The Growth Newsletter #145

Army of creators, feed a starving crowd, and emotional journeys.  ‌ ‌ ‌ [Demand Curve]( [Read on demandcurve.com]( The Growth Newsletter #145 Army of creators, feed a starving crowd, and emotional journeys. Welcome to all you growth-loving founders and marketers!  Broadcasting live on location in Palm Springs for a team retreat :) We're spending the next few days strategizing on the best ways we can help startups grow in 2024. Expect some exciting announcements to come! Now for: Army of creators, feed a starving crowd, and emotional journeys.  Let's dive in 🌴 – Neal Thanks to our sponsors for keeping this newsletter free for all of you! Check them out :) Brought to you by [Brave](.  Ready to run ad campaigns to an audience that opts into seeing ads, averages 6% CTR on placements, and averages 40% ad recall?  [Learn more here.](  Brought to you by [Auth0 for Startups](—The Customer Identity Platform for Startups.  Eligible startups can use Auth0 by Okta’s Identity platform free for one year.  You’ll get access to a full, rich feature set including SSO, MFA, and Universal Login. Get your application to market faster while giving your customers a great login experience.  Let Auth0 handle Identity, so your team can focus on innovation.  [Get started today!]( Want to be featured in front of 83,660 founders and marketers? [Learn more here](–booking into December.   1. Grow by leading an army of creators Insight from [Marketing Examples]( and [tabs](.�  Most social media advice for early-stage startups:  "Focus on one account, maybe the founder. Or just do something else, like ads."  Well, Oliver, the 21-year-old college student and founder, did the complete opposite. And he's been able to sell $500,000 worth of "sex chocolate" in a single month.  Here's how: - They have at least 30 creators they work with. - Each with their own tabs-branded TikTok account. Seriously, 30+ accounts. - They each post 1-3 videos every day. - They're all less than 10 seconds. - Over a third of the accounts have > 10,000,000 total views. - They feel like customer reviews, not ads.  Each of the 30 creators has their own unique link in the bio so they can track purchases. Assumably, they're all being paid per conversion—so the upfront cost for tabs is minimal. Added benefit of this strategy:  Now, when tabs run ads on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, they have a ton of organic-feeling, proven-to-work ad creatives to use.  PS: They're clients of ours at [Ad Labs](. We're running their ads now ;0 2. Find and feed the starving crowd Insight from [$100M Offers]( by Alex Hormozi.  You could have a bad product, mediocre offer and no ability to persuade people and still make money if you have a ton of demand for your product.  (Masks and toilet paper were a great example of this during peak COVID)  You need to find a market that's desperate for a solution. Typically this boil down to seeking improved health, increased wealth, or improved relationships.  Four factors to find a great market with latent demand: - Pain - Purchasing power - Easy to target / easy to find your audience - It’s growing Let's dive into each:  Pain They have to desperately need what you’re offering. It can’t be a nice-to-have.  How much you charge is proportional to the pain someone has and your ability to relieve it.  Share the dream of their life without that pain.  Purchasing Power If you target students, they cannot pay you $1200 for a course.  Target venture capitalists and they could cough up ten grand if you can make them more.  Easy to Target But, if you can't get your offer in front of venture capitalists easily, then what's the point?  You need to be able to consistently be able to get in front of a lot of your audience.  Where do they spend time? What mailing lists are they apart of? Social media groups? Communities/forums? What YouTube channels do they watch?  Growing Find a market that’s growing. You'll grow as it does.  Don’t go into the newspaper or radio business. You'll be fighting a downward trend.  In short, an increasingly painful problem for people with money who are easy to reach. 3. Take people on an emotional journey Insight from [Patrick Campbell]( and The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell & Chris Vogler.  A lot of movies, books, and TV shows follow a typical arc: The "Hero's Journey."  Here's what that looks like (using Stars Wars Episode 4 as an example): This 12 step storytelling framework is overkill in most marketing. But, you can capture its essence with a helpful framework:  "Emotional Resonance" maps.  We buy with emotion and justify with logic. Stories tap into emotions, which tap into wallets.  When you script an ad, webinar, sales pitch, fundraising pitch, marketing email, or social post, map out the emotion you want people to feel as they consume it.  Here are 3 arcs that Patrick shared:    News and links News you can use: - Google Bard can now [respond in real-time](. - Meta is rolling out [ad-free Facebook & Instagram subscriptions for users in Europe](. - Instagram is rolling out [new features with their Reminder Ads to help advertisers reach a wider audience](. - Google is rolling out [new generative AI product imagery tools for advertisers in the U.S](.  Tool we recommend*: [Amplitude](  We've been using Amplitude since 2019—big fans.  Amplitude just launched an affordable plan built for startups and small businesses. The Plus plan lets you grow your business with one integrated solution in a low-cost plan.  Starting at just $49 per month, cancel anytime.  For the price of an iTunes song a day, you get to unlock powerful behavioral insights and build product experiences that help you acquire, retain, and monetize customers.  [Check out the Plus Plan](  *Sponsored by Amplitude Want to be featured in front of 83,660 founders and marketers? [Learn more here](–booking 4 weeks in advance.   Something fun From... the Internet, idk someone sent it to me.   What did you think of this week's newsletter?  [😍 Loved it]( | [😄 Great]( | [🙂 Good]( | [🤷‍♀️ Meh]( | [🤬 Bad](  If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. These newsletters take hours to make each week, so it really helps when you share us with fellow founders and marketers.  And if you have any comments/question, I'd love to hear them. Just hit reply!  In case you're new: Who's [Demand Curve](?  We’re on a mission to help make it easier to start, build, and grow companies.  We share high-quality, vetted, and actionable growth content as we learn it from the top 1% of founders and marketers.  How we can help you grow: - Read our free [playbooks](, [blog articles](, and [teardowns](—we break down the strategies and tactics that fast-growing startups use to grow. - Enroll in the [Growth Program](, our marketing course that has helped 1,000+ founders get traction and scale revenue. - Want to build an audience of buyers? Enroll in the [Un-ignorable Challenge]( now. Enrollment closes in ~2 days. - Are you an ambitious startup/scaleup looking to grow? Our agency, [Bell Curve](, can be your strategic growth partner. - Need to run ads? We’ve built [the]([ ads agency]( for startups. - Looking for a growth freelancer or agency? [We’ll match you]( with one for free. - Get your product in front of startup founders by [sponsoring]( this newsletter. See you next week.  — Neal and Justin [Neal]( [Neal O'Grady]( [Grace]( [Justin Setzer](   © 2023 Demand Curve, Inc. All rights reserved. 4460 Redwood Hwy, Suite 16-535, San Rafael, California, United States [Unsubscribe]() from all emails, including the newsletter, or [manage]( subscription preferences.