Perspectives, not tactics (7/7)
The better your mental tools, the faster you can find what you’re looking for.
My name is Pieter, one of the founders of Double Agency.
First of all: thank you for being on board with us! Thanks for taking the time to read these posts. I hope you’ve gained some new insights into how modern growth marketing works.
As a final piece to this 7-part email series, I want to share a short personal story with you.
It‘s about “perspective, not tactics”:
I have fond memories of Mr. Mostert.
He was our maths teacher, back when I was in high-school in rainy Holland. Even though he taught mathematics, he held master's degrees in 3 different fields: maths, law, and economics.
But I guess he liked maths best in the end.
At some point —probably before some exam— a little revolt had formed in the classroom. The kind of revolt you would expect from a bunch of hormone-infused 15-year-olds.
We were like: “but what’s all this abstract stuff good for, in real life?!”
Fair question.
But what he said stuck with me, to the point where I still remember it vividly, today.
He said...
.
.
Maths teaches you how to think.
.
.
Silence.
Check mate.
Maths doesn’t give you the low-level “how to” guidance in life, but it strengthens your overall mental toolbox.
It gives you the mental tools to make better decisions.
It turns you into a strong, all-round generalist.
And only years later I learned from Charlie Munger—the long-time business partner of Warren Buffet—about a concept called ‘mental models’.
It’s a similar idea. Mental models are frameworks to help you think through complex problems. For instance:
The “80/20 rule” (Pareto’s Law) gives you an easy way to think about distribution in economics, but applies in all kinds of situations…
“Survival of the fittest” captures the essence of evolutionary biology… but also helps you think about problems in economics, business and many other aspects of life
But anyhow...
The seed was planted by Mr. Mostert —my maths teacher— when I was 16.
“Maths teaches you how to think” hit home for me.
So when I quit my first startup because I didn’t know how to grow it, and I was trying to figure out growth marketing… I suspect that I subconsciously approached the problem slightly differently than most people do.
I wasn’t looking for “how to” advice.
I was looking for the models.
And just like in maths… once you know the mental models, you don’t need to remember the ‘facts’ anymore. In marketing, once you know the models, you can forget about all the hundreds of little ‘hacks’.
And now I’m in the humbling position to teach a bit of marketing, and I still apply the same focus… ;-)
Of course, the skills still matter.
You still need to learn how to track conversions
You still need to improve your copywriting game
You still need to learn about persuasion & mental triggers
You still need to build the funnels
But that’s not what’s missing for most people.
Most people struggle, because…
They have no higher-level models when it comes to marketing & growth
Their mind just goes blank.
That’s essentially what’s happening.
So in the last couple days, I’ve already tried to roll in a few “reframes” of how to look at some problems. These are the mental models for marketing and growth.
Off the top of my head, here are a handful of mental models that drive much of the “growth marketing mindset” (just to give you an idea):
Growth loops — the concept we wrote about yesterday, that drives all compounding growth for things ranging from rabbits to nuclear explosions to COVID-19 and Figma
Risk front-loading — the extreme version of “lean startup”, that allows you to move to P/M-fit faster and more aggressively
Agile / iterative — creating a small baseline, and then iteratively expanding it. (to increase velocity, and produce more user value, faster)
A/B testing — the “bread ‘n butter” of optimization and incrementally adding conversion lifts, so every percentage increase can compound on the rest
Radical customer empathy — constantly thinking through the perspective of the customers, and anticipating their needs. Then persuading them powerfully by giving them what they need at the right time.
Power laws — As opposed to bell curves, to unlock massive traffic opportunities by focusing on a single distribution channel, through “finding the bullseye”
Conversational sequencing — a mental model on how to restructure the way you write copy and content in your sales funnels
Product-led growth — the “gold standard” of growth, if you will. Durable, scalable growth is driven by different forms of product-driven growth loops
High tempo testing — a process-driven growth framework that most mature growth teams employ to accelerate towards their next stage of growth (coming up soon, too)
See?
Charlie Munger said that you need a latticework of models in your head, that fit together and amplify each other. It’s like a “mental toolbox” that you’re building.
The better your mental tools, the faster you can find what you’re looking for…. whether that’s product/market-fit, higher conversions or a cheaper distribution channel
Each of those models gives you a “reframe”, or a different lens through which you can look at a problem.
That’s incredibly empowering.
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If you take this lens, and you strip everything down to its bare essentials, then there are really two things to remember, when it comes to marketing:
Systems, not hacks.
Perspectives, not tactics.
Systems are needed, because growth marketing is about unlocking structural, compounding growth. The essence of growth marketing is to build systems that drive user acquisition, activation and retention at scale.
The way to impact someone positively through our marketing, is to change perspectives. Perspectives areis about the stories that we tell others, and—more importantly—the stories that we tell ourselves. If we can change someone’s perspective and worldview on a certain matter, then selling often becomes superfluous.
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As you might have noticed, there is a lot of additional depth to explore when digging deeper into these concepts.
I hope you enjoyed this 7-part introduction. To build further, you can expect bi-weekly posts from us, with much more insights about modern growth marketing.
It’s been a pleasure to have you on board.
Best,
—Pieter Moorman
Founder @DoubleAgency
P.S.
Favour to ask:
Double makes its money as a growth agency. Our focus is primarily on startups in Series A/B that are starting to scale aggressively (although we sometimes also work for larger scale-ups).
We're always seeking out new companies to work with.
Is that you?
Or do you know people?
Please get in touch!
Read the previous lesson 👉🏼