Adam’s Daily Post

The real reason they’re not signing up?

• It’s not a focus on features
• It’s not a focus on outcomes
• It’s a lack of focus on experience+outcomes

You can solve the problem?
Big whoop. So can your competitors.

You have lots of features?
Whoop-de-doo. So do your competitors.

You can show them a great time
while solving the problem? Oh snap. Your competitors don’t do that.

I smell opportunity.

Creating for the algo =

• Chasing after the noise
• Chasing half-baked ideas
• Chasing content deadlines

Creating for future-fans =

• Building a vault of quality
• Building what they’ll want
• Building how they’ll enjoy it

What’s the real difference?

Future-fans get to become fans.

We don’t love buying solutions to problems.

We love buying enjoyable experiences that solve problems.

The solution is simply the outcome.

So, if you want more enthusiastic buyers, go learn how to:

• Give them what they want
• Give them what they enjoy
• Combine the two together

The combination is where the real magic happens.

I nearly got beaten up by the school bully as a kid.

What actually got was a big business lesson:

He’d been following me around.
He’d been talking to my friends.
He’d been looking at me funny.

“Oi Ad, meet me round the back at lunch.”
Gulp

Something funny happened though, he said:

“I’ve seen the games you’re selling, they’re awesome.”
“We should create a fanclub or something.”
(Paraphrased; it was 25 years ago!)

My lesson: If your work is good enough:

• Your enemies become fans.
• You form unlikely partnerships.
• You don’t get beaten up.

Moral of story: Create remarkable work. It’s way easier.

Go be remarkable.

There’s 2 ways to perfect your product for market.

Option 1: Build & hope

• Assume you know best
• Ship something ‘good enough’
• Get lukewarm response
• Try again & get lucky

Option 2: Ask & give

• Ask what they want
• Ask how they love to receive it
• Pitch solution that combines them
• Ship something amazing based on feedback

I wonder which works better?

Sometimes, the best tool is what you need.

Sometimes, the best tool for the job is what you need.

Sometimes, the best tool for you is what you need.

And they’re not always the same thing.

The best tool is at the top of the review website leaderboards. The best tool for the job is at the top of YouTube influencer ranking videos. The best tool for you might get no airtime whatsoever, possibly an older, boring system long forgotten.

But if it’s best for you, and it equips you to do your best work, does it matter what anyone else thinks about it?

Web design’s on the wrong path at the moment.

Design communities are advocating for “Powerpointification”, where structural elements are swooshing in and moving around without any real reason for doing so.

Bad design says “look at me!”
Good design says “look at this!”

Good pages are filled with story, great writing, great artwork, and great experiences.

Good design’s job is to elevate those things, making them easy to access and experience.

Good design’s job is to make it easier to experience those things, not to compete with them.

The open web - where web pages belong - is full of near-limitless potential. It deserves better.

My 2yo son taught me another great business lesson today.

When we’re playing with his ball run (where you drop balls on ramps and they cascade down to the bottom), he revealed something to me.

When I threw the ball onto the ramp and it landed perfectly, I’d say “Yay!”

A success.

To which he would smile, pick it up, and give it back to me.

When I threw the ball and it bounced off in a random direction, I’d say “D’oh!”

A failure.

To which he would laugh hysterically, say “d’oh d’oh d’oh!”, and give it back to me.

He found the failures far more enjoyable than the successes.

The failures made things interesting.
The failures made things exciting.
The failures made it more playable.
The failures made us laugh more.

Success isn’t the point. Enjoying the process is the point.

Failure has a bad reputation. But it shouldn’t. It’s absolutely hilarious, and makes the game far more enjoyable.

What’s missing on most webpages?

It’s not a product description.
It’s not all features/benefits.
It’s not clever copywriting.
It’s nothing to do with you:

It introduces WHAT they want to learn.
It does so HOW they love to consume.

Example:

They want to learn how to bake cookies?
They love watching silly cat videos?

Put the two together:

“Silly cats baking cookies.”

It requires research.
It requires more effort.
It requires imagination.

But do you want Easy, or Effective?

I’ve been posting a lot of comics on social media lately for the new “Marketer From Space” series.

Like, a lot. 86 comics and counting.

So to make them easier to explore, I’ve added a bunch of here, with back catalog slowly making its way up there:

https://mredutainment.com/marketerfromspace/webcomics

Enjoy!