All the parents in the house, putcha hands up.
Here’s a PSA for cleaning baby bottles…
(With low risk for loss of life or limb.)
- Shortcut the cleaning process—hot water cleans fast. Boiling water cleans more faster.
- Screw on nipple. Shakeweight bottle for max foaming action.
- Gaze on in horror as superheated Old Faithful erupts from nipple 3.5 feet in the air.
- Drop bottle like it’s hot (it is).
- Observe bottle from a safe distance, rotating like a countertop Death Star vaporizing all your pathetic Alderaans and potted windowsill parsley…
All that Michael Bay nonsense just so I could save a few seconds…
And spend twice as much time cleaning up the mess.
Big brain.
And that’s exactly how I feel whenever I see businesses trying to shortcut their way to marketing results.
Why Shortcuts Backfire in Marketing
Most businesses know they need marketing, but they don’t know what that actually means. So they grab onto the shiniest object and hope it works.
They hear about SEO and think, “I need backlinks!”
They see their competitor running ads and think, “I need to spend on PPC!”
They watch a branding consultant wax poetic about storytelling and decide, “I need a rebrand!”
And in the rush to get something out there, they start dumping money into tactics with no strategy, no foundation, and no real plan for converting attention into revenue.
They throw boiling water on their marketing, expecting instant results—only to have it explode in their face.
Here’s the reality:
- SEO without a strong offer is just a traffic trap. More eyeballs don’t matter if no one buys.
- PPC without proper targeting is a cash incinerator. You’ll pay to attract the wrong people, or worse—no one at all.
- Branding without a conversion strategy is a vanity project. If your logo looks great but your business still struggles to sell, congratulations—you’ve built an expensive piece of art.
The Foundation You Need First
Before you spend a single dollar on ads, SEO, branding, or automation, you need to fix the core of your marketing.
Here’s where 99% of businesses screw up:
- No clear positioning – Who are you selling to? Why should they choose you? What makes you different? If you can’t answer these in one sentence, you’ve got a problem.
- Weak messaging – Does your website, emails, and sales copy actually sell your product, or does it just describe it?
- No customer journey – Where do people find you? What makes them stick around? What pushes them to buy? If you’re expecting them to “just get it,” you’re already losing.
Once these are locked in, THEN you amplify with traffic, ads, and brand-building.
But if you skip these steps? You’ll be like me with my baby bottle—staring at a boiling mess that’s wasted your time, money, and possibly your eyebrows.
Get Marketing That Works
Instead of taking shortcuts that blow up in your face, get marketing that’s built to convert.
Not quite as fast as boiling baby bottles… but less painful:
nickbandy.com/email
