Feeling Small

Garth Beyer

Feeling Small

Many marketers are driven to think big. Think huge reach. Think massive circulation.

Here’s the problem.

People have always been good at ignoring advertising, flipping off barkers, discarding unsolicited emails.

No matter what next tech leap we take, people will get good at ignoring how we use it to advertise to them. Since it’s harder to disrupt, we focus on creating content for people.

But the truth about content is there’s a limit to the amount of content a person can consume on a daily basis, so thinking mass doesn’t work there either.

  • I can only listen to so many podcasts in a day.
  • Watch so many Netflix shows.
  • Read so many blogs.

I just read Seth Godin’s post on the coming podcast surplus and felt really small.

I felt small because so few podcasts are listened to on a daily basis.

I have a podcast. How do I expect to land in one of the 14 podcasts that someone has time to listen to?

Not only that, but the risk someone would have to take to change one of the 14 podcasts they listen to for a different one is so strong that people are more likely to stick with what they know and like already.

Sounds like two very good reasons to stop podcasting, stop blogging, stop tweeting, stop creating and certainly not start making something else that no one will make time for.

I’m being sarcastic, of course.

The takeaway from feeling small is to market small, market niche, market with the intention of getting one person to share the piece of content.

Every person might only have bandwidth to consume 14 podcast episodes, 3 Netflix shows, 8 blogs and will stick with them until…

  • someone who they trust says they ought to check out a different podcast.
  • someone gets invited over by a friend and that friend puts on How I Met Your Mother.
  • someone speaks at a conference and you want to read more about the way they think.

Now the marketing world beings to look a lot brighter. Now we can play with ways that surprise and delight people. Now we can create content that get people to feel a certain way when it’s shared. Now our marketing has a purpose, a purpose to connect.

 

Stay Positive & If That’s Not Exciting, I Don’t Know What Is

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Garth Beyer
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