Archive of posts from March 2024

We’re about done with Q1 of 2024.

Feels like 2024 just started, right?

It’s around this sort of time people start panicking.

“Holy moly, I’ve barely moved on my goals, I need to speed up!”

No you don’t.

Not if you’re making steady, considered progress.

Not if you’re doing it right instead of doing it twice.

Not if you know where you want to go and are heading in that direction.

Stay the course. Enjoy the ride.

Quick, there’s a new social platform!

Act fast, there’s another feature!

Attention! There’s an opportunity!

Woah.

There’s always something new.
There’s always another feature.
There’s always another opportunity.

And there’s always a wave of opportunists chasing it.

Know what there’s still a shortage of though?

People committed to focused, undistracted production of great work.
A body of work that makes you gasp,
Not because it’s a new opportunity,
But because they stuck at it.
They were patient enough.
They stayed the course.

Stay the course.

Effective marketing isn’t complex.

It only needs two things:
#1: To give more value than it asks for,
#2: To be enjoyable.

Without #1, people feel sold to.

They put up their buyer defences.
They interpret your creation as a ruse,
To make them do something they don’t feel like doing.
A selfish cry from a selfish person.

Without #2, people feel interrupted.

They ignore you. Skip you. Scroll past you.
Then they forget you.
If we’re doing something we enjoy and want,
Why would we want to be interrupted,
By something we don’t?

You can plot this on a graph really simply:

This applies to all of your marketing:

Need more attention?

Post videos that give more than they ask, and are enjoyable.
True for successful ads. Social content. Explainers.
Even long-form episodic YouTube videos.
Great content, with a postage stamp attached.

Need more conversions?

Publish landing pages that give more than they ask, and are enjoyable.
An experience they’re glad they found.
Rare in the wild, but masterful in practice.
These are pages people share with others.

Need more user retention?

If you’re in SaaS, modify your UX to give more than it asks,
And is genuinely enjoyable to use.
We never unsubscribe from these.
Not in spirit, affections, and enthusiastic referrals.

I go into more detail on this topic in this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter. Check it out!

Content creation has been cursed for years.

Think about it:

• The world shares one timeline
• That timeline gets very busy
• So algos jump in to help with the noise
• Strong +/- reactions are prioritised
• To be seen, content must antagonise

“Here’s a lambo, BOOM it exploded,
Now we’re running from a hitman,
Look here’s a million dollars.”

Exhausting!

Good news:

The world’s getting tired of it.
Mr.Beast said so himself.

The “maximum quantity” race is being replaced by the “maximum quality” game.

Making ‘remarkable’ things worth sharing is back.
Less, but better’ is back.
The creative is back.

What will you do with this opportunity?

When everyone around you is rushing, You feel slow when building quality work.

When everyone around you is hustling, You feel lazy for taking a minute to rest.

When everyone around you says they’re doing great, You feel bad while comparing your truth to their lies.

When everyone around you are posting their wins, You feel ‘less than’ when today isn’t ‘big-win-day.’

And yet building quality work… Resting when you need it… Staying true to yourself… And loving the process more than ‘big wins’…

…is precisely the path to big wins.

Maybe the best thing to do is to ignore what everyone around you is saying and doing.

Maybe that’s always been the best thing.

There are 3 types of video.
(Only 1 is worth making.)

Type 1: Trend-matched

• Do what everyone else does
• Fight a headwind of competition
• Unable to stand out as a result

Type 2: Shock-opposite

• Do the opposite of everyone else
• No headwind, but folks are confused
• Stands out, not for the right reasons

Type 3: Market-matched

• Make what they want + make it fun
• Ride a tailwind of genuine interest
• Stands out for the right reasons

We get to choose…
But it’s not much of a choice!

‘Killer offers’ are killing interest.
Everyone has one. Trust is gone.
(Your inbox confirms this.)

An Offer alone may be Killer but still Asks for more than it Gives.

‘Give’ people more than you ‘ask’, and make it ‘enjoyable’.

Now we’re talking.

There are two types of work.

One type is throwaway, short-term, insignificant.

The other is perennial, long-term, significant.

Not everything we make can last forever. You still need to reply to emails. You may still schedule calls and engage in community chat.

