Archive of posts from April 2024

Most marketing ‘investment’ is wasted…

On short-lived assets that don’t work & don’t last.

Except these 3 things are never a waste:

1) Inviting us on the right journey

• Know where users are
• Know where users want to go - The right journey: a direct path between these places

First sell the journey, not the vehicle.

2) Giving more than you ask

• We dismiss ‘asking before giving’ as ‘sales’.
• We engage ‘giving before asking’ as ‘value’.
• We’re more likely to buy from the latter.

So do the latter, silly!

3) Making it more enjoyable

• If it’s less enjoyable than what we’re doing, we skip it.
• If it’s more enjoyable than what we’re doing, we click it.
• This is as true of execs at work as it is kids at home.

All else being equal, we prefer the not-boring option.

The market stopped sweating the details.

‘Good enough’ is normal. Nothing amazes us anymore.
Seize the opportunity while it’s there:

⛌ Run ‘marketing’
✓ Run ‘programmes’ users love & look forward to

⛌ Add product features
✓ Add product experiences users tell others about

⛌ Increase outbound quantity so people delete you
✓ Increase outbound quality so people thank you

⛌ Create more content
✓ Create content that your whole niche looks up to

Everyone’s sick of ‘fast-food’ marketing.
So become your niche’s ‘steak-house’.

If you believe what you read in the news,
You’d think AI will replace creators.

But AI does not replace creators.</br> At least, not all of them.

How do you know if you’ll be one of them?

AI helps average creators stay average.

It makes low-effort work more low-effort.
It makes forgettable work more forgettable.
It makes commoditised work more commoditised.

If you pump out templated content, video ads that look like powerpoint presentations, and ChatGPT-written articles, your days (or at least your marketing’s days) are numbered.

Examples of ways to stay average with AI:

• AI as your replacement (if you think it can replace you, you’re right)
• AI as a text spinner (recycling other people’s content rather than finding your own voice)
• AI as a video generator (if you and your style aren’t present, why should we care about the source)
• AI as your guide (rather than as your sidekick)

AI helps great creators stay great.

It makes remarkable work more remarkable.
It makes shareable ideas more shareable.
It makes masterful work more masterful.

If you thoughtfully produce great content, experiences that people love and look forward to, and use AI as a thought accelerant instead of your replacement, your days have only just begun.

Examples of ways to stay great with AI:

• AI as a brainstorming buddy (to kick ideas around with you 24/7)
• AI as an audience member (let it behave in response to your audience insights, see what it says)
• AI as devil’s advocate (let it poke holes in your work before you publish)
• AI as a time machine (let it show you your work from different angles, so you can see which you like best before you build it properly)

I go into more detail on this topic in the latest issue of The Productoon newsletter. Check it out!

Good marketing and good parenting have a few things in common.

Both require you to be very patient.

Both require giving abundantly more than you ask for.

Both require you make things enjoyable if they’re to be accepted.

Both require a never-ending commitment to them and to being your best.

Both require you to, at times, deal with some crap.

While marketing is nowhere near as rewarding as parenting…
There are still plenty of lessons we can apply to marketing.

LinkedIn / X / etc. are ‘wide’ channels.

But ‘narrow’ channels are incredible for growth.

What they are and how to use them:

1) Social media timelines are busy.

’Cus we’re all on the same channel. That’s why they’re wide: to fit us all in. & that’s why algos exist: to filter the noise.

2) ‘Narrow channels’ are not busy.

’Cus only likeminded fans are there. No algo needed. And everyone gets heard.

3) There are ‘narrow channels’ for your niche.

Small groups full of in-jokes & shared problems. Find some, pick one. Learn the jokes & problems.

4) Contribute meaningfully on that channel.

Give abundantly more than you ask for. Make those ‘gives’ enjoyable to receive.

Now you know:

• Exactly who your buyers are
• The specific problems to solve
• How they enjoy receiving the solution
• Precisely who’ll share what you made

Wasn’t that what you were looking for?

