Since TikTok exploded in 2020, every major platform has shifted from follower-based to interest-based algorithms. Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and even LinkedIn have all adopted similar mechanics for content distribution.

The algorithm shows your content to a small test group. If the test group engages (quantified via watch time, shares, saves, etc.), the algorithm keeps expanding reach. If not, reach slows, then stops.

This means your follower count matters much less than it used to. Your first post can literally reach millions of users if it captures attention.

Having a solid follower count can certainly help. It's why my favorite Youtube channel, Veritasium, seems to pull 5M+ views in 24 hours, every time. The algo knows their content is top-notch, so it pushes it hard.

Enter the "Generalist Principle"

I first heard of this concept from author, Brendan Kane, in his podcast interview with Chris Do on The Futur. Brendan and his team have built content strategies for everyone from Taylor Swift to small, hyper-niche craftspeople. After analyzing thousands of viral posts, he noticed something counterintuitive.

The most successful "niche" creators don't actually create niche content. They take their expertise and package it so anyone can understand and enjoy it, while still delivering value to their core audience.

Think of it like this. A tax accountant could post the same piece of content, framed two different ways:

• "New IRS Rule 462.B Affects S-Corp Distributions."
• "The IRS Just Changed A Single Rule That Could Save You $10,000."

Same topic, but one version has a chance of attracting viewers who would never follow a tax accountant.

Let's Look at the Numbers

Say you're a B2B SaaS consultant creating content about enterprise software implementation.

Niche approach:
​The primary goal of your content is to educate people on the nuances of enterprise software implementation.

• Total addressable audience: 100,000 people
• Viral reach: 10% see your content
• Views: 10,000
• Viewers who are potential clients: 50%
• Potential clients reached: 5,000

Generalist approach:
​The primary goal of your content is humor, entertainment, or novelty, while subtlety educating on enterprise software implementation.

• Total addressable audience: 1,000,000 people
• Viral reach: 10% see your content
• Views: 100,000
• Viewers who are potential clients: 10%
• Potential clients reached: 10,000

Despite an 80% drop in the proportion of viewers who are potential clients (50% → 10%) with general content, your potential customer base still doubles thanks to the broader audience.

Three Examples Worth Studying

In his free e-book, The Guide To Going Viral, Brendan uses the following examples to highlight the generalist principle.

​Tanner Leatherstein makes handmade leather goods. Instead of turning his Instagram grid into a wall of undifferentiated product shots targeted at affluent buyers, he buys $500+ designer bags and tears them apart on camera.

His 'Is It Worth It?' series taps into a question a lot of people have wondered, are luxury goods worth the price? While dissecting each bag, he not only entertains the masses, he also builds trust with a large number of people who may consider buying a bag from him instead of Hermès.

​Dr. Julie Smith is a clinical psychologist. Instead of posting academic lectures about cognitive behavioral therapy techniques that only fellow therapists would understand, she uses everyday objects to visualize complex mental health concepts.

In one video, she fills a trash can with crumpled papers to represent emotional overwhelm, then slowly removes and folds each paper to show what therapy feels like. Through this format, she entertains millions who will probably never book a session, while demonstrating her expertise to a select few who might.

​Graham Stephan teaches personal finance. His biggest video (8.6M views) isn't titled "Understanding Compound Interest." It's "How I Bought a Tesla for $78/Month." Far more people are curious to know his trick vs. learning about a subject they already think they understand. The finance principles he teaches along the way feel like a bonus, not the main point of the video.

Our Own Mixed Results

I've been testing this myself on the Demand Curve LinkedIn. Most of our videos get between 1,000 and 5,000 views. Decent for B2B content (Right guys? We're doing great, right? 😅)

But one video hit 390,000 views. The topic? Celsius energy drinks.

The hook was simple:

"In 2017, Celsius was essentially nonexistent, but now they have 11% market share and they're worth $9B. So I found myself asking, how did they get so big so quickly?"

Here are some of the generalist principles that may have come into play on the Celsius video.

1. Celsius is a brand regular people recognize and have opinions about.
2. The visual showed Celsius cans immediately (first 2 seconds), confirming this was about something familiar.
3. The question "how did they grow so quickly?" interests marketers, CPG founders, and Celsius fans alike, not just energy drink operators.

Compared to a hook like "How energy drink companies can grow through retail partnerships," the hook I chose had a shot at appealing to a much broader audience.

A Brute Force Approach

One brute force way to test the generalist principle is starting with a hook that has nothing to do with your business, then bridging to your actual topic.

This concept is similar to the idea of basing your content on "validated outlier" formats and hooks. We cover this topic in-depth in Growth Program 2.0. Hop on the waitlist here.

Here's an example. This creator's videos regularly saw 1,200 to 10,000 views until he posted the video below (which reached 1.3M views & 68k likes).

The video starts with a viral meme hook, then transitions to showing the creator's AI workflow for optimizing landing page messaging. Yes, this technique is a bit cheeky, but his account reached 45k followers within 10 weeks of launching. Can't knock the results.

Note: The brute force approach still needs to be executed thoughtfully. The video above worked because the viral meme humorously bridges into a much drier (but still intriguing and valuable) AI workflow. If the juxtaposition wasn't funny, or if the workflow wasn't valuable, the video probably would have flopped.

We'll Be The Guinea Pig

We're running our own experiment next Tuesday (July 8th), testing the generalist hook format from above. The formula:

1. Start with a validated generalist viral hook (similar to the one above)
2. Build a bridge to a curiosity-inducing workflow (that adds value)
3. Demonstrate expertise on our actual topic throughout the video

I'll report back on whether it works or whether I look like an idiot for trying. Seriously though, check our LinkedIn on Tuesday to see this technique in a business context.

How to Use This Today

First, look at your last 10 posts. Count how many require insider knowledge to understand. If it's more than two, you're probably being too niche. Also, consistently low (and not improving) view counts are a red flag.

Second, take your next planned post and rewrite the first 1-3 lines a couple times (or a couple hundred using AI). Each version should pique the interest of someone outside your industry. Then pick the one that would even make your mom curious.

Third, remember that broader reach doesn't mean dumbing down your content. It means being smarter about how you package it.

The goal isn't to trick people into watching your content. We're simply trying to earn the attention of a wider audience, which allows us to deliver value to more of the people who matter to your business.

Have fun testing!

Kevin

P.S. The video we're testing on Tuesday opens with a sweaty, shirtless tech-bro surrounded by liquor bottles. Professional reputation on the line. Wish us luck.

Let's start with the math that changed how we think about growth.

Growth Loops, not Growth Hacks

Insight from Reforge.

Which would you choose:

• Initiative A: Gives you 500 new users this week but nothing afterward.
• Initiative B: Gives you 20 new users in week one, 22 in week two, etc (growing 10% WoW) for every week going forward.

Initiative B will take 14 weeks to reach 500 new users.

But after 1 year, you’ll have 28,208 new users and grow by ~2600 per week. By the end of year 2, you have 4,035,039 new users (assuming a constant 10% growth rate).

This is the general principle behind compounding Growth Loops:

In short, the output of a marketing initiative feeds back into the input. Examples:

Another classic example is ads:

1. You spend money to run ads
2. You profitably acquire new customers
3. You use said profit to acquire more customers. If you need help running ads, we’ve built an ad agency specifically designed for startups.

In short, your primary marketing efforts should not be one-off tactics. Instead, they should be initiatives that can compound. Here are examples that do not compound:

• Launching on Product Hunt: You get an influx of users. You… can’t launch on Product Hunt again.
• Timed-limited Promos: You get a big influx of customers and revenue. You can’t just run another promo.
• Press coverage: You get featured in Forbes. You get a big spike in traffic. It disappears a couple of days later. You can’t be featured all the time.

Compound growth sounds great. But how do you know which loops to build? This is where strategy comes in.

Create a real strategy, not just a list of goals & tactics

Insight from Mark Pollard.

Most companies' "strategies" are either purely:

Goals:

• Become relevant with Gen Z
• Increase sales by 30%

Tactics:

• Post on LinkedIn 5 times per week
• Create lead magnets

Mark (aka Strategy Friend) defines a strategy as "an informed opinion about how to win."

Your strategy is supposed to tell you exactly what your team needs to do to grow. Yet, according to Mark, most strategies look like this:

They're missing the key insight to the real cause of the problem and a strategy to help solve the problem. Instead, they just jump straight into tactics with no clear vision.

"Tactics are simply the activities that make a strategy happen."

Here are two examples of what a good strategy looks like:

We've covered the power of compounding growth. We understand how strategy drives tactics. Now let's simplify growth to its essence.

This mental model will help you shrink the big wide world of growth opportunities into four logical buckets.

The 4 high-level ways to drive growth

Insight from a great article from MKT1.

Fundamentally, there are only four high-level ways to drive growth.

This image from MKT1 summarizes it perfectly:

A startup can do a million things to grow (we’ve covered over 455 of them here), but given extremely limited resources, you should find the highest leverage place to apply pressure to grow now.

Understanding these four primary levers helps you prioritize. Let’s dive into each:

1. Get more $$$ from your current slice of pie

• Charge more money from existing customers (make sure to increase perceived value too).
• Sell more products to existing customers (upsell/cross-sell)
• For SaaS, increase revenue per customer by adding new features and tiers, increase the number of seats they use, or increase product usage.
• Reduce churn so revenue can grow over time. The SaaS Quick Ratio is a handy metric for determining whether your growth and churn are healthy.

2. Capture the same pie more efficiently

You’re always getting new customers, but you can do it better. You can generate more revenue with the same or less cost and effort.

There are really only two fundamental ways to do this:

• Increase conversion rates with better funnels (copy, landing pages, lead magnets, sales, etc).
• Lower acquisition costs with better creatives, targeting, lead quality, (and conversion rates ;0)

Note: Check our Growth Vault for 84+ tactics to increase conversions

3. Capture more of the same pie

You’re growing within the same market segment but can get MORE leads:

• Double down on what’s working, but always experiment with creative ideas.
• Watch out for diminishing returns (increasing acquisition costs), especially on ads, if you’ve been going after the same market for a while and keep increasing budgets. That’s especially true if it’s a niche market.
• If you’re steadily growing, don’t wait until you cap out before expanding the pie because it takes longer than you think.
• Set up a different growth engine (content or sales instead of ads)

Note: No matter how good you are, you will never get the whole pie, sorry!

4. Expand the pie (or test new pies entirely)

• Go after new markets/segments (industries, company sizes, geos, verticals).
  • If you’re very early stage, this is just trying to find product-market fit.
• Depending on the new segment, you can either use the same growth engine (ads) or you need to set up another one (i.e., outbound or content).
• Create new content, messaging, and funnels tailored to the new “pie”.
• Always run small tests before going all in. Make sure to prioritize your tests using the RICE/DRICE frameworks.
• Double down if you have similar or higher conversion rates with this new market or segment.

How to use it

Every few months, pick one of these to prioritize and go hard on it. What matters most will depend on your current circumstances (and likely stage). For example:

• A very early-stage company is either focusing hard on one market/segment or testing several to find product-market fit.
• A startup with PMF will likely want to improve conversion rates with well-optimized funnels, great onboarding, and strong retention.
• Then they'll want to focus on capturing more of the same pie by ramping up their current growth engine (ads) or setting up a second (outbound).
• Then they might want to get more from their current customers by charging more and upselling and cross-selling.
• Then, they might want to expand markets/segments as they reach saturation in their current ones.

If you want some support...

​Growth Program 2.0 takes these frameworks deeper with personalized growth paths, AI-powered feedback, and human coaching to help you implement and iterate.

Knowing frameworks is step one. Executing and adapting is where the real work lives. We’re here to support you along the way.

​Join Growth Program 2.0 Waitlist →

— Kevin and the Demand Curve Team

A lot of marketers get distracted trying to impress other marketers, but what they should really be doing is converting strangers into customers.

When Nike runs an abstract, artistic campaign, it works because everyone already knows what Nike does.

And Apple can show artistic lifestyle shots because their products are already familiar. These brands have earned the right to be creative through decades of clear messaging. They’ve already established what they do and why it matters.

When you're an unknown startup trying the same approach, you're essentially asking people to solve a puzzle while doom scrolling. No thank you.

Your job here is to educate and excite your prospects, not confuse them with fancy, abstract messaging.

You have about 0.5 seconds to communicate value before they scroll past, and you can only afford to be creative once you've built clear brand association with your specific outcome.

But why is this so hard for unknown startups to accept? The answer lies in basic psychology.

The Cognitive Load Problem

Psychologist George Miller discovered that humans can only process 5-7 pieces of information at the same time. And in low-consideration span environments, like social media, that number drops even lower.

This means that every "creative" element like clever wordplay, abstract imagery, multiple messages all add cognitive load.

So the formula is simple: more mental effort = less conversions.

Example of High Cognitive Load (Low Converting):

• Headline: "Connect With Prospects In Powerful New Ways"
• Subtext: "Revolutionary AI-powered sales ecosystem"
• Visual: Abstract geometric shapes
• Mental effort required: What does this do? Who is it for? How does it help me?

Here’s how you should rewrite it:

Example of Low Cognitive Load (High Converting):

• Headline: "Get 2x More Sales Calls Booked"
• Subtext: "AI writes your cold emails in 30 seconds"
• Visual: Simple email screenshot
• Mental effort required: None. The value instantly clicks in your mind.

Now the value is super clear. You save time writing emails, and get 2 times the amount of calls booked.

But cognitive load is step one, now let’s talk about step two: context. We’ll figure out exactly what headspace your audience is in when your ad pops up.

Context Is Everything: Matching Creative to Mindset

Before writing a single word, visualize where your prospect is when they see your ad. The more descriptive, the better.

Instagram/TikTok: Entertainment Mode

• Mindset: Mindlessly scrolling, chilling on the couch, TV on, baby is crying, and your cat is trying to scale the screen door again. Distractions are everywhere.
• Consideration span: 0.5-3 seconds for initial hook
• Creative approach: Bold, simple, outcome-focused
• What could work: "47 calls booked in 30 days" with calendar screenshot and numbers in a big font.

LinkedIn: Professional Break Mode

• Mindset: Quick break between meetings, stress-eating a protein bar, while looking to learn something to improve at your job.
• Consideration span: 2-5 seconds, but higher intent
• Creative approach: Professional but direct, focus on business outcomes and tutorials
• What could work: "Here's exactly how I booked 47 calls this last month" with a loom video attached explaining your process.

Facebook: Social Connection Mode

• Mindset: Checking on high school friends you haven't talked to in 10 years, getting distracted by your uncle's political rants, seeing that your mom shared a video of a guy making tiny pancakes. Your ad should feel like content a friend would actually share.
• Consideration span: 1-2 seconds, very low tolerance for promotion
• Creative approach: Native, conversational, problem-first
• What could work: "Anyone else struggling to get clients on calls? Found this approach that actually works" with casual selfie-style video, feels like a friend sharing a genuine discovery.

YouTube: Content Consumption Mode

• Mindset: You’re trying to figure out how to “Fix a Squeaky Door in 2 Minutes” and now you’re getting an ad about tax software. You’re annoyed, about to click on the skip button, but you might give it 5 seconds if it’s actually interesting.
• Consideration span: 5 seconds before skip option, slightly more patient than Instagram/TikTok.
• Creative approach: Story-driven, can be longer, but hook still critical
• What works: "This changed how I book clients" with personal story

Now that we understand how context shapes attention, let's get tactical. Here are the four pillars that separate high-converting creative from expensive failures.

The 4 Pillars of Anti-Creative Creative

Pillar 1: Outcome-First Messaging

Stop talking about your company. Start talking about their results.

The Transformation:

• Before: "We're the world's leading email marketing platform"
• After: "Send emails that actually get opened"

Lead with the outcome they want, not the process you provide.

More Examples:

• Before: "Advanced CRM with AI-powered analytics"
• After: "Never lose a lead again"
• Before: "Revolutionary fitness technology"
• After: "Lose 10 pounds in 30 days"
• Before: "Comprehensive project management solution"
• After: "Finish projects 2 weeks faster"

Pillar 2: Ruthless Simplicity

Every word in your creative should earn its place. If it doesn't directly contribute to the value proposition, cut it.

Meaningless Phrases to Eliminate:

• "World-class" (says nothing specific)
• "Revolutionary" (overused, meaningless)
• "Cutting-edge" (what does this actually mean?)
• "Industry-leading" (according to who?)

The Edit Test: Read your headline out loud. If you can remove a word without losing meaning, remove it.

Example Edit Process:

• Original: "Our revolutionary AI-powered platform helps busy startups streamline their daily workflow processes"
• Edit 1: "AI-powered platform that helps startups streamline workflows"
• Edit 2: "AI platform that streamlines startup workflows"
• Final: "Automate your daily tasks with AI"

Pillar 3: Problem-Solution Clarity

Your prospect should instantly understand three things:

1. What problem you solve
2. How you solve it
3. What they get as a result

Here’s a high-converting formula: "Get [Specific Outcome] with [Simple Method] in [Time Frame]"

Examples:

• "Get 100 qualified leads with AI-powered prospecting in 7 days"
• "Build a profitable newsletter with our content templates in 30 minutes"
• "Book 5x more sales calls with personalized video outreach in 10 minutes"

Pillar 4: Context Optimization

Like we talked about before, design your creative for the specific platform and mindset, not your brand guidelines.

• Instagram Version: Bold text overlay, clear benefit, swipe-friendly format
• LinkedIn Version: Professional screenshot, business outcome, comment-worthy angles
• Facebook Version: Conversational tone, problem-first approach, native feel
• YouTube Version: Story setup, clear payoff, skip-resistant hook

Your Anti-Creative Audit Cheatsheet

Run every ad creative through these questions:

Clarity Check:

• Can a 12-year-old understand what I'm offering?
• Is the main benefit in the first 5 words?
• Does the visual support or distract from the message?

Simplicity Test:

• Can I remove any words without losing meaning?
• Am I using industry jargon or clear language?
• Is there only one main message?

Context Alignment:

• Does this work for someone scrolling mindlessly?
• Am I respecting their current mindset on this platform?
• Is the cognitive load minimal?

Outcome Focus:

• Do I lead with customer outcome, not company features?
• Is the benefit specific and measurable?
• Would my ideal customer instantly see the value?

The Bottom Line

The most effective creative isn't creative at all, it's clear, direct, and outcome-focused.

Save the artistic expression for when you're Nike. Until then, master the art of boring clarity that converts strangers into customers.

— Joey and the Demand Curve Team

Think of your startup as a puzzle with five interlocking pieces. Miss one, and growth becomes much more difficult:

• Market-Product Fit: Do people desperately want what you’re building?
• Market-Model Fit: Can your market actually afford what you’re selling?
• Market-Brand Fit: Does your brand resonate with your target audience?
• Market-Channel Fit: Can you reach your market where they hang out?
• Model-Channel Fit: Does your pricing align with your acquisition costs?

*Bonus* Product-Channel Fit: Can someone understand your product's value in the time/format your channel provides?

Each fit is a potential failure point. But get all five (ideally, six) right, and you can unlock scalable, sustainable growth.

Market-Product Fit

Most people call this "product-market fit" or PMF.

Definition: People want your product so badly they’d be upset if you took it away.

The test: When Brian Chesky asked early Airbnb users how they’d feel if Airbnb disappeared, they said “devastated.” That’s market-product fit.

Signs you have it:

• Customers pull your product from you (vs. you pushing it)
• Word-of-mouth becomes your biggest growth channel
• People use your product despite bugs and missing features
• Retention curves flatten (people stick around)

Red flags you don’t:

• You’re constantly convincing people why they need your product
• High churn after trials or POCs
• “It’s nice, but…” is the most common feedback

What founders miss: “Nice to have” and “must have” are very different. If your market can easily live without you, you might not have market-product fit (or you’re just in a crowded space with lots of alternatives).

For early-stage founders, market-product fit is your north star. Without this fit, optimizing anything else is premature. Check out our growth program if you need helping nailing market-product fit.

Market-Model Fit

Definition: Your pricing matches both your market’s ability/willingness to pay and your growth ambitions.

The math:

• 1,000 customers × $100/year = $100K business (lifestyle).
• 1,000 customers × $100K/year = $100M business (venture-scale).

It's hard to build a billion-dollar business selling $10/month to SMBs, the math simply doesn’t work at scale.

If you have a small market size AND low average annual revenue per customer, that's a market-model fit issue (especially if your goal is to build a large company).

This seems like an obvious concept, but it's something startups often get wrong. That's likely because they think their market is bigger than it really is, and/or they think they'll be able to charge more than they really can.

This diagram from founder and investor Christoph Janz demonstrates our point. There's a tradeoff between the number of customers you need to acquire and the price you're able to charge.

Market-Brand Fit

Definition: Your brand instantly connects with your market’s identity and aspirations.

Here’s an example:

​Stripe, the payments infrastructure company, had to build trust to scale. Businesses are understandably cautious about who handles their money and customer payment data.

They crafted a brand that emphasizes security, reliability, and technical excellence. Their documentation, website design, and even their API are all highly crafted, communicating trustworthiness without saying a word.

If their brand was cluttered, overly casual, or inconsistent, they’d likely struggle to win trust from developers and finance teams.

Most founders treat branding as an afterthought, but your brand is often your first (and sometimes only) chance to connect with your market.

Like Stripe, your brand should immediately communicate fit with your market.

Market-Channel Fit

Definition: Your ideal customers naturally congregate where you’re trying to reach them.

The test: Ask 10 ideal customers: “Where do you spend your time online or in-person?" Their answers will point towards potential channels.

Combinations that work:

• B2B SaaS → LinkedIn (decision-makers discussing business)
• Gen Z fashion → TikTok (young people seeking trends)
• Developer tools → GitHub/X/Reddit (engineers sharing solutions)
• Enterprise software → Outbound sales (complex deals need human touch)

Combinations that fail:

• Senior healthcare → Snapchat (wrong demographic)
• DevTools → FM radio ads (engineers don’t discover tools there)
• Luxury goods → Groupon (destroys premium positioning)

Choosing channels based on cost or comfort rather than where customers actually hang out can be a costly mistake.

Model-Channel Fit

Definition: Your business model's unit economics align with your customer acquisition channel costs.

This determines which channels you can actually afford to use profitably. The more you charge, the more you can spend to acquire each customer.

A few rules of thumb:

Your model-channel fit can also determine fundraising needs.

For example, if you're bringing an enterprise SaaS tool to market with $100K ACV, expect to spend 15-30% of ACV to acquire customers ($15K-$30K CAC).

If you only raise a $100K friends-and-family round, you'll run out of capital after acquiring 3-7 customers. This might signal you need to raise significantly more to effectively bring the product to market.

Product-Channel Fit: The Bonus Consideration

Definition: Your product's complexity matches your channel's ability to communicate value.

Some products are too complex to explain in low-attention channels. Others are too simple to justify high-touch channels.

The communication test: Can someone understand your product's value in the time/format your channel provides?

Examples that work:

• Simple meditation app + TikTok ads = ✓ (15-second video can show the entire value prop)
• Enterprise security software + direct sales = ✓ (complex product gets dedicated explanation time)

Examples that fail:

• Enterprise security software + Instagram ads (only) = ✗ (impossible to explain compliance features while users scroll)
• Simple task app + 3-hour sales calls = ✗ (wastes everyone's time explaining obvious features)

Smart teams choose an appropriate set of channels that allow them to naturally convey the value of their product (and address objections) rather than forcing complex products through low-touch channels.

Your Next Steps

Audit Your Fits: This doesn’t have to be an academic exercise. Just talk with your co-founders, your team, or yourself, and rate each fit from 1-10. Be intellectually honest, and brainstorm the changes you need to make to improve your score.

Your growth potential is bottlenecked by your weakest score, not your strongest.

The testing hierarchy:

1. Validate Market-Product Fit first (nothing else matters without this)
2. Confirm Market-Model Fit second (can they afford it?)
3. Develop the others in parallel (they’re interdependent)

You can fake fits temporarily with capital. Discounts simulate market-model fit. Ads mask poor channel fit. But eventually, reality wins.

If you could only fix one fit in the next 90 days, which would create the biggest breakthrough?

That’s where you start. Not with your strongest fit, with your weakest.

If you liked this content, check out our growth program. It contains hundreds of in-depth modules just like this.

Struggling to consistently create content that resonates with your audience?

You’re not alone. Many creators face the same challenge: they sit down to create but waste precious time staring at a blank page, wondering what to post.

The solution isn’t more creativity. It’s better systems.

You don’t need a rigid framework, but clear structure is essential. Many top creators, like Seth Godin, have repositories of ideas and research to pull from when writing.

Without the foundation, they’d often be stuck too, starting each day from zero.

The Complete Content Creation Framework

The template consists of five key components:

1. Strategic Foundation (Top Section)

At the very top of your template, you’ll fill out a few key details to ground your content strategy. This gives future-you (and tools like ChatGPT) the clarity needed to generate content that actually resonates. These inputs help guide your creative thinking and ensure that everything you create speaks directly to your ideal audience.

Think of this section as your always-visible north star: a quick reference to keep your content focused, aligned, and audience-driven:

• High-level Topic: Your primary subject area
• Audience: Who specifically you're creating for
• Their Selfish Desires: What they secretly want
• Their Goals: What they're trying to achieve

2. Content Management (Left Section)

The left sidebar contains a navigation menu that helps you track posts through your creation pipeline. This is where you'll move content from ideation to publication, with dedicated views that filter your posts automatically based on their current status.

Track posts through your creation pipeline:

• Ideas: Initial concepts waiting to be developed
• In Progress: Content currently being created
• Ready: Completed content ready to be scheduled
• Calendar View: Visual scheduling interface

3. Inspiration Repository

Below your post management area, you'll find a dedicated database for capturing interesting content from around the web, your personal swipe file. Instead of saving content across different platforms, use this section to store everything in one place.

Capture inspiration efficiently:

• Save content from platforms like Instagram, X, YouTube, and Reddit​
• Use tools like the Save to Notion browser extension
• Review these saved items when brainstorming new content

4. Subtopics List

While the Strategic Foundation helps you define your high-level topic and audience, this Subtopics List is where you start mapping out your actual content lanes. The Subtopics table appears in the main body of the template and serves as a bridge between your high-level topic and specific post ideas.

Break down your high-level topic into 5-10 broader categories:

• Think of each subtopic as a lane in your content strategy
• Use these categories to tag and organize future post ideas
• This structure helps maintain balance and variety in your content

5. Post Topics & Content Types

The Post Topics table is where everything comes together. Each entry connects to a specific subtopic and includes multiple fields for planning your approach. As you create entries in this table, they'll automatically appear in your Posts view, ready for scheduling and creation.

This is where your ideas start to crystalize into actual posts.

Each post can be framed using one of several proven content types, as outlined in this guide:

• Actionable: Step-by-step breakdown of how to do something
• Observation: What you've observed about the topic
• X vs Y: Compare two situations with an interesting takeaway
• Present/Future: How things work today vs. how they'll work in the future
• Contrarian: Your spicy point of view that differs from the mainstream
• Analytical: Breakdown of a topic, company, person, or content style
• Motivational: Inspire your audience to achieve their goals
• Listicle: A list of things, people, books, tools, podcasts, etc.

How to Use the Content Creation System (In Just 6 Steps)

Step 1: Make a copy of the template

You can find the Notion template here.

• Click the three dots in the top-right corner of the original template
• Select "Duplicate" from the dropdown menu
• The template will be copied to your own Notion workspace with all the structure intact but none of your personal content

Step 2: Fill in your strategic foundation

At the top of your newly duplicated template, add your:

• High-level topic that you'll be creating content about
• Target audience description, being as specific as possible
• Their selfish desires (what they want but might not admit publicly)
• Their specific goals (what they're actively trying to achieve)

Here’s an example of Podcasting for beginners:
​

Step 3: Generate 5-10 subtopics

• Scroll down to the Subtopics table in the main section of the template
• Click into the table and add new rows for each broad category within your high-level topic
• These should be fairly broad concepts that can each contain multiple post ideas
• For a podcasting niche, you might include categories like Equipment, Tools, and Sponsorships

Step 4: Generate post topics within each subtopic

• For each subtopic you've created, brainstorm specific angles or implementations
• These should be focused enough to cover in a single post but broad enough to approach from multiple angles
• Add these as new entries in the Post Topics section, making sure to link each to its parent subtopic

Example of post topics for Tools, Equipment and Sponsorships subtopics:

Bonus: Leverage AI to accelerate this process

​ChatGPT is excellent at generating a ton of ideas for you to filter through

• Try prompts like: "Generate 10 specific post topics about podcast equipment for beginners"
• Use AI to brainstorm different angles for approaching the same topic
• Filter through the suggestions and add the ones that resonate with your brand voice
• Remember that AI is your assistant, not your replacement, so always review and refine suggestions

Here’s the Video Walkthrough:

Step 5: Create 10 specific posts by assigning a post type

• Within the Post Topics table, each idea can be approached from multiple angles
• For each post topic, click into the entry and select which approach would be most effective:

Step 6: Schedule and create

• Return to the Calendar view in the left sidebar
• Drag posts from your idea pool onto specific dates in the calendar
• Click into each scheduled post to add details like platform, format (carousel, video, etc.)
• As you publish content, track metrics like engagement and reach to see what performs best

Keep this cycle going—your calendar becomes your content engine, and your ideas stay organized, fresh, and ready to publish.

