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Craig Zingerline (Head of Product) at Sandboxx was met with a challenge. That is COVID-19. He had amazing Q1 growth in 2020. Then, at some point, the business was about to die. Revenues dropping. Cancellations. They had all the challenges one could think of during COVID-19. You name it. Then, they re-iterated their product and opened a new business line by solving an existing problem of their audience. Result? They started growing again. Curious? It's a long emotional story on how they helped military recruits to stay connected with their family when everything stopped working. In this episode, we discussed: Why Craig hates growth hacking?How Craig fixed activation of upside when the users were not coming back?How to increase brand stickiness? Drive value instead of trying to make more money. Prioritize user experience How to NOT die during COVID but also expand new revenueHow Craig tweaked his course with psychological principles to get 100K in revenue Show notes: 2:06 - What are Craig's thoughts on Growth Hacking and Why he also does not approve of it. 4:56 - How Upside.com was able to increase activation with non-active users? 14:44 - How Craig found & diagnose the actual activation problem 18:38 - Craig's thought experiments for growth 20:33 - How Craig was able to save a dying business that was highly impacted by COVID 32:36 - How he was able to get 6-figure course revenue by applying psychological principles and tweaking a few things. Links: Craig's Growth University: https://growthminded.co/ Connect with Craig on LinkedIn

I’ve recently taken a course about Mental Models for Marketing from Corey Haines and it helped me become better at growth marketing. There were some principles that needed more details and stories.  So, we decided to record an episode on that. We discussed: 2:01 - Corey's story in the marketing world4:15 - What's the inversion principle? How did Corey use to at Baremetrics?10:46 - What's Cobra Effect? How did Corey realize while trying to increase the activation metric?17:17 - A key lesson learned while trying to increase activation18:47 - Ockham's Razor & Overfitting story related to his landing page25:25 - Favorite growth marketers according to Corey25:52 - Worst advice Corey ever got?  There are 40+ Mental Models Corey has in his course. Check out 👉 Mental Models for Marketing Key takeaways Use inversion to think otherwise. Other consequences. I use inversion for budget planning.Cobra effect — Align your marketing to customers, not the other way aroundKeep it simple silly - Ockham's razorIt’s always okay to say that you don’t know and that you’ll figure it out.Instead of learning the next big hack, try to understand your customers and position yourself in their context Links Connect with Corey here: https://twitter.com/coreyhainesco Check out his free newsletter here: https://swipefiles.co/

In this episode, we're going to learn from a product growth specialist. We discussed: Why does your content team need to think like a product team?How does it benefit?Live case study on how to thinkWhat's a ProdPad way of thinking? Follow -- ProdPad's Twitter account & Andrea's LinkedIn Profile to stay updated. I personally learn from Andrea's mindset and posts on my LinkedIn newsfeed.

This episode is all about insights I gathered from those growth marketing stories. I've divided those insights into: Content Creation & MarketingProduct Growth Promotion & Ads Plus, Happy New Year :-)

In this episode, we covered Nelio’s story on how he won Facebook Ads despite a dead channel for his boss. We talked about: Back story about how Nelio left corporate world and joined a startup like Careem.How’s Nelio’s company (Washmen) was struggling with Facebook AdsWhy Facebook Ads were not working?How they kept Facebook ads quality score high for 8 months and became a case study for FacebookHow understanding end-users helped him get ahead of the competition What are some key learning Don’t believe your boss. Test the channel first.Start with ad ad creative and copy first approach i.e. Brand-driven growth.If you want to win at any kind of marketing. Understand your customers and find those insights to get ahead of your competitionCreativity > Number crunching  Links: Nelio’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelioleone/The Facebook Ads Case StudyCheck out his website if you're looking to double down on paid ads: https://www.urbanmonks.io/

If you're looking to make a great brand & (podcasting) content that resonates with your audience. This podcast is for you. Jay Acunzo is my mentor. He actually taught many of us how to create a stellar podcast. We've discussed: What's his professional mission?Why he moved away from a well-paid Google job to pursue content marketing?How did he have his epiphany over time?How content creation should be actually done?Why Head of Content At Hubspot was still done good enough?How Jay's VC podcast considered as good as the A16z podcast?How to find podcast ROI?How a SaaS brand should have podcast creation?What's smug clarity and why should we avoid it?We did a case study live on - What should be Userpilot's (my company) podcast premise?How I start growth marketing stories, and how Jay help me?Worst advice Jay ever had? Jay's content you should DEFINITELY read if you're planning to start a podcast: Check out Jay's workshopJay's on-demand course Must Read Jay's Blogs The Experience Spectrum (a framework for understanding how others experience our shows, so we can avoid creating commodities and focus on making proprietary experiences)The Style Spectrum (a framework for understanding how our own personal involvement in the experience can radically effect it, and how to be proactive about that)The Fortress of Favoritism (a framework on how to be someone's favorite podcast) Show Notes Jay's favorite book on podcasting: Out on the wireJay's favorite show maker: Anthony BourdainJay's favorite marketer: Andrew David

