Archive of posts from June 2021

Are you “supposed” to market your business in a certain way?

I’ve had this conversation a few times this last couple weeks, so time for a post about it!

Every industry has a way you’re “supposed” to do marketing. A standard that players aspire to, strive to mimic, and copy at any cost. There’s one in your industry too. If you don’t see it, just compare it to a totally different industry to yours, and the differences will become clear.

The “supposed to” way isn’t necessarily the best way. It’s just the way that many do it. The fact that many do it, doesn’t make it ‘better’ (but more likely to be ‘saturated’).

You can do something different, something better, if you choose. You don’t have to host your website using that platform, or use those colours. You don’t have to have that offer, or pricing structure. You don’t have to use that social channel, or that acquisition model.

You can do anything you want, actually. And ‘anything’ doesn’t mean, “Anything your peers approve of.”

The art of knowing your audience, and knowing what they want to hear from you, will far outperform the trappings of comfort found in mimicking competitors and doing what you’re “supposed” to do.

We need you to show up with your perspective, your angle, your unique touch.

We’re waiting.

The World Economic Forum covered a survey (led by Microsoft) that revealed 41% of employees (across all ages) are thinking of quitting their jobs.

41%.

That’s a huge number.

One answer to this could be to faff about with corporate vision statements in an attempt to intoxicate a workforce into contributing more time and energy.

The other answer could be to create an environment people actually want to be in.

Our teams have been WFH, ‘pick your own hours’, ‘pick your own projects’ for years and years.

The workforce wants freedom, and freedom is powered in no small part by the ability to say ‘No’.

People will (and should) say ‘No’ to things.

Businesses know they need to know the needs of their customers to stay in business. The same is true of their team.

It’s up to employers to decide if they’re what people will choose to say ‘No’ to.

Or maybe, just maybe, some will create an environment where people to say ‘No’, so more people can say ‘Yes’ to that environment.

When I first noticed, it was inconceivable to me.

Then, I realised, I’d been missing the point.

I’m typing this on a Keychron C1 mechanical keyboard. Big. TKL layout. Double-shot legends. Hot-swappable Gateron brown switches.

And wrong.

The lights don’t line up perfectly with the keys. The keycap legends aren’t perfectly straight.

Every keyboard I’ve used since 2005 (other than this one) have been Apple keyboards, where nothing is out of alignment with anything.

Here’s where I missed the point. Here’s where I was wrong about it being wrong:

Apple keyboards are supposed to be in perfect alignment. They’re supposed to look sleek on your desk.

The C1 is supposed to be fun. They’re supposed to let keyboard nerds nerd out a little.

When we measure every product or service with the same success criteria, only those designed to meet those criteria will succeed.

And not everyone has the same criteria.

That’s why knowing your audience matters so much.

In your pursuit of great work, remember to ask yourself: “Do I know precisely who this piece is made for? Do I know precisely what they want?”

What they want probably isn’t wrong, even if it sometimes looks that way to begin with.

Some mistakes must be avoided – or remedied – at all costs.

For the rest, we get to choose:

1. Oops, I’ll fix that.
2. Oops, ah well.

The perfectionist in us wants to choose Option 1 every time.

But Option 1 isn’t always the best option.

Here’s how I’d choose between them:

Is there a typo in a book you published years ago? ‘Oops, ah well.’ The costs exceed the benefits.

Is there a typo in a blog post you wrote yesterday? ‘Oops, ah well.’ The costs and benefits are about equal.

Is there a typo in an important sales presentation you’ll be using every week? ‘Oops, I’ll fix that.’ The benefits exceed the costs.

There’s a cost associated with each fix.

Let the choice to make a fix be a strategic decision that advances you toward your goals, rather than an automatic delay that slows you down.

It might not be worth it.

If only these mistakes were as painfully obvious before we do them:

“Our marketing needs to stand out from the crowd! Let’s see what our leading competitors are doing.”

This doesn’t work, of course. Copying what’s out there feels like a safe path to progress, but when the goal is to stand out, blending in is the last thing you need!

“We need a product design that’s a cut above the rest! Let’s look at the most popular design trends.”

This doesn’t work, of course. If we want to lead the pack, we don’t do so by following from behind.

“We need a plan to reach our goals! Let’s try everything we can to reach them.”