When everyone communicates on one shared channel (like Twitter),

We need algorithms to jump in and help. Otherwise it’s too much.

When everyone communicates in their own small communities (like a Discord server, message board, or Slack group),

We don’t need algorithms anymore. We can enjoy every, messy interaction. The group can manage itself.

When algorithms get involved, silly games emerge, and value isn’t rewarded.

When the many separates into the few, value is what we value most.

This is why I’ve always believed more in communities than shouting into the noisiest channels.

Find your communities. Places you can show up with everything you’ve got.

Watch what happens to your network, your reception, and your projects.

It’s a lie.

Perpetuated by online gurus:

“The ONE method to need to grow your biz”

Buy their product → ____ → Profit?

There’s no one method. They all work!

I’ve personally seen growth using:

• organic social
• direct mail
• cold email
• cold calls
• paid ads
• seo

It’s not about the channel.

It’s about being on-narrative (their words),
giving more than you ask (a resource),
and being enjoyable (vs boring).

Do more of what works.

DM chat going well?
Don’t force a Calendly link on them.

Unscaleable outbound working?
Don’t break it at the altar of scale.

Product churn rates low?
Don’t force a 2.0, let them keep 1.0.

Your tech stack works great & fast?
Don’t dream of grand rewrites.

Your quirky GTD system works well?
Don’t download that shiny new app.

A big reason why things don’t work,
is you stop working it when it does.

If it works,
keep doing it.

Edutainment is not:

• adding cringe jokes
• dancing on TikTok
• novel distraction
• just being silly

Edutainment is:

• increasing ‘attention quality’
• easier user deplatforming
• sustainable acquisition
• higher ROAS potential
• higher CRO potential
• brand moat building

Brands are only starting to notice.

The status quo wants developers writing JS, Rust and Go.
But there are plenty who want your Ruby, Swift and Python.

The status quo wants writers pumping out more volume.
But there are plenty who want less but better.

The status quo wants good artists for cheap.
But there are plenty who pay for great.

If the status quo doesn’t suit you,
Go to the edges.

You’ll find your people there.

Those who have no expertise, do not know.

Those who have expertise, know.

Those who have expertise, but choose not to know, know most of all.

Those who have no expertise, but think they know, are probably social media influencers.

Do you have a 'system'?

Everyone has a 'system'.
A 'too good to be true' offer.
An erudite triteness masked as 'intellectual property'.

Well. Not everyone.
But look at modern advertising. It feels that way!

Can reason compete with this?
The answer lies in truths:

• People like things that give more than they ask.
• People like enjoyable things more than boring things.
• People like well-made things more than regurgitated trash.

Best of all?
People like those things all of the time.

But emerging trends?
Hot new social tools?
Easy-money opportunities?
People only like those things some of the time.
They do. Until they don’t.

I explore this topic in more detail in this week’s issue of The Productoon newsletter. Check it out!

Go all in.

But don’t forget:

Don’t believe everything you hear online.
Don’t buy into the hype on your timeline.
Don’t trust too-good-to-be-true offers.
Don’t take shortcuts, they’re bear traps.
If it’s taking a while, but it’s working, don’t break it.

“Post 64 times a day”…

“Inbound is better than outbound”…

These ‘takes’ are missing the point.

Here’s the point:

• You don’t pick friends based on ‘who went first’
• You don’t connect the loudmouth or the mute
• Everyone’s best friend was once a stranger
• So many would-be-great-friends still are

So whether you do inbound or outbound,
Whether you post every day or not at all,
Remember what two wise men said:

“Be excellent to each other.”

Social strategy:

Step 1: Do cool stuff

Step 2: Talk about it in cool ways

Step 3: Ensure it’s valuable & enjoyable

If it won’t fit into a scribble on a napkin, it’s too complex!

“Post 64 times a day”…

“Inbound is better than outbound”…

These ‘takes’ are missing the point.

