Trends - Ebooks | Aja Frost @ajavuu (4)

Why Harry started a newsletter business in such a competitive space
His first steps to get Marketing Examples off the ground
Conversion best practices to get to 20k subs
Key inflection points on his journey
How to use Twitter to grow a newsletter
How he bootstrapped Marketing Examples
How to find sponsors
His favorite marketing example
Marketing misconceptions
What his future plans are

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1. What made you decide to start Marketing Examples in an already crowded space?

Trendster Mike Stemple on Business Ideas, Overcoming Hardship, and Affinity Marketing | Trends by The Hustle

In June, 2020, we wrote about an emerging opportunity in custom decorative skins for video game consoles. In that article, we mentioned one major player in the space, Skinit.

We were quickly surprised to learn that the original founder of Skinit, Mike Stemple, was actually a member of the Trends community.

Stemple, who has had 5 successful exits, and is Director-Emeritus at The Founder Institute and a mentor at Techstars, met with us to talk about his time starting and running Skinit, and offered up the following advice to founders looking to get into any industry:

1. Pay Attention to “I Wish”

How to Get Started with Video for Your Online Brand | Trends by The Hustle

At the very least, brands should have awareness videos, promotional videos, and retargeting videos.

These videos should appeal to your largest buyer persona.

Awareness video

How Everlywell Created a National Infrastructure for At-Home COVID Testing in Under 2 Weeks | Trends by The Hustle

Just over 3 months ago, Julia Cheek, the CEO and co-founder of Everlywell, appeared as a guest on our My First Million podcast. At the time, the coronavirus had just begun to spread to the United States, and her company — a 5-year-old startup that provides at-home medical testing kits and lab results — had no plans to produce an at-home test to detect COVID-19. She even laughed the idea off as a little crazy: “If we did, I don’t think I would be here right now,” she joked.

But within days of that conversation, Cheek and her Austin-based team were busy attempting to create a test. By mid-May — following a furious stretch of testing, initial government approval, and an unexpected turnabout — they became the first digital health company to receive FDA emergency use authorization for an at-home COVID-19 test.

The thought that a small startup would play such an integral role in responding to a global pandemic seemed incredible: “If there was ever a situation where a 90-person company had to be part of the national response to a pandemic, then there’s something wrong,” Christina Song, a senior Everlywell official, told us in a recent interview.

100+ Tips for Growing Your Business | Trends by The Hustle

Each week, the Trends team curates the most actionable articles we can find into the Leads section of our weekly email. Below is a list, organized by topic, of all the best Leads from our first year (updated June, 2020). Let this be a resource you refer back to whenever you’re facing a new challenge in your business.

Coronavirus Resources:

What companies are freezing hiring; what companies have laid off workers; what companies are still hiring; and who wants to be hired during the pandemic. Coronavirus job listings by company. 5 tips for reducing coronavirus business risk. How to Zoom like a pro. How startups should grow in 2020. A designer’s guide to pivoting in the pandemic. 10 ways to ensure your restaurant (or small business) survives the pandemic.

What companies will be hardest hit by the pandemic? How to apply for a small business coronavirus relief loan. How to stock up without getting ripped off. How to raise VC during the coronavirus. And how to work during a pandemic. How to respond to a disrupted supply chain. 8 creative coronavirus pivots.

Growth & Lead Generation:

Trends Year-In-Review Quiz | Trends by The Hustle

Think you know your Trends stats? Try our 5-question quiz, which draws on some of our most popular posts, covering everything from collectible auctioneers to the boring business that mints billions (trade shows).

AMAs with Founders | Trends by The Hustle

The most successful people in the world don’t get there alone. We believe strongly in learning from the success and failures of one another. So, every so often we bring in someone that we think has unique insights — whether they founded a huge business or deeply understand a problem that many of us face. We’ll continue to invite inspiring people to share their stories, and give you an opportunity to interact with them directly. We’ll update this page with any future AMAs, and welcome your suggestions of other people we should talk to (email brad@thehustle.co with your ideas).

Benjamin Witte, founder of Recess

Read if you want learn about building a strong consumer brand without much paid marketing, effectively using omni-channel marketing, and regulatory problems related to the CBD industry.

Jack Smith, co-founder of Vungle

Read if you want learn about the next evolution of advertising and social media, cofounder relationships, early-stage acquisition, and how to build a cohesive story when raising venture capital.

Matt Kepnes, AKA Nomadic Matt

PR Strategy Guide For the Solo Founder | Trends by The Hustle

Now more than ever, it’s important to understand how PR works — and how you can use it to your advantage. So we put together a brief PR Strategy guide to show you the way.

Read on for tips, tricks, and resources from 4 expert sources who have helped clients get their products featured in publications like The New York Times, Forbes, and other national outlets. With the help of these experts, several of whom are active contributors in the Trends community, some companies have scaled to $1m+ in sales in just one year without spending a penny on advertising.

Follow this step-by-step guide to learn how to acquire “earned” (AKA free) media pick-up for your product or service. We encourage you to read our whole report, but feel free to click through to the section that interests you most:

Step 1: Understand Your Audience
Step 2: Build Your Media List
Step 3: Share Your Story
Step 4: Rinse & Repeat
Tools & Templates

Meet Our Experts:

4 Futurists Break Down Post-COVID Opportunities | Trends by The Hustle

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve turned to all kinds of people — including virologists, Ph.D.s, and market analysts — to explain the challenges we face in the present. But who can help us better understand the next-order effects of this crisis?

One answer: Futurists, professionals in a variety of fields who, through rigorous analysis and research, make projections about what the world might look like someday. Futurists aren’t prophets, but they offer a unique perspective on navigating uncertainty.

Our analysts and writers spoke with a number of prominent futurists, focusing on how COVID-19 might impact various sectors in the short- and long-term. A few takeaways:

A hitch in global trade could inspire a localism movement in various sectors like tourism, shipping, and production.
We might see an uptick in 3-D printing and other self-sufficiency tools.
The crisis could accelerate the intersection of AI and biology.
Educational content on immersive platforms (VR, MR, XR) is poised for growth.

Futurist Q&A: Amy Zalman on the Rise of Localization | Trends by The Hustle

Where is the unseen opportunity in a post-COVID world?

Opportunity generally is somewhere at the intersection of where nobody else is looking and change.

I think that virtual reality will get a boost from online platforms. Creative thinking around hybrid opportunities for meeting, and anything that starts with “tele” — telemedicine and the like.

Here it is

Contents:

How Harry Dry Grew His Newsletter Business to 20k+ Subscribers in a Year | Trends by The Hustle