Back in 2019 I was exposed to a strategic philosophy called the 1,000 True Fans.
One thing in particular hit me hard, like a punch to the face.
An AHA that established a lens I’ve been looking through for many years now.
A significant part of successful marketing is counterintuitive (which this manifesto will reveal and unpack).
We don’t NEED 100s of 1000s of followers or tens of thousands of email subscribers to be incredibly successful.
A repeatable strategy is to think narrower. Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans is a foundational concept of thinking smaller.
“Instead of trying to reach everyone, we should seek to reach the smallest viable audience and delight them so thoughtfully and fully that they tell others.” — Seth Godin
But to get there requires a shift in thinking.
If you have to choose a thousand people to become your true fans, who should you choose?
Begin by choosing people based on what they dream of, believe, and want. People who share the same worldviews.
Everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, with dignity and respect for their choices.
But as affiliate marketers (now Freedom Seekers), we must begin with a worldview, and invite people who share that worldview to join us. And do all that we can to repel everyone else.
The relentless pursuit of “pleasing everyone and offend no one” will make you boring and you’ll get mediocre results.
If you could only change the life of fifty people, or one thousand, you’d want to be choosy about which people.
Choose the people who want what you’re offering.
Choose the people most open to hearing your message.
Choose the people who will tell the right other people.
The smallest viable audience (SVA) is the focus that, counterintuitively and delightfully, leads to your growth.
Once you’ve identified your SVA, then find a corner of the market that can’t wait for your attention. Go to their extremes. Find a position on the map where you, and you alone, are the perfect answer.
The fix? Draw a simple XY grid like the one below.
Every available alternative can be graphed on the grid.
For each axis, choose something that people care about. It could be something like convenience, popularity, skill level, or efficacy.
For example, there are many types of cars from which one can choose. On one axis we could have speed, and on the other we could have space.
The magic of the XY positioning of extremes is that it clarifies that each option might be appropriate, depending on what you seek.
Here are some axes for you to choose from:
- Price
- Speed
- Performance
- Sustainability
- Safety
- Ingredients
- Convenience
Pick axes that have been overlooked. Build a true story that puts you in a position where you are the clear and obvious choice.
After you pick the axes, plot the options your customer has on this chart. Now you have a map of how the alternatives stack up. A map that a good affiliate marketer can use to find the solution to his problem.
Overwhelm these people’s wants, and dreams with your care, your attention, your focus.
Help them accomplish the change they want and people won’t help but talk about it.
Everything gets easier when you’re not promoting a product that is “right” for everyone. Nothing is for everyone. It’s only for those who signed up the journey.
“It’s NOT for you”
“It’s not for you” shows the ability to respect someone enough that you’re not going to waste their time, or pander them.
It shows respect for those you seek to serve, to say to them, “Here’s something specifically made for you. Not for the other folks, but for you.”
The Simple Marketing Promise
Here’s a template from Seth Godin’s This is Marketing. A three-sentence marketing promise you can run with:
My product is for people who believe __________________.
I will focus on people who want ______________________.
I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get _____________.
Meet Susan Pivers….
Susan runs a “one-woman show” aka the Open Heart Project, an online meditation community of 20k proud members. Within just a few years, she has grown her community to be the largest meditation group in the world.
How did Susan make such an impact?
- Start with empathy to see a real need. Not an invented one, not “How can I start a business?” but, “What would matter here?”
- Focus on the smallest viable market: “How few people could find this indispensable and still make it worth doing?”
- Match the worldview of the people being served. Show up in the world with a story that they want to hear, told in a language they’re eager to understand.
- Earn, and keep the attention and trust of those you serve.
- Show up often. Do it with humility and focus on the parts that work.
Back in 2019 I was experimenting with different ways of implementing what I understood of 1,000 True Fans. And one method that really “clicked” for me was what I called multi-page presell website (MPPW).
Every time I built one and put it in front of an audience, they went nuts for more. It sucked them in (their attention), earning trust (through preeminence), and invisibly PULLED them towards me.
Reread that last bit that I’ve bolded.
Think about what that means.
invisibly PULLED them towards me.
Pulled. As in not PUSHED (VERY different.)
I had figured out how to engineer influence, and I had figured out how to do it every time, predictably.
Each time I built a new MPPW I learned something new. (Live example here)
I created one such asset back in 2019. And for the past year it’s been funneling hyper-targeting people into my business.
Although I don’t put in more work into that that (affiliate) website it still MAKES SALES EVERY WEEK.
Let that sink in.
I don’t put any more hours into that website and still it brings in money into my pockets.
Passive income.
Let’s talk about that a little more.
