Marketing a business shouldn’t be a Hail Mary pass. Paid advertising shouldn’t be your last hope.

Throwing good money at a bad customer experience rarely works, unless you find joy in lighting money on fire. When struggling to grow your business, spending more money doesn’t solve your problems. It creates new ones.

You’re better off going back to the basics. To revisit what got you here. To amplify the good.

Talk to one client who loves what you are doing

It’s easy to take happy customers for granted. They aren’t the squeaky wheels. They don’t call you every day and demand answers.

They are satisfied, but why?

What did you do to make them so happy? What were their expectations in working with you? And how did you meet or exceed those expectations?

Instead of assuming you know the answers, talk to them. Use your relationship to learn the real story behind your success. The reason for your rapport.

Talk to them on the phone, video chat, or whatever the kids are using these days. Record it. Reflect on it.

And then do the same thing until you have multiple data points to draw upon.

Now put it all together into a narrative. This becomes your differentiator. This is your market validation.

Your marketing probably doesn’t match your reality

Most company websites are dedicated to hubris.

They lack self-awareness, and they represent a selfish view of the world at large. They take, take, take.

Your potential customers are looking for you to give, give, give.

Your existing customers are happy with you, in spite of your positioning. Your marketing missed the mark, but they are working with you anyway.

But that disconnect doesn’t float at scale. It breaks down the minute you try to run a Facebook ad or bid in Google AdWords.

Good money doesn’t save bad marketing.

Fix your $hit

At this point it should be obvious. I think that your website kinda sucks. And it’s your fault. You are a selfish egomaniac who only cares about growing your business. Guess what, I am too! This weekly newsletter is a pseudo support group for people like us.

And yet you are in the business of helping other companies. Companies that are also lead by egomaniacs looking out for their best interest.

Guess what they don’t want to hear about? YOU! You are an accessory to their ambitions. You are a footnote in their rise to fame and fortune. 

Give them what they want. Stroke their ego. Share what is in it for them.

Focus on their needs, and you will accomplish yours tenfold.

Finding validation in the marketplace… hmm, isn’t that the definition of marketing?

It sure is. Yet we think that marketing is SEO or PPC or Social or Radio or TV or Magazines or Trade Shows.

Those are just mediums. Mediums to grow your reach. To expand your ideas. To achieve scale.

We live in an amazing world where all it takes is 5 minutes and a credit card to reach millions of people through advertising.

Yet if you were to advertise your business right now, that money would be wasted. At least until your marketing answers the question “what’s in it for me?”

Marketing is empathy.

Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects. Make it about them. 

And then amplify.

Seek validation in the marketplace

That’s the only definition of marketing you need at this phase.

And once that happens, you have a million mediums to amplify the message. Profitably.