Where do we grow from here? — Kelford Labs Daily

“In most cases, your audience is much smaller than you actually think, and to avoid this misguided thinking you should be promoting your work daily. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're above distribution.

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Don't carry delusions of grandeur. Even Beyonce has to promote her albums.”

— Ross Simmonds, Create Once, Distribute Forever

Once we accomplish a marketing milestone—a certain number of subscribers we’ve been aiming for, a consistent schedule we’ve been trying to build, a body of work we’ve been building toward—we’re left with the simple question: What now?

Do we rest on our laurels or do we keep growing? And if we keep growing, how?

Recently, I hit the personally-meaningful milestone of publishing 300 daily newsletters. I’m proud of this, and it’s helped me in innumerable ways.

And it would be easy to make my next goal a simple increase from the last one. Maybe now I could shoot for 600?

But that’s not really a new goal, it’s the same one.

No, when we accomplish one goal it behooves us to create a new one, not to attempt a repeat of the last.

Marketing is about growth—personal, professional, distributional. It’s about getting a little better every day, not about making every day the same as the last one.

So, for this newsletter—now that it’s a habit, now that it’s established—my goal must also grow. Instead of going for volume, I want to start optimizing for reach.

Frankly, my promotion of this newsletter outside of current and former clients has been lackluster, to put it generously. Absent, to put it accurately. It’s grown and spread organically, but I haven’t been putting significant effort there.

What do I intend to do now? For one, I’m going to take Simmonds’ advice and actively promote the newsletter every day, beyond simply publishing it. More posts on LinkedIn and Threads. More direct outreach to probable readers. More calls-to-share and more requests for feedback.

What about you? What was your last marketing goal or milestone you hit? And how can you take that win, celebrate and appreciate it, and transfer that momentum into another goal that takes you somewhere new?

If you’ve been posting on LinkedIn regularly, is it time to switch up your content?

If you’ve been networking more actively, is it time to start your own networking group?

If you’ve been advertising consistently, is it time to experiment with new channels?

It’s not about skipping past the celebration, or moving the existing goalposts out of reach.

It’s about taking what you’ve learned, what you’ve done and accomplished, and using it as a platform to reach the next height.

That’s how you grow from here.

And if you know someone who might enjoy these quick, 1-minute marketing reads each morning, please forward this along to them.

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.