September / Best of
One of my favorite tools for collecting great content is Pocket. My only problem: I tend to save stuff there and then build an overwhelmingly long backlog! I finally worked my way through the backlog during some vacation days in August, and there was so much good stuff in there — much of which I'm excited to share with you in this newsletter.
Wishing you a great month!
— Kevan
Marketing
Growth for startups: How to decide on growth channels
This great video and slides cover, yes, how to decide on growth channels, but also touch on product/market fit, metrics, and other mechanics for growth. Fantastic, even if you only have time to browse the slides.
startupschool.org
How to decide what channels to go after when you're just starting out (from Y Combinator's Growth for Startups lesson)
Why attention can't sustain you
I loved this article about rising customer acquisition costs and the importance on creating trust and loyalty with your customers.
perell.com
From David Perell's article (linked above), this chart shows just how important retention is when you're fighting higher and higher acquisition costs as you scale.
The Sweetgreen-ificiation of society
If you've not heard of Sweetgreen, they're a forward-thinking, upscale, fast-casual restaurant (although if you asked them, they'd probably call themselves a "brand" or a "movement"). This article is super insightful into the unconscious decisions that go into embracing brands like Sweetgreen.
substack.com
Why brands are turning their attention to Pinterest
Interesting to see this trend of Pinterest getting more and more love from marketers. This article talks about the expansion of Pinterest as an ad channel now that prices are so high on Facebook and Instagram.
digiday.com
How do startups actually get their content marketing to work?
Good set of tips here about scaling a content marketing strategy. One thing we've done at Buffer: Write fewer articles but more in-depth ones ("less, but better").
techcrunch.com
Cold outreach done well
Cold outreach can be hard. What I love about these tips is how actionable and specific they are. (And I have the privilege of counting the author as a teammate. I've seen these tips work!)
hailleygriffis.com
Management
Beware of employees who are very engaged in their work
Whoa. Do you agree? Disagree? As the Wall Street Journal tells it, very engaged employees might be compensating for troubles elsewhere in life or might be too deeply invested in work. One option for managers: Focus on the un-engaged.
wsj.com
What to do when nobody notices you. The power of the "300 Rule"
I shared this article a couple years ago in this newsletter, and I just rediscovered it again last month. Still relevant! Still encouraging!
medium.com
Truth, love, and growth
I love the simplicity of these foundational principles from VC firm Heartcore Capital. I love the format, too. How great would this be for your team to have in place?
medium.com
Miscellaneous
A previous version of wired.com -- verrry previous :)
A design history of wired.com
One of my favorite websites, wired.com, underwent a makeover recently, and it provided occasion for the site to look back over years of previous designs. How fun is the one above, right? There's a whole lot of other good ones in the article.
wired.com
by Kevan Lee
VP of Marketing currently living in Boise, Idaho. I work with the lovely folks at Buffer.
Say hi on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.