The Frontier / Content Library
The Content Library

Every play, in one place.

Every playbook, deep dive, and teardown we've published - browse by topic, search by anything. One canonical piece per idea, indexed and organized so you can find the play you need fast. All free.

Featured Playbooks

Our deepest, most actionable guides

All content

Playbook
Content-Led SEOThis playbook teaches you how to execute a modern content-led SEO strategy for B2B SaaS. The nuances may evolve, but this strategy is evergreen.Content & SEO55 min
Playbook
Marketing Psychology: Influence Buyer BehaviorUsing marketing psychology, you can influence how people feel about your brand. This playbook covers key psychological principles to amplify your marketing.Strategy & Fundamentals34 min
Playbook
How to Set Up a Campaign in TikTok Ads Manager (7 Steps)This step-by-step guide teaches you how to set up a TikTok ads account and launch your first campaign.Paid Acquisition15 min
Playbook
How to Advertise on TikTok: Strategies for New CampaignsThis chapter teaches you how to nail your media-buying strategy right from the start—no guesswork or endless tinkering.Paid Acquisition20 min
Playbook
How to Find TikTok Influencers (Creators) to Represent Your BrandLearn how to find the right TikTok influencers and train them to promote your products in an engaging, desirable way.Paid Acquisition12 min
Playbook
TikTok Ads Best Practices and Ad ExamplesThis chapter teaches you how to make high-converting TikTok ads. We share creative best practices, formulas, and examples to inspire your ad campaigns.Paid Acquisition21 min
Playbook
How to Acquire Customers With TikTok AdsLearn the proven strategies to acquire customers with TikTok ads, including: How to make A+ ad creatives, source content creators, structure your ad account, and launch your first campaign.Paid Acquisition19 min
Playbook
How to Use Personalization to Grow in 2022Personalization drives growth—but you can't deliver personalized experiences without accurate customer data. Find out here how to collect and leverage data in your marketing.Strategy & Fundamentals32 min
Playbook
How to Launch a Shopify Store that ConvertsThere are three basic parts of running a successful Shopify store: Build. Sell. Grow. We’ll go through each of these in detail in this playbook, with one goal: optimize for conversions.Strategy & Fundamentals36 min
Playbook
Influencer (Creator) MarketingWe’ve interviewed 10 top influencer marketing practitioners (marketers who’ve actually scaled influencers as a growth channel) so that you get everything you need to test influencer marketing immediately. We cover tactics that the best companies are doing but not talking openly about.Strategy & Fundamentals28 min
Playbook
Marketing Tools (Beginner's Guide)Introductory playbook for beginners to acclimate to popular marketing tools and know when to use them. Is my team actually using the latest and greatest marketing tools?Strategy & Fundamentals35 min
Playbook
Above the FoldAn in-depth guide to writing the above-the-fold section of your website. Learn the advanced strategies used by copywriting experts. Your "above the fold" (ATF) section is the part of your site that's immediately visible before scrolling.Conversion (CRO)10 min
Playbook
Product Hunt LaunchAn in-depth guide to Product Hunt launches. Learn the advanced strategies used by Product Hunt experts.Strategy & Fundamentals14 min
Playbook
LinkedIn OrganicAn in-depth guide to building an audience via LinkedIn organic content. Learn the advanced strategies used by LinkedIn experts.Content & SEO22 min
Deep Dive
Ecommerce meta ads agencyWhat an ecommerce meta ads agency is, how they work, how they help, and how to choose one for your ecommerce business.Paid Acquisition4 min
Deep Dive
SaaS Growth Through Good Old-Fashioned Outreach with Bernard Huang of ClearscopeBernard Huang shares how he grew his SEO SaaS company Clearscope through cold outreach and something he calls "professional relationship management."Strategy & Fundamentals20 min
Deep Dive
5 Steps Amanda Natividad Took to 60x Her Audience in a Year (and Keep Growing It)We asked Amanda Natividad how she built an audience of 100k+ followers on Twitter alone. Here are five takeaways.Strategy & Fundamentals13 min
Deep Dive
What Is Brand Marketing? & How to Build Your Brand Identity in 5 StepsBrand marketing is a way of setting your product apart by shaping perceptions of your company’s brand. We explain how to do that through four important brand elements.Strategy & Fundamentals19 min
