What up, marketers. Welcome another 1-1-1 edition of Adam’s Letter. Thank you to the 810 (!!!) marketers who use this newsletter to earn more and further their careers. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please join us!

Sponsored by: Supermoon

let me describe a situation to you. you see if it sounds familiar:

our team has struggled to respond to client support requests. there are so many. clients can be so needy. inboxes get full.

we needed an easy solution that would parse through the whiny-ness, the concern trolling, the cries for attention - and cut to the request that actually needed an immediate response.

enter, Supermoon. 

it’s the platform that helps you respond to more requests, faster. with auto-responses, sentiment detection, and the ability to create triggers that elevate the most important problems - it keeps your customers happy by helping them be heard while letting you focus on the problems that matter.

quit responding like it’s 2011, ya jabronie. try supermoon.

big idea: most marketers (and their content) suck.

i’ve been running into an offensive question lately.

marketers keep asking me how i’m growing this newsletter. initially, they say it with curiosity but quickly reveal they are asking because they’re skeptical that a “normal person” can grow a newsletter as fast as we have.

(btw - we just crossed 800 subscribers 🎊 -THANK YOU!)

at first i took offense to this.

i work hard. i’m a good marketer. of course i can grow a newsletter?! come ask me to my face…

but then i realized their skepticism wasn’t a reflection of me or my ability. instead, it’s caused by the fact that average marketer sucks at their job.

the average marketer is responsible for the dreck of content filling our feeds today. the average marketer doesn’t follow the advice they give. the average marketer has never actually built a brand (aside from using client dollars to buy likes or subscriptions).

the average marketer sucks.

we’re not about being average. this community is for the future chief executives of high-performing brands, leading agencies, and creator networks in the world.

so, we need to have a quick little fireside chat to make sure we’re all on the same page. how DO we create content that doesn’t suck?

i’m so glad you asked.

strategy: jobs to be done.

the endless faucet of content has led us to mistakenly believe quantity > quality. “if we build enough of it they will come.”

this is false.

today, there is so much good content out there, that people literally get anxious about missing out on the next great piece. you can’t just create your way into being an effective marketer anymore.

now, we have to do the work to ensure our content delivers the value our audience needs. each piece of content has a job that it must complete in order to be valuable. this is called the “jobs to be done” methodology.

popularized by clayton christensen, jobs to be done is a pretty simple framework. it asks two basic questions:

• what is my audience member trying to accomplish by engaging with this content?

• how can i help them accomplish that task?

once you’ve answered these basic questions, you can layer in more lenses around the direction, process, people, and context of the job to be done (as seen in the graphic above).

notice what it DOES NOT include. there is no consideration for brand voice, style, creative elements, or desired delivery method.

all of those things might play into getting the job done in the most effective way possible. but they are secondary to getting the audience member’s job done.

let’s see how this played out for a company in real life.

example: airbnb

airbnb doesn’t make sense on paper.

a consumer is going to choose to stay outside of the tourist district in a given place? without the benefit of concierge service? in someone’s extra room or guest house? for (oftentimes) more than the price of a nice hotel?

ya, good luck with that.

yet somehow, airbnb has a market cap of around $88 billion. obviously, they’re doing something right. the harvard business review attributes their success to a simple strategy: jobs to be done.

airbnb understands what many hotels miss. they aren’t simply providing lodging for travelers to rest in; instead, they’re providing a different life.

you stay at an airbnb when you wanna feel the organic rhythm of a destination. you don’t want the same packaged food options and chain retail vendors. you want to see and feel and taste a place for the unique environment it offers.

for a few days, you get to pretend you are a different person.

airbnb provides your new personality with the home, the events, the experiences, and even the community they might enjoy. then, when you’re finished - you simply pack up your stuff and go home. great trip. 5 stars.

they are clear on the job they need to accomplish, and everything they produce ladders back to that job.

the marketing. the brand. the content. the app. it all creates the illusion that you’ve escaped normal life for a time. they’ve nailed the job to be done.

ultimately, jobs to be done is another framework for simply giving audiences quality content and products that serve their needs. but it’s a helpful way to ensure your message and content are delivering real value and to differentiate yourself from the endless stream of white noise that fills our feeds today.

the haters will be sick. trust me.