Issue 007: Borrow Other People’s Audience Instead of Doing Ads

We also talk about Stripe’s unique gift-giving strategy, the importance of negative reviews and how to handle upset and aggressive customers.

October 30, 2024 | #007 | Free Version

Welcome to Startup Blitz, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in your online business.

This week, we discuss –

✔️ The importance of negative reviews

✔️ Borrowing other people’s audience instead of doing ads

✔️ Stripe’s unique gift-giving strategy

✔️ How to handle upset and aggressive customers

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Build Social Proof - Even if They’re Not Positive

When it comes to building trust with potential customers, having some social proof is better than having none at all.

According to a major eCommerce study, sellers with negative reviews and poor photos can actually outperform those who provide zero information.

Surprising, right?

The absence of any information can lead to distrust, while even negative feedback can establish a baseline level of trust. This phenomenon underscores the concept of “uncertainty reduction.” People need information to feel confident about something.

This doesn’t mean you should seek out bad reviews. Instead, recognize that having no reputation at all might prevent potential sales.

Borrow Other People’s Audience Instead of Doing Ads

Alex Kracov was the very first marketing hire at HR software company Lattice. In an interview with First Round, he shared how Lattice used other companies audience to grow their business.

“We would go to Bamboo, for example, and offer to do a webinar together,” says Kracov. “We’d make all of the content and do most of the work. Then we would leverage their much larger email list to drive a bunch of leads to this webinar. Then we’d split the leads afterwards and follow up with them.”

Lattice was able to expand their audience through this strategic “piggybacking” onto other brands. They made sure to choose brands with a clear audience overlap.

“We started really small with these webinars,” says Kracov. “I was literally sitting in Jack’s house doing the first webinar. Then over time you’re able to professionalize it and make it a lot better. Flash forward five years and we had a virtual event with 40,000 people. We called it Resources for Humans Virtual. That was after years and years of doing these webinars monthly. These things scale all the way up.”

You can read the full interview here.

How Stripe Builds Loyalty with Personalized Gifts

Sending gifts to customers isn’t a unique strategy.

However, Stripe, the payment processor company, takes it a step further and does something no one else does. They send personalized gifts to customers who achieve certain milestones.

Nicolás Cerdeira shares some examples in his Failory newsletter:

To celebrate $3,250 in MRR, they sent a two-Corgi-owner founder a corgi plush and some dog swag
To celebrate reaching 150k subscribers, they sent a newsletter writer a rocket sculpture
To celebrate $35K in MRR, they sent a founder a 3D render of his yellow Vespa
To celebrate $50K in ARR, they sent a founder a 3D render of his boat
To celebrate $1M GMV, they sent this founder a personal note and some coffee stuff
To celebrate $1M in revenue, they sent a motorcycle fan founder a helmet with his company’s colours and logo.
To celebrate $2M in revenue, they sent a tennis fan founder some tennis balls with his company’s colours and logo

This builds a strong relationship between Stripe and its most important customers and conveys to people that Stripe is a brand that cares about their customers.

Book of the Week: A Complaint Is a Gift by Janelle Barlow

This week, I want to highlight A Complaint Is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong by Janelle Barlow.

In this insightful book, consultant and executive coach Janelle Barlow shares a simple yet powerful three-step formula for handling customer complaints. Her approach can help you turn frustrated, angry customers into loyal advocates for your business.

In one chapter, she shares how to handle upset and aggressive customers. Her practical advice has been super useful for me. I think you’ll find it valuable too!

“Acknowledge that the customer is upset but not necessarily focus on their words if they are trying to bait you. The question “When did you start treating your customers like dogs?” is designed to pull you into an argument. You could respond to them by saying, “I’m very sorry that we’ve offended you. We shouldn’t have done that.”

“If customers say, “If you cared even a tiny bit about your customers, you wouldn’t have such stupid policies,” they are baiting you to say, “But we do care about our customers.” Defending yourself will only give your customer more ammunition to continue doing Then why . . . ?” and the battle will rage onward.

“A better way to respond is to ask a question about their attack. You could say with curiosity, “I’m very sorry. What happened that makes you think we don’t care about you?” This question will surprise them. They expect a defence, not a question. If you do not defend yourself, it is more difficult for customers to continue their assault.

“It’s also critical to accept the angry person for who they are and what they are expressing at the moment. People tend to get stuck when they sense you don’t accept where they are. They want you to hear them. Your acknowledgement can help them change and soften their tone. Once they start to become more rational, you can help move your customers to a more positive emotion. With anger, this means if you do not acknowledge their anger or somehow respond to it, they will probably just get angrier.”

Interesting Articles We've Read This Week

📧 Turning $1,000 into $28M ARR at Lemlist

💼 The skill that gets you fired or promoted: managing up

📅 Annual planning sucks — a CPO, CRO, CFO, and COO share advice on how to make it better

🤝 Forget the funnel: the customer-led playbook for bringing empathy into your marketing

📖 How a historian built a newsletter into a 7 figure per month business

Thanks for reading, until next week!

Sayed Bin Habib

Co-Founder, Startup Blitz

Follow me on LinkedIn / Website

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