This doesn’t work, of course. Reaching a goal is quantifiable, and “everything” is too many things. Focusing on, tracking, and optimising specific actions designed to attain the goals is a better path than just “trying everything.”

Blending doesn’t stand out. Following isn’t the same thing as leading. Freneticism doesn’t produce methodical progress.

These things are obvious in hindsight.

What things are you doing in your work right now that, in hindsight, will seem like obvious errors? What if you looked for them now rather than waiting?

Does your product monetise?

If so, you have a problem.

Real quick: “monetise” (or “monetize”) means “to earn revenue from an asset or business.”

What’s the problem with that?

Businesses that monetise create something, then wonder how on Earth it can earn revenue.

The problem is the “then”.

The problem is that how the huge amounts of work produced by one or more people can, in retrospect, do what businesses are supposed to do.

So what’s the alternative to monetising?

“Making money.” First and foremost, producing a product or service that people want to buy. Building a product that the market voted for with dollars.

When you “make money”, you create things people want and talk about. You help people.

When you “monetise”, you create things people might not want to pay for. So you either harass people into buying, or raise money to put off the problem a while longer.

Which sounds like the path to building a better product or service?

Quit negotiating with these terrorists:

The one who tells you the challenge is too big, too difficult. It’s a voice in your head that came from somewhere. Who knows where. Who cares where. It wants to terrorise your potential. Don’t negotiate.

The one who tells you you’re not worthy. This terrorist flips things upside down on you. It’s not about if you’re worthy of if, but if it’s worthy of you. So don’t negotiate.

The one who tells you you’re dreaming wrong. Your goals can differ to your peers. You might want more. Or less. Or different. Doesn’t matter. They’re your dreams. Don’t negotiate.

Negotiating makes you compromise on yourself, your future, and those you care about. You can do better than that.

What makes your work seem more reliable?

Clarity:

Clarity over who you’re talking to. If you’ll do anything for anybody, how can we rely on you to be good at doing thing particular thing for people like us?

Clarity over what you will (and won’t) do for them. We trust those who understand their craft with specificity and confidence. So be specific and confident.

Clarity over the terms and times. Ambiguity around your deliverables makes you seem less reliable, even if you do precisely shat you set out to achieve.

Clarity over when you should say no. Taking on too many projects makes you less reliable. It’s the curse of skilled, insecure talent.

If you want to be perceived as a reliable partner, peer or provider, can we trust you to communicate more clearly with us?

Knowing a lot about your space can be a curse.

You know all the intricacies… that can slow you down. You know all of the options… which can make decisions harder. You know all of the potential… which can make you doubt your work.

Take something at work, like marketing:

Think of all the things you could do. Think of all the options you’ll agonise over. Think of all the successes you’ll compare yourself with.

Or take something for fun, like playing a deck-building card game:

Think of all the cards you could add to your deck. Think of all the win-conditions you could focus on. Think of all the tournaments you won’t feel ready for.

Complicated gets you stuck. Simple gets it done.

In marketing as above, remembering that knowing who you’re talking to and what they need to hear from you are the most important ingredients, makes things simple.

You might be working on some new strategies this week.

Don’t impress yourself: remember that simple gets it done.

There’s a lot to do, isn’t there.

So many areas of the business or product that just aren’t quite there yet.

That’s fine. You’re on Version 1:

Version 1 isn’t the end. It’s fine for now. It may not be fine for later, but it wasn’t made for later. Version 2 can’t happen before Version 1 does.

Version 2 isn’t the end, either. It’s better than Version 1, but it sure isn’t as good as Version 3 will be. Let Version 2 be Version 2, without judgement compared to what comes next.

Version 3 is a long way away from today’s Version 1. Knowing what you think Version 3 will look like might inform some decisions you make today, but trying to force it is to try forcing Version 1 to be Version 3. It isn’t.

Everything might benefit from improvement. But none will benefit from you trying to improve all of them at once, all of the time.

Let Version 1 be what it is. Be proud of it, and thankful you have the vision to see what comes next. 
It lets us enjoy the ride.

You’ve read the productivity blogs.

“Don’t multitask, you’ll get less done!” “Get into flow with a single focused task!”

They’re not wrong, but they’re not complete, either.

