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MARKETING LESSONS I WISH I KNEW 3 YEARS AGO
6 modern-day marketing lessons that will stand the test of time...
Niall Ratcliffe
September 01, 2024
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Morning!
I’m still in the States. The son is roasting, the AC is cranking, and the inlaws are trying to convince me to go “Dove hunting”.
An Englishman with a shotgun, getting burnt in the South Carolina sun - not a combination anyone wants to see.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about modern-day marketing lessons that everyone is overlooking.
I usually focus a lot on what marketers did in the past, but recently I’ve been asking myself, “What marketing lessons are overlooked today but will be studied in years to come?”
After some scurrying around in my notes app, I found 6.
So here are 6 modern-day marketing lessons that will stand the test of time:
P.S. Listen to the audio version of this HERE.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
The issue with most modern-day marketers is that they spend too much time focusing on quick hacks and tricks.
They want to know:
How to game the algorithm.
What new channels are working.
What new strategies people are using.
But while they constantly scavenge for the latest trick or trend, they miss the fact that at its core - marketing hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years.
Don’t get me wrong, on the surface everything we know about marketing has changed.
It’s moved online, there are completely new channels, social media and influencers have taken over.
Yet at the centre of all of this new tech and fancy platforms…
The reasons people purchase
What convinces people to purchase
How to get your audience’s attention
The true fundamentals of marketing, haven’t changed much at all.
Which is why I think it’s best to study timeless marketing lessons from the past Vs tricks that may become useless overnight.
Some of my favourites
That being said, it would be stupid to ignore the great marketing lessons that today’s marketers are coming up with.
Everyday it feels like I jam another insightful marketing take into the notes app on my phone.
And today… it’s finally time for me to share some of those with you.
So, I’ve narrowed it down to 6 of the best marketing lessons I’ve heard in the last 2 years.
Here are the ones you need to know about:
Lesson 1: Start With The Ad
I only heard this last night and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
My favourite marketer - George Mack - went on the My First Million podcast and discussed some interesting business ideas.
But as he started talking about them, he said something that caught my attention:
The biggest mistake most business owners make is that they build the entire business, then realise they can’t condense what they do into an ad.
I always start with the ad first and then see if there’s a business there.
My interest was piqued, but I still wasn’t convinced.
Then he started rhyming off ads and the business you could put behind them.
Ad 1: “How well does your wife know you?”
Business: Self-awareness quiz that you sent to all of your friends and family.
Ad 2: “Struggling with Asthma? There’s a 70% chance you have mould in your house.”
Business: Mould cleaning business.
The more he talked, the more I realised how right he was.
If you want to grow your business, you have to be able to summarise it into 1 simple ad.
But this isn’t just a business lesson, it’s a massive marketing lesson.
So many marketing departments will start with the macro concept, spend months mapping out the campaign, and then realise they can’t narrow it down to 1 simple concept.
Start with the ad.
In business, in marketing, with content.
Such a great piece of advice, if you can’t condense your idea into 1 great ad - it probably isn’t a great campaign.
Lesson 2: One Chart Marketing
What’s the one chart you could show your target audience to convince them to buy?
It’s something I’ve never thought of, but every marketing campaign should have one behind it.
Example:
Let’s say you run a fertility clinic, then this graph should be the backbone of nearly all of your campaigns.
That doesn’t mean your campaigns are all narrowed down to talking about this graph, but if this is the graph that would convince someone to buy - it should be the thing you’re showing people.
Find that graph for your company, find the data that shows the problem you solve.
Then build your marketing off the back of it.
Lesson 3: Great Marketing = Sticky Idea
Something I don’t think about enough is creating marketing that spreads.
Some of the greatest companies in the world grew through word of mouth, yet nowadays it’s not something we focus on instigating.
George Mack refers to these ideas that spread as, “Sticky ideas”.
For every person it touches, it spreads to someone else.
This is why the likes of Ryanair’s TikTok account have been so successful.
1 person finds it → They find it hilarious → So send to a friend → They find it hilarious → So send to a friend.
And the cycle repeats.
Next minute, Ryanair have 2.4M TikTok followers and it’s their biggest social media channel by 1M followers.
An even better example of a “Sticky idea” is this viral Ikea ad:
Pillow = Boring
Pillow being ripped apart by a puppy = Viral
It’s something people will share, it’s something that sticks.
And it even shares their product’s USP → They’re cheap.
Lesson 4: Total Emotion X No. People Who Understand It
So how in the world do you craft a “Sticky Idea”???
Formulas are not something we really associate with marketing, but George Mack has a beautiful formula for this that I’m trying to ingrain in my brain.
Stickiness of ideas = Total Emotion X No. People Who Understand It
The best example of that you can see is this Norwich City video on mental health:
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a quick rundown:
There are 2 fans going on the Norwich games sitting next to each other, 1 seems miserable, the other very happy.
A few games later the happy one doesn’t show up and it says “Check in on those around you” suggesting he committed suicide.
It’s a very sad ad, but in Mack’s terms, it’s a perfect sticky idea.
Emotion felt my viewers: A sh*t tonne.
No. people who understand: Everyone
As a result, the video has 1.4 million views on YouTube alone and was shared all over the place.
It’s a fantastic formula to have by you when creating any marketing material.
Total Emotion X No. People Who Understand It
That’s one to remember!
Lesson 5: Elicit 1 of the 8 Emotions
Everyone knows that you need to weave emotion into your marketing.
But actually doing it is a whole other story - and something I’ve always struggled with.
Then I saw Shaan Puri talk about the 8 emotions of viral content.
But he didn’t describe them as emotions, he talked about them as reactions:
LOL: that's so funny
OHHH: now I get it!
WOW: that's amazing!
AWW: that's sooo cute
YAY: that's great news!
WTF: that pisses me off
FINALLY: someone said it!
When you look at it like this, your content creation process becomes easy.
1/ Pick what you want to talk about.
2/ Pick a reaction you want to elicit.
3/ Create the piece of content.
I wish I’d learned 3 years sooner.
Lesson 6: The Best Story Wins
In 2023, I picked up a non-marketing book to take a break from reading about marketing.
It was called “Same As Ever” by Morgan Housel.
But in chapter 3 he wrote something that I’ve been shouting from the rooftops ever since.
He said,
A company’s valuation is just a number from today, multiplied by a story about tomorrow.
Before going on to say that in business, “The best story wins.”
Now, I’m cheating a little bit here because this isn’t exactly some modern wisdom.
But when you think about it, he really is right.
Think of some of the biggest companies on the planet today:
Tesla - Fantastic story of how they’ll save the world with electric vehicles.
Apple - Great story about how everyone deserves to use a computer.
Nike - Amazing story about how anyone can achieve their dreams and be an athlete.
These companies are worth trillions of dollars, and a large percentage of that exists simply because they tell a better story than their competitors.
This is why I always tell people that your story should be at the core of your marketing.
Because when it is, great things happen.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
1/ Start With The Ad
2/ One Chart Marketing
3/ Great Marketing = Sticky Idea
4/ Total Emotion X No. People Who Understand It
5/ Elicit 1 of the 8 Emotions
6/ The Best Story Wins
Wow, so many great lessons in here.
But the biggest is probably to go and study George Mack. Every time I read his work or listen to him on a podcast I am reminded just how sharp some people are.
A modern-day marketing genius for sure.
Many of these lessons were ones I learned from him.
Hopefully, you learned something reading this, if you did - why not forward this to a friend?
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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