Top Growth Tactics

If you've ever used Instagram, you've probably seen people add 30 hashtags to their posts and nothing else for their caption.

A recent study that analyzed 65,000 Reels and 180,000 posts on Instagram has two big findings on what helps content perform better:

#1. Hashtags help.

A Reel with >1 hashtag has on average 30% more reach (and about 18% more engagement) than one that has no hashtags.

The optimal number of hashtags falls between 2 and 4.

So use some, but don't do 30. 

And of course, make them relevant to the content.

#2. Posts benefit from long captions. Reels do not.

I was both surprised and not surprised by the results below.

I wasn't surprised that short captions dominate on Reels. Videos are fairly self-explanatory, and Reels are a quick dopamine hit and move on. 

But I was surprised by the effectiveness of 1,000+ character captions across posts and Reels. That's starting to get to LinkedIn post length—something you don't often see on Instagram.

So go ahead and tell a story and add context along with your posts.

People often talk about sales copywriting frameworks. A very popular one is PAS: Problem → Agitation → Solution.

For example:

• Problem: "Tens of millions of people have been laid off in 2023."
• Agitation: "And the recession still isn't even over—more are coming."
• Solution: "Here's how to make yourself invaluable at your company:"

You make readers think about a problem. You make the problem seem worse. Then offer a solution to that problem now that it's top of mind.

Now that you know the PAS framework, you'll see it being used a lot. 

To extend PAS and apply it to a multi-email sales campaign, Jon Brosio recommends:

• Email 1: Establish a problem (Problem)
• Email 2: Amplify consequences (Agitation)
• Email 3: Share a transformation story (Tease the Solution)
• Email 4: Back up your offer with social proof. (Prove efficacy of the Solution)
• Email 5: Finally reveal the offer and show how it works. (Solution)
• Email 6: Create urgency by limiting the time or added bonuses. 

The next time you're setting up a sales email campaign, try this framework out.

Threads (Instagram's Twitter clone) is officially the fastest growing app of all time—hitting 100M users in just 5 days. For context, Twitter has 250M users total.

But... it's completely unclear if this is going to be the next TikTok or Clubhouse. 

Every creator, founder, and social media manager is asking themselves, "should I be posting on Threads right now??"

The benefits of doing so could be:

1. Land grab. Typically when a new social platform launches, it's easier to grow on it due to reduced competition.
2. New audience. Anecdotally, only my weird tech friends use Twitter. Yet everyone I know uses Instagram. Threads could give access to a new group of people.

But social expert, Jack Appleby, argues that the best strategy right now is actually to do almost nothing. 

Because frankly we have no idea if this could die out in a few months. It's not like Threads offers any unique value over Twitter. In fact, it currently offers less.

So at the moment, the risk-reward ratio tips towards more the risk category of wasting your time and resources. That being said, Jack does recommend doing the following:

1. Create an account, update your bio, and add a link to your site.
2. Do one post as a placeholder so the account isn't blank.

That way if someone searches for you, they find you, and you avoid a negative experience.

But then just wait a few months and see what happens. If it proves itself to have a ton of organic usage and a unique value prop, then great, invest then. 

Hi, it’s Joyce 👋—here to break down another piece of marketing spotted in the wild. This time, direct mail from my local Chevrolet dealership.

This mailer set off my market-y senses for a few reasons:

• The personalized gift card. That’s an actual gift card—and it even has my name. The personalization leverages the endowment effect—when a sense of ownership enhances value. In this case, a gift card with my name makes me value it more than if it were just a generic “save $35” coupon.
  
  
• The QR codes. They help make it easier to take action—no need to type in a phone number a URL yourself, you just scan a code to book an appointment. Going one step further, the dealership includes instructions in big bold font so that the less tech-savvy can still take advantage—a great call since people of all ages own Chevies.
  
  
• Who can redeem this offer. The offer isn’t just for existing customers: “all Chevrolet owners we have yet to assist” are also welcome. It’s the perfect way of encouraging recipients to share the deal with Chevy-owning friends.

All that good stuff aside, the copy is... well, not great. Here’s how I’d clean it up.

Here's how we improved it:

1. Straight to the point. No flowery and meaningless copy.
2. Shorter paragraphs and lists. Making it way easier to scan and digest.
3. Highlighting the most important parts—expiration dates, phone numbers, and offer.

People have short "consideration spans"—particularly for something they randomly got in the mail and are trying to decide whether to huck into the junk mail bin (or keep scrolling). 

Make it as easy as possible for people to get the point.

I still wouldn’t trust AI to generate or write these insights. Or our playbooks. Or our course material. Or our teardowns. (Maybe for outlines and edits, but not core writing.)

BUT, it could be good for more mechanical SEO content and not “thought leader” content. 

A glossary that goes deep on industry/niche specific words can be an SEO treasure trove. If you’ve ever searched for anything related to investing, you’ve probably landed on Investopedia's glossary. It’s massive. Every term is defined in great detail.

According to SEO expert Jake Ward, most brands barely invest in glossaries due to the cost-benefit of paying someone to write them. That means they’re generally easy to outrank.

Assuming $0.05 per word (the low end for writers), 1,200 words per article, and 300 glossary items, it’s a $18k investment minimum ($600 per article). And a ton of time. 

With AI tools you can generate them for about $1k total ($3.33 per article).

It's a fast way to generate a ton content that's underserved and targeted to your niche.‍

BUT here's the problem with this strategy.‍

This is 100% a growth hack. As we shared last week, SEO is fundamentally going to change for top-of-funnel queries once Google bakes in generative AI responses. Glossary items are definitely going to be one of the first to be answered adequately by AI. 

So sure, you can use it quickly scale your SEO today. But it will not last as AI quickly develops and gets integrated into search. It could still be worth it given the low investment cost, but don't expect it to be a long-term growth solution.

To hook people, you need to tap into their emotions.

One of the best ways to do that is to eloquently put a voice to an unvoiced concern, frustration, or opinion.

You want people to say:

1. "Finally, someone said what I've been thinking!"
2. "That’s so damn true."

Finally, someone said it

Many of the comments on the following post were people saying: "Yes, finally somebody said this thing that I've been thinking."

Chris clearly hit an emotional nerve. People are tired of companies simply virtue signaling, rather than fixing a fundamental problem.

Because this post resonated, it got thousands of responses.

That’s so damn true

Here, Andrew tapped into a feeling that every entrepreneur has had:

We all know that dumb luck and great timing play a huge part in success. We just don’t always say it.

So when someone else does, we go, "That’s so damn true."

For eloquent hooks, you need to be able to:

• Identify a concern that people haven't adequately voiced, which means keeping a pulse on trends like shared frustrations
• Give voice to that concern in a way that rings true

If you can nail it, it really works.

You could be quoted for years to come as various accounts share your post. 

We recently launched a free email course on crafting un-ignorable hooks. Join 860 others learning how top creators hook our attention—with tons of examples. This was a sneak peek 👀

Many ecomm founders think of product images as a one-and-done investment.

They schedule professional photo shoots, then use the pics from them for years.

But product photos have a major impact on purchasing decisions, so it's worth experimenting with them. Here are five ideas. 

#1. Use something for size comparison (show your product in context).

Even if your product description includes dimensions, people will understand your product's size better if you show it near something familiar. For example, if you’re selling a picture frame, show it over a couch in the living room.

Don't make people think—uncertainty is a conversion killer.

#2. Test photos without smiling models.

Product images with smiling models are overdone. So test photos in a natural scenario. Consider how hotels show photos of rooms without anybody in them, making it easier for you to picture yourself in those rooms. 

#3. Try different image sizes.

Size can influence our perception of value. In one study, a dress shirt seemed more valuable when shown in a small image, whereas a hard drive's perceived value increased with a bigger image. It’s worth testing different image sizes and the amount of white space in your photos.

#4. Include complementary products.

If you plan to capture your product in a natural scenario, why not include other relevant products to show how they benefit each other? This is a major upsell opportunity—just remember to link those other products shown.

#5. Have fun with it—it's just a test.

Use Midjourney, Photoshop, and other AI and design tools to throw your product into strange scenarios. Like a watch on Honest Abe's wrist.

For that matter, if you can't afford actual product photos for initial or test images, play around with AI. If something does really well, consider staging an actual photo.

Although ChatGPT can already answer a lot of search queries, most people still don't use AI as their default search tool.

That's soon to change.  

Google is rolling out generative AI answers at the top of its regular search results, which could kill the need to click to a website for most queries.

Here are SEO expert Eli Schwartz's recommendations for a new strategic approach to SEO.‍

#1. Focus on mid- and bottom-funnel keywords 

AI will adequately answer basic and broad questions.

Examples: "What is a demand curve?" "How long are Instagram stories?"

Searches like "hotels Vegas Strip" will spit out lists of hotels. On the other hand, "Usher Las Vegas" is further down the funnel—the person searching for that is either looking for reviews of the show or interested in booking it. They're more likely to click on a result, rather than read an AI response.

#2. Focus on revenue from SEO, not volume

Because a lot of "tire kicker" searches will be handled by AI, traffic and clicks will go down. So revenue is a better metric to track SEO success.

#3. Use "People also ask" for content ideas rather than keywords

"People also ask" is a window into the types of queries people are trying to get answers to, and they're generally longer-tail (and more specific). It'll be useful for spotting mid- and bottom-funnel queries that can help generate content ideas.

#4. Prioritize "domain authority" less and relevance and topical authority more

Backlinks from sites with high domain authority were once useful for the most competitive search terms. That might not be the case anymore, since those competitive broad terms will be addressed by AI.

So instead of fighting (or paying) for backlinks from Forbes and TechCrunch, focus on backlinks from less popular sites that are highly relevant and specific to your niche.

Us marketers are nerds. We love judging the ads in our feeds.

Like this Facebook ad from Nood, the makers of hair removal products. Let’s break down what makes it so effective.

This stopped me (Joyce) in my tracks for a few reasons:

First, the creative is a black and white hand-drawn image—a far cry from every other sleekly designed ad on Facebook and a good example of a pattern interrupt. It also made me wonder, "What exactly is going on here?"

That brings us to the copy, which takes a “story first, product second” approach. Take a look:

“Well it happened… our designers went on vacation and now the marketing team is on their own creating ads.”

Nothing about the actual product until the next line.

“But we don’t need fancy graphic design to get our message across: The Flasher 2.0 provides Permanent Hair Reduction in the comfort of your home.”

This is a clever and entertaining way to sell your product, no flashy visuals needed.

And even though the ad copy is long, people actually read it all. You can tell because it ends with Nood inviting readers to draw a better ad for a chance to win a prize. And plenty of people actually shared their drawings in the comments!

Taking full advantage, Nood repurposed one for a retargeting campaign.

Ricky from Trailer Park Boys would say that’s "4 birds getting stoned at once." The ad:

• Sells Nood’s product
• Incentivizes people to engage
• Generates creative for future ad campaigns
• Personalizes the brand to make it more fun

Profitwell has collected over 10 million pricing data points for SaaS products.

One thing they've found is that companies that offer "add-ons" (aka upsell) can boost revenue by 12-22% relative to when they just include them into base tiers. And boost LTV by 18-54% by increasing average order value and retention rates. 

Ironically, this happens even when that feature was previously included for free in a tier.

But how do you choose which features to include and which to make add-ons?

Here Patrick recommends the Rule of 40%:

1. List each feature in a spreadsheet. 
2. Assign a % to each feature based on the % of users who use that feature monthly.
3. If it's used by less than 40% of users, consider turning it into an add-on.
4. Often this could be integrations, analytics, or priority support—supplemental things that aren't core to the experience for most users.

Just make sure you don't do this with a "core" feature that most people use—or else people will likely be upset or just not sign up in the first place.

There are a few reasons why this add-on strategy works;

1. It makes the initial price lower, making them more likely to continue down the funnel.
2. Once they've already said "yes" to the base plan, a quick add-on that increases the price by 10-20% is a quick "sure, why not." It's the equivalent of the grocery store impulse buy candy bar. 
3. It means they get the features they want without needing to upgrade to the higher tier and feeling like they're paying for a bunch of stuff they don't need.

Try this out; it could be a meaningful boost in revenue.

Mutiny, a website personalization tool, doubled their conversion rate on their homepage with a single word change.

Absurd, I know.

Normally we wouldn't even recommend an A/B test so small unless you have tons of traffic.

What did they do? They changed the button text on their homepage hero from "See it on your site" to "See it on your homepage." That's it.

The button links through to their live website demo. You enter your URL, and they let you play around with personalizing your website for different audience segments. 

This demo has two benefits: 

1. It lets you "try before you buy," alleviating a lot of objections or concerns, and
2. Nothing explains your product better than just seeing it in action. 

Now, you'd think the difference between "site" and "homepage" is minimal, but the word "homepage" is a lot more tangible and specific. Even our website has hundreds of pages. I can't clearly picture our "website" in my head. 

However, I do know what our homepage looks like. I know how valuable our homepage is.

And when I do hit the demo, I'm already primed to enter the URL of our homepage, rather than stopping to think which page would be best to test.

Uncertainty is a conversion killer. So remove as much of it as you can.

The lesson here? Words are powerful. Use ones that prime and remove uncertainty.

Imagine being served a fancy restaurant entrée within 23 seconds of ordering.

What would you think?

You'd likely question its quality and feel you overpaid for a precooked dish.

This is the Labor Illusion in action.

Customers perceive services as more valuable when they see the effort put into them, even if that labor doesn't necessarily improve the outcome.