The Bottom Line

Remember, the goal isn't perfection. The system is designed to reduce friction in your creative process and ensure you're creating content that strategically serves your audience.

Feel free to adapt however works for you:

• Some people enjoy using the whole system to generate ideas
• Others just use the Posts table and nothing else
• It's whatever system works for you and keeps you writing

The key is consistency. Even the most brilliant content strategy fails without execution.

Most GPT-generated image ads are mediocre at best.

Yet on social media, everyone says, “I whipped up these high-converting ads with ChatGPT in half a minute.”

What they’re hiding is all the 12+ iterations they had to make, the edits they did in Photoshop, and that they very thoroughly prompted GPT to get a decent output.

Meanwhile, on LinkedIn:

“Just tell GPT to clone this ad with your branding—and boom—a high-quality ad.”

So I tried that. I said, “Recreate this ad but with my product and branding.”

The results were disappointing to say the least:

• Layouts that didn’t make sense
• Copy that reads like it was written by my grandpa on hallucinogens
• Warped product renders
• Fonts and colors that didn’t match my brand
• And zero grasp of why the ad worked in the first place

Here’s the ad I asked it to clone:

I like this feature point-out ad from Oats Overnight. It tells me the cost, calories, protein amount, and that others love it. Perfect.

Since it’s an Ecomm ad, I selected one of my recent favorite Ecomm brands, IM8, to make an ad for (I'm not affiliated; I just like their packaging).

I asked GPT to clone the ad but with my branding and product. I gave it a list of some value props and let it rip.

Recreate this ad but with im8health.com’s branding. Attached is the image of my product, and here are some value props to use:​

- 95% felt a noticeable boost in daily energy levels.- 85% experienced less bloating and improved digestion.- Only $2 per serving- One scoop. Once a day.- All-in-one wellness.- Superfoods, Greens, Fruits, Herbs.- Heart Health Support.- Joint and Muscle Health Support.- Hydra Electrolytes.

Here’s what I got:

That’s not what I was expecting.
​
The visual hierarchy isn’t great. The padding is atrocious.
​
It changed the product image and decided that “technology” is actually spelled “technotogy.”
​
It also got rid of the elements that I felt made the reference a great ad.

Here’s what I’ve observed: GPT isn't your creative director (yet). It's your caffeinated but clueless intern.

It needs constraints, structure, and direction. Without them, you get, well.. this.

I spent the last few weeks building a repeatable system that turns GPT into a rough-draft engine, one that gets you 95% of the way to a usable ad in a fraction of the time and cost of starting from scratch.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Create a JSON file of your brand

Most people give vague instructions in GPT, such as “Use our brand colors and fonts.” But GPT works exponentially better with structured data.

Instead, feed it a JSON file like this:

json
{
"brandName": "IM-8",
"colors": ["#A40000", "#E3D8CD", "#FFFFFF"],
"fonts": ["Playfair Display", "Inter"],
"valueProps": [
"Supports gut health",
"All-in-one daily greens",
"Backed by nutrition science"
],
"tone": "Scientific but approachable",
"targetAudience": "Health-conscious professionals, 30-45",
"callToAction": "Try risk-free for 30 days"
}

This gives GPT constraints and direction, which leads to better creative output.

But the neat part is you don’t need to be technical or know how to create a JSON file. Just tell ChatGPT everything you want included in the file and it’ll create for you.

What I do is feed it everything I want it to know, like brand guidelines, tone of voice, font style, look and feel, etc. I also take a full-page screenshot of my landing page for ChatGPT to extract things I didn’t think of. (Link to the screenshot tool: gofullpage.com)

Here’s the exact prompt I used:

You’re going to create a master JSON file of my brand. You will structure the file in such a way that I can easily feed it to you to reference when making image ads – so that you can apply my branding to the ad references I give you. I want you to take my fonts, branding, colors, value props etc and turn it into the ultimate JSON file.

Here’s what the JSON must include:

• brand_name: e.g., “IM-8 Daily Essentials”
• tagline: One-line brand positioning or hero line
• fonts:
  • headline_font: name or description
  • body_font: name or fallback option
• colors:
  • primary: hex code
  • secondary: hex code
  • background: hex code
  • accent: hex code
• value_props: High-impact claims or stats (e.g., “95% felt more energy”)
• functional_benefits: Tangible outcomes of using the product
• trust_signals: Endorsements, social proof, certifications
• key_ingredients or core_features: If the product is ingredient- or feature-driven
• tone_voice: A few adjectives that describe how the brand speaks (e.g., “confident, clinical, warm”)
• visual_branding_notes: Description of packaging aesthetics, logo placement, typical imagery (but not ad layouts)

[Insert any other specific brand guidelines that ChatGPT might not be able to extract from the landing page screenshot alone]

Attached is a full-page screenshot of my product landing page. Analyze it thoroughly and extract all relevant branding cues, layout patterns, and copywriting angles — including testimonials, claims, imagery style, and benefits.

Now that I have a structured JSON file, I can go to the next step.

Step 2: Ask GPT how it would prompt itself

I don’t see enough people doing this.

Instead of trying to write the perfect prompt yourself, give GPT your brand JSON + a reference ad and ask:

“With this JSON and ad reference, how would you prompt yourself to recreate this ad, step-by-step, using your own best practices?”

GPT will return a specific, structured prompt. And it’s usually better than what I’d come up with anyways. Once I get the prompt I’ll read through it and modify it a bit to get exactly what I want.

You’ll get something like this:

Step 3: Feed it the right imagery

GPT image generation works best when you’re clear about what kind of image you want.

Use a reference ad and match its structure. For example:

• If the ad uses a product photo on a clean background, upload your product photo.
• If it uses lifestyle imagery, pull something from Unsplash or your own shoots.

The more visually aligned your input is, the better the output.

I used these images for my ad:

​

Step 4: Feed everything into ChatGPT to get a solid rough draft creative

Now I’ll give ChatGPT the prompt that it generated itself, my brand JSON file again, and the product images.

With a much better prompt and structured data for ChatGPT to use, I get a much better result:

Much better, but not perfect yet.

• There are still some misspellings.
• The fonts aren’t accurate.
• And some of the spacing could be improved.
• It also randomly decided to add “Total wellness. Simplified” to the bottle.

At this point you can continue to tweak it within GPT, but I wouldn’t recommend this. You tell it, “Change the headline to ‘Elite Daily Nutrition’” and it changes that but then also morphs your product or changes other copy.

Here’s what I would do instead:

Step 5: Polish the result with a junior designer

GPT gets you most of the way there. But the fine details still break as I pointed out above.

So I take the GPT draft and hand it off to a junior designer (Fiverr, GetAds, etc.) with a simple brief:

“Use this layout. Replace the fonts and imagery with the real assets. Keep everything else the same.”

By limiting the designer’s scope to just “make this look exactly like this, but with our real assets,” you avoid lengthy creative discussions, long briefs and feedback loops.

Here’s what the final output looks like:

Bonus step: Turn this into a project within ChatGPT

Create a ChatGPT project and give it the JSON file, your brand guidelines, and anything else you’d want it to know so you don’t have to do this every time. Then any time you want to create a new ad you can just do so within the project and it will already have all your brand details saved.

Final thoughts

AI isn’t replacing designers anytime soon. But it is changing the creative workflow from expensive exploration with long feedback loops to rapid iteration with focused human polish.

The teams winning with AI aren’t replacing their designers. They’re creating human-AI workflows that leverage the strengths of both.

If you're Notion users like we are at Demand Curve, you have good reason to be excited about Notion Mail's April 2025 launch. It's a sleek email client that works with your existing email accounts, and it has some pretty powerful native AI features.

But what makes this launch interesting isn't just the product itself — we know Notion creates good products — but how it fits into Notion's broader growth strategy: creating multiple entry points into their ecosystem to expand their addressable market.

This approach directly addresses a challenge that successful software companies eventually face: market saturation. While competitors battle for the same users in the project management space, Notion is opening new doors.

Market Signals Point to Saturation

Growth in the project management and personal productivity category appears to be cooling. IDC’s latest Collaboration Applications sizing shows YoY spend expanding 32.9% in 2020, 28.4% in 2021, and just 14.6% in 2022, with a preliminary 13.7% clip for 2023, according to Computerworld’s analysis.

On the ground, public filings tell the same story:

The land-grab days are ending; the hand-to-hand fight for share has begun. Additional market signals reinforce this shift:

• Traffic plateau: Google Trends, App-Store chart logs, and Similarweb ranks point the same way: interest in “Notion” hasn’t cratered—but it also hasn’t broken out since mid-2023. The growth curve is bending horizontal.
  ​
• Competitive intensity: ClickUp, Asana, Monday.com, and Microsoft Loop are all battling for the same enterprise customers with increasingly similar feature sets.

Acquisitions Signal Notion's Expansion Strategy

Rather than simply fighting harder in this competitive landscape, Notion has methodically expanded with strategic acquisitions and product launches:

Each acquisition follows the same playbook: acquire a best-in-class tool, sunset the original service, and relaunch it as a free, independent app that complements but doesn’t require the core workspace.

This pattern reveals a deliberate strategy to create multiple on-ramps into the Notion ecosystem rather than simply enhancing their core product.

The Potential Revenue Opportunity

While Notion Mail is currently free, looking at comparable email clients reveals significant monetization potential:

Notion has already established a precedent for feature-specific pricing with Notion AI, which costs an additional $8/month per user. This suggests an emerging monetization strategy: instead of simply raising core workspace prices, Notion could charge separately for each specialized tool.

If Notion eventually charges just $5 monthly for Mail, $5 for Calendar, and maintains the $8 for AI features—all as optional add-ons to their base workspace—they could potentially 2X their average revenue per user (ARPU) through an à la carte model.

I’ve personally experienced the value proposition. Before Notion Mail, I paid $50/month for Fyxer (month-to-month Professional plan). I’ve since switched to Notion Mail—making their ecosystem stickier while saving monthly costs.

This approach opens up opportunities for Notion and strengthens their ecosystem:

1. Direct revenue potential: Standalone tools can be monetized independently at premium price points
   ​
2. Higher ARPU opportunity: Specialized tools justify higher per-user pricing than general platforms
   ​
3. Increased switching costs: Each additional tool raises the barrier to leaving the ecosystem
   ​
4. Competitive displacement: Replacing point solutions reduces competition without direct confrontation

Creating Multiple On-Ramps for Different User Segments

Notion’s strategy aligns with Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm” framework—but with a twist. Rather than trying to push one product across the chasm, they’re building multiple bridges tailored to different user segments.

While many tech professionals have already adopted project management tools, adoption remains significantly lower outside tech hubs. Nearly a quarter of micro-SMBs still run projects on email and spreadsheets, according to Capterra’s 2021 Project-Management User Survey.

By offering free, standalone tools with immediate utility, Notion reduces the psychological barriers that typically prevent later-stage adopters from trying new productivity tools:

• Email is familiar: Even the most change-resistant users understand email
• Zero switching costs: Works with existing email addresses
• Minimal learning curve: Email UI patterns are broadly understood
• Mission-critical but contained risk: Email is essential but a client swap is relatively low-risk

The Enterprise Trojan Horse

Beyond targeting individual late adopters, Notion’s standalone tools create another growth vector: grassroots adoption within organizations already using competing project management tools.

According to Torri's SaaS Visibility and Impact Report, 69% of tech leaders cite unauthorized tools as a top security concern—indirectly confirming that employees regularly adopt helpful tools regardless of official IT policy.

This shadow IT pattern creates two advantages for Notion:

1. Foothold without displacement: Companies can use ClickUp, Asana, or Microsoft Project for project management while individual teams adopt Notion’s free tools for personal workflows.
   ​
2. Internal champions: As more employees use Notion’s tools, the company builds advocates who can eventually influence broader adoption decisions.

The Macro Context: Changing Work Patterns

Two broader trends likely factor into Notion’s strategy too:

1. The lean-team era: Companies are producing more with fewer employees. Meta cut 21,000 positions in 2023 during its “Year of Efficiency,” yet grew revenue by 16% compared to 2022, according to CNBC.
   ​
2. Growth in independent workers: The freelance economy continues expanding, with over 64 million Americans freelancing in 2023, up from 60 million in 2022 according to Upwork’s Freelance Forward study.

These shifts create demand for lightweight, integrated tools rather than enterprise-heavy solutions—precisely the niche Notion’s standalone apps fill.

What’s Next for Notion?

Given the pattern established, I predict Notion’s next likely move is a video conferencing or screen recording tool with AI integration.

The evidence points in this direction:

• Skiff’s technology already included encrypted video calling capabilities
• Notion’s Special Projects engineering listings mentioned “real-time collaboration and rich media” (since been removed)
• AI email tools like Fyxer already include seamless video meeting assistants that draft follow-up emails based on the meeting notes.
• Calendar (time) → Mail (communication) → Video/Meetings (presence) forms a logical progression

This would move closer to completing Notion’s daily workflow coverage, adding the synchronous layer to their growing stack and feeding Notion AI with valuable meeting transcript data.

For users, the integration would create a compelling workflow: schedule a meeting in Calendar, join via Notion’s video tool, capture AI notes, and link everything to your workspace—all within one ecosystem.

I'd love a Loom-esque asynchronous video recording tool within Notion too. 😉

Takeaways for Companies in Maturing Markets

Notion’s strategy offers valuable lessons for any company facing growth plateaus:

1. Add doors, not just features: When direct competition intensifies, create new entry points that target adjacent, untapped audiences rather than just adding features to your core product.
   ​
2. Build standalone value first, integration second: Ensure each new tool delivers immediate value independently before pushing ecosystem benefits. This lowers acquisition barriers while creating multiple monetization opportunities.
   ​
3. Price like a specialist when possible: Specialized tools can often command higher per-seat prices than general platforms. Consider pricing standalone tools separately to increase overall ARPU.
   ​
4. Recognize where your market sits on the adoption curve: Products designed for early adopters don’t always resonate with the late majority. Different segments require different entry points and value propositions.

The Bottom Line

For founders and growth leaders, the key takeaway is that sometimes the most effective strategy isn’t competing harder for the same customers—it’s finding creative ways to expand your addressable market while creating new monetization opportunities.

