Growth Newsletter #113

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).

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.