This even applies to digital products and services.

For example, Kayak (a flight search tool) found users were more likely to convert if search results rolled in more slowly, giving the impression of a thorough, exhaustive search. 

Pretty counterintuitive since we'd typically think faster = better.

You can also leverage the labor illusion in your content

People will take your content more seriously and value it more when you lead with the amount of work it took to create it:

Naturally, this makes people think: 

"If this took 16 hours to make, it's worth 5 minutes of my time to read."

So it hooks them in. And then they value it more.

In short, experiment with showing users the amount of time and effort that goes into your content to increase its perceived value. 

If you'd like to dive deeper into this hook type (the Credibility one), and 11 other hook types, join our free 14-day email course, Un-ignorable Hooks. Learn how top creators grab your attention and keep it—without being clickbaity.

I spent dozens of hours studying hooks to make this course 😉

When we started the Growth Newsletter we didn't realize they'd become "the cool thing."

It seems like everyone’s got their own newsletter these days—and we get it! When you're building an audience, you want to get them off social and into a newsletter. It lets you have a direct relationship with them.

Anyway, if you’ve got a newsletter but are struggling to grow your subs, here’s a cool idea.

Newsletter referral programs can be tricky to incentivize correctly. Unless people love you, they probably don't want your swag. You also don't want to cannibalize your paid products. And some percentage of people will just try to game it.

One cool thing that Chenell does for her own newsletter, Growth in Reverse, is she regularly features folks in a Community Spotlight section (it was the inspiration for our own!).

In it, she highlights the newsletters of people who have referred at least 10 subscribers to her newsletter (and she makes sure they aren't all spam ones before she does).

It's a perfect win-win.

Her newsletter breaks down how creators grew to 50k subscribers. So her audience is made up of people with newsletters. They can easily plug her newsletter into theirs—and they are actively trying to find ways to grow their own.

This same tactic might be good to test on your own. OR you can use this as inspiration for a creative win-win way to incentivize people with a referral program.

Would you believe Tesla if they claimed they created the Car of the Year?

Definitely not. They're biased.

But if a reputable (or reputable-seeming) third party said it, maybe you would, right?

That's why Savannah created her own Facebook page called Savvy Finds. She's done a ton of tests where she runs her clients ads through their own page, and through Savvy Finds. 

The result? The ads that ran through Savvy Finds were nearly always the winner.

This technique is especially clever for agencies since it allows her to use client money to increase the reach of her page (which will naturally get likes/followers)—which builds an asset that becomes a competitive advantage for her agency.

If you spend a lot on social ads, consider testing this approach. Even minor improvements in conversion rates can make a significant difference—especially when you're paying for eyeballs.

Say you’re in the market for some biker shorts.  

You find the perfect ones: 

But drat, they’re sold out in the macadamia color! So you hurry up and order them in red, before those sell out too.

When you see sold-out options/models, you’re more likely to buy whatever’s left (assuming you weren’t looking for a super-specific version).

Why? The "sold out" label acts like social proof. It tells you that the product is desirable and high quality. 

And it adds time pressure. If you want it, you better buy it before it sells out too.

But there’s a caveat: Seeing too many sold-out products reduces the likelihood of a purchase. Shoppers expect a certain amount of freedom of choice. We’ll jump ship if we think that freedom is being threatened.

Two important takeaways:

1. Don’t immediately remove sold-out product options from display. Keeping them may make people perceive your product as being higher quality.
2. But don’t display sold-out products if they make up more than 30% of your inventory. Between 10-30% is a good range of sold-out products to feature.

The first number we see becomes our point of comparison for future numbers—known as the anchoring bias.

For example, if someone says their service costs $5,000 per month and up, you're anchored to the number $5,000. If they then give you a quote of $25,000 per month, you're gonna have sticker shock—even if you're being offered way more value than the $5k/mo package. 

Snickers grew sales by 38% simply by adding an anchor (the number 18) to their ad:

By including that number, Snickers suggested that 18 chocolate bars was a typical amount to have in your freezer. If you ordered fewer than that, you were being positively virtuous.

As in Tactic #1, the specificity here makes it easier to picture the items in your life. I know what 18 Snickers bars in my freezer look like. And now that I can picture them, I realize that that’s where they ought to be.

When I was fresh out of university, I worked at a coffee shop called Second Cup. This Canadian chain trained its staff in a simple but effective sales technique: 

"Make one specific, contextual cross-sell suggestion."

For example, if it was first thing in the morning and someone ordered a coffee to go, I might’ve asked them, "Would you like a blueberry muffin to go with your coffee?"

Or if it was 9pm and a couple ordered drinks, the barista might follow it up with, "How about a slice of cheesecake to go with that?"

Most of the time, people would say yes, effectively doubling the order value.

Specific suggestions were far more effective than generic ones like, "Would you like anything else?" To those, people automatically replied, "No, just gimme what I ordered." 

A specific suggestion, on the other hand, made them picture the item and start craving it.

This is what makes cross-sells on Amazon and other retail sites work so well.

Amazon’s "Featured items you may like" and "What do customers buy after viewing this item?" sections make you go, "Hmmm, maybe I do need that nice-looking bag for this camera I'm buying." You can picture using the two items together.

Cross-selling can bump up order values at checkout too: 

Try out specific suggestions in your sales funnels and conversations to boost average order values.

As a species, we crave belonging. That’s why we often look to others for cues on what to do when we’re in an unfamiliar situation. We follow the herd when it suits us.

This instinct to conform is what makes descriptive norms so powerful. They tell us how the majority of people act in that situation.

In one experiment, more hotel guests reused their towels after seeing a message with a descriptive norm (“75% of guests use their towels more than once”) than after seeing an environmental appeal (“Help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay”).

Here's how to use descriptive norms in your emails, ads, landing pages, and so on:

• “Most clients reserve $1,500-2,000+ for their ad budget.” (ex: ads agency)
• “Over 2 million people have a 365+ day streak!” (ex: Duolingo)
• “63% of our customers bundle [product A] with [product B].” (ex: ecomm)
• “The majority of users complete this section in under 10 minutes.” (ex: onboarding)

Important: Descriptive norms work best when they show large numbers of people doing the behavior you want them to do. Descriptive norms backfire if you highlight the behavior you don't want them to do. Consider this sign about towel use:

Why it fails: It's telling you that the norm is to use multiple towels. Why would you defy the norm and only use one? It may seem unfair or that you're getting less by only using one.

But what if only a minority of people are doing the behavior you want?

Try using dynamic norms instead. These describe how a growing number of people are doing the behavior you want to increase. For an example, take a look at New York City’s GreeNYC campaign ("more and more New Yorkers"):

The most important factors in ad performance:

1. Great brand/product.
2. Kicka** creatives. 

It has less to do with targeting and optimization (and let's be honest, AI does most of that these days), and more to do with an intriguing product and creative and captivating ads.

Here are 7 ways to improve your ad creatives:

#1. Show the outcome

Start your ad with the desired end result of using your product; then in the second frame, introduce the product. This will increase video watch time as people will want to know how to get the result.

#2. Close-up‍

Start your ad with a very close-up shot of the product. 

Get people wondering... What is that? They'll stop because they want to figure it out.

#3. Lean into the Negativity Bias

Start the ad explaining why you are NEVER using the alternative to your product again.

It triggers an "Oh sh*t, am I doing it wrong?" and they'll want to know what they should be doing instead.

#4. Good lighting, good sound

The quality of the camera matters way less than a nice natural light source or a killer lighting setup.

Microphone quality and good music/sound effects are much more important than video quality.

#5. Leverage trends and seasons

People like it when content feels relevant and timely. If they're in the mindset of Christmas, or setting New Year's resolutions, or planning their Valentine's Day date, leverage that in your ads and content.

#6. Don't trigger "this is an ad"

Get creative to avoid setting off the alarm bells in people's heads that they're looking at an ad.

Make it look as natural as possible. Don't include music or pop-up captions for the first second or two—once they're hooked, you can bring them in.

Include a screenshare of someone texting a recommendation to their friend.

#7. Be different

You'll never stand out if you do the same thing that everyone else is doing. Be completely illogical.

Instead of focusing on your features, try including a photo of a cute bunny. It might just work.

The 6 tactics above may work today, but tomorrow they may not. The brands that win are the ones that can consistently come up with interesting and novel ideas.

A single ad campaign can be talked about for years. Think Budweiser's "wazzup" or Apple's "Think Different" or "Mac vs PC."

But that won't happen if you do what everyone else is doing.

Most people only use Twitter for a few minutes here and there per day, sometimes per week.

One way to ensure people see your tweets is just by tweeting A LOT. 

If you haven't heard of Dan Go, he goes by "@FitFounder."

His first tweet was April 10th, 2020. More than 84k tweets later and he has 500k followers (as well as 200k on LinkedIn, 450k on Instagram, and 80k newsletter subscribers).

On average, that's ~74 tweets every day. But he peaked at ~350 tweets per day. 

(Note: Twitter considers a comment/reply to be a tweet, not just original content.)

Chenell found that in the first several months, Dan's follower count was directly correlated to his total number of tweets:

Sure, not every tweet crushed.

But they didn't need to. Even if each one only got 100 impressions, that'd still add up to 35k impressions per day. And of course, many of them got way more than that.

Dan grew by outworking everyone else on Twitter.

It's honestly hard to find creators with more tweets than him. Sure there are accounts with a lot more, but they're mostly companies or automated.

Even Jack Dorsey (the founder and former CEO of Twitter), has a measly 29k, and he's been tweeting since day 0.

Dan is one of the most active Twitter users of the past 3 years.

Sometimes you can win just by being the most active.

I've always been skeptical that giving away free swag was an effective tactic.

But it definitely can be if you have the right strategy. 

Take it from InVision, which used swag to amplify its brand’s reputation. Customers loved to post their swag packages on social (creating a viral loop) and were also more likely to give feedback when asked—which is normally hard to get.

Get more from your swag by following these best practices:

• Gift swag at your "aha!" moment. For InVision, that was after users had completed simple onboarding activities like creating a project.
• Choose memorable items that relate to your product/service. Since it’s a design company, InVision’s free swag included custom stickers, pins, postcards, and envelopes. Users who upgraded to a paid subscription got even more—a sketchbook and gel pen. Other examples: A company in the music space could gift headphones, while a meditation/sleep app could gift eye masks.‍
• Use an attractive design. Don’t just default to your logo. Giving away logo-branded swag is like asking a consumer to be a walking billboard for your company. Instead, commission a design that ties back to your company. (Here’s InVision’s.) Your logo can still be included, but it should be secondary. Exception: If your merch doesn’t have much creative real estate, like headphones, just your logo is fine.‍
• Include a handwritten note. Early on, InVision’s swag packages included a handwritten message signed by the company’s CEO. This added a personal touch.‍
• Go over the top. Airtable gave branded Airpods to people at YC companies and key accounts. People would proudly sport them at the office and think fondly of Airtable every time they used them—I know because I've had a pair for 4 years.

Done well, swag can actually bring in new customers.

In fact, when InVision started a weekly Twitter contest giving away their shirts, it got messages from people wanting to buy the shirt without entering the contest. InVision’s team told them to sign up for the software’s professional plan and screenshot the invoice as proof.

Since users usually stuck around for a bit, that meant a few months of revenue for a shirt that only cost $15—not to mention they became walking billboards.

Justin's mention of Anaphora was a great example of the Frequency Bias: When you learn about something obscure, then immediately start seeing it everywhere, falsely thinking it's becoming more common.

I didn't hear about this phenomenon until I started researching my own post about literary devices, then BAM! There it was the next morning. Figured it would be a nice segue.

Here are five more literary devices you can use to make your writing more engaging.

For each, we'll modify the phrase: "The founder is stressed."

#1. Tricolon

A series of 3 parallel words, phrases, or clauses to enhance rhythm and create emphasis.

"The founder is stressed, strained, stretched."

Tip: This is also another literary device “Asyndeton” that leaves out conjunctions (and/or).

#2. Paradox

A statement that contradicts itself but still seems true.

"The founder is a calm storm."

The above can be interpreted as the founder being stressed (storm) yet maintaining composure (calm)—saying a lot in few words.

#3 Catachresis (don't ask me to pronounce this one)

Purposefully using a word incorrectly, for effect. 

"The founder drinks from the well of stress."

Works well to invoke a mental image.

#4 Paraprosdokian (nor this one)

The latter part causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.

"The founder is stressed—an understatement equivalent to calling the ocean a puddle."

Done right this can be fun and playful.

#5. Pleonasm

Use of more words than necessary to convey meaning and emphasis.

"The founder is stressed, full of stress, a picture of stress."

This is also a tricolon as it repeats the idea 3 times, and asyndeton as it lacks conjunctions.

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For a few more, and prettier design, here's the carousel version.

Justin Welsh's one-person business is pacing toward $2M+ in revenue in 2023.

He's one of the most impressive copywriters and systems thinkers I've seen.

He shared one of his copywriting formulas recently that he calls "VFCA." He used it in the following tweet:

The VFCA framework is: 

V: Visceral Opener

“I escaped the rat race…”

To stand out in a world of infinite content, use strong language to elicit a strong response.

Instead of:

1. "I left my job" say "I escaped the rat race."
2. "Most companies could onboard employees better" say "Most companies suck at onboarding." (credit: Wes Kao)
3. "A lot of Twitter users think LinkedIn is lame" say "Twitter hates LinkedIn."

F: Fresh Perspective

"My secret sauce is not playing status games"

People browse social media seeking dopamine hits and novelty. Anything but the same old, same old. A fresh perspective provides that.

