How to Win When Paid Ads Aren’t An Option A

All Case Studies  🔍 Let's Partner

Hey, it's Alex. While in LA we met up with JT Barnett. And we recorded an hour-long pod. The TL;DR - the best content masterclass you'll hear this year. But if you're going to listen to it then trust me - grab a notepad.

But first, thank you to our partners Superside and Insense.

Get your brand in front of 81,141 marketers & founders.

In partnership with Superside

We’ve got a massive YouTube project coming out.

Hint: We’re helping an official CrossFit brand partner launch a new product with a goal of $600K in pre-sales.

And to design everything from landing pages to ad creative, we’ve partnered with Superside because:

• It’s 20x faster than hiring creatives in-house

• We can rely on their 24 - 48 hour turnaround time.

Without having to build a ton of new processes internally.

Plus, they work with brands like Figma, Shopify, and Reddit, so we know they’re in the top 1% of creative talent.

You don’t need paid ads to win.

And today we’re diving into how to grow your brand without a paid advertising budget, with two examples:

1. Marketing Examined

2. Mini Katana

Is it harder? Potentially. But is it worth it? Yes. Here’s why.

Invest in your organic content.

In October, we reached 200-300k people with a $10k ad spend. But, we reached the same amount of people through organic content.

With a critical caveat.

New audiences who watched my videos organically had a much deeper connection to Marketing Examined than those who came from paid ads.

Our engagement data on an organic subscriber vs paid ad subscriber proved it.

So in Q4 of 2023, we turned off paid ads and went all in on organic.

Organic content creates PR opportunities.

If you have a viral content idea, it’s much faster to whip it up and build buzz yourself than pitching it to traditional media like Good Morning America.

In fact, if your content goes viral, publications will jump at the opportunity to cover your story anyway.

And now, you don’t have to pay them for it.

Own your content and distribution, the rest will take care of itself.

Mini Katana, a katana and sword company, built their entire brand through organic audience.

Because the product category isn’t allowed to advertise, Founder Isaac Medeiros had to pivot their content strategy.

They grew to $360k/day in revenue in under 23 months, 100% from organic video marketing.

With 1B views a month across all their channels.

Crazy, right?

You can do it too.

This is Isaac’s playbook for growing a brand with organic content.

The real shortcut to viral growth is consistent content

Mini Katana posts at least 1x a day on IG, YouTube, and TikTok.

They don’t skip a day.

More output = more eyeballs

More iteration = more feedback

It takes time to hone your skills and get people to see you consistently.

Grab attention with short-form to get people into the funnel.

They use unique angles and crazy hooks to get as many eyeballs as possible.

Like the “Can We Slice It” series.

You have to keep testing and refining different content pillars, angles, and hooks until you find a viral button you can keep pressing.

Even then, you need to continue experimenting.

Because a hook or style can get over-saturated and stop working at any point.

Educate with long-form content that fits your brand

Any brand can go “viral”, but it’s hard to convert the attention into a brand fanbase.

Mix in long-form content to dive deeper and show the use cases of your products.

Many of Mini Katatana’s long-form content ideas are based on questions from fans.

But they are still entertaining!

Community matters.

Turn viewers into fans.

Isaac makes it a priority to interact with their audience through Mini Katana’s social accounts, by replying to comments, personally responding to DMs, and creating videos replying to comments.

These seemingly small gestures make each customer feel valued.

They also leverage YouTube’s community polls to interact and broaden their reach, a strategy that not only engages but shows they value their community’s voice.

Creative is the variable to success whether you invest in paid ads or organic content.

As an early brand, you might as well invest your limited budget into getting really good at organic - because it’s extremely challenging to compete with VC-backed ad budgets without incredible creative.

And if you have incredible creative, well, you can drive audience through organic for a fraction of the cost.

Want me to help kick-start your brand’s organic content strategy?

Drop me a note here and we’ll reach out.

In partnership with Insense

79% of consumers say that UGC influences their purchasing decisions.

But the #1 pain point for marketers is having the manpower to find, communicate, and manage collaborations with influencers.

Enter Insense.

• Find creators that apply directly to your campaigns in minutes

• Start collaborations immediately and source UGC content within 10 days

• Manage every campaign and track results in your dashboard

• Build a roster of creators and influencers for long-term collaborations

Book a free 1 on 1 strategy call by Feb 29th and get $200 for your first UGC campaign.

🕳 Rabbit Hole Reads and Resources

• Newsletters: Top marketing leaders (Spotify, Oracle, Nike, etc.) have joined the waitlist for Open Rates. It’s a new platform that helps identify the best partners for newsletter marketing based on data and previous sponsor history. Claim your spot on the waitlist (LINK)

• Game Changer: Build profit-first campaigns with this simple, effective influencer marketing assistant. Get influencers to promote your brand, track sales, and build long-term relationships (LINK)

• Smart move: Dunkin Donuts posted a "prequel’ and "sequel’ to their Super Bowl ads on TikTok to keep new followers engaged. (LINK)

• E-Comm Trends: Head of Consulting at Triple Whale 🐳, John Coyle, shared five predictions for where ecommerce is trending this year. (LINK)

• Anti-Brand: The positioning against brand strategy. (LINK)