Season 1
You’re Doing
Growth
Wrong
For startup founders and marketers tired of learning about growth the hard way
![[S1E6] Katie Deloso: “Don’t sell them, just listen to them”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1715775983206-ZFEMHVKO6WZV4W3UAD49/s1e6_katie_deloso.png)
![[S1E5] Diane Wiredu, Lion Words: Not everyone gets to be the Liquid Death of B2B SaaS — and that’s OK.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1713973205124-O9LRCFXRLVPHZ8PWKJ2K/s1e5_diane_lion_words_cover_image.png)
![[S1E4] Alan Albert: “We tend to think our first ideas are the best ones, and we run with them. But sometimes they're not the best ideas.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1712317041820-7REKYWD6VBAVE0XF7BK3/S1E4_Alan_Albert.png)
![[S1E3] Talking about (most common) early-stage startup mistakes with Lucy Heskins. Because nobody should have to *cry in marketing* alone](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1710334587500-CKPRUSWGG9J1GP3HM5M9/lucy_episode_cover.png)
![[S1E2] Heather Lawver: branding is not what you think it is. Plus: how to create pitch decks that get you funding.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1709123657877-MRPV1JGYV2YWCW315DVF/heather_episode_cover.png)
![[S1E1] Jocelyn Brady: Hustle culture is killing us](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510fa084e4b060f86e73735a/1707918293882-SYW2O8S33XBX19FL058T/Jocelyn_pod_episode_cover.png)
Choose your own adventure by scrolling through published posts:
When copy gets in the way of traction: how to solve for startup growing pains
Early-stage startups need to move fast and break things to find PMF, identify best channels to reach their customers, and attract early adopters. But as you start scaling, this approach may be slowing down your growth. This is how you can make your website help you meet your MQL goals instead of getting in the way.
Questions you should be asking to write better conversion copy
In this post: 3 sets of questions that would help you solve these 3 common startup challenges:
Coming up with a value prop that would work across ICPs
Uncovering hidden objections that are stopping your prospects from converting
Pre-launch sanity check (obvious, but frequently overlooked)
Customer testimonials for B2B SaaS startups: how they can help you improve conversions
Testimonials can be more than pretty placeholders and can help you improve your website or landing page conversions. 3 steps to get customer testimonials that go beyond “Great product!”
When to do a complete website overhaul… and when not to
In my B2B SaaS conversion copywriting world, “aspirational behavior” + “temporal landmarks” almost always equals “new website copy in Q1Q2.”
But is it the right thing to do, right now, for your startup?…
When what you don’t know hurts your conversion rates
You can’t scale effectively without answering these questions:
“What do we say to our audience?”
“How can we position ourselves in a way that makes sense to our audience?”
“How do we differentiate ourselves from other solutions?”
“How can we stand out — and present our product in a way that makes our prospects want to find out more?”
“How can we persuade our prospects to reach out?”
And very often, as I start answering these questions for my clients, this is where we uncover those potential issues that would otherwise have stayed invisible.
A rocketship launch or a leap of faith?
Trying to speed up your startup growth may be slowing it down. If you’re focusing on quick fixes and not pattern-finding.
When my prospects say: “We have no time for this,” “We already know everything about our customers,” “We’ll just A/B test it,” or “Can you just write it?” — what I hear is: “We’re flying blind and kinda like it that way.”
(I have yet to work on a project where all of the research data lined up neatly with assumptions and guesses about conversion drivers for a specific target audience. Never ever has it happened — which is why we need the research phase in the first place.)