10x Marketing Formula

1. Embrace the startup mentality: Think 10x, forget 10%

"Think 10x. Forget 10 percent."

Startup mindset. Adopting a startup mentality is crucial for achieving exponential growth. This means prioritizing high-impact projects that can deliver tenfold results, rather than incremental improvements. Startups thrive on this mentality because they have no choice but to grow quickly or die.

Results over perfection. The 10x Marketing Formula emphasizes focusing on activities that drive significant growth, even if they're not perfect. This approach encourages marketers to:

• Take calculated risks
• Embrace failure as a learning opportunity
• Move fast and adapt quickly
• Prioritize actions that directly contribute to growth

By thinking like a startup, marketers can break free from traditional, slow-moving approaches and unlock rapid, substantial growth.

2. Find your competition-free content niche

"Competition-free content is content that adds tremendous value to your customers and audience that only you can produce."

Unique value proposition. To stand out in a crowded market, marketers must identify and develop a competition-free content niche. This involves creating content that:

• Addresses specific audience needs
• Leverages your unique expertise or perspective
• Cannot be easily replicated by competitors

Blue ocean strategy. Finding your competition-free content niche is akin to creating a "blue ocean" in your market:

• Analyze competitors' content
• Identify gaps and underserved areas
• Develop content that fills these gaps with exceptional value
• Continuously innovate to stay ahead

By focusing on competition-free content, marketers can attract and retain a loyal audience while differentiating themselves from competitors.

3. Discover your content core to drive conversions

"Your content core connects the dots between what your customers care about and what you have to offer them."

Alignment is key. The content core concept emphasizes creating content that serves both audience interests and business goals. This approach ensures that your content:

• Attracts the right audience
• Addresses their specific pain points
• Naturally leads to your product or service as a solution

To find your content core:

1. Identify customer problems and interests
2. Map these to your product/service offerings
3. Create content that bridges the gap

By focusing on your content core, you avoid creating "parallel content" that may attract traffic but fails to convert.

4. Generate and prioritize 10x project ideas

"Projects that are both 10x and quick to execute are by default at the top of your list."

Idea generation process. To consistently produce high-impact projects, use a structured brainstorming and prioritization process:

1. Brainstorm ideas that could 10x your key metric
2. Score ideas based on:
   • Execution time (1-3 weeks)
   • Potential impact (10x or 10%)
3. Prioritize ideas that are both high-impact and quick to execute

Focus on execution. This approach ensures that you're always working on projects with the highest potential return on investment. It also helps teams:

• Move quickly from ideation to execution
• Avoid getting bogged down in low-impact tasks
• Maintain momentum and motivation

By consistently generating and prioritizing 10x ideas, marketers can maintain a pipeline of high-potential projects.

5. Create a 10x calendar for relentless execution

"A 10x calendar refuses to be treated like a gym membership."

Accountability tool. A 10x calendar is more than just a schedule; it's a commitment to executing high-impact projects consistently. Key features include:

• Hard deadlines for each project
• Focus on 10x projects, eliminating 10% work
• Clear ownership and accountability

Execution framework. The 10x calendar helps teams:

• Visualize project timelines and dependencies
• Maintain focus on high-priority tasks
• Eliminate busywork and low-impact activities
• Track progress and adjust course as needed

By treating the 10x calendar as a non-negotiable execution tool, marketers can dramatically increase their productivity and impact.

6. Design lean 10x workflows for efficiency

"10x workflows will embody three characteristics. They will: be pre-approved, be lean, and include high standards of performance."

Streamlined processes. Lean 10x workflows are designed to maximize efficiency without sacrificing quality. Key principles include:

• Pre-approval to reduce bottlenecks
• Elimination of unnecessary steps
• Clear standards of performance

To create lean workflows:

1. Map out existing processes
2. Identify and eliminate unnecessary steps
3. Combine similar tasks
4. Assign clear ownership
5. Set specific timelines and performance standards

By implementing lean workflows, teams can execute faster and maintain consistent quality across projects.

