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Public Notes
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Public ·
January 24, 2024
Why I write
I'm Alex.
I used to hate writing.
In high school, I took Chinese to avoid Creative Writing. In college, I studied
Math & Engineering to avoid any writing courses. If you would've asked me why, I
would've said "writing is subjective" or "writing isn't a technical skill".
What I really meant was "writing is hard because it forces you to think".
I was a break-dancer not a ballerina in school. I didn't enjoy the art of
thinking through abstract problems, I just did my own thing to get the answer as
quickly as possible. At the time, I thought school's purpose was to "teach me to
do math", rather now I've realized that it was to "teach me to think".
Now many years out from school this realization hits my like the butt-end of a
joke. Therefore, I've turned to the 1 thing that can forever "teach me to
think": writing.
I'm naturally curious about how the world works and why people do what they do.
Specifically, why people spend money on the things that they do.
"Growth" is a vague term, but it's the lane I find the most fun. Startups are
the vehicle I use to experiment and test my hypothesis about people.
This notebook is a collection of my thoughts, from initial hypothesis to final
result. If they seem scattered, it's because they are. Writing is thinking for
me, and only a sane man's thoughts are orderly.
Why I write
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
why-i-write
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
WHY I WRITE
I'm Alex.
I used to hate writing.
In high school, I took Chinese to avoid Creative Writing. In college, I studied
Math & Engineering to avoid any writing courses. If you would've asked me why, I
would've said "writing is subjective" or "writing isn't a technical skill".
What I really meant was "writing is hard because it forces you to think".
I was a break-dancer not a ballerina in school. I didn't enjoy the art of
thinking through abstract problems, I just did my own thing to get the answer as
quickly as possible. At the time, I thought school's purpose was to "teach me to
do math", rather now I've realized that it was to "teach me to think".
Now many years out from school this realization hits my like the butt-end of a
joke. Therefore, I've turned to the 1 thing that can forever "teach me to
think": writing.
I'm naturally curious about how the world works and why people do what they do.
Specifically, why people spend money on the things that they do.
"Growth" is a vague term, but it's the lane I find the most fun. Startups are
the vehicle I use to experiment and test my hypothesis about people.
This notebook is a collection of my thoughts, from initial hypothesis to final
result. If they seem scattered, it's because they are. Writing is thinking for
me, and only a sane man's thoughts are orderly.
Public ·
March 20, 2024
recipe: sell out events in foreign countries to drive saas subscriptions
we'd come up with an event
fomo in other partners with bigger logos for credibility
probably charge the partners some moneys too
then load up our cold email sender like an AK47
fomo our icp into the event saying it's closed already / etc.
auto-invite those that didn't reply to the cold emails and those on our current
email list
blow out the event and make it seem that way - long line, photographer, etc.
send out pictures to fomo the next day
reach out to bigger and better partners immediately following, saying we have "1
slot" left not event partnership
reach out to all attendees and invite them to our "closed beta" test
rinse and repeat
recipe: sell out events in foreign countries to drive saas subscriptions
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
recipe-sell-out-events-in-foreign-countries-to-drive-saas-subscriptions
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
RECIPE: SELL OUT EVENTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO DRIVE SAAS SUBSCRIPTIONS
we'd come up with an event
fomo in other partners with bigger logos for credibility
probably charge the partners some moneys too
then load up our cold email sender like an AK47
fomo our icp into the event saying it's closed already / etc.
auto-invite those that didn't reply to the cold emails and those on our current
email list
blow out the event and make it seem that way - long line, photographer, etc.
send out pictures to fomo the next day
reach out to bigger and better partners immediately following, saying we have "1
slot" left not event partnership
reach out to all attendees and invite them to our "closed beta" test
rinse and repeat
Public ·
March 19, 2024
swipe file
COPY I LIKE
A note from the founder on the landing page of hey.com
From the back of the menu at Sidewinders Grill in Jackson Hole, WY
ADS
An ad from Don Draper (Mad Men) in the New York Times after they lost their
biggest account (Lucky Strike).
Tell me you didn't read the whole thing. Copy that's just beautifully done.
Bou brand agency google ad, standing out from the crowd
An ad for Support Shepherd (a VA service) in a newsletter
swipe file
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
swipe-file
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
SWIPE FILE
COPY I LIKE
A note from the founder on the landing page of hey.com
From the back of the menu at Sidewinders Grill in Jackson Hole, WY
ADS
An ad from Don Draper (Mad Men) in the New York Times after they lost their
biggest account (Lucky Strike).
Tell me you didn't read the whole thing. Copy that's just beautifully done.
Bou brand agency google ad, standing out from the crowd
An ad for Support Shepherd (a VA service) in a newsletter
Public ·
March 8, 2024
why every saas company should be a media company
Most companies nowadays get their customers through buying leads on google,
Facebook, or ad slots in newsletters / podcasts, etc.
You’re renting your audience.
But what if you didn’t have to pay for your customers? And what if you actually
got paid for finding your customers?
Now before you say I sounds freaking crazy… hear me out
What if you built a *media* business.
A podcast, newsletter, blog, etc. Company agnostic. Something that your
customers would read.
You can start these pretty lean, you will forever OWN the audience, and you are
basically spinning up a machine to win your customers at scale - for free.
Then afterwards, build a data or services business to go with it.
You’ll learn about your audience and the services that go along with it. And
then have free distribution to promote it … to the audience that told you they
want it.
And this audience will compound. Keep putting out quality content, keep growing
your audience base.
Due to these media businesses being pretty niche, you’ll eventually look around
and realize you’re the top dog. And then others will start to pay you for that.
Other people will reach out to you to sponsor it.
This is beautiful, because not only is your media side-biz making money now, but
you’re *learning* what bait your audience is falling for by monitoring the
clicks.
This is where the power shit comes in.
By learning what your audience clicks on (while someone pays you), you’re
learning what your audience would pay for.
And stay with me here… who does your audience trust most?
You.
So what if instead of capturing a small % of the product you’re pushing, you
capture the whole shebang?
Yep, ladies and gentlemen, that’s how we come full circle.
Eventually, you tell that sponsor to kick rocks and you start selling something
you own.
Now you have money coming in from advertising and product, with an audience you
OWN completely.
You just turned a random media company into a:
1. Lead finder
2. Profit center
You’ve reached nirvana: a negative customer acquisition cost.
“Media businesses are the biggest arbitrage opportunity of this decade” - the
king of owned media himself - Craig Fuller.
