'Iterations' Is The Title of This Article

The title of this article is, "iterations."

I'm writing this as a reminder to myself for when things don't work out the first time.

20% of marketing is learning the basics. Like how-to run Instagram ads or do SEO.

Which is super important.

The other 80% is consistent iterations. Doing the same thing over and over again until you hit your goal.

I have had far too many conversations with business owners who do the 20% and assume that's enough. And to be honest, I'm guilty of it too.

In this article I'm going to talk about why iterating is so important.

Welcome to my brain,

80% Of The Work Happens After You Start

Most entrepreneurs I've worked with believe the work required to achieve success in marketing is in the basics. They think:

• Running ads for the first time.

• Implementing SEO best practices.

• Posting on social media.

Mixed with a little bit of luck and a self belief that their content is "good enough," will make them rich.

Here's the thing,

The difference between:

• A basic ad and one that prints money,

• Simply doing SEO vs ranking number one,

• Posting social media content vs posting content that translates to revenue,

Adds hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue.

Therefore, the work required to hit those "golden" marketing metrics is similar to building a million dollar business.

Building great marketing campaigns require:

• Iterations

• Failure

• Doing things that lead to 0 return.

• And most importantly, time.

Way too many people I've worked with think that if they TRY ads, SEO or social media, they should be the best.

Marketing is no different from anything else. The riches lie within work and consistent iterations.

No one gets it right on the first try.

I know that me telling you, "marketing takes time," is unsexy. Let's go over some ways to minimize that time and iterate quickly.

How to Iterate Quickly

In the marketing world, it's not uncommon to go through "sprints."

Sprinting is when a marketer does a high volume of something to quickly get data on what works.

Here's how to sprint with ads, SEO and social media:

SEO: Mass Produce Then Analyze

1. Do competitor research to see what the top ranking websites in your niche are doing.

2. Implement SEO best practices onto your website.

3. Create as much relevant content as you can that is better than those competitors.

4. After 30(ish) days, analyze to see what needs to be improved.

This process take about 10 days to complete. But, I have to wait at least 30 days to see any result.

Mass producing website content helps me find gaps I need to close. Typically, I find my page titles needs to be tested.

Ads: Test Every Variable

1. Do competitor research and see what ads the top dawgs in your niche are running.

2. Test your headlines. This is what gets people to click.

3. Recreate top competitor ads and test the creative. This is what gets people to stop scrolling.

4. Test different combinations of your full ad (headline + creative).

5. Repeat.

I do this process every week until my ads get me a 3-to-1 return. ($3 for every $1 spent). Then I slow it down to about 1-2x per month.

Social Media: Mass Produce Then Analyze

I helped a client go from 300 to 13,000 Instagram followers in a summer by doing this.

1. Create 5 different types of content.

2. Post every day.

3. See which content type did the best after 30 days.

4. Make more of the content that did well.

5. Repeat.

Disclaimer: I had a team of 4 to help me push out that much content.

If you don't have that kind of man power, do the best you can and find different ways to become more efficient overtime. Like using ChatGPT to help generate content ideas.

Marketing is Work

Marketing is not a one and done thing. It requires:

• Iterations

• Failure

• Doing things that lead to 0 return.

• And most importantly, time.

Allow yourself some runway to learn and consistently try to get better. I promise making money will be easier soon enough.

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

Links you might like:

1. The Greatest (Airbnb) Vacation Rental Marketing Unlock (Video)

2. How to Engineer Ads and Skyrocket Growth (Relevant to the “Ads: Test Every Variable” section.

3. What do great direct booking websites have in common? Let’s find out…

4. My interview with Ben Wolff. Co-founder of Onera and direct booking pro.