Operating principles that guide how I think about marketing, systems, and growth. These are not rules. They are defaults that have proven useful.
Demand creation is expensive and uncertain. Demand capture is measurable and immediate. Most businesses should exhaust capture opportunities before investing heavily in creation. The demand often already exists. The question is whether you are positioned to capture it.
Related readingLoyalty programs, customer retention schemes, targeting heavy buyers, none of these strategies grow brands in the research. What grows brands is acquiring more customers, particularly the light buyers who make up most of any market. Penetration beats loyalty.
Related readingThe best operators build infrastructure that handles the predictable so humans can focus on the exceptional. This is not about automation for its own sake. It is about creating leverage. About making good judgment available at scale.
Related readingBeing the brand that comes to mind in the buying situation matters more than being the brand with the most features or the lowest price. The battle is fought in memory, not in spreadsheets. Build memory structures that trigger at the right moments.
Related readingSpeed to lead matters. But consistency matters more. Most leads are not lost to competitors. They are lost to silence. To gaps in follow-up. To broken handoffs. Build systems that make follow-up automatic and inevitable.
Related readingGoogle is not a marketing channel. It is a demand capture system. People search when they have a need. Your job is to be present, relevant, and ready when they do. This changes how you think about every aspect of your Google presence.
Related readingThe purpose of measurement is to improve decisions, not to prove that marketing works. Attribution models lie. Dashboards mislead. Focus on the metrics that actually change your behavior, and be honest about what you can and cannot measure.
Related readingComplexity is the enemy of execution. Every unnecessary element is a potential point of failure. Every edge case handled is maintenance burden added. Build the simplest system that solves the problem, then resist the urge to add.
Related readingMarketing is full of strongly held beliefs that do not survive contact with data. The research exists. The patterns are documented. When your intuition conflicts with decades of empirical study, your intuition is probably wrong.
Related readingMost optimization makes performance worse over time. Chasing short-term metrics often sacrifices long-term growth. Build for durability. Play games you can win over years, not quarters.
Related reading