You’re surrounded by pretenders.

I probably didn’t need to remind you.

Watch politicians, “princes” from Nigeria, and even your kid’s manipulative friend down the street.

The BS outweighs the truth by orders of magnitudes. So much of success comes down to figuring out which one is which.

It’s bad enough that so many people are pretending all around you…

But it’s even worse when you’re pretending YOURSELF.

It’s easy to fool yourself without even realizing it. Eventually, the pretending goes on for so long that you start to believe it’s real.

Marketing online encourages this.

It’s easy to hide behind your computer screen. Put up a logo, a few stock photos, and call it a day. You can exaggerate and warp reality without having to do it face to face.

All of which makes TRANSPARENCY the world’s most valuable commodity.

Your audience wants solution to their problems, sure, but they also want to know:

• Who you are
• What you’re all about
• Whom you help
• Your flaws and strengths

People don’t always see buying things in terms of “purchasing products.” They view them in the context of starting new relationships. Especially if you’re selling something expensive and/or super complicated.

Everyone has been scammed. We’re getting better at spotting BS artists, but the occasional blind spot remains.

If you can be upfront and real, you’ll separate yourself from the countless others hiding behind their computer screens.

How much of your marketing is presenting your business in the best light, versus pretending? Sometimes the line between those two gets blurry.

The way forward?

Simple.

In every marketing message going forward, commit to stop pretending.

No, your product isn’t for everyone, in every situation. It isn’t a cure-all for every ill. Nothing is perfect; better to confront your limitations than pretend they don’t exist.

It’s time to take off your mask. Show people who you really are. Quirks, flaws, and all.

They sound like obstacles to you, but they’re the very things that draw people in. They’re what make you human.

Go here to see how I can help humanize your marketing.

“More, More, More!”

If modern western culture could speak, those would be its first words.

It makes me think of a kid screaming for you to push her higher on the swing — even though if you did more than what you’re doing now, you would send her flying over the swing set.

Wouldn’t life be grand if you had more time, more money to play around with, more customers?

Not necessarily.

Sometimes, sure. But more is not a panacea that cures every ailment.

It’s easy to fall into this kind of thinking when every TV commercial you see, every friend you talk to, is discussing their newest purchase.

But what if you’re already trying to do too much?

That is the default setting for entrepreneurs anyway. We think if we just throw more hours at a problem, things will eventually work out .

Here’s the thing:

Five half-assed marketing efforts is worth WAY less than one whole-assed effort.

If you split your time (and cash) between a bunch of different things, you might not ever reach critical mass in any of them. You spread yourself too thin.

Shoestring budgets and crushing schedules force your hand here. It’s minimalism by default… or nothing at all.

Even if you’re past that point, imagine that you aren’t.

Say you had half the marketing time and money you do right now. If you needed to generate the same results, which things would you keep and which would you cut out?

To really push yourself, ask:

“What would I do if my time and marketing budget were halved, but I needed to double the results?”

Consider this earnestly. This isn’t just a brain exercise, because, odds are, you already have an idea what’s working well and what to leave out. And if you don’t, there’s the beauty of digital marketing. You have all the data!

When you start seeing them as friends instead of overbearing parents, CONSTRAINTS can be beautiful.

Let your competitors and everyone else drive themselves mad trying to “do it all.”

Take a deep breath. Think things through. Figure out how to get more out of less.

In a world where everyone wants more, stand tall and proud… a minimalist.

Get help here.

You walk past it every day.

Usually you don’t even see it. The times you do, it’s easier to hurry on your way instead of stop, bend down, and scoop it up.

I’m talking about loose change.

The spare pennies and nickels, pence and cents. They gather on sidewalks and in parking lots. Forgotten. Castaways.

The same thing happens in marketing.

You get so focused on the big wins that you walk past countless other opportunities.

It’s totally understandable. The big, life-changing opportunities are sexy and exciting. They’re what get you out of bed every morning — why you got started in business in the first place.

Would you jump on those?

Of course. Just as certainly as you’d stop your walk to pick up a 100 dollar greenback.

The smaller opportunities aren’t sexy. They might not be worth much individually…

But a funny thing happens when you start grabbing them: they pile up!

I’ll never forget taking all the change I’d gathered over one summer to the bank and leaving the place 600 bucks better off.

It’s an important lesson to remember in marketing.

Expensive, multi-channel campaigns are exciting and can give your business a huge boost. But it’s the smaller, “loose change” stuff — the daily blogging, outreach, networking, emailing — that will sustain you.

So maybe it’s time to shift your focus…

What can you do TODAY to introduce your brand to ONE more person than yesterday? How can you build the relationship?

It might not be much. Just a tiny, seemingly insignificant step.

But that’s OK. Wake up tomorrow, do it again, and keep doing it until you look back and find yourself with an empire.

