Distribution Channel Hacks to Scale
Here is every growth hack we used for each of our distribution channels:
- Organic Short-form content
- Influencer Marketing
- SEO
- Paid Ads
Organic Short-form Content
The most important thing to remember in this new age of social media is that follower counts don’t matter at all.
I would unironically sponsor a fresh account made this week vs a YouTuber with a million subs if they had similar views, and I don’t even think it’s a controversial opinion. The reason being that new accounts are highly volatile, and if you put out a great engaging piece of content, it could easily go viral regardless of how many followers you have.
Rather than finding and sponsoring these new accounts in your niche, you can create these accounts yourself. Follow this basic format:
- Find a face for your account
- Craft a viral video 'series'
- Multiply your accounts
What would happen if BTS made a new TikTok account and started posting? All videos on the new account would immediately go viral because the algorithm would push the videos back to their fans. Despite having zero followers, this new TikTok account will ‘behave’ as though it has hundreds of millions of followers.
One great hack is to find someone who already has an audience of people that you know will convert, then ask them to create a completely new account to post videos about your product. This is amazing because creators are usually open to this idea since it doesn’t dilute their main page. It’s also cheaper to pay for 20 videos on a new account every month vs 20 sponsored posts on their main account, and it gets better results.
For example, we found a creator named Mengmengduck whose entire account was teaching students how to write to employers, and we paid him $4000 for 20 videos/month. In our first month, we got 7 million+ impressions; the videos on the brand-new account were being pushed to the followers on his main account.
Basic Guidelines for New Creators:
- Repost vids on all platforms (Reels, TikTok, YT Shorts)
- Post 1+ videos per day
- Initially, post vids similar to what the influencer posts on their main account, then start experimenting with videos that feature your product
- We paid $4000/month for MMD who had 500k followers, but you can get someone cheaper for similar results!
The goal when working with your creator is to find a viral “series” because a video that goes viral once will go viral again. You want a video that you can tweak slightly and repost multiple times a week that is still fun for the audience.
Examples of Viral Series:
- Spaghetti Guy: A guy tries to see how many sticks of spaghetti it takes to hold his weight, then coat hangers, then sheets of paper, etc. Minimal effort but will go viral every time.
- Milk Guy: A guy drinks a cup of milk for every 1000 followers he has. It’s the same video every day but people tune in to see him suffer and drink hundreds of cups of milk. Will go viral every time.
- Essay POV: For us, we had “POV you have an essay due” and it was just a ridiculous plot of someone realizing they have an essay due and always ended with them using Jenni AI to help write their essay faster. Same video, slightly different intro each time.
Order of Virality:
- Have one account on each platform (TikTok, Instagram, YT shorts) and experiment with various hooks and video ideas.
- Eventually, you’ll get a video that goes viral after enough experimentation.
- Turn that video into a “series”.
- Start tweaking and posting this “series” on multiple accounts.
- Translate and create the same video with creators that speak different languages.
- Take the mega-viral videos and sponsor other pages to repost them.
- Use the mega-viral content for paid ads.
- Eventually, enough copycats will copy your video series, and it’ll get played out, so restart at step 1.
Our video series "POV: You have an essay due" has generated over 300 million views. It was essentially the same video over and over, multiple times a week, yet they consistently went viral. That one video series made us over half a million dollars and was one of several video series’ we were able to cook up.
Influencer Marketing
Find Influencers:
- Go to your users' Instagram and see which influencers they are following. This should be easy if you’ve done user interviews correctly.
- Do this for several users, and you will find some influencers popular among your target user demographic. Follow these influencers and use the "suggested similar accounts" feature to find more.
- Check what hashtags these influencers use and follow those as well.
- Create a new Instagram/TikTok account, follow these influencers, and the algorithm will start showing relevant influencers to you.
Reach Out to Influencers:
- DMs > emails = higher response rate (at least for us).
- Messages need to be detailed, tailored, and concise.
- Show genuine appreciation for their content and excitement to partner up.
- Explain why their audience will love your product and indicate it's a paid promotion.
- Expect a response rate of less than 50%.
Negotiate:
- Align incentives between you and the influencer.
- Never pay upfront for videos (at most, pay half upfront).
- Try to split payment based on conversions (via coupon code or UTM link).
- Ask for their viewer demographics and compare with your conversion rates.
- Negotiate deals based on performance (views, redemptions).
Post Content:
- Tailor content to fit the influencer's usual content style.
- If you lack social media experience, let the influencer create the video and then approve it.
- Focus on making viewers excited about your product, not just generating views.
Final Tips:
- Create a portfolio of bets instead of hunting for the perfect deal.
- Don’t be afraid to retry with an influencer if the first video flops.
- Cast a large net, double down on winners, and gather data.
- The ultimate goal is to build out your influencer marketing arm and bring someone on to run it.
SEO
SEO can take a long time to see results, so it’s not ideal for early-stage startups seeking fast feedback. Start SEO work when you have a deep understanding of your power users.
Growth Hacks for SEO:
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Taking Featured Snippets:
- Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Search Atlas to identify keywords you rank for that have featured snippets.
- Tweak your content to answer the query more precisely with definitive phrases and clear formatting.
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Increasing Brand Name Searches:
- Encourage users to search for your brand name during organic and paid social media marketing.
- Track conversions made via Google searches to optimize campaigns and reap SEO benefits.
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Making It Easy for Search Engines:
- Add relevant schema to pages.
- Mark up landing pages with FAQ data and blog posts with article data.
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Estimating ROI from Search Engines:
- Use a custom tool or manually filter out branded queries to get a clearer picture of non-branded SEO conversions.
Paid Ads
In the early stages, avoid burning money on paid ads and focus on organic and influencer marketing first. Paid ads require accurate data to make informed decisions.
Why Paid Ads After Influencer Marketing and Organic Content:
- You’ll have creatives to work with from influencer partnerships and organic content.
- Customer feedback from social media comments can inform ad copy and positioning.
- Social media partnership data helps better target ads.
- Early-stage budgets may not be sufficient to gather enough data for effective targeting.
Scaling Paid Ads:
- Scale paid ads after achieving PMF (Product Market Fit), 3x LTV to CAC, and a short payback period.
- Ensure your landing page is persuasive and effective.
- Paid ads require a larger budget and more data, so start them later in your startup’s lifecycle.
Conclusion + Final Tip
For every level, there is a new devil. Scaling to $5M ARR involves solving various issues with specialized knowledge and intense focus. As you acquire users profitably with one growth channel, train someone to take over so you can move to the next channel. Hiring resilient and fast learners is crucial.
Today, our marketing team is just three people (including me), and we couldn't have reached $5M ARR without them. I hope you are the one person who utilizes these strategies effectively and embarks on a similar fantastical journey. Good luck!