What’s beautiful about owned media is also just how easy is to compound and
compete against your media “competitors”.
How does that work?
Well, a sub is not worth a sub anymore.
A sub is worth a sub + service now.
Let me break this down.
Let’s say you have 10,000 subs and an advertiser that pays you $.25 per sub for
a banner ad. You’re making $2,500 for that, nice.
So you know that every additional sub is worth $.25 to you. Therefore your ad
spend to get those subs is “unprofitable” for anything spent over $.25/sub.
But what if you could sell that sub something else - an add-on service offered
by you. Let’s keep it simple and say you’ll sell that sub a $10 phone case.
Assuming 1% of people click through and buy that phone case, a sub is now worth
$.35, an additional $.10 from your original price. And with that, you can get a
little bit more aggressive with your sub acquisition because you have an extra
$.10 of wiggle room.
Now imagine you were selling financing or a plot of land to those subs. Your
price per sub now is something like $500k. Holy shit.
This is all rounded silly math but you get the gist.
Using media as a tool - rather than as a sole business - actually enables you to
grow the media brand much much faster, and in turn your saas much much faster.
If your curious what “right” looks like, here are some of my favorite examples
of this…
* Craig Fuller, founder of freight waves, sells a data saas off the back of his
online news site.
* Mercury, the startup bank, started a print magazine - Meridian.
* HubSpot, a crm solution, bought a new site called The Hustle.
* Founder Path, a lending solution for saas co’s, does a founder webinar a
week.
* And perhaps the most valuable example of them all - Bloomberg.
My quick ideas for an accounting saas
why every saas company should be a media company
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
owned-media
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
WHY EVERY SAAS COMPANY SHOULD BE A MEDIA COMPANY
Most companies nowadays get their customers through buying leads on google,
Facebook, or ad slots in newsletters / podcasts, etc.
You’re renting your audience.
But what if you didn’t have to pay for your customers? And what if you actually
got paid for finding your customers?
Now before you say I sounds freaking crazy… hear me out
What if you built a *media* business.
A podcast, newsletter, blog, etc. Company agnostic. Something that your
customers would read.
You can start these pretty lean, you will forever OWN the audience, and you are
basically spinning up a machine to win your customers at scale - for free.
Then afterwards, build a data or services business to go with it.
You’ll learn about your audience and the services that go along with it. And
then have free distribution to promote it … to the audience that told you they
want it.
And this audience will compound. Keep putting out quality content, keep growing
your audience base.
Due to these media businesses being pretty niche, you’ll eventually look around
and realize you’re the top dog. And then others will start to pay you for that.
Other people will reach out to you to sponsor it.
This is beautiful, because not only is your media side-biz making money now, but
you’re *learning* what bait your audience is falling for by monitoring the
clicks.
This is where the power shit comes in.
By learning what your audience clicks on (while someone pays you), you’re
learning what your audience would pay for.
And stay with me here… who does your audience trust most?
You.
So what if instead of capturing a small % of the product you’re pushing, you
capture the whole shebang?
Yep, ladies and gentlemen, that’s how we come full circle.
Eventually, you tell that sponsor to kick rocks and you start selling something
you own.
Now you have money coming in from advertising and product, with an audience you
OWN completely.
You just turned a random media company into a:
1. Lead finder
2. Profit center
You’ve reached nirvana: a negative customer acquisition cost.
“Media businesses are the biggest arbitrage opportunity of this decade” - the
king of owned media himself - Craig Fuller.
What’s beautiful about owned media is also just how easy is to compound and
compete against your media “competitors”.
How does that work?
Well, a sub is not worth a sub anymore.
A sub is worth a sub + service now.
Let me break this down.
Let’s say you have 10,000 subs and an advertiser that pays you $.25 per sub for
a banner ad. You’re making $2,500 for that, nice.
So you know that every additional sub is worth $.25 to you. Therefore your ad
spend to get those subs is “unprofitable” for anything spent over $.25/sub.
But what if you could sell that sub something else - an add-on service offered
by you. Let’s keep it simple and say you’ll sell that sub a $10 phone case.
Assuming 1% of people click through and buy that phone case, a sub is now worth
$.35, an additional $.10 from your original price. And with that, you can get a
little bit more aggressive with your sub acquisition because you have an extra
$.10 of wiggle room.
Now imagine you were selling financing or a plot of land to those subs. Your
price per sub now is something like $500k. Holy shit.
This is all rounded silly math but you get the gist.
Using media as a tool - rather than as a sole business - actually enables you to
grow the media brand much much faster, and in turn your saas much much faster.
If your curious what “right” looks like, here are some of my favorite examples
of this…
* Craig Fuller, founder of freight waves, sells a data saas off the back of his
online news site.
* Mercury, the startup bank, started a print magazine - Meridian.
* HubSpot, a crm solution, bought a new site called The Hustle.
* Founder Path, a lending solution for saas co’s, does a founder webinar a
week.
* And perhaps the most valuable example of them all - Bloomberg.
My quick ideas for an accounting saas
Public ·
February 27, 2024
run this campaign till your dead
Forget the title for a minute. I don't even want you to think about this like a
"campaign". There is something so obvious yet so under-utilized out there that
not enough founders do. This might sound crazy...
TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
Whether you're in B2B or B2C or BBC (jk), you HAVE to talk to your potential
customers. But you know that! So the only question that's worth asking then
is: how do i do this?
We could run ads, we could show up at incubators to talk to founders, we could
post on social hoping to go viral, we could ask for referrals, we could give
partner deals, the list goes on and on and on…
But now let’s try something. I want you to re-read that paragraph above except
make one change to the question…. how to do we do this at scale?
Adding that one factor suddenly makes the answers not make sense.
Now I know what you’re thinking. We’re in the valley Alex! So we can subscribe
to the “graham-erism” that it’s okay to be doing things that’s scale.
And to that I say absolutely! We should be running ads, and asking for
referrals, and giving partner deals and all of the above. But if we truly
believe this is going to be an industry breaking company, we need to begin
searching for industry wide solutions.
And with that, let’s talk about email.
DISCLAIMER: this is where we might lose some folks. My experience here is
particularly with B2B saas so if you're not in that crowd, feel free to kick
rocks (or hang around to get some chuckles).
EMAIL IS THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO REACH YOUR CUSTOMER
If you can get the data, you can get to the customer.
What do your boss, accountant, wife, and the IRS all have in common? They all
send scary emails. Jokes aside, it’s where our customer lives so we might as
well be hitting them in there.
