"What if I let go of needing to control that?"

What's your "that?" What would happen if you released the human need for some control in that area? Just let it be what it may be.

I believe success is on the other side of balancing surrender with hard work. I'm working on that.

Enjoy this week's letter:

A Micro Idea On Marketing 💡
5 Insights from Anthony Pierri

Time to read: 6:59 (So many nuggets from Anthony!)
——

Insight 1: Marketing's role in driving demand and making sales easier.

If you've been here for a bit, you'll know this definition of marketing is common:

To make sales easier.

And I love that framing. Anthony has an even more specific answer to what marketing's role is: "Generate demand for the product from the target segments that would be most beneficial to acquire." And by doing this, sales get easier:

"No matter what type of company you're in, if marketing is doing its job, the sales calls should be really easy. People should loosely understand what you do. And the sales calls should be more to figure out the nuances of helping them answer specific questions related to my business."

I like this framing because it's easy to know if marketing is doing a good job and to problem-solve how marketing can help. Where does sales need reinforcements?

Do customers need help understanding the breadth of integrations your product has? Make content or ads about that. Work with sales to know where you can best help increase demand.

When marketing is thriving, so is sales. Without influencing revenue and demand, what is marketing for?

Might as well call them cheerleaders…

Insight 2: The importance of effective positioning for guiding clear messaging.

What inhibits clear messaging? Poor positioning.

From solid positioning comes clear messaging. Anthony highlights this:

"If you haven't done the foundational positioning work, you'll end up having marketing saying one thing, sales saying another, while customer success says something even different than both of them, which creates a disjointed experience and makes it hard for the prospects (and eventually customers) to understand what the heck it is that you've built (or do)."

So, how do you get clear on positioning? Answer the hard questions:

"…such as where do we want to compete? Who do we want to compete against? How do we want to position ourselves in the market and minds of our customers?"

From this, you begin crafting key messaging that all departments will use, resulting in everyone singing the same hymn. This designs an intentional experience for the prospect/customer while allowing for iteration on the messaging to keep improving and resonating with the target segment.

Your positioning should be defined by the who and context (where/when). Who uses your product, and in what context do they use it? Focus on the capabilities of your product for that segment. "We help busy parents ideate and plan meals for the work week through AI chat assistance."

Finally, I'd add the progress (or outcome) they achieve from using the product in that context. "We help busy parents ideate and plan meals for the work week through AI chat assistance to help them stay focused and ensure a healthy meal for their family."

But focus on the first-order outcomes:

"First order benefits, or outcomes, are what happens when I enact this capability. What's the first thing that happens when a team adopts Asana? We're going to be more organized. A second order outcome of being more organized is we get more tasks done. A third order outcome is that we ship more features. If we ship more features, fourth order, customers are more satisfied. So progress is like a sliding scale. One thing cascades into another one. Your first and second order benefits are usually the differentiated value that you provide. They're the things that are unique to what your tool does. And as you keep cascading down the line, you just get to things that are undifferentiated."

When defining your positioning, don't include fourth-order outcomes (E.g., find your peace, scale your business). Instead, focus on the first or second-order benefit, which is the tangible piece of your solution. Then, share how they will reach the third or fourth outcome.

But DON'T lead with an undifferentiated outcome.

Insight 3: How niching down on a specific target segment leads to better results.

There's a fear many face in marketing: Going too narrow.

We are afraid that if we position ourselves only for the X segment, we will lose opportunities with the Y and Z segments. That is true. But you will undoubtedly position yourself better with the X segment, potentially becoming the best and only solution for them and then branching out to new segments.

Anthony uses a fun bowling analogy to help illustrate this:

"You're hyper focused on the first segment, which is smaller, and using the success in dominating that segment to the knock down the two pins behind it, and then the four pins behind those, and then expanding even more."

Another analogy is D-Day and WWII. Without winning the battle of Normandy, the Allied forces couldn't win back France. Focus on your beachhead and then expand, not the other way around.

This works for who you market to and for whom you create content. Anthony and his partner Rob have grown their LinkedIn followers by ≈30K by focusing on creating content specific to product marketers.

"Platform's (the algorithm) love specificity. If you give it specific inputs, it will send them to the right people who were looking for that exact thing. The more specific and niche we go, the more our impressions go through the roof. Rob's most viral post was, 'If you're a startup, here's what you should put on each of your different page types,' it was seen by 1.5 million people. It was such a specific post, with really detailed stuff, and didn't apply to 99% of the people on the platform. But LinkedIn realized it was super helpful. And that group of people is maybe 5 million people. So it showed it to at least a fifth of them."

Going niche with your content and marketing will reward you in many ways. One is that you will resonate with more people as it speaks directly to them. Another benefit is that the platforms will increase your reach to those people. And finally, it positions you to branch into new segments once you fully dominate the one you can help most.

Don't let your ego get in the way; focus on the minimum viable audience you best serve.

Insight 4: Importance of crafting messaging focused on clear capabilities over vague outcomes.

"Buy our drill and we'll get you laid."

Would you buy that drill? If you need to drill a hole in your living room to hang up a photo, why would you be compelled to buy based on that outcome messaging? This comes from a saying:

"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole." – Theodore Levitt (Harvard Business School professor). And then you take this a step further: people don't want a quarter-inch hole; they want a beautiful wall with photos of their family. And then, they don't even want that; they want a home that acts as a haven from the world. And if you're single, this could eventually get you laid.

