Here are case studies with 5 actionable hacks at the end so you can do the same👇
A Case Study:
Harry Dry is a marketing expert.
His newsletter, marketing examples, is a key player in the space.
Harry has gained over 60,000 subscribers in under two years.
But Harry didn’t study marketing at University. He has never been employed as a marketer.
In his interview on the Everyone Hates Marketers podcast, Louis Grenier stated that Harry had more knowledge than most Chief Marketing Officers.
The average age of a CMO is 52.
Harry is 25.
How is this possible?
Richard Feynman was an American Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Bill Gates called him “the greatest teacher I never had"
He was nicknamed The Great Explainer for his ability to break down extremely complex matter and teach it to others.
Feynman also created a system to learn anything faster.
The best way to learn anything fast?
Study it intensely and create your own work around it.
Start a blog, podcast, or community. Commit to learning everything you can about the topic quickly.
Another good example of mastering and dominating a niche is Shane Parrish who did just that with his blog, Farnam Street.
Shane was a Spy for Canada’s top intelligence agency.
He wanted to learn to make better decisions. So he studied mental models. In order to speed up his understanding and learning process, he started a blog anonymously.
He didn’t promote it. It just sat there. But it picked up word of mouth and now Shane is a globally recognised expert in mental models.
Pick and study a topic. Embrace all the key books, podcasts, and experts on the subject. Write down everything you know about it. Don’t use jargon.
Explain the topic to children who are unfamiliar with the material. Use simple language. If they fail to understand, that’s on you and not them.
Go back to the drawing board and return when you have simplified the process further. If early teens get it, you are good.
3) Identify any gaps in your understanding. You’re going to get stuck over certain points. That’s normal. Even expected. Go back to the original work and go through it again. Simplify, get clarity, and understanding
4) Then write a version of it in your own words.
“If you want to master something, teach it” — Richard Feynman
Harry Dry’s step by step process
The Idea:
Harry was a web designer. He used a website called https://dribbble.com/ as many designers do to get inspiration.
This gave Harry an idea. He was going to create the Dribbble for marketing.
Tip # 1 — Look at what is working in other niches. What ideas can take and use in your niche to create something new?
2) The Commitment:
This is key. You have to put in the work. For this one post with 21 copywriting tips, Harry did the following:
Read 6 books ( Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This, Junior, Scientific Advertising, 22 Immutable laws of branding, Cashvertising, and The Adweek copywriting handbook!)
Bought and studied one course ( Honeycopy’s Florida Snow cone course)
Studied Copyhackers
Twitter has been Harry’s main source of subscribers. He spends up to two days crafting his image, headline, and content.
His attention to detail is second to none.
Tip # 2 — Do what excites you. ClichĂ©? Absolutely. But you will not have the level of commitment required to succeed otherwise.
3) Simplify everything.
Harry takes complex information and simplifies the message usually into images.
Simplicity is key.
Malcolm Gladwell is a multi New York Times Number 1 best-selling author. He was a staff writer on the New Yorker for over two decades.
He is one of modern society's most celebrated authors.
They tested the school standard level of his writing. It was 8th-grade. ( aged 13-14 for us Brits and Europeans)
He was delighted.
Gladwell knows one of the keys to his success is to explain complicated and unconnected things simply.
Tip # 3 — Don’t use jargon or fancy words. Clarity is the goal. No one cares if you’re clever.
4) Distribution
Distribution is king. Without eyeballs your amazing content is futile.
This is where Harry excelled. He wrote down all the places that marketers and entrepreneurs hung out online.
Harry put in the promotion grind. Without distribution, we wouldn’t be talking about Marketing Examples.
Harry has built in public and distributed his content everywhere.
In total, he posted his content in 24 different sites, Facebook groups, slacks channels and subs.
You can see the full list here
Tip # 4 — fish where the fish are.
5) The Artist/ Creator Mindset
The biggest challenge for any artist, creator, or entrepreneur is within themselves. We get in our own way.
Fear of failure, self-doubt, procrastination, and perfectionism.
These are your biggest obstacles.
The main thing is to get started. Have a release plan and strategy and stick to it.
And keep showing up.
The results you want are in the process you do day after day. No process, no results.
Tip # 5— Reframe failure. Welcome it. It’s an essential part of your creative journey.
Harry’s # 1 tip for shortening his learning curve?
“Feedback. High-quality feedback is everything. Otherwise, you never know where you're going wrong.” — Harry Dry
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