If you're looking to grow online, here are three fundamental principles I lean on across all my work, whether it's active or passive, SEO or ads.
1. Context over content
A lot of us fall into the trap of thinking growth requires the perfect educational piece, lined up in exactly the right way. It doesn't work like that. As humans, we build context over many small moments and repeated encounters.
If you're getting to know me and the work we do at Team Empathy, you build that picture over days or weeks, seeing different content, reading and watching different things, picking up the pieces until you understand who I am and how I can help. You rarely see one tidy "this is who I am, this is what I do, get in touch" message and act on it. You figure it out over time, from a mix of things.
You might come across my personal stories and beliefs, then later my process and method, then the value I can offer, then some proof it works. You build context. So when you think about your own growth, think about how you're helping your audience build context and solve a problem, rather than forcing it on them.
2. Decision-making is non-linear
Back when I did a lot of inbound marketing, we had the classic funnel: top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel. The thinking was that decision-making was linear. Someone sees your blog or video, you get them to your website, they download an ebook or watch a free training, then you invite them to a sales conversation. That was the assumed path.
In reality, just like context, decision-making is non-linear. People build context through lots of different experiences over time. They might see an ad, then disappear. See another and come back. Visit your site and read a blog, then vanish again. Later they open an email they signed up for, drift off, then return and engage with something else entirely.
Over time, through all those touchpoints across different platforms, they reach the point where they think "right, I'm ready now, because I've built context with you at my own pace." So think expansively about the different ways you might reach people, rather than betting on one single path. That's just as true today, when a customer's journey might weave through Google, social, your email list and an AI assistant before they ever reach out.
3. Empathy is everything
Online growth is really about building relevance and intimacy with your audience. It draws on the ROI method from Scott Alford: relevance, omnipresence, intimacy. On the empathy side, it's about building a genuine connection, reaching out with a real "I understand the problem you have, I know where you want to be, and here are some ways we can get there together."
You take people on that journey with them in mind, using empathy as part of your growth strategy because you've felt that pain yourself, you understand it, and you genuinely want to help. That's how you build a marketing strategy that grows you. Through SEO, you meet people who are proactively searching for a solution and give them the right content to start the journey. Through advertising, you can proactively reach out and say "I understand you're dealing with this, and we can help." You help them build context. Empathy is everything.
To wrap up
Those are the three fundamental principles of online growth. Stick to them and you'll reach more people, build stronger connections, make your sales far more effortless, and grow more sustainably online.