I had a couple conversations this week on social asking me whether I automate my content (newsletters included).
The answer is: No, I author them, but my team helps with compiling weekly market data and stories I’ve shared on social and published throughout a week (along with news from brands I work with or startups I invest in.)
I get that – with AI on the rise, and tons of automated social accounts out there (plus executive and celebrities offloading to their PR or social teams and vendors), it’s more common than not to speak to either a bot or a vendor and not the real person.
I read all replies and mentions here and my LinkedIn/X (unless they get flagged by the algorithm or moved to spam).
Back to Q2 (which I’m still pumped about):
April has been busy with new contracts closed and a strong pipeline. Additionally, I’ll be speaking at Futures Thinking 2024 in Sofia on Tuesday and flying to NYC the day after – with a dozen meetings lined up with clients, partners, vendors, industry peers, creators, startups I advise or invest in.
The pandemic years were light on events and on-site bonding, but as we’re past the lockdowns and travel concerns, events are back on the rise.
In addition to the hectic social performance with limited reach + SEO misbehaving for some B2B accounts, I love leveraging underused channels that aren’t heavily blasted yet.
Events are also going through transformation – my friend Julius Solaris (a top voice on events) is posting daily on the evolution of events, the importance of the hallway tracks (offline meetings), and how popular speakers have been active on social for a while now and less interesting (exclusive) with their on-site sessions.
Bottom line, events and travel are back – we see more travel locally and meeting hubs all over the place, and there’s a reason for that.
The other key channel I’m doubling down on are Slack communities.
With limited reach, I want to make sure I keep the pulse on industry news and conversations in the martech space, publishing, B2B revenue ops, and other key segments.
So I’m currently in 14 Slack communities. Yes, you heard that right.
Some of these I’ve been involved with for years, but less actively. The more I participate, the more genuine connections I build, and some turn into partnerships, investment opportunities, brand deals, collaborations.
It’s also continuously more engaging and deepening relationships further. Some of these contacts I’m meeting in NYC as well.
So what happens to social and organic in the meantime?
After the reach slump in September, I spent a significant amount of time rebuilding profiles, polishing bios, improving skills, adding certificates, updating my published content, rebuilding landing pages, and trying all sorts of techniques to boost visibility.
There was incremental improvement, but definitely far from engagement levels I had from 2018 through early 2023. Right now, social and SEO are both flawed for different reasons:
- SEO’s September update, and the follow-up March update, caused tons of troubles for some B2Bs that still can’t recover. We have successfully implemented hacks that work – that the algorithms accept – but it’s not sustainable and I refuse to play that game long-term.
- Also, AI is generally disallowed in theory on that front, however in our analysis (and following other influencers in the space), 80% of the top ranked content is AI-based, repurposing, even stealing original content. So the algorithm is broken.
- reddit and Quora rank extremely high for essential scientific or professional topics. Quora is the second highest ranking source on 1,000+ medical term queries ending with “symptoms”. I would rather read content from medical professionals on this, not self-attributed pains from random users on Quora.
- LinkedIn’s reach is down – it’s been confirmed in 2023 and speaking to 50+ content creators and entrepreneurs, it’s unanimous. Moreover, top creators report another drop early in April. If the top voices aren’t getting the views, who is then?
- LinkedIn thought leadership ads aren’t performing well and CPMs go as high as $78 as Pavilion’s CEO Sam reports. We see an average of $2 – $3 on Facebook and Twitter. Lead quality isn’t 30 times higher, believe me.
- LinkedIn’s selfie game is too strong. This isn’t Instagram and the system is rigged – we shouldn’t be doing that, really.
- LinkedIn is testing a TikTok-alike feed (public knowledge) so video will become just as important as we see in TikTok or Instagram Reels or YouTube shorts. That said, we see consistently 50% lower reach on average for video content compared to text or documents. Even lower compared to, well, selfies.
Now, I’m sure that social will recover one way or another. Networks can’t keep losing active users – I see creators are pushing more traffic to their newsletters or private communities when their engagement sources are underperforming for months. It’s only natural.
Just like Bing’s traffic has been going up over the past 6 months – because Google’s results aren’t ideal.
So – while I’m focusing on on-sites and 1:1 direct relationship building, I’ll be keeping social interactions to 60-90min a day tops, with content now scheduled on X until May 1st and LinkedIn until Apr 27. I’ll push for professionally crafted posts scheduled at least until May 6th to cover for travel and some holidays coming in May.
And while I’ll still respond to comments and keep track on curated lists of creators (instead of what the feed presents), I’ll be waiting out on a more fair algorithm strategy.
We’re applying similar playbooks for our clients based on what we see internally, for existing marketing clients, and in our broader network. So whenever an algorithm pushes an update, we calibrate together.
That’s all for this week and wishing you a strong Q2 as well!
Yours,
Mario
My Take
5 Principles for Starting a New Business in 2024 – Launching a successful startup isn’t easy. If it were, as the saying goes, everyone would do it. In reality, many try, but few succeed. One analysis of startup success between 2018 – 2022 found that one-fifth of small businesses closed in the first year, 31 percent closed in the second, and nearly 38 percent closed in the third year. Ultimately, just two-thirds of entrepreneurs who started their business journeys in 2018 were still operational by 2022. To be sure, this cohort of entrepreneurs faced unique and extraordinary challenges as they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and endured cultural, economic, and governmental upheaval.
