Business season scaling up again with some room to close deals + working on the digital properties
Good morning/afternoon to 6,800+ Growth Blueprint subscribers on beehiiv and 4,600+ LinkedIn newsletter readers!
Launching the original issue here on a midday Wednesday after the busy and buzzing Tuesday election day. Many of us stayed late and have been keeping an eye on polls, results, and last minute interviews, so catch up with emails is taking longer.
So pushing delivery dates based on macro events is my hard recommendation vs. regularity.
What do we see in professional services?
September and October have been outright spooky in different segments we work with.
Most of our partners felt a drop based on forecasts and annual seasonality. I also reported the pushback for a handful of deals in the last issue. So delays are real.
Then again, November started strong, speaking from an omnichannel standpoint (inbound leads, referrals, partnerships, post-event follow ups). Different channels woke up as elections were approaching.
The Meta ads loopholes
And there’s this trend we noticed in September as ad deliverability and CPCs became chaotic, a bit after Labor Day, and heavily mid-September. The team here noticed that political campaigns are rising, and we clearly found that POTUS candidates were going hard on the ad front.
In fact, here’s what I saw in the business manager this morning:
Finally back to business now that the elections are over
— Mario Peshev (@no_fear_inc) November 6, 2024
(and Meta's inventory finds space for anything other than 100s of thousands of political ads) pic.twitter.com/Rj8zuqJgfE
50,000+ active ads launched by each of the candidates – and that’s just their own accounts, let alone thousands or more other political and party accounts, governors, partners, sponsors, publishers, influencers helping bring the campaign home.
It’s no wonder the ad space has been populated – along with calls and texts around elections, plus billboards and TV prime day. Attention span has been wiped out.
And the rise in submissions we’ve been seeing over the past few days seems to be relevant with that restriction period above. New ads were put on hold starting Oct 29, and freeing up some space brought back inventory for the rest of the ecosystem (basically, all businesses)
Shopping season is nearing…
Attention span and consumer interest has been dropping or going down this year anyway, and other events (Euro 2024, the Olympics, the elections, wars) have been contributing a ton here, too.
But now that the Fed already drop the rates a bit and is expected to do another round, and the elections are finally over (and again, we’re in Q4):
Expecting the sales season to go “fairly good” at least.
And ads will start popping up in the next week or two.
So make use of this period to max out any blasts and campaigns in-between elections and Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Our ongoing ads have seen their best results over the pats 3-4 days.
How to Manage B2B Wealth with Angel Hadjiev
My podcast episode with Angel Hadjiev is live on the B2B Growth Hacking Playbook channel.
We talk about the opportunity to invest in high-tech startups via SeedBlink – an opportunity that used to be reserved only for big players.
B2B investments greatly vary from B2c investments. If you plan to enter this game with your own wealth, making educated and informed decisions will make it or break it, strategy is more relevant and crucial than in B2C investments.
If you’re a seasoned investor, a tech enthusiast, or just curious where startup funding is headed, Angel’s insights will offer you plenty of food for thought.
And GTM tooling
In the meantime, I’ve been doubling down on the media/AI/directory side of the business, launching more platforms and products that our current portfolio of clients needs, and streamlining the low-ticket offers for new and upcoming advisory and agency accounts.
We’re wrapping up the Price Strategist build and just launched GTM Brain internally:
Directories are shaping up nicely, one that just went live is https://www.allconsultingfirms.com/
We’re finalizing the playbook on launching, directory submissions, initial link building, and then off to expanding this.
I’m also in the process of acquiring a great marketing directory. It’s already paid for since Sunday, but going through Escrow, even card payments take DAYS to manually review. If you’re wondering why fintech and crypto are doing well, it’s the old school businesses slowing down progress like this.
And that’s a wrap – back to the campaign launches and RFPs here.
- If you want an extension to your marketing team through DevriX, scaling WordPress, building new SaaS apps and augmenting AI, implementing HubSpot for automation, or get an effective Experiments as a Service process going, let’s talk
- And for my focused attention on your leadership and business strategy management, just the aync advisory clients at the $1,800/mo fractional CXO plan here
Yours,
Mario
My Take
10 Ways to Cut Down on Meetings and Emails- Stop drowning in back-to-back meetings and email overload. I’ll show you exactly how top executives and entrepreneurs are reclaiming their time using asynchronous communication strategies. Learn practical, proven methods to reduce workplace interruptions, optimize team communication, and create a more focused work environment. I’ll break down the tools and techniques that help you stay connected without constant real-time meetings.
DevriX’s Webinar on November 7th- I’m getting blasted by CEOs, founders, executives, and directors multiple times a day regarding the future of B2B. Consolidating this know-how and recurring questions into a new webinar! Join me and the DevriX team on November 7th, 9 AM PT for a breakdown of the key factors stressing the B2B economy in 2023-2024 and more!