And, there’s no ceiling. You can send 100 or 100,000, the world is our oyster.
You can literally send infinite cold emails.
As long as you do proper infrastructure set up, you can light this sh*t on fire.
Now with anything, I wouldn't recommend pouring all the gasoline on it right off
the bat. Start slowly, learn, and make sure you're hitting the right people and
iterating on your copy.
THE MORE YOU DO IT - THE MORE YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER
What happens every time you ask your ICP about your product? You learn
something.
To hit hyper growth, you need to have the shortest feedback loops in the game.
Instead of learning 1:1 on the phone, you can learn 1:many through email.
Brian Armstrong said “action produces information”.
Imaging turning down a channel where you can get 20-30 data points from your icp
A DAY.
Real cold email response selling a tax accounting service. They tell us what
they need help with, what competitor they're using, and what their price
sensitivity is. Bingo!
AND THE BAR IS JUST SO FREAKING LOW...
You know that airplane graphic that represents survivorship bias?
Where planes that get hit do not return.
Now back to email....How many cold emails do you respond to?
You're going to say "0" because you're such a smart cookie.
But how many times do you know it's a cold email?? Oooofff..... now you're
thinking. And now you get my point.
If you do this right, it won't look like you're selling.
It'll look like you're just trying to start a conversation. Often times, cold
email is less about conversion and more about conversation.
SOME OF MY FAVORITE COLD EMAIL COPY
The ol' customer imposter...
If you were to show your first email to your company's CMO she should say "that
is so bad, it doesn't even talk about what you're doing".
If you get that response - congrats. You know you nailed the first email.
THERE ARE SOME RISKS HERE... ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE SILLY ABOUT YOUR COPY
You don't want to be known as a "spammy" brand.
If you send too many shitty emails, people will start to take you and your brand
less seriously.
WORST case scenario is someone puts you on blast on twitter / facebook where
your ICP hangs out.
And there is some tech risk.
If you don't set up your infrastructure right, you can obviously burn your
domains and get caught in Google purgatory forever.
This is easily avoidable if you set up your tech right, scrape the right emails,
and don't be a bozo when it comes to copy.
Plus at the very worst case, you just spin up new domains.
HOW TO GET THIS ALL GOING
I mean we could go DEEP here, but honestly it's hard to keep this part of the
content evergreen.
The rules of the road for email always change.
But I'm happy to give a 50,000 foot view of how I think about this...
Data Acquisition & Customer Leads
* Acquire prospect data
* Map to key contacts (founder roles) at those companies
* Enrich for valid emails for email campaigns
* Get enough data for first batch of testing (400-600 leads)
Email Outbound Infrastructure Set Up
* Buy domains and create email sending accounts.
* Set up SPF, DKIM & DMARC.
* Set up forwarding to main domain.
* Connecting email accounts to sending / sales automation platform
* Set up Custom Tracking Domain
Copy Writing, Sequencing, and Funnel Strategy
* Write initial email copy and set up sequences based on batch 1 messaging
* Create squeeze page, calendly link, or event for bottom of the funnel CTA
* Monitor results and response feedback to optimize campaigns and double down
on copy that's resonating
-------
Run it till you're dead, seriously
run this campaign till your dead
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
1-campaign-that-should-always-be-running
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
RUN THIS CAMPAIGN TILL YOUR DEAD
Forget the title for a minute. I don't even want you to think about this like a
"campaign". There is something so obvious yet so under-utilized out there that
not enough founders do. This might sound crazy...
TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
Whether you're in B2B or B2C or BBC (jk), you HAVE to talk to your potential
customers. But you know that! So the only question that's worth asking then
is: how do i do this?
We could run ads, we could show up at incubators to talk to founders, we could
post on social hoping to go viral, we could ask for referrals, we could give
partner deals, the list goes on and on and on…
But now let’s try something. I want you to re-read that paragraph above except
make one change to the question…. how to do we do this at scale?
Adding that one factor suddenly makes the answers not make sense.
Now I know what you’re thinking. We’re in the valley Alex! So we can subscribe
to the “graham-erism” that it’s okay to be doing things that’s scale.
And to that I say absolutely! We should be running ads, and asking for
referrals, and giving partner deals and all of the above. But if we truly
believe this is going to be an industry breaking company, we need to begin
searching for industry wide solutions.
And with that, let’s talk about email.
DISCLAIMER: this is where we might lose some folks. My experience here is
particularly with B2B saas so if you're not in that crowd, feel free to kick
rocks (or hang around to get some chuckles).
EMAIL IS THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO REACH YOUR CUSTOMER
If you can get the data, you can get to the customer.
What do your boss, accountant, wife, and the IRS all have in common? They all
send scary emails. Jokes aside, it’s where our customer lives so we might as
well be hitting them in there.
And, there’s no ceiling. You can send 100 or 100,000, the world is our oyster.
You can literally send infinite cold emails.
As long as you do proper infrastructure set up, you can light this sh*t on fire.
Now with anything, I wouldn't recommend pouring all the gasoline on it right off
the bat. Start slowly, learn, and make sure you're hitting the right people and
iterating on your copy.
THE MORE YOU DO IT - THE MORE YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER
What happens every time you ask your ICP about your product? You learn
something.
To hit hyper growth, you need to have the shortest feedback loops in the game.
Instead of learning 1:1 on the phone, you can learn 1:many through email.
Brian Armstrong said “action produces information”.
Imaging turning down a channel where you can get 20-30 data points from your icp
A DAY.
Real cold email response selling a tax accounting service. They tell us what
they need help with, what competitor they're using, and what their price
sensitivity is. Bingo!
AND THE BAR IS JUST SO FREAKING LOW...
You know that airplane graphic that represents survivorship bias?
Where planes that get hit do not return.
Now back to email....How many cold emails do you respond to?
You're going to say "0" because you're such a smart cookie.
But how many times do you know it's a cold email?? Oooofff..... now you're
thinking. And now you get my point.
If you do this right, it won't look like you're selling.
It'll look like you're just trying to start a conversation. Often times, cold
email is less about conversion and more about conversation.
SOME OF MY FAVORITE COLD EMAIL COPY
The ol' customer imposter...
If you were to show your first email to your company's CMO she should say "that
is so bad, it doesn't even talk about what you're doing".
If you get that response - congrats. You know you nailed the first email.
THERE ARE SOME RISKS HERE... ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE SILLY ABOUT YOUR COPY
You don't want to be known as a "spammy" brand.
