I Need to Travel - A Major Strategic Change
For a lot of the last 20 years, I've said words that all boil down to: keep your best writing/content on your own website/blog. My opinion has changed.
The Bazaar has Moved - IS MOVING
I've long been annoyed at how so many people approach marketing as if it's some formula. The only formula is "get your thing to the person who needs it." That's it. That's the formula. Sure, there's pricing strategies and behavior analysis and all kinds of things. But in its belly, the marketplace from whence marketing as a concept derived hasn't changed. "get the person the thing."
For so many years, I've said, "But get them back to your site. Have them subscribe. Get their email address." That's not wrong. Email addresses (maybe cell phone numbers, but we are far more eager to shed subscriptions on our text messages) are STILL the gold. Intention and action come from lean forward moments, and those take clicks and purchases. If you're selling something.
I sell ideas. I sell thoughts. I sell a future where you'll think, "Wow, I want Chris to come tune up MY C-suite." (After Appfire, sillies. I'm very happy where I work.)
Ideas need to travel. They have to be where YOU are. Ideas in my own head aren't nearly as valuable as they are in yours. And neither of our heads are as good as getting ideas into people's hands, if you follow.
My Website Isn't My Marketplace
If anything, it's just a place that can provide information about me and what I do to serve others in my own words. Every other site in the world exists for other people to do their thing. LinkedIn needs your traffic. Meta needs your soul. So on. So on. It's okay. We make those deals. TikTok needs your location data (eeek).
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But on my site, it doesn't have to do as much any more. This is a huge shift for me and my thinking. It means I could get by with a Wix site, for all I care. Something much dumber. Something that doesn't cost me premium dollars for far less value yielded.
A waypoint. I need to OWN the waypoint, but I want to send you out. MY site, not about.me or all those guys. But something far less important.
And this is new. I've given you the opposite advice for two decades. So, I thought I should make a post to tell you as much. (Well, someone else thought that.)
I'm Not Saying Where to Go
I know that email marketing is super valuable and super important. I *STILL* believe that the list is everything. (Thank you, Jeff Pulver.) ConvertKit makes sense. A few other places. I'll really have to think.
Think with me.
Chris...
Experience Matters. Call me when you’re ready for an agent on YOUR side. 3053439133. Top 1% in Florida & 200+ online reviews
1 年This!!! I’ve been grappling with this as websites feel more like a resume with a few … evergreen resources but the social sites and email outreach are for the … more human side of us.
Communication, writer, many talents | Extended DISC Certified Practitioner | Board Member Waikato Women's Fund
1 年This is a really good point that’s articulated some of the unformed thoughts that have been swirling in my mind. Why am I saving my best content for my website when it’s a crapshoot as to who happens upon it, when I can give it a much better chance of getting in front of eyeballs by sending it as an email or a well-timed post? Moreover, shouldn’t we be saving our best content to reward people who already want to hear from us rather than some unknown maybe-person?
Business Process Consultant / Certified Notion Consultant
1 年I'm really glad you shared this. It opened me up to a new channel of thinking and inspired a whole bunch of questions I'm now asking myself.
Content marketing coach - I'm your Marketing Smorgasbord - coach, strategist, trainer, facilitator, advisor. | Storyteller | Keynote Speaker I Author: Be a Spider, Build a Web | Podcast: Confident Content
1 年I’ve moved to Substack for much of the same reason
Strategic Advisor for Executives, Founders, and Owners | Workplace Consultant | Productivity Expert | Author | Speaker | US Army Veteran
1 年Thanks for sharing this, Chris! It's something I've been mulling over for the last two-three quarters myself – the happenings at Twitter put more grist in the mill. I'm also with you re: TheList, but what I've been thinking about is the inverse: at this point in my career, given what I'm now doing, and given how the bazaar has moved, there's a good chance that I could get everything I want without TheList being such a dominant factor. Of course, it'd be different if I had a list of 500k-700k subscribers, but this isn't 2005-2015 anymore. I'm not saying it's impossible to get there, but a lot of the winners of that game have already won and it's even harder to make that climb these days. So, for now, I'm thinking with you async. Maybe there's a chance we can think together real time in the coming months.