The Immutable Marketing Laws

Most marketers chase tactics.

New platform? Jump on it.
New AI tool? Prompt it.
New algorithm? Panic about it.

But here’s the truth…

Marketing changes fast. Human nature doesn’t.

After 25 years, 8 startups, and over $40 million in marketing tests, I can tell you that the fundamentals…the laws that actually make people buy…haven’t budged.

These aren’t trends or hacks. They’re principles that worked before the internet, still work today, and will keep working long after AI replaces the next generation of copywriters.

I call them The Immutable Marketing Laws™, because while tactics evolve, these truths don’t.

Let’s get into it…

The opposite of love isn’t hate…it’s apathy.

If no one hates your brand, no one really loves it either.

You can’t say you’re for something if you aren’t also against something.

So, decide: who’s your monster?

For me, it’s: hustle culture …entrepreneurial impostor syndrome …and the bankers and VC twerps who say founders need “adult supervision” to scale. (Screw those guys.)

How about you? Who’s your enemy?

Who will you help your customers throw rocks at?

Brand matters. But if your marketing isn’t making money, it’s not marketing…it’s theater.

Wells Fargo created fake bank accounts. Volkswagen rigged emissions tests. Samsung phones literally caught fire. United literally dragged a passenger off a plane.

Guess what? They’re all still here.

I’m not saying you should torch your reputation. I’m saying sales heal A LOT of wounds, and cash flow buys forgiveness.

Great marketing is great branding because every profitable interaction is a deposit of relational equity.

So, make people feel, laugh, and care…but never without a clear revenue motive.

Marketing is a revenue function, not a creative one.

Where is your marketing more focused today? Revenue growth, or creative?

Every purchase is about one of two things: transformation or identity reinforcement.

Luxury brands sell identity reinforcement. For example…

Everyone else…99% of brands…are selling transformation.

To sell transformation, articulate your customer’s Before State and After State, then show them how your product bridges that gap.

Because when you describe the “before,” you show empathy.

When you paint the “after,” you offer hope.

And empathy + hope = sales.

Most marketers miss this because transformation isn’t sexy, but transformation is what sells. Know what you’re selling…and sell accordingly.

James Carville hung a sign in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign office that read: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

If I were running a marketing war room, my sign would read:

“It’s the customer, stupid.”

No one cares how long you’ve been in business or how “innovative” your product is…they care about themselves.

Businesses aren’t defined by what they sell. They’re defined by who they serve and how they serve them.

So talk to your customers. Interview them. Learn from them.

If you haven’t had 25 real conversations with customers, you’re guessing. And guessing isn’t marketing…it’s gambling.

Targeting is dead. The most valuable target today is the untargeted target you target through great messaging.

In the Mad Men era, if you had a great message, you could run it anywhere and win. Then came Google and Facebook, and we got lazy. Targeting replaced creativity.

Now, with privacy laws and AI-generated sameness, the edge belongs to marketers who can actually write.

Everyone else’s copy sounds like a robot wrote it…because it did.

Learn to write copy that punches through the noise and makes people say,

“For the love of all that is good and right…take my money.”

If you master messaging, you’ll never be poor.

(And if you want to know the kind of messaging that almost always works, refer back to Law #3.)

When I met my wife, I knew by the third date that she was the woman I was destined to marry.

But I didn’t tell her that, because I didn’t want to get pepper-sprayed.

There’s a sequence to intimacy, and you can’t skip steps.

Marketing is the same, because marketing (when done right) is romance.

You don’t start by asking for the sale…you start by sparking curiosity, building trust, and earning permission.

Treat marketing like romance, not a transaction.

Stop proposing marriage on the first date.

If my wife asked me to go out to dinner and I said, “Why? We’re already married,” she’d slap me…

…and I’d deserve it.

Yet marketers do this every day. They “close the deal” and move on.

Marketing should lubricate every stage of the customer journey, from awareness to purchase to loyalty and advocacy.

Done right, it transforms strangers into friends, friends into customers, and customers into raving, repeat-buying, referring fans.

Our attention spans haven’t changed…our options have.

The same person who “can’t read a long email” will binge 18 hours of Netflix over a weekend. The problem isn’t length…it’s boredom.

The formula for force is F = ma.

Weak messages delivered fast? Nothing happens.

Strong messages delivered slow? Nothing happens.

The “heavier” the message × the faster it’s delivered = the greater its impact.

So stop being boring. Learn to tell stories. Make people laugh.

Entertainment is the only currency that buys attention in an over-distracted world.

Remember Clubhouse? Exactly.

New channels come and go. The question isn’t “Is it trending?”

…the question is, “Are my customers there?”

If they are, go.
If they aren’t, don’t.

And if you’re testing something new, do it to learn, not to look cool.

Follow your customers…not your competitors.

Never let your marketing write a check your product can’t cash.

In fact, work with products so good you can undersell them and still blow people’s minds.

That’s the secret of great marketing: having something worth talking about.

And in that spirit, I promised you 10 laws…but I’m going to overdeliver.

Let’s rapid-fire through the final five…

Slogans may win awards, but offers make sales.

No one ever pulled out their credit card because of a clever tagline.

Forget “Just Do It.”

Start with “Here’s why you’d be dumb not to.”

Organic vs. paid is a false debate. It’s like arguing cake vs. ice cream. The answer is, “Yes, both!”

If your product and message are strong, you should be willing to pay to put them in front of more people.

But if no one ever talks about your brand unprompted, it’s not a marketing problem…it’s a product problem.

If your customer has to think twice, you’ve already lost them.

Say what you mean.
Mean what you say.
Then stop talking.

Data should rule 90% of your decisions, but that last 10%…that’s instinct and it shouldn’t be ignored.

Sometimes, the best ideas can’t be A/B tested.

Sometimes they just feel right.

Trust your gut.

You can’t fake empathy.

If you don’t genuinely root for your customers’ success, you’ll eventually lose them. Empathy is the most valuable skill in marketing, and the only one that can’t be taught.

Do you love your customers?

Does everyone on your marketing team love your customers?

Core Value #1 at The Scalable Company is, “We love entrepreneurs.”

That means you can’t work at my company unless you love entrepreneurs, and not loving entrepreneurs is a fireable offense.

Can you say the same at your company?

⚡️ Action Step: Pick one of these laws and audit your current marketing against it. Ask, “Where am I breaking this rule?” Then fix it…today. Because the tactics will change, but these laws never will.

P.S. I’m looking for 5 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom “operating system” so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here to get the details.

Here’s some other content from the Scalable network, plus some other cool stuff I liked and thought you might like, too: