Weekly Marketing Dip #3
TikTok ban, Karl Popper, and wedding bells
My Gen Z heart goes out to the 170 million U.S.-based TikTok users as Biden passes a bill to ban the app. It’s getting banned for being Chinese-owned.
In U.S. terms, this is synonymous with a national security threat.
So, why should marketers care about the ban?
Many creators and brands have come to depend on the app. “SMB's use of TikTok contributed $24.2 billion to U.S. economy in 2023”, according to Oxford Economics.
The famous words, "if a product is free, you are the product” ring truer than ever.
Europe has a tendency of following U.S. lead, hinting that we might be next. We’re not in the clear.
Growth law of the week
➡️ “25+ distribution channels”
People tend to stick to the channels they know, but this is a mistake. Before you hone in on any one channel, consider all the options at your disposal (many both organic and paid).
Reply to this email for the [full list of 25 marketing channels].
— Pieter
Lessons in growth
(1) Ads should create value
We were already
fans, but look at the ad these guys produce for their creatine gummy business. Running ads that actually provide value. Even if you're never going to buy Create gummies, you'll genuinely learn something by watching the ad.Win-win for everyone.
(2) When email series get annoying 📨
Many of you are here thanks to our OG email series on growth. Safe to say, we stand with the ‘email series’. So did Jay Clouse, until he decided he “sorta hated” long email sequences. This, despite their previous success.
So, he opted for a different kind of onboarding message instead. What do you think?
5 things we consumed this week
(1) Wedding cake 🍰 Our colleague Dominik just got married. Congrats, Dom and Meike!
(2) I wrote about why you should be careful telling founders they are ‘not solving a problem’. Some of the best inventions (the mobile phone, cars, Airbnb) all had sceptics. These were all people who didn’t account for invisible needs of the market.
(3) Why engineers should study philosophy (via HBR). AI makes software development more accessible. The best software engineers are the ones who know why they are solving a problem. Philosophy could help improve with logic and first principle-thinking.
(4) Pieter just read (and loved) “Karl Popper” by Bryan Magee. He hasn’t shut up about the book, which covers the work and life of philosopher of science, Karl Popper.
Popper's biggest contributions are to the theory of how knowledge grows, and therefore how human society can make progress and thrive. In many ways, Popper is the OG of techno-optimists
(5) Websites we visit weekly:
Godly — Beyond beautiful web design, take a look at how these businesses order their information. Websites that strike a balance between utilitarian and experiential are the real winners.
Really Good Emails — There are 15,000+ emails in this library. Completely forget the design, read the copy (!) Research shows that text-based emails can perform just as well, if not better, than designed emails.
Under Consideration — Big brand changes are more exciting, but small changes show us where branding trends are heading. You’d be amazed by the amount of smaller brand changes being made across the industry.
Spaces our nerds are watching 👾
This guy tries really hard to find out if seed oils are bad for you. Bottom line, there is no proof that it is.
“Look, I wish strong seed oil theory were true. That would be great. All we’d have to do is reformulate our Cheetos with different oil, and then we could go on merrily eating Cheetos. Western diet without Western disease! Sadly, I think this is very unlikely.”
Before we leave, you may have noticed our name change.
Introducing, ‘The Double Dip’ 🌶
We have a special long-time subscriber to thank for the name.
Lucky for us, Eric is a pretty cool guy, worth a mention. He writes about the transition from student to founder. Inspiring peers with his own experience bootstrapping a company.
If you say hi, tell him we sent you.
— Louise (on behalf of Double)
P.S. I’ll be out for 3 weeks, travelling to Austin and NYC. Big thanks to our very-own Erik for covering while I’m gone.
Be nice to him 👀
Love it!