If you send too many shitty emails, people will start to take you and your brand
less seriously.
WORST case scenario is someone puts you on blast on twitter / facebook where
your ICP hangs out.
And there is some tech risk.
If you don't set up your infrastructure right, you can obviously burn your
domains and get caught in Google purgatory forever.
This is easily avoidable if you set up your tech right, scrape the right emails,
and don't be a bozo when it comes to copy.
Plus at the very worst case, you just spin up new domains.
HOW TO GET THIS ALL GOING
I mean we could go DEEP here, but honestly it's hard to keep this part of the
content evergreen.
The rules of the road for email always change.
But I'm happy to give a 50,000 foot view of how I think about this...
Data Acquisition & Customer Leads
* Acquire prospect data
* Map to key contacts (founder roles) at those companies
* Enrich for valid emails for email campaigns
* Get enough data for first batch of testing (400-600 leads)
Email Outbound Infrastructure Set Up
* Buy domains and create email sending accounts.
* Set up SPF, DKIM & DMARC.
* Set up forwarding to main domain.
* Connecting email accounts to sending / sales automation platform
* Set up Custom Tracking Domain
Copy Writing, Sequencing, and Funnel Strategy
* Write initial email copy and set up sequences based on batch 1 messaging
* Create squeeze page, calendly link, or event for bottom of the funnel CTA
* Monitor results and response feedback to optimize campaigns and double down
on copy that's resonating
-------
Run it till you're dead, seriously
Public ·
February 2, 2024
I love Forbes
I love Forbes
Why? it’s the best business model in the world.
1. Everyone wants to be featured
2. Everyone looks up to those featured
3. Everyone blindly listens to Forbes’ judgement - no one questions “why?” Lol
Charlie munger once said the world isn’t driven by greed, it’s driven by envy
So my model for enterprise sales is to forbesify the f*** out of my customers.
Let's crank the envy level up to the max!
PODCASTS -
“come on and talk about how you built our empire”
* this is my favorite because you get FaceTime, but the least scalable because
it takes face time. Save for your WHALE customers
* you can read about how I use these effectively in my post How I Use Podcasts
for Sales
PRINT MAGAZINES -
“we have a cover spot available for June that we’d like to feature you on”
* this is great because it’s unique
* And the “wow” factor is bigger because you can touch it
Magazines are a little trickier to produce because there are physical expenses.
We’ve always started with digital offering first (great for seo anyways), then
after filling up a “subscriber” list printing a few copies to give away for free
and use as fomo fodder.
Finally after fomo-ing a bunch of people, offering it physically for a
subscription cost.
The eyeballs from the distribution is great, but we’re really after it as a tool
to forbesify our customers so there are 2 offerings I’ll use to hang over
people’s heads:
Spotlights
* we can do 4-5 per magazine
* easier to give spots away but still need data at scale
* great offering though. i usually use for middle-market ICP. Not whale’s but
not scrubs
Cover
* only have 12 spots (1 per month) so you can use scarcity in your offer, BUT
you only have 12 spots so it’s also not super scalable
* this I also use for whales, I’ll typically go podcast and then if i think I
can swing them, I’ll ask them about the cover spot. Win win
FEATURE ARTICLES -
“doing an article about people in x city or x industry, would love to feature
you”
* unlimited spots, but it can water down the offer
* if you have data at scale, this is a pretty light lift
* offers an easy conversation opener for tons of fish. Could pick up the hidden
whale
--------------------
THINK ABOUT THIS.
Featuring someone on your made up media company…
* is basically free
* and it’s the easiest yes to a sales call you’ll ever get
The people you feature…
* will consider you as a friend for life
* and they’ll never again be a “cold lead”
And the content you create…
* will attack even more potential customers
* and build brand equity towards becoming the kingmaker
I’ve only tried this playbook in niche industries, but I have no reason why it
can’t work everywhere. Thank you for coming to my ted talk. #IloveForbes
I love Forbes
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
i-love-forbes
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
I LOVE FORBES
I love Forbes
Why? it’s the best business model in the world.
1. Everyone wants to be featured
2. Everyone looks up to those featured
3. Everyone blindly listens to Forbes’ judgement - no one questions “why?” Lol
Charlie munger once said the world isn’t driven by greed, it’s driven by envy
So my model for enterprise sales is to forbesify the f*** out of my customers.
Let's crank the envy level up to the max!
PODCASTS -
“come on and talk about how you built our empire”
* this is my favorite because you get FaceTime, but the least scalable because
it takes face time. Save for your WHALE customers
* you can read about how I use these effectively in my post How I Use Podcasts
for Sales
PRINT MAGAZINES -
“we have a cover spot available for June that we’d like to feature you on”
* this is great because it’s unique
* And the “wow” factor is bigger because you can touch it
Magazines are a little trickier to produce because there are physical expenses.
We’ve always started with digital offering first (great for seo anyways), then
after filling up a “subscriber” list printing a few copies to give away for free
and use as fomo fodder.
Finally after fomo-ing a bunch of people, offering it physically for a
subscription cost.
The eyeballs from the distribution is great, but we’re really after it as a tool
to forbesify our customers so there are 2 offerings I’ll use to hang over
people’s heads:
Spotlights
* we can do 4-5 per magazine
* easier to give spots away but still need data at scale
* great offering though. i usually use for middle-market ICP. Not whale’s but
not scrubs
Cover
* only have 12 spots (1 per month) so you can use scarcity in your offer, BUT
you only have 12 spots so it’s also not super scalable
* this I also use for whales, I’ll typically go podcast and then if i think I
can swing them, I’ll ask them about the cover spot. Win win
FEATURE ARTICLES -
“doing an article about people in x city or x industry, would love to feature
you”
* unlimited spots, but it can water down the offer
* if you have data at scale, this is a pretty light lift
* offers an easy conversation opener for tons of fish. Could pick up the hidden
whale
--------------------
THINK ABOUT THIS.
Featuring someone on your made up media company…
* is basically free
* and it’s the easiest yes to a sales call you’ll ever get
The people you feature…
* will consider you as a friend for life
* and they’ll never again be a “cold lead”
And the content you create…
* will attack even more potential customers
* and build brand equity towards becoming the kingmaker
I’ve only tried this playbook in niche industries, but I have no reason why it
can’t work everywhere. Thank you for coming to my ted talk. #IloveForbes
Public ·
January 28, 2024
How I use podcasts for sales
It's amazing what human beings will do for attention.
