The beta version of YouTube Shorts launched in the US last week: - **Creators are already going viral through the new feature,** with videos who use Shorts hitting over a million views. The YouTube algorithm is currently boosting the feature, creatin
The beta version of YouTube Shorts launched in the US last week:
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Creators are already going viral through the new feature, with videos who use Shorts hitting over a million views. The YouTube algorithm is currently boosting the feature, creating opportunities for major organic discoverability. Push your amazing content out now before the market inevitably becomes saturated.
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TechCrunch dropped tickets to its annual Disrupt conference, and they're selling like hotcakes. Dru Riley's tip for recreating TC's value-based pricing approach in your own company? Frame your product as an investment, not an expense, and people will see its worth.
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Founder Cecilia Razak hit over 1K active users in three months with a new product after COVID-19 halted her $750K ARR company. By joining communities and hosting live virtual events, she showed users how her product can make Zoom meetings not only bearable, but...actually fun.
Want to share your ideas with over 70K indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. âChanning
đč YouTube Shorts Just Launched and Creators Are Already Going Viral
from the User Acquisition Channels newsletter by Darko G.
The beta version of YouTube Shorts launched in the US a few days ago, and creators are already going viral on the platform. Founders with great content should strike while the iron is hot before the app becomes saturated.
YouTube Shorts causes a frenzy
Youtube's version of TikTok has launched in the US, and people on Twitter and Clubhouse are already reporting viral results.
Timing matters: The problem with all channels is that over time, they eventually result in horrible clickthrough rates. Simply put, every acquisition channel gets saturated eventually. This makes it much harder for new entrants to get significant results.
The solution: Monitor new channels and new features inside existing channels. YouTube adding YouTube shorts to its platform is one example of the latter.
The opportunity: Once a popular distribution channel (like YouTube) adds a new feature, they tend to give extra exposure to the early adopters for a period of time. This makes sense if you're YouTube; the best way to get people to use something is to give positive feedback. For creators, that's more views and clicks.
What this means for you: Getting started with YouTube Shorts is a good idea for people who are interested in releasing YouTube content, but have been discouraged by the lack of organic discoverability by the Youtube algorithm for ordinary videos.
But act fast: While YouTube shorts may now net you great organic reach, soon it will probably get saturated and earn the same amount of attention as regular YouTube videos (which is very little).
You can now spy with TikTok ads
TikTok released its TikTok Business Creative Center, a place for creators to "learn about best practices for ads on TikTok." The tool allows you to see the top active ads by industry and country, and you can also click on an ad to see more details.
What this means for you: This tool is still limited compared to the Facebook Ad Library in terms of examples, but it's very likely to improve significantly in the future. If you're looking for creative inspiration for your video ads, TikTok's Business Creative Center may be a good place to start.
Twitter to make live audio chats more discoverable
Blogger Jane Machung Wong recently reported that Twitter is working on adding a dedicated page/tab for Twitter Spaces:
Also, Telegram just launched Voice Chats 2.0, which provides unlimited audio group chats for Telegram groups.
What this means for you: Group audio chats are the new stories. Facebook is also working on a Clubhouse clone.
By the end of 2021, each major platform is likely to have its own version of Clubhouse. You'll be able to start live audio chats in your Facebook Groups, Telegram Groups, Instagram profiles/pages and so on. As with any new format, these platforms will reward early adopters with extra organic exposure. Get in on the game early for the best results.
Do you plan to give YouTube Shorts a try? Discuss in the comments!
Discuss this story, or subscribe to User Acquisition Channels for more.
đ° In the News
from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani
đĄ Homeownership startup Pacaso raised $75M, going from launch to unicorn in five months.
đ Amazon delivery drivers have to consent to AI surveillance or lose their jobs.
đ YouTube won't remove a three-hour livestream of the Boulder, Colorado shootout, claiming it has "news or documentary context."
đ« Citigroup CEO bans Zoom calls on Fridays, encouraging employees to take vacations.
đ± Utah passes bill blocking porn from all cellphones and tablets.
Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.
đČ Value-Based Pricing is One of Your Biggest Assets
from the Trends.vc newsletter by Dru Riley
TechCrunch has released tickets to its popular Disrupt conference, which will be held virtually this year. People are taking advantage of the early bird pricing in droves. Why? Like TechCrunch, founders who pay close attention to value-based pricing are able to frame offers as investments, not expenses.
Markets and Ideas
Why it matters:
- Flawed pricing models misalign incentives.
- Unoptimized pricing carries huge opportunity costs.
- Pricing is one of the biggest levers you can pull in your business with asymmetric effects on profit and valuation.
