Most marketing campaigns can be improved if only – the marketer on the project stops whatever he is doing, and go talk to actual customers.
Unfortunately, most marketers are taught to create imaginary "personas". Or use the newest funnel software and somehow that will magically fix their marketing.
When Nat Friedman became CEO of Github in 2018, he didn't do what most CEOs would do:
- Meet and greet the team.
- Host internal meetings that run for hours.
- Come up with a big-picture plan for the team.
Instead, on Day 1 – he got everyone on an 8AM call, and screen-shared a giant list of 100+ issues & complaints from customers.
He says, "Today, we're going to find one item here, and fix it."
"And tomorrow, we're going to pick another one and fix that"
"And the next... And the next... Until we've fixed 20+ of these"
Doing so allowed him to learn the business. What are the problems? Where were the gaps? It also showed customers that they cared about shipping updates.
Whenever my marketing doesn't seem to work...
I know I've been stuck in the clouds – and not listening enough.
After all your clients are people funding your business. So give them a call. Email them. Obsess over ways to help them solve their challenges.
So, I have a small ask of you.
Underdog Sales Con, an event that I know – will pay you back 10X the ticket price is this Friday, 4th Oct. If you've considered joining, but didn't – would you tell me the reason why you've been holding back?
- Is it the speakers?
- Is it because there is no urgency?
- The date?
- Something else...
Just reply to this email with your feedback. If you prefer, you can click here to comment on the website as well.
If you weren't interested at all – could you also tell me why? We put a lot of effort into organizing Underdog Con, so hearing from you means a lot to me.
Thanks.
Reuben Ch'ng
