🪄 Dumb Marketing

Hey,

The Spells Master is back!

Welcome to the 40th issue.

Today's topics:

1. Dumb Marketing

2. A tool to get an email when you are mentioned online

3. One recommended video on Growth Hacking Strategies that Work in 2024

Dumb Marketing

Dumb Marketing is useful for engagement.

When you are small, you can use it so everyone trolls you and you become a recognizable name.

Once you become a bit established, you can use a PR agency or a reputation management agency to change your public perception.

Celebrities use this all the time. See the recent Zuckerberg makeover.

A few examples:

1. Reddit Post

A few days back, I posted about the GPT-4o release on Reddit and I had 1 error in the post about Duolingo price dropping by $65.

The price drop was due to missing earnings, not GPT-4o release and countless people corrected me on the post giving it more engagement.

In the long run, GPT-4o and its alternatives might affect Duolingo's market share (or who knows it thrives to newer levels) but this particular error was good source of engagement.

"The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." ~ Cunningham's Law

2. X Post using the Wrong Age of an influencer

Similarly, when MKBHD and Rabbit's Humane drama was going viral, another influencer Tibo specifically used an incorrect age to be more clickbaity.

3. TikTokers mischievous "Open Tabs"

TikTokers use a mischievous tab so commenters specifically mention it in the comment section of the video boosting the engagement of it.

This hack was overused at one point in time.

Hat tip to Marketing Examined for the image.

4. An actress getting trolled

An Indian actress Alia Bhatt used it to get famous when she was asked simple questions like "who is the president of the country" and she couldn't answer or would rather give stupid answers.

She got heavily trolled and a lot of memes were circulated around it. Years later, I learned how PR works.

Now she is the #1 actress in the country.

In short, act dumb to get more engagement. There's a reason most experts on social media ask questions. Its the easiest way to increase engagement and get more views.

But don't do it too often. Have a balance. If you are small, you can go bonkers on this strategy.

You can always do an image makeover later on. Look at Logan Paul or countless other celebrities for example.

A tool to get an email when you are mentioned online

F5Bot allows you to listen to keywords online and sends you an email when the keywords are mentioned by anyone online.

It allows you to be the first person to reply to particular keywords without having to be online all the time.

Just get a notification and reply fast.

Easiest way to grow your product when you are small. You can use it for Customer Service as well.

One recommended video on Growth Hacking Strategies that Work in 2024

Growth Hacks get obsolete when they go mainstream.

What worked in 2020 might not work now.

Playbooks work but specific strategies don't.

This one dives deep into the Growth Hacking strategies that work now.

Tweet of the day

The Glow-Up Guru founded a Looksmaxxing app that makes $500k MRR.

Before that, he built another one to help men flirt, making him $200k per month.

Rabbit Holes

1. What Is NewsJacking? 8 Real-Life Examples - Newsjacking works wonderfully. I got 2x impressions when I tweeted around OpenAI's GPT-4o event. The funny thing is I used the same videos from their official YouTube channels. Most influencers do the same thing to go viral and get followers. Just newsjack within 30-minute so you get outsized returns.

2. Alex Friedman's Playbook To 50k Followers On TikTok In 3 Months - If you are on TikTok or making any short-form video content, definitely read this one. It has some unique tricks and tips. This works for creating any kind of content.

3. BALANCE - "Pick one desire, and one desire only. The universe will help you get it. Let go of everything else." ~ Naval.

Startup of the day

Cold DMs is an Automated Mass DM SaaS for Instagram.

You can use it to do more outreach so you get more clients.

Here’s how I’d grow this:

1. Scrape a list of Agency Owners on X/Twitter. Use a similar Twitter DMs SaaS to send Cold DMs on Twitter to get clients on Instagram. Now replace Twitter with Telegram, Discord, Slack, LinkedIn. Basically any site with DMs is your playground. The DM must say "this is automated via Cold DMs" as it shows proof of work. It gives a wow factor and increases conversion. In fact, a certain app (dead now) years ago did the same thing.

2. Write long-tail form content around Cold DM'ing for different niches. The content can cover stuff from dating to hiring to promoting their own product. Most people don't know how to write a good Cold DM so you have to actually invest in customer success by handholding.

3. Use all social medias like X, TikTok, Instagram to promote it by writing case studies that show how many actual conversions happened because of Cold DMs and how much time it saved. If the hooks are good, it will go viral. The actual posts or videos shouldn't feel like an ad but a case-study with subtle promotion.

Until next time,

Your Spells Master!

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More Startup Spells 🪄

1. Reverse-Engineering Business Model of Newsletters (LINK)

2. Reverse-Engineering Business Model of Startups Making Millions on Acquire.com (LINK)

3. Peak End Rule (with Real Life Examples) (LINK)

Disclosure: Everything said in this post is for educational purposes only. Please follow the law. By reading this post, you accept full responsibility for your actions.