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Jim Huffman

A blog about Growth Marketing, Startup Struggles and the occasional 90s NBA reference.

12/2/2021 Newsletter: Walking Away from a $300K Deal & the Dec. 2021 Update for the $3M Challenge

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Two check-ins since GrowthHit started The $3M Challenge.

First, we publish our numbers for December 2021. (See them below or right here.)

Second, our $300,000 SaaS acquisition falls through, but Yonathan Ayenew joins to discuss key takeaways and important lessons we learned from the first step on this journey to acquiring a company.

Topics Discussed:

  • What are the criteria for good investments
  • Where and how do you find opportunities
  • What is due diligence and how do you enact that
  • What were the red flags
  • De-risking strategies
  • The Walk-Away Takeaways

Get the full episode right here.​

LISTEN TO EPISODE

DID YOU MISS LAST WEEK’S EMAIL? Here are the top articles.

People enjoyed How Snappa Has Taken On Canva and Is Starting to Win and 19% of you wanted to learn more about The Powerful, Predictive Metric That Made HubSpot Millions.

Here are the articles that caught my attention this week:

📝 13 Things this D2C Brand Did to Turn Around Their Facebook Ads [TWEET THREAD]​

This is a tweet storm and here are some of my favorite highlights:

  1. Take big risks when testing. New offers and drastically different creative concepts might be what’s needed right now.
  2. Do more whitelisting of ads
  3. Run traffic to different types of pages that engage the prospect where they’re at.
  4. Here’s my master plan for running ads:
    1. TOF – Whitelisted education style ads from Founder page leading to an advertorial style LP written for this purpose. LP will lead to custom bundle, or quiz.
    2. MOF /BOF- Whitelisted influencer tutorial/reviews for social proof

🐢 Why You Should Slow Down to Speed Up​

Speeding up isn’t the answer.

According to McKinsey, we find that if top teams slow down, they eventually achieve their objectives more quickly.

So, why are leaders initially skeptical when asked to slow down?

The answer: Most leadership theories continue to be based on – and most leaders still live and work on – the Newtonian world view where leaders strive to control and structure their challenges and guarantee outcomes. Engaging in a quick discussion and moving as fast as possible from A to B in a controlled and straight line fits this world view perfectly.

🏅The Real Definition of Growth Marketing​

So, what is growth marketing?

According to Reforge, it’s this:Growth marketing uses triggers, channels, messaging, and personalization to bring new and existing customers into the product to experience its value.

But, it can vary based on your company.The definition of growth marketing will vary slightly from company to company, because the role that growth marketing plays will vary based on the company’s growth model drivers. However, growth marketing’s core mission and how it contributes to growth relative to other domains should be common across businesses. — Brittany Bingham (VP of Marketing @ Guru)

Growth Marketing is shifting to a pod structure. Many teams use working groups that resemble growth teams, but members report into their functional teams. This enables them to hone their skills by leveraging functional resources and knowledge.

Growth marketing is one of three key marketing domains that enhances the core product offering in the eyes of the consumer. Each domain focuses on enhancing the offering in different ways and for different customers.

⚒️ A Step-by-Step Guide to Landing Pages that Convert​

There’s two parts of a landing page: what’s immediately visible (above the fold) and what the user scrolls to (below the fold).

Let’s start above the fold. To quote Donald Miller, a caveman should be able to glance at it and immediately grunt back what you offer. Here’s marketingexamples.com’s formula:

1/ Explain the value you provide (title)

2/ Explain how you’ll create it (subtitle)

3/ Let the user visualise it (visual)

4/ Make it believable (social proof)

5/ Make taking the next step easy (CTA)

🏆 20 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram​

Instagram is perhaps the most important social media platform when it comes to building a brand. A high follower count:

  • Helps you get your content in front of more people
  • Serves as social proof, adding credibility to your business
  • Lets you build and enforce a positive brand image by posting the things that your many followers want to see and interacting with comments and DMs

Here’s how you can organically grow your number of followers instead.

  1. Launch contests and giveaways
  2. Tell a story with longer captions
  3. Pull off an Instagram takeover
  4. Use geotags

THE $3M CHALLENGE
Our Growth Team Launched a Startup Studio

We launched a startup studio and we are growing 3 companies to $1M in sales each. Specifically, an agency, a D2C brand and a SaaS Company. As a bonus, we’re documenting every step along the way. We’re calling it The $3M Challenge. Follow the journey to $3M right here.

Here is our update for December 2021.

FOLLOW THE $3M CHALLENGE

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