What do you think of Notion’s strategy? Would your business benefit from a similar approach? Reply to this email with your thoughts—I read every response.

The largest ski company in the world has completely flipped its business model over the past 15 years.

In 2008, 65% of skiers at Vail Resorts bought single-day lift tickets. Today, 75% of their customers purchase season passes, committing thousands of dollars months before the first snowfall.

This transformation didn't happen by accident. It was a deliberate strategy to address a serious threat to their business: climate change.
‍

Analysis of 652 sites across the Western U.S. reveals a troubling trend: 81% of ski areas have experienced decreased snowfall since 1955, with almost half seeing drops of 20% or more. Unpredictable snowfall creates unpredictable revenue—a nightmare for any seasonal business.

Hat tip to @sportsball on Instagram for their fantastic data visualization on this topic that inspired our analysis. Check these guys out.

Vail’s solution? Use pricing psychology to drive non-refundable annual season pass purchases.

Since 2010, the company has steadily increased the price of single-day lift tickets to an astonishing $329 per day—nearly triple what they cost just a decade ago. Meanwhile, they’ve kept their unlimited Epic Pass around $1,000 for the entire season.

The brilliance of this strategy is in the mental calculation it triggers:

“If I ski just 3-4 days this season, the annual pass pays for itself!”

This pricing approach presents several advantages:

1. Hedge against uncertain weather: Vail collects payment upfront, regardless of future weather.
   ​
2. Cash flow improvement: The company receives a substantial capital boost before their high-cost operating season begins.
   ​
3. Perceived value: Customers feel like they’re getting a deal, even as they commit more money upfront.

But this isn’t just a ski industry phenomenon. Companies across sectors are applying this same psychological trigger—and we recently spotted a particularly good example.

The "Anchor Shock" Strategy in Action: Screen.Studio’s Clever Pricing

While researching screen recording tools, we stumbled across an example of anchor pricing in action, Screen Studio. Their pricing triggered the same result as Vail's, more annual signups.

Screen Studio's pricing page initially shows a very affordable $9 per month. It looks like a great deal until you notice it's for annual billing. Switch to monthly pricing, and you'll experience the "anchor shock" as the price jumps to $29 per month.

$348 for a year of monthly payments versus just $108 for the annual plan. The math feels obvious—you break even after just four months of use, making the annual plan feel like the only rational choice. (And yes, we became annual subscribers.)

While most SaaS companies offer a modest 15-20% discount on annual plans, Screen Studio's dramatic 3X difference creates a much stronger pull toward annual commitments.

This example prompted us to investigate: How effective is this pricing strategy? To find out, we ran the numbers.

The “Anchor Shock” Math: Why Dramatically Lower Annual Prices Can Generate More Revenue

To understand why companies are embracing this strategy, we created a simple model comparing two hypothetical pricing approaches for a SaaS product:

What happens when 100 potential customers visit each pricing page and we track the revenue from this "month 0" cohort for two years? Let’s examine the assumptions for our model:

Key differences between our two scenarios:

1. Conversion Rate (2% vs. 6%): The Anchor model converts three times more visitors. When a $50/month product is suddenly available for the equivalent of $12.50/month (annual plan), it becomes accessible to a much wider audience. What was previously a considered purchase becomes closer to an impulse buy.
   ​
2. Plan Mix (50/50 vs. 83/17): In the Standard model, we assume a 50/50 split between annual and monthly subscribers (1 annual, 1 monthly). This is conservatively high, and favorable for the Standard model. In the Anchor model, we see a dramatic shift toward annual plans (5 annual, 1 monthly). This shift occurs because the annual discount is so compelling that it’s hard to justify the monthly option.
   ​
3. Annual Renewal Rate (50% vs. 80%): The Anchor model’s annual price ($150) creates much less “renewal friction” than the Standard model’s $500 renewal. At $150, it’s more likely to be approved without scrutiny, while $500 often triggers a “do we still need this?” evaluation.

Now let’s see how these models perform at key stages:

Month 0: Initial Conversion

Right from the start, the Anchor model generates 45% more revenue ($800 vs. $550) due to higher conversion rates and more annual plans.

End of Year 1

By the end of the first year (including renewals), the Anchor model has generated $1,950 compared to the Standard model’s $1,350—a 44% advantage.

End of Year 2

After two years, the gap widens. The Anchor model produces a cumulative $2,530 versus $1,575 for the Standard model.

That’s $955 more revenue from the same 100 visitors—a 61% increase—despite charging 70% less for annual plans ($150 vs. $500).

It’s important to note that our model only follows the initial cohort from Month 0. In reality, these effects would compound month over month, year over year, as each new cohort follows the same pattern.

Want to play with the numbers for your business? Reply to this email and we'll send you the full editable model.

Why The Anchor Shock Strategy Works

The Psychological Principles at Work

This strategy leverages several cognitive biases:

• Price anchoring: The high monthly price makes the annual price seem like a bargain by comparison.
  ​
• Loss aversion: Once customers do the math, choosing the monthly option feels like “losing money.”
  ​
• Future discounting: Most people overestimate how long they’ll use a product, making the annual commitment seem like an even better deal.

How to Implement the Anchor Shock Strategy in Your Business

There are two primary ways to implement the anchor shock pricing strategy:

1. Increase your monthly price while keeping your annual price stable (if your monthly plan is currently underpriced).
   ​
2. Decrease your annual price while keeping your monthly price stable (if your monthly price is already appropriate and you have margin to spare on your annual plan).

Either approach can work—the key is creating a ~3X differential between the 12 month total cost of your annual and monthly plans.

Beyond that core principle, here are specific implementation tips:

1. Set your monthly price point strategically

This becomes your anchor—the reference point against which everything else is judged. Don’t be afraid to set it higher than you might normally think.

2. Create a large gap to your annual plan

Instead of the typical 15-20% annual discount, aim for a 65-75% difference when calculated on a monthly basis.

3. Lead with the annual price (shown monthly)

This is critical: On your pricing page, show the monthly equivalent of your annual plan FIRST. Seeing the lower monthly price first is what sets the psychological hook.

4. Test different gaps

While 3X appears to be a sweet spot, every business is different. This is something you can A/B test relatively quickly to see how the math works for your specific audience and business model.

5. Consider adding a premium tier

This further enhances the perceived value of your annual plan through comparison, making it look like the reasonable middle option. Screen Studio also has a $229 "Pay Once" option, which also makes $108 feel like a great deal.

Industry Examples Beyond SaaS

Online Courses:

• Monthly access: $49/month
• Annual access: $199/year ($16.58/month equivalent)
• The pitch: “Access all courses for less than 5 months’ worth of the monthly plan!”

Coaching Business:

• Pay-per-session: $299/session
• 12-session package: $1,199 ($99.92/session)
• The pitch: “Book a 12-session package and save 67% per session!”

When It Might Not Work

While the Anchor Shock strategy has proven effective across many businesses, it may not be right for every situation:

• Low retention products: If your product has inherently low retention regardless of price, the annual renewal advantage may not materialize.
  ​
• Premium positioning: For luxury or high-end products, dramatic discounts might undermine perceived value.
  ​
• Complex pricing structures: Products with multiple tiers, add-ons, or platform pricing (like HubSpot...sheesh) may find it difficult to implement consistently across their pricing matrix.
  ​
• Long sales cycles: Enterprise products with lengthy approval processes may not see the same impulse buying effect.

Final Thoughts

The Anchor Shock strategy challenges conventional wisdom about maximizing revenue per customer. By optimizing for conversion and retention rather than unit economics, companies can achieve significantly higher overall revenue.

Whether you’re running a ski resort facing climate uncertainty or a SaaS startup looking to improve cash flow, consider experimenting with this approach. Your customers might thank you for the perceived deal, while your business benefits from higher conversion rates and predictable revenue.

AI increasingly dominates the performance of ad channels.

These days, the optimal targeting strategies mostly let AI do the heavy lifting.

You feed Meta the copy and creatives, and it figures out who to show it to.

Which makes creatives by far the most important variable to test.

But you also don't want to waste money testing subpar creatives either.

So you might as well steal the creative ideas from others.

There are a few ways to gather inspiration:

• Creative inspiration tools: Tools like Foreplay and Atria let you browse a big library of ads.
• Ad channels themselves: The Meta Ad Library and LinkedIn Ad Library let you peak at ads that any company is running.
• Social media: Sometimes, the best inspiration organically pops into your social feed.
• Databases and galleries: Random sites have created databases of ads.

Let's dive into each of those now:

Creative inspiration tools

We'll start with creative inspiration tools because they help you:

• Discover great ads either organically or by searching
• See their accompanying ad copy, landing page, and whether they're still running that ad or not (a good signal it's working)
• Save great ads you stumble upon into collections (aka "boards").

You can then use those to inspire yourself, your team, or your clients.

Here are the two tools we recommend:

• ​Foreplay: The tool we use internally with our agency to gather inspiration to use internally and to share with clients.
• ​Atria: A competitor to Foreplay with some analytics tooling (for more $).

Here's a walkthrough of Foreplay from our in-house creative, Joey Noble:

Meta and LinkedIn Ad Libraries

Here are the links to the ad libraries:

• ​Meta Ad Library​
• ​LinkedIn Ad Library​
• ​Reddit Ad Library​

These tools let you search for the ads being run by specific companies.

Here's a walkthrough from Joey of how to do just that:

And, of course, if you decide to use Foreplay or Atria, save any great ads you find to your boards. If not, you can also save them to a swipe file, notion, google drive, or whatever else you may use.

Social media

How to tell you're a real marketer:

You stop to watch the ads as you browse social media. AND you save the ones you find interesting.

Whenever you're scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, or wherever, take note of an ad that:

• Catches your attention
• Makes you stop scrolling
• Keeps you watching until the end
• Has you questioning whether you should click or not
• Or, is just creative or interesting

Then, you can save the ads to Foreplay for future reference. You do that by forwarding the ad to the Foreplay Instagram account (assuming you linked your Instagram to your Foreplay account).

Note: I apologize in advance for the search results that come up when you search "foreplay" on Instagram 🙄.

Databases and galleries

Various websites or influencers out there have curated ads:

• ​Adfolio: Database of great b2b ads.
• ​Ads of the World: Ads from big brands.
• ​Commarts: Ads from big brands.
• ​The Ad Professor: An influencer who shares a lot of ad inspo.
• ​Copywriting Examples: Great repo from Harry Dry!

I also have some curated ads you can see here:

• ​X vs Y ads​
• ​Ugly Ads​
• ​Top KitKat Ads​
• ​Top Vintage Car Ads​
• ​Top McDonald's Ads​
• ​Top Surreal Ads​

Some quick ad creative takeaways

Here's some rapid-fire advice:

1. ​Hooks are the most important. People hate ads in general. So you better intrigue them as fast as possible.
2. Don't make people think. People have zero patience for confusing ads.
3. Don't be fancy. Simple, clean, & straightforward is almost always best.
4. Try not to be a “creative copywriter.” You're not trying to win an award. You're trying to sell a product.
5. Be novel/quirky. Peculiarity often stops the scroll.
6. Leverage culture. Familiarity, topicality, and relevance help.
7. Get in the mindset of the audience. The best ads often come from noob ad makers with an iPhone and an intimate understanding of:
   1. Who they are
   2. What problems they're struggling with
   3. What they're worried about
   4. What their selfish desires are
   5. What they care about
8. Don't talk about you, talk about them. Make them the hero of the story. Your product is the lead supporting character.
9. Kill your darlings. Ruthlessly cut meaningless words or elements that don't add to the value of what you're saying—even if you like it.

Let others make your ads more efficient

Don't create in a vacuum.

Finding inspiration should always be a part of your creative process.

Need help from a growth strategist?

As part of the natural rhythm of work life, some of our incredible team members eventually move on to new adventures.

​Antoine is doing just that—going out on his own to pursue freelance growth strategy and advisory work.

If you're in need of early-stage growth support, Antoine is your guy:

• He’s a rockstar strategist with over 10 years of experience growing both bootstrapped and venture-backed companies.
• He’s already helped take 2 SaaS startups from early-stage to acquisition, and now he’s looking to bring that same magic to new projects.
• He’s currently taking on just 2 new clients.

He typically offers this for $7,000, but is offering a giant 50% discount for the DC audience. Work with him for only $3.5k.

​Check out his website, or book a call with him directly.

Churn kills a lot of products.

Acquiring new customers or leads is often linear (you gain X customers per month because you spend $YYYY on ads).

Churn, however, is often exponential (you lose Y% per month).

You completely stall out when your churn = your new acquisition.

For example, if you:

• Add ~100 customers per month, and
• Lose ~3% of your customers each month due to churn

You'll completely stall out once you have ~3,333 customers.

Here's a chart visualizing this "Growth Ceiling."

Ways to prevent stalling out and keep growing?

• Reduce churn (better product, better onboarding, etc)
• Crank up acquisition (more content, more ads)
• Make your product more viral

Let's focus on how to make your product more viral

A truly viral product grows itself—each new customer refers one or more other customers.

If you can achieve that, you have a completely self-sustaining growth engine where each user leads to another user which leads to another user (and so on).

This growth is typically measured by the "viral coefficient"—the average number of new users each current user brings in. If this coefficient is greater than 1, you're experiencing viral growth.

Here's a nice graph showing growth over time based on viral coefficients of 0.8, 1, and 1.2. As you can see, it goes wild once you go over 1.

(You probably heard a lot about the R factor during COVID, this is the same thing, except for product growth, we usually call it the K factor)

Virality makes your acquisition efforts easier

It drastically reduces your customer acquisition costs and accelerates your growth, creating sustainable momentum that ads alone can't achieve.

Imagine two scenarios where it costs you $50 to acquire each new customer:

1. Each new customer refers 0 new customers. To scale you need to keep spending $50 per customer—which will break because as you scale your CAC will generally increase as you target colder and colder audiences.
2. Each new customer refers 2 new customers. Therefore, it costs you ~$16.67 per customer because of the 2 free referrals. You can push ads much harder and have room to scale (particularly if those referred customers also refer customers).

Cracking virality is huge.

The two types of virality

One last stop before the actionable tips. There are two types of product virality:

#1. Internal virality: The product spreads from person to person in a company.

Design products that naturally spread within an organization—tools like Slack, Notion, or Figma achieved massive internal virality through seamless user adoption as one user in an org invites other users in the org.

#2. External virality: The product spreads from person to person across different companies.

Tools like Calendly or Typeform spread externally because users naturally send their branded links to new, external audiences.

We'll talk about ways to achieve both.

Viral products aren't built by accident—they're engineered.

Here’s how to give your product the best shot at organic growth.

