The Growth Newsletter #153

3 creative video ads. 2.75M authentic subscribers. Barnum-style Qs.  ‌ ‌ ‌ [Demand Curve]( [Read on demandcurve.com]( The Growth Newsletter #153 3 creative video ads. 2.8M authentic subscribers. Barnum-style Qs. ~Happy 2024 to all, and to all a good year~ I have some exciting plans for our content this year.  If you like this newsletter, our playbooks, and our past events—you're gonna love it.  Topics for the day: 3 creative video ads. 2.75M authentic subscribers. Barnum-style Qs.  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 [Smart Recognition](. Get email addresses of your anonymous website traffic.  Smart Recognition is an AI tool that uses 'Machine Fingerprinting' to identify email addresses and intent of anonymous website traffic.  Capture leads without opt-in forms and get real-time lead delivery to your ESP/CRM or network audience to maximize ROI and revenue.  Works best for sites with US-based traffic, ecom brands, lead-gen media buyers, and newsletter companies.  [Book a demo]( and try it out for free!  Brought to you by [Osum](. Perform deep market research in seconds. Try it free.  Have you ever struggled with market research, wasting hours juggling multiple tools to piece together insights, only to feel like you're still guessing?  Osum helps you perform deep market research in seconds.  Copy-paste a URL for instant access to detailed industry insights, SWOT analysis, buyer personas, sales prospect profiles, growth opportunities and more.  Stay ahead of your competition and discover new ways to unlock 10X growth.  DC readers get an exclusive offer for 30% lifetime discount on any annual plan. Just use the code “DEMANDCURVE” at checkout. [Try Osum free today](. Want to be featured in front of 87,540 founders and marketers? [Learn more here](–booking into Feb.   1. 3 creative video ad ideas to test out Insight from [Social Savannah](.  Even the best content will be ignored if it fails to hook them. With ads, this is even more true because they're intrusive and every impression costs $$$.  For video, you have max 1-3 seconds to stop the scroll. Here are some creative ideas:  1. Phone-ception 📲  Show your product in a variety of settings and transition using close ups of screenshots on phones from the recording of the next shot in the sequence. Like these earplugs:  (Note this also eye catching due to the dynamism) 2. Text Interrupt  Ads do best when they don't feel like ads. This selfie video of someone outside doesn't immediately look like one. The text notification coming in is enough to catch you off guard and think it might be yours: 3. Fake Podcast  Create a fake podcast setup and talk about your product: In summary: get creative with your creative.  When you're paying for every impression, you gotta work hard to get people to pay attention. 2. 2.6M subscribers in 9 months from pure authenticity Insight from [Sam Sulek](.  March: 8k subscribers. November: 1.8 million subscribers. Today: 2.75 million subscribers. Sam Sulek is a fitness YouTuber (and college kid) who posts daily vlogs that are barely edited, have dark & uninteresting thumbnails, have no meaningful title, and are always 30-40 minutes with him either in his car or at the gym: Essentially he's breaking every rule in the marketer's playbook.  The beauty of this is summarized perfectly by these two comments: The key ingredient here is authenticity.  He just takes his viewers through his day-to-day life and talks shop with them, as if they're hanging out with him. And he's just himself. No content creator voice. No filtering.  (It helps that he's extremely jacked, so it's built-in credibility.)  This is essentially old-school YouTube through and through. Complete with quirky inside jokes repeated in the comments of every video: 3. Make them feel seen with the Barnum Effect Insight derived from [Katelyn Bourgoin's tweet](.  We’re drawn to statements that feel personalized to us.  A classic way that fortune tellers, astrologists, and marketers take advantage of this is with the Barnum Effect (aka the Forer Effect). In his experiment, Forer gave a personality test to his students, then provided them with a generic personality summary description as a result. Despite it being a vague statement, the students rated the accuracy of the result very highly.  The way marketers often leverage this is with "Barnum-style questions." Here are two examples from the cohort course Ship30for30 that teaches people to write consistently: Although these are not so vague and general that they apply to anyone, there are a ton of people browsing social media who it does apply to. And it feels like it's directly speaking to and labelling the problem they're experiencing.  This is powerful for a few reasons: - When someone articulates your problem, you trust that they can solve it. - "Nothing is more important than when you're thinking about it" (Daniel Kahneman). Reminding them of the problem makes the pain more acute and in need of solving. - It makes them the focal point of the story, not your product. To do this properly, you need to understand your customers: - Goals - Problems - Selfish desires - And trigger events (what moment/experience/feeling in their life makes them buy?)   Quick question: You are a...? [Founder]( [Freelancer]( [Full-time role]( Your response will help us personalize the content you receive from us :)   News and links News you can use:  - The 1920's version of Mickey Mouse is now public domain. Have fun, you now have full rights to use him in whatever you want—including ads. - Google is making it [easier to buy YouTube reservation ads](. - Google Ads is [planning a major restructure to their team, possibly leaning more towards automation](. - Google confirms [it is testing placing headlines in ad copy](. - Google has announced that [the Crawl Rate Limiter Tool is being phased out](.   Opportunity we love*: [Forum's Spark Pitch]( Have a billion-dollar idea but no time or resources to execute it?  Turn it into a venture-backed unicorn with Forum's Spark Pitch.  Forum Ventures' Studio is calling all problem solvers, deep thinkers, and dreamers to submit their innovative B2B ideas for a chance to own 1% of the next SaaS unicorn.  [Submit your idea]( How it works: ✨ Submit your idea by January 5th. 🔍 Their studio team reviews and evaluates. 🦄 If they select and build your ideas, you get 1% equity in the new venture.  That's it. That's all you have to do.  *Sponsored by Forum Ventures Want to be featured in front of 87,540 founders and marketers? [Learn more here](–booking 4 weeks in advance.   Something fun From [@obviousplant](.   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. - Need to run ads? We’ve built [the]([ ads agency]( for startups. - Need to redefine your brand story? Check out our [Story Systems](. - 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](   © 2024 Demand Curve, Inc. 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