HubSpot - You're not the hero

Anyone else still reveling in Ryan Reynolds' admission at last week’s INBOUND event that we're all just "kind of f------ winging it"?

No? Just me?

Anywho, here’s what's on deck:

Why brands shouldn't be superheros
Gen Zers are too cool for dating apps — can marketing convince them to start swiping?
After Amazon's CEO called his employees back full-time, many leaders are wondering if they should do the same thing

MEET THE MASTER

Name: April Sunshine Hawkins, StoryBrand workshop facilitator, keynote speaker, and co-host of the Marketing Made Simple podcast

Job: Helping businesses streamline their messaging

Claim to fame: Over 2M downloads to her Marketing Made Simple podcast

Fun fact: She and her partner play a game called "Moon - I win", in which whoever sees the moon first when they're together and calls it out, wins — which has reminded April to look up at the sky more often

Lesson 1: Lead with what you love.

If this sounds a little too similar to the preachings of Liz Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, bear with me; it connects to marketing.

Don’t "do what brings you the most money"... Just do something for the joy of it. Plain and simple.

"You need to be selling the products that bring you the most joy. Why are you pushing something you hate doing? Don't do that," Hawkins tells me.

"I know so many people, especially in the SMB space, who are in a rut because they've backed themselves into selling something they don't actually like selling," she says.

That doesn’t mean you need to stop offering those products entirely, especially if they’re keeping the lights on.

But when you care about what you’re selling, Hawkins says, your customers can feel it. Lean into the stories or values that matter most to you, and you'll find yourself connecting more deeply with your audience.

Now how do I make a career out of reading rom-coms and drinking frozen margs?

Lesson 2: Your customer is the hero. Not you.

Hawkins sees too many marketers position their brand as the heroes, and she says it's one of the biggest mistakes marketers can make.

"Everybody wakes up the hero of their own story. Your customers, the people you're trying to draw in… The story needs to be about them."

In other words, you’re not Batman — you’re Alfred.

Take a recent example: Hawkins was working with a jewelry brand that creates products in Malawi and pays their workers 3-5X the minimum wage. Naturally, they wanted to shout that from the rooftops. Who wouldn't?

But Hawkins stepped in and pointed out that the brand isn't supposed to be the hero. The customer is.

"We rewrote the campaign to ask, 'How can these pieces help people celebrate a milestone — like a promotion, an anniversary, a birthday?"

Suddenly, the jewelry wasn’t just jewelry; it became a badge of a customer's big (and small) life moments.

Have you ever landed on a website and read the first few sentences and thought, Wow, is this person in my head? That's the end-game: For your customers to feel like you get them.

"When we can position our products to align with what our customers are feeling, it creates that 'ding, ding, ding' moment — 'That's me! This is for me!'" Hawkins says. "That's what we're looking for."

Lesson 3: Marketing is just storytelling.

April Sunshine Hawkins is, as it turns out, exactly what you'd expect — bright, warm, and exceptionally joyful.

She also loves a good story, which is why she started a company (StoryBrand) that helps businesses sharpen their messaging through a provided framework.

"It's just nice to have a framework to go to, so when you're like, 'Oh no, there's a blinking cursor again. What am I supposed to say?' You have a framework to work off of," she tells me.

Here's the nugget of wisdom: As marketers, we don't always have to reinvent the wheel. If marketing is really just storytelling, then it's vital to treat your messaging the same way you'd write a novel — with a hero, a surmountable challenge, and a triumphant ending.

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OPEN TABS

No dating apps for the 'Tok generation: The majority of Gen Zers don't use dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, or Bumble. Adweek explores how those brands are leveraging new marketing tactics to try and engage the app-averse crowd. As someone who is now engaged to a guy I matched with on Hinge (but then ghosted until I bumped into him in real life), I give the young'uns some props for sticking to the ole-fashioned way of meeting.
Trends detox: Before you corral your colleagues into any more choreographed dances, listen to Jack Appleby's suggestion to take a 30-day cleanse from creating trends-based content and focus on originality instead.
CEO copycats: After Amazon's CEO called all his employees back into the office full-time, a KPMG survey of 400 U.S. CEOs finds that 80% of CEOs now expect their employees to be in-office employees within the next three years. Many execs are waiting to see how this decision will impact Amazon first.

LINGERING QUESTIONS

Last week, Zapier's James de Feu asked, What's one marketing trend you think most people are overhyping, and why?

Hawkins: Overhyping? Too much hype? I don't believe there is such a thing. #Hypegirlforever

Now, if someone is participating in a marketing trend and the whole process is a slog-fest for them, personally, I believe they should farm it out or stop it completely.

There are so many ways to approach marketing that participating in a trend that brings drudgery or chaos simply isn't worth it. Sometimes you have to try it to know if you'll like it or not, but the instant you get started, notice how it feels to participate and decide if the juice is worth the squeeze.

And Hawkins' question for our next master in marketing: What warm memory comes to mind when you hear these three words: creative, curious, courageous?

This week's email was brought to you by Caroline Forsey. Editing by Curtis del Principe and Laura M. Browning.

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HubSpot - You're not the hero

Hawkins sees too many marketers position their brand as the heroes, and she says it's one of the biggest mistakes marketers can make.

Generate detailed company insights reports in minutes, not hours.

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