BOTH Matter
A lesson in good marketing
This Week’s Sponsor: Common Room
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I once bartered my marketing services with the Chicago Photography Academy.
I got to take any class they offered for free.
They got my marketing help with the website, content, ads as long as I was taking classes.
In 6 months I had taken every single class they had - Portraits, Wedding Photography, Studio Lighting, Street etc.
I learned all of the technical tricks to photography but somehow I still didn't feel like a better photographer.
I could get every image pixel perfect - no matter the lighting situation. But the images were uninspired. That's when i started studying great photographers like Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Jill Freedman.
What made them great wasn't the latest gear, editing or the megapixels. What made them great was they were storytellers, focused on capturing moments, emotions, and meaning.
This week my feed is filled with people talking about Clay, Hockeystack, AI Agents. All the tech.
So a reminder to everyone - Tech alone isn't going to get your growth going.
Building the perfect list in Clay, or the most insane AI workflow means nothing if you fail on the most important aspect of marketing - storytelling.
But the alternate is also true.
You can have the best story, the most compelling brand, the kind of positioning that makes people stop and take notice—but if you’re shouting it into the void, it won’t move the needle.
A brilliant ad campaign is worthless if it’s served to the wrong audience. A perfectly crafted email sequence won’t work if it lands in the inbox of someone who just signed a 12-month contract with a competitor. A beautifully written case study won’t convert if the people reading it don’t have the budget or authority to buy.
The best marketing teams know this. They don’t just tell great stories—they make sure those stories reach the right people, at the right time, with the right message.
They balance creative and technical, art and science. They leverage data, intent signals, and strategic targeting to get their message in front of buyers who are actively in-market. They use platforms to refine their audience, AI to automate workflows, but never at the expense of storytelling.
Because true marketing mastery isn’t just about crafting a great story. It’s about making sure the right people hear it as well.
Thanks for reading!
Adam
This Week’s Sponsor: Common Room
Unlock 30% More Revenue—Faster.
Capture every buying signal with AI-powered enrichment and automation. Reach the right person with the right message at the right time.