Growth Newsletter #099

Being a founder is HARD.

Finding product-market fit is one of the toughest challenges that constantly poses questions like:

1. Are people using my product?
2. How are they using it?
3. Are they returning to get value week over week?

When first starting out, Segment co-founders didn't understand how important these questions were or how to use analytics to answer them.

So they spent 1.5 years and 7 different MVPs in their pursuit of product-market-fit before finding the secret sauce.

Segment helps you collect, clean, and act on your customer data. You can now build fast with a reliable, performant, and compliant stack. And it handles the annoying task of integrating with different tools. So your team can focus on product, not integrations.

‍And Segment is now free for Startups!

Apply to their Startup Program →

It’s a no-brainer that if you’ve got a podcast, you should be posting it on YouTube. Even if you don't record video (which you should).

YouTube has 2.6 billion monthly active users. Spotify has 456 million (but only ~30M listen to podcasts). Stitcher has 15.3 million weekly users.

On top of that, YouTube is used much more heavily for search. And Shorts have massively increased discoverability relative to regular videos.

Here are 7 tips for podcasting on YouTube:

1. Take snippets of your podcast and share them as Shorts on the same channel. It's far easier to go viral with a Short than it is with a full episode.
2. Organize different video formats into playlists on your channel.
3. Include your host or guest speaker’s face in the thumbnail image. Users tend to gravitate toward thumbnails featuring faces. Find more tactics for YT thumbnails here.
4. Use intriguing titles. Don't write misleading clickbait, but know that you need to capture someone's interest enough that they click.
5. Example: "The Untold Truth about The Mandalorian"
6. Add chapters to your episodes. These make your episode easier to navigate and keep people around longer as they can skip to parts that interest them the most. Type the time for each segment in 00:00 format in the video description. YouTube will automatically generate them.
7. Even if you don’t have video in your recording sessions, you can and should still publish your podcasts on YouTube. Go for an audiogram format—pair images with your audio. For more originality, use an AI art generator like DALL-E.
8. But we highly recommend recording video to increase engagement and to be able to do Shorts. Riverside.fm is great for high-quality remote recording.
9. Add captions. Captioned videos have a higher average watch time.
10. Add a watermark to your video that encourages people to subscribe. Here's how.

Are you a coffee drinker?

Or do you drink coffee?

Same thing, right?

Not when it comes to marketing.

In a series of experiments in the early 2000s, psychologists Gregory Walton and Mazarin Banaji found that people’s self-perceptions hinge on a simple part of speech.

Example:

• Noun: “I’m a Mac user.”
• Verb: “I use a Mac a lot.”

Guess which one reveals a stronger preference for Macs?

The noun does.

We care deeply about our identity and how we’re perceived. Signaling our identity—this is who I am—is more important to us than this is a thing I do.

Three takeaways for businesses:

1. Experiment with noun-based CTAs: “Be a donor” vs. “Donate now.”
2. Use nouns in your content. “Ready to become the best chef on the block?” vs. “Ready to start cooking?”
3. Build social signaling into your brand. An example from Branding That Means Business: In a 2007 survey, Prius drivers said the main reason they bought their car was that it “makes a statement about me” and “shows the world that its owner cares.”

You know, not all the environmental reasons they tell their friends.

This identity can also rub off on others: “One of the strongest predictors of whether someone will buy a hybrid is whether the people in their same neighbourhood own one.”

What tribe do your customers join by buying from you? Proud environmentalists? Cool Mac users? In-the-know coffee connoisseurs?

Think about that in relation to your brand. That kind of social signaling might motivate more purchases than your product’s features and functions.

If someone came up to you on the street and asked you to marry them, would you?

Of course not.

You also shouldn't push someone who has never heard of you before to buy your product.

You have to speak to people where they're at on the Ladder of Product Awareness:

The higher up the ladder a prospect is, the less convincing and educating you need to do in order to convert them into a customer.

You, walking on the street and getting asked to get married, were at Level 5. When really, people who get married are at Level 1. (At least we hope.)

Focus on people who are at levels 1 to 4. Convincing people who do not have the problem that your product solves (level 5) is a fool's errand. If you're early stage, go for levels 1-3.

Here's how to write copy that pushes people up the ladder:

• Level 5 → Level 4: Call out the problem
• Level 4 → Level 3: Show them that there’s a solution to their problem (your product category)
• Level 3 → Level 2: Motivate them to take action on the problem
• Level 2 → Level 1: Highlight features and benefits to show them that your product is the best solution
• Level 1 → Conversion: Drive them to the product page—maybe with a promo.

Let's use an ad campaign as an example of using the LPA:

1. For a prospecting campaign, assume level 3 or 4. Educate them. Send them to an article, show an educational video, or invite to a webinar.
2. Follow up with a retargeting campaign that highlights how your product solves the problem their experiencing. Can do several ads that focus on different features.
3. If they still haven't converted, follow up with another retargeting ad that compares you to your competitors.
4. Lastly, if they still haven't, try a promotion or bonus offer for converting.