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Marketing Micro Essay 💡5 Insights from Bolaji Oyejide

Time to read: 3:51 minutes
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Insight 1: Marketing is about understanding your audience and building relationships, not just persuasion

"Marketing is about inspiring change through empathy and shared understanding, not just persuasion."

I love how Bolaji defines marketing: inspiring (positive) change. This directly impacted my definition and has helped me see the purpose of marketing slightly differently. It's focused on helping our audience/customers change (for the better).

But the means to doing that have changed. It's not using persuasive copy and psychological hacks to get what I want. It's about gaining a shared understanding and helping that person progress.

Rather than telling someone the sky is blue when they think it's grey, it's about seeing through their eyes, "Why do they see the sky as grey?"

And then formulate pathways to help them come to their own realization.

"Marketing is the act of inspiring change. But it's not persuasion. It's not me coming to tell Jordan that I know you think the sky is grey, but it's actually blue. No, it's me walking along with Jordan, getting to know Jordan. And over time, we share philosophies about how to read the weather. And then one day he's gonna be like, you know, the sky is blue."

The company closest to the customer wins. Because they have the leverage (through relationships) to inspire and sustain change for the customer.

Marketing is all about change.

Insight 2: Storytelling ( > Data) is a powerful marketing tool.

Data isn't enough. If it were, we would have no smoking or fast food.

The story is what gets humans to change. By using storytelling, marketing can influence people and pass data along more effectively. "Look at the history of humanity; even before we had communication in the written form, what did we have? We had mythology, cautionary tales, and nursery rhymes. They were actually passing data along from person to person."

If you want to create great marketing, focus on telling stories. But these stories have one crucial component: your customer is the hero. "Instead of the brand or the product being at the center of the narrative, we need to shift the customer to the center of the narrative."

Your company is merely the Yoda or Gandalf, the guide, helping the hero (customer) make progress (change). Make it about them and the change they are looking to make.

Rather than lead with data, lead with story.

Insight 3: Build a community by featuring your audience in content creation.

Is building a community a piece of your marketing strategy? Here's a simple hack: Create content with your community members.

When you feature (and star ⭐️ ) your audience in your content, others will quickly identify with it because it's human and relevant content. They may also hope to one day be featured (depending on the community).

"Let's start to make our audience the star of the content. And if we do that, they're much more likely to want to share it, to want to engage with it, and give us more content ideas."

This also contributes to #2 (making your audience the story's hero). By featuring them in your content as the stars, you make them more willing to believe the stories you're sharing. You increase your persuasion by authentically drawing insights and content from them.

This is why audience-led content needs to be part of your content strategy and the foundation for how you go to market. "The first principle is that your (ideal) audience needs to be at the center of your content strategy. Gone are the days of us as brand owners being like Moses coming from on high with the two tablets saying hey, I've got the wisdom here, I bequeath it to you."

Your audience has much wisdom; pull it out for them and create content around that to build an engaged community.

Insight 4: Make time for play outside work to boost productivity and well-being.

"Put yourself in an environment where you have the privilege to play. There is nothing greater and more rejuvenating than that. It helps you become a better human." I can't agree more with Bolaji. Those who fail to play will not be as creative and will live a less-than-perfect existence.

Play is essential to the human existence.

To do better marketing, you must get outside the four walls in which you do marketing. Go for a walk, teach youth soccer, watch a movie by yourself. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, calls this artist dates. She recommends doing these weekly for 2 hours by yourself. It's a way to replenish the creative well.

I used to believe the fallacy that the best work comes from long and grueling hours doing the thing. Now, I believe the best ideas usually come when I am away from my desk. And only once I step away can I focus my energy on doing meaningful work.

What does play look like for you? Do more of it!

Insight 5: Adopt an attitude of understanding others before being understood.

Have you heard of the word Sonder? I hadn't until Bolaji mentioned it. Sonder is the concept that we all wake up and are the center of our universe—we're the main characters of our movie.

We all do that.

