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Welcome to Volume 53!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! We do hope our Canadian readers enjoyed stuffing their faces with turkey while bonding with family.
Thanksgiving is a time to reconnect, bond, and express gratitude.
Former Tesla Chief Information Officer (CIO), Jay Vijayan, had his gratitude jar overflow last week as his company, Tekion, tripled in value, going from $1 billion to $3.5 billion this year. Thanksgiving came early for the US-based company!
Before we jump right into the exciting bits we have to share, here’s a peek at what’s to come:
- Tekion triples in value under former Tesla CIO’s leadership
- Telegram rises as Facebook falls
- Facebook goes up hard against Clubhouse
Tekion Triples In Value Under Former Tesla CIO’s Leadership
Jay Vijayan had a vision.
The former Tesla CIO wanted to disrupt the automotive industry by creating a solution that seamlessly connects consumers, dealers, and OEMs. As a result, Tekion was born.
It’s been five years and nine months since he took a step to actualize his dream. And Tekion’s growth is awe-inspiring:
Last week, a fresh $250 million Series D funding boosted Tekion’s value from $1 billion to $3.5 billion.
The Dealership Management Software (DMS) tripled in value within a single year!
Vijayan attributes the company’s explosive growth to Word of Mouth.
That’s a deviation from the aggressive sales and marketing tactics used mainly in the automotive industry.
Word of Mouth seems to be a secret ingredient for a lot of SaaS companies’ viral growth. Remember last week’s essay on Slack’s Non-Traditional Growth Formula?
The collaboration software achieved even more remarkable results adopting the same growth formula—word of mouth. Slack became the fastest-growing business app of all time without an outbound sales team or CMO.
Like Slack, Tekion has less than 2% of its employees working in sales. Sure, the DMS didn’t “cajole” their friends to try out their product, but they built a word-of-mouth engine that has generated massive returns, profiting both the business and stakeholders.
As a player in the B2B SaaS field, you can adopt this growth formula to generate awareness, ignite initial trust in prospects’ hearts, and convert them easily.
74% of consumers already identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions. So, you want to capitalize on existing customers’ experience with your product and their relationship with your prospects.
Key Takeaways
- A fresh $250 million Series D funding boosts Tekion’s value from $1 billion to $3.5 billion;
- Vijayan attributes Tekion’s explosive growth to Word-of-Mouth Marketing;
- B2B SaaS Founders and Marketers can use word-of-mouth to generate awareness, ignite initial trust in the hearts of prospects, and convert them to trial users/paying customers.
Telegram Rises as Facebook Falls
As one media giant fell hard last week, two others stand tall, gaining millions of new users.
One of them was Telegram.
The messaging app gained a whopping 70 million new users last Monday, as Facebook went dark for almost six hours. Businesses and individuals who relied on Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp for communication, had to turn to Telegram to stay in touch.
This isn’t the first time Telegram experienced a massive surge in signups.
The last surge was caused by the new Whatsapp privacy policy incident that raised eyebrows in January 2021. Telegram gained 25 million new users as a result.
As a marketer or creator, you can consider adopting Telegram as one of your distribution channels. Like an email list, you can share important product updates and the latest content, promote your other channels, and share exclusive offers.
Key Takeaways
- On Monday, Telegram gained a whopping 70 million new users as Facebook went dark for almost six hours.
- Earlier this year, Telegram gained 25 million new users due to Whatsapp’s privacy policy incident.
- Marketers can adopt Telegram as a distribution channel to engage audiences, boost organic traffic to their websites, and drive product signups.
Facebook Goes Up Hard Against Clubhouse
Despite Facebook’s blackout last week they’re still going up against Clubhouse.
The social networking app is expanding its live audio rooms to include more features that allow verified public figures, creators, and groups to connect better with users.
Users worldwide can now discover the audio format variations Facebook now hosts, including podcasts, Live Audio Rooms, and short-form audio.
Facebook is also rolling out an Instagram-Reels-lookalike, Soundbites.
The difference is that while Instagram reels offer your audience bite-sized video content, soundbites lets your audience consume bite-sized audio content.
You can now capture moments of inspiration, jokes, and anecdotes in a short piece of audio so your audience can consume your content on the go.
Even though the product is still in beta mode, it has had success among the creators who are currently using it. In the coming weeks, more users will have access to the feature. We hope to be among the next batch to see if this one’s a keeper.
At this point, you should know that these features present marketers with a new distribution opportunity—another channel to get your content before the right people.
Despite the outage last week, niche Facebook groups are still one of the most powerful distribution channels in any content marketing arsenal.
Over 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month to discuss their passions, plan local events, and chat with friends. You can generate leads and build relationships there.
If you need help generating qualified leads through Facebook or building out a content distribution engine that works, be sure to sign up for our newest course from Ross and the Foundation Marketing team:
Led by the King of Distribution himself, Ross Simmonds, the Distribution Challenge is a 12-part course designed to help verified public figures, creators, and marketers get more reach and better results from the content you’ve already created.
Ross has generated more than 10,000 emails through the various Facebook marketing efforts outlined in the course. He’ll show you how to use Facebook and other channels to build a solid distribution engine.
Key Takeaways
- Facebook is expanding its live audio rooms to include more features that allow verified public figures, creators, and groups to connect better with users.
- Creators and Marketers can now capture moments of inspiration, jokes, and anecdotes in a short piece of audio for their audience to consume on the go.
- Niche Facebook groups are still one of the most powerful distribution channels in any content marketing arsenal.
OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK:
💰Freelance marketplace Fiverr acquires online learning company, CreativeLive for an undisclosed amount, to help freelancers gain new skills in the changing workplace.
🥰 Tinder and Lyft partner so you can send your match a ride for an IRL date. It’s a thoughtful, optional feature that still promotes the safety of users ready to get back out there after many months of social distancing.
📚 Stripe partners with millions of the world’s most innovative companies to publish books about economic and technological advancement under Stripe Press.
HIRING BRILLIANT B2B MARKETERS:
BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK:
Brian Tracy once wrote:
“Good habits are hard to develop but easy to live with; bad habits are easy to develop but hard to live with. The habits you have and the habits that you have will determine almost everything you achieve or fail to achieve.”
If you’ve ever set out to form a new, healthy behavior, you’d agree that the inner drive you had, in the beginning, disappears after a week or less. Sometimes, a month tops.
The secret to forming lasting, healthy habits lies in your ability to recognize the difference between your life goals and habits.
Life goals are usually pretty—a thriving career, the latest Mercedes Benz model, and more. But habits are disciplines. They are the “likable-unlikable” things you need to keep doing consistently to achieve your goals.
When you see the difference, it’s easier to define the goal you want to achieve, determine the amount of effort required, and define what you’re willing to sacrifice to get the results you desire.
Only then can you commit to forming habits that will drive you to fulfillment.
TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:
The SEO & Growth Strategies Airtable Used to Become a $5B Startup by Ross Simmonds
WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK 🎧:
Unstoppable by Sia
These round-ups are brought to you by me, Jessica O.
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Quick, do it now before the next drop!
