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Hi 👋

I see marketing diverging in two directions right now, and there’s hope in that.

The first is familiar. Speak to as many people as possible as fast as you can. Cast your net wide and broad. This makes sense for something like a microwave, a product solving a universal problem, where volume is the game. 

And Mr Amazon himself, Jeff Bezos, once said, " Go niche with high prices and low costs, or go vast at scale. The middle is where things get difficult.” I think a lot of marketing is blindly following suit.

For mission-driven work, the kind where the service is bound up in who you are and what you believe, the wide net poses many challenges. It costs money, headspace, and time. The ROI is questionable.

But marketing is changing and in our favour.

Through researching financially successful newsletters, I have found that those with small, deeply trusting audiences generate more revenue per reader than a large, shallow one. 

And the value goes way beyond the business case,

In building honest relationships that actually help people, the whole thing changes character, with service sitting at the centre. You're building with people, not selling to them.

When we chase likes and numbers, we're reaching for a form of illusory validation. This requires us to always stay relevant, and that has a cost: it tethers us to follow the audience, the algorithm, or the trend. You end up chasing what's ‘hot’ and being relevant has a shelf life. Nobody stays hot forever.

But what has more power and wisdom is creating from your own authority and genuine lived experience to build trust with fewer people, but building meaningfully. In the end, these connections are the ones that will stay strong through an incoming storm.

And what's coming up, as I see it, is a significant shift in how knowledge gets valued.

AI is commodifying information, and because of that, people's attitudes toward learning are adapting quickly.  As the machine now handles practical operations, the need to personally absorb and execute on that knowledge has reduced. With that, I see the selling of courses dwindle because knowledge is now instantly available for minimal cost. 

Simultaneously, I see communities and in-person relationships rising. In smaller but relevant spaces, people exchange stories whilst seeking a sense of togetherness, meaning, and shared goals. The existence of the machine has sharpened the focus on and desire for fundamentally human traits like experience, talents, and setbacks. 

In those relationships, trust is built, and trust creates opportunities.

I can testify that starting this newsletter has connected me to more like-minded people than I could have anticipated, even with a modest list. With it came opportunities that I wouldn't have found otherwise. A small, highly engaged readership has opened up my network and expanded what's possible. 

You’ll start to receive these stories over the coming weeks and months - keep your eyes peeled!

As I write, people have got to know me, professionally and personally, which is a beautiful thing. They form a view of who I am. They ask themselves whether I'm someone they'd want to work with one day. And that’s a question, which gets answered over time, in newsletters just like this one. 

AI is absorbing the broad, generic, and lifeless approach to marketing. It is a useful asset for systems and operations, but what the machine can't replicate is genuine lived experience married to authentic character, and a valuable service or product. 

Talking directly, honestly, and openly, showing up as a human, is a differentiator now. Being known well by a few is more durable and meaningful than being well-known to many.

And I'm grateful for the opportunity to write to you in this way. 

In the spirit of what this letter is about, I want to ask you something. What would you like to know about me, or about this community? How can we be better known to each other, and how can I be of more service to you?

I’d love to get to know you better through it. 

Warmly,

Rob

PS, I’m happy to share the research on newsletter revenue and audience size. Please send me a reply, and I'll forward it on.

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