Ditching the playbook: why I go against the "sophisticated" marketing tactics
I guess I'm ok to grow slower, but doing the things I feel are right. I've always said I show MY way, not THE way. Supporters and critics are welcome.
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39 days have gone since I launched this publication (formerly goodmarketingstuffs.com). I grew from 0 to 357 subscribers in that period, which is a decent yet not impressive pace.
Hell yes, you don't need sophisticated marketing tactics or any existing audience to grow! This gives me even more energy to keep doing things MY way, to keep promoting what I do, and to do what I promote: get more people in front of projects without any ads, hacks, or cold emails.
Today, I want to emphasize the reasons why I chose not to play the usual marketing tactics.
And why it matters.
A bit of context
I make a living from freelancing, but I spend most of my time on this project (roughly 80%). Each and every month, the equivalent to $3,420 go into home mortgage, daycare, car, insurance, food, etc... We have a 2-year old kid and he'll be a brother by the beginning of October. At the current pace, my personal savings will run out by the end of the year.
While this financial pressure should push me to try to grow faster and take shortcuts, I keep resisting the temptation.
Family and friends ask me why – the reasons are pretty straightforward.
1. Building trust, not fainting growth
I'm not working on this publication to make a "coup". I'm here for the long haul, I'm here to promote what I consider a better way to marketing — more frugal, calmer, more ethical, more sustainable. To encourage that change, I need you to trust me it’s possible. This is my preoccupation #1. To do so, I explain, show, and prove to you how it works. To do so, I need to explore and offer a different take on marketing.
If you like my stands on doing marketing and I show you it can work, then you'll more likely trust me. Only if you trust me, you'll pay me. Only if you trust me, you'll tell the good word. I'm focused on building this trust, one person at a time.
Obsessing on growing a subscriber count or exploding the number of likes would distract me. It would lead me to routes that go against what I want to promote. And I’d lose your trust, soon. I'm not selling tickets to the Fyre Festival. That's why I focus on recognition, not on engagement or buzz.
Also, growing slower means I can create closer relationships with readers. In fact, people reach out to me every single day – and I answer! We talk, I get feedback, and this helps me build a more solid foundation for this publication. If you trust me, there’s a higher chance you'll follow me in the longer run. We’ll do it together!
And there’s more than only trust.
2. It’s cheaper
This project is 100% bootstrapped, which means I can't spend more than I earn. Like many of you. I don’t have anything but my best work to invest into it. Like many of you. And most of the advertising or sophisticated marketing tactics are expensive. Like, really. See how cost per click has gone +90% in the last 2 years alone1.
It means when you had to pay 5$ every time someone clicked your ad, you now pay 9.5$. When you don't have the resources and don't want to go the traditional marketing route, you need to be creative.
Money is a reason, but not the main.
3. Trends & hacks are pitfalls
As stated earlier, I'm here for the long haul – and I'm sure you are too on your projects. I build around the marketing things that won't change: sharp positioning, great teasing, leading with ideas, and being creative to raise awareness. On the opposite, trends are temporary. So are hacks. Would you bet on things that won’t last?
That’s why I don’t spend time on the latest tools, technologies, algorithms, and visibility hacks.
4. Trying to make the web a better place
I’m convinced fighting climate change starts at the individual level – why shouldn’t be making the web better? We spend a ridiculous amount of time there each day, and it's become dominated by awful patterns. Nowhere isn’t there an ad or a pop-up form. We get tons of cold emails and drip campaigns. They offer us the same "exclusive deals" every single day of the year. We leave our email address to read bullshit PDFs. Subscribing to a newsletter means you'll get 8 e-mails selling non-sense online courses. We have to click on the first comment to read the actual LinkedIn post.
Enough of that. Really. Enough.
Yes, these tactics work, and make businesses grow. Just like gas and oil move cars forward. Is it sustainable? Is it good? Your call. I choose to embrace change and be radical about it.
5. Having fun
You got it, I try to go against the marketing usual suspects. As much as I don't spend hours working my analytics around or editing my posts to comply with all SEO best practices.
I don't do that because it wouldn't yield impact, of course not. I don't do that because I think it's a damn boring job to do. Tweaking campaigns endlessly is boring. Spending half of my week on distribution is boring. Buying ads is boring. Reaching out to people who don't expect me is boring. Optimizing for SEO is boring. Why should I focus on boring stuff?
Having fun matters so much. Doing fun things will make you do them better, and you'll be happy to do them again. That's the most important to me, much more important than any result or number.
6. Doing my best to inspire you
Doing things a different way is MY way. There are so many examples of famous brands nailing marketing, so many incredible playbooks to ensure you'll "outperform competition", so many ultimate tools to "skyrocket your growth". You have access to them all. Why would you read me if you were convinced all you need is to follow recipes? Maybe it’ll inspire you. I hope I’ll give you at least fresh take on marketing.
I guess I'm ok to grow slower, but doing the things I feel are right. I've always said I show MY way, not THE way. Supporters and critics are welcome.
Thanks for reading.
- Clément
See https://www.merkleinc.com/thought-leadership/digital-marketing-report/digital-marketing-report-q4-2021
Congrats on the growing family, and hats off to your convictions on doing things YOUR way. Just discovered your publication and I love your Marketing.
Cheers!