Launching a Startup with a Bootstrapped Audience – Launching a new newsletter with 2,000 subscribers. Here’s how I turned $1,000 into a launchpad for Business at Scale. My original Growth Blueprint newsletter scaled to 14,000 subscribers last year (links to both in my profile bio). However was dipping due to conflicting topics. So I took a book out of Manu’s playbook and slashed it almost in half. It’s now about 11,000 subs when I include LinkedIn’s segment.
Newsletter Recommendations
Stacked Marketer – One of my go-to newsletters and a business that we’ve worked with a while ago on the DevriX front. It is loved by marketers who get hands-on with campaigns, who need to stay up-to-date with frequently changing platforms., who need to get an edge, and who need to achieve outsized results with limited resources, aka performance-focused marketers.
Boldpush – А special newsletter for those interested in marketing intelligence and strategy to the most ambitious brands. Props to Julius Solaris for creating one of my top newsletter reads for GTM strategies and actionable content.
Business Strategy
Digital Ad Revenue Growth 2023 – US digital ad revenue grew at a slower rate in 2023 compared to 2022, hampered by inflation, climbing interest rates and advertising industry layoffs, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report released Tuesday. Digital ad revenues increased 7.3% from 2022’s total of $209.7 billion. But in 2022, overall ad revenue growth still made in the double digits, with an average of 10.3% for the year.
Investment Banking Bounceback – America’s biggest banks reported stronger-than-expected earnings in the first quarter, highlighting how a resilient economy is helping power everything from Main Street to Wall Street.
Consumer Spending is up in March – Retail sales rose 0.7% last month — almost double what economists had forecast — after rising 0.9% in February, according to Commerce Department data released Monday. The February figure was revised upward. That comes after sales fell 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather. Excluding gas prices, which have been on the rise, retail sales still rose a solid at 0.6%.
China’s economy grows in Q1 – According to official data, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.3% in the first three months of 2024, compared to a year earlier.
That beat expectations the world’s second largest economy could see growth slow to 4.6% in the first quarter. Last month, Beijing set an ambitious annual growth target for world’s second largest economy of “around 5%”.
Gen Z’s favorite thrift store – Even though Gen Z has mostly stopped using Facebook to connect with friends, they do use its buy-and-sell platform Marketplace a lot to save money and be more sustainable. While Meta has been searching for a way to normalize social shopping across its ecosystem of apps, don’t be surprised if it starts to put an emphasis on Marketplace as a growth engine during its next earnings call.
Global News
China reported stronger-than-forecast 5.3% first-quarter growth in gross domestic product, but slower-than-forecast retail sales and industrial production data for March. U.S. housing starts and industrial production data is due for release, as is the International Monetary Fund’s world economic outlook.
- S&P 500: $5,209(-0.21%)
Although the Fed still expects to cut rates in 2024, policymakers opted not to at the central bank’s latest meeting, thanks in part to inflation that hasn’t yet returned to the Fed’s 2 percent target.
Whether mortgage rates move up or down, though, it’s hard to time the market. Often, the decision to buy a home comes down to what you need. Depending on your situation, it might make sense to take a higher rate now and refinance later. This way you can start building equity, rather than chancing that buying a home will become more affordable.
- 30-year mortgage rate: 7.20%(+0.23)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.67%(+0.23)
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to hold a moderated discussion with Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem — probably in more collegial tones than Bill Maher’s recent Canadian discussion. Vice Chair Philip Jefferson at 9 a.m. will deliver a speech on monetary policy during periods of uncertainty.
Here are some of the most prominent headlines this week:
- Former President Donald Trump railed against the trial ahead of entering the courtroom as jury selection is set to continue.
- House GOP leaders will try to pass four separate bills this week, sources say, as Johnson faces pressure over Israel and Ukraine foreign aid.
- Supreme Court allows Idaho officials to temporarily enforce a strict statewide ban on gender-affirming care for most minors.
Investing Updates
- Swisspod – raising €1,6M to develop the hyperloop, a high-speed transport system.
- MindAhead – raising €1M to scale its digital therapy solutions that slow the progression of dementia.
- Oveit – raising €400,000 to scale its live events automation solution.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Now let’s have a look at the latest top Flippa offers
Tax & Accounting Training SaaS – This 3-year-old SaaS business is an IRS-approved continuing education provider of courses for CPAs, tax attorneys, and other tax specialists.
- Monthly profit: $16.6K
- MRR: $25.1K
- LTV: $754
PPC Marketing Agency – This business provides PPC services for North American clients and currently retains 50+ active and ongoing customers.
- Monthly profit: $18.3K
- Profit margin: 69%
- Business age: 6 years
8-figure Pain Relief Ecommerce Brand – Driving a majority of its sales through Amazon FBA, this ecommerce business sells a variety of SKUs related to pain relief and joint support.
- Monthly profit: $250K
- TTM revenue: $18.3M
- Business age: 7 years
Need my Help?
I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:
Scalable and secure WordPress? DevriX provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.
Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $600/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.
Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book.
Looking to start a US company? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.
Have you tried buying and selling digital property? Have a look at Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interests. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides you with the necessary tools to list your business and close the deal.
Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink and use Nimity to manage it.
Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton. And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!