Idea owners get richer // Founder of @beunignorable, the Ownable Ideas agency
Be unignorable 👉
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Not gonna lie. This one took me a minute. But once you get it, it’s magic.
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It sucks when you’ve got a new product idea and your customer research proves that your assumptions were wrong and no one really wants your product.
It sucks way more when you don’t do any research and spend months (or years) building the wrong thing.
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I run a $400K/year business with 0 employees
Here are 7 lesser-known tools I use to get more done in less time:
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I’ve spent 1500+ hours learning about cognitive biases and heuristics (AKA the stuff that drives *your customers* to buy)
Here are the top 19 concepts that marketers need to know:
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Love this! I’ve said it 100 times and will say it 100 more:
The best marketing doesn’t look like marketing
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The best marketing doesn’t *feel* like marketing
Entertain me
Educate me
Inspire me
Delight me
Don’t just “market” to me...
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Marketing is harder than ever
Wanna quickly figure out what works with buyers?
You don’t need to spend 100s of hours doing research
There are only 4 questions you *really* need to answer to get started
If you can these Qs, coming up with smart marketing ideas feels easy
🧵
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When you realize that most of the ‘productivity gurus’ are young, self-employed, single dudes without kids…
You giggle
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Which one would you choose?
A) $120 per night without breakfast
B) $135 per night with breakfast
C) $200 per night with breakfast for the royal bedroom villa
You likely chose C. And there’s a reason for it.
Let’s talk about Price Relativity (with 6 examples):
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Love him or hate him, @elonmusk gave a masterclass on Price Anchoring last week
Did you notice?
[A thread 🧵]
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I got diagnosed with ADHD today.
If you’re an ambitious person with ADHD, what’s your best advice?
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I did 300 customer discovery interviews before launching my tech company
We still managed to build the wrong thing
5 big mistakes that people (including me) make when interviewing buyers:
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😱 @instagram engagement dropped 18% in 2019
😱 Only 41% of @Google searches get organic click
😱 <1% of @facebook fans see posts in newsfeed
😎 Marketers who do regular audience research do 466% better
—
The lesson? Channels change rapidly. People don't. Invest accordingly.
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My 2023 revenue goal for my little solopreneur biz was $500,000
Looks like I’ll hit that by the end of this month
Note to self: think bigger
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How to be "an overnight success" in any industry:
Work for 5, 10 or even 20 years under the radar making oodles of mistakes until you finally get a big break.
That's it. That's the secret.
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PSA:
People who “make it look easy” have usually worked extremely hard for years to get to that point.
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My mom is retired. She worked for 30 years in a job she hated because, as a single mother with two kids and a grade 10 education, she didn’t have a choice.
Today we celebrated because she’s decided to start a business—at 64.
It’s never to late to do what you love.
#proud
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New Founders:
If you think the customer discovery process is "too slow" and you'd rather jump straight to building stuff...
...just wait and see how long it takes to acquire new customers when you build the wrong thing.
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F*ck building an audience
Having an audience is useless if you do it wrong
Here are 6 tips for creating content that drives likes *and* sales (tip 1 is very important)
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Human brains are lazy
Remember that when writing your marketing messaging
Clear is better than clever
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People don’t really buy products.
They buy:
> Painkillers
> Lifestyle upgrades
> Status symbols
> Peace-of-mind
In short?
They’re buying better versions of themselves.
As soon as you understand this subtle but significant difference, your marketing will improve.
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You need a new phone
Phone A claims “20-hour battery life”
Phone B claims “All-day battery life”
Which one do you choose?
You likely choose B and there’s a reason
Let’s talk about: The Framing Effect (with 6 examples)
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Marketing is applied psychology
Changing just one word or image can have a massive impact
Here are the top 16 concepts marketers need to know:
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If someone promises to teach you an “easy way to make money”…
Chances are you’re *their* easy money
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“Copyjacking”
When you steal your marketing copy straight from the mouths of your best customers...
And it converts like 🔥
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Note to self (and anyone else who needs to hear it):
Stop expecting yourself to work like the world isn't in crisis.
Stop beating yourself up because you can't stay focused.
Stop being surprised when it takes you hours to write a single email.
You're doing the best you can.
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You need to know:
1. What triggers people to begin the buying journey?
2. What job are they trying to get done?
3. What are their pains with other solutions?
4. What are their selfish desires?
Answer these 4 Qs and you've got the foundation of your next big idea
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PSA:
People who “make it look easy” have usually worked extremely hard for years to get to that point.
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I run a $745K/year business with 0 full-time employees.
