Kathryn Aragon Media

It's easy to conflate your brand and your differentiators - or focus on one over the other.

Truth is, you need both. And you need to understand this one truth...

A brand can last forever, but your differentiators will need to constantly tweaked so you remain competitive.

Coca-Cola is a good example.

Its brand is iconic. You only need to see Coca-Cola red, the script logo, or its uniquely shaped bottle, and you know you’re getting a Coke. That a powerful brand.

But it’s not differentiation.

When Coca-Cola was invented in 1886, they had some huge differentiators: carbonation; their sweet, syrupy flavor; a non-alcoholic refreshment (soft, not hard).

But as the market developed, carbonation was no longer a differentiator. Soft drinks became a category.

The flavor itself was almost recreated by market challenger Pepsi, so that’s no longer a differentiator.

And now, buyers are looking for healthier options for their flavored drinks. The sweet syrup is a liability, not a differentiator.

It's the same for your brand. Do you have a strong brand and good differentiators?

Digital marketing has come of age.

This is why marketing has become more difficult over the last few years.

Not the economy. Not the pandemic. They simply accelerated this trend.

But it was going to happen.

Every advancement or technological change has a bell curve of adoption.

The front half of the bell curve is a period of disruption as people change their habits and processes.

It's also a period of incredible opportunity.

For digital adoption, that began in the late 1900s and early 2000s. And during that period, digital marketing was a wild ride.

Anything you tried got good results.

But around 2015-2016, I started noticing the shift. Looking back, I realize we were hitting the peak of the bell curve.

Since then, I've been watching the changing trends in marketing and business growth.

Things have been getting harder.
What used to work wasn't working as well.
It was getting harder and harder to stand out.

We were on the downslide of the bell curve, and the period of disruption was over. We were settling into the new reality of a digital world.

That's the lesson.

I don't know why we describe anything as "digital" anymore. Everything is digital. It's now embedded in our lifestyle.

For marketers, this means our job will be harder.

Marketing never was easy - except for the twenty or so years when digital marketing was new.

We need to return to the basics.
We need to pay more attention to what works and what doesn't.
And we need a new playbook.

I'm working on that.

In meantime, if you'd like to reimagine your marketing and growth strategy, I'd love to talk. I've developed some new strategies that work today.

My friends in SaaS: I have an opening for one or two clients.

I'm a growth consultant specializing in strategies that improve adoption and retention. If that's your need, let's talk!

Marketers, have you noticed that we're working twice as hard for half the returns?

I've been watching this trend for years: lower engagement, leaky funnels, high churn.

We've all experienced it, and we've responded with MORE content, MORE funnels, basically MORE of everything.

But MORE isn't the solution.

I put together a quick guide that explains what I'm seeing and how we need to shift our focus to start getting MORE results.

I'd love to hear your thougths.

Look below.

The biggest growth opportunity for SaaS is below the funnel.

Yet most of the companies I've worked with have put the majority of their marketing efforts into the top of the funnel.

You have a well of opportunity for revenue and growth below the funnel. What are you doing to tap into it?

Creative outputs from AI are impressive, but are they good enough yet?

Not if you talk to an expert.

I've tried for years to leverage AI for content because it would have been great for business. Low cost, fast content that I can charge $$$ for? Yes, please.

But so far, I've only been able to use it for planning, research, and ideation.

If I gave AI content to my clients, they'd be outraged. It's simply not there yet.

In fact, just last weekend, I was reviewing content that I had hired out, and it was obvious (to me) it had been written by a bot.

Yes, I was outraged. We had to schedule a CTC (calm-the-client) meeting asap.

I know AI is impressive. It impresses me too.

But you need to understand what it can and can't do at the moment you're using it.

Yesterday, I saw a video of a music producer evaluating AI music, and he sounded a lot like me.

Yes, on the surface, AI outputs look good. Impressively good.

But to the expert ear, there's a significant difference.

Of course, it will catch up. I estimate 5 years, and it will be able to fool even the professionals.

But maybe not.

Because there are so many people publishing AI content now, we're basically lowering the bar.

Will we even recognize the difference in 5 year's time?