How Alex Myatt uses marketing cross-pollination to 7x his client's conversions

At this moment, 714,000 copywriters are registered on LinkedIn. The rest lurk in the shadows on job sites like Upwork and Fiverr. But all these copywriters are in your (potential) client's inbox or DM, trying to get your piece of the pie.

Put simply, the competition is fierce, and if you don't stand out uniquely, you'll never get your piece of the pie. The good news is, if you read on, I'll show you one skill that helped Alex stand out in the sea of copywriters... Plus how it helped him go from $6,500 to $25,000 per month.

But first: context, facts, and other important details about Alex Myatt

Alex is smart and hard-working. What he has achieved (and shares below) requires actual work. Marketing cross-pollination (as Alex calls it) is not a hack or technique that will transform your career overnight.

It requires patience and consistency. Like anything else worth learning and doing, the payoff can be pretty amazing. How do I know? I have done (and still do) what Alex shared during our interview, and today, you get to discover it all here.

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Below are the five questions I asked Alex. Each will help you understand how cross-pollination works and the benefits it could bring.

Let's dive in.

1) What is one skill (or process) that sets you apart from everyone else in your field?

While Alex started as a copywriter, he realized early on that words alone wouldn't get him far (or at least not fast enough). That's how he discovered his superpower: marketing cross-pollination.

"The ability, desire, and willingness to "cross-pollinate" from other niches - e.g. Testing things that seem to work in other industries, in your own." 

What Alex refers to is swiping non-copy related concepts of businesses from outside your industry or niche. Then, use that same concept in your industry or niche.

Alex believes this skill is the primary reason he went from $6,500 to $25,000 months fast. And it's one of the skills he believes every copywriter should acquire to stand out today (more about that blow).

But first, how did Alex acquire this peculiar skill.

2) Why do you have this skill (or process) – why did it particularly manifest in you?

Today, one of the most valuable soft skills you can have is being curious. In a time when most of the population is fine with having a shorter attention span than that of a goldfish, being curious is like being Superman on Earth.

Here's where Alex's curiosity led him.

"There was no watershed moment. I've simply always been fascinated by how marketing works in different places, mediums, and niches. I studied traditional info-pub industries like financial and health early-on in my career but my first roles were in local service businesses & ecommerce... It felt natural to try what I'd learned during my "study phase" into the projects in front of me. I quickly learned that mix-and-matching was both fun and often successful."

Just like Alex, when I started as a copywriter I studied the two big niches: financial and health. I found it challenging and fun to figure out what publishers did, how it worked, etc. That's when I discovered something unexpected.

Since I was researching both niches simultaneously, I started seeing overlapping patterns. Both used certain frameworks. Their email structure, VSL copy, and funnels were pretty much the same (with certain 'technical' differences).

Fast-forward to today, and I still use what I learned back then. Many strategies and copywriting principles are evergreen. That's why I've used this knowledge with my clients, and lo and behold success followed.

In anime language, cross-pollination is like being Kakashi, the copy ninja (from Naruto). You see a strategy, technique, framework, you learn it, and you copy it and use it.

Below, Alex shares a simple step-by-step process (plus an example) for doing it right. But first, let's see why Alex finds this skill important and why every copywriter should master it.

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3) Why is this skill (or process) important, and what has it allowed you to achieve?

One crucial thing I have to point out first is this: you should tap into different niches, types of businesses and verticals. That's when the "mix-and-matching" Alex mentioned above shines.

Here's how Alex put it.

"It [cross-pollination using mix-and-matching] allows for the underrated concept of randomness-in-marketing to do its thing. If you only follow a playbook that's already been set out for you, there is pretty much 0 chance you'll discover anything new.

But by testing tactics, techniques, and strategies from different areas, you're giving a new combination a chance to flourish. It doesn't always work, but when it does, you're often in possession of a completely novel idea that no one else has properly utilised before.

Cross-pollination has been directly responsible for me taking a D2C ecom business from £800 per month to £35k per month...

... and even for creating new products that I went on to sell successfully in my own businesses.

All possible just by looking at what businesses are doing well in other niches. "

The beauty of what Alex explains above is how simple it all is. But to master cross-pollination, you must keep tabs on what's happening in other industries, verticals, and businesses.

This brings me to the fourth question I had for Alex.

4) How does this skill (or process) work, and how can others replicate it successfully?

Alex advised to use this simple 3-step process to cross-pollinate successfully:

"1. See something that you're not currently doing

2. Test it

3. If it works, keep it.

Just get curious about all-things-marketing, everywhere you see it."

Let me add some meat to Alex's process above. There are no rules or mistakes you can make. But I want to add a few mini steps in between to make it easier for you.

1. If you see something you're not currently doing, figure out if it's working for others already.
2. Then, figure out why it's been working for them. Cross-pollination is not lazy copy-pasting. You're cherry-picking an idea, a concept, or a strategy and using it within your context.
3. Equipped with this knowledge, go ahead and test it. Most times, things won't work out immediately. That's when you must evaluate if it's worth testing more or if you need to ditch it.

Here are some extra resources Alex shared during our interview that you might find helpful.

1) the book Alchemy by Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy

2) Available until 20th August 2024, you can also check Alex's course. In it, he explains in-depth cross-pollination and how to use it to create winning marketing strategies.

Onto the last question.

5) Can you provide a concrete example where this skill (or process) made a significant difference?

Everything so far is cool and somewhat abstract. So, let's see a short real-life case where Alex successfully used cross-pollination.

But first, a bit of context.

Alex was the CMO behind Healthera's (UK-based health tech company) growth for the past few years. Below, he shares a brief case study on how he used cross-pollination to increase Healthera's traffic and conversions 7x.

"This directory of pharmacies in the UK is driving conversions to our ordering journey: https://healthera.co.uk/england/ - and I only came up with the idea because I saw that other business directories existed for more traditional service-based businesses (like plumbers and mechanics) - I thought... if it worked for them, why not us?"

Alex privately shared an image proving the 7x increase in traffic. But for privacy reasons, I refrained from sharing the actual numbers.

Not bad if you ask me.

Cross-pollination is easy enough to learn. But the big payoff is always in actually doing the work. I know many out there are good at discovering what works but aren't that motivated to implement what they learn.

That's why I want to leave you with a simple message.

It's better to do one thing well than to learn many things but never take action.

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Connect with Alex

If you want to connect with Alex, you can do so on LinkedIn. He's also one of the hosts of the popular Copy That! YouTube channel dedicated to helping copywriters and marketers up their game.

Here's one article I'd advise you to read next because it will give you on a silver platter a cross-pollination strategy for email campaigns.