Deep Dive
How to Launch a Customer Referral Program in 6 Steps (Plus Examples)A referral program can turn your best customers into a profitable, self-running sales team. Here’s how to launch a successful one—and avoid the common pitfalls of referral marketing.Strategy & Fundamentals27 min
Deep Dive
Google Display Ads: The Expert Guide for Increasing Your ReachDone well, display ads can help boost your other growth channels. In this post, we explain all things display advertising—from targeting options to how to create more appealing ads.Paid Acquisition15 min
Deep Dive
12 Great Copywriting Examples (Plus a Ton of Copywriting Tips)We looked for the most inspiring, creative, and effective copywriting examples we could find. Here’s the winners’ list. Add them to your swipe file for the next time you need a creativity boost.Paid Acquisition23 min
Deep Dive
YouTube Advertising: How to Grow Your Business with YouTube AdsYouTube is a lucrative marketing channel—but only if you know how to create good video ads. Find out here how to make memorable YouTube ads that leave a lasting impression.Paid Acquisition14 min
Deep Dive
The Complete Guide to Organic Viral MarketingAlthough you can’t hack virality, you actually have more control than you think. If you use these tactics, you’ll increase your odds of going viral.Strategy & Fundamentals24 min
Deep Dive
What is the Ideal Instagram Video Length? (5 Formats Compared)Doing well with IG video content isn't about how long or short your video is. It's about whether you understand the nuances of each format and work within their constraints to make videos people actually want to watch. Here's how to do it.Paid Acquisition18 min
Deep Dive
Cold Outreach 101: How to Send Better Cold EmailsWhen it’s done right, cold emailing is one of the highest ROI activities for growing your business. Here's how to create a stronger cold email campaign.Strategy & Fundamentals14 min
Deep Dive
Types of Google Ads: Ad Formats, Campaign Types & Best Practices for 2022In this post, we'll help you figure out exactly what type of Google ads are right for your business.Paid Acquisition32 min
Deep Dive
Cold Email Subject Line Do's and Don'ts (Plus, 36 Examples)Cold email subject lines can make or break your outreach campaigns. Find out the do’s and don’ts of writing better subject lines to improve your campaign results.Strategy & Fundamentals10 min
Deep Dive
How to Write a Cold Email: A 9-Step GuideFollow these steps to write cold emails that get responses—and conversions.Strategy & Fundamentals18 min
Deep Dive
12 Cold Email Templates and Examples to Inspire Your OutreachUse these cold email templates and examples to craft high-converting email outreach. They cover everything from booking a sales call to landing a partnership.Strategy & Fundamentals21 min
Deep Dive
15 Swipe-Worthy Email Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Next CampaignMarketers are always on the hunt for the best email marketing campaigns. In this post, we break down 15 high-impact emails and show you why they work using a simple 4-part framework. By the end, you'll know how to decide which examples make sense to pattern-match in your own campaigns.Retention & Lifecycle27 min
Deep Dive
How to Write a Marketing Email: 17 Steps to More ConversionsFollow these steps to write great marketing emails—the kind that connects with subscribers and drives conversions.Retention & Lifecycle20 min
Deep Dive
Email Segmentation: How to Personalize Your Campaigns for More ConversionsMost companies—from small businesses to venture-backed startups—simply get segmentation wrong. In this post, we'll simplify email segmentation so you know which strategies actually matter.Retention & Lifecycle16 min
Deep Dive
Email List Growth: 19 Tactics to Help Grow Your Email List in 2022Email marketing has one of the highest ROI's around, with an average of $36 made for every $1 spent. In this post, we cut through the noise with a proven 3-step process to start growing your email list the right way, right now.Retention & Lifecycle23 min
Deep Dive
The 9 Most Important Email Marketing KPIsDigital marketing trends change fast, but one thing has been incredibly consistent for years: the effectiveness of email marketing. In this post, we focus on the KPIs that practicing marketers at top companies are using to build their email marketing engines.Retention & Lifecycle19 min