But it doesn’t have to be the bulk of your day.

It doesn’t have to be the bulk of your life.

Want to make great work?

It starts with how you choose to spend your time.

Productivity stole Effectiveness’ spotlight.

Because productivity feels like progress. It rewards administrative busywork. It enjoys ‘hacks’ and ‘tricks’. It favours quantity of output over quality of output.

None of which is particularly useful.

Effectiveness doesn’t always feel like progress. It eschews admin. It has no hacks. Quality is all it understands.

That’s why it’s so frequently forgotten.

As uncomfortable as it may feel… Try effectiveness on for size. Try sitting on the couch dreaming. Try single-tasking your problems on paper. Try prioritising solving something important, rather than merely dancing with admin clutter.

You’ll be surprised how much more you’ll achieve, with so much less effort.

What makes a great ad?

People spend big bucks looking for the answer.

Turns out?

The answer was under our noses all along.

But first. Let’s look at what doesn’t make a great ad:

It’s not sensationalism.

When you see sensationalism, what do you do?
Yup. And everyone else rolls their eyes with you.
Do you subscribe, buy or refer these companies?

It’s not what industry trend data says.

When industry trend data tells you to do it?
Too late. Everyone’s doing it.
Can you stand out by blending in?

It’s not the sum-total of your ‘cheatsheets’.

I know. You’ve collected many cheatsheets.
But throwing everyone’s used lottery tickets into a cauldron?
Does that sound like strategic advertising?

It’s not an ‘irresistible offer’.

Everyone read the same book. And now?
Your inbox is full of ‘irresistible offers’ no one believes.
Want to be associated with that?

Conventional wisdom isn’t working.
A wrench in the works, indeed.

Except it isn’t. The answer is so obvious when you see it,
You’ll feel how ‘right’ it is in your bones.

So let’s be obvious. Here’s what makes a great ad:

It’s content they normally like plus a postage stamp.

You know content your people open their apps to look at?
It’s because they like that content.
Make that. Then attach postage (ad spend).

It’s backed by customer data not industry data.

Unlike industry data? Customer data isn’t found in a report.
It’s found by showing an inner-circle of customers what you made,
Then asking for their feedback. Make their eyes light up.

It’s different in a sea of sameness.

Sameness is competitive. Different isn’t.
If everyone has a report, make an interactive quiz.
If everyone has a pitch, invite them to play a game.
Your direct competition is reduced to zero.

It’s an invitation to more of a good time.

An invitation to sell only gets clicked if you want to buy.
But most don’t want to buy until they like you better.
So don’t ask them to buy. Ask them to try something fun.
Show them a good time and they’ll pay you for more.

I go into more detail on this topic in this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter. Check it out!

When marketing remember to be…

#1 Remarkable on the front-end. For instance:

• Edutaining ads
• Animated social posts
• Witty explainers
• Novel-yet-helpful outbound

#2 Remarkable on the back-end. For instance:

• Gamified landing pages
• Personalised quizzes
• Interactive offers
• On-scent page visuals

Remarkable is a choice!

What’s more important:

Impressions. Clicks. Engagement?

Nope nope nope!

Just ’cus they’re in the UI, doesn’t mean they matter.

All you need:

1) Give folks stuff to love & look forward to. 2) Invite them to get even more elsewhere.

That’s it.

Now you can focus on making great things Instead of worshipping algos. Phew!

Social timeline: Boring!

Platitudes. Pitches. Success rah-rahs. (Yawn.)

Join me in a social media ‘spring clean’:

Follow:

• New ideas - Human trying new things - Things you look forward to

Unfollow:

- Sausage-factory algothings - Those only (truly) here to pitch - Things that makes you anxious

Honestly. Which list sounds better?

AI made one big change for creators:

And it’s this:

To be good, just use AI for everything.
To be great, master your craft for a subniche.

‘Settling for Good’ is getting very crowded.
‘Striving for Great’ is quieter than ever.

It’s not about where you are.
It’s about where you’re heading.
Which is it to be?

Continuing the AI theme this weekend,

Good news. Everyone is flocking to AI tools.

Why’s it good news?