Here’s the point:

• You don’t pick friends based on ‘who went first’
• You don’t connect the loudmouth or the mute
• Everyone’s best friend was once a stranger
• So many would-be-great-friends still are

So whether you do inbound or outbound,
Whether you post every day or not at all,
Remember what two wise men said:

“Be excellent to each other.”

After gardening all day…

And now I write this while everything aches (ha!)…

Some product design observations hit me while riding around cutting the lawn:

• Everything takes longer than you think it will
• Rushing can make the lawn shorter, but not nicer
• Everyone has a short lawn, not everyone has a nice lawn
• The difference between ‘short’ and ‘nice’ is patience and care
• You can’t do everything in one go, but you can make progress
• Ship progress, and enjoy how it looks out the window
• Ship progress on top of progress on top of progress
• Eventually, you’ve shipped ‘nice’

Yesterday’s newsletter issue generated a lot of positive responses.

That’s great!

One concern I hear when people are challenged to be great is this:

But that takes a long time. Everyone is moving so fast, I don’t have time.

I think that’s sad.

If you don’t ‘have time’ to be great, you certainly won’t have time to be mediocre. After all, mediocrity is a crowded space, and diffcult to win in for long.

Great work, on the other hand, does take a long time… but the competition is almost non-existent.

That affords you all the time you need.

This week’s issue of The Productoon newsletter dug into how we don’t need to be limited by social media platforms and their algorithms.

But to be free, we need to be great. Here’s an excerpt:

Make things so good they’ll
randomly check elsewhere for you.

Ever flick over to your favourite store or channels?
Just to see if there’s something new or interesting?
Most of us do.

Great experiences live rent-free in our minds.
Optimise for it.

Make things so good that
media covers you cross-platform anyway.

The media covers interesting and noteworthy things.
So make interesting and noteworthy things.

Then tell them about it.

Leverage smaller-by-design channels.

Email newsletters. Discord servers.
These work because you’re the moderator.
Not an algorithm trying to sift through billions of posts an hour.

Now you’re the one responsible for your people seeing the best stuff.
And you’re far better equipped to do that than Meta is.

Okay okay… so it’s clear: we have to make really great things.

What does “really great things” mean?

Here’s the formula for that in this context:

Give more than you ask + Make it enjoyable.

The more you give than you ask, and the more you make it enjoyable, the greater your results should be. Do that and extend your time horizon, and you’re golden.

Don’t entrust the health and wellbeing of your creations, projects, or business ventures with platforms and gatekeepers that don’t give a hoot about you.

The safest, smartest, and most fun thing you can do is to be bigger than the platforms.

To read the full issue, go to TheProductoon.com and subscribe!

3 ingredients of great content.
Which are you missing?

A) Know your audience’s tastes
B) Have great ideas for those tastes
C) Implement them

Not easy…

But at least it’s simple!

So no more researching.

Execute your ABCs + partner with those who can help.

What great videos & driving a car have in common:

You need these 3 things for both to work:

1. Eyes. See what’s ahead, develop good taste

2. Brain.
Process opportunities based on what you see

3. Car.
Systems & teams used to act upon opportunities

No eyes? You fly blind. Who knows what’ll work.
No brain? You just copy others. No advantage.
No car? You can’t strike while the iron’s hot.

Get all 3 and enjoy the ride.

Can you advertise without Meta?

Yes… If you do it right:

You’ll struggle if:

• You’re chasing eyeballs
• Your content isn’t missable
• We won’t de-platform to see you
• You don’t induce enthusiastic shares

You’ll thrive if:

• Your work is worthy of interest - We’d miss you if you were gone
• We’ll de-platform specifically for you
• Sharing your work makes us look good

You can’t trust Meta (or any ‘platform’).
They are not your friends.

Your best lifeline is to make things people share, seek out, look forward to, and would miss if you stopped.

Some say it’s the best ad ever made.
Why?

No one was offended.
No one was alienated.
No one was pushed away.
No one connected with it.
No one clicked or purchased.

But at least no one was excluded!
…Right?