Deep Dive
Email Deliverability Essentials: How to Get More Emails into Your Recipients’ InboxesEmail deliverability is the percentage of emails that make it to subscribers’ inboxes. Find out how email deliverability works, why it matters, and how to improve it.Retention & Lifecycle14 min
Deep Dive
How to Micro-target Facebook Audiences Using Segment PersonasFacebook and Instagram ad costs are rising rapidly. There’s a trick to fight against this: micro-targeted audiences. This is something you can do within minutes using Segment. That’s what this post walks you through.Analytics & Data5 min
Deep Dive
Facebook Ads Targeting Options: All the Ways to Reach Your Ideal CustomerUse Facebook Ads targeting to reach the people most likely to buy from you. In this post, we'll explore what the best targeting options are and how to use them effectively.Paid Acquisition14 min
Deep Dive
What Is Growth Hacking? A Framework for Growth"Growth hacking" is one of the most misunderstood terms in marketing. In this post, we bust some myths about it—and provide a better way to approach growth.Strategy & Fundamentals12 min
Deep Dive
LinkedIn Influencers: Who They Are and How to Become OneBecoming a LinkedIn influencer is often a better investment than an influencer on any other social media platform. In this post, we'll explore why it's better and how you can become one.Strategy & Fundamentals5 min
Deep Dive
Hire Marketers: How to Find and Hire the Good OnesHow do you find the right marketer for your company? Use this post to understand what kind of marketer you need and how to hire them.Strategy & Fundamentals6 min
Deep Dive
Hiring Marketers: The 5 Highest-quality SitesFinding good marketers is hard. These 5 sites make it easier.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
What is Influencer Marketing?Influencer marketing is a type of marketing where brands partner with relevant, influential content creators to promote their products. Learn how to run influencer marketing campaigns effectively.Strategy & Fundamentals5 min
Deep Dive
How to Find Emails from LinkedInThis is how you get an email address from a LinkedIn profile.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
Micro-influencers: Who They Are and How to Find ThemMicro-influencers help you reach engaged and targeted audiences. Learn who they are and how to find them.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
Email marketing best practices and tips for 2022Most of the legacy advice you’ll find on the internet is outdated or misleading. This blog post breaks down a list of 10 email marketing best practices and tips that have been rigorously tested this year.Retention & Lifecycle13 min
Deep Dive
What do YouTube ads cost?Learn how much YouTube ads cost and how to get the most out of them.Paid Acquisition5 min
Deep Dive
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing: Full BreakdownInbound marketing pulls new customers to you and outbound marketing pushes ads to potential customers. Read this post to learn how to do both.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
Instagram Story Video Length: How Long Your Videos Should BeInstagram Stories can be up to 15 seconds long. Learn how to use Instagram Stories effectively for your business.Paid Acquisition8 min
Deep Dive
What’s the Definition of Social Media Marketing?Learn what social media marketing is and how to use it for your business.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
AdWords vs AdSense: Which is which?Learn how to use AdWords to run ads and AdSense to make money from ads.Paid Acquisition4 min
Deep Dive
Indirect Marketing: What It Is and How to Use ItIndirect marketing is marketing used to gain the trust of potential customers. Learn how to use it to grow your business.Strategy & Fundamentals4 min
Deep Dive
The Complete Glossary of Marketing TermsA glossary with 120 marketing terms. Use it as a reference source whenever you’re not sure what something means.Strategy & Fundamentals37 min
Teardown
SegmentLearn how Segment weaves storytelling throughout their landing page and sends their audience to separate landing pages based on user persona.Conversion (CRO)1 min
Teardown
AdafaceLearn how Adaface frames their audience's current solutions as problems and then show their product as the real solution.Strategy & Fundamentals1 min
