📂 Don't fall into the Hope Marketing trap

Today's newsletter is proudly supported by Ahrefs 🙌

Ever since going through Blogging For Business, I've been a massive fan. In fact, they're one of the companies I feature in Marketing Like A Media Company with their top-notch blog, YouTube channel, media personalities, and more.

You know I'm a massive fan of SEO. It's the only source of free, recurring traffic for SaaS companies. And Ahrefs is the essential tool to build and scale SEO for your company. Even if you're completely new to SEO, you can start by creating a free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account and get a full website audit that'll tell you how to improve as well as which keywords to rank for.


Too many founders and marketers treat growth like a driving dad who's lost but won't admit that he doesn't know where he's going.

"It's just around the corner" he'll insist stubbornly.

He makes a left, thinking it's right around the corner. And then it's not. So he makes another left. Another street. Another direction. Another "just around the corner."

Pretty soon he's right back to where he started, but still lost.

Founders and marketers make the same mistake when they don't have a map to guide them along the way. Instead of trusting a proven source of information, they're hoping to stumble upon the right path.

It's what I call "Hope Marketing." It's not founded on research, proven strategies, or evidence — just wishful thinking.

Are you hoping to get more customers? Or are you following a plan based on what works time after time?

Hope is not a strategy. It's a sobering thought; a reality not many are willing to face.

The interesting part about all of this is that you could be doing the right things individually — pursuing the right channels, building the right product, etc — but without joining these individual components into a system, they'll never reach their full potential. In fact, they may not be effective at all.

Growth is a system of interdependent parts. They must all work together for the system to function as a whole.

Great product, but poor positioning? Channels won't convert visitors into customers.

Great channels, but poor model? Visitors will convert into customers, but they might not stick around for long if they weren't truly activated.

Great market, but poor channels? You'll fail to capture a significant amount of customers and reach a ceiling for growth.

You get the idea.

The point is: Without a system backed by proven strategies that all work in conjunction with one another, you'll be hoping for growth "just around the corner" forever (or until you get lucky).

—Corey

p.s. did you see that I launched my new course, Marketing Like A Media Company? Would love for you to check it out →

Thanks again to our featured sponsors:

  1. Agorapulse: “The Zappos of social media management platforms” helps you plan, schedule, and report on your social presence.
  2. Ahrefs: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free SEO toolset to help you build backlinks, improve your site, and rank for keywords.
  3. The Juice: “Spotify for marketing & sales content” to discover blogs, podcasts, and videos to help you grow your business.
  4. 42/Agency: My #1 recommended demand generation agency for SaaS to help you drive demos and signups.
  5. Supermetrics: Get all your marketing data into your reporting tool of choice. Push data from 70+ integrations into Google Data Studio, Sheets, and more.

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