Unless the product you sell is a demographic product, you shouldn’t be asking demographic-based questions.

What’s the age range of snowboarders?
What’s the income range of yoga students?
What is the average income of whisky drinkers?

Your mind wants to answer those questions — but your heart knows that, even if there is an answer, it’ll probably be ridiculous.

We live in an era of data. Too many people believe we can solve every marketing question in the world — as long as we get enough data. I think that’s because the world we live in right now was mostly built by people who see the world that way. And those same people control most of the advertising platforms. They’re also the ones building the “measurability metrics.”

That skews the entire market down the road of: We just need to get the right data, and our marketing will never be a problem again!!!!

So they go chasing “open rates” and “target audiences” and bullshit metrics designed to be gamed by the people selling them to you.

The problem is: data is really good at telling you what happened. But it’s terrible at telling you what will happen next, or what you should do about it.

That’s because marketing is a human relationship problem — not a data metrics problem.

Ask any dating app company how hard it is to quantify the mystery and magic of falling in love. Ask anyone on a dating app how effective it actually is.

So what questions should define your marketing approach?

Remember the snowboarders, the yoga people, and the whisky drinkers?

The question isn’t “What are their measurable demographics?” The question is “What do they have in common?”

Hills, snow, and a love of adrenaline are what snowboarders have in common. Yoga is what yoga people have in common. Whisky is the only thing whisky drinkers have in common.

Talk about what they love — and what it’s like to love what they love — and your people will find you.

Prepare to be surprised by who they are, instead of who you thought they would be.

If you can talk about that, you can win their hearts.
And once you win the heart, the mind will follow.

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