It creates more opportunity for you.

When AI makes clipping videos faster,
But clips them all in a similar way,
Master your own style of clipping.

When AI makes painting images faster,
But does them all in similar styles,
Master your own style of painting.

When AI makes writing content faster,
But mostly writes in popular styles,
Master your own voice when writing.

When everyone sounds the same,

Because they delegated their voice, personality and style,

All you need to do is master yours.

AI made one big change to creators:

If you’re decent, you’re done. If you’re great, you’re golden.

But what’s the difference?

What’s decent, and what’s great? How do I know which is me?

Great is:

• Mastery over your craft
• Deep knowledge of your subniche
• Mastery over crafting for that subniche

Not prepared to be that specific?

You’re not prepared to be great.

We don’t have to like it.

But this is how it is now.

So. You get to choose:

Decent or great?

"Investing in growth."

It sounds good.

But hold on. Put down the credit card.

"Growth."

We need to define this word, before it herniates our business.

Customers don’t care what computer you use, what office you work from, or if you’re "expanding".

They don’t care how many masterminds you’re in, your revenue per employee, or your net worth.

They don’t care how many books you’ve read, articles you’ve written, or comments you’ve left on LinkedIn.

They don’t care about your ROAS, CTR, or ROTI.

Customers care about feeling seen, feeling good, feeling progress, and feeling cared for.

Perhaps your list is different.

That’s fine. The point isn’t to have that list, but to have a list.

Bezos says think about "what's not going to change."

Guy’s got a point.

If you don’t have a list yet,

Here’s mine:

Invest in their narrative

There are two stories. The story you tell yourself, and the story they tell themselves. Yours is great. But they like theirs better. So you should know theirs as well as they do.

Invest in things they’ll love and look forward to

We skip most ads. They get in the way of what we love. So make what they love, not what they skip. Run that as ads. Do you not think that’s precisely what they want? Don’t ask, "What do I want people to hear from me?" Ask, "What kind of experience would my chosen few love today?" and make that your advertising.

Invest in a deplatformed experience worth sharing with others

We bounce on most pages. They don’t live up to the promise made when we clicked. They give us nothing of value, only more promises. Don’t ask, "What can I put on this page that will make people convert?" Instead ask, "What amazing experience can I give people with the full power of the open web at my disposal?" then work out how to make it into a page.

Invest in delightful onboarding

So you made a great introduction to your work. You made a great invitation with your page. Now people need to take their first steps with you. Most businesses leave their 'onboarding'entirely to chance. Don’t ask, "Great they’ve bought, what’s next?" Ask, "They’ve just taken the first step, how can I make the next couple of days absolutely amazing for them?" then make that your onboarding.

Invest in fantastic service

This is normally an afterthought. You’d be surprised of often it is. Normally, when a business makes a sale, they’re just thinking about making the next one. 'Service is just a necessary evil.' It’s not. Fantastic service is one of your best sales tools. Don’t ask, "How can I keep them around while I go sell more stuff?" Instead ask, "How can I blow their minds so much they can’t help but shout from the rooftops?"

Invest in great communication

Problems arise. Customer gets mad. Maybe they request a refund. Maybe they request changes. Maybe the business thinks they’re a brat. Maybe they are. Normally, it was just bad communication. Few problems can’t be resolved with an investment in better communication. Ever had an unhappy customer? There’s your cue.

Invest in growing in your craft

You’re good. Really good. So are others. But your customers chose you. You’re the horse they backed. Now it’s down to you to run well. So between each race, train. For you and for your customers. Become the best version of you that you can be. Make them proud they chose you. Make yourself proud of how far you’ve come.

Seems like a good list to me.

I go into more detail on this topic in this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter. Check it out!

You may be creating the wrong content.

Don’t be a car dealership commercial.

Don’t be a superbowl commercial.

Be the superbowl.

That which we’ll eagerly anticipate.

That which we’ll will miss when you’re gone.

It doesn’t happen every day,

That’s fine.

We’ll be waiting.

We hear a lot about “investing in success” on social.

Most of it? Wrong.

Eleven cohorts,
Posh laptops,
New offices,
Expansion,

Hm. Do customers ask you to invest in those?

