This is Marketing - Seth Godin
You Can't be Seen Until You Learn to See
[bq] “Too many marketers spend most of their time running a hype show.”
Should instead focus on doing work that matters for people who care.
Everyone does marketing, whether they know it or not (e.g. when you ask your boss for a raise).
Marketing is about making things better by actually making change happen.
1. Not Mass, Not Spam, Not Shameful...
Trust is more valuable than reaching a mass audience.
Should think of marketing as helping someone solving a problem they have, rather than “shouting, jostling, or coercion.”
For a long time marketing was the same as advertising. But that has changed completely.
[bq] Proper marketing “seeks volunteers, not victims."
2. The Marketer Learns to See
Marketing in five steps:
Invent a thing worth marketing, with a story worth telling
Design/build it so a small audience will get huge benefits from it
Tell a story, specifically focusing on that smallest viable audience
Spread the word
[bq] “Show up - regularly, consistently, and generously, for years and years."
[bq] “If you want to make change, begin by making culture. Begin by organising a tightly knit group.”
3. Marketing Changes People Through Stories, Connections, and Experience
Loss avoidance is stronger than desire for gain.
[bq] “The way we make things better is by caring enough about hot we serve to imagine the story that they need to hear."
[bq] “People don’t want what you make. They want what it will do for them. They want they way it will make them feel.”
Should focus on being market-driven, taking into account the hopes/desires of your target audience, rather than marketing-driven.
4. The Smallest Viable Market
[bq] “If you’re a marketer, you’re in the business of making change happen.”
Become clear (and realistic) about what change you’re trying to make happen.
All good marketing makes a promise of the form “If you do X, you will get Y,” even if it’s often hidden. Should know what promise you are making.
Essential question: “Who’s it for?” What’s the worldview and psychographic of your audience?
Focus your energy/attention on the smallest viable market, but make sure you reach the right people. If they love it, they will spread your message for you.
[bq] “Your work is not for everyone. It’s only for those who signed up for the journey.”
Sometimes we even have two say “It’s not for you.” Shows respect and honesty.
Marketing promise template:
[bq] “My product is for people who believe X.
I will focus on people who want Y.
I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get Z.”
[bq] “Start with empathy to see a real need. Not an invented one.”
Ask “what would matter” rather than “what business could I start”.
5. In Search of “Better"
[bq] “Empathy is at the heart of marketing.”
“Better” is not really a linear scale, and it highly depends on the person. Need to make something that’s “better” for a very specific group of people.
People (especially early-adopters) look for uniqueness.
Good marketers have humility and curiosity.
Deciding to stand for something, to pick a clear position, especially an extreme one, can be great marketing.
Features are often less important than the emotions these features evoke.
6. Beyond Commodities
Marketing should start with a problem you seek to solve, not a solution.
Making/selling commodities is extremely difficult and a race to the bottom. Instead, should find a unique narrative and appeal to a special set of people.
[bq] “Authenticity in the marketplace is a myth.”
It’s okay to act a story, smile even if you don’t feel like smiling, if the narrative serves your target audience. Protect and reserve your true self for those close to you.
Being a professional and doing emotional labor, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and figuring out what they want/need, is more important than being authentic.
[bq] “The goal isn’t to personalise the work. It’s to make it personal.”
7. The Canvas of Drams and Desires
[bq] “People are intimately aware of they wants (which they think of as needs) but they are absolutely terrible at inventing new ways to address those wants.”
The dreams people have vary from person to person, but they often fall into a small set of common ones. You don’t need to invent new dreams or emotions, just new ways to address them.
[bq] “Most of us do our most important work when we trade in emotions, not commodities."
Always be testing. Choose your stand, your promise, then test and measure how it performs, and adjust from there.
8. More of the Who: Seeking the Smallest Viable Market
[bq] “Your best customers become your sales people.”
If you can design sharing directly into your product, you have a very powerful self-marketing engine.
In today’s more personalised time, true hits are “meaningful for a few and invisible to the rest.”
But that’s all you need, one thousand true fans.
9. People Like Us Do Things Like This
People don’t change very easily. They like to fir in, which rarely leads to change.
We behave how we think “people like us” should behave.
[bq] “Marketers make change. And they do it by normalising new behaviours.”
“The Culture” doesn’t exist. There are many cultures, and many “us,” and we need to define which one we care about. Need to be brave enough to pick just one and then focus all our energy on it.
10. Trust and Tension Create Forward Motion
Matching an existing pattern is much easier than disrupting one. BUT: You can market to people who had their pattern interrupted through something else and don’t have a new one yet. (e.g. new dads, engaged women, people who just moved to a new area).
Can also try to pattern match a small group and have them build tension on others to trigger a pattern interrupt (e.g. early adopters of a social network telling their friends that they’re missing out).
[bq] “Marketers who cause change cause tension.”
[bq] “There are two ways to do your work. You can be a cab driver. Show up and ask someone where they want to go. […] Or you can be an agent of change, someone who creates tension and then relieves it.”
11. Status, Dominance, and Affiliation
Whether we realize it or not, a lot of decisions are driven by status. Status is everywhere where there is more than one person.
Marketers should recognise that some people desire status change (up or down), and some want to maintain their status.
Status is relative, and depends on the observer.
Some pope like the safety/comfort of lower status.
What’s the status narrative your audience is telling itself?