1. Embed social features directly into your product

The best viral products are inherently social, and the user cannot get value from the product unless shared with someone else. Examples include:

• Calendly: People can't book unless you share your Calendly.
• Figma: You can't share a design or collaborate without sharing your Figma.
• Loom: You can't easily share your video without sending the Loom link (I mean, you could download it and send it, but the easy sharing is the real value prop of Loom)
• Dropbox: To get the most value, you need to be able to share the files.

When you design your product, consider ways to make it so the user can only really get full value by sharing it—even if it's not the core use case.

For example, Foreplay made a secondary product use viral.

Foreplay lets you browse ads that other advertisers run and save them to boards. It's super handy just for gathering inspiration.

To make it more viral, they also make it easy to share the boards you create and share individual ads you find and live on Foreplay-hosted and branded domains.

Here's an example of a board we made with AG1 ads:

2. Remove friction from sharing

Every extra step it takes to share kills virality. Aim for one-click sharing.

Some quick ideas:

• Ever-present obvious CTAs to share.
• Give options for sharing (links, emails, text, social)
• Auto-populate sharing messages to reduce cognitive load (e.g., pre-written referral messages).
• Make it free or really cheap to share

On that last point, Kyle Poyar gives some great ways to make it seamless to get new users in without it immediately costing the sharer money:

3. Remove friction from joining

Every extra step it takes for the referred user to get in and get value kills virality.

Some quick ideas:

• Have generous free tiers or free trials so people can instantly use it.
• Make it so they can get value without needing to create an account, but if they want to take action, they have to create one (like Figma lets you view a file, but if you want to comment or edit it, you need an account)
• Google/Facebook/Apple/LinkedIn account creation so it's quick and easy.
• Have templates and opinionated defaults to make onboarding easy.

4. Brand your product's outputs

When someone shares something from your product, make sure to take the opportunity to make yourself known:

• Add a "Created/Made with" badge. Note: a premium tier could involve removing that branding (like Tally, Typeform, Webflow, etc)
• Host the output on your domain. Examples: Notion, Webflow, Calendly, Foreplay, Typeform.
• Add your watermark when they export it. For example, when you download a video from TikTok it automatically adds TikTok branding:

5. Incentivize referrals

Sure, the best is when people share your product just by using it or because they can't shut up about it.

But with the right incentives, you can:

• Push people over the hump who wouldn't otherwise share
• Turbocharge the rate at which people share

Here are a few ways to incentivize referrals:

• Increase usage limits (more storage, more time, more whatever)
• Free product
• Free bonus incentives (swag)
• Contests
• Free credits (ex: supercharger credit
• Amazon gift cards or straight-up cash

This can either be with the typical referral or affiliate links, or you can build it into the product.

For example, testimonial.to shows its branding on free tiers.

On paid tiers, you can decide to remove the branding, OR you can keep it, but by doing so, you get 30% of the referred revenue from people who click it.

6. Give fun reasons to share

Rather than sharing the product, give users a compelling reason to share something about your product.

• Create badges, leaderboards, streaks, or awards users can share on social media or their LinkedIn profile. (Duolingo’s streaks, HubSpot’s certifications)

• People love to learn about themselves and share things that are core to their identity. Use data you have about the users to create shareable content. Think Spotify Wrapped:

7. Strategically prompt happy users to share

YouTube annoys the hell out of me.

It asks me to upgrade whenever I'm going through the Google 2FA flow—which is exactly when I have zero patience to consider upgrading and just want to log into to finish the task I'm focused on.

Asking for referrals is similar.

Don't ask whenever a user is in the middle of something.

Instead, do it after they've completed a big milestone where they're probably stoked.

8. Surprise and delight users

If you surprise and delight a customer, they will likely share their excitement.

Chewy, the pet food brand, did this best.

Here are insights shared in Marketing Examples:

"Every customer is welcomed with a handwritten card reminding them to call anytime:

They employ 100 artists whose sole job is to paint customers' pets. The portraits are then mailed to unsuspecting customers:

If they hear about a pet passing away, they'll send a bouquet of flowers and a condolence note:

And if you buy the wrong dog food, customer service will tell you:

Don’t worry about returning it, we’ll refund you, just donate the item to a pet shelter"

Not only does this build insane brand loyalty (in a commoditized market), it is also very likely someone will share these stories with friends and on social.

Quick takeaways for virality

• Try to make your product inherently viral.
• Remove friction for people to share and use it
• Brand your product's outputs
• Incentivize referrals
• Give fun reasons to share
• Prompt happy users at the right time
• Surprise and delight customers

Cold emails and DMs are getting damn near constant.

Our brains are INCREDIBLY good at quickly identifying it as spam and:

• Ignoring
• Archiving
• Reporting

So here’s a bunch of tactical ways to not be ignored (and at the end, I’ll share some of the most over-used tactics that people still recommend):

Trick #1: Make it warm

If you got a personalized message from your favorite founder, author, influencer, or celebrity, you would welcome it, read it, and happily respond.

And you’d be extremely forgiving.

Here’s how to make it warm:

1. Produce a lot of free content on LinkedIn, Twitter, newsletter, YouTube, podcast, etc.
2. Then engage with people who engage with you. Engage with others, writing and commenting on relevant posts in your niche.
3. Eventually, DM them a personalized message to get to know them, give them a free resource, or pitch an offer (that you know they’ve likely had some exposure to).

Your response and success rates will be WAY higher, and you’ll be burning far fewer bridges.

Trick #2: Short and simple

I can immediately tell it’s a cold email when I see 100+ words, and it's all perfectly formatted.

The cold emails I’ve actually responded to?

• Short
• Simple
• Casual
• To the point

Here’s a cold email we received from Sponsy that led to us (and several other newsletter operator friends I know) becoming a customer:

Here’s what it does well:

1. It’s three short sentences and gets to the point quickly.
2. It doesn’t try so damn hard to fake a connection.
3. It’s focused on my problems and how they can solve them—not about how great they are.
4. It’s well-targeted. They knew we had newsletter sponsors, and I likely had those problems before sending it.

Trick #3: Put in the work

Our top-performing cold outreach campaign for a client was directly a result of putting in the work before emailing people.

Our client allowed WordPress sites to create "members only" content (like Substack does now).

The most likely person to want this? Someone already using a competitor to run a membership program on their WordPress site.

What we did:

1. Paid for scrapers and VAs to go through lists of WordPress sites that sold memberships and label them based on the competitor they were using.
2. Researched people's top objections about each competitor.
3. In our emails, we highlighted those headaches and how our client's tool would relieve them.
4. We offered a free migration (because no creator wants to deal with the headache of migrating tools).

Our response rate was nearly 80%. And we booked tons of sales demos.

Trick #4: No links

Here’s an email I just got that has several problems:

• It doesn’t know my name, so it just put it blank. So the opener of “Hi ,” makes it very clear it’s templated.
• It’s from outreach@ and is from the Outreach Team… talk about personal
• It’s all about them them them them—it provides zero value
• It’s sent from their actual domain—meaning if I mark it as spam it can ruin the reputation of their entire domain.
• Lastly, it has not one but two links

Why are the links an issue?

Well, for three reasons:

1. The first link is not something we use for anything—so it's a red flag.
2. Email providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) are savvy that cold emailers add links. Adding links can ding your email reputation—especially when you’re sending a ton of them
3. It’s immediately obvious that it’s cold outreach spam.

Quick tips

• Write like you would to your friend or partner.
• Make it about them and their problem.
• Personalize with variables that matter—like the tools they use or the problems they're experiencing.
• Don't just spray and pray. Fewer, better-targeted emails.
• Show it to a friend, partner, or family member for their honest feedback on whether it "smells" like a cold email.
• Send using a different domain—so you don't accidentally destroy the reputation of your real domain.

Tired cold outreach tactics

Here are some of the top cold outreach tactics I see constantly that will make people ignore you or mark you as spam.

#1. The cringe/forced personalization

The opener to Kevin about his new role at DC is so forced, given the subject:

Another classic is the fake restaurant recommendation in the recipient's town, which is just one of the top restaurants on TripAdvisor.

It's very strange to get someone in Ann Arbor, Michigan, recommending a restaurant to visit in Victoria, BC.

#2. The "reply" or "forward" subject line

You've probably seen someone recommend writing a subject line with a "Re: " or "Fwd: "

I imagine this greatly increases the odds you open the email.

But at what cost?

Having them realize your first interaction with them was a lie?

#3. The horribly targeted

This email was quite frustrating:

Here are two reasons it's terrible:

• Its subject line is horribly clickbaity and deceiving.
• We very clearly have a website, yet he's claiming we don't. It would not take much effort to realize we have a Webflow website.

#4. The fake personalized loom video

Here, the person records one Loom video pitching their product.

But to make it look personalized, they cut it so that they're looking at the homepage of your website—maybe even fake scrolling through it.

The best was when I got a video like this from someone I've met before.

He could have just sent me a WhatsApp message, but instead, I got a cold email from him that was clearly fake, which made me instantly lose respect for them.

Be useful and real.

Most of this advice comes down to this:

• Don't deceive people. Be real with them.
• Don't do forced personalization. Only do it if it makes sense.
• Don't spam people. Try only to contact people who need your product.
• Don't just talk about how great you are. Focus on their problem.
• Don't spray and pray. Be more targeted and build relationships.
• Don't write an essay. Short, simple, to the point.

Most people who want to build an audience won’t try.

Most who try won’t for long.

What’s holding them back: Being scared to start and sticking with it.

The fear comes from a variety of sources:

1. Imposter Syndrome

70% of people feel like they’re not good enough or that they’re just pretending to be competent, according to a study published in 2021.

They’re worried about sharing their ideas and having someone expose them for the incompetent fool that they are.

Competent experts are more likely to experience imposter syndrome partly due to the…

2. The Dunning Kruger Effect

The less you know, the more confident you are:

An expert knows there’s a lot that they don’t know and can think of various people who are better at those things, so they become less confident in their abilities than the complete amateur who doesn’t know enough to realize they know very little.

It’s a dangerous combo when it’s combined with…

3. The Curse of Knowledge

“Yes, but I don’t have anything interesting to say.”

When you’re an expert who’s been doing something for years, and you’re surrounded by people who have also done that thing for years, it becomes incredibly hard to recognize how much valuable knowledge you have that others wish they had.

For example, one of my friends has worked with Dr. Andrew Huberman, Sam Harris, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Dr. Peter Attia, and Shane Parrish to grow their audiences and increase the revenue they earn from their businesses.

The above quote was what he said to me when I encouraged him to start posting online.

A marketer with 10+ years of experience working with some of the biggest creators in the entire world, and he thinks he has nothing to teach people.

We need more people like him sharing their knowledge, not 20-year-old influencer wannabes sharing lists of free AI tools.

Lastly, we’re all scared to put ourselves out there because of…

4. The Spotlight Effect

We all feel that everyone is paying attention to us. If we mess something up, everyone will notice and care.

The reality is that everyone is too busy worried that you will judge them.

Because of these, people get stuck in the research and prep phase

Here are the reservations people typically have at first

1. “I don’t have anything valuable to say”
2. “I don’t want people to judge me”
3. “I don’t know what tools to use”
4. “I don’t know what to write about” (← the major focus of the rest of this article)

You need to muscle through the first two by reminding yourself of the 4 psychological biases above. They’re ingrained into us. Even when you’ve been doing it for years, you’ll still have to fight them off occasionally.

The others we’ll dive into separately:

“I don’t know what tools to use”

Researching tools feels productive. And it’s a lot easier and less scary than actually doing the work.

This is why people love nerding about productivity tools and systems because it's a way to procrastinate in a way that feels productive.

In reality, the only tools you need to get started as a creator are:

• A social media account
• An internet connection
• A smartphone or computer

You don’t need the ultimate productivity system. You can write directly in the app and record video and audio using your smartphone.

That being said, here’s the Audience Building Tool Stack I recommend.

“I don’t know what to write about”

A content creator rarely starts with the perfect idea.

It’s very similar to startups. Most successful startups are not:

• Selling the same product they started with
• Targeting the same market they started with

For example, Slack started as a video game. After years of development, they scrapped the game and turned the in-game messaging system into a product.

Airbnb was a marketplace for finding places to crash during conferences where you’d sleep on an air mattress on the floor (hence Airbnb). Hell, Airbnb even sold presidential breakfast cereal:

As for content creators:

• Justin Welsh started with software sales advice and now sells the dream of solopreneurship.
• Ali Abdaal helped people get into medical school, then did MacBook reviews, then did investment advice, and has settled on being a productivity expert after researching how to create content efficiently.
• Sahil Bloom started with nuanced finance discussions and now talks about family and living a “high-performing, healthy, and wealthy life.”
• Katelyn Bourgoin was sharing general marketing advice when she realized she was really interested in the psychology behind why people buy. So, that became her entire focus.

Just like I somehow became obsessed with How to Write Hooks while creating startup growth content on LinkedIn.

So, in short:

Get f*ckin’ going, you’ll find it on the way

Imagine you were 18 years old and refused to work until you knew what you wanted to do for the rest of your life.

You’d likely be homeless (or a pain in your parents' ass) and never work.

Instead, follow your interests until you find something you want to explore deeply—the same applies to startups.

You don’t need to be an expert in it; you can become one by obsessing over the topic for months and months.

That being said, I have an article on choosing a topic you can monetize.

You’ll get better with consistent practice

In 2007, a struggling digital artist from South Carolina named Mike Winkelmann was frustrated with his poor drawing skills. So, he issued himself a challenge:

→ Post 1 new piece of unique art online by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

No excuses:

• He did it on his wedding day.
• He did it when he was deathly ill and could barely move.
• He did it even on the days his two children were born.

For years, this challenge was purely a means to improve his skills as an artist and to get attention to his work so he could do commissioned art pieces for people.

His first pieces are objectively… terrible:

But after consistent practice…

The result?

On March 11th, 2021, Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, made history. He sold an NFT of the first 5,000 pieces of art he made this way for $69,346,250. It was the second most expensive piece of art from a living artist ever sold.

His 6,000+ pieces of art are documented proof of his development as an artist over 17 years.

His strategy worked well for a few reasons:

1. It forced him to create art every day. The hardest part of being a creator is getting your ass into the seat. This forced him to do it.
2. It forced him to keep expanding his skill set to stave off boredom. He went from pencil drawings to 3d renderings.
3. Posting every day gives him the opportunity to create culturally relevant and timely art—art that can strike a chord immediately as it enters the Zeitgeist.
4. He could be known for something. He’s the guy who creates weird, culturally relevant art each day.
5. It gets easier every day. With every piece of art, he’s adding to his catalog of assets that he can use in future pieces. If he creates Elon Musk or Sam Bankman Fried one day, he can re-use them in the future. He has systems, presets, and templates that make creating complex art way faster and easier.