In Justin's case, he's hoping to make people feel relieved, hopeful, and emotionally invested in his decision not to play "status games."

C: Challenge

"I don't:..."

Justin challenges the conventional definition of success. His goal was to connect with like-minded people who reject the common narrative and build affinity with them. 

He highlights his own personal values while attracting his community by slinging mud at a shared enemy.

A: Anaphora

Repetition of "I don't want" and "I want"

Lastly, Justin uses a literary device called Anaphora—repetition of the beginning part of successive sentences—to emphasize his message and create a sense of progression. 

The message—"I want X" or "I don't want Y"—gets stronger with each repetition.

With mobile commerce sales hitting $387 billion in the US last year, nailing the mobile buying experience is key.

So make your product-page CTAs sticky.

That way, it's easier for shoppers to add to cart—no scrolling back and forth to find what they’re looking for.

The luxury brand Baume & Mercier saw clicks on its “Add to Cart” button rise by 78% after making this change.

Consider the difference between these product pages from Sephora and Missha:

Let’s look at Missha first. Once someone has scrolled down to learn more about Missha’s product, they have to scroll back up to find the “Add to Cart” button again and make a purchase.

Meanwhile, someone shopping on Sephora’s mobile site has constant access to the “Add to Basket” button. They even have the option to adjust the quantity they want.

Once someone has decided that they're ready to buy, let them take action immediately. Every bit of thought and effort could make them change their mind.

This tactic can 2x the likelihood that someone says "yes" to your requests.

And it's hilariously simple. At the end of your request, just add:‍

"...but you are free to accept or refuse."‍

Studies have shown that adding those words can significantly increase the chances of a "yes."

For instance, in one study, strangers were asked to give someone money for bus fare. They gave twice the amount when those words were part of the request. 

Why do they matter so much?

We hate being told what to do. In contrast, we like to feel understood, respected, and in control.

Paradoxically, acknowledging a person's right to choose is enough of a nudge to increase the likelihood that they do what you want them to do.

Brains are weird.

So give people choice by using either the above phrase or a less-formal variation of it. Some places you can do that: 

• "But it's totally up to you"
• "It's your choice"
• "Take it or leave it"

Ever realize you’ve been browsing Instagram or TikTok for over an hour?

Or find yourself checking them whenever you’re bored? (ie 50 times per day)

That’s because those companies have developed the perfect system to get you completely hooked.

They've nailed the Hook Model, a concept from Nir Eyal. It's a four-step process to get people to use a product habitually.

The four steps are: Trigger → Action → Variable Reward → Investment

SaaS products that benefit from frequent use stand to gain a lot from the Hooked model.

Just make sure to use it ethically :). These are the same tools that companies use to get people addicted to gambling. So use them for good to get them addicted to things that benefit their lives.

If you want to hear Nir Eyal speak more about it, check out our interview with him.

Don't you hate it when you hit a site and you're immediately asked for your email address just so you can access the content?

A lot of companies still think that gating all of their content is the only way to grow their list and get leads.

This is generally a terrible experience. You're being asked to give something up before getting any value. It makes users feel “disempowered and disrespected.”

So consider ungating your content. Visitors will be more likely to share it with their colleagues or on social media, and will have a much better opinion of you and your brand.

One case in point: After removing lead capture forms from its site, the agency Aha Media Group saw its page views jump up by 143%. Newsletter signups grew by 55%, and its social media follower growth by 45%.

(This will only become more true with AI and the proliferation of content.)

Some tips and considerations for ungating:

1. Try giving before asking. For example, we make our playbooks open to the public. But our playbook pages also include an optional subscribe form. Anyone who’s enjoyed our playbooks will be more inclined to give up their info to find out about future ones.We've also toyed with making the first half ungated and the back half gated.‍
2. Add "content upgrades." Ungate your content but include embedded forms that offer some complimentary piece of content you can only get via email. This can be email-based mini courses, templates, or ebooks.‍
3. Add a timed modal. If someone has been on your page for several minutes and has scrolled down a decent amount, you can assume they've probably been reading and are engaged. At that point, you can trigger a modal popup asking for them to subscribe. Even better if it's with a content upgrade.

Most cold emails are terrible.

Effective cold emails share these characteristics:

1. Concise. People will archive an email at the sight of a wall of text. Keep it to 80-120 words and 5-7 sentences. If you have a hard time editing to shorten it, use ChatGPT or Notion AI.‍
2. Targeted. After getting a cold email for a newsletter sponsorship tool, I signed up immediately. Why? Because it was the solution to the exact problem I was facing—and they knew I likely was because they did their research and saw we have sponsors. Do your research and make sure you're emailing the right people.‍
3. Personable. Be informal and open. Don't be stiff or formal.‍
4. Authentic. You can flatter recipients a little bit, but don’t claim to be “blown away by their work” if you haven’t read it. You should be able to back up everything you say.‍‍
5. Focused. Stick to only one goal. Is it a call? A referral? A demo? Define your goal before sending your email. This will inform your CTA.‍
6. Original. Stand the f*ck out. Avoid all the cliches like "I hope this email finds you well" or "quick question."‍
7. Clear. Don't include anything that your reader might not understand. Assume they don't know about your company unless you know they do. Don't include references that they might not get. Be crystal clear.

Do these 7 things and you'll drastically increase response rates.

To make it even easier, use ChatGPT or Notion AI for help with copywriting. Ask them to make your email shorter, more casual, and remove any jargon.

To increase response rates even more, make it a warm email. 

For his birthday, MrBeast got 12,491,044 new followers on Instagram in 72 hours.

Hell of a b-day gift if you ask me.

He didn't do it with Instagram Ads. Instead, he did a giveaway of $10,000 to 5 winners:

Around 20M people liked and commented. Meaning around 20M people added the post to their stories as well—which feels a lot more organic since it's normally where your friends just post photos/videos about their daily life. 

On top of that—you had to follow him to actually claim your prize. 

In short: $50,000 to acquire 12.5M new followers or $0.004 per follower. To contextualize that, Twitter recommends a target CPA of $2 per new follower for their Follower Ads.

(Note: The post was eventually taken down because you need to explicitly declare that the giveaway is not endorsed or run by Instagram itself. Keep that in mind!)

No matter how well you understand psychology, you're affected by it. Here are five psych principles to leverage in your marketing campaigns:

1. Halo Effect

What it is: The tendency to attribute positive qualities to someone (or a brand) based on a favorable first impression or single positive trait.

Example: Patagonia is known for its commitment to sustainability, ethical manufacturing, and corporate social responsibility. So consumers feel good about shopping there, since they believe they're supporting a brand that contributes to the greater good.

2. Primacy Effect

What it is: People are more likely to remember and give greater importance to information at the beginning of a sequence.

Example: When a salesperson starts their pitch with a product's most impressive benefits, that info is what's top of mind for customers.

3. Negativity Bias

What it is: The tendency to give more weight to negative experiences than positive ones, leading to pessimism and risk aversion.

Example: A cybersecurity firm talks about the horrors of being hacked in one ad, and the cozy feeling of security in another. According to the negativity bias, the first ad would leave a stronger impression.

4. Framing Effect

What it is: People's decisions and perceptions are influenced by the way information is presented to them.

Example: A subscription-based service highlights the cost per day instead of the monthly price, making it seem more affordable.

5. Priming Effect

What: Exposure to a stimulus influences a person's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in response to a subsequent, related stimulus.

Example: A nonprofit uses emotionally charged language and images in their fundraising campaign, eliciting empathy and increasing the likelihood of donations.

–––

Like these? Check out seven more.

People seek groundedness—in their daily lives, and when they shop.

• Place: We like buying locally. Near our homes and communities.
• People: We like knowing who we’re buying from. And relating to those people.
• Past: We like things that connect us to the past, like traditional production methods.

A Journal of Marketing study that brought groundedness into the realm of marketing (rather than its typical domains, philosophy and psych) uncovered some notable findings in the process.

• People who are more affected by digitization, urbanization, and disruptive events seek groundedness more. Including:
• People who are on their computers a lot for work
• People who live in big cities
• People who felt more affected by the pandemic
• Groundedness increases willingness-to-pay. In one experiment, consumers were willing to pay a ~60% premium for a product that provided more groundedness.
• Our need for groundedness might increase during birthdays and holidays, and it might even be higher during colder seasons. More research is needed to validate those points, but if they’re true, they could mean it's worth adjusting seasonal campaigns to focus more on the who and the where, not the what.

Takeaway:

In your messaging, consider ways to build connections to place, people, and the past. Particularly if your customers work from home or in big cities.  

That might mean emphasizing your product’s local origin, going with a more traditional design, finding local distribution channels, talking about who your founders are and what they value, or even having your team focus on building their personal brands.

One of my favorite UX and marketing philosophies: "Don't make me think." 

When you vividly describe your product and the value it brings, you're helping people to imagine it and realize how it benefits them. You're doing the thinking for them.

Visuals make that value even more obvious. Especially if you use those visuals to compare and contrast.

For hims, the contrast of a balding head and a full head of hair paints a clearer picture than just a man with a full head of hair. You need to know the alternative. The before/after, or the "with vs. without."

For Ridge, that visual is a lot more powerful than saying, "Our wallets are 70% thinner." Because you see what "us vs. them" looks like, the comparison leaves an impact.

Make your product's value obvious by showing what life is like without it.

Instead of having an influencer come up with an entirely new concept for your brand, ask them to recreate one of their best hits.

But make just one tweak: feature your product.

Example:

• Here’s an original viral video from Michael Incognito, which first appeared on TikTok.
• And here’s the version posted on Reformation’s Instagram, featuring Michael in the brand’s clothing.

There's no script, no testimonial, not even a brand mention. But the recreated content went viral just like the original—except this time, on a brand account.

This is a clever way to partner with influencers to get more impressions and engagement in a fairly risk-free fashion. Viral hits often stay as viral hits.

Look for high-performing content that shows products like yours, even if the product itself isn’t the main focus. For example, a furniture brand could recreate a creator speaking to the camera in one of their showrooms, rather than the creator's studio.

Author James Clear was an early adopter of some interesting content marketing techniques—such as click-to-tweet for nearly every part of his newsletter.

Recently, he turned an entire article into a chain of Instagram Stories.

The Stories ended with two links: one to the complete article on his site, the other to his newsletter signup page. See the last two slides below:

Now remember, most people on Instagram are looking for dopamine hits of cats being silly.

So many will not be bothered to read each image—which means that the folks who do click through and subscribe are genuinely interested.

James uses the same strategy as a featured Stories highlight on his profile, where he shares the first chapter of his book Atomic Habits for free. It’s a simple showcase of his work for anyone new to his writing.

Execution here is pretty easy. Use Canva or any other basic image editor to break up an article into separate images. This is worth trying if your product is content and you’re building (or already have) an audience on Instagram.

Here’s a quick tactic for you. It’ll take about as long to implement as it will to read. 

Ever find yourself mesmerized by a GIF or Instagram Reel, only to realize you've watched it like 10 times in a row?

Well, that's actually a solid way to ensure an algo boost on social platforms.

If you make your video loop seamlessly (and keep it interesting and engaging throughout), you'll have a chance of hitting a retention rate over 100%. That signals to platforms that it was a really good video and increases the chance of it going viral.

How not to do it: Send out recorded webinars and events to attendees and registrants.

How to do it: Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose. 

A few ideas for how to repurpose webinar and event recordings:

1. Transcribe interviews and post them on your blog. You could publish the transcript itself or a narrative write-up featuring transcript snippets.
2. Karbon publishes its podcast transcripts as well as blog posts summarizing each episode’s takeaways.
3. Create short sound bites for social media.
4. MarketMuse shares short clips from its video interviews on Twitter.
5. Consolidate insights into a shorter video.
6. Besides offering full replays on Wistia, MarketMuse creates highlight reels summarizing its video interviews. It includes these shorter videos in its blog.
7. Turn lessons and quotes from the event into a LinkedIn carousel.
8. If you have a podcast, turn the event into an episode.
9. Shaan Puri turned his session on our Growth Summit into an episode for his own podcast, My First Million.

Your brand doesn’t have to be the event host to take advantage of video content.

If someone on your team speaks on another company’s webinar or podcast, it's fair game for you to use—as you can see with our Growth Summit example above. The host will love it if you share it (assuming you credit them).

Emotions drive decisions—including the decision to buy.

But consumers still have to understand what it is they’re buying first.

Which is why Arielle Jackson—who’s helped hundreds of startup brands—recommends that early-stage startups emphasize practical benefits over emotional ones in their value props. Especially if they’re introducing a new category.

Don’t aim for the next Nike's “Just Do It” or Apple's “Think Different” yet. Everyone already knew what they sold before they did that.

First, make sure consumers understand what you do.

Here’s an example Arielle shared:

“Peloton’s early headline literally said, ‘Join studio cycling classes from the comfort of your home.’ That was the functional benefit they needed to reinforce before they could stay stuff like, ‘Together, we go far.’” 

So ask:

• What are the functional benefits your product/company provides?
• What are the emotional benefits?
• What’s in between?

Focus more on the functional if you’re early-stage.

That doesn’t mean you have to neglect emotions in the process. You can convey what you do and still inspire.

Here’s an example from ahrefs:

From the first two sections you know exactly what they do: software for SEO. And they inspire people with the dream of more traffic (and therefore more sales).

Last week we shared a tactic about having a brand enemy. A reader (Tim Herbig) reached out to tell us Louis Grenier highlighted an evolution of the same idea.

