#46 Weekly Dan — Why does most marketing advice suck?

And a simple framework to change it

Feb 14, 2023

Hello there

This is the #46 Issue of Weekly Dan.

Every Tuesday, I share an actionable essay for Solopreneurs.

Today let’s talk about marketing advice.

Another thread

Everyone on Twitter has a piece of marketing advice.

And everyone wants to be right.

But this is how it looks for users:

Increase the price
Decrease the price
Focus on one acquisition channel
Don't focus on one acquisition channel
Do SEO
Don't do SEO
Email marketing is dead
Email marketing is not dead

It’s not very helpful. Here is why.

Why doesn’t it work?

Most marketing advice falls into one of these three categories:

Advice to sell, not to help. Creators share tips to catch your attention and sell their products later. That’s why they prioritize shiny and catchy ideas over boring and time-tested. No one enjoys reading about “studying your target audience”. But it’s way more exciting to download SECRET FRAMEWORK to boost revenue in 7 days.
No context. We don’t know what happened before and after the Creator implemented their advice. We don’t know their target audience, sales metrics, and marketing goals. We only get the tip of the iceberg and think it’s 100% applicable to our situation. In most cases, it’s not.
No skin in the game. I can share the dumbest advice on Twitter, and I have zero responsibility before you. You didn’t pay me money, and I don’t know your context. If you execute it and fail, that’s on you.

Does it mean you need to stop reading marketing advice?

Absolutely not (especially don’t stop reading my marketing advice)

But you need to change the way you act on it.

I Give Terrible Advice Everybody Knows That! GIF - Terrible Advice Kaitlin Olsen Advice - Discover & Share GIFs

What to do instead?

This is a simple 3-step system that I personally use to reduce the noise and feel more confident. It helped me to stop getting FOMO from reading Twitter.

Read as much marketing advice as possible. On every marketing topic from every marketing expert. That doesn’t mean you will apply every piece of advice to your product. But you will better understand the big landscape of possible solutions.
Set your marketing boundaries. It’s critical to define what you won’t do, even if the best expert on this topic will recommend doing it. And suddenly, you will see that 80% of the advice doesn’t pass this filter. It will be way easier for you to ignore these tips without getting anxious about missing out.
Challenge yourself with ideas that pass through the filter. Prioritize and pick the best ideas once or twice a month. List all current problems and connect them to advice you think works best. Make this a recurrent meeting with strict agenda to prevent procrastination.

One week ago, we used this framework to pivot MakerBox's marketing strategy.

6 different products → one bundle to be focused
no upsell product → clear upsell product that is aligned with our values
leaky marketing funnel → cold-traffic-friendly marketing funnel

It wouldn’t be possible if we rejected the first step and ignored all advice. But it also wouldn’t be possible if we had no barriers and tried to execute every tip. Aim for balance.

Thanos perfectly balanced as all things should be Meme Generator - Imgflip

3 Signs of Good Advice

But how to pick the right advice on the third step?

Just check if it fits these three conditions.

Simple. Bad advice is hidden by layers of complexity. Aim for tips that are not just easy to understand but easy to describe to non-experts too.
Revolution, not Evolution. Don’t expect huge results from micro changes. In most cases, you need to make a dramatic change to see a dramatic increase (or decrease) in your metrics.
Aligned with actions. If somebody gives you advice that they don’t preach — that’s an instant red flag. Watch what people do, not what they say.