Marketing isn’t hard.

It’s actually one of the easiest things to understand.

We all can recognize the things that people say and do that get us to take action.

So why does everybody seem to struggle with trying to market their stuff?

I’ve found that the issue for most people who aren’t marketers is contending with these 2 truths:

1. All marketing is guessing

2. Believing what you’re saying is 80% of the battle

Let’s tackle the first truth. Marketers have a ton of tools, tricks, and historical data to call on before deciding on a campaign. But make no mistake, most of this job is just guessing what a person will do next once certain conditions are met. From there, we compare what our hypothesis was to what actually happened. Then, we try to make better guesses over time. Better guesses mean hopefully a better return on our efforts.

Now imagine you could build your hypothesis off the backs of many marketers before you. Wouldn’t that make for an even more solid guess? Welcome to the advertising industry. Your Yelp credits are waiting.

To the 2nd truth — if you can transfer confidence to someone else, you will find it incredibly easy to encourage them to take action on anything. Your assertion doesn’t even have to be correct. You just have to believe in it enough that you can make a solid case for it. That’s why both vegan diets and carnivore diets have their own cult-like followings — despite research showing that a balanced diet is the most optimal path for the general population.

…or can the research I just mentioned be interpreted differently? Who conducted the studies? Who funded the people who conducted the studies? What are their motives? You see how deep of a rabbit hole you can go down before you realize that we’re all just moving on a bunch of assumptions by people who have their own motives and have made it their mission to build a strong case for them?

Once you internalize these truths, I hope you see that marketing is a game of:

1. Speaking to basic human emotions and desires that we all share.

Make me feel like that sick child is mine if you want me to donate. Show me the life satisfaction I’m missing out on by not booking a flight to your destination.

2. Reconciling with the fact that everything will never be for everyone.

Understand that some people will love your campaign platform…and still have no desire to hear it from you. But find comfort in the fact that there are enough people who DO want to hear it from you.

We can talk tactics all day long, but understanding the core truths of this game is the first step toward better marketing outcomes.