Marketing Lessons Older Than AI, eight lessons from marketers who figured this out long before AI, and how I use each one in my business now.
Take a look at the first line of your sales page. If it describes what's inside your product, like the number of modules or templates, you're in good company, because most creators start there. But that's describing the product, and your buyer is looking for something else.
This is the lesson from my MBA classroom that I bring into creator businesses the most.
How old is this lesson?
It's 66 years old. Theodore Levitt was a Harvard Business School professor, and he published "Marketing Myopia" in the Harvard Business Review in 1960. It became one of the most reprinted articles the magazine ever ran, and it's still taught in business schools, including my own classes.
Levitt's big example was the railroads. He said they got into trouble because they thought they were in the railroad business, when they were really in the transportation business. So when cars, trucks and planes came along, they didn't see them as competition until it was too late.
He's also the person who made a famous saying popular in marketing, that people don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole. He credited the line to someone else, but Levitt is the one who made it famous by teaching it.
People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.
The saying Theodore Levitt made famousThe lesson, in plain words
People buy the result. Your product is just how they get it.
For creators, that means your course is the drill and the result is the hole. Your buyer wants the launch that brings in money, the newsletter that pays for itself, or the hours back in their week. They'll care about your modules once they believe you can get them the result, and they won't care before that.
Levitt called the opposite "myopia," the medical word for nearsightedness. When you're too close to your own product, all you can see is what's inside it, and you forget to talk about why anyone wanted it in the first place.
How I use it in my business
This fall I was one of 19 creators in a free guide called Hand It to Claude. Each of us showed one marketing job we handed off to Claude, along with the prompt we used. My job was planning my promotions.
When I wrote my email about it, I could've led with "a free guide with 19 prompts." Instead the subject line was "From 16 hours of planning to 1 or 2." The guide and the prompt are the drill, and getting 14 hours of my week back is the hole.
Newsletter Profit Club works the same way. The program has the Mini Magazine Method and the Teach & Pitch Method inside it, and I'm proud of both of them. But the summit invite said "Make money from every newsletter you send," because that's what people actually want. The methods are how they get there.
Selling the result matters most in the Attract stage of the Creator Growth Flywheel. Your freebies, posts and ads pull in the right people when they promise a result those people already want.
How to use it this week
Ask "so they can what?"
Write down what your product is, then ask "so they can what?" Keep asking until you get to something your buyer would say out loud to a friend.
Find your before and after
Write down what your buyer's week looks like before your product and what it looks like after. Use real numbers from your own results or your customers' results whenever you have them.
Rewrite the first line
Move the result to the first line of your sales page, your email or your freebie. The list of what's inside can come right after it.
Mistakes I see creators make with this
- Leading with the module list. The number of lessons or templates matters to someone who already wants the result. Put it after the result, where it backs up your promise.
- Promising a result you can't back up. Selling the result only works when the result is real. Use your own numbers or your customers' words, and keep it honest.
- Describing the result in your words. Your buyer probably doesn't say "optimize my workflow." They say "get my evenings back." Use the words they use when they talk about what they want.
Why this feels harder than it is
It's hard because we're proud of what we built. You spent months making those modules, so of course you want to talk about them. And there's a place for that, right after you tell people what they'll get from them.
The other thing that makes it hard is needing proof. "From 16 hours to 1 or 2" only works because it really happened in my business. If you don't have numbers yet, use what your customers tell you, or start tracking your own results now so you have them for your next launch.
What Levitt would tell you about AI
Levitt's railroads didn't see new competition coming because they'd defined themselves by their product. A lot of creators are in the same spot with AI right now, worried that AI can make a course or a template faster than they can.
If you're selling the course, that's a real worry. If you're selling the result, AI is just a new way for you to help people get it faster. That's the reason this 66-year-old article still matters to anyone selling digital products today.
Keep reading the series.
This post is one of eight. Start with the full series overview, or jump to another lesson:
- Claude Hopkins: test everything and let the numbers decide
- Eugene Schwartz: sell to people based on how aware they already are
- David Ogilvy: the headline does most of the work
- Robert Cialdini: give first and people want to give back
- Ries and Trout: own one clear spot in your buyer's head
- John Caples: story headlines that make people want to read on
- Gary Halbert: find a starving crowd before you pick an offer
Check how well your business sells the result
The free Creator Growth Flywheel scorecard takes two minutes and shows you which stage of your business needs the most work.
Take the free scorecard →Frequently asked.
What is Marketing Myopia?
Marketing Myopia is a 1960 Harvard Business Review article by Theodore Levitt. It argues that businesses get into trouble when they define themselves by the product they sell instead of the need they meet for customers.
What does "sell the result" mean for digital products?
It means leading with what your buyer gets after using your product, like hours saved or money made, and then explaining the course, template or membership as the way they get there.
Who said people want a quarter-inch hole?
Theodore Levitt made the saying famous in marketing, though he credited it to Leo McGivena. The point is that people buy the outcome, and the product is just the tool.
How do I find the result my product delivers?
Write down what your product is and keep asking "so they can what?" until you reach something your buyer would say to a friend. Then back it up with real numbers from you or your customers.
Dr. Destini Copp helps digital product creators build sustainable, systems-based businesses through the Creator Growth Flywheel framework. She's the founder of Creator's MBA and HobbyScool, and has been teaching online business strategy for over a decade. Learn more →