This is rather a touching story of Niels Zee. How he stood out as a growth marketer during a job application process. In this episode, you'll hear Niels speaking about: How pandemic hit and he lost his jobHow he created demand for himselfHow he got 33 interviews and 8 offers This is a short-story led podcast format. If you like this episode, please leave a review so others can find it too. Links You can connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niels-zee/ Check out the website he promoted: https://nielszee.com/ His story on LinkedIn: When he got the job offerHow he appeared as a authority in growth marketingHis first touching post when he lost his job

This is an emotional underdog story of Aaron Krall. He shared his story about how he felt like cheating while growing his business without any paid marketing. We’ve discussed: ✔️ How Aaron left college and his job to start a business. ✔️ How he kept failing and never wanted to be an entrepreneur AGAIN. ✔️ How he kept growing without any paid channels. ✔️ Why he thinks this channel works well. ✔️ How you can leverage this channel and ideas. ✔️ Live case study with this channel. Show notes: 1:07 - Who is Aaron and How does he help SaaS companies with growth. 1:56 - Aaron's emotional story of failures to find traction for his business. 6:27 - How he started with SEO and Facebooks to deliver results. 11:40 - How he found partner marketing is ultimate channel and how he nurtures them. 14:40 - How Aaron would build relationship with Segment (advice to me & Userpilot) 22: 58 - How Aaron will solve a VOIP SaaS Startup's traction problem with partner marketing & development  Links: Aaron's WebsiteAaron's Facebook Group Russel Brunson his favorite growth marketerHis favorite book by Dana Dericks - Dream 100 Find us on Twitter/LinkedIn Aaron's LinkedIn & Twitter My profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aazarshad/ -Twitter my profile & growth marketing stories

We've discussed: ✔️ How Ayat got into CRO? ✔️ How she launched a SaaS in a Crowded SaaS Space ✔️ 5 key lessons she's learned in her 14 years career Show notes: Her product: Figpii - The book she recommended: The Education of An Idealist -Ayat's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayatshukairy/ - Her agency: https://www.invespcro.com/

In this episode, we discussed when is the friction good and how to find that out. We recently wrote this on Userpilot's blog, so I'm sharing it here:  A friction-based flow is one that will make it harder for the user to complete the signup process in exchange for more value-added later on. For example, booking a demo that goes to your sales pipeline first is also counted as friction-based. On the other hand, a frictionless flow will make it much easier to complete the signup process hoping that the UI is good enough to demonstrate the value of the app on its own. I also discussed advantages and disadvantages of both in our podcast or you can simply read this blog. We covered: What is friction? - 00:54 - 00:60What are the advantages & disadvantages of frictionless & friction-based flows? 00:61 to 3:21Max's challenge with having a frictionless flow for Ottonova - 3:25 to 5:21How he found out after making it friction-based & How did he found out that it would work? 5:22 to 7:43What were some best practices & inspiration he followed? - 7:44 to 10:40 Resources: Connect with Max - Maximilian Rast2 Ways to Design Your Next Signup Flow [Examples & Best Practices]Why Adding Friction to Your Onboarding Funnel Can Actually be Good Idea [Case Study]Why We Love Drift’s Signup Flow & OnboardingHow to Improve User Activation RateBreaking Down The Perfect Sign Up Flow

In this episode, we’ve had fun and light conversation regarding Marketingexamples.com He recently had a good success with making great content on marketing. His newsletter has 37K+ marketers & his twitter has 72K+ followers.  We’ve talked about: How Harry started Marketing Examples. The story behind it.Why & How his content is getting viral?How he finds good content?What means “better” and “selective” when choosing a content piece? How to do it better?How to get viral on twitter? My key learning from this episode is how Harry thinks about his content. This episode is pure gold for content marketers. You can find Harry’s content here: Marketingexamples.comhttps://twitter.com/GoodMarketingHQ If you like this episode, tweet at GoodMarketingHQ about this.

