Demand Curve - The Growth Newsletter #118

The Growth Newsletter #118

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And by Stephanie Lee's TL;DR Newsletter. A veteran media strategist, Stephanie has notably led publicity efforts for Ramit Sethi—New York Times best-selling author and host of the new Netflix show How to Get Rich. Each week she shares insider secrets for getting featured in prestigious media outlets, guesting on top podcasts, and amplifying your brand. Sign up for her TL;DR Newsletter here. 

Hello everyone,

This ended up as an accidental social-media-themed edition.

We're talking about looping shorts, turning articles into Stories, and repurposing influencer viral hits.

Let's dive in!

As always, if you don't love this newsie, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email. Or, if you like what you see or have suggestions for improvement, you can leave us a review through the links in the footer.

–Neal

1. Make your videos loop seamlessly

Insight from Tyler Fyfe.

Here’s a quick tactic for you. It’ll take about as long to implement as it will to read.

Ever find yourself mesmerized by a GIF or Instagram Reel, only to realize you've watched it like 10 times in a row?

Well, that's actually a solid way to ensure an algo boost on social platforms.

If you make your video loop seamlessly (and keep it interesting and engaging throughout), you'll have a chance of hitting a retention rate over 100%. That signals to platforms that it was a really good video and increases the chance of it going viral.

2. Turn articles/newsletters into Instagram Stories

Insight from James Clear.

Author James Clear was an early adopter of some interesting content marketing techniques—such as click-to-tweet for nearly every part of his newsletter.

Recently, he turned an entire article into a chain of Instagram Stories.

The Stories ended with two links: one to the complete article on his site, the other to his newsletter signup page. See the last two slides below:

Now remember, most people on Instagram are looking for dopamine hits of cats being silly.

So many will not be bothered to read each image—which means that the folks who do click through and subscribe are genuinely interested.

James uses the same strategy as a featured Stories highlight on his profile, where he shares the first chapter of his book Atomic Habits for free. It’s a simple showcase of his work for anyone new to his writing.

Execution here is pretty easy. Use Canva or any other basic image editor to break up an article into separate images. This is worth trying if your product is content and you’re building (or already have) an audience on Instagram.

3. Have influencers recreate their viral hits with your product

Insight from Rachel Karten.

Instead of having an influencer come up with an entirely new concept for your brand, ask them to recreate one of their best hits.

But make just one tweak: feature your product.

Example:

• Here’s an original viral video from Michael Incognito, which first appeared on TikTok.
• And here’s the version posted on Reformation’s Instagram, featuring Michael in the brand’s clothing.

There's no script, no testimonial, not even a brand mention. But the recreated content went viral just like the original—except this time, on a brand account.

This is a clever way to partner with influencers to get more impressions and engagement in a fairly risk-free fashion. Viral hits often stay as viral hits.

Look for high-performing content that shows products like yours, even if the product itself isn’t the main focus. For example, a furniture brand could recreate a creator speaking to the camera in one of their showrooms, rather than the creator's studio.

News and links

News you can use:

• Some random new products worth noting: 1) Bluesky: Like Twitter, but decentralized and without…all the things that have happened to Twitter in the last year (in beta). 2) Barcelona: Also like Twitter, also decentralized, but from Meta (in development). 3) Hugging Face: Like ChatGPT, but open source. 4) Canvas: Like Google Docs, but in Slack.
• TikTok Shop is in beta in the US too. This is an ecom tool that lets brands sell directly on TikTok through the product showcase tab, in-feed videos, and LIVEs.
• Over at YouTube, podcasts are newly available through YouTube Music, and you can now hop on music trends through AI-powered music ads.
• A first for Pinterest, they’ve launched a multiyear third-party ad partnership—with Amazon. Amazon ads on Pinterest will take users directly to Amazon to purchase.
• ChatGPT announced a forthcoming Business subscription and the new ability to turn off chat history. Meanwhile, the EU is drafting legislation that would require ChatGPT and other AI tools to reveal the copyrighted materials they’re built with.

Newsletter we recommend: TL;DR Newsletter*.

Each week Stephanie shares insider secrets for getting featured in prestigious media outlets, guesting on top podcasts, and amplifying your brand.

Sign up for her TL;DR Newsletter here. 

*Sponsored by Cloutmonster

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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