🫥 “Feels like screaming into a void” (push vs pull marketing) [SAF #167]

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Hey Reader,

Throughout 2025, “it feels like screaming into a void” (and variations of it) was the phrase I heard from my 1:1 clients most often. By the time they booked a strategy session with me, they had already tried it all:

Posting consistently.
Commenting.
Showing up every damn day.
Podcasting.
Newsletter-ing.
Outreaching.

They did everything, and all they had to show for it was exhaustion. I’ll tell you what I told them: “It’s normal to feel this way because the rules have changed, so you’re operating on an obsolete manual”.

Their sigh of relief was audible (at the very least, they knew they weren’t the only ones struggling with it).

Last week, I told you that attention is a loop, not a funnel. Today, I want to explain how we got here.

There was a time when push marketing felt almost frictionless.

You posted consistently on one platform.
You boosted a few posts.
You ran modest ads.

People discovered you, followed you, and stayed close enough for long enough that something eventually happened. The distance between discovery and action was short, and the cost of staying visible was relatively low.

Back in 2018, my Twitter following grew to almost 19K, even if I had entire weeks when I didn’t login. I simply scheduled my posts in advance and they all contained links.

These days, my following shrank to 14.7K and it’s mostly crickets, even when I do spend time in there.

Most of the marketing advice that many solopreneurs internalized comes from that era.

The problem is not that the advice was wrong.
The problem is that the environment it was designed for no longer exists.

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What push and pull marketing used to look like

Let’s define the terms first.

At its core, push marketing means actively placing your message in front of people.

Ads, cold outreach, sponsored posts, algorithmic distribution, interruptive content. You push your presence into someone’s field of vision and hope the timing is right.

Pull marketing, by contrast, creates conditions where people come to you.

Content, newsletters, podcasts, communities, SEO, thought leadership. Instead of interrupting attention, you attract it and give it somewhere to land.

HubSpot has a fairly good article comparing the two

You can also think of it in terms of cold vs warm audiences or outbound vs inbound marketing. (The terms are not identical to push vs pull marketing, but they’re close enough.)

For a long time, these two approaches coexisted fairly peacefully. Push handled discovery. Pull handled depth. Many solopreneurs did not need to think too hard about the distinction.

That changed.

What shifted under our feet

Three things happened at once.

First, volume exploded. More creators, more brands, more content, now amplified by AI. Feeds became crowded instead of generous.

Second, distribution became unstable. Algorithms changed constantly. Organic reach fluctuated. What worked reliably six months ago started failing without explanation.

Right now, you don’t compete for attention with your direct competitors only, but with every cat video, news cycle, clothing shop — virtually with everyone.

When social media shifted from social graph to interest graph, our feeds started showing only content that we are interested in at that specific moment in time. So, if what you sell isn’t as interesting right now to your followers as changing a leaky dishwasher, you’re invisible to them.

Third, cost increased. Paid acquisition became more expensive across most platforms. CPMs have risen steadily, especially on Meta, Google, and LinkedIn, while ROAS (Return on Ad Investment) has dropped.

Push marketing did not stop working. It simply became noisier, pricier, and more emotionally taxing.

For solopreneurs, that shift is brutal.

When push is your primary growth engine, every dip feels existential and every algorithm change feels personal because the feeling of screaming into the void accentuates.

In the past year or so, I’ve seen dozens of good marketers advise people to push push marketing away (see what I did there?) and focus on pull marketing only.

On paper, it makes sense: if attention is no longer linear, why bother with push marketing?

But categorical/radical takes often ignore context, and this one makes no exception: what if you don’t have a large enough audience? Can you afford to kill push marketing entirely?

Obivously not.

It is tempting to treat pull as the enlightened alternative and push as something crude, outdated, or…pushy and, therefore icky.

The real problem is not push marketing; it’s treating it as the whole system.

Push still plays a crucial role in discoverability. It introduces you to people who were not actively looking and it widens your orbit.

Pull is what keeps people inside that orbit long enough for something meaningful to happen.

When push disappears entirely, growth slows to a crawl.
When pull is missing, growth becomes fragile and exhausting.

How to balance push and pull marketing today — the 80-20 rule

Personally, I spend 80% of my time and energy on pull marketing. These days, I ruthlessly prioritize writing Strategic AF and spending time in The Council, interacting with the members in there.

Other than that, I spend time in other communities I’m part of or creating partnerships with people I already know.

In other words, I over-index on pulling people closer to me.

20% of my time goes to social media, podcast guesting, and other similar activities.

In this season of my business, I need to pull more than I need to push.

But things weren’t always this way. Back when my audience was minuscule, I spent ages on social media, pushing my content in front of brand-new eyes.

And I’m certain that era will have a comeback because audience growth is something that you have to keep doing no matter how comfortable you feel right now. It’s just like prospecting: you do it BEFORE you need it.

Things may look different for you, though, so don’t take my strategy as gospel.

Do you need push or pull marketing?

Let’s do some math. The simple kind, I promise.

Think about the size of your audience: social media and non-social-media, like email subscribers. Then consider the average conversion rates in your industry.

If you had those average conversion rates, could you make enough sales to meet your financial goals from your existing audience?

If the answer is yes, then it’s time to pull. If it’s no, it’s time to push.

For example, say you sell a $100 product to an audience of 1500 email subscribers (50% open rate) and 6,000 social media followers.

Email converts at ±3%. Social media converts at ±0.01%. (Numbers HIGHLY dependent on industry and price point, so figure out yours first.)

Your numbers would look like this:

22.5 sales from email (calculated from open rate, not list size)
0.6 sales from social media.
Total = 23 sales = $2300

Of course, you can play around with price and conversion rate, but the formula stays the same. Use it to figure out what season your business is in.

One final thing to consider:

Pull marketing works on a different timescale

It assumes that most people will not act immediately, and designs for repeated, low-friction contact instead.

This is why channels like newsletters, podcasts, and communities matter more now than they did ten years ago. Not because they are fashionable, but because they allow attention to accumulate without constant re-acquisition.

Email, in particular, performs well here because it removes intermediaries. You do not need to win an algorithmic lottery every time you show up.

This is why I’m so damn bullish on my email list. I hear “I found you on social media but bought from you because of your emails” almost every week.

An email list/newsletter makes it easier for people to stay close without constant persuasion. And yes, people don’t act instantly; but a solid email list will make sure that there are always people who are ready to buy from you — when the offer and the timing are right.

If, like me, you’re in the long game and want to build such infrastructure, join me in The Newsletter Growth Bootcamp. We’ll roll up our sleeves and get your newsletter on the path to grow, NOT just learn frameworks and BS theory.

The Council Bulletin

Our Decision Clinic call this week was high-attendance and high-energy. My favorite part: one Council member came with no questions to ask but, during the conversation, they realized they may have a positioning and messaging problem, which we addressed.

How cool is it to be in the right room?

Thinking about joining? Start here!

🔦 Community Spotlight

There’s a newsletter I’ve been reading for years now because it always has practical advice or an a-ha moment. Content, Simplified by Lee Densmer does exactly what the name says: it simplifies content. It’s quick, to the point, and very smart. Subscribe and thank me later.

That's it from me today!

See you next week in your inbox.

Here to make you think,

Adriana