🪄 The Bullseye Framework

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The Spells Master is back!

Welcome to the 139th issue.

Today's topics:

1. The Bullseye Framework

2. An app to help Increase Your Laptop's Battery

3. One recommended video on Getting 100,000 Followers in 60 Days

The Bullseye Framework

In the competitive world of startups, finding the right way to reach customers can make or break a business.

The Bullseye Framework, introduced in the book "Traction" by Gabriel Weinberg (DuckDuckGo CEO) and Justin Mares, offers a structured approach to identify and focus on the most effective marketing channel for your startup.

The Bullseye Framework has 3 steps:

1. Outer Ring: What's Possible

2. Middle Ring: What's Probable

3. Inner Ring: What's Working

1. Outer Ring: What's Possible

In this initial stage, you brainstorm all potential marketing channels.

There are 19 distinct traction channels:

1. Viral Marketing

2. Public Relations (PR)

3. Unconventional PR

4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

5. Social and Display Ads

6. Offline Ads

7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

8. Content Marketing

9. Email Marketing

10. Engineering as Marketing

11. Target Market Blogs

12. Business Development

13. Sales

14. Affiliate Programs

15. Existing Platforms

16. Trade Shows

17. Offline Events

18. Speaking Engagements

19. Community Building

When considering these channels, it's crucial to:

• Research marketing strategies that have worked in your industry

• Study the history of companies in your space

• Understand how similar companies acquired customers over time

• Learn from unsuccessful companies' mistakes (their failed marketing strategies)

Pro tip: Create a spreadsheet listing ideas for each channel and rank them based on their probability of success.

2. Middle Ring: What's Probable

This stage is about narrowing down your options. Select the most promising channels from your outer ring and move them to the middle ring. The goal here is to run cheap, quick tests to identify potential winners.

For each channel in the middle ring, design a simple test that answers 3 key questions:

1. How much will it cost to acquire customers through this channel?

2. How many customers are available through this channel?

3. Are the customers you're getting through this channel the kind you want right now?

Important notes for testing traction channels:

• Keep tests small-scale, low-cost, and low-effort (e.g., 4 ads instead of 40)

• Aim to get results within 30 days and with a budget of around $1000

• Test multiple channels in parallel to save time, but don't spread yourself too thin

Do not try to scale a marketing strategy in the middle ring as these are just tests to find traction channels.

3. Inner Ring: What's Working

The final step is identifying your "core" channel - the one that will truly move the needle for your startup. This is where many founders make a critical mistake: they try to scale multiple channels simultaneously. Instead, the Bullseye Framework advocates for going "10x" on your single most effective channel.

In some cases, you might find two complementary channels that work well together (like SEO and PR, which both help with building backlinks). Even then, one channel should be the primary focus, with the other playing a supporting role.

If none of your tested channels show any signs of life, return to the outer ring and start the process again with fresh ideas.

Mint Success Story

Noah Kagan, an early employee at Mint (a personal finance app later acquired by Intuit for $170 million), applied a version of the Bullseye Framework to great effect:

1. Outer Ring: Noah Kagan and his team identified potential channels including personal finance blogs, finance celebrities, and search engine marketing.

2. Middle Ring: They ran small tests such as sponsoring a small newsletter, placing Google Ads, and contacting finance influencers. All results were meticulously tracked in a spreadsheet.

3. Inner Ring: After analyzing the test results, they identified sponsoring personal finance blogs as their most promising channel.

Mint's initial goal was to reach 100,000 users in 6 months. By focusing on their core channel, they exceeded expectations, acquiring 1 million users in just 6 months.

Focus on 1-2 Channels

The Bullseye Framework's emphasis on finding and scaling a single, effective channel is supported by industry experience.

As the CMO of HubSpot and CEO of ButcherBox noted, "You need 1 channel to get to $50M and 2 channels to get to $100M."

By systematically working through the Bullseye Framework, you can identify, test, and focus on the marketing channel that will drive your startup's growth most effectively.

Remember, success often comes not from doing everything, but from doing the right thing extraordinarily well.

An app to help Increase Your Laptop's Battery

BatFi keeps your laptop from overcharging which helps to extend your battery's lifespan.

One recommended video on Getting 100,000 Followers in 60 Days

This video tells you how to get 100,000 Followers in 60 Days on TikTok in 2024.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

When customers request refunds, consider offering a 50% refund first. Many customers may accept this as they know it costs money to run a business.

Those who are poor will likely still ask for a 100% refund as it might be a huge chunk of their net worth.

"Close mouths don't get fed."

It's worth asking.

2/

Ben Tossell sold MakerPad (NoCode Education Platform) to Zapier in 2021.

• MakerPad stats: $400k ARR, 10k+ members pre-acquisition.

• Estimated sale: $3m to $5m (2x-4x ARR).

His new AI Newsletter, Ben's Bites, surpassed that revenue in 8 months.

Possible factor for making $3m to $5m would be the 100k+ subscriber list getting a steal $250 lifetime pricing deal.

3/

"Listen to everyone. But think for yourself."

I welcome unsolicited advice.

Rabbit Holes

1. Slapping Cats, Bopping Heads, and Oreo Shakes: Understanding Indicators of Virality in TikTok Short Videos - A research on viral indicators in TikTok short videos that explores trends like "Slapping Cats, Bopping Heads, and Oreo Shakes."

2. BookMyShow's SEO strategy to make 88.9M monthly traffic! - BookMyShow has 1M+ backlinks. Over 66% of total users that arrive on BookMyShow come from Google.

3. Elon Musk's, Steve Jobs', Albert Einstein's Secret Sauce - Self-belief is a lot harder to master than skills. "Those who think they can, and those who think they can't, and they're both right." ~ Henry Ford

Until next time,

Your Spells Master!

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