This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

A simple guide to online direct marketing
The ad exists to get a click.
The click exists to either make a sale or earn permission.
The sale exists to lead to another sale, or to word of mouth.
Permission exists to lead to education and to a sale.
That’s it.
Every step in the process has a cost (you paid cash at the first step, but
along the way, you will lose some of those people who drop out), and every
step also leads you closer to the benefit.
Assign values to each step. If you can’t, don’t run any direct-response
ads until you can.
Will some people see your ads without taking action? Definitely. That’s a
side effect, a culture-shifting, awareness-building bonus. But if you can’t
measure it, it doesn’t count.
A simple guide to brand marketing
Everything you do, from the way you answer the phone to the design of
your packaging, from your location to the downstream effects of your work,
from the hold music to the behavior of your executives, and even the kind
of packing peanuts you use—all of it is a form of marketing your brand.
You can’t measure it. You might not even notice it.
But it still matters.
You’re already spending money on brand marketing. No doubt about it.
The question is: What would happen if you spent a bit more? What if you
spent it with intention?
If you could patiently invest more time and money in putting the story of
your brand in the world, how would you do it?
You could certainly buy full-page ads in the local paper or put a
commercial on network TV. There’s a long tradition of this sort of spending.
You can make a big statement in very little time. It’s fun. It doesn’t require
buy-in from anyone except your boss or someone else with a budget. It’s
one and done, and you can move on to tomorrow.
It might be the best way to spend your money. Sponsoring a tennis
tournament or a podcast might work wonders as well.

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Maybe.
Or perhaps you should overinvest in the way your team interacts with
customers. Or perhaps you should spend a few million dollars on research
and development or go back to school to improve your craft.
The most important lesson I can share about brand marketing is this: you
definitely, certainly, and surely don’t have enough time and money to build
a brand for everyone. You can’t. Don’t try.
Be specific.
Be very specific.
And then, with this knowledge, overdo your brand marketing. Every
slice of every interaction ought to reflect the whole. Every time we see any
of you, we ought to be able to make a smart guess about all of you.