In the game of business, you might think that your "opponent" is your nearest
competitor. Rather, I'd argue it's your customer's psyche. There are 3 universal
human emotions that I think about constantly. I know if I can tap into one of
them during the sale, I win.
* envy
* greed
* embarrassment
Envy is usually my target of choice. As human beings, we are ridden with
jealousy. But the one thing - no matter how "morally just" you are - that we
cannot control, is the ability to compare our situation to other's.
And as they say, the grass is always greener.
Bertrand Russel has this great quote that goes something like...
> “Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their
> relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied
> Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules,
> who never existed.”
Freaking beautiful Bertrand. Anyways, back to the point!
Why do I love podcasts?
Because podcasts are my envy bait! I've used podcasts as bait for my dream
customers to come on, tell me about their deepest darkest problems, and lust for
that sweet drug: attention. And just like a good senko bass worm... it doesn't
just attract 1 fish, it attracts MANY. invite my dream customers on
A podcast, is one of those weird things that "costs" very little to produce, yet
it's perceived value is so dang high. Think about it... what do you really need
to get a podcast up and going? An email address, maybe like 10 episodes to prove
it's "real", and a claim that it's the "biggest" or "fastest growing". That's it
- cheap!
Yet being asked to come on as a "guest" to a podcast is viewed as one of the
biggest honor's in the world. It's freaking wild!
So I use this attention arbitrage to my advantage. Here's my playbook:
CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTERS
After you do the basics (choose a name, get setup on spotify, rip a first
episode introducing the show), it's time to start thinking about your guests.
I like to go after 2 character types...
1. The popular girl in school - this is the influencer that everyone in the
industry knows. They look up to her and think she's all that and a cup of
tea. this is the crowd I target FIRST. Why? It's easier than you think...
these folks have likely been on podcasts before and they're most likely
addicted to the attention. So play into that. Plus, if you can get these
high signal people to come on your podcast, getting other guests is
eeeaassssyyyy.
2. The dream customer - this is who we're really after. Once i have a backlog
of 5-10 episodes with "industry influencers", I start to target my dream
customers. Once they see that they would be getting interviewed on the same
podcast that insert influencer was on, it's game over. ENVY RULES.
1. The popular girl in class - the high that would make the average customer in
the industry swoon.
The dream customer -
what we did
how we did it
some of the guests weve been able to get:
john hewitt, etc.
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT
It literally doesn't matter. I used to think I should do whatever I can to make
the podcast interesting but you have to remember at the end of the day: your
secondary goal is content.
Your primary goal is to build a relationship with your guest so that you can
sell them your product. That's it. If they want to talk about ponies and
rainbows, let them.
WHAT TO DO AFTER THE SHOW
This is extremely important. Probably the most important part of this entire
process. Let me paint the four corners of the room for you..
> You're a guest on the industry's "fastest growing" podcast.
> This super charming hosts invited you to the show, made you feel all warm and
> fuzzy in the pre-show conversation, let you talk about your passions for an
> hour, and complimented you along the way.
> You feel like a gosh dang superstar.
> The host turns off the recording and starts asking you more questions... boy
> do you feel loose now so you're dropping FIRE.
Stop. That piece riiiiggghttt there is the key.
Right after we get off the show, i compliment and ask them what i really care
about.
* So you guys have been crushing it! Do you think you've hit $100k in revenue
yet?
* Wow, I can't believe you've been that busy. Do you use a software to manage
all that? How do you like it?
* I can't believe you've been growing so fast! What problems have you been
dealing with?
They'll tell me because they're an open book now. There is this weird fallacy
that we're "off the record" because we're no longer recording. Seriously, don't
believe me? ask them anything and they'll tell you! I'm literally a fox in the
hen house!
Then towards the end, there is 1 thing you can do to make your life 10x easier.
I would have them recommend who i should talk to next which is just how we built
this incredible waitlist. it's all about how you frame the ask.
Asking them "who else is worth bringing on the podcast?" and then listen to them
spew a list of names.
When they're done, ask if they have personal relationships with them. this
question kind of sounds offensive so they'll typically give a big "well ya! i'm
a baller!". then ask for the intro live, then and there. it works like a charm.
After that, we'll follow up and see if we can show them a demo of insert product
to get feedback and the rest is history.
Best case i've got a new friend and a customer for life.
Worst case i've got a new friend and a heck of a story!
How I use podcasts for sales
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
how-im-using-podcasts-to-meet-my-dream-customers
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
HOW I USE PODCASTS FOR SALES
It's amazing what human beings will do for attention.
In the game of business, you might think that your "opponent" is your nearest
competitor. Rather, I'd argue it's your customer's psyche. There are 3 universal
human emotions that I think about constantly. I know if I can tap into one of
them during the sale, I win.
* envy
* greed
* embarrassment
Envy is usually my target of choice. As human beings, we are ridden with
jealousy. But the one thing - no matter how "morally just" you are - that we
cannot control, is the ability to compare our situation to other's.
And as they say, the grass is always greener.
Bertrand Russel has this great quote that goes something like...
> “Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their
> relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied
> Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules,
> who never existed.”
Freaking beautiful Bertrand. Anyways, back to the point!
Why do I love podcasts?
Because podcasts are my envy bait! I've used podcasts as bait for my dream
customers to come on, tell me about their deepest darkest problems, and lust for
that sweet drug: attention. And just like a good senko bass worm... it doesn't
just attract 1 fish, it attracts MANY. invite my dream customers on
A podcast, is one of those weird things that "costs" very little to produce, yet
it's perceived value is so dang high. Think about it... what do you really need
to get a podcast up and going? An email address, maybe like 10 episodes to prove
it's "real", and a claim that it's the "biggest" or "fastest growing". That's it
- cheap!
Yet being asked to come on as a "guest" to a podcast is viewed as one of the
biggest honor's in the world. It's freaking wild!
So I use this attention arbitrage to my advantage. Here's my playbook:
CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTERS
After you do the basics (choose a name, get setup on spotify, rip a first
episode introducing the show), it's time to start thinking about your guests.
I like to go after 2 character types...
1. The popular girl in school - this is the influencer that everyone in the
industry knows. They look up to her and think she's all that and a cup of
tea. this is the crowd I target FIRST. Why? It's easier than you think...
these folks have likely been on podcasts before and they're most likely
addicted to the attention. So play into that. Plus, if you can get these
high signal people to come on your podcast, getting other guests is
eeeaassssyyyy.
