In partnership with
WELCOME TO
Today’s Sponsor
Shoppers are adding to cart for the holidays
Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.
Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.
Here is a preview of our upcoming book. We will deliver chapter previews and more every Monday. Stay tuned.
Day 21
Lantern in the Fog
People talk about products only when they feel something is worth sharing. You gain traction when people say, unprompted, “You should try this.”
By now, you’ve reviewed your entire product flow from the user’s perspective. You’ve corrected the most critical breaks and can trust that a stranger clicking your link won’t immediately drop off.
The next step is about building credibility.
When someone discovers your product through a trusted source rather than an advertisement, their entire relationship with your brand changes. They arrive pre-sold, more forgiving of rough edges, and more likely to become advocates themselves. Before running ads or pushing content, you need early users who can vouch for what you’ve built. These need not be any influencers or testimonials written by friends. Even ten users with real outcomes can strike the right chord.
Consider how Notion grew in the productivity world. They didn’t launch a mass marketing push. Instead, they seeded the product among key productivity creators like YouTubers, newsletter writers, and power users and gave them tools to authentically share. Each mention felt like a recommendation from a peer, not a campaign. From there, user-taught templates and community forums multiplied trust. That approach drove growth without ads and helped turn Notion into a multi-billion-dollar company largely through word-of-mouth and community adoption.
The psychology behind this is elegant: when someone finds your product through a friend’s recommendation, they feel like they’ve uncovered something valuable rather than been sold something commercial. This discovery mindset creates stickier users and more enthusiastic advocates.
Preview Note: This is just the opening of chapter 21. The full chapter helps you build a layer of credibility for your product or service by mining for advocacy from people in the industry.
Sponsored Ad
Marketing That Moves Itself
Most measurement tools stop at telling you what happened. BlueAlpha tells you what to do next.
BlueAlpha unifies MMM, incrementality testing, and AI-driven optimization into a single continuous feedback loop. Models feed actions, actions feed models, and growth compounds.
No dashboards to decipher. No manual analysis. Just weekly, campaign-level recommendations you can trust.
Brands using BlueAlpha have cut CAC, saved millions in wasted spend, and unlocked double-digit growth within weeks, powered by the same team that scaled Tesla’s marketing systems.
Put Your Brand in Front of 15,000+ Entrepreneurs, Operators & Investors.
Image by Google Gemini.
Disclaimer: The startup ideas shared in this forum are non-rigorously curated and offered for general consideration and discussion only. Individuals utilizing these concepts are encouraged to exercise independent judgment and undertake due diligence per legal and regulatory requirements. It is recommended to consult with legal, financial, and other relevant professionals before proceeding with any business ventures or decisions.
Sponsored content in this newsletter contains investment opportunity brought to you by our partner ad network. Even though our due-diligence revealed no concerns to us to promote it, we are in no way recommending the investment opportunity to anyone. We are not responsible for any financial losses or damages that may result from the use of the information provided in this newsletter. Readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions and any consequences that may arise from those decisions. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or other intangible losses, arising out of or in connection with the use of the information provided in this newsletter.
