⃛Level Up ↴
While I expect the tariff strong arm to be walked back to some degree, predicting anything right now is a fool’s errand. Which means Memorial Day could be 2025’s Black Friday.
Or, as Apollo’s Chief Economist says:
tariffs have been implemented in a way that has not been effective, and there is now a 90% chance of what can be called a Voluntary Trade Reset Recession (“VTRR”)
The bottom line: If the current level of tariffs continues, a sharp slowdown in the US economy is coming.
🎢
Benefits > Features
What’s the scrappy / DIY version of that big, expensive campaign idea?
If it can be easily scaled, it can be easily copied.
What’s something you’re willing to work harder and longer on than most?
Do more of that.
Escape the Feed
When I’m interviewing someone or talking to someone looking to break into marketing, I always ask if they have any go to sources for marketing news / insights / tips & tricks, etc.
Typically the answer is some form of feed.
“I scroll LinkedIn”
or
“TikTok shows me a lot”
or
“I follow a lot of marketing people on Instagram”
I’m never impressed by this.
My advice, find a few blogs / sites / newsletters related to your role and/or area of interest and subscribe in a way that there isn’t an algorithm between you and the most recent update.
Email is good. RSS* is my preferred method.
Keep feeds for discovery and entertainment.
Create a space you control for learning.
Cultivate your own curious corner.
*RSS Tools
Do you need to do the whole thing? Or can you just do the part you’re particularly good at as part of a team?
Is growing your list of offerings the right move? Or would you be better served by subtracting—focusing on the most popular / what works the best?
People feel increased prices long before potential reshoring employment shifts from tariffs, these 3 headlines could sour sentiment for the executive branch:
Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
Kickstarter Introduces ‘Tariff Manager Tool’ to Add Charges to Already Fully Funded Projects
Temu adds ‘import charges’ of about 145% after Trump tariffs, more than doubling price of many items
Brands are buckling up for a rough year, especially those importing from China.
This could open the door for more messaging opportunities as major platforms make the impact of tariffs plain to shoppers.
Eventually all large platforms become commerce platforms
When ChatGPT users search for products, the chatbot will now offer a few recommendations, present images and reviews for those items, and include direct links to web pages where users can buy the products.
The ChatGPT search update is part of OpenAI’s effort to compete with rival Google by creating a better, more personalized experience to find products and information on the internet.
Everyone is coming for Google these days.
via TechCrunch
Perplexity wants to be Google, but based in AI vs. traditional search.
From TechCrunch:
“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” [CEO Aravind] Srinivas said. “Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not like that’s personal.”
This aligns with the company’s vision and is not a recent pivot, but you can tell they smell blood in the water with Google’s regulatory woes.
The easiest job in marketing is to give people what they’re telling you they want. And sometimes companies even mess that up.
This story (YouTube link) from Bryan-Michael Cox shows the value of listening to fans.
The fans were asking for this song. First of all, they didn’t even put the song on the album initially. The fans were asking for the song because…they were playing songs during the pandemic on a Live and played the snippet and the snippet went viral. And everybody asked for the song and the album comes out, the song’s not on the album. So they had to go do a re-release.
Each individual is a heliocentric universe in which they are the sun.
When it comes to your marketing, they don’t care about you. They care about how your offer and brand fits into their universe as a satellite.
Don’t talk about you. Talk about what you do for them.
Right human
Right message
Right time
This highlights the difference between “creative” as a noun and “creative” as an adjective.
A creative piece of creative stands out in a sea of uncreative pieces of creative.
via Edward Cotton
It’s no so much the tariffs themselves (though they’re certainly not helping, especially for anyone relying on goods from China), but the uncertainty about what, when, and how much that is wreaking havoc on planning right now.
Some large companies are refusing to even give guidance in earnings reports because it’s a fool’s errand.
The supply chain signals are clear though:
the CEOs of Target, Walmart, and Home Depot convened with the president to warn that supply chain disruptions caused by tariffs will lead to notable product shortages in their stores within just a couple of weeks
Freight company HLS Group told clients earlier this month that it has already recorded 80 cancelled vessels out of China as tariffs crunch demand
Here’s how the DOJ & friends want Google to break up its search monopoly:
- No more paying for default status (this was the obvious ask)
- Get rid of Chrome
- Open source the data—queries, coverage, performance, etc
If it’s still a monopoly in 5 years, Android could be on the chopping block.
The advertising remedies are kind of weird…
- Provide more information to advertisers in search query reports
- Let advertisers opt out of broad and automated keyword matching.
On the first one, sure, whatever.
But on the second, feels like advertisers refusing to change and wanting their old toys back.
Have a podcast and not seeing much growth?
Try these tips from Grow the Show:
Completion rate < 65-75%?
Keep tinkering with your intros and your content and the promise that each episode makes
Downloads stalled?
Keep tinkering with your promotion efforts
Experiment with post formats and styles
YouTube views < 💯?
You need to change your titles and thumbnails
The behavior change Manton outlines here is one I find myself mirroring
I’m now asking AI for simple queries that Google would be equally good for. Using AI essentially automates the workflow of getting 10 links from Google, clicking on 3-4 of them, then skimming the web pages to get your answer.
Getting links in the response plays a part for me.
I imagine this will become more common.
The point isn’t going viral. Unless your business is monetizing the hamster wheel.
As Gabe the Bass Player says:
But the point isn’t to just attract a crowd.
We want to attract a crowd doing our specific thing.
We want a crowd that is attracted to what we do.
We want what we do to serve the expectations wrapped up in that attraction.
Attention is a means, not an end.
Indexing on attention leads to clickbait, which is the act of breaking the promise of expectation.
Never a good move for a business.