Or do they actually want:

- Service (not cheap labour) - Communication (not just your VA) - Enjoyment (’cos life’s hard enough)

Aren’t those better investments?

Aren’t those a better path to what you want?

The point of running a business?

To make you and others happy.

Not to do what MBA students say.
Not to out-earn your Wall St. pals.
Not to impress your grandparents.
Not to ‘hustle’ into an early grave.
Not to build a prison for yourself.
Not to trade life for a front cover.

Have happy customers.
Have a happy you.

Otherwise, what are you doing?

Lousy marketing strategies:

• Spamming potential buyers
• Chasing and trapping customers
• Copying peers, hoping for the best

Great marketing strategies:

• Delighting and nurturing true fans

There are no other strategies.

Two choices:

Make great things, keep costs in check, focus on customers.

Make what you hope are great things, spend the funding, focus on investors.

One is glamorous, easy to grow, until it needs to start generating its own funds to stay alive.

One is not glamorous, hard to grow, but stands on its own two feet indefinitely.

We get to choose.

‘How they do it’ is how we structure most of our work affairs.

But ‘how they do it’ is really none of our business:

‘How they do it’ could mean:

• Spewing best practices for using social media, despite making you cringe
• Telling you what tools you should use, when you have ones you enjoy already
• Insisting your business should grow, when you may secretly want it to shrink
• Comparing vanity metrics, when you know customers literally don’t care
• Buying the fancy gear and swish offices, when you prefer simplicity
• Urging you to focus on revenue, when you prefer to focus on happiness

‘How they do it’ doesn’t have to be ‘how you do it’.

You do you.

The things that spring to mind are not it.

They worked for a while, but things have changed:

• You’re competing with the whole planet now
• Everyone’s got no-code tools & GPT companions
• Everyone’s read the same books you have

Now, we must play an elevated game.

Good news: the elevated game is more fun, works amazingly, and best of all:

Your competitors aren’t doing it.

Here’s what a great landing page is not:

It’s not a 'killer sales letter'.

People don’t want to be 'killed'. Do you?

'Killer sales letters' impress other marketers and make everyone else think, "Oh, here we go again."

Good copy is important, but this ain’t it.

It’s not a Dribbble-worthy design.

The race to make every web page feel like a 2002 Powerpoint presentation is on.

Watching things flit around the screen impresses your no-code friends, and maybe even your parents, but does little to excite people about your product.

Good design is important, but this ain’t it.

It’s not a 'grandslam offer'.

Everyone read the same books, and now everyone’s inbox is full of the same sensational offers in cold-email form.

Usually, from anonymous folks promising you the world on a stick if you’ll only write them a check (pinky-promising they won’t run off with your hard-earned cash if they can’t deliver).

People are rightly wary of too-good-to-be-true offers.

People never asked you to give them the world.

People don’t want to be convinced.

People want a good time and less problems.

So give them that.

I go into more detail on this topic in this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter. Check it out!

Acquiring customers?

For digital products?

Simple…

What you DON’T need:

A “fully-attributed 7-channel lead-automation marketing machine.”

Here’s all you need (it’s just 3 things):

1. Need more attention? Post content they love & look forward to.

2. Need more conversions? Publish landing pages they really enjoy using.

3. Need more user retention? Deploy habit-forming UI they form an attachment to.

Instead of:

• being the ‘commercial break’
• being everywhere all the time
• having SDRs chase people around for MQL quotas

Focus on:

• being the ‘show’
• being in places of meaning for them
• giving gifts to fans

Doesn’t that make a whole lot more sense to you?

Software is getting worse.

Fortunately, there’s a way to fix it…

If you’re good with software, you’ll have noticed:

• Most software ‘innovation’ is actually hardware innovation
• Even ‘reliable’ software seems to glitch more (looking at you Apple)
• It all costs more ($8.75/user/mo just to chat with your team mates?)

Hardware innovation slowed, so the problem became obvious.

But the fix is easy.

REMEMBER =

You’re not in the ‘making hardware do stuff’ business.

You’re in the ‘giving hardware a personality’ business.

