Marketing
920 posts
Reaching Resonance
The impact you make will depend on your ideas resonating with the right people—not just reaching the most people.
Who Do You Want To Be To Whom?
The key question for all of us, no matter what business we’re in, is who do we want to be to whom? When we lose sight of who we’re in business to serve, and why we lose more than our competitive advantage. We lose the heart and soul of our business.
How Obstacles Create Value
The better we understand the obstacle, the better we get at solving the problem. And the better we can describe the obstacle, the better we become at selling the solution.
When Marketing Works
Marketing works best when it’s in service of the customer.
What’s Your Customer Acquisition Strategy?
Successful selling is as much about customer discernment as it is about brand differentiation.
Invest in Second Contact
Both businesses and the customers win when we prioritise affinity over attention.
Begin With Wants and Needs
All successful businesses do two things. They fulfil the unmet needs and unspoken desires of their ideal customer.
What’s Your Promise To Your Customers?
There are a thousand ways to stand out with a better story. And you get to pick one.
When Subjectivity Wins
Successful brands craft and tell stories for their ideal customers—the people who are ready to hear and believe them.The more subjective we can be in our sales and marketing, the better.
Get Specific To Get More Customers
The more specific you can be about who your work is for and who it’s not for, the better your chances of gaining traction with more people.
Persuade On Purpose, With Purpose
If we’re in the business of making things that change people’s lives for the better, we must master the art of persuasion and help people to make decisions they’re glad about.
The Value Conversation
What’s the value conversation your customer is having?
Say It With Intention
Communication is not just an exchange of information, it’s also an exchange of intention. We’re never just speaking or writing the words to be heard, we’re always trying to make ourselves understood.
Reverse Marketing
Who is the antithesis of your ideal customer? What’s the message you’d share to convince that person never to buy from you? When you can tell that story well, you’ll be something to someone.
Rethinking Customer Loyalty
What if instead of only measuring, rewarding and expecting loyalty, we started measuring how we demonstrate it?
Everything Speaks
The fundamentals don’t garner loyalty. Customers want an experience. People don’t just buy what we serve—they buy how it makes them feel.
What’s The Story The Customer Is Telling Himself?
For a long time, our family’s favourite salt came in either 125g or 250g boxes. Last week I noticed the supermarket now stocks it in a 55g refillable mill. It’s the same product in different packaging—except for the price that is. It costs 37 cents per 10g when you buy the salt boxed, and $1.45…
The Forgotten Purpose Of Marketing
We tend to think of marketing as the way we promote and sell our services. Marketing is partly what we do to take a potential customer on a journey from awareness to a sale. But that isn’t the only thing marketing is for. Great marketing isn’t just the way we communicate our message—it’s also the…
A Word About Value
How much is an avocado worth? The answer is, it depends. It depends on the season, the stock levels, how much the customer wants it and the context in which they are buying or consuming it. Buy an avocado from the market, and it might be as little as $2.50. Mash it up, serve it…
On The Face Of It
Our neighbours are selling their house. The selling agent said if they want to get the best price, they should give it a lick of paint. And so the decorators are outside today painting the railings. There’s no doubt that a fresh coat of paint will brighten the place up ready for auction day. But…