Here are 6 lesser-known tools I use to get sh*t done and sell more stuff:
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7 lesser known tools I ❤️
1. @vidyard (free screen recorder Chrome extension)
2. @Tango_HQ
3. @Talkwalker Alerts
4. @SupersideHQ
5. @coda_hq
6. @Landingiapp
7. @Zotabox
If you wanna get more done in less time, check ‘em out
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Using big words in your marketing may make you feel smart…
But if it confuses buyers and makes them feel dumb, you’ll be broke
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I didn’t plan to become a “creator”
Yet in the last 2 years, I’ve attracted nearly 50,000 Twitter followers, 8400 newsletter readers, and secured paid newsletter sponsorships (worth ~$180k/year)
How did I do it?
I asked myself that same question over coffee this morning:
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The best marketing doesn’t *feel* like marketing
Entertain me
Educate me
Inspire me
Delight me
Don’t just “market” to me...
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Customers don’t buy because of who they are
They buy because of who they wish to become
When you understand this, your marketing will improve
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In marketing everyone is searching for the next big thing.
My advice? Stop chasing trends.
Instead figure out how to do common things uncommonly well.
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After working in marketing for 10 years, I can sum up my most important lessons in 5 simple rules:
🔍Stalk your customers
🧪Test *then* invest
🛠Optimize for personalized
💰Niches build riches
📈Trust comes before growth
What would you add to this list?
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Marketing strategy ≠ tactics
Tactics are inputs. They’ll vary in effectiveness and should evolve as needed.
The strategy is your guiding light. It’s the *why* behind the *what.*
The problem?
Many teams don’t take time to design a strategy. They just start doing shit.
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The best marketers are customer-obsessed
Here are 6 free tools to help you better understand your audience and market smarter (even if you’re not techie) 👇
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Criticizing someone else’s work won’t magically make your work better.
Don’t hate. Create.
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People don’t buy things because of who they are.
They buy because of who they want to become.
Don’t sell the product.
Sell the transformation.
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It took 12 long months to get our first 3000 newsletter subscribers
We’ve added 4000+ subscribers in the last 9 weeks
Here’s what changed:
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Criticising is easy. Creating is hard.
If someone pours themselves into making something and you think you can do better, don’t criticize. Create.
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If someone promises to teach you an “easy way to make money”…
Chances are that you’re their easy money
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Let’s normalize marketing being about helping customers to find solutions that will make their lives better.
(And not manipulators or spammers who chase clicks and eyeballs)
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Most marketing:
“This is our product and this is what it does.”
Better marketing:
“This is our product and the benefits it creates for you.”
Great marketing:
"This is what you're struggling with and here's how to overcome those struggles and be a better you. Our product helps."
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Marketing is applied psychology
When you understand what makes people tick, click, and buy, you’ll market smarter
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The best marketing doesn’t *feel* like marketing
Entertain me
Educate me
Inspire me
Delight me
Don’t just “market” to me...
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Reminder:
The best marketers aren’t the ones who know the most about some tool or tactic.
They know the most about people.
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In 2020, marketing isn’t a nice-to-have skill set.
Every ambitious founding team should include at least one marketer.
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
Being nice is an
underrated marketing
strategy
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The counterintuitive marketing strategy that drives record-breaking sales (and drives perfectionists crazy):
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1. @vidyard (Loom alternative)
How I Use It:
> Record personalized videos for newsletter sponsors & instructions for contractors
Why I Prefer it:
> Generous free plan
> Videos can be 1 hour long (not just 5 mins)
> You know when your video is viewed and how much was watched
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Do you understand why people *really* buy products like yours?
It may not be for the reasons you think.
When you understand the job they're trying to get done, you can market smarter and design better stuff.
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Did you find this thread helpful?
It took me 4.5 hours to create
If you’d share it (which will take about 0.3 seconds) I’d be so grateful 🙏
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2. @Tango_HQ (alternative to manually documenting processes)
How I Use It:
> I get my VA to create workflows of any repeatable process we use (eg. publishing our newsletter)
Why I Prefer It:
> So easy—you just do the task and Tango creates the process automatically
> Free plan
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I’m 8 months pregnant and tired all the time
It blows my mind that new parents deal with being tired AND caring for a small human AND doing their jobs
Parents: you’re freaking superheroes
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Note to self:
The people who “make it look easy” have usually worked their asses of to get there.
Hard work > Talent
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People buy from brands that they:
> know
> like
> trust
Being genuinely nice is an underrated marketing strategy
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My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer last month.
She had lumpectomy surgery 2 weeks ago.
Yesterday she got great news...
She won’t need chemo.
They found it very early.
She’s lucky.