Frameworks to get started

Sure, it’s easy for me to tell you to get started, but here are some frameworks to make it easier to figure out what to write about:

• Explain something you’ve explained 3 times or more recently
• ​Tell stories from your life
• Write down whatever interests you lately. Your latest rabbit hole.
• Something you just learned.
• A problem you just dealt with at work
• ​An analysis of one of your favorite books, companies, styles, etc.
• ​Create lists of your favorite books, podcasts, tools, and resources
• ​Actionable step-by-step on how to do parts of your job
• ​Share a meme that made you laugh out loud
• Issue yourself some sort of challenge. For example, Beeple’s daily art or Soren Iverson’s daily parody UI:

Make sure to work on your copywriting

You must be a sharp copywriter for your content to perform.

Here are a few resources I’ve created to help:

1. ​10 Ways to Write Hooks. I’ve studied hundreds of viral hooks and found 10 fundamental ways to hook people.
2. ​The 10 types of posts and how to use them. Use these to systematize your content creation process.
3. ​10 Copywriting Tips. One of my top articles and LinkedIn posts.
4. ​7 Copywriting Frameworks (with cheatsheet). So you don’t have to start from scratch; these frameworks make “fill in the blanks.”
5. ​An analysis of 12 ways to hook with Thumbnails. A hook can be an image, too.

Just don't use reading these resources as an excuse to not Get F*cking Going right now ;0

First, a confession: I'm not a designer by trade. I've picked up these principles over years tinkering in Figma, Webflow, and countless marketing automation tools, testing what works and what doesn't.

The high-stakes reality of cold outreach

When you're doing outbound sales as an early-stage startup, here's what typically happens:

1. You spend hours crafting the perfect cold email
2. If it resonates, the prospect clicks through to your website
3. In under 10 seconds, they decide whether your company is worth their time

This critical 10-second window is where many startups unknowingly lose potential customers—not because of their product or offering, but because of poor visual hierarchy.

What is visual hierarchy?

Visual hierarchy is how all the pieces of your website are arranged and styled to guide visitors' eyes in a specific order. It uses size, color, contrast, spacing, font choices, weight, and even movement to tell people what to look at first, second, and third—like creating a roadmap for their attention.

When done well, your visitors seamlessly absorb your value proposition and know exactly what action to take. When done poorly, they feel confused and bounce.

Real-world examples: A respectful analysis

I recently received cold emails from two companies that successfully got me to click through. Both are likely doing great work (kudos for getting the cold email opened in the first place!), but their websites could benefit from some visual hierarchy adjustments.

Note: This analysis isn't meant to reflect negatively on these companies whatsoever—I'm merely pointing out potential areas for improvement that could boost their already successful outreach efforts.

Company #1

While the headline is really clear and outcome-focused, there are a few hierarchy issues worth addressing:

1. The second line is hard to read against the gradient backdrop
2. The embedded video creates a second hero message that pulls attention away from the main header
3. The high-contrast white cards below compete for attention with the primary CTA

The result: I feel visually confused about what I'm looking at and where to focus during those critical first seconds.

Company #2

While this site looks cleaner at a glance, the visual hierarchy can be improved:

1. Social proof logos placed under the hero header disrupt the typical flow
2. Testimonial section is placed before I understand what the product is
3. No UI shots to help the viewer glean what the company does
4. Long-form paragraph text is hard to scan

The result: I find my eyes bouncing around this page, comprehending very little about the problem they solve and how they solve it.

The fix:​
Here's how I would fix this landing page in 5-10 mins, without changing the copy and messaging.

Here's a full video of me editing the new landing page, step by step.

Four principles any non-designer can implement today

1. Size = Importance

The largest text should be your most important message. Your headline should be the largest, followed by subheadlines, then body copy.

2. Contrast creates focus

Elements that stand out visually get noticed first. This applies to color (bright vs. muted), size (large vs. small), and even spacing (isolated vs. grouped). Use contrast to highlight what you want visitors to see first.

3. One primary message per section

Each section should direct users toward a single key takeaway. Multiple competing messages decrease comprehension.

4. Put your product or UI front and center

Visitors want to see what they're getting ASAP. A well-placed product or UI shot can communicate more than paragraphs of text.

For SaaS founders, if you don't show your UI, I assume you're hiding it because it's bad. I'll bounce 99% of the time if there's no UI on your landing page.

The 10-second test anyone can run

1. Show someone your homepage for exactly 10 seconds.
2. Close it and ask:
   • What does this company do?
   • Who is it for?
   • What action were they supposed to take?

If they can't answer clearly, your visual hierarchy likely needs work. Lack of clear value prop messaging may also be the problem. If you need help with copy and positioning, check out the Demand Curve Growth Program.

BONUS TIPS:

Use Templates (the shortcut to good design)

Imagine going to your first guitar lesson and your teacher tells you to compose an original song. You'd be lost – you don't even know the basic chords yet! That's what it's like trying to build a website from scratch without being a designer. Start by using templates (like beginners play other people's songs). Master fundamental design principles before you consider breaking them.

1. Find a template on Figma, Webflow, or Framer that's directionally aligned with your brand
2. Use it as the base for how you lay out content on your site
3. Change as little as possible (seriously)

Why not change it? Here's another analogy. If I took "Game of Thrones" and started adding random characters or changing major plot points without being a seasoned writer, I'd likely ruin what made it great in the first place.

The same applies to website templates. Professional designers have already solved visual hierarchy problems—trust their expertise. Slot your story into their framework.

Another way to do this is to find a company that has great visual hierarchy and model after them. Take Attio, today's sponsor, their website demonstrates all of the design principles discussed above.

Pro Resource

Check out Relume (relume.io). They have a massive Figma library with hundreds of website components. The components offer a starting point that you can apply your brand colors, font, and copy to.

Remember, the goal isn't to reinvent design—it's to communicate clearly so your potential customers understand your value proposition.

These principles apply beyond websites

If you were wondering, yes, visual hierarchy applies to all your content—emails, pitch decks, ads, resumes, and social posts. Clear visual hierarchy helps people understand your message faster, regardless of the medium.

Before you blame your cold email copy or offer, run a critical eye over your website's visual hierarchy. This simple check could dramatically improve your conversion rates.

For more tactical content like this, follow me on LinkedIn.

—Kevin

Last week, we spoke with Ash, founder of Auggie, for what was supposed to be a quick interview about her growth strategy. Instead, we discovered something far more valuable: a case study in how to spot and capitalize on obvious-but-overlooked problems.

In less than a year, she built a $20K/mo business that's already profitable—all by solving a problem so obvious that when she explains it, the most common reaction is: "Wait, that didn’t exist?"

The insight that sparked her business? Women were filling pantyhose with rice to simulate breast implants before committing to a $10,000 surgery.

When DIY Hacks Signal Business Opportunities

Back in 2022, Ashleigh (a chemical engineer, ex-Deloitte consultant, and former tech CEO) was getting ready for a wedding with a friend who had recently gotten breast implants. When she asked how her friend had chosen her implant size, the answer shocked her.

“I used the ‘rice sizer’ method.” Meaning, she filled pantyhose with RICE, converting cups to CCs to create DIY implant sizers at home."

While this method is fairly common, and even recommended by some surgeons, Ash with her chemical engineering background, promptly went home, did an experiment, and confirmed that the packable density of rice is 18-20% different from medical-grade silicone. So women who are using the rice method for sizing, are getting a false sense of feel.

Ash discovered that breast implant manufacturers already make professional sizers, but they're only available to surgeons. Women reported feeling rushed using the in-office sizers during a 15-30 minute try-on during consultations.

That's when it clicked: women need "Warby Parker at-home glasses try-on for boobs!"

Ashleigh launched Auggie—a rental service letting women try different implant sizes at home for 7-14 days with their own clothes. Within 10 months, Auggie hit profitability, sold over 1,000 units, and collected over one hundred 5-star reviews.

The most surprising outcome? Some women try Auggie sizers and realize they love their natural breasts—saving them from a surgery they might have regretted.

Three Types of Innovation Opportunities

Auggie's story illustrates that profitable businesses don't require groundbreaking inventions. Founders find white-space in dozens of ways—new tech, fresh distribution channels, quirky brand twists, and everything in between. I’m going to spotlight three high-leverage plays to turn scrappy ideas into real businesses.

1. Product Innovation​
   Creating something truly new that solves an existing problem in a novel way.
   ​
2. Business Model Innovation ​
   Taking existing products and reimagining how they’re sold, distributed, or monetized.
   ​
3. Branding Innovation​
   Taking commodity products and injecting personality, purpose, and premium positioning.

Think of these as “lenses,” not firm boxes. A single startup can, and often does, use more than one at the same time.

Auggie is fascinating because it's a great example of a business model innovation with slight product innovations.

Ashleigh’s innovation wasn’t being the first one to create implant sizers, she worked with a medical device manufacturing company to improve an existing technology, and then created a novel rental service that made them accessible directly to consumers. By improving and productizing an existing technology, she accelerated her time-to-market (and profitability).

Innovation Examples

Let's explore three high-leverage approaches to turn scrappy ideas into real businesses:

You'll notice that many of the examples below don't use just one innovation type exclusively. For example, Allbirds combines product innovation (sustainable materials), business model innovation (direct-to-consumer), and branding innovation (eco-friendly lifestyle positioning) to create their competitive advantage.

Product Innovations

Product innovation means creating something truly new that solves an existing problem in a novel way.

Technological Breakthroughs: Creating something that wasn't possible before.

• Example: ChatGPT enabled natural language conversations with a large language model, creating an entirely new way for humans to learn, create, and do work.

Significant Improvements: Making existing products dramatically better.

• Example: Love em or hate em, Tesla transformed electric vehicles from limited-range novelties into high-performance cars with superior range and performance.

New Combinations: Combining existing technologies in novel ways.

• Example: Peloton combined stationary bikes (which had existed for decades) with streaming technology and social features to create a new home fitness experience.

Business Model Innovations

Business model innovation takes existing products and reimagines how they're sold, distributed, or monetized.

Subscription Transformation: Converting one-time purchases into recurring revenue models.

• Example: Spotify transformed music consumption from purchasing individual albums or songs to a monthly subscription for unlimited access, changing how people consume music.

Rental Transformation: Taking products traditionally purchased outright and offering them as rentals.

• Example: Rent the Runway turned designer clothing from an expensive purchase into an affordable rental, making luxury fashion accessible to a much wider audience.

Professional-to-Consumer Bridge: Making tools or services only available to professionals accessible to consumers.

• Example: Canva made professional-level graphic design accessible to everyday users without the steep learning curve of Adobe software or the need to hire a designer.

Marketplace Creation: Connecting buyers and sellers in ways they couldn't connect before.

• Example: Airbnb created a marketplace that allowed homeowners to rent spare rooms or entire homes directly to travelers, bypassing traditional hospitality gatekeepers.

Direct-to-Consumer: Removing middlemen to offer better products at lower prices.

• Example: Hims & Hers took prescription healthcare products directly to consumers through telemedicine, cutting out traditional doctor visits for routine treatments like hair loss and erectile dysfunction.

Branding Innovations

Branding innovation takes commodity products and injects personality, purpose, and premium positioning.

Design-Led Transformation: Taking an existing product and making it beautiful while changing little else.

• Example: Welly transformed boring bandages and first aid supplies into colorful, distinctive products with premium packaging, creating a design-forward brand in a traditionally clinical category.

Purpose-Driven Positioning: Aligning existing products with social causes or values.

• Example: TOMS Shoes built their entire brand around the "One for One" model, donating a pair of shoes for each pair purchased, transforming commodity footwear into a vehicle for social impact.

Lifestyle Integration: Turning utilitarian products into lifestyle statements.

• Example: Allbirds took basic sneakers and repositioned them as sustainable, comfortable lifestyle products for environmentally conscious consumers, creating a brand identity far beyond the functional benefits.

Demographic Repositioning: Taking products traditionally marketed to one group and repositioning them for another.

• Example: Pattern Beauty created hair care products specifically formulated for curly and textured hair (particularly positioned towards people of color), serving an underrepresented demographic that mainstream brands had largely ignored.

Premium Positioning: Elevating commodity products through design, packaging, and storytelling.

• Example: Yeti turned basic coolers and drinkware into premium lifestyle products commanding 3-5x the price of conventional alternatives through rugged design, brand storytelling around outdoor adventure, and strategic partnerships with outdoor influencers.

6 Ways to Spot "Rice Ball Problems" in Your Daily Life

Based on conversations with dozens of successful founders, here are six practical methods to identify obvious-but-overlooked problems:

1. The "Pain Point Journal" Method

Keep a notes file on your phone and record moments of frustration throughout your day. What made you say "that's ridiculous" or "there must be a better way"?

The key is immediacy—capture the pain point while you're feeling it, not retrospectively when you might rationalize it away.

Review this journal monthly, looking for patterns. The problems that repeatedly frustrate you will likely frustrate millions of others.

2. The "Painful Payment" Technique

​Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo, recommends reviewing your credit card statement and identifying the payments that physically hurt to make. For each one, ask:

• Why is this so expensive?
• Is there a technological reason for the high cost, or just market entrenchment?
• Could this service be provided at 50% of the cost while maintaining quality?

This technique led Kagan to identify numerous business opportunities, including a cheaper alternative to expensive e-sign services.

3. The "Jobs To Be Done" Framework

Clayton Christensen's famous framework from the book, "The Innovator's Dilemma" focuses not on products but on the "jobs" consumers are trying to accomplish.

When applying this to find business ideas, ask:

• What "job" are people trying to get done?
• What are they currently "hiring" to accomplish this job?
• Is there a gap between what they want to accomplish and the current solutions?

For Auggie, the "job to be done" wasn't "try on implants"—it was "make a confident decision about a body-changing surgery with minimal regret risk." The rice balls were what women were "hiring" to do this job, but the rice balls themselves were woefully under-qualified.

4. The "Business Model Scan"

Look at existing products and ask:

• Could this be turned into a subscription?
• Could this be rented instead of purchased?
• Could this be unbundled or rebundled with other services?
• Could this be made available direct-to-consumer?

For Auggie, the question was: "Could professional sizing tools be rented directly to consumers?" The answer was yes.

5. The "Professional-to-Consumer" Bridge

Identify tools, products, or access that professionals have but consumers don't. This is exactly what Ashleigh did with Auggie.