If your goal is distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities, don’t multitask. You’ll withdraw from your limits and your skills won’t improve to the same degree.

Deep work (as Cal Newport calls it) is better at producing those results.

But if your goal is having the ability to “see around corners” when you produce, consider throwing a little bit of multitasking in there. You’ll produce less, but time invested with many diverging nodes of thought lets you spot patterns that others don’t.

Non-obvious connections and second-order consequences are clearer in an unfocused mind, thanks to multi-tasking.

Taking massive action upon those discoveries is more efficient in a focused mind, thanks to single-tasking.

Multitasking gets a bad rap. Instead, let’s consider its utility, and use it as an advantage.

When you read about successful endeavours and entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of certainty in the stories.

Much more than in reality.

“They knew what to do and took decisive action”. No they didn’t. They knew what had worked for others, and what the unknowns are. The future remains an unknown for us all. The best we can do is take decisive action wit the information we have, to accelerate the learning process.

“They knew the venture would work.” No they didn’t. They hoped it would, told their peers it would, but likely spent many difficult nights wrestling with the possibility that it might not work out. That’s fine. That’s human. The best we can do is give our work the opportunity to succeed with appropriate levels of wisdom and resolve.

“They were destined to succeed.” No they weren’t. They experienced good leadership either through parents, book authors, coaches or culture, at some point in their lives, which helped create the person we see today. Some of us are lucky enough to be exposed to those things from an early age. For others, it comes later.

Hindsight and fables contain a lot more certainty than reality.

Don’t aim to be stay certain. Aim to keep growing. Leave the certainty to hindsight.

There are rites of passage everywhere in business.

Résumé expectations. Behaviour modification. Career ladders.

But these passages hide opportunities for innovation, if only we’d look for them:

A rite of passage could be assuming the only way to be good at producing a certain result takes a decade of experience, or that the hardships you experienced should be experienced by others too.

An opportunity for innovation could be to suppose that decade of experience could become process documentation that enables people with half your experience to produce the same results, without the hardships or struggles.

Behind every rite of passage lies an opportunity to innovate.

What innovations are hiding in your industry?

Making is part of the selling process.

Selling is part of the making process.

I loved making and selling things since I was really tiny. I’d cut up my drawings and try to sell them as jigsaw puzzles.

I’d learn which pictures people liked and which they didn’t. I’d learn why packaging is important, and to make sure there aren’t all-white pieces!

Making and selling should be connected.

Making without selling means you can’t make your work objective better. There just isn’t the real, empirical data you need to make real progress.

Selling without making means you can’t make your work objectively better. There isn’t the opportunity to create the changes needed to make real progress.

The ability to get that data, plus the ability to make those changes, unlocks the superpower of inevitable, eventual success.

Create an environment where these two things are directly connected. Making, and selling. It’s a real-life superpower.

There are tons of marketing activities you could be doing today.

And most can be effective if implemented effectively.

So how do you know what to focus on?

Answer these two questions to find out:

#1: What are you the best in the world at? This isn’t lots of things. It’s one thing, maybe two. If you’re amazing at how-to videos but stink at technical writing, for instance, those are things to keep in mind!

#2: Who is your audience & what do they need to hear from you? This isn’t lots of people. It’s one group, maybe two. If you’re unclear precisely what they need to hear from you, that’s your #1 priority to do something about.

Helping your specific people move forward with a message that clearly resonates with them, with world-class delivery…

…sounds like a recipe for better, focused marketing, doesn’t it?

Sometimes, it feels like stealing.

I’m fortunate enough to have created products that I first designed years ago, that continue to sell today, and will continue to do so tomorrow…

Thats the funny thing about making a large investment of time and energy into a body of work that can’t compensate you for your efforts today… that you get compensated long after that investment was made.

All while creating real, actual positive change in the lives of others.

It can feel like stealing. From your past self.

Work done in by past-you… that rewards present-day you.

Which begs the question:

What can you do for your future-self that will make that version of you feel like they’re stealing?

Did you cast yourself a role in business theatre?

Let’s find out. Do you…

Study your ‘elevator pitch’? Shooting clichés from the hip makes us feel others think we know what we’re doing. Business theatre favours pat answers over the discomfort of not knowing what you’ll say until the context is clear.