Don't just fight a brand enemy, fight one of society's monsters.

Because it's clearly a better way to look at it, I thought I'd share that here.

In "Eating The Big Fish," Adam Morgan says:

• Instead of Hinge's "enemy" being Tinder, the monster is endlessly using a dating app instead of actually finding love. Which is why their motto is "Designed to be deleted."
• And for Chipotle, instead of Taco Bell as the enemy, the monster they're fighting is the decline in society's health due to the proliferation of unhealthy food options.
• Or for Liquid Death, instead of the enemy being Dasani or Fiji, the monster is plastic water bottles that end up in landfills because they don't recycle nearly as easily.

Instead of focusing on how you're different from a specific competitor, think about the troubles in society caused by your competitors, and position your brand as the solution.

As Louis said: "Enemies come and go; monsters tend to be more lasting."

PS: If you ever have comments or suggestions about our insights, please respond to the newsletter at any time. We read and appreciate every reply.

In nearly all aspects of life, communication is the most important skill. And writing is the most efficient and effective method of communication—particularly for driving sales.

Here are 10 writing tips to improve your conversion rates:

#1. Make it about them

Don't just talk about your product's features. Instead, talk about what’s in it for your audience.

"Get paid back by friends instantly. No fees."

#2. Make it relatable

Shortcut comprehension—relate your product to something that they already understand.

"Send money like you send texts." 

#3. Cut the fluff

Remove words that don’t add value. Hook their interest as succinctly as possible. 

"Miss the bus? Grab a Lyft." 

#4. Use simple words

Don’t use a $10 word when a $0.05 word will do. Don’t use industry jargon either.

"Get more done in less time."

#5. Be specific

Don't make them do the work. Spell it out for them and make it easy to picture.

"Relax with plush bedding, a spa-like bathroom, and stunning city view."

#6. Use active voice

Active voice results in shorter, sharper sentences. Making it easier to follow and finish. 

"Your client will adore your accurate edits."

#7. Tell a story

Stories are relatable, interesting, and real. Don't make them do the work. Illustrate.

"Little Johnny was failing math. After working with our tutors, he's graduating with honors."

#8. Make it punchy

Steal concepts from poetry. Use literary devices. Chop up sentences. Add rhyme and rhythm.

"One scoop. Once a day. Every day."

#9. Handle objections

Identify the most common objections that come to people's mind and proactively handle them.

"Build a custom website in 20 minutes. Without code."

#10. Be bold

No one identifies with wishy-washy statements. Take strong stances to find your tribe.

"Most companies suck at onboarding."

Implement these in your writing and you'll increase both comprehension and sales.

ChatGPT has proven itself to be amazing at both research and overcoming blank-page syndrome. It's an amazing tool to jumpstart copywriting.

Emphasis on jumpstart. ChatGPT can struggle to come up with completely novel ideas (and can be a bit cringe unless you put in a bunch of work). That’s because ChatGPT was trained on a giant dataset of existing (not necessarily good) content like articles, books, and sites.

That means it can synthesize ideas really well—but it's not the best at imagining (yet). 

So another way to leverage ChatGPT is by using it to identify unoriginal ideas.

Brand strategist Tom Roach tested this out by feeding ChatGPT a variety of prompts asking for unique positioning statements and slogans—all to no avail. 

But by generating those answers, generic ideas became clearer. Tom and his team could eliminate obvious cliches and focus instead on their truly creative ideas. 

Use ChatGPT to cull the herd by identifying and filtering out unoriginal ideas. 

Having trouble positioning your brand in a crowded market?

Here's a tip: Find yourself an enemy.

Basecamp did this for its project management tool. They identified Microsoft Project as its arch nemesis which led to their focus on collaboration—something Microsoft didn’t do well.

Having a brand enemy is more than just identifying a competitor. It's about finding the very antithesis of your company so you can:

• Sharpen your brand’s messaging and positioning,
• Which will help your audience understand your main differentiators.

By positioning your brand in direct contrast to another, your key value props become much more memorable. And you instantly align yourself with their detractors.

A few examples of companies with clear enemies:

• Hinge: Tinder. Hinge’s founder revamped its branding after being put in the same category as "casual" Tinder. Look at Hinge’s tagline: “Designed to be deleted.”
• Chipotle: Taco Bell. Chipotle emphasizes quality over cost with its “food with integrity” message—the total opposite of Taco Bell’s fat- and sodium-heavy menu. This also comes across stylistically in its clean and minimal aesthetic.
• Liquid Death: Dasani, Ozarka, and just about every other mainstream plastic bottled water brand. Liquid Death nails all of these enemies with its “Death to plastic” motto and recyclable aluminum cans.

A tiny mistake cost $100,000 in lost ticket sales.

Two-time Tony Award-winning Ken Davenport was releasing a new play.

As he entered the prices for the seat tickets on Telecharge, he forgot a zero. instead of $169.50 per ticket, he typed in $16.95. (Less than a movie ticket these days.)

The mispriced tickets went on sale, and it took over four hours to find and fix the mistake. Hundreds of tickets sold for over $150 less per ticket.

“We will, of course, honor any tickets purchased at the lower price,” he announced.

However, this was no mistake. It was a clever tactic.

It’s common practice for Broadway producers to give out loads of free tickets to promote a new show. The idea is people go for free and rave about it to friends.

Ken wanted to avoid this.

He remembered reading a story about American Airlines accidentally selling £6,118.92 tickets for less than £100— and it got a ton of publicity. Obviously.

“What if I do this ‘mistake’ on purpose?” he thought.

So he did. And instead of giving those tickets away for free, he sold them for $17 each, AND got a ton of free publicity. 

This same tactic will likely never work again. But, this is a lesson to question your restraints. Work from first principles. Let the world inspire you. And be creative.

(And yes I fed a photo of Ken Davenport into Midjourney and told it make him 3D and cry.)

Not all backlinks are created equal.

Here are seven types you should prioritize building for better off-page SEO.

1. Editorial links—the most valuable: When other sites cite you as a source. Apart from earning them organically, you can get these via HARO or connecting with journalists directly (discussed last week).
2. Guest posts: These are best to do on authoritative sites that your target audience would read. And make sure you make them really good.
3. Relationship-based links: Say you’ve received a link from a reputable site. If you reach out to the site owner with an offer to contribute more info it could lead to more links in the future. The point isn’t to negotiate for links, but to become a reliable source for journalists and writers.
4. Business profiles: Links from business directories and social media profiles (think Crunchbase and Yelp). You can create these links yourself, but don’t go so far as to get them from irrelevant, unheard of directories.
5. Public speaking: Taking part as a guest on podcasts, webinars, online courses, and conferences not only creates natural linking opportunities—it also builds your expertise (important since Google’s algorithm looks for EEAT).
6. Embedded asset links: Think tools, widgets, awards, and badges that other site owners embed onto their sites.
7. Reverse backlinks: This is a concept Brian Dean from Backlinko talked about. Instead of reaching out about backlinks, create content that people can't help but link to. Original research is the big lever here—other articles will cite your findings.

And avoid:

• Link farms or other low-quality sites.
• Posting on forums without meaningfully adding to the discussion.
• Paying for links (against Google's ToS).
• Sites that add "nofollow" tags to their external links. No real point since it won't count!

Like most advice we'll give, focus on quality.

We process images upwards of 60,000x faster than text. (That range varies hugely depending on the paper. So let's say... much faster.)

Yet the most common marketing mistake we see is:

Focusing on features and tech specs, rather than the outcome.

Show don't tell. Show your customer what life looks like when your product has solved their problem. They're not dumb—they can figure out what's better about it.

For example:

This video from True Classic's website does it perfectly. It shows you immediately how much better you'll look with a better-cut shirt.

They could have said:

• Flattering fit
• Hugs arms & shoulders
• No-stretch collar

Oh, wait they do. But they do that on the product page—after you've already seen the transformation and you know how much better the shirts look.

You want people to go "ohhhh, I get it."

Yes, I know, this is harder for service-based businesses and intangible products. You can't show them saving money with cheaper accounting software. This is one of the reasons testimonials are powerful. People share their transformation story.

So focus on the transformation and the outcome—use imagery if you can.

Most startups ignore branding. It keeps getting punted because, frankly, other things seem more important.

Things like: quick-win ad campaigns and social posts. Things you can point at and say, "Look at all the clicks/views this got."

The problem with that thinking is that, while you might get short-term sales activation, without a brand strategy, you’ll miss out on long-term sales growth.

Besides thinking brand strategy isn’t urgent, people put it off because they think it's not attributable.

That’s the performance-marketing mentality: If I can’t measure it, I don’t need it.

Yes, brand is harder to measure than email open rates and sales. But there are metrics you can use to gauge the success of your brand strategy. 

Here are five that we think are solid indicators of brand performance:

• Branded keyword search volume: If, before doing any brand work, you had ~100/month Google searches for your brand name, and all of a sudden you've got 1000s, then your brand work is paying off.
• Organic social mentions: If people are shouting you out or recommending you, that's a pretty good sign that you're building brand awareness.
• Click-through rates: An improvement in CTRs could mean that people are already more familiar with your brand—and more likely to click through on an ad by you.
• Sales timeline (for B2B): If people are already aware of your company when they come to you, you should have a tighter sales cycle from first contact to close.
• Conversion rates: As your brand builds trust and affinity, it'll be easier to convert more of the people who come across your products.

Track those five metrics for clearer brand attribution. And if you can improve those, you'll improve your CAC and CPA as well ;)

Links from high-authority domains continue to be a positive signal to Google. So getting a quote and link back to your site in a Reuters article can have a positive impact on your SEO.

A good way to get quotes and links used to be HARO, the marketplace where reporters get questions answered in exchange for quotes. Unfortunately, HARO has become inundated with spammy link builders.

So reporters often turn to other channels (like Twitter & LinkedIn) to gather quotes.

Here's a strategy to connect with reporters directly (and for free):

1. Create a list of journalists. Study the top publications in your niche, and check out their employees' portfolios on LinkedIn. 
2. Send personalized messages to them. Ask a question, or give a compliment related to a recent article. Do not pitch your expertise. The goal is to start a conversation. 
3. Either DM them on Twitter/LinkedIn or email them. (If their email addresses aren't public, you can try using tools like Hunter or Voila Norbert to find them.)
4. If they respond (some won't), send a reply that:
5. Thanks them for their time.
6. Gives a brief summary of who you are and your qualifications. Things that make you seem like a baller.
7. Mentions that you’d love to act as a source for future articles if that would be helpful. Include your phone number and email address.
8. Be responsive. Reporters need to publish things quickly, so you'll need to act fast if they follow up.

This strategy requires some sweat equity—but it is free. You can also hire a VA to do the manual parts.

The team at Pixar uses a simple framework to help develop their story lines: 

Once upon a time, ___________________. Every day, ___________________. Until one day, ___________________. Because of that, ___________________. Because of that, ___________________. Until finally, ___________________.

Let's use our Un-ignorable Challenge as an example:

1. Once upon a time, Alice, a founder of a creative agency, was on top of the world.
2. Every day, she'd do sales calls for inbound leads and crush her client work.
3. Until one day, a recession hit and cut inbound leads by 2/3rds.
4. Because of that, she needed to increase leads, or else she'd have to lay off staff.
5. Because of that, Alice started posting on LinkedIn and Twitter. Most of her posts flopped—but a few did well and brought in leads, but she had a tough time running a business and creating good content consistently.
6. Until finally, she joined the Un-ignorable Challenge to learn how to systematically create content that resonates with her audience.

The result: She's increased lead volume and humanized her brand by becoming the face of her agency. She's made interesting and valuable friendships and partnerships.

This framework explains the value of your product. It helps you think through the exact person you're helping and problem you're solving. 

Try it out for your brand!

And if this story resonates with you, enrollment is open for the Un-Ignorable Challenge!

From April 6th to May 5th, buyer's psychology expert Katelyn Bourgoin and I will be teaching founders and creators how to build an audience of future buyers. And how to get into a publishing habit and stick to it. 

Enroll today. Enrollment closes tomorrow at midnight Pacific Time.

A few weeks ago, we submitted our homepage and quickly got back this image:

We realized that they were actually pretty good changes that made the page more compelling, readable, and more likely to convert.

We got it from Oddit.

They provide UX teardowns for sites to boost conversions & strengthen brand loyalty. They’re offering a free user experience teardown to every reader of Demand Curve!

Let's breakdown the smart suggestions they made:

1. They made the banner text bolder and easier to read. Way better on mobile.
2. They broke up our 3 paragraphs of text into one, and highlighted the key features of "Free" and "Once a week."
3. They suggested a testimonial right before the form (social proof is strong).
4. They suggested making button text larger and bolder (easier to read) and make it more explicit what they were signing up for.
5. Added a link to say "hey, we sell courses too, we're not just a newsletter."
6. And added the 5 stars above the social proof.

It was free, and very helpful.

Get your own free UX teardown for your site. No downside in trying.

We love nuance. But nuance sucks when you just wanna take action. Here's an 80/20 way to land on an influencer marketing strategy.

First, ask these four questions:

1. What exactly are you looking for from an influencer partnership? Choose only one: content, revenue, or brand awareness.
2. What’s your main KPI? $$$, subscribers, demos, eyeballs?
3. What’s your budget?
4. If you’ve got an influencer in mind, do they have a record of delivering on what you’re looking for?

Use these answers to choose which influencers to partner with for the best ROI.

