🏅 What humans (actually) want

June 20, 2023

Happy Tuesday! 👋

What do customers humans want?

The best marketers think from first principles — breaking down complex problems into basic elements and then reassembling them from the ground up.

Great marketers are constantly challenging the status quo, questioning conventional wisdom, and refusing to think and do things based on established norms or past experiences. Instead, they focus on identifying the most fundamental truths or principles, and then reasoning up from there.

As marketers, our task is always to understand, to the best of our ability, the wants, needs, and motivations of our audience. And historically, we’ve done this by studying what other marketers do, diving into our analytics, conducting market research, and attempting to study consumer behavior.

However, sometimes it's beneficial to take a step back and view things from a higher, more philosophical vantage point.

In the book, "Living Untethered," author Michael Singer posits a powerful, yet simple idea about the human brain: "All humans want is to be okay. That's why you cried when you were little; you weren't okay in there. That's why you wanted a certain toy; you thought it would make you okay. That’s why you wanted to get married, go on vacation, etc... You get to the point where you realize all you're ever doing in there is trying to be okay."

Let's pause and really consider what Singer is conveying here: the underlying drive of our actions is a quest for okayness, a deep, heartfelt desire to feel secure, satisfied, and at peace.

But how does this apply to marketing?

In every product or service that we market, we're offering more than just an object or an experience. We're proposing a solution, a path to okayness. Whether it's the comfort of a new pair of shoes, the excitement and status of the latest smartphone, or a tool that will help us be more productive, what we're truly marketing is a promise. A promise that our product or service can bring the consumer closer to their sought-after feeling of okayness.

This understanding offers a powerful pivot in how we approach our marketing strategies. By looking beyond just the product features or benefits, we can connect with our audience on a deeper, more meaningful level. We can speak to their fundamental desire for security, satisfaction, and peace. We can position our product or service as not just a tool, but a bridge, to the feeling of okayness that we all seek.

As you dive into your marketing campaigns this quarter, keep this perspective at the forefront. Challenge yourself to not just sell products, but to understand and address your customers’ pursuit of 'okayness' — their human, heartfelt journey towards comfort, satisfaction, and peace.

With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):

  • Marketing news from the past week

  • The story behind Hoka’s explosive growth

  • How to write sales copy in blog posts

  • Taking a B2B blog from 1K to 120K visitors/month

  • How to convert leads from paid ads

  • Ad from the past

  • Website of the week

  • Cool marketing jobs (We’re hiring!)

  • And much more

🗞 In the news

🚀 All things growth & product

The story behind Hoka’s explosive growth, how Aha! bootstrapped to $100M+ ARR, 3 acquisition, conversion, and retention strategies, growth loops vs AARRR funnels, and how to use Product Hunt to get subscribers.

How Hoka sneakers went from obscurity to $1Bn in revenue

How Hoka sneakers went from obscurity to $1Bn in revenue in 10 years

brandingin4d.substack.com/p/diary-of-a-brand-hoka-one-one?ref=marketermilk

Aha!’s bootstrapped journey to $100M+ in ARR

Danny Archer - Aha!’s employee #4 - on PLG and PLS

kylepoyar.substack.com/p/ahas-bootstrapped-journey-to-100m

3 acquisition, conversion, & retention strategies for B2B SaaS

Most businesses with a product-led growth (PLG) strategy think that once they acquire a customer, they will convert into a paying one shortly after. But that’s often not the case.

productled.com/blog/acquisition-conversion-retention-strategies-for-saas?ref=marketermilk

Growth loops vs. AARRR funnels: Which one is right for your business?

Do you wish to bring in more customers but don’t know which growth model is better for your software company? This article explains growth loops vs. AARRR funnels to help you make an informed decision.

www.gartner.com/en/digital-markets/insights/growth-loops-vs-aarrr-funnel?ref=marketermilk

How I got 2,000 new subscribers from Product Hunt

Last Wednesday I launched Marketing Examples to Product Hunt. It received more than 1,500 upvotes, was voted Product of the Week, and my email list zoomed from 1,300 to 3,300 in the space of 72 hours. This is the step by step account of how I did it.

marketingexamples.com/social/product-hunt/?ref=marketermilk

💭 Guess the riddle

What is a social media marketer’s favorite snack?

Answer is at the bottom of this email

✍️ Content, copy, & emails

How to build a content roadmap, how to write sales copy inside of blog posts, writing is a single-player game, and 25+ content ideas for SaaS emails.

