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- ⭐️ 3 examples of building brand loyalty
⭐️ 3 examples of building brand loyalty
Hi
It was a normal Tuesday night in 2019 when my understanding of marketing completely changed.
I walked into a building in the San Francisco Financial District, said hi to Brian Balfour (CEO of Reforge, ex-VP of Growth at HubSpot), and sat down along with some other folks in tech — eager to learn all about how companies in the valley grow.
Then, Brian said it.
“Retention breeds acquisition, not the other way around.”
That simple line flipped how I thought about marketing up until that point in my life. From internet marketing tactics like funnels and having optimal ad settings, to realizing the power of word-of-mouth through repeat usage.
What Brian showed me was that the fastest growing brands understand that their users are their #1 marketing channel. And the way you grow exponentially is to get people to use your products/services over and over and over again.
Look at TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Kleenex, or any product you use on a consistent basis. There’s a good chance you’ve brought up the brand name in conversation at some point.
Retention shows customer satisfaction. So, if retention is the name of the game, how do you actually go about it?
If you don’t have a say over what product features are launched and can’t steer product strategy, how do you keep people coming back for more?
There’s a saying that goes: in order to get life, you need to give life. Flip this life philosophy to marketing (as we love to do here): help your customers so they help you.
Of course, it’s a slipper slope here. You don’t want to give with the expectation of receiving. After all, the highest form of love is to give and be invisible.
But this week, I want to show you 3 real examples of companies showing how they give life to their customers, and how that has turned these companies into billion dollar empires.
Example 1: Running events. In 2019, Webflow created No-Code Conf — a conference that brought together all the companies in the no-code space to talk about the future of visual development. It solidified Webflow as the category leader in no-code platforms and it brought a community of like-minded individuals in one place. Webflow empowered it’s community to learn from each other, hosting workshops and competitions. Some people in that community went on to build amazing companies using Webflow and even sold them to large tech companies. Webflow literally made some of it’s users rich, and in turn, those users spread the message of Webflow across the globe.
Example 2: Creating marketplaces. This year, beehiiv, the hottest newsletter platform right now, acquired Swapstack — a newsletter ad marketplace. The team at beehiiv concluded that if they empower their users to monetize their newsletters and make a living from their writing, they will continue to use the beehiiv platform and spread it’s name all over the internet. In other words, just like Webflow, they helped their users “get rich” and this made their users love them. It showed that beehiiv cared enough to do everything in their power to give life to their customers.
Okay, but what if hosting an event or creating a marketplace within your product is too hard?
Example 3: Helpful content. Ahrefs, the popular SEO tool, reached $100M ARR last year (in tech terms, that’s about a billion dollar valuation). Ahrefs’ customers range from in-house SEO and content managers all the way to independent bloggers. With Ahrefs Academy, Ahrefs aims to empower it’s users to not only learn how to use their product, but make a living off of it as well. In their affiliate marketing course, they walk users through how to identify affiliate keywords so they can make that sweet wifi bread.
These 3 examples have a core theme: enrich your users' lives, and they'll propel your brand's growth. While products and industries vary, the constant is clear — love for your brand fosters discussion and return visits.
Brian was right. Create something so compelling that people not only return but bring others with them.
With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):
Marketing news from the past week
TechCrunch’s journey to 100K readers
The 2023 state of content marketing report
31 SEO success stories
How to actually grow on social media
Ad from the past
Website of the week
Cool marketing jobs
And much more
🗞 In the news
🚀 All things growth & product
TechCrunch’s journey to 100K readers, how to increase enterprise leads, must-have assets for your competitive intel program, and why you should bid on your own branded terms.
💭 Guess the riddle
What is always old and sometimes new, never sad, sometimes blue. Never empty, but sometimes full. Never pushes, always pulls?
Answer is at the bottom of this email
✍️ Copy, social media, & emails
How to write microcopy, how to (actually) grow on social media, and a guide to Google’s new email security guidelines.
⚙️ SEO and content marketing
31 SEO success stories, why the web needs more SEOs, the 2023 state of content marketing report, and a project management workflow for creating content.
🎨 Branding, psychology, & sales
The Halo Effect in branding, why storytelling is so important, and sales plays your startup needs.
🦖 Extra stuff
How to find your next big marketing idea, and a reminder for busy creative people (like yourself).
📣 Ad from the past
Kodak ad from 1968
💻 Website of the week
🏝 Cool marketing jobs
Okay, that's it for now 💙. See you next Tuesday (most likely)!
What did you think of this newsletter? |
“But in the end self-confidence mostly comes from a gut-level realization that nobody has ever died from making a wrong business decision, or taking inappropriate action, or being overruled. And everyone in your operation should be made to understand this.” — Andrew S. Grove
Riddle answer: The moon