..marketing is annoying and the people who do it are not to be trusted.

We tend to have no shortage of ideas, but we struggle to tell the story of how they are going to be useful in the world and why they will matter to people.

Marketing is the way we communicate how our ideas translate to value for people in a marketplace.

A great brand is not a mark burned into a product— it’s something we want to belong to.

Ideas in isolation are worthless; if they have no impact, then they didn’t matter.

..art and business alike are about doing things that make a difference.

Having a business idea is the easy part; conveying why it should matter to people and why they should pay for it is not as easy as we like to believe.

What do you do? What happens because you exist?

Are you actually on a mission, or are you just saying that you are?

If you want to be the best in the world, don’t start by trying to create the best product or service. Start by figuring out how people want to feel.

What if, instead of spending all that time and money on deciding how to tell customers who we are, we spent more time and money on being who they want us to be?

People pay for the intangible value, for what they experience and what they care about.

In a world where everything is a tap or a click away, what matters is not what is taught or sold, but how it’s delivered, and how that made someone feel as she walked out the door.

The idea is that as long as you get the email address, the view, the like or the retweet, you’ve won.

How might you do that?

The key to mattering to your customers is to actually care about them just as much as, if not more than, you do about the success of your business.

‘going out of your way to help others succeed is the secret sauce.’

‘What can we do to get our customers from here to there?’

As we build our businesses, we often work hardest on the things that are replaceable, believing that our advantage is in the tangible value we provide and can demonstrate.

People place a premium on the things that you can never hand them over the counter (real or virtual). It turns out that trust is the scarcest resource we have.

Figuring out the destination is hard— but recognising it is more valuable than knowing exactly how you’re going to get there.

The most useful answers are the ones we take time to figure out for ourselves— not the ones that everyone can find in a handbook. Having your own map is more powerful than having someone else’s directions. Once you have that map, you’ll always have a way to get from where you are to where you want to go.

Your website needs to make people feel like they belong.

The platforms and tactics we use to reach our customers in a digital world keep changing, but the strategy for touching human beings who make decisions with their hearts and not their heads remains the same.

Who exactly do we want talking about our product or service? What do we want them to say? How will we make sure it happens?

Growth hackers optimise their businesses to acquire new customers by first delighting one customer and then making it easy for that customer to share the story with friends.

Why should I care?

What are we doing that’s going to compel that person to tell two friends and then come back tomorrow?

The same global survey found that 70% of our customers leave, never to return, because they were not made to feel like they mattered.
In a world with so many choices, it’s no longer good enough to show up and open the door. Smart marketers understand that it’s how the door is opened— and what happens after the door is opened— that matters.

How to ‘go viral’ with intention?

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING ENTREPRENEURS…is love.

But what you need more than a love of your product is love for your customers. You have to care about them to want to make something for them. And you have to understand them to care about them.

Tell people what they can do with your product, not what the product does.