Teardown
Customer.ioLearn how Customer.io bluntly tells visitors who their product is for and who it's not for immediately.Strategy & Fundamentals1 min
Teardown
AhrefsSee how Ahrefs increases conversion by pushing visitors to read their content before having them signup.Strategy & Fundamentals1 min
Teardown
ClickUpSee how ClickUp, an all-in-one project management tool, pitches and sells their tool on their landing page.Conversion (CRO)1 min
Teardown
ZapierSee how Zapier uses familiarity and visuals to quickly establish an "aha moment" for its website visitors.Strategy & Fundamentals1 min
Newsletter#338
Opinionated defaults, loosely heldHappy Tuesday! Last week we broke down the activation gap, and the lightbulb moment: the first real win that flips a new user from skeptical to hooked. A bunch of you replied asking us to go deeper onRetention & Lifecycle5 min
Newsletter#337
The activation gapEvery founder has a number they check too often. For many, it's signups. You refresh the dashboard, it's up since this morning, and a bit of dopamine goes off in your brain: people want our product, tRetention & Lifecycle10 min
Newsletter#336
The AI visibility flywheelHappy Thursday! Welcome to the third and final edition of our AI ads series.The first two covered the fundamentals of ChatGPT Ads: an intro to the channel, the unique mechanics powering it, and a stepAI & Growth10 min
Newsletter#335
The Paid Marketing ParadoxThere are two stories about paid media going around right now.Story one: AI automated it all, so it's basically a commodity now. Push a button, the machine does the rest. Budgets get cut, talented marAI & Growth12 min
Newsletter#334
Your quickstart guide to ChatGPT AdsWhen you first land in the ChatGPT Ads platform, it feels very familiar. The UI, settings, etc. aren't too different than what you're used to on Meta or Google.But under the hood, its mechanics are veAI & Growth14 min
Newsletter#333
The recommendation layerChatGPT Ads is brand-spanking new, but maybe you've already set up a campaign or two. How's it going? Let me guess…basically zero clicks?You need to remember that ChatGPT Ads is a recommendation layerAI & Growth6 min
Newsletter#332
Design's New Floor and EdgeToday, you can boot up any AI builder (Claude Code, Lovable, Replit Agent 4) and ask for a beautiful landing page.You'll get something clean, minimal, and nobody's gonna call it ugly.But there's a sidAI & Growth11 min
Newsletter#331
Why AI ignores your brandAbout 70% of the traffic AI sends to your website doesn't carry a referrer header. Which means GA4 has no idea ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini was involved. The session shows up as "direct," making it realAI & Growth9 min
Newsletter#330
AI isn't built for marketingEveryone's talking about AI slop.You've seen the complaints. LinkedIn posts about how everything sounds the same, think pieces about the death of authenticity, conference panels where marketers solemnAI & Growth8 min
Newsletter#329
How to overtake incumbents in AI search (Part 2 of 3... again)Happy Friday!Last month, we went deep on AI search with a 3-part series written by Zach Boyette, the Managing Partner of our new agency, Saturation.Based on all the feedback we've gotten, it sounds liAI & Growth10 min
Newsletter#328
The Solo Founder EraThere's a part of the AI story that's hard to celebrate.Companies using it as a justification to flatten headcount.But there's a far more encouraging trend happening in parallel: AI is making it possiAI & Growth9 min
Newsletter#327
AI isn't replacing marketers. But it is solving the first growth hire problem for startups."Who should I hire as my first growth lead?"Despite being one of the most common questions we get at Demand Curve, and despite being something pretty much all founders eventually have to solve, it remAI & Growth6 min
Newsletter#326
Choose your lifecycle stack with the Chef ModelAI-native lifecycle platforms are multiplying. Everyone’s being told to upgrade. Most teams have no idea what they actually need.Drew Price does. He was Grammarly's original lifecycle lead, where he bRetention & Lifecycle7 min
Newsletter#325
How to engineer your AI search flywheelWelcome to the third and final edition of our AI search series. In Part 1, we made the case that AI search is the first truly disruptive distribution platform we’ve seen in well over a decade. In PartAI & Growth9 min
Newsletter#324