So rather than believing your movie is the most important and sharing it with others, try to watch and understand their movie first. Have empathy. This is true for life and marketing (see above):

"You're not Frodo. You're not Peter Parker. You are Uncle Ben. You are Gandalf. Don't worry, they'll still put your name in the credits and your mom will see it. But it ain't about you. That's the fundamentals of marketing."

Couldn't agree more. It ain't about you in life and marketing (one last time!).

Listen to the podcast episode

Three Books / Three Quotes

"'Pioneers prioritize revenue-generating applications over cost-saving ones.' – MIT Sloan Management Review & Boston Consulting Group" – Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput (Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing, and the Future of Business)

I'll admit it: Most of my time and adoption of AI have been spent saving time. Looks like I'm not a pioneer...

Seriously though, much of the time saved equals revenue or the potential for more revenue. And I believe it's one of the most accessible places to begin: Using AI to speed up your work.

But when I think deeper, I realize that much of my AI use is improving output by working with AI. So even when it doesn't speed me up, I have a better output, which can increase revenue.

Better work = more word of mouth (hopefully).

The lesson is clear: Pioneers focus on how AI can help increase revenue (whether through time-saving or not). They focus second on how to use it to save costs (i.e., replace a position).

For the AI you've adopted, where does it fall: Revenue generating or cost saving?

(note: this is the final quote for this book with a review of 4.7/10)

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"When people are given permission to amplify and assess weak signals, they are invited to engage wholeheartedly in the work – to embrace its inherently uncertain nature, to believe that their own eyes and ears and brains matter." – Amy Edmondson (Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well)

Drop the mic, Amy.

I don't work at NASA or a nuclear energy plant, but this rings true. When you're forced to play it safe, being unable to push back when data or safety conflicts with the agenda is brutal. Or feeling like you can never make a mistake, which hurts your performance.

Imagine a basketball player who got pulled right when they made a mistake or fouled someone; how good would they play? Not well. 

Lebron gets multiple fouls and makes goofy mistakes. He's still the king. Caitlin Clark scored 34 while also having 7 turnovers. She's still the goat.

As an old high school friend used to say, "Your gotta risk it for dey bisket, hey?" (I'm from rural USA)

//

"Naïve realism: The intuitive sense that we see the world out there as it actually is, rather than as it appears from our own perspective." – Nicholas Epley (Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want)

Once you "see" this word, you can't unsee it. You and I see different realities. And that's okay.

There is no objective reality that you can experience. 

The implication is simple: Realize your perspective is severely limited. And be open and proactive in "seeing" the world from another's viewpoint to understand their beliefs or actions.

We can all practice more patience in realizing we are blind and need information from others to inform us. We don't have the answers (Sway! – Kanye West).

This term has been mentioned in another book, deepening its significance. It has also opened my eyes to the ways I project my view of the world onto others.

Have you ever heard of this concept?

Heard / Saw / Experienced

Heard:

"Make the most of your dash."

Every human is guaranteed two dates: when you're born and when you die. The dash is what's in between.

I listened to a podcast where the Executive Director, Amanda Johnson, was a guest. She shared this impactful insight.

We don't control when we're born or die, but we do control every day between them. We control our dash.

Will you make the most of your dash?

Click here to listen

Saw:

I went thrift shopping with my wife last weekend.

While I'm not big into "thrifting," my wife is. So I made an effort to go with her. And to my surprise, I "got something" from it.

I realized how lucky I am that I never had to use one of these computers (see below). One thing that I love about "antiques" is that they increase my gratitude.

Now I have more power in my pocket.

How frequently do you pause to be grateful for how much we've progressed as a society?

Experienced:

Let me ask you: Do you think there is more good or bad in the world?

When you look outside, do you see all the fantastic things happening or focus on the millions of tragedies?

For me, I can't help but think how sad the world is.

Someone's dog died today.

A parent had to say goodbye to a child.

Millions of Palestinians face starvation in Gaza.

Is it delusional for me to forget this and be happy that I can take a warm shower?

I'm struggling with how to move forward with zest and happiness when I see injustices and suffering all around me.

Lord help me...

It was another crazy (yet good) week. I hope you were able to make progress on what matters to you.

If there’s any way I can help you make progress, reach out.

Till next time!

– Jo (every second counts)