7. Produce 10x content that outshines competitors

"Create every piece of content with the assumption that it's your only shot at publishing the best piece of content ever produced on that topic."

Excellence as standard. 10x content is designed to be vastly superior to anything else available on a given topic. Key characteristics include:

• Comprehensive coverage
• Actionable insights
• High-quality visuals and design
• Unique research or data

Content creation process:

1. Research existing top-performing content
2. Identify gaps and opportunities
3. Create an outline that goes beyond existing content
4. Develop content that adds significant value
5. Include content upgrades or bonuses

By consistently producing 10x content, marketers can establish themselves as industry leaders and attract a loyal audience.

8. Build a self-organizing, learning-focused 10x team

"The teams that achieve 10x results are the ones that prioritize learning over perfection."

Agile mindset. A 10x team embraces an agile, learning-focused approach to marketing. Key characteristics include:

• Emphasis on rapid testing and iteration
• Willingness to fail and learn quickly
• Self-organization around high-priority tasks

Team structure and processes:

• Daily stand-ups for alignment and problem-solving
• Sprint-based project execution
• Regular retrospectives to identify improvements

By fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, 10x teams can consistently outperform their competitors.

9. Implement minimum viable marketing to test assumptions

"Minimum viable marketing (MVM) is a process of testing your assumptions about the results a project or idea will generate."

Risk reduction. MVM allows marketers to validate ideas quickly and cheaply before investing significant resources. Key principles include:

• Identifying key assumptions
• Creating small-scale tests
• Measuring results and adapting quickly

MVM process:

1. Identify core assumptions
2. Design a minimal test to validate assumptions
3. Set clear success criteria
4. Execute the test and measure results
5. Adapt based on learnings

By using MVM, marketers can reduce the risk of large-scale failures and optimize their strategies more effectively.

10. Amplify results with 10x social and email promotion

"If you're sharing a piece of content just once, you're absolutely wasting your content."

Aggressive promotion. 10x marketers understand the importance of aggressive, strategic promotion across social media and email channels. Key strategies include:

• Frequent, varied social media posting
• Intelligent automation for optimal timing
• Building and monetizing email lists

Promotion tactics:

• Create multiple social media messages for each piece of content
• Use visual content to stand out in feeds
• Develop content upgrades to build email lists
• Segment and personalize email campaigns

By amplifying their content through strategic promotion, marketers can maximize the impact of their 10x content.

11. Master conversion psychology with strategic CTAs

"Don't psych yourself out!"

Conversion focus. Understanding and applying conversion psychology is crucial for turning traffic into customers. Key concepts include:

• Five stages of awareness
• Calls to Value (CTVs) vs. Calls to Action (CTAs)
• Tailoring messaging to each stage of awareness

CTA strategies:

• Use customer language in CTAs
• Implement the "bookends technique" for blog posts
• Test different CTA placements and formats
• Focus on delivering value at each stage of awareness

By mastering conversion psychology, marketers can significantly increase their conversion rates and ROI.

12. Focus on one metric that matters for each growth stage

"If you want to change results, your metric must be tied to the results you want."

Staged approach. The One Metric That Matters (1MTM) framework helps marketers focus on the most important metric for their current growth stage. The three stages are:

1. Startup Stage: Focus on traffic
   • Key metrics: Pageviews, unique visitors
2. Growth Stage: Build an audience
   • Key metrics: Email subscribers, social followers
3. Scale Stage: Drive business value
   • Key metrics: Paid customers, trial users, qualified leads

Evolving focus. As teams progress through each stage, they should:

• Set clear goals for each stage
• Know when to move to the next stage
• Adjust strategies and tactics accordingly

By focusing on the right metric for each growth stage, marketers can ensure they're making meaningful progress towards their ultimate business goals.

Last updated: November 8, 2024