Other examples:

• ​Canva made professional design tools accessible to non-designers
• ​Robinhood brought commission-free trading to everyday investors
• ​MasterClass brought world-class teaching to the living room

Ask yourself: "What exclusive tools do professionals use that everyday consumers might benefit from having access to?"

6. The "Category Scan" Method

Next time you're at a supermarket, pharmacy, or browsing Amazon categories, scan for:

• Products where most items look outdated or nearly identical
• Categories with clinical or utilitarian packaging lacking emotional appeal
• Products that haven't meaningfully changed their look in 10+ years
• Categories where the target market has evolved but the branding hasn't

These are prime opportunities for branding innovation, as demonstrated by companies like Welly (bandages), Native (deodorant), and Judy (emergency kits).

Why Do Obvious Problems Remain Unsolved?

You might be thinking: "If these solutions are so obvious, why doesn't someone else solve them first?"

Ashleigh asked herself the same question before launching Auggie. Here's the thing...

Established players often deliberately ignore obvious solutions that would cannibalize their existing business models.

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In Auggie's case, breast implant manufacturers make billions selling to surgeons. They have no incentive to create a direct-to-consumer model that might give women more power in the decision process or potentially reduce surgery rates. Device manufacturers are also subject to much more regulatory scrutiny, which increases the complexity of execution for them, but not for a new entrant.

This pattern repeats across industries:

• Eyewear manufacturers had no incentive to disrupt the high-margin business model they'd created with opticians (Warby Parker)
• Hotel chains had no reason to unlock the value of spare bedrooms in residential homes (Airbnb)
• Taxi medallion owners had no desire to make private drivers more accessible (Uber)

Where industry giants see threats to their business model, entrepreneurs see opportunity.

The Bottom Line: Finding Success in Plain Sight

Most successful businesses aren't built on revolutionary breakthroughs—they're built on making obvious solutions accessible to the people who need them most.

As Ashleigh's experience shows, sometimes the best business opportunity is simply spotting a problem people are already trying to solve with improvised solutions, and turning their makeshift fix into a proper product.

The next time you see someone using a creative workaround, don't just admire their ingenuity—ask yourself if there's a business opportunity hiding in plain sight.

In August 2022, tech YouTuber Linus Sebastian (Linus Tech Tips) launched a premium ratcheting screwdriver priced at $69.99, generating approximately $5 million in first-batch pre-sales with essentially no marketing spend.

While impressive, it took Linus 3 years to develop the screwdriver and nearly a decade to build his 16m subscriber base. Nonetheless, he leveraged years of audience trust to validate his product along the way and fund production through pre-sales.

This is a good segue into our first big concept.

The Era of the Audience-First Company

Here's our take: In today's market, building an audience first—before developing products—might be the safest startup strategy available (for most founders).

Let's consider a concrete example: imagine you want to build an AI marketing agency platform. Essentially, a single software that replaces the need to work with an ad agency. This hypothetical SaaS tool would solve the following problems.

Let's consider two paths to bring this product to market:

Traditional Path:

1. Develop MVP (3-6 months)
2. Test with beta users
3. Raise funding
4. Build out full feature set (6-12 months)
5. Launch and scramble to find customers
   ​
   ​Risk: By launch, market conditions have changed, competitors have emerged, and your feature set may already be outdated

Audience-First Path:

1. Build content/community around marketing automation expertise
2. Grow to 1,000-10,000 engaged followers
3. Launch a micro-SaaS product, small feature-set, 10x improvement in UX, quality, price
4. Generate revenue while learning exactly what your audience needs
5. Continually sell new products/features into your steadily growing audience
   ​
   ​Advantage: Rapid market feedback, built-in distribution, revenue while building

The economics have fundamentally changed. What used to be a negative—"That's not a company, it's a feature"—is now potentially a strength.

A Real Example: Consider content creator Kane Kallaway, who:

• Built a following of 290K+ on Instagram and 300K+ on TikTok talking about tech and AI
• Launched a YouTube channel teaching people how to create viral short-form content, reaching 100K subscribers in under five months
• Is now building an AI software (sandcastles.ai) that helps people implement the viral content strategies he teaches on YouTube

With each step, he's generating revenue while simultaneously building distribution channels for his next product. In a world where AI makes building easier, distribution becomes increasingly valuable.

To be clear: This doesn't work for every business. Deep tech, regulated industries, and complex B2B platforms still require substantial upfront investment & development.

Why Pre-Selling Beats Feedback Every Time

The second insight from our Linus case study is the power of pre-selling as validation.

Conventional startup wisdom says to get feedback before building. But there's a problem with this approach: feedback is free, and people are generous with positive reactions that don't require commitment.

Pre-selling is the antidote. When someone puts down money—even a small deposit—they're demonstrating actual demand, not hypothetical interest.

The difference between "that sounds interesting" and "here's my credit card" can’t be understated.

Pre-selling works particularly well when you've built an audience, but it's effective even if you haven't. Here's how to approach it:

When You Have an Audience (Even a Small One):

Direct pre-selling can work beautifully with just 1,000 engaged followers. You can:

1. Email your list to notify them of the product you’ve built
2. Drive them to a landing page (built with best-practices e.g. strong value prop messaging, social proof, product UI imagery, etc.)
3. Offer early-bird pricing or founder's discounts

The key is ensuring there's enough skin in the game—a deposit or full payment—to confirm genuine interest.

When You Don't Have an Audience Yet:

This is where the "service-first" approach comes in—something we call "manual before mechanical."

Case Study: DesignJoy founder, Brett Williams, built a productized design service where he personally handles all design work. Solopreneur design services might sound like small potatoes, but Brett claims to rake in nearly $1.2M/yr. While he hasn't chosen to build a product yet, he could fund development of a SaaS product through his service revenue if he wanted to.

Potential Pitfall Alert: The service-first approach comes with a major challenge—you can get trapped in service delivery. When you're spending 110% of your time fulfilling client work, when do you actually build the product? If you choose this path, be prepared to either:​

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          1. Cap client intake at a manageable level
          2. Hire help to run the service side while you build
          3. Use profits to bring on a technical co-founder​

Without this planning, many founders get stuck in "service purgatory"—too successful to quit, but unable to evolve into a scalable product. I know from personal experience. 🤦♂️

Addressing the Skeptics: Real-World Constraints

Let's address some valid considerations regarding the audience-first approach:

"Building an audience takes too long" Fair point—not everyone can wait 1-2 years to build a following. The answer? Start small and focused. You don't need millions of followers—you need 100-1,000 of the right people. Niche down aggressively. A newsletter with 500 enterprise CIOs is more valuable than 10,000 mixed followers.

"The audience-first approach doesn't work for deep tech" True—some technical innovations require significant upfront R&D. In these cases, consider a hybrid: develop your core technology while simultaneously building thought leadership in your space through technical content that attracts your ideal audience. Check out Nothing Tech. They've built a ~1M subscriber following on Youtube while developing an iPhone competitor.

"Pre-selling doesn't work for enterprise products" Enterprise sales cycles are indeed longer and more complex. However, we've seen founders successfully use "paid pilots" and “design partnerships” as a form of pre-selling—where a company pays a reduced fee to participate in early development, essentially funding your build while providing real-world feedback.

"Service businesses are fundamentally different from software" Yes—and that's exactly why you need a clear exit strategy if you're using the service-first approach. Define specific metrics that will trigger your transition to product development (e.g., "$300K ARR" or "50 active clients"). Otherwise, you risk building a service business that consumes all your bandwidth.

Actionable Steps to Implement These Strategies

For the Audience-First Approach:

• Identify your zone of expertise and the audience you can uniquely serve
• Commit to consistent content that demonstrates your knowledge
• Focus on one platform where your audience already exists
• Set a modest initial goal (1,000 newsletter subscribers, 5,000 followers)
• Start building micro-products or services while growing your audience

We developed the Demand Curve UNIGNORABLE course to help founders solve this problem. Keep an eye out, we may just open it back up. 😉

For the Pre-Selling Approach:

• Create a landing page that clearly articulates your value proposition
• Use AI tools to mock up a realistic UI/design of your product
• Offer limited early-access pricing (with meaningful deposits)
• Set a specific validation target (e.g., "We'll build if 50 people pre-order")
• Consider starting with a service version that you can deliver manually

👆If you’d a clear step-by-step guide on how to validate your product, check out the Demand Curve Growth Program. 25% off through April 30th.​

P.S. Shoutout to Soren Iverson for last week’s “Just for Fun.” Sorry for leaving out your much deserved attribution buddy!

Have you ever walked down a grocery aisle and felt your eyes glaze over at the wall of nearly identical products? That's exactly the problem Brooklyn-based ice cream brand, Van Leeuwen, was facing.

What do you notice about the ice cream brands below?

Van Leeuwen couldn't stand out in this crowded landscape. Their packaging blended in with competitors, making them practically invisible to consumers despite their premium product.

The Solution That Transformed Their Business

In 2017, Van Leeuwen worked with vaunted design agency, Pentagram, to redesign their brand identity and packaging. Sales jumped 50% within months after introducing their new look.

Van Leeuwen stripped away:

• Cluttered visuals fighting for attention
• Maximalist "word-art" style fonts
• Ice cream, cow, and ingredient imagery

Insight: Before the redesign, Van Leeuwen's packaging had another critical flaw – the colors of their cartons didn't signify the flavors inside. Their chocolate ice cream came in a yellow carton, while other flavors had completely different looks with little brand consistency. The redesign not only simplified, it also created a cohesive system where colors related to flavors.

The Pattern-Breaking Formula

To be clear, the takeaway isn't just to "go minimal." It's about studying what everyone in your category is doing—and deliberately doing the opposite. If everyone in your niche is already going minimal, you might need to go maximalist to stand out. The key is spotting the pattern and doing something different. As Marty Neumeier puts it in his book ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands: "When everybody zigs, zag."

When to go maximalist: When Hims and Hers hit the scene in 2017, their distinctive pastel color palette and clean design was unique. Today, countless brands have emulated their identity. So if you're launching a direct-to-consumer healthcare, skincare, or haircare product in 2025, the pattern-breaking move might be to go bold and maximalist rather than following the minimal trend.

Case Study: Graza Olive Oil

Traditional olive oil brands come in glass bottles with earth-toned labels, gold accents, and imagery of Mediterranean landscapes.

​Graza took one look at this pattern and broke it:

• Bright neon squeeze bottles that look more like condiments
• Playful, simple typography
• Practical design that improved the user experience

The result? Heads turned, sales took off, and they've achieved a $240M valuation.

Functional Innovation: Graza's squeeze bottles weren't just about looking different—they solved a real problem. Professional chefs have long used squeeze bottles for olive oil because they offer precision and control. Graza brought this practical solution to home cooks while creating a distinctive brand identity.

Case Study: Liquid Death

When you think of packaged water, you picture clear plastic bottles with blue labels and images of mountains or springs, right?

Liquid Death said f**k that 🤘:

• Aluminum cans typically reserved for beer or energy drinks
• Heavy metal-inspired branding
• Edgy messaging that speaks to a completely different audience

This departure from category norms is, in large part, responsible for their $1.4B valuation.

Social Context: Like Graza, Liquid Death's success isn't purely attributed to design. For non-drinkers at concerts, bars, and social events, holding a Liquid Death can feels similar to holding a beer, allowing people to blend in while staying hydrated—solving a problem other water brands never considered.

Case Study: Notion

While other productivity tools like Asana and Trello embraced rainbow-colored interfaces, notifications, and feature-packed dashboards, Notion went in the opposite direction:

• Black and white color scheme
• Clean, minimal interface
• Playful illustrations for brand textures
• Focus on customization rather than out-of-the-box features

The result? An instantly recognizable product that defined a category and has subsequently amassed a $10B valuation.

Category Creator: Notion's minimal black-and-white approach has become so influential that numerous tools now emulate its aesthetic. Products like Capacities and Coda have emerged with interfaces that look like close replicas of Notion's clean design, showing how successful pattern-breakers often create new standards others follow.

When Your "Zag" becomes everyone else's "Zig"

When brands successfully break a pattern and scale, they create a new standard that others will inevitably follow. The innovators pave the way, and followers pile on. We've seen this with Graza's squeeze bottles now being copied by established brands, and with Notion's aesthetic influencing countless productivity tools.

Your Pattern-Breaking Action Plan

The formula is remarkably simple: Look at what everyone else is doing, do something different.

To implement this in your business:

1. Audit your category: Collect examples of competitors' branding, packaging, or interfaces. Look at your cateogory's product page on Amazon. Walk the shelves at your local grocery store.
   ​
2. Identify the pattern: What specific design choices, colors, form factors, messaging approaches, or features are universal in your space? These are your opportunities to differentiate.
   ​
3. Deliberately break the pattern: Choose at least one significant element to invert or reimagine. Remember, sometimes less is more—but if everyone's going minimal, you might need to go bold.
   ​
4. Make it distinctive enough: You don't need to overhaul everything. Clay.com differentiated itself with unique brand textures layered throughout an otherwise standard SaaS website. Find your signature element and execute it well.
   ​
5. Stay ahead of copycats: Once others start emulating your approach, look for fresh ways to differentiate again.

The Bottom Line

Pattern-breaking isn't just about aesthetics—you have to have a good product, distribution, messaging, etc. too. But all things being equal, when consumers face overwhelming choice, the brand that stands apart often has the advantage.

What category patterns could you break in your business? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
​
- Kevin

P.S. If you need help with your brand positioning, check out the 2025 Demand Curve Growth Program. 25% off through April 30th.

Real talk on Poppi's vending machine stunt, Olipop's clever piggyback, and how early-stage founders can replicate—or steer clear of—both strategies.

⸻

Poppi's $800K Vending Machine Fiasco (…Or Was It?)

Back in February, prebiotic soda brand ​Poppi​ allegedly spent up to $800K sending 30+ custom pink vending machines to top influencers. They wanted something splashy during Super Bowl season, but the internet accused them of wasting money on already-wealthy creators.

Yet what looked like a bust had a silver lining: Poppi became the talk of social media, major news outlets, and angry fans everywhere. Meanwhile, rival Olipop jumped in for free exposure. It's a fascinating case study with nuance for early-stage founders wondering if "viral" stunts or cheeky hijacks can help them grow.

Let's break down:

1. The "Earned Media Multiplier" Why even negative buzz can catapult brand awareness.
2. The "Hijack" Strategy How Olipop rode Poppi's wave—and why it worked for them, but might be trickier for newcomers.

Lesson 1: Big, Controversial Stunts Multiply Reach—But Not Always as Planned

Poppi shipped 32 bright-pink vending machines—rumored at $25K each—to major creators. But they didn't anticipate the backlash over "wasting money on rich influencers."

