📰 How Seth Godin Would Launch a Business With a $1,000 Budget

"We, marketers, are selfish, lying, short-term thinking scum. We believe that our job is to manipulate people as we market to them." - Seth Godin

The time of scammy, in-your-face marketing is over.

20 years ago, you could come up with an average product, invest a few thousand euros in TV Ads saying that your product was the best ever, and sell 10,000 units of it.

Not anymore.

People are immune to bad marketing.

Don't believe me?

When was the last time you bought SEO services from a cold email? When was the last time you subscribed to a new marketing software from an automated direct message on Twitter?

That's right: never.

We expect to sell using those shady techniques, yet we HATE it when it happens to us.

The first step towards a launching a new business according to Seth Godin is to change your mindset. You can't come up with a product or service and THEN decide to market it.

Productized services are standardized services that are structured and sold like products. So, for example, a writer might provide a done-for-you blog post. A designer might offer a logo with a specified number of iterations. A marketer might provide an actionable marketing strategy. And an engineer might provide website monitoring and maintenance. All would be at fixed price — either one-off or recurring. Here's why they're a step up from normal services.

• Faster growth

• Upfront payments

• Eliminates hour-tracking 🎉 

• Less "feast or famine" which is so common in freelancing

• You know exactly what you'll make from each project

• In the case of subscriptions, it brings consistent, predictable revenue.

• Your business becomes more scalable — you can increase sales without increasing time/cost as much

• You can achieve passive(ish) income.

• Eliminates scope creep

• Simplifies the customer journey

• Makes niching down easier

• Processes become streamlined for efficient, effective work

• And it allows you to build revenue and learn the space so that you can eventually pivot to a full product that supports or even replaces the productized services.

Benefits for your customers:

• It often ends up being cheaper

• Results are consistent — they can trust the quality

• They know exactly what to expect

• Faster delivery and no blown timelines

• Can't go over-budget

• Processes are smooth and frictionless Of course, there's a flip-side.

Here are the cons:

• Niching down means a smaller market (not really a con IMO but still)

• It may upset existing customers

• It takes time to set it up properly

• You may lose some customers who want things beyond the scope of your productized service(s)

• Hiring/managing a team is time-consuming and often difficult

• Can lack customization. But that doesn't have to be the case — just build creativity and customization into the process, structure, and price.

Hey Hunters 👋

I like Canny. But let's be honnnest...

There are way too many features$99/month...

So I created Insighto, a 100% free alternative 🤩

Collect feedback from your customersPrioritize featuresBuild a product users love

Enjoy! — Marc

… But if we choose to engage, then the complaint is a gift. It’s a clue about what might be at the root of the problem.

And solving problems is our job.

Want to launch your own podcast (or a podcast for your company) but don’t know where to start? I’ve put together a podcast launch checklist you can use to get your project up and running, along with tips gathered from my personal experience and insights from members of the HubSpot Podcast Network.

marketer starts a podcast using a podcast checklist Let’s rewind before 2018, when I started my own show, Balanced Black Girl. I was one of the estimated 120 million people listening to podcasts monthly. Eventually, I had an idea of my own and was able to launch with no prior audio experience — and if I can do it, you can, too.

In fact, starting a podcast is easier than ever as the medium has increased in popularity and profitability. Here’s the ultimate checklist to help you start a successful podcast.

"Use AI. But not too much AI … and in the right ways."

"Optimize for SEO – but it's changing completely and irrevocably, so also optimize for other channels."

"Speed and relevancy are top priorities. But we also need a 3-6 month content calendar which will require rallying a cross-functional team."

Sound familiar?

These are just a few of the six paradoxes Jasper's Head of Enterprise Marketing and Communications, Samyutha Reddy, recently posted on her LinkedIn:

I'm willing to bet her thoughts resonate with plenty of marketers. 2024 has already felt like a consistently-shifting video game with plenty of unexpected pitfalls, cliffs, and trap doors.

As everything about marketing changes — from SEO to content creation to goal-setting — Reddy encourages marketers to stay focused on what matters: Storytelling.

Here, let's dive into some of her tips for dealing with the mixed messages we're hearing in 2024, and what to stay focused on, instead.