So instead of building a ‘personality’ that is:

• Boring (‘here are your stupid buttons’)
• Unreliable (‘down for maintenance’)
• Cheeky (‘hey, hey, want to buy upgrades?’)

Try to building a ‘personality’ that is:

• Fun (‘welcome back, let’s play’)
• Reliable (‘you can trust me’)
• An ally (‘let’s fight this together’)

So while your competitors all feel the pinch… (while pretending they don’t)

…You can enjoy unlimited growth.

SaaS is still a blue ocean.

At least, for those who know what business they’re in.

The SaaS market is changing. A lot.


A race to the bottom is emerging.

How do you protect from that?

Turns out people aren’t paying premiums for…

• Your code
• Your logo
• Your features

…if similar code/features are cheaper elsewhere.

People pay premiums for:

• Personality / philosophical alignment
• Relationship with brand / founders
• Feeling good each time they see you

…even if similar features are cheaper elsewhere.

Example:

Many enjoy paying for HEY.com email because:

• The product takes a stand (w/ shared user values)
• The founders are vocal and visible (and entertaining)
• The product is full of personality (you can ‘feel’ its beliefs)

…despite costing $99/year when Gmail is $0.

Your code won’t be an advantage for long.
But the way your audience feels can be.

So put on a show they love and look forward to.
It’s literally what they’re paying you for.

Satisfied customers don’t refer business.


Happy customers don’t refer business.

Fans refer business.

So don’t create customers. Create fans.

They’ll refer themselves, then anyone who will listen.

Learning is a skill worth learning.

But few of us actually try to learn it!

We usually just ‘wing it’.

But you can put process to learning and learn so much faster:

• Do you outline your learning goals?
• Do you modularise your learning into chunks, so you can measure progress?
• Do you have a plan for when you’ll tackle each chunk, carving out time for them?
• Do you work out prerequisites each chunk will require you to know?

These are just a few examples of things you can prepare as a system for learning.

If you master learning, you can master any topic you like.

Worth spending some time thinking about, then?

The main question creators should ask when buying tools:

“Will this help me do my best work?”

Here’s how that can show up:

“Does this have enough power? Or too much? Or not enough?”
Over-buying or under-buying doesn’t help your work. Get what’s right, not what’s biggest, and not just what’s on offer.

Example: I spec hardware based on the tasks it’s being bought for, not on ‘bigger is better’.

“Does this open doors for my work or close them?
Some platforms or ‘ecosystems’ seem more eager to lock you in as a consumer than to elevate you as a creator. Be mindful of that when making buying decisions.

Example: I use hardware from various companies, and try to choose ‘platform agnostic’ options when possible, to allow for more open doors than closed ones.

“Does this make a real difference or is it just cool?”
Choose tools based on what moves the needle, not what others think is the hot new thing.

Example: If the fanciest smartphone doesn’t help, get something simple and reallocate funds where it actually matters.

Does this need to change, or is ‘old reliable’ actually better?
I use my desktop computer in almost exactly the same way as I did 15 years ago, because mastery beats shiny.

Example: I do all my writing in Vim because it’s powerful, available everywhere, and isn’t going anywhere. It’s not new or shiny, but it works well for me.

There are no right or wrong answers.

But there is choosing between buying as a creator and buying as a consumer.

They’re different.

Know which hat you’re wearing when going to the checkout.

Good news.

AI is devouring the marketing world and everyone in it.

Wait, why’s that good news again?

After all, you’re marketing your work… and you don’t want to be devoured.

Sounds painful. And wet.

It’s good news because your biggest competition is being destroyed as you read this: the low-effort content creators, crash-course ghostwriters and send-it-east-for-cheap-ers.

They’re toast. Buttered toast. AI is devouring them.

So where does that leave you?

It leaves you where you were you supposed to be all along:

Producing thoughtful, entertaining, educational material that your chosen few love and look forward to.

Curating immersive experiences they can’t wait to discover and get lost in.

Being unscaleably 'present' for them, answering their mail as a real, un-delegated human being.

Even on a global stage, there’s less competition than you think.

So while the rest of the world races to get buttered…

…You can be building and marketing a body of work that lasts.

I go into more detail on this topic in this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter. Check it out!