The Marshmallow Test is an experiment to measure how well children can delay instant gratification for bigger rewards in the future.
Video here:
Marketing is the same.
Most people want the viral video now. Every business owner wants their website ranked on Google in 2 days.
A ranked website on Google is a lagging indicator of all the SEO optimization work done right, months ago. A successful product launch is a lagging indicator of hundreds of decisions, processes, and marketing done over a year.
All success is a lagging indicator.
Delayed gratification is a skill we need to learn as marketers.
What happens to marketers who don't practice delayed gratification? They get labeled as scammers. Because they were in for quick wins. We see an ad promoting a service. But we've not heard about the brand. Trust has not been built. The marketer had taken a shortcut, and ran an ad hoping to turn traffic into Stripe notifications – without earning the trust of their audience.
People are skeptical these days. After all, they've been burnt.
And so, two real lessons from the past 2 weeks:
Case study #1: Underdog Sales Con
Two weeks ago, we pre-launched Underdog Sales Con.
With just a headline and some bullet points about the conference. And an intro video... we've sold over 10+ tickets. People buying a RM349 ticket, without knowing who's speaking at the conference is a lagging indicator that we've done the right work in the prior months.
Case study #2: DXO Workshop
And about 3 weeks ago, we launched the DXO Workshop – a workshop designed to help E-commerce businesses double their revenue.
Compared to Underdog Con, this was a much tougher sell.
We pushed. I manually reached out to people who ran E-commerce stores. Was it because the workshop wasn't useful? No. It's because we've not yet earned the trust. All we had was promise, not proof. We skipped the essential work of building a customer journey.
We've gone for instant gratification instead of delayed gratification.
All successful marketing campaigns are lagging indicators of doing the right things over a period of time. What you do now, will set you up for success (or failure) in the future.
Video of the week 📹
4 tips for freelance marketers
Marketing is something every business needs. There is always going to be demand for marketing.
If you're thinking of doing marketing as a side hustle – there's no better time to get into it, than now. Here are some 4 tips I wish I knew when I started.
1 - Freelancers are not small businesses
It's very different. Freelancers choose clients they want to work with and have their mark on every piece of work they do. Freelancers scale by working with better clients.
Business owners build something bigger than themselves. They hire others to do the work. Businesses scale by building systems so that they become less dependent on people. (Think: McDonalds)
You have to choose. You can't be a freelancer and business owner, because the mindset is very different. Neither is right or wrong.
2 - Hourly pricing shows incompetence
If you are starting out, it's simple to charge by the hour. What is your rate? You share a rate, and the clients agree. Done.
But as you become better, it starts not making sense. By charging hourly, you penalize yourself to earn less, while you become more efficient, and work faster.
Move into value-based pricing.
3 - Proof over promise
Any marketer can promise to deliver results. But only a few have proof of delivering results. Who do you think clients will hire? The one promising or the one with proof?
Gather as much proof as you can early on.
4 - Don't be a service provider
Be a problem solver.
Nobody buys a service. They buy a solution to a problem they have. If a client pays you RM10,000 for a service, you better provide RM100,000 value in return.
What we’re reading at Daily CMO 💡
- How to write content even if you're not an authority.
- Selling tips for those with zero sales experience.
- If you sell on E-commerce platforms... Here's a primer on Collaborative Ads (a.k.a CPAS ads)
- 12 strategies to building backlinks. Building backlinks are more creative than technical.
Quote of the week 💬
Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.
– Peter Drucker
ICYMI
Here's the recording from a recent live session with LiRou from Mida.so
You'll learn:
- The metrics to measure to increase site speed.
- Case studies of how some brands optimized their digital experience and grew their revenue.
- How to add RM100,000 to your E-commerce store – without extra traffic.
Enjoy this newsletter? Forward to a friend or hit reply to share your thoughts. We love to hear from you.
E-commerce business? Then don't miss the DXO workshop. It's a business-changing workshop. Seriously. Nobody else teaches this in Malaysia.