Fill your calendar with things because “busy means important”? Nobody’s calendar is as full as they’d have you believe. People have time for what’s important to them, business theatre obscures what’s important with feeling important.

Make decisions quickly because that’s what Bezos did once? Not making decisions is uncomfortable. Rushing decisions soothes the discomfort, business theatre favours your feelings above making a good decision.

Business theatre is a popular show.

We can act, or we can do better. Not both.

How important is familiarity in marketing?

In Cleese’s book, “Creativity”, he cites a psychological experiment where volunteers were shown various Chinese characters.

A week later, Panel A they were asked to recall the ones they’d seen. They failed.

Panel B we’re asked which they liked better. They recalled the characters they’d seen before.

They not only remembered more, but liked them more.

These familiar characters didn’t need to shout and scream to be remembered. They certainly didn’t benefit from being asked about. They just showed up again among strangers.

Consider it a call to action:

• Twitter ‘likes’ consist of quality and familiarity. Not shouting, but showing up.
• Follow-up that generates interest consists of value and familiarity. Not harassing, but showing up.
• A “grand product launch” from a stranger can’t compete with familiar faces who routinely do great things.

We see a lot of online personalities making a lot of noise in hope of getting our attention and our interest.

Perhaps calmly and routinely showing up for your choice of market might be the better path?

Being absolutely certain on something has some real downsides:

It means we don’t look for evidence for or against something. Because we already decided what we think. Whether we’re right or wrong, we’re blind.

It makes us continue down a path that may not be right for us. Because we want to be coherent with past decisions, or because we feel led by the market or the divine.

It makes us liars. Because saying “I don’t know” doesn’t make us feel brilliant like lingo-laden expert-speak does.

There are lots of reasons to seek certainty on a great many things. But I find a better goal is to be “almost certain”.

How do your principles come across in your marketing?

Some say cold email is always bad. Others say that to suppose it’s always bad is to suppose marketing is always bad. There’s a way of doing outreach that’s “right” for your team, that reflects your principles.

Some say product discounts always cheapen a product. Others say they’re a great incentive for helping people move forward. You may be somewhere between the poles – that “right place” should also reflect your principles.

Some say user tracking is bad, an invasion of privacy. Others say it’s always great, because they’re only thinking of the marketer’s perspective. You may be somewhere between the two (such as using anonymised analytics) – your perspective should reflect your principles.

When our principles come across in our marketing, our marketing builds our brand. When we don’t consider whether our actions raise a flag in our colours, we weaken our brand.

Do you do all of your marketing in your colours?

Most of the entrepreneurs I’ve met struggle in some way. In secret. Emotionally.

With something.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at them. Or probably even by asking them.

It’d break the facade of professionalism, success, accomplishment. It could “damage their personal brand.” It could hurt.

You struggle too, I’m sure. Also in secret. And you might think you’re the only one.

You’re not.

Keep going. You’re not alone.

We could make a long list of rules for outbound marketing, couldn’t we.

Let’s make it simple: Two rules.

Rule #1: Make things better for others. This can include “providing value”, but only if it makes things better for others. It can also include simply being a nice person in the process.

Rule #2: Don’t waste people’s time. This includes communicating clearly and specifically. It includes not messing around with silly hacks and tricks or being a nuisance in your follow-up.

That’s it.

Going to do some outbound marketing?

Great!

Remember the two rules.

We know what ‘hustle’ is.

It’s spending an unhealthy amount of time working on something that interests you.

It’s creating calculated goodwill to induce reciprocity in others.

It’s what you say you’re doing in picture-quotes to get more likes.

So what’s anti-hustle?

It’s spending a healthy amount of time working on something that makes things better. Doing important work, then resting.

It’s creating value for others without expectation of reciprocity. Nobody likes to feel hustled, but anti-hustle feels great to the recipient.

It’s having meaningful conversations with those you serve, rather than pandering to algorithms for likes.

Which of the two sounds like it’ll produce the results you want?

Why not try that one, then?

Ooh, the next hot trend – know what it is yet?

Every year we have forecasts popping up all over the web covering what trends we should be chasing next.

Every trend contains a secret to making them work, and every forecast seems to miss it.

If the trend is chat bots, the focus shifts to leverage: “How can it be automated so I don’t have to talk to people personally?” The secret is, you don’t. Personal connection is the point.

