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Wishy-Washy Beige Contentš
3 takeaways from my conversation with marketing pro Matt Bell
We're drowning in this sort of wishy-washy beige content. As humans, we're wired to basically filter out as many of the stimuli that are attacking us as possible so that we can spot the ones that matter.
We do the same thing when we're on the internet. We scroll, scroll, scroll, wait! That one got my attention. Scroll, scroll, scroll, wait! That one got my attention. Now with this tsunami of AI-enabled content coming through, it's harder and harder to be that thing that stands out.
Today, Iām breaking down 3 takeaways from my discussion with Matt Bell, Founder of MessageUp.
Check out our full conversation + how to connect with Matt here:
The Observer Express
Donāt have time to read the entire post right now? No worries, here are todayās 3 takeaways:
Spend 10-15% of Target Revenue on Marketing. Aiming to maintain? Spend 8-10% instead.
Vanity Metrics Donāt Pay You. Make sure entrepreneurs are thinking about how they get paid.
Random Acts of Marketing are Perilous. Be strategic, not random.
1. Spend 10-15% of Target Revenue on Marketing
This was one of my favorite points Matt made. Anything that allows me to do some quick āback of the napkinā entrepreneur math is a win, and this rule of thumb certainly delivers:
Roughly speaking, if you are a growing business, you should be spending between 10 and 15 percent of your target net revenue on marketing. So if I'm shooting for a million dollars of new revenue, I should be spending somewhere between $100K-$150K to get there.
2. Vanity Metrics Donāt Pay You
Hereās the conversation I envision happening with each of Mattās clients:
Entrepreneur: āYay we got a gazillion views on our thing!ā
Matt: āGreat! How many customers did that generate?ā
Entrepreneur: āUhhhhā¦ā
The question is, do you see that build-up in vanity metrics turning into growth in more legitimate leading indicators?
Say I ask a startup āWhat are you going to do to grow this thing?ā If all I hear is āsocial mediaā, that worries me. How do you know that's actually going to turn into any business?
But if you tell me āWe're going to publish posts on social media, we're going to follow, we're going to engage with those people. We're actually going to start responding to their comments, having discussions with them, connecting with them, getting their contact information, and putting them into a database.ā Oh, okay. So you have a social media engagement strategy. It's not just a social media attention strategy.
3. Random Acts of Marketing are Perilous
100% guilty of this. Try something for a bit, see if it works. Not āworkingā? Pivot to something new. See if that sticks. Repeat. Much much harder to commit to a specific plan, test rigorously, and iterate/evolve ONLY based on hard data.
If there isn't a plan, if there isn't a strategy, the chances are it will end up as random acts of marketing. Random acts of marketing are perilousā¦ They suck people out of any love for marketing because they're constantly doing something different and it's not getting anywhere.
It convinces the business that marketing doesn't work when in fact you're not giving anything a chance to really play out. You haven't run it in a proper experimental fashion with targets and measurables and things like that. They chuck the baby out with the bathwater, and itās a terrible shame to see that happen.
What Do You Think?
What are the most common mistakes you see startups make when it comes to marketing strategy?
*I include this section in every post because Iām genuinely curious to hear what you think. I answer every response, so please, donāt be shy!
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3 Lessons Learned
Underrated skill: notetaking.šI never go into a meeting without a notebook and pen. This practice does 3 things: 1) it honors the person Iām speaking with by showing them their comments are worth writing down, 2) it helps me retain what theyāre saying by writing down the main points, and 3) my memory is terrible so it gives me a record that I can look back on to ācheatā. Iām finding that this, combined with keeping a detailed calendar works really well. For example, this week I looked up a meeting date from 2022 in my calendar, found that physical notebook entry (Iāve got literal STACKS of filled-out notebooks), and used those findings to shape a customer interaction. I know there are more efficient ways (way too many notetaking startups out there), but hey, this works for me.
Innovation hack: talk to customers.š£ļøWeāve recently developed a service to help angel communities access deals that other angel groups are investing in. Iām pretty pumped about it - big burning problem in the ecosystem today. The MVPās scope and my ability to message it have evolved, streamlined, and improved in direct correlation with the amount of time Iāve spent in conversation with prospective buyers about it. Crazy how talking to customers does thatā¦
People prefer to lurk.šWeāre (probably) going to miss our quarterly subscriber goal for the newsletter. Bum. With our recent content strategy evolution (weekly podcast, posting 2x/week), weāve seen all the vanity metrics go up and to the right, which is nice but not what weāre prioritizing (*cough* thanks Matt *cough*). And while sub growth has accelerated, itās been slower than we expected. One theory I have is people prefer to ālurkā - watch/observe but not participate, so the āofferā has to be extremely compelling for them to subscribe. What do you think?
3 Interesting Links
Tune in next week for a breakdown of my conversation with a pro educator from the Angel Capital Association.
Until then, thanks for reading - have a great week.
-Andrew
P.S. Your feedback is important to me. If you enjoyed this post, hit the ālikeā button or leave a comment with your thoughts.
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About Me
I cultivate flourishing.
I'm also the CEO of PitchFact, where our mission is to cultivate flourishing specifically through efficient and collaborative early-stage diligence. I'm a proud husband, grateful father, and honest friend. My love languages include brisket, bourbon, and espresso.