How to build a content roadmap and secure more budget to execute on it

In this in-depth post, you'll learn how to develop and execute on a strategic approach to content. Plus, learn how to present your content plan to get more budget.

www.howtosaas.com/blog/build-content-roadmap?ref=marketermilk

How to write compelling sales copy inside blog posts

In this post, we cover common mistakes we see writers make with product or sales copy that lowers the chances of converting visitors into customers.

www.growandconvert.com/content-marketing/pain-point-copywriting/?ref=marketermilk

Writing is a single-player game

Your subscriber count is not the number of humans you're playing with, it's your power level against algorithmic demons.

www.otherlife.co/singleplayer/?ref=marketermilk

How to drive engagement in SaaS emails: 25+ content ideas

Learn how to drive up engagement for your SaaS emails with these 20+ content ideas.

userlist.com/blog/email-engagement-content-ideas/?ref=marketermilk

⚙️ SEO

How MakeMyTrip reached 34M monthly visitors, taking a B2B blog from 1K to 120K without creating new content, advantages of having an SEO moat, and changing introductory text and H1 to improve CTRs.

MakeMyTrip's simple trick to get ~34M monthly traffic!

MakeMyTrip consistently ranks at the top for high volume travel related keywords on Google. Let's learn it's simple strategy to replicate its success and get millions of user traffic!

buildd.co/marketing/makemytrip-seo-strategy/?ref=marketermilk

The SEO moat: Why SEO can be a competitive advantage

In marketing, we overlook the fact that we have the ability to create and strengthen an organization's "Moat". Find out what they are and how to effectively use them.

foundationinc.co/lab/the-seo-moat/?ref=marketermilk

Does changing introductory text and H1 improve CTR and conversions?

On this week’s #SPQuiz, we looked at how updating the H1 and the introductory copy can affect SEO performance for a company’s local pages. The changes would emphasize language around service quality, with the aim of improving E-A-T signals. How did this impact organic traffic? We previously ran this same test for the same customer, which provided inconclusive results. We decided to rerun the test to see if the results would differ, resulting in a positive outcome. How did this impact organic traffic?

www.searchpilot.com/resources/case-studies/changing-introductory-text-and-h1/?ref=marketermilk

🤖 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

An AI course everyone should take, Meta launches Voicebox, and Framer launches Framer AI.

AI For Everyone

Offered by DeepLearning.AI. AI is not only for engineers. If you want your organization to become better at using AI, this is the course to ... Enroll for free.

www.coursera.org/learn/ai-for-everyone

Introducing Voicebox: The most versatile AI for speech generation | Meta

Voicebox is a generative AI model that can help with audio editing, sampling and styling.

about.fb.com/news/2023/06/introducing-voicebox-ai-for-speech-generation/?ref=marketermilk

Framer AI: Generate and publish your site with AI in seconds

From raw idea to a real page in seconds. The more details you provide, the better the output. Each section has a unique combination of layout, copy and styling. Tweak what you like and delete what you don’t. You stay in full control.

www.framer.com/ai?via=marketermilk

🧠 Extra stuff

A founder’s guide to hiring a CMO, and how to follow up with leads not converting from paid ads.

A founder's guide to hiring a CMO

When it comes to hiring a top marketer, founders may feel hamstrung by inexperience and the economy. But hiring the right CMO is possible, depending on your company's size.

openviewpartners.com/blog/a-founders-guide-to-hiring-a-cmo/?ref=marketermilk

Leads not converting from paid ads? Change how you follow up

While many rave about how well paid ads work for them, it’s not always the case. One of the most common questions is, “Why are my ads not converting?”

keap.com/business-success-blog/sales/leads-from-ads-not-converting/?ref=marketermilk

📣 Ad from the past

Candie's Shoes ad from 1979

Candie’s Shoes ad from 1979

💻 Website of the week

Human or Not? // A Social Turing Game

Play a chatroulette and try to figure out if you’re talking to a human or an AI bot. Think you can tell the difference?

www.humanornot.ai

The company A121 Labs launched this website to see if humans could really tell the difference between a human and AI. Check out the results.

🏝 Cool remote marketing jobs

Okay, that's it for now 💙. See you next Tuesday!

Simpson's Im outta here GIF

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“In truth, pain is the price of freedom. And the moment you are willing to pay that price, you will no longer be afraid. The moment you are not afraid of the pain, you’ll be able to face all of life’s situations without fear.” — Michael A. Singer

Riddle answer: Insta-graham crackers