Status can be about dominion, ruling or winning over others, or about affiliation, who your know and interact with in your community.
[bq] “Dominion is a vertical experience, above or below. Affiliation is a horizontal one: Who’s standing next to me?”
12. A Better Business Plan
Traditional business plans often don’t help much in guiding you. Better way is to structure it into these five sections:
Truth: What does the world look like? The market, people, competition,…
Assertions: How will you change the current truth? This is the key section.
Alternatives: What if your assertions don’t work out? What is the margin for error?
People: Who is on your team? What’s their track record?
Money: How much do you need? How much goes in and out?
13. Semiotics, Symbols, and Vernacular
Good marketers know what symbols work for what group, and are not afraid to invent and spread new ones.
[bq] “Send a signal that feels like a sign we already trust, then change it enough to let us know that it’s new, and that it’s yours.”
[bq] “To change the culture, we have no choice but to acknowledge the culture we seek to change.”
[bq] “If people career, you’ve got a brand.”
14. Treat Different People Differently
Good marketers know their main target is neophiliacs. They don’t waste anyone’s time trying to target people who defend the status quo and hate change.
[bq] “It’s not for them. Not right now.”
[bq] “The best marketers earn enrolment by seeking people who want the change being offered.”
Not by buying flashy ads.
If you recognise a superuser, have the courage to give them a special treatment.
[bq] “You’ll serve many people. You’ll profit from a few.”
15. Reaching the Right People
Online advertising is the cheapest and most specifically targetable form of ads. But it’s also the most ignored one.
[bq] "Advertising is unearned media. It’s bought and paid for. And the people you seek to reach know it.”
[bq] “Advertising feels like a shortcut. But without persistence and focus, the investment is wasted.”
Direct marketing: Measure everything and change quickly if things don’t work.
Brand marketing: Don’t measure, engage with people, and be consistent and patient.
Everything you do, every choice you make, is a way of marketing your brand, whether you are aware of it or not.
[bq] “Every time we see any of you, we ought to be able to make a smart guess about all of you.”
We associate “trust” with things that happen again and again.
[bq] “All the story telling you do requires frequency.”
Many quit in the dip where they get bored/tired, but people don’t yet get the message. Sometimes need to stick it out a bit longer and be persistent.
16. Price is a Story
[bq] “Pricing is a marketing tool, not simply a way to get the money.”
Need to have a story to match our pricing.
[bq] “Low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of ideas.”
But: can make sense to give things away completely for free to spread your ideas and then sell premium experiences.
Higher prices often give you more trust.
17. Permission and Remarkability in a Virtuous Cycle
Before paying for ads, think about why people would miss you (or your ads) if you were gone.
[bq] “Every publisher, every media company, every author of ideas needs to own a permission asset, the privilege of contacting people without a middleman.”
Make sure you own your platform (rather than relying e.g. on a particular service).
You earn permission with generosity and by paying attention, and consistently showing up.
18. Trust is as Scarce as Attention
Attention alone is not enough. Also need trust. And trust generates more attention.
Actions generate more trust than talk.
[bq] “The goal isn’t to maximise your social media numbers. The goal is to be known to the smallest viable audience.”
19. The Funnel
Your pour attention into your funnel and get committed loyal customers out at the bottom. Ideally with as little leakage as possible.
[bq] “The first thousand customers, if they’re the right people, are practically priceless.”
[bq] “If you can’t see the funnel, don’t buy the ads.”
Ads rarely pay for themselves. Most brands that matter grew through good marketing, customers who spread the work, and consistently producing quality. But ads can seed this process.
[bq] “The goal is to prime the pump with ads aimed at neophiliacs. […] Then build trust with frequency. […] And to make it pay for building a cohoe of people, a network that needs your work to be part o who they are and what they do.”
If you can build on the network effect, creating an experience that gets better the more people are involved, people will spread the word for you.
20. Organising and Leading a Tribe
[bq] “Story of self. Story of us. Story of now.”
Want to start a narrative with our own transformation/journey and credibility. Then introduce how it can impact our audience. And finally have the call to action.
As a marketer, have the opportunity to connect isolated/disconnected people into a tribe of shared values and interests. You don’t necessarily have to lead the tribe. You just have to initiate it. However, if you want to stay relevant to the culture, have to regularly engage with and challenge the tribe.
[bq] “The best marketers are farmers, not hunters. Plant, tend, plow, fertilise, weed, repeat.”
21. Some Case Studies Using the Method
When Tesla launched the Model S, it told a story that shattered other previous stories of luxury car owners who thought they had a technologically advanced, super safe, and environmentally friendly car. It created tension.
22. Marketing Works, and Now It’s Your Turn
Perfectionism can prevent us from shipping.
[bq] “Good enough isn’t a shortcut. Good enough leads to engagement. Engagement leads to trust. […] Ship your work. It’s good enough. Then make it better.”
23. Marketing to the Most Important Person
Marketing can be evil, but it can also be an incredible tool for change.
[bq] “Just like every powerful tool, the impact comes from the craftsman, not the tool. […] The question, one I hope you’ll ask yourself, is What are you going to do with that impact?”
[bq] “If you tell yourself a story enough times, you will make it true.”
[bq] “It’s the marketing we do for ourselves, to ourselves, by ourselves, the story we tell ourselves, that can change everything."