2. The dream customer - this is who we're really after. Once i have a backlog
of 5-10 episodes with "industry influencers", I start to target my dream
customers. Once they see that they would be getting interviewed on the same
podcast that insert influencer was on, it's game over. ENVY RULES.
1. The popular girl in class - the high that would make the average customer in
the industry swoon.
The dream customer -
what we did
how we did it
some of the guests weve been able to get:
john hewitt, etc.
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT
It literally doesn't matter. I used to think I should do whatever I can to make
the podcast interesting but you have to remember at the end of the day: your
secondary goal is content.
Your primary goal is to build a relationship with your guest so that you can
sell them your product. That's it. If they want to talk about ponies and
rainbows, let them.
WHAT TO DO AFTER THE SHOW
This is extremely important. Probably the most important part of this entire
process. Let me paint the four corners of the room for you..
> You're a guest on the industry's "fastest growing" podcast.
> This super charming hosts invited you to the show, made you feel all warm and
> fuzzy in the pre-show conversation, let you talk about your passions for an
> hour, and complimented you along the way.
> You feel like a gosh dang superstar.
> The host turns off the recording and starts asking you more questions... boy
> do you feel loose now so you're dropping FIRE.
Stop. That piece riiiiggghttt there is the key.
Right after we get off the show, i compliment and ask them what i really care
about.
* So you guys have been crushing it! Do you think you've hit $100k in revenue
yet?
* Wow, I can't believe you've been that busy. Do you use a software to manage
all that? How do you like it?
* I can't believe you've been growing so fast! What problems have you been
dealing with?
They'll tell me because they're an open book now. There is this weird fallacy
that we're "off the record" because we're no longer recording. Seriously, don't
believe me? ask them anything and they'll tell you! I'm literally a fox in the
hen house!
Then towards the end, there is 1 thing you can do to make your life 10x easier.
I would have them recommend who i should talk to next which is just how we built
this incredible waitlist. it's all about how you frame the ask.
Asking them "who else is worth bringing on the podcast?" and then listen to them
spew a list of names.
When they're done, ask if they have personal relationships with them. this
question kind of sounds offensive so they'll typically give a big "well ya! i'm
a baller!". then ask for the intro live, then and there. it works like a charm.
After that, we'll follow up and see if we can show them a demo of insert product
to get feedback and the rest is history.
Best case i've got a new friend and a customer for life.
Worst case i've got a new friend and a heck of a story!
Public ·
January 28, 2024
The best way to write quality content at scale
My buddy Drake has a data software company called Gravity that serves investors
early-stage startup leads. When things were slow, he’d let me run little growth
experiments here and there on it, like my own personal sandbox. We tried dm
campaigns, ads, newsletters, all sorts of hocus pocus but there was one thing
that absolutely slayed: personal content.
Example post
Example post absolutely slaying
Using his data saas, we’d generate insights and post about them on his linkedin.
we had built a system that was relatively scalable. One of the most fun things
in the world is seeing your friends win. And this campaign ripped big time for
Drake.
Within 3 months, Drake’s account exploded.
* 7,000+ LinkedIn followers
* 1,500,000+ LinkedIn impressions
* $4,000+ MRR
* 500+ Newsletter subscribers
* 15 new enterprise demos (~$400k in potential LTV)
Turns out, that play wasn’t isolated to just Drake. Off that insight, I started
a content agency to prove it out. For $5k/mo, I would ghostwrite for a select
group of B2B saas founders that were too busy to crank out personal content.
At first, things were rocky. I think 1 of the reasons that I was able to produce
such great content for Drake was that I had not only known the product so well,
but I had known him so well. It was second nature to write for him because I
knew exactly what he’d say himself.
So I had to figure out a way to replicate that insight…
The goals:
* get authentic content
* make the system scalable for the founder (low time, low effort)
This started the creation of the original Prompts and to this day, the system I
recommend to all busy founders.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
1. COME UP WITH A SERIES OF PROMPTS TO ASK
I would go crazy with these, a series of interesting questions about their
personal background, the inception of the company, design decisions, customer
stories, etc. I would try and ask questions that might spur hot takes or big
mistakes.
2. SCHEDULE A 30 MINUTE ZOOM EVERY 2 WEEKS
This would give me MORE than enough content to write from. And these calls are
simple - I’d think of them like a podcast interview that doesn’t get published.
We show up and I’d use the prompts questions as a guide. But be open to wherever
the conversation goes.
3. WRITE THE DANG CONTENT
This part could be tailored differently to who you are as a writer, but for me
it would work like building a puzzle. First I’d open up the box to see what I’m
working with, which meant downloading the transcript. Then I’d separate out the
corner pieces, which meant bucketing out the question with the following answer.
Finally, I’d put it all together - re-work the question as a hook and summarize
their answer into an engaging story.
You might read that and say “duh”, but it’s not a “duh”. The typical
ghostwriting model is broken. It forces the founder to make a choice between
high quality content and freedom of time. If you want high quality authentic
content, you’re often stuck writing out the content so it’s not just fluff piece
after fluff piece. If you want to save time, you’re often caught compromising
for content that reads like an industry trade magazine (BORING).
Prompts turns the original ghostwriting model on its head. instead of writing
boring industry-agnostic content you get beautiful, authentic stories that sound
like the founder actually wrote them. And not to mention in 1/10 of the time.
If you want to implement it as a founder, here’s what I’d recommend:
* find a writer (internal or external) doesn’t matter. And get them up to speed
on what the goal is
* have them write prompts
* schedule a 30 min meeting with them every 2 weeks
* give them access to popular twitter / linkedin frameworks
* let em loose
This system allows you to create content that is truly authentic and expert
opinions without requiring more than 30-60 minutes a month
The best way to write quality content at scale
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
the-best-way-to-write-quality-content-at-scale
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
THE BEST WAY TO WRITE QUALITY CONTENT AT SCALE
My buddy Drake has a data software company called Gravity that serves investors
early-stage startup leads. When things were slow, he’d let me run little growth
experiments here and there on it, like my own personal sandbox. We tried dm
campaigns, ads, newsletters, all sorts of hocus pocus but there was one thing
that absolutely slayed: personal content.
Example post
Example post absolutely slaying
Using his data saas, we’d generate insights and post about them on his linkedin.
we had built a system that was relatively scalable. One of the most fun things
in the world is seeing your friends win. And this campaign ripped big time for
Drake.
Within 3 months, Drake’s account exploded.
