🔍 How To Hijack Your Competitors' Customers

Happy new year, marketeers. Pretty wild that it's 2023 already. This meme by my homie Trung is too damn accurate. But, it’s been a minute since you’ve gotten a Marketing Examined newsletter, so, let me update you a bit.

Marketing Examined is expanding from a single newsletter into other verticals and now we have five total publications.

Why?

The goal is simple - I want to create the world of growth marketing at your fingertips.

So, in Q1 we’re launching: Content Examined, Landing Pages Examined, Social Examined, and AI Examined, and obviously, nothing will change with Marketing Examined. 

And the best part is, they’ll all go live starting next week.

I'll keep updating you over the next few weeks...

But thanks for being here!

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Northbeam stitches together every touchpoint, every channel, and every campaign into data that helps you make sound decisions.

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Your revenue will thank you later.

If you’re a creator of any kind or spent one minute on Twitter two weeks ago then you saw the uproar that Gumroad caused for creators after increasing the affiliate fee to 10%.

Which made Gumroad trend in the Twittersphere for all the wrong reasons.

Anytime this happens, it’s a perfect opportunity for a competitor to swoop in and win over customers.

And that’s what ConvertKit did.

They used Gumroad’s announcement to inject themself into the trending conversation, steal the eyeballs, and position themself as the solution.

Chefs kiss.

Here’s how Nathan did it:

Within minutes of Gumroad’s new affiliate fee announcement, the news was trending on Twitter.

The next minute, Nathan Barry, the Founder of ConvertKit was addressing the news, adding his opinion, and relaying a solution to creators.

And quickly, Nathan’s tweet was the top tweet under the trending topic “Gumroad.”

Just like that, Convertkit was in front of creators who were frustrated and looking for a solution.

Creators weren’t looking for someone to keep kicking Gumroad while they were down, but for someone to understand the frustration Gumroad creators were facing and offer a solution that wouldn’t screw them in the future.

And Nathan approached it beautifully using the before-after-bridge technique to tell a micro-story.

Before: I got started on Gumroad back in 2012 and was the first indie creator to cross $10k in sales.

After: But after they stopped improving the platform I built my own that is creator focused.

Bridge: ConvertKit (and our Commerce feature) is everything I wanted as a creator to earn a living.

The third part of this is positioning.

Nathan hooked them through emotions.

And then converts them through education.

So, he wrote a thread breaking down what creators would love about ConvertKit Commerce, specifically around the Gumroad news.

And Nathan started with the biggest pain point for Gumroad Creators: That ConvertKit’s fee is only 3.5%.

Now there are two ways Nathan amplified his message outside of his own audience:

1. By getting big-name investors and users to retweet and comment
2. Running paid social on his Tweets that got the most engagement

By getting big names to retweet and comment, it acted as social proof to convince new creators that ConvertKit was not only a good solution but a legitimate solution.

And now by amplifying it via paid social, Nathan got his message in front of new creators hunting for a solution.

Now there are two ways Nathan amplified his message outside of his audience:

1. By getting big-name investors and users to retweet and comment
2. Running paid social on his Tweets that got the most engagement

By getting big names to retweet and comment, it acted as social proof to convince new creators that ConvertKit was not only a good solution but a legitimate solution.

And now by amplifying it via paid social, Nathan got his message in front of new creators hunting for a solution.

When your competitor makes a mistake that's your opportunity to win over their customer base. But that window is small so acting fast is key.

While Gumroad was putting out fires, Convertkit was winning over customers.

Here are the steps:

• Inject yourself or brand into the trending conversion 
• Resonate with frustrated customers by using storytelling to connect with them on a personal level
• Position yourself as the solution by educating consumers about your product while eliminating pain points
• Amplify your message by manufacturing engagement and running paid social
• Make the migration process frictionless so they don't second guess it