Demand Curve - The Growth Newsletter #109

The Growth Newsletter #109

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Hello and welcome!

This week we cover emotional hooks, value prop stories, and useful ChatGPT prompts.

As always, if you don’t find this valuable, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email. If you like it, tell your friends to subscribe here. It's the number one way to support the newsie.

–Neal

How to make the best ad creatives 

In 2023, great creative is the competitive edge to succeed with paid marketing. Most most startups approach it the wrong way.

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What are they missing? A strategic, systematic approach to creative.

A “creative machine” that produces consistent, high-leverage learnings. Learnings that compound test after test. Leading not only to more profitable creatives, but a deeper understanding of your market that informs all areas of your growth engine.

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Want to get in front of founders/marketers? Here's what you need to know (new page!).

1. 10 emotions to hook people's attention

Insight from Shaan Puri + DC.

MrBeast won't even make a video unless he has the perfect thumbnail and title in mind.

For written content, we call these "hooks." They:

1. Stop people scrolling (aka thumb-stopping).

2. Intrigue them.

3. Get them to either keep reading or click to see more.

Without a good hook, your otherwise amazing content just won't get seen. 

Shaan Puri lists six emotional reactions you want to evoke in your hooks:

1. LOL (humour)

2. WTF (surprise/outrage)
3. That's crazy! (surprise/delight)
4. Ohhh, I get it now
5. FINALLY! Someone said it
6. Yay! (celebration—like if someone got a new job)

I'd also add:

1. Uh-oh (fear): "I hope I'm not doing it wrong."
2. Damn, I want that (inspiration)

3. Then what happened? (curiosity)
4. Daaaamn (credibility): "This person knows what they're talking about."

Tap into these emotions, and you'll stop the scroll and get them invested in reading more.

Here's how Wes Kao taps into "Uh oh":

2. Nail your value prop story

Insight from Liron Shapira, founder/CEO of Relationship Hero

Entrepreneurs fail when they build businesses that don't provide real value to people.

That's why nailing your value props is critical.

If you can tell a well-formed value prop story, it's a sign that you’re creating something valuable.

Here’s the template:

1. Describe a specific person with a specific problem.
2. Describe their current best effort to solve their problem.
3. Describe why it’s still a problem.
4. Describe how their life gets better thanks to you.

Example: Relationship Hero (relationship coaching SaaS)

1. Describe a specific person with a specific problem: A 23-year-old man who can’t get a date.
2. Describe their current best effort to solve their problem: He gets a Tinder account and does his best to convert matches into dates.
3. Describe why it’s still a problem: His matches barely respond, and when they do, the conversation feels boring and forced. He uses Tinder for one hour every day, but only gets one date every two months.
4. Describe how their life gets better thanks to you: Once Relationship Hero's coaches guide him through writing his texts, he suddenly has much better conversations that result in a date each week.

This simple framework helps you validate a plausible business/product idea without any market research or empirical evidence. (Although we recommend those for deeper analysis—talking to customers is incredibly important.)

You can use that story on your website and in your marketing copy.

3. 7 ChatGPT prompts worth trying

Insight from MECLABS Institute.

"It’s easier to be a critic than a creative." – marketing researcher Flint McGlaughlin

ChatGPT can’t do all the legwork of content creation. It's still not that good at writing, for example:

So bad.

But it can be great for inspiration and relieving blank-page syndrome.

See for yourself by experimenting with these seven prompts:

1. “Write 5 headlines for [Company] based on the facts below.” Be sure to list at least three of your company’s strongest value props or credentials. They’ll help guide ChatGPT toward better results.
2. “Write 5 more headlines stressing the exclusiveness of [Company]’s services.” Rather than simply using the first few headlines generated, ask ChatGPT to refine them according to new specifications. You can change these new instructions to whatever you’re looking for.
3. “Write 5 more headlines that begin with the word ‘get.’” Continue refining. You can replace “get” with any other word of your choosing.
4. “What do customers want to achieve with [Company]’s services?” Use this prompt to get ideas for reframing your company’s biggest value props—and to clarify whether ChatGPT understands your company. This is a prereq for the next prompt.
5. “Write a headline that emphasizes how customers can get what they want through [Company].” Assuming ChatGPT correctly understands your company’s offerings and your customers’ goals, use this prompt to uncover more copywriting ideas.
6. “Add a sense of urgency to headlines 1 and 2.” If there are any specific headlines you like, ask ChatGPT to hone in on them and make adjustments.
7. “Give me 10 examples of X.” Coming up with examples can be time consuming.

For example, I asked: "What are 20 tactical copywriting tips with before-and-after examples?"

I then chose my favourites, remixed them, and created this design. Check out tips 4 and 5:

News and links

News you can use:

• Meta entered the AI fray by releasing a new large language model. LlaMa, which stands for Large Language Model Meta AI, is a tool that could be used to advance research into some of the issues surrounding AI, such as bias and toxicity. Since it’s a research system, you can’t talk to it like you can with AI chatbots, but that also means it won’t tell you it loves you.
• Both wins and woahs from TikTok lately. The win: A recent benchmark report from Rival IQ found that TikTok’s median post engagement rate is much higher, at 5.69%, than other social platforms. Compare that to 0.47% for Instagram and 0.035% for tweets. The woah: TikTok is now banned on European Commission staff devices, while the UK government is being urged to follow suit.
• Some useful updates over at LinkedIn: You can now target ads by interest. Plus, soon you’ll be able to customize SEO titles and descriptions for articles and add more visuals to your profile’s “activity” section.

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Top new marketing jobs

If you're looking for a top growth role, check out the opportunities below from our job board.

Something fun

From /r/ProgrammerHumor

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• Read our free playbooks, blog articles, and teardowns—we break down the strategies and tactics that fast-growing startups use to grow.
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See you next week.

— Neal, Grace, Joyce, Dennis, and the DC team.

Neal O'Grady

Grace Parazzoli

Joyce Chou

Dennis Buckley