Three guiding principles based on your main objective:

• If you’re looking for reusable content, prioritize nano-influencers and small-time creators who can create TikTok-style ads for $200-$350.
• If you want to drive revenue, identify macro-influencers with strong engagement—take a look at their comments to find this out. Expect to pay $10-$15k for 100k views on YouTube or Instagram.
• If you want to increase brand awareness, you’ve got two routes:
• Parade: Send your products to a lot of nano-influencers. This is ideal for companies that don’t have much budget but have low product costs.
• Revolve: Identify a few big influencers (600k+ followers) for long-term partnerships requiring content creation. This is best for companies with big budgets and products that are too expensive to give freely in bulk.

There's a ton more nuance to every bulletpoint, but this is a great place to start.

What doesn't work: Just dumping a link to your newsletter in a post or your bio. 

Mix up your strategy by trying one or more of these three creative methods.

1. Newsletter ad break – Twitter

Threads are all the rage (see the Something Fun today)—and they often end with a signup CTA. But people often leave before they get there.

So instead of making this CTA your final tweet, try plugging your newsletter in the middle. Example here.

2. Before-after – LinkedIn and Twitter

Share a new issue of your newsletter on these two occasions:

1. The day before you send it: Give a sneak peek of what it’ll cover. Tell users to sign up so they can find out more.
2. The day after sending: Broadly recap what your email covered. Then encourage users to sign up so they don’t miss the next one.

Here’s an example from Justin Welsh:

3. Leverage social proof – everywhere

Whenever you get a nice review/testimonial, take a screenshot and use it to promote your newsletter (or product!). Often, this causes your biggest fans to flock and give you even more reviews/testimonials to use too.

Katelyn Bourgoin does this a lot:

Here, let's just start with an image:

“I see you started an order but didn’t get around to completing it. Here’s a free one to try...”

When asked whether this tactic worked, KetoneAid's founder Frank said:

“The cost of posting a can is $10. People get hooked and buy subscriptions. And the lifetime value of a subscriber is $3,000.”  

For a kinda strange new product that people aren't sure they're gonna like, they definitely want to try it before committing to a $79 12-pack. 

This tactic does a few things:

1. Handles buyers' biggest objection—knowing if they'll like it.
2. Surprises and delights people—and as we've said, delight is the best way to build brand loyalty.
   
3. Gives them a coupon for free shipping to sweeten the deal further.
4. Humanizes the brand. Frank's upfront about it costing $50 normally. It uses his name and is written in first person (even the coupon code uses his name).

"If you sell to everyone, you sell to no one." – Common saying remixed many ways.

Most startups get a bad case of shiny objective syndrome: trying to collect a bunch of wins, and sacrificing focus in the process. Examples:

Product: They want to have a “rich feature set.” Which turns into a feature dump.‍

Messaging: They want to make as many sales as possible. Which results in distilled messaging that connects with no one. 

The almost-inevitable result: The team spreads itself too thin, employees feel lost, and growth suffers.

Three ways to overcome shiny objective syndrome:

#1) Define your core persona. Make it niche—almost scarily so.

Lenny Rachitsky calls this the “super-specific who.” Examples he shares from companies’ early days:

• Substack: “successful veteran online newsletter writers”
• Cameo: “B-list athletes in Chicago”

#2) Define your north star metric and the levers that move it.

Examples:

• Monthly active newsletter subscribers
• Orders
• Number of transactions per week
• Percentage of paid subscribers

What levers affect active newsletter subscribers?

• New monthly subscriber rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Email bounce and spam rate
• Open and click rates

So, if active newsletter subscribers is the North Star Metric, every one of your growth initiatives should be centered on those levers.

#3) Try fewer channels for more concentrated growth.

Don't invest in Twitter, TikTok, SEO, influencers, Facebook Ads, and cold emails all at once.

Look for the one or two channels that have the greatest chance of success, given your specific goals and constraints.

The seven criteria we recommend considering are: scale, targetability, effort, time to results, intent, context, and cost.

Nail one, scale it up, systemize it, and only then move on.

Imagine you own a mountainside rental property and want to attract more applicants. Which of these statements do you find more useful when writing the listing?

1. George is a single 32-year-old software engineer in Philadelphia. He has a bachelor’s degree, earns $120k/year, and lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his pet dog.
   
   
2. George is feeling cooped up working from his downtown apartment—with very little green space for his energetic border collie.

We’re guessing #2.  

Knowing that, you would emphasize that your property is dog-friendly, has a yard, and has many nearby nature trails and excellent Wi-Fi.

Then why do we all build customer personas that sound like #1? Focused on demographic details like age, education, and profession.

It’s not that this info is irrelevant—but you’ll attract more of your ideal customer when you focus your messaging around your customers’ frustrations and motivations. Not their demographic and firmographic details.

Otherwise you get this:

 When developing personas, prioritize answering these questions:

• What are prospects stressed about?
• Where are they looking for solutions?
• What solutions are they trying, and what are their shortcomings?
• How do prospects describe success?
• What are they nervous about?

These questions follow the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework, a customer-centered approach where companies focus on meeting users’ real-life needs, aka jobs. Use it to pinpoint where and how your product provides the most value.

You likely have oodles of sales pages on your site, but do you have an “Objection Smasher?” 

This is a landing page that lists the top 5-10 reasons why people don’t buy your product or why they churn.

Seems like a potentially bad idea telling people how you don't live up to expectations, right?

So, what’s the point of creating an Objection Smasher? 

I bet whenever you buy something, you almost always consider multiple products or vendors. And so do your leads.

And since every company is trying to sell to them, they’re usually wary when companies claim that their "the best," or that they're for everyone. 

An Objection Smasher builds trust and credibility with potential buyers since it acknowledges upfront why others churn or choose another business over yours.

And you can even weigh in to explain why certain customers aren’t a good fit for your product, or what you’re doing to improve your product further.

Here are a few examples of Objection Smashers:

• Drift’s article, “4 Reasons Customers Quit Drift in 2017,” lists their top customer complaints and then explains how they’re tackling these issues.
• Monday.com chooses a slightly different angle by naming Salesforce as its best alternative.

The Objection Smasher addresses common objections and builds trust—so chances are the leads who see it yet still continue to move down your marketing funnel will actually convert.

In April, I'm joining the final cohort of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy from Ali Abdaal (a YouTuber with nearly 4M subscribers clearing about $5M/year in revenue—nuts).

In preparation for that, I've gone through Ali's "YouTube for Beginners" course. 

Here are 3 things I've learned about content creation: 

1. Be an archaeologist, not an architect

There are two ways to approach creating content:

1. Be an architect. Have everything perfectly planned before breaking ground. For example, scrutinize your topic, audience, offer, and format before ever posting.
2. Be an archaeologist. Just start digging holes. When you find treasure, put all your focus there. For example, start making things that interest you, and when you find something that resonates, double down.

Most successful creators got there by just getting started and fumbling around. It took Ali one year and 50 videos to hit 1,000 subscribers. It took MrBeast years. They figured it out along the way. 

As Ali says: "The first 50 videos are for you. The next 50 are for your audience." 

2. Don't create for algorithms. Create for people.

Sure, we write about tactics every week. But what really makes a product or piece of content outpace others is by being exceptional.

So to grow your YouTube channel (or Instagram, or Twitter, or blog):

1. Create an enticing thumbnail and title so people will watch/read it.
2. Make the content interesting and engaging throughout.
3. Leave people satisfied so they click on your next post.

It's simple in theory, but incredibly hard to actually do. It takes a ton of practice, and so...

3. The reps are more important than anything

When you're getting started with a new skill, the quantity and frequency of practice are more important than the quality of each session. Whether that's creating videos, crafting Twitter threads, writing newsletters, or building a product—it's better to do it often and consistently.

Focus on developing the habit first. Then double down on getting good. 

As Ali puts it: "Get going → Get good → Get smart."

–––

Now, if you want to join me in the April cohort of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy to learn how to build a channel to 100k subscribers, make sure to sign up this week. Enrollment closes this Friday—and it's the last cohort they're ever doing.‍

(In full disclosure, I got to join because I promised to write about what I learned!) 

– Neal

To continue the trend of 3's...

Duolingo is famous for perfecting the art of gamifying something that’s good for you.

As the Duo team was figuring out how to gamify language learning, they looked to a logical source for inspiration: games.

Including Gardenscapes, a Candy Crush-esque mobile game the team was hooked on.

One thing Gardenscapes had that Duo didn’t was a “moves counter,” which showed users the dwindling number of moves they had left to complete a level.

After months of work, Duo launched their own moves counter—then “expectantly waited for an unmitigated success,” according to Duo’s former Chief Product Officer Jorge Mazal. 

But what actually happened?

Pretty much nothing. Retention and DAUs stayed the same. User feedback was…well, there was hardly any.

As you know, every experiment is a chance to learn. So here’s what Mazal learned from it:

“Now when looking to adopt a feature, I ask myself:

1. Why is this feature working in that product?
2. Why might this feature succeed or fail in our context, i.e. will it translate well?
3. What adaptations are necessary to make this feature succeed in our context?”

Asking those three questions led the Duo team toward gamification gold, with features like a FarmVille 2–esque leaderboard and irresistible streak rewards.

When you find a feature you love in another product, ask those questions before trying to implement it in your own product. They’ll lead you to what Mazal calls “the right balance of adopting and adapting.”

In honor of the less hyped-up 3-leaf clover ☘️, here are 3 rules of 3 we recommend following. 

The rule of 3 in advertising:  

Never include more than three pieces of information in an ad. Example: This ad from Biddyco has: 1) a before & after, 2) product features, 3) a review. Brand awareness magic!

The rule of 3 in copywriting:  

Three is the minimum number that makes a pattern, and people are pattern seekers. Group items in threes to make them more memorable.

The 3 (science-backed) rules of good writing (via Ariyh):

1. Use short, common, concrete words.
2. And short, simple sentences with active voice.
3. To keep your readers’ attention, keep your tone excited, anxious, or hopeful. People are more likely to continue reading if their emotions are stirred up, versus language that’s less stimulating—or just sad.

Each of those rules is pretty straightforward, right? A nice reminder that simplicity packs a powerful punch.

(Btw, there are a LOT of threes in marketing. There’s also the 3% rule and the cult of three clicks! Are there other rules of 3 you use and love?)

When we think of product gamification, we usually think of B2C apps and referral programs—Duolingo being one of the shining examples of gamification done right.

Turns out gamification can also work for B2B SaaS products.

Just take a look at the B2B scheduling software company Deputy. It gamifies onboarding tasks as part of its free trial:

What do users earn for completing tasks? Extra days for their trial.

It’s a total win-win: Users get to extend their trials and along the way, become more likely to reach the “aha” moment of product activation. Aka the turning point where the odds of becoming a paying customer spike—because they saw actual value from the product.

If you offer a free trial for a SaaS product, consider giving this strategy a shot.

Nat Eliason grew his TikTok account from 400 to 55,900 in just six weeks.

The key to his growth? Well, there wasn’t one—you can't easily "game" TikTok.

Instead, here are seven of Nat’s findings that’ll raise your chances of success.

🎯 Choose a niche where you have an "unfair advantage." Think hard about what would make your content hard to replicate. Nat chose non-fiction books since he has detailed notes about 300+ books.

Ali Abdaal's unfair advantage for his "how to get into medical school" YouTube channel was that he was already in medical school.

🧠 Take a SEO-inspired approach to content ideation. First look through the top 5-10 accounts in your niche and see what topics have done well. Then type those topics into the search bar—you’ll see variations appear below, just like Google’s related keywords. Also look at the search results’ “Others searched for” section for ideas.

🐑 Don’t prioritize making videos for the latest trends. Yes, creating for the latest viral trend can help get more views, but these trend-inspired videos often don’t explain why your account is worth following. They often get lots of engagement—but few followers.

Make these vids only if a trend fits your content, topic, and style.

🖥️ Edit your footage on a computer, not your phone. It’s a lot more efficient and powerful. Nat recommends using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. But use TikTok to add captions.

🚀 Your videos need strong hooks to actually take off. The first 2-3 seconds are the most important. We talked about hooks last week.

🪝 Also include a hook in the description. It’ll give people another reason to watch in case they read the description first. Example: The description for a video giving three tips on something could say, “The 3rd helped me the most.”

💬 Commenting on other videos won’t help your own account performance. It’s helpful, however, for connecting with other creators. Just focus on making really good videos.

In a previous newsletter, we shared an AI tool that maintains eye contact in videos.

But eye contact isn't always the best option.

Studies show that ads using averted gazes lead to more attention toward the product, and more memorable ads.

We're hardwired to notice faces. And when you see eyes looking over at something else, you're naturally drawn to look, too. 

See for yourself 👀

This same tactic can be used on landing pages and product photos. Use your models' eyes to make people look where you want them to—your product, your CTA, or where you want them to go next.

This can also apply to social media profile photos. The direction your profile photo faces can make it either feel like you've got your back to your post, or like you're facing it.

Which of these looks better? I bet you it's the first one.

‍

"It’s easier to be a critic than a creative." – marketing researcher Flint McGlaughlin 

ChatGPT can’t do all the legwork of content creation. It's still not that good at writing, for example:

So bad.

But it can be great for inspiration and relieving blank-page syndrome.

