Growth Newsletter #097
Happy December everyone!
I hope you've been enjoying the World Cup and screenshots from ChatGPT conversations (confused? check the news section for more).
This week we cover un-ignorable products, ZOOM video marketing, and sniper links.
This week's tactics
Let customers make your best-performing ads on TikTok and Instagram 🤳
Sponsored by Insense.
Social proof sells.
We're more likely to buy a product if we know it's loved by others. Especially by people we know and respect—like influencers.
Ads created by customers and influencers (aka UGC) are the best way to leverage social proof to drive sales for DTC and eComm brands.
Insense is a tool that lets you:
- Connect with influencers relevant to your brand.
- Empower them to create organic-feeling ads for you to use.
- Get them to post recommendations for your product on their feed.
- Run ads for your product through their account.
Through Insense, beauty brand Wonderskin increased ROAS by 46% with TikTok video ads.
You can get started with 10 organic posts from influencers for just $1.5-2k.
Get up to $200 credits to start working with influencers until Dec 13.
Book a free strategy call to claim your offer (exclusive to DC readers).
P.S. Learn how to create winning UGC ads in their free guide.
Turn ZOOM meetings into video marketing 🎥
Insight from SmartBrief and Joyce (Demand Curve).
Good video content does NOT mean it needs to be highly produced.
Try pulling snippets from your Zoom meetings—even internal ones.
For instance, you could pull a 20-second clip about your mission from a strategy meeting about your team’s branding and messaging.
To find these video marketing opportunities:
- Record your meetings by default.
- Upload recordings into a transcription tool like Otter.ai or Descript. Then search for key phrases to find share-worthy snippets and write down their timestamps.
- Transform the snippets into polished clips. You can use a freelance platform like Fiverr or Upwork to find a video editor. Alternatively, if someone on your team has the editing chops, you can do this in-house.
- Try publishing them on social media, in your newsletter, or on your website.
It's unorthodox for sure. But we're always fans of experimenting, especially when it's simple.
Make your product impossible to miss 🌈
Insight from Neal O'Grady.
Imagine you're in the grocery aisle looking for cookies. You've got all the classic brands: Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Famous Amos, Pepperidge Farm, etc.
But your eyeballs are drawn to this:

YOWZA. Now that is impossible to miss.
Let's break down why:
- It's completely different than any other cookie brand.
- It's super colorful.
- It looks like a children's book—again, super distinct.
- You feel like you've ingested that mushroom featured on the package.
- You immediately know it's a low-carb version of an Oreo.
This tactic is also how Liquid Death has managed to dominate the water market as a late contender. It's how I notice Smart Sweets at the store every time I'm there.
Brands like these are simply impossible to miss. They refuse to blend in with their competitors.
They're "Un-Ignorable."
Use "sniper links" to increase email confirmations 🎯
Insight from Growth Design.
After someone subscribes to your newsletter, as much as ~30% of people may not confirm their subscription.
That's huge. If you can cut that down to 20% or 10%, you've just massively increased your subscription growth.
Growth Design has a cool tactic. When you sign up, they give you a CTA that links directly to your Gmail, with filters already applied so that only their confirmation email shows.
They call these links "sniper links."

Clicking the "Open Gmail" CTA takes you here:

This is extremely helpful for two reasons:
- Most forms just say "go to your email to confirm." This is relying on the user to open their email client. Many will not. The button gets them to do it NOW.
- Normally when users do go to their inbox to confirm, they also see 100 other unread messages. Many of them get distracted.
Growth Design claims sniper links can boost confirmation rates by 7%.
You can download their Sniper Link Cheat Sheet here.
Community Spotlight
News and Links
News you can use:
- This week has been abuzz with ChatGPT—a conversational AI that answers questions by combining the best answers from the internet. Many are speculating that it could one day replace Google searches and Wikipedia visits. It can even write code. This could completely change the SEO industry.
- Some updates from Google. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) recently introduced two new metrics: Views Per Session and Average Session Duration. Use these to get a better understanding of visitor engagement on your site. Also, say hi to a new ad format: side rail ads.
- For those who haven’t given up on Twitter, the platform is expanding tweet recommendations. This could mean more exposure for your account—but users can still avoid recs by switching to the chronological Latest Tweets feed.
- Want inspo for your TikTok campaigns? Take a look at the first-ever winners of TikTok’s European ad awards to get your creative juices flowing.
- Struggling with holiday gift ideas? Here are some recommendations from SparkToro and Lenny Rachitsky.
Something fun
From @thejenkinscomic






