How do you make what you make matter?

My 4 year old son runs in from school, dives into his craft box and starts making things. It can be anything. Usually involving paper and felt-tip pens. Oftentimes, we’re hearing demands for felt, cardboard and sometimes twigs.

He loves making things. His teacher tells us we need to embrace his creativity.

However. He’s 4. As soon as he has made one thing, he’s onto the next. His creations are dismissed (and covertly end up in the bin a few days later) as he switches focus to the next product on his personal assembly line.

We have a lot in common, him and me. Naturally, I’m his dad, you’d expect similarity. What I mean is the way we get excited about little ideas, make them and then move on to the next thing. It’s a symptom of the ease in which we can create new things.

For him, he has his craft box. For me, and digital marketers alike, we have the internet. Our own blank canvas.

We can jump from one half-finished project to the next with ease. If we don’t see immediate results, that’s okay, we’ve invested little, we can build something new. Some call it an agile state. It can be very frustrating.

In this week’s Marketing Homebrew podcast we talk about simplicity. It’s a new format for our weekly conversation. We take one word, remove the marketing spiel and discuss what it really means to the modern marketer. Keeping things simple is a great trait for the business owner and marketer. We have so much we want to tell our audience about all the great things we do. We overburden our audience with choice. Download this. Listen to that. Read this. Click that. The real smart marketers are the ones with one purpose in mind.

  • The landing page with the single call to action.
  • The homepage with the overarching proposition.
  • The podcast with the one topic of conversation.
  • The content piece with sharing one single idea.

We want to deliver takeaways. Not pizzas, but ideas that our audience will mull over and act upon. What we want to be doing is making what we make matter.

It’s difficult to retain focus on one particular ‘thing’. To build something and continue to revise it until it takes shape and builds traction. To be single-minded to focus on one project at one time. Whether that be a social channel you’ve adopted. A course you’ve launched. A book you’ve published. All the time we want to think and create new exciting things.

QUESTION: Is there a way of taking everything you create and making it matter?

Yes. Something has to sit at the core of what you create. A reason.

More and more I think about this, more and more I realise what that ‘something’ is. It’s you.

For the startup or the one man band, the greatest differentiator you have in your marketing arsenal is you. In larger businesses, whoever is taking ownership of that particular ‘something’ (whatever that project may be) you’re on a journey of creation and your task is to make that journey interesting to your audience.

Here in the UK there’s a ridiculously great project going on at Lost My Name. They’re a publisher of children’s books. Not just any old ‘Tom, Dick & Harry’ but a uniquely personalised children’s book created specifically for your child, or your friend’s child, or, well, any child. A story of a little boy (or girl) who has lost their name. A story where the child’s name is created by… argh, it’s best if you just watch the video below. It explains better than I can:

A very clever business idea. What I love is how the publishers are sharing their own story. The ‘making of Lost My Name’ – you can view it here.

The book proposition is unique. But it’s replicable if you have access to the publishing technology. So, how do they make what they make matter? The inner story. They share details of their sales. The growth within particular countries. They’re opening the door to the inner working of their business. Their natural differentiators. You find out about:

  • the team behind the book
  • the idea behind the book
  • the story behind the book
  • what comes next after the book
  • the success of the book

You share the journey. As, what is quickly becoming my mantra, you don’t buy what they make, you buy into what they make. A hugely powerful position to market your business from.

What Lost My Name are doing (in terms of selling the story of their story) let’s people see what you’re all about. If your products or service have done what they need to do online – evoked interest – it’s the story behind the scenes that can often times prompt action. It’s a far stronger tool than the voucher code or limited time offer. All that talk of H2H (Human to Human) marketing? This is where it comes to fruition. Big time.

Let’s wrap things up. The idea I want you to take away from this article is the idea that you can make whatever you make matter to the people who it needs to matter to. It’s not all about the benefits. We get that. We get that launched down our throats all day and night. It’s about the ways we can indirectly connect. The open arms approach of business. The ‘psssst. Come check out what this is really about’ message.

Once you audience grasp that what you make is important to them. It’s the story of the project you’re working upon that makes that something matter.

We can all give £20 to Children in Need. It’s the impact that £20 has on somebody’s lives and the visualisation of how that £20, cumulative with every other donation, creates something truly worthwhile. Being part of something bigger.

My son just enjoys making stuff. He has no need to build those small things into bigger, more worthwhile projects. His head is racing with ideas.

Sometimes, as marketers or business owners, we’re in a similar position. We just need to make sure that we don’t flit too easily from one project to the next. We start things for a genuine reason. Traction is created when we make those things matter.


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Ian Rhodes

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First employee of an ecommerce startup back in 1998. I've been using building and growing ecommerce brands ever since (including my own). Get weekly growth lessons from my own work delivered to your inbox below.

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