See for yourself by experimenting with these seven prompts:

1. “Write 5 headlines for [Company] based on the facts below.” Be sure to list at least three of your company’s strongest value props or credentials. They’ll help guide ChatGPT toward better results.
2. “Write 5 more headlines stressing the exclusiveness of [Company]’s services.” Rather than simply using the first few headlines generated, ask ChatGPT to refine them according to new specifications. You can change these new instructions to whatever you’re looking for.
3. “Write 5 more headlines that begin with the word ‘get.’” Continue refining. You can replace “get” with any other word of your choosing.
4. “What do customers want to achieve with [Company]’s services?” Use this prompt to get ideas for reframing your company’s biggest value props—and to clarify whether ChatGPT understands your company. This is a prereq for the next prompt.
5. “Write a headline that emphasizes how customers can get what they want through [Company].” Assuming ChatGPT correctly understands your company’s offerings and your customers’ goals, use this prompt to uncover more copywriting ideas.
6. “Add a sense of urgency to headlines 1 and 2.” If there are any specific headlines you like, ask ChatGPT to hone in on them and make adjustments.
7. “Give me 10 examples of X.” Coming up with examples can be time consuming.

For example, I asked: "What are 20 tactical copywriting tips with before-and-after examples?"

I then chose my favourites, remixed them, and created this design. Check out tips 4 and 5:

MrBeast won't even make a video unless he has the perfect thumbnail and title in mind. 

For written content, we call these "hooks." They:

1. Stop people scrolling (aka thumb-stopping).

2. Intrigue them.

3. Get them to either keep reading or click to see more.

Without a good hook, your otherwise amazing content just won't get seen. 

Shaan Puri lists six emotional reactions you want to evoke in your hooks: 

1. LOL (humour)
2. WTF (surprise/outrage)
3. That's crazy! (surprise/delight)
4. Ohhh, I get it now
5. FINALLY! Someone said it
6. Yay! (celebration—like if someone got a new job)

I'd also add:

1. Uh-oh (fear): "I hope I'm not doing it wrong."
2. Damn, I want that (inspiration)
3. Then what happened? (curiosity)
4. Daaaamn (credibility): "This person knows what they're talking about."

Tap into these emotions, and you'll stop the scroll and get them invested in reading more.

Here's how Wes Kao taps into "Uh oh":

Social media is ephemeral. A post is lucky to last 24 hours. Yet YouTube videos can build in traffic for years.

Wish you could crack the code to YouTube growth?

A lot of gurus and experts make it more complicated than it really is.

Growing on YouTube is just a matter of:

1. Creating videos that people find valuable
2. Posting them on YouTube at least once a week
3. Repeating this for at least 2 years

The issue is a) it’s hard to do it alone, b) it takes a ton of time and c) you often don’t know where to start or what to do next.

That’s why less than 1% of all YouTube channels have over 100,000 subscribers and the numbers are even more brutal for brand channels.

So, what’s the solution?

Ali Abdaal, an educational YouTuber with 3.8M subscribers, has just opened the enrolment for his last-ever live cohort of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy.

It’s a 4-week live online course where you'll learn to grow your channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income- and awareness-generating machine.

Join me (Neal) in the cohort. I’ll be doing it this year to learn how to bring DC to YouTube.

Since enrollment opened last Monday, 80% of available spaces have been taken.

Grab one of the remaining spots here or read more about the course, when it starts, and all the things that Ali and his team have prepared for you.

LinkedIn is getting hotter and hotter each year.

And one of the great things about LinkedIn (unlike other social platform) is that you can bootstrap your first followers by sending connection requests.

Databox’s Nikos Ntirlis shares how:

#1) Make a list of the people you want to connect with—potential customers, influencers, partners, affiliates, etc.

Pro tip: Choose people with a similar audience size as you. If you have 1,000 followers, someone with 3,000 is way more likely to accept than someone with 300,000.

#2) Read their posts and check out their website. The goal is to identify the topics that interest them and their communities.

#3) Thoughtfully engage with them. That includes commenting on their posts, responding to their comments on someone else’s, and quoting and tagging them in your own posts.

Do this several times over the course of a few days or weeks.

Pro tip: Prioritize commenting on viral posts. You'll get more organic followers.

#4) Send a connection request after your targets respond.

They'll be way more likely to accept than if you did it cold. Why?

Because they recognize your name, have started to develop a relationship with you, and want you to keep engaging with their posts (so you help amplify their reach).

Note: you can also comment on people commenting on their posts, and send connection requests to them. Just be careful to only send up to about 20 per day to avoid being suspended by LinkedIn. 

And even if your targets don’t accept your connection request, interacting with their content can get you exposure to their audience.

Want more insights about growing your LinkedIn presence organically? Check out our comprehensive playbook.

Good copywriting isn’t about glorifying your product or exaggerating its features.

It’s about getting people to understand your product's core benefit. Only then can they consider becoming a customer.

You can reach that core benefit through dimensionalization. That involves identifying a key feature and then asking, “So what?” not just once, but again and again.

Keep asking, “So what?” until you reach one of these desires:

1. Physical: Food, drink, warmth, and shelter
2. Safety: Security and safety
3. Belonging and love: Companionship and intimacy
4. Esteem: Feelings of success and superiority
5. Self-actualization: Achieving one’s full potential

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs describes our fundamental needs as humans.

Dimensionalizing helps connect the dots between a product feature and at least one of these underlying desires.

Here’s an example of dimensionalizing:

Product feature: A fine art print that comes in extra large dimensions

• So what? The XL sizing makes the print the focal point of any room in your home.
• So what? The print commands everyone’s attention.
• So what? It becomes a conversation piece whenever guests are over.
• So what? You can show off your knowledge about the artwork.
• So what? You’ll impress your guests—earning you esteem from their social approval as well as your own feelings of success.

Figma has quickly become one of top design tools. Partly because it was the first Sketch-like design tool to double-down on web.

And it's inherently viral. I send you a link to our Figma file, we start collaborating immediately.

Figma makes this process even smoother with their permissions and billing.

#1. Editors (basic users) can add new editors to their team at any time and at no upfront cost. This allows folks to share designs, get feedback and move quickly without admin approval.

#2. If the number of editors exceeds the current plan, admins get an email a few days before the next bill is due, and highlights any new editors that joined.

#3. The admin can then decide to remove these new editors before the next billing cycle. BUT they're way less likely to now for two reasons:

1. Loss aversion: It's psychologically harder for them to remove access from someone than to say no in the first place. 
2. Effort: It requires the admin to actively remove someone. Often, people are busy and don't get to it—or don't bother since it's only $12/mo.

This makes it:

• Easier for users. They can invite folks without waiting for admins.
• Easier for admins. They don't have to invite everyone. They can batch remove people as needed each month. And they get a free month for each user.
• More revenue for Figma.

On Sunday, thousands of people scrambled for their remotes.

During the final quarter of the Superbowl match, Tubi, the streaming service, created an ad that looked like someone was changing the channel to watch Mr and Mrs Smith.

It was an incredibly clever way to get people's attention—and perfectly demonstrate exactly what Tubi is. It shows rather than tells.

It reminded me a lot of a classic prank:

Change a coworker's desktop background to be a screenshot of their desktop or currently open windows. Then close everything and hide the files on the desktop.

When they return to their computer, they'll desperately click around trying to get their computer to respond. Office pranking at its finest. 

A similar thing could be done in a YouTube video if coordinated with the creator. Or in an Instagram story/reel or TikTok video.

Entrepreneurs fail when they focus on businesses that don't provide value to people.

That's why nailing your value props is critical.

If you can tell a well-formed value prop story, it's a sign you’re creating something valuable.

Here’s the template. 

Example: Relationship Hero (relationship coaching SaaS)

• Describe a specific person with a specific problem: A 23-year-old male who can’t get a date.
• Describe their current best effort to solve their problem: He gets a Tinder account and does his best to convert matches into dates.
• Describe why it’s still a problem: His matches barely respond, and when they do, the conversation feels boring and forced. He uses it for one hour every day but only gets one date every two months.
• Describe how their life gets better thanks to you: Once Relationship Hero coaches guide him through writing his texts, he suddenly has much better conversations that result in a date each week.

This simple framework helps you validate a plausible business/product idea without having any market research or empirical evidence to show. (Although we recommend those for deeper analysis—talking to customers is incredibly important.)

You can then use that story on your website and marketing copy.

The vast majority of cold emails are ignored.

In the worst case, people flag your emails as spam (causing future emails to end up in spam), and have a negative impression of both you and your brand.

That's why Lemlist, a tool for automating email outreach, warns against doing "cold emails." Instead, they should be warm 🔥

What does that mean?‍

That means only reaching out to people who already have some idea of who you are, and have a positive association with you and your brand already.

For example, if you got a personalized message from your favorite influencer or celebrity, you'd welcome it, and not just flag it as spam. You'd happily respond.

To do that, sadly it's not a quick fix. Which is why most people don't do it. 

You have to:

1. Produce a lot of free content, say on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, podcast, etc.
2. Then engage with people who engage with you. And engage with others writing and commenting on relevant posts in your niche.
3. And then eventually DMing them a personalized message either to get to know each other, give them a free resource, or pitch an offer.

If you do this, your response rates will go from single digit to double digits.

Lemlist believes this so strongly that they encourage their entire team to be active on social media and build their own personal brands.

What motivates people to buy? Look to the psychology of spy recruitment for answers. 

Intelligence officers use an acronym to size up potential recruits’ motives:

• M = money
• I = ideology
• C = coercion
• E = ego

These also align pretty directly with the emotional triggers behind purchasing decisions.

Money

Emotional triggers this motive aligns with: greed and lust

Sadly, greed drives human behavior. Wealth, power, and social currency—all things people instinctively want.

Appeal to prospects' aspirations. Like this copy from Horst Studios: “Where the women you hate have their hair done.”

Ideology

Aligned with hope and a sense of belonging

Two thirds of Gen Zers will stop using—or even boycott—brands that clash with their values.

Speak to the values that matter to your audience.

Talk about values a lot. Two brands that do an A+ job with this: Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia.

Coercion

Aligned with guilt and fear

We don't actually recommend this one. Don't guilt people into buying your products. 

A better approach: Reveal how your product is the guilt-free alternative to the others that are out there. Especially if that benefit ties into your value props.

Ego

Aligned with vanity

A little flattery goes a long way.

HubSpot and Aircall surveyed 1,000+ global sales professionals to learn:

1. What sales channels and strategies are working
2. How sales teams can hit their targets in 2023
3. Where to find qualified leads, and more 

They turned their findings into an in-depth report that includes:

• The top six sales goals that sales leaders are setting for 2023
• The top challenges that sales teams face, plus tips from the HubSpot and Aircall sales teams on how to solve them
• Insights from the Aircall team on how to make the most of phone calls (the second most effective sales channel)
• Sales metrics to track in 2023, and much more

Get the 2023 Sales Trends Report →

Which one stands out the most?

We’ll bet it was the Pringles. Unlike the other two brands (and dozens of other chip brands that come in crinkly rectangular bags), Pringles come in a tube.

This is a pattern interrupt—something that breaks the norm.

Pattern interrupts grab attention.

They draw your eye even if they're inherently LESS noticeable than the competition:

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🦾🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

And in a crowded market, they make your business stand out.

To get in front of more leads, try incorporating pattern interrupts. Some ideas:

1) Like the Pringles example, give your product distinctive packaging.

2) If most companies in your industry have a certain aesthetic, make yours the complete opposite.  

Think of how Liquid Death embraced hardcore branding in the minimalist world of bottled water.

3) Use unusual imagery in your ads.

Ever seen Squatty Potty’s pooping unicorn commercial? Or Poo-Pourri’s “Girls Don’t Poop” ad? These videos got a lot of attention because of their weird visuals. (The bathroom humor just happens to be a coincidence—but we’re not not saying it’s worth a shot.)

4) Along the same lines, use contrasting colors in your ads.

The agency Biddyco used neon colors in its Facebook ads for the cereal brand Magic Spoon. Compared to everyday photos from friends and family in your feed, these bright shades were a total scroll-stopper.

5) Plan a different kind of event.

Instead of organizing a generic marketing conference, the SaaS brand SparkToro hosted an event where each speaker told a story they'd never shared before. Sessions were short—30 minutes max—and nothing was recorded. This made speakers more comfortable with being vulnerable and incentivized people to tune in live.

Good copywriters know the power of future pacing. That's a technique that encourages readers to visualize the positive results your product will help them achieve.

Example: A coding bootcamp can say, "Learn to become a programmer so you can earn a 6-figure tech salary and work from home."

That paints a picture of a big win after completing the bootcamp. It's easy to visualize.

Just one problem with future pacing: It doesn’t work well on skeptical buyers. Their objections cancel out the rosy picture.

To win over skeptics, give instant gratification in your copy. Highlight the good things that are just around the corner. 

Disney does this by making its vacation-booking process just as appealing as the trip that’s months away.

A few examples:

• "Disney Cruise Line gives families dreams to wake up excited about." → Become your family's hero.
  
• Page headings like "Discover Value in Vacation Packages," "Trip Planning Made Easy," and "Book with Confidence" → Enjoy the trip-planning experience.
  
• "With over 50 different hotels to choose from, you're sure to find one that fits your family’s travel style, size, and budget!" → Easily find a place that fits your needs.

As a result, skeptical prospects perceive an immediate reward from booking.

To deliver instant gratification in your copy, frame the purchase itself—and not just the product—as a win. For instance:

• “Order X now, and you’ll feel relief knowing you made the right decision.”
  
• “By saying yes to X, you’ll be one step closer to achieving your big goal.”
  
• “Buy X now, and you’ll wake up tomorrow knowing you finally did something about it!”