Problem: At best, flawed pricing limits your ability to reinvest in growth. At worst, it misaligns incentives, causing stakeholders to work against one another.
Value-based pricing sets prices based on a customer's perceived value. This allows you to frame offers as investments instead of expenses.
Players
Pricing Models:
- Cost-Based - Setting prices by adding a percentage to costs.
- Competition-Based - What are my competitors charging? What's the market rate?
- Value-Based - How much is this worth to a client or customer?
Value Metrics
Services:
SaaS:
Platforms (% of sales):
Predictions
- Dynamic pricing will become common. Boardfy optimizes prices in real-time.
- Real estate agents, fund managers and financial planners will be disintermediated by software. See managed marketplaces, yield farming and robo-advisors.
- Parity pricing and currency localization will become common. The latter correlates to 30-45% higher growth rates.
Opportunities
- Build authority by writing, speaking and curating. This leads to inbound demand and pricing power. Stewart Townsend built a 7K-person following by sharing content.
- Buy businesses with unoptimized prices, optimize and shorten your payback period. See Micro Private Equity.
- Use social proof to boost perceived value. Don't take my word for it, listen to them. Tools like Testimonial.to and Shoutout showcase social proof.
- Find high-leverage ways to deliver value. Sales, recruiting and (ironically) pricing are "close-to-the-money." Results are measurable and valuable.
Key lessons
- Competition is a commoditizing force. Pricing power drops as competition increases.
- Value-based pricing forces clarity. What does success look like? What does failure look like? What will we measure? Cost-based pricing skips these questions.
- Value-based pricing forces first-principles thinking. Asking "why?" leads to core buying motives.
You may be thinking: "This sounds like a lot of work."
It can be. But price optimization provides asymmetric upside. I'm speaking to a future of decentralized networks with low switching costs.
More Reports
Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.
Subscribe to Trends.vc for more.
đ§ Harry's Growth Tip
from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry
My favorite titles donât follow a formula. Theyâre throwaway lines a customer might say that capture your product in a way a formula canât.
You write them by âriffingâ and talking to customers.
Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.
Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.
đ Founder Cecilia Razak Hit 1K Active Users in 3 Months
By Cecilia Razak
Slides with Friends officially launched at the end of November 2020. Three months later, we had over 1K active users on the platform!
The background
Slides with Friends is a tool for making video calls better. Its interactive slide deck builder (with tons of pre-made games you can use) makes Zoom calls engaging and fun for your audience. It's like PowerPoint meets Jackbox games, where the goal is to help people come together and feel connected.
How to pivot if COVID-19 murders your $750K ARR startup
In March 2020, I was (am) running a startup in the pet care tech industry. We were in multiple cities, slated for an NYC launch in Q2, and had just hit $60K MRR in February. March was on track to beat that. 2020 was on track for $1M ARR.
In a period of two weeks, our revenue dropped by 75%. People stopped going to work (and stopped spending big bucks on pet care). Instead of a million dollars in 2020, we did $300K in revenue.
Due to COVID-19, we suddenly had a completely remote team, a system with the capacity to run at 3x its current rate, and some time on our hands. I wanted to help make our team meetings a little better and still be able to connect with friends and family. Me and my cofounder, Mason Hipp, dreamed up SlidesWith together as a way to solve all of these issues at once.
How we got to 1K signups so fast
- Content: We created sharable, high-value content for people in our target area.
- Events: We joined communities and created online live events specifically designed for those communities. This helped us show off our tool, and more importantly, actually provide value to the community's users.
Biz model & SaaS
It's a freemium product, and our paid conversion rate is currently ~6%. We're running annual pricing only, at $48/year (dirt cheap compared to our competitors).
For those interested in the technicals, it's VueJS on the frontend and Hasura/PostgreSQL on the backend. The site is statically generated and deployed via Netlify, and all of the backend infrastructure is handled by Nhost.
About me
I'm a snooty, overly intellectual introvert who's had to learn how to overcome these traits. Here's an article I wrote about running great events as an introvert.
I'm running an event this Friday (3/26) about How to Beat Zoom Fatigue. If you run a lot of remote meetings, this is for you.
Also, here's a lifetime 50% off discount if you'd like to check out the product! Discount ends April 1.
AMA about growing a SaaS product, finding good marketing channels, being an introvert who still has to network, getting flattened by a global pandemic, etc.!
Discuss this story.
đŠ The Tweetmaster's Pick
by Tweetmaster Flex
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
đ Enjoy This Newsletter?
Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.
Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.
Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Darko G., Priyanka Vazirani, Harry Dry, Dru Riley, and Cecilia Razak for contributing posts. âChanning