It’s SO easy to get overwhelmed with all the digital marketing channels, tactics, and tools.

By all means, do your best to keep up with that stuff. But never at the expense of forgetting what marketing is *truly* about: small, incremental increases in visibility and relationships.

Picking up loose change.

Do you want to stop scrambling for business and build a system that generates hungry leads?

Find out how I can help you here.

Audiences, as we know them, are broken.

They used to be these giant huddled masses — strangers united by nothing more than age or location or some other general demographic detail.

But now?

They’ve tapered off into countless little groups. And these groups have fragmented into even smaller sub-groups.

Audiences today are like those nesting Russian dolls. They just keep getting smaller and smaller as you open them.

Now, instead of being thrown into some vague category like “men between 18 and 35,” the audience has all the power…

They CHOOSE the groups they’d like to join much in the same way how people choose communities in real life. They base their memberships on common interest.

It doesn’t matter if this interest is popular (like basketball) or extremely obscure (pulp sci-fi novels from the 1940s).

There’s a forum out there somewhere catering to them. A Facebook group and a podcast.

This is an incredible development from a marketer’s perspective! It simply becomes a matter of finding these places and connecting with the people there.

If you do this well, it doesn’t take a huge audience to support a thriving business. Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans” article has never been more relevant:

Find a thousand people who love your products, people willing to buy everything you put out, and you can succeed beyond your wildest imagination.

Where marketers screw up is in the execution.

There’s a disconnect between their messaging and the target audience.

We’re still addressing people like they’re members of those giant audiences of old. “The mothers between 30 and 40.” Or the “affluent young urban professionals.”

Back when audiences didn’t have the power to self-segregate into these tiny sub-niches, marketers had to generalize their messaging. Our audiences had little in common. So we had to play it safe. Water down our appeals to avoid offending a chunk of the audience.

That made sense back then…

But this is NOW.

Now we can afford to be hyper-focused with our approach. We can afford to polarize and express who we aren’t trying to serve… just as much as the people we are.

Does your messaging reflect this reality?

Or you still falling into patterns of the old model?

Because your niche is out there somewhere. Living in specific digital neighborhoods.

How much time have you spent there getting to know these people? You understand what they like. How about why they like it? How about what they hate? Their world view at large?

All of these insights are invaluable.

If you can integrate them in your marketing, you’ll show people you truly understand them like no one else. Gathering 1,000 true fans goes from a matter of IF… to WHEN.

The audiences have changed. So should your messaging.

Go here to get my help.

Today’s post is a bit of a hipster’s delight.

Relax. You can leave your unicycle and mustache oil at home…

But some things that hipsters love these days are signaling a shift in consumer preferences at large. And by being aware of this shift, you can upgrade your marketing.

Let’s start by listing some of the most popular hipster accessories, shall we?

• Craft beer
• Vinyl records
• Old books and movies
• Typewriters
• Hand-rolled cigarettes
• Vintage clothes and other thrift store finds
• Handcrafted cocktails and coffees
• “Small batch” organic food/drinks

What do all of these things have in common?

There’s a human element involved. Mass production gives way to handmade, limited-quantity releases. Products aren’t just mindless copies and molds. They’re conversation pieces — complete with backstories, character, and flaws.

This shift might seem subtle. But it’s too important to overlook:

Even as technology evolves and we plunge headfirst into all things digital, a counter force is pulling us in the opposite direction. To the handmade, the old, the tangible and real.

This is just another paradox to add to the list these days. Although we have more social media platforms and virtual friends than ever, many of us are alienated and alone.

We experience life secondhand — through TV shows, Instagram feeds, YouTube videos — all from the comfort of our air-conditioned homes.

These disconnected feelings are especially common among Millennials… the people most likely to be hipsters. We crave different sensations. We want to get out there and get our knees dirty, so to speak. Items from that list above are our attempts to do just that.

In a world where so much is simply 1’s and 0’s, we’re looking for something human and real.

Now, let’s bring this back around to your marketing.

Do you sound like a human?

Is your voice nothing more than the corporate drivel we’ve gotten so good at ignoring, or is it something real?

Humans have preferences and a worldview.

We have a certain style — a way of speaking unlike anyone else.

And yes, we have flaws. It’s more endearing to embrace them than try to pretend like they don’t exist.

These are all the things your audience is looking for…

Are you giving it to them?

Even if you use digital tools to scale your marketing, you can connect with people like humans.

You can quit pretending to be all things to everyone. You can stop acting like a “safe” corporate product (you aren’t), and show people who you really are.

None of that costs a dime.

It takes a willingness to put yourself out there — to connect with your audience in a different way.

When you do, people latch on and don’t let go. Because you’re giving them what they’re desperately looking for in this endless, digital ocean…

You’re giving them something real.

Go here to get my help.