There are two types of companies, single-purchase and “customer lifetime value” (LTV) businesses. Crudely, mattress sellers and gyms. It’s crucial that your marketing investment strategy matches the kind of business you’re in; if you run your LTV businesses as if you’re selling mattresses, you’ll be in serious trouble. [more..]

The founder of the Virgin empire famously discovered the difference between “net” and “gross” profit in his 50’s, in the board room. In this blog post, I’ll be talking about similar fundamentals that marketers need to know. [more..]

Over-emphasizing action bias makes winning seem like a matter of throughput. Hustle, keep plugging away on the to-do list, it goes, and you’re golden. But.. [more..]

You're the most senior person in this meeting. Everyone looks at you every 5 seconds, judging your reactions and trying to make you think they’re smart. If you find yourself in that setting, you’ve got to avoid the deadly sins. [more..]

Multi-person meetings suck the life out of culture. Here is a 3-step alternative. Turn recurring meetings into recurring write-ups, PowerPoint decks into Word documents, and verbal feedback into comments in Google Docs. [more..]

My story of desperately trying to become a customer of a next-generation Internet provider... and what marketers and product managers can learn from this sadly typical experience. [more..]

The route taken by two employees on the growth team was anything but buying ads, their tool set was anything but marketing and their results were beyond anything I ever expected. [more..]

Marketers obsess about every detail of their campaign, spending hours defining the audience targeting rules and picking out the perfect image to accompany our meticulously crafted copy. But how can we be confident that these steps are making a difference in our business’ top line? [more..]

Each screamer has a single goal, out-scream the others, which only secures them a spot in the graveyard of other transactional, no-value-created messages. [more..]

Can the idea of ownership be overdone, can we become infatuated with the concept too much? Let’s explore what this looks like, so as to not fall into it. [more..]

There are two kinds of leaders. One propels the team forward, aggressively tackling every problem. Another creates emotional safety, an environment of trust and respect. You need to know how to be both. [more..]

With the mission to connect with customers and prospects on an emotional level, marketers often believe the finance group is their "natural enemy." How many times have you thought, “these glorified accountants are trying to measure every little aspect of creative activity, driving short-termism and dooming the company to the sea of mediocrity!” [more..]