300 Marketing Lessons — Kelford Labs Daily

Today is my 300th Kelford Labs Daily, so to commemorate the occasion, I figured I’d record a few of the biggest lessons I’ve learned since I began this project.

I hope these lessons will help you create more novel content that sets you apart and demonstrates your unique value at a distance—to your very best customers.

1) Marketing is a habit, not a task

The biggest lesson from the last 300 issues is that writing every day is easier than writing once a week. When you have a daily commitment—a routine, a ritual—around your marketing, the ideas flow more easily. The work goes more smoothly. Because you’re always doing it, instead of having to wait for inspiration—or sit around forcing yourself to come up with something, anything.

Make marketing a habit and you never have to get started.

You’ve already started.

2) It works on you first

The audience member who’s benefited the most from my writing, I’m almost hesitant to admit, is me. 300 newsletters means 300 ideas, 300 unique bits of phrasing, 300 ways to connect the dots. Which means, in sales conversations, at networking events, or on social media, I never have to think about how to describe what I do or how to explain the value of my work. I’ve already done it, 300 times. I just have to remember what I’ve already said.

When you write about your work and your process, you never have to stumble over your words in person, or struggle to think of how to describe the value of what you do.

Because you’ve already done it.

3) Write for one person

Which brings me to this: Always write for one person. It’s old writerly advice, but it’s true. When you try to write for everyone, you end up appealing to no one. Instead, have a real person in mind when you sit down to write about your work, your business, your process, or your value.

Explain it to them, not to an uninterested crowd or a vague avatar or persona. When we speak to someone in particular, we end up speaking to everyone. Specificity is relatable—broadness is boring. And the fact that it’s also easier to write to one person than to try to explain something to everyone helps make it a habit.

This newsletter—and the 299 preceding it—have been written to someone in particular. Rarely the same person, but always someone. Even if that person is me. Sometimes, I need to hear what I’m saying, and take my own advice.

And that’s a lot easier when it’s already written down.

If you’d like to read some of the 299 other marketing lessons I’ve learned, you can access the full archive here.

For those who’ve been with me since the beginning, I’d love to hear more about why you’re still reading and any favorites you’ve had along the way. Please email me your thoughts and feedback at labs@kelfordinc.com

Kelford Inc. helps hands-on entrepreneurs and founders with complex marketing challenges define and articulate their unique value to their very best customers.

We’ll show you the way to always knowing what to say.