Ladies, remember to get regular screenings.
It could make all the difference.
❤️
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Let’s normalize marketing being about helping customers find solutions that make their lives better
(And not manipulators or spammers who chase clicks and eyeballs)
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BIG font = BIG price
Our brains confuse the visual size of a number for numeric size
If we see $25 in large font, our brain notices how BIG the font is and assumes the price is big
Lesson: display prices using small fonts (not large ones)
Like this ✅ Not this ❌
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First-time founders obsess about:
> Their logo
> Their website
> Their headshots
> Their domain name
> Their business cards
> Their social media graphics
Second-time founders obsess about:
> Getting customers
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After nearly a decade working in marketing, I can sum up my most important lessons in 5 simple rules:
👓 Stalk your customers
🧪 Test *then* invest
🛠 Optimize for personalized
💰 Niches build riches
📊 Trust comes before growth
What would you add to this list?
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The best advice I ever got about choosing a target market:
“You can’t boil the ocean. Get more specific.”
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7 years ago my tech startup failed.
I didn’t have wealthy friends and family to help fund my company but I was determined to make it work.
I bootstrapped the business with revenue from my branding agency and a personally-guaranteed loan.
Eventually I brought on investors, but I knew I needed to stretch every penny of VC money so I paid myself next to nothing for 3 years.
I lived on credit. Debt piled up.
That startup failed and I was forced to file for bankruptcy.
For 7 years, I’ve had terrible credit—no bank would look at me.
There was always this anxious thought in the back of my mind that if something happened to my husband, I’d be screwed.
I couldn’t even get a $2000 credit card on my own.
Two months ago the stench of bankruptcy was finally washed away from my record and I once again have excellent credit.
It was an incredible relief.
Why am I telling you this?
Lots of people share their big business wins like record-breaking sales or hitting revenue milestones.
Fewer share the hard stuff.
But don’t be fooled—there’s lots of hard stuff happening behind closed doors.
If you’re going through some of your own hard stuff right now, I assure you that the hard times won’t last forever.
This too will pass.
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People don’t really buy products.
They buy:
> Painkillers
> Lifestyle upgrades
> Status symbols
> Peace-of-mind
In short?
They’re buying better versions of themselves.
As soon as you understand this subtle but significant difference, your marketing will improve.
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Geeky Brain Fact 🧠
Our brains confuse the visual size of a number for the numeric size
If we see $89 in large font, our brain notices how BIG the font is and assumes the price is big
Lesson: Make prices small (not BIG)
Do this ✅ Not this❌
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I don’t understand how so many people are tweeting about marketing and business shit like it’s just an average day…
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This simple graphic is a masterclass in marketing
It communicates a complex idea in such a simple way
(Don Draper would definitely approve)
That said, if you sold fire flowers and needed to figure out how to market smarter, this graphic doesn’t tell the WHOLE story...
🔻
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Some days I want to build a massive company
Some days I want to move to a warm place and sell coconuts and seashell necklaces by the beach
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When people buy products, they don’t *really* buy products
They buy:
> Status
> Peace-of-mind
> Joyful moments
> Solutions to problems
In short, they're buying a better version of themselves
The best marketers deeply understand what their customers are *really* buying
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When doing customer research, don't ask your customer for their OPINION — get them to tell you STORIES.
Real life stories go much deeper and will reveal more insight about what motivates your customer.
It's marketing gold.
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What are the four most terrifying words a marketer can hear from a client?
“We sell to everyone” ☠️
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People don’t buy things because of who they are.
They buy because of who they want to become.
Don’t sell the product.
Sell the transformation.
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Marketing is part art and part science
You don’t need to master both to be successful, but don’t belittle the skills you don’t have either.
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If you think hiring an experienced marketer is expensive…
Just wait and see how much it costs to hire an amateur
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Everything is marketing
(Once you discover this, it’s both overwhelming and incredibly exciting)
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Facebook. Amazon. Stripe.
Today each one is a massive company
But they all started the same way—by targeting a *very* small target market
8 questions to answer to identify your billion-dollar market:
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3. @Talkwalker Alerts (Google Alerts alternative)
How I Use It:
> Track mention of keywords I’m interested in on blogs, Twitter, etc so I can spot trends or common Qs
> Monitor my own brand mentions
Why I Prefer it:
> Free to use
> Monitors more sites than Google Alerts
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Baby B is here 🥰🥰🥰
He joined us yesterday at 11:31am weighing in at 9.2 lbs (for all of you who were taking bets)
He’s very tall and has huge hands and feet just like his dad
The delivery was seamless and hubs and I are doing great
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