If the trend is LinkedIn PPC, the focus shifts to leverage: “How can I just quickly have one ad that somehow speaks directly to every prospect?” The secret is, you don’t. Tailoring your message to those you serve is the point.

If the trend is TikTok organic, the focus shifts to leverage: “How can I just ‘hack’ the platform to get me lots of followers who will engage with our stuff?” The secret is, you don’t. Getting to build real relationships is the point.

When the next ‘hot trend’ rolls around, will you miss the point? Or will you notice the pattern that connects all of the examples above together?

“I need people to see me online, so I must make lots of noise.”

Ever said – or thought – this before?

Seems logical. But it sells you short and assumes the value you bring to the market is nil. It also distracts you from your work of serving your audience. What if we swap the statement to this instead:

“I need to serve people so fully that they can’t help but make lots of noise for me.”

Ever said – or thought – this before?

There is still noise. But it assumes the value you bring to the market is significant. It enables you to focus on your work of serving your audience. It challenges you not to get louder, but to serve more deeply.

Which sounds like the more sustainable, beneficial, valuable, fun option of the two to you?

What’s the downside to being great at the details?

You might not learn how to master the basics.

We often become OK at the basics in our pursuit of being great at the details. Perhaps it’s being OK at email while pursuing full-featured marketing automation skills. Or being OK at HTML while pursuing the latest client-side javascript framework technology.

Mastering the basics usually happens after someone gets great at the details. When you realise that one excellent email can generate more business than 100 generic automated sequences. Or that knowing how to write plain javascript effectively could mean some of your projects can benefit from leaner code that loads faster and lasts longer.

Dare you graduate in your work from being great at the details, to being a master at the basics?

Know what’s impossible?

A perfect product or campaign launch.

Here’s why.

To be perfect, it would need to meet the needs of its chosen audience, perfectly…

To be perfect, it would need to speak the language of its chosen audience, perfectly…

…Except it just launched and they’ve not experienced it yet, so the data needed to perfect it hasn’t yet arrived.

That comes next. That comes from a relentless pursuit of those you wish to serve, and a perpetual re-expression of what you learn from them.

There is no perfect launch.

Only the pursuit of our people, with ears open, and hearts prepared to change our work based on what we discover.

Here’s a (potentially) uncomfortable fact:

You do not find saying ‘No’ to people difficult.

I hear people say all the time, “I’m not very good at saying no” or, “I’m find it awkward telling people no.”

Every ‘Yes’ is a ‘No’. A no to something else you could have done with that time. You could be saying no to advancing a project that would benefit your customers in a real and meaningful way. You could be saying no to a family member who would love to spend that time with you, except you gave it away already to someone who asked first.

Every ‘No’ is a ‘Yes’. A no to something that doesn’t require your time, so you can spend it on something that does. A no that enables you to move things forward, progress in business or in life. A no that lets you spend time with your most precious people, rather than keeping them waiting because you Yessed your time away.

You might not like saying No. But every time you say No, you say yes to everything else. And equally, every time you say Yes, you say No to everything else.

Since you can’t get out of saying no, you might as well get comfortable with it and instead decide what to say no to.

You know what you’re making next.

Probably, something that makes things better for customers than the thing you currently sell. Something that we might have fixed our hopes on, because it’s our target.

What if we looked further to the future?

What about what we’re making after the thing we’re making? Something that doesn’t just make things a bit better for our customers, but make things unrecognisably better. Something not so bound by today’s foundational work. Where we aren’t fixing hopes only our next step, but on the place that step moves us closer to?

Sometimes the day’s work becomes more strategic and effective if we focus on it while keeping “the project after” in mind.

The hardest sale for most businesses isn’t new customers.

It’s existing customers.

The company you didn’t pay much attention because you thought they were “easy money”. So you didn’t try your hardest. You didn’t communicate often. You didn’t look after their interests. Wait, they’re leaving?

The company you sold something to then forgot about. Because they’re done. Because you didn’t have another thing to sell them right this instant. Wait, they’re not interested anymore?

When someone gives you their trust and you don’t revere that… when reality and marketing don’t align… this is not an “easy sale”. This is harder than winning new business.

Earning trust isn’t the hardest. Earning trust again is.