It’s easy to listen to your favourite marketing expert talk about the newest, strategy, tactic, or hack and the results it’s gotten for them, and think that it’s the missing piece of your own marketing puzzle.
All you need to do is learn the strategy, buy the software, read the book or blog post, or listen to a podcast on the topic and you’ll be over the hump and on your way to fame and fortune.
In all likelihood, the strategy/hack/tool actually does work.
They’re not lying to you. It worked for them and it worked for all those happy people on their testimonial page.
But it probably won’t work for you.
The thing about marketing tactics is that while they often do work as advertised, you need to have a foundation in place first, a foundation that established niche authorities have built up over time, and you, most likely, have not.
The required foundation is an authentic relationship with your audience.
Keep in mind, a relationship is more than podcast downloads or website page views. An authentic relationship is built on conversation, on seeing and being seen, of treating each other with respect and empathy.
Relationships like this aren’t built overnight. They take time, generosity, and consistency, and no marketing tactic can perform the hard, emotional labour required to show up and build them.
That you have to do yourself.
Once you’ve put in the work to build that relationship, however, the world opens up to you. It’s at this point that the marketing tactics, tools and strategies start to work and deliver results.
Tactics and strategies at their best amplify, accelerate, and reduce friction in a process that was already in motion.
With a strong enough relationship, however, almost no amount of friction will stop your super fans from engaging with you.
Think about people who fly across the country — or the world — to see their favourite band. Or the ones who buy the ridiculously priced one of a kind collectables offered by their favourite brand.
We all have those people and brands for whom we would go to extreme lengths to engage with. From an outsider’s perspective, these lengths are likely completely irrational.
These feelings are likely based on a relationship we feel with the creator.
These people or their work have spoken to us in a way that deeply resonated, have given us a gift, a feeling that is exceedingly hard to come by, and most likely can’t be bought at any price.
Is it any wonder that we might be willing to go to irrational lengths to give back?
This is our goal as creators and marketers, to build a relationship with our audience capable of achieving results despite intense friction.
If we can then use the latest marketing tactics to ease that friction, all the better, but only as a way to amplify the connection that got us there in the first place.
Want to hear more about building an audience around work that matters? I think you might enjoy these reads!
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