B2B Wealth Management, VC Trends and Secondary Markets w/ Angel Hadjiev (#11) – Join us as Angel Hadjiev, Managing Director of SeedBlink, shares a fresh perspective on tech investments and the future of venture capital. With a solid foundation from nearly a decade at Deloitte and hands-on experience in crowdfunding, Angel breaks down the trends reshaping high-stakes investing.
Newsletter Recommendations
📧 Visual Capitalist – Visual Capitalist is one of the fastest growing publishers globally, focused on topics including markets, technology, energy, and the global economy. Sign up here!
📧 WPTavern – is the broader Town Square newsletter for the masses. I recommend it to people outside of the community, too. WP Tavern is a warm and inviting community where those interested in the software can hang out with fellow WordPressers to engage in enlightening discussions. Sign up here!
Business Strategy
📃Google ads optimization score and competitor impacts. Google’s Optimization Score, which provides recommendations to improve ad performance, has been updated to highlight the specific competitive pressures impacting impression share.
📃Antropic’s Haiku model price growth. Claude 3.5 Haiku, which Anthropic announced last month, matches or bests the performance of Anthropic’s flagship model, Claude 3 Opus, on specific benchmarks. Pricing for Claude 3.5 Haiku starts at $1 per million input tokens (~750,000 words) and $5 per million output tokens. That’s versus 25 cents per million input tokens and $1.25 per million output tokens for Claude 3 Haiku — a 4x hike.
📃NYT Tech workers strike. Members of The New York Times Tech Guild, which represents more than 600 tech workers at the outlet, walked off the job Monday morning in protest of stalled contract negotiations and alleged unfair labor practices by The Times’ management.
📃Perplexity launches controversial AI election hub. Voters can ask questions like where their local polling stations are, what time the polls open, and what the voting requirements are, and can get AI-generated summaries and analyses of candidates, ballot measures, official policy stances, and endorsements.
📃Ad pricing drops as election results draw near. Increasing ad prices became the most important issue for advertising during the second quarter of 2024 — but by the time the third quarter rolled around costs declined somewhat.
Global News
📈 As another Federal Reserve decision looms and the sturm und drang of American politics buffets markets, it can be easy to forget that stocks are beholden, albeit with fluctuating degrees, to company-specific fundamentals.
The late action in Amazon.com shares is a testament to that. A very-well received earnings report from the online marketplace and cloud computing company saw its shares jump 6.2% on Friday.
- S&P 500: $5,782(+1.22%)
📈 Market mortgage rates shift up and down as the economy changes, new data becomes public and lenders decide how much risk they’re willing to tolerate on a given day.
That includes Federal Reserve decisions. In mid-September, the central bank cut interest rates by a half-point, the first such move since the pandemic. The consensus for now is that the Fed could cut rates one or two more times before the end of the year.
- 30-year mortgage rate: 6.93%(+0.07)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.20%(+0.03)
📈 Interest rates are going down — but aspiring homeowners waiting for lowermortgage rates aren’t feeling relief.
For years, wannabe buyers have waited for the Federal Reserve to lower rates after the central bank pushed themto the highest level in decades. People who bought houses at high rates are also eager for borrowing costs to simmer down so they can refinance and get lower payments.
📰 Here are some of the most prominent headlines this week:
- Boeing strike ends after union accepts new labor contract that will increase workers’ wages by 38%
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the prime minister’s office says.
- Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, the billionaire Home Depot cofounder and a Republican megadonor has died at age 95
Investment News
📈 SeedBlink Secondary Market surpasses €3,7M in transaction volume – As we look back on SeedBlink’s secondary market performance in 2024, it’s clear that the platform is entering an important phase of growth. Let’s see some of the offers this week”:
- InstaSun – redefines the beach experience with a revolutionary 360° solar protection device.
- Klarna – Klarna, a global fintech leader, has evolved beyond “buy now, pay later,” serving 150M users across 45 countries with over 500,000 retail partners.
- SiGaN – SiGaN, a Swiss DeepTech startup, is developing power electronics solutions designed to make electrical devices more efficient and sustainable.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Let’s see the latest offers from Flippa. Don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for daily/weekly/monthly offers such as these.
Non-Alcoholic Drinks Brand – This ecommerce business selling non-alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits includes a loyal customer base and has driven a TTM revenue of $563.8K
- Monthly profit: $6,818
- Returning customer rate: 49%
- Business age: 4 years
Slack App Games for Team Building– This virtual team-building Slack and MS Teams app featuring a variety of interactive games and quizzes designed to enhance employee engagement has driven an annual revenue of $97.8K.
- Monthly profit: $7,152
- LTV: $230
- Business age: 4 years
Automated Ads Agency – This advertising business manages affiliate campaigns through a proprietary system that automates the creation and optimization of ad campaigns.
- Monthly profit: $33,142
- Average client contract value: $1,000
- Business age: 15 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 interest. 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 Equity to manage your equity.
💡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!
