What Startup Marketers Can Learn from Trump

The Donald may be the death of us. But he’s one hell of a marketing guy.

As Xanax sales spike on both coasts there’s a lot of talk about how President-Elect Trump pulled off the biggest upset in modern political history. A Presidential campaign is a startup, of sorts, and through that lens he did three things most startups should but don’t emulate.

Clarity of message trumps quantity of media.

“Make America Great Again.” On a hat, no less. I made fun of it, maybe you did to.

By some measures Hillary outspent Trump by more than 2-to-1 in this election, but the value of all that media weight paled in comparison to the impact of a simple message, representing just what the customer wanted, delivered simply and consistently at every point of contact with the marketplace.

Entrepreneurs typically reflect way more deeply on the nature and value of their products than the people who buy them. As a result, what feels overly simplistic and shallow to them often lines up pretty well with the right level of depth required to get customers to see whats in it for them at a glance, and dig a little deeper into the particulars.

Or not, in this particular case.

Enthusiasm is everything.

Here again, the Democratic “Get Out The Vote” machine out-executed the Republican one in every swing state that mattered. When the dust settled, more of them went to him than her.

Why? Because Trump did something more important than execute the crap out of voter turnout ground game. He did what he had to do?—?went where he had to go and said what he had to say?—?to get people excited enough to go vote on their own.

Trump understood that if you want to change what someones does, you need to change what they feel, and not just what they think.

In the end best product is the one the customer wants most. It’s a question of intensity, which makes it a question of emotion. Everything else is just somebody who doesn’t matter’s opinion.

If you want to win, work your ass off.

Say what you want about Trump, he was everywhere after the FBI opened a window of opportunity to let in the air and sunshine of a big pile of nothing. As Trump Air criss-crossed the country from state to state Chuck Todd and co said he was “all over the place,” showing the signs of a “desperate Hail Mary campaign.” Seven states on the day before the election alone. Crazy, right?

Meanwhile Hillary was comparatively surgical in her approach, using The Data to focus like a laser on the States That Mattered, and avoiding all the others.

You know… Like Wisconsin. And Michigan. And Indiana. Doh.

Turns out data only makes you so smart. In the end you have to hustle, to make something happen. You have to be willing to set the numbers aside once in a while, go grab someone by the heart strings (as opposed to someplace else,) and make them feel something important.

Clarity of message, depth of enthusiasm, and intensity of effort. Get those things right, it seems, and nothing is impossible.