* 7,000+ LinkedIn followers
* 1,500,000+ LinkedIn impressions
* $4,000+ MRR
* 500+ Newsletter subscribers
* 15 new enterprise demos (~$400k in potential LTV)
Turns out, that play wasn’t isolated to just Drake. Off that insight, I started
a content agency to prove it out. For $5k/mo, I would ghostwrite for a select
group of B2B saas founders that were too busy to crank out personal content.
At first, things were rocky. I think 1 of the reasons that I was able to produce
such great content for Drake was that I had not only known the product so well,
but I had known him so well. It was second nature to write for him because I
knew exactly what he’d say himself.
So I had to figure out a way to replicate that insight…
The goals:
* get authentic content
* make the system scalable for the founder (low time, low effort)
This started the creation of the original Prompts and to this day, the system I
recommend to all busy founders.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
1. COME UP WITH A SERIES OF PROMPTS TO ASK
I would go crazy with these, a series of interesting questions about their
personal background, the inception of the company, design decisions, customer
stories, etc. I would try and ask questions that might spur hot takes or big
mistakes.
2. SCHEDULE A 30 MINUTE ZOOM EVERY 2 WEEKS
This would give me MORE than enough content to write from. And these calls are
simple - I’d think of them like a podcast interview that doesn’t get published.
We show up and I’d use the prompts questions as a guide. But be open to wherever
the conversation goes.
3. WRITE THE DANG CONTENT
This part could be tailored differently to who you are as a writer, but for me
it would work like building a puzzle. First I’d open up the box to see what I’m
working with, which meant downloading the transcript. Then I’d separate out the
corner pieces, which meant bucketing out the question with the following answer.
Finally, I’d put it all together - re-work the question as a hook and summarize
their answer into an engaging story.
You might read that and say “duh”, but it’s not a “duh”. The typical
ghostwriting model is broken. It forces the founder to make a choice between
high quality content and freedom of time. If you want high quality authentic
content, you’re often stuck writing out the content so it’s not just fluff piece
after fluff piece. If you want to save time, you’re often caught compromising
for content that reads like an industry trade magazine (BORING).
Prompts turns the original ghostwriting model on its head. instead of writing
boring industry-agnostic content you get beautiful, authentic stories that sound
like the founder actually wrote them. And not to mention in 1/10 of the time.
If you want to implement it as a founder, here’s what I’d recommend:
* find a writer (internal or external) doesn’t matter. And get them up to speed
on what the goal is
* have them write prompts
* schedule a 30 min meeting with them every 2 weeks
* give them access to popular twitter / linkedin frameworks
* let em loose
This system allows you to create content that is truly authentic and expert
opinions without requiring more than 30-60 minutes a month
Public ·
January 22, 2024
Lead-Finder TM
YOU EVER FIND YOURSELF IN A MARKET WHERE YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHERE TO FIND LEADS?
In the world of B2B saas, I've been spoiled to have access to lead databases to
conjur up my first targets. ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, and Gravity have literally all
been the TRT to my GTM (LOL). But what happens when those sources don't have
your customer profile?
I recently came across this predicament while trying to serve *******, for those
who aren't on the premium+ plan - those bleeped out words are a certain customer
demographic in the SMB category.
Thought I've only tried this funnel with this specific customer, I have no doubt
it could be used for any customer across SMB. So what's it look like?
ESTABLISHED SEPARATELY BRANDED NEWSLETTER
This is KEY. Any sales guru or moron alike out there will tell you - never lead
with the hard sale. When you're swooning on a lady at the bar, you never ask her
for a kiss right away do you? No, you buy her a skinny margarita and say her
eyes remind you of something Shakespeare once wrote.
Just instead of giving a girl a skinny margarita, we're going to give our
customer a free newsletter. Same same!
We'll save the how-to-newsletter for a different post but this can be AI or
human. It doesn't really matter as long it passes for "valuable".
Issue 18
PAY FOR CHEAP FACEBOOK ADS TO GROW THE NEWSLETTER
Pay-per-lead on any typical saas product is EXPENSIVE. Pay-per-lead on any
typical consumer product is MEGA EXPENSIVE. Pay-per-lead on a newsletter?
Cheaper than your Ikea dresser.
I used Facebook because I was fairly certain my customers hang out there.
And Facebook ads - lucky for me - are pretty easy to run!
Copy: Don't get crazy and keep it simple, stupid. I like to think about that
Jedi meme when creating ads to remind myself that over-complication is usually
dumb. Open Canva, create something people will like and can understand, be done
with it. Here's one of my highest converting ads for this campaign...
Filters: I didn't set any filters besides geo-gating the ad to the United
States. As someone who always stops at the roadside stand that has the "World's
Best Coffee", I'm going to let the "World's Best Advertising Algorithm" do it's
thing.
Budget: Start with a small budget until you know you're getting conversions, but
when you know it works - let it riiiipp. We're constantly acquiring subscribers
for $.18-.20 a lead. Each of these leads could be worth upwards of $10k+ in LTV
so it's safe to safe it's worth it.
ASK FOR QUALIFYING DATA UPON SUBSCRIPTION
When they subscribe, this is a LAYUP chance to ask for more qualifying data. The
ad copy from your toils and hard earned dollar worked! Motivation is fleeting so
at the very second they subscribe if you can collect more data - you'll have a
pretty damn high chance of collecting!
I can't speak for other newsletter platforms, but Beehiiv let's you do this
natively. How does the customer journey look here?
1. Customer sees our ad
2. They click through to a squeeze page (webflow + beehiive embed)
3. They enter their email to subscribe
4. They're redirected to a form
If they complete steps 1-3, you'd be shocked at how well they complete step 4.
In this form, I would keep the questions within 1 degree of "this helps us
better serve the community". What do I mean by that? Well, if you can answer
"this helps us better serve the community" to any claims of brazen data
harvesting then you're okay. But if you're asking for revenue details and blood
types, well... good luck charlie.
ASK FOR MORE DATA (MIGHT AS WELL)
Following a subscription, we have one of those automatic emails go out from
Beehiiv that links to our most popular content - rad. But even more rad is the
zap we have that pushes a welcome email from my personal email to a subscriber's
starting a conversation with them.
This might look like overkill but hear me out... this 1 email opens the door to
so much opportunity.
