Everyone’s talking about “moats” — but what do they really look like in practice? In this piece, I share two powerful stories from marketing legends whose grit and expertise built the kind of moats that last.
In case you haven’t noticed, the word “moat” is the trendy word in B2B business right now. Don’t worry if you aren’t in B2B business, it exists in pretty much any part of business.
The term originates from Warren Buffet’s use as an “economic moat.” In our business context you can say it means:
“An economic moat is a business which holds a long-term competitive advantage over the competition, which makes it difficult for competitors to reach their market share.” – CXL
So, moat is short for “economic moat” but we will just say “moat” today.
Blog posts are written about them. But I want to highlight two stories that will help you see and understand better.
The Hardest Working Person in the Room
The first comes from marketer Ross Simmonds.
You can see the story on LinkedIn here.
Most people don’t know it, but Ross was broke.
“I was $2,000 in overdraft, my first laptop was being held together with duct tape and I didn’t have enough pocket change for gas money.”
So, he dug in and worked pressing forward:
“But even with a laptop stuck together with tape, I looked ahead at where I wanted to go and started to write.”
He wrote… and wrote, and wrote some more. He burned the “midnight oil” creating his opportunities
“Lots of coffee… And from those thousands of words I was able to get more and more opportunities. The cliche is true: You create your own luck.”
He created a moat around himself by being the hardest working person. He is. He has so much energy I get tired thinking about it.
Becoming the Recognized Expert
The second story is by Joanna Wiebe, the Queen of Conversion Copywriting.
You can see her story on LinkedIn here.
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, this lady everyone looks up to worked as a lowly copywriter for Intuit.
As she said she would talk about things like messaging hierarchy and Cialdini’s principles but no one was listening. Or so she thought.
So, she started creating content about these things on the internet.
Then one day, in a boardroom briefing, she got a shock.
“Melanie, who ran the UK marketing division at Intuit, says out of the blue, ‘I’ve got this section here on messaging hierarchy, but let’s check with our resident expert.'”
That expert was Wiebe. See, she has been googling “messaging hierarchy” and found Wiebe’s SlideShare ranked number 1.
To Melanie, Joanna was the expert. From then on, the battle was pre-won.
As she told me in the comments:
“Todd Jones in an AI-filled and massively uncertain world, we all need a moat. gotta protect what gets you fed.”
There’s that word again, “moat.”
Finding Your Own Moat
I don’t claim to be an expert or have a moat, but the funny thing is, I asked ChatGPT what my moat was and it gave me a detailed response.
“Based on everything you’ve shared, your moat likely consists of a combination of unique intellectual property, deep storytelling expertise, and personalized frameworks that are hard to replicate.”
Then it goes on to break it down into 5 unique points. I was a bit stunned.
I am currently pondering the points it gave me to see what I go with.
I think, what I see (observation) our moat is likely our POV and that stems from the things we see that aren’t right. These are the things we continue to fight for, even when no one else cares. Because, they should care.
Like, for example, I keep fighting for About Pages to be at the table. It matters if you want to matter.
Lead gen tactics we have used for 15 years are short term and a beast you have to keep feeding. Stop feeling that beast and it may eat you.
To have a good About Page is to have a defined and identified brand for your business. And a brand is way more than logos, colors and a new domain.
Your Turn
So tell me, what is your moat? What will protect the investment of your business long term? Your one true advantage. Let me know.
Feel free to continue the conversation in The School of Content. Sign up today!