Should you build on data or gut? In this episode, we’re going to dive deeper in to this question with Robert’s growth marketing story.  We talked about: How did he go with his intuition?Did he look into data?Was it a feature request?What kind of decisions should be on intuition or data?How to know - what you’re building is going in a right direction?Lessons learned Show notes When to Rely on Data and When to Trust Your GutBannersnack Carousel FeatureBannersnack Instagram Carousel Feature

Rand Fishkin has been my favorite marketer. When I read the book Lost & Founder, I wanted to ask so many follow-up questions. This podcast is all about that. In reality, his book was the starting point of why I thought GH is BS. However, these are behind the scene stories that you might not know. So, I thought I should share with you. We discussed: Why Growth is BS? Why Rand Fishkin is also against it?Story regarding search engine ranking factors that got Moz SO much attention.Growth marketing flywheel story that’s not related to SEO.What’s a good content?Can your article actually be discoverable on Google if it’s so good? Do you still need backlinks to it?What’s Sparktoro’s Go-to-Market Strategy and flywheel? Show Notes: Rand’s Book: https://sparktoro.com/book Emily Vice’s Story: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/10/how-emily-weiss-grew-glossier-from-millennial-catnip-to-billion-dollar-juggernautSearch Engine Ranking Factors: https://sparktoro.com/blog/resources/google-ranking-factors-2019/My research (passion project): https://userpilot.com/saas-product-onboarding/

In this episode, Alice (CMO at Cognism) & I discussed: Why Growth Hacking is BS?What is good growth marketing?What is pain-point SEO?How I think about pain-point SEO?What are some low effort and high impact tactics that marketers aren't doing right now?What metrics we should follow as a growth marketer? Connect with Alice De Courcy on LinkedIn

In this episode, we discussed a growth marketing failure story. We keep glorifying success, but we need to learn from hard lessons. Although, Marta had two great 10X content but she still failed to make two of these initiative successful. We discussed: She launched two 10X content: Business Proposal Guide & Buffer Marketing ReportHow did she come up with the idea?What was the goal?What were the results?What was the key learning from this 10X content launch?How would she do it if she has to do it again? Connect with Marta on LinkedIn or Book a Growth Mentor Call with Her to learn from her checklist if you're launching something soon.

In this episode, we’ve discussed: How Nadya grew Venngage’s blog in the early days?What mistakes she did during that time?How Nadya thinks about SEO after having such a great domain authority of Venngage?What kind of content frameworks can always give you that edge to drive more traffic & conversions?What if the keywords are driving wrong traffic to you?How can you get ahead of your competitor on search engine?How she boosted her website domain authority by using creativity? (The most fun part) Show notes: Check out: https://venngage.com/ and https://thisisnadya.com/Nadya’s blog that talked about in the blog: SEO Content Framework and Nadya's FrameworkThe book she recommended: Creativity InkSara Cooper as her favorite growth marketer - although, she is a comedian, find out why in the episode (I love her tweets too)

In this episode, we've discussed how Max used his own platform to convert more users. Obviously, eating your own dog food means using your own product to improve the product. But to improve marketing and sales, that was a new concept for me too. In this episode, we've discussed: Pop's SEO strategy & ContentPaid MarketingHow using his own app helped to convert more?Should there be more friction on the landing page?How to think different? Max admires: Ferdinand Goetzen as a Growth MarketerHates asking folks who push unsubscribe to re-subscribe (more in the podcast)Loved Indistractable by Nir Eyal  

True story: Learn how influencer marketing helped SimScale get qualified leads of 3 months within 3 days. These leads also cost 15x cheaper. Not only that but it also increased search appearance for SimScale 247% What did we discuss in the episode: How Agata took 80% of marketing ad spend to searchHow she took risks to do things in SaaS that others don't do (influencer marketing)Her growth experiments that helped the company grow faster ..and much more. If you like this episode, please don't forget to let me know. That's how I keep going. or leave itunes review.

This story is all about how as a growth marketers we struggle to convince our team to choose between Build vs Buy decision. How we can overcome this? We covered: When should we go with external vendors?How to convince our team?How to find ROI?How to set a goal that pushes you as a growth marketer to do a better job? This is the first story. Agata had another growth marketer story. We'll chat about it in the next episode (it's related to influencer marketing). So, stay tuned. If you like this episode, please don't forget to give itunes review.

Personalization is big buzzword for growth marketers. Most folks use it for account-based marketing. This episode not here to teach you about "how to do personalization". This episode is all about how Ian Naylor (What-a-guy) found personalization as an effective CAC reducing strategy and how he built a business on it, and gave it to others.  You can find the resources here: https://aazarshad.com/podcasts/growing-fast-reducing-cac-with-personalization/ For feedback and help, reach out at aazar@aazarshad.com