So, when writing messaging for the drill, should we focus on its capabilities or the vague outcome of building a safe haven or getting some action? Anthony suggests capabilities.

"The biggest shift we've seen is when you go from outcomes to not just talking about features but what we call a capability, which is what do I do with it? How do I use it? When do I use the product?" It's going from outcome-based messaging to capabilities.

This messaging is focused on the context and how someone would actually use it. While this is critical for saas companies, many other businesses could improve by focusing on capabilities instead of outcomes. Sure, we would love a 10x ROI, but I need something that can do X, Y, and Z.

So, let's focus on touching on X/Y/Z before sharing outcomes.
Capabilities → Outcomes.

Insight 5: How human tendencies like pride can negatively impact marketing if unchecked.

"What gets in the way of good messaging on a website, or just in marketing?"

"I think it comes from a deep pride and ego of people who have worked their way up the corporate ladder desperately trying to justify my existence."

I love Anthony's deep answer to my simple question. He could have said something tactical, but his answer is more practical. It's why I believe meditation is helpful for marketers.

When marketers (or business people) struggle to step outside themselves, they get caught up in silly games. Games that do not drive marketing effectiveness.

Sadly, they actually lead to poor marketing.

Rather than being able to (humbly) state the few things you do, the ego steps in and forces you to list the 100 things you do, making your messaging unclear. Here's an example:

"As companies grow, the executives would rather list the 100 things they do vs only give a couple examples. Why? If we only talk about three things, they're going to think that we're not as amazing as we really are (PRIDE). They would rather have people have no idea of what they do, versus think lesser of what they've created."

When you're not sure if focusing on overcoming your ego and pride could help in marketing, listen to what Anthony says. As a former pastor, he is amazed at how much of the human condition is still involved in his work as a product marketing consultant.

You can't be a shit human and do great marketing, at least not in 2024. You must work on things like pride, ego, and compassion to do better marketing.

I believe that with the robots, this will only increase in severity.

Listen to the podcast episode

Three Books / Three Quotes

"4 ways to involuntarily induce curiosity in humans:
1. The posing of a question or presentation of a puzzle
2. Exposure to a sequence of events with an anticipated but unknown resolution
3. The violation of expectations that triggers a search for an explanation
4. Knowledge of 'possession of information by someone else'" – Will Stor (The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better)

While written for fiction writers, this book offers many lessons for marketers.

Side note: I read this book two years ago, and it was so good that I reread half before realizing I had already read it (different covers!).

The main takeaway from this quote is the power of stirring curiosity in your audience. One simple way to do that is called an "open loop."

Start telling a story or sharing insights, but before sharing it all, move on. Then, close the loop later on in the content.

Humans are curious critters; use that to your advantage in your marketing.

//

"Practicing systems thinking starts with consciously expanding your lens from its natural preference for here and now to include elsewhere and later. " – Amy Edmondson (Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well)

When making a decision, you must consider the second and third-order consequences.

Think of the system in which your action takes place. And ensure you're making the best move possible.

We often get lost in the now and fail to realize that there are unintended consequences in the future. I've done this many times.

Open your lens to include the future and consequent consequences.

(Final review – 7.8/10 – Good book to learn how psychological safety leads to taking risks and improving)

//

"This is our objective: to delay death, and to get the most out of our extra years." – Peter Attia, MD (Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity)

What's the point of living 200 years if your existence is full of suffering?

The goal of longevity is to extend life and improve or maintain a high level of life satisfaction. Extending life while struggling physically is like hell on earth. We don't want that.

Rather than solely focusing on living longer, focus on improving your ability to live happily. That may involve minor tweaks or extensive changes.

But the goal and our north star should be to maximize our happiness during the days we're alive. Not just to live a (long) dreaded existence.

Note: Peter (and this book) share soooo many mindset shifts and practical wisdom to achieve this. I'm 187 pages in and impressed by how much is packed into this book.

Heard / Saw / Experienced

Heard:

You ever hear someone speak, and you're like, yes, I love your mind!

I've read about and listened to Amanda Natividad for some time–she's that person. She works at SparkToro and has been a thought leader in marketing for some time (I hope to interview her one day).

See "named" the concept of zero-click value content, which involves sharing blogs/podcasts in ways they don't need to click to get value.

Clicking is a bonus.

If you want to improve marketing, listen to her.

Click here to listen

Saw:

I'm lucky I can write this newsletter. It's a luxury to have that freedom.

But it's not free.

Many of have passed serving and protecting our beautiful country. While I may not be your typical "patriot," I can't help but feel privileged to live in this country and grateful to those brave people. I don't have half that courage.

I went to the Military Veteran's Museum in Oshkosh this week. It was powerful to take in the stories and read things like the red text below.

History isn't pretty.
But it's important to learn from.

Experienced:

I can FINALLY eat sugar.

I gave up "treats" for Lent this year. It's my first year participating. While I always honor and celebrate Easter, I never "did" Lent.

I tried it this year, and it was remarkable. It gave me phenomenal personal insights and deepened my prayer life.

I'd highly recommend engaging in a practice like this that allows you to starve lower desires and focus on higher ones.

Coming into Easter this year, I'm hyper-focused on those deeper desires.

Hoping you’re experiencing similar progress 🙏

Thank you for making it this far 🙏

I hope you have a fabulous Easter weekend.

Take care,

– Jo (every second counts)