Category: Psychology

Psychology Startups

We’ve Gotta Stop Using “Lifestyle Business” as a Pejorative

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
For a long while, American business culture has worshiped at the altar of big. Entrepreneurs want to build “big” companies, because they believe that’s how they prove their worth. The media tells us that’s true when they report on every move made by big companies, but barely cover small ones. Speakers on stages and webinars reinforce it when they talk…
Marketing Psychology

Outreach Tips (better than anything you’ll find searching Google)

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s 2020, so your inboxes probably look like mine. Bloated with requests from people you don’t know, overrun by low-quality spammers, a bubbling morass of bandwidth-consuming time vampires mixed in with people and sources you actually *want* to hear from, forcing you to pan for gold amidst the sans serif grays and post-modern white of your mail provider’s “productivity-centric” user…
Data Marketing Psychology

Too Much Creative Marketing is Stifled by Attribution

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
You’re listening to a podcast. The guest describes a product that sounds compelling, alluring, something you’ve been looking for… What happens next? Yup. You search Google. And then what? Google shows you the website for that alluring product, and you click. Maybe you explore the site a bit, perhaps give them your email address or even buy the product. Next…
Marketing Psychology

The “Wall Street Journal” Marketing Problem

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
If you’ve worked in the marketing field long enough, either with consulting clients or as an in-house practitioner with executive participation, you’ve encountered a scenario just like this one. Marketer: “Based on this market research, we know our primary audience: tabletop board game enthusiasts with kids. So, we’ve designed a content marketing campaign, followed by PR and social media outreach,…
Marketing Psychology

Want Your Content to Succeed? Make it Resonate with the Right Audience (no, not that one).

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
You know the stats. 75% of content gets no links. 91% of content earns no Google traffic. 85%+ of content earns fewer than ten social shares. And we’re not even talking about all web content — just those pieces creators produced specifically to earn shares, links, rankings, and traffic. Tragically, much like the US economy, content marketing is a winner-take-all…
Marketing Psychology Startups

Read The Room.

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
When folks ask me about how best to do marketing right now, my answer is consistently turning into the same three words: Read the room. Imagine you’ve walked into a religious space. This room is sacred to the people inside it. When you speak, whatever you say will be viewed through the context of where you are. That’s exactly what…
Marketing Psychology

Marketing Right Now Is #$%*ing Hard.

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve talked to dozens of startup founders, small business owners, and web marketers of all kinds. Folks are scared, and rightfully so. Staring into the face of an uncertain period of quarantining followed by what most estimate will be the worst economic downturn of the last 50 years, and maybe 100, is sobering. The most…
Events Marketing Psychology Startups

Extraordinary Times Call For Extraordinary Measures

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
There can no longer be doubt: the majority of people in advanced economies are living through the most life-altering event of the last forty years. Natural disasters, wars, economic turmoil, political shifts, technological disruption — all of these pale in comparison to COVID-19’s breadth, speed, and the raw quantity of prolonged, global change. That’s in no way meant to minimize…

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