Turning the marketing bike — Kelford Labs Daily

When I was a kid, we learned to ride bikes through trial and error.

You got on the seat, you tried to pedal, you fell over, and you kept trying until you stopped falling.

Training wheels might be involved for a bit, but once they’re off, it’s just you, the pedals, and the rapidly approaching ground.

And turning was always the tricky part.

When we were first learning to ride, we’d try to turn before we had any momentum. We’d do a little hop and scoot maneuver to point the bike in the right direction, and then we’d set off that way.

But the hop and scoot is a complicated set of maneuvers, and for a little kid, often ends up on the ground with shoelaces tied up in gears and pedals.

As you get older, though, and as I’m pretty sure they teach riding bikes these days, you realize it’s all about momentum.

Turning is easy when you’re already on the move.

You don’t hop and scoot, you just set off in any direction, confident you’ll be able to turn once you've built some speed.

This is a post about marketing strategy, positioning, and finding your ideal customers.

Because when you try to start from a dead stop and hop and scoot your way to your ICP, your position, or your marketing strategy, you’ll end up tangled in the gears.

Because all of those things require momentum. Cold starts become fast failures.

Instead, get moving in any direction.

Build the habit of asking your best clients the questions that point you toward more clients like them. Build the habit of talking about your business’s position clearly and consistently to anyone who asks and wherever it’s discussed. And build the habit of doing your marketing every single day and measuring what works.

But most importantly, maintaining the momentum.

Because once you’re moving, you can head off in any direction you please.

But trying to attain an ideal while you’re sitting still will just end in frustration, tangled up and on the ground.

So instead, think about marketing like riding a bike.

Head off in any direction first and turn once you’re moving.

Don’t try to hop and scoot your way to your ideal customers.

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