If you want to be able to win clients without spending 24 hours a day working on marketing then you absolutely need to keep things simple.

But how?

For me, a large part of the answer is about what we think marketing actually is.

If we have a complicated view of marketing, we'll do complicated marketing.

And these days complicated views of marketing are constantly being pushed at us. We're told we need to persuade, to engage, to retarget, interact and a whole bunch of other “must do” tactical stuff.

The technology is complicated. The recommendations on all the stuff you need to do to “influence” people is complicated.

But I don't think it's needed really.

At its essence, marketing is simply getting people to want what you have to offer.

A lot of that starts with making sure you're offering what people want. And that's often overlooked.

If you're not offering something people really want then you're forced to do a lot of complex marketing to get them to want it.

Start with something they already want and your job is much easier.

Next, you need to get their attention.

Advertising legend Bill Bernbach said “You cannot sell a man who isn't listening” and he's absolutely right.

You get their attention by doing something interesting, different, and potentially valuable to them. This is where having a strong and distinctive point of view works wonders. And where your free lead magnet comes in.

But to *keep* their attention you need to do a little more.

Your communications need to be not just valuable, but interesting and “entertaining”. Not necessarily laugh-a-minute, but out of the thousands of emails, videos, podcasts and social media posts they could be consuming, they need to stick with yours.

Finally, now you've earned and kept their attention, you need to be able to clearly communicate what value they'd get from what you have to offer.

And I think it's as simple as that.

The more experienced I get at marketing the more I realise how smart our clients actually are.

They see through gimmicks.

They may “fall” for clickbaity email headlines – but they lose trust when they realise what happened.

They might take action if you hammer them with deadlines and scarcity and bonuses that are magically going to disappear tomorrow. But they'll do it begrudgingly and it'll hurt you in the long term.

And they're not fooled by big businesses with mission statements about supporting communities who then avoid paying taxes in the countries they operate in. 

People don't like to be tricked and fed spin.

But show them something interesting, new, valuable or fun and they'll give you a bit of their attention.

If it turns out to be worthwhile they'll give you some more.

And they'll listen if you honestly explain why you think they should buy what you're offering.

Simples, as our meerkat friends would say.