Here's why that fiasco still gave Poppi a visibility boost:

1. Earned Media MultiplierThe moment a stunt becomes "drama," every reaction multiplies visibility. People with zero interest in Poppi jumped in to criticize or defend the brand, blanketing social feeds for free.
2. Emotional Hooks Trigger SharingOutrage is a powerful driver. Even unplanned negativity can spark massive reach—the question is whether that translates into long-term sales or drives folks away.

ROI Calculation

If we assume a typical CPM for beverage ads is ~$8–$10, Poppi would need 80M–100M impressions to justify their $800K spend. Given that multiple influencer TikToks hit millions of views, plus mainstream media coverage, they likely reached that scale—intentionally or not.

Important: Poppi reportedly didn't aim to spark negativity. They wanted a "cool factor," not a fiasco. That's the caution: once your PR gambit is live, you lose control of the reaction.

​Poppi (@drinkpoppi) • Instagram photos and videos​

Why Founders Should Care—Even if You're Not Dropping $25K Machines

• Bold Hooks Can Work at Any Budget: ​Surreal Cereal​ took a more approachable path with their ​fake “celebrity” campaign​—they found everyday people who share names with celebrities ("Dwayne Johnson," "Serena Williams") and had them endorse their cereal on billboards and social. It was cheaper, borderline edgy, and generated strong buzz. (We'll do a full newsletter on Surreal in a couple weeks—stay tuned.)
• But Bold Risks Can Backfire: Poppi's brand took hits from consumers who thought the stunt was tone-deaf. Your reputation is at stake, especially if you're smaller and less established.
• Not a Reliable Growth Engine: PR stunts are a crapshoot. Founders will almost always be better served by investing in a more predictable growth engine through proven channels (paid media, consistent organic content, direct outreach, etc.).

Lesson 2: Hijacking a Competitor's Spotlight—Why Olipop Succeeded

While Poppi battled critics, Olipop popped up in the comments, joking about the rumored $25K price tag. By engaging in that moment—and offering itself as a cooler, more down-to-earth alternative—they attracted significant attention.

But here's the nuance most miss:

• Olipop Is Already Established
  • If you're truly unknown, commenting on Poppi's drama likely won't move the needle. People only noticed Olipop because they recognized it as Poppi's established competitor.
• Content Remixing Is The Real Strategy
  • Simply commenting may not work for newcomers. Instead, consider what creator ​Kane Kallaway calls "cult hopping"​—creating derivative content that remixes or responds to a trending moment.

Relatively small creator, Joefromyoutube (94.6k followers on Tiktok) reached 16.4M people with his morning routine parody.

Different Space, Example Opportunity

• Remember the ​Jaguar rebrand everyone hated in early 2025​? Small car brands could have gained traction not just by commenting, but by creating comedic content analyzing the rebrand fail—or even suggesting their own alternatives.
• This works because algorithms prioritize content related to trending topics, giving newer accounts a chance at visibility despite having fewer followers.

Keep It Realistic

• Not Your Main Growth Lever: Piggybacking builds awareness but won't be your breakout engine. You still need an ongoing content strategy that solves real problems for your audience.
• Build The Always-On Muscle: Part of your strategy can be: "In addition to our core helpful content, we'll try to hop on at least one trend per month." Having a baseline content operation puts you in position to capitalize when opportunities arise.
• Mix With Other Tactics: Think of trend-hopping as a fun add-on to paid ads, direct outreach, or methodical brand building. The real foundation is consistent, high-value content that builds trust.

Final Thought: Balancing Hype with Substance

In the pop-soda wars, Poppi gambled big on a one-shot moment. Olipop piggybacked nimbly, scoring an easy PR win. But for most founders, the real magic is in consistent, strategic growth habits.

A splashy moment might give you a short burst of buzz—but sustaining those new leads, fans, or followers takes an always-on plan. So go ahead and brainstorm your creative PR stunts, but make sure you have a backstop: an actual product people love, systems for turning attention into customers, and baseline content to keep them engaged after the hype dies down.

The truth is, while big stunts make for great case studies, steady, predictable growth almost always beats viral breakout attempts. The companies that last are rarely one-hit wonders.

⸻

–– Team Demand Curve

(We help early-stage founders build repeatable, scalable growth. If you're looking for proven playbooks—plus hands-on support—check out our Growth Program or schedule a quick call. Let's get your traction engine running.)

Startups are all about rapid learning and iterating.

Ad creative is one of the highest-leverage things you can test and iterate on.

They help you quickly iterate and discover the value props, imagery, angles, and messages that resonate with your audience.

Hiring a designer or agency sounds appealing, but outsourcing too early can slow you down and eat into your budget—without guaranteeing better results.

And as ​we learned last week​, video ads can make a huge difference.

So here's how to make motion ads yourself using Keynote

Most people think great animated ads require years of experience and hours of fiddling with excessively complicated tools like After Effects.

Even seemingly simple things can be a ton of work:

I’ve been using Keynote and PowerPoint for years to create polished, professional ads—without spending a dime on motion design.

In this quick breakdown, I show you exactly how to make an animated ad in under an hour, using nothing but Keynote (psst…you can do this in PPT too).

🔗 ​Watch the video​

Inside, I cover:

• How to create smooth motion effects using Magic Move in Keynote.
• A parallax-style depth effect that makes ads look more dynamic
• How this method can make your brand look more premium—without a big budget

This is an easy way to level up your ad creative without hiring anyone or learning complex tools.

Try this tactic or send it to your marketing team or ad designer—it’ll save hours.

If you want the full, unedited tutorial where I walk through every step in detail, reply to this email, and I’ll send it to you.

For more tactical content like this, ​follow me on LinkedIn​.

– Kevin

P.S. If you’d rather outsource motion graphic ad creation, we can do it for you. We have 3 slots left for new clients in February. Reply here or head to ​DemandCurve.com​ to book a call.

We hate "the same old shit."

Our brains evolved to detect the abnormal because it had a significantly higher chance of leading to either death or thriving.

As a result, we adapt to anything incredibly quickly—even something that initially shocked or terrified us— and it becomes part of the mundaen.

That's the whole idea behind the ​Law of Shitty Clickthroughs​:

‍Over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty clickthrough rates.
— Andrew Chen, partner at a16z

For example, the first banner ad ever on HotWired had a CTR of 78%. Today, the average CTR on a Google Display ad is about 0.60%.

This, of course, happens to every channel and tactic eventually:

This rise and fall happens for two compounding reasons:

1. Marketers ruin everything. Anything that works gets overused.
2. We crave novelty. Something is only interesting the first few times.

So the truly fundamental rule of marketing is:

Don't be so f*cking boring.

The Man in the Hathaway Shirt

Nobody knew this better than advertising legend David Ogilvy.

Ogilvy first became famous due to his legendary ad campaign for his upstart fashion client, Hathaway:

Ogilvy randomly decided to pick up some eyepatches on his way to the photoshoot and got the photographer to humor him and take a few photos.

The ad caused Hathaway to quickly sell every shirt in the city. Hathaway and Ogilvy both became instantly famous from this ad.

All because of a stupid eye patch that cost 50 cents.

Other great examples of silly ideas

Is that a house arrest device?

Here's Dara Denney's YouTube video that inspired this newsletter:

Shoe brand ​Labucq​ cleverly slapped some sort of electronic device on the model's ankle in an ad—and gave absolutely zero context on what it is.

Guaranteed, nearly anyone who looks at the end will stare at that device and wonder what it is. They're also likely to click into the comments to see if anyone says what it is. They may even click to the website.

That's significantly more time and attention on the ad than for a boring old ad featuring someone's feet.

The incredibly slow build

This ad breaks all the rules:

1. It starts completely silent.
2. It takes 16 seconds for the first word.
3. The scene doesn't change for 23 seconds.
4. The sound cuts off again halfway through.
5. You finally know what the ad is for 83 seconds into the ad.
6. Then it hangs there for another 17 seconds before it ends.

But it's perfectly on brand for Guinness's slogan:

Good things come to those who wait.

This ad took a lot of guts to make and release, but it is often considered one of the best of all time.

Honorable mention

Cadbury's famous Gorilla ad used the exact same format:

I don't like it as much because it's a bit too random. At least with Guinness, the core idea of the ad matched the brand.

Comically cringe and terrible ads

These two ads are legendary.

First, Chuck Testa's taxidermy in bizarre, uncomfortable scenarios:

And then The Red House's extremely uncomfortable and confusing ad for its "Black and White People Furniture:"

What on earth is going on?

I'll let the video/visuals do the talking for these first:

They're so bizarre. They're impossible not to watch and share.

You would not believe the motherload I just dropped—and that's how I like it

This ad has one of the greatest hooks of all time (written above):

The writing is impeccable.

The overly posh English accent and dress combined with the vulgarity of her descriptive prose truly make it delightful.

Boring is the default—fight it

You can pretty much guarantee that the first idea you have is likely the same idea that nearly everyone else would have.

The best ideas are:

• Those goofy random thoughts (like Ogilvy's eyepatch)
• Wrung out of your head with a lot of creative brainstorming—ideally with other goofy and creative people.
• Ones that scare you to do. You should be worried about creating and releasing it, either because you think it'll bomb or you're worried about people's reactions.

As Rory Sutherland likes to say:

‍You'll never be fired for being logical.

But doing the logical thing means you'll be doing the same old boring stuff that everyone else is doing.

So, take risks.

Because not taking risks is actually far riskier in the long run.

As I said, content that gets a lot of likes often doesn’t generate purchase intent.

Let’s use a somewhat extreme case to illustrate this.

There are a lot of really popular Instagram accounts that share things like:

• Funny animal videos
• Victorian Era homes
• Hilarious fake products/signs
• History facts or videos

Yet they make basically no money.

It turns out that just because you have 1M followers who love funny cat videos doesn’t mean they’ll ever buy anything you recommend or sell.

Even if they’re cat-related.

They trust you to make them laugh. They don’t trust you for financial/life decisions.

Whereas creators like Linus Tech Tips and MKBHD can make or break products with the power of their recommendations.

Choosing the right topic and angle is one of the most critical steps in the process. With the same effort, you can achieve significantly different business results.

Let’s dive into how to identify the right topic for your (or your startup’s) content:

Characteristics of monetizable content

There are a few variables here that all need to mingle in just the right way:

1. Audience
2. Topic
3. Content

Four characteristics of a monetizable AUDIENCE:

#1. Pain

They must desperately want what you’re offering. Your content must help them relieve the pain (or at least, make them feel like it’s relieving that pain).

#2. Purchasing power

They have money to pay to relieve the pain.

• No purchasing power: Students hate spending money.
• Lots of purchasing power:
  • Venture capitalists will pay a lot if you can make them more.
  • Rich audiophiles will buy expensive hifi audio equipment you recommend.

This can be overcome if the audience is very large, much like MrBeast makes a lot of money from a lot of eyeballs despite most of them being broke teenagers.

#3. Social presence

They exist on the channels you plan to target, and it’s normal to talk about that thing on that channel.

For example, LinkedIn isn’t the right place if you talk about gardening even if there were a lot of gardeners on it. But it is the right place to talk about startups and leadership.

#4. It’s growing (and large ofc)

In the past several years, the fastest-growing content creators have written about crypto and AI, two booming industries on an uptrend.

Another example is someone scaling a pickleball newsletter to 150,000 subscribers in record time thanks to the sudden and rising popularity of the sport:

Find the next trend, or at least one going in the right direction.

#5. Underserved

Ideally, the audience doesn’t have a lot of options already. AI newsletters grew the fastest right as the world started to wake up to AI. Now, there’s a lot more competition for AI newsletters, so it’s harder to grow.

Three characteristics of a monetizable TOPIC:

#1. Specific/niche

Leadership is a broadly appealing topic. It’s a problem for many, and it means a lot of different things. Don’t just talk about “leadership;” instead, focus on being a better startup CEO.

Help a specific buyer solve their specific problems.

Here are three ways you can niche down:

• Subtopic: Not general copywriting, but writing ad copy.
• Audience: Not “leaders” but CEOs of 100+ person companies.
• Outcome: Not “build an audience” but “make 5-figures a month from LinkedIn."

Here are some examples of each.

#2. Matches what you sell

If you sell or want to sell SEO services or software, the buyers are anything from local stores, dentists, tiny startups, and massive companies.

You need content that gets in front of your target buyer, like simple “how to” guides. If you talk about nitty gritty, nerdy SEO details, you’ll attract your peers, not buyers.

But if you sell advanced SEO training or software, or are looking for a job as the Head of SEO, then nerdy talking about SEO details is perfect.

How you approach the topic changes whose trust you’ll build.

#3. Infinite game

Your content cannot solve a finite discrete task.

For example, fundraising for a startup. It’s a painful problem for someone who can pay a lot. But, once that person finishes raising money, they never want to think about it again. Your content will be interesting to them for that brief moment.

Instead, you need a game that never ends. People never stop striving to be better CEOs, parents, creators, marketers, programmers, designers, storytellers, or product managers.

Nor do people stop being interested in cars, tech, fashion, etc.

Two characteristics of monetizable CONTENT:

#1. It builds trust

Sharing memes, funny videos, and lists of hot AI tools is great and all, but in no ways does it make people trust you.

Linus Tech Tips and MKBHD have done a great job making engaging content that gives you informed and honest recommendations of tech products, and haven’t lost people’s trust by doing anything shady like take on Apple as a sponsor and then talk about how perfect their new products are.

They’re taken conflicts of interest seriously by not accepting a sponsor from a product category they review, not taking compensation to do a review, and trying to always give honest, critical and (hopefully) unbiased recommendations.

To build and keep trust:

• Have morals and stick to them
• Do right by people
• Create content that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise
• Avoid cringe things like clickbaity hooks or thumbnails of you crying that may help in the short term but make people lose respect for you

#2. Different

The exact method you use to address a topic needs to be different. You can’t just copy how another creator or company does it.

If you started posting videos identical to MKBHDs why would anyone care?

They’re going to go with the more established folks already doing it. So you need to approach it in your own unique way that’s true to you or your company.

For example, Hot Ones is just an interview podcast, but they made it completely different by forcing guests to eat spicy food.

Once you nail the fundamentals, the rest is easier

Take some serious time to pause and reflect on:

1. Who you’re creating content for
2. What you’re talking about
3. And how you’re talking about it

Because if you nail that, growth will come—even if the content isn't perfect.

If you want to go deeper into my advice for choosing a topic, read my full article.

And if you want a ton of help building your audience, consider joining the final cohort of our popular audience building course UNIGNORABLE. Enrollment closes next Tuesday.