Your Real Marketing Problem Is Proof

What I believe: reputation shortens the distance between attention and trust.

Most brands obsess over content and marketing while ignoring proof. They keep tweaking their socials, chase trends every week, and spend too little time fixing the proof problem in their business. That is a mistake.

I believe that if Dangote or Elon Musk started a business school today, then announced it with a badly edited long-form video on a brand-new account, they would still get more people to pay than a team of top content creators promoting someone with no proof who wants to start a business school too.

Why?

Because once status and proof are in place, content is solved.

How to solve for proof in your business: The way to solve for proof is to think in two directions: volume or authority.

You can either increase how many people, results, or transactions are attached to your name, or increase the quality of the names, institutions, or associations attached to it.

Personally, I feel the second is always easier when you're starting out if you're willing to offer your services or products for free to particular people.

Examples of proof:

1. Dry cleaning business

Volume: 3,000 customers served

Authority: We clean for Dangote

2. Arabic institute

Volume: 1,000 students taken from zero to fluency

Authority: Recommended by Siibawayh

3. Shawarma business

Volume: 10,000 shawarmas sold

Authority: Catered for MTN events

P.s. If you have the kinds of proof above, you'll not have to bother about content ideas. If you start on day one with zero followers, people will trust you immediately.

P.s.s. If you need ideas on how to solve for proof in your business, message me here.