Free invites, "so what?", and network bootstrapping.

Welcome to another week!

This week we cover free invites, "so what?", and network bootstrapping.

Special thanks to our sponsors Vanta, and Ali Abdaal for making this newsletter possible. We're a small bootstrapped company and they help keep the newsie going.

Bootstrap your LinkedIn following

Insight from Nikos Ntirlis.

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.

Dimensionalize to reach your product’s core benefit

Insight from VeryGoodCopy.

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:

Physical: Food, drink, warmth, and shelter
Safety: Security and safety
Belonging and love: Companionship and intimacy
Esteem: Feelings of success and superiority
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.

Let users invite others for free. Charge later.

Insight from Kyle Poyar.

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:

Loss aversion: It's psychologically harder for them to remove access from someone than to say no in the first place.
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.

News and links

News you can use:

Instagram just launched "Channels," a group messaging feature that lets creators and brands slide into their followers' DMs at scale. Meanwhile, IG will shut down its live stream shopping feature on March 16, 2023 to instead focus on ads.
Meta announced their new paid verification service, "Meta Verified", which promises increased visibility, customer support, and other perks for a monthly fee.
Bing ads are coming to the Bing chatbot experience. Soon, Microsoft's AI-fueled search option will allow paid links and contextual pop-ups around relevant queries.
Snap, at its investor day, announced that Snapchat now has 750 million+ monthly active users (up 25% from April 2022), and their Snapchat+ $3.99/month subscription has 2.5 million subscribers. The company also said it will focus more on its direct response ads business moving forward.

New video course:

Brand marketing is increasingly taking center stage. In a world of cheap AI-generated content, who is saying it becomes increasingly important. Your brand is your company's public identity.

And a strong brand makes all marketing easier. It increases word of mouth, and decreases acquisition costs.

Last week we launched our Brand Strategy Sprint—a laser-focused video course on how to build an impossible-to-forget brand. Only 35 spots left in our initial launch.

Something fun

From @kenzianidiot