How to scale your brand without ads — “We don’t advertise” is a common refrain I see in founder stories. It’s usually a way to communicate product quality. Our product is so good we didn’t have to advertise. Ads are expensive. So not advertising is an attractive business strategy. But just because you don’t advertise, doesn’t mean you…

A non-technical introduction to Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) — Part 1 — “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker John Wanamaker was a successful businessman who was a pioneer in advertising and many other fields. He opened the first department store in Philadelphia. His department store chain was sold…

It’s Zuora’s, and it’s brilliant. Here’s why. — A few months ago, my friend Tim took a new sales job at a Series C tech company that had raised over $60 million from A-list investors. He’s one of the best salespeople I know, but soon after starting, he emailed me to say he was struggling. “I’ve landed a…

Your content doesn’t have to be that good — Being a content creator is not easy. Part of what makes this journey difficult is the information out there surrounding content creation. When you start your content creation journey, some of the things that you thought will work for you, work against you. …

“It’s not about the news — it’s about the letter.” — Everyone and their mother has a newsletter these days. So, yours really needs to standout. Otherwise, it’ll dissolve into the dark abyss of internet nothingness. Your time will be wasted. Your reputation will take a hit. And, the greatest opportunity for content creators since GIFs will pass you by. I’ve…