Your prospects may still have reservations about your product. But they’ll be more likely to act when you sell them immediate confidence and relief.

Duolingo has one of the best viral growth loops.

And it has nothing to do with the gamification they're known for.

What is it?

👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
👉🏿👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👉🏾👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👈🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👉🏾👉🏽👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👈🏽👈🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👉🏾 👉🏽 weirdness👈🏽👈🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👉🏾👉🏽👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼👈🏽👈🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👉🏾👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👈🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾👈🏿
👉🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👆🏿👈🏿 

They purposely make people translate really bizarre sentences.

I have an entire album of them on my phone. I send them to people all the time.

And I'm not the only one. People share them on Twitter constantly.

There's even a Twitter account with 100,000 followers called "Shit Duolingo Says."

Weird sentences delight users. They keep you asking, "What's gonna come next?" Which is critical for an app that does one of the hardest things: teach people a new language.

And they cause people to talk organically about the app with others.

Be weird to stand out, delight people, and get them talking.

Wish you could get more traffic from Google?

Well...

A lot of the SEO industry are agencies/freelancers charging for very expensive audits and 6-month contracts. They keep saying "just wait for it to kick in."

Because of how slow SEO is, it can take months to realize that you're overpaying.

The funniest part? A lot of the audits can be done using free and low-cost tools.

Our favorite is Ahref's Webmaster Tools.

A cost-friendlier alternative to expensive audits. 

AWT shows which keywords your pages rank for, how Google sees your content, and what changes can boost your traffic.

We've been using it for years to increase the visibility of our playbooks and articles. And Ahrefs has a ton of free content to teach you a ton about SEO.

Visit ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools to try it out.

Each year Google kills tons of its own products.

Why?

Because a company like Google needs each product to generate hundreds of millions in revenue (or be strategically relevant) to justify relative to their other products.

It doesn't mean they're bad ideas, they're just too small for Google.

Killed by Google shares every project sent to the graveyard by Google. It's worth going through it regularly to see if there are any ideas worth replicating.

Often these have many thousands or millions of users who suddenly need a new alternative—making them an attractive market to target if you can act fast.

Imagine this: You’re not an expert in SEO, and are rather mystified by it, so you decide to hire an SEO consultant. You find an expert on Upwork (for example).

They seem confident, so you decide to work with them. Because you're inexperienced, you're totally unaware that there are gaps in their SEO knowledge.

Later, when someone else offers sound SEO advice that contradicts to what your Upwork consultant told you, you’re more likely to take it with a grain of salt.

This is caused by "the anchoring bias." 

We trust the first piece of info we’re given more than newer information.

That first piece of info (Upwork SEO consultant) acts as our reference point—we judge new data against it, letting it skew our opinions on quality. 

We naturally lay the burden of proof with the new information, even if we never validated the old information.

Oh humans.

Applied to creative work, the anchoring bias can make us complacent. We get stuck on the same process, messaging, and copy we’ve used for years—unaware that switching things up could lead to better results.

To avoid a stagnant marketing strategy, run interesting experiments. Or try a new SEO consultant, different freelancers, or an AI copywriting software. 

We’re not suggesting that you fire any loyal employees or partners—only that you try something new on occasion. See if your marketing efforts benefit from a fresh spin.

As you've probably noticed, at the top of every newsletter edition, we tell people how to break up with us... err I mean unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Seems counterproductive, right?.

We tell people how to leave after we fought so hard to convert them to a subscriber. 

So why do we do it?

It's one of the many things we do to make sure our emails keep ending up in people's inboxes. And that they have a positive impression of our brand.

So first, it builds trust—we’re not here to hold your inbox hostage.

And if someone doesn't want to receive our emails, we don't want to keep hammering them until they're so upset that they mark our emails as spam.

Spam complaints hurt your emails’ future deliverability. That is, they increase the chances of your future emails landing in people’s spam folders.

So make it easy for people to unsubscribe. You’ll be doing both readers and yourself a favor.

We've been using Segment at DC for over three years. It's one of my favorite tools.

Why do I love it? Segment:

1. Simplifies tracking. Instead of needing to log every event with 8 different tools, I instead use Segment to do it once. It then sends data to all the tools we use, like Amplitude, Customer.io, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Intercom.

2. Empowers the marketing team. Once you have Segment installed, the marketing team can decide to add a new tool without bugging an engineer to install it. And in my experience, engineers hate doing things for marketers.

3. Pumps data from various tools into others. For example, use Segment to pump data from Intercom and Customer.io into Amplitude where we then analyze our data.

Because of Segment, we're able to make informed, data-driven decisions. We have the data we need in the tools we need them. We're also able to make personalized email campaigns.

And we massively cut down on engineering resources needed on the team to handle integrating with 8 different APIs on an ongoing basis.

And Segment is free for early-stage startups.

Apply for the Startup Program →

The entire point of a free trial is to prove value and convert leads into customers ASAP.

So how long should your trial be to maximize conversions?

Most companies offer free trials of 7-30 days, though some run as long as 90 days.

You can justify both ends of the spectrum.

1. Longer trials mean users have more time to get familiar with a product.
2. Shorter trials create a sense of urgency.

So which leads to more customers?

In a study of 7-, 14-, and 30-day trials for a SaaS product, the shortest length (7-day) did best at increasing subscriptions, retention, and revenue.

Meanwhile, there was little difference between the 14- and 30-day trial results.

According to researchers, urgency explains why. With a short trial, we use a product more intensively because we want to maximize its use in the limited time frame.

But with a longer trial, we tend to use the product much less per day. And as a result, we forget about it in the trial’s last days—the most important period because that’s when we decide whether or not to become a customer.

Experiment with short trials to boost conversion. Let us know how it pans out.

Creator Sara Renae Clark offers a lot of freebies to her audience.

It's a really effective strategy. In fact, it's our entire ethos at DC.

Provide a ton of free value. Slowly build people's trust over time. Eventually, they'll trust you enough to buy one of your paid products.

But instead of only offering her freebies as instant downloads or newsletter rewards, she places some as products in her online shop.

To get them, users have to go through the normal purchasing process: create an account, add the item to their cart, and check out.

But they don’t have to pay, of course.

According to Sarah, offering her freebies this way “warms up” leads into becoming paying customers. It’s a practice run that builds her credibility.

The idea is that by going through the motion of buying something without actually spending money, leads will feel more comfortable making a real purchase later on.

And they'll already have an account. Making checkout even smoother.

Other creators, such as Jack Butcher (Visualize Value), offer both a free and a $1 product.

Eye contact is one of the most powerful persuasive tools on the planet.

But staring down the lens of a video camera is an insanely intimidating and challenging task.

Seriously. It's really difficult. 

Despite that, maintaining eye contact can:

1. Make you more persuasive.
2. Make your words more memorable.
3. Make YOU more memorable.
4. Make people more honest (and they'll also think you're more honest).
5. Create and deepen attraction.

In short: making eye contact in your videos by staring at the camera is hugely beneficial.

Here's the great news:

AI can now make you maintain eye contact even if you spend the whole time staring at your speaking notes. 

Or awkwardly darting your eyes around the room desperately waiting for it to be over.

For example:

Windows 11 already offered this. But honestly, it looked creepy.

NVIDIA took a step out of Uncanny Valley. It's basically impossible to tell that it's fake.

This will likely become the norm. Try it out before everyone else is doing it.

Google Analytics just doesn't cut it.

It was made to measure the ROI of campaigns within the Google ecosystem (ex: Google Ads). And to give Google an all-seeing eye across the Internet to make ads more profitable.

It was not built as a product analytics tool.  

With the update to GA4, you get a bit of that. But many users shared that it's still lacking in funnel analysis, retention, and segmentation analysis.

So, what’s the solution?

Amplitude Analytics’s new campaign reporting feature helps you understand how acquisition investments drive product growth.

Amplitude Analytics enables product and marketing teams to view how acquisition sources impact product outcomes, attribute product success to campaigns, measure the ROI of digital campaigns and activate campaigns with better customer segmentation.  

Amplitude is also the only digital analytics platform to combine acquisition campaign reporting with best-in-class product analytics.

It's also the analytics tools we use and love at Demand Curve.

‍Check out their demo environment here

That last tactic notwithstanding, there is a category where the warmth-competence dynamic isn’t as applicable: luxury.

Luxury brands don’t have to be warm to succeed. In fact, it might benefit them to be cold.

Let me introduce you to the greatest academic-study title of all time: “Should the Devil Sell Prada? Retail Rejection Increases Aspiring Consumers’ Desire for the Brand.”

What the authors uncovered was that when it comes to luxury, if a consumer is treated rudely by a salesperson, they want the product more.

Here’s how they put it:

“After threat, consumers have more positive attitudes and higher willingness to pay when…the rejection comes from an aspirational (vs. nonaspirational) brand.”

If you work in luxury, we don’t actually think you should be a jerk to your customers.

A general principle to live by: No a**holes.

But this is a reminder that perceived value directly influences willingness to pay. How much do customers believe your product to be worth?

And perceived value in turn has a lot of factors.

Exclusivity is one of them. So are brand perception, status signaling, and the social currency a company provides to the people who shop it.

A few months ago, we wrote about delighting customers to build loyalty. We used the example of how Apple products always seem to arrive before their estimated delivery date.

Zappos pioneered that type of “pleasant surprise” shipping. If you ordered a pair of shoes off Zappos, they would often arrive a day or two early. 

But Zappos didn’t prove their thoughtfulness just through early shoe arrivals. They also trained their customer service reps to be as patient as possible—even if that meant talking to a customer for nine and a half hours, as one rep did!

Zappos nailed two essential human traits: warmth and competence.

• Warmth: We want to know that a person cares about us and means us no harm.
  
• Competence: We also want to know if they’re capable and skilled.

Those judgments may influence more than 80% of human social behavior.

And crucially, they apply to brands too.

Brands like Coca-Cola have high warmth and competence. They’re trustworthy, friendly, and good at what they do. They even invented the modern-day Santa Claus.

On the other hand, services like the US Postal Service are seen as warm but not so competent (sorry, USPS 🙊).

Brands that score low on both dimensions don't tend to last long. 

Here’s what Princeton psych professor Susan Fiske and customer loyalty expert Chris Malone wrote in their book The Human Brand (emphasis added):

“Companies and brands were judged so strongly along the lines of warmth and competence dimensions that these judgments explained nearly 50 percent of all purchase intent, loyalty, and likelihood to recommend a brand or company. To put that 50 percent figure in perspective, consumer research is normally considered to be significant if it reveals a new variable explaining as little as 15 percent of customer behavior.”

Brainstorm ways to reveal your brand’s warmth and competence.

That doesn’t have to mean nine hours on the phone. Simple gestures—a comped product, a small act of service, or a hand-written thank-you note—can go a long way toward building lasting affinity.

Is your brand more of a Cady Heron or a Regina George? 

Here at Demand Curve, we’re a Ms. Norbury type.

Why? We’re kind of nerdy—and super determined to help our students out. We’re pushers.

(If you haven’t seen Mean Girls, we’ll still be here in an hour and 37 minutes 👀)

What we're talking about is our brand persona.

Thinking of your brand as a character can help you personify it and give it a unique, consistent voice in your messaging.

Now, while it’s fun to think about who your brand would be if it were a movie or TV character, we tend to prefer two other approaches to brand persona.

These are more universal—and you want your persona to make everyone on your team say:

"Ah, yep, I get it. That’s who we are."

Brand as a superhero 🦸‍♀️

Are you a Bruce Wayne who builds tools to solve problems? Or a Hulk who gets raging mad when your audience has a problem that’s holding them back?

Brand as an archetype🕴️ 

This goes back to the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. There are 12 archetypes you can apply to brand.

Think: Patagonia as the Explorer, Harley-Davison as the Outlaw, Disney as the Magician.

Too many products suffer from low adoption caused by cumbersome onboarding and UI.

Product leaders are turning to in-app search to solve this.

Why?

Because search analytics reveals what users really want. And what they're confused about.

Highlighting what you need to fix, and which features to make next.

CommandBar enables you to add universal search, smart nudges, and timely help content to your product in minutes.

User-obsessed teams at Netlify, Gusto, and Shortcut use it. And Yoko Li from HashiCorp says it "made our users' in-app experience easier and faster."

Try it out →

We’re still in the “look at what I made everyone!!!” phase of creating AI images.

Oh, look at that, an excuse to share some pancakes from the United Federation:

But we’re also aware of some of AI’s limitations.

For example, DALL-E is great for still images, but video is much harder to do.

So what’s an ecom brand on TikTok or Reels to do?

Fortunately, Karen X. Cheng figured it out. Check out her video.

She tested out different approaches to AI for video until she reached a solid workflow for fashion showcase videos:

1. Shoot your video.
2. Use DALL-E to generate outfits. Erase parts of the outfit in your video, and inpaint over it. (Don’t erase the entire outfit—DALL-E will be able to match color and lighting better if you keep parts of the original.)
3. Use the program EbSynth by Secret Weapons to create consistency between frames. EbSynth is meant to turn paintings into animations, but after testing it out, Karen discovered that it works for clothes too.
4. Run the video through DAIN to blend the transitions between outfits—and create a slo mo effect.

(Sorry if you thought this tactic was going to be about stylish robots.)

"As the person being interviewed, it's entirely up to you to make it a podcast worth listening to or not. Treat it for what it is: A PERFORMANCE. You have to fight to keep listeners' attention through the whole interview. Bring your A-game like a musician or comedian would."

