The only real growth hack

... and a completely free swipe file solution

Author

Rasmus Rikken
February 28, 2023

Read time: 3 minutes 23 seconds

Welcome on board, fellow marketer. I share cool shit about marketing with actionable insights. Simple tools, resources, and frameworks that help you improve your marketing efforts and be a better marketer.

TL;DR of today’s newsletter:

  • “The only real growth hack”

  • Completely free & secure swipe file solution

Let’s dive right in.

“The only real growth hack”

There’s this guy who built his Katana sword brand to $10M in revenue. And his approach to marketing is world-class. The guy behind the brand and its highly profitable content marketing approach is Isaac Medeiros.

No paid ads. No promotions. No shortcuts.

Isaac grew it only with organic content. $0 on ad spend. 400K subscribers. 240m views on TikTok (2022), 30m on Instagram, 15m on Facebook.

“The only real growth hack is better content.”

There is of course a lot more in play than just producing high-quality content, but Isaac argues that it should be the main area to focus on. Without good content, other specifics lose relevance.

Don’t waste your time playing around with specific posting times or the right font. Focus on improving your creativity & constantly experiment with different types of content instead.

Produce content until you find what resonates with your audience. This only comes through repetition & tracking your past campaign performance. Isaac suggests focusing on two main types of content: educational and storytelling.

If you want to learn more about Mini Katana and how Isaac Medeiros used organic content marketing to break the market, check out this podcast episode by Andrew Faris. 👇️ 

With $10M In Revenue And $0 In Ad Spend, Isaac Medeiros Is In A Class Of His Own

open.spotify.com/episode/3I860fFufaNRZ9tQHCjObu?si=825a7ca00c4e439d&nd=1

Collect your swipe files with ease, and locally!

I have been using Obsidian.md as my second brain for documenting learnings and experiences. And collecting everything there is to know about marketing.

Building A Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience. It expands our memory and our intellect using the modern tools of technology and networks.

Obsidian, to my recent surprise, also has a built-in feature called “Canvas”. And it’s the perfect solution for building your own swipe files. It definitely has been a savior for me.

All of the content is locally stored, meaning you don’t have to worry about losing access to your hard-earned research (*cough* doom-scrolling 🤣 ).

Whenever I find an ad or piece of content, I simply copy and paste it into my Obsidian Canvas and store it for future inspiration. My setup looks like this:

Yes, it has also got a native app on both Windows, Apple, and Linux.

And it’s completely free!!'

Check it out for yourself:

Obsidian Canvas - Obsidian

Obsidian: A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files.

obsidian.md/canvas

Three links of the week

  • In marketing, data collection and market research are invaluable. Here’s how causal research can help you.

  • Can Bing's new AI search challenge Google? Here’s a great UX case study of the latest AI feature on Bing.

  • What can you learn about analyzing 100 B2C e-mail confirmation pages? Here are 5 major areas of opportunity for improvement.

What the fuck I’m up to?

I’m enjoying the book “Impossible to Ignore” by Carmen Simon. It’s a practical overview of how to create memorable content and all statements are backed up with (mostly psychological) research.

Loads of thought-provoking and great marketing insights so far. I will put together a quick overview in a future newsletter.

If you liked and got value out of this newsletter, please consider sharing it with your friends and family.

Simply copy-paste this link: rasmus.beehiiv.com/subscribe