Wrong. Everyone was excluded:

• You didn’t help anyone.
• They’re still suffering/stuck.
• They needed you. You weren’t there.

Don’t play it safe.
You owe it to them to push the wrong ones away so the right ones can find you.

It feels like a weekly occurence at this point.

Each week, I see behind the scenes of a ‘super-successful’ business that’s silently suffering.

Or I wonder where they went, seemingly on top of the world, but quietly liquidating.

Or I get a message asking to solve the very problem they outwardly proclaim to be a master of.

It’s everywhere, all of the time.

Nothing is as it seems.

Don’t believe what you read.

Commit to your craft and elevate your space.

You’re rarer than you realise.

AI generated images impress at first sight.

When DALL-E and Midjourney revealed a year ago, the world gasped.

“This will change everything!”

And it did… if you were a stock photographer, relying on mass orders of average images.

To the rest of us, it hasn’t really changed much.

“Impressed at first sight” doesn’t always translate into a substantial long-term relationship with a brand or technology.

Even ones that are supposed to ‘change the world’.

And so it is with our brands:

Why dazzle when you can illuminate.

16 May 2023, when Clear announced thir app was returning…
The market was a totally different place.
We weren’t celebrating the leader.
We were cheering the underdog.
But why were were cheering?
After they’d vanished?

Three reasons:

Clear invited us on a journey.

They announced they were back. Their first email started with thanks. For following. For caring. For believing. Then they showed what they were working on.

They made it clear they couldn’t do it alone. They made it clear that Clear needed us. So they invited us on a journey.

Clear gave more than it asked.

Almost every email contained a gift. Special app icons. Custom app themes. All redeemable once the app goes live.

Being there for the journey peppered us with goodies. We felt invested. We felt loved on. We felt like we had something to lose if it didn’t work out.

Clear made it enjoyable.

Each free gift was thoughtfully displayed in pretend product packaging, complete with cut-outs for hanging in a store. It reminded us of shopping at toy stores as kids. And we get these for free!

Not only was the app meant to be enjoyable when it was completed… but the process of coming along for the ride while it was being developed was also enjoyable.

Now it’s on home screens everywhere.

We didn’t need another to-do list app.
This one doesn’t work on your Mac or on the web (iOS only).
This one doesn’t let you share your lists with others.
This one doesn’t let you make repeat-todos.
This one doesn’t let you make reminders.
This one doesn’t follow the playbook.

But it gives more than it asks, and is enjoyable.
For their choice of market, that’s enough.

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

Your content says more about you than you think.

It’s easy to spot:

Those who sell mediocre products:

• Post overly sensational content
• Tease ‘success secrets’ all the time
• Trade on scarcity, not value/enjoyment

Those who sell great products:

• Give abundantly more than they ask
• Make those gives & asks enjoyable
• Trade on reciprocity & brand equity

Easy to spot when you know what to look for.

If you’re going to create,
Create the second kind 🫶

Ignoring community = business on hard-mode.

It’s not hard:

• Find where your people hang out
• Hang out with them there
• Become a (real) friend
• Give 10:1 Ask ratio

It’s not hard because it’s fun.
Making friends + making their lives better?
What’s not to love about that?

Clear (a to-do list app) launched in 2012.
Debuted #1 ‘top grossing’ in the US App Store.

I remember using it on my 4S, thinking to myself,
“This actually makes grocery shopping…enjoyable.”

Then it went quiet.
No updates.
No news.
Quiet.

So 16 May 2023, when they announced it was returning…
The market was a totally different place.
We weren’t celebrating the leader.
We were cheering the underdog.
But why were were cheering?
After they’d vanished?

Because they invited us along for the ride.

And just like that, their journey became our journey too.

Not growing as fast as you’d like?

Remember:

In nature, things that grow quickly,
Tend to die quickly.

Also in nature,
Things you regularly feed and water,
In time, will still be standing
for your grandchildren to enjoy.

Maybe you’re not building a weed.
Maybe you’re building a Redwood.