1. The customer can't tell this automatic. I know you and I can, but you have
to remember that not everybody is in the zeitgeist. The copy looks genuine
and these guys don't get cold emails 24/7 like other tech bros, so it looks
like I'm actually starting a conversation with them
2. It establishes an early relationship. Going forward, this person will
forever have a record of our first account. I have now turned this lead from
cold to warm.
3. If they answer, they'll give me MORE data. Remember, the whole point of this
exercise is to harvest leads without any seeds! Data is our seeds!!
If you copy anything from this email let it be the last line. People love to
brag about themselves and hate anything that takes more than a second. If I ask
you how long you've been working in startups, you'd proudly answer just to tell
me.
Same mantra stands across industries. SMB folks are human too! Therefore this is
the perfect last line to prompt a response.
BONUS ITEM: WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THE EMAIL RESPONSES
"20 years", "since 83", "my whole damn life". After I started getting around 100
emails a day from customers replying with comments like these, I figured there
had to be something we could do with this. Any ideas??
More data.
I started replying to these folks at scale with another human-looking automated
response.
You can see how this response could engage a series of 3 emotions:
1. Feel flattered for the compliments
2. Feel honored that he personally asked me
3. Feel like you just scored great value
As I'm in the midst of this experiment right now, I haven't written the guides
yet. But logistics are like sketchy neighbors - you don't need to worry about
them until you do. We'll get there. Till then enjoy this hack and rock n roll.
Lead-Finder TM
Public ·
Jan 22, 2024
https://applenotes.webflow.io/note/
lead-finder-tm
Posted by
Alex
•
Jan 22, 2024
at
17:42
LEAD-FINDER TM
YOU EVER FIND YOURSELF IN A MARKET WHERE YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHERE TO FIND LEADS?
In the world of B2B saas, I've been spoiled to have access to lead databases to
conjur up my first targets. ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, and Gravity have literally all
been the TRT to my GTM (LOL). But what happens when those sources don't have
your customer profile?
I recently came across this predicament while trying to serve *******, for those
who aren't on the premium+ plan - those bleeped out words are a certain customer
demographic in the SMB category.
Thought I've only tried this funnel with this specific customer, I have no doubt
it could be used for any customer across SMB. So what's it look like?
ESTABLISHED SEPARATELY BRANDED NEWSLETTER
This is KEY. Any sales guru or moron alike out there will tell you - never lead
with the hard sale. When you're swooning on a lady at the bar, you never ask her
for a kiss right away do you? No, you buy her a skinny margarita and say her
eyes remind you of something Shakespeare once wrote.
Just instead of giving a girl a skinny margarita, we're going to give our
customer a free newsletter. Same same!
We'll save the how-to-newsletter for a different post but this can be AI or
human. It doesn't really matter as long it passes for "valuable".
Issue 18
PAY FOR CHEAP FACEBOOK ADS TO GROW THE NEWSLETTER
Pay-per-lead on any typical saas product is EXPENSIVE. Pay-per-lead on any
typical consumer product is MEGA EXPENSIVE. Pay-per-lead on a newsletter?
Cheaper than your Ikea dresser.
I used Facebook because I was fairly certain my customers hang out there.
And Facebook ads - lucky for me - are pretty easy to run!
Copy: Don't get crazy and keep it simple, stupid. I like to think about that
Jedi meme when creating ads to remind myself that over-complication is usually
dumb. Open Canva, create something people will like and can understand, be done
with it. Here's one of my highest converting ads for this campaign...
Filters: I didn't set any filters besides geo-gating the ad to the United
States. As someone who always stops at the roadside stand that has the "World's
Best Coffee", I'm going to let the "World's Best Advertising Algorithm" do it's
thing.
Budget: Start with a small budget until you know you're getting conversions, but
when you know it works - let it riiiipp. We're constantly acquiring subscribers
for $.18-.20 a lead. Each of these leads could be worth upwards of $10k+ in LTV
so it's safe to safe it's worth it.
ASK FOR QUALIFYING DATA UPON SUBSCRIPTION
When they subscribe, this is a LAYUP chance to ask for more qualifying data. The
ad copy from your toils and hard earned dollar worked! Motivation is fleeting so
at the very second they subscribe if you can collect more data - you'll have a
pretty damn high chance of collecting!
I can't speak for other newsletter platforms, but Beehiiv let's you do this
natively. How does the customer journey look here?
1. Customer sees our ad
2. They click through to a squeeze page (webflow + beehiive embed)
3. They enter their email to subscribe
4. They're redirected to a form
If they complete steps 1-3, you'd be shocked at how well they complete step 4.
In this form, I would keep the questions within 1 degree of "this helps us
better serve the community". What do I mean by that? Well, if you can answer
"this helps us better serve the community" to any claims of brazen data
harvesting then you're okay. But if you're asking for revenue details and blood
types, well... good luck charlie.
ASK FOR MORE DATA (MIGHT AS WELL)
Following a subscription, we have one of those automatic emails go out from
Beehiiv that links to our most popular content - rad. But even more rad is the
zap we have that pushes a welcome email from my personal email to a subscriber's
starting a conversation with them.
This might look like overkill but hear me out... this 1 email opens the door to
so much opportunity.
1. The customer can't tell this automatic. I know you and I can, but you have
to remember that not everybody is in the zeitgeist. The copy looks genuine
and these guys don't get cold emails 24/7 like other tech bros, so it looks
like I'm actually starting a conversation with them
2. It establishes an early relationship. Going forward, this person will
forever have a record of our first account. I have now turned this lead from
cold to warm.
3. If they answer, they'll give me MORE data. Remember, the whole point of this
exercise is to harvest leads without any seeds! Data is our seeds!!
If you copy anything from this email let it be the last line. People love to
brag about themselves and hate anything that takes more than a second. If I ask
you how long you've been working in startups, you'd proudly answer just to tell
me.
Same mantra stands across industries. SMB folks are human too! Therefore this is
the perfect last line to prompt a response.
BONUS ITEM: WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THE EMAIL RESPONSES
"20 years", "since 83", "my whole damn life". After I started getting around 100
emails a day from customers replying with comments like these, I figured there
had to be something we could do with this. Any ideas??
More data.
I started replying to these folks at scale with another human-looking automated
response.
You can see how this response could engage a series of 3 emotions:
1. Feel flattered for the compliments
2. Feel honored that he personally asked me
3. Feel like you just scored great value
As I'm in the midst of this experiment right now, I haven't written the guides
yet. But logistics are like sketchy neighbors - you don't need to worry about
them until you do. We'll get there. Till then enjoy this hack and rock n roll.
9
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