Marketing to the most important person

Who is the most important person to market to?

You.. well, part of you at least.

This is closely related to “write for yourself”, “make what you like”, “cook what you love to eat”, or “scratch your own itch”.

Marketing is not the same as making but it should proceed from the same impulse

One of the interesting things about making a product is that if you don’t like it, you have a Big Problem.

Especially when you’re doing it by hand. If I invest 45 minutes cooking dinner, I better like it. If invest 450 hours building a product, I better love it.

I want it to speak for me, reflect me, and generally “be delicious”. And I think it will be. I think it’ll offer the right person more value than it costs, in time and money.

So why would I hesitate in giving it to that person? Why would any of us hesitate?

Speaking for myself,  because part of me wants it to be valuable and “perfect” – something it can’t possibly be.

Fortunately, another part of me wants it to be valuable and imperfect, even if lots of people observe its imperfections.

Marketing to the most important person, you, sort of equates to choosing to:

• talk to the part of you that’s ok with the inevitable imperfection of what you’re making
• tell the right story to that person – why what you do/make is more valuable than what it costs
• put the right amount of daily energy and frequency into the above efforts

If you get good at that, you could be great at marketing to the next guy.