"If you build it, they will come!"
Entrepreneurs, freelancers, podcasters hear that all the time, from the mouths of people who've never actually acquired customers.
It's bad advice, setting the expectation that just because a product or service exists, customers will somehow find out about it.
Building something doesn't attract customers. Marketing it attracts customers.
What do most business do? They create social media accounts, post all over the place, with the only message to customers: "Buy Our Stuff!"
They struggle to get customers to engage with them, let alone have customers trust them. Weeks later, they shout "THIS ISN"T WORKING!"
They give up, or flounder about, trying to figure out something that works, a new "growth hack" or "NEW marketing strategy" that promises to have people raving about them the moment it's implemented.
The truth has always been the same: People buy from those they trust.
Customers only buy from a companies that shows it is solving a problems, connects authentically with them, and provides straightforward opportunities to buy.
And that's a fundamental difference in any company's approach.