Best Day Ever: A conversation with marketing guru Jason Shafton
Episode 17: The one where we make a marketing plan.
In the vast world of digital marketing, Jason Shafton (Founder + CEO at Winston Francois) really stands out as someone who knows and has seen it all. With a distinguished career that includes leadership roles at Google, Headspace, and Comedy Central, Jason now spearheads Winston Francois, guiding brands and products to new heights. His strategic, metrics-driven approach to marketing ensures brands succeed spectacularly.
When product founders (specifically) market their own brand, it’s easy to be consumed by their own passion for what they’ve created. As a founder myself, I empathize deeply with this challenge. I had to learn to be an operator; to take the passion to the next level and build systems for digital growth. Jason offers invaluable advice for how to tackle this struggle, and here are three of his top insights:
Start with strategy. I think brands often struggle to not just launch a bunch of marketing tactics. You know, we need to run ads on Google or Meta, or we need to issue a press release or post on social media. Why? Those are just tactics. Brands would be better served by starting with a growth strategy and identify the hypotheses that they want to test.
Experiment. At Google, we used to say: know the user, know the magic, connect the two. How is your product magical? How does it solve a real problem that your customer has? With that in mind, build a list of growth experiments you want to run to reach your ideal customers in the places online and offline where they spend their time and give their attention. Then measure those experiments and repeat. It’s more about investing in what works and stopping doing the things that don’t. The big watch out is that brands get trapped in this navel gazing at their own brands and products. And it’s way, way better to start with the user or customer and think about what matters to them.
Be obsessed. I think if you’re obsessed about your problem and trying to solve it, then you’ll be equally obsessed about your user and your customer and where they show up in the world so that you can be present in the places that they already are.
Jason’s got knowledge just dripping off him! Don’t miss this one. ⬇