5 Marketing Ideas You Should Steal
Also if you did these you'd be rich????????
Hi, it’s Ash—and welcome to Ashtronomical! Every week, I’m sending you 5 original marketing ideas your competitors will wish they'd thought of first. 💀 Maybe there’ll be one in here for you???
Steal this brand idea 💥
You’ve got an air conditioner to sell.
What do you name it???
Enter: July.
Instead of naming the brand something corporate, terrible, and incredibly stodgy and unfashionable like "ClimaCore™ Solutions" or TempuraTech™ (bonus points for making you think you're about to deep-fry your living room), try this instead:
Think about words that are adjacent—not literal.
Not “CoolAir3000.” Not “ChillForce.” Not “HVAC Solutions That Optimize Indoor Comfort™.”
No.
Think about July.
Think about the feeling of a heatwave so thick you can drink it. Think of porches, sweat dripping down a lemonade glass, the clink of ice cubes, the hum of something—anything—trying to keep you from melting into the floorboards. That’s the vibe. That’s the story.
“July” doesn’t say air conditioner.
It says why you need one.
Adjacent words don't describe the product. They describe the nostalgia of the product. They live in the emotional neighborhood of your brand. They flirt with it. They make it human.
That's what people fall in love with. Not specs. Not acronyms.
But a feeling.
💥 Psst—Want help naming your thing? Make sure you’re on the interest list for my VERY fun naming party coming in Summer 2025! 💥
Steal this sales idea 💰
Verizon offers a discount on your bill if you sign up for AutoPay.
Why not offer the same courtesy to your clients? (It’ll make billing a heck of a lot easier—AND you have way less chasing to do.)
Here’s a blurb you can use:
“Want an automatic discount on your services every month? Simply sign up for AutoPay and enjoy exclusive savings on your bill—no extra steps, no surprises. Just a little reward for making things easier (for both of us).”
Even better?
Give ‘em an automatic discount for paying their invoice in full, up front.
*Honeybook automates this flawlesslyyyyy. 🏆 (I LOVE LOVE LOVE them for anyone selling services. Awesome, modern client portal that lets clients automatically self-sign up for your services, sign contract, pay deposit, fill out questionnaire, and get onboarded with ZERO extra repeat manual labor on your part. 10/10 would recommend.)
*Denotes affiliate link
Steal this marketing idea ⚡️
If you look at Emily Henry’s website—the uber-famous young, hip, rom-com powerhouse romance novelist—it leaves a lot to be…desired.
It’s a Squarespace template that doesn’t even have a favicon uploaded.
Her newsletter signup isn’t prominent at all.
In fact, she’s only really got a Substack that she updates maybe once every 300 years.
And yet?
She’s had over 10 million books sold worldwide across her adult romances since 2020
She’s spent 145 weeks cumulatively on The New York Times bestseller lists
As of late 2023, she accounted for a massive 32% of all print romance sales—backed by the fact that Collen Hoover and she together dominate 80% of that market
All five adult romance novels (Beach Read, Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, Funny Story) are optioned for film or TV
She’s been chronicling a best-selling book a year since 2020
Widely covered by mainstream outlets—NYTimes, Vulture, The Guardian, Forbes, Marie Claire, etc.—as a leader in the romance revival.
More proof that the best marketing isn’t your website.
It’s your reputation.
And the only way to get one is by showing up and saying, “I’m about to be the best damn person in the world at X.” And then having the courage to ride or die that vision, without getting distracted, and without wanting to add 50 different unrelated kinds of projects to your plate, all because you can’t decide.
Go ahead, put yourself in a box.
It might end up being the best thing you’ve ever done.
Steal this copy idea 📝
Most brands: Boring. 😴
Better brands: Consider ALL customer touchpoints and turn ‘em an opportunity to delight, charm, add value, and make a customer fall in love with them.
Don’t skip the details.
Make the details the star.
Steal this business idea 🤓
Okay, this is wild.
Sniffspot is the Airbnb for backyards—for dogs. 🐶 🐾 🦴
Super popular in cities where grass & space are precious, two ideas for you:
Join as a host and, as the company claims, “start earning up to $3,000 per month.”
Or, why not make your own Airbnb for ___________? You can easily use Sharetribe to make a marketplace just like Airbnb in a weekend. I’m experimenting with this now for a fun personal project I’m working on! 👀
The happy, happy, gloriously delicious end.
P.S. I send 5 marketing ideas just like these to your inbox every week. Don’t miss next week’s edition! Subscribe free. 💥
I have a folder in my emails now, called "Ash's Brilliance" where I put all of your ideas to start putting into practice because they are SO HELPFUL! Like, today, I'm signing up for Honeybook because not having to go back and forth with contracts is giving me "piña colada served by Ryan Gosling" vacation vibes. 🎉 LOVE THIS EMAIL.