? These days, there are digital exchange platforms that connect speakers (such as our client) with event planners (i.e., people who seek to book speakers for their gatherings). An obvious one is eSpeakers; we’ll talk about that one here. Load up your ammo If you want to get booked as a speaker on a site like eSpeakers, you need to stand out. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to assume that you, like our client, are a stellar speaker with a great stage presence, absolute command of your thought-leading/breakthrough material, and have also done this before/are a published author/have been featured on podcasts, and so on. Yep. A high bar to start. Assuming all of that, you’ve got to let all of those eSpeakers-seekers know. Which means that, after you sign up for a (pretty darned affordable) eSpeakers membership, you’ll need to upload a lot of stuff about yourself to entice that audience. And herein is the gist of this article. Here’s what you’ll want to upload, with some notes and thought-starters to help you along:
The best tip you’ll get What’s the best way to find out how to put the best stuff up on a site like eSpeakers? Simply visit the “other side” of the site and pretend that you’re an event planner. Use the filters to drill down to direct competitors of yours. Take a look at them. You’ll easily see who the most impressive ones are. Then you can simply see what they’ve included in their “packages,” and use that as a baseline for you to, well, blow out of the water. Need help with a challenge like this? Contact us! We’d love to help you.  Great photo by Grok. Question: As the year draws to a close, are you merely older… or wiser?
Not to flatter ourselves, but we think we can help with the latter. That’s because it’s time for our year-end round-up—an annual tradition here at Copel Communications —of our top posts for creatives like you. Catch the ones you’d missed. Or revisit those that helped. Enjoy!
Well, that’s all for this year. Have a suggestion for a post for next year? Contact us. We’d love to hear from you!  Great photo by Grok. Wait, it’s December already? We must have blinked.
Because it’s already time for the round-up of our top posts for consultants from 2025—an annual tradition here at Copel Communications. Here, then, is your chance to catch any articles you may have missed, or to brush up on others you may want to re-visit:
Phew! That should be enough reading and tips to tide you over for a little bit. But how about next year? Any topics you’d like us to address? Contact us and let us know! |