Notes from Simple Marketing for Smart People

Notes from Simple Marketing for Smart People

marketingbooks

I just finished reading Simple Marketing for Smart People by Billy Boras.

This book talks about building a customer base through education (belief building). It mainly focuses on content marketing via social media channels.

The book was more conceptual than actionable but I did get a few new ideas from reading it.

These are my notes from my read.

How to simplify marketing

Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated.

There are 3 main parts to marketing:

  1. Core Message — what you say
  2. Channels — where you say it
  3. Tactics — tools and tricks (email lists, lead magnets, etc…)

Billy Boras believes core message is the first place new marketers should focus because it is an input into channels and tactics. Tactics can be ignored until a marketer becomes more advanced.

To build a strong core message ask:

What do people need to believe in order to buy my solution

The Chain of Beliefs

Billy thinks that prospects have a “chain” of beliefs (your product is solving an important problem, your solution is worth paying for, your company is trustworthy, etc…) that all need to be present in order for a prospect to become a customer.

Different prospects have a different “belief chains” and some prospects need fewer new beliefs than others before they buy.

As an example, take a prospect who has purchased a competitors’ product in the past.

This prospect is probably interested in your product (their purchase proved they’re interested in solutions like yours), but you may need to teach them why your product is better than the competitors’ product before they’ll buy.

In contrast take a prospect who is just starting to explore your topic.

They may need more basic education (eg: choosing fonts in design is more important than choosing colors) before they’ll be ready to buy.

Figuring out Where there is a Belief Mismatch

Billy says that understanding the customers’ beliefs is the first step in making a sale.

He has a method where he reverse engineers beliefs by looking at the prospects’ behavior (the customer journey).

He had a nice example where an executive coach had a product that helped a newly successful CEO let go of micromanaging.

When the CEO got successful he started:

  • Reading books on time mamagement
  • Taking productivity courses
  • Working late into the evenings
  • Update task management software…

From this Billy reasoned that the CEO believed:

  • Time management is the probelm
  • He’s very busy but is not the bottleneck
  • Everything will break if he takes a break
  • He needs to do everything himself

In order to buy your product, the CEO might need to learn that:

  • Delegating / hiring is the real problem
  • A solid team will always be able to do more than an individual
  • The CEO is the bottleneck and he’ll only get bussier
  • Teambuilding is liberating

The CEO probably won’t buy a ‘let go of micromanaging’ product without adopting these new beliefs, but if you reframe the problem with these new beliefs, the product might be a good fit.

Coming up with beliefs to promote

How do you decide what to teach? Billy recommends you start with clarifying your own beliefs.

The belief ladder is a tool for doing this. To build a belief ladder take all the important steps in your topic and prioritize them. For example, in brewing cleanliness matters more than the type of yeast you use.

Use the belief ladder to prioritize which topics are more and less important.

Instilling beliefs with claims and proof

Billy says marketing messages should take a stance and build a case (state a claim and prove it).

For example take Tailwind. They don’t say “HSL (hue, saturation and lightness — an alternative color scheme to HEX) is cool”, they say “HSL is better than HEX and you should use it and here’s why…”

Take a stance. Have a point of view. That’s how you build beliefs.

Revealing the Matrix

Billy suggests that this belief building stuff is all over modern marketing.

He uses the example of fancy eggs (“these eggs are cage free and come from happy chickens on 8 acres of land”) vs. generic eggs.

If a marketer doesn’t build the belief that “happy eggs matter” (they’re healthier, more humane etc…) customers won’t be willing to spend the extra $4 to purchase them.

My overall impression

What I like ~

  1. Focusing on core message, a few channels and ignoreing tactics because it simplifies things.
  2. The idea that marketing should take a stance (A is important, B is not) and prove it

What I don’t like ~

  1. Focusing on education through content marketing. I believe this can work, but it seems like a long road. I’d like to test filling existing demand with tools like ads first.

  2. I didn’t like the brief content marketing examples. They felt trashy. I need to find a way to feel more authentic if I use this approach.

What I’m curious about ~

  1. Is there a fast way to test ideas on LinkedIn or twitter?

Overall I wish the book was a bit more perscriptive so I’d have something more specific to test.

I think I’m a bit more of a fan of Donald Miller’s Marketing Made Simple book.

Action steps from the book.

  1. Look at who I’m targeting.

    • Assess what they already know and believe.
    • Determine the length of their belief chain.
    • Decide whether this group is the right target or if I should adjust my focus (perhaps offering a simpler product for beginners or a more advanced one for experts).

  2. Complete a core messaging docuemnt.

    • Identify the key beliefs customers need in order to make a purchase.
    • Use the claim/proof model to support my messaging (e.g., take a stance—“As a beginner, you should focus on XYZ and ignore other distractions,” similar to what the Tailwind team did).

  3. Create new marketing material.

    • Post this kind of material to Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter (X)