What you create is not going to be consumed the way you thought it would.
There is no education. There is no explaining. There is no walkthrough. The only way you address this is by committing to a practice of research.
Ask.
Listen.
Aggregate.
Adjust.
Ask.
Listen.
Aggregate.
Adjust.
It might be that at some point what you create is no longer what you want to create. It is not likely, but it is a possibility.
In that case, move a step away and start over.
Ask.
Listen.
Aggregate.
Adjust.
Is being dumb giving you an edge in marketing?
I am not talking about a lack of intelligence, but rather of a genuine, näive ignorance around topics you probably can never be very sure about.
Why is this campaign working?
What do you mean by that word you are using so frequently in your copy?
What is our ideal customer? Where do they hang out? What do they care about?
Why is this blog post performing way above average?
Do our visitors approach our resources in terms of “case studies”, “videos”, and “whitepaper”, or are they seeking information about what type of customer, what use cases, what pain points?
Are we expressing our product this way because it is comfortable for us or because it makes sense to our target customers?
I am not sold on the idea that being certain and confident is a good thing in marketing. What worked yesterday, what is working today, will probably not work tomorrow. What worked for that campaign, will probably not work this time. What worked in one company, will probably not work in the new one.
So, is the dumber marketer the one who is going to ask those questions?
In University, I was taught that communication, in its most basic form, is the cooperation between a sender and a receiver to get a message through a shared environment.
And while that certainly holds true still today, I am more and more convinced that in business, communication is in the hands of the receiver.
Think about marketing: the receiver is forced through a myriad of messages and decides what to dedicate attention to in a matter of seconds. Think about internal communication: the receiver can call bullshit on any message management is sharing if that does not reflect their day-to-day experience. Think about presentations: the receiver is so fed up with bullet points and animations (particularly after one year of virtual meetings) to the point they can check emails or write a report while you are struggling to make a case.
The receiver is central in any form of corporate communication.
And the fact that we spend so little time trying to figure them out is the most widely overlooked device a professional has to leverage to get their messages through.
This way of doing marketing does not work for everybody. In fact, it probably would not work for your company.
But it works for Balsamiq.
I guess the point of this story is the following.
Before jumping into a funnel carousel, before starting to talk about MQLs, SQLs, and SAOs, before paying an agency to figure out your business model and your brand, before running around optimizing the optimizable and hacking the hackable. Take a deep breath.
Find a way that works for your customers and for your business. A way that reflects your values, your purpose, the change you want to see in the world. A way that you are proud to promote, that your leadership is proud to promote, that your employees are proud to promote. A way that lets you build a sustainable business where you and your team are the ones defining success.
There is no other way. It’s your winning way.
If you have an idea to spread, a change you care to see happening, a product to market, the first question should not be “where is my audience?”.
The first question should be “who is my audience?”.
It is a shift in perspective.
From desperately moving from one channel to the next (and mastering none), with messages that are ineffective (because they are either about you or they aim to appeal to too many), to already knowing where you will be tomorrow.
It is the way to become master of your own future.
Many call it strategy.
You've got this 