Daily marketing inspiration — Kelford Labs Weekly

Did you know Kelford Labs publishes every single week day?

A few times a year, I like to send out a sample of the daily newsletters to subscribers of the weekly editions so you can see what the dailies offer.

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Take a walk to find the words

Published October 9, 2024

Here’s something pretty non-controversial: The modern world relies on electricity.

More than that, on alternating current.

So, do you know how Nikola Tesla came to invent his AC motor?

Did he do it by staring at a blank page, scouring his brain for insight or stubbornly trying to brute force his inspiration?

No, it came as he was reciting poetry on a beach.

Tesla himself said, “As I uttered these inspiring words the idea came like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed.”

So he grabbed a stick and drew his invention in the sand.

If such an engineering feat—a real, tangible machine—was the product of poetry and a nice walk on the beach, what does that say about our own work?

Surely our processes—the way we serve our customers, the way we come up with ideas and implement them—could benefit from that kind of inspiration?

So if you’re banging your head against your keyboard, frustrated that you can’t churn out a LinkedIn post, or rewrite your homepage copy, or figure out what the heck to say to promote your services, the thing to do might be to step away from it.

Take a walk.

Read a book.

Recite some poetry or listen to some music.

Do anything that isn’t the task at hand.

Let your mind wander and it will take you to interesting places.

Heck, you might just change the world (or at least write a great LinkedIn post).

This is why we focus

Published October 28, 2024

“After the purchase is made, however, the performance of the offering must surpass the customer’s expectations in order for them to be satisfied. If performance is better than expectations, the customer’s perception of quality will be high. If performance is lower than expectations, the perception of quality will be low—no matter how good the offer is in absolute terms.”

— Josh Kaufman, The Personal MBA

This is why we must focus.

Because our services can’t just satisfy, they must exceed expectations.

And it’s impossible to be extraordinary at everything at all times.

We must sacrifice the things we can’t be the best at in service of the things we must be the best at to exceed expectations.

Focus isn’t a “nice to have” or a luxury for lazy entrepreneurs.

It’s necessary to grow.

Because for our reputation to grow organically and for awareness of our services to compound, we require word of mouth promotion.

And no one refers a business that is merely good.

We refer businesses that are surprisingly great.

That exceed our expectations.

Because they focused.

Reliable marketing

Published October 21, 2024

There’s an argument to be made that, more than anything, buyers don’t want something better—they want something guaranteed to be good.

They’re buying reliability, not perfection.

And what is reliability? It’s making promises and keeping them. It’s fulfilling expectations.

It’s going above and beyond.

So what does this have to do with marketing messages? Well, if you want to be reliable and credible—and, as a result, in demand—you have to make promises and keep them.

Which means your marketing messages need to be consistent.

You need to reinforce the same promises over and over, the ones that you deliver on most and most successfully in your work.

Instead of offering everything to everyone, we need to focus on what we do best, and what we can make the strongest credible promise about.

And then keep those promises, over and over again, better and better.

So when you’re coming up with an idea for a piece of marketing content, think about this:

“What promise can I make that I would love to keep, because I’m the best at it?”

And then write about that.

Kelford Inc. shows you the way to always knowing what to say. Marketing positions and messages for hands-on entrepreneurs.