– Swipe Files

Podcasts continue to explode in popularity—making guest podcasting increasingly popular as a tactic for growth. 

Don't leave it up to the host to make it an A+ interview. Take ownership of the experience. 

Here are five tips to step up your podcast appearances:

1. Treat it like a performance, not an interview. Bring energy by smiling and using vocal inflections. Enunciate your words. If you’re going to be on video, use hand gestures for a more dynamic visual.
2. Research the podcast(s) you’re appearing on by asking the host:
3. Who is your audience?
4. What are some of your most popular episodes?
5. What topics will we cover? (Getting the questions in advance = even better)
6. Create a cheat sheet of talking points and send it to the host. It should be an outline with specific examples, not a script. Make sure to include:
7. A 2-minute synopsis answering “Tell me about yourself”
8. Your life background
9. Why you do what you do
10. How people can take action, e.g., sign up for your service or buy a product
11. Your hottest takes or “spiky point of view”
12. Books, podcasts, and resources you recommend
13. Prepare a few interesting anecdotes—telling stories makes for more entertaining and memorable interviews. Rehearse them with your friends so you can perfect the delivery.
14. Invest in good equipment, like a professional microphone. If doing video, get a solid camera and light like the Lume Cube.

Do the above and you'll far more likely dazzle their audiences and generate leads.

Humans are funny.

We tend to prefer things (and people) that aren't perfect.

In a study by Professor Jo Sylvester at Swansea University, candidates who highlighted a weakness during an interview were more likely to be hired than those who didn't.

To put my speculation cap on, it's because it makes the person seem more genuine and believable. They were willing to show weakness, making it seem more likely that they were telling the truth about their strengths.

Phil Agnew decided to put this to the test for his podcast. He did two Reddit ad variations:

One highlighted the benefits of listening to his podcast.

The other very tongue-in-cheek highlighted the downsides of listening to his podcasts.

As you can see this led to a 4x higher clickthrough rate (and therefore a 4x cheaper CPC).

Note that Phil didn't follow the Pratfall to the full spirit, as he actually didn't talk down his podcast. Instead, he framed the benefits as negatives. Which highlighted playfulness and likely got people's attention.

So resist the urge to talk about how amazing you are all the time, and instead be playful and poke fun at yourself sometimes.

Lookalikes and retargeting lists are two of the most powerful tools in paid marketing.

But the main way to keep them updated is to manually export and upload CSVs. 

Every week or so 😵💫

That means:

1. The data is frequently stale.
2. You manually need to do this every week. And if you have numerous lists you have to do it numerous times.
3. There's the potential for security breaches with people downloading and storing customer data on their computers.

That's why we love Segment.

We use it to generate marketing lists for paid channels and automatically keep them updated. You can even get it to do it on more complicated sets like "have spent > $75 total, but not in the last 6 months."

And Segment is now free for startups!

Apply now to their startup program →

The robots are here. Our jobs are lost.

At least to some content marketers, ChatGPT and other AI writing services are seen as a threat to their livelihoods.

But rather than oppose these innovations, we think it’s better to leverage them as another tool in your content arsenal.

Specifically, by using AI to create content outlines.

Software architect Mohammed Osman tested this by asking ChatGPT for a blog post outline about a highly technical topic (C# abstract factory design pattern—huh?).

And ChatGPT delivered.

Why give it a shot?

You can save hours on SEO research.

Since ChatGPT was trained with text from around the web, the outlines it produces reflect how content about a given topic is generally structured.

We don’t advise using ChatGPT to do all of your content creation work, though.

For one, it’s not there yet. The quality isn't the best and GPT3 is notorious for making stuff up if it doesn't know the answer.

Also, Google will find and penalize AI-generated content. Guaranteed.

For now, stick to asking our robot overlords for an outline. It’s much easier to edit than to overcome Blank Page Syndrome.

Then apply your creative adjustments and fresh perspective—something purely AI-generated content can’t do.

My new year’s resolution* was to learn Spanish.

*Of like 2012…still working on it.

I came across a word the other day while trying to read in Spanish: propaganda.

In some Spanish-speaking countries, that means “advertising.” 🤯 This took me down a rabbit hole of language and etymology.

Two things I learned:

1) In the early 1900s, PR folks called their work propaganda—that wasn't considered a bad thing then.

Here’s how the “Father of PR,” Edward Bernays, defined it:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”

Hmm…

2) The un-literal meaning of “literally” is now accepted.  

So it’s now okay to use “literal” literally (“you are literally on fire,” get help fast 🔥) or figuratively (“you are literally on fire,” great job 🔥).

That makes it a Janus word—it means the opposite of itself. (Another example: “Left” can mean “gone” or “remaining.”)

–––

In your messaging, it’s not enough to know what a word or phrase means.

You have to understand its connotations.

And those 1) change, and 2) depend on context.

Think about words like:

• busy, which used to imply not part of the leisure class (i.e., working class), but now implies important
• mainstream, which used to mean the predominant way of thinking, but is now super politicized (like in the term “mainstream media”)

Their meanings are generally the same, but the subtext is very different.

Now, how do you stay on top of changing connotations in your copy?

A key step is to deeply understand your customers. What they say. What they do. What they care about. It’s important for understanding how they might interpret the words you use.

For example, Mercedes-Benz launched in China with the tagline “Bensi.”

Sounds cool, right?

Well, it means “rush to die” in Mandarin (奔死)—not exactly the association you want for your family vehicle.

Good marketers persuade. Great marketers listen.

(Thanks to Raf at Bell Curve for thinking through these concepts with me, and to the book Branding That Means Business for the Mercedes-Benz story.)

This tactic helped add over 500 people to the waitlist for our new course in 24 hours—which ended up selling out in six minutes.

One-third of the sales were from those 500 people.

It’s pretty simple:

Instead of sharing the link directly, get people to comment to ask for it.

For example, in my LinkedIn post last Friday, I shared the success stories of people who took our previous audience building course. 

At the end, I pitched our revamped version with Katelyn Bourgoin. To get the link to the waitlist, I asked them to comment with "👀"

The result?

I had to DM so many people that I was afraid I was going to get suspended.

I eventually gave up and added a comment on the post with the link. (Yet people continued to comment for two more days.) 

Compare that to another time I promoted a similar course and didn't ask for comments:

Why does this work?

A few reasons:

1. External links on social platforms are penalized by algorithms. My post had zero links.
2. When someone comments on a post, it gets shown to some of their connections. When some of their connections also comment, it shows to even more. This snowballs until it’s been seen by tens of thousands of people.
3. When people comment to signal their interest, it’s a low-friction first step in the funnel. They’re now more likely to take an even higher friction step: clicking a link and giving up their email address. More so than if I had started by asking their email.
4. When you receive a DM from someone, it feels more real and personal. It starts a connection with someone and increases the likelihood they take action.

I’ve used this tactic numerous times to promote various courses and services.

Each time it’s led to plenty of leads. And hundreds of new followers each time. Here are some other examples for inspiration: Un-Ignorable, Audience Building, and ChatGPT.

200 podcasts in five years. That's how many Casey Hill booked for him and his team. 

The result? According to them, $1,080,000 in revenue and dozens of sales every month.

Why does this work? A few reasons.

Reason one brings us to one of my favorite phenomena: The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (or the frequency illusion/bias).

Imagine you just hear of someone. Then you start seeing them on LinkedIn. Then Twitter. A friend brings them up. Then they're speaking on your favorite podcast.

"WOW, this person is EVERYWHERE! They must be huge."

After you notice something for the first time, you're more likely to take note of it the second time, then more likely the third time, and so on. You believe it must be getting more and more popular or common when in reality, you're increasingly tuned to noticing what was already there.

For example, you'll never see so many motorcycles until you start riding motorcycles.

When the Bonjoro team was on 200 podcasts across the industry, it became increasingly hard for a podcast listener to not notice them. And once they did, they started noticing them across every podcast in the industry.

"Wow, who are these guys?"

Podcasts are also excellent affinity builders. Listening to someone speak for 60 minutes is way more impactful than casually reading their social posts for months.

Check out Casey's LinkedIn post where he breaks down his process for getting on podcasts.

Would you rather win a trip to Hawaii? Or a ✨mystery prize✨ of the same value?

Turns out that people are more motivated by a mystery prize than they are when they know what the prize is.

People love to dream. 

Beyoncé knew this when she released her album, Renaissance, this past summer. She gave people the option to buy a $40 "mystery box."

People were generally told what was inside: 

• Collectible box
• CD
• 4-Panel Softpak
• T-shirt
• Photo booklet
• Mini poster

They also had the option of choosing between four different "poses." This was Beyoncé's pose on the T-shirt—but there was no way of knowing what that meant!

What could a loyal Beyoncé fan do but to buy all four?

That means loyal fans ended up buying four copies of her album for $160, when her album normally sells for just $18. That's a 9x increase in order value.

She sold out of all of her mystery boxes in under two days. And the album ended up being one of the biggest of the year, and one of her biggest of all time.

Use mystery to motivate your customers.

We did this with our course, Un-Ignorable. During the early bird sale, we promised a "mystery bonus." And we sold out 50+ seats for the course in less than an hour.

Content marketing of the past:

1. Do keyword research.
2. Create an article for those keywords.
3. Wait and repeat.
4. (Plus link to the article in a tweet and send it to your newsletter.)

Content marketing now:

1. Do audience research (SparkToro, perusing social, subreddits, etc).
2. Create an article targeting that audience.
3. Share the article in your newsletter.
4. Create 5+ tweets, LinkedIn posts, TikTok videos/Instagram reels/YouTube Shorts.
5. Drive users to your newsletter.
6. Engage with commenters.
7. See which posts get the most engagement and look for frequently asked questions.
8. Create an article based on those, and repeat.

In short, turn every piece of content into numerous smaller pieces and re-use them across channels—tailored to that specific medium and audience.

Drive those people back to your newsletter. You own your email list. It isn't gated by algorithms. It can't be taken away if you were to get banned or if the social network becomes less popular (imagine having a huge Facebook audience!).

Being a founder is HARD.

Finding product-market fit is one of the toughest challenges that constantly poses questions like:

1. Are people using my product?
2. How are they using it?
3. Are they returning to get value week over week?

When first starting out, Segment co-founders didn't understand how important these questions were or how to use analytics to answer them.

So they spent 1.5 years and 7 different MVPs in their pursuit of product-market-fit before finding the secret sauce.

Segment helps you collect, clean, and act on your customer data. You can now build fast with a reliable, performant, and compliant stack. And it handles the annoying task of integrating with different tools. So your team can focus on product, not integrations.

‍And Segment is now free for Startups!

Apply to their Startup Program →

If someone came up to you on the street and asked you to marry them, would you?

Of course not.

You also shouldn't push someone who has never heard of you before to buy your product.

You have to speak to people where they're at on the Ladder of Product Awareness:

The higher up the ladder a prospect is, the less convincing and educating you need to do in order to convert them into a customer.

You, walking on the street and getting asked to get married, were at Level 5. When really, people who get married are at Level 1. (At least we hope.)

Focus on people who are at levels 1 to 4. Convincing people who do not have the problem that your product solves (level 5) is a fool's errand. If you're early stage, go for levels 1-3.

Here's how to write copy that pushes people up the ladder:

• Level 5 → Level 4: Call out the problem
• Level 4 → Level 3: Show them that there’s a solution to their problem (your product category)
• Level 3 → Level 2: Motivate them to take action on the problem
• Level 2 → Level 1: Highlight features and benefits to show them that your product is the best solution
• Level 1 → Conversion: Drive them to the product page—maybe with a promo.

Let's use an ad campaign as an example of using the LPA:

1. For a prospecting campaign, assume level 3 or 4. Educate them. Send them to an article, show an educational video, or invite to a webinar.
2. Follow up with a retargeting campaign that highlights how your product solves the problem their experiencing. Can do several ads that focus on different features.
3. If they still haven't converted, follow up with another retargeting ad that compares you to your competitors.
4. Lastly, if they still haven't, try a promotion or bonus offer for converting.

It’s a no-brainer that if you’ve got a podcast, you should be posting it on YouTube. Even if you don't record video (which you should).

YouTube has 2.6 billion monthly active users. Spotify has 456 million (but only ~30M listen to podcasts). Stitcher has 15.3 million weekly users.

On top of that, YouTube is used much more heavily for search. And Shorts have massively increased discoverability relative to regular videos.

Here are 7 tips for podcasting on YouTube:

1. Take snippets of your podcast and share them as Shorts on the same channel. It's far easier to go viral with a Short than it is with a full episode.
2. Organize different video formats into playlists on your channel.
3. Include your host or guest speaker’s face in the thumbnail image. Users tend to gravitate toward thumbnails featuring faces. Find more tactics for YT thumbnails here.
4. Use intriguing titles. Don't write misleading clickbait, but know that you need to capture someone's interest enough that they click.
5. Example: "The Untold Truth about The Mandalorian"
6. Add chapters to your episodes. These make your episode easier to navigate and keep people around longer as they can skip to parts that interest them the most. Type the time for each segment in 00:00 format in the video description. YouTube will automatically generate them.
7. Even if you don’t have video in your recording sessions, you can and should still publish your podcasts on YouTube. Go for an audiogram format—pair images with your audio. For more originality, use an AI art generator like DALL-E.
8. But we highly recommend recording video to increase engagement and to be able to do Shorts. Riverside.fm is great for high-quality remote recording.
9. Add captions. Captioned videos have a higher average watch time.
10. Add a watermark to your video that encourages people to subscribe. Here's how.