MFG #03: Music & Startups, Viral Content, Why Agitation, and more
The relationship between music and startups, the newsworthiness checklist, the why agitation, a Ghanaian church's excellent copy, and more.
Hi there.
I’ve had a tedious week month, but I came out victorious. Last month, I concluded the Content Creation BootCamp I facilitated with EmpowerHer & Non-Tech In Tech. Last week, I taught Conversion Copywriting to interns at SideHustle.
Needless to say — despite my spirited protests to my mother when I was younger — I love teaching.
Enough about me.
Let's dive in!
🔑1 Interesting Thing
I've spent some time this past year working on comms for an (MVP-stage) startup, Corefans. Corefans is a crowdfunding platform for musicians. Think Gofundme or Indiegogo, but localised and tailored for people in the music industry.
Because of this, I’ve spent some time speaking to musicians, songwriters, producers, and artiste managers. Here’s what I discovered:
Startups are a lot like musicians.
I was surprised at a lot of the similarities between startups and people in the music industry — the passion, the importance of community-driven growth, the possibility of viral growth, the importance of validation, the focus on the product. I’m surprised this wasn't more obvious to me before.
A couple weeks ago, I was invited to a Twitter Space to speak about how “early-stage” musicians can harness marketing to drive growth. That’s what really brought this lesson home for me. I realised some of the things I mentioned could just as easily apply to startup growth.
Some things I mentioned during the Space:
Build a community of your initial fans and engage with them. They’ll be your strongest advocates and initial drivers of your growth.
Don’t promote your music without a sneak peek. If you’re dropping links to your music, show people the reason why they should click the link, e.g. add a snippet from the song.
Especially if you have a niche audience, you need to find communities and events where they are. If you sing alternative music, find the alte community. If you sing folk, go to open-mic-type events.
You won’t have money to pay a songwriter, producer, songwriter, manager, etc. So you need to learn many skills and wear multiple hats at that early stage.
Collaborate with others for cross-promotion.
I spoke more about this in an article on Medium. If the correlation between music and startups sounds interesting to you, you should read the article and let me know what you think.
💭3 Insights
#1. Use whatever you sell
This seems like such an obvious thing that I was surprised to find many marketers (and builders) do not use the products they work on. This means that they don’t spot points of friction for users or identify points where they could optimise the user’s journey better.
Sure, there’s a bunch of usability and user testing tools you can use. I’ve used testing tools myself. However, testing tools are expensive and because they aren’t always-on, you can only catch bugs or friction points whenever you remember to use them.
It’s helpful to have everyone in an organisation use whatever product the organisation is selling and to have them look at the products as users, not as builders or marketers.
I’ve conducted a few product teardowns this past year, and this has given me a slightly critical eye. So, when I download new apps or visit websites, I immediately log points for improvement. You’d be surprised how many insights you can find just by using a product as you naturally would.
P.s. If you have a product you’d like me to teardown for free, reply to this email and let me know. I’ll share the teardown in my next newsletter.
#2. The newsworthiness elements are a viral marketing checklist
If you studied journalism, you probably already know about the 9 (or 7 or 8 or 10, depending on who you ask) elements of newsworthiness or “news values.” For the uninitiated, there are certain elements that help journalists decide whether a story is newsworthy or not.
I taught a class on Creating Viral Content during my recent Content Creation BootCamp and while I was preparing my slides for the class, I realised something. The elements that determine whether a story is newsworthy can also help marketers frame, not just viral content, but general marketing messaging.
For the purpose of this newsletter, I am less interested in how journalists lean on the newsworthiness elements, and more interested in how these elements can impact marketing messages.
Impact: How does this affect people? How does it improve their lives?
Consequence: What consequence would people suffer if they don’t learn about this or take action on it?
Prominence: How important is this? Is there a well-known person or place attached to this? What makes this important or outstanding?
Timeliness: Why is this important NOW? What makes this urgent?
Proximity: Who is closest to this problem? Who has the strongest connection to this problem? What is the connection and how close is it to your audience?
Magnitude: How big is this problem? How many people does it affect?
Human Interest: Why should people be interested in this? What emotions does it evoke? What does it say about the human condition?
Oddity/Novelty: What’s strange about this? Does it have shock value? Is it previously unheard-of?
Conflict: What are the possible conflicts this could solve? What conflicts can stop me from using this?
If your message ticks off just two of these boxes, you’re good to go!
#3. Chase the why
(Don’t worry; this isn’t the tired “don’t sell what you do; sell why you do it” buzz-speak)
You know those pesky kids who never stop bugging you with questions about how the sun gets in the sky or why they can't take your phone hostage for Candy Crush? Turns out that’s exactly who you need to be to unlock emotional messaging — which is gratifying to me as a former curious kid.
A great way to find deep messaging that resonates and evokes emotions is by simply asking why. More than that, though, you have to be the pesky kid who keeps asking why even when they get an answer. I call this The Why Agitation.
I gave an example of this in my Conversion Copywriting class. Say I run comms for a ride-hailing app called EasyRide. My Why Agitation might look a little like this:
Why should they use EasyRide? Because it helps them avoid the stress of danfo buses.
Why do they want to avoid danfo buses? Because they don’t want to get stains on their clothes.
Why dont’t they want stains on their clothes? Because they’re trying to keep up a certain image at work.
Why do they want to keep up a certain image? Because they’re trying to gain their boss’ respect.
Why? Because they want a promotion
By the end of this, you will already visualise multiple messaging directions. Now, EasyRide is no longer just a way to avoid danfo buses, it’s the key to your promotion. That’s an emotional insight to key into.
Warning: The Why Agitation can be a rabbit-hole. There are so many directions you could go in and you could literally keep chasing deeper whys for hours. I’d recommend not going past 10 Whys at a time so you don’t lose your chain of thought.
⚡5 Pieces of Marketing
#1. This comparison page by Figma(🌚)👍🏽
#2. This pop-up on Hootsuite👍🏽
#3. This billboard by HeyFood👎🏽
#4. This promoted search from Microsoft👍🏽
#5. This welcome message from Chrome👍🏽
Opportunities
Know any tech founders looking to raise funding? Enterscale has partnered with Nex Rubica to create the Technology Investment Program. Pocket size is $10,000 to $5,000,000. Find out all about it here.
What I’m Reading
Startup School’s Library - There are so many gems on here, especially if you work in the growth or product department.