01
Seen
Someone discovers your business.
If the right people never find you, nothing else matters.
Asks: Who are we trying to reach? Where do they spend time? Why should they care?
My approach
Attention is easy to chase.Trust is harder to earn.
This is how I think about marketing, and why I care more about what people do next than how many people saw the post.
More attention isn’t always the answer.
The right people taking action is.
Most businesses think they have a visibility problem. Often, they have a trust problem, a relevance problem, or a “people don’t know what to do next” problem. More attention only helps if what people find, and what happens after they find it, is worth their time.
Less useful
- Impressions
- Reach
- Follower counts
- Vague engagement
More useful
- Sign-ups
- Replies
- Repeat behaviour
- Conversions, referrals, retention
one list makes you feel busy. the other builds a business.
An audience listens.
A community participates.
People don’t just want to be marketed at. They want connection, relevance, proof and a sense that other people like them trust you too.
- Audience→
- Community→
- Trust→
- Action→
- Advocacy
Community-led growth isn’t a bolt-on channel. It’s the compounding version of everything else you do: the place where trust gets built in public, where customers become contributors, and where recommendations happen without you in the room.
Anyone can make an ad.Trust is harder to fake.
AI can generate more content than any of us will ever read. Distribution is cheap. Polish is cheap. Which means the things that can’t be faked at scale, real experience, real relationships, real recommendations, are the things that decide who gets chosen.
That’s why I build marketing around evidence and participation, not just output.
“You should buy this” is less powerful than “I bought this, and here’s what happened.”
From seen to chosen.
Every meaningful customer relationship moves through the same six steps. The work is finding where yours breaks down, and fixing that first.
02
Interested
They pay attention.
Interest is the gap between noticing and caring.
Asks: Is this relevant? Is it useful? Is it for people like me?
03
Trusted
They believe you can help them.
People rarely buy, join, book or subscribe without trust.
Asks: Do they know their stuff? Have they helped people like me? Can I trust them?
04
Chosen
They take action.
This is where attention becomes a customer, subscriber, member or enquiry.
Asks: What should I do next? Why now? What happens after I do?
05
Retained
They come back.
Growth is easier when the people you already have stay, engage and buy again.
Asks: Was it worth it? Did they deliver? Do I feel valued?
06
Recommended
They tell other people.
The strongest marketing is other people talking about you.
Asks: Would I recommend this? What would I say? Who would I tell?
Chosen → Engaged → Retained → Recommended → Meaningful growth.
the question that changes the work
Stop asking
“How do we get more people?”
Start asking
“What do we want the right people to do?”
- Follow→
- Click→
- Subscribe→
- Enquire→
- Book→
- Buy→
- Join→
- Return→
- Refer
Each action needs its own reason, its own moment, and its own path. That’s the strategy work, and it comes before the content calendar, not after.
The goal of marketing isn’t to make your audience bigger.It’s to make your business matter to the right people.
Trust is the scarce resource. People trust people, experience, recommendations, communities, and brands that deliver on their promises.