Build vs. buy: marketer's editionA new class of marketer is building their own tools with AI. Bespoke software tailored to exactly how they work. No engineering team required.Jonathan Martinez, founder of GrowthPair and longtime DC pStrategy & Fundamentals9 min
Newsletter#323
How to overtake incumbents in AI search (Part 2 of 3)Last week, we made the case that AI search is the first truly disruptive distribution platform since mobile. And that the zero-sum game of SEO is giving way to something startups can actually win.ThisAI & Growth9 min
Newsletter#322
How to overtake incumbents in AI search (Part 1 of 3)Truly disruptive distribution platforms come along maybe twice in a generation. The web. Then mobile. That's the list for the last 30 years.When they arrive, the slate gets wiped clean. Incumbent moatAI & Growth7 min
Newsletter#321
The first commandment of content marketingOn Wednesday, we launched Saturation, our new AI search agency, and shared the thesis behind why (and how) we built it.We're going deeper over the coming weeks. There's a lot to unpack as this new disContent & SEO4 min
Newsletter#319
The real reason so many influencer campaigns flopMost influencer campaigns don't fail because of the creator (or even the campaign quality).The creator-brand fit could be tight. Early engagement signals might be phenomenal. The initial campaign mighPositioning & Messaging9 min
Newsletter#318
$62k → $493k ad spend in 90 daysMarketers love to make grandiose claims. "I grew this company by {insert completely-unbelievable-and-most-likely-made-up statistic}."It's one of the reasons we've been reluctant to lean into case studPaid Acquisition5 min
Newsletter#317
Ok, now the experimentation series is completeOver the past few weeks, we've been running a series on growth experimentation. How teams get it wrong, why impact comes from identifying leverage (and not "big swings"), and how to identify your leveAnalytics & Data9 min
Newsletter#316
Welcome (back) to the frontierOne brand shipped 299 net-new ad concepts in a single month. Not variants. Not resizes. New concepts.Is that the bar now? Or is there more to the story? That's what we're exploring in this edition.P.SPositioning & Messaging6 min
Newsletter#315
A PSA to the growth and marketing industryI've been talking with a lot of agency operators lately. Probably a dozen in the last two months. Most of them are struggling. Some are closing shop completely.One conversation in particular stuck witStrategy & Fundamentals10 min
Newsletter#314
Welcome to the frontierFor years, this newsletter has been a series of tactical deep dives. That’s not changing.But we’re experimenting with something new over the next few weeks. Here’s why:The questions we get have shifteAnalytics & Data7 min
Newsletter#313
How to identify your highest-impact growth opportunitiesA good doctor doesn’t see high blood pressure and immediately prescribe drugs. A good doctor investigates the root cause, considers the patient’s constraints and preferences, and synthesizes the broadStrategy & Fundamentals10 min
Newsletter#312
How to win on Reddit in 2026Quick intermission from the experimentation series.Today we're doing something we haven't done in a while — passing the mic to someone else.Colin James Belyea was a growth strategist at Demand Curve yContent & SEO9 min
Newsletter#311
How two words generated millions in new revenueOver a decade ago, as one of Grammarly's first growth hires, I changed two words on a button. Those two words produced 8x the lift of any experiment we'd run before and led to millions in new revenue.Analytics & Data6 min
Newsletter#310
Your Growth Experiments Are Lying to You"What we're doing seems to be working. The problem is we have no idea why."A founder of an up-and-coming startup reached out to me to advise their growth team. This is how she started the conversationAnalytics & Data6 min
Newsletter#309
Do your ads look the way you think they do?Most founders don’t mess up Meta ads because they’re careless or unsophisticated.They mess them up because the setup feels secondary. You pick an objective. Upload creative. Set a budget. Launch.EveryPaid Acquisition4 min
Newsletter#308
Is your checkout bleeding revenue?You've spent weeks perfecting your checkout flow. Meanwhile, your customers are making snap judgments in seconds about whether to complete their purchase.You're carefully considering each field, eachConversion (CRO)10 min