6 builders who never spoke to each other

Turn buyers into fans instead of buying ads

Interruptive advertising is blocked and ignored while a fan tells their whole group, which is why some companies run no advertising budget at all and put everything into the experience that produces advocates. Customer made explanations of why they bought outperform produced commercials, and hardware companies have reached seven figures on earned coverage before buying a single placement. Favour the mechanisms that feed on their own size over the ones that grow in a straight line.

The method

1. 01

   Run no advertising budget at all and put the effort into converting buyers into fans who sell for you, since interruptive ads are blocked and ignored.

2. 02

   Invest in making customers into fans, because a fan tells their whole group while an ad gets told to nobody.

3. 03

   Fan-made explanations of why they bought carry more weight than a produced commercial, and one such video can dwarf a TV spot.

4. 04

   A recommendation from someone trusted converts better than any ad, and a free product is easy to recommend because the only thing being spent is time.

5. 05

   Earned coverage and personal recommendation can carry a hardware company to seven figures before a single advertisement is bought.

What it returned

• 50,000

  Nike's first 50,000 pairs were sold by word of mouth alone

• 6

  A Cybertruck video with 6.9M views converting at 1 in 5,000 implies 1,380 sales, around $75M

• $100K

  QOR360 grew from $100K to $1M over two years entirely on earned media and word of mouth, and only then began looking at paid media.

• Tesla spends nothing on advertising

Sources

• How to Kill a UnicornChris Frantz · chrisfrantz.com · How to Kill a Unicorn · 2021-01-14
• What makes a strategy greatJason Cohen · longform.asmartbear.com · Asymmetric · 2023-08-13
• The genius of Tesla's marketing strategyHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · undated
• How Jeff Johnson sold Nike's first shoesHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Customers become fans · undated
• 20 years to overnight success - Fathom AnalyticsPaul Jarvis · usefathom.com · 20 years to overnight success · 2020-06-18
• Privacy Stories: Sparktoro - Fathom AnalyticsRand Fishkin · usefathom.com · When you shed your horn and grow some stripes · 2021-05-13
